Visting Sophie

Last week I was lucky enough to spend time with Sophie in Poole. She moved there last July but thanks to extortionate public transport prices (£50+ is just ridiculous) and my University degree + her full-time job, me being able to visit her became more and more impossible. That's why I was so excited to find cheap tickets on the National Express website. Visiting Poole suddenly became a possibility!

Cheap tickets did limit my pick-up/drop-off choices and the times of the journeys. This meant I was travelling 4:15pm - 10:30pm on the Tuesday evening and 2:50pm - 10:30pm on the Thursday afternoon/evening. 11 and a half hours of travelling... I'm just glad that Soph was worth it all! My poor little bum was so numb. I also had zero phone battery for most of the journeys. I must be the only person who forgets to charge their phone before a 71/2 hour journey... Oh and charging me £1.50 to charge my phone is disgusting Victoria Coach Station!

Travelling was definitely harder on the Tuesday. I had submitted my Individual Differences essay at 4am that morning and so I was functioning on 4/5 hours sleep. Thankfully Sophie met me off the station and had ordered a large domino's pizza to arrive just after we got back to her house. Could she be a more thoughtful friend?!

Our Wednesday started off with coffee in bed and even more talking/catching up than is reasonable for that time in the morning (only for Soph!). I got to see where Soph works (it's too grown up for me) and even met someone she helps care for. I went on the front of the top of a double decker bus, probably for the first time since I was 13/14. It was terrifying. Why I used to sit there every day in Year 7 I'll never know. Maybe the sense of danger woke me up on the way to school?!

We spent our day travelling to all the different places Soph spends her time in at home and I finally started to experience what her life is like on the south coast. We had chips in Poole Quay after playing in the arcade (probably not a a typical experience for Soph but still!) and I bought myself a sweet little metal sign for my room. We went shopping in Bournemouth, had hot donuts and walked along the pier. I was finally putting places to the stories that Soph has been telling me.

Tea was carbonara cooked by Soph's mum and it was faaaaaantastic. I demolished it in record time! We finished tea and started getting ready to go out in Bournemouth. Good music, hilariously bad attempts at an outfit post and forgetting to drink our drinks... I enjoyed every single part of it!

Since student night is a Tuesday on Bournemouth, it was reaaaally quiet when we got out. We ended up in a cocktail bar right by the beach. Soph managed to finish two cocktails in the time it took me to drink one so I'm not sure who out of the two of us is actually the student anymore ;) Being the super old people we are, we headed back home at about 11ish. We met three French boys on our way back to the bus and were entertained by 16/17 year old childishness as they tried to make us say some made up/rude French word while telling us how beautiful we were.

Thursday was another chilled morning. I don't know what I miss more (other than Sophie of course), the coffee Soph makes or her shower! Both were incredible. I knew I should have just brought her and the house back with me!

Since I was getting the train to Portsmouth (actually three trains) at 10 to 3, there wasn't much we could do with my last morning... except get tattoos of course. We had a quick detour to the park to play on the zip wire (we're definitely not 20...) before heading to the tattoo shop. Sophie was finally able to buy me my 20th birthday present (lets not talk about the fact I forgot to take hers with me) and I now have a totally awesome acorn on my ankle, with a symbol for friendship running through it. I love it so much!

Saying goodbye to Soph was awful, and not just because it meant I was beginning my 71/2 hour journey home. I hated leaving her. The worst part of growing older is without a doubt the very real distances that become a part of friendships. Going so long without seeing her again is so hard!

I did have some company to distract myself from all that on my way home though. I sat by a guy named James on my way from Southampton to Havant. He asked me about Gulliver's Travels (the book I was reading at the time) and somehow that led to a very long conversation about our lives. Then I met a very kind man in Victoria Coach Station who sat with me as I waited for my phone to charge and we had a long conversation about politics and London. Quite random!

When I finally got home around quarter past 11, I was so glad to see my bed I don't actually remember anything other than snuggling down under the covers and looking forward to going to sleep. I had an amazing time with Sophie and it was definitely worth all the time it took to get there! Fingers crossed I don't have to wait such a long time before I see her again!