Despite how late it is, I decided I wanted to do a blog post. If I don't do it immediately after I get back from somewhere, I feel like I have something looming over my head. So, here we go!
This weekend, I took quite the long train ride to Durham, England! My friend Rylee from high school (and years of carpooling) goes to school at Durham University - no, not studying abroad, actual school -- this means that this is her final year! And she's writing her dissertation, as most/all British university students do. Quite impressive. I left Swansea late Friday afternoon and arrived in Durham a bit after midnight. I was originally going to go to Rylee's Halloween formal, but it unfortunately basically ended by then. Rylee said it was kind of disappointing because she said/thought there would be stuff going on when I got there, but there wasn't really, which was actually totally and completely fine. We went to her house and chatted for a while before going to sleep.
On Saturday, we - aka I - slept in. Then we went to explore Durham! We first went to Leonard's Coffee House for lunch, WHICH WAS DELICIOUS. It's one of those non-chain, hidden gems of a restaurant. I got a bacon, brie, and cranberry sandwich. (Don't think bacon in the American way - more like ham). We then split Victoria Sponge cake. We also explored a little outdoor market and bought shortbread, which was delicious. After lunch, Rylee showed me her favorite viewing spot in the whole city, which is where the third picture was taken. We also went to see Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, which is actually a college/dorm of Durham University. The first picture is near the Cathedral, which overlooks some beautifully changing color trees. The second picture is me in front of Durham Castle.
After exploring the city, we went back to Rylee's house. For some odd reason, I was so insanely tired that I then actually took an hour long nap. This ended up being an incredibly good life decision because I felt so much better after. Rylee and her housemate then made us fajitas for dinner, which were delicious, and we then proceeded to veg in front of the TV for about 6 hours. It was honestly so relaxing and nice. We watched Come Dine with Me, the X Factor, and Life Stories with Piers Morgan - all of which are British classics.
Sunday rolled right along, and we decided to go to Newcastle, which is a fifteen min. train ride away from Durham. Durham is incredibly far north in England, and Newcastle is even further north. It's probably one of the most well-known, biggest Northern cities - I think? The bottom two photos are from Newcastle. We walked around, went to the mall and window shopped, walked around an outdoor market (I love these), we got free doughnuts (long story, quite funny, actually), and got Thai food. We were both craving some good Asian food so this restaurant was a delightful choice. What was funny was that we were the only people in the restaurant for the entire time we were there, and this was a pretty big, nice restaurant. I guess British people don't go out for Thai food at lunch time. We then headed back to Durham, hung out at her house for a bit, and then I made my way back to Swansea. And here I am!
You can definitely expect a Halloween blog soon :)
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