England... *salutes Union Jack*
This thing was written from the evening I returned home until now (not continuously of course). I left it unedited, so all first impressions and feelings are still described below. Warning: if you're going to read it all, make sure you've not left the kettle boiling or other stuff that needs attending within the first 30 minutes (at least, depending on your reading speed). If you wish to comment, I suggest opening Notepad and noting stuff there :)
Enjoy the long read! Muahaha!
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Hi. You've seen me online, had an e-mail or a text, and otherwise this message will let you know I am alive and well, and back in the Netherlands. I really really enjoyed being in England.. such a shame the end had to be overshadowed by the horrible events that have happened. I guess I can call myself (very) lucky the bombs didn't explode in the afternoon/evening rush hour, or else this entry may never have been written... Take a moment to think about that. I know I did, and that explains why I may have appeared absent at some points in time the past 2 days. It's not thoughts like that you have to keep in your head for long, but it is good to reflect on what happened, take some time to put it in place and comprehend and accept those horrible events.
Travelling through London today felt a bit strange. I wasn't scared, but something just felt eerie. I could see the emergency vehicles and crew, I noticed a whole load of police and of course the closed King's Cross/St Pancras tube station. I walked to the Euston tube station (10 mins) and fetched the Northern Line there. The tube was far from crowded. 20 persons on a coach at most. A somewhat eerie uncrowdedness, that's probably the best way to describe the situation as I went through.
I'm not gonna write about how I feel about what happened as you can probably guess yourself or have heard it from me already. *takes another moment*
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ENGLAND 2005
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MONDAY, 4th of July
I got up at the break of dawn, and after showering and breakfasting my journey towards the unknown began. First time by train to Belgium, first time by train to England, first time on Eurostar, first time going on holiday alone, first time meeting people I've only met online, and so on and so on. You can imagine my uncertainty at the start. As I left my own country I really started to feel on my own and thoughts like "What have I begun?" crossed my mind. The deeper I travelled into Belgium, the more those thoughts left my mind and I got my mind set on reaching my destination as smoothly as I could.
I arrived in Brussels after some 2 hours of leaving home. Into the unknown I went, relying totally on signposts. And by golly, they actually got me where I had to be, which was the Eurostar check-in. After a bit of queueing my ticket and identity card were checked and approved, and then I had to put my bag through one of those X-Ray machines and I had to walk through a metal detector. For some silly reason I really liked that. Random, I know.
After another 20 minute wait all of us (us being waiting passengers) were allowed to board the Eurostar. Found my seat and "whoosh!" we were off. I have to say "whoosh!" because that's the best word to describe travelling at speeds around 250 km/h. The countryside flashed by and before I knew it I found myself surrounded by darkness in the Channel Tunnel. The darkness was replaced by quite a different countryside after some 20 minutes. Hilly, different coloured patches of land, random trees and forests and lovely towns. After another hour the train slowed down as we entered London. At first I noticed some Eiffel Tower-y structure so the thought of being in Paris instead of London flashed through my mind. But then I could spot the Tower Bridge, the Big Ben and that Millennium Wheel thingy. So that confirmed I was in London, and it immediately was as much sights I could see of London. Left the train, found the underground entrance (yay for signposts!) and searched through a wad of tickets I had to find the one that would open the gate. I spied on some people and noticed they had little orange tickets and recognized those from my own wad of tickets. Bingo, I was in!
I remembered having to get the Northern Line so again I trusted the signposts to lead me to my destination. And again, they did. Boarded a tube train and here I first encountered the British language. Another feeling insecurity crawled up my spine as I couldn't understand half of it. That wasn't what I expected! I could barely distinguish station names and had to double-check the names by reading the station's nametags through the tube windows. Upon arriving at Leicester Square station I got off, and tried to find the Piccadilly Line. I felt a bit lost as I seemed to be the only person who needed to make that change. All alone I found my way through the corridors, going deeper underground with every step I took. Fortunately I did find my way, and felt more comfortable again. Everything was working out, and the British language began sounding a bit more familiar. "Mind the gap"... so I looked at the door and platform and thought to myself "What fucking gap? They align perfectly!". Anyway, I arrived at King's Cross/St Pancras, and there my underground adventure ended...
...to be continued by an overground adventure. I expected to be walking right into the train station but I had to cross a few London streets to find St Pancras station. I arrived there an hour before my train would leave so I sat down and found myself with 50 minutes to spend. I texted Adam to let him know I was on my way and that I had 40 minutes to spend. I turned up my music, relaxed a bit, had some lunch and waited patiently for my train to pull into the station. Which it did, precisely on time. That surprised me a bit as I am used to the Dutch rail services. ;)
I got on and noticed that my seat reservation had worked... somewhat. You see, Midland had reserved a seat for me which was actually meant for a disabled person. I fail to see how "Dutch" and "disabled" can get mixed up. :)
Well, anyway, I sat down near my reserved seat and listened for some more music and watched Britain pass me by. I was surprised at the politeness of the train manager(s). You're being welcomed after each station, you get told about the rules and signs, the upcoming stations and that the bar is opened. In comparison with that, the Dutch rail services are down-right jerks. Apart from the station you're at (which you can read for yourself) you get told nothing. ;)
When pulling into Leicester we suddenly had to switch trains, for some odd reason. I immediately felt right at home, because our rail services are shoddy like that as well. I double-checked I switched to the right train with one of the train persons, and some chavs then double-checked with me whether it was the train to Derby. Which was the first real English conversation I had to participate in, so that was exciting. The chavs called me "mate", so I wondered if I hadn't taken a wrong turn somewhere and had ended up in Australia, but I didn't wonder for very long. The train rolled again, and a few minutes later the Loughborough announcements came on. I looked around the station to spot Adam and I did, before he could spot me so I won there.
We met, and I had to get used to his voice and accent, as well as finding my own English voice. Which I apparently don't have because everyone told me I sound American. Well, thaz jest sizzlin' wif me bros! So yeah, walked around Loughborough a bit, visited some shops and I generally was amazed at the amount of chavs. We then ate at Subway (meatball sandwich, how ace!) and I got introduced to some people Adam knew but I have no idea who they are/were. No clue at all. :)
Sat around, saw the person commonly referred to as Di walk around with someone else but they didn't notice Adam waving.
Somewhere in between Emily rang Adam and at some point it went like this:
Adam: "Here, Emily says she wants to speak to you." *hands phone to me*
Me: "Hello?"
Emily: *giggles*
Me: "Uhm, hello?"
Emily: *giggles hysterically*
Me: "Well, there's no sense coming out of you, here's Adam again." *hands phone back*
So that was kinda weird. Well, after some wandering, we caught a bus to Shepshed where I met Adam's grandparents. Very nice people. I gave them some gifts, gave Adam some gifts and checked out my bed. After a bit we went back into town to meet Dave, Amy and Emily. Which worked out fine, we noticed them coming up the road. And they noticed us, because Emily was in uncontrollable giggles again. Which worsened when I said "hello" in my American-English. Dave hugged me which was nice. So I gave him 'the gift' (*refers to Dave's journal for that*). All I have to say about that is that I found a balance between alcohol percentage and price. ;) Oh, and his tail was really nice as he put the gift in its wrap in his backpocket.
Seeing everyone in real life felt really weird, but it made me really happy as well. It gave me a real "mission accomplished" feeling as well as I had achieved a big part of what I set out to do. Good stuff.
Anyway, we went into a supermarket (I think) where Dave bought celery and Adam bought one carrot. Whatever else happened there went past me as I was getting quite tired from the trip I had made and the lack of food in my stomach. Dave had also bought salty nuts and passed those around, so they made my dinner. I was the only one holding on to all nutshells where others were making a trail so they could find their way back to the store. I eventually tossed my collection in a dumpster near the Salation Army building with the random remark that I could find my place to sleep that way. Probably bad joke #1 of the trip.
While making that nutshell trail 2 guys on 1 bicycle came by. One was sitting on the steering wheel and they looked like proper idiots. So we laughed at them, got some comments from them and we laughed more. Somewhere around that time I said "fucking hell" and that apparently sounded odd too. That's most likely because I use that expression daily. Certain English words/expressions are used in my country, ya know. So yeah, because it sounded weird I had to repeat myself, so there I was, cussing like a sailor on day #1 in England. Fun! Arrrr, fuckin' hell mateys!
We wandered on and went to the B&B where Dave, Amy and Emily were meant to sleep. Some chavettes shouted at us along the way because Adam went "huuuuuhhhh" in their presence, so they thought it necessary to comment on that. Lame. We walked on, while Dave and Adam had a running competition which Dave won. We finally arrived at the B&B where the aforementioned trio dropped off their stuff. At a bus stop nearby we then met Tom and went to Leicester, by bus. Driven by Mr. Bean. :) Adam and Emily did some bus surfing (in Quorn I think) and both fell over. I also began noticing I get kinda sick on English buses pretty quick, but fortunately Leicester arrived pretty quick after that.
In Leicester, no one knew where the bowling alley was exactly, so after wandering around the bus station once we headed in the exact opposite direction some random guy told us to guy upon asking him where we could find the bowling alley. In between that Dave said he liked my shoes, to which I replied that I had stepped on a zebra. Bad joke #2 was born. I also saw a truck with a bed advert and 2 bed stores... someone was fucking with me as I was really sleepy, and hungry too.
Anyway, after wandering around (and Dave checking out a few Indian restaurants, like, from the inside) we finally made it to the bowling alley where we had to do a quick game so that we wouldn't miss the last bus back to Shepshed. But before that Dave wrestled an arcade bull-head, on the hardest setting. It took Dave, me and Adam to actually win one round, after which it was game over because Dave and I had lost the 2 previous rounds already. Alright, bowling. For a long time I seemed to be losing, but in fact I was playing a strategic mind game. 3 throws from the end I threw 2 consecutive strikes to put me right back in the top. Alas, Dave saw through my strategy and won with 12 points more, I was 2nd (complete rundown is in Dave's journal). At least I threw the most strikes of everyone, and I was the best Dutch contestant.
Thanks to someone's brilliant feeling of direction (forgot whose) we returned to the bus station promptly. There we had fun on the twisty rackety seats and waited for our bus to pull into the loading zone. Which it did after a couple of minutes. So in we went, and on the way we talked about lots of things. About halfway through the tiredness from the trip, the hunger and the tiredness from conversing in English took its toll. So I got kinda bus-sick after Tom, Dave, Amy and Emily had left us in Loughborough. I tried my best not to vomit, but didn't succeed. It wasn't alot but I got the bus seat a bit dirty :)
Upon arriving in Shepshed, Adam and I left the bus, walked to his grandparents' home and I went straight to bed. I slept pretty much immediately after I entered the bed at midnight. Which concludes day 1.
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TUESDAY, 5th of July
AT Day! Got up at the break of dawn again and took a bath. I discovered my mum had gone through my packed gear and for some reason unknown to me had taken my hair gel out. So yes, if you wondered why my hair looked crap, there's your explanation. Fortunately for me Adam had just had a haircut before I arrived so I guess no one really took much notice of my coif. Breakfast followed soon after the bath and I had some half-done toast with marmelade. I had never had marmelade before and to me it looked a bit like jam that was puked out once, because of all the hard bits present. I was happy to find out the taste was better than that. :)
We left the house and went to the bus stop where Wills was waiting. We had a random discussion about souped up cars and how awful they can look. The bus came (also on time, England pwns the Netherlands on the issue of public transport) and when we were on it Adam rang Emily to see if they were awake yet. They were but they were gonna miss the bus which meant they had to walk to the station. That's probably what one can expect when someone tries titty-growing experiments at 3 AM, but hey ho, they made it in the end, which is what matters. The bus ride ended at the station (in the meantime the bus picked up Tom) and we bought our tickets for AT. A bit later Emily & co. joined us and we waited for the train to come.
On the train we got tea & coffee and sat on the floor as there wasn't a lot of room for us to sit. But we had to get off at Long Eaton anyway, one of the most ungodly stations I have seen in England. I suspect there was a town behind the trees but I only spotted a road with a few cars. It appeared as it was in the middle of nowhere, it felt like that at least. After spilling the left over tea & coffee on the platform and expressing our hopes of birds getting run-over by a train, our next train arrived which would take us to Uttoxeter. Haha, I love town names with x's. Uttoxeter. :)
On the train Adam tried to make Wills like Million Dead in which he failed. Wills did say he liked Alexisonfire, that is, until the guy opens his mouth. After some more useless music talk we left the train and waited for the bus which was going to be ubercrowded. The queue was huge, and we were right at the back. While riding towards AT I started humming Iron Maiden's "Wildest Dreams" (I'm on my way!). On the bus I also feared getting sick again because of all the turns and twists in the road to Alton but I didn't. Instead Dave was the one this time. Upon arriving I gave him some water and a bit later my coat because he was quite cold in his T-shirt and shorts. Infact, I was the only one who brought a coat.
We entered and I saw a castle which I didn't expect. So that's why it's called Alton Towers, right. I got my camera out and never really put it back for the rest of the morning. I snapped pictures like crazy and ended up with 75 pictures of the whole day. Most of em are coaster pictures but there's a few random ones in between as well. I will be uploading them later on my personal webspace and make an entry with just picture links. Should be fun. Some pictures would need some touching up as the lighting on some is quite crap. Maybe I should just make those black-and-white, dunno. *ponders* Oh right, I'm drifting off. :)
We walked into the park and passed Spinball Whizzer which I thought looked quite nice. But we walked as needed a ride on Rita first because that was gonna be real popular throughout the day. We also needed to start on an "easy" coaster because it was Amy's first day of coastering. We found Rita and walked through the ridiculously twisting queue. Even without people you're walked 10 minutes before you're at the station... lame. However, the queue was not without people and we ended up queueing for 40 or 50 minutes I think. We made a mockery of the music played, but secretly I liked the songs. =P
Amy and Emily danced to Grease Lightning which was fun to watch. Kerrazay bitches I tell thee. While queueing I marveled at the whole coaster. Even though it's not that high it still looks impressive. And the launch is great to watch everytime. The countdown is always the same but the time of launch isn't so I noticed a few jump starts (the train launched with only 3 of 5 lights turned on, instead of all being on and then turned off). We approached the station and decided to not go for the front row because of the chav-infested queue to the front row. Instead we passed a "please deposit your gum here" sign which was covered in gum, so I laughed at that. Eventually it was our turn to ride.
I was told to take my glasses off by the ride ops. So I did, I stuck it in my pocket. Restraints closed, and I made sure I had some room after the ride ops tried to staple everyone in their seats, and it worked. The launch was amazing! A good bit faster than I had expected it to be. Upon entering the first turn I got my glasses out of my pocket and put them back on because I wanted to see where I was going. I nearly poked an eye out in doing so, but hey ho, putting on glasses at 2.5-3 G's isn't the easiest tasks you know. :)
I experienced a good deal of airtime over the twisty hills in my back seat. On the third turn I hurt my arms on the stupid restraints as I was holding them up the whole time. That turn is just painful with those restraints; they really should install lap bars on Rita. This proves how strict the safety regulations are, a bit too strict IMO.
Anyway, the bunny hop before the final brakes still gave a good pop airtime which I didn't think it would do so that was a nice surprise as well. As we rolled back into the station I put my glasses back in my pocket again. :)
The first ride of the day was a fact and I felt really excited. The onride photo showed that as well because I was smiling from ear to ear, a general "WAAAAAA!!" look. :D
After Rita we set a course for Oblivion. And we passed through "the tunnel" which I understand is quite a phenomenon. I don't really get it but I took a picture of it anyway. There was Oblivion at the end of the tunnel. That track looked really massive, a huge spine. And that drop, mmm, I couldn't wait. The mist was turned on as well which would only enhance the ride. The queue was rather short, I think we've had to wait 15 or 20 minutes at most. As we boarded Emily asked the ride op to take her shoes off as they were quite loose on her feet. One shoe came off easily but the other one was a bit more troublesome, so I had to laugh at that. As the ride op put the shoes away, another ride op commented on the sudden smell. So I laughed again. :)
The restraints were closed and we were on our way up the lift hill. Amy started screaming she wanted to get off and everyone else was screaming out of excitement to go down. Needless to say, democracy prevailed and we kept going up. The sensation of hanging over the edge was incredible, and the drop was even better. Floating all the way down, hands and feet in the air. We rushed down and entered the m(o)isty tunnel. When we left the tunnel I could barely see anything because of all the droplets on my glasses.
Oblivion was a great rush, and the best ride so far.
We set out for Air, and decided not to take the skyride. So we walked through some huge gardens and over big descents and climbs. That was fun. Once. I had gotten a bit hungry from this so we made a short stop at a random McDonalds. Apparently my order of 9 Chicken McNuggets was too hard for them because they took a grand total of 10 minutes to prepare them. While I was waiting for them Emily and Dave wanted to go ride Nemesis but I said that I'd rather have that they not. "I am not going to miss out on any rides today." So instead they went and collected fastpasses for both Nemesis and Air. My Nuggets were finally done when they returned with the passes and we set out for Air again.
However, Air seemed to be broken down and the queue was very long. So instead we headed back to Nemesis. There, Emily and Amy left us because Amy didn't want to ride Nemesis. Or, in true RCT style: "This ride looks too intense for me.". I can quite understand her decision: you don't just ride the most intense coaster in the world on your first day of coastering. So it was me, Adam, Dave, Tom and Wills. Adam insisted that my first ride on Nemesis would be front row so we queued up for that as well. In total I think we queued for some 40-50 minutes.
Wills and Tom went on Nemesis first and then it was Dave's, Adam's and my turn. I could've pissed my pants out of excitement as we set out from the station. And it had began to drizzle a bit, you might not even have noticed had I done so. From the moment the chain released us until the moment we hit the final brakes all was a blur. I know what elements we went through but the shear speed and forces I had to endure made this an unforgettable experience. What a ride! After getting off I needed 5 minutes to regain control of all bodily functions again.
And on the Nemesis onride photo they had cleverly put the Nemesis logo over my face...
Back out we met up with Emily and Amy again and we decided to go get lunch. At another McDonalds. And it got messy. Very messy. And we have the aforementioned two females to thank for that. Someone before us had apparently left their Happy Meal treat behind. The treat was a race track thing with a looping, with a launch spring. At first Amy sent an empty cup of ketchup through, which was quite funny actually. In the meantime Emily had taken some of Adam's milkshake and was marveling at the phase separation of it on the table (yes Emily, that's the official term). Then arrived 2 full cups of ketchup. Amy tried sending one of them through the course but it was too heavy and fell over, thus making the racetrack pretty messy. Emily turned the cup over so that the remaining ketchup was on the table. Then she started mixing the blob of milkshake with it and making a greater mess. More milkshake drops followed and the mess only got bigger and bigger. When we finished lunch we tried covering the mess we made with all the paper bags we had. So there was this huge pile of paper on the table. "No one will ever know about the mess under there." :)
The drizzle came down steadily so we went inside to Duel. I almost fell over in the entrance room (damn slanted floor). Duel was ok, though my wrist was really sore afterwards. Stupid gun. *curses*
After Duel we headed for Runaway Mine Train to squish each other in the turns, and it appeared Wills was going to sit next to me, but he chickened out at the last minute so I ended up with no one to squish. :( I tried grabbing some trees instead, but I missed them by an inch. Dave did succeed where I failed so I have to know his secret. ;)
After two circuits of Runaway Mine Train we headed for the River Rapids ride which had no queue. Just a few minor splashes which were mainly aimed at Dave so he stood up. And then he got told to sit down via the speakers. Near the end of it was a big waterfalls section where we all got proper wet. And we weren't about to dry up anytime soon from that either as I took out my umbrella to stay a bit dry from the rain.
We then headed for Spinball Whizzer which we should've been able to ride before our fastpass to Nemesis would no longer be valid. We ran across a field to get to the queue and I got my shoes soaked in the wet grass. As we queued it was raining steadily and my umbrella became a popular hiding place. While queueing we played with the various queue props that made annoying noises (whooooooooooooo poing!). We queued for some 40 or 50 minutes I think and then we were allowed to board. I was sat next to Adam. As we spun down the first drop I was surprised by the forces pushing me into my lapbar so I started grunting at every turn. Adam seemed to like that and joined in so that gave the ride a 5th dimension. As we got off Adam informed he had fucked his voice so I had to laugh (a bit). You should practice more Adam. *nods*
On Spinball I got quite wet and shivery so I asked Dave if I could have my coat back. Which I could but I did feel kinda sorry for putting him back in the cold (SORRY). But at the time he didn't seem to mind much. We speeded towards Nemesis to see if our fastpasses, which had been valid until 10 minutes before we got there, would still be valid. Well, there wasn't any queue before the fastpass gate so it never mattered. It was a shame we all dumped our fastpasses in the bin though because those things do not have a date printed on them so they could've been recycled. :)
Anyway, we queued for some 20-30 minutes under my umbrella and then headed for the back seat. Back seat + wet track + world's most intense coaster = FORCEFUL! Nemesis was unbelievable this time! I was really gripping the restraints tight and just pumping myself up during the ride so I wouldn't feel like blacking out or getting nauseous. That worked quite well and I didn't get off as disorientated as on the first ride. At the top of the loop however some raindrops entered my eyes and I was blind for the remainder of the ride. My eyes felt uncomfortable but going through the track eyes closed was very good...
This was probably my favorite ride of the whole day.
When we got off Nemesis we had 5 minutes left until our Air fastpass would expire so we ran (in the rain) to Air and were let in the fast queue (or whatever it is called). My umbrella again was the popular queueing location. And yes, I cannot stress that fact enough. :) Some 15-20 minutes later we were strapped in and set out for a what I thought was a lovely ride. Everyone else commented on the bumps, but heyho, I am very used to coasters as smooth as Corkscrew. So from my point of view the ride was quite smooth and I liked all the swooping drops and turns. What I didn't like about Air? The 10-minute-hanging in the final brake: the back of my pants got soaking wet and I hurt the left side of my ribs. Or at least, I found that out afterwards. I thought that my cell phone sticking in privates was gonna give me a lot more discomfort. LOL
I did like the conversations while hanging there. Best one:
Amy: *shouting* "Can anybody tell me what is going on!?"
Random dude four rows in front of us: "My balls hurt!!!"
Oh, I loved that one. :)
We tried drying up in the Air shop for some minutes (lovely hot-air fan over the exit) we set out for another round of Duel. Again my wrists were quite sore afterwards. I also missed the onride photo spot. I wanted to have one where I pointed the gun at my head as a suicide act. I definitely would've bought that one had I not forgotten where the onride was taken. Dave did get an ace picture in which he looks bored and has no score as he didn't bother to pick his gun out of the holster. Way to go Dave! :)
After Duel we decided to check out Rita again but all the rain had affected us so we went to the toilet. Here Wills had gotten the bright idea to use the handdryers on his wet clothes. Soon Dave and Adam followed his example and thus all 3 dryers were occupied by idiots folding their T-shirts around the nozzles. This went on for 10 minutes and, according to them, felt very satisfying...
And then Dave's pants fell down. Twice.
As we came to Rita a staff member told us the ride was experiencing some difficulties but we queued for it anyway. Emily and Amy had gone off to find food and they tossed Dave a few chips from behind the queue fence. We waited and waited, listened to several announcements of Rita "having technical difficulties" and noticed it break down for a few minutes. Then an empty train went through the course and finally the queue started moving again. It took quite some time but we finally got on and had another great ride9, painfulness included though.
Since we were beginning to like all the pain, we headed for Corkscrew which didn't have any queue anyway. Walked right on, but there was one problem: there were 5 of us. So Wills and Tom headed for the front seat, Dave and Adam went for the back, so I thought "oh what the hell" and took a seat in the middle. And as we left the lift hill I started singing our national anthem while the ride lasted. Whoo, this was definitely one fun ride!
As we got off we walked past the onride photo booth but it was closed. Wills banged on blinds but they didn't open. Ah well. :)
We ran back towards Rita to get the last ride of the day on that one as well. But alas, the queue was closed. However, we did choose to linger near the station which was a very good decision. There were 3 people left in the queue still waiting for their ride and seeing they were going to launch anyway we shouted that we wouldn't mind acting as train filling. The ride ops discussed it.. and the exit opened for us. Another ride! Yay! It felt really great because this final ride was an unexpected bonus.
And now all rides were closed so we had to head towards the exit. The skyride had also closed so we've had to walk. Along the way we discussed how easy it would be to hide in Alton Towers and spend the night in the park. We also laughed at the cartoony park overview board which for example showed Spinball as a coaster without hills and Beastie as a flat oval track. :)
At the exit we met up with Amy and Emily again, who were still eating/eating once again. We then left the park and walked to the bus stop where we waited ridiculously long for the bus to come. And it rained so my umbrella once again saved some of the day. To pass the time some people started having conversations with the sheep across the road, behind the trees.
The bus came and we got on. I looked through the trees and silently said my goodbyes to AT. As we drove further I got nauseous again. Dave got sick on the bus in the morning, and in the afternoon it was my turn, or so it would seem. Like Dave, I didn't vomit either but I did feel crap generally. I survived but whatever was discussed on the bus went by me: I lost all track of events and time there. :(
We arrived at Uttoxeter at some point in time and there I felt a bit better. However, it was very chilly because we were still wet and everyone was shivering like mad. We tried to group around one person to use body warmth to warm up and provide shelter from the icy wind. Didn't really work and we were happy to board the train. On the train pretty much everybody fell asleep, and so did I. I already rode Nemesis a whole 4 times (amongst other rides) before waking up and getting off at Long Eaton. At Long Eaton again we shivered like fuck while waiting for the train to take us back to Loughborough.
I still felt quite weak and informed Adam I wasn't gonna make it back to Shepshed on a bus without vomiting all over it. So we (me, Adam, Wills and Tom) got a taxi, driven by an Indian dude who really liked reggae music. Because he turned it up LOUD. Like, obnoxiously loud. Like, I-hate-my-job-so-get-the-fuck-out-of-my-taxi loud. And he couldn't drive very well either. Infact, I dunno why the hell we paid that guy. Infact, what's the number where I can complain about him? :)
Wills was dropped off at his home, and Adam, Tom and me went to Adam's grandparents where we were going to eat homemade pizza. That tasted quite good and it was a welcome change to the night before, which lacked any form of dinner. In the meantime I played guitar I think. I know I've played lots of Alter Bridge while in England. But yeah, never mind that.
After dinner we waited for Dave, Amy and Emily to come and hang out with us. As we waited for them Adam fired up RCT 2, and Tom started building weird impossible creations immediately. Such as his huge thing spiraling down some 500 times; just watching it was nauseating. "This ride looks too intense for me." :)
Near midnight the Dave & co. showed up and after playing RCT 2 a bit, we retreated to the room with the refrigerator (with beer) in it. There we were informed on how they had eaten Indian food and that Dave had halalarilari (yeah I know, I didn't catch that) and that it wasn't bad food. He then wondered what it'd cost to have them deliver it to his home in Wigan. Tom: "Well, never mind the costs. Loughborough to Wigan is some 120 miles. Assuming an average speed of 40 mph -which is still quite fast- it would mean that it'd take 3 hours for your food to arrive. So it would be cold before you even got it." This cracked everyone up. :)
More random conversations followed and it was very fun and relaxed. Though one topic kept returning: who's gonna call a taxi? That apparently needed over 2 hours to get sorted as a taxi was called at approximately 2 AM. It did arrive within 10 minutes so then everyone but me and Adam left to get some sleep. Adam and me didn't leave to get sleep, we stayed and got our sleep.
(Well, that was a poorly constructed last sentence...)
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WEDNESDAY, 6th of July
On the previous night we talked about how Emily, Dave and Amy would have to leave their B&B at 10 AM so we agreed to meet them in town at 10 AM. But both of us overslept, and I actually had to wake Adam up (instead of the other way around) at 10 o' clock. Cleansed and breakfasted, then caught the 12 o' clock bus into Loughborough on which Adam found out (via phone) that Dave, Amy and Emily were at Emily's house. So in Loughborough we caught the bus to Emily's house, which apparently is located in Wymeswold. Apart from Uttoxeter (which has the X) I liked this name best, because of the inner alliteration. And also because of the amount of effort you have to put in to pronounce it correctly (pronouncing W and M require your lips to move). Ehm, never mind. I like the name. End.
So we were heading for Wymeswold and on the way we discussed how good AT was yesterday. We came to the conclusion that I liked Nemesis best, and Oblivion after that. Adam really liked Corkscrew and Runaway Mine Train. Silly boy. *shakes head*
So after some time we arrive in the town of Wymeswold, got off the bus and after that Adam fortunately remembered where Emily's house was. On the way there we saw a random car, near a tree. *nods*
We found Emily's house and she opened the door. Inside we found Dave and Amy who were playing with bears. They named one Herald and another Best. Best apparently was called Best because he was the best. Dave then wanted more cuddly toys to play with so we headed upstairs to find (tons of) them. We retreated into one of Emily's 3 rooms (!) and played further. Some platypussies were present as well, and Dave decided to pile all 3 of them on eachother and then throw them at Amy. To which she said "ow" because it hurt. Dave didn't believe that so eventually I threw them in his face and then he threw them back in my face. Which didn't hurt. :)
Then Dave found a ukelelele and played it (poorly, ;) ). A bit later he got distracted by the arrival of Barbies which he wanted to "modify". The ukelelele ended up in my hands (I even shredded on it for a bit) while Dave proceeded to cut Barbie hair. All the hair he cut ended up on his own clothes and the floor. After a while Barbie was bald and then she got decapitated. This onslaught continued and it ended with me cutting off another Barbie's leg and sticking the head of the earlier decapitated Barbie on top of it. I like Barbie-surgery. :)
After all this, Dave vacuumed himself and we moved from Emily's room to... Emily's room. But left Adam behind, who had fallen asleep. Lazay Biatch. In Emily's room we talked and looked at all kinds of stuff in there, ie. photos and her door. Dave then had a little nap (with Best) while Emily, Amy and me went downstairs to cook pasta. Without any sauce or whatsoever. Grated cheese doesn't count as whatsoever, I think (even though it was a welcome addition to the bare pasta). 4 different kinds of pasta, all in one pan and then boiling the motherfuckers. Amy and Emily went upstairs to check on Dave and Adam while I stayed in the kitchen to watch the pasta.
Which turned out to be a good move as it didn't take more than one minute for the whole pan to start boiling over. I shouted "RED ALERT!!" and soon reinforcements (read: Emily) came down to take control of things. Amy followed soon after that and then the pasta seemed to be ready. Put it in a bowl, put the cheese in a bowl and put some mustard/honey sauce in a little bowl. This, together with plates and forks and knives, went upstairs where we lunched.
It wasn't that bad at all, considering my irregular food schedule from the days before. More interesting than the food was the discussion about what was a vegetarian. A vegetarian is someone who doesn't eat meat, but what we discussed was whether the reason for not eating meat matters for being a vegetarian (ie. against killing animals/disliking the taste of meat/etc). Not sure what came out of that, but it was interesting. Food for thought, so to speak. :)
After lunch Dave and Amy stayed in Emily's bed for some sleep, and Adam never woke up, so Emily and me did the dishes (I don't sleep during the daytime if I've had a normal night's rest). Well, Emily did the dishes, because there wasn't really anything I could do to help (or so she said). Still made myself a bit useful in wiping the table and placemats, and generally picking up grated cheese from everywhere. :) After that we went back upstairs to Emily's room and I found out where exactly I was in England. We also listened some Alexisonfire and then some Mogwai. Dave said it needed to be louder so Emily turned on the stereo downstairs and soon Mogwai's sniffing song was hearable throughout the house/neighbourhood/town.
With that, Adam woke up and eventually the music was turned off again because having a normal conversation wasn't really possible. So we sat around some more and had a random photoshoot (& teddy sex, starring Best). At 10 to 3 we headed out for the bus stop where I thought I saw a sign for a lost cat without any details as to who to contact if one would find the cat. But I was proven wrong. Alas, that would've been an ace picture...
Emily had given Best to Dave, and on the bus I gave Dave some liquorish (think that's the word) Mentos mints (I passed them around before and he quite liked them). Survived the bus ride, and waited for the train that was supposed to take Dave and Amy home again. I didn't quite realise that it was going to be a long time before meeting them both again so the goodbye wasn't all that.. I dunno, emotional maybe? Probably not the right word, but anyway, it didn't feel like it was going to be a very long time before seeing them again.
But it will be...
After we said and waved goodbye to Dave and Amy, we (Adam, Emily and me) wandered around Loughborough a bit aimlessly. We headed to Left Legged again where Adam spotted a Nightwish sweatband in the store window. I pointed out how pointless that was because I don't sweat (well, not through exercise). :) After that we went to the Virgin Megastore where we hung around the Hard Rock/Metal section for quite a long time. I spotted the Reuben album "Racecar is racecar backwards" and decided to buy it. I found my souvenir for the whole trip: I wouldn't have known about Reuben if it weren't for meeting all of you, and since they're only known in Britain their cd's aren't available for purchase here, so it all fits in.
After a while we moved to the movies section and we discussed funny tv shows. Then a friend of Emily showed up, Ellie. We hung in the Virgin megastore for a bit and then tried to go see a movie. However, all movies had just started when we walked in or others would start at a time that'd make Emily miss her last bus home. Instead Emily (I think) bought some popcorn and we strayed around town a little. Popcorn was nice but not that filling so we ended up in the McDonalds. :)
Anyway, chicken burgers, fries, milkshakes... all ingredients were present for Emily to make a huge mess of things again. Ketchup and a coke were added to the disgusting mess she had made later. That girl is gonna be great at chemistry, I tell thee. ;)
When we finished our stuff we headed back to Virgin again. As we approached the door I noticed I had left my coat at McDonalds so Adam and me went back to retrieve. There an employee told us she wanted to put the coat in the lost&found but then some chavs told her it was their coat so they took it with them. We remembered those chavs because they were sitting behind us while we had been eating there. So we went outside again, saw the chavs but I also saw my coat, just lying on the pavement a few yards away from the McDonalds. So I gave the chavs a very filthy look (yeah, that'll show them... *shrugs*), picked up my coat and we returned to Virgin again. Fucking chavs. It's at times like those I wish for a shotgun so I can blow their fucking brains out.
I really wonder what people that can do such things will grow up to be later in their lives (provided I have no shotgun).
Anyway, in the Megastore Ellie and Emily were buying books I think (I didn't really see them paying for anything). :) From there on we went to a supermarket that sold everything but food. Saw loads of funny stuff of which I couldn't think of the use but one thing that stood out was the refrigerator designed for beer. Hail to the people who invent such things. Emily and Ellie proceeded to fill up a can with sweets (one of those cans with a fixed price so you can put as much stuff in it as you can). And they got it filled to the very top and it could barely be closed. So some careful rearranging (read: squishing with one hand) made sure the lid wouldn't pop off at the checkout.
Yes, the green triangles are nice. :)
Emily then had to catch her last bus to Wymeswold and Ellie went away too, so me and Adam headed for our bus as well. On the way there Adam confirmed the coming of Tom and Wills later that night. They didn't want to miss out on Adam cooking for them. I played some guitar while he was cooking ("what's this stuff?" / "how do I prepare this?"). The end result wasn't that bad, tasted quite nice really. He cooked us rice with spicey chicken or some combination of that... I remember it had rice, chicken and spicey stuff.
The evening progressed and it was very relaxed. Chatting about lots of stuff. One topic that kept returning was comparing Dutch things to English things. Some things: counting in Dutch apparently sounds all the same and I thought that Loughborough reminded me of Belgium. The funniest remark came from Wills who said to me: "So are you fluent in English then?" LMAO
So we had much fun, and that ended somewhere in the night. Can't say I remember when, just that I slept quite good that night.
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THURSDAY, 7th of July
What to write about today? Everyone knows what happened and that I couldn't go home today. The entire day I have been walking around with "what if..." thoughts crossing my mind...
I woke up to the sound of tv downstairs going on about power surges in the London tube. I got up, washed myself and went down for some breakfast. Around that time reports of bombs were coming on, as well as the report of a blown up bus. Later, "possible terrorist attack" and later again that was confirmed. My thoughts? "Whoa......"
Adam called around to find out about the situation of transport in and to London, which was all stopped. So he also inquired whether today's tickets would be valid tomorrow, which they would (this was the most important for the Eurostar). Then I called home to let everyone know I was ok and that I'd come a day later, if public transport would allow it.
Now then, throughout the day Adam received calls and texts of Dave, Tom, Wills, Emily (the whole lot really) to inform of what was going on with me. I just wanna thank you all for your support. Muchly valued. Know that.
So, around 1 or 2 pm we headed into town because we decided that sitting around all day wouldn't be any good. So we wanted to go to the Automotive Museum at Donington Park, and Tom and Emily were going to join us. Adam and I arrived in Loughborough, met with them and waited for our bus to the circuit. Wills even stopped by but he was off to lunch so he didn't stay long. Our bus never showed up, so Donington was off.
I felt a bit hungry again, so we went to Subway and I ordered something with egg I think. I wanted egg and bacon, but they apparently have that in the morning, and only in the morning. Ah well, no bacon then. Furthermore, there's too much choice. I don't know half the things they have on display and I don't know whether half of the things I do know taste nice together. So I just pointed at some stuff and shook my head a bit and ended up with some random sandwich, which did contain egg, so something got through. :)
After finishing lunch we passed the cinema and we decided to check if anything interesting was being shown. Well, obviously, everything had just started or wasn't interesting. Again. :) Emily bought some popcorn and Adam bought some stuff-in-a-cup (forgot what it's called: never did catch it). But the lady messed up and there was stuff-in-a-cup everywhere on the counter. But Adam didn't want a new one (even though the lady offered), because he's well 'ard and doesn't mind a sticky cup. :)
We then decided to hang at Tom's place instead. I was surprised Tom's parents were informed of who I was... news travels quickly in the UK, apparently. At Tom's we listened some music and watched some tv. We also chatted with Dave through MSN, and via webcam he showed us Best. :D Nothing much happened otherwise, Adam and Emily fell asleep. Watched a bit of terrorist attacks stuff, but that made me depressed. It got changed to American Chopper which was more fun to watch than I thought it would be. Emily caught her bus home somewhere in between, and Adam had woken up too. We then watched a recorded program about coasters and themeparks which was quite interesting. Even though it focused too little on coasters, IMHO :)
Tom's dad took us home after that, which was very nice of him. Probably saved me a nauseous bus ride, hehe. Back home we informed one more time whether travelling back on friday would be possible, and it was gonna be pretty likely that it would. Then it was dinner time, and Adam offered to cook again. Seeing I survived his previous cookings without any discomforts whatsoever I agreed. We agreed he would make pancakes. So he did, and they were very nice. So thanks again Adam :)
No one was coming over this evening so upon deciding what to do Adam said he wanted to watch a movie, more specific, one of the movies I gave him as gifts. I recently had seen 3 of those 5 movies, so I decided on the comedy "Airplane!". I love that movie, such lame jokes. Adam seemed to like it too so that was good. It was around midnight when the movie ended, and then Adam said he wanted to watch another movie, and that that other movie had to be "Pulp Fiction". Well I can't say no to watching "Pulp Fiction" so we did. Again, I enjoyed every second of it. Adam needs to watch it again I think, he's not seeing the storyline/timeline yet, and he didn't hear all conversations. Which he should, so Adam: watch it again, like, now! ;)
It was around 2 or 2.30 AM so we went to sleep. After all, I had to get up in some 5-6 hours time. :D
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FRIDAY, 8th of July
After a few hours of sleep I got up again and packed my things together. It was a lot less than when I came so that was a BIG relief :P
Had my last breakfast in England while Adam phoned around one last time to make sure I could get to, through and away from London. In the 30 minutes before we left Adam's grandparents' home, Adam got some phone calls from Wills and Tom to wish me a safe journey and say bye. Emily missed her bus (because Adam let her know 3 minutes earlier when I was leaving) and called to say bye as well. So all of you, thanks for that.. appreciated that. :)
Around 10.15 Adam's grandfather took us to Loughborough station (after saying bye to Adam's nan of course) where we arrived some 10 minutes later I think. Said many thanks and bye to him and Adam and I went to the platform. Had to wait for my 10.53 train to arrive. While waiting we saw a half-conscious bird lying on the platform. It probably was hit by a passing train. It breathed, but it couldn't really move. It was moved a bit by some passing trains though, but it probably didn't make it. Ah well, that's nature.. and the human interference with it...
The train came, and I said goodbye to Adam. Got on, waved, and I departed. And as I left Loughborough and the Loughborough environment I felt quite sad. I think it was the realisation of all the fun and experiences I had the past days, and how that wasn't going to happen again anytime soon. Really mixed feelings: I had a great time, yet I had to leave my friends behind and not see them again for I don't know how long, so that sucks.
I kept feeling like that for about an hour, but then I started thinking about getting through and out of London. I knew I had to go to a different tube station than King's Cross but I didn't know how to get there. I was gonna hope for a detour to that station. Btw, my ticket was never checked throughout the journey so that was one less worry to.. ehm.. worry about.
I got off in London and noticed the emergency services verhicles. I walked right by the closed King's Cross station. That other weird feeling had taken over again, and I just followed the regular signs to the nearest open tube station (no such thing as detour signs). Saw loads of TV vans while walking for 15 minutes. I nearly missed the station because it was obscured by some trees and another closed road. But I did find the large building and large crowd suspicious so I took a gamble, time was on my side anyway. My gamble was a good one again and I headed underground.
It wasn't very crowded on the tube, understandably. The atmosphere down there was kinda weird too, but nothing happened so let's not stay on that topic for too long, shall we? My tube return ticket was valid this day, infact it was going to be valid for another month I believe, so there weren't any worries there either. Next stop: Eurostar desk. I loved the 30 minute queue (not), but at some point they did tell me to go over to the business class booking-office so now I know what it feels like to get a business class ticket. I wouldn't pay the extra euros for it, because -surprisingly- it's just like a regular booking-office. That's exactly what I got too, a regular ticket. But I had a valid ticket now, so my journey home was guaranteed now. Phoned home and let them know I was on my way. They were quite happy to hear that. :)
Got in the boarding queue this time. I had the whole metal detector routine again and now I had an hour to pass before we could board the train. I got hungry so I bought 2 bags of crisps and a huge cup of cappucino. It was 0.75 liters of caffeine, with chocolate topping. Deeeelicious! I drank that, and read a bit and soon the wait was over. Boarded, waited, left. I saw the Millennium Wheel, the Tower Bridge, the Big Ben and some other big building with the flag only halfway up. Had the weird feeling again, which transformed into the sad feeling as I departed England. It was finally over I realised...
The rest of the return journey felt like routine. Turned on my music, put on the endless stare into the countryside and just let the time pass by. Channel Tunnel, France, Lille and finally Brussels. I hoped to get some fastfood on the station but by the time I found a fastfood shop I discovered 1) I had no European money, 2)that the ONLY cash dispenser in the huge Brussels station had another 30 minute queue and 3) I had to catch my train home. So no dinner, but a bag of crisps instead. Ah well, I've done worse I suppose. :P
The same blank stare home, and for the last 30 minutes of my journey I felt like hearing one single song only, so I played Jimmy Eat World's "Work" on repeat while staring into the sunset. How emo, but what a fitting end to this journey. ("Wanna take a ride?") At the second to last station I called my dad to come pick me up, which he did. I got home, let folks know I got home okay by e-mail and started typing this entry. Ironic, don't ya think?
That was it. My meet&greet with people I've only met online. Well done for sitting this entry out. ;)
A few last random comments:
- The Eurostar pulls positive G's in the "dips" the train travels through, because of it's huge speeds.
- Didjano the Eurostar was the fastest coaster I've been on this holiday? :D
- Didjano the Eurostar train commander speaks 3 languages fluently? French, Frenglish and Frutch. :)
- The English youth must develop better eating and sleeping habits. Eat 3x a day, sleep ~7 hours per night. Makes the days less messy, trust me on that one...
- Don't ride buses on an empty stomach. Infact, avoid buses as often as possible.
- Driving.. erm, being driven on the left side was so odd for me, but when I got home and my dad picked me up, I had to get used to being on the right side of the road again.
- Loughborough really does remind me of Belgium, because as I was travelling home through Belgium I thought "hey this looks just like Loughborough" :D
- Signposts RULE ALL!!
Thanks to all who made my time in England a fantastic one!
Enjoy the long read! Muahaha!
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Hi. You've seen me online, had an e-mail or a text, and otherwise this message will let you know I am alive and well, and back in the Netherlands. I really really enjoyed being in England.. such a shame the end had to be overshadowed by the horrible events that have happened. I guess I can call myself (very) lucky the bombs didn't explode in the afternoon/evening rush hour, or else this entry may never have been written... Take a moment to think about that. I know I did, and that explains why I may have appeared absent at some points in time the past 2 days. It's not thoughts like that you have to keep in your head for long, but it is good to reflect on what happened, take some time to put it in place and comprehend and accept those horrible events.
Travelling through London today felt a bit strange. I wasn't scared, but something just felt eerie. I could see the emergency vehicles and crew, I noticed a whole load of police and of course the closed King's Cross/St Pancras tube station. I walked to the Euston tube station (10 mins) and fetched the Northern Line there. The tube was far from crowded. 20 persons on a coach at most. A somewhat eerie uncrowdedness, that's probably the best way to describe the situation as I went through.
I'm not gonna write about how I feel about what happened as you can probably guess yourself or have heard it from me already. *takes another moment*
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ENGLAND 2005
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MONDAY, 4th of July
I got up at the break of dawn, and after showering and breakfasting my journey towards the unknown began. First time by train to Belgium, first time by train to England, first time on Eurostar, first time going on holiday alone, first time meeting people I've only met online, and so on and so on. You can imagine my uncertainty at the start. As I left my own country I really started to feel on my own and thoughts like "What have I begun?" crossed my mind. The deeper I travelled into Belgium, the more those thoughts left my mind and I got my mind set on reaching my destination as smoothly as I could.
I arrived in Brussels after some 2 hours of leaving home. Into the unknown I went, relying totally on signposts. And by golly, they actually got me where I had to be, which was the Eurostar check-in. After a bit of queueing my ticket and identity card were checked and approved, and then I had to put my bag through one of those X-Ray machines and I had to walk through a metal detector. For some silly reason I really liked that. Random, I know.
After another 20 minute wait all of us (us being waiting passengers) were allowed to board the Eurostar. Found my seat and "whoosh!" we were off. I have to say "whoosh!" because that's the best word to describe travelling at speeds around 250 km/h. The countryside flashed by and before I knew it I found myself surrounded by darkness in the Channel Tunnel. The darkness was replaced by quite a different countryside after some 20 minutes. Hilly, different coloured patches of land, random trees and forests and lovely towns. After another hour the train slowed down as we entered London. At first I noticed some Eiffel Tower-y structure so the thought of being in Paris instead of London flashed through my mind. But then I could spot the Tower Bridge, the Big Ben and that Millennium Wheel thingy. So that confirmed I was in London, and it immediately was as much sights I could see of London. Left the train, found the underground entrance (yay for signposts!) and searched through a wad of tickets I had to find the one that would open the gate. I spied on some people and noticed they had little orange tickets and recognized those from my own wad of tickets. Bingo, I was in!
I remembered having to get the Northern Line so again I trusted the signposts to lead me to my destination. And again, they did. Boarded a tube train and here I first encountered the British language. Another feeling insecurity crawled up my spine as I couldn't understand half of it. That wasn't what I expected! I could barely distinguish station names and had to double-check the names by reading the station's nametags through the tube windows. Upon arriving at Leicester Square station I got off, and tried to find the Piccadilly Line. I felt a bit lost as I seemed to be the only person who needed to make that change. All alone I found my way through the corridors, going deeper underground with every step I took. Fortunately I did find my way, and felt more comfortable again. Everything was working out, and the British language began sounding a bit more familiar. "Mind the gap"... so I looked at the door and platform and thought to myself "What fucking gap? They align perfectly!". Anyway, I arrived at King's Cross/St Pancras, and there my underground adventure ended...
...to be continued by an overground adventure. I expected to be walking right into the train station but I had to cross a few London streets to find St Pancras station. I arrived there an hour before my train would leave so I sat down and found myself with 50 minutes to spend. I texted Adam to let him know I was on my way and that I had 40 minutes to spend. I turned up my music, relaxed a bit, had some lunch and waited patiently for my train to pull into the station. Which it did, precisely on time. That surprised me a bit as I am used to the Dutch rail services. ;)
I got on and noticed that my seat reservation had worked... somewhat. You see, Midland had reserved a seat for me which was actually meant for a disabled person. I fail to see how "Dutch" and "disabled" can get mixed up. :)
Well, anyway, I sat down near my reserved seat and listened for some more music and watched Britain pass me by. I was surprised at the politeness of the train manager(s). You're being welcomed after each station, you get told about the rules and signs, the upcoming stations and that the bar is opened. In comparison with that, the Dutch rail services are down-right jerks. Apart from the station you're at (which you can read for yourself) you get told nothing. ;)
When pulling into Leicester we suddenly had to switch trains, for some odd reason. I immediately felt right at home, because our rail services are shoddy like that as well. I double-checked I switched to the right train with one of the train persons, and some chavs then double-checked with me whether it was the train to Derby. Which was the first real English conversation I had to participate in, so that was exciting. The chavs called me "mate", so I wondered if I hadn't taken a wrong turn somewhere and had ended up in Australia, but I didn't wonder for very long. The train rolled again, and a few minutes later the Loughborough announcements came on. I looked around the station to spot Adam and I did, before he could spot me so I won there.
We met, and I had to get used to his voice and accent, as well as finding my own English voice. Which I apparently don't have because everyone told me I sound American. Well, thaz jest sizzlin' wif me bros! So yeah, walked around Loughborough a bit, visited some shops and I generally was amazed at the amount of chavs. We then ate at Subway (meatball sandwich, how ace!) and I got introduced to some people Adam knew but I have no idea who they are/were. No clue at all. :)
Sat around, saw the person commonly referred to as Di walk around with someone else but they didn't notice Adam waving.
Somewhere in between Emily rang Adam and at some point it went like this:
Adam: "Here, Emily says she wants to speak to you." *hands phone to me*
Me: "Hello?"
Emily: *giggles*
Me: "Uhm, hello?"
Emily: *giggles hysterically*
Me: "Well, there's no sense coming out of you, here's Adam again." *hands phone back*
So that was kinda weird. Well, after some wandering, we caught a bus to Shepshed where I met Adam's grandparents. Very nice people. I gave them some gifts, gave Adam some gifts and checked out my bed. After a bit we went back into town to meet Dave, Amy and Emily. Which worked out fine, we noticed them coming up the road. And they noticed us, because Emily was in uncontrollable giggles again. Which worsened when I said "hello" in my American-English. Dave hugged me which was nice. So I gave him 'the gift' (*refers to Dave's journal for that*). All I have to say about that is that I found a balance between alcohol percentage and price. ;) Oh, and his tail was really nice as he put the gift in its wrap in his backpocket.
Seeing everyone in real life felt really weird, but it made me really happy as well. It gave me a real "mission accomplished" feeling as well as I had achieved a big part of what I set out to do. Good stuff.
Anyway, we went into a supermarket (I think) where Dave bought celery and Adam bought one carrot. Whatever else happened there went past me as I was getting quite tired from the trip I had made and the lack of food in my stomach. Dave had also bought salty nuts and passed those around, so they made my dinner. I was the only one holding on to all nutshells where others were making a trail so they could find their way back to the store. I eventually tossed my collection in a dumpster near the Salation Army building with the random remark that I could find my place to sleep that way. Probably bad joke #1 of the trip.
While making that nutshell trail 2 guys on 1 bicycle came by. One was sitting on the steering wheel and they looked like proper idiots. So we laughed at them, got some comments from them and we laughed more. Somewhere around that time I said "fucking hell" and that apparently sounded odd too. That's most likely because I use that expression daily. Certain English words/expressions are used in my country, ya know. So yeah, because it sounded weird I had to repeat myself, so there I was, cussing like a sailor on day #1 in England. Fun! Arrrr, fuckin' hell mateys!
We wandered on and went to the B&B where Dave, Amy and Emily were meant to sleep. Some chavettes shouted at us along the way because Adam went "huuuuuhhhh" in their presence, so they thought it necessary to comment on that. Lame. We walked on, while Dave and Adam had a running competition which Dave won. We finally arrived at the B&B where the aforementioned trio dropped off their stuff. At a bus stop nearby we then met Tom and went to Leicester, by bus. Driven by Mr. Bean. :) Adam and Emily did some bus surfing (in Quorn I think) and both fell over. I also began noticing I get kinda sick on English buses pretty quick, but fortunately Leicester arrived pretty quick after that.
In Leicester, no one knew where the bowling alley was exactly, so after wandering around the bus station once we headed in the exact opposite direction some random guy told us to guy upon asking him where we could find the bowling alley. In between that Dave said he liked my shoes, to which I replied that I had stepped on a zebra. Bad joke #2 was born. I also saw a truck with a bed advert and 2 bed stores... someone was fucking with me as I was really sleepy, and hungry too.
Anyway, after wandering around (and Dave checking out a few Indian restaurants, like, from the inside) we finally made it to the bowling alley where we had to do a quick game so that we wouldn't miss the last bus back to Shepshed. But before that Dave wrestled an arcade bull-head, on the hardest setting. It took Dave, me and Adam to actually win one round, after which it was game over because Dave and I had lost the 2 previous rounds already. Alright, bowling. For a long time I seemed to be losing, but in fact I was playing a strategic mind game. 3 throws from the end I threw 2 consecutive strikes to put me right back in the top. Alas, Dave saw through my strategy and won with 12 points more, I was 2nd (complete rundown is in Dave's journal). At least I threw the most strikes of everyone, and I was the best Dutch contestant.
Thanks to someone's brilliant feeling of direction (forgot whose) we returned to the bus station promptly. There we had fun on the twisty rackety seats and waited for our bus to pull into the loading zone. Which it did after a couple of minutes. So in we went, and on the way we talked about lots of things. About halfway through the tiredness from the trip, the hunger and the tiredness from conversing in English took its toll. So I got kinda bus-sick after Tom, Dave, Amy and Emily had left us in Loughborough. I tried my best not to vomit, but didn't succeed. It wasn't alot but I got the bus seat a bit dirty :)
Upon arriving in Shepshed, Adam and I left the bus, walked to his grandparents' home and I went straight to bed. I slept pretty much immediately after I entered the bed at midnight. Which concludes day 1.
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TUESDAY, 5th of July
AT Day! Got up at the break of dawn again and took a bath. I discovered my mum had gone through my packed gear and for some reason unknown to me had taken my hair gel out. So yes, if you wondered why my hair looked crap, there's your explanation. Fortunately for me Adam had just had a haircut before I arrived so I guess no one really took much notice of my coif. Breakfast followed soon after the bath and I had some half-done toast with marmelade. I had never had marmelade before and to me it looked a bit like jam that was puked out once, because of all the hard bits present. I was happy to find out the taste was better than that. :)
We left the house and went to the bus stop where Wills was waiting. We had a random discussion about souped up cars and how awful they can look. The bus came (also on time, England pwns the Netherlands on the issue of public transport) and when we were on it Adam rang Emily to see if they were awake yet. They were but they were gonna miss the bus which meant they had to walk to the station. That's probably what one can expect when someone tries titty-growing experiments at 3 AM, but hey ho, they made it in the end, which is what matters. The bus ride ended at the station (in the meantime the bus picked up Tom) and we bought our tickets for AT. A bit later Emily & co. joined us and we waited for the train to come.
On the train we got tea & coffee and sat on the floor as there wasn't a lot of room for us to sit. But we had to get off at Long Eaton anyway, one of the most ungodly stations I have seen in England. I suspect there was a town behind the trees but I only spotted a road with a few cars. It appeared as it was in the middle of nowhere, it felt like that at least. After spilling the left over tea & coffee on the platform and expressing our hopes of birds getting run-over by a train, our next train arrived which would take us to Uttoxeter. Haha, I love town names with x's. Uttoxeter. :)
On the train Adam tried to make Wills like Million Dead in which he failed. Wills did say he liked Alexisonfire, that is, until the guy opens his mouth. After some more useless music talk we left the train and waited for the bus which was going to be ubercrowded. The queue was huge, and we were right at the back. While riding towards AT I started humming Iron Maiden's "Wildest Dreams" (I'm on my way!). On the bus I also feared getting sick again because of all the turns and twists in the road to Alton but I didn't. Instead Dave was the one this time. Upon arriving I gave him some water and a bit later my coat because he was quite cold in his T-shirt and shorts. Infact, I was the only one who brought a coat.
We entered and I saw a castle which I didn't expect. So that's why it's called Alton Towers, right. I got my camera out and never really put it back for the rest of the morning. I snapped pictures like crazy and ended up with 75 pictures of the whole day. Most of em are coaster pictures but there's a few random ones in between as well. I will be uploading them later on my personal webspace and make an entry with just picture links. Should be fun. Some pictures would need some touching up as the lighting on some is quite crap. Maybe I should just make those black-and-white, dunno. *ponders* Oh right, I'm drifting off. :)
We walked into the park and passed Spinball Whizzer which I thought looked quite nice. But we walked as needed a ride on Rita first because that was gonna be real popular throughout the day. We also needed to start on an "easy" coaster because it was Amy's first day of coastering. We found Rita and walked through the ridiculously twisting queue. Even without people you're walked 10 minutes before you're at the station... lame. However, the queue was not without people and we ended up queueing for 40 or 50 minutes I think. We made a mockery of the music played, but secretly I liked the songs. =P
Amy and Emily danced to Grease Lightning which was fun to watch. Kerrazay bitches I tell thee. While queueing I marveled at the whole coaster. Even though it's not that high it still looks impressive. And the launch is great to watch everytime. The countdown is always the same but the time of launch isn't so I noticed a few jump starts (the train launched with only 3 of 5 lights turned on, instead of all being on and then turned off). We approached the station and decided to not go for the front row because of the chav-infested queue to the front row. Instead we passed a "please deposit your gum here" sign which was covered in gum, so I laughed at that. Eventually it was our turn to ride.
I was told to take my glasses off by the ride ops. So I did, I stuck it in my pocket. Restraints closed, and I made sure I had some room after the ride ops tried to staple everyone in their seats, and it worked. The launch was amazing! A good bit faster than I had expected it to be. Upon entering the first turn I got my glasses out of my pocket and put them back on because I wanted to see where I was going. I nearly poked an eye out in doing so, but hey ho, putting on glasses at 2.5-3 G's isn't the easiest tasks you know. :)
I experienced a good deal of airtime over the twisty hills in my back seat. On the third turn I hurt my arms on the stupid restraints as I was holding them up the whole time. That turn is just painful with those restraints; they really should install lap bars on Rita. This proves how strict the safety regulations are, a bit too strict IMO.
Anyway, the bunny hop before the final brakes still gave a good pop airtime which I didn't think it would do so that was a nice surprise as well. As we rolled back into the station I put my glasses back in my pocket again. :)
The first ride of the day was a fact and I felt really excited. The onride photo showed that as well because I was smiling from ear to ear, a general "WAAAAAA!!" look. :D
After Rita we set a course for Oblivion. And we passed through "the tunnel" which I understand is quite a phenomenon. I don't really get it but I took a picture of it anyway. There was Oblivion at the end of the tunnel. That track looked really massive, a huge spine. And that drop, mmm, I couldn't wait. The mist was turned on as well which would only enhance the ride. The queue was rather short, I think we've had to wait 15 or 20 minutes at most. As we boarded Emily asked the ride op to take her shoes off as they were quite loose on her feet. One shoe came off easily but the other one was a bit more troublesome, so I had to laugh at that. As the ride op put the shoes away, another ride op commented on the sudden smell. So I laughed again. :)
The restraints were closed and we were on our way up the lift hill. Amy started screaming she wanted to get off and everyone else was screaming out of excitement to go down. Needless to say, democracy prevailed and we kept going up. The sensation of hanging over the edge was incredible, and the drop was even better. Floating all the way down, hands and feet in the air. We rushed down and entered the m(o)isty tunnel. When we left the tunnel I could barely see anything because of all the droplets on my glasses.
Oblivion was a great rush, and the best ride so far.
We set out for Air, and decided not to take the skyride. So we walked through some huge gardens and over big descents and climbs. That was fun. Once. I had gotten a bit hungry from this so we made a short stop at a random McDonalds. Apparently my order of 9 Chicken McNuggets was too hard for them because they took a grand total of 10 minutes to prepare them. While I was waiting for them Emily and Dave wanted to go ride Nemesis but I said that I'd rather have that they not. "I am not going to miss out on any rides today." So instead they went and collected fastpasses for both Nemesis and Air. My Nuggets were finally done when they returned with the passes and we set out for Air again.
However, Air seemed to be broken down and the queue was very long. So instead we headed back to Nemesis. There, Emily and Amy left us because Amy didn't want to ride Nemesis. Or, in true RCT style: "This ride looks too intense for me.". I can quite understand her decision: you don't just ride the most intense coaster in the world on your first day of coastering. So it was me, Adam, Dave, Tom and Wills. Adam insisted that my first ride on Nemesis would be front row so we queued up for that as well. In total I think we queued for some 40-50 minutes.
Wills and Tom went on Nemesis first and then it was Dave's, Adam's and my turn. I could've pissed my pants out of excitement as we set out from the station. And it had began to drizzle a bit, you might not even have noticed had I done so. From the moment the chain released us until the moment we hit the final brakes all was a blur. I know what elements we went through but the shear speed and forces I had to endure made this an unforgettable experience. What a ride! After getting off I needed 5 minutes to regain control of all bodily functions again.
And on the Nemesis onride photo they had cleverly put the Nemesis logo over my face...
Back out we met up with Emily and Amy again and we decided to go get lunch. At another McDonalds. And it got messy. Very messy. And we have the aforementioned two females to thank for that. Someone before us had apparently left their Happy Meal treat behind. The treat was a race track thing with a looping, with a launch spring. At first Amy sent an empty cup of ketchup through, which was quite funny actually. In the meantime Emily had taken some of Adam's milkshake and was marveling at the phase separation of it on the table (yes Emily, that's the official term). Then arrived 2 full cups of ketchup. Amy tried sending one of them through the course but it was too heavy and fell over, thus making the racetrack pretty messy. Emily turned the cup over so that the remaining ketchup was on the table. Then she started mixing the blob of milkshake with it and making a greater mess. More milkshake drops followed and the mess only got bigger and bigger. When we finished lunch we tried covering the mess we made with all the paper bags we had. So there was this huge pile of paper on the table. "No one will ever know about the mess under there." :)
The drizzle came down steadily so we went inside to Duel. I almost fell over in the entrance room (damn slanted floor). Duel was ok, though my wrist was really sore afterwards. Stupid gun. *curses*
After Duel we headed for Runaway Mine Train to squish each other in the turns, and it appeared Wills was going to sit next to me, but he chickened out at the last minute so I ended up with no one to squish. :( I tried grabbing some trees instead, but I missed them by an inch. Dave did succeed where I failed so I have to know his secret. ;)
After two circuits of Runaway Mine Train we headed for the River Rapids ride which had no queue. Just a few minor splashes which were mainly aimed at Dave so he stood up. And then he got told to sit down via the speakers. Near the end of it was a big waterfalls section where we all got proper wet. And we weren't about to dry up anytime soon from that either as I took out my umbrella to stay a bit dry from the rain.
We then headed for Spinball Whizzer which we should've been able to ride before our fastpass to Nemesis would no longer be valid. We ran across a field to get to the queue and I got my shoes soaked in the wet grass. As we queued it was raining steadily and my umbrella became a popular hiding place. While queueing we played with the various queue props that made annoying noises (whooooooooooooo poing!). We queued for some 40 or 50 minutes I think and then we were allowed to board. I was sat next to Adam. As we spun down the first drop I was surprised by the forces pushing me into my lapbar so I started grunting at every turn. Adam seemed to like that and joined in so that gave the ride a 5th dimension. As we got off Adam informed he had fucked his voice so I had to laugh (a bit). You should practice more Adam. *nods*
On Spinball I got quite wet and shivery so I asked Dave if I could have my coat back. Which I could but I did feel kinda sorry for putting him back in the cold (SORRY). But at the time he didn't seem to mind much. We speeded towards Nemesis to see if our fastpasses, which had been valid until 10 minutes before we got there, would still be valid. Well, there wasn't any queue before the fastpass gate so it never mattered. It was a shame we all dumped our fastpasses in the bin though because those things do not have a date printed on them so they could've been recycled. :)
Anyway, we queued for some 20-30 minutes under my umbrella and then headed for the back seat. Back seat + wet track + world's most intense coaster = FORCEFUL! Nemesis was unbelievable this time! I was really gripping the restraints tight and just pumping myself up during the ride so I wouldn't feel like blacking out or getting nauseous. That worked quite well and I didn't get off as disorientated as on the first ride. At the top of the loop however some raindrops entered my eyes and I was blind for the remainder of the ride. My eyes felt uncomfortable but going through the track eyes closed was very good...
This was probably my favorite ride of the whole day.
When we got off Nemesis we had 5 minutes left until our Air fastpass would expire so we ran (in the rain) to Air and were let in the fast queue (or whatever it is called). My umbrella again was the popular queueing location. And yes, I cannot stress that fact enough. :) Some 15-20 minutes later we were strapped in and set out for a what I thought was a lovely ride. Everyone else commented on the bumps, but heyho, I am very used to coasters as smooth as Corkscrew. So from my point of view the ride was quite smooth and I liked all the swooping drops and turns. What I didn't like about Air? The 10-minute-hanging in the final brake: the back of my pants got soaking wet and I hurt the left side of my ribs. Or at least, I found that out afterwards. I thought that my cell phone sticking in privates was gonna give me a lot more discomfort. LOL
I did like the conversations while hanging there. Best one:
Amy: *shouting* "Can anybody tell me what is going on!?"
Random dude four rows in front of us: "My balls hurt!!!"
Oh, I loved that one. :)
We tried drying up in the Air shop for some minutes (lovely hot-air fan over the exit) we set out for another round of Duel. Again my wrists were quite sore afterwards. I also missed the onride photo spot. I wanted to have one where I pointed the gun at my head as a suicide act. I definitely would've bought that one had I not forgotten where the onride was taken. Dave did get an ace picture in which he looks bored and has no score as he didn't bother to pick his gun out of the holster. Way to go Dave! :)
After Duel we decided to check out Rita again but all the rain had affected us so we went to the toilet. Here Wills had gotten the bright idea to use the handdryers on his wet clothes. Soon Dave and Adam followed his example and thus all 3 dryers were occupied by idiots folding their T-shirts around the nozzles. This went on for 10 minutes and, according to them, felt very satisfying...
And then Dave's pants fell down. Twice.
As we came to Rita a staff member told us the ride was experiencing some difficulties but we queued for it anyway. Emily and Amy had gone off to find food and they tossed Dave a few chips from behind the queue fence. We waited and waited, listened to several announcements of Rita "having technical difficulties" and noticed it break down for a few minutes. Then an empty train went through the course and finally the queue started moving again. It took quite some time but we finally got on and had another great ride9, painfulness included though.
Since we were beginning to like all the pain, we headed for Corkscrew which didn't have any queue anyway. Walked right on, but there was one problem: there were 5 of us. So Wills and Tom headed for the front seat, Dave and Adam went for the back, so I thought "oh what the hell" and took a seat in the middle. And as we left the lift hill I started singing our national anthem while the ride lasted. Whoo, this was definitely one fun ride!
As we got off we walked past the onride photo booth but it was closed. Wills banged on blinds but they didn't open. Ah well. :)
We ran back towards Rita to get the last ride of the day on that one as well. But alas, the queue was closed. However, we did choose to linger near the station which was a very good decision. There were 3 people left in the queue still waiting for their ride and seeing they were going to launch anyway we shouted that we wouldn't mind acting as train filling. The ride ops discussed it.. and the exit opened for us. Another ride! Yay! It felt really great because this final ride was an unexpected bonus.
And now all rides were closed so we had to head towards the exit. The skyride had also closed so we've had to walk. Along the way we discussed how easy it would be to hide in Alton Towers and spend the night in the park. We also laughed at the cartoony park overview board which for example showed Spinball as a coaster without hills and Beastie as a flat oval track. :)
At the exit we met up with Amy and Emily again, who were still eating/eating once again. We then left the park and walked to the bus stop where we waited ridiculously long for the bus to come. And it rained so my umbrella once again saved some of the day. To pass the time some people started having conversations with the sheep across the road, behind the trees.
The bus came and we got on. I looked through the trees and silently said my goodbyes to AT. As we drove further I got nauseous again. Dave got sick on the bus in the morning, and in the afternoon it was my turn, or so it would seem. Like Dave, I didn't vomit either but I did feel crap generally. I survived but whatever was discussed on the bus went by me: I lost all track of events and time there. :(
We arrived at Uttoxeter at some point in time and there I felt a bit better. However, it was very chilly because we were still wet and everyone was shivering like mad. We tried to group around one person to use body warmth to warm up and provide shelter from the icy wind. Didn't really work and we were happy to board the train. On the train pretty much everybody fell asleep, and so did I. I already rode Nemesis a whole 4 times (amongst other rides) before waking up and getting off at Long Eaton. At Long Eaton again we shivered like fuck while waiting for the train to take us back to Loughborough.
I still felt quite weak and informed Adam I wasn't gonna make it back to Shepshed on a bus without vomiting all over it. So we (me, Adam, Wills and Tom) got a taxi, driven by an Indian dude who really liked reggae music. Because he turned it up LOUD. Like, obnoxiously loud. Like, I-hate-my-job-so-get-the-fuck-out-of-my-taxi loud. And he couldn't drive very well either. Infact, I dunno why the hell we paid that guy. Infact, what's the number where I can complain about him? :)
Wills was dropped off at his home, and Adam, Tom and me went to Adam's grandparents where we were going to eat homemade pizza. That tasted quite good and it was a welcome change to the night before, which lacked any form of dinner. In the meantime I played guitar I think. I know I've played lots of Alter Bridge while in England. But yeah, never mind that.
After dinner we waited for Dave, Amy and Emily to come and hang out with us. As we waited for them Adam fired up RCT 2, and Tom started building weird impossible creations immediately. Such as his huge thing spiraling down some 500 times; just watching it was nauseating. "This ride looks too intense for me." :)
Near midnight the Dave & co. showed up and after playing RCT 2 a bit, we retreated to the room with the refrigerator (with beer) in it. There we were informed on how they had eaten Indian food and that Dave had halalarilari (yeah I know, I didn't catch that) and that it wasn't bad food. He then wondered what it'd cost to have them deliver it to his home in Wigan. Tom: "Well, never mind the costs. Loughborough to Wigan is some 120 miles. Assuming an average speed of 40 mph -which is still quite fast- it would mean that it'd take 3 hours for your food to arrive. So it would be cold before you even got it." This cracked everyone up. :)
More random conversations followed and it was very fun and relaxed. Though one topic kept returning: who's gonna call a taxi? That apparently needed over 2 hours to get sorted as a taxi was called at approximately 2 AM. It did arrive within 10 minutes so then everyone but me and Adam left to get some sleep. Adam and me didn't leave to get sleep, we stayed and got our sleep.
(Well, that was a poorly constructed last sentence...)
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WEDNESDAY, 6th of July
On the previous night we talked about how Emily, Dave and Amy would have to leave their B&B at 10 AM so we agreed to meet them in town at 10 AM. But both of us overslept, and I actually had to wake Adam up (instead of the other way around) at 10 o' clock. Cleansed and breakfasted, then caught the 12 o' clock bus into Loughborough on which Adam found out (via phone) that Dave, Amy and Emily were at Emily's house. So in Loughborough we caught the bus to Emily's house, which apparently is located in Wymeswold. Apart from Uttoxeter (which has the X) I liked this name best, because of the inner alliteration. And also because of the amount of effort you have to put in to pronounce it correctly (pronouncing W and M require your lips to move). Ehm, never mind. I like the name. End.
So we were heading for Wymeswold and on the way we discussed how good AT was yesterday. We came to the conclusion that I liked Nemesis best, and Oblivion after that. Adam really liked Corkscrew and Runaway Mine Train. Silly boy. *shakes head*
So after some time we arrive in the town of Wymeswold, got off the bus and after that Adam fortunately remembered where Emily's house was. On the way there we saw a random car, near a tree. *nods*
We found Emily's house and she opened the door. Inside we found Dave and Amy who were playing with bears. They named one Herald and another Best. Best apparently was called Best because he was the best. Dave then wanted more cuddly toys to play with so we headed upstairs to find (tons of) them. We retreated into one of Emily's 3 rooms (!) and played further. Some platypussies were present as well, and Dave decided to pile all 3 of them on eachother and then throw them at Amy. To which she said "ow" because it hurt. Dave didn't believe that so eventually I threw them in his face and then he threw them back in my face. Which didn't hurt. :)
Then Dave found a ukelelele and played it (poorly, ;) ). A bit later he got distracted by the arrival of Barbies which he wanted to "modify". The ukelelele ended up in my hands (I even shredded on it for a bit) while Dave proceeded to cut Barbie hair. All the hair he cut ended up on his own clothes and the floor. After a while Barbie was bald and then she got decapitated. This onslaught continued and it ended with me cutting off another Barbie's leg and sticking the head of the earlier decapitated Barbie on top of it. I like Barbie-surgery. :)
After all this, Dave vacuumed himself and we moved from Emily's room to... Emily's room. But left Adam behind, who had fallen asleep. Lazay Biatch. In Emily's room we talked and looked at all kinds of stuff in there, ie. photos and her door. Dave then had a little nap (with Best) while Emily, Amy and me went downstairs to cook pasta. Without any sauce or whatsoever. Grated cheese doesn't count as whatsoever, I think (even though it was a welcome addition to the bare pasta). 4 different kinds of pasta, all in one pan and then boiling the motherfuckers. Amy and Emily went upstairs to check on Dave and Adam while I stayed in the kitchen to watch the pasta.
Which turned out to be a good move as it didn't take more than one minute for the whole pan to start boiling over. I shouted "RED ALERT!!" and soon reinforcements (read: Emily) came down to take control of things. Amy followed soon after that and then the pasta seemed to be ready. Put it in a bowl, put the cheese in a bowl and put some mustard/honey sauce in a little bowl. This, together with plates and forks and knives, went upstairs where we lunched.
It wasn't that bad at all, considering my irregular food schedule from the days before. More interesting than the food was the discussion about what was a vegetarian. A vegetarian is someone who doesn't eat meat, but what we discussed was whether the reason for not eating meat matters for being a vegetarian (ie. against killing animals/disliking the taste of meat/etc). Not sure what came out of that, but it was interesting. Food for thought, so to speak. :)
After lunch Dave and Amy stayed in Emily's bed for some sleep, and Adam never woke up, so Emily and me did the dishes (I don't sleep during the daytime if I've had a normal night's rest). Well, Emily did the dishes, because there wasn't really anything I could do to help (or so she said). Still made myself a bit useful in wiping the table and placemats, and generally picking up grated cheese from everywhere. :) After that we went back upstairs to Emily's room and I found out where exactly I was in England. We also listened some Alexisonfire and then some Mogwai. Dave said it needed to be louder so Emily turned on the stereo downstairs and soon Mogwai's sniffing song was hearable throughout the house/neighbourhood/town.
With that, Adam woke up and eventually the music was turned off again because having a normal conversation wasn't really possible. So we sat around some more and had a random photoshoot (& teddy sex, starring Best). At 10 to 3 we headed out for the bus stop where I thought I saw a sign for a lost cat without any details as to who to contact if one would find the cat. But I was proven wrong. Alas, that would've been an ace picture...
Emily had given Best to Dave, and on the bus I gave Dave some liquorish (think that's the word) Mentos mints (I passed them around before and he quite liked them). Survived the bus ride, and waited for the train that was supposed to take Dave and Amy home again. I didn't quite realise that it was going to be a long time before meeting them both again so the goodbye wasn't all that.. I dunno, emotional maybe? Probably not the right word, but anyway, it didn't feel like it was going to be a very long time before seeing them again.
But it will be...
After we said and waved goodbye to Dave and Amy, we (Adam, Emily and me) wandered around Loughborough a bit aimlessly. We headed to Left Legged again where Adam spotted a Nightwish sweatband in the store window. I pointed out how pointless that was because I don't sweat (well, not through exercise). :) After that we went to the Virgin Megastore where we hung around the Hard Rock/Metal section for quite a long time. I spotted the Reuben album "Racecar is racecar backwards" and decided to buy it. I found my souvenir for the whole trip: I wouldn't have known about Reuben if it weren't for meeting all of you, and since they're only known in Britain their cd's aren't available for purchase here, so it all fits in.
After a while we moved to the movies section and we discussed funny tv shows. Then a friend of Emily showed up, Ellie. We hung in the Virgin megastore for a bit and then tried to go see a movie. However, all movies had just started when we walked in or others would start at a time that'd make Emily miss her last bus home. Instead Emily (I think) bought some popcorn and we strayed around town a little. Popcorn was nice but not that filling so we ended up in the McDonalds. :)
Anyway, chicken burgers, fries, milkshakes... all ingredients were present for Emily to make a huge mess of things again. Ketchup and a coke were added to the disgusting mess she had made later. That girl is gonna be great at chemistry, I tell thee. ;)
When we finished our stuff we headed back to Virgin again. As we approached the door I noticed I had left my coat at McDonalds so Adam and me went back to retrieve. There an employee told us she wanted to put the coat in the lost&found but then some chavs told her it was their coat so they took it with them. We remembered those chavs because they were sitting behind us while we had been eating there. So we went outside again, saw the chavs but I also saw my coat, just lying on the pavement a few yards away from the McDonalds. So I gave the chavs a very filthy look (yeah, that'll show them... *shrugs*), picked up my coat and we returned to Virgin again. Fucking chavs. It's at times like those I wish for a shotgun so I can blow their fucking brains out.
I really wonder what people that can do such things will grow up to be later in their lives (provided I have no shotgun).
Anyway, in the Megastore Ellie and Emily were buying books I think (I didn't really see them paying for anything). :) From there on we went to a supermarket that sold everything but food. Saw loads of funny stuff of which I couldn't think of the use but one thing that stood out was the refrigerator designed for beer. Hail to the people who invent such things. Emily and Ellie proceeded to fill up a can with sweets (one of those cans with a fixed price so you can put as much stuff in it as you can). And they got it filled to the very top and it could barely be closed. So some careful rearranging (read: squishing with one hand) made sure the lid wouldn't pop off at the checkout.
Yes, the green triangles are nice. :)
Emily then had to catch her last bus to Wymeswold and Ellie went away too, so me and Adam headed for our bus as well. On the way there Adam confirmed the coming of Tom and Wills later that night. They didn't want to miss out on Adam cooking for them. I played some guitar while he was cooking ("what's this stuff?" / "how do I prepare this?"). The end result wasn't that bad, tasted quite nice really. He cooked us rice with spicey chicken or some combination of that... I remember it had rice, chicken and spicey stuff.
The evening progressed and it was very relaxed. Chatting about lots of stuff. One topic that kept returning was comparing Dutch things to English things. Some things: counting in Dutch apparently sounds all the same and I thought that Loughborough reminded me of Belgium. The funniest remark came from Wills who said to me: "So are you fluent in English then?" LMAO
So we had much fun, and that ended somewhere in the night. Can't say I remember when, just that I slept quite good that night.
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THURSDAY, 7th of July
What to write about today? Everyone knows what happened and that I couldn't go home today. The entire day I have been walking around with "what if..." thoughts crossing my mind...
I woke up to the sound of tv downstairs going on about power surges in the London tube. I got up, washed myself and went down for some breakfast. Around that time reports of bombs were coming on, as well as the report of a blown up bus. Later, "possible terrorist attack" and later again that was confirmed. My thoughts? "Whoa......"
Adam called around to find out about the situation of transport in and to London, which was all stopped. So he also inquired whether today's tickets would be valid tomorrow, which they would (this was the most important for the Eurostar). Then I called home to let everyone know I was ok and that I'd come a day later, if public transport would allow it.
Now then, throughout the day Adam received calls and texts of Dave, Tom, Wills, Emily (the whole lot really) to inform of what was going on with me. I just wanna thank you all for your support. Muchly valued. Know that.
So, around 1 or 2 pm we headed into town because we decided that sitting around all day wouldn't be any good. So we wanted to go to the Automotive Museum at Donington Park, and Tom and Emily were going to join us. Adam and I arrived in Loughborough, met with them and waited for our bus to the circuit. Wills even stopped by but he was off to lunch so he didn't stay long. Our bus never showed up, so Donington was off.
I felt a bit hungry again, so we went to Subway and I ordered something with egg I think. I wanted egg and bacon, but they apparently have that in the morning, and only in the morning. Ah well, no bacon then. Furthermore, there's too much choice. I don't know half the things they have on display and I don't know whether half of the things I do know taste nice together. So I just pointed at some stuff and shook my head a bit and ended up with some random sandwich, which did contain egg, so something got through. :)
After finishing lunch we passed the cinema and we decided to check if anything interesting was being shown. Well, obviously, everything had just started or wasn't interesting. Again. :) Emily bought some popcorn and Adam bought some stuff-in-a-cup (forgot what it's called: never did catch it). But the lady messed up and there was stuff-in-a-cup everywhere on the counter. But Adam didn't want a new one (even though the lady offered), because he's well 'ard and doesn't mind a sticky cup. :)
We then decided to hang at Tom's place instead. I was surprised Tom's parents were informed of who I was... news travels quickly in the UK, apparently. At Tom's we listened some music and watched some tv. We also chatted with Dave through MSN, and via webcam he showed us Best. :D Nothing much happened otherwise, Adam and Emily fell asleep. Watched a bit of terrorist attacks stuff, but that made me depressed. It got changed to American Chopper which was more fun to watch than I thought it would be. Emily caught her bus home somewhere in between, and Adam had woken up too. We then watched a recorded program about coasters and themeparks which was quite interesting. Even though it focused too little on coasters, IMHO :)
Tom's dad took us home after that, which was very nice of him. Probably saved me a nauseous bus ride, hehe. Back home we informed one more time whether travelling back on friday would be possible, and it was gonna be pretty likely that it would. Then it was dinner time, and Adam offered to cook again. Seeing I survived his previous cookings without any discomforts whatsoever I agreed. We agreed he would make pancakes. So he did, and they were very nice. So thanks again Adam :)
No one was coming over this evening so upon deciding what to do Adam said he wanted to watch a movie, more specific, one of the movies I gave him as gifts. I recently had seen 3 of those 5 movies, so I decided on the comedy "Airplane!". I love that movie, such lame jokes. Adam seemed to like it too so that was good. It was around midnight when the movie ended, and then Adam said he wanted to watch another movie, and that that other movie had to be "Pulp Fiction". Well I can't say no to watching "Pulp Fiction" so we did. Again, I enjoyed every second of it. Adam needs to watch it again I think, he's not seeing the storyline/timeline yet, and he didn't hear all conversations. Which he should, so Adam: watch it again, like, now! ;)
It was around 2 or 2.30 AM so we went to sleep. After all, I had to get up in some 5-6 hours time. :D
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FRIDAY, 8th of July
After a few hours of sleep I got up again and packed my things together. It was a lot less than when I came so that was a BIG relief :P
Had my last breakfast in England while Adam phoned around one last time to make sure I could get to, through and away from London. In the 30 minutes before we left Adam's grandparents' home, Adam got some phone calls from Wills and Tom to wish me a safe journey and say bye. Emily missed her bus (because Adam let her know 3 minutes earlier when I was leaving) and called to say bye as well. So all of you, thanks for that.. appreciated that. :)
Around 10.15 Adam's grandfather took us to Loughborough station (after saying bye to Adam's nan of course) where we arrived some 10 minutes later I think. Said many thanks and bye to him and Adam and I went to the platform. Had to wait for my 10.53 train to arrive. While waiting we saw a half-conscious bird lying on the platform. It probably was hit by a passing train. It breathed, but it couldn't really move. It was moved a bit by some passing trains though, but it probably didn't make it. Ah well, that's nature.. and the human interference with it...
The train came, and I said goodbye to Adam. Got on, waved, and I departed. And as I left Loughborough and the Loughborough environment I felt quite sad. I think it was the realisation of all the fun and experiences I had the past days, and how that wasn't going to happen again anytime soon. Really mixed feelings: I had a great time, yet I had to leave my friends behind and not see them again for I don't know how long, so that sucks.
I kept feeling like that for about an hour, but then I started thinking about getting through and out of London. I knew I had to go to a different tube station than King's Cross but I didn't know how to get there. I was gonna hope for a detour to that station. Btw, my ticket was never checked throughout the journey so that was one less worry to.. ehm.. worry about.
I got off in London and noticed the emergency services verhicles. I walked right by the closed King's Cross station. That other weird feeling had taken over again, and I just followed the regular signs to the nearest open tube station (no such thing as detour signs). Saw loads of TV vans while walking for 15 minutes. I nearly missed the station because it was obscured by some trees and another closed road. But I did find the large building and large crowd suspicious so I took a gamble, time was on my side anyway. My gamble was a good one again and I headed underground.
It wasn't very crowded on the tube, understandably. The atmosphere down there was kinda weird too, but nothing happened so let's not stay on that topic for too long, shall we? My tube return ticket was valid this day, infact it was going to be valid for another month I believe, so there weren't any worries there either. Next stop: Eurostar desk. I loved the 30 minute queue (not), but at some point they did tell me to go over to the business class booking-office so now I know what it feels like to get a business class ticket. I wouldn't pay the extra euros for it, because -surprisingly- it's just like a regular booking-office. That's exactly what I got too, a regular ticket. But I had a valid ticket now, so my journey home was guaranteed now. Phoned home and let them know I was on my way. They were quite happy to hear that. :)
Got in the boarding queue this time. I had the whole metal detector routine again and now I had an hour to pass before we could board the train. I got hungry so I bought 2 bags of crisps and a huge cup of cappucino. It was 0.75 liters of caffeine, with chocolate topping. Deeeelicious! I drank that, and read a bit and soon the wait was over. Boarded, waited, left. I saw the Millennium Wheel, the Tower Bridge, the Big Ben and some other big building with the flag only halfway up. Had the weird feeling again, which transformed into the sad feeling as I departed England. It was finally over I realised...
The rest of the return journey felt like routine. Turned on my music, put on the endless stare into the countryside and just let the time pass by. Channel Tunnel, France, Lille and finally Brussels. I hoped to get some fastfood on the station but by the time I found a fastfood shop I discovered 1) I had no European money, 2)that the ONLY cash dispenser in the huge Brussels station had another 30 minute queue and 3) I had to catch my train home. So no dinner, but a bag of crisps instead. Ah well, I've done worse I suppose. :P
The same blank stare home, and for the last 30 minutes of my journey I felt like hearing one single song only, so I played Jimmy Eat World's "Work" on repeat while staring into the sunset. How emo, but what a fitting end to this journey. ("Wanna take a ride?") At the second to last station I called my dad to come pick me up, which he did. I got home, let folks know I got home okay by e-mail and started typing this entry. Ironic, don't ya think?
That was it. My meet&greet with people I've only met online. Well done for sitting this entry out. ;)
A few last random comments:
- The Eurostar pulls positive G's in the "dips" the train travels through, because of it's huge speeds.
- Didjano the Eurostar was the fastest coaster I've been on this holiday? :D
- Didjano the Eurostar train commander speaks 3 languages fluently? French, Frenglish and Frutch. :)
- The English youth must develop better eating and sleeping habits. Eat 3x a day, sleep ~7 hours per night. Makes the days less messy, trust me on that one...
- Don't ride buses on an empty stomach. Infact, avoid buses as often as possible.
- Driving.. erm, being driven on the left side was so odd for me, but when I got home and my dad picked me up, I had to get used to being on the right side of the road again.
- Loughborough really does remind me of Belgium, because as I was travelling home through Belgium I thought "hey this looks just like Loughborough" :D
- Signposts RULE ALL!!
Thanks to all who made my time in England a fantastic one!