North Trip part 2

Wednesday 3/31
Day 3. The week continues. on and on. We left Durham castle (they served a very British breakfast. Not my favorite) and we drove through the English countryside for awhile... very pretty and shockingly green. Lots of sheep in pastures. We kept driving and it started snowing! Our first stop was Hadrian's Wall, a Roman wall ruin. I'll try to be positive but it was the worst stop of the week (even the directors admitted that afterwards). It was freezing and blizzarding and extremely windy, and they didn't warn us that the walk up to the Roman ruins would be a long hike up a snowy muddy hill. Not fun. I slipped every other step and almost fell a lot but luckily didn't. After a few minutes my poor sad boots (worn thin with holes in the heel and ripping at the seams...) did not last. My socks got soaked through. It was miserable and so dreadful that I gave up and stayed at the museum (3/4 of the way to the ruins). So i never even saw the ruins. :) My feet were cold and wet (ew) so i trudged back down the hill and spent awhile in the bathroom trying to dry my soggy socks and boots with the hand dryer. At least I had another pair of socks to change into! I'm glad I didn't go all the way up because everyone said it was a disappointment; small and rather lame and most people fell at one point.

trudging up the miserable hill...

the ruins at the top (which i never saw)...

yay for good attitudes!

Next we drove through part of the lake district, where the poet William Wordsworth lived. It was very pretty and the village was quaint. We visited Wordsworth's homes -  Dove Cottage and Grasmere - which were bland museums and not my favorite places to spend a lot of time. The scenery was much more interesting!

Finally we reached Hawkshead - our youth hostel for the night. It was pretty much the hostel, a lake, trees, hills, and sheep. I liked it. I explored a little but then we had 2 hours of class to attend. I almost fell asleep and started (accidently) writing random funny things in my notes. :) My boots are stiff, cold, and damp. :( This trip is destroying them! Well that and I'ver worn them nearly daily since January. I cannot wait to trash them in april!

Hawkshead. So pretty it looks fake (its not). 

This is what you do in middle-of-nowhere Hawkshead.. dance in the middle of the street :)

Thursday 4/1

Day 4. April! yikes. Time is moving too quickly. I explored Hawkshead a little and then we left Hawkshead for neighboring Hill Top Farm (home of Beatrix Potter).Well some people walked 45 minutes there but I was lazy (aka smart) and waited for the shuttle. Hill Top farm was pretty... cottage farms in the countryside. We watched Miss Potter before so i knew more about her. Lots of adorable lambs. Unfortunately touring the houses of dead famous people is still not exciting for me. And we've done that every single day on this trip! It was cute seeing all the Peter Rabbit things though.

The rest of the day didn't get any more exciting (I am spoiled by all my other adventures!). We spent the rest of the day in Preston seeing church history sites. I was especially bitter because I am dying to see Edinburgh, or any of Scotland! We were supposed to go there on this North trip but they cut it out... so we can get a whole day of church history sites in. We spent the afternoon in Preston (which the shuttle driver earlier called an ugly violent town) with our wordy mormon tour guide. We wandered all over and around the town, and got funny looks... a group of 50 people wearing awkward headsets and criscrossing the town (which is not exactly a tourist destination). We got attacked by swarms of bugs. And it was a long tour! Like a few hours. It was interesting to see places we learned about in our religion class... but I got bored and most of us in the back of the group (the cool people haha) goofed around, poked each other wth branches, etc. But I like acting like a 5 year old sometimes. :) After Preston we visited the Preston temple, which was nice. For some reason that temple reminds me of a robot. The grounds were pretty.

Our last stop was Liverpool! Cool city. Second biggest in England (i think). We checked in at a hotel then Cam, Calvin, Ali and I went out to find dinner. They got fish and chips, I got McDonalds. What can I say :) It is better here I swear! Their sweet chili chicken sandwich is my favorite sandwhich ever. Oh and I got  creme egg mcflurry. They're seasonal (for Easter) so I can't miss an opportunity to eat one! Liverpool is a bit sketchy. But I like cities. I like how big they are and how fascinating it is to wander aimlessly and people-watch. I want to go back to London and get lost in the city!

Friday 4/2
Day 5! We spent the morning in Liverpool so we didn’t have time to see much unfortunately (let’s just say that I would have planned The North Trip rather differently). We all went down to Albert Dock on the river Mersey, and then most of us went over to the Beatles Museum! It was great. It was even cooler because they were from Liverpool, and there were replicas of their first band stage and lots of cool stories and paraphernalia etc. And good background music. I love the Beatles! I got a snazzy Beatles t-shirt.

Afterwards – I got a chocolate crepe in a big Liverpool shopping area nearby, and then headed back to the coach. A few girls got lost and got back on the coach half an hour late, so we didn’t have time to visit our last stop on the trip – Coventry Cathedral. We watched The Importance of Being Earnest and Amazing Grace on the long ride home. Both were great! It was actually nice on the way home because some students left from Liverpool to travel for the weekend (Scotland) so there was room on the bus and it was quieter. I was sad though because Melinda and her family live in Harrogate in northern England, and it was so sad to be in the area and not get to see them! All wrong. :( I miss them and wish it was easier to see them more often here while we’re both in England.
We got lunch/dinner at some truck stop type place. I forgo-ed the grossness and waited until London for dinner (went to Nando’s… yum).
London sweet London! So glad to be back. :) No more wearing a puffy snow coat 5 days in a row! No more snow! AND my camera finally came in the mail!! Yay. Tonight we celebrated Margaret’s birthday (cake and ice cream) then watched Bend It Like Beckham. Another movie set in London (and Southall)! So cool.

PS. I saw this sign in Liverpool and laughed. :)