LONDON: PART ONE

Jana and I started our journey in Edinburgh Airport where we met at 2 o'clock last Friday. The last time I flew from this airport, I needed around 30 minutes to get through security checks, so I wanted us to meet as soon as possible. But, of course, in the end we needed less than 10 minutes to get through security. So we had lots of time before our departure. We decided to go for coffee. Well Jana for hot chocolate, because she doesn't drink coffee. Our flight was due at 4 o'clock but it had 30 minutes delay due to technical problems. It's the second time this has happened to me in less than a month. But it's better if the aircraft has technical problems while still on land than while on the air. So I was fine with the wait. There was a little bit of turbulence while flying, which made Jana anxious. Still she enjoyed the view. We were flying at the time of sunset. So the view was breath-taking. 

We landed in London Stansted at around half past six. Then we went straight to the London express Stansted - train that takes you to Liverpool street station in London. Return ticket cost us 16 pounds each. We bought it online 30 days before our arrival. It is cheaper to buy it online than buying it at the station itself. After 45 minutes we finally arrived at the station. Then we quickly found a taxi who drove us to our b&b (bed and breakfast). I booked us a room at airb&b. We rented a room at local hosts. More specifically a young couple, Patrick and Sandrine, who have their spare room available to travellers. Their cosy apartment is in Clerkenwell area. Which is around 10 minutes away from Oxford Street with bus. Or 30 minutes from Victoria bus station. So pretty good place. We paid 30 pounds per person per night. I think that's a pretty good price for such a good location. 

Taxi cost us 9 pounds. But it only took us 15 minutes to get to our place. While with bus it would take us longer, plus we were both new in the city so didn't know how to get around it. So we decided taxi will be the best and easiest. We arrived at the place at 7 o'clock. Patrick and Sandrine were both away, so we went for dinner to an Italian restaurant that was on our street. We shared pizza, which cost 8 pounds and then ordered dessert. Jana chose pina colada, while I went for tiramisu. Both desserts cost us almost 6 pounds but it was a big piece. I could've just had tiramisu for dinner and I would have more than enough! After dinner we went to "our" place and met the couple. They are both very lovely and very helpful. They gave us some pointers and advice. We then settled in our room and started planning our first whole day in London. I have to admit I had a little bit of trouble falling asleep. The bed was a bit too soft for me, but I still managed to fall asleep eventually. Below every apartment are stores, pubs, restaurants, bakeries etc. So it is very lively in the night. The noise coming from outside didn't bother me much though. 

We woke up at 9 o'clock on Saturday morning. And the weather was spectacular. Sunny and without a cloud. Only problem was it was a little bit too windy at times. After slowly getting up and ready to go out, we stopped at the bakery downstairs and bought us breakfast. This bakery isn't really cheap. One croissant for example costs 1.5 pounds. But I think this is more or less standard price for London. We then bought Oyster cards to use London public transport - buses. Oyster cars have the same principal as Urbana in Slovenia. You top up money on the card and use it each time you go on a bus. Bus costs you 1.5 pounds each time. That's the same as in Edinburgh! So we were quite happy with the price. We went to Victoria bus station and then walked to the Buckingham palace. There were lots of people in front of palace's gate and across the street in the park. We arrived right when the guards were changing shifts. It was interesting to see that. Plus there were few police officers on really beautiful horses. I absolutely love police horses. They are most definitely breath-taking creatures! We stayed there for a little while, then headed towards the Westminster. The road led us through a very nice park where you could see many squirrels, ducks and all sorts of birds.

I should mention that my digital camera decided to not work, which meant all pictures were snapped with our mobile phones. Not very happy about it, but can't do much. 

Buckingham palace

People sitting on the fence, trying to see the guards (Jana and I did the same)

The guards and many people around, plus of course police

I love the posture of this horse. Wish it was a better picture though

Soon after the crossed the park, we could see Big Ben. It is as amazing as it is on the pictures. Probably even more so. It was just so nice to see it with my own eyes. I've wanted to go to London in such a long time now and it finally hit me then that I was actually there. I had a huge grin on my face! :) Soon enough we arrived to the bridge, took many pictures of the Westminster palace and of course London Eye and river Thames. The weather really couldn't be any better. I guess only problem was that the sun was coming from behind the Westminster, which meant pictures of the palace weren't that great. But I think we still got few nice shots!

London Eye

Big Ben 

Jana and I 

River Thames near London Eye

Teja, my friend, told me about vouchers 2for1 where you pay for one entry ticket and get another one for free. All you need to do is download the vouchers from the internet and have valid train ticket. We decided to see three attractions: London Eye, SEA LIFE London Aquarium and Tower of London. On Saturday we went on London Eye and Aquarium. Ticket for London Eye costs 21.50 pounds. The queue wasn't that bad. Probably because one capsule accepts around 10 to 15 people. The ride is 30 minutes long and it is long enough. The view was amazing!

Capsule

One of many bridges in London - London Jubilee Bridge

On the far behind left side you can see Strata - it is one of the tallest residential buildings in London. On its right there is Leadenhall building - second tallest building in London. 

You can see BT Tower in the middle of this picture. It's a communications tower and it is the tallest building completed in London in the 1960s

The Shard - tallest building in UK and also EU (inside there are offices, hotels, restaurants, business school)

Jana and I in the capsule

After visiting London Eye, we went for lunch and then walked to a place where there weren't that many tourists. Around London Eye and Westminster are many, many tourists. We found a bench opposite of Westminster Palace and sat there for an hour, enjoying the sun and the view. It did get a bit too cold after a while so we headed towards the Aquarium. The queue for the Aquarium was miles long! I think we waited almost an hour to get our tickets. And let me tell you, it was not worth it. Ticket cost us 23 pounds and all we saw was mostly fish. I know, I guess we should've expected that. But I thought there would be more diversity. There are few sharks, but they aren't that big. I hoped we'd see a really big ones. There was also a quite big turtle, lobsters, really big crabs and penguins. That was nice to see. But the rest, nothing special. 

The penguins

When we left the aquarium it was around 6 o'clock and we were pretty tired by then. So we headed towards Victoria bus station. We walked past Westminster palace, Westminster Abbey (where most of UK royalty was crowned). 

Westminster Abbey

The bus drive back home took us longer than expected. The traffic was quite bad. It got really bad close to Piccadilly Circus. It really was a "circus" there because of all the traffic. I know Piccadilly Circus is one of the main tourist attractions, but for me it was more than enough to just drive past it. It is too crowded there for my taste and nothing special to see. There is a fountain in the middle and many video displays and neon signs. 

When we arrived at our bus stop, we searched for a grocery store to buy us something for dinner. It wasn't easy to find for example Tesco or Sainsbury's. We actually didn't see many grocery stores throughout the city. Which is a little bit weird. After a while we finally found some local small store, bought us food and went home. We planned to go out in the evening but we ended up staying in. I wish we would've gone out, because I really wanted to see London nightlife. But Jana was exhausted.

Our first whole day in London was great though. We saw lots of stuff, awesome weather and just really nice time with Jana. 

BACK IN SCOTLAND

When I left Slovenia Tjaša and Uroš were both feeling a bit ill. I thought I managed to escape from the all the sickness that surrounded me, but I was wrong. A day after my arrival Sarah got sick and soon after Desmond as well. They were both coughing and sneezing. Plus the weather was quite bad. Very windy and rainy. But the temperatures were quite mild. Around 7 to 10 degrees. I went for an intensive walk twice the first week. Hoping the rain wouldn't catch me and that the wind won't be so strong. The speed of the wind was around 90 km/h. I drove Pamela to train station in Linlithgow and I actually had to hold the steering wheel with both hands because the wind kept moving the car. I haven't had to do that in quite some time now. Also Pamela had to open car doors three times. The wind kept shutting them. But I liked it. Though, I was inside of the house most of the time. 

We exchanged gifts on Monday evening. I gave host parents framed pictures of Daniel and Sarah, while Daniel got a poster of dinosaurs and Sarah a poster of young Leonardo DiCaprio. They were all very happy and pleased with what they got. Especially Sarah. She kept telling me how happy she is with what she got. I got four presents! I was so surprised to get that many presents. Didn't expect to get that much. I got really nice blue, fluffy slippers. I really needed new ones. The old slippers are too used. I also got two toiletries bag. So now I have enough shower gels, body lotions, hand creams, pilings etc. for a while. Not complaining at all. Everything smells very nice. My last present was a set of jewerly. Green-blue bracelet, necklace and earrings. Absolutely love the gifts! :)

On Friday I've met with Jana in the city and we went to Nando's for dinner. Was lovely to see her again after almost four weeks since we last saw each other. The weekend was spent at home. Weather was pretty bad. Mostly very rainy. So it wasn't much fun to go out. I did however go for a walk. Couldn't stay inside anymore. But it was only drizzling at that time, so not much problem. I mostly watched TV shows and movies and in the evening I watched The Voice with the family. I also read a lot. And of course slept a lot :) I actually needed to catch up on some sleep. Was still a bit tired from everything that I did in Slovenia plus I went back to normal hour of waking up. That is at 7 o'clock.

The weather changed to better in the second week. More sun, colder - around 0 to 2 degrees. Sarah went back to school, but she was still coughing a bit. While Desmond got even more sick. And on Wednesday Daniel got sick as well. He had fever in the evening. So he stayed home the next two days. Which meant I spent both Thursday and Friday watching movies with him. We watched a movie about dinosaurs, Maleficent and Godzilla. I was of course multi-tasking. Was reading while watching :) On Saturday I went to Edinburgh on Au Pair meeting where I met many nice girls. Most of them just came to Scotland to start on their new jobs. There were nine of us all together, but three "old" ones. So I met six new girls. 

We started our meeting at Scots Monument and then went for lunch to The Filling Station. I had pizza, which cost me 10 pounds. That's pretty normal price for pizza here. But I have to say that Slovenian pizzas are much bigger. We stayed there for two hours, then the girls that I already knew from before, left us, while the rest of us went to Grassmarket for coffee. One Spanish girl left us before because she had to babysit. While Swedish girl came with us but then left us due to some other plans she had. One other girl joined us while we were on the way to Grassmarket. So there were six of us at the coffee shop. Two Austrians, both 19 year old. The rest are 24 or 25 years old. I finally met someone my age! That's exciting. The oldest girl comes from Spain, then France and Romania. We spent hours chatting and chatting and then finally moved again. We went to Standing Order for drinks. French girl had to leave because she was babysitting, Austrian girls left too. So Spanish, Romanian and Slovenian girls were left at the table. And we had so much fun getting to know each other, talking about host families etc. I had a blast! 

Now it's time for me to get ready for London. I'm going in less than three hours! Yay :)

SECOND WEEK IN SLOVENIA - PART 2

I'll first start by telling you few more important things that have been decided within last two weeks. Firstly, my sister Tjaša and friend Špela are coming to visit me on 25th of February for whole week. I'm so excited! They will stay at my place of course but we also plan to go somewhere for the weekend. Haven't decided yet. Secondly, I'm coming to Slovenia for a long weekend on 27th of March. Thirdly, I am going to London in just four days! Can't wait. And lastly, I'm going to Aberdeen for a weekend with German friend Anna, who went to Dublin with me, and two new friends that I made - Swedish girl Ellen and French girl Claire. We are going on 7th of February. So February is going to be lots of fun :)

My second week back home was slightly more peaceful than the first one. I still went hiking or walking almost every day. It was snowing on Saturday. I think we got around 40 - 50 cm of snow. I was really to see snow again after a long time. Taking Šerif for a walk in that weather is always fun. He absolutely loves snow. I remember Tjaša and I made "new" path on the meadows that we normally walk in. And making the new path was quite a good exercise :) 

The view from our living room

Šerif

This and previous picture were taken by Tjaša 

On Monday the temperatures were very low. Around - 10°C. And as probably most of you already know, I love freezing temperatures. The freezing air just makes me feel so alive. On Tuesday the people who sing at our church choir went to Ljubljana center. We went to see nativity scenes in two churches that are in city centre and ended up singing Sveta Noč (Oh Holy Night). Then we went to see Christmas market, drank mulled wine (kuhanček) and/or warm tea. We really needed that, to warm ourselves up. Not everyone enjoys freezing temperatures like I do :) After 2 hours of wandering around, we went into a small coffee shop. Or maybe it was just a bar. Not sure. Poor waitress had to make around ten hot chocolates. Iztok and I ordered coffee. At around 9 o'clock in the evening we headed back home. 

Do we look like we're cold or not? :)

This picture was taken while we were singing

Blanka (Špela's and Iztok's mum), my mum and me

Blanka and mum

Iztok and Tjaša

City centre 

City centre 

Thank you Uroš Medar for the pictures :) 

Tuesday night was spent in front of telly with my brother Uroš, watching Top Gear Christmas special. We of course laughed a lot. Can't wait for the next season!

I spent New Year's Eve at home with Tjaša and mum. Before Uroš, my brother, left to his party, we had a nice dinner. Then we started playing board games. Tjaša was doing something else at first, so mum and I played alone. While we were playing, the movie Mamma mia was on telly, so I ended up singing Abba songs while playing. Later Tjaša joined and I remember mum made some remarks that made Tjaša and me laugh like crazy. We also had a glass of white wine while playing. New Year's day started in late morning. The day was beautiful - sunny and freezing. Tjaša and mum decided we should go hiking. So we went hiking to a hill that is close by - Grmada. In the afternoon we went to grandparents' place for dinner. Aunt with her family came as well. 

Next day we played tarok - my favourite card game and later I went to Nina's new place to meet with my friends from high school, Sara and Monika. Monika's boyfriend came as well and this time Nina's boyfriend wasn't working. We had a lovely time. Just chatting a lot about all sorts of stuff, eating snacks and later in the night Nina prepared raw cake for us. Was delicious! 

On Saturday I first met with Teja, university friend. She gave me Lila Pause (one of my favourite chocolate bars) and a very nice bracelet! Later I met with Sašo, my ex boyfriend and we both gave each other Toblerone bars. Even the same size. Was quite funny :) 

On my last (whole) day in Slovenia I tried to do and see as many things as possible. After church, I went to usual coffee with Špela and Iztok. Tjaša wasn't feeling too well, so she stayed home. Mum cooked my favourite (I think I've been using this word too much) meal. Dunajski zrezek (Vienna schnitzel) with buckweat porridge and carrots plus peas with seasoning and a little bit of cream. Loved it! I ate too well while I was home. After lunch mum and I went for a long walk and I took some really nice pictures. Most were taken from the church.

Kamniško-Savinjske Alpe

Šerif enjoying snow

Karanke and village Dol (where my grandparents live)

mum and Šerif

my village church

Aunt invited us to her place for dinner. Tjaša and Uroš were feeling a bit under the weather, so only mum and me went. But we also drived grandparents. It's been quite a while since we were there the last time. Aunt's sister-in-law with her husband and cousins grandmother were also there. Aunt prepared many delicious entrees for us plus a very nice dinner. So I was really full by the time we left their house. I drove grandparents back home and we said our goodbyes. 

In the evening I met with Špela and Iztok again, had a lovely time and then said bye to Iztok. Špela said she will go to the airport with me the next day. I woke up at around 7.30 in the morning on Monday, started getting ready for my leave. I wanted to be at the airport - I flew from Brnik this time - at 10 o'clock. I hugged mum, Tjaša and Špela and went inside. Mum then went to work, while Špela and Tjaša went back home. Špela was driving behind us the entire time. This time it wasn't as hard as it was 5 months ago. But still wasn't easy. My flight was scheduled to depart at 11.35 but due to some technical problem, it got delayed for 2 hours. I wasn't bothered with it, because my next flight, flight from London Luton to Edinburgh, was at 18.35. So I had lots of time. I brought a book with me and it kept me busy the entire wait. I also enjoyed the view from the waiting area. I could see straight into the mountains :) 

Picture taken when I was already seated

You can see Triglav. Not the best quality of this picture but it is still visible. 

When we took off, I enjoyed the view for few more minutes. Saw Bohinjsko jezero and mountains nearby, but then clouds came. And there were clouds throughout my whole flight. I landed in London Luton at 2 o'clock, quickly went through security without any problems, then sat and continued with reading my book. The time passed very quickly. Soon it was time to board my next flight and after one hour I was already landing in Edinburgh. I quickly called Desmond, who then picked me up at the airport. 

And now few pictures of cute Diva and Šerif :)

I love this picture - Sister took it

Enjoying the sun :)

Hope you enjoyed reading :) My next topic will be first two weeks of being back in Scotland :)