P.S. We did have terrific time! i.want.more.

hi all, happy friday. happy weekend! which is definitely not for me. how can we really enjoy weekend with piles of work? tell me. please. even if we do some fun, our mind (and heart perhaps) will still be haunted by the ghosts of study stuffs, creating anxiety. yes, pathetic. but believe me, i’m still sane. haha. those study stuffs are not strong enough to bring me down, or maybe yet. so i’m here, blogging. enough blabbering about assignment.

it’s only several days until spring break! sorry if i bore you with my excitement and keep saying this until million times. i-am-indeed-beyond-excited! i’m so much into travelling, wherever the destination is. really. still those kiddos who are extremely happy when it comes to holiday.

photo courtesy of SusannahT

Here are some tips and tricks or just the way i do travelling for this particular holiday, as it may vary from one person to another.

about the preparation thingy:

• if the travel destination requires visa and we are willing to do everything our own, start more or less 2 months prior the departure, well 1.5 months is ok. why 2 or 1.5 months? because if it’s a high season, the ticket price might increase sharply closer to holiday season.
• hotel booking are usually cancellable up to one day before check in. but be aware that transportations are usually non-refundable if we are travelling cheap. read the terms and conditions carefully. cheap eurostar price is often non-refundable so we must be sure with the schedule before departure. there are several cheap flights to European countries from the UK if we book 2 months before. i’ll travel with easyjet. it can be rescheduled or rerouted or both but require us to pay £25 more as the changing fee for single trip. and pay more when there’s price difference between the old and new schedule.
• apply visa at least 1 month before departure.
• in the case of travelling to EU countries, choose a nice country for you to apply for schengen visa. some countries are very strict in giving duration of stays and expiry date. some are nice (e.g. Italy, people say).
• making visa appointment by phone is more reliable than online. yeah, despite we have to pay £1/min.
• check all the documents and make sure that we’ve completed all the requirements before applying. once we’ve entered the visa till, paid, but further realised that they are not yet complete or we haven’t met the requirements, we won’t be able get the money back. instead we have to make another appointment and pay another visa fee.
• visa will be processed 15 working days.

on the departure thingy:

• arrive the station or airport at least 1.5 hours before the timetable.
• do not bring a lot of stuffs. one medium luggage is enough (they limit 18 kg travelling by plane) to avoid the exaggerating overweight charge.

on the holiday thingy:

• camera is a must! (i’ll bring both my polaroid and DSLR)
• casual, comfortable yet still chic outfit. and raincoat! in case the weather fools us.
• drink a lot of water.
• no laptop during holiday is preferable. but i reconsider it. in order to anticipate abundant pictures i’ll take, i think i need my laptop to transfer all the pictures. buying new memory card is so lavish.
• if we got only short time, do not push ourselves too hard to go to follow the crowd of tourism attractions. for some highlight places it might worth. but thereafter, just enjoy and feel the city. observe what the local people do. feel how the local people live. take pictures as many as we can. that’s the point of travelling. later when we’re trying to recall the memories, we can still feel the atmosphere of that place and remember all the details and feel blissful.

I bet this town must sound familiar to all of us. Well, who doesn’t know Cambridge University, one of the best in the world?! for me, Cambridge itself is a very educational town. I can myself feel the education atmosphere on my very short trip there. Many great people are created here.  It is in the east of England, 45 minutes by train from London. Anyway, the weather was bad that day (cold!), strong wind and some bits of snow.

Bicycles are everywhere around the city. Student’s main transportation I guess

view by the riverside (while waiting for punting tour)

Fitzbillies bakery. the cinnamon roll is yum yum!

The trip overall was fabulous. I got a lot of new stories about the Cambridge (besides it is rival to Oxford. haha!). what amused me the most are probably the university colleges. Those had been built long time ago. The most famous are the King’s College, Queen’s College, Trinity College, Saint John’s College. There are of course many more colleges. And those colleges have their own characteristic and prestige. Still remember the Harry Potter’s story of student colleges. haha! hmm, I guess river punting is the best of the trip. My eyes were spoiled by beautiful sceneries and the stories behind fascinate me. Oh awesome Cambridge!

it’s better late than never. tee hee.. below are babypola shots from warwick castle (2 weeks ago)

this week i’m going to cambridge! yayyy! i wish i could catch the sun for the sake of good pictures.

anyway, my polaroid film are almost finished. i’m too broke to buy the new ones. can anyone recommend me where to buy the cheap ones? (i used to bid from ebay. but, i looked at the bid couple days ago and it had reached a high price already. argh.)

I had a beautiful weekend at Warwick Castle. The sun was great, though it was windy and terribly cold (winter has not gone yet), still. I think it has been so long since I saw such massive sunshine during winter. A lot of beautiful pictures were captured by my lens. I simply love it.

Warwick castle has been built since 1068, then some re-construction followed. It was at first used for military importance at 14th century and later was used as the residence of Earls of Warwick until 1978. Now, it is opened for public and has become one of the most famous castle in United Kingdom for tourist attractions.  Warwick itself is actually a town near mine, about 45 minutes from Birmingham by train. It’s a small town, but very classic. name it the old buildings, city arrangements. For more information about this town click here. Oh well, Stratford-upon-avon (Shakespeare’s town) also belongs to Warwickshire county. Haven’t been there but it’s on my top list. Below are pictures from Warwick Castle.

(well, the sun was a total trick! it was even colder than snowy day, i suppose)

Heart this weekend! and now thinking about where to go next. haha. anyway, new term starts today. I’m so excited! (ok, i know it’s unbelievable me saying that. haha)