Easter

This past weekend, Lauren, Shawn, and I had a chill time in Nottingham, UK (home of Robin Hood). We flew into East Midlands Airport on Friday, which is the smallest one I've ever been in, and then took a bus into the city. For some reason the landscape reminded me of east Texas. Once we were there we ate the obligatory fish and chips and checked into our Airbnb with Cara's mum, which was a little weird because I've never stayed at an Airbnb that a person was actively living in. The neighborhood was also a bit sketchy but it had a grocery store within walking distance so I was happy. There was also a "Dixy Chicken," which I thought was kind of funny. That evening we walked around town and through Nottingham Castle, which had some gardens and a lot of Robin Hood statues that we shamelessly mimicked. We also found a playground because we always seem to find a playground (trampoline in Cochem, zipline in Amsterdam, swings in Zurich, etc). Later we went and saw a movie and then explored Nottingham's night life for a bit. Saturday we decided to take a train to the Peak District National Park, and it was a bit of a struggle actually finding the park, even though it's huge. We finally managed to walk to a trail that we could hike along, and we strolled along eating the picnic that we packed. At one point we hopped the fence to a big green field and another fence into the woods where we explored and sat eating grapes and potato chips, feeling very one with nature. We got back down to the trail and found a place where you could rent bikes, so we rode along the trail and through a tunnel and across a bridge and found a side trail that led down to a river and a waterfall. It was super scenic until we got back up to the bikes, and then the monsoon started. It had been drizzling all day but the skies suddenly unleashed a torrent of rain and wind so we rode as fast as we could back where we came from. By the time we got there we looked like we had just been swimming in mud. And then the bus that was supposed to take us back to the train never showed up, so we stood for 50 minutes at a bus stop, completely soaked and freezing. Needless to say, on the train we were feeling pretty run down. But then all of a sudden our car was taken over by a pack of very intoxicated middle aged British folk. They were singing some kind of drinking song, and some of them started talking to us. This lady Helen moved to sit by me, and we had all kinds of interesting conversations with her, her husband, and their friends (including Donald Trump. Every time I talk with a European for more than five minutes, it always comes back to Trump). They even taught us their song, which went a bit like this: HAGGIS, HAGGIS, HAGGIS. THAT'S THE WAY HE LIKES IT, LIKES IT, LIKES IT. OHHH WOHHHHHHOH OOHHH WOHHHHOHH. It lifted our spirits a lot and we cooked ourselves dinner and had a good night. Sunday morning we made an Easter breakfast of pancakes, eggs, toast, and fruit, then went to Wollaton Hall, which is apparently where they filmed a lot of The Dark Knight Rises. It was really pretty with a lake and gardens and a huge tree stump that we climbed. After that we went back to town, had some British pies, and then went to mass at a local old fancy church, which was a really interesting experience. Then we made dinner and relaxed for our last night. It was a good trip to end on before a couple weeks of staying in Bonn, and it was definitely the most interesting Easter I've ever had.