October Travel Plans: Explore the UK!

Since my Germany-Austria-Liechtenstein adventure, I’ve returned to the closest thing I have to a home in Europe: my pretty little northern city of Chester, England.

It’s been a welcome break.  I learned the hard way that I planned WAY too much into too short a time period.  I had no idea I would be going out until 3:00 AM and getting up at 7:00 AM every day at TBU, and I needed a break after that conference alone!

Instead, I ran from Liechtenstein to Seefeld to Salzburg to Vienna to Salzburg to Munich — activity-filled days with never more than two nights in one place, and being so busy for so long really took its toll on me.

So it’s been nice to sink back into life in the UK.  Take yesterday.  I made my new breakfast specialty, Jim Beam French Toast, and Dave and I found a Modern Family marathon on TV (which he had never seen, but quickly grew to LOVE!).  That’s as close to a perfect Sunday as I can imagine.

But still, I’m a traveler at heart.  And since my plans have changed and I’m now spending the next month in the UK, without any international trips planned, I’ve been planning lots of trips within Britain.

London

I decided to attend the opening meetup of The Meandering Catalysts Society (aka MEARCATS) — a group of London-based travel bloggers, travel PR people and other travel people who get together to share information and network.

So we met up at a bar, networked…and there were a LOT of shots.  It was all in good fun, and I may have agreed to do the Mongol Rally next year in an ice cream truck with Chris, my Vang Vieng partner in crime.

This was a very cheap trip for me.  I took the coach from Chester for 20.50 GBP round trip and had a free stay in Dylan’s apartment.  That picture above was taken from his balcony.  (Sadly, Dylan has since moved out — I bet he’ll miss that view!)

More Northern England

I am loving Northern England, and there is so much that I have yet to see up here!

Dave and I might do a getaway to the Lake District in mid-October, depending on how things go.  It looks like a beautiful, charmingly English area, and this is a great time of year to visit.

There are other cities in the north I’d like to see, especially Newcastle, with its Geordie Shore nightlife, orange people and way-too-short dresses.

I’d especially like to go to Manchester and visit my friends Ste and Darren, whom you may remember from my adventures in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.  (At any rate, they’re coming to Chester on Saturday, and with five out of the seven of our Vietnam group together, we’re going to have a GREAT time!)

Edinburgh

If my travel blogger friends are involved, it doesn’t take much to convince me to join them — so I’m heading up to Edinburgh this week to join the Edinburgh Travel Tweetup, as well as my friends Anthony, Kash, Nathan and Sofia and more.

This will be my first time in Scotland, and though I’ll only be there briefly, I want to take in as much of the city’s culture as I can…by drinking whisky and eating haggis.  I think I can also convince Anthony, whose site is the closest thing to the male equivalent of mine, to make some amusing videos.

As much as I’d like to stay in Edinburgh, I will probably be hitting up a hostel this time.  Should probably get on that, as I’ll be there the day after tomorrow.

Any other suggestions?

Do you have places that you love in the UK?  Preferably in northern England, northern Wales or Scotland?  I’d love to hear all about them.  Share away!

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