Train trip to Bristol

Thankfully here in London check out is 11am, which is great if you have a tendency to over sleep as Chris and I did this morning. Again another brekki in which this time we DID smuggle some more cheese and ham sangas out.. by now we didn’t care if they saw, it’s not like they could kick us out now! Check out was easier then first expected and we head straight to Paddington Station. We had two hours to kill before our train down to Bristol and it was easily filled with Maccas and Paddington bear. Yep, Paddington bear at Paddington Station, who’d have thought? There was a large Paddington bear strolling around collecting donations for a children’s charity, and I couldn’t resist the chance to leap in for a photo with the marmalade loving bear. As you can see from the photo Paddington is obviously a male, that or a lurking pervert.

Aww, Paddington Bear and I lurking outside the mens loo.. we'll crop this photo I think..

We hopped on the train nice and early and found that our seats were at a table for four. “No problem” we thought “that’s cool, just hope our seat mates are nice” and they weren’t nice.. they were awesome! It was so odd. The train was practically empty, seats galore to choose from and yet they’d clumped us together and it was great! We met Helena and Nils, a couple heading away for the long weekend. God knows what they may have thought of us, but we thought they were great. They were great fun and were very generous in shouting us drinks, only wouldn’t allow us to shout them back, we’d like to be able to meet up with them and buy them a round or two in the future. It was lovely though as up until this train ride we’d not come across anyone who would voluntarily talk to you. So far we can only assume that the people in London are nice, we make this guess as no one will bloody talk to you in this city! Unless of course they HAVE to, like at the hotel or bank, or to tell you to “move please” when you’re standing on the wrong side of the escalator and they’re trying to rush on past you… I learnt that one the hard way. But this train trip was a lovely experience and I hadn’t laughed that much in a long time, it was so nice and such a relieve to meet some lovely, genuine people. As I sat there thinking ‘hmm, this woman is bloody gorgeous” it came to pass in conversation, that she is indeed, a model. Knew it. She was just gorgeous inside and out though and her partner a lovely, witty bloke. Lovely couple, who we wish all the best to and would, if it was to happen, see again.

The great somethingarather that we caught to Bristol, great bar on board!

We arrived in Bristol, perhaps a little, shall we say, merry? And were picked up by Jenny and it was so lovely to see her again! We loved having Jenny with us while she was in Australia and it’s great to see her again, she’s a complete gem. Luckily Jen was more than happy to see us too and had no problem in overlooking our merry state. We lost our merriness during the drive and arrived to our home away from home not long after. Ann and Brian are so welcoming and lovely and we feel at home straight away. Later on, after Martin had arrived and we’d all eaten dinner the four of us head out to sample some of the more local beer at the most local pubs. It was a great casual night and a nice way to start our stay down here in Bristol, though the large consumption of alcohol probably was enough to keep us going for a good few weeks. No more for awhile I think, I’m not 18 anymore sadly!

written by

Chris and Emily on April 10, 2009 from Bristol, United Kingdom

from the travel blog: Europe 2009

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