Finally after all these years my siblings came to visit me! I was so excited and what better way for them to fly over with than British Airways! Who was actually cheaper than Ryanair! And they flew to Heathrow, you know what is near Heathrow? Windsor and Legoland! What better way to start the first trip abroad for the bros than freaking Legoland???
As always when we plan to take a car for some bigger journey it breaks, or doesn't have the proper documents or or or something god knows what happens that means last minute ("##€# expensive) train tickets. This time 4 days before they were due to come the car started squealing while braking... Turns out one of the parts has worn out and the first guy (roadside help who tow the car to a garage if necessary) said in no way is it safe to drive this car for a long period of time... ok. The following day tried all the garages in town and all full!!! Or didn't have the spare part... Why does it always happen to me? Fast forward when we finally got a proper garage to look at turns out it wasn't that bad after all... and we COULD'VE driven it down to Windsor!!!!!
Back to the trip though
First day we went to Legoland. And yes it was ahmazing!!! My bros are a little afraid of attractions so another amusement park would've been a waste of money, but Legoland is literally built for small(ish) kids so perf. Plus what boy does not love legos? We got the Adults go free tickets on the day. In the end though only saved one ticket's worth of money because it is much more expensive on the day than to book in advance. Luckily they came over right before school holidays start here so the queues were manageable. Although the HOT weather did not help our stamina. I think we managed to enjoy only half of the park. And just drag ourselves through the other half. Mainly because it was boiling! But the kids loved it and they even said at home that they were very brave and not afraid of the rides :D The little one started off wanting me to take photos of ALL the Legos, so he could show our mum :D
When it was time to go home the bus was absolutely full, so we had to stand up the whole way + it wash rush hour so traffic was much slower than going there :( We finished the day off grabbing a pub dinner. First time fish and chips - success but the little one's kid burger was a disappointment :D It was plain and tiny, luckily I got a picture of his wtf face :D Later on we went for a walk around town and got some ice cream and went to check Eton college, so tired though. And the heat, omg UK was supposed to me renowned for its bad weather? The aircon was nonexistant in the hotel room so got 2 fans that didn't help at all :(
Second day we went to visit the castle. Went there about half an hour before opening and got in straight away (after the half an hour was up that is). Although the first sight of the queue scared the crap out of us. It had hundreds of people in it and was loooooong! But that was for groups luckily, there was only a hand full of people in the single visitor queue, I think a lot of people were confused by the queue system and I feel sorry for the people who did join the group queue as single visitors because it wasn't obvious.
The castle itself and the grounds are huge! But unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside of the castle. It was really nice though!
We also saw the changing of the guards which took forever... and half of that time 2 of them just walked backwards and forwards shouting something while turning around. I'm sure it has a meaning but to an observer it just looked silly.
After spending a good couple of hours in the castle our epic journey (7 hours?!) back to my place in the middle of nowhere could begin. We had to change trains 4 or 5 times :D Luckily it was a smooth journey and we got seats in every train and nothing was delayed or late.
So that evening we could go for a walk on the promenade and castle ruins, and the playground that is there. They played until it was too dark to see anything.
Next day we opted to conquer the Constitution hill and go over to Clarach Bay to see the tiny caves. They were amazed by the rocky beach collecting pretty pebbles to take home with them. They even found a little "pirate" cave that had shiny pebbles in different colours. Going home was much harder due to the weight in their pockets :D
That's the evening we went to my fave place in town - the tapas place and they loved it as much as I do. What's not to love? You can pick lots of little plates to nibble at. For the first time I actually preordered a paella for us. It was good but I'll stick to the tapas plates we always have. One of the bros said his favourite was the bread that he could dip in aioli :D
The second day here we conquered the hill on the other side of the town. Pen Dinas. That has a big cannon monument on it. The weather forecast said it'll be quite chilly and cloudy so all of us took raincoats with us and obviously we didn't put any sun screen on... Guess who freaking burnt? ME! Everyone else were ok, a hint of little pinkiness maybe if you look hard enough but me!!!! Jesus lord help me! I had a t-shirt tanned on me and my upper back behind the neck was sore! Ouch! It all came peeling off a week later... So didn't even get a nice tan out of it!
Because it was so nice (despite BBC warning us of a chilly cloudy day) we decided to have a small bbq at the beach. And saw some waterguns in poundworld for a pound. Perfect. Although the water was quite cold they still had lots of fun splashing each other. And were underwhelmed of a what a bbq means in the UK. (Estonian bbq are a feast next to this lot).
We also managed to go to Devil's Bridge walkway to see all the waterfalls and up to uni where I showed them where I lived during my first year here, went to see the exhibition in the Arts Centre and obviously took photos at the steps where all graduates take graduate photos, later walking back to town down cardiac hill. They went to the Ceredigion Museum, I still haven't been and didn't go with them that day because had to deal with the fallout from work.. Thanks :) And then it was time to go leave Aber already!
At first when we were planning this trip in advance I looked at all the days in Aber and thought what the hell are we going to do here??? Was really worried that they'll be bored but in the end could've done with a couple more days to go to the surrounding area as well, there is a nice old manor house nearby, nant-yr-arian, where they feed the red kites, Dinefwr (which we discovered after they's gone home), ynyslas and I forgot to take my sister out for cocktails!!!! The weather was really nice and warm and sunny the entire time we were here, except literally the last day when we were travelling up to Chester.
I just needed to take them to Chester Zoo, as it's the best Zoo I've ever been to! And they enjoyed it as well. Especially the bat house, although this time the stench in it made me heave awfully, don't remember that from last time... and they though it was absolutely fine. what smell are you talking about??? So they could've stayed there longer watching as much as you can bats fly over our heads but I just couldn't. The best decision we did was buy the refillable cup for the kids, as they made full use of it. Refilling it nearly at every kiosk :D. I think we managed to see everything and all the animals there :) Even take the boat ride in the new Islands section, later on we got lost there as we couldn't figure out how to get out from there :D
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| "Look a dead bird that is still alive" |
And then already it was time to hop on the train to London! Which took 2 hours longer than we expected since all trains from and to Euston were suspended just at the time we were approaching it. So we waited in the standstill train between Rugby and London, then backed back to Rugby, got off the train as there was talk of substitute buses. Waited at the platform for about 10-20 minutes and got back on the train to shortly leave for London, where we quickly found our hotel and rushed to do some shopping in Oxford street before all the shops were closing. At first the bros weren't happy about shopping at all, but when we got to Primark and they realized that they can actually choose WHATEVER they want from there and we can buy it they got so excited and wanted to go back the next day :D We didn't have time luckily or unfortunately.
Since we only had one full day in London it was bit of a rush to see the main sites, maybe a little too much walking for the little ones, but we made it up to them in the Natural History Museum, which they loved! Who doesn't love dinosaurs that actually move and make a sound! Next time we'll go to the Science Museum which is right next to it.
Next morning it was a quick trip up the Great Fire Monument to take in the rooftops of London, a quick visit to the Tower bridge and then already time to go to the airport and say bye-bye! Next time they'll have to stay longer :D
Food was the main talk point from this trip after they got home :D as it is sooo different :D I don't really see it anymore because I'm so familiar with both.
Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...
