Escapades of a Northerner in The West Midlands

One of the benefits of being one of the few Midlanders in a very Northern orientated University, is that nobody really understands your local Geography or culture; it's as if I live in a whoooole other country! Rather than me bang on about how Wolverhampton and Birmingham are NOT as bad as the sterotype everyone knows, I'm going to let Sam share her experiences instead...

Visiting Jenny

Hello readers of Jenny's blog. I haven't done this before, and my writing style is no where near as good as Jenny's, so please forgive me! This weekend I ventured from my hometown of Teesside in North-East England, to Jenny's hometown of Wolverhampton. To me Wolverhampton is 'deep south' however I have been assured that it is in fact 'The Midlands'.

The train here was not too bad, it took from 9am until 1pm to get to Birmingham and I only had to change once at York. When I arrived in Birmingham it was very busy, literally, you get off the train to a wall of people. First of all we walked through Birmingham centre to get to a pub for something to eat. Jenny pretty much decided on food for us- I must admit though, she made a good choice!

After lunch we visited the sea life centre, it was obvious very quickly that Jenny should be working there. She knew every fish by name and was an overall sea life centre geek. This is me with a shark above my head...

After the sea life centre we went shopping in Birmingham. Birmingham is reeeaallllyyyy good for shops! I don't often get to go to big city centres shopping so I really enjoyed it.

Birmingham have a really big Selfridges store- we spent quite a while in there. Jenny totally splashed out on this Marc Jacobs bag ;) (I wish! - Jenny)

After our shopping, we visited Krispy Kreme's. Although I have had these before, Jenny assured me that Birmingham is the place to have them from as it was one of the originals. I also got to see how they are made and bought a super sickly chocolate one. Jenny bought three (fatty!).

After the doughnut buying I visited the Doc Martens shop as I have been wanting a pair for a while and have been jealous of Jenny's. I originally wanted some shiny blue ones, however I spotted a pair of flowery blue ones which were much comfier and Jenny persuaded me to purchase these instead. They even did student discount! Woohoo! Here are the boots I bought, alongside my original choice... what do you think?

Here are some additional 'I'm a tourist' photos from Birmingham. The photo on the left is me and the bull outside the bull ring shopping centre. I am not sure why it is called the bull ring, but Jenny has a good analogy of it being shaped like a bull's nose ring. The photo on the right is a replica made entirely of jelly beans! 

This photo is on the bridge at Brindley Place, this is apparently where the posh people go for lunch. It was very nice with lots of barges sailing along the canal. I didn't even know Birmingham had a canal!

Day Two

Today, we had more of an outdoorsy sort of day. We visited Bridgnorth and Ironbridge. Bridgnorth was a small country town based around a cliff. In order to get to the top of the cliff to 'high town', we went on a cliff railway. I lost my ticket twice so Jenny's Mum and Dad beat us up on the steps both times. 

In Bridgnorth I introduced Jenny's family to Geocaching. This is a bit of a geeky thing that people either seem to really get in to, or absolutely hate. I have so far converted Holly and am in the process of converting Jenny. For those of you who are wondering what I am blabbering on about the website is here. Basically, there are millions of geocaches all over the world and the aim is to find them using the GPS on your phone as well as clues and write your names when you find it.

This afternoon I visited Jenny's local town of Wolverhampton. Wolverhampton was a nice local town (AHEM.. city - Jenny) and had some good shops without being too busy. Jenny showed me the lovely Iceland where she used to work, and we had a wander round the shops including Wolverhampton's House of Fraser equivalent, Beatties. Finally we ate more doughnuts and sat in Starbucks window seat for a frappuccino and to watch the world of Wolverhampton go by. 

Day Three

So... this morning started well! Breakfast was very yummy in the Davison household this morning! (Made by my Mum, not me. Don't be getting any ideas guys. - Jenny).

After breakfast we walked to Tettenhall, which is Jenny's local villagey sort of place. It was really nice and had some lovely little shops in as well as a nice green area which Jenny said lots of people sit around in the summer months. While we were there we went to a little cafe called The Angel and also found another Geocache!

Now unfortunately it is time to start the long journey home after a fantastic weekend. Thank you Jenny and the Davison family. :)