The second semester of my second year at the university. This is exactly when I got out of my blue mood and decided that it was the time for me to see something from England, since I’d been studying there for a while now and had seen literally nothing but the campus and the airports. I didn’t want to waste any more of my precious time.
Luckily, browsing our Student Union website, I found some interesting activities. I started nice and slow… and cheap, but that’s a story for another time, but when I realised I’m enjoying it, I decided to splurge, you know, 40£ for a day trip can be quite a lot for a student. Nevertheless, a Viking trip does sound really cool, so I thought it could be worth it.
I must say that I was really nervous for some reason. I wasn’t sure about the pickup spot, I was going alone, though it was a group tour where people may already know each other and I was worried about (not) being on time. So, naturally, I couldn’t sleep and woke up way too early because of the nerves. So I prepared my packed lunch, in the amazing old fashion like we did at home, and set off to find the pickup spot.
The morning was cloudy and the moment I opened the door, it started drizzling. A great start, as per usual. But I was successful – I managed to find the place! Soon, the coach arrived and a guy in a Viking costume got off playing loud music setting the tone for the trip. This was our guide making a genuinely great first impression. The destination – Lindisfarne Island!
The moment we got on the coach, it got sunny. The moment we arrived at our destination, it got rainy. Gotta love the British weather, eh? In fact, as the tour with explanations started, it was so windy and pouring down that I was questioning whether it was a good idea at all. Naturally, I don’t remember that much from the time when the weather wasn’t great, but I do remember cool statues and something, that could have been a nice view, had the weather been better. And you know what? In about 20 minutes, it did get better! The wind didn’t stop but all of sudden it was nice and sunny. I got to hold a very heavy sword that I almost couldn’t lift above my head (props to the guide who was dragging it around all day), climb some slippery rocks, walk towards some ruins and finally enjoy the view.
During the lunch break, the weather started being off again. Maybe my packed lunch wasn’t the brightest idea, since I could only eat it outside on a bench and on the island there were enough restaurants and cafés. But I managed and went to hide to a church. It was rather calming. Perhaps because of the lack of incredibly strong wind, but it could’ve been the religious atmosphere too. It was the Holy Island after all.
Finally, the last activity before the island would become a real island again due to tides (you can get there on road in certain times of the day – which is what we did), was a competition. The objective was to stack as many stones of top of each other. I was doing great despite being by myself… at least until the last 10 seconds, when over a half of it crashed down. I was clearly too good and overdid it. But I don’t think I’d win anyway, since the winning team made a tower probably taller than me. This fun activity was followed by a race towards the coach to make it out of the island. Sorry to disappoint you, we did leave in time though now I realise that it would be such an interesting blog post, had we not.
But wait, there’s more! One more stop – at the Bamburgh castle, the first castle I visited in the UK, yes, despite studying in NewCASTLE. Of course, you know the drill by now, as soon as we got out, it started raining, as soon as we entered the castle, it stopped. Are we even surprised anymore? The only thing that surprised me was seeing a portrait of the current owner of the castle. It was a proper medieval castle with thick walls, so I just kind of expected it to be the same as in Slovakia where the castles are owned by the state. I guess the monarchy is a bit different.
The dinner was very similar to lunch, only that the weather was a bit better and I was sat at a swing, looking over the castle, vibing in the cold sunset.
I know this sounds pretty much like a weather rant, but it was honestly really nice trip that was enjoyable despite the awful weather and my poor decisions and it opened my eyes about the beauty of the UK and my mind about guided tours, since I got to places that otherwise would be quite difficult to get to, at least for me.
