My Trip Comes to an End

It's already my last day here in England, I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. With only 10 days to see a whole lot of stuff, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for blogging. Fortunately I’ve been able to check my e-mail every few days and keep up with stuff to a certain extent but I haven't really had time to sit down and write a post. Today however, it's bitterly cold in Liverpool and raining off and on. The wind is what is really the kicker thought so we've decided to come inside to warm up for an hour or so. And since the library offers free internet access, what the hell!
We've been really lucky with the weather. It's only really rained for 3 days of our trip. We had two maybe even three days of sun and the rest of the time it's been like spring back in Canada. We've stayed at some very interesting hostels, from a scummy only vet centre to a gorgeous Victorian house that was beautifully re-modelled, to a fairly new conference centre offering all sorts of amenities. I've taken pictures of them all and will post some when I get home.
We've also seem some really cool sites, from the big cities of London and Liverpool (which is quite a bit larger then you think, I could easily have filled 3 days here) To the great outdoors of Wales and their two biggest national parks, Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons and all kinds of little towns in between.
I'm pretty sure I’ve also heard every possible variation of the English accent during the last few days. The London accent, we had a Scottish tour guide on our 3 day tour of Wales where we obviously heard some welsh accents as well as the ancient Celtic language itself. Also on that tour were quite a few Australians and Americans which gives another wide spectrum of the language and now the Liverpoolan which ties with Welsh for the most difficult to understand!
I've also noticed some other differences between Canadian Culture and the British culture but I’ve made a whole list of them and plan to do a separate post all together.
Well till I get back home,
Cheers

Waiting it out

So it's 6:30 on Monday Feb 19th and I'm about to leave for the airport on my trip to England. It's been a really long day. I tend to be very impatient, especially when I have something really exciting to look forward to. I've kept myself busy for the day so I'm pretty impressed with my self and my house is clean for when I come back, what a treat.
I would like to say thanks to everyone for all your well wishes on my trip and I'll try to write a post while I'm gone but for sure when I come back with pictures and all!!
I would also just like to mention how AWESOME my brother Rob is. He committed to driving Dianne and I to the airport as of Saturday, such short notice and didn't even hesitate. He is an awesome brother for sure. I would also like to say that my friend Catiy is also awesome because she offered to come pick me up at the airport.
Alright well my brother and Dianne should be here any minute so I'm off...

My First Real Vacation is Almost Here!!

My first real vacation is just around the corner. I can't believe how fast it has come. My last post I wrote about finally finding a backpack I could use for my trip and I had to pay for it. Boo to that I say. The next day i was talking to a lady and work and she said her daughters both had a bigger backpack they had used when they went to England so I could borrow one if I wanted. Since that was a way cheaper option, I was all over it, just think of how many pints I can have with that saved 120 dollars!
My most recent challenge has involved finding a carry on bag that can double as a day pack but also be carried with the backpack. Who knew this would be so darn difficult, but I think i found one that will suffice. It's not the most comfortable when combined with the backpack but it will do. There is plenty of room for all my stuff that I would need for day trips which is very exciting!
I've also been exploring options on how to get to the airport. I was all set to drive myself when my friend Caity, offered to pick me up when I get back.... mmm again saving myself 80 bucks... more Pints!!! So now I'm calling in some favors to see if i can get a ride there. My bro has said he could probably do it and my parents are still a possibility but they are out of the country until the day before I leave so it's a little sketchy but we'll see.
I've now even have all my stuff packed and taken my bags for a trial run to see how heavy they are. Andrew has been pestering me to do this forever now it seems and I'm really glad I didn't listen to him before now because I feel like i should be going to get on the plane tomorrow!!! I'm afraid the next 3 days are going to go so slowly that it will be painfully. I feel the worst could be tomorrow as it is my last day of work before 2 whole weeks off!

And the countdown is on!

So here we are down to 12 days till i leave for England and i've finally gotten my act together. I know what shoes i'm bringing with me. We have hostels booked, our trip basically maped out, our bus tour booked, picked up my plane ticket today, get my passport on Friday and after 3 hours of driving all over Kitchener/ Waterloo and Cambridge, I finally found an affordable, travel backpack. Leave it to me to procrastinate for so long, but it's taken care of. I've been looking around for the last few months to see if i could find anything but decided yesterday, being my day off would be the day to take care of it. I spent some time surfing on the net trying to find some good luggage stores, to no avail, and hiking stores for the right kind of equipment. I went to about 4 stores yesterday with no luck and went to, I swear, every other possible place I could think of today until I made it to the Hiking store just down the road from me tonight at 7ish and found a decent pack for 120 bucks. After researching on the net last night I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find anything for less then 200 which I couldn't justify spending on something I would probably only use once. So luckily I found this pack and think it will work and I’ll be able to use it in the future also.
My parents gave me some extra money so I decided that I would splurge and buy a digital camera. After two weeks of looking around and researching on the internet to see what I actually wanted I found one tonight too. So needless to say my brand new credit card was very well used today. Next on the trip list is figuring out what all I need to bring and to make sure I can handle carrying it all on my back. That's Friday's project!