Nottingham for the weekend

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Ian, one of Ramsey's roommates invited us to go with him to his hometown of Nottingham for the weekend. Of course I accepted! We left Saturday morning at about 11am. The group of us included myself, Josie, Ramsey, Rusty (from Bulgaria) and Ian. We were packed like sardines in Ian's little little car. It was a fun ride to Nottingham, the guys joked around the whole time and entertained us.

Once we got there we went straight to his house. There we met his parents and played around with his dogs, Libby and Dino. We just relaxed in the living room and talked. His parents cooked us a big lunch. It included chili with rice, fries, salad, and bread. It was a home cooked meal that we didn't have to cook! It probably tasted all the better for that. After lunch we went out to Ian's Rugby club and watched his old team play a match. To get to the fields we had to drive over a canal on a stone bridge. The bridge was really steep in the middle and we scraped the bottom of the car. Not a good thing. We watched the game and then I wanted to take a walk before it got too dark outside. We walked along the canal towards town to get some sweets from a small convenience store. Every time I go into a store I just kind of look around and stare because all the brands are different and I'm overwhelmed trying to take it in. I was excited here because I found some Wrigley's gum that came in sticks. Most of the gum over here comes in little pieces, but in the same size package as stick gum. When we walked across the stone bridge the sun was setting and the clouds were a very pretty orange/pinkish. There was also a swan swimming down the canal. We had some fun watching the guys walk across the handrail. Then we walked further down the path while eating the chocolate we bought. Eventually the path turned and we came to a big river. It was really nice watching the sun set over the water. We played around on the cement slabs, running up and down. The guys were throwing some berried into Josie's and my hair. Boys. I was enjoying being away from the  city so we kept walking along the path. We followed the river all the way around until we came to the backside of the rugby pitches. By this time it was dark and foggy. We ran around on the field's becuase we had them all to ourselves. Back in the clubhouse we settled in to watch the Rugby world cup. I won't go into too much detail but will say that I think England should have got that try and that the referee wasn't calling a very fair game. After the game was over we went back to Ian's house to get ready to go out. He took us into the city of Nottingham for the evening. First we went to the Castle Pub, which is right across from Nottingham Castle and had a drink there. Then we went to a club called Irish, where we had a lot of fun dancing to 80's music. They love the 80s over here. After dancing we went to another part of town for curry. I have fallen in love with the Korma Balti. It's a very sweet curry, I think it's made with banana and pineapple, so good. Sunday we slept in until 11am. Ian's dad made us an English breakfast. Which includes baked beans, bread, sausage, eggs, bacon, and mushrooms. Ian took us out to Wollaton Park, which is a huge park in the middle of the city. There we walked around and just enjoyed being outside. In the first little section we walked through there were mini little deer running around. They ran across the path in front of us a couple times. Then we went shopping for a little bit. I ended up finding a pair of hiking boots for a good price and a pair that fit! We ended up being too late to tour the castle, we missed it by about 1/2 hour. Oh, well just a reason to visit next semester. We did go in to the "Oldest Pub" It's called the Trip to Jerusalem Inn and was built in 1189AD. It is really cool inside. It was carved out of the hillside right below the castle so you feel like you are in a cave, and basically you are. We had a traditional Sunday Roast for dinner back at Ian's house before heading off. It included roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, cauliflower with cheese sauce, salad, Yorkshire puddings, gravy, baked baby potatoes, carrots and peas. All in all it was a really fun weekend. I laughed the entire time and enjoyed myself immensely.

First we went to the Castle Pub, which is right across from Nottingham Castle and had a drink there.