Warwick Castle is a 45 minute train journey from Birmingham so I had to go on my first day off. I mean, look at it! What an awesome castle, and it's home to the world's biggest trebuchet. Freaking amazing. This awesome medieval castle was modelled on the original built by William the Conquerer in 1068. It is now a fully decked out tourist castle heaven, with so much to see and do. There was archery, a Horribly Histories maze, the Tower of History (my favourite part), Princess high teas for the little kids and beautifully ornate interiors.

These kids are throwing fake rats into target. It grosses me out to even look at them.

I was given the opportunity to travel to Birmingham for a work assignment and could not wait to explore another part of the UK! I managed to get some serious exploring and touristy fun things done on my days off and had an awesome time in Birmingham.
Three facts I did not know about Birmingham:
1. It's the second largest city in the UK and is actually known as Britain's second city.
2. Birmingham has more canals than Venice.
3. There is a Cadbury World.

It's also hugely diverse and was such a great place for people watching. Our hotel was right next to Bull Ring shopping centre which is the biggest centre I've been to since moving to the UK. Edinburgh is incredible for many things, shopping centres - not so much. I was sooooo pumped to spend pretty much my entire pay check in Bull Ring! There's so many options! TAKE MY MONEY!!!

My Birmingham work schedule included my two days off as well as an overnight, which mean I had three full days to explore. I spent one of those days on a train journey to Warwick Castle and Stratford Upon Avon, and the other 2 days wandering the streets of BHam. Look at the canals, they're so pretty!

Of course one of my stops was at the incredibly beautiful Library of Birmingham. The library is extremely modern inside and out, it actually looks more like an upmarket department store inside. There is also a Shakespeare Memorial Room on level 9, a beautiful Victorian style room that houses their entire Shakespeare Collection. It also has some incredible views over the city.

Next up was Cadbury World with Adrian! We did a quick bit of research before going in, and according to their website visitors spend an average of 3-4 hours in Cadbury World. Pffttt as if we would spend that long there! We did. Of course we did. There was so much to do! We went to 2 magic shows, explored the 4D Cadbury movie experience and history of Mr. Cadbury and his relationship with Birmingham. We also went on a ride that I can only describe as terrifying. So Cadbury World tried to push this character they created of a cocoa bean, which unfortunately can only be described as a poo with eyes and arms. The ride takes you through a bizarre fantasy world where we explore the cocoa bean world and watch as they have pillow fights in their rooms, enjoying ski trips and parachuting, ride bikes and do all sorts of things that cocoa beans should not do. Were Cadbury Word on drugs when they created this ride? And they sung. OMG they each had creepy high pitched voices while they rocked their brown bodies and stared at us with their ridiculous wide eyes. A place of nightmares.

This is what nightmares are made of. 

This gorgeous manor was somewhere near Cadbury World

Lastly I explored the Pen Museum in the Jewellery Quarter, where I had the opportunity to create my own calligraphy nib using machines from the 1800s. SO AMAZING. I absolutely nerded out over this. They had thousands of nibs and examples of beautiful old calligraphy pens and I was prepared to spend a fortune at this place. I was then informed that each nib was .25p. Holy mother of the pen gods I'll buy them all! Nibs are not cheap, I think the last one I purchased was £7 from an art shop. 

This was certainly a great end to my Birmingham trip!

I flew down to London to spend Christmas with my friend Jye and his mate James. It was such a wonderful Christmas, despite the fact that it was the first Christmas any of us had spent away from our families. Jye worked Xmas Eve, so James and I shopped for food, decorations and decked out Jye's flat with cheap tacky snowmen and mini trees with flashing lights. It was also the first Christmas for Ugly Christmas Jumpers! YES. I have two, one with flashing christmas lights and the other of Santa Claus riding a velociraptor. I also purchased a Will Ferrell Elf t-shirt for the occasion incase it was too hot for woolly jumpers all day.

It was also our first time cooking a Christmas dinner. We had chicken instead of turkey, we bought stuffing and gravy but still managed to cook a mini feast resembling a christmas dinner. Sure the broccoli was overcooked, potatoes were still hard and looked a little unappetising, but I think we did a pretty solid job. Not to mention we were all drunk and dancing to Beyonce the majority of the day so major props to us.

Also it was our first European winter and not a single drop of snow. Disappointing UK, disappointing.

On our way from Manchester to Wales, we detoured through the Cotswolds which was nothing as I expected. I always thought of the Cotswolds as a quaint little village with cobblestone streets, rivers and valleys. Turns out the Cotswolds is a HUGE area, containing dozens of towns and villages. Oops.  There was some beautiful scenery driving through.

Ro was determined to see the White Horse of Uffington, the 3000 year old chalk horse built in the Iron Age. It had some amazing views of the English countryside, and also had signs everywhere directing to Uffington Castle. YES! Another castle!! So we followed the signs ready for our first view of the castle. This is what we saw:

To say we were disappointed is an understatement. This "may be the site" of what "may have been a castle". Hmmm....

How cool is Manchester?! We had such a great day enjoying the city and the Christmas markets. So much mulled wine, chocolate dipped marshmallows YUM. We headed to John Ryland's Library and was blown away by the volume of books and exhibitions featured inside. There were gorgeous medieval illuminated texts and fragments of the oldest New Testament text. After exploring the city a bit more we headed to Breakout Manchester for escape room fun!