Thread by @ETWriteHome

Going to bed ahead of the lass buses tomorrow. Had a friend Text and Sau, “Sorry I missed your Birthday! I only realised when i read about it in the Guardian…” What a weird life…

Why has autocorrect lost its mind when I’m too tired to notice mistakes?

Oh no. Someone in another room is snoring so loudly I can head them.

Main hotel room lighting: I don’t look THAT tired.

Hotel room bathroom lighting: You actually died three years ago.

Last night I had to climb this fence to get from the bus stop to my hotel because I don’t think they were expecting many people arriving by bus in the large retail park on the outskirts of Alnwick. 😂

I’m REALLY excited about today. Not just finishing this challenge, but also because I love the Northumberland coast. I’ve travelled along it by train, car, bike and coach, but this will be my first time going through on a double-decker so I get a higher view. 💚

I hate buses where the front seat in front of the stairs is rock hard. Normally I sit on the left, but the sea is on the right so… 🌊

Just a note – earlier when there were only a few people following this I told people they could follow me on Instagram but now I’d prefer journalists don’t have access to my photos without my permission so I’ve made it private. Apologies if I deny your request!

It’s hilarious how fast this bus goes compared to when I cycled this in 2021. My partner reminding me of some other advantage to the bus (though cycling it was incredible)…

Alright – I’ve left Berwick! Which means unless this bus breaks down in the very near future, I’m achieving my goal of crossing the border.

But my god the fare is painful. £8.50. I knew the £2 fare didn’t apply in Scotland, and I know this is standard on buses seeking the UK, but it still shocks me.

I will probably tweet more about this on the way home, but I’m genuinely curious how much ridership increases with the £2 fares. It’s such a game changer for ordinary usage.

I’M IN SCOTLAND!!!!! #DreamsComeTrue

My goal was always just to “take buses to Scotland” because I didn’t care where I crossed, and I didn’t want to limit myself to buses today in case I was at risk of missing my train home from Edinburgh. However, it looks like I should be able to get buses all the way! 😊

Also, at the same time I crossed the Scottish border I got a message from the Daily Mail saying they’re writing about me. I would like to say I did not consent to that. #NightmaresComeTrue

Also, have a bunch of pictures of Northumberland but I’ll post them later.

I wanted to mostly keep this about the joy of buses, but a government minister just retweeted this thread and I blocked him. The £2 bus are great, but a sticking plaster on a massive problem. I am pro public transport; not an advertisement for this inhumane government.

Alright, while I wait for the next bus, some photos of Northumberland!

We’ll start with this delightfully out-of-place bridge outside Alnwick.

Sea in Craster…

The classic Banburgh castle shot.

Three shots of Berwick 😍

I guess it’s important to advertise your offerings?

And we’re out of Northumberland but the Scottish Borders are also stunning!

Sorry – lots of photos but I love this part of the world! Does anyone know why so macht trees and fallen over in the borders? Was it just recent bad wind storms? It was like every third tree had fallen over and they had such massive roots systems!

Just looked at earlier trains back to London so I can get home earlier as I’m getting into town earlier than expected. Then I saw the prices… 😳

Have just left the very pretty Earlston which I arrived at on the Border Buses 60. Apparently I could have gotten a bus straight from London… (still had TfL logo on it!)

They also seem to be mining b*tcoin or something too (don’t want to write it out or the crypto bros will find me and I don’t need any more Twitter notifications right now) 😅

Wanted to mention that a few very lovely people have messaged me saying they’d like to greet me when I get to Edinburgh. This is a really sweet offer, but I think I’d be way too socially awkward to deal with this so please don’t! 😅

Also, I keep my Oyster card in my phone case, but because I’ve been paying for buses with Apple Pay I take it out to avoid some sort of confusion when I go to pay, which always looks like I’m about to try to use it to pay.

I’ve been terrified the whole time someone would say, “You can’t use that up here, love” when I do this and I’d be super embarrassed, but no one has, so I’m relieved. 😂

Hello old friend… rolled in on the 51 Border Bus, after a comprehensive tour of all the places in the outskirts I’ve stayed in because I couldn’t afford to stay in the city centre during The Fringe…

And what did I do when I got here? Got on another bus! @on_lothianbuses #gifted me a ticket to their open top bus tours which was a new experience considering four days ago I had 900 followers.

Liked having a live guide and learned many things, the most memorable of which is the fact that when I climbed Arthur’s Seat I was actually climbing the wrong hill so have therefore never climbed Arthur’s seat.

Then wandered Edinburgh with the most appropriate jam.

It occurred to me that the only other time I’ve been in a national newspaper in my life was when I was in Edinburgh… it was for my infectious honesty. 😂 amp.theguardian.com/stage/2016/aug…

Also, I’m laughing at the fact that newspapers are calling me a writer. I put writer on my profile ages ago as a kind of “fake it til you make it” to convince myself to write more and the didn’t write more but have bed. Too lazy to change it. 😂

*been too lazy. The tiredness is really hitting me…

The actual reason I caught all these buses to Edinburgh is @TheAuldHoose nachos. Only slightly kidding (Diet Coke pint for scale… and desperately needed energy)…

My phone has stopped recognising that it's being operated. I think these three days have been a bit much for it. I'm leaving it off for a while. Thankfully, I'm on the train with my laptop now!

A lot of people have been asking for my route details. I'm trying to share them but Google sheets isn't too into LNER WiFi... I'll keep trying.

While I continue to fight with LNER Wifi to share my route, I thought I'd share a few other accounts that you might like if you want more transport content...

First off – shameless plug – if you like the London Underground, my partner and I have a podcast called @RoundelRoundPod. We're making an episode about every station. It's EXTREMELY nerdy and detailed, so I appreciate not everyone's cup of tea, but some may be into it.

On the very small chance you haven't discovered @geofftech on YouTube – he's got all the UK transport content. And @RM_Transit has all the Canadian/a lot of international content.

If you want epic Twitter threads about train trips across Europe and cycling trips, @richardavsmith is the way to go!

For engineering/politics around transport, look to @GarethDennis. Another brilliant person is @SimonZev – lots of talk about trains, active travel, and better cities!

Martha @NQRW has such incredible transport knowledge of so many networks, it's remarkable. UK, North America, and often other places too... and she's very funny!

And I've tweeted @TheOrangeOne a few times here, as he's been helping a lot with last-minute changes to this journey. He does buses, trains, and general transport mayhem!

If anyone else has anyone they'd recommend for good transport content as well, please feel free to recommend to others below!

Oh, also, for all the people asking how much this cost! I spent £30 on buses in England (all £2) which doesn't count my 3 London buses I got for free. I then spent £16 on the two buses I took in Scotland. What a difference the £2 fare makes... it should stick around.

Bit of a faff to get this with @LNER's terrible WiFi – but here is a link to the route! I took the timings off because they were chaotic anyway, but here is the link: drive.google.com/file/d/1NZtuKM…

And I think, with that, I'm signing off for the night. I'll keep trying to reply to people tomorrow but I'll be working all day and also said I'd talk to a couple of journalists and have some podcast editing to do so time is limited...

Thanks all for joining me on this wild journey!