A Ride on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Hello world! I got back yesterday from a five-day road trip/whirlwind tour of Scotland, and let me tell you, I'm pretty sure it is the prettiest place on Earth. I'm already looking for excuses/opportunities to go back and actually spend some time exploring. A five-day circuit of the country = lots of rushing about. Lots to tell about that once I get photos organized and get caught up with other entries.

Next up on the backlog is the NYMR, or as we affectionately refer to it, the Harry Potter Train.

You may recognize this from the Harry Potter films; the NYMR steam trains were used for the Hogwarts Express, and the station pictured above (Goathland) was used as Hogsmeade Station. The line is one of only a few steam-powered train lines still in operation in England, and makes for a fun and scenic day out. The line runs about five times a day from Pickering to Whitby, but not all of the trains will go all the way to Whitby, so you may have to connect via a non-steam train from the last station through to Whitby- check the train times before departing, or take the train from Pickering so you don't have to worry about it. We rode from Whitby down to Pickering so we could combine the trip with some sightseeing in Whitby, and it worked out pretty much perfectly.

While some of the carriages (or cars for you Americans out there) have traditional train bucket seats, some of them have the compartments used in the Harry Potter movies. And seeing as how we are big HP dorks, we sought out the fun carriage.

I know, they look much fancier and impressive in the movie, but they're pretty darn neat in real life too. Although we can't quite figure out how they got Harry up on the little luggage shelf above the seats; those things are teensy-tiny!

The train, as you may have guessed from the name, runs through the moors, which means you get some awesome scenery, especially when the heather is in bloom. We were a few months early for that (peak times for the heather are August/September), but it was still gorgeous.

Plenty of unspoiled nature to go around, and most of the little villages the train stops at feature plenty of lovely hiking trails to explore. They'll also have nice little tea rooms for a bite to eat and more ice cream and souvenirs than you can shake a stick at.

A day-roamer ticket will let you get on and off and ride all over for the day, but a more economically-friendly option is to just buy a one-way ticket. Despite the "official" train info that states you cannot break a journey with a one-way, we specifically asked at the station which ticket to buy if we only wanted to get from Whitby to Pickering with a stop at Goathland and were assured that it wasn't a problem to break the one-way.

Speaking of...

There's the main tourist-drag of Goathland. It consists of about 6 touristy shops (all of which sell ice cream, of course) and a Ford Anglia a la Harry Potter. The rest of the village is down the road a bit. We found a nice play ground and enjoyed the swings while eating our delicious ice cream. And then we were on our way to Pickering to pick up the bus to head back to York. A really nice day trip for train enthusiasts and appreciators of the fine scenery of the English countryside, a trip on the NYMR is definitely worth taking.

Chester

Welcome to Chester, England, located just this side of the border with Wales and a 2.5-3 hour train ride from York. And if you get advance pricing with a student/under 25 pass, only 8 pounds each way.

Chester is known as England's "Walled City" because it has the most intact city walls remaining. Chester was founded by the Romans as a fort called Deva Victrix. Fun fact: while York eventually became more important as essentially the headquarters of the Roman legions in the North, the fortress at Deva Victrix was actually bigger than the one at York.

 This is what remains of the foundations and a tower from the Roman fortress. You can click on the picture to see an enlarged version if you want to read the plaque.

The citizens of Chester have put their Roman past to use in the picture below from the Roman Column Garden.

After the Romans left Britain after 490, the Anglo-Saxons fortified the town against the Danes and it remained a stronghold through to the Norman Conquest in 1066, when it was one of the last cities to fall to William the Conqueror. The walls were instrumental for both cases.

What I found interesting about Chester's walls (which you don't see at York) is that one can access the buildings adjacent to them FROM the walls. Most of these are shops, and while some are 2 stories and can be accessed from street level in the front and wall level in the back, some can ONLY be accessed from the walls (mostly smaller shops- books, antiques, that kind of thing.) I found that really useful when Britain, being Britain, decided to absolutely pour down rain about 10 minutes into my circuit of the walls.

Here you can see some shop entrances- New Look, HSBC, and Clarks. You can also see the steps leading up to Eastgate, one of the original Roman entrances to the fortress (sort of analogous to the "bars" in York, only much less grand.) This one was rebuilt in the 18th century and that clock on top was commissioned in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (60 years as queen) in 1897.

I went off to Chester because a) I could get there cheaply over the break and b) we talked about it in my archaeology class because it has a unique structural feature, the rows.

 This is my own version of perhaps Chester's most photographed site on the corner of what's called the Cross (an intersection of shopping streets with rows more or less preserved). So what are the rows? Well, they consist of three main floors (and might have attic space above that as well.) The first level is generally half a story below street level, so you go down a few steps to enter the shop. Above the ground floor, a covered walkway is reached by a short flight of stairs and a second row of shops is located a few feet back from the edge. A third floor is built at the same point as the ground floor, effectively covering the walkway. This top floor would have been used in the medieval period as domestic or storage space for the shop owners. This gives you a better idea of what the covered walkway and second floor of shops looks like.

(Yanked from Wikipedia because I didn't think to take one; copyright John S Turner)

As I mentioned, the rows are unique and it is unclear where exactly the idea came from. While large portions have been rebuilt over the years, some sections and the original plan dates back to the medieval period. One theory that has gained ground with archaeologists is that the second storey was constructed first on top of rubble from Roman construction that lined the streets below. The buildings were set back from the edge in order to allow for a footpath along the edge with the road below. Later, undercrofts were dug under the existing buildings, thereby creating the "street-level." Then as construction techniques improved, the top storey was added, thereby creating the enclosed walkways. An alternate theory holds that the citizens constructed stone undercrofts under timber buildings after a disastrous fire in the 13th century destroyed most of the buildings within the stone walls of the city. Personally I don't think this explains why the first floor is below street level, or the need for recessed second floor shops with a covered walkway. That plus the amount of Roman "stuff" found all over Chester makes the first theory more supportable in my opinion, but who knows.

Chester is mainly known as a shopping mecca, both for its central pedestrian area with rows and regular shops as well as for an outlet mall just outside the city. But I refrained from buying too much (and to be fair, I needed the new sunglasses. Although not this week- rain rain rain.) You may have noticed the prevalence of black and white architecture in my photos- this is also one of Chester's selling points. Some of it is legit medieval, but a good deal is Victorian. They say if you wait long enough, everything comes back into style, right? Apparently that goes for 500 year old architecture too!

The photo I opened this entry with, of the Westminster Hotel? Not original (obviously). These, however, I'm pretty sure are.

Oh, and how about this? Guessing game time. What type of building do you think is pictured below? The text reads "The fear of the Lord is a Fountain of Life."

If you guessed "Dentist's Office" you'd be correct. Bet you didn't though ;)

As far as NON black and white architecture goes, the town hall and the cathedral are major.

Now that's a pretty spiffy town hall.

I know the cathedral looks kind of dark and grim, but that's mostly due to the fact that I took this from the wall in the pouring rain. You can go in and check it out, for an entrance fee. I figured I've seen my fair share of cathedrals and could save the entrance fee for something else. Like the chai tea latte I bought at Starbucks to get out of the rain!

Finally, I wish I could show you the Roman amphitheater. But it is currently all fenced off for conservation work. (In fact, I walked right past it twice without realizing it was there before I followed a map to look for it. Whoops!) So this is the best I can do.

Final thoughts on Chester: cool for an afternoon shopping trip, but maybe not worth a special trip. The majority of the shops are chains you can find in any decent sized city/town in the UK, so really the architecture is the big draw. But it is one more place I can check off my list and the closest to Wales I've gotten. Chester is actually serviced by the Arriva train line that operates out of Wales, so it was kind of cool to see the stations on the scrolling light thing in the train listed in both Welsh and English. The destination of the train was Llandudno. Don't ask me to pronounce it. Apparently it is a nice sea-side resort in Wales.

But the most exciting recent happening is this:

Ah, American food. A source of joy I will never take for granted again. Snack crackers, how I adore thee. In a land where potato crisps are your only option for savory snacks, you are a beacon of hope for this expat. Ditto to you Cinnamon Toast Crunch. You shine with a glimmer of sugar amidst a whole slew of boring plain cereal. And marshmallows- your squishy deliciousness unknown in these parts will be greatly enjoyed with your friends the graham crackers and some native English chocolate as s'mores at our next bbq. Apple sauce- you are not chunks of apple in a sauce meant to garnish meat. Rather you are smooth and delicious in your own right, and how I have missed you. Reeses- you know chocolate and peanut butter is the most delicious combination ever (with the occasional exception of Nutella and peanut butter). Aunt Jemimia- I'm not sure I've even had you in years. We're a Bisquick family. But I will take you over their strange idea of what pancakes are here. Pancakes should be a delicious breakfast food (or breakfast-for-dinner food) topped with maple syrup, not used as, well, basically a thick crepe. And finally, Blue Box. I don't even normally like you that much. I tend to favor other brands more, although Easy Mac is darn tasty and so easy! But in a land where "cheese sauce" of questionable cheesiness passes for cheese, I will enjoy you immensely. At least until you are gone. Then I will remember you fondly and probably order more.

Illuminating Hadrian's Wall

After far too long spent like this (and yes, I do smack my head into the stupid rafters EVERY TIME I stand up, but there's really no where else to move my desk):

I took a much needed break to go check out the Illuminating Hadrian's Wall event March 13th, 2010. The event was in part in recognition of the 1600th anniversary of the end of Roman rule in Britain and served as the opening event for British Tourism Week. Can you imagine? 1600th. We just don't usually think in that kind of time-scale in the States. Anyway, the event features 84 miles of Hadrian's Wall lit up by beacons at certain intervals spreading from one end of the country to the other.

If you aren't familiar with the Wall, it was built by Emperor Hadrian (partly as a look at me being an effective and ruthless emperor campaign) around the year 122 to create a defensible line between the boundary of Roman-controlled Britain and the Picts to the north. While parts are now less impressive, when it was built, the wall stretched from coast to coast, although admittedly at one of the narrowest points of the island, and featured milecastles at approximately every Roman mile along the wall (they could be off a bit if the local terrain demanded it). The wall when constructed was around 15 meters high (that's ~45 feet, so not small), although much of the stone was later pilfered for other construction projects after the Romans left. So that's what it is, now let me tell you about our adventures getting there.

We start our tale today with four grad students seeking to escape paper-writing and see something that's never been done, a once-in-a-lifetime-experience (or so the event organizers claim). One of them (ok, guilty as charged) finds a link to a walking tour out of Haltwhistle to a suitable location for viewing the Wall. So our intrepid adventurers set off with backpacks and hiking boots to the little town of Haltwhistle (which sadly was not named for the train station, but apparently Hal-twysel, meaning something about the meeting of two rivers.) So we headed for the York train station and thought we'd be clever by taking the newly reopened shortcut and promptly got caught up in this:

Some kind of regatta that none of us were expecting was taking over both banks of the Ouse, so we ended up dodging rowers and boats and spectators and more boats being carried down to the river. Then we were off by train to Newcastle, which by the by has excellent cheese and bacon pasties. Then we took a little dinky train to Haltwhistle and despite our concerns that it would conk out before we even left the station, it chugged along and got there just fine. We met up with the walking group people and set off on a 40 minute hike through the woods.

Now I'm totally city girl. I'll deal with the 'burbs, but really, city girl. And I'll admit that it was super nice to get out of the city and "commune with nature" for a bit. But for views like what I'm about to show you, it might just be worth it to give it all up and become a sheep rancher out in the boonies.

We passed streams and cliffs (which reminded me oddly of Pennsylvania and West Virginia)

and rolling hills and old stone walls (quite possibly made with stone from Hadrian's Wall)

and an old lime kiln (gotta keep those fields fertilized). Ok, now here comes a bunch of pretty pictures.

See the snow way off in the distance?

And there's Hadrian's Wall. No really. Can't you see it? Maybe this will help.

So we were slightly disappointed with how completely not close to the wall we were, but on the other hand, we had a great vista of a loooong stretch of the wall lit up. It continues...

in this direction way behind the sheep. Speaking of sheep,

this lamb got separated from its mother with a fence between them and couldn't figure out that it needed to walk like ten feet down and there was an opening in the fence. Instead, it played Marco Polo with its mom for like an hour, which got really old really fast. We were watching the sheep drama unfold and cheering as it slowly made its way towards the gap, only to end up trying to climb through the fence like a foot from the opening before Momma Sheep finally figured it out and got baby around the fence and into the field, sparking cheers from the Americans/Canadians and chuckles at the Ameradians from the Brits.

There's more wall, complete with farm house right next to it. How cool would it be to have Hadrian's Wall right in your backyard?

I think this picture comes the closest to getting across the sheer majesty of what we got to see as the sun set. Pictures don't quite capture it as well as the human eye, but take my word for it that it was breathtaking with the hills and the old stone walls and the red and gold in the sky. I would not mind at all seeing that everyday.

Once dusk settled in, the wall began to light up.

The beacons started on both ends and worked their way in; here you can see three lights as they work their way westward, while below are two beacons coming from the west.

Here's more from the east.

And that was that. We made our way back in the dark down a super steep hill (not the way we came up- I wouldn't have wanted to climb up that thing) and caught the train home. There was a distinct lack of food available at Newcastle since we got there around 9:30 so we had hot chocolate at the bar and ended up eating dinner when we got back to york around midnight. All and all, we were all a little disappointed that we couldn't get more up close and personal with the wall, but we'll just have to make another trip to hike along part of it.

Catching Up Part 2: They get snow here?!?

That's right, they do. Or at least they did this year. I missed most of it while I was home for Christmas, but the "arctic blast" as the headlines called it started two days before I flew home and made for adventures getting home for most of us.

The snow started in earnest on Friday, when our essays were due. So I went off in the snow to print my paper and turn it in and by the time I got out, there was REAL SNOW on the ground!

 So Rachel and I went to play in the snow in Museum Gardens. We made a friend :)

A maintenance (that word is tricky to spell...) guy popped out from behind King's Manor and offered our snowman a construction hat but it was too big for his head :(

Then there was general frolicking in the snow and I swung by Borders to pick up some ridiculously cheap books. Border's UK went out of business just before Christmas so the entire store went an additional 10% off every day until closing. When I was there they were down to 70% off and everything was going FAST.

So here's an artsy collection of York in the snow. Haven't seen it since a few days after I got back because it all melted.

You might not be able to tell but the snow was coming down HARD. So it was kind of nice to get inside for the CMS Christmas Party. All the papers were in and free food- who could pass that up?

I had my first mince pie at the party. Mince pies are apparently a treasured Advent tradition here. I can't say I really care for them though. It is basically mushed up fruit plus raisins and spices in a pastry. I guess the closest American parallel would be fruit cake, which I also am not a fan of. And no, the "mince" in mince pie does not refer to ground meat in this case. I spent a long time explaining that to several people who were very confused :)

Anyway, the snow messed with a lot of people's travel plans all over the place. (Especially because it was almost simultaneous with the Nor'easter that hit the mid-Atlantic in the US.) I actually really really lucked out with my travel arrangements.

I didn't fly out until Monday morning (Dec. 21st) so by that time the UK was starting to run on schedule again. People traveling over the weekend had some problems because the trains were really delayed as they tried to get the tracks cleared. And then the storm hit at home over the weekend and flights to Philadelphia and DC were all over the place. Anyway, here's my getting home story.

Sunday night I book train tickets. It cost like 15 pounds (Blogger hates my pound signs, sorry) less to take the 6 am train to the Manchester Airport instead of a 7 am one, so I went the cheap route. So I arranged for a cab to pick me up at 5:30 (no way was I walking the 25 minutes to the train station in the snow with a suitcase). I get up at like 4 in the morning to shower and finish packing. Then around 5, I check my flight status. I was flying US Airways and connecting in Philadelphia. Philadelphia got lots and lots of snow over the weekend. Flights to Philly on Sunday were pretty much all delayed or cancelled. US Airways has you enter in a flight number and either "today" or "tomorrow" for flight status. So I put in my flight number and Today and it shows up "CANCELLED." I immediately begin freaking out. But I figure, well, I've already paid for the train ticket, might as well go down to the airport and beg/plead my way onto a flight going SOMEWHERE in the United States and figure it out from there.

So I get to the train station and get my luggage stowed. I'd requested a forward-facing window seat near a luggage rack. They gave me a rear-facing aisle seat near a luggage rack. Oh well. I learned that I don't get motion sick on trains while seated backwards if it is so dark out that you can't tell what direction you're going. Anyway, about five minutes into the 2 hour train ride, my iPod freaks out: screen freezes blank lit-up white and I can't get it to turn off. I have since looked up how to force it to shut down, but at the time nothing I pushed did anything. I was forced to just leave it on in my purse until the battery drained out. Only took it like 12 hours..! I was stuck with no music for the whole trip. I was not a happy panda. Anyway, 2 hours later I collect my stuff and trundle off across all the moving walkways to the airport proper and find the US Airways Reservations help desk.

The blonde girl behind the counter finally stopped ignoring me and asked if I needed anything, to which I mumbled something incoherent about flight and canceled and Philadelphia and me plane yes please? She was all "Oh, well, there's one leaving today around 1:00, you'll need to wait in the queue to see if there are seats available." And I was like, "Humina what? But I thought today's flight was canceled?" "Oh no, yesterday's flight was canceled. If you were originally scheduled for today's flight, you're fine you'll just need to check in," she said, pointing halfway down the terminal towards the US Airways signs. So off I trundle with stuff in tow and find the "Philadelphia 1:00" sign where a woman sends me ALL the way back to where I had been. That was the end of the line. The only people that got to use the special, clear lane where the buggers that managed to check in online before US Airways disabled web check-in for the flight.

Now unlike pretty much every other airport I've been in, Manchester didn't really care about the stupidly long line of people trying to check in for this flight. (Think 2 full A330 flights trying to all get seats on one flight. Oh, and they had to reschedule everyone's connecting flight out of Philly because the transatlantic flight was delayed.) Instead of keeping the line/queue in an orderly fashion, they just let people stand wherever, so the line just went straight back across the terminal, blocking access to basically every other airlines' check-in desks. And for some reason every single person decided to cut through the line to the other side right in front of me no matter how far up the line had moved. The British gentleman behind me told me I was too nice to them. And I thought Americans were supposed to be the pushy ones! I think travelers everywhere are basically the same- harried and not terribly interested in being polite.

Anyway, 3 hours later, I make it up to the desk and get tickets and a rescheduled flight to DC from Philly. By the time I make it through security, I had about 20 minutes to grab breakfast/lunch before my flight was supposed to board. So I grabbed a "bacon breakfast roll" which is exactly what it sounds like- a roll that they shove some bacon in and microwave- and scurry off to the gate, where, surprise surprise, boarding has been delayed. By the time I'd finished my sandwich roll thing, they were ready to board. So everyone hurries up and sits down to "make up the delay" and then we sit there until 3, at which point I begin to worry about making my rescheduled connection, since I had a 2.5 hour layover time to go through customs and immigration and if we were leaving 2 hours late... that was going to be tight. But you know, worry about those things when you get to them.

As an aside, if you're looking at international airlines, I've ranked the airline food from some of the carriers I've flown.

1) Aer Lingus. Both the chicken and the lasagna are yummy, everything was recognizable and free Baileys. (granted, this data is a few years old at this point.)

2) US Airways. The pasta dinner entree was pretty good, and REALLY good panini type sandwiches for "lunch".

3) British Airways. Decent tea, yummy breakfast scones, dinner was ok. Weird British sandwiches for lunch. Although that goes for Britain in general. Really, is ham and cheese too boring for you? They do however inundate you with free alcohol if you're into that kind of thing.

4) KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. They told me I was eating chicken. The package said bbq chicken. That was neither chicken nor bbq as far as I could tell. You know its bad when the pile of peppers and corn is better than the meat. (Says the no-veggies girl.) I have no idea what was in the salad (some kind of meat and beans and other things I couldn't identify), you grabbed your own roll off a tray (that puts other people's germy hands too close to my food for my comfort) and I don't even remember what we got for breakfast because the dinner was that funky. Good inflight entertainment selection though.

Anyway, back to the point. Watched Postgrad on the in-flight entertainment, that hit a bit too close to home for comfort. At least I'm not working at my dad's luggage store. At least my dad doesn't HAVE a luggage store. Slept a bit. The plane lands and then proceeds to rumble over snow drifts and ice. That was the bumpiest part of the ride! Got off the plane in a mad rush because I had 45 minutes to make my connecting flight. I get to Immigration and of course I pick the line with the fewest people in it and it ends up being the slowest line EVER. But I get through it and then find I have to wait for my bag to redeposit it on another conveyor belt. Luckily my bag wasn't the last one. Unluckily I had to get clear across the Philadelphia International Airport.

The airport staff getting my bag said I'd be fine, just take the shuttle at the A gates. The shuttle wasn't running out of the A gates- too much snow. I had to run down to the C gates (at which point I'm halfway to my gate anyway...). So I get on the shuttle and we bounce along off-road style over snow and ice that still hasn't been cleared the tarmac and I'm deposited at the gate just as they start to board. So all 12 of us get on the itty bitty plane to DC and then wait some more. Then we roll off to the runway. And wait some more. Finally we take off. The row in front of me has a mom and one two-year old twin while dad had the other one across the aisle. Now maybe I'm crazy, but I would have stopped trying to feed the kid in front of me after the first time he threw up. But not her! Determined mom! Vomit kid! Thank goodness it was a short flight. And thus I got home for Christmas because I always pick the cheapest travel options. If I'd gotten a later train or paid extra to fly home sooner, I'd have had a lot more problems.

And I came home to this:

That WAS over 2 feet of snow. It had kind of melted a bunch by the time I thought to take a picture. But you can kind of tell how much it was by using the mailbox as a reference.

Luckily the flight back to the UK wasn't so bad, although I flew back the day after I spent the day curled up on the couch with a fever. And I didn't get to sleep thanks to the baby sitting on the lap of the woman next to me that kept kicking me the entire flight. And then I got the last train to York that afternoon (weather problems struck again apparently. I didnt know, I was asleep as soon as I got back to my room).

Alrighty, so now we're basically caught up! I should do something exciting so that I have something to write about.

In the meantime, you can check out this:

http://www.york.ac.uk/medieval-studies/york-1190/

I'm assisting with the conference prep work. I'm putting together the book stalls so if you're a publisher and you want to come sell books, let me know! ;)

EDDIE IZZARD!

Last Thursday, Ellen, Brian and I rode the train an hour north to Newcastle-upon-Tyne for Eddie Izzard's "Stripped" show. The show is a two hour "stripped down" account of the history of the world. And it is an absolutely fantastic show. Jesus preaches to the dinosaurs (but not to worry, it is not the same as his bit about that in a previous show) plus an absolutely HILARIOUS section on the limitations of the Latin language. I was basically crying during that part I was laughing so hard.

The show was held at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena, which looked pretty big- standard arena type stuff on the tickets webpage. But it is actually basically just a hockey arena. Like, say, Walter Brown-sized for those of you familiar with BU. So our seats which we thought were pretty good on the map were a lot closer than we thought they'd be. Of course, so was every other seat in the arena! Fun fact about UK event food- they have the usual not very good burgers, pizza, fries, and soda, but they ALSO sell hot fresh donuts. Hot. Fresh. Donuts. Oh man. I totally wanted some but I refrained. While we were waiting in line to pick up our tickets at the box office, we thought we smelled funnel cake and got really excited and then were very confused when there didn't seem to be anything like that around. And then we saw the donut stall. They looked (and smelled!) pretty good; I'll have to try them if I go to another show while I'm here.

Here's a not very good picture- my camera couldn't really handle the giant screen in a darkened arena thing very well.

And now we come to the not so exciting part of the story. The show was supposed to last 2 hours. The venue listed the show as running until 10:10. The last train back to York was at 10:46 and the station is only about 10 minutes from the arena, so we figured we'd be fine. Well, that would be true if Eddie had followed his lighting cues to wrap up either of the first two times they blinked at him. So at 10:30, we start worrying. But then, miraculously, he wraps up! Clapping, clapping, we can totally make the train! Oh no he's back for an encore. And its about the American space race. Dang it. So we, along with about 10 other college aged people make a beeline out of there and RUN for the train, figuring we're totally going to miss it. We're running, we get there, it is exactly 10:46... and the train is listed as 2 minutes late. Thank goodness. So we didn't get stranded in Newcastle for the night and all was well, except that we missed the last bit of his routine. But the DVD comes out at the end of the week, so one of us will have to get it so we can see what we missed.

If you are at all familiar with Latin, I recommend this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4YOmOd40iY for Eddie's take on Latin inefficiencies :)

He'll also be back in the US for an abbreviated tour, so if you're interested, you may want to check that out. So yeah, that's about all that's new. I spent the weekend sick so I haven't been up to much except watching old movies and whatnot in the past few days. Oh, and doing reading for class. Can't forget that...

Today I spent 50 BPDS on groceries at Asda (yay Walmart) and made some interesting discoveries:

1) Asda only charges 3.50 for deliveries during the day, as opposed to Tesco's 5 pounds all the time.

2) Ground beef is "minced beef" here.

3) There is no American or Mexican cheese blends available here. Which is only to be expected, I suppose, but still somewhat disappointing. We have cheddar back home! Show North American cheeses some love, UK!

4) There is no shredded cheese, but there is "grated cheese" as long as you want Cheddar, Gloucester, Parmesan, or Mozzarella.

5) It isn't sour cream, it is soured cream. Which is not quite as appetizing of a name...

6) YOU CAN BUY SCONES AND CLOTTED CREAM! I already had the strawberry jam, so prepare yourselves for some picture spam and poetic odes to the glories of a cream tea sometime soon.

7) US fries = UK chips. This is common knowledge. US chips = UK crisps. Also (semi) common knowledge. The exception: Tortilla chips. Still called chips. However, the UK's idea of corn chips are Doritos. All kinds of different flavors of Doritos. I did find a "lightly salted" flavor that I'm hoping is just regular old tortilla chips.

8) Baileys makes non-alcoholic cream like for coffee/tea. I did not get any but I was intrigued.

9) Technically an old grocery store discovery, but I'm going to share here anyway. They have really good strawberries here year round. They're a lot smaller than the California monstrosities we're used to, but the weather stays good enough year round for sweet delicious strawberries.

10) They do not sell deodorant/antiperspirant in a tube that you twist up and rub on your armpits, unless you buy the stupid expensive (not to mention foul-smelling) organic brand. Everything else is aerosol spray. Weird.

11) You can buy macaroni cheese (they don't put the & in for some reason) in a can. It is apparently disgusting, but you can. No blue box here! :(

12) I did find, however, El Paso Taco Kit! So excited.

So basically half of the battle to finding something resembling what you want is knowing what to look for. I had to search through pages upon pages of "dairy" to find "grated cheese" because I simply didn't think to search for grated rather than shredded. But I'm picking up the differences and I'm sure that by the time I leave I'll have finally gotten everything sorted out!

I'm HERE!

After a short flight to Philly and a much longer flight to Manchester, followed by missing 2 trains and then finally taking a 2 hour train ride to York, I'm officially here. And check out the train I took! The upholstery in Manchester airport is also purple. I knew there was a reason I wanted to come here!


Long story short, you should always just get on the train and worry about where you'll stow your luggage once you're on. You should also not sit in the handicap portion of the lead car if you elect to stow your massive amounts of luggage there. It is extremely uncomfortable. First class looked pretty spiffy, if you feel like spending some extra dough.

Now, you may have caught that reference to storing massive amounts of luggage. How much luggage does one girl need for a year? Well, if you're this girl and decide it is more cost effective to bring stuff with you rather than buy pretty much everything but clothes overseas, it takes about this much luggage...


It definitely made getting around more difficult, but I saved money and I didn't have to worry about getting clean sheets/towels, which I really am not up for right now. (I've slept maybe 3 hours in the last 30. Not so good.)

But, as I said, I'm HERE!


I still have a LOT of unpacking to do, but I'll try to show you all around my "interesting" pad tomorrow. Time for bed!