Back to Windermere!

It's been such a long time! Sorry blog for neglecting you - I have no excuse but I shall pledge to keep give you more attention from now on. 

Beverly and I decided to travel to the Lake District during Fresher's Week! We had just completed a field course in the first week of September (which was so much fun and our course really bonded over the duration of the field trip!) and had a week to spare before school officially started. I had already been to Windermere in the Lake District with Topo earlier in January but Beverly was so sweet to suggest that we not do anything that I had done before :') 

We stayed in Lake District's backpacker hostel and it was the most relaxed administration system I have experienced. There was no reception, you were just given a code to your room via email and you dropped your money in an envelope in a safety deposit box at your own discretion! (we paid - duh) The room was a decent size and with a double bed below and a single on the top. Beverly and I just decided share the double bed - ooooohhhh 😉 the room had a sink as well which was very convenient and much appreciated :) 

We arrived in the late afternoon and decided to just do some walking around the town of Windermere. 

We hiked up to Orrest head view point

and then to Post-knot view point! Which we got lost trying to find but found our way in the end :)

Also, we realised that the portrait mode on the iPhone 7 plus was so much better than an actual camera and since it was just the 2 of us, we had so many solo shots and I have never had my picture taken so many times before 

After visiting the two view points, we'd decided to go for dinner at Jintana!! The same Thai place that Topo and I went for dinner every day when we were in Windermere☺We wanted to take a bus down as we were lazy to do a 20 min walk there and back, and the guy we had asked at the tourist information centre said that the tickets were about £1-£1.50 for a return - not bad at all was what we were thinking. So we happily got on the bus till the bus driver said "£4.20 for a return" . W T S. But since we were already on the bus, we just decided to pay and later agreed to never pay for that trip again. We had a lovely dinner of green curry, headed back to the hostel to plan our itinerary for the next day and watched a movie called The Fits. Didn't particularly enjoy the movie and we were both like 'um what did we just watch' and were really confused and had mixed feelings - conclusion: I do not recommend. I also fell asleep halfway oops

The next morning, Beverly and I bought a Central Lakes Dayrider ticket for £8 and went to the town of Grassmere to go hiking!

Hike 1: Helm's Crag 

We passed a massive herd of cows grazing and obviously had to take pics !!

As Beverly and I began our ascent, it began to rain - just our luck. We weren't upset at all though, we just kept laughing at the fact that we didn't bother checking the weather forecast. It was a steep climb up and we were huffing and puffing, sweating because of our coats, and it was raining so we could not take our coats out and it was the most uncomfortable feeling ever!! We didn't manage to find the iconic Lion and the Lamb shaped stone and so we just decided to stop where we were but we were so disappointed because it was incredibly misty. 

However, as if the universe had heard our cries, the rain stopped, the mist cleared and the sun came out from behind the clouds!!! We managed to take some nice pictures and after the pure 2 minutes of bliss, it started to pour again?! It was almost like a spiritual moment because I felt like the universe knew we wanted to capture memories of the amazing views and so it gave us a short window of opportunity to do so :')

After it started pouring again, I was already grabbing my bag to start our descend when Beverly shouted " Double rainbow!!!!!"

IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!! 

It was the most vibrant rainbow I have ever seen and it was so close to us as well! and if it weren't raining that day, we wouldn't have been able to see it! The rainbow only lasted for half a minute as well and Beverly and I just couldn't believe how lucky we were that these sequence of events were lined up perfectly in time for us to witness them!! 

*heaving a happy sigh as I write this*

Back to this right after that 30 sec double rainbow. Do you see now how drastic the changes in weather was?? Just shows again how lucky we were!!

Me: "Beverly let's try taking a jump shot" 

Beverly: " It's not going to work" 

Me: " Let's just try once and if it does not work then we don't have to bother trying again"

Beverly: " Ok fine but I bet it's not going to work" 

Me: " Trust me, it will work" 

Our first attempt is this photo right here (you're welcome)

Hike 2: Loughrigg Fell 

Another rainbow!

Made it to what we deemed as the top !!

*how beautiful*

Saw yet another rainbow!

We then decided to walk to Ambelside from Grassmere following a really beautiful and shaded footpath (thankfully for that because it was sporadically drizzling!) We then got on the bus back to windermere and had dinner at - you guess it, Jintana!! 

After getting back to the hostel, we commenced on our usual bedtime routine - shower, plan for the next day, movie (watched Zootopia this time and I fell asleep again oops) 

The next day, we did a long trek to Wray Castle! We had to get on the Ferry Nab across the lake from Bowness and the trek was 7km to Wray Castle but half of it was through really serene woods :) 

This was taken at a view point near Wray Castle. The castle wasn't really that spectacular and hence it didn't warrant a picture. The guard/guide at the castle told Beverly and I that we could get a boat back to Brockhole visitor centre where we thought we could get a bus back to Windermere as many hiking trails that we searched up started from Brockhole. And so we did get on the boat and no one asked us for money so YAY a free ride!! But then turns out, there weren't any buses nearby that we could get to Windermere on so Beverly and I decided to walk back! 1.5 hours later (ok maybe an hour?), we landed ourselves in... JINTANA AGAIN HAHA and had a scrumptious meal! 

We commenced our bedtime routine after getting back and watched How to Train your Dragon!! (absolutely ♡ this film)

The next day and also our last ☹, we embarked on an epic bus journey through what looked just like the highlands! The only reason how Beverly and I knew about this route was because we overheard a lady on the bus on our first day, having a conversation with another lady about a bus route 77 (honister pass), which was incredibly scenic and so we decided to give it a shot. I love encounters like this because the best memories/experiences seem to always happen out of chance ☺ So, we got on the bus 555 to Keswick which was already scenic enough, and then got on the bus 77 for which there was a fairly long queue for

Looks just like the Isle of Skye!

I couldn't believe that a public bus would go through such amazing landscapes and it's wonderful that they have this service rather than charging people more money to have to book a tour bus to access these beautiful sites :') Thank you Lake District buses !! 

However, as it was a public service, this meant not being able to stop to take photos and slightly more stringent timings to visit specific sites, but Beverly and I managed to get in an hour's worth of time to visit Lake Buttermere! We then hopped on the next bus and went back to Keswisk. I spotted a vegan cafe on the ride back and so we headed in to get takeaway dinner for our train ride that evening. I had 2 sticks of vegan ice cream there!! They were like mini magnums and I had a hazelnut and peanut butter flavored one and they even had vegan quinoa croissants?? So I obviously had to have one and bought one for the train later as well. We then got on the 555 back to Windermere, picked up our left luggage in a storage space at the visitor's centre and got on the train back to Edinburgh! 

(Vegan croissant was on point) 

- Was such a lovely 4 days indulging in hikes and nature and yummy thai food and great company - 

♥