Girl Meets Wales

Birthday Day

2008-06-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

I started out my 21st birthday with a motorcycle ride into town from Pietro, which rocked! As my dad said, it's one of those really authentic Italian moments that you just can't buy! He dropped me off at the Porta Romana, so that I could walk into town to go to the Uffizi.

The Uffizi is a pretty cool museum/art gallery. I don't think any of their art is modern, most of it is at least 300 years old, and a lot of it is even older. Some came from the private collections of the Medici family, who ruled Florence until the 17th century. They were great patrons of art during the Renaissance, encouraging and paying for many famous works of art to be created. This includes Botticelli's Birth of Venus.

After the Uffizi I treated myself to a fancy lunch at a restaurant with this view. It was rather delicious(both the view and the lunch)!

My other birthday treat to myself was this, which is also the big surprise I mentioned in the last post. I got my hair cut short! I went to a place near Santa Maria Novella Church, which I had passed the day before. The guy who cut it was named Leroy, which is possibly the most un-Italian first name I have ever hear, however, he spoke no English at all. It took three tries and me pointing at a picture before he finally got just how short I wanted it. When he got there he exclaimed 'Basta!' which means 'Enough!'

When I got back to the house Oretta told me that they would take me out for pizza. We were going to go to a restaurant, but her brother had been to a festival in town that had some very good mushrooms. There has been so much rain that the mushrooms are particularly excellent right now. We decided that that would be even better than a restaurant. When we got there it turned out that the festival was a fundraiser for the local chapter of the Italian left-wing democratic party, which is really just a fancy way of saying communist. The whole thing was family run, with the parents doing all the cooking, and the kids serving. This of course led to some very confused (and tired) kids running around with dishes, trying to serve them to all the wrong people. I had the mushroom pizza, and it was very tasty.

When we got back to the house Oretta lit some candles stuck in the rind of a watermelon cut in half. It was the perfect addition to having already eaten so much food. All round an excellent day!

All Roads Lead to ...

2008-06-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

I interrupt the scheduled programming to let you all know that I am currently (as in real time, instead of all this back posting business) in Florence! I was going to try and finish up all the back posts, but in the crazy that was finally moving out of residence for the last time, I didn't get to it. I have a few more posts that I can do with stuff I put on the internet, but I might wait and do it all when I get back.

I am staying with family friends, the Milazzo's. They live just outside Florence in an old farmhouse.

With a view like this.

And a Chertosa (Monastary) in the distance. I hear they are up to 12 monks now.

Yesterday I did nothing but sit around with their two boys, Pietro and Matteo, who are my age. It was lots and lots of fun to do nothing at all, and when I got bored of that, I could go look outside.

Today I took the bus into town. My first stop was the Santa Mario Novella church, since it was right beside the bus stop. Inside there are some beautifully restored frescos. Interesting choice for the story they tell, but amazing.

I had lunch on the steps of Piazza San Lorenzo, where there are loads of covered stalls selling all sorts of things. I bought some Murano glass earrings, and might go back for some gorgeous scarves.

I then walked all the way to the other side of the downtown to the Ponte Vecchio. Almost all the stores on the bridge are jewellers. Apparently, a long time ago, the Arno River flooded, and all the jewellery was washed into the river, giving it the name River of Gold.

I then walked to the Uffizi to book my ticket for tomorrow. I'm very glad I did, since the line up to get in was very very very long.

I walked a lot today, most of it just wandering about, seeing the city. I took a little break for a cafe latte at this restaurant. It was more expensive than I would have liked, but the view was very good. You also can't beat history, this place has existed as a cafe since 1847.

Not to mention of course, that this is what I had to look at while I was sipping my coffee!
There is a post office under the arches, where I found more of my favorite post boxes. The ones in Italy have separate slots for local and international mail.

The arches also hold more of the covered stalls that can be found everywhere in Florence.
While I was walking about I mostly had no idea where I was going, nor any real destination. I had a map, and a decent sense of direction, so no worries about getting lost. Every once in a while I would turn a corner and find that I knew where I was, remembering something from when I was here 7 years ago. This is the local courts, though the last time I was there there where armed guards hanging around outside. They might have been carrying machine guns, and were kind of scary! However, today there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary about the building.
Tomorrow is my birthday, and I've been promissed an outing of pizza. Not to mention that I've got my own surprise up my sleeve!

Edinburgh: The End

2008-04-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

Monday morning I set off bright and early to go see the Castle. I was a little dissapointed. It is still used by the army as an administrative base, so there are a lot of buildings that you can't go in. It is a pretty cool building though, and would be great with little kids since there are some pretty cool cannons.

At the entrance to the castle is a woolen mill, which has it's own looms in the basement and weaves it's own tartans. I bought a hat with the Princess Diana Memorial Tartan. It is way prettier than all the other tartans!

I went down to the bottom of the Royal Mile, to see Holyrood Palace. Arthur's Seat is an amazing hill, overlooking the city. It looks like it would be a good hike as well, though I only took photo's of it.

Holyrood Palace claims to be the Edinburgh residence of the royal family, though everyone knows that if they go to Scotland, they would much rather stay at Balmoral.

The palace and it's grounds are beautiful, though they don't allow photographs inside, so I could only take pictures of the outside. Inside you can see the private rooms of Mary Queen of Scots. There is even a plaque on the wall marking the place where her private secretary, Rizzo, was murdered by her husband.

One of the things I liked best was the ruined Chapel. A few centuries ago the roof fell in, and for some reason or another, it was never fixed. The inside is more like a graveyard, with tombstones for the floor.

This is a far happier self portrait, taken in the reflection of a window on my way down to the train station. I bought the tam at the woolen mill.

Then I had to get on the train and go back to school, which made me really sad. I had a good adventure though!

Edinburgh: The Middle

2008-04-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning I woke up to find it snowing. It was the first real snow the UK had gotten that year, and it was April. The Australian girl in my room in the hostel was freaking out, she had never really seen snow. I just shook my head, and layered up with some legwarmers and an extra sweater. It wasn't really that cold.

I went to see the High Kirk of Edinburgh. It's kind of like the Scottish version of a cathedral, only cathedrals have bishops, and the Scottish are generally Protestant, so don't believe in bishops. Thus, a High Kirk.

This church was the one that John Knox preached out of, and managed to convert pretty much everyone to being Protestant instead of Catholic. Knox learned from the guy who gave the Selles' their family institution, Calvin. When he died, he stipulated that he must be burried within 23 metres of the church that had been his home.

This was all well and good until the city began to run out of space. The graveyard around the church was turned into a parking lot, and all the bodies moved to another graveyard. But what to do with John Knox? They couldn't just move him, it was his dying wish to remain there. Thus, John Knox, father of Scottish Protestantism, became parking space number 23. All that remains to commemorate him is a gold square to mark the spot.

In the afternoon I went off to the National Museum of Scotland, where I saw loads of Scottish paintings.

The gallery is quite good, with a nice cafe as well. The building is right in the middle of Old Town and New Town, and so perfect to just pop in for a few hours when you have the time.

Edinburgh: The Beginning

2008-04-18T05:50:00.000-07:00

On the Saturday morning I took a free tour around the city. Well, it wasn't really free, but instead operates on a donation at the end. The company claims that this means their guides have to try harder, and therefore give better tours. Most of the guides seem to be people who visited the city and never left. Mine was from Oklahoma. There were about 75 people who showed up, so they split us up into smaller groups.

We saw the Walter Scott monument, which is huge!

It was built to celebrate the life of Walter Scott, the man who single handedly managed to revive Scottish nationalism, and saved them from becoming just like the rest of England. He is responsible for making the kilt fashionable, and for kind of inventing it. It's one of those things that's supposed to be all historical, but really hasn't been around for that long.

The little group of buildings in the top left of this picture is the old medieval castle. The whole countryside of Scotland is very hilly, especially Edinburgh. The landscape was carved by glaciers which created dramatic hills and valleys. The old medieval city is built on top of on of the hills, with the newer section on the adjacent hills. There are bridges that connect the tops of the hills, with the poorer sections of the city being in the valleys. These bridges were convenient for the more affluent since they could just walk right over all the muddy gross parts of town. The street that my hostel was on is called Cowgate because it was where the cows would be driven down on their way to slaughter. Needless to say, that got smelly. The area around the castle is a gorgeous park. Our guide explained that in medieval times the area was a firey poop lake. Because of all the human and animal waste being thrown into the area, methane gas would occasionally pop to the surface and catch on fire. Wonder why the grass is so green? Good fertilizer.

This is the door to the home of Robert Burns, Scotland's beloved poet, which is across from the Writer's Museum.

This is what the guide described as a medieval burglary alarm. It used to be a staircase, though through some sort of renovation, it is now part of the wall. The two middle steps are not uniform to the rest of the steps, which would cause any potential trespasser to fall, make a big noise and get caught. The family would know which step it was, and could tell friends that it was the 7th step up, etc.

This building is a very old, very prestigious (and still operational) boys school. Unfortunately I cannot for the life of me remember its name. What is cool about it is that it was apparently J.K. Rowling's inspiration for Hogwarts, in Harry Potter.

In more geekery, I squealed when I saw this. It's not quite the same, but it's pretty dang close. In the 40's these were all over England, and could be used in an emergency to ring the police. They are still all over Edinburgh, but none seem to be opperational. What really makes it exciting is that they were made famous by the cult British TV show Doctor Who. The Doctor travels around time and space in a ship (called a TARDIS) that has accidentally stuck its chameleon exterior to be the shape of a Police Box.

I saw loads of tourists running up to them and saying "Take a picture of me next to the TARDIS!" Which just made it even more amusing.

In the afternoon I met up with my mom's friends nephew, Jacob. He was doing his exchange in Edinburgh. We had never met before, but had a grand old time. We went for tea at the Elephant Cafe, then hung out at his residence building. His cousin was having a dinner party with some friends that night, and she generously let me tag along. She complained that the food wasn't very good, but Jacob and I were just happy to have a square meal in us! And it was delicious anyway.

Edinburgh: The Prelude

2008-04-18T05:03:00.000-07:00

The train ride up to Edinburgh was really amazing. Sure it rained half the time, but you get to go right up the coast, through all sorts of little tiny towns.

The view is spectacular.

Funny thing is that it's even better on the way out. Going North, the train is on the inside track, so it's harder to see the ocean. Going South, you are right there, looking over the cliffs. Stunning I tell you.

I'm not going to lie, I didn't do much the first day. I arrived late in the afternoon, so I didn't have much time. I wandered about a bit, then went back to the hostel to make some dinner. The hostel was pretty good. They had a full kitchen for us to use, and every couple of rooms had their own kitchen, so it was only shared with about 20 people instead of 100. It was on Cowgate Rd, which is very central. However, it is a bit of a dodgy street at night, as there are a load of cheap clubs on the street. I wouldn't walk alone at night there. So I didn't! Easy solution. What this does mean though, is that it's loud. The bar across the street plays music into the wee hours of the night, so bring earplugs if you plan on staying there.

York, Day the Second

2008-04-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

The second day in York I went back to all the places I had been on the ghost tour to see them in the daylight. I saw Shambles Street, which was the film inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. It's original purpose was the butchers street, which meant that it was generally full of rotting meat. Pleasant eh?

The joke is that you can shake hands across the upper windows of this building, though apparently that only works if there are extra people hanging on the ankles of the shakers. The distance is just a little too much.

The Golden Fleece is reputed to be the most haunted pub in York, though I can't remember any actual stories from it.

This column is a remnant from Roman days. York is the furthest north the Romans went in their quest to rule the world. The column was found and erected beside the minster. There is an administration building near by, and there is a legion of Roman ghosts in the basement. They trudge wearily, only half of their bodies visible, as they are walking on the origional road through the village, which is two feet bellow the floor. Creepy!

I saw this man playing the piano in a square. You can see the minster in the background. He had wheeled his piano out and taken off the top. He was playing jazz. It was so cool to be able to hear the live piano being played outside. You see violins and guitars all the time, but a piano is a lot harder to move.

I went to Duttons for Buttons, a lovely shop full of nothing but buttons! I bought ... a fair amount. I would show you them, but I left them in Toronto when I went home. They are all very lovely though, and the ladies at the shop were very nice.

This building is a shrine to a St. Margaret. She hid Catholic priests during the Reformation and was beheaded. This house, on Shambles St. was the one that she lived in and hid the priest in. It's a regular little house, completely unremarkable, until you look a little closer. Then you get an unexpected surprise.

Back in the day theses cat statues had been put up to ward off bad luck. This one, including the pigeon, are old. There is also a modern architect who likes to put them on his buildings, as a throw back to the old tradition.

In the afternoon I hoped on a train and went to Durham, where I met up with my friend Catherine. She generously let me sleep on her floor (twice) and showed me around the lovely city that is Durham. There is another impressive cathedral there, of which I took a few photos. Unfortunately we got there just too late to go up the tower, but it was a gorgeous and warm day, so it was nice to just be able to walk around outside.

York, Day the first

2008-04-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been absolutely crap at posting all this, but I'm going to make a big push to finish up everything before I go to Ireland on Wednesday. We'll see how it goes. This is still continuing the trip I went on two months ago. I know, I've been bad at this!

On Wednesday morning I woke up and set off on the next stage of the adventure. York. It's a very very pretty town, and I had loads of fun there, though I didn't stay for very long. The hostel there was very nice, it's run by the Youth Hostel Association, and was very clean and family friendly. Plus they had a full continental breakfast included in the price of the night. Mmmm delicious!

York is one of the few cities in England that still has about 75% of it's original city walls. Of course, they aren't really around the city anymore, just around the core of the city, but it's still pretty cool.

All that yellow is Daffodils. The hill was covered in them!

The walls have Gates, or Bars spaced evenly around the city. I think there are about 5 of them. This is Monks Bar, which is around the back of York Minster.

And this is the Minster! It is very grand, and very beautiful. It took so long to build that there are loads of different kinds of architecture within the same building, just because the style of the times evolved over time. I arrived just in time to go to the 5:15 service. It was a little odd. I knew all the words, all the things to say, but every once in a while there would be something that would be a little different that would just throw me off.

I went on the ghost tour that starts at 7:30 in front of the Minster, and had a blast. The guide was wearing all Victorian gear, top hat and all, and was very good. He was very enigmatic, and gave a lot of history along with the stories. There are loads of people who give tours in York and in Edinburgh, and I would definitely recommend going on one, it was lots of fun.

Manchester part trois!

2008-04-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

So the third day in Manchester wasn't terribly eventful. I went and saw the library, which was pretty cool. This photo reminds me of a picture my mom has, which she also turned into a giant amazing painting.

The library has a really cool circular main hall, which is modeled after old monastery libraries.

Other than that I mostly wandered about, seeing things, watching people. I always have lots of fun watching people!

I also went to the Manchester City Museum of Art. They had a cool exhibit on Dutch painters, most of which I had never heard of, but all of it was very good. As I recall there were also some very noisy children running around in the kids exhibit next door, but that's not really surprising. Kids are born to be noisy.

I also took this picture of myself in the bathroom, which I hope makes up for the really rubbish photo I posted the other day. See, I am capable of looking happy!

Manchester, day 2!

2008-04-14T02:42:00.000-07:00

So, after a very worried night, I started off the next day to get my wallet from the bus depot's lost and found. It was a longish walk, though definitely within reasonable. It did contain one of the most boring stretches of road though, proof that no where is perfect I guess!

Once downtown I fulfilled the most important things. I bought a new pair of shoes to replace the Converse as my feet were killing me, and a new bag. The shoes are a pair of all black Gola's, and the bag is a messenger with the Beatles Help! logo all over it. Cute!

Mostly I just wandered about that day, to see what I could see.

I did go to Urbis, a very cool museum on cities. It didn't actually have much on cities while I was there, but they are going to have an exhibit on Manchester over the summer. The exhibit I did see was called How Manga Changed the World, which was really fun. Lots of cool art.

Manchester take one.

2008-04-13T02:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I got a bit behind.... Trying to fix that. Sunday (as in yesterday) I was knocked over by one hell of a cold that just made me feel miserable all day, yet miraculously disappeared come morning. Which is a good thing because I was not looking forward to sneezing my way through my first classes back.

Back to scheduled programming. Sunday I was in Manchester, which is a city I love. They have streetcars! Okay, they call them trams, but hey, it looks like a streetcar to me. I took one out to Salford Quays, which are a out of the city centre,

The Quay's are kind of like Harbourfront, only minus any noise or traffic. There were lots of new condo buildings, some like these ones, and more that were walk ups. It freaked me out how little noise there was. I think water, I think people, boats, coming and going. Here there were just tourists walking about, and there weren't even that many of them.

Tourists? What is there to do out in the middle of nowhere you ask? Lots actually, makes for a well spent afternoon. I first went to the Lowry Museum. This modern building was designed to look like a boat, which is appropriate since it's on a river.

I saw an exhibit of paintings, drawings and prints by an artist named Laura Knight. The focus of the show was the work she had done based on the Russian Ballet and theatre, mostly Shakespeare. It was so interesting to see the way she captured all the movement, sometimes in just a few lines.

In addition to art, the museum holds a theatre that shows plays, ballets and opera.

Next stop was the Imperial War Museum North, which is all about .... well, war. Once again it has a very modern building, this time representing the continents of the earth.

The exhibition rooms are very interesting. It's one big main space broken up into smaller stations around the room. There was a real focus on the individual within war. There were the personal stories of soldiers, nurses, POW, children, women at home. Everyone had a say. There were a lot of person artifacts to go along with the stories as well.

I could have spent a lot of time there, just wandering about and reading. However, the one down side about the Museum is that it has very low lighting. Very very low. Every half hour they play one of three multimedia movies, which are very loud. With gun shot and bomb sound effects. The combination meant that I got a headache, so I called it quits once the second movie started.

I am not actually as upset as I look in this picture, I was just concentrating really hard to take a picture of myself. It's more of a Here I Am picture than anything. That's what happens when you travel by yourself, no one to take pictures of you.

I should also mention that this was the day that in a mess of groceries I left my wallet on the bus in Manchester. Through the intrepid skills of the bus company, it was found. Kudos also to my dad who canceled my credit card within seconds of finding out.

Liverpool: Day 2

2008-04-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

On my first morning, after a good night's sleep and some very sore feet, I set out to the city library to check my email. The library is near an art gallery and a museum, however, I didn't visit either of them.

The buildings in the area are all very grand old things. They fit the part for a museum, but were a bit unexpected for a library.

I then wandered back downtown, to see what sort of shopping could be done on the very large main street in Liverpool. The verdict was .... nothing I couldn't get anywhere else. It's a little sad, but true. If you lived in and around Liverpool you'd be set, all the chain stores on one street. I mean Swansea only has half the stores that Liverpool does, so clearly that's good. However, there just wasn't anything really unique, something to say "I got this in Liverpool". So, I didn't buy anything.

On a side street, off the main shopping street is the club district. That's where the Cavern Club, where I had been the night before is. There is also The Grapes Pub, where the Beatles would drink before and after gigs. Apparently their chosen spot to sit was right by the ladies toilets, so that they could peek in and see the girls getting ready to go out after work. Cheeky.

The Cavern is just down the street, with the club on one side and the pub on the other. The original entrance is made to look just as it was, including a photo of the old bouncer from the Beatles era.

The current club entrance is just down the street.

The Cavern has created a very cool memorial to it's rock history on the brick wall outside. Each brick features the name of a band that played there in the past. I took this picture, of Jimi Hendrix, just for Andrea. Some day we'll go see it in person together.

Another pretty cool thing I saw in Liverpool was this old church. From the front, it looked pretty standard, and I wondered if I would be able to take a look inside.

The answer was no in the end, and for a very good reason.

This church has no roof to it's name. I'm not sure why, probably bombed out during WW2, or maybe a fire? Who knows. Instead it sits there, looking pretty but with no one to stand within it's walls to give it much of a sense of purpose. Even the clock on the tower was wrong, or rather, was only right twice a day for a minute, since the thing had completely stopped working.

Tomorrow there may not be a post as I am once again on the move, this time back to Swansea so I can go to school on Monday again. Good thing I didn't do very much that day anyway, not much to talk about.

The Adventure Begins!

2008-04-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

This adventure begins two weeks ago today. I will (hopefully) be updating solidly for the next two weeks recounting adventures on their corresponding day. We'll see how it goes, eh?

First stop on the Adventure train was Liverpool. I had to get up super early to catch the train, which took me to Birmingham, then on to Liverpool.

Liverpool is famous for it's two huge cathedrals. I only really visited one, the Liverpool Cathedral, which is Anglican. It was started in the early 1900's and finished in the 70's, so it's not very old compared to most found in Europe. It is impressive though. The elderly lady who was sitting at the information desk told me that when soon after it was completed they had to add more toilets. The original building only had three, as they were not expecting hordes of school children to be visiting on a regular basis. It's a little odd to think that this building has never been just a church. It has always been somewhat of a tourist attraction.

The really odd thing about the building, which really adds to it's impressiveness, is that it has a sort of moat all the way around it. It's only sort of a moat, there isn't any water in it. Instead it seems to serve as the graveyard, with tombstones creating a wall for the path.

A little further than the church, down the same street, is Liverpool's Chinatown. According to the owner of the hostel I was staying at, Liverpool has one of the oldest Chinese communities in Europe due to it's shipping industry. It also has an impressive gate. The community in Liverpool isn't very big anymore, but it is still there.

While walking I saw this on the side of a pub that seems to be abandoned. Now I'm no expert, but that looks like a Banksy to me. Banksy is a graffiti artist who has left pieces of art on the sides of buildings all over the world. His most well known images are those of rats.

There was more graffiti on the wall opposite. These were repeated in the windows of the building for quite a while.

Liverpool has a pretty cool skyline, full of big old buildings. Unfortunately, due to Liverpool being this years Euro Capital of Culture, most of it was under construction.

Being a port city, Liverpool has a fairly substantial harbor. It reminds me of the Distillery District in Toronto. All the old warehouse buildings have been converted into stores and museums.

The building on the left houses the Tate Liverpool, which is part of the Tate Modern in London. If you are going to see at Tate museum, the one in London is much more impressive, as the Liverpool one is quite small. It did have some interesting exhibitions on, namely one on representations of the body throughout art history. It had some contemporary preformance art pieces that I had studied in a class last term, so it was super cool to finally see them in better quality than a photocopy.

Liverpool is also famous for music, namely the birthplace of the Beatles. There is an awesome museum called The Beatles Story, which is highly recommended, even by the locals. There is an audio tour included in the price of admission, which is narrated by John Lennon's sister Julia. There are interviews with people who knew the Beatles, fans and their assorted managers, recounting what it was that made them so cool.

Another wickedly cool thing to do, especially if you are in Liverpool on a Thursday, is to go to the Cavern Club. The Beatles played over 200 shows there, and plenty of other bands got their start there as well. Every Thursday, for the grand price of 1 pound, you can see the Mosey Beatles, a series of Beatles cover bands. It is wicked fun, partly to hear the music preformed live, and partly because the musicians are just so mad talented. They refered to eachother by their Beatle-name all night, saying "Ringo's going to sing his first song of the night now" or "John's going to go acoustic on this one". They play three 45minute sets, each one showcasing songs from a different period in their career.

Seeing them preform reminded me how much I love seeing live music, which I haven't done since October, in Toronto. Maybe I'll try to see more in Swansea ....

Stratford and Oxford!

2008-03-23T05:32:00.001-07:00

Sorry bout the lack of posts. The uni decided to do the most irritating thing for easter; they had everyone completely move out of residence for the month*. So the past week has been a bit hectic. My friend Dan's family offered to take all my things for the month, and since they would be schleping Dan anyway it's not much of a hastle. Plus, Dan is ... well he's my boyfriend here, so that just works out too.

Dan lives in Evesham, about an hour south of Birmingham, and very close to Stratford-Upon-Avon. We drove there one afternoon and walked around. It's a very pretty town, lots of colour. Especially the flowers!

This clock tower is in a central sort of square in Stratford, above the river.

I believe this is the house Shakespeare was born in. We didn't actually go inside, though it is a museum now. There were lots of school groups wandering around being generally annoying, so we decided that avoiding them would be more fun.

What we really wanted to do was walk down the river, but it was closed off for some sort of construction, with fences all around one bit of it. We did see a swan chase a Canadian Goose though, which was really amusing.

There were lots of houseboats along the river, most of them selling food. I think one was a proper restaurant.

In between Evesham and Stratford, there is a gypsy camp on the side of the road. Dan went around the roundabout twice so that I could get a picture of the pikey pony. Gypsy's are a bit of a sore spot around here, since they kind of get in the way a lot.

On Thursday Dan drove me to Oxford so that I could spend Easter with the Bennett's. We left a little earlier so that we could wander about a bit, as Dan had never been before. We decided to go to the Ashmolean, the museum I talked about the last time I went to Oxford. There wasn't much on display since it is under construction, but there was a large Egyptian exhibit, as well as some random collections of things.

We saw a really cool ring display, this one was our favorite, partly just because it was a bit unexpected.

This neclace was also pretty cool, with all the little acorns.

The temperature has taken a bit of a dip for the worse, and it has been snowing on and off for the past two days. It's also really windy, which is never fun. Hopefully today will be a bit better, for Easter.

* Yes a month! We get a full month off for Easter break, which is kind of awesome.

Mumbles Castle

2008-03-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

Last week Tuesday I biked out to Mumbles again. Part of it was for errands, but I also wanted to get a closer look at the castle. Unfortunately it has mostly fallen into disrepair, so it is not possible to see the inside. However, I did wander around most of the perimeter and took lots of pictures. It was a very magical spot, with blue skies and green everywhere.

Oxford, Coventry and Birmingham

2008-03-04T15:22:00.001-08:00

Another belated post, sorry Mum!

Last weekend, well actually by now it's the weekend before last, I went to Oxford to visit my friends the Bennetts again. I stayed with them when I first arrived as well. I took the train from Swansea to Didcot, where Deborah picked me up just in time for dinner! Edmund is very enthusiastic and involved in the local theatre groups, so we went to a play he was in in the evening. I would wax poetic about how great it was, except it really wasn't at all. Edmund was very good in his parts, but it was a very technically difficult musical and the skill level they were attempting was over almost everyone's heads. Plus the play was just badly written in the first place.

The next day, Friday, I went into Oxford to wander about. I went to Oxford a few times the first time I was here, but then only went at night for music gigs the second time, so I was really looking forward to seeing the city again. I'm really starting to get a feel for where things are, which is really nice.

The main shopping part of town is mostly pedestrian, which is really nice. The roads are fairly wide, and there are plenty of shops. The building on the corner is apparently the oldest pub in Oxford, or at least it was. It is now a mobile shop!

Oxford is obviously full of old historic buildings, most of them part of the university. This is the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archeology, which houses what I understand to be a very extensive collection. It was built in 1683 and has undergone many transformations over time. This building is only part of the museum.

This church is located on a triangle of land, surrounded on everyside by busy roads. I think it is St. Mary Magdalen Church, on St. Giles.

While wandering about I found and followed signs for Oxford Castle.

When you walk in from this entrance, there is a time line inlaid in the stone courtyard recounting the history of the site. It began construction in 1071, and was used as a functional jail until 1996, at which point I suspect they realized they could make more money off tourists.

They don't seem to have taken the grills off the windows from it's former jail days, but it is still a lovely old medieval castle. The bit on the right is actually the tourist shop, which is very modern looking with floor to ceiling glass windows. From what I saw, the additions onto the building were done very tastefully, using lots of glass, which let the castle itself remain as the focus.

Like many castles, this one has a big pointless hill to go along with it. Well, I'm sure it served a purpose at the time, probably spotting the enemy or something, but now it's a big hill. I think you can usually climb it, but there was a sign saying it was temporarily closed due to a landslip caused by heavy rains. It will take them a while to put it back together.

Afterwards I had tea with Meg and Robin, before heading back to eat dinner with Deborah and Edmund. Edmund had another performance to do, so I headed over to Claire and Joe's to hangout. We talked about me doing some learn to knit workshops in May for the festival they are running. It's a eco-friendly weekend of music and workshops for the whole family. I'm very excited. I ended up sleeping over there, since I didn't want to bike back in the dark. I was woken up very early by the postman!

The next day Claire and Joe and I drove to Birmingham for Joe's sister's engagement party. Katy is the one girl of the four Bennett kids. Their younger brother Chris was there as well, and it was excellent to see everyone again, as well as meet Katy's fiance Lorna.

On the way we stopped in Ikea in Coventry which was great fun. Claire is from New York and we both got a little nostalgic for home while we were running around. Since Ikea is exactly the same everywhere in the world, we both forgot where we were. I heard someone talking and I though "hee, that person is British!" before mentally kicking myself for being silly. Of course they're british! Coventry is a most unfortunate town though, and I hope to never go there ever again. It has the stupidest ringroad in the world, which involves a terrifying game of chicken every time you want to get on or off.

The next day I was lucky enough to get a ride back to Swansea with the boyfriend of a friend of Katy's. Steve is Welsh and lives in Cardiff, so it just worked out. We did get stuck in a traffic jam though, which wasn't fun, but we made the most out of it and just played lots of music.

All in all, it was an fun, but pretty relaxing weekend away with lots of friends around.

Cardiff with Mira

2008-02-27T05:27:00.001-08:00

Last Wednesday I went into Cardiff to meet with Mira, one of my friends from Toronto. She was here to visit her Dad's family for a week, so we hung out for a while.

We had a great time just wandering about and doing a bit of shopping. I found a binder to put all my coursework in that has little cartoon mutants all over it, very cute!

We were well impressed with this building, right downtown.

Especially when we discovered that it is a Post Office.

Soon to come are pictures of Oxford!

Mumbles

2008-02-19T15:16:00.001-08:00

This weekend most of the people I know went home, so I decided to do a bit of adventuring. I rode Rufus out to Mumbles, which is the next village over from Swansea. Technically I think there are a few in between, but really they are just suburbs of one town of the other. I had been told I was crazy for going, because it was so far away, but I have come to the conclusion that distance is relative. It took me less than 20 minutes to get there, and I wasn't even going that fast! In Toronto, 20 minutes gets me to the beach, here it's the next town.

I was really surprised to find that Mumbles is everything that Swansea isn't. It is the perfect little seaside village. It is much hillier than Swansea, but I conquered those with only a bit of difficulty (attack! attack!), since Rufus only has three gears, and the easiest one slips a lot. There are all sorts of little shops, mostly independent from what I could see.

The one thing it seemed to have in common with Swansea is that there is a castle right downtown as well. Well, it is probably uptown, since it is on the top of the hill, and Mumbles isn't really big enough to have a downtown larger than one street. However, there it was. This one seems to be much more intact than the one in Swansea, though I did not get terribly close to it. I do plan on going back and exploring a bit more. I decided to call it a day since my hands and ears were getting really cold.

I am going to Cardiff tomorrow to meet up with my friend from Toronto, which will be very exciting. Expect Doctor Who inspired pictures. If you don't know who Doctor Who is, then you haven't lived. David Tennant is a bloody genius. Enough of that rant, and hopefully my camera will co-operate enough for me to take a bunch of pictures for you all!

Red is Best

2008-02-12T06:28:00.001-08:00

I would like to introduce everyone to my new friend. His name is Rufus. He and I are the best of friends, even though he only arrived this morning.

I found him at a little place called re-cycle, a charity organization that takes people's old used bikes and fixes them up to sell again for ridiculously cheap. I paid 20 pounds for him, which is just over 40$. Not to shabby.

I actually went last week and picked him up, but he hadn't quite finished being fixed up, and still needed a new wheel, so I had to wait another week. The nice thing is that the bike men said that if he needed any fixing up, I could just bring him in, and they would see what they can do.

He's only got three speeds, but really, that's as much as I need. Mostly we'll be going from campus to the city center, and maybe a few trips in the Gower.

What I love most though is that he is super shiny red. Red really is best. He's a little rickety, and the gears stick a bit, but he's mine and I love him.

In the mean time, I have to get used to riding on the completely wrong side of the road! I'm sure Rufus will help me out, he's a good friend like that.

The Accommadation

2008-02-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

One thing I'm sure everyone is wondering about is where I live. The building itself is pretty uninspiring concrete '60's architecture. You can see the portacabins in this picture as well, they're the little gray boxes beside the building. There is another residence that looks exactly the same as this as well, which is Preseli building.

When you walk in the door, this is what you see. The duvet came with the room, and I might replace it with something a little nicer and more comfortable. Right now it's doing what it should, which is keeping me warm, so it's allowed to stay. I am glad that I brought my own sheets, it makes the difference to have a softer layer.

At the end of the bed, on the same wall as the door, I have a little sink and a mirror. The sink is nice because I can get a drink of water whenever I like, and I can brush my teeth without waiting for the washroom to be free. There is also a big chair, but I don't really use it much. It's nice for when people come and visit though. It also makes a handy place to throw my coat if I don't particularly feel like hanging it up, which is most of the time.

Opposite my bed there is my desk, dresser, closet and fridge. I really don't have enough stuff with me to fill up these shelves. the two on the right are mostly food, plus some papers.

This picture isn't very good, but you can see that the window is very big, which makes a big difference in making the room a little more cheerful, rather than completely depressing.

Next up, pictures of campus!

Beach View

2008-02-02T06:54:00.000-08:00

As I did not have class yesterday, I decided that it would be a good time to go and see the beach that is only a few minutes walk from campus. Actually, it's just across the street. I think when I was there, tide was somewhere in between being all the way out and all the way in.

The part of the coast to the south of Swansea is called the Mumbles. Apparently the name comes from some French sailors who nicknamed them Les Mamelles, or 'the breasts', because of the two rocks on the end. The one on the left has a lighthouse on it.

Proof again that the Welsh can't really complain much about their weather. While there is a blizzard in Toronto, there are palm trees in the streets.

Swansea has a fair number of hills, which really reminds me of the coast of California. Only these houses are much smaller!

Today it is gray, and England is playing Wales in rugby this afternoon. I'm not quite sure who I should cheer for ...

Gulls Rule the Roofs

2008-01-30T09:25:00.000-08:00

Being by the sea, Swansea naturally has a large seagull population. I thought I knew seagulls from Toronto, but man, these guys (or gulls!) are different. The sound they make is that really stereotypical by-the-sea noise, and it's really loud! I don't know what Toronto gulls lack, but they don't make those noises. Maybe it's just volume.

That's another point where these gulls surpass others. They are the biggest, fattest seagulls I've ever seen! I was sitting in my room and looked out my window and saw one sitting on the roof of the adjacent building. Take a look at that!

I do wish I had something to compare it to, for scale, but you're just going to have to believe me.

My view, aside from the occasional seagull, is pretty dull. They've filled up the courtyard with Portacabins (portables), which seem to house the temporary dentist's office. It seems like a really random place to have a dentist, but there it is! All the other buildings in this photo are residences. The low one is Rhossili, the yellowish one is Caswell, and the highrise is Preseli. Apparently in Preseli the upper floors have a view of the ocean.

At least I've got the gulls!

Swansea I See

2008-01-28T10:11:00.001-08:00

On Sunday Edmund drove myself and Granny (Deborah's mum) to pick up some things from Deborah's oldest friend's house. Holy Crap. It is a huge house. It is a proper manor house, that has been handed down on Ginny's husband's side. Ginny runs it as a tea house, and you can go and walk on the extensive grounds on certain days, provided the weather behaves.

Luckily for us, the weather was lovely, so I ran around a bit taking pictures while Granny had a rest on a bench. The walk around the house was just enough for her.

*Sigh, swoon!* These places really exist!

However, I'm sure that the dashing young men I imagine don't. Cravats and britches aren't exactly in style these days.

We went to see the snowdrops, but I also found some crocuses. It seems like everything is in bloom. I'm assured by the locals that this isn't necessarily usual weather, though no one seems to be complaining too much.

This morning Edmund drove me to the train station at Didcot, and after getting a rail card (for optimal savings!) I took the train to Swansea. There was a transfer at Swindon, which is what this picture is from.

I knew I was in Wales when there were a few too many consonants! Everything is written in both Welsh and in English, just like French is in Canada, only more.

I also took some pictures of myself! Hey, I was bored! Don't go hatin'! (as my brother would say)

I am completely unpacked in my room in the Cefn Bryn residence building. Cefn pronounced Caven. I've gotten my ID card, and I am going tomorrow at 10am to the English Department to figure out my classes, which are called modules. There are apparently two boys from New York on my floor, so I'm going to see if anyone wants a bit of supper. If I don't get any proper food, I'll end up eating the entire pack of McVitie's Chocolate Chip and Hazelnut cookies that I bought. best. cookies. ever. seriously.

First Day!

2008-01-24T15:58:00.001-08:00

Only in Britain can you have a regular old house that has no number. This is the Bennett's temporary home while their old one is getting fixed from the floods last summer. The UPS man came by for the neighbours and had me sign for it instead. When he looked for the house number he just said oh, Four Seasons then?

I took this from the end of the common park that their house is beside. I had walked out hoping to get pictures of horses in the field on the other side of that, but they had gone elsewhere by the time I got there.I decided in the end not to go into Oxford for the day, since my stay would be pretty short and I'll definitely go in tomorrow to see people. However, I did still have to go out somewhere to day, so I decided to just go into Steventon early. Steventon is the small town where the Bennetts usually live, and still work in. Their temporary house is in Drayton, which is only a little bit bigger.

The very different thing about small towns here is that they are not only near farms, they often have farms in them. I think there are two farms on the walk from their house to the bus stop, though they might have been the same one. There will be a row of houses, with field's behind them, then a house facing a barn with a very large driveway full of tractors and pick-up trucks. I saw ducks in a pond.And just beyond it, there was a barn, and a bunch of cows.

I don't know why, but I have a bit of a fascination with how different countries do post boxes. This isn't the same as the ones in London, but I saw them all over in the small towns today. Edmund told me last night that a lorry (delivery sort of truck) accidentally backed into this box a few weeks ago.I walked down the main road in Drayton for a bit, wasting time before the bus was to arrive. I didn't quite go down to the main section, since I was worried about missing it, which I needn't have, since it was over 10 minutes late. The bus ride to Steventon is only about 10 minutes anyway, so I was there quite quickly.

Steventon is a quite old town, with many things dating back 500+ years still in use. This is the Causeway, an elevated cobblestone path that ran through the town, used especially when there was flooding. It's a rather lovely walk from the bus stop to the farm where everyone works, probably 2/3 on the path. They don't actually work on the farm, the farmer decided to fix up and rent out a great number of his barns to businesses in order to make the farming itself lucrative. It's rather genius, since it's a lovely place to work, especially if you live in the village.

I found these snowdrops by the side of the Causeway while I was walking. Snowdrops! In January! I also saw daffodils today.

The one thing about Steventon is that the western half of the town is separated by a high speed railway. The trains are constantly going past, sometimes the gates are only up for 10 minutes at a time.

It really means that if you have to cross them on any sort of regular basis, or if you have to catch a bus or anything really, your life ends up being ruled by the train schedule. I had to wait for two trains to go by, a commuter train and a freight train to go by before the gates would go up and let me go by.

This is the house the Bennett's usually live in. The inside is almost entirely gutted due to the foot of flood water that they got. The white half of the house is over 500 years old, and the brick part was built by them. What's that I see in the corner?

Why, it's a post box! The mail truck will back into the driveway to pick up the mail, which really confused me the first time it happened while I was there a few years ago. It is literally in the wall, and can apparently be seen from the other side, now that the plaster and such is down from the walls.

This is another really old house down the lane. People do actually live in these houses!

This is St. Michael's and All Angel's Church (or something like that). I think that someone told me that it dates back to Norman times, which makes it something like 900+ years old. Still used and everything. Can you fathom anything that old still being used for it's original purpose in North America? Impossible!

I ended up just hanging about on the farm at Edmund's book shop for a bit, though I forgot to take any pictures of the buildings on the farm. At one point a bunch of people came over and we went up to the top of the hill and pointed at things for a bit. I did take this really lovely picture of the sunset around 4:30 from the top of the hill.

Later Edmund and I drove into Oxford to see a much abridged all girl's high school version of Hamlet with Deborah. Edmund and I got my first fish 'n' chips on the way home. I did take a picture of the place, but it's still on my camera, and I'm too lazy to plug it in again. I'll add it tomorrow.

phew! Off to bed!

Arrival!

2008-01-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

I'm here! I arrived at Heathrow very early this morning. My flight was supposed to get in around 9:15am, but actually arrived around 8:30am. Luckily, aside from some shaky business, that was the worst that happened. I was picked up by my friend Edmund, and he drove me back to his house in Drayton, where I am currently staying. The trip from the airport to their house was particularly long due to roadworks (construction) and hedge clipping (actual hedge clipping) which was reducing the two lane roads down to one.

A myspace photo for Sam, taken while waiting for Edmund at the baggage claim. An arrivals photo for Andrea, because it sort-of-not-really looks like the one in Love Actually.

I had lunch with Claire, Edmund's daughter-in-law at her house in Steventon, and saw the farm again, this time as an actual farm. Tomorrow I will go into Oxford, and see an abridged version of Hamlet put on by the all girl's school that Deborah works at.

Packing Packing Packing

2008-01-19T14:07:00.001-08:00

Before I leave, there is a very important process that needs to happen. Packing. It currently seems to be completely devouring my life, as it's what I always seem to be doing. People call me and ask what I am or will be doing and all I can say is "packing".

Some of it is packing my suitcases. The big black thing is my giant wheelie backpack from MEC that I got this week. It has a smaller backpack that clips to the front, which is perfect for day trips. I have to sew my Canadian flags onto it soon. I have this bag and another big regular wheelie suitcase too.

The other part of the packing process is that I am packing everything from my room into boxes so that I can move out of my parents house when I get back! This has been the bigger project, bigger than the travel packing. I've filled all 9 of these boxes, plus two big Rubermaid bins, and there is still lots more to do.

And now I must go back to packing. It's all those little things that get in the way....

I'm Going Away!

2008-01-17T22:59:00.000-08:00

Soon I will be gone. But not quite yet.