Christmas, Rochester
It was time to start our adventure again. This time we went to the UK (for the mean time) instead of straight back to Asia. The reason for this is my best friend Danielle decided to live her best life and move to the UK. And I couldn't not see what the heck she has been doing for the last two years. So we hopped on a plane to find out. Side note: with my other best friend just returning from Canada we didn't quite get the chance to visit her too (sorry Han!)
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| So this is what we look like in layers |
Luke and I were in transit for forty six and a half hours. Turns out when you buy the cheapest ticket you can, from Crescent Head to London, it’s going to take some time. It also doesn't help that one of our planes was having mechanical problems, delaying it five hours. All in all, as you can imagine, by the time we got to London we were buggered. So the first thing we did was go get some healthy snacks (pizza) and get some sleep in our apartment. The following day felt like Christmas (although it wasn’t quite just yet) as we took the train to Rochester! Here we had a smiling Danielle Jayne waiting at the train station to pick us up.
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| Cathedral in Rochester at sunset |
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| Eating our broccoli cauliflower pasties, YUM |
Rochester is one of the most beautiful little towns. If you have seen a Christmas movie of a quaint little English village then that’s pretty much the high street of Rochester. We had a short walk to Danni’s place from the train station where we were instantly welcomed by her awesome housemates (and I’m not just writing this on the off chance they read it) they were genuinely the best. When they love food, board games, beer and doing the nut bush in the kitchen as much as we do, it was impossible not to love them.
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| Harry Potter cocktail making |
For our early Christmas present from Danni we were spoilt with tickets to a Harry Potter cocktail making experience. We made two different cocktails using cauldrons and bunsen burners etc. Whilst making the beverages we looked the part with robes and wands. For people who don't like Harry Potter (weirdos) this will sound crazy. But for those who love it, yes it really was as good as you can imagine. After, we hopped on a double decker bus where we managed to get the only one that wasn’t red and went to Hyde Park. Here we enjoyed sandwiches and earl grey tea (could we have gotten any more English?).
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| Hyde Park, with the sun nearly setting at 3pm |
Over the following few days it was that crazy time over Christmas and New Year where everything kind of blur’s into one. It involved pubs, food, and a lot of time putting on layers every time we went outside (thanks to Danni for loaning me her entire wardrobe). In between all of this we took day trips to both Faversham and Canterbury.
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| This one's for you Nettie |
Faversham is a bit bigger than Rochester but just as cute. Here we caught up with none other than a couple of Aussies, who we’ve met a few times before, Samuel Dylan and Jessica (my brother and his wife). I was insanely excited to see them. I was even more excited when Jess took us to see the house she grew up in. After me trying to force her to go knock on the door so we could go take a look inside (surprisingly enough she didn't want to do that) we headed to a pub that Jess’ dad recommended, thanks Ian.
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| Can't go to England without getting a picture with a postbox, it's post boxes not public phone boxes that are popular right? |
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| Walking down Rochester High Street |
Let’s be honest over Christmas we spent most of our time going from one pub to the other. They have so much character and the best part is that dogs are allowed in all of them! The other fabulous part is that it is absolutely socially acceptable to play board games, and most of them even stock their own.
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One of the pubs in Faversham, there is one on every corner
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| It's ok mum and dad, I'm not a booze head, note the soda water that I'm drinking |
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| Christmas Eve |
For Christmas breakfast Danni and I thought it would be a great idea to promise everyone eggs florentine, even though neither of us had ever made hollandaise before. After some moral support and a couple of cups of coffee we managed to pull it off! After breaky, Christmas presents, and a quick trip to the pub, it was time for Christmas dinner (lunch). Here Kayla (Danni’s friend and housemate) cooked us all the most insanely delicious Christmas lunch both Luke and I have ever had. Think cheesy cauliflower, buttery brussel sprouts (on Danis insistent requests), roasted potatoes and parsnips, gravy, Yorkshire pudding, vegetarian stuffing, mushroom pastry things, finished off with sticky date pudding. YUM.
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| Its not Christmas without Christmas hats |
After Christmas we went on a day trip to Canterbury where we went and saw the famous Cathedral. Danni gave us a bit of history (it's good having friends who are teachers) about the place so we didn't feel too stupid (unlike usual). After the cathedral was the true highlight of Canterbury. This is the mac and cheese toasties. Normally served with pulled pork, us being vegetarians requested to have them without. The waitress wasn’t too impressed for us asking for just the mac and cheese. But in the end it was as rich and delicious as you can possibly imagine. It was then that we realised we were running late for our train so we had to make a run for it ("don’t make me run I’m full of chocolate") but luckily we still had time to buy some beers for the train ride home. Another fun fact about England, is that it is legal to drink on trains (who’d of thought). When we got home it was our last night, so naturally we watched movies using the projector that some rebel borrowed from their work.
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| Canterbury Cathedral |
After an emotional goodbye (even though I was seeing Danni again in just over a week) It was time to leave and pick up our Van we hired through “Quirky Campers”, WANDA!
Love always,
Claire and Luke (Luke was flying a kite whilst I wrote this so he counts as a co-author too right?)
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| Luke practicing for the kite festival, Jaipur |
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