photo diary

Thursday 2 October 2014

Portsmouth and Isle of Wright (2 May 2014)

I know it's a bit too late to post about this but I finally got my disposable camera developed (yay) so that will be my excuse for the last post.

I won't ramble too much nor go too much into details as I usually do, so instead I will bullet point what I did and will put up a link of my full details later on on this post.

Did not go anywhere at all during spring break (because I couldn't find anyone to go with and looking back I deeply regret that)
sort of overslept while Kimiko was waiting for me outside (we had to leave to the train station by 6am)
the train took 2 hours
the weather was cloudy
first stop was the Portsmouth City Museum, then Portsmouth Natural History museum...then beach then lunch.
Southsea Castle
the water was really blue

caught a ferry to Ryde
didn't do much there, just walked on the pier and along the streets I guess

returned back to Portsmouth, went to the shopping centre for Tesco (Gunwharf Quays) then back to view the harbour

Monday 29 September 2014

Canterbury (15 March 2014)

After my visit to Stonehenge and Salisbury + Eastbourne, a friend, Severine, proposed a trip to visit Bath. However due to transportation conflicts, scheduling and prices, visiting Bath wouldn't be ideal for a day trip. Instead we thought Canterbury would be a viable option. Originally we wanted to go last Saturday (prior to 15 March 2014), but again transport issues to Canterbury that day.

We left our university halls at around 6:50am, shocking some of my flatmates actually at how early I left. We arrived around 10am? The whole train ride took less than 4 hours...I think? with a change at Ashford International station and so on. Severine had also suggested that we visit a nearby town in Kent, Whitstable (we didn't visit Whitstable though).

Seven Sisters (22 February 2014)

Went on a walk to the Seven Sisters on 22 February 2014. The weather was really sunny yet a bit windy (which is expected when you're walking along the coast/sea).

I went with my university's walking society; catching a bus from the bus stop in town, with a bus journey of over an hour?

Eastbourne and Lewes (2 March 2014)

Super late but as most of my photography is film not digital posting and uploading will usually be delayed. As of right now I still haven't got any of my pictures from Scotland nor Slovenia developed. I recently (ok in June) have some pictures from my Canterbury pictures to be uploaded very soon.

During my trip to Salisbury, one of my friends, Severine, who also went on the trip suggested we visit Bath some time. We didn't visit Bath... due to train schedules etc, deciding to opt for a trip to Canterbury instead. We intended to go to Canterbury on this date, but there were some train problems (using the buses I think instead of trains) which led to a trip to Eastbourne instead.

Although not exactly England's southern county, East Sussex is known for receiving too much sunshine...basically it's the sunniest county in all of England. According to the Eastbourne railway station (well google can assist with these claims), Eastbourne is the sunniest place in England. Much to this claim, Eastbourne wasn't sunny at all at this day. It was WINDY (I did visit the town later in the year and it was sunny).

my thumb ruined the picture here

Stonehenge and Salisbury (23 February 2014)

Before making a trip to the named places, the last time I ventured outside of my university town (and county) was ...in December? There were, of course, constant wanderlustings over visiting London over and over again (as I live and study a short train ride to London). The problem why I did not make any of these day trips to London was because I had this fear of travelling alone in such a 'big' city. Of course eventually I managed to make several day trips to London alone after:

a friend agreed to accompany and go with me to London to visit museums and galleries, but couldn't come at last minute...after I had already booked and printed my train tickets;
someone from my seminar had told me she occasionally visits London alone to do some shopping and the freedom to do anything she wants without waiting or having someone take their time;
another friend also makes day trips to London alone and visits museums and galleries and walk by foot to London.

Anyways, as titled in this blog post this post is not mainly about London neither does it consists of my pictures of London. Instead it's a post about my trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury - the first ever trip outside of my university county in 2014 - which was organised by my university's international support. I didn't find out about or rather I had neglected the emails sent by the international support about trips to English or Great British cities or towns. My choice of visiting these two places was merely that I thought about that there wouldn't be any other opportunity nor would I have the time to visit if I had organised myself. Honestly, I was not familiar with Salisbury before purchasing my trip to these places. During the first term, I think there was another trip organised to go to Stonehenge except to go to Bath instead of Salisbury. (which I will visit Bath sometime soon I'm not sure when but sometime soon)

I managed to invite another friend to join me on the trip, Greer, and found out others who would be joining, Christina and Severine. We started off the trip by leaving campus at around 7:45am-ish? Arriving in Stonehenge around 10. Unfortunately, the weather was miserable, cloudy, cold enough to appreciate Stonehenge. Yes, what a lovely way to spend a historic ancient English heritage with a bit of the English weather! ...I didn't stay too long at Stonehenge due to the weather and kept hesitating to move forward to the new visitor centre.