United Kingdom, April 2018

My dear friend Kevon (fun fact: His nickname is Bob) invited me to his wedding with his soon-to-be-wife Jurgita in Essex.

As the wedding was planned for Tuesday the 3rd of April I decided to take the whole week off and make the most of the time in the UK - road-trip!

I planned to visit friends and family in Scotland, attend the wedding in Essex and the pre-wedding-meet-up in London.. and have a look at Snowdonia in Wales (initially wanting to meet up with Eva, whom I met in Georgia last year.. but unfortunately for me she was traveling at the time (having an amazing time in Greenland)).

My journey started terrible.

I chose to fly with Qatar airways - a horrible idea. More than half of the times I fly Qatar Airways I have some serious trouble, usually caused by delays. This time the plane departed almost two hours late from Kuwait, causing me to miss my onward flight to Birmingham. On arrival in Qatar I was told I was booked on a new flight from Qatar to Amsterdam and from there to Birmingham - meaning I'd arrive in Birmingham with more than 9 hours delay.

I seriously have no idea how Qatar Airways could have become 'Airline of the year 2017'.. oh, well, actually I do - Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world.

Anyhow, I arrived in Birmingham and picked up my rental car - after all this trouble I treated myself with an upgrade - which turned out to be the best decision. I drove 2700km within a week - this would have been quite uncomfortable in a little Kia Cee'd.

My time in Scotland was short but great. It was lovely to see old friends and spend the day with them!

From there I drove down, back into England, where I had a few hours stop in Sunderland to have lunch with my uncle (who was there for the weekend) and some distant family. Back on the road I spent the night in Lincoln and drove down to London the next day.

I spent the afternoon walking through London, doing some shopping (stupid me.. forgot to bring a tie for a wedding.), having snacks and wandering around markets.

Later on I met Hibe (whom I know from Kuwait - but she moved back to Scotland a few years ago) and together we went to the pre-wedding-meet-up at a bowling alley.

I did not know anyone there except for Kevon, Jurgita and Hibe but I was truly amazed by the friendliness of literally everyone there. We were about 30 people playing on 6 lanes - randomly put together. A happy mix of loads of nationalities (Canadian, Lithuanian, English, Scottish, Australian, German, Austrian, Czech,...). I had the joy of playing with Laura, David, Junior and Claudette. A happy bunch of people that made the evening special. It was awesome to meet Kevons and Jurgitas families and friends from all over the world. I can't stress enough how amazing these people are!

After the bowling we sat for a while and had a chat - followed by going to a bagel shop down the road to have (and I quote) 'The best bagels in the whole UK'. And yes, they were really good!

From there I drove to Silverend (close to the venue) and got to my AirBnb. My host Hannah was really amazing, I felt so welcome, as if I was an old friend.

The big day!

My day started with a few hours of work (I had to do some work every day due to deadlines at work..), then I got ready, put on my suit and beautiful new burgundy tie (Eldrege tie know - as usual.) and drove to the venue: Gosfield Hall. Now this is how a location for a wedding should look like! Built in the 16th century this house looked stunningly beautiful from the inside and outside. Filled with loads of beautiful people!

I don't want to go into further details about the whole day - I just want to stress how amazing it was and let the pictures talk for me. I really hope that I'll get to see most of these lovely people again - where ever! And I am really happy to have Jurgita around in Kuwait soon!

The next day I drove back to the venue to pick up Hibe to take her to Birmingham (where she'd catch a train and get back to Edinburgh). Vaida and Vladis from Lithuania joined us on short notice as they wanted to go to Birmingham too. It was a nice little road trip (and awesome to have some company for a change!) with good music and lots of chats. After dropping them off I kept driving to northern Wales.

I spent two days in Snowdonia, enjoying the scenery and the beautiful weather. I climbed hills (from which I had serious trouble getting back down..), had picnics and looked at castles. It was a pity I couldn't meet up with Eva!

From Snowdonia I drove back to Birmingham, had a lazy afternoon there and then flew back to Kuwait the next morning.

This was a great week, although (apart from the wedding) it was nothing but working, sleeping and driving.

The UK simply is one of the most beautiful places in the world.