Yesterday

Ok, so maybe it wasn't "yesterday", but "the day after the day after yesterday" isn't the name of a Beatles song. So I had to make do.

For those of you who don't know (and you all should know because you memorize my blog daily) I just got back from our four day trip to the North. I'll give you the run-down.

Departure from London-- We left at 7:00 in the morning. This means that we had to finish breakfast by 6:30. This was my least favorite part of the trip by far.

Quarry Bank Mill-- Our first stop of the day was just outside of Manchester in Cheshire. It used to be a cotton mill, but now it's a museum. It was pretty cool to visit though because they had working machines and stuff in there so you could get a little but of a feel for what it would have felt like to work in there. Let's just say that I wouldn't be volunteering for it.

Port Sunlight-- It's right outside of Liverpool. It could even be part of it. We stopped there to go to the Lady Lever Art Gallery. I thought it was funny because there was all this amazing artwork there and we totally spent a lot of our time in the basement coloring pictures of the famous artwork upstairs. Just because we're in college doesn't mean that we don't want to color!

Liverpool!-- We crashed in Liverpool for the first night. We got there when everything was closing, so we mostly wandered the docks and took lots of pictures. Pretty much all of them involved the Beatles in one form or another, like jumping next to the river while listening to the Beatles, with Beatles signs, with an orange submarine... You get the idea. While we were wandering the docks we were offered tickets by someone on the street. Of course we had no idea what they were for. And I was pretty sure that they were speaking another language (they weren't). But it turns out that there was an Oasis concert right where we were that night to kick off their new CD or something. So that was almost exciting.

Since we didn't blindly buy tickets for the concert we ended up going across the street to this giant new mall type place where we went in a bunch of stores but didn't spend any money. Which was probably a good thing, since I definitely spent a good amount of money the next day... We ended up having to hide in McDonald's from the rain (I know, a real cultural experience) before we retreated to the hostel where we did nothing. Cities in England shut down way too early. I think all of the stores closed at like 8. Luckily they open up again in the morning, so first thing we went and hit up the Beatles gift shop, where I spent the bulk of my money on a fabulous bag. Yes, it was so worth it.

Then we took more pictures before we all met up at the Maritime Museum. All of the Beatles stuff was cool, but this was definitely the best part. The real reason we went to Liverpool (no, we didn't just go there for the Beatles) was because the ports there used to be the major place for emigration to the states in the UK and Scandinavia, so pretty much all of us had ancestors who would have passed through there before leaving for America. I have to admit it was another one of those things that I couldn't really process, but I tried to imagine standing where they would have and looking out at the ocean knowing that you were going someplace completely foreign and that you were never coming back. I think they said that 100's of thousands of LDS emigrants passed through those ports alone. The church actually has a monument there, so we took a moment to read about people's experiences with the journey and sing a song. That was the best part of the trip. Then we actually went into the museum, which was pretty cool although I have to admit that it wasn't quite as cool as I had hoped. I think that I was imagining it to be more like Ellis Island or something. But they did have models of a bunch of the ships that had left and there was a life size model that you got to walk through and stuff. Somehow I don't feel as bad about my long plane ride to get over here now.

After our moment of reflection we resumed being normal tourists and decided to head out in search of the famous Cavern, where the Beatles and tons of other famous bands performed. We totally found it and proceeded to take pictures of it. Then we ran back to the hostel to make sure we didn't miss the bus. That wouldn't have been good.

Preston-- On the way to the Lake District we stopped in Preston, because when the first missionaries came to England way back at the beginning of church history this is where they came. We got to go see the Preston Temple, which of course was gorgeous. It was actually funny because there was a group of missionaries there taking a group photo at the same time, and one of the girls in our group totally knew one of the missionaries from school. We were only there for a little bit, and then we had a couple hour tour of Preston, which was pretty cool. It's definitely a very nice place. Then we all packed onto the bus and we were off again. In case your guys haven't picked up on this, these trips are all jam packed with things to do and see. By the end of the day we're so exhausted that we don't even care that we have to sleep in questionable hostel beds.

The Lake District-- This place seriously doesn't even look real. I'll include a picture of our view from the hostel. We stayed at the hostel in Ambleside for two nights, so we got to see lots of the Lake District. We got in pretty late again, so we went on a walk into town. It was completely dark so we didn't really see anything. When we went back into town the next day I couldn't even tell I was in the same place. It's a really cute little town. They have a bunch of little shops and stuff. The best part of being in the Lake District was the scenery hands down. It's just so dramatic and green and perfect. There's also a ton of sheep everywhere. It looks like it came straight out of a book.

The first morning we got up early (no sleep allowed in England) and hiked for a couple hours up to Dove Cottage, which is where Wordsworth lived with his sister and wife for some odd years and wrote lots o' poetry. The hike was fabulous. We've really been lucking out on the weather. Apparently it rains like 90% of the time in the Lake District, but it didn't rain at all while we were there unless you count the storm (complete with severe weather warnings) that rolled in right when we rolled out. Oh, other funny bit of luck. Apparently we accidentally went to Wordsworth's place on national poetry day, so the BBC was there and they taped one of our professors and one of the girls reciting poetry. Later we ran into our BBC friends again the nest day at the Bronte's house... I'm pretty sure that they're stalking us.

After Dove Cottage we took the coach up to Hilltop, where Beatrix Potter lived. It was way cute and they had all sorts of Peter Rabbit stuff. It was also really interesting to learn more about her. She used the money she made from the books to buy 14 farms in the Lake District to preserve the land and keep it from being developed. When she died she left all of it to the National Trust, and they kept it just the way she left it. Pretty sweet stuff.

After Hilltop we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted to, so naturally we spent the majority of our time eating and buying candy. We also took a cruise on lake Windermere (the gorgeous one directly in front of the hostel).

Haworth-- one of the ways that we broke u pour long trek back home to London (it's like a five hour drive) was to stop in Haworth, where the Bronte sisters lived. This might have been my favorite little town so far. Everywhere was picturesque. As an example I will include a picture of where we went to the restroom below. I really wish we had more time here. Sadly we were on a tight schedule, so all we had time for was eating at a cute little place after visiting the parsonage where the Bronte's lived. I would have rather looked around the town more...

Chatsworth-- By this point we were running behind, so this was a crazy fast tour of another ridiculously massive building. This house is in the new movie the Duchess. It was also where Mr. Darcy lived in the new Pride and Prejudice. I can sum it up in one word-- big. Pretty would also be an acceptable answer.

Home!-- Four days later we made it back to the centre in one piece, complete with lots of new souvenirs and no energy.

Hampstead Heath-- So this wasn't part of the trip, but I'm sneaking it in here anyways. We went there yesterday when the weather was absolutely perfect (his was the same day Provo got 6 inches of snow. Oh yes). Hampstead is technically part of London, but it feels more like a New England town. We got the most delicious apples on the side of the street that I have ever had. The heath also offers fantastic views of the whole city since it sits higher than central London. We had a wondrous day of wandering the heath, even though we got incredibly lost after we got pointed in the wrong direction.

That's it for now. These nest couple of days I will be sentenced to doing nothing but homework, since I haven't done any for awhile and I totally have a paper, a midterm, and a bunch of other thrilling assignments to do this week. You should totally appreciate this because writing this has taken me like four hours, and I haven't even added the pictures yet. So you should leave me a comment to let me know that I'm not wasting my time when I should be doing homework, I'm sure. It's really easy. All you do is click on the comments link at the bottom of this entry and then type a little love note...

Pictorials of my Adventures in the North:

I know you can't tell, but this is us at the Mill

One of my favorite pasttimes on the bus is eating.
Coloring in the basement of a famous art galleryLiverpool!
Liverpool Docks! At night!

We didn't even have to leave the hostel for Beatles photo ops

We didn't actually go in the museum, but we took a ton of pictures outside!

The monument where the emigrants left

Liverpool Docks! In the Daytime!

Ready to emigrate to New York

We started a band in honor of the Cavern

Preston Temple. Note the missionary group picture in the back.

The view from the hostel of Windermere

On the hike

Dove Cottage

Reading Beatrix Potter at Hill Top (I totally stole Annie's book)

Docks not in Liverpool

A Sample of the View

Everyone has to take a touristy phone booth picture, so I figured I'd take mine here

This is where the bathroom was

Peace out. I'm going to try and catch up on some of my sleep.