LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Day 1 & 2
As in usual Taylor fashion, I booked two days off work before my trip so I could get everything organized and then still seemed to procrastinate until the morning of. I had planned to do everything on Monday, but completely overlooked the fact it was a civic holiday, so everything was closed and the library was on strike, preventing me from shopping and getting all my papers printed. So, the morning I was due to leave, I went to my Dad’s around 8:30am to print my documents. After that was all done, I headed to my mom’s where I dropped my van off and got a ride to the Holiday Inn which is where my shuttle was due to leave. Of course, the entire entourage was with me to see me off!
I ended up waiting ages for my shuttle, which turned out okay because it was an hour late and we were suppose to have an hour layover halfway into the journey anyway, so we ended up just not stopping midway and continued on to the airport instead.
When I got to the airport, it took me an absolute age to check in, so by the time everything was said and done I had about 40 minutes until my flight was due to board. I took advantage of this time and the relatively decent price of alcohol and ordered three double drinks. I also met a guy who was a private pilot as well so we chatted until it was time to leave. The one good thing about Toronto airport is that they have Ipads at every seat and you can order your drinks/food from them as well. Yay for not having to interact!
I passed out pretty fast as soon as I got on the plane and slept for the first few hours of the flight. I only paid $260 for my flight, and unfortunately that meant no in flight entertainment as well as no window seat, but I was dozing on and off for the entire thing anyway and it was actually one of the smoothest flights I’ve ever had. Soon enough, we were making our descent into Edinburgh to one of the worst airports I’ve ever had the misfortune of visiting. I had nearly a three hour layover, but the customs line was so long and we were given so much wrong information that caused us to really cut it close to our connection. For whatever reason we were told by two people we had to pick up our bags and transfer them ourselves, meaning going through security again only to realize our bags were transferring themselves which is what I figured to begin with. Once we boarded, the plane was delayed over an hour due to a suspicious bag that they had to remove, but eventually we were on our way to Gatwick.
I was knackered once I’d arrived in London, and had a hard time with my massive suitcase and duffle on the tube, but I got to Westferry eventually and met up with Ben who was on his lunch break. He showed me the way to his apartment where I crashed for a little bit until he got off work. We went searching for lime juice to make our Coronaritas, but couldn’t find any so we bought limes and squeezed them ourselves to make them the old fashioned way! They actually tasted pretty good.
As we were watching Naked Attraction, there was a knock and the door and it was none other than Lofty <3 I didn’t realize he was staying with Ben for his interview in London the next day, so once he arrived we all headed to Stratford to get creds and Nando’s. The creds were just a basic +2, but a +2 nonetheless. The Nando’s was amazing as per usual.
When we got back to the apartment, we had more Coronaritas and watched more Naked Attraction before eventually going to bed.
Day 3
Ben was ditching for two days to go to a wedding, so I figured I’d use the next two days for doing touristy things and sightseeing. I’ve been to London a billion times now so I wasn’t really fussed about seeing too much in depth, but I still wanted to make my rounds. I started the day off going to McDonalds for breakfast and then Primark near Marble Arch for some shopping which didn’t turn out so good because I didn’t buy anything. I then made my way to the National Museum which I still can’t believe has free entry along with all the other museums and galleries in London. I didn’t spend too much time in there, but I’m interested in Egyptian history so I spent most of my time with the mummies. I walked around a bit and then left, making my way to Primark on Oxford street where I did end up buying myself a few goodies.
My next port of call was Covent Gardens and Leicester Square, where I walked around the market a little bit and watched some of the shows that the street performers were putting on.
As much as I hate M&M World, it was there so I went in, plus I was feeling a bit hungry and thought that some M&Ms would keep me held over until dinner. Annoyingly, they didn’t have any super good or exotic flavours, so I settled for dark chocolate peanut and crispy. The bag was gone once I reached Trafalgar Square about twenty minutes later!
There’s not really anything to do in Trafalgar Square but it has always been one of my favourite places to go in London. So, I just went and hungout for a little bit, took a few selfies and went on my way to Buckingham Palace, where I took more selfies.
Annoyingly I kind of got lost a bit after this and didn’t get off at the right stop on the Underground, which worked in my favour because it spit me out right at the Tower of London which I wanted to see anyway. I hadn’t properly walked around it before, and though I didn’t pay for a tour I was happy to just see it from a bit of a distance and see Traitor’s Gate as well.
Considering I was already there, I walked over Tower Bridge which was good timing because a big cruise ship was coming up underneath it which was quite cool to see. It meant being stuck on the bridge in obscene amounts of wind, but it gave me a chance to look at a lot of photos.
I made my way back to Ben’s to freshen up and say goodbye to him since he was leaving for the wedding. Me and Sue had planned to meet up at Waterloo for dinner and some drinks, so that’s exactly what we did (after Sue took me on a very roundabout route to the Slug and Lettuce, under some rapey overpasses). I had some tomato sandwich thing and it was 2 for 1 cocktails so I also had a margarita and a long island. When we were done we decided to walk along Southbank or whatever it’s called, which was lovely considering it’s one of my favourite parts of London and it was a nice evening outside. We ended up at a place called Doggett’s where we enjoyed a few more adult beverages before heading back to the station and parting ways!
Once I got back to Ben’s, I went to bed pretty much right away.
I’m not posting an obscene amount of photos on here so if you want to see more feel free to creep my Facebook.
Day 4
Today was meant to be another tourist day, but I slept in for most of the morning which meant I didn’t do a whole lot. I didn’t want this trip to be exhausting so I was making sure to get ample sleep. I ended up leaving the apartment around 2pm and going to see Big Ben as well as the London Eye, which I didn’t ride because I was planning on doing it the following week. I took a walk around Southbank again, this time during the day, in search of food but to no avail, so I ended up at some Mexican restaurant on the opposite side of the river which turned out to be really good actually. I had an hour to kill so I had a few margaritas on top of my burrito before heading out to Aldgate East for my Jack the Ripper tour. I’ve always been super interested in serial killers and Jack the Ripper is obviously a notorious one so I was quite excited to do this. Unfortunately one of the tour guides called in so our tour group had an obscene amount of people (around seventy) so it made walking around the streets a bit difficult. Either way, the tour was pretty good and we got to see places such as the Ten Bells where Jack and his victims drank, the bar Mary Ann Nichols drank before getting killed, Itchy Park, the building where Annie Chapman’s body was found, Mitre Square where Catherine Eddells’ body was found, and the doorway where a piece of her bloody dress was found along with a message from the murderer scrolled on the wall. Pretty interesting and I’m glad I did it, although when we were standing in Mitre Square some man crashed his car into a pole which sucked for him.
I called it an early night because I was going to have to get up early, so I went back to Ben’s after the tour was over.
Day 5
As stated previously, I had to get up early to try snagging the tickets to Matilda for a fiver, but the line opened at eight and I didn’t get there until just after nine, so by that time I wasn’t hopeful I’d be getting one considering the line had accumulated quite a bit already. Thankfully it worked out in my favour and I ended up with my cheap ticket, albeit in a crappy seat but for less than ten dollars I could hardly complain. I had a few hours to kill until the matinee show started so I got some breakfast and then took a quick nap because for some reason I was feeling really tired.
I got a bit lost on the way to the theatre which was a bit of a blow to my ego considering I had just been thinking how good I’d gotten at navigating around London. I got there about ten minutes before the show started, grabbed some overpriced wine and a bottle of water, and took my seat.
I really enjoyed the show. I always liked Matilda growing up, but wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this considering it was slightly changed and with different musical numbers. I thought the music was fun and catchy, and even the little changes they did turned out just fine, although I didn’t like Lavender’s character. Definitely a pleasant surprise overall though!
I had to catch the train shortly after the show ended, so I grabbed my stuff and went to Euston where I caught the train to Long Buckby to stay at Ben’s mom’s house. It was late when I got there, but not late enough to not order a delicious Indian meal <3 I had amazing chicken korma and some weird bread things before going to bed.
Day 6
My first park of the trip was Drayton Manor, which I was relatively excited for even though there’s not a whole lot of quality there. We caught the train in the morning and on the train ride there, Ben’s exact words that he would soon be eating were “nothing is ever closed at Draytez and it’s never busy.” Well, the massive line of cars leading into the park and the sign of ride closures told me that Ben was totally wrong. G-Force and the Buffalo coaster were both closed, which was super annoying considering that meant I’d only be getting one major coaster and then two kiddie/family coasters. Either way, I didn’t let it ruin the day.
The first thing we did was Apocalypse which was my first stand up drop tower. The floorless side was shut so we did the standing side with the floor. Drop towers scare me to begin with, but this added an extra scare factor for sure. It’s probably the best thing in the park, and despite not being massive, it’s one of the better drop towers out there.
We did Shockwave next, which looked like it was going to have a nasty line considering it was running one train, but we only waited about twenty minutes. The first drop and zero-G were quite good, but the rest of the coaster was rough and short.
I had to take a selfie in front of the closed G Force, because even though everyone said it sucks, it’s still the most major cred in the park I think, so I was bummed out that it was shut.
I think we ended up doing Ben 10 next which had almost an hour long wait. I actually quite enjoyed it and I think more parks should have them because they’re good family coasters.
We went on the Wild West Shootout and there was obviously a reason it was a walk on. It’s the most ghetto shooter ever!
I GORGED at lunch, really decided to treat myself to a nice meal…
I had one more cred to get so I sucked it up and waited the half an hour for Troublesome Trucks. +1, nothing to really write home about. Thomas land is a decent area though!
The last things we did before heading off were the Madhouse and Pandemonium. The Madhouse is fun as most are, but it was slightly ghetto which made it even more amusing. Pandemonium was a decent flat.
To sum up the day this is kind of what I thought of Drayton Manor…
Day 7
Really nothing much to write about on this day. I took it easy in the afternoon and drank some Pimms before heading out for dinner at Las Iguanas with some lovely friends! It was a great time with great food, thanks for the discount, Conor!
Unfortunately, after dinner we had to wander around in the cold catching Pokemon (I don’t pay that crappy game so I took pictures instead).
I went to bed as soon as I got back to Ben’s because I had to get on the Eurostar early the next morning!
UP NEXT- PARIS
As in usual Taylor fashion, I booked two days off work before my trip so I could get everything organized and then still seemed to procrastinate until the morning of. I had planned to do everything on Monday, but completely overlooked the fact it was a civic holiday, so everything was closed and the library was on strike, preventing me from shopping and getting all my papers printed. So, the morning I was due to leave, I went to my Dad’s around 8:30am to print my documents. After that was all done, I headed to my mom’s where I dropped my van off and got a ride to the Holiday Inn which is where my shuttle was due to leave. Of course, the entire entourage was with me to see me off!
I ended up waiting ages for my shuttle, which turned out okay because it was an hour late and we were suppose to have an hour layover halfway into the journey anyway, so we ended up just not stopping midway and continued on to the airport instead.
When I got to the airport, it took me an absolute age to check in, so by the time everything was said and done I had about 40 minutes until my flight was due to board. I took advantage of this time and the relatively decent price of alcohol and ordered three double drinks. I also met a guy who was a private pilot as well so we chatted until it was time to leave. The one good thing about Toronto airport is that they have Ipads at every seat and you can order your drinks/food from them as well. Yay for not having to interact!
I passed out pretty fast as soon as I got on the plane and slept for the first few hours of the flight. I only paid $260 for my flight, and unfortunately that meant no in flight entertainment as well as no window seat, but I was dozing on and off for the entire thing anyway and it was actually one of the smoothest flights I’ve ever had. Soon enough, we were making our descent into Edinburgh to one of the worst airports I’ve ever had the misfortune of visiting. I had nearly a three hour layover, but the customs line was so long and we were given so much wrong information that caused us to really cut it close to our connection. For whatever reason we were told by two people we had to pick up our bags and transfer them ourselves, meaning going through security again only to realize our bags were transferring themselves which is what I figured to begin with. Once we boarded, the plane was delayed over an hour due to a suspicious bag that they had to remove, but eventually we were on our way to Gatwick.
I was knackered once I’d arrived in London, and had a hard time with my massive suitcase and duffle on the tube, but I got to Westferry eventually and met up with Ben who was on his lunch break. He showed me the way to his apartment where I crashed for a little bit until he got off work. We went searching for lime juice to make our Coronaritas, but couldn’t find any so we bought limes and squeezed them ourselves to make them the old fashioned way! They actually tasted pretty good.
As we were watching Naked Attraction, there was a knock and the door and it was none other than Lofty <3 I didn’t realize he was staying with Ben for his interview in London the next day, so once he arrived we all headed to Stratford to get creds and Nando’s. The creds were just a basic +2, but a +2 nonetheless. The Nando’s was amazing as per usual.
When we got back to the apartment, we had more Coronaritas and watched more Naked Attraction before eventually going to bed.
Day 3
Ben was ditching for two days to go to a wedding, so I figured I’d use the next two days for doing touristy things and sightseeing. I’ve been to London a billion times now so I wasn’t really fussed about seeing too much in depth, but I still wanted to make my rounds. I started the day off going to McDonalds for breakfast and then Primark near Marble Arch for some shopping which didn’t turn out so good because I didn’t buy anything. I then made my way to the National Museum which I still can’t believe has free entry along with all the other museums and galleries in London. I didn’t spend too much time in there, but I’m interested in Egyptian history so I spent most of my time with the mummies. I walked around a bit and then left, making my way to Primark on Oxford street where I did end up buying myself a few goodies.
My next port of call was Covent Gardens and Leicester Square, where I walked around the market a little bit and watched some of the shows that the street performers were putting on.
As much as I hate M&M World, it was there so I went in, plus I was feeling a bit hungry and thought that some M&Ms would keep me held over until dinner. Annoyingly, they didn’t have any super good or exotic flavours, so I settled for dark chocolate peanut and crispy. The bag was gone once I reached Trafalgar Square about twenty minutes later!
There’s not really anything to do in Trafalgar Square but it has always been one of my favourite places to go in London. So, I just went and hungout for a little bit, took a few selfies and went on my way to Buckingham Palace, where I took more selfies.
Annoyingly I kind of got lost a bit after this and didn’t get off at the right stop on the Underground, which worked in my favour because it spit me out right at the Tower of London which I wanted to see anyway. I hadn’t properly walked around it before, and though I didn’t pay for a tour I was happy to just see it from a bit of a distance and see Traitor’s Gate as well.
Considering I was already there, I walked over Tower Bridge which was good timing because a big cruise ship was coming up underneath it which was quite cool to see. It meant being stuck on the bridge in obscene amounts of wind, but it gave me a chance to look at a lot of photos.
I made my way back to Ben’s to freshen up and say goodbye to him since he was leaving for the wedding. Me and Sue had planned to meet up at Waterloo for dinner and some drinks, so that’s exactly what we did (after Sue took me on a very roundabout route to the Slug and Lettuce, under some rapey overpasses). I had some tomato sandwich thing and it was 2 for 1 cocktails so I also had a margarita and a long island. When we were done we decided to walk along Southbank or whatever it’s called, which was lovely considering it’s one of my favourite parts of London and it was a nice evening outside. We ended up at a place called Doggett’s where we enjoyed a few more adult beverages before heading back to the station and parting ways!
Once I got back to Ben’s, I went to bed pretty much right away.
I’m not posting an obscene amount of photos on here so if you want to see more feel free to creep my Facebook.
Day 4
Today was meant to be another tourist day, but I slept in for most of the morning which meant I didn’t do a whole lot. I didn’t want this trip to be exhausting so I was making sure to get ample sleep. I ended up leaving the apartment around 2pm and going to see Big Ben as well as the London Eye, which I didn’t ride because I was planning on doing it the following week. I took a walk around Southbank again, this time during the day, in search of food but to no avail, so I ended up at some Mexican restaurant on the opposite side of the river which turned out to be really good actually. I had an hour to kill so I had a few margaritas on top of my burrito before heading out to Aldgate East for my Jack the Ripper tour. I’ve always been super interested in serial killers and Jack the Ripper is obviously a notorious one so I was quite excited to do this. Unfortunately one of the tour guides called in so our tour group had an obscene amount of people (around seventy) so it made walking around the streets a bit difficult. Either way, the tour was pretty good and we got to see places such as the Ten Bells where Jack and his victims drank, the bar Mary Ann Nichols drank before getting killed, Itchy Park, the building where Annie Chapman’s body was found, Mitre Square where Catherine Eddells’ body was found, and the doorway where a piece of her bloody dress was found along with a message from the murderer scrolled on the wall. Pretty interesting and I’m glad I did it, although when we were standing in Mitre Square some man crashed his car into a pole which sucked for him.
I called it an early night because I was going to have to get up early, so I went back to Ben’s after the tour was over.
Day 5
As stated previously, I had to get up early to try snagging the tickets to Matilda for a fiver, but the line opened at eight and I didn’t get there until just after nine, so by that time I wasn’t hopeful I’d be getting one considering the line had accumulated quite a bit already. Thankfully it worked out in my favour and I ended up with my cheap ticket, albeit in a crappy seat but for less than ten dollars I could hardly complain. I had a few hours to kill until the matinee show started so I got some breakfast and then took a quick nap because for some reason I was feeling really tired.
I got a bit lost on the way to the theatre which was a bit of a blow to my ego considering I had just been thinking how good I’d gotten at navigating around London. I got there about ten minutes before the show started, grabbed some overpriced wine and a bottle of water, and took my seat.
I really enjoyed the show. I always liked Matilda growing up, but wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this considering it was slightly changed and with different musical numbers. I thought the music was fun and catchy, and even the little changes they did turned out just fine, although I didn’t like Lavender’s character. Definitely a pleasant surprise overall though!
I had to catch the train shortly after the show ended, so I grabbed my stuff and went to Euston where I caught the train to Long Buckby to stay at Ben’s mom’s house. It was late when I got there, but not late enough to not order a delicious Indian meal <3 I had amazing chicken korma and some weird bread things before going to bed.
Day 6
My first park of the trip was Drayton Manor, which I was relatively excited for even though there’s not a whole lot of quality there. We caught the train in the morning and on the train ride there, Ben’s exact words that he would soon be eating were “nothing is ever closed at Draytez and it’s never busy.” Well, the massive line of cars leading into the park and the sign of ride closures told me that Ben was totally wrong. G-Force and the Buffalo coaster were both closed, which was super annoying considering that meant I’d only be getting one major coaster and then two kiddie/family coasters. Either way, I didn’t let it ruin the day.
The first thing we did was Apocalypse which was my first stand up drop tower. The floorless side was shut so we did the standing side with the floor. Drop towers scare me to begin with, but this added an extra scare factor for sure. It’s probably the best thing in the park, and despite not being massive, it’s one of the better drop towers out there.
We did Shockwave next, which looked like it was going to have a nasty line considering it was running one train, but we only waited about twenty minutes. The first drop and zero-G were quite good, but the rest of the coaster was rough and short.
I had to take a selfie in front of the closed G Force, because even though everyone said it sucks, it’s still the most major cred in the park I think, so I was bummed out that it was shut.
I think we ended up doing Ben 10 next which had almost an hour long wait. I actually quite enjoyed it and I think more parks should have them because they’re good family coasters.
We went on the Wild West Shootout and there was obviously a reason it was a walk on. It’s the most ghetto shooter ever!
I GORGED at lunch, really decided to treat myself to a nice meal…
I had one more cred to get so I sucked it up and waited the half an hour for Troublesome Trucks. +1, nothing to really write home about. Thomas land is a decent area though!
The last things we did before heading off were the Madhouse and Pandemonium. The Madhouse is fun as most are, but it was slightly ghetto which made it even more amusing. Pandemonium was a decent flat.
To sum up the day this is kind of what I thought of Drayton Manor…
Day 7
Really nothing much to write about on this day. I took it easy in the afternoon and drank some Pimms before heading out for dinner at Las Iguanas with some lovely friends! It was a great time with great food, thanks for the discount, Conor!
Unfortunately, after dinner we had to wander around in the cold catching Pokemon (I don’t pay that crappy game so I took pictures instead).
I went to bed as soon as I got back to Ben’s because I had to get on the Eurostar early the next morning!
UP NEXT- PARIS