Post travel blues, synical brits, the future of the budget traveler and pavey ark?

Well I have now returned to the beautiful land of Britain and have yet to have not seen a cloud in the sky, it now feels like winter and I am wondering when I will see blue skies again. The weather with out a doubt has an affect on how we live our lives and our mentalities. I am sure Britain would have a more european vibe if the weather would allow us to hang out in lovely squares sipping coffee and watching the world go by. We would also make more time for leisure, as we would be able to enjoy the outdoors as opposed to cowering away from it in our lovely dry offices.

Anyway I left LA, and enjoyed a lovely 10 hour flight back to London. I spent the journey sitting next to an English couple, who definitely fitted one of my many british stereotypes. I am not a fan of flights back home as it means that you have to rapidly have to come down from your holiday and be faced with british people moaning and queing. Anyway the guy I sat next to really fitted my moaning brit stereotype, having chosen his seats on a aeroplaneseatexpert.com or something making sure he got the best seats on the plane. He didn't like the fact that I pointed out that probably the seats in first class were better than his. When we got off the plane he started moaning to me about the fact that people stand on escilators slowing him down, people need to seriously chill out, why is everyone in such a rush?

Anyway it was quite cool arriving in London, as it isn't like arriving in the rest of the UK. I used to think that London wasn't that cool in comparison to other european cities but it seems to have changed recently. Although I think what makes it cool is the fact that it is such an international city therefore not really british. I stayed in Shoerditch, the coolest of the cool neighborhoods, I like the place but at the same time its hard to take it seriously it is just too cool for itself. What makes the neighborhood cool is the fact it is full of galleries and creative industries they are here because rent was cheap, however the neighborhood has become so cool that they can no longer afford to be based there and I assume the edginess will soon be removed the area will be gentrified as the scene moves further east or maybe north? The place has a strange irony about it.

Hoxton Graffiti

I feel I learnt and experienced a lot from my travels, I enjoyed traveling by myself and enjoyed meeting people. America has many flaws, and I am sure California is not the place to experience them all, it gets slated, I slate it but at the same time life in California is good and I very much enjoyed my time there. Most people were genuinely nice, the quality of life for most was excellent and the great outdoors were amazing. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of years, I feel that America is about to go through a change in fact I feel it has to, so it will be interesting to see what the place feels like in a couple of years time.

Couchsurfing, craigslist and gumtree are definitely the way forward for budget travellers and I think these sites bring an overall different outlook on life. Next time I go travelling I would like to use couchsurfing for my accomodation and ridesharing sights to try and get from A to B, this would be very cost affective and give you the opportunity to meet people of that country.

On an entirely different note, I got out in the lakes over the weekend and sampled some climbing, this time on Pavey Ark overall a good day, did one of the best routes I have done in the lakes Golden Slipper HVS, the second pitch is a dream, relentless climbing on lovely rough edges every move balancy and technical. We then put a dampner on this excellent climb by doing the shittest climb I have ever done, right next to it, which was essentially a bit of gardening on a just off vertical green slab of slime. Still though, nice to get out into the mountains and enjoy what home has to offer.

J