34C before 10:30 is just too hot. I guess it's a good day to spend on coach buses. Trains are a lot more comfortable and much faster, but buckling tracks brought huge swaths of the network down. Roads are much more durable in that regard, but even they have a limit- the runway at London Luton Airport buckled, pouring a halt to flights.
My original plan, going to York, was out of the question. The necessary set of bus transfers was too much of a mess. Thus I found myself on the way to Birmingham. Prior to the late morning departure, I found a nearby coffee shop that I would classify as hip rather than quaint. Very good espresso. Actually, on that note: I've yet to find a coffee shop here that doesn't do double espressos as the default.
Realizing that I probably would need to eat lunch on the bus, I stopped by TESCO to take advantage of the meal deals advertised in the windows of major grocery chains: a main, snack, and drink for a set price, £3.5-5, depending on the location. It's a solid value, as in this case I got a tuna and potato salad, strawberry yogurt, and half a liter of San Pellegrino for the equivalent of $4.18. The last part was particularly helpful because of my misplaced water bottle. Someday I'll learn to pay better attention. I hope.
I prefer trains to buses. First off, while the seat was comfortable enough, I didn’t have enough space to open my laptop on my lap. And even if I did, there were no outlets capable of handling chargers, only USB. Lastly, the bus just takes twice as long.
We made our way through the English countryside, and for a moment it really reminded me of bus rides through the middle of Indiana- fields on either side of the road, as far as the eye can see. There are a few differences, though. In Indiana, the crops are primarily corn and soybeans. I’m not sure what these were, but they were too short for corn and definitely not soy. Maybe wheat? The other major difference is the tree coverage. Lots of trees here. In Indiana? Almost none in the fields.
Except for a much appreciated half an hour break in Coventry, the bus lumbered on at a fairly constant pace until the arrival in Birmingham at 14:00. The first impression I had was, frankly, rather negative. It looked run down and dirty. This is pretty unfair though. Once the initial shock wore off, I realized that much of the garbage was construction debris - it looked like almost half the city was dug up/being rebuilt. Unfortunately, I’d arrived a bit late in the tourist part of the day, so by the time I was ready to visit museums, both the Pen and the Police Museums had stopped accepting visitors. The silver working shop just wasn’t open for tourists today. So I walked. Of the more interesting things I found- a very cheap outdoor food market. For two quid, I bought half a kilo of blueberries and strawberries each. And then, since it was 38C and the sun was brutally beating down, I also had an ice cream sundae. Somehow I’d made it past my 23rd birthday without ever trying one before. A bit overhyped. The best part was the ice cream. I ate and continued to walk.
As I started to get hungry again, I passed an arabian restaurant that was serving some delicious looking seafood tagine. I ordered the medium version and it was perfect, even for a not-so-spice-tolerant weakling like me. The “chips” were crisp on the outside and fluffy inside and the tagine had whole shrimp in it. In fact, I liked it so much that I wanted to leave a review on Google. But when I looked it up, the restaurant wasn’t listed on Google Maps. Inquiry to the staff informed me that the restaurant had just opened. I assume it’s new enough to not have even ended up on the map yet.
After dinner, I found my way to a café for further trip planning. Let’s just say that the prices came as an unpleasant surprise. And they kept rising- between the time I chose the flight on Kayak and the time I booked, the prices had once again gone up. But the benefit of having a very loose plan is that I adjusted on the fly. Add a city here, remove a city there… Slightly lower costs. Only slightly though, which is a bit of a shame. I really shouldn’t be complaining since I am fortunate enough to be in a position to be on a vacation in the first place. My bus for Edinburgh departed at 22:30. And up until the time I boarded, I was boiling. Wow this heat wave was brutal. Since I already started complaining, I’ll add one more- why doesn’t the bus terminal have outlets? Fairly good Wi-Fi, but no outlets at all. And I’m pretty confident in that statement, since I walked two laps around it to check. Of course there was no A/C either, but I’ve learned to not expect that here.
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