Monday, July 4, 2011

Proof that Subway is better than McDonald's

So this weekend was another good one. However, I kind of consider any weekend with my English family a good one. This one was particularly good though because I also got to go to Harlaxton for a night (can I just go take my law classes there please?).

So Thursday evening I headed off to Harlaxton and got in a little before 9. I spent the first hour or so running around taking pictures, remembering all the awesome places to hang out, and just generally enjoying being home again. I spent a good 15 minutes looking for where I signed my name on a pipe down on the ground floor, but everyone signs the pipes, so there were hundreds of names to look through. Luckily, I had an idea of where I had signed, but that actually only helped a little. That night I vegged, and ordered pizza (really, I can't go to Harlaxton and not order Pizza King). However, I forgot that all the pizzas were buy one get one free, and so I ended up with a lot of food. I was able to pawn some of it off on some summer students though. When I was over there in 2006, the big clock on the tower, didn't work, but they were raising money to have it restored. Well, it has been restored, and it's beautiful, except when it chimes all through the night (1am, 2am, 3am, 4am, etc...). Oh well, it was great to be back.

The next day I headed off to Coventry. I met up with Uncle Stephen and Lynne, and was immediately accosted in order to get some passport photos taken (long story). After that we headed to the post office, sent them off to dad, and then headed into town for dinner with some of their friends. It was fun. They have a friend who's my age, her name is Lillian. She's very sweet, if not odd at some times, but was fun to talk to. For dinner I had two pints of Weston's cider, which I think I've had before, but it was delicious, and a burger and chips. It was really good.

On Saturday we got up and headed to Birmingham. In Birmingham, I kid you not, there are Subways on every corner. The Subways there are like Starbucks in America. There's always one near by. Turns out, Subway is now the leading fast food chain in the world. That's right, they surpassed McDonald's. We hit up a museum first, and that was pretty interesting. Next we went to Subway (well, it had been on my mind since we passed 3 of them in the mile to the museum) for lunch. Oh and the Subways over here, actually have ranch. Not salad cream, but actual ranch. If I need a fix, I know where to go. :)

That afternoon we went to a Back to Backs tour. It was basically a tour of how housing used to be in Birmingham, and it too was really interesting. I really enjoyed that. A back to back is literally, two houses, back-to-back. Instead of the front house having a back door or windows on the back, it has a brick wall and a house built on the other side, so the house on the back has an address that says back of number 24 Abbey Rd. Each house had 3 floors, but they were tiny houses, and the beds were extremely uncomfortable. Although I couldn't get any pics, I was allowed to touch everything, go figure. By the way, in the mile or two from the museum to the back to backs there were 3 Subways. After that I was let loose to go shopping for an hour, and spent some of my birthday money from Uncle David on a new dress. It's really pretty. :-D

That night we went to go see a play, "Dunsinane". It is the sequel to Macbeth. It was really good, there were some really funny parts to it. :) Before the play, we went to a fish and chip shop and got some dinner. In Stratford they were having a river festival, so across the river from the theater there was a bunch of long boats docked, and there was a stage, carnival booths and food, and a few basic rides (nothing mechanical). It was fun to watch. After the play we went to the pub and I had a glass of wine (I should really not drink wine, it makes me so sleepy). As we were having our drink, the river festival set off some fireworks, so I did get a little bit of a Fourth of July celebration this weekend. :)

The next day we had a lazy morning, and then they took me to the train station, and I headed back to Cambridge. My entire goal in getting back was to get back early enough so I could get my laundry started before everyone else got back (success). It was a pretty easy rest of the evening, because one good thing about train rides, is their excellent time to get work done. :)

Not much going on this week, just class, but next weekend is Munich and Salzburg. :-D

Oh, and Happy Independence Day!!! (first one I've ever missed I think).

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