St Patties and Portsmouth Excursion
Tuesday March 17 was St Patties day. I had gotten up very early in London after the concert and took a train to Bath and straight to class. We missed our train AGAIN (IN 2 DAYS), but this time we had anytime tickets, not specific time tickets. So we had to take the next train. Thank goodness (*My Goodness, My Guinness*) (ß my new favorite phrase) we didn’t have to pay again, but we were 20 mins late to class instead.
After school, I went home. I got some work done and got ready to leave to celebrate St Patties. I was wearing green, DUH, and when I saw my 11yr old host brother, I asked him “Do I look ready for St. Patties?”. He didn’t understand. I said, “I’m wearing green.. I’m ready for St. Patties, right?” He turns to his mom and asks, “It’s St. Patrick’s today?” She goes, “Yea, I guess it is” … They don’t celebrate it here!! I guess they aren’t particularly fond of the Irish? I don’t know. But it’s just funny to me because we celebrate it in elementary school, and all through out schooling. Every one wears green, we decorate, etc.
Anyway. We didn’t care that they don’t really celebrate, we wanted to anyway. We had a potluck at our professor and his wife, Andy and Barbara’s place. They have a very cute little flat and most of our group came over. I brought my Russian cookies! But everyone did an EXCELLENT job at bringing something to the table, literally.
We had an amazing dinner. Chris made Irish stew, Lauren made cooked cabbage, Jen made Muddy Buddies (not quite Irish, but I love them!), Katie H. brought the CIDER!! (good girl!) and more.
Muddy Buddies!
We ate, drank, and chatted. Then played a game of charades. That is always fun. (I had to do R2-D2 .. and my team got it :)
After, we all walked to a pub nearby called The Weston. We drank more beer/cider and took silly pictures all night. T’was a good time J
Lastly, Andy and Barbara
St Patties was a good time J
Then 2 days later, was our Thursday excursion to Portsmouth.
Portsmouth is a huge Naval city for England. (For you slow ones, Naval meaning Navy, not the belly button of England, although I hope there is a city somewhere taking pride in being the belly button of England.)
The tour of Portsmouth was very cool, because I decided that I like these water/sea towns. When I went to Ireland last weekend, I went to visit a little fishing village called Howth, and it was very pretty. Portsmouth was not necessarily similar to Howth because it is not a small town, but it had the same feel in some ways. In other ways, it is very different, because unlike a cute small town, Portsmouth is instead a big naval city. We took a boat ride that showed how big the harbor is.
Me on the boat ride
Portsmouth is the home to many navy war ships including the now retired HMS Victory.
Our tour of the ship was very interesting. The conditions of living on a ship for long periods at a time were pretty terrible. They had rotten food, and biscuits that were so often infested with maggots. They slept in hammocks that would essentially be their coffins if they were to die, which would probably be pretty haunting. I bet it would mess with the men’s minds to have to sleep in there every night, especially Lord Nelson, who had an actual coffin, not a hammock.
Speaking of Lord Nelson, he is the big hero of this city. We learned about his last victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. We were told about the details of his life and death on this ship.
A really cool piece of history we also got to see in front of our eyes (behind thick glass) was the Mary Rose ship. This is the oldest ship that still exists today (though not a working ship by any means). Mary Rose was built in Portsmouth in 1510, and sank in 1545. It was pulled from the sea floor only 30 years ago and is being restored by being constantly washed by wax water. The Mary Rose was King Henry’s favorite war ship. This was very fitting to our studies because I am now very interested in the Tudors (King Henry, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth) specifically from my Elizabeth class. It was exciting to see something real from his time that he cared about.
Mary Rose behind thick glass and kept in dull light for preservation
That is all.
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