Manchester and Liverpool!

Hey all!

So these are not coming as often as I intended but I came down with a cold and didn't feel like writing.

However, last week and weekend were super awesome!

Just ask Ringo

I went to go see Black Swan on Wednesday which was scary and disturbing but also fascinating and I really enjoyed it. I did not think it was as 'ambiguous' as others have said. Not a movie for the faint of heart (and probably not a movie for my Carrie-friend).

I also upgraded my cell phone to one that had access to the internet so I could tweet and facebook on-the-go. It turns out the internet is really slow and more often than not won't connect on it, and it doesn't receive emails, which means it probably wasn't the best spent money. Live and learn I guess. (the twitter aspect of it is not too bad).

Its still Pink!

On Thursday I went with my friend Lida, who is a drama major, to this improvised musical called Showstoppers.  I found some of it quite repetitive but they did all these different musical numbers 'in the style of...' which were generally hilarious and the whole thing was surprisingly well done. The best part/most awkward part was that there was a heckler; a drunk old lady, just seeing the show by herself. She kept screaming out completely random suggestions in the middle of the 'non-suggestion' parts of the show... and at one point someone yelled at her to shut up... and the improvisation director person had to stop everything and ask everyone to be quiet. Good times!!!

So, on Friday afternoon we all loaded up on the bus and headed to Manchester! For the Manchester portion of my trip you should listen to the soundtrack from the BBC adaption of the North and the South. It is both epic and representative. It really does feel different between the two places: Southern England is all rolling hills, sheep and old castles while Northern England is all urban, flat and obviously much more industrial (but in a cool, old, industrial revolution kind of way).

Like this. Only a little sinister.

 The bus trip took about 6hrs including a 30min stop, which meant we didn't get there until the evening. The hotel we stayed in didn't have a key to our room.... but they were still getting people to stay in it. So every time we wanted to go to our room we had to ask the person at the front desk to fetch the master key and open the door for us. It was one of those ludicrous situations where all you can do is just laugh it off.

We stayed in the student district so there were a lot of pubs and restaurants around. The first night we ended up in a place called 'The Friendly Inn', where I drank some kind of delicious local ale. I love the way in England when they call something an 'Inn', 9 times out of 10 it is really just a pub.

The next morning we found our way on a bus to the city central where we all got some breakfast. It turns out Swedish and Norwegian people don't eat sweet food for breakfast. When they noticed my friend Angela and I were eating muffins, they thought it was strange that we would have 'a cookie for breakfast'. They clearly have never eaten at Tim Hortons.

Minor digression: Sweden sounds awesome and I really want to go there. My friend Charlotte is always talking about the beautiful scenery and the amazing museums, and the delicious food and how everywhere you go there are piles of candy (apparently penny candy is very Swedish). Also in Sweden they have this amazing tradition: on January the 13th they just chuck their Christmas tree out the window. Apparently sometimes they clean it up, or lots of times they just leave it for the street cleaners.

It was pouring rain the entire day. This has left me with a rather soggy impression of the Manchester.

Soggy High Street

Through some kind of funding, or something, all the cultural attractions in Manchester are free! Which is totally awesome. So we began by doing a peruse through the art gallery, which was interesting but not really my cup of tea. After that, since a group of 7 in kind of a large number to tour around with we split into two groups. Our group decided to misread a map and get lost for like 45 minutes (not surprising, knowing my map-reading orientation difficulties). We eventually did find our way to the Manchester cathedral, which was beautiful, but not as impressive as the Wells cathedral or the Exeter cathedral (I feel as if I'm getting a bit cathedralled out). The best part of Manchester for me was how the city architecture shifted magically from uber-urban center to old-timesy cathedral area. It looked really cool.

This doesn't quite do it justice

After that we found our way to the University of Manchester which houses the Manchester Museum. It was pretty cool and had a bit of everything: some natural history, some Egyptian artifacts, a real life Egyptian mummy (which I both loved and was a little horrified by), a coin section, a mediterranean section, a rock section... etc etc etc.

Apparently this is a fragment of the Iliad. Awesome-sauce!

All together it was pretty excellent, though I was feeling tired and cranky instead of especially enthusiastic at the time. One of the best parts (also a favorite of my friend Lauren who took this picture) were these Roman-Egyptian Death Portraits

After that we reunited with the other girls, had a coffee together, and set out to find a place called 'The Briton's Protection Pub' that was in my Lonely Planet travel book. We wanted to go there for dinner because it was supposed to serve 'traditional Tudor fare including venison and boar'. WHICH SOUNDED AWESOME! But it turns out they only serve food at lunch, on weekdays. (one of the lunch dishes included both boar and pheasant on the same plate!!).

I love the guy photo-bombing this picture.

So we just enjoyed a pint and then headed back towards our hotel where we ate at this weird chain vodka bar called Revolution. It was a long day so we got an early night, but not before enjoying this masterpiece: Kiss The Girls.

The next day we headed to LIVERPOOL! But only for like 5hrs. Short but Sweet.

Lets be honest. The real reason I decided to move to England is to casually encounter Sir Paul McCartney. What better place to do that then Liverpool?!!

So I obviously went to The Beatles Museum (what is called 'The Beatles Story').

The entrance fee was the same price as a one way trip to Dublin (Thats how I measure the price of everything now). It was so worth it though!! I remember how I once sold my little sister (Hi Kali!) on the BC museum by accidentally convincing her that it transformed into different time periods as you moved through it. It was actually that!! For example, they had a life-size reconstruction of the Cavern Club, and a complete Yellow Submarine!

There were portholes that were actually fishtanks and a cool periscope

Some of it was really hokey. Like these Beatles mannequins 'in their first recording session':

Or this 'Beatles graffiti'

Back when the Beatles wore all leather all the time. true story.

I actually just love the flask.

All in all it was approximately the best thing ever. The. Best. Thing. Ever.

A re-creation of where the Beatles would go to be perverts. Not even joking.

The only blue copy of the White Album ever made

ism ism ism ism ism ism ism ism

I bought a lot of crap from the gift store. Not entirely unexpected.

After that we walked along the Albert Dock. It was beautiful, and terrifyingly windy.

This is what many of the buildings looked like. Beautiful. 

windy.

We then had some lunch at an American and Canadian inspired place called 'Moose Coffee' . They were serving all day breakfast. I was torn between pancakes and eggs benny. I went with the Eggs but I should of had the pancakes.

Angela got hers with chocolate spread. aka nutella. Why did I not get pancakes??

In town there was a big shopping district and adjacent to it was Mathew Street, where the old cavern club was located and where the reconstructed one is still located. Love it!

Where the old cavern club used to be.

The new, still rockin', cavern liverpool

And these things were there

I don't like because I don't understand it.

And of course (my favorite) there were places named after Beatles songs

Cafe

Restaurant

Hard Day's Night Hotel. Ah-mazing.

Last but not least, a photo journal of pewter John Lennon and I.

All in all it was only 5hrs, but 5 totally awesome hours. On the trip back we came across this, which is a fortune-teller style machine, but also hilarious!

It only had mean things to say to Lauren like
"You're emotionally distant and you choose quantity over quality when it comes to food" 

Since I got back, all I've done is gone to class and wallow in my cold-shaped-misery. It turns out spending two days in the rain while sharing a room and sitting on a bus for an extended length of time with someone who has a cold is bit of a recipe for disaster. Feeling much better now!

Anyway, love you all! Miss you family!

Almost forgot these

Week Two (and a bit)

Hey all!

I was having a few technically difficulties but they are all sorted out now so I thought I would give you all an update (though by the time you finish reading this it'll have taken so long, it'll probably time for another one). This is the song you should listen to while you read this... because its my new favorite.

So the first half of last week was entirely boring. It consisted mainly of going to my various classes, getting into a regular daily rhythm and was not too different from going to school back home. Which is probably a good thing, because being a never-ending tourist would be straight-up exhausting.

Forensic anthropology was another round of remedial biological anthro which was dull enough to put me into a coma. In Egyptology, however, we are apparently going to be learning hieroglyphics, which to me sounds both overly-ambitious and awesome. Luckily (and randomly) I'm in a group with someone who is going to actually be an Egyptologist so she can already read them.

 My week got SO MUCH BETTER in the second half. On Wednesday I went to go see Morning Glory with my archaeology friend (Angela). The movie was funny and better than pretending to do homework.

Here are a couple of pictures I've taken of Exeter.

Everyone on this street has the same car, and the same house.

This is what the Main Street (called High Street) looks like

Then on Thursday, since I only have class in the morning, I decided to go on a free guided to tour of Exeter entitled "Exeter Old and New". It turns out when the talk about 'New' they're still talking about stuff that was built before Victoria's oldest European anything. On the tour was me and this very old couple, and another old lady and that was it (I think because it was freezing and windy outside... and in the middle of winter when there are no tourists).

The little old man was telling me how his house was bombed in the blitz by something called a doodlebug which is hard to even imagine until you see pictures like these. Two-thirds of Exeter was destroyed in WWII.

Exeter has absolutely ASTOUNDING history. Its like a giant pile of history (it was, literally, after the blitz). I wanted to take pictures of the highlights but it was too cold. I might write a separate post on all the amazing things about Exeter (like when they tried to hang someone this one time, but there was some glitch with the gallows, so he became known as 'the man who couldn't hang' and was eventually just released 22yrs later).

I also learnt some new vocabulary, like what a promenade is used for (milling around, looking sexy) or what a folly is (re-creating full scale historic and pre-historic structures to one up the neighbours).

Then I bought some new boots!

On Saturday I went on my second day trip to Dartmouth, which I was really looking forward to, because I have vowed to maximize the number of castles I see while I'm here in England. That happens to be Dartmouth`s main attraction. The castle was on the seaside, and looked super cool from the outside. Unfortunately the inside was pretty dull (and I'm sure completely historically accurate). The whole castle was approximately three rooms that were white washed and had some cannons. I think the most interesting part was how the architects weren't too able/keen on making it particularly human-friendly. All the doors were like three feet high and it was filled with a series of death-trap staircases like this one:

Yeah, that hole is a staircase. The door for it is like 3ft high.

Dartmouth is such a cool looking town, all the buildings are painted different colours.

Due to the fact Dartmouth is on the seaside (...and its January) it was very, very cold. In addition it was a 20ish minute walk from the castle to the town. My poor friend Yi Mei (who is from Singapore and has never even seen snow before) was dying.

We decided to take 'a long lunch' and we just wandered around until we found a place that was open. It was early, and in the off season so we were the only people there. It was only after we were seated, and were looking through a travel guide that we realized that the pub we were in was the oldest building in  Dartmouth. Built in 1380! I had the best seafood chowder I've ever experienced... it was SO good!

The place was called, get this, The Cherub.

And they had little cherub figurines everywhere

I was excitedly telling all this to one of my British flat-mates and to British people historical sites are no big deal. Oh, built before they had a reliable method of measuring time, no big deal. Built before basically anyone in England was literate, no big deal. Built before Shakespeare, before the Renaissance, before Europeans colonized America, no big deal. (rant ends).

There wasn't too much else to see in Dartmouth since the museum was closed. I did buy this book.

Written by a guy named Peter Underwood who I would sincerely like to meet.

On Sunday, we decided to go on another trip to the beach town of Exmouth, which is about a 30minute train ride away from Exeter. After two different days of being absolutely freezing despite my winter coat, I bundled up to crazy-hobo levels. I'm talking multiple sweaters, make-shift long johns, two pairs of socks... the whole nine-yards. Of course, it was sunny and warm enough for some sun-bathing. We even had ice cream. The beach was very long and sandy and picturesque. We're definitely going back in the summer. I can't wait.

Blindingly sunny

Then last night (Monday) I went out to a pub with some friends and had a few ciders. Apparently cider pretty much originated in Devon, so its everywhere and altogether rather delightful!

Even the booze in England is adorable

I'm very excited about this weekend coming up since I'm going with the International Society (basically this club that plans trips and pub crawls for international students) to Manchester and then on to Liverpool! Also, in a few weeks time I'm going to Dublin! It seems like there are so many places that I want to see and things I want to do that I don't how I'm going to fit them all in. (Dad: I already have three different places I want to go with you when you're here :D )

Anyway, Love you all (Especially you Mom!) Miss you like crazy and I wish you guys were all here doing fun things with me!