Camden Markets

By Saturday 20th November I was joined by Liz, Kira and Jack and we all made our way out to see the infamous Camden Markets. It was confusing to find the actual markets as there were so many different areas that had street stalls set up. We ended up wandering around one of the largest market places called the Horse Stables. I managed to stumble across a piano tuning/teaching stand at the very back of the market. It had been over 2 months since I had played so it felt like home. The owner invited me back to practice whenever I want...he will be my new best friend!

When sourcing out some lunch we were faced with the dillema of what type of food we wanted, mainly Italian, Chinese or Indian were the big ones. What made matters worse was that we had to choose between the 1000 Italian places, 1000 Chinese places....you get the idea. It was absolutely crazy. All the Chinese food workers would lean over the buffet with samples on forks yelling at you "Darling, darling! Come try!" "Come try! Eat here darling". I almost felt like I was back in Mrs William's office at Wynnum State High...although even she doesn't say darling as much!

All in all a fun day and definately somewhere I would like to visit on my next trip down...

Royal Courts of Justice

On Friday 19th November I took the bus down to London early in the morning. I was treating myself to a weekend in town after having finished all my essays! The reason for leaving Leeds at 5am was so that I could go and spend the whole day in the Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ)!

I had the nerdiest day ever.

It was good to get it out of my system though.

I made a list of places that I would like to visit in England about a year ago after just applying for the exchange. On the top of the list was the RCJ. For me, this is where it all started...everything I have learnt and am yet to learn is somehow related to the rooms inside this court. It was an incredibly moving experience walking around the complex and sitting in the gallery in a number of trials.

Call me a geek, but this was one of the big ticket items for me and I won't ever forget the experience.

P.S. If you ever want to hear a quintessential "old boy" English accent just listen to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales...his voice exudes wisdom and knowledge!

An incredibly impressive building!

Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England

The original Old Bailey building

A taste of Germany...in Leeds

On November 13th the Christkindelmarkt rolled into town and set up shop for the next month. The German Christmas Markets are quite a popular attraction with heaps of stalls and plenty of places to get a German beer or some mulled wine. Almost everyone from our flat congregated down at the markets and we all relied on Jan (Yarn) to translate for us!

In a few weeks time I will be experiencing the real thing in Germany!

Maria and Martina in line for a hot chocolate with Amaretto

Jun and Jan

Alcoholic peanuts...80% alcohol level!

The Garlic stand...clearly a popular attraction!

Jan sipping his mulled wine, thinking of home!
Ignore the Norwegian flag on his scarf...if the Germans found out I think he would be hung!

All you need is...Liverpool!

November 12th saw me jumping on a bus and heading off to Liverpool for the day. We were blown away when we arrived, not by the town or the Beatles vibe, but by the 50 mile-an-hour gusts that were blowing through the streets! We searched high and low for the tourism centre and eventually found a map to follow. Our first stop was the Beatles Museum. We took our time getting there and detoured via the old docks which are one of the reasons Liverpool is famous. Alongside the River Mersey we could barely stand straight because of the blowing gale. Eventually we made it to the Museum. It was interesting going through and listening to the history of the band and seeing all the paraphernalia they used throughout their time together. We spent a good deal of time here wandering through the exhibits.

After grabbing some lunch from "The Liverpool" we snuck into the Town Hall to admire the red carpets, domed ceilings and marble pillars. Unfortunately there was a wedding on so we couldn't go far inside. We then made our way over to Matthew St - the home of most of the pubs and clubs where the Beatles grew up performing. I was under strict instructions to visit a place called the Cavern Club, one of the Beatles most popular performance venues. The Cavern Club is notorious now for writing messages on the walls. In late June, Emma spent 2 weeks in England and managed to go see the Cavern Club in Liverpool, leaving a message written for me on the walls. If she hadn't of tipped me off on where to look I would have been searching for 3 months. But right above the picture of "The Fonz" visiting the Cavern Club was a small bit of graffiti dedicated to me...how nice of her. I returned the favour by leaving my mark next to hers!

We left the Cavern Club and checked out some of the shopping before heading up to the Liverpool Cathedral for the Evensong service. Liverpool Cathedral is the largest Cathedral in the UK and the largest Anglican Cathedral in Europe so you can imagine how impressive a service was inside! Once the service was over we headed back into town to grab a few things for dinner before heading to the station and grabbing our train back to Leeds.

From a window aboard the train I wished Liverpool good night!

Emma chose the only flat part of the wall as can be seen by the quality of my handwriting!



Liverpool Cathedral



Moore Climbing

On Sunday 7th November I went "bush" walking with some people I met that morning at one of the local churches. We headed out to a country town called Ilkley which has some very nice heather filled hills to climb. We headed straight up the over sized hill and took in the views from on top of a rock formation called the Cow and Calf rocks. It was a great place to admire the English countryside from.

After some dare devilish rock climbing we headed back into the town for some dinner before heading home. A simple day in the country...