Blogs from Keswick, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 3

Headed South today, leaving Inverness on the early morning train for Glasgow. In by around 11ish. Glasgow I've decided is actually a very cool city. It's gritty and rough around the edges, not at all like the picture perfect Edinburgh just an hour away by train. Glasgow is a living and breathing city. It's also definitely the Chicago of Scotland, mainly because Glasgow is all about architecture. One man, during the turn of the 20th century, Charles MacKintosh, revolutionized architecture with strikingly Modern, minimalist buildings when everyone else was still caught up in overdone Victorianism. He set the stage for later developments in the States, like in Chicago and New York. And his buildings grace Glasgow, and really provide probably the greatest draw to the city in the first place. Then took the train back into ... read more

Here I am, home again. Nice to be back, a bit sad it's all over, but it was getting just a bit tiring! Anyway, it was a fantastic trip and I learned a few things: - Hong Kong is a fascinating city, clean and full of very friendly and helpful people - Whales are magnificent animals with just as much curiosity about us as we have for them - Koalas are gorgeous and cute, but have big claws and don't smell very nice! - Kangaroos can be a bit intimidating (the big ones anyway) - I love trams, especially the ones in Hong Kong and San Francisco - Clam chowder is wonderful when made properly in the US - there are lots of homeless people in San Francisco - Cairns is not as nice as I ... read more

Getting out of bed is the hardest part of the day, no matter what the day brings. This particular day brought, to begin with, a huge breakfast, justifying the decision to get up. Pauline was up with the lark, making good our fruit and porridge while cooking up a locally reared fried breakfast and home-made bread. She chatted away to us after fattening us up considerably, and I could see it was a struggle for the others to leave the comfort of The Craglands, but we had a mountain to climb. That was all in the afternoon, of course, so we headed down the old railway path, across the edge of town and down to the lake, via an antique record shop selling vinyl I own for much more than it was actually worth, and past ... read more

30 years. It’s a long time. Days before I was born, MTV was first broadcast. Days after, IBM released the very first personal computer. Imagine a world with no computers and no music videos. It’s almost unthinkable. That’s not to say that these monumental events have added unlimited perfection to our lives, after all would the world really miss the vision of Lady Gaga humping an inflatable dolphin? Probably not. More to the point, would anybody care about Lady Gaga’s bland generic hip-hop if it wasn’t for her controversial imagery and style that make full use of both the internet and the music video? Again, I really do wonder. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that these two events created much of the world as we know it now. In between these two massive occasions, though, was ... read more

ILONA>>>>>> After buying alot of winter gear for me, such as ice axes and moon boots!! we finally could set of to lake district, this fantastic national park is where you keep on longing back! we check in to a old rotten hotel with a central location, an unfriendly skinny geeky boy hands over our key,, we go out for a beer and some food near by, and then early to bed, the wet carpet gave off a funny smell in the room, and weird noises went off in shifts all night as it does in old houses, so after a crap night sleep, we got up at 5 in the morning, to be the first hikers out! it was freezing cold this morning, so we lost the feeling in our feet straight away, then richard ... read more