The 2016 UK trip

Friday 10-06-2016
After work, I went straight to the UK. It was a long trip, but everything went fairly smooth, even the boat-trip from Calais to Dover was a breeze. However, even a smooth ride wears you out after a while. I took several breaks for a short nap and arrived at Rizzo’s place in the middle of the night. Many thanks to him being a gracious host!

Saturday 11-06-2016
Early in the morning, I packed up and gave Rizzo my regards before I went on my way to Manchester.

For most of the trip, I had high hopes that the rain would stay away. Unfortunately, this was not the case. When I arrived, it was raining cats and dogs outside. Despite the bad weather, the atmosphere inside was amazing (and included the cool variety of cats and dogs). I met a lot of old friends and made some new ones.

After the furmeet, Maze, Strange, Alex, Tim, SM The Shark, and SDF Dino dragged me along to easily the best burger joint in town: Almost Famous. It was delicious. Bacon burger, with bacon fries, with a mocktail (I still had to drive).  Later on, Marcus Techkat joined us as well. I unfortunately gave him the wrong address. It turns out there are two Almost Famous addresses in Manchester, little did I know.
I spent the evening chillaxing with SDF and SM, playing some games and chatting along.

Sunday 12-06-2016
In the early afternoon, I had a wonderful lunch with Maze, Strange and Ethan at Moose Coffee. Besides the excellent coffee, their food is wonderful. I had some bacon, eggy bread and of course, Maple Syrup. After all, Canada!

Back at the Shark Place, we had a little photo session, and I took the liberty to change a few things in post. Below you see some of the examples. A lot of fun was had!

Monday 13-06-2016
That morning I took off to Liverpool, and during this trip, I realized how many Victorian roads there are, not just one per city! When I arrived at my destination, it turned out that I needed to be at another Victorian Street at the other side of the city! Like driving with your steering wheel on the wrong side is so much fun, why not add the chaos of workday traffic.
After a nice dinner (chicken teriyaki) I went to see Studio Ghibli’s Omoide no Mânî (When Marnie Was There) with Matt and Pet Yee. It truly is a wonderful movie. I especially loved the animation and superb audio work (especially the wind and environment sounds).
If you ever have the chance to see a studio Ghibli movie in the cinemas, do so!

Tuesday 14-06-2016

After a nice nap, I headed towards Edinburgh. It was a lovely ride. Upon entering Scotland, they actually offer an option to take the scenic route, which I did. And boy was it good!

After a whole bunch of sightseeing, I arrived at Fox Amoores’ place, he introduced me to this amazing pub in Edinburgh (The Worlds End) and a very awesome lion: Camash. It was a lovely evening filled with quality food and good company. I do look forward to see more of this wonderful city.

In the evening, we returned to Fox’s place, and I went to Bathgate to visit my guildies from World of Warcraft. Despite my late arrival, we stayed awake playing some Jackbox Party Pack, which was hilarious!

Wednesday 15-06-2016
After a wonderful night, I helped Cathika and Sidus with some errands. Afterwards, we had some wonderful pancakes, Scottish style. Later that afternoon we went to see the Warcraft movie in a repurposed church. The theater had lovely couches and tables inside. Watching the movie was an amazing experience. As for the movie itself, it was a feast for the fans, however if you are unfamiliar with the Warcraft lore, you might be confused with just about everything.

Thursday 16-06-2016
Early in the morning, I left the sleepy city of Bathgate. The trip down to Dover went without much trouble; the weather was surprisingly good, and around 23:30 I arrived home.

A huge thank you to everybody who made this a trip to never forget <3 <3

Thabo