Bristol

This time I got an invitation from my friends living in Bristol to finally visit them, so yes, why the hell not :) I forgot the ticket price, but I do remember that getting from London Paddington to Bristol Parkway was pleasant. What I also remember was meeting a bit weird family trying to find through the whole time of the journey a place to sit. They were sending their children in both directions of the carriage and gathering reports that all the places are taken, unfortunately for them, but that didn't stop them against sending them again back and forth to amusement of all the passengers :) Anyway, the trip was 1,5h and that night in Bristol wasn't particularly interesting, I went to sleep :P

Somewhere around 10AM next day we set off to see the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge, also known as a suicide bridge! I guess the designer of the bridge, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, didn't envisage his creation with a jumper on it. This bridge has some serious suicide barrires... but I don't want to make suicide the main reason why I'm writing about this superb piece of civil engineering :D Obviously the bridge itself  and the views are awesome! It was opened in 1864 and is situated upon river Avon. Actually the view from the bridge is less enchanting than the view of the bridge from a nearby hill :)

Now the stuff that was really cool! Street art, graffiti or however you call it. It's totally astonishing in Bristol. I haven't seen so many street art work in London, maybe I hang out in the wrong places? Not sure, but I've heard from few people here and there that Bristol is quite active when it comes to art. Also, very famous guy is from Bristol, so no wonder there's so many art work there. Who? Banksy, I probably don't need to say any more. Maybe short quote from Wikipedia is appropriate here:

"was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier technician, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s."

The great Bristol aerosol boom! That explains everything :) No, seriously, he's work is really great! If you want to see more of Bristol's street art work I advise to visit for example this website http://www.bristol-street-art.co.uk/, I think it contains all of it.

Being tired and hungry we went to have lunch in a Jamaican restaurant. Goat curry, quite spicy, a lot of sharp bones (really sharp!), eat on your own responsibility. Jerk chicken was a better option, maybe next time.

Oh, and that's the coolest Police Station I've ever seen :)

We've also visited the port district with a lot of stylish cafés and restaurants. Basically, looked like the city's chill out area. Last stop was Bristol Cathedral, the first pieces of the Bristol Cathedral were build in 1140! Here's a bit psychedelic version of the interior plus a really interesting ornament on one of the tombs ;) This guy needs to be really happy in his afterlife! :D

This trip proved to me that London isn't the only cool city in the UK, Bristol definitely deserves this title, so I strongly encourage to plan a visit! Cheers!

Baked sea bream

Since my last complaints in Plymouth I really wanted to have a nice whole baked fish. Yesterday my dreams came true :D So without further ado I present to you this:

We had a special guest preparing these for us yesterday, a chef with long time experience in restaurants of London, Mr Piotr Pilarz! ;) The fish was bought in Nag's Head market at Holloway Road, London. I'm not sure about the price though. Recipe? Well, that's the chefs secret unfortunately! :) Anyway, a lot of lemon, pepper and thyme and more or less it should work as expected :P Result? Awesome dinner!

Plymouth

So I am systematically realizing my plan to see as much of England as I can, this time I even convinced one of my friends to come with me, although this wasn't easy mainly because some people just don't like overnight buses ;) I need to admit, the trip to Plymouth from London, Victoria Coach Station, wasn't super comfortable, but it was two times cheaper comparing to train tickets. Anyway, we made it, and there are few things to note for next such a trip, unfortunately lonesome one, I'm afraid I won't convince my friend again :D Firstly I'll try one of those inflatable sleeping pillows, otherwise my head may just fall off at some point, not a nice start of a trip. Secondly I'll buy an eye mask for traveling, so I'm not blinded by different kinds of lights all the time. I've looked up these items on Amazon, the cost is like 10 pounds for both. I'll skip ear plugs, it was really quiet in the bus, everyone was sleeping... well except few polish guys screaming at the back of the bus probably thinking that no one can possibly understand them ;)

We got out at Plymouth's bus station and headed towards the sea. It was freaking cold, so for a while I couldn't stop my teeth shaking, so thanks god for hot coffee we bought on a gas station. Actually Costa coffee from coffee machine was really good! We reached Sutton Harbour Marina and fortunately for us the sun was just coming out :)

From there we went further along the seaside, we had a nice view on the Plymouth Citadel built in the late 1660's I guess to make Plymouth a proper... you know, English city, what would be a city in England without a castle or citadel? Closer to the sea it was quite windy, hard to see that on the pictures though ;)

That's Drake's Island named after Sir Francis Drake, famous English sea captain. Interestingly enough it's private, you can't get there.

Since we arrived at Plymouth at 5:40AM it was about time to get some breakfast ;) Few pubs were open at about 8AM, and they were only serving... typical English (in this case Irish, but it doesn't make any difference really) breakfast! Yummy! :)

Moving further west and there's Hoe Promenade with few war memorials and I guess the most important Smeaton's Lighthouse finished in 1759, I've heard is one of bigger ones in the UK.

Now the most interesting stuff :D Visit in Plymouth Gin Distillery! We took a short tour, I can tell now it was worth it. You can learn a lot about the Plymouth Gin history, what are the ingredients and how gin is in general distilled. With regards to history I think the most interesting bit is that at some point every Royal Navy ship had a nice stock of Plymouth Gin as it was the official spirit on board :) There's even version of Plymouth Gin with Naval Strength and that is 57% whereas original strength is 41.2%. I remember someone saying that Royal Navy is still stocked with Plymouth Gin nowadays, but I couldn't find any confirmations of that fact.

Last thing, a bit sad though, so... what would you expect in a seaside city? Well, probably that you can buy in a restaurant/bar/pub a whole fried fish? Not some dodgy fillets. Let's say we looked quite long for one and as you can imagine we didn't find it. Maybe that's because health and safety reasons? :) I think the conversation below with one of the waitresses makes it clear that they don't usually sell whole fish...

- Do you sell a whole fish or a fillet?
- Yes, we have fish and chips.
- Yes, but do you sell a whole fish or just a fillet?
- It's a cod.
- Sure, but the fish, is it whole fish or is it just a fillet?
- I'ts a fillet.

We set off for London at 7:18PM. It indeed was a nice day! Last surprise for us was going back to London via South West Railway (Coastal) Path! Yes, basically it was a railway path laid on a beach :) Anyway, do I need to say more? Enjoy the pictures (sorry, the glass was dirty)!

Finishing with a nostalgic accent... see you next time.

Dover to St Margaret-at-Cliffe walk

It's been a while since I wanted to visit Dover and see the famous White Cliffs of Dover! Lately I've finally managed to do that. It turned out to be a one day lonesome trip, but actually I planned to stay somewhere for the night and also walk from Dover to Folkestone. It didn't work out quite well, because after walking from Dover to St Margaret-at-Cliffe and back my feet hurt a bit too much, so I decided to go back home, basically too much walking as for one day, I think it was something like 20km.

I took off at 10am from Victoria coach station. The ticket cost was £15 pounds, but as far as I remember within different time frame I could have bought it for £7. The trip lasted around 2.5h.

Basically there are two major tourist attractions in Dover. One of them is the Dover Castle, called the "Key to England", the largest castle in England and obviously the White Cliffs of Dover.

Personally I wanted to have a proper walk rather than wander most of the day around the Dover Castle, so I skipped it. I liked Dover so much, that I actually had to skip it, to have a reason to get back there!

Oh, oh, and obviously the third greatest tourist attraction are sheep... unfortunately this cute fellow behind bars.

For me the most amazing were the Cliffs of Dover themselves and the views of the Canal la Manche, oops, sorry, I wanted to say the English Channel ;)

Next city east from Dover is St Margaret-at-Cliffe. 

It has very nice bay called obviously St Margaret's Bay. Wikipedia says the the cliff above the bay is the one where the sun is supposed first to reach the UK every morning.

I should have spent more time there, it's a pity I did not... oh well, next time. Anyway, these areas are awesome. Actually the path I took is a Saxon Shore Way path, from Roman times. The plan is to get back there with a bigger backup of time and go even further. And at the end!

Yeast cake № 1

Today we've tried hard, and we've done it! Our first yeast cake was born :) Actually I was quite reluctant to bake any cakes today, but as usually Ewa was quite stubborn! So, I won't describe the whole recipe, because it's not special or something, just a "normal" yeast cake, I'll only post pictures :P
We had some problems with the dough at the beginning, so there was a moment of uncertainty, but after a long discussion (well, ok, quarrel...) we've developed a successful rescue action which basically meant more yeast, warmer place, so the dough grows properly. So here it is before putting it to the oven:

Yes, I know, doesn't look particularly appealing... but like an hour later:

Here's a nice one made by Ewa, mysterious yeast cake take three:

Not bad, right?! :) At least as for a first try! Soon we'll have a bite, it is resting a bit now, or hmmm... maybe it's better to wait for our flatmate to come back from work and have the first (deadly?) piece?