I just finished my second ever flight, I decided to take the mantle and do a big solo trip in the uk despite travelling only once beforehand, and it was one of the most freeing and satisfying experiences i have done, anyways onto a quick review:
london (5 nights): in the planning phases for london, i did not conceive how huge of a city it is, its practically a small country, you can hop on the tube or a bus and drive for 1-2 hours and be 2 streets away from where you started, coming from a country where 2 hour drive gets you across the whole place, this was incomprehensible at first, and every stop felt like it was town center, it just stretches on and on... personally i tried to focus on the less busy parts of the city out of naivety that im better than a tourist, but buckingham and greenwich ended up being some of my favorite stops, along with the national gallery and hyde park.
leeds (7 nights): not a lot of note, mostly stayed there to meet up with people, but it was a good introduction to how nice some sleeper neighborhoods can be, huge old churches stand in the middle of the street with gravestones from the 18th century, streets of endless brick houses, green open spaces. it was a different kind of ordinary than what i was used to, and it helped me acclimate into the culture a lil bit. also they have nice malls
wales (snowdonia-betws-y-coed) (3 nights): after wrapping up with the big cities for a bit and heading to wales, i was really whiplashed by the transition from the cities to the village vibes. the village is right on a big river with beautiful waterfalls, surrounded by deep deep green forests and endless sheep herds. climbing snowdonia thru pen-y-pass and always getting knocked off by the wind, seeing the deep olive orange colored mountains being engulfed by fog (or clouds?) as i climbed was amazing, despite not being able to see anything at the top. then going around Llandudno and the north of betws, missing the last bus back and walking in the rain for 2 hours, which was also a highlight and one of the funnest experiences i had
lakes (keswick) (3 nights): coming to lakes i made an active effort to not look too much up about the place, i arrived at my hostel and got a hike route from an old fellow that was staying in my room, i went ahead and followed it (catbells - high spy - dales head - robinson - buttermere), which took me around 6 hours due to my legs still being crashed from snowdonia, but the challenge and the views were definitely worth it. sadly thats where lakes peaked for me, the following 2 nights i spent mostly just resting up so i dont tear up any muscles, i found that the town (keswick) is pretty much just tourist traps, i also had the misfortune on arriving by the weekend so the town was filler with old white haired folks flooding every corner. it was less of my type of thing, my noteworthy places ive been to are The Round for nice hamburger and mac n cheese and friars craig. if i ever find myself coming back to lakes, i would definitely stick to the mountains for the entire duration.
edinburgh (2 nights): due to my flight before preponed, i had to spend less nights than i wanted in scotland, so i mostly sticked to edinburgh, tough the city is very beautiful, and offers lots of nice stuff you can manage in a day, starting from craigmillar caslte i went to arthurs seat and explored the cities historic locations more, but what i did enjoy a lot about edinburgh is how young it felt,i was seeing people my age (around university age) more than any group of people, and it felt nice and strange compared to the other stops, that was mostly filled with tourists and old folks. I would definitely need to come back to edinburgh and scotland to see more of it!
the conclusion is, uk was really great place for first solo trip, esp with how nice the public transports are (at times (excluding the prices(not on weekends))), and the diversity of colors and views really satisfied my urge to see some autumn colors. cheers!