South Wales and Manchester!

Well it's been a while again, but trust me it doesn't seem like it! My time is just flying by! I can't believe it's Wednesday tomorrow!!! Where is it going? Only one full week left for my travels, then 8 weeks will be over! Time has seemed to stop in my world, but I know when I reach home, I will quickly join in where time did not stop.

I've had an amazing week. I traveled on Friday to see Helen. She lives right by the Wales/England boarder, on the England side. So I headed from Birmingham to Chepstow (just over the boarder in Wales) to meet her. I had some time to kill so I went to Gloucester, and walked around the pretty city and went to the cathedral. That was good fun! The Cathedral was really nice, and even scenes from Harry Potter were filmed there! Tons of pics there! I finally met up with Helen around 5:30pm and we went to her home. Her mother had a Wonderful meal prepared, and we had dinner in the conservatory watching the sun set! It was so nice!!! That night we decided to just chill and talk and catch up while watching some tv.

Saturday we went into Chepstow, Wales and to the castle, which was intersting, one of the bigger ones I've seen, well it's ruins anyway, but it was fun. Then Helen took me along the Wye Valley to a couple wonderful scenic lookout points!!! We did some hiking and the wye valley is very pretty looking at it from above! We also went to Titern Abbey which was a nice place, we didn't pay to go in, but we saw it from the road...wow! We had some lunch along the river, got sunburnt and enjoyed catching up again. Sunday we had a nice relaxing day, we had some lunch, took a walk went to a movie and had dinner! The walk was really fun! I learned what I stiles were which is used to get across the fences along the public footpaths. They allow people to get over the fences that separate crops/grazing land. I also had a wild blackberry(I think that's what it was) Wasn't to bad, but I'm not a seed girl..and I could feel some seeds. For the movie we went to Atonement, which I had no idea what it was about. It was a good movie, I recommend it. I was confused a bit, but that was because I'm not british...I don't even know if it's out in america now. oh well!

Monday I left Helen, (sad) and headed toward Manchester to see Liv. I stopped off in Birmingham to kill some time and went to a free art museum. Well if you know me, then you know I'm not much of an art appreciator, but I walked along, looking at some things...killing the better part of an hour. I then thought about going to the canals, but decided I didn't want to lug all of my luggage down there and back up to the station. So I got some of my new favorite (well besides Elieens) cookies, and headed on board...oh I also bought the 6th Harry Potter which I was able to begin since I finished my 3 book of the trip. I met Liv in Preston, and we went back to her place, had some tea and then talked for ages.

Today I went into Manchester, a 45 min train ride away which isn't to bad. I really enjoyed Manchester, it's a nice city, especially near the new millenium area. I went to the Cathedral where I watched a school lunchtime music concert. Then onto the visitors museum about the cathedral. Their Town hall is also quite elaborate and beautiful! I got to walk around in that for a little bit. Then I headed off to the Science and Industry Museum. Now that is my kind of museum. I walked around only 1 of 5 buildings. I learned about the Science history near manchester (those who lived here who've contributed) and then went to the childrens hand on experiment center....well actually everyone in there was an adult, but it's geared for children. That was way fun! I got kicked out of there at closing and headed back to where Liv lives. We've had a great night talking and what not. I've taught her a little bit about meteorology...hurricanes and tornadoes and some basic weather things. I hope I didn't confuse her to much! I'm not a good dumb it down teacher.

Tomorrow I'm heading off to York, which I'm really excited about! I think it will be a gorgous city! I've heard great things about it, and my guide book speaks highly of it too! So that should be interesting. I think I might go to Liverpool on Thursday, then off to Reading on Friday. I get to see Victoria and Claire, very excited about that! It's been 2 years and it will be fun to see them!

Well I think that's about it from here! Miss you all!

Love