Manchester, Aberystwyth, and Cardiff!

I finished my four week internship on September 12, and on the 14th Katie drove me to the Oxford train station with my stuff to set off on a few more adventures. When I climbed aboard the train en route to Manchester, I was a little surprised to find the thing was packed with people and far too much luggage. Though I had a reserved seat, I couldn't fit my two bags anywhere near that seat so I chose to stand with a few other people and luggage at the end of the car. For an hour and a half. Smelly and cramped, but not all that bad really. The guy sitting on the floor near me looked like he had a crazy hangover, so I didn't feel so bad about my slight discomfort.

I spent three nights in Manchester, visiting my friend Vania who's just starting a Master's degree in Psychology at the University of Manchester. Nice enough city, but I wouldn't recommend bothering with it if you're only going as a tourist with no friends to visit. I only took three photos in four days.

My friends and I like to share a pint or two in Vancouver at the King's Head on Yew Street in Kitsilano, and I actually went to the King's Head in Bristol with my boss Fraser a few weeks back, and I thought it appropriate to take a photo of the King's Arms. Maybe next I'll find his legs and torso.




This is Vania's living room, with an excellent couch that unfolds into a big bed. Such a nice flat.




The big, old (built between 1869 and 1871), Catholic Church of The Holy Name of Jesus near the University of Manchester in the centre of the city looks kinda cool but we didn't go in:




On the 17th I caught a couple of trains to get from Manchester to Aberystwyth on the Irish Sea coast in Mid Wales to visit Will, who was also a volunteer in Cameroon when I was there. He and his flatmate Regan were terrific hosts, giving me a room all to myself and taking me out to some student parties. I didn't take many photos of that, though, so you'll have to settle for scenery instead. And believe me, when the weather is good in Aberystwyth, the scenery is quite something.

Someone's boat and a couple of swans on the River Ystwyth (Aberystwyth = Mouth of the River Ystwyth) a few metres from Will's flat:




There's a set of castle ruins in 'central' Aberystwyth (it's a very small place, so the centre of the city is not quite a bustling business district) and I spent a few minutes looking around and over an hour just sitting on a bench among the ruins relaxing in the sun and ocean breeze.




Part of a wall that has clearly tumbled over:









Castle ruins in the foreground, St Michael's Church on the right, Aberystwyth University "Old College" on the left, Constitution Hill in the background:




As I walked along the promenade overlooking the water, I stopped to look out on the ocean and saw this gull flying overhead. My lens managed to get a fairly good focus just in time for a photo:




Looking North toward Constitution Hill:




I managed to walk to the base of Constitution Hill, and started up the rocky path upward. There's a neat gravel path that takes a more direct route, but I preferred to take the track that was steeper and took in better views. A short way up, looking back South toward Aberystwyth; note the tower of the castle ruins is the left one of the two things sticking out of the peninsula in the distance:




After some difficult walking, I found a place to sit down at the edge of quite a high cliff, and stayed there at least half an hour. Looking Northwest from my spot:




Some little flowers:




I eventually scrambled up to the top, bought an orange juice at the little shop up there, and continued my way along a thin walking path heading further North along the coast. It was really beautiful, walking along the cliff edge overlooking the ocean. Eventually I started down toward the neighbouring village, and I thought this bit of the path was particularly neat-looking:




Looking North toward the next village:




I turned around when I reached the village, and returned to Will's house after a solid day outside and almost a sunburn. On Saturday morning I caught a bus en route to Carmarthen, then a train to Swansea, and another train on to Cardiff to visit my friend Augustine. Cardiff is a really neat city and Augustine is another terrific host and friend, so I had a blast. She only arrived in town the day before me, for two semesters on exchange from UBC, so we got to explore Cardiff as tourists/adventurers together!

This is the Welsh National War Memorial to the soldiers of WWI and WWII:




Cardiff City Hall:




Close-up of the super cool dragon sculpture on the top of the dome:




There's a castle in central Cardiff, so of course we went for a visit! Although I spent my first year of university studying in a castle, it was Augustine's first time in a castle - exciting!








Inside the castle walls, a fort is built up on a motte (the hill of dirt) made using the dirt dug out to form the moat that surrounds it. There used to be a high wall running from the fort to the outer castle wall. The stairs you see leading up to the fort are built on what was once the wall, the remainder of which you can see running to the right corner of the picture. The original doorway is the one up in the air, which would have let someone walk out onto the wall and along it.




View of the tower housing the Chaucer Room, a really cool part of the castle. We toured through this and other rooms, but sadly no photos were allowed inside.




Maybe not the best flag photo in the world, but it's the best I could do for the Welsh flag at the time, and I think it's kind of neat:




Of course, with university starting the following week, all the new students were arriving in town and that means one thing: parties. We went to several, along with Augustine's super friendly flatmates, all from different parts of the UK. Here's what the David Pearce concert looked like. I took this pic from a position quite close to the stage, in a massive room holding hundreds and hundreds of students.




Of course, because we're both so cool, we discovered that Augustine and I both wear the same shirt as a pyjama shirt, our MUG leader shirts from UBC orientations! Mine's got an extra line of stuff written on it, because I'm so old and it was the 10 year anniversary of Imagine UBC Orientations when I got mine.




On the 22nd I caught a taxi to the local train station, then a slow train to Cardiff Central station, then a faster train to London Paddington station, then the tube to London Liverpool station, then the Stansted Express train to Stansted Airport. I tried to sleep the night there, but unlike Gatwick (highly recommended as airport sleeping goes) Stansted had a LOT of people doing the same thing and there weren't any benches left by the time I arrived. I settled for a spot on the floor as many others had done, and got about an hour and a half sleep. Then I caught my Ryanair plane to Weeze airport in Germany.

To be continued...

Bristol

(Sorry no links in this one as I'm posting from a friend's computer in Germany and have to jump in a car in 5 mins)

My maternal grandmother grew up in England, and went to school for a time in Bristol, not too far from her parents' home in Bridgwater, Somerset. Nearly six years ago, after returning from my three week trip to Uganda, I spent several days with my great-aunt and great-uncle in Taunton, Somerset, and got a chance to visit Bridgwater and pass by the house in which Granny lived on Castle Street.

My boss during my internship, Fraser, lives in Bristol and invited me to work from his house there for a few days after our mountain biking weekend, so I could have a look around. Of course I had to try and see if I could visit some of the places Granny would have been over 80 years ago. I got my mother to ask Granny a bunch of questions about her time spent in Bristol, without letting on that I was actually there. I then set about town looking for a bunch of stuff she spoke of, using Google Earth and Google Maps and the various references and names Granny gave my mother. I was really surprised at how much of it I could find.

First, though, a funny photo for my friends. 13 years of primary and secondary school with a majority of students being Filipino, I thought some of my friends might appreciate this. It's some sort of candy bar from Spain that was in Fraser's house. So now you can buy and eat Filipinos for less than a Euro.




One thing that wouldn't have been around when Granny was in Bristol: Banksies. This one, a relatively old piece of street art by the world famous Bristolian, who now lives in London, is quite high up on the side of the building. It 'just appeared' one day:




There was an old bike in Fraser's garage, so I spent half an hour adjusting and fixing it, then off I went to explore Bristol by bike.

Here's a somewhat strange building in the Clifton Downs, a nice semi-wilderness area of Bristol near the River Avon:




Looking East, South, and West from the cliffs above the river:








Granny told Mom that she went to a school called Felixstowe School which was in a large house right next to the Mayor's house. Google Maps told me that the Mayor's house was in the Zoo grounds, which was wrong. It also told me there was a Felixstowe Cottage located a few blocks from there. As it turns out, there is no Felixstowe Cottage on the street that Google Maps lists, but there IS a Felixstowe House on the next street, which happens to be right next door to the Mayor's mansion. I find it quite impressive that, despite Granny's 99 years of age, her memory is more reliable than Google Maps.




This is one of the buildings the school used to own. It's now something private, not sure what. The other attached house was also part of the school and is now a fancy building for a bank.




The Mayor's mansion is the building on the left. The one on the right is the old Felixstowe School.




Granny said she used to cross the Clifton Suspension Bridge to go to a church she liked in Leigh Woods, so I decided to find it. The Clifton Suspension Bridge was designed by the very well known (at least in Britain) architect/engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It's now 144 years old and still carries tonnes of traffic and people across every day.






The view from the North end of the bridge, looking West. I bet I could convince many Vancouverites that this is somewhere near the Upper Levels or similar.




The bridge is undergoing some maintenance; as far as I can tell it's just repaving the deck. Looking South:




Looking back North:




Looking back North, on the West side of the bridge. Check out the tunnel that comes out of the rocks. I haven't yet taken the time to find out what the deal is with that, but it sure looks neat!




Looking North:




When I got across the bridge, I cycled up a side road and found the only Anglican church in Leigh Woods: St Mary the Virgin. Near as I can tell, this must be the church that Granny would have attended all those years ago, as it did exist at that time. It's in a really nice area, which actually felt to me a bit like Bowen Island.








I then went off to look for a cycle trail through the woods to take me down to the river's edge. A few blocks along, I spotted this awesomecool roof:




Down at the river's edge, while I was looking at my map and deciding where I was, I saw this:




Turning about 120 degrees, this was the view on the other side of the trail: a bridge for the old decommissioned railway:




And behind the bridge, in the forest, oldschool stone walls to channel water under the bridge and into the river:




Looking East from the same spot:




I then cycled East on the trail along the edge of the river, in the direction of the suspension bridge. This is a proper sized tree growing out of the side of a retaining wall for the old rail line:




I was standing on top of these cliffs when I took the first three photos of the river, at the start of this post:




Not sure why I find this funny, but it is:




Read the story, it's neat:




Looking East toward the bridge that I had crossed earlier:




The cycle trail:




My poor attempt to make a panorama shot of the bridge's underside by stitching together three photos taken from direcly beneath the South end:




East of the bridge, still on the South shore of the river, looking North:




Eventually I returned to the city centre. This replica boat, the Mathew, is on display there. Apparently it used to sail to the Americas, but it's pretty small.




Old school loading crane:




There was a dragon boat race as I passed by, so I watched. Team 2 won I think.




This crazy boat caught my attention. The sign on the stone wall just left of the bow says "No Mooring"






And that was my Bristol adventure!