Water of Life - Edinburgh

In Keswick i managed to eat some crap steak so i successfully spoiled my stomach. must have been some virus. it was quite unpleasent as i couldn't eat anything for three or four days (when i came home everyone said how terribly skinny i was...) however, this did not stop us from having a very good time with Poziomka in Edinburgh, the next stop in our journey. i'm not sure if i mentioned but throughout our traveling we were very lucky with accommodation. we resided on the side of a lake in Lake District, right next to the Castle in Edinburgh, on the seaside in Portree on the Isle of Skye (and other places where i slept were nice too). once mentioned, here's the Castle of Edinburgh: unfortunately we didn't have much time to see the Scottish capital, so we decided not to enter it we only had a look from outside.
instead, we found sth that we very much enjoyed: The Scotch Whisky Heritage Center. yummie :) see some genuine Scotches here (it's better to taste):btw, water of life is a name for whisky (i think the word 'whisky' comes from this phrase). so this center is very interesting, the tour started with tasting - or rather nosing, watching and using all our senses to identify the whisky we were holding in our hands. it tasted very well, i must say, though i didn't have much on a then three-days-ago empty stomach. even if i have most likely enjoyed the tour much better :) so it was cool, they presented us some history, the process and different methods of producing whisky - malt whisky/blended whisky - and it was very interactive. worth seeing.
however, there are many more things to see and we didn't quite manage to see everything. the building of the Parlaiment is very modern, extravagant. it interestingly fits into the oldish, grey athmosphere of hundred or two hundred or even more hundred years old buildings:
the castle from below:

and not far from there, a bit later:
the castle again but this time from our room. not bad view from a youth hostel isn't it?

Lake District - The Dream Begins

The best week of my life began on the day when we moved on from Manchester towards Lake District. With Poziomka on my side. I'm saying Lake District, because we had no clue where we were gonna end up: which town or village, which lake, which camping site. We only knew the train that we wanted to take but in the end we missed three consecutive trains - women... :) I knew that there was a bigger town called Windermere that served as a starting point for many tourists but of course Poziomka had other ideas to go to. Of course she was right eventually: she said she heard about a nice little town called Penrith so we decided to change for Penrith -i think in Kendal, cos initially we started off for Windermere. In Kendal at the railway station we asked a few people about camping sites in Penrith. It turned out that there were no camping sites there and not even a lake or mountain that Lake District is so famous about. Great, i thought. But we took the train to Penrith, as the next one to Windermere was a long time to depart. To cut the story short, from Penrith we took a bus to Keswick - taking the advice of the bus driver - which was a lovely little town on the side of Derwent Water. And what a great place we found for our tent!
This was the view from our tent. Simply breath-taking:

It took us one whole day to get to Keswick from Manchester and it was already dark when we set up our tent, but it was worth. Then we had an excellent dinner in of the nice and cosy pubs in the village. It was called something dog. Maybe Hounddog. I can only recommend that place. Funny thing: there are many cracks in the woodden beams and furniture and you can leave a coin in them, there are plenty already.

Next day we went for a big tour around the lake. On one of the paths like that, can you see?You won't be surprised if I tell you why Lake District is called Lake District. Because of its lakes. Lakes - mountains - lakes - mountains. In a stunning arrangement. The closer one here is 'our' lake, and in the background there's the next one.During our little journey Gosia got into a special relationship with sheep. There are no words to describe these pictures:

we also battled with the mountains. it wasn't an easy job but we won. and got rewarded:that's Keswick in the distance:
Ashness Bridge is a picturesque bridge and indeed, there was a man painting or drawing. Of course we had to walk under the bridge. it was exciting :)
Keswick, the little town that is so dear to our hearts:

MU

After a long, eight-hour-journey from Penzance to Manchester a long-waited meeting took place: Poziomka joined my big tour! we hadn't seen us for 7 days and that time this was still a long period for us. we still didn't know what was waiting for us, we didn't know that 7 days is nothing. but this is not the place for sentimentality :)

all in all, we became Manchester United. reunited :) best team ever!

a song from Hair came to my mind (don't ask me why):
Manchester England England
Across the Atlantic Sea
And I'm a genius genius
I believe in God, believe in God...

we had a very good time in Manchester thx to Mudel (hope u don't mind me calling u like that, Ania), Gosia's best friend. whether because of laziness or because Manchester is not a big tourist sight i don't know but i didn't take many pics. mainly what i remember of Manchester is the odd creatures that u can see all around in the city. for example what is this here, below???

this was right next to a bike shop
easy rider öcsém :)
oh yeah, what Manchester is most famous of, Old Trafford:
u won't be surprised if i say sight-seeing wasn't the biggest happening for us. of course chating, walking around and partying with Ania was it. we also had fun in Manchester Art Gallery (see also Gosia's crazy, okay, artistic :) pics). i must put here a pic of our kind hostess, Ania. this was taken right in the Art Gallery:
on one of the nights we spent in Manchester we went out to party. Ania and her boyfriend, Gosia and me in the company of a bottle of whisky and another bottle of vodka. just to gather courage for Karaoke. yes, we went to a Karaoke club, and yes, we went on the stage. i don't have to tell u we shouldn't have. not because we were pissed. we even weren't. but they managed to choose a song that none of us knew. four of us on the stage and no one knew the song!!!! of course my mates quickly ran away, except for me, who was brought up in a music school and thus, i learnt how to follow the flow of music without knowing it. fortunately one guy from the audience who grabbed a microphone helped us out, but it was still a disaster. this was my debut...

anyhow, i still smile on this story if i think of it, and it's a good source of laugh with Gosia too :)

next day we moved on towards Lake District.

St Ives - Raft competition

when i arrived in St Ives i don't know why, maybe because of the ales i previously had in the best bus stop in the world, i remember i was very cheered up. well, there was another reason for that: this crazy raft competition. this was it's name, but it was more about dressing up than being the fastest. for example my personal favourite team finished last. in fact they didn't even reach the finish line... but if u ask the audience, they were the most popular...
here each team had to pick up their 'princess' and other team's supporters were trying to hamper it. the first team is approaching the meeting point:

Siege. The weapons: flour-filled balloons. attaaaaack!! waiting for the next candidates...
well, these guys sank half-way to the final. no surprise: with this vehicle... loooosers:they were loosers too, but they were the lovely ones :)
too silly to dislike them.
anyway, St Ives is a lovely port town, and even more one of the most popular holiday resorts in the UK. and i perfectly understand why:still in the evening i traveled to Penzance, coz i had accommodation there. i took this photo from the train:
next day i had only a few hours in the morning to have a look at the town. nice-nice, nothing memorable though - at least i can't remember anything special :)
but as always i spotted interesting things and i enjoyed walking around there too. i respect buskers (especially if they can play well...):then suddenly i felt like i was in a Western film:unfortunately i only saw St. Michael's Mount from the train, but it was still impressive (castle on an island):
here i was already stitting on the train, heading towards Manchester, being excited to meet someone whom i hadn't seen for a while.