England Trip - Part 4 MANCHESTER

Continuing with my journey to the motherland (of my ancestors, hehe)...here are some pictures and anecdotes of my visit up to Manchester, England. My boyfriend Pete's parents live up there and we were planning to stay with them for a days so that I could get a chance to see the north of England.

We drove up on a Thursday and the drive up was very pleasant. It took about 4 and a half hours (due to a stop in Derbyshire visiting Pete's best friend John and his gf Selina). They cooked us a nice dinner of Indian food (one of my main staples of food in England actually), and I got my first taste of orange squash (its actually a juice drink, not some new vegetable, and very tasty btw) and then we drove up to meet Pete's parents in Bury (a burrough of Manchester). I was a little nervous as this was the first time I was meeting Pete's parents, but luckily I had nothing to worry about as they were very kind, fun, and hospitable people.

Friday, February 20th we spent the day exploring the countryside outside Bury. I absolutely loved it. I found that I much prefer the north of England than the south due because it has more hills...

Pretty pretty hills.


The Rock of Gibraltar (okay, well, no, but it had been there since the Roman occupation)

Me and "the rock". It was a fine rock. A sturdy rock. A friendly rock. And it liked posing for pictures.

Petey poses with the rock. He's 6 feet tall, so as you can see it towered over him.

Rejoicing from the splendor of my surroundings (and oh yeah, it was BITTERLY cold!)

This was taken right after we stopped the car to get out and take pictures (in the middle of the road mind you, these things are allowed in the country). As I stepped out of the car, I fell unexpectedly into a ditch. Most lovely, haha.

This was a nice footpath in the country near a farm/estate that is open to the public. Public footpaths are all around the countryside, even through private property/land sometimes. I suppose its a treaty that the government made with country folk. I just love stone fences.

I have a fascination with old cemeteries. There is an air of mystery and spooky-ness surrounding them. It also makes me wonder about the people there, who they were, what their lives were like when they lived so long ago.

An old church converted into an antique shop across the street from the old cemetery. There were so many beautiful churches in the countryside, I was in awe.

A cute country pub we saw during our drive called "The Grey Mare".

A country church in Ainsworth built in the 14th century I believe. This was where Pete was christened as a wee babe :) It was so beautiful in person.

I have a thing about doors. I love them! Especially ones rusted with age. I find them very artistic, so much so that I'd like to buy a professional camera just to take pictures of old doors, hehe.

The lovely tower and clock of Ainsworth church. I would've rang the bell but I might have gotten into trouble :)

And here's me and Pete at the church (right before it rained and we had to leave). Don't we make a fine pair :)

We had a lovely time and some lovely memories, and I can't wait to go back again this summer, when all the flowers are blooming (and its warmer!). There is so much more I'd like to explore of England. Hope you enjoyed the pictures everyone!

England Trip - PART 3 Cambridge

Right O', time to add some more photos and tidbits from my trip to Great Britain. Last Valentine's Day Pete and I drove up to Cambridge (it's about an hour and a half outside of Finchley, London). It was the first time I got a chance to see true blue (or rather green) English countryside and I was SOOO excited. The drive was very pleasant and nice. Along the way I enjoyed hearing a bit of the British radio stations, BBC 1 in particular (I believe that's what it was called). They played a lot of Top 40 tunes they play here in the states.... artists like Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Pink, but with some artists I've never been privileged to hear as well....(Yeah, British rap is quite interesting, lol!). For instance, Lily Allen is HUGE over there. A mega star. As is Jimmy Osmond (yeah, his posters for a Broadway show were plastered all over the London tube stations). I can understand the hype with Lily maybe, but Jimmy? What gives?! LOL!

Pete and I arrived in Cambridge in early afternoon and I had my camera in hand to snap as many pictures as was possible (scratch that, in actuality I wasn't able to snap as MANY pics as I truly wanted due to my memory card not formatting properly). I was forced to take only probably 5-7 photos to be saved on my camera's internal memory, otherwise I'd have to delete some precious photos taken in London. The rest of the pictures from Cambridge would have to be memories saved in, well, MY internal memory.

We did a lot of walking through Cambridge. Its a beautiful town with breathtaking architecture, an interesting mix of the old traditional Gothic & Georgian styles fused with modern contemporary. Most of the buildings still have the historical facades, of course, which I really liked, but were renovated inside, to suit our 21st century needs. I absolutely loved it! They also had a lot of American establishments I recognized like Starbucks, Pizza Hut and Chilli's which made me feel a little more at home.

Speaking of which, I made up a game with Pete during my time in England. Whenever I saw an American business, whether it be a restaurant, coffee shop, clothing store, etc..., I'd make a 'T' symbol with my hand and haughtily yell "T", as though we Americans somehow had the upper hand on Brits, and that's why they want to copy us. A competition ensued between us and Pete tried to trademark as many British establishments as he could in a certain amount of time against me. I always said I'd tally up the points between us at the end of the day to decide officially which nation is the best, but I never really did. Guess this trip was more a United Nations mission trying to unite cultures vs. dividing them. Which is why we held hands and kissed, ALOT, to fill in the cultural gaps, of course, hahaha! Call me a good will ambassador from America if you will, lol!

Anyhoo, here we have some pictures of our journey through Cambridge. First up we have a picture of a church I took during our drive through Cambridge trying to find parking (it was rather difficult!)


We'd finally found parking at a shopping centre and began our long walk through town. Here's me standing in front of a cute old hotel across from a park, the name of which escapes me.


And poor Pete trying to keep warm at the park (it was rather cold that day).


Walking through Cambridge.

The Fitzwilliam Museum and its grand white columns. This is one of my favorite pics of that day.


A beautiful old building used by the University where Pete deciphered the Latin inscriptions and then tried to explain them to me (courtesy of his private-school education. Why oh why don't they teach us Americans Latin in school, lol?!)


Another of the streets of Cambridge.


The historical and spellbinding King's College. It was such a massive building it was hard to capture the full building on one sole picture, so here's a couple shots!






Lastly here's a pic of a cute little church that was in the center of a shopping street. I couldn't resist taking a pic; it had so much character.


SOME MORE HIGHLIGHTS OF CAMBRIDGE

After a lot of walking we got rather tired so decided to take a break in the evening at a mall in the center of Cambridge. We stopped at a little coffee stand and it was there that I had my first eccles cake (very good pastry, crusty, flakey, nuts & raisin goodness) and the best hot chocolate ever with whipped cream (possibly the best in my life!)

While walking around we decided to stop by a pharmacy called Boots (Think Rite Aid in America). I was in dire need of a shower cap because, well, I didn't feel like washing my hair every day (my hair dryer took FOREVER to dry my hair due to the low wattage converter). We looked for one of those cheap disposable thin plastic shower caps but to no avail. All we could find is something that resembled this:

I don't know why that model is so happy. These shower caps aren't exactly beauty enhancers. Mine could only be described as a hideous, beige colored, industrial strength plastic shower cap that belonged in the 70's. Luckily Pete thought it was hot stuff and happily modeled it on his head in the line for check out to make me feel better. He even encouraged me to try it on in public, too, to my dismay, which I did, trying to ignore the curious looks of onlookers. But I tell you, Pete was so persuasive and he wore that cap with such finesse that even Paris Hilton herself would have to buy one, cause it was just HOT! (On a side note, I later lost that shower cap when I accidentally left the bag in a bathroom stall at the mall that night, not on purpose of course, or was it?!!). I later had to search throughout London to find another suitable replacement of its high quality and grace.

I also enjoyed getting lost at night in Cambridge trying to find our way back to the car park at a mall. I know this sounds odd, but it was kind of fun as we retraced our steps of the day. We finally found the right streets after I recognized various shops and restaurants from our Trademark game. Yeah, it came in really handy!

So all in all it was a great Valentine's Day. We drove home and Pete cooked me a wonderful dinner of Indian food, Chicken Tikka Masala! I couldn't have asked for more!

England Trip Continued - PART TWO - London

Hey All,

So I'm back with more pics and tidbits to share on my trip to England. When I first got there I realized several things were very crucial. 1. Warmth. 2. Warmth. 3. Wearing comfortable socks and shoes (as mentioned in previous posts, I got major blisters the second day I arrived, ironically, from snowboarder grade socks. Sounds impossible, right? Nope. Its not). I will confess it was a shock to be in a new foreign country... one that was night and day from Los Angeles. But it was also VERY exciting! It took some getting used to crossing the streets looking the opposite way for oncoming traffic, or never knowing which direction was which, and where everything was, getting used to the funky appliances or showers/tubs. I did get sick on my trip...I came with a cold, lost my voice one night, got blisters, got a cold sore, and other ailments.... but I was so lucky as Pete took great care of me and I couldn't have been in better hands.

I really had the time of my life. And I'll tell you why...let's start with the supermarket first, haha. Every night Pete and I shopped at Tesco's. I felt like a kid in a candy store and everything seemed like a novelty. All the unrecognizable and new products that I haven't seen in America I wanted to try (except for maybe haggis, or other weird unidentifiable meat, haha). I quickly learned what my favorite English food/snacks were.

Breakfast always consisted of buttered croissants, a banana, and black current tea (positively the most divine tea of all mankind, in my humble opinion). I'm one of those people that if I find something I like, I stick with it, and I'm practically obsessed with it. So every morning like clockwork I ate this.

I also found that the bakery made cookies from Tesco's were actually quite cheap, (and also exquisitely divine). Pete was amused by how much I loved these chocolate chip cookies. I confess I began to convert him to their calorie-ridden goodness (and Pete is a health nut!). When his mum asked him what kind of stuff I liked, the above items were what Pete mentioned. She was so nice to have them on hand we traveled up north and stayed at his parent's house.

We bought some Vimto which is a black current flavored drink. It comes concentrated like this and you add water....tasted pretty good. I was noticing a pattern that I loved everything black current, lol!


I also was in love with Chicken Tikka Masala (which isn't an English cuisine, but its very popular there, and it's my favorite dish any where; any time. I think I asked to eat this almost every night, haha! Poor Pete!)

People say that English food isn't always the best. I never ate anything that tasted bad. We cooked most of our food (well mostly Pete did, upon his gentlemanly insistence!) and when we went out everything tasted fabulous. No complaints, only compliments!

I also fell in love with British candy bars....particularly one called Toffee Crisp
and Munchies (which Pete introduced me to in the Lake District). The best!

Unfortunately, all the junk food I purchased from England and brought home to the states has now been consumed. I should feel guilty, but I don't, and only wish I had more of those chocolate/orange Kit Kats! HAHA!

Walker's Crisps (potato chips) Worcester Sauce flavored

and lastly, Sticky Toffee Pudding (the most divine dessert, an earthly creation with heavenly taste!)


We spent our first week touring London and the nearby countryside....Thursday the 12th we stayed in the neighborhood, (after my blister incident), Friday the 12th we saw Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Covent Garden, then we stopped at a cafe near the Thames River...then by moonlight walked hand-in-hand along the river... and finished the evening with a meal at the pub. I confess it was all very romantic. I might have been wearing 4 layers of clothing, 2 pairs of socks, plus leg warmers, a scarf, and the hood of my sweatshirt covering my ears, but I was blissfully content.

Saturday, Valentine's Day, we spent in Cambridge(pics to follow in my next blog). Sunday we stayed around Finchley. Monday and Tuesday we traveled on the tube and saw more of London. Wednesday we drove around the beautiful countryside of Essex, near London. The next part of the journey we went up north to Derbyshire, then Manchester, then the Lake District.

Here are some more captures of our travels through London. We managed to cover a lot of ground during that time. Big Ben, Parliament Buildings, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, some museum (which the name fails me), and some other great sights. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!