Home Sweet Home: part 3

Ok I think it's about time I explained my choice of title for this series of posts. It's a bit silly really but just go with it. The weekend I took this trip it was 17 degrees, the sun was out (trust me, in the north this is rare, at best), I was listening to Crowded House on my ipod and we were heading to Harrogate, which just happens to be the name of my street back home. Too many home connections to be ignored. Told you it wasn't that exciting.

Ok so, as mentioned, we ended the day in the lovely little town of Harrogate. There wasn't a huge amount to do here, admittedly, but it we were perfectly content just wandering around, enjoying the weather and stopping for a hot chocolate in a little tea room.

This is Betty's Tea Room which is,apparently, very famous. It is also very expensive.

Easter display in Bettys.

Ok I have to explain this next photo. A few months before I left Mum and I were wondering around Myer and I noticed these boxes of tea that were embossed with the brand name 'Taylor's of Harrogate'. Freaky right? As soon as I decided to take this trip to Harrogate I set myself a mission of tracking down the REAL Taylor's of Harrogate Tea. Mission complete. I know it's a terrible photo but I had to rush because I didn't think the shop owners would take kindly to me photographing their merchandise.

A box of Taylor's will set you back about $15 at home; I bought a box here for a measly 1 pound 69 p. Crazy. Shame I don't actually like tea.

I've finally reached the end of my photos. My next post/s will be concerning a rather fantastic weekend in Dubin.

Home Sweet Home

In the middle my essay-induced stress over the weekend I took another day trip. This time we headed north! I was worried the day would be ruined by typical northern weather but I really needn't have. I think I'm going to split this post into two because I have sooo many photos I want to put up but I don't want to breach photo-overload territory.

The first stop of the day was definitely the highlight. I honestly didn't know a thing about Fountains Abbey until I got there. Turns out I was actually heading to a film location of one of my favourite movies (History Boys). I knew exactly where I was the second I spotted the ruins through the trees.

A very rare photo of yours truly

If nothing else, the photos above show that I have a penchant for sun flares and taking photos through naturally occuring frames. Hopefully they also make you want to visit this amazing place. It really was quite bizarre - we don't have anything like this back home.

After spending a good hour or so climbing through the ruins we headed towards the water garden. Stay tuned for photos!

The Isis

As promised, here are the photos I took while wandering down to check out the Oxford University rowing on Saturday.

Oxford Comma

On Saturday I got up bright and early to jump on a bus to Oxford. I had no problems getting up at the crack of dawn this time because Oxford is a trip I've been looking forward to for a long time. In spite of the hideous weather we've had in Manchester, Oxford delivered the vitamin d in the perfect dose. It was also nice to have a blue backdrop for my photos instead of the usual grey/white.

I thought I liked Stratford but that little town has nothing on Oxford. It is beautiful and definitely tops my list of favourite places I've visited so far. I can definitely see myself living here - or even better, studying here.

The bus ride took 3 and a half hours so we only got about 5 hours to explore, even less after we did the guided tour that was included in the days ticket. Unfortunately this meant I didn't get to go into any of the colleges which, I'm not going to lie, killed me a little bit. I've had a list of colleges I wanted to see for quite a while, but I had to make do with exteriors. I can't believe the below shot is the only one I got of the front of Christ Church, and it is ruined by a bus and tourists. Lame. I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the rest of my shots especially considering most of them were rush jobs.

Christ Church

The back of Christ Church

Being a tourist outside Christ Church (read: pretending I go here)

This is the visitors entrance to Christ Church college and believe it or not, the windows you see are actually the windows of student accommodation. The building was built in 'Venetian' style because apparently the fields (out of shot, to the right of the photo) have a tendency to flood and the architects believed it could resemble Venice.

The Radcliffe Camera - probably my favourite building of the day

The Radcliffe Camera is used as a reading room for Oxford students - I can think of worse places to study. 

The Bodleian Library courtyard

Being something of a Harry Potter nerd, I can tell you that this library was used in the films. Unfortunately I didn't get to do a tour inside. 

The Bodleian library entrance to the Divinity School

The Divinity School

Oxford playing fields

These are the university's playing fields (there are more the right, our of shot). The colleges in the background are Magdalen College (with the tower) and Merton College on the far left. 

Corpus Christi

Entrance way to Merton College

Bridge of Sighs

Sheldonian Theatre

The Sheldonian Theatre is where the graduation ceremonies are held.

Christ Church courtyard



I also have a few photos of the Isis that I took on our walk down to see the rowing but I'll post them separately to avoid photo overload.

Overall, I had such a lovely day and I'm dying to go back in Spring.

Old Bill's Town

On Sunday the 12th of Feb I got up at a hideously uncivilised hour to jump on a bus bound for Stratford-upon-Avon. Unfortunately the weather was a disappointment; it was cold enough that there was still snow on the ground and a heavy fog followed us for most of the day. Nevertheless, I fell for this cute little town and am almost certainly heading back in Spring.

The tour was organised by the International Society and our ticket included entry to three Shakespeare houses. Sadly, Anne Hathaway's cottage was not included as it is a little way out of town. We did a hop-on-hop-off tour in the morning so we got to see the outside of the cottage at least, but sadly I wasn't quick enough with my camera to get any decent snaps. To make up for it, I went camera-crazy the rest of the day.

The only shot of Anne Hathaway's cottage I managed to get.

Mary Arden's Cottage

Mary Arden's Farmhouse

This is the back of Mary Arden's farm which is still used. Poor sheep, must have been freezing.

Definitely the best lampost I've ever seen

Holy Trinity Church and Shakespeare's burial

Hall's Croft

The Avon

Couldn't take photos inside any of the houses unfortunately but the back of Nash's house and gardens looks something like this...

Tudor buildings

The last stop of the day was to Shakespeare's Birthplace. Only part of the original house is still there but they've set up a museum called The Shakesperience. As tacky as the name is, the museum was pretty cool. 

The museum ends with a hall of fame of actors who have taken on Shakespeare's roles. Joseph was definitely the best one.

In spite of the weather, it was a really lovely day. I can only imagine how pretty the town is during spring.