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BRIGHTON! : Day 5, May 13 Monday

Brighton time!!

I had semi plans to see more of London before taking the train to Brighton, but after the big city stress of yesterday i just wanted to go to the small coastal city. On my train over i sat across from this lovely Irish couple who were heading to America for a few days. After Jenny learnt i was travelling alone, especially alone to italy, she made me take her number just in case i run into trouble there because she has a few friends there. She thinks i should open a summer camp there. Her and her husband also made sure i knew what platform to go to because it had changed last minute before they said bye (and im very glad they did because it was confusing lol)

Uneventful rest of the ride to Brighton, and i got there and realized i hadnt looked up the bus system, which you need to tap a card for. my canadian cards have been fighting me on tap, so i just walked the 20 minutes to the hostel. Kinda regret it, kinda glad i did. on the way there i passed the ‘spiegeltent’ setup which is a Brighton month long festival that i then spent 15 minutes tracking down on google before going to after i had checked in in the hostel. I had £49 in cash left, and the hostel was £48 for both nights, ive never been more glad to have almost exact cash. (shoutout to them for making an exception for me to pay with cash. theyre super cool). The hostel was adorable and very social, a lot of people stay there for months at a time for work, and the girls in my dorm were so nice, its also like a block from the pier. I dropped my stuff off and headed out to the butterfly tent exhibit at the spiegeltent. Got an excessively fancy overpriced cocktail before heading back for another early night.

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Markets and Naps - London: day 3, may 11 saturday

Felt under the weather from all the travelling today, so didn’t do crazy amounts

stopped at kings cross on my way out just to say i went and took a picture of the platform 9 3/4 setup which had an excessively long line, so i didnt even go near it

went to camden market which was an incredibly stupid thing to do on a SATURDAY!

it was absolutely packed but so cool. I got a new shirt that i had wanted a similar one for a while and 2 new rings that fit well when i bought them but are now a bit too big. i forgot my fingers swelled in the heat! whoops!

got some super cool pictures with the umbrella walkway (luckily there was a mirror for tourists and solo travellers lol) and got this DELICIOUS gluten free tortilla thing. it was pink, which according to the Brazilian girl i sat with is NOT normal… still good tho

down the main street before you got to the market were a lot of tourist stores, most of which selling identical stuff, all of which had someone out front trying to draw you in (except where i bought the shirt. it looked like was run by people my age and they were chill so i was far more willing to buy from them lol) but in one i had a question about something, so the guy sent me to talk to his boss. except he just said boss, with no pronoun. A few minutes later in an entirely other store i saw ‘boss’ walk through a back door to deal with another customer too. I elected to not question it and just leave quick. I’m convinced all the stores are connected and ran by one person who is evidently making good money.

after the market i headed back to the hostel and took the long way by walking a few stations down

went back to hostel and took a longgg nap before heading out to sainsbury to grab some food for dinner, and ate while watching Red vs Blue (video game show toms showed me) and headed to bed decently early to try and kick this cold!

the group of students from Spain had other ideas however, and i could hear them through my super strength earplugs evan and zach got me from a floor down… i nearly yelled in spanish, but their teacher beat me to it (after about 2 hours, at 2 am) (shoutout audree for the spanish lesson on what to hypothetically shout)

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Bridges and Bright sun - London: Day 4, May 12, sunday

last day in London! that means i have to do everything touristy i forgot to do in one day 😎 I got ready, fought with my bank trying to pay my brighton hostel (who let me pay in cash once we realized it wasnt going to work) and headed to the London Eye! I had a whole plan of things to do and ended up spending the entire day on the south bank instead. I found a cute little craft market at this semi-hidden place called “between the bridges” that looks like a normal entryway, but when you walk through is an entire garden area with multiple levels and food trucks and a pavilion. it honestly looks like everything ive ever tried to build in minecraft. Read on their signs that they were having a dj later so went around the market and headed out to finish the touristy things. I debated paying $60 to go up the london eye and then realized that no, thats absurd, its a glorified ferris wheel and isnt going anywhere. Continued walking along the path and thought that there was a pedestrian traffic issue going through this tunnel and then realized it was people lining up to take a photo at this one specific spot… it was a decent spot i guess

as i walked along the path i kept taking selfies of myself with big ben from different angles cuz they all seemed better than the last. After walking down enough to be satisfied i turned around and walked back to try and find food. i ended up sitting on the grass for a bit enjoying being in the heart of London when someone approached me complimenting me and asked me on a date (before even asking my name) so i went and hid in a street performer crowd after saying no because i had overheard the performer talking about his daughter earlier and knew id be safer lol.

in classic gluten free fashion i then went to track down the one grocery store i trust to make a gluten free sandwich and got my regular meal of a tomato and cheese sandwich and grapes. Like always, it was delicious, and £5.

took my time heading back and sitting on the grass by the london eye again before heading into the garden, where i met this mother and daughter who make it a point to come down there at least once a month, ideally once a week, during the summer. The daughter and i kept comparing canadian and british culture around rivalries and dating. A guy from Finland who was travelling was also sitting with us and we accidentally convinced him to get a Jager bomb because we were talking about drinks on a night out and tried to talk him out of it but he was convinced he had to have it to experience england. He did NOT look like he enjoyed it. He was like 70, so props to him for even finishing it, personally, i would not have at 70. Called it an earlier night and walked to the tube, the long way again, and walked past big ben during sunset. Another stranger approached me but this time asked for my name first and just wanted to take my picture because his friend was off doing something else and he wanted a picture of big ben at that time. I also wanted a picture that WASNT A SELFIE, so i agreed so long as he took one on my phone too. He ended up sending me the ones he took too, so now i have saturatedly edited photos of me from an actual good camera too (dont worry, i lied that i was walking to meet my non-existent boyfriend)

remembered to grab some pictures of Scrungly aswell, cant forget my best travel buddy

on the tube home this guy was yelling at this girl, so i sat by these guys who spent the entire ride subtly looking between me and them which made me feel way safer, all things considered, and the other girl near them immediately came to sit by me. The girl being yelled at then tried to escape by sitting with us, which didnt work, cuz the guy *followed her*

thankfully, the next stop was mine

after i got back to Russell Square, where i was staying, i went to the pub to have a safer environment because it was long day of shoulder checking. Sat writing in my journal for like 5 minutes before i remembered how much i hate writing about my day in journals so i just doodled before heading back to the hostel

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Booze, Americans , and Books of Mormons; first full day, day 2, May 10th

i woke up and took a MUCH needed shower after looking at flights to greece and enjoying the hostel breakfast; theres enough stuff i can eat; and getting last minute rush tickets to the book of mormon. i had around 2 hours to spare so i bought a pub crawl ticket on my way out the hostel and headed downtown. I magically had to walk past Buckingham palace to get to the theatre, and obviously stopped and asked a stranger to take a photo of me. I also got one in front of the canada gate. there were tons of people dressed up in easter dresses and suits but for the life of me i couldn’t figure out why.

as i was walking down the most objectively touristy street i kept getting behind people who lacked spatial awareness and realized i may not enjoy the touristy things as much as i thought due to it, even though i am one. The play was incredible, especially since i got most of the mormon specific jokes (shoutout to the Fisks fr) and there was only 3 times i cringed and watched through my eyes (shoutout to Flyfishing). After the play i had a goal; recreate the photo ive had as my instagram profile picture since i was in london last time, at 14. After finding the EXACT TREE that has grown a tad in the past 6 years i asked a group sitting having a picnic if they could take the photo. the lady who took it did it perfectly and made sure she got the exact angle, even taking one in portrait mode that may become my professional pfp for like… everything. I thanked them and went to another part of the park to sit down for a moment as i was getting tired before getting up and heading towards the pub crawl starting point. i casually passed trafalgar square on the way, so obviously had to stop to recreate another photo, how could i not.

I got to the pub crawl and for a few seconds thought there were only 4 of us; a guy who hit on me as an introduction, someone who was very sweet but very awkward around new people (which is why he does the pub crawls. he looked out for me the rest of the night), and a guy from Uruguay who spoke english enough we could communicate outside, but not really in the bar. turns out everyone else was just outside. i ended up talking to this mom from America who came with her best friend and rest of their kids to visit their sons who just finished an exchange program here. I took their photo outside one of the pubs and she decided i was now one of her kids and introduced me to her daughter who also decided i was now one of them. I spent the rest of the night hanging out with their group. I tried my best to differentiate who everyone one and my best memory is

- Amber, brown haired kids sister, the girl i was first introduced to

- Brown haired kid, whos name might be fletcher

- Maddy, the family friends daughter who was also on exchange

- Liam, the family friends son ( i think )

- Maddy’s new boyfriend ( Liams roomate )

- The fun guy whos name i cant remember for the actual life of me who actually mightve been the roomate now that i think about it… he ordered the most excessively complex drink at the bar on accident and the blokes (word used intentionally) tipped her “for him” then started chanting tip, but the poor guy only had American cash so gave her a $5 bill. The drink took hilariously long and me and him were dying every time she grabbed a new ingredient. I got a rum and coke

regardless, i spent the rest of the night with them, which was amazing feeling safe enough to have a drink or two. it was very crowded and the guys were so used to keeping everyone else safe that i didnt even notice them shooting an arm out to keep someone away when needed or grabbing me before i fell if shoved over. they were all very nice. we stayed as a big group for maybe 4 minutes before we couldnt find liam or the guy whos name ive decided is fletcher. Maddy and i after looking around saw them with girls attached to their hips basically, and one of them came up to me and said “isnt he cute? thats my boyfriend!” i then proceeded to immediately turn and tell maddy this who looked as confused as i did, given that we know they met about 2 minutes ago. not even 5 minutes later maddy and i saw liam make out with her and instantly hit amber to point it out, and in turning to do so saw her brother in the same situation and spent a while trying to look in any direction but left or right. I thoroughly enjoyed watching all of that from the outside perspective. We attempted a photo booth that did NOT like any of our 7 cards we tried, but the 2nd one we found took them. At the end of the night the boys tried to physically detached themselves from their new “girlfriends”, and the dude from wayyy earlier that slightly spooked me came up and grabbed my hand to spin me. without missing a beat after i tapped his leg the single roomate grabbed my other hand and spun me away from him all while sitting. After Amber, not without struggle, got her brother back we headed out. They dropped me at the tube station, which Liam and Ambers brother insisted on walking me to the ticket gate just in case, i gave amber a hug goodbye, and headed home.

it was so amazing meeting them. Maddy sent me advice and basically a whole itinerary for vienna, the boys had just done greece and gave me advice for that, and ambers mom gave me an incredible gluten free cookie recipe

idk who said americans werent friendly when travelling, these guys from maine basically adopted me without question

after making it home i fell right asleep, only to wake up 5 hours later

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Flight Over; day 1ish, apr 8th

waking up at 3 am to shower after finishing packing an hour or so before sucked, but the excitement made it not seem as bad

i had everything planned and packed for weeks and then last minute realized that if it was hard to pack everything up, i would drive myself crazy on the tour midway through the trip so i unpacked and repacked everything to have less stuff, meaning no more sweatpants or patagonia flannel as they took up the most room

poor dad had to drive me to the airport (and totally wasn’t freaking out about me leaving and definitely didn’t spend the entire time going over safety plans, that’d be crazy)

i had planned to sleep on the flight to toronto (which was with an amazing airline that gave free snacks and drinks twice during the flight, had free wifi, and 2 to a row) which would have worked perfectly given the fact that i had the entire row to myself, but instead spent the entire time talking to the guys beside me

someone came to double check my (and only mine) boarding pass and asked if i was me by name first, and then didn’t elaborate further so the guys and i were joking around that my bag must’ve exploded, but id be fine because i had my wallet, passport, and Scrungly.

they were from Ottawa and had been friends for 10 years and were on a golfing trip in Alberta/BC and had made it all the way to Invermere, which shocked me. Alec, not alex, was the one i ended up talking to the most because his friend kept trying to online gamble with the wifi, but it kept glitching out. hes in school to become a registered nurse right now and was shocked i was going on a trip alone to europe because he kept meaning to go on one but never did. midway through the flight Alec had stolen the aisle seat from his friend who took up the row behind me, as it was also empty (there were like 12 people on this flight i swear. I told him i was worried about making friends while in europe and he kinda just blank stared me before pointing out we had been talking for 2.5 hours (and then kept talking until landing) and hadnt known eachother prior. By the end of the flight Alec had made me promise to follow my dreams and make working at a summer camp forever work and i had made him promise by his 34th birthday he would do his solo Thailand trip (he has 2 years and 2 months, i’m counting). After landing we headed to baggage claim together before realizing neither me nor his buddy actually had to pick up our bags, and then said goodbye as i left the airport and they headed to their connecting flight home.

I was sad to say goodbye even though i had JUST met them, because i then had another portion of being completely on my own, just like when i got dropped off at the airport at 4 am, even though it was for about 10 minutes until my aunt picked me up

the flight to london sucked

i was so tired

middle aisle middle seat

slept curled up over the tray table, and then had to fight with my sim card and figure out the train from Gatwick because i mixed up which airport i landed in, but all was well!

figured out the transit well enough and made it to the hostel with enough time to sit down for 5 minutes before heading to see one of my favourite youtubers since i was 12 talk about his new book and got a pre-signed copy! i met this awesome british family and chatted with them before the show mocking how different countries drive

headed home afterwards and didnt need my phone to map the tube, which i was proud of, and then ABSOLUTELY CRASHED FELL ASLEEP :)