Saturday 10 March 2012

Challenging yourself!

Recently there was something I wanted to do. I looked at a few options and a few days later I saw something I liked and I decided you know what I'm just going to do it and within that moment my plans came together very fast! Before I knew it everything was organised and I was due to leave in a couple days. I'd barely told anyone about it.

I challenged myself to go for it. I wanted to see what the experience would be like and refresh, relax and think. It was about a 3 day trip from the 4th to the 7th of March by myself and how it unfolded was incredible. I went there without a plan, just accomodation booked in a hotel and the only plan was to have no plan. Just to discover see where it would take me.

I found myself in the same hotel that Agatha Christie had her honeymoon in which I did not know until I arrived there. I was also in the same area she was born. Funnily enough with the timing the fact that I coincidentally found myself in the midst of where another author came from was incredible. I also visited a village she used to go to and she'd sit by the lakes there and gain inspiration for her writing.

In the morning I was walking along a path and it was my first full day there. The sun was shining, it was beautiful weather for England. The sun actually shone almost everyday except my last day when it rained. I was walking along the sea front path and I walked right till the end and came across a zoo. I wasn't aware there was a zoo there. I knew there was a zoo in the next town which I really wanted to visit but I didn't think I'd have time. Then suddenly there was a zoo in front of me. Straight away I paid for admission and went in. It was my first time going in a zoo in England.

I learnt about the animals and I saw penguins up close for the first time in my life. I think it was the first time, I may have seen them before but I can't remember. I learnt a Macaroni penguin lays two eggs, one is fake and the other is the real thing. It's to lure off predators and to protect the real egg. The African penguin also lays two eggs but both are real.

I saw a seal napping on a rock. He looked very comfortable and I took a picture but the way he was lying I could only see the side of him. I then got an idea and made a noise as if I was calling a dog, whether it would work I did not know but he looked up and I snapped a picture of him quickly.

There were birds with crooked beaks, another type of bird that could lay 12 eggs but there was no male in the enclosure for her. There was also a monkey, a fake one that gave me a fright as I was through one of the sections indoors a light came on and suddenly there was a monkey in the corner.

I went to the tourist information centre at somepoint during that day, I can't remember if it was before or after the zoo and they told me about another place I could take a bus and visit that was not too far from there. So the next day I did. I took a bus there and explored it's coastlines and went on it's cliff railway. I also went to the model village there - an entire little village made completely of models of houses and buildings, power plants, castles, people abseiling and all sorts. I even caught a picture of a rainbow there!

In the afternoon when I got back, I went for a swim and relaxed in the hotel jacuzzi. The day before I had been to the gym, swimming and went in the jacuzzi but this time I was too tired for the gym. I sure did get plenty of exercise on my trip with all the walking I did. I don't think I stayed motionless at all for very long. Afrer that I was in my hotel room but I suddenly felt the urge to visit the village again that Agatha Christie used to visit. I had visited it the previous day and taken pictures. There was a particular part of it that gave me this incredible feeling that I had once before when I was in another country. So I did, I walked there again, it wasn't too far from the hotel.

After that I ended up walking from there to the town centre for my last night and I had dinner there. It was my first dinner out, for the previous two I had dinner in the hotel and loved their food, so incredibly tasty! The place I ended up having dinner in had unlimited soft drinks, unlimited salad and even unlimited ice-cream. I didn't know that when I walked in but when I found out, it was amazing. I even found myself sitting under the speaker in the restuarant so I could hear the music clearly and I absolutely love music.

I also found the same type of restuarant in the town centre that was my favourite restuarant in the city nearest to me in England, I didn't go there but it was interesting to know it's also in another place.

Where I stayed, the hotel and the sea front were very colourful at night with all the different colourful lights everywhere.

That's some of the details of my trip that I went on. A trip that just unfolded itself. Just because I decided to take a chance, challenge myself and go for it. That's what I did. I just did... and it worked out wonderfully. I also met interesting people and had interesting conversations. I learnt so much in just a few days.

Although I do prefer travelling with people and to visit people. This particular trip though was an experience I will never forget and I would do it again.

It's amazing how anything can happen if you just let it and go for it. Challenging yourself! My challenge was with travelling.

Have you ever travelled alone?

Until I write again,
Nicola Hill