Back to England

April 26th, we left Aberdeen to return to England once again. This was the point in the trip that you have all been asking about...when Shane and I ALMOST had our first fight...well disagreement. You see, up until this point, I had not been allowed to keep the phone on me cause I have a nasty habit of losing things. So, as I was in my friend, Steve's car saying goodbye, I leaned over to hug him, and opps...the phone slipped out of my pocket. This was the absolute first time I had had the phone in my possession. Steve drove away and we were about to board the ever so lovely Megabus again, and Shane asked for the phone back. That was a tense moment. I realized what had happened and I could've punched myself. Not a good beginning to the 16 hour bus ride we were facing!! However, I knew where the phone was and that Steve could mail it to us. And that is exactly what my lovely friend did. He overnighted it to us in England 3 days later, so crisis averted, and there was no first fight!

From Aberdeen, we took a 12 1/2 hour bus ride to London overnight. One of the hottest bus rides in the history of bus rides. We arrived in London on April 27th in the early morning. Then from London, we took a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to Bristol. From Bristol, we took a train to a little Welsh town called Lydney where we had planned to take a taxi about 10 mins. to Susie's dad, John's, house. However, upon arriving in Lydney, we couldn' find a pay phone and realized this was the one point in the trip where our mobile would have REALLY come in handy...I was pretty quiet at this point. So, being the brillant travelers that we are, we decided to start walking. Wow..that was not a good idea. We walked along a main hwy for awhile, ended up walking right through the middle of a golf course, and then finally ended up lost in a neighborhood. Luckily a man who was out washing is car took pity on the 2 lost, sweaty, smelly, hopeless looking backpackers and let us use his phone. We had a number for a taxi already because we had used him when we left John's house a few weeks before. So, he came and picked us up, remembered us, and took us right to John's front door.

We were, of course, exhausted and smelly and no one was home, because we were supposed to arrive a few hours later than we did. (we had caught an earlier train in Bristol) So, Shane napped on the sidewalk outside John's door while I read a book on the lawn to pass the time. Eventually, Susie and her friend Lydia found us and took us to Lyd's house where we showered!! It felt so good to be clean. (Most people believe that backpackers are smelly by choice, but we can strongly disagree with that from multiple experiences!)

Some of you might be wondering why we returned to the beautiful Forrest of Dean after leaving a few weeks before to go to London and then to go all the way up into Scotland. Well, 5 of the most wonderful people that I worked with my first year in Korea are now back in the UK. So, Susie decided it was the perfect time to host a reunion/BBQ at her dad's house for all of us to get together and see each other again. So, Christian came from Bristol, Sarah and Steve from London, Greg all the way from Dundee, Scotland, and Susie and myself were in attendance.

After Susie and Lyd rescued us and let us shower, we went shopping for all the food and supplies for the BBQ. Then, that evening we prepared everything at Lydia and Jason's house. I made more potato salad than could feed an army. Shane was in charge of coleslaw, but somehow that never got made. Susie's sister ended up making it the next morning.

After preparing the food and eating dinner, we had a jawdropping display of karoke in Lyd and Jas's living room. When we woke up the next morning, Lydia fixed a delicious breakfast of bacon sandwiches with brown sauce and then we packed the car and were off to John's to set up for the BBQ. The weather was stunning. (I don't know if I have mentioned this yet, but the entire time we were in the UK, the weather was FANTASTIC!! We heard that it was the warmest and dryest April since weather had started being documented.)

When we arrived at John's, his fiance, Jackie, was busy decorating, moving furniture, gardening and anything else you can imagine to make the garden perfect for the BBQ. John, like the rest of us, just followed her instructions, and under her supervision, we got everything ready for the big event. Slowly folks started to arrive and what a day it turned out to be! There were guitars strumming, people singing along, good food, great people, a bit of dancing and lots and lots of great conversation. It was so nice to see everyone again and meet so many other really wonderful people. Susie and her family were there along with lots of their friends. Shane and I really enjoyed ourselves.

The next morning we all woke up, ate more bacon sandwiches (we have been eating really really badly on this trip!) and piled into two cars and went off into the beautiful Forrest to see the bluebells. We had arrived in the perfect week when all the bluebells were blooming, so we went to see them. Then we stopped by Susie's mom's place for a cup of coffee/tea, and to say our farewells to her and Al, and Susie's sister.

Now, this was on April 29th and Shane and I joined Christian to drive back to Bristol to stay with him for a few days. It was in Bristol that some really fantastic things happened. 1. We got the phone back!! YAH!! I was out of the doghouse. 2. We got to hear Christian`s band practice one night and they were amazing! Shane and I quickly decided that we wanted first dibs on their first album. 3. We got to meet Christian`s family who were absolutely lovely and so kind to us. I especially fell in love with his gran who sported my sunglasses one afternoon when we were sitting in the garden and chatting. and 4. We got to go to the town of Bath. We stayed in Bristol until May 2nd, and then we were off to Ireland. It was very appropriate that we spent out last few days before going to Ireland with Christian`s family, because they are Irish and gave us some helpful hints.

I have some photos from this part of our trip, and I will add them to the bottom of this post soon.