Back in England for a winter stint! First stop London. We were able to stay a few nights with Charlies sister in Battersea and catch up with Ben again. Watched Arsenal at there local and Liverpool against chelsea the next day, Niks perfect weekend.
Next stop was Newbury to catch up with Tim, seeing a few more towns around such as Oxford and Bath again, lovely old towns with so much history everywhere you look. Nik Headed back up to Manchester for a music gig, whilst Jack decided to check out Readings Night Life!
Once we had met back up with each other back in Manchester it was our last week with Kirsty before she left for Bali and Australia. We decided as the Thursday was thanksgiving we would cook up a big thanksgiving dinner for the gang as a thankyou to the Accom we had received over the year, Our first attempt at a roast Turkey was a success i would say. This blog update is alot different to others as the sightseeing came to a halt, but the new towns we checked out and people we met was still fantastic! Ok we drank everyday but we really felt we were seeing a real england not having to stay in Hostels. That weekend we headed out to Leeds to catch up with Dave and Johnny from Octoberfest, it was just in time for Daves birthday and why not celebrate at the Leeds German/Christmas market in a massive drinking tent, after being thrown out of that we managed to get kicked out of 3 more establishments. A new record for Nicole a Saturday for Jack. Dave was a wonderful host cooking a mean chilli and even giving Jack a game in his 5 on 5 team in which they won! The next week was spent with Nadine back in Manchester in the lead up to a football weekend. Along with Lindsay the 4 of us hired a car for the weekend. Saturday we drove to Liverpool to see Liverpool at Anfield, just Nik and Jack went to the game! It has been something Jack has wanted to do for a while and it was great that we could go together at a very reasonable price (Thankyou Richard Ward) After the game we got back into the car Headed up to Lindsays place in Burnley. After rising early and at the pub by 9am we were off to see the local derby Burnley at home to Blackburn. We had a great day, we met loads of her friends and Family and having 6 pints before the game and another 20 after it made it a brilliant day in all! Two days, two games nik was in heaven. Whilst we still had the car we headed into the Lake districts further north and checked out Windemere, a very lovely area of England. We could see the snow capped hills but unfortunately were not able to get to them in our little hire car.
For the next week it was back to the travelling, we jumped on a bus and this trip consisted of Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea. Bristol was wonderful, the small time we spent in Bristol we loved, old churches and  the suburb of Clifton were great.  Our hostel was very cool it even had a bowling alley in it. We managed to meet up with Marcia from our time in the Spanish course, she was a champion and drove us around for the day showing us towns such as Weston-Super-Mare, Wells and Glastonbury. Cardiff next, the capitol of wales is only 1 hour away but so very different. Ofcourse the accent first of all, which is so hard they might as well speak spanish and we would have a better chance understanding. Our hostel was right on "Spew" street, were all the bars and clubs are, very happening place on a saturday night! We had fun but getting no sleep, due to some exicited boys and a hens party in our room wasnt that rivoting, but hey they all had to go to work on Monday. Swansea was interesting, we stayed at a hotel which was run by Mick. You know when you meet someone and you think to yourself i will never forget this person, well Mick was one of those blokes! Mind blowing what would come out of his mouth. We dont wanna be crirical but Swansea didnt have alot going on for it in winter, the pub was a good base though. Back to Manchester (Again) a few nights with Charlie, a few nights with Nads and one final weekend out, another game at Anfield and we came home! Just like that back to OZ. It was time to come home, inspiration to check out Scandanavian countrys or Russia and even check out Asia on the way home were squashed by our lack of excitement in Wales, we were just finding it harder and harder to find the energy. Our familys and Christmas got the better of us, oh and 30 degrees sounds better than 2 degrees. Thanks for reading guys.