early january

Oh-my-God i cant believe 10 days has passed this year.. and today's my last day of holiday!
what have i been doing for the past three weeks? time seems to fly so quick.. doesnt it?

well.. i spent 10 days of my holiday doing a road trip across UK, mostly its northern part. it was a very memorable, unforgettable road trip! i went with 9 other friends.. Yovita, Poppa, Andrew, Dony, Eddie, Stefanie, Ian, Pa, and Mukkie. 5 Indonesian, 3 Taiwanese, and 2 Thai. We went to Bath - Bristol - Liverpool - Manchester - York - Newcastle - Birmingham - Oxford and London from 24th December to 1st January... and this is how our story goes...

Day 1, 24 December 09 (Bath - Bristol)
Left Bournemouth around noon, with Bath as our first destination. we rent two cars, each with 5 seaters.. Me, Andrew,Yovita, Pa and Mukkie in one car, and Dony, Poppa, Eddie, Stefanie, and Ian in the other. As the Indonesian are the only ones with valid driving license (FYI, we can use our Indonesian driving license to drive in UK for one year period since our first arrival), so Me, Andrew, Poppa and Donny were the drivers of the trip! yeaahh, including Me!!! i mostly drove at daytime though, and between cities in motorways, as i was quite confused and afraid to drive in UK cities' streets. okay okay back to the story.. we arrived at Bath around 4, wanted to eat in Sally Lund's bun, a famous historical restaurant, but since it was closed, we had to spent some time in finding a nice restaurant for us. Lucky I saw a restaurant called Market, which has a "best burgers and pizza in Bath" sign in front of it. We ate there, and it was real nice! the interior was beautiful, the burgers was delicious, and we had a good time! Since it was xmas eve (another FYI, almost all shops are closed during xmas eve, and ALL shops are closed during xmas day here in UK), nothing much was open, so we spent the night just taking pictures around town.. then continued our journey to Bristol to pick up Stefanie and Ian.
Bristol was only around 1.5 hours drive from Bath.. at first we thought of spending the night there, perhaps in a pub or something that opens 24 hours, but let me tell you again, nothing was opened!! so we just drove around town, and waited for Stefanie and Ian's bus at 11.00pm. after they arrived, we thought it would be best to continue our journey to Liverpool straightaway (around 5 hours journey), because there's nothing much to see in Bristol anyway.. (which is too bad, i want to visit Bristol some day again to explore the city..)

Day 2, 25 December 09 (Liverpool)
Around midnight, friends in the other car asked us to stop in some rest area, said that there's something wrong with their car. so we stopped in the nearest rest area (another FYI, rest areas in UK's motorway are really nice.. similiar to KM.49 in tol Cikampek), and it turned out that they surprised me because its my birthday! woohoo~ we got off the car, they sang me happy birthday, and gave me presents.. i got a personalized t-shirt, and a reusable shopping bag, both with nice bday cards.. happy!!! ♥
We rested for awhile there.. had some coffees/hot chocolates, then continued our journey to Liverpool. Arrived in Liverpool around 6 a.m, checked in to the hotel, slept for awhile, and woke up around noon. Me and some of us went to city centre to find lunch, but i repeat, nothing was opened!! the city was like a ghost town.. literally no one was there, i cud even lay down in the streets without being hit by a car. lol. lucky we finally found a restaurant which was open, it was near the chinatown, and it was a kebab deli. so that was our xmas lunch.. hahaha.. not bad tho.. as long as we still cud eat :p
We spent the day around city centre.. taking lots and lots of pictures.. until we found chinese restaurant near our hotel that was open! finally.. decent food..hahahah.. so thats where we had our xmas dinner.. it was very good! and cheap! 7 pounds a person for a delicious full course meal! (If you're interested, the name is Shangri-La, located near Liverpool's city centre) since our group consists of three different nationalities, we played a game, which is to host a local dish dinner. It was our Taiwanese friends' turn in Liverpool.. delicious chinese food... yum yum yum~
After dinner, we drove to Anfield stadium, but obviously it was closed as well, so we only took pictures in front of it, say that at least we've been there, lol. we slept quite early.. because we need to prepare for BOXING DAY the next day :D

Day 3, 26 December 09 (Manchester)
Now, today's the day that everyone has been waiting for. Boxing day!! (What is boxing day? In short, start of the year-end sale period, where everyone gone crazy..lol)
Some of us woke up at 6-ish, to queue in front of the stores since 7am. I wanted to join as well, but i got sick, cudnt woke up, so i joined them later around 9, and to my surprise, all the good things were gone already! it was already chaotic at 9am.. goodness.. so people really gone crazy since 7am..
Being empty handed i was, we continued our journey to Manchester. stopped by in my relative's house, Mbak Tutik and Neil in Leigh area where they cooked us veerrryy nice meal. their house was very beautiful! it was in the suburban area, but it has a very nice garden, all covered with snow.. we also went to her in-laws' house nearby, and played with their dog in their garden. Again, took lots of pictures, but we just cudnt resist! it was too beautiful! And they were just too nice! happy! ♥
We reached Manchester around 3.. stopped at Old Trafford because Dony, being a die-hard MU fan, wanted to pay a visit to the stadium. some of us went straight to city centre to continue the boxing day-ing (is there such word? lol), and went to chinatown afterwards to have dinner. We had dinner in a sushi bar, and met TIka with her husband Firzie who live in Manchester. it was great to see them, as i havent met Tika in such a long time since we both graduated from UI.. and since she got married! :)

Day 4, 27 December 09 (York - Newcastle)
We continued our journey early morning the next day.. because it was quite far to get to York and Newcastle from Manchester. York, i tell you, is a very beautiful town! SUPERB! it was like in fairytale.. with old castles and the white snow. we went sightseeing around town and had English-style cream tea in a very nice tea house.. at first we were ready to continue our journey to next destination, Durham, to visit its cathedral which many said was the shooting scene for Harry Potter movies.. but we spotted a big field, all covered with snow.. it was massive.. veryyyy beautiful, people just stopped and parked their cars nearby, and so did we.. we stopped, played around in the snow, until we realized that it was already dark.. so no Durham then.. we had to go to Newcastle straightaway..
reached Newcastle at dinner time., checked in at the hotel, (not a very good hotel i tell you, if you wanna do road trips, Travelodge is just the best cheap hotel chain!) then had dinner in chinatown, it was our Thai friends' turn to host the dinner, so we ate at a Thai restaurant. we were quite a big group during the dinner, as my friend, Merlyn who is studying in Sunderland (30 minutes away from Newcastle) joined us with her friends, and Andrew's friend, Fika, also joined us. It was, again, a nice dinner! Deliciouuuusss.. although quite pricey, but we ate a lot.. so it was quite worth it.. another full course meal even with a very nice dessert :)

Day 5, 28 December 09 (Birmingham)
Again, we had to leave the city early in the morning, to go to other city. It took us around 4 hours to reach Birmingham from Newcastle, this time we stayed in my friend's house, Windy. It was very nice of her and her housemate, Emy, to let us all stay in their place :) Thanksss dearies! ♥
Went to Bullring, a bigggg mall with lottttts of people! so crowded we cudnt even shop properly, lol. Had dinner in a Malaysian restaurant.. Went to Birmingham eye to take pictures, then spent the night in Windy's and Emy's house, played Monopoly, ate pizza as a late night snack, watched tv.. super quality time because usually we spent all day around town, went back to hotel quite late, then just slept in our hotel rooms..

Day 6, 29 December 09 (Oxford - London)
We reached Oxford around noon, had lunch in Marketstreet, and indoor market.. it was a traditional British-style cafe, with sausages, sandwich and baked beans on the menu. Unfortunately, the weather wasnt nice at that time. it was raininggg.. but it didnt stop us to go to Christchurch, as it was the shooting location of some Harry Potter movies (the 1st and 2nd, if im not mistaken), so some of us went there, including me.. even though we had to walk in the rain, gotten all wet and freezing, but it was worth it! the castle was just beautiful.. took lots of pictures.. and went straight away to London.
This time, it was Indonesian's turn to host the dinner. Had dinner in Nusa Dua, it was nice..at least it can cure my cravings for Indonesian food. i hope my friends liked it though.. :)
Too bad we had to be separated during our stay in London, me, Yovita, Pa and Mukkie stayed in Mba Didin's house, Dony, Poppa and Andrew stayed in Ayu's house, and Stefanie,Eddie, Ian stayed in Stefanie's house as she does live in London..

Day 7, 30 December 09 (London)
When we got out the house around 10 am to go shopping at Oxford street, we found a "love letter" in our car's window. We got penalized!! hahahahahha.. turns out that we parked in the wrong area.. we misunderstood the regulation, so we had to pay.. frikkin 120 pounds!!! (will be reduced to 60 pounds if we paid during 14 days) at first it kinda ruined our mood.. but then again.. its holiday! no one shud be sad! everything shud be consider as an experience! :)
Me, Yovita, Pa and Mukkie spent the day around Oxford street, then met the others at night in Leicester Square. Went for a night out, to a club called "Sound". It was nice, but not like what i expected... i thought night out in London supposed to be.. posh? it was so urban instead.. hahahaha.. maybe because it was urban-night.. :p but it was fuuuunnn (everything was fun in this road trip, trust me :D)

Day 8, 31 December 09 (London)
Today was new year's eve! woohoo~
Me, Yovita, Pa and Mukkie went to Oxford street once again, then to South Kensington, and met the others in Chinatown. Had dinner together with Eddie, Stefanie, Ian, and Caelen.. met Poppa, Dony, Andrew, Ayu, and the others there as well, before going to London Eye, where we had our countdown.
We formed a big group of people there, as Ayu brought some other friends, and Eddie also met his friends from BU. There were... i think.. 30 of us!! massive group! and we acted crazyyy because we had been there since 8ish, and waited for the countdown for like.. 4 hours!! lucky there was a dj.. and we just danced, chatted, laughed, took pictures.. (to sum up: acted crazy!) to kill time. (For those who are curious, count down in front of London Eye is just similiar to count down in front of Monas, or Ancol... seriously.) I personally think that i wudnt had that much fun if i didnt experience it with that many friends and didnt act that crazy.. :)

Day 9, 1 January 10 (London)
Sadly, this was our last day of the road trip.. we had to go back to Bournemouth! :(
Went to winter wonderland before we left.. it was freeeeziiiingggg cold.. but it was beautiful, it was a winter market and amusement park.. lots of delicious food stalls!
Reached Bournemouth around midnight.. and went to sleep instantly :p

Well.. that's the story of my road trip.. it was unforgettable, had sooo much fun.. and i am missing it already :'(
Stefanie now are in London.. she is already working there, we might meet again some time if she visits Bournemouth, vice versa.. but Ian has gone back to China already (FYI, Ian is Stefanie's friend, he was on holiday when he decided to join our road trip).. so dont know when we could meet up again..
As for the rest, we all still go to BU, so there's plenty of chance to get together again.. but still.. it will be just different :(

Anywayyy.. i had the best holiday ever!! love it so much ♥
thank you dearest friends.. Yovita Poppa Andrew Dony Eddie Stefanie Ian Pa Mukkie ♥
and now, im ready to face the second term.. which starts TOMORROW.
may this term be better than the last, and may this year be better than the last...
WE WILL ALL GRADUATE THIS YEAR!! wooohooooo~