Brandon O'Brien

Thursday, August 1, 2013 @ 7:43 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 36

Walking. Lots of walking. I got up at 7:30 this morning and was out the door by 9am after eating and answering some emails. It took me about 20 minutes to make it to the Bristol-Bath Railway Path and once I was on there, it was 16 miles of uninterrupted paved pathway all the way to Bath.

The path reminded me a lot of the Monon Trail in Indianapolis, IN. A nice mix of shade and sun with some nice scenery and river crossings along the way. Next to the path for quite a distance were blackberry and raspberry plants. Unfortunately they weren't all ripe but I was able to pick a few and eat them along the way.

I stopped a few times along the way to snack or have some water. It was about 1:30 by the time I made it into Bath's city center. I was thoroughly exhausted by this point. I got some cash from an ATM, bought some ice cream and a peanut butter cookie and enjoyed that in a park in Bath.

I saw the outside of the roman baths and the Bath Abbey again. I didn't need to pay another 12 pounds to enter the baths since I saw it 2 years ago when Eric and I were there. The town was definitely much more busy this time than when I was here last time. I'm not sure if it was due to the time of the year or the amazing weather we've been having here, but the tourists were out in force.

Rather than walk another 17 miles back to Bristol, I got on a bus which dropped me off not too far from the hostel. I picked up a locally made sausage for dinner and some bread to make a sandwich for tomorrow's lunch.

When I got back to the hostel I immediately took a much needed shower and then answered some emails and have been relaxing with some beers and dinner since then. I have a feeling I'll be passing out early tonight!

Tomorrow I'm going to walk around Bristol and check out some of Banksy's art on the streets. I also need to do some much needed laundry before I leave here. They've got a washer and dryer that I can pay to use. I definitely need to take advantage of that.

Teaser photos:

Walking to Bath

Bath Abbey and Pump House

Bath, England

Tons of berries along the walk

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Tags: daily journal, england, bristol, bath

Posted from: England

Wednesday, July 31, 2013 @ 6:46 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 35

I got up at 7:30 today so I could get an early start on walking around and exploring Bristol. I was originally thinking about walking down to Bath via the old railway path today but the forecast was calling for 70% chance of rain. Staying closer to buildings and the hostel seemed like the wiser choice.

The first place I visited was the Clifton area. In this section of town they have the suspension bridge, a giant park and an old observatory (which is now being sold to the highest bidder). It was a big gloomy during the 2 mile walk over there but I passed through some really nice areas of towns full of cafes and outdoor fresh food stalls.

There's a big tower on top of Brandon Hill here that's dedicated to John Cabot who set sail from Bristol and first landed in Canada. I walked around there an took a few pics but it started to rain. Being a little too early for lunch and not wanting to go into the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery before eating, I made the logical choice of going to a cafe and getting a cappuccino and waiting for the rain to die down.

In order to kill a little more time before lunch I walked down to the Town Hall, Bristol Cathedral and City Library. The area was really nice and the library looked like it was several hundred years old (a really cool exterior)!

For lunch, I found a place that was advertising cheap paninis that came with chips (fries) and a small salad. I went in and ordered a chicken fajita panini served with guacamole. It was delicious! And for less than 5 pounds it was a pretty good deal.

The Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery was free to enter and had a wide range of exhibits. I learned about local wildlife, ancient Egyptians, dinosaurs, minerals, fossils, and more. For some reason I thought they had an exhibit on Banksy (the graffiti artist) but they didn't. Not sure where I thought I saw that.

After leaving the museum, I went down to Queen Square when it started to rain again. That's when I saw that the St Mary Redcliffe church was free to enter. It would get me out of the rain and also let me see some really cool old church architecture. The stained glass and arched ceilings were really nice to see.

For some reason I started craving an omelette last night so on my way back to the hostel I swung by the St Nicholas outdoor market looking to buy some local cheese, eggs and sausage. Unfortunately everyone selling eggs had already left but I did get some local cheese and sausage. I went to the grocery and picked up some eggs.

I still had a few hours before dinner so I caught up on a little work and read for a while. I made my omelette (also threw in some orange bell pepper) and now I'm just hanging out in the lounge area at the hostel. I'll probably run out and grab some beer and bring it back.

Tomorrow I'm going to walk the 13 mile path from Bristol to Bath. I was in Bath a couple years ago with Eric and it was a really nice town. We only got to spend about an hour there before we had to be back on our tour bus though. The jury's still out if I should attempt to walk the path back or take a bus. I have a feeling I'll probably take a bus back to Bristol. 26+ miles in one day would be quite a lot!

Teaser photos:

Clifton Suspension Bridge

Cabot Tower on Brandon Hill

Bristol Cathedral

St Mary Redcliffe Church

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Tags: daily journal, bristol, england

Posted from: England

Tuesday, July 30, 2013 @ 7:46 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 34

My train didn't depart Birmingham until 11:45 this morning so I had plenty of time to eat, pack up and relax before heading to the train station. I still got to the station about 45 minutes early and ended up sitting around waiting.

Since I had properly booked my tickets ahead of time, I had a seat number and everything which made the boarding process much easier. I was able to find my seat and relax for the duration of the trip. There was some kind of congestion on the tracks so we ended up being about 20 minutes late but that didn't really matter much.

I wasn't able to actually check into my hostel until 3:00 so I had a couple hours to burn. First on the list was to find some food. I couldn't pass up a doner kebab when I saw a few people in the shop enjoying them. After eating and feeling nice and full I went to the Brew Dog pub and had a glass of beer.

Checking into my hostel was a breeze. I dropped off my pack and set out to explore. I've found out I like aimlessly walking around the first day I'm in a new city. It helps me get a feel for the town and helps me make a mental map of the town based on my random wanderings. I found myself in a huge pedestrian mall area and then in an open area called Castle Park. I took a few photos of St. Peter's Church in the park and then went to find a grocery store to get some food for dinner.

Hunger hadn't hit yet but I knew I'd be better off getting everything now rather than having to head back out in a couple hours. There was a Tesco I passed near the hostel earlier so I went in and got some pasta sauce (I still have some pasta left over from Birmingham), bread, bell peppers, some cheap wine and some mixed fruit.

Back at the hostel I ate some of the fruit while looking for somewhere to charge my computer and phone. All of the plugs are for un-grounded plugs and my adapter has a slot for the ground. I finally found a tiny computer area that had a few open slots so I plugged everything in and started to read and drink my wine. Eventually I got hungry and cut up some of the bell pepper and threw it in with my pasta.

I was planning on taking the old railway path down to Bath tomorrow but there's a 70% chance of rain all day. Instead, I'll save that for Thursday when there's 0% chance of rain and instead spend tomorrow here in Bristol. There's a lot of sights to see including a free museum/art gallery that features a lot of Banksy's work (it's also all over town too).

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Tags: daily journal, england, bristol

Posted from: England

Monday, July 29, 2013 @ 7:51 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 33

It's been another day of taking it easy. With my ear plugs in and sleep mask on, I didn't wake up until about 9 this morning. I ate breakfast and then set out to buy my train tickets for tomorrow and do a little bit of grocery shopping.

I went down to the New Street train station and bought my train ticket for tomorrow. The train to Bristol was actually cheaper and it gets me there twice as fast as a bus would have. Taking the train was a no brainer. In order to avoid any ticket issues I wanted to have them purchased and ready to go before tomorrow.

After getting my ticket I went back to the Birmingham Cathedral park to read some more. The weather was still pretty nice so I spent about an hour and a half reading in the park. For lunch I went out and got a 99 pence baguette for lunch then read some more until the skies broke and it started pouring down rain.

I was quite a jog from the hostel so I dipped into a pub and had a couple pints while waiting for the rain to subside. When the rain looked like it was taking a break I left and got some soup and bread for tonight's dinner. When I was about 5 minutes away from the hostel it started pouring again. I ducked into a mall and waited a bit for it to let up again and then got back to the hostel.

Since I got back, I've just been reading, working and ate dinner a little bit ago. My train tomorrow doesn't leave until 11:45am so I can take it easy again in the morning. Bristol has a little more sights to see than Birmingham does so I'm sure I'll have some more photos to upload over the next few days.

Tags: daily journal, england, birmingham

Posted from: England

Sunday, July 28, 2013 @ 4:06 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 32

I didn't even bother setting an alarm this morning. Can't remember the last time I didn't actually set one. Even without setting an alarm I was still up and out of bed by 8:30am. Not being in a hurry to do anything for once, I made my way down to eat breakfast, let my phone charge up for a bit and tried to catch up a bit on news.

By about 10:00 I was finally itching to go get some fresh air so I headed out to walk around the town. Everything opens late or not at all on Sunday so I was strolling through some of the main shopping areas without much action going on.

If shopping is your thing, Birmingham would be a great place to visit. They have some really nice areas outdoor areas and huge malls for shopping, eating and drinking along big pedestrian areas. I went down to the Town Hall and took some photos of some creepy looking statues then went over to the Birmingham Cathedral and read for a bit. The weather looked like it might rain so I walked around some of the indoor malls which were absolutely packed.

I found some nice benches in a relatively quiet area and read for a little longer before grabbing lunch. After lunch I went back to the hostel to shower and work on planning the next few days of my trip.

I don't really feel like messing with the hassle of packing up and dealing with traveling tomorrow so I think I'll stay here another day and then head down to Bristol on Tuesday. There are some nice walking and cycling paths around Bristol and it also gives me easy access to Southern Wales where I'll go after Bristol.

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Tags: daily journal, england, birmingham

Posted from: England

Saturday, July 27, 2013 @ 6:10 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 31

My plan yesterday was to stay at the hostel in Llanberis another couple nights so I could do more hiking and exploring in Snowdonia. Unfortunately when I inquired about vacancies at the hostel, they said they were completely booked. They called a few of the other hostels within bus distance and they were also all booked. Bummer.

Anything even remotely close to Snowdonia was completely booked (even the hostel I stayed at in Llandudno). I think everyone was taking advantage of the nice weather and heading to the parks. Lesson learned: If you're going somewhere awesome and it's near a weekend and you have nowhere else to be, book through the weekend!

What I had to do was head to Birmingham, England (the nearest biggest city within a day's travel). Since Llanberis was so remote, getting anywhere else on my prior list of destinations simply wasn't going to happen. I figured stationing myself in a large city will make it easier to plan my next move.

When I left Llanberis today, it was absolutely gorgeous outside! The weather was perfect for hiking, which made leaving even worse. I had to take two buses to get to Porthmadog, Wales and then I jumped on the train to Birmingham.

I bought my train ticket last night but there wasn't a ticket agent or ticket machine at the Porthmadog station, so not knowing what to do I got on the train. The ticket inspector on the train didn't know what to do with my confirmation number so he told me get off at a specific station where I could collect my ticket.

The train was hot and crowded. Eventually after 2 hours we made it to the station where I could get my ticket. I jumped off and got the ticket. When I got back on I actually had a seat I could sit at. Fortunately it was a little cooler where I sat down.

After another two and a half hours I made it to the bustling city of Birmingham. It's always quite the change going from a small rural town to a huge city. All the traffic and people and noise is not something I particularly enjoy.

I passed a huge open air market on my way to the hostel. I planned on getting something fresh there to cook with for dinner. After checking into the hostel, I went back to the market just in time for them to shut everything down. I was able to get some red peppers but that was it.

I just ran into two german guys who I hung out with for a night in Llanberis so we'll meet up for a few beers after we all eat. I think tomorrow I'll just hang out and get some work done. I've been needing to spend a day doing a real work session so this might be the time to do it.

Tags: daily journal, england, birmingham

Posted from: England

Saturday, July 20, 2013 @ 6:35 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 24

The first thing we did today was go to the bus/train station so I could get my bus tickets for tomorrow and Eric could get his train tickets to take him to London tomorrow. After getting our tickets we went over to the National Railway Museum and toured it.

The museum is actually really nice. They have a recreation of an old train station with different eras of trains. There's also another huge room filled with trains from all over the world plus the Flying Scotchman (a fast train that took people between London and Edinburgh starting in the 30's).

We saw everything the railway museum had to offer so we went and grabbed lunch then went to a pub called The Kings Arms so I could get some fresh Samuel Smiths beer. Samuel Smith is brewed in Tadcaster (not too far from York) and has several pubs throughout England. The pub was absolutely packed but we worked our way in and had a couple pints. I've yet to have a bad beer from this brewery and was not disappointed here either.

Since we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to in York, we decided to go see the movie The World's End. It was about 5 highschool friends who get back together later in life to try to complete a "Golden Mile" of drinking with one drink in 12 different pubs. It turns out the town is taken over by robots and a bunch of crazy stuff happens. The movie was pretty funny and it probably helped that we had a few pints before watching it too.

When the movie ended we weren't quite sure what to do so we went back to the Kings Arms and had some more beers. Apparently York is where all the stag, hen and birthday party groups come for a weekend of drinking. They all dress up in ridiculous outfits and pubcrawl their way through town. It was pretty funny watching some of the groups as they made their rounds.

We're back at the hotel now relaxing for a bit before heading out for dinner. Eric has to catch his train at 8:30 tomorrow morning and my bus is at 10:30 in the morning. I think we're going to go find some fish n chips since that's what Eric wants for his last meal before he heads home.

Tomorrow I had to Llandudno, Wales for a few nights. It's a coastal town with some nice hiking areas, beaches as well as some castles and other old buildings.

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Tags: daily journal, england, york

Posted from: England

Friday, July 19, 2013 @ 10:23 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 23

We took our time getting ready this morning since our only plans for the day were to walk around and explore the city of York. The weather is still on the hot side with a high today of 92 degrees. The first place we visited was the York Minster. There has been a church on that site since 627AD and the current structure was started in the 12th century.

One of the things I've been struggling with during this trip is trying to decide what to spend money on visiting and what to pass on. Pretty much all of these old churches, museums and castles have admission fees ranging from 5 to 20 dollars. There's no way I can justify paying these fees every time just to take a few photos inside an old building. Since I didn't want to pay the 10 pound (15 dollar) fee to enter the York Minster, we just walked around and took some photos outside.

After the York Minster we made our way down to The Shambles. It's a street here in York that has a bunch of really old buildings that are all uneven and leaning into the street. It gives you a bit of a feeling of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. Next to the Shambles was a big market that had all kinds of stuff ranging from fresh fish to leather goods. If we had a fridge or a kitchen I would have bought some fresh food for the next few days.

York is a very old city and has a lot of fortifications and towers throughout the old city. One of those is the York Castle (Clifford's Tower). That was next on our list of sights to see so we made our way there. As we were walking there we passed by a pub that was advertising a Festival of Cider with ciders as cheap as 2.09 pounds (about half what other places typically charge). We went in and had a pint before heading to the tower.

The problem of paying money to take a few photos struck again when they wanted 6 dollars to get the privilege to climb up the tower. We just took some photos around the outside then walked over to the old city walls that still stands around most of the city. They turned it into a big walking path that's filled with nice views of the city. Fortunately they didn't charge to walk on it so we spend a little time walking around the city.

Both of us were getting a little hungry so we stopped into a pub and had some more ciders with lunch. I had a ham and pea soup with a side of fries. The British like their peas which is fine by me! After lunch we walked around the city a little more then ended up finding a Whisky shop. We bought a couple of the tiny bottles and enjoyed them by the River Ouse.

We'd been drinking for the majority of the day so we came back to the hotel to relax for a bit. I started researching what my plans would be after leaving York and tried to purchase some bus tickets. For some reason the National Express website kept saying my credit card transaction was declined even though there are pending transactions that appear on my credit card website. I'll have to make sure those don't actually clear or get charged for them.

I went down to the bus station to ask about buying a ticket but they had already left for the day. I'll go over there tomorrow to check on it since that'll determine what my plans will be. My plans are to head over to Llandudno, Wales and spend a few days there. It's got some nice hiking areas and it's also by the beach which works great for this heat wave that's been going through the country.

For dinner we went back to the place where we had our first cider today since they were advertising fish n chips plus peas and a beer for 5.99 pounds. The food was pretty good and the place was crowded. I think drinking all day had got to both of us though because after the first drink we decided we were done for the night.

I was doing a little research and found out that there's a bar pretty close to the hotel we're staying at that serves Samuel Smiths (one of my favorite breweries that brews their beer a few miles from here). I'm going to swing by tomorrow and have a pint or two.

Teaser photos:

York Minster

The Shambles in York

York England

Old city wall in York England

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Tags: daily journal, england, york

Posted from: England

Thursday, July 18, 2013 @ 10:18 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 22

Eric and I started off by having breakfast at the hotel then we set off to tour the St Andrews Old Course. They have a tour each day at 11 and 2 so we rushed to get to the course in time for the 11:00 tour. The tour lasted about an hour and walked us through a few holes and the Swilcan bridge.

After the tour we had a quick bite to eat and then made our way into Edinburgh to return our car and catch a train down to York. We made our way into the city and successfully navigated to a gas station and back to the rental car center without any issues.

Apparently the Edinburgh Waverley train station doesn't have any trash cans available due to bomb scares or some nonsense so we had to carry all of our trash around for the next couple of hours until we got off the train in York. The train ride was another experience all together. We waited too long to buy our tickets and ended up paying about double what we should have (quite the costly mistake). When we boarded the train, some seats were reserved and others weren't and the non-reserved seats filled up pretty quickly. We ended up standing up for about an hour and a half until the train got near Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and the train emptied out.

We got into York and checked into our hotel. It was nice to have access to an air conditioned room since it was 93 degrees outside and we'd been sweating on a train for the last 2.5 hours. We relaxed for a few and then went out to find some dinner. We ended up at a place called Yo! Sushi and then went to a Tesco to buy a few beers.

We've got a few full days here in York so we're going to walk around the city and explore tomorrow. There's quite a few old buildings and the old city wall is a giant walking trail now which will be fun to go on. I also want to head over to Tadcaster and check out the Samuel Smiths brewery and try some of the beers fresh from the source.

Teaser photos:

Me on the Swilcan Bridge at St Andrews Old Course

Swilcan Bridge at St Andrews Old Course

Clubhouse at St Andrews Old Course

River Ouse in York

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Tags: daily journal, york, england, st andrews, scotland

Posted from: England

Saturday, June 11, 2011 @ 10:45 PM in 2011 London

The weather was pretty much perfect for most of the day. They closed down the Circle line for the weekend, which is what we normally take to get to the Victoria Coach Station to catch our tour. We had take the Piccadilly line and go through a few stations before we finally got there. Fortunately we made it in time and got on our bus. We started out by heading toward Oxford and stopping in a town called Bibury. This was a nice little town that had a stream running through it and several rows of extremely old houses. This was only really a quick photo stop before we got back on the bus and headed for Bourton-on-the-Water.

Bourton-on-the-Water was much more touristy but was still a nice relaxing town. It had a large stream running through it and a bunch of shops. The Cotswolds are known for their sheep and wool. We went into a leather store and I was tempted to buy a leather jacket but they didn't have any I liked that were in my size. Eric ended up buying a new wallet there. After that we relaxed for a bit by the river and then went back to the bus.

The next stop was Burford where we had lunch at The Mermaid. I had some fish n chips and they gave us tea again. This town was really nice but had a huge road running through it which kind of ruined the quaintness of the place. We didn't have too much extra time to spend here, and the weather had started to get cloudy like it was going to rain. We got back on the bus and left for Blenheim Palace.

Blenheim Palace is where Winston Churchill was born and raised. The grounds are 3x larger than Hyde park here in London. The Palace took 22 years to build and another 10 years to groom the grounds. They dug out lakes and made rolling hills on the land. The gardens there were beautiful and had a feel of Versailles in Paris. The palace itself was huge inside and is still lived in by the current Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. You could spend days walking around all the gardens here they were so huge.

The tour finally ended and we ended up going back to Piccadilly Circus to look for some kind of souvenir and then had dinner at Bella Italia, where I had a calzone and Eric had a pizza. We called it an early night so we could get ready for bed and pack up for our flights tomorrow. It has been a fun trip and even though there was a bunch we didn't get to see, everything went well and we got to see some very cool things

Teaser photos:

Cotswolds, England

Blenheim Palace

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Tags: london, england

Posted from: England