This week we are starting a little off topic. This post is well overdue considering tomorrow is Friday and I am just now posting about my previous weekend. I was lucky enough to catch the worst cold I could imagine that paired great (sarcastically of course), with a sore body from the day of dancing in Birmingham and the horrible effects of eating the Big Mac that I craved for nearly a year. Can we say… REGRET! After the wonderful combination of the three amigos, I made it through. However, a dry cough still lingers, continuing to disrupt my sleep. Yet, I can’t delay any longer because consistency is key!

My weekend trip was somewhat spontaneous, in that we knew we wanted to travel, but the location was unknown. Thanks to a Google Maps search for somewhere south and hoping for warmth, we chose the Isle of Wight. We stayed in Ryde, which was one of the larger towns on the northeast side of the Isle. The port is fairly close to Southampton, England and on a clear day could see it from the pier. The bed and breakfast was cute and close to the center of town that we explored the next day. By the time we settled in on Friday, we were already searching for our first meal of the trip after four hours of traveling from Bath. We ended up at an Italian restaurant in town, which happened to be our second choice because the pub we originally went to doesn’t serve food after 6pm on Friday nights. We discovered early on that this is the place you come to settle down to raise a family or retire and live the rest of your life peacefully. The residents were either kids, parents, or grandparents. Dinner was good enough to return, although I made a mental note to never eat pizza in public in England ever again. I’m sure you have no idea why. Well, let me explain…

You’re supposed to use a knife and fork to eat your pizza, and just about every food. Using your hands is, I suppose, rude? Not classy? You get the point. So, to not appear like an idiot in a fine dining restaurant, I did it the expected way. It was fine in the beginning but quickly became exhausting. At least for me, that is. My hand was beginning to hurt, and yes I know how to properly cut food with silverware, but pizza?! Never again. I like using my hands, which is how the Italians do it so why must it be any different?

Anyway, I took half my pizza back home with me to finish eating my way. The next morning we missed breakfast because it ended early, so we began our mission to find brunch. It was difficult and once again we ended up at our second choice due to not finding the first place. Google said it was there, but there was a different restaurant that didn’t have the food we were searching for. Although it was worth it in the end, and our brunch consisted of paninis and a side salad. It was really good and as I write this I’m beginning to crave another one.

After brunch, we walked down to the boardwalk and went to the bus station which eventually led us to the Monkey Haven. This was the highlight of our trip. That may sound bad, but seeing and reading about all of these monkeys that were imported from various places was great and unexpected. There were owls too, but of course, they were all sleeping. All but these two birds that made a laughing sound and when I laughed, she laughed even louder. (I’m literally laughing again, right now, thinking back to the moment.) We left the monkeys and continued onto the town of Newport, which seemed to be the center of everything. It was the most modern of all the towns we visited, from the large movie theater and down to the KFC where we ate lunch. That was the best KFC I have ever had and the price seems to be better than America. After seeing a movie, we planned on exploring the club scene, but by the time we returned home, we didn’t want to go back out. Plus, the next day was checkout and more exploration.

We woke up early enough for breakfast this time and had a classic English breakfast with homemade marmalade. It was my second favorite of the English breakfasts that I’ve had, which is only three. Checkout was quick and we headed straight to the bus station to go to the other side of the Isle to see the famous needlepoint cliff. The bus ride there had amazing views and for some moments you forget you’re surrounded by water from the bright green hills and small farms on every turn. After about an hour bus ride, we made it to our stop. Coming into this town during the winter was a mistake because everything is closed thanks to the tide being so high it covers the beach, so any amenities to view the cliffs better were unavailable. The only attraction was the gift shop and the restaurant. After slight disappointment, we jumped back on the bus and went to catch the ferry back to the train station. Luckily we had just missed it and got to relax at this adorable cafe. The orange chocolate hot chocolate was so good and, according to Diana, the frosting on the carrot cake was amazing. She said it was so good she wants to take a tub of it home. Of course, we didn’t bring back any tubs of frosting, but we made the best of our failed spontaneity in the little moments. It was easy to figure out where we went wrong and how we could have made this weekend better, had we planned better, It didn’t really matter though because we were capable of having fun despite the things that went wrong.

This was the first weekend Bath truly felt like home. We both missed everything about it and couldn’t wait to be back. Today marks a month of being in Bath and the fact that I can call it home already gets me thinking… I do miss my family and friends, but I like it here and with continued persuasion, you all will come soon enough.

Here are some more pictures from the weekend…