영국여행 | England (Day 3)

Perspective tricks?

On day 3 we finally left London and headed west to Birmingham to see Nick's grandpa, after which I would head southwards to Bristol and Nick would just go back to London.

We took the train, which is always a nice, relaxing way to go, and after years of gross Megabus journeys (PSA: for the love of all that is good and holy, don't poo in coach toilets) I think I cherished it a little more than I'd expected to.

Birmingham looks different to how I remembered it.

It was a bit confusing to see the progress in Brum New St station, since the last time I'd been there most of it had been closed off and it was a nightmare to get to any platforms. A lot of it was still closed off, but navigation was easier, there was more room, and you could see a lot of progress had been made! (In my opinion anyway). We transferred trains, met Nick's grandpa, and sped off to a pub for a proper pub lunch.

I'm groaning at the thought of all that food. It doesn't look like much in the photo because we always have such unnecessarily large rims on plates in restaurants, but this whole holiday kept making it clear just how much smaller portioning is in Korea and how my stomach has shrunk as a result. Whereas I'd normally have wolfed that down in seconds (for reference, faggots, mushy peas and chips!) I actually had to pace myself :p

I think we had dessert, too. I was on Christmas levels of stuffed-ness.

We then set off for Nick's grandpa's house and chatted and played board games for several hours. It was nice and quiet, and a good rest for the excessively busy few days ahead of us. He told us war stories and tidbits about his childhood, which I always love listening to from anyone growing up in that time. Weird that so much has changed in their lifetimes.

We looked at old photos of Nick and his family from years and years ago, before having a thankfully much lighter "teatime" than lunch was. Very much appreciated things like quiche and pork pies that are like finding unicorns in Korea. And J2Os!

It wasn't long before we were taken to the station, said goodbye, and Nick put me on a train home to Bristol, before hopping onto one headed for London.

Since I didn't arrive until reasonably late (UK needs to catch up to Korea in terms of late-night opening hours for cafes and restaurants!) I mostly just sat around with my parents, watched TV and relaxed together until I got tired enough to sleep.