Cracking Britain. Part 1.


I am thrilled to present a guest post by Olesya Komarova, an avid traveller and English learner. In her post, she shares her experience of travelling in Great Britain and making the most of it on a tight budget. 

Somerset
This is a story of how to spend 16 days in a country with average salary 10 times higher than yours and get the most of it. 
You know this nice motivation-movie scenario: young people tired of wasting best years of their lives one day hit the road to prove the world how free and independent they are. I used to listen to such stories with awe, until I realized - they were not true.
First, you can hardly call ‘freedom’ absolute dependence on other people’s benevolence (that is what hitchhiking is actually about). Second, sometimes this benevolence fails (that is when the ‘adventures’ begin). But being stuck on a road in the middle of nowhere having nothing to eat and nowhere to go is not exactly the type of adventures I was looking for. I figured out a more reliable kind of freedom you can achieve by just being smart with your resources.

My route

Getting around

The good thing about Great Britain is its size: you can easily get from one part to the other in a few hours. Easily, but not for free - public transport can be crazy expensive here (a one-hour trip from London to Oxford may cost up to £40). But knowledge is power and I know two ways to save a fortune on your tickets:

Trainline. This app has the best offers, by buying in advance and ‘return’ you can get train tickets for only £6-8. You don’t need to print your ticket - just show it on your phone.

National express. Want to save even more? NE is here to indulge your thrift! They have buses going to most cities in England for fixed £5. You can purchase your tickets using Trainline app, as they are linked. The only cheaper journey would be on foot.

Off the beaten track

August is high season in GB and cities are overcrowded. But missing out Bristol Balloon Fiesta or Scottish Fringe would have been unforgivable. Well, I’ve got a solution!

Jet-the-farm-cat’s view point

As I wanted to explore West England, get to the Balloon Fiesta and learn about permaculture, I decided to look for a farm somewhere close to Bristol.

You haven’t been to England if you don’t make it to the countryside. It is a whole different Universe and experiencing it is likely to change you (at least slightly) for the rest of your life (provided that you find the right people to learn from). You can get such experience absolutely for free through Wwoof and Workaway - international volunteering programs giving an opportunity to get to any part of the world and live a life of a real local. You get accommodation, food, experience and new skills for just a few hours of work per day.

In my case the stars aligned and I found a farmer who was also a retired English teacher. No language school in the world could provide such great speaking practice as I had during my stay.

The view from my room and happy me exploring library treasures

During the week I spent on the farm I realized how differently people can live. Organic farming means planting not for selling but to reconstruct the natural processes other people destroy. It was a great joy and inspiration to see so many people involved. Being a part of it I learned that to be happy you just need to care for the right things.

It feels like the time stopped there, along with reading avidly, I managed to do quite a lot of exploring.

Chew Magna
High-five if it sounds like Chinese to you too, but it got its name yet in Saxon times after the river Chew and later ‘magna’ - ‘the great’ as it is the biggest village in the area. Amazing place with fairy vernacular houses and gigantic blackberry thicket. Not far from there in Pensford is an enormous abandoned railway bridge.

The weather in England can change very quickly…

That weekend was Bristol International Balloon Fiesta which is supposed to be a stunning show of hundreds of hot air balloons rising above the city. But Murphy's Law works perfectly, and as told the locals every year right on the day of the show it starts to rain and the program is shortened. This year, after a month of drought with not even a drop of rain it started bucketing down right before the Night Glow, most fascinating event, so it was cancelled.

At least I was lucky to get to Bristol a day before and enjoyed yet unalarming weather.

Bristol harbor and my cultural shock: 
two teenagers in Art Gallery discussing paintings and sketching

Bristol is rich in gorgeous Gothic architecture. St. Mary’s Radcliff, Bristol Cathedral and University, even the railway station is worth seeing!

St Mary’s
"The fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church in England." Elizabeth I

Hidden in the middle of Brandon Hill Park is Cabot tower - a memorial to John Cabot’s voyage from Bristol to the land which later became Canada, but also a great free 360° viewpoint.

Cabot Tower and the view

Stunning Suspension bridge (over completely dried up Avon)

Another great place absolutely worth seeing is Wells. Especially, Wells Cathedral. It is known for its unique architecture. The town was the residence of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, so it got some benefits.




The cloister. Still waiting for your letter from Hogwarts? :)

Wells is just 7 miles from Glastonbury and I completed my outing with climbing up Glastonbury Tor. It seems like no big deal but is actually quite a walk.


The sheep encouraging to go on

Glastonbury

Just in an hour those clouds turned into a most heavy rain. I would have soaked through if not for my host who rescued me and in half an hour I snuggled down by an oven with a cup of most delicious very English tea … to be continued :)

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