People don't take trips, trips take people

Hi everyone!

So today is exciting because I booked flights for me and Joe to go to Germany at the end of the month! I'll be moving into my room in Schmalkalden that weekend and getting ready for orientation and classes :) Joe has never been to Germany so I'm excited for him to see it! Frankfurt is one of my all-time favorite places so when I was booking it I made sure to arrive in the morning so that we'll have plenty of time to grab a bite to eat and look around.

ALSO Mom finalized plans to backpack together through southern Spain next March! I'm very excited about that. It's going to be absolutely beautiful.

This weekend was sorority recruitment at UNA and I so wish I could've been there to meet all our new Phis on Bid Day! The beginning months of the school year at UNA are always the best with getting new girls, homecoming activities, and new classes. I knew I would be missing all of these things, but I didn't realize how MUCH I would miss it! It looks like we got a really good pledge class and things seem to be starting off with a bang at UNA this year.

In other news, my laptop has decided to be British without my consent. It is automatically changing words to the British spelling, like favourite, centre, & realise. It's driving me crazy so if you find any misspellings hidden in here, no I haven't converted my spelling, my laptop has. I'm waiting for it to start speaking with a British accent or something now.

So anyway, this has been a crazy fun week! I don't even know where to start. I suppose I'll just jump into the end of last week in Portsmouth when I went to the Historic Dockyard with Mark & Helen.

IT WAS AWESOME. We got passes to see the HMS Victory and the HMS Warrior ships and the museum of the Mary Rose, which was my favorite. The ships were open to walk through all of the different levels and it was just really fascinating to see and read about at different stations.

The Victory

The HMS Victory is one of the UK's most beloved ships as it was sailed by Lord Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She's a beauty!

The Warrior

The HMS Warrior was built in 1860 for the Royal Navy. This ship is huge! More of it was open to the public to walk through than the HMS Victory, so it was neat the see the stoking room, kitchen, and captain's quarters.

The Mary Rose Museum 

A cannon 

An original depiction of the Mary Rose in the 1500s

The Mary Rose now, held together with the pipes and oozing that white treatment 

The Mary Rose was King Henry VIII's ship. It sunk in battle just a mile outside of the Portsmouth Harbor in 1545 and wasn't excavated until 1982. We all know that King Henry VIII was extravagant, and he spared no cost to make this ship and all her features just so. The ship is now inside the Mary Rose museum being constantly sprayed with water and treatments to preserve the wood as best as possible so that generations to come can see it.

So touring the ships and museums was a lot of fun and we got to see some cool things saved from each ship. It was a really nice day out and that was also the day that I got to make the announcements on the train! The conductor was so funny and I honestly can't believe that he let me get on the intercom.

Next trip: Chester & Liverpool!

On Tuesday we spent the day Chester Zoo and it really was nothing short of amazing. They had a lot of great information about rainforest conservation, fair trade palm oil, and other projects that they work on. I was really impressed by the size of the enclosures because the animals had plenty of room to roam around. We had a super fun day walking around seeing all the animals, riding the zoo rail, and playing mini golf (which I won hehehe). After the zoo we drove a little further up north to Liverpool.

Mark is from Liverpool so it was great having someone who knows the area like he does. However, with great knowledge comes the expectation that everyone knows the same things he does; for instance, that Abbey Road is not in Liverpool... he may never forgive me for that one! Haha!

The first night in Liverpool I got to have a drink and a look around with everyone at the Cavern Club where the Beatles first started out playing. It was really awesome in there, people had signed their names all over the walls. The architecture was also pretty neat. After that we walked down to have a drink at small pub that has lasted since the 1940's, and of course that was also really awesome.

The next day we went museum hopping, shopping, and walked along the harbor. We saw the Walker, the International Slavery Museum, and also an exhibit on the Titanic and other famous British ships. I didn't know that the Titanic was made in Liverpool and then shipped out from Southampton, which is not far from where Joe lives.

The trip distance. Chester is right off the border so we could see the mountains of Wales from the road we were driving on! Also you can see Southampton where the Titanic departed 

So that's really all I've got for now! Saturday we are going to visit Glastonbury, and then next weekend we are going to London for Harry Potter World... I CANNOT WAIT. I also can't believe that it's already September. The time has gone by so quickly!

Thanks for reading!

Bethany


(Also the quote in the title is by John Steinbeck)