Newcastle at last!

Well, I have arrived in Newcastle. It's 10:45pm and I have only been here for half an hour. Now, I hear you saying 'but I thought Casey was due to arrive at 7:30pm, how can she have only been there for half an hour?' It is indeed a very good question to ask and the answer is rather long.



So, I checked out of my hostel in Oxford this morning and headed for the bus station. My first bus was with Stagecoach and would take me through to Milton Keynes, where I would have to swap to a National Express bus that would take me the rest of the way.



I got onto the Stagecoach and it didn't take me long to realise that this leg wasn't going to be particularly fun. The Stagecoach bus looks like a coach but acts like a local bus in that they don't announce any of their stops. I was worried that I would miss my stop, so I was paying very close attention to where we were going. Finally we entered Milton Keynes and drove into the Milton Keynes Train Station and I could see that the Bus Station was across the road, so I hopped off. I wasn't entirely positive where I would have to go for the bus I needed (as some seemed to be at the train station and some at the bus station), so I went into the train station and asked at the information desk. To say the least the woman was not at all helpful. As soon as I said the word bus she said she couldn't help me and when I asked where I could go to find out information she just said she had no idea. That wasn't particularly helpful, but I knew the bus station was across the road, so I grabbed my bags and headed over there.



I walked up to the counter and asked about my bus and they said, 'this isn't the right bus station, you have to go to the other Milton Keynes Bus Station'. I asked how far away it was and was told that it was a 30min walk away. I had 1 hour to change buses, but I wasn't about to spend 30 mins of it walking in a vague direction and getting stressed, so I headed back to the train station and hopped into a taxi. It cost me 6 pounds, but I didn't care.



The bus station that my National Express coach was due to leave from was the most unlikely coach station I have ever seen. All it consisted of was a small area off the side of the road where the coaches could pull in with a couple of really crappy demountables that contained the coffee shop and the office. It looked like such a little hole-in-the-wall of a bus station, but a major coach bound for some part of England would go through every 2mins! It was very strange.



At this point I still had a good 40 mins to wait, so I got myself comfortable and watched all the other coaches pull in and out. My bus was due to arrive at 14:10. That time came and soon disappeared. I wasn't overly worried, as buses are often late. About 10mins after it was due to arrive, a message came over the speakers to say that anyone catching the 425 had to instead catch the 426. The 425 was my bus, so I was a bit concerned at this point. They didn't provide any other information, so I headed over to the office to find out what was going on.



The office informed me that the 425 had broken down and that the 426 bus would pick us up instead. However, it wasn't travelling the same route as the 425, instead it would drop us off at Leicester and then a new 425 would meet us there and take us the rest of the way. So, my bus trip had gone from one change at Milton Keynes, to 2 changes, also they didn't tell us what time the 426 would be coming through, just that it would be picking us up.



There was a group of us who were all waiting for the same bus, so we clustered together and waited and waited and waited. Finally an hour after our original bus was due to arrive, the 426 bus turned up. We piled onto an already rather full bus. I don't think the people travelling on the 426 were particularly happy to see us as their bus had to detour to collect us and then we had to squish on with them and take up all the free space.



Finally, though, we were on a bus and heading somewhere. It took about an hour to get to Leicester and when we arrived...... our 425 was not yet there! Surprise surprise.



The bus driver of the 426 was not particularly happy. He had already been delayed picking us up and now he had to wait until we were collected, which would make him even later at his destination.



Half an hour later, at 4:45pm, the 425 arrived. We all gave a cheer and clambered onto our bus. Finally we were away and felt like we were actually heading to Newcastle. The feeling didn't last long. Just outside of Leicester were traffic jams as far as the eye could see. It took us 2 hours just to reach Woodhall, where we stopped for a break. It was rather demoralising as we felt our 7:30pm arrival time slipping further and further away.

From Woodhall onwards the ride was relatively smooth. There was still some road works happening along the motorways that did slow us down a bit, but it wasn't too bad.

Our first stop was Darlington, then it was Durham and eventually Newcastle. 2 people were still on the bus at the end as the final stop was South Shields. In the end the bus arrived 2 and a half hours late. I think I ended up spending 11 hours travelling today! Luckily the hostel is close to the bus station, so it didn't take me long to get here.

The drive through England was rather lovely (not counting the bus stuff-ups). It was quite grey and overcast today, but the scenery was still beautiful. The amount of Canola growing is astonishing. At one point I could see fields of green and gold spread out for miles around me. The Green and Gold made me feel rather homesick!

The final bit of the drive into Newcastle was nice. The approach is down a rather large hill, with Newcastle spread out below and beyond. As it was getting dark, all of the lights of Newcastle spread out before the bus. It reminded me very much of the approach to Perth from Kalamunda at night, and when you see the lights of Perth spread out before you, you know you're not far from home. So, it was a rather nice feeling as we drove into Newcastle. It will be interesting to see how I feel about Newcastle once I start exploring in the light of day.

I'm exhausted at the moment and am going to have an easy day tomorrow. I have absolutely no idea what I want to see in Newcastle or how I'm going to do it. I am not at all prepared as I didn't think I would be in Newcastle quite this early, so I think tomorrow morning will be research!

I also want to see some of the forts on Hadrian's Wall while I'm up this way, so I have to figure out how I'm going to do that. They are not particularly easy to visit in terms of accommodation and transport, so I'll have to figure something out tomorrow.

Oh well, that's for tomorrow. For now I am off to bed. Night.