I love London but... sometimes it feels like the walls are closing in... traffic, pollution, commuting, concrete, sirens, greyness, aggressive people, every other shop a KFC assaulting your nose with foul pestilential vapours...
But the Easter hols are coming up, and I'd dearly like to go, well, somewhere else.
Secret boltholes ... Where do you go when you need to get out of it? (psst bearing in my mind that I am rather broke.)
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5 days ago
22 comments:
"Where do you go when you need to get out of it?"
An opium den?
When I used to get fed up of London I used to go to a station and just get on a train somewhere random and see what that place was like.
Well, I actually only did that twice, going to Brighton and Cambridge, but both times I had a lovely day out by myself.
If you can bear the 5-hour train journey to Truro, you're very welcome to come and stay at Casa Patroclus/Blue Cat on the beautiful Cornish Riviera. (It's cold and raining, though.)
I was having a little tipple yesterday as I read this and got all busy and was going to find you a perfect destination abroad but I think I dozed off mid-task. But, my brilliant solution, or the first part of it, if it involved abroad, was flying from City Airport, because you could get there on public transport for a couple of quid (couldn't you?). And then the wine took over. But do cheapos fly from City? Annd you haven't been to Berlin for weeks. I follow Pats' lead and offer you our double IKEA sofa-bed.
...types slowly and carefully... sorry for the endless typos...
Oh I know how you feel. The problem with buggering off this Easter is that Ken and all the railway networks have decided that everything needs to stop and be worked on.
I always find going to the river is good - airy, fresh and clear. Kew Gardens and Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park. Further afield - Camber Sands, Avebury - is magical (but only if you like standing stones), Wiltshire, Bergerac (France - not the tv programme box set!), Boliquieme Portugal - if you can get there cheaply would be fab.
PS: What Patroclus said - if you come down my way I can do the first three on my list - or you can use my house as base camp if you want to go by yourself x
Oh, it has to be Cornwall. However, you can't experience happiness unless you've been through a lot of misery, and you can't be in Cornwall unless you've had a hellish day long journey there.
Otherwise, Box Hill is quite nice.
thank you, my dears - I am touched! will think on it...
The Scottish highlands, or Snowdonia in Wales - both gorgeous parts of the country and can be done relatively cheaply.
Since I don't have a passport, hate People, and don't have a car to get me anywhere secluded, I generally end up on my sofa with a blanket and a stack of comics. Or if I feel the sores starting up again, Kew Gardens is good too. I went on that weekend in February when it was freakishly sunny and it was marvellous, not like being in London at all, and I felt a bit dizzy from the cleanliness of the air after a while. If you get the train from Harringay Green Lanes it only costs £2 to get there too, which was a nice surprise.
dirty dublin town. the natives are friendly.
and @ LC, both gorgeous parts of other countries, surely???
Come to Edinburgh (we have a new spare bed!) You can start by climbing Salisbury Crags to blow away the cobwebs. The west highlands are accessible from here by (beautiful) train journey.
Maybe I should get a tent and camp in Kew Gardens. Surely nobody will notice if I pitch it in the bushes.
I do like Dublin Rosie, (though I only saw it quickly, staying with bloggers in Dun Lugha - Dun Laog - oh bugger, can't remember how to spell it.)
Fight fight fight!
Awwww, Marsha. You are too sweet! If I don't make it this time around, there is a vague plan to come for the Edinburgh Festival, when I hope to meet you and GSE if you are around...
I love Edinburgh and Bristol. Snowdonia last Spring was gorgeous. And my recent trip to Paris was most refreshing. Short term solutions are a walk around the park or an art gallery. Or visiting the bottom of a pint glass.
When the weather's nice, I walk home from work through Regent's Park and then up Primrose Hill. The view does wonders for your perspective.
Oooh yes, come for the Festival and see Edinburgh throw off her tweedy old lady exterior and rediscover her inner showgirl!
Get on the overland at Dalston and go to Hampstead Heath. There will probably be a horrible fair but you can ignore this and relive our youth frolliking by "the Tree"
Yes, Hampstead Heath is good and if you get to a secluded bit, you might be able to forget you're in London for a sec. (Don't go on a waltzer, though. Or eat candyfloss.) And you could do it on the same trip as Kew Gardens, as it's all one train line. Richmond on that line too, which isn't bad once you've walked down to the river and along that footpath that gets non-urban just after some bridge or other.
It's a bit London-villagey but Whitstable is really nice, and being by the sea means you feel a million miles away form the city.
It has to be somewhere by the sea. I like the Gower in Wales.
Hi Boz - oddly enough, we used to go to Whitstable when I was a kid, can't believe that it is for hipsters now, it was so QUIET back then...
Billy, true. (Hurry back by the way, we miss you...)
I know! Quiet and Dull. It's like Bognor got trendy...
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