It’s spooky season people
18 – 19 October
In a turn of events that no one (pretty sure everyone) saw coming, I have been seeing a British guy for a couple of weeks now. I mean, its hard to stay away from the accents when you’ve only been surrounded by Midwestern voices your whole life. And especially because his accent is Welsh, it’s even better. And nothing beats having a local show you around their hometown, especially a Welsh who is proud of his dragon flag heritage. 🏴🏴🏴
For the most part, we’re in school Monday – Friday; sometimes we’re lucky and we won’t have a lab on Friday so we get a three day weekend. Lately, the girls and I have been using these to travel (Paris and Madrid are coming up!) but for once, I just wanted a relaxing weekend away from a city.
Enter: Jack (the Welsh boy). He’s mentioned his love for his countryside Welsh home many times, so after cooercing suggesting that we spend the weekend there, it was a pretty quick yes. Luckily for us, Wales is close to Manchester, about an hour and a half train ride away. Train tickets were about $25 and to save even more money (but mostly to see Jack’s dogs), we stayed at his mom’s mum’s house in Llangollen. And for any of you Americans pronouncing that as it is spelled, it’s pronounced like “schlangoshlin” in Welsh.
After getting off the train, where Jack made sure I tried traditional Welsh cakes and pastries, we took a taxi to his house. The taxi driver literally knew exactly who Jack was and his whole family just from his address. It was truly the epitome of small towns where everyone knows everyone and waves to people in the street from their car windows. After the driver finally got to hear my American accent, he dropped us off. Instantly, 4 fluffy dogs filled my field of vision as we opened the door. Heaven, one might say. The whole house was gorgeous and so adorably British. The kitchen was my favorite especially. For lunch we cooked (veggie friendly) spaghetti bolognese together (and if you have no idea what that is, I didn’t either so I’m linking a recipe here). While we waited for our noodles to boil, I taught Jack how to line dance to true American country music, and I’m pretty sure all his siblings thought I was a very interesting guest lol.
After lunch, Jack wanted to take me up to one of the peaks near his house so we got on our hiking gear and raincoats and (foreshadowing) no umbrellas because “the Welsh can’t be bothered with the rain” – Jack. The walk up to the top of the mountain was 100% my favorite part of our hike because of all the animals we encountered: Welsh ponies, tons of sheep, chickens (!), cows… all set against a beautiful backdrop of rolling green pastures, bright green and orange trees, and purple hills.
For anyone who has read my other blog posts, I have PTSD from my last hike up a peak because I got caught in a non-stop torrential downpour of cold rain and hail for an hour. But, despite the dark, rolling black clouds ominously floating over our target on the top of the hill, we pushed forwards. The view was breathtaking and Jack explained how in the old days (which to the Welsh are probably three times the age of America) sheep farmers would build stone walls to mark their land and they’ve still held up! I forgot to mention that today, hikers are allowed to roam freely in the countryside regardless of fields or sheep pastures. So there will be little wooden steps that help hikers climb over fences to continue their ramble through the hills. Pretty cool! Unfortunately, we almost made it to the top when little raindrops started falling so we had to turn around but not after being caught in another hour of heavy rain. Wow, sounds familiar! However, the whole trip was worth it because ten minutes from home, a beautiful double rainbow appeared. Maybe it was Wales apologizing for my second very wet hiking experience ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
The next day was no less exciting than the first. There was a food festival going on in the heart of Llangollen but we were going to take a big detour to get there. There’s an active aquaduct near Jack’s house that connects to the canals and is a popular attraction in the area. You can take a special boat along the top or walk, but either way, the view is breathtaking. After crossing the aquaduct, we walked along the canals for about an hour. It was honestly the peace that I needed. The pictures I took don’t show the colorful purple depth of the mountains in the distance or the vivid fall colors reflecting brightly off the canal water. It doesn’t capture the cute quacking ducks or the gentle water sounds as a canal boat cruises past. Hopefully, these pictures will suit for now but I would 100% reccommend Wales if you ever find yourself in the UK. A city just can’t beat nature’s beauty.
After our serene canal walk, we made it into the middle of Llangollen. I honestly can’t describe the town other than super Welsh and quaint. I feel like I could take a picture of almost any building or scene and it would be turned into a beautiful landscape painting. We walked through the streets, found some pretty postcards at a shop where Jack ran into his old coworker, and then headed to the food festival. Now, why did I not take a picture of the food festival I have no idea since food pictures are my favorite thing to do. I can assure you that the food was amazing though, especially the halloumi fries. If bliss was a flavor, these halloumi fries delivered that taste to my begging tastebuds. If you, like me, have no idea what halloumi is, its a cheese made from a mixture of animal milk that orginated on the island of Cyprus but now is an extremely popular cheese in the UK. Halloumi fries are just fried sticks of cheese but it’s better than mozzarella sticks because the taste and texture is more rich. Especially when seasoned with lime juice and garlic mayo??? Yeah, it’s definitely a recipe you should try to replicate at home because I would order them everyday if I could.
Although it was a food festival, there were many vendors spread across the area of a football field selling various crafts, sweets, tea, alcohol, and more. But my favorite part (besides the fries) was the owl rescue truck that had the cuuuuuutest owls. Without hesitation, I coughed up £3 to hold Chase the British barn owl (okay I made that breed up because honestly I wasn’t paying attention to the handler when he told me, I was too distracted). He explained how Chase was very bonded to him and he would constantly swivel his head to look at the handler. It was the purest thing. The day was extremely satisfying and I have no shame in saying that I took a 2 hour nap before our train back home because the excitement of the day (and the fries) had me tired out knackered.
25 – 27 October
The next weekend (time honestly flies) Claire, Sarah, and I found ourselves in the spooky spirit. And Manchester decorates more than any other city I’ve seen for Halloween. They have blow up monsters that come out of the tops of buildings, paper jack-o-lanterns in the trees, and family friendly events the weekend before and of Halloween. But before we could celebrate the shenanigans the city had for us, we needed to complete our second graded assignment for our genetics class. But we decided to do our classwork in this ancient library in the middle of the city. It’s open to the public to tour but is also available to study. I felt like I was half in Hogwarts and half in Notre Dame with the hundreds of books and gothic architecture surrounding us.
With our homework behind us, we decided to carve some pumpkins and get into the holiday spirit! We invited our British friends, who had only carved pumpkins once or twice before. It’s interesting because even though Halloween orginated in Ireland, it hasn’t been the most popular holiday in Britain until recently. For some of our friends, they never trick-or-treated when they were younger as the popularity of the tradition seems to just now be gaining traction with kids. However, everyone’s pumpkins turned out great! It was a shame that a week later the moisture from our window had caused them to be coated in a heavy layer of black and green mold 
But our friends thanked us for the pumpkin party by buying British candy and having us rate them best to worst. Still not quite sure about Jelly Babies…
On Sunday we decided to watch a dog costume parade and tbh I can’t say I was disappointed at all (except that there were no corgis, Claire’s favorite animal). The dogs each had a unique costume, matched their owners, and even performed some tricks! It was definitely worth the chilly weather to watch dog after dog happily get on stage. After the show was finished, and still no corgis in sight, we decided to venture into the Northern Quarter. The Northern Quarter is an artsy area of Manchester that specializes in fun cuisine, quirky fashion, and murals. Included in this is a mural of corgis so I bet you can only connect the dots on the purpose of this trip lol. After the corgi mural, we got dinner at a Jamaican themed resturant called Turtle Bay. And they were serious about their spice of their dishes because despite my bowl being delicious, I had tears coming out of my eyes. The waitor never refilled our waters so my mouth continued to burn for awhile after finishing my dish. In an effort to relieve the burn, we went to Black Milk, which is a gourmet milkshake restuarant. The shakes (meant for one person???) were topped with a giant slice of cake and filled with candy and sauces. This story, not unlike the rest, ended with me taking a hard nap in a food coma.
31 October
Halloween!! I had been waiting for this night the whole month of October because I had themed my costume around Billie Eilish’s music video “When the Party’s Over” and to make it extra creepy, I bought black colored contacts. While it was definitely a struggle and I constantly kept thinking the whole night if I was going to go blind from some random bacteria that might’ve gotten into my eye, my costume looked SO COOL. I assured my mom that I just needed to do something creepy this year since I usually do a fun theme for my costumes (ie. a bag of Skinny Pop popcorn). Sarah was the Joker and Claire went as Mia from Pulp Fiction and we definitely showed up to the Halloween party as the most done up and probably most conservatively dressed lol. Our university hosted a secret location party at this big club made from a converted warehouse. They had carnival rides outside, a food truck, and a huge area for the DJ. I’m still getting used to British people preferring techno dance music for club music. Overall, this Halloween was one I won’t forget for a long time.
5 November
“Remember, remember, the fifth of November”… sound familiar? It’s in reference to a historic moment in 1605 when a man, Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up British parliament but was stopped. To celebrate, Londoners made bonfires in the streets. Now, Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night, is all about lighting off fireworks and burning wooden statues of Guy Fawkes in a giant bonfire. This causes fireworks to constantly go off for about a week before November 5th, which makes it feel like a chilly July 4th. I celebrated Bonfire Night at a local park with Sarah, Jack, Claire, and Claire’s roommate Megan. They not only had a bonfire, but so many fireworks that it would put Perrysburg to shame. They also had carnival rides and fair food. Overall, a very interesting holiday that was fun to take part in for the night.
With so much Halloween spirit, I can only imagine what the holiday season is going to be like in Manchester. In fact, they’ve already begun building the Christmas market villages! Since there is no Thanksgiving here, British people have already begun decorating and I find myself wishing for snow…
BroadsAbroad 