Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Curse you cobblestones!!

Hello penpalling world! You may have noticed that I’ve been conspicuously absent from my blog the last few weeks. Did you miss me? I was not kidnapped and punished by the robot police for the insolence of my previous post as suggested by Sara (thank gods, I’m rubbish at binary code and I've heard that doing point gestures at robots can be mistakenly construed as threatening! I’d hate to get exterminated because I was doing my awesome disco moves). Rather, I was whisked away to the Land of Plentiful Scones! Here’s a peek of that land:

LONDON?! What is this London you speak of?! It’s the place of magical scones! Okkkkaaay, you may call it England/United Kingdom, but I prefer calling it the Land of Plentiful Scones because it’s particularly apt for me. Especially considering that I can't fit into any of my clothes anymore because of a condition I've termed Scone Hips. But oh my lord, it was worth it. And considering my goal on this trip was the consumption of as many scones as humanly possible, I consider it MISSION ACHIEVED. The inability to fit anything smaller than a tent at the moment is just collateral damage.

However, I now have something to rival scones in my culinary affections: welsh cakes. OH MY GODS, welsh cakes, where have you been all my life?!! I'm moving to Cardiff simply for these cakes. Life will not be the same after discovering them. They are heaven in a little tea cake.

Here are some of the many, many highlights of my two week trip to the land of my dreams (and fate willing, my future home):
Somerset House in London



Afternoon tea at the Atheneum Hotel in London

Well, would you look at what I found.....

Highclere Castle (AKA Downton Abbey). Unfortunately, the Crawleys had just "stepped out." What bad timing!

 Seriously, I ate A LOT of scones.

Brighton Pier

Sitting in Victoria Park in front of the Royal Crescent in Bath

Bridge of Sighs in Oxford

Torchwood memorial in Cardiff

I think this speaks for itself....

I got to stand in the TARDIS. Seriously. Between the welsh cakes and being in the TARDIS, regular life has been ruined for me. 

Little trip to Hogwarts from King's Cross station

View from Edinburgh Castle

Walking the Millennium Bridge after watching Henry V at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
Walking the city walls in York

Afternoon tea at Betty's (makers of Yorkshire Gold) Tea Room in York

The one downside to visiting a country that is wrapped in history is cobblestones. Cobblestone streets as far as the eye can see. I learned one valuable lesson on this trip: cobblestones are the bane of my existence. Apparently they've waged a war against my feet. WHY COBBLESTONES, WHY?! Why do you hate my feet so that you have to hurt them so much? Did they offend you?!

I actually brought seven letters to respond to while on my trip because I thought I would have tons of time to write while waiting for planes and trains. Guess how many I responded to? ZERO. Silly, silly Laura. I hadn’t anticipated how little time or energy I would actually have to write anything. Apparently a side effect of scone hips is mushy brain, which means I couldn’t have put two sentences together if you asdflkjasdflkajieorwerlkj. [apparently, I’m STILL suffering from mushy brain!]

However, I did manage to send a package to a penpal, as well as a bunch of postcards so not all was lost mailwise.

I’m hoping to get back to regularly scheduled Laura-ness soon (jetlag, be gone!) and back to punishing your mailboxes with my ridiculous letters in the near future. I swear, I need a vacation from my vacation at the moment. Oh, mushy brain kicking in so I'll wrap this up. I received some velociraptor-iffic mail while I was gone and regular moustache mail post will follow. I hope everyone is well and managed to stay out of trouble while I was away. Scone hips and I'm out.

15 comments:

  1. Gee, thanks, Laura, now I really want some scones. What was your favorite kind?

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    1. Oh, that's like asking me to choose between things that are awesome and things that are super! I really loved the fruit scones, but I also had a cheese scone in Brighton that was so delicious that it made me want to weep. I get overly enthusiastic and emotional about scones evidently. :)

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  2. I am sorry you got no letters done at all.
    I am happy you had a really good great yummy sweet time on your trip.
    I am happy you taken some photos every thing loo's so very lovely.

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  3. Downton Abbey is just a few minutes from my town!!

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    1. I didn't know that! I just googled mapped it, and it is! We were thisclose. :)

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  4. Love the picture of Millennium Bridge. I'm glad you had such a good time!

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  5. Yay! You are back! (I mean...back? You know what I mean!) I was about to start really suffering from Laura Ly Blog Post Withdrawl (LLBPW) - it's a thing.

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    1. Well, I am indeed back! Apparently right in time to nip that LLBPW in the butt. ;)

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  6. Missed you! Gosh you have been SO close!!!

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    1. I was! If I reached my arms out, I might have been able to give you a hug! ;)

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  7. How nice! I'm a fairly new reader to your blog but enjoy your witty posts! :)

    We are planning a trip to London but not until summer after next...LONG time from now! ;)

    Looks like you had a wonderful time and...I couldn't have resisted the scones either!

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    1. Oh no, scones are never to be resisted. They are to be embraced wholeheartedly.

      I'm happy to hear that you're planning on going to London too! It's a great place, and my suggestion is to do a bunch of day trips if you can (which was my absolute FAVOURITE part of my whole trip).

      Also, thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment! It's always nice to hear from all readers--new and old. :)

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  8. That is it!!!!!! We are going to REKALL right now so I can have your trip implanted into my brain. I want scones and cobblestones and giant architecture fumbling my brain ASAP! Meet me there at 10pm

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    1. FINE! But promise me that you won't blackmail me with the memory of little incident with the pigeon, the chopstick, and the elastic in Tralfalgar Square. I swore I would never speak of it again....!

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    2. DEAL!!! (firm over-the-top handshake)

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