スティーブンさん（Steven Graham）からのお便り　　（イギリス）　　2009年9月

Summer holidays in the U.K. 　　　　　

A view of the Lake District	With my Mum	With my Dad

Hi I'm Steven. I live in Japan but for my summer holiday 2009 I went back to my home country, the U.K.

It had been two years since I visited the U.K. and some things had changed.。London had become even more expensive! There were many new shops with new products I had never seen before in the U.K. It was exciting but a little strange.

I was in the U.K. for three and a half weeks. The first few days I spent in London. I visited some of my favourite places like Camden Town market, Covent Garden and Hyde Park. Also for the first time I took a boat on the River Thames. The boat took me from The Houses of Parliament to The Tower of London. It was early evening, almost dusk, and the view from the boat was beautiful. One day I went to the famous department store called ‘Harrods’. It is an amazing department store where you can buy almost anything, but I bought nothing as it is too expensive!

After London I went to Cardiff which is the capital city of Wales. My younger sister is studying at University in Cardiff and I stayed with her at her house. It was my first time in Cardiff so she took me to many places. We visited Cardiff Castle and many beautiful parks. For two days we went to the nearby historical city of Bristol. The buildings in Bristol are mostly traditional Victorian in design. I walked to the top of a hill overlooking the city and walked across the world famous ‘Suspension Bridge’ which was built in the 1800’s and designed by the Victorian architect Brunel. 

I took a bus north to my home town Carlisle. It took about seven hours to arrive there and I was very happy to see my parents waiting for me at the bus station. I hadn’t seen my parents or sister for two years so it was quite emotional for me to go home. It was great to sleep in my childhood bedroom and enjoy my mother’s cooking. With my parents I went hiking in the Lake District, ate traditional British food at pubs and played golf at the golf club where I used to be a member. For the first time ever I got a hole-in-one at the 16^th hole. It was a big surprise and I will never forget that moment!

For two days I went with my parents in their camper van to a town on the east coast of England called Grimsby. It is in Lincolnshire. My mother’s family live there and I stayed in my grandmother’s house. Grimsby fish and chips are very famous and we went to a fish and chip restaurant on the first evening. It was so good! I really miss fish and chips!

While I was home I was very happy because there was a cricket match series between England and Australia called ‘the Ashes’ and England won!!! I love sports. I wanted to watch my local football team play a match but when I was home the team only played away games.

Finally I had to leave the U.K. I was sad to say goodbye to my family but also I was excited to return to Japan. I love the U.K. but nowadays I feel more at home in Japan.Thanks for reading! If you haven’t already been there then I hope you get the chance to visit the U.K. one day.
All the best!