A warm hiya mi lasses and lads from the country of rolling green and yellow hills, stone walls, hedges, misty mornings and sheep.
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| with Shannon in "The Box" in Headingly |
Spring is definitely on its way as brown is giving way to vibrant green and yellow, former sad trees are glowing in gushing white, pink and lilac colours…Yorkshire is awakening from its winter sleep and finally the days become longer, daffodils are everywhere and the sun makes more often an appearance.
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| Daffodiles in Bradford...they are everywhere!! |
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| Manchester |
Apart from catching mumps, mind you - a childhood disease - which forced me to stay in bed for one week (even though I have to confess I was out quite a bit, but who could resist such lovely weather…you have to cherish those moments as they are rather rare here in the UK), I was enjoying my time as usual. I had some lovely meals and drinks with Shannon and I hung out on the river with James and Adam, which was nice and really relaxing.
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| @Air Bar looking at the river (Leeds) |
End of March, beginning of April was a good time, even though I had to say good bye to Shannon which was really sad. My kitten whisker had to go back to Canada to earn some money in order to come back to the UK eventually. We were all real sad…but bless Skype!!!
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| last night with Shannon |
After Shannon left, Kathrin and I went to Bradford on a university trip, but it turned out that the two of us were alone with the guide. So we got a private tour through Bradford, which is not too bad! The city as such is not THAT exciting, but still quite nice. It was interesting to learn a bit more about the German community and about the increasing Indian and Pakistani population. The city is marked by its South Asian inhabitants and thus understandably also somehow the curry capital of the UK. We obviously tried some tasty curry in a local curry house, which was absolutely deli – I even ate with my fingers – yum yum yum!
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| Karachi - yummy curry house in Bradford |
At night we went to an 80ies theme party (which are big here in the UK), so I put on some hideous jewellery, some pink neon nail polish and pink stockings…gosh how gorgeous.
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| the girls in 80ies look |
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| and the boys ...Mitch is back! |
Apart from taking it easy and going out for a bit, Kathrin, Chris and I also visited Harewood House, which is a mansion just 20 minutes from where we live, next to the Emmerdale set (a popular British TV soap…not that high quality though). We spend a nice evening there which was followed by some badminton the next day. Chris and I bought some cheap rackets and tried them out in our backyard. I loved it. Can be so much fun. Will definitely repeat playing badminton. Might even try out tennis. Not sure how long my 1 pound racket will survive though.
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| in Harewood House with Chris and Kathi |
After this relaxed weekend Agnes came to Leeds and 9 days of talking, walking, taking photographs, drinking coffee, chilling, driving, watching Grey’s Anatomy, etc. followed. What a good time. I am really lucky for what I can experience!!
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| Broadcasting Tower Leeds with Agnes |
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| on the city walls of York |
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| at the river in York |
We spend some time in Leeds, sunbathed in York at the river and went to Manchester to discover more of the Northern Quarter. No need to ask, Of course I showed her the two cool bars – the Tea Cup and Oklahoma.
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| Oklahoma in Manchester |
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| drinking chai tea in "the teacup" |
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| Manchester Urbis |
I love this area. It is just so inspiring and makes me want to read weird subcultural books, dress up in old quirky clothes and do unusual things ;) I bought a Lomography Diana Princess Camera with a 35 mm film. So yeah baby, old good 35 mm is back in fashion!! It will take me some time to figure out how it works, but hopefully some incredible pictures will follow. It will be quite a change going back in time. I will have to be patient and not too click-click-click. With digital cameras one gets used to taking thousands of pictures, trying out various things, because you know that you can erase them afterwards. With a film you have to be much more careful, you'll have to look at things before you decide to take a picture and then there is of course the excitement of how the picture will turn out. This is so exciting, and I can’t wait to start heading out and taking crazy arty pictures!! Gosh how great.
As you can see I am all excited and I really adore the Northern Quarter with all its great, open minded, quirky, different people and shops…if there would just be more places like that, but unfortunately it will go quickly and this area will
be highly commercialized as well, similar to Camden…if it has not already happened.
The other day I observed something I read in the Canadian Dionne Brand’s novel What we all long for where she talks about Canadian multiculturalism. She describes the merging of different cultures, the same is happening /has happened here in Britain. I was sitting on the bus when I saw a man in traditional Pakistani attire with Nikes or Puma…funny how global culture merges with tradition, how multicultural cities bring out new cultures. I wish that one day Austria will also be a bit more open to different cultures and that we learn to be critical but also to embrace difference. It is something enriching and not something that we should try to avoid, as we only stigmatize different cultures and people because we are afraid. Anxiety is the root of many problems, not difference or diversity…
Apart from the Yorkshire area we also did some travelling. Once more we rented a car, this time we decided it is going to be a girl – so I proudly present Amy to you:
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| our Amy |
She did some good work, we drove 1000 km through Scotland, thus saw the East and West coast which offer two very distinct landscapes. Our verdict: Scotswomen and –men are really friendly people, no generalisations intended ;). They are proud about their culture, they want to be independent, thus they even have their own version of pounds and their own language. In Scots: “Oor raik [u:r rek] through the Scottish Low- and Highlands” was mind opening. I can understand that they get sometimes fed up with the patronizing attitude of their English neighbours. When we paid with Scottish pounds in Leeds people hesitated, which stroke me as ridiculous, considering that it is the same currency.But then again I don't know enough to really judge..ed
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| Our adventure started in Dumfries |
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| Kathrin, Agnes, Andreas and I in Loch Lomond |
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| Glen Coe |
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| on our way to Oban |
Scotland is a marvellous and absolutely stunning country. It is full of gorgeous gorges, steep valleys and high mountains (called “Ben”), mind blowing landscapes, picturesque villages and of course tons of castles and abbeys.
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| Sweetheart Abbey |
We accidentally came across a real magical place on our way to the coast of Dumfries and Galloway – Sweetheart Abbey. The story of this Abbey is heart breaking and makes one just sigh. The name gives already part of the tale away. The story goes that, in the 13th century Lady Devorgilla of Galloway married Alan, Lord of Galloway who died in 1269. Devorgilla embalmed her deceased husband’s heart and kept it with her in a special casket which had the words “sweet, silent, companion” engraved. In 1273 she established the Abbey, where 16 years later she was buried along with her husband’s heart. Now visitors can trod on the remains of Sweetheart Abbey and inhale some of the magic atmosphere.
We spent our first night in Loch Lomond (there are so many Lochs in Scotland, unbelievable) at Margaret’s B’n’B. The owner was a charming old lady whose favourite country is Austria, and who similar to me has the habit of saying "Ach no", thus it might not be so much German as Scottish, or at least I can pretend it is ;). She gave us some tips and the next day we set out to discover Oban, Glen Coe, Ben Nevis in Fort Williams (highest mountain in the UK), Inverness, the Black Isle, etc.
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| Fort William |
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| Ben Nevis, even with some snow | | | |
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The drive took us through beautiful scenery, we saw so many sheep and traffic signs that told us that we have to watch out for "elderly people," "farm vehicles" and "sheep" - well this is Scotland after all; country of mist, old people, sheep, golf and lochs.
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| St. Andrews |
Our journey ended in St. Andrews, where we spent a lovely evening on the beach. I just love the sun, the beach and the sea. In such moments I am longing to go back to Spain, I realise how much I miss it, even though I also wonder what will happen if I go back... But I reckon I’ll have to find it out and see what it is like.
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| Elgin |
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| sunbathing at St. Andrew's beach |
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| St. Andrew's Cathedral |
It was amazing how much I drove: 1000 miles, that is just incredible. But then again it makes me wonder what this need to drive on an on, this urge to see as much as possible means. Do we want to be able to say “I’ve been there”, is it our urge to inhale as much as possible, but then there is always the question of how much do we really see if we move that quickly? Do we really remember all those images, probably not… One thing is for sure I’ll definitely remember the afternoon in St. Andrews or having ice cream in the middle of a field). Anyways to say it in Scots, our journey was a “a perfit adventur”.[see www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk].
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| Whitby Abbey |
Yesterday Kathrin, one of her teachers and I went to Whitby. I have been looking forward to going there for three years already. After reading Dracula last summer the urge to go there grew even bigger. I was not disappointed by it, as it is a really picturesque fishing town. When we walked up the steps to the Abbey and we looked down at the town I just had to think about Stoker. He must have stood there and been drawn into the magic atmosphere of the town. It was wonderful to imagine what about this town may have inspired him. I am sure pouring rain and gushing waves would have helped, but to be honest I preferred the sun to getting goose bumps in fear of some monster, lingering on the top of the hill. It is wonderful how differently people react to certain images, sometimes we just lack time to really see something…
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| Whitby cementry |
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| Robin Hood's Bay |
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| Whitby...glooming sky |
PS: A book recommendation as usual: I have just finished reading A Fictional History of the United States (Eds. T. Cooper and Adam Mansbach).
It is a fantastic short story collection of numerous contemporary US American writers, which offers a different version of US American history. The interesting thing is that they position their narratives at crucial moments of general history, but instead of talking about events like the immigration stop to the US, they tell the story of a Polish immigrant’s life in the States, or instead of directly commenting on the poll tax that was imposed on African Americans in the 1880s, they transform it into a comic that takes place in the 1990s. It is a form of counter history that shows us that the strong ones, the ones that always get their way are also those who dictate history. It is after all a HIS-story, which is often white and middle class, but which forgets about all the other stories that are out there.
Another book I lately literally devoured was Eclipse, ... as you know I turned into a bit of a vampire fan …and I have to confess that once more I enjoyed reading Meyer’s book, even though it is ‘light’ material (but then again who decides about that?!). It is frightening though how the vampire of our times seems to be defined by luxury cars, designer clothes, an abundance of money and perfect looks…The question is what does this say about our society? But oh well I totally got hooked on them, we’ll see how much longer they have power over me ;)
Ta
