Saturday: Day of Hike Sunday: Day of Rest

Recently joined the MMU Hiking Club, turns out it's considered a sport. And I can easily say Saturday was the most physical activity I've done in a long long time. We left around 8:30 am to the Lake District, an area north of Manchester with sixty or so lakes - they've got nothing on Minnesota except the beautiful hills/mountains surrounding them. I did share the nifty land of 10,000 lakes fact with the Brits and they were in awe. Manchester is a great location for outdoor lovers in that it is a short bus ride away from mountains and the sea. The Peak District and Lake District are popular destinations for hikers. The hiking club has outings every Saturday to some of these areas as well as in North Whales. They also have socials once a week.


Around 7 hours of our day was spent hiking the lake district hills/mountains (not sure what they qualify as). The group split off towards the beginning and I decided to head off with the group that was going longer and planning to reach higher elevations. Sometimes I don't really think my decisions through. Ok, so a lot times. My body felt pretty limp after it all. The views were amazing every moment able to take eyes off my large feet. The Lake District is known for a rockier terrain.  And at one point we were high enough to see the Irish Sea in the distance.

Me bum hurt a bit after it all. A pint was the prize at the end of our little/big excursion and I have never looked forward to one more.

One fun fact of the area is the stretch of land know as High Street. It happens to be the route Romans would take back in the day when doing all that Roman business. Its mind boggling to me really. High Street is now one of the paths hikers can take.

It was great to spend time in the English countryside and getting to know other British students. We made a stop at two pubs in small villages on the way home and a proper chip(fries) shop where they gave us proper forks to eat with our chips. The English take their french fries very seriously. They also seem to take their badger friends pretty serious too. The Badger Pub happened to be a shrine to the little guy with stuffed badgers, badger paintings and a variety of badger sculptures. Look forward to more outings to come. Fresh air is so nice.

This Sunday was a beautiful fall day. We've had sunshine this entire last week. The nice weather is also a surprise to the English here. Think I've gotten lucky and need to appreciate every day I see the sun as it will probably soon change. Went to the cinemas with a friend from my hall. Haven't watched any British television while here but got a bit of their good humor in the previews before the film. English and the States seem to share a lot of the same music and movies. Here is one of the ads they had shown. Iowa - they are proud supporters of their farmers and cows here too. Cow Ad