My Big Fat BIG Dream

I have accomplished my big fat big dream in 2010 when my husband and I went on our first international adventure.

The dream that I dreamt for so long was starting to become a reality. In 2007 I had to put my dream on hold. Why you might think? I said YES to a marriage proposal, so all my savings for my first international adventure had to be used for bedroom furniture and a wedding ceremony. This wasn’t a bad exchange I think, and my husband could join me now in this international adventure.

I first had to convince my husband why he should join me to visit England and Scotland. The only thing I could say to convince him was, he could have the opportunity to find his heritage and routes.

So finally on 22 July 2010 we boarded the Airbus A340 from Cape Town – Johannesburg- Doha – London. The airplane took off at 19:00 and this was the beginning of a long flight, but we had a lot of things to keep us busy with. We experienced a lot of Turbulence while flying over Africa. Our stopover was at Doha, the hottest place I’ve ever been; at 05:30 in the morning it was 36 degrees Celsius.

One of the highlights on the aeroplane was also the food and the amount of times we ate, and for my husband free beer was the ultimate.

At Heathrow airport we met my friend, we have been friends for the past 20 years, this was when it became a reality that I am in London, and I was overwhelmed with excitement. This was going to be an amazing 17 days, I am ready, bring it on.

During the next few days, we did a lot of sightseeing. We took a boat cruise on the Thames River, had our First pub lunch, visited Windsor Castle, and had a famous cup of Starbucks coffee. We walked through the whole of London, with Sandals (not recommendable). This is where we visited the St Paul’s Cathedral, this amazing architectural building survived the Blitzkrig of London during World War II, the Big Ben, West Minister’s Abby, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Millennium Bridge, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus and Sports Direct (a three story building filled with Sport Gear where we stopped to buy tekkies after I decided the Sandals wasn’t such a good idea.).

On the Monday, my friend took us to Primark, the most amazing clothing shop. One of my silly dreams was to walk out of a shop with three big shopping bags. My dream came true, after I let my husband wait for 2 hours, I came out with three shopping bags full of clothes. After the Primark excursion we took the Underground train to the Royal Air Force Museum.

We camped for 3 days in the beautiful valley of Lake district.
On the Tuesday we started our Road Trip on our way to Scotland. We visited one of the 7 wonders of the world, The Stonehenge, I stood in awe, looking at the rocks which nobody knows for sure, who and why they were placed there, but yet it is an amazing mysterious place to visit. We visited a small quaint Town, Burton on the Water, the Baths and the town where William Shakespeare lived, Stratford-on-Avon.

The first place in Scotland we visited was Ayr, the town where the Mitchells originate. We finally arrived at our campsite. We took the bus to Edinburgh every day and walked the Royal mile, and bought lots of gifts for the family and friends at home. We did a day trip with Haggi Tours, to the Scotland Highlands and also searched for the Lochness monster.
We heard a lot of history about Scotland, the wars in Scotland, fighting between the Highland clans, the real Brave heart story about Robert the Bruce and the true story about William Wallace. We visited the William Wallace monument, and we also visited the Edinburg and Sterling Castles, two castles that served both as royal residences and army base camps. We also saw the Crown Jewels of Scotland and the birthplace of Queen Mary of Scots and King Henry VIII. Scotland is a country with a rich history and although it is part of England, it still has its own identity, accent, bank and pride.

We also had the privilege to be part of the Fringe Festival in Scotland and watched a comedy show. Although a Scottish woman in the shop couldn’t believe it and tried to convince us that it is going to rain tonight, we braaied every evening.

When we arrived back in England, we visited the Tower of London, what an amazing palace, jail, home to the crown jewels it is, and the most amazing history. We also watched the musical that has been on stage for 25 years, Les Miserables, the last evening in London.

We did everything and more than we ever thought in 17 days and this was our first experience overseas, but certainly not the last.

The saying goes: “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Nelson Mandela also said: “ The future belongs to those, who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”