The next morning we headed out to go to York. Some of the girls in my flat had gone a couple of weeks earlier and said it was a quaint little town. We made it to the station just in time to get on our train and for it to leave (it was the first of many trains I have narrowly made). Unfortunately, in my rush to leave, I had forgotten my rail card. Not the worst thing that could've happened but I did have to pay the difference between my student price and the regular price. Our first stop in York was York Minster. Since we were there on a Sunday there was a service going on so we weren't able to go inside but we were able to view its majesty from the outside. From there we roamed the streets, got lunch from a pasty shop, and walked down the Shambles. The Shambles is said to be the most picturesque/typical English street in the UK, or so the tour guide said as we walked past one group. We also saw the castle tower, we didn't go up because we would've had to pay. We also walked along the Ouse River and back through the town in our attempt to find Betty's Tea Shop. We weren't able to find Betty's so we just headed back to the train station to go to the Train Museum. While there were many interesting trains at the museum the highlight was getting to see the Hogwarts Express!!! I saw it through the window and patiently waited to finish seeing all the royal trains before heading out to see it. And so started my Harry Potter sights adventures (don't worry there will be more to come!!) Another Harry Potter York fact is that they used the train station bridge to film where Hagrid gave Harry his ticket for the Hogwarts Express in the 1st movie.
Me and the Hogwarts Express!!!!!
The rest of the week wasn't too eventful. We hung around Sheffield a lot and Roy got to see where I live and meet my flatmates and friends. On Tuesday we went with my flatmates to the Sheffield United game. They are the Sheffield team in the higher division but had been playing terribly so far this season. Luckily we were there on a winning night! Of course it only took us incredibly long to get to the stadium. We weren't sure where we were going exactly so we followed googlemaps on Laura's phone. A couple abandoned looking streets later we made it to the stadium. On Wednesday we went to the Sheffield Botanical Gardens, which would've been a lot more beautiful if it had been later in the spring when the flowers had bloomed. It was still pretty nice though, it had an amazing view overlooking the city that was incredible. That night we went for cocktails with my flatmates, well the girls got cocktails Roy got a beer. Laura had been to the Bowery before and introduced the rest of us to one of the most amazing drinks ever, but I don't think I'll ever be able to find it in the states. I can't even remember what was in it but it was essentially a liquid Toblerone on ice, hence the name of it being a Snoblerone. I haven't gone back for another one yet but I will and I will be watching to see how it is made.
Me and the fossilized tree in the Botanical Gardens
Since Roy was flying out of Manchester on Sunday we decided to spend the weekend in Manchester, we left Friday afternoon after I'd finished class and we got dinner. We woke up Saturday morning and took a taxi to the Manchester City FC stadium. We had hoped to try to tour the Manchester United Stadium but they had a home game that evening and don't do tours on game day. On our way tot he stadium our taxi driver asked us if we were heading to the game that night and when we told him no he tried to get tickets for us but was unfortunately unable. The Manchester City FC stadium was amazing. The team is currently in 3rd place in the Premier League behind United and Arsenal. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Manchester. There's not a whole lot to see in the city but pleanty of shopping to be done (not that I did any). For dinner we headed to the Hog's Head Pub to watch the Manchester United game. We apparently didn't get there early enough and it was already packed. Luckily while Roy was getting drinks I was able to snatch up a table as a group of people left. If we couldn't have gone to the game itself, being in a pub in Manchester was the next best thing, it erupted every time United scored and thankfully, United won the game.
Roy and the Manchester City FC stadium
After Roy left the next morning I proceeded to spend approximately 4 hours at the Manchester Picadilly train station. Apparently, there was work being done on the tracks heading towards Sheffield in the morning. Every time they would show Sheffield on the board and put a platform next to it I would get my hopes up. Then about 10 minutes before the train was supposed to come they would switch it to say that the bus would be arriving in 10 minutes. I had purchased a round trip ticket so I didn't want to buy another ticket for a bus so I chose to just wait it out. I found out later in the week when I was talking to one of the guys in one of my philosophy classes that since the bus was running instead of the train I could have used my train ticket to get on the bus. Oh the joys of the train system here. At least this time I remembered my rail card!
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