Merry Christmas!

Although I had to spend my first Christmas away from my family, I had such a wonderful time with Jack and his family for my first English Christmas! 

I hope all of you had a wonderful day spent with people you love!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all and all the joy for the New Year!

(I promise a post about my recent trip to Bruges will be up soon!)

trip to castleton

Today we took a short trip out to Castleton. It's a gorgeous little town.

Outside the Devil's Arse - also called Peak Cavern (but that's not as fun) where rope-makers used to live and work. Also one of the 'Seven Wonders of the Peak District'. The entrance to this cave is the largest in Britain, and the cave itself is one of the only naturally formed caves in the area.

The name Devil's Arse came from the 'rude noises' (as our guide explained the flatulent sounds) that would sound from the cave when the flood waters drained. 

It got really cramped in some places. I only had to bend in half (benefits of being short!), but I did feel bad for the other tall people that were practically crawling on their hands and knees! In the olden days, when the wealthy would go on tours of the 'Seven Wonders of the Peak District,' they would have to get in these tiny little boats that look just like coffins and lie flat to travel the cave. There were also, obviously, no electric lights so it was pitch black. Our guide turned off the lights in one of the large caverns for us to see what it would've felt like, and a little 2-year-old boy in our group stated loudly "It's my bedtime now!"

All decorated up for Christmas!

After our tour, we walked through the village and, even though it was freezing cold, it was so nice!

And of course we had to stop for some chips in the local fish and chips shop!

I love these little day trips out to beautiful little villages in the Peak District. Its such gorgeous countryside - quintessential English country with rolling green hills and sheep everywhere! 

We're heading out to Bruges, Belgium on Wednesday to spend a couple days there. I'll post about that as soon as I can when we get back!

trip to york

Saturday, Jack and I just needed to get out of Sheffield for a day. Essays and projects and end of term looming ahead, we decided to take a day off and go to York, since I had never been. It was such a good choice too. Not only did we have a chance to take our minds off of university work for a little while, but we also got to spend a nice day together wandering around a really cool city. We went to Clifford's Tower and the Jorvik Viking Museum (which has been made to smell like a real Viking village and, let me tell you, is just lovely). We had a bit of a wander, watched some cool street musicians, and went to York Minster. We actually managed to climb to the top of the tower (the tallest point in York) and watched the sun start to set from the top. I also got to get some ahhhhmazing macaroons - that were blissfully coconut free - from Betty's Cafe, which are some of the best macaroons on the planet!

Clifford's Tower - the inscription at the base of the Tower states "On the Friday of 16 March 1190 some 150 Jews and Jewesses of York having sought protection in the Royal Castle on this site from a mob incited by Richard Malebisse and others chose to die at each other's hands rather than renounce their faith."

Emperor Constantine, lounging about.

Seriously the best macaroons.

It's nice to get away sometimes, and living in England, I can get away to the best places!

chatsworth bonfire night

Sunday night, Jack and I and a couple of our friends drove out to Chatsworth for their annul Bonfire Night. It was so much fun! There was a steel drum band and acrobats and ballet dancers and a break dancing troupe. There were even stilt walkers, although we didn't get to see them until we were on our way out. And there were tons of food booths and, of course, a huge bonfire and an AMAZING fireworks show.

A blurry - but I'm going with artistic - photo of Chatsworth at night. It was so hard to get a good picture because there were so many people!

Chatsworth - so so beautiful.

One thing I have learned from this experience is that British people will wait patiently in line forever. I envy that kind of patience.

Now get ready for a lot of pictures of fireworks!

The bonfire had died down quite a bit by this point, but it was still impressive.

We had such a great time. Hot chocolate and sausages and a bag full of candy made the night complete!

What I thought were flamenco dancers, but apparently I was wrong.

The breakdancers were seriously awesome.

It turns out that the ballet dancers were doing all impromptu dances to the music that the acrobats were using. It was incredibly impressive.

The ribbon dancers were so great - I would love to learn how to do that!

Victoria, me and Emma - the other two people in our Medieval Archaeology masters program. It was so nice to get to know them more outside of the classroom. We all had such a great time!

Did anyone else do anything fun for Bonfire Night?