Jelly is not Jelly

Ok, where did I leave off? It sure has been a while, but I seriously could not find internet access anywhere in Leeds. Right now I am in York and it doesn't have any internet cafes either. My hostel does have access, but their "discount" deal is 3 hours for £8. Normally, it is £4 for an hour. Holy s*** it was a pound an hour in London! But I needed to get on to book my stuff for Ireland. Now, let's go back a week and sum up my expeditions shall we?

Saturday 4 October:
This was the day that I was to leave for Leeds. I got up and took a really easy morning because the only thing I needed to do whilst in London was catch my train! It left from Kings Cross station at 1pm. So while I was there, what else should I do except go see Platform 9 3/4! That was neat, and nerdy. Especially because there were a lot of people dressed up hanging out around there. I took a few pictures and was set. Then I walked around in an attempt to find a book store that had LOTR and by golly, I found it! So I went back to the station and read until my train left. Ooh, exciting, I get to ride a train! Got into Leeds and found my way to my hotel. See, I booked a hotel because I couldn't find any hostels in Leeds to stay at so I figured I could get there, and walk around to find a place to stay. It was a nice hotel so I pretty much just stayed in my room. I even ordered room service! That was neat! First time, can't say last, but I doubt I'd do it much anyway.

Sunday 5 October:
That morning I got up and had some comp hot chocolate. Chocolately. Yesterday I found a B&B to stay at for £20 a night. That was pretty much the only place I could find so I went for it. It was about 1.5 miles from the Royal Armouries museum so not that bad. I started to walk there but decided to go to the museum first to see if they knew of anything closer and cheaper. They didn't. But I did see sword fighting going on so I went to investigate. It ended up being a seminar that was being taught, but they did offer classes at the museum on Mondays and Thursdays. Also, one guy at the seminar was staying at a B&B that was about a half mile away and only £15 a night. So I went there and they had room so I stayed there. It really wasn't the prettiest of place, but it was a roof over my head to say the least. Kind of dirty, the heater didn't work, smoking was allowed, eh, let's say I basically used it for sleeping. At least they were really friendly, so it wasn't terrible. That night I went to Tesco and bought stuff for dinner as well as other stuff for breakfast and snacking purposes.

Monday 6 October:
One thing I picked up at Tesco was jelly. At least that's what it said it was. So I was gonna have a PB&J for breakfast. Upon spreading it on my sandwich, I realized it was not jelly. So instead for breakfast, I ended up having a peanut butter and jello sandwich. Interesting. So in England, jelly is not jelly. Remember that all.

After that fiasco, I went to the museum. I was going to go to the library, but ended up looking at the museum all day. It is quite a big place with a lot of stuff. They also had a special exhibit up of arms and armour from the movies so they had stuff from LOTR, Narnia, The Last Samurai, and King Kong. Cool to see some of that stuff.

The museum closed at 5 and the class didn't start until 7 so I had some time to kill. First I found a patch of grass and sat down to read, but it was a cold and cloudy day, so I ended up going to Starbucks, getting some tea and finding a nice comfy chair to read in until the class started. I very well would have missed it if I didn't look at my clock, it was about to start! So I went over to the museum, just a block away, and met people for the class. We were going to be using long swords. It was fun and weird because I am not used to a 4 foot piece of steel coming straight for my face. But it was cool anyway and should help out my paper. Another cool thing about it is your first class is free! Sweet!

Tuesday 7 October:
Today I finally got into the library. I won't bore you with the details of my research, but I did some. After that I tried to find an internet cafe and after wandering around the city center and finding nothing, I gave up, defeated. It has seemed like my days here have all been the same. I wish I were at a hostel so I could meet people. Staying at the B&B, because I don't really like to be there, I get up early, go to the museum all day, get dinner and eat it, then go to bed. Repeat until I leave Leeds.

Wednesday 8 October:
Again I went to the library and got a lot done which is always good. Then I was determined to find a computer. I ended up at the public library and they let me on for free for 2 hours so I got a little bit done. Sorry all, but updating this blog isn't on the top of my list when I have important emails to send out and figuring out where I am going to live next. Anyway, as I left the library, I saw some kids vaulting a wall so I went over and talked to them. They had only been doing parkour for about a month but told me about a jam that was happening on Saturday that would have more people. Cool. I ended up hanging out with them for a while and going to a few different spots. After that I went to find dinner. I wanted a warm meal instead of cold cut sandwiches so I found a restaurant called Nandos. They had chicken so I got a half a chicken with medium spiciness. It wasn't spicy at all...Maybe I can take more spice? At least it was good.

Thursday 9 October:
Today I was supposed to have a meeting with a curator but he has been out sick all week and today was no different. So I went around the museum myself again and tried to find examples of stuff I've researched. I did find some, but it was hard to take a good picture of behind glass. Whatever. Tonight was another sword fighting class so I did what I did last time. Found a patch for grass to read for a while then moved on to Starbucks for tea until it started. That's a good way to kill time. This class was the long sword again so we continued with what we learned last class. Fun. The people are friendly too and helped me out by correcting anything that was wrong. It's kind of a complex art it is. A lot of stuff to think about and go against your instinct to keep the pointy metal thing away from your face. But if you push your sword away from you, it opens up your body for another attack so you gotta keep it close when on the defense.

Friday 10 October:
Since I had been doing a lot of research lately, today was meant to be fun, but I went to the library anyway. I was going to talk to the librarian, who was also at the last class, about swords. He showed me an original manuscript from the 13th century I think. Really old and really cool. Then we talked for a bit but decided to call Dan, the teacher of the class, because he knew more about swords. So I talked with Dan for a while about what we did the previous night.

After that I continued with my original plans. I went up to Knaresborough and saw the Petrifying Well. It is a natural spring that has a really high mineral content and turns whatever it touches to stone. They have a lot of stuff hung up under the drippings like a broom, socks, a lobster, and teddy bears. They say that it will turn a teddy bear solid in only 3 months. Pretty fast. Works the same way as a stalagmite (or stalactite). It was also a very pretty town that I walked around in for a while. Quite a nice day out. Once I got back to Leeds I went to Nandos again and got the Hot half chicken this time. Hotter, but still not hot. Eh, England just doesn't know what hot it, and why should they?

Well, I am going to have to leave it here. Sorry about the different format. I've been keeping a journal of what I've done and this was the easiest way of remembering it. I'll post up more of what I've done later. My next stop is Ireland. Hopefully they will have internet cafes that I can use!