So, this is a belated post from about a week ago. I traveled to England over Easter weekend to visit a friend up in Manchester. The highlight of the trip... English. Not just English, but English English. British accents, different slang, crazy idioms, people giving weight in stones, paying in Quid, ordering pints, and traveling at miles per hour. It was almost familiar, but still very foreign. However, it's a lot easier to pick up since the basic language is the same. Although I still can't use "Bob's your uncle" correctly in a sentence, after four days of being around a bunch of British accents, it grows on you and you can't help but start talking like them. My friend, Mike, had studied for a year at Texas A&M. When he went back to England, his buddies (or "mates") would make fun of him for saying "y'all" and "dude" and other simple terms we don't really consider all that special. But enough about the language, lets get to the activities.
I arrived on Good Friday, which apparently is a drinking holiday in England. Apparently, every holiday is a drinking holiday - doesn't matter if you're religious or not, they are looking for every excuse to celebrate. Not necessarily a bad concept if you ask me. We went out to a couple pubs, and clubs where I met a few of his friends and watched their failed attempts to "pull birds." But we had a good time and had a fair amount of drinks. It was nice being able to order food in English at the end of the night.
The next morning, Mike's family cooked a proper English breakfast with sausages, blood pudding, eggs, toast, beans, and hash browns. They were all very welcoming and pleasant to be around. Saturday we spent walking around Manchester and went to the museum of Science and Industry. It was cool, but we didn't get to spend too much time there. We had tickets to see a premier league football match (soccer) Bury vs. Fulham. Mike's team (Bury) lost 3-0, but it was still cool to go see the action. We then drove up to Lancaster where Mike goes to school and got some traditional British food at a "Chippery" (place for fish and chips). We went out again to some pubs and clubs and had a jolly good time.
The next day we drove down to Lancaster to stay to visit one of his friends. We were going to stay in London, but it's really expensive. Lancaster is only about 45 minutes away by train, so we decided it'd be best to get a free place to stay and just take a train in the morning. We made some spagetti and they introduced me to a new drink: The Snakebite - a combination of beer, cider, and juice (it's actually really tasty). We went out to a club that was far better than any clubs we went to the previous nights. First of all, free wifi! That's right. Free wifi in the club. Secondly, they had a huge dance floor and a stage where people were blowing fire and all lit up in the black lights twirling glow sticks and what not. It was a good time.
I didn't get to spend as much time in London as I'd hoped, but we went around a had a look at most of the main attractions: Big Ben, Parliament, the Palace, Tower Bridge, and the London Tower. It was funny, on all the crosswalks, they had in big bold print "LOOK RIGHT" to see which direction the cars were coming from.
While England was great, getting back home was a pain: from London, I took the subway to the bus station; a bus to the airport; flight delayed; bus to train station; 3 trains to get to Bonn; almost missed 2 connections because I was falling asleep (and had to plan a new itinerary); then a 15 minute walk home from the Bonn Hbf. All the while, I had no book, no music, nobody to talk to, just me and my thoughts. I some sense it was kind of nice, but in another, I really just wanted to go to sleep. Needless to say, that night was the best night's rest I had all weekend.
More belated posts to come!
Until next time..
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