As you can imagine, we took a long time to leave in the morning. Mostly from being incredibly tired, but also because we were thoroughly attached to this farm, and did not want to leave.
So we had breakfast, and slowly got ready, and lounged around outside in the sun, chatting.
Eventually, we caught the bus to Middlesbrough. I thought it was going to take an hour, but it took more than twice that. Packed with people, including babies and children, the bus went up and down huge hills, stopping at all the little towns along the sea. But it was overheating, and would make this horrific high pitched noise, and the driver would pull over until it stopped. I was surprised that we made it there at all, and entirely expected to be stranded out in the countryside.
Everyone told us not to go to Middlesbrough, that it is the worst town in the U.K. And they are right. It looks as if it could be anywhere in America: factories, car dealerships, large roads... It was embarassing actually, and entirely general. In comparison to the rest of the country, where the towns are distinct, with a lot of character, it was a miserable abyss.
We got our next two buses with little trouble, and ended up in Hexham, which is west of Newcastle, and met our next CS host.
Who was a young woman who had just returned from a two month trip to Thailand with her girlfriend. She was having a barbecue, and a large group of her friends were there. Vegan food, good beer, and their crazy stories made it a great night.
Finally begged to be let to go to bed (they wanted us to stay up even later), because we were completely exhausted.
Huzzah for being exhausted in a good way.
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