Safari parks are fun. When I went to one in Virginia my car got kicked by a zebra. D:
Unfortunately for us, because of the weather, the zebra were kept indoors. Maybe fortunately for my car. How was the damage? That would be a funny one to explain to your insurer.
@evanomeara said:
Saw a tweet about your blog from the Giantbomb squad twitter account. Its a cute story you have, its good to hear stories like that. My experience with long -distance relationships is just to try communicate with each other a few times a week and not to stress out about things because you are not there to experience them.
We talk everyday, so we're good on that front :) It can be hard when things happen in our lives though and we can't be there for each other.
@IkariNoTekken: We stayed at Shaftesbury Hyde Park International, they had a 50% off deal online that we snapped up. It seemed like a really good location, a lot more convenient than staying outside of the center. Is Lancaster a good one? Between Paddington and Waterloo, we took the Bakerloo line, yeah. We ended up on most of the lines, the underground is so confusing!
@OldGuy said:
Go, watch (or rewatch) Princess Bride so you know to never give up becase True Love always prevails! :-)
Wrighteous has told me that that's actually a pretty good movie, it's not my usual type of movie so I might have to take both your words for it...
This app really saved us! Just make sure you search the journey plan before you get underground.
@bigsmoke77: It really does look it, so I can't wait!
@Fattony12000: Yeah it is the one right on the Thames. We were gutted we couldn't make it to any of the museums or the Planetarium, but next time we'll just make sure to plan for more time in London.
We drove down to London, left my car and our extra luggage at my brothers and took the tube into the center, where our hotel was. My friend bought me an app for the tube as a gift, which was a god send. We would have never been able to navigate the underground by ourselves without it.
Our hotel was 4 stars, looked fancy and was right next to Hyde Park... our room was half the size of my, already small bedroom. Small double was shoved into the corner of the room next to the window, with about a foot of space at one side and the end of the bed. I guess you can't expect too much for the center of London, but it was liveable.
We had a lot of plans crammed into our 2 days in London. Unfortunately missing out some things, like the Science and Natural History museums, but we've planned to go to them next time.
On the first day, we took the underground to the South Bank and explored a bit before going on the London Eye after sunset and after the groups of annoying school kids had gone. I'm quite afraid of heights, but I loved it on The Eye. London looks so gorgeous at night, all lit up.
Much prettier and quieter at night.
After The Eye, we explored some more, finding a small games arcade, where we found Dance Dance Revolutions most dedicated fan. Then eating at Wagamamas, which was delicious.
Dripping with sweat, his feet were a blur.
The next day we got up early after a couple hours sleep, to try get as much done as we could and headed to the London Dungeons. We weren't expecting it to be scary, but we weren't expecting to be surrounded by about 2 groups of school girls screaming constantly at things that weren't even supposed to be scary. So we spent most of the tour looking at each other annoyed that they wouldn't shut up. During the tour I was picked out of the crowd to get up and be “trialled” and had everyone sent to the gallows for being Welsh.
After the Dungeons, we had a walk around the area and found an open market called the Borough Market, practically having a free lunch by walking around having samples from most of the stalls. But a fish and chip shop caught our eye, as that was another British dish that he had to try. We both aren't fans of fish, but we got the cod and was enjoying it until he noticed some fish skin and was put off. So fish and chips weren't as much as a success as the Full English.
All was going well until Wrighteous saw some fish skin, sending him running.
We took the tube back to the South Bank and went to the Sea Life Aquarium. They had a new penguin exhibit that we were really excited to see. We had a great time in the aquarium and bought tickets for a behind the scenes tour, it was just the 2 of us on the tour and we were hoping to get more up close with the animals. Unfortunately it was more a tour of the filtering systems and where they store the animals food.
Shark photobomb.
After walking around, taking in the sites, we followed some street signs to the Tate Art Museum, had fun laughing at the contemporary section and got some dirty looks from the artsy people for not fully realising the brilliance of a glass of water on a shelf. We met up with a friend of mine that now lived in London and looked for somewhere to eat, but all that was on my mind were the Chicken Gyoza side dish that we ate the night before at Wagamamas. This time I'd be getting a plate of them for myself, they were so good.
Art?
We had planned to take our luggage around London with us the next day so that we could explore some more. But quickly realised that that would be an absolute nightmare, so instead we checked out and drove to Wiltshire, to our next hotel.
Longleat Safari Park - Wiltshire.
All the travelling was stressful and exhausting, so we took the rest of the day to just relax and laze around in our room. We tried hooking up the xbox, but the hotel had locked their TVs, so we couldn't, annoyingly.
On the Sunday we got up early and drove to Longleat Safari Park. I'm a big animal lover, so had always wanted to go there. Unfortunately because of the snow, a lot of the animals were kept indoors. But the monkeys and the big cats were still out, which is what we were looking forward to most. As soon as we entered the “Monkey Drive Thru”, they had jumped up on our car. Riding the wing mirrors and tearing bits off my radio aerial. Nothing too damaging luckily.
Monkeying around.
Out of the big cats, we saw the tigers first. I love tigers, so it was amazing to see them so close. The cars had queued up a bit by the time we got to the lions, but it was a big pride and the cubs were adorable, chasing each other and jumping on the lionesses.
We also drove through the wolves area, and had a wolf walking along side our car as we drove.
It ended with a bird show, with owls and vultures flying over the crowds heads, one man being swept by a vultures wing. It really is a great place that we're hopefully going to visit again one summer, when all the animals will be out.
Wrighteous got a bit spooked.
Our last couple days together.
For the last 2 days we drove back to my house in Wales, but stayed in a hotel. I had fun showing him around where I live and where I went to school.
The last day was Valentines day, and we had the most amazing day. It was so hard having to get up at 6am the next morning for him to leave. But it was an amazing and perfect night to end our holiday.
We caught the train to London, so that we could talk properly the way there instead of me driving. But ended up sleeping most of the way.
The airport was heartbreaking, it was the worst feeling. We had an amazing time and neither of us wanted it to end. I couldn't look back as I walked away, I knew it would be too hard. On the tube back, I was sat directly opposite a loved up, kissy couple. I cried the whole way and I knew people on the tube were looking at me. I exchanged at Paddington to catch my train home, playing some games on my DS to try and take my mind off things, but every time I stopped playing I'd start crying again. Getting in the car at the train station back home was the hardest of the journey back, I'd been so used to him sitting next to me and now it was empty.
As soon as I got home, I was straight on my computer looking at plane tickets to Chicago. It's been so hard not to just buy them straight away. But I need to save up.
The plan for me, is to go to Chicago in June for 5 or 6 weeks, and I can't wait :)
Valentines.
Thank you Giant Bomb.
Thanks to everyone that has read our story and been really supportive, this really is a great community! I can't say how nervous I was at first, posting our story, thinking we might be made fun of. But everyone has been really sweet, so thank you :)
The bubble of excitement will soon burst and you both will have to face a real relationship, not only a special vacation, where you will eventually have to face your flaws. Hope it'll work out on the long run. Especially long distance stuff. Good luck.
This. I wish you both the best of luck but it will take more than that. To the happy couple!
We have really tried our best not to be naive about this or look at it through rose tinted glasses. But with the amount of time that we've talked, leading up to this, we've discussed pretty much everything that we thought could have any kind of impact on our relationship. We've shared everything about our past, our mistakes and things that you really wouldn't want to bring up with your partner because they might put an end to things. But we wanted to be completely open and honest about everything from the start.
We know it won't be easy, it hasn't always been a bubble of excitement. We've fought now and then about things and have had to deal with bouts of jealousy. But we're both pretty good at "arguing" with each other, talking about things rationally and listening to what the others had to say, that they've never lasted too long. I think that because of this, we really have built a great foundation.
I'm looking at going there for 5 or 6 weeks this summer and we've talked about me moving there for a year, between college and university. Or him possibly moving to his works branch in the UK while I'm studying, but we're not getting ahead of ourselves. We know that whatever path we decide on, it will be a long and probably at times a really difficult road, probably years before we're able to settle down together, and at least for the moment, we're working towards that.
@Fattony12000: I did mention to him that we should get Jaffa Cakes. I tried explaining what they were, but you can't understand them without trying them. I ended up completely forgetting to get some.
If this leads to a wedding then the GB staff have to come. Can you imagine, a GB table with Vinny, Brad, Jeff, and Ryan. Patrick can come too but no one is allowed to give him any alcohol.
haha that would be pretty amazing, I'd get married just for that! I wouldn't dream of giving Patrick alcohol, I don't want to be fined on my wedding day for giving alcohol to a minor.
@buzz_clik said:
@DuskVamp: N'awww, you guys are cuter than a basket of buttons.
Also, I want curry now.
I've heard that it's hard to find curry in America, so we definitely had to get some. Luckily the curry we had at my brothers was amazing, that made up for the scary one.
One of my friends at work thought that it was really weird, saying that he might be an axe murderer. Everyone only hears the bad stories of people meeting each other online, we both felt weird about it ourselves at the start. We would call each other "pseudo-boyfriend and girlfriend" until things started to get realer and we realised it was actually going to happen. Congratulations to you, good luck on your wedding!@Hero_Swe said:
Super happy for you! Me and my girlfriend are basically in the same situation, me in Sweden and her in Britain. Though we're both going through some things on our side of lives. Really want to visit her so I can give her the biggest hug ever.
If you are willing to make a part two, i would be willing to read it!
I'll get on to part two soon!
@dudeglove said:
Whiskey Media should give you a special t-shirt or achievement or dinner with Brad or something for hooking up.
I would do anything to have Brad at our table, crooning a song with his sultry, dulcet tones. It would set the mood perfectly.
@EvilTwin said:
Did anyone else immediately think Like Crazy? This shit won't end well. But in the meantime, enjoy the halcyon days you young lovers!
Just watching the trailer for it, after Wrighteous told me he watched it on the flight home. I cried like a baby.
@SSully said:
What a great post. Its awesome reading mainly because I thought @Wrighteous86 initial post about going to England was interesting. So seeing the other side of the coin is neat! Plus its a nice little story about two people getting together thanks to giantbomb.
Also nice because oddly enough I am also from Chicago and me and my girlfriends dream vacation is to London. I hope to make the trip someday soon!
London will be in part two when I get round to it. We were only there for 2 days, which definitely isn't enough time. It is an amazing place, but if you go, definitely download the "Travel Deluxe" app, the underground is a mindfield!
@Abyssfull: I should post that at the start of my follow up blog, insisting it be played before reading on.
@theredcoat24 said:
cute story
glad to see I'm not the only American on this site with a British girlfriend
Thank you guys for being so nice to us! I was really worried that people might find it weird and make fun of us for it, but this really is a great community!
@Sooty said:
Best of luck with the long distance thing, may you come across many a cheap plane tickets.
Me too, it's gonna be hard with me starting college in September, as the prices during the holidays are ridiculous!
@Ravenlight said:
Technically, it should be Duderess.
Thank you, I'll correct it in my next blog.
@MarkWahlberg said:
Based on my experience with Indian restaurants, it sounds like you got off lucky, honestly.
Yay internet friends!
haha, any good stories? It was more funny than scary, we were just trying not to laugh during his whole argument.
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