Wednesday 30 March 2016

Tynemouth

One thing I love about NCL is the fact that we're near the sea. That, and the fact that we have a metro system here (the only such system in place other than the tube in London and subway in Glasgow). A daysaver ticket for £4.80 gets you from the city centre to the beach in about 20minutes, which is really very convenient.

We were blessed with beautiful weather on Good Friday, and made full advantage of rare sun to head to the beach.


I would love to return in slippers and proper beachwear. Standing by the waves and being unable to actually frolic in them because I was wearing jeans and sneakers seemed like such a waste. It's still cold though - Spring has arrived but temperatures are currently hovering around 8degrees Celcius. I'd gone to Whitley Bay in autumn and fallen into the water while paddle boarding, and the water was already very cold then. 

It's still a strange thing to wrap my head around - I associate beaches with tropical places, copious amounts of sun, and the idea of wanting to enter the cool waters to escape from the heat. Here in England the sun is a rarity and the beaches are freezing, and you don't actually want the wind to be blowing. You can't take my love for beaches and the sea away from me though. Chilly as it may be, I could spend hours lying by the sea, wiggling my toes in the sand and watching the tide come in. All one needs is to wait for a sunny day, some takeaway fish & chips (£6.20 for cod at Longsands), a mat and a good book.

Monday 28 March 2016

Wales 2016 - Travelogue


Gwynedd, Wales, 26-28 February 2016

One weekend during school term, we took a short trip to Wales. The main highlight was to climb Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. At 1085m above sea level, it isn't actually very tall - Mount Kinabalu is 4096m and Mount Everest is 8848m for comparison. Still, it marked my first time climbing a mountain, and as someone who is scared of heights (or at least, of falling), this was quite an achievement.