The end of London, and the Lake District

I spent the last week in London working constantly (nine consecutive days) and then frantically trying to pack up my entire life and do some kind of organisation for my Europe trip. I write this from a hostel in Stockholm which I have just arrived at on the evening of June 11.

I moved out of my residence on the 6th of June and spent my last few days in London at Hazel's house in Bushey. Yesterday was Hazel's 21st birthday so I promised I would stay for that.

On the morning after I moved out of my residence we got on a train and headed to the Lake District. I wanted to rent a car but it was either too expensive or not possible if you're under 25. Which was a shame. We were also going to camp but we had the brainwave about 36 hours before we had to go so we didn't have time to get that organised. Instead we stayed in a B & B owned by a very lovely elderly couple who even picked us up from the train station (awwww...). We got to the town of Kendal at about 2pm on the 7th after a 6 hour train journey. After dropping our bags off we caught a bus to the larger and more touristy town of Windermere where we rented a rowboat and spent an hour paddling around on the largest lake in the lake district. After that we had some dinner, and then took advantage of the extremely long days (light until after 10pm!) and went to a viewpoint on a hill. The view was absolutely stunning, but accoridng to sod's law my camera battery died just before (as it did before the Eiffel Tower), so you'll have to take my word for it. We were very lucky and had really nice weather so we could see for miles. Also in the town of Windermere I bought a compass and armed with the Ordnance Survey maps we borrowed from Hazel's parents I totally geeked out on the top of the hill. We got back to Kendal in time for the sunset, but despite jumping the fence of some innocent farmer and running up the hill we couldn't find a decent spot to watch it.

On the 8th, which was our only full day, we woke up to some ominous looking clouds, but by the time we'd polished off our full English breakfasts, they had passed and the sky was clear blue and it was really warm. In the morning we headed to the ruins of a castle to investigate sunset watching locations and were instantly sold. We then caught the bus to the town of Grasmere, where the poet William Wordsworth lived for eight years and wrote some of his famous poetry. We went to the museum and visited Dove Cottage - where Wordsworth lived.

After that we went to the tourist office and bought a map of a suggested walk - we picked the one with the highest altitude (Alcock Tarn, 355 metres). After a bit of aerobic exercise, an absolutely stunning view of the town, Alcock Tarn (a tarn is a small dam) and some black sheep, we noticed to our left that the peaks went considerably higher than the 355 metres suggested by the tourist map. I got out the OS maps and saw that the highest peak nearby was 621 metres. After a small amount of coaxing, I managed to convince Hazel to follow me up. It was quite a steep climb, but the view from the top was breathtaking and well worth it. It was almost a spiritual experience. I had a pressing urge to take a new photo every five to seven paces - something I last experienced in Switzerland and Lake Geneva. The highest we got was Heron point at 612 metres. We couldn't do the final highest peak of 621 because we had to get back to the town to catch the last bus.

That night we caught the 7:30 bus back to Kendal and headed to the castle ruins (the highest point in Kendal at 90 metres) to watch the sunset. We grabbed Chinese takeaway on the way and ate way too much food. The sunset was really beautiful and the views from the castle were also really nice. The castle itself was built in about 1200 and not much remains, but the site is very well maintained and there are information plaques all over the place. It felt very authentic and was the best castle I've visited in Europe.

The next morning we headed back to London - although we stopped for a couple of hours in Manchester to see the city centre and have some lunch. Manchester was nice - it was quite lively and the square in the middle of the town where we ate was nice. It looked more like one of the older American cities than a European city to me. That night we went out for Hazel's birthday - we met a bunch of Hazel's friends in a pub and then went to a couple of clubs after that which was a good time. We both drank way too much.

On the morning of the 10th (Hazel's 21st), we slept off our hangovers and then got the bus to Watford, where we bought an enormous picnic, some water guns and a frisbee and headed to Cassiobury park, which is enormous. We woke up that day to an absolutely stunning day - the bluest I've ever seen the sky in London, no clouds and 23 degrees. It drew an eerie parallel to my 21st in London - which was the day before Hazel left for America (hers was the day before I left for Europe) where we also had a really beautiful day, right in the middle of winter. We spent a few hours in the park, and then met Hazel's Mum and sister and went to an Italian restaurant which was really nice.

This morning I woke up, packed up, said my goodbyes and went to the airport to catch my flight to Stockholm.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Renan.

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