Life around the 'ster!

I was informed that I wasn’t blogging quite enough, so here’s another update on what I have been up to. So, we got back from Scotland on Thursday, and didn’t really do anything fun and exciting. Friday, on the other hand, was a totally different story! Zoe, her friend Lauren, and myself drove up to Lancaster (about 40 minutes) to look around the town that Zoe and Lauren went to university at, and also to take a tour of the castle. Lancaster Castle is owned by the Duke of Lancaster, who is also known as the Queen of England. Until last year, it was used mostly as a prison and a courthouse. In the first part of the tour, we got to see all of the Coat of Arms of the sheriffs of Lancashire, which are specially made every year for the new sheriff if they don’t have a coat of arms of their own. I find this really cool because then your family has an official coat of arms for the rest of eternity.

After this part, we got to go down to the prison, which was awesome! In the first part, we got to see lots of the old torture devices and other prison tools, and even try some of them on. We then got to be locked up with 12 other people in an 8x12 cell with all the lights turned off so we could feel like an 18^th century prisoner. Definitely not fun, especially since I’m pretty sure that I ended up in the corner that was used as a toilet, judging by the state of the floor compared to everywhere else… After this, we got to go back upstairs and look at the criminal courtroom, which is still used today (luckily we were there on the last day of summer holiday so we still got a chance to see it without interrupting any proceedings).

The next part of the tour got really creepy, as it was all about the execution of prisoners. You walk into this room that has a giant table in the middle, surrounded by some chairs. Back in the day, this is the table that a coffin would be placed on, and the prisoner would have to walk by his/her own coffin on the way out to the gallows. Then we saw all the different aspects (short of the gallows) to how the prisoners were hung, and how they were carried through the trap doors so the dead bodies didn’t have to be dragged through the masses of people that would gather around for hanging day.

My favorite part of the tour was probably the next bit, which brought us into a room that the old nobility used to meet in. In it, there are a ton of chairs that date back to such an old age, and are so unique that they are worth over one million pounds for the collection! The cool part, however, was the chair in the corner, which just so happened to be a throne built especially for Queen Victoria in the 1800s. Granted, she only sat in the chair for two minutes, but I still got to touch something that a Queen sat on! Needless to say (given my obsession with royalty) my day was made!

Today was spent shopping at the Trafford Center, which is a giant mall in Manchester. They’re malls are amazing because every single department store seems to also have a café or mini grocery store in it. My favorite store, however, was Hotel Chocolat. Needless to say, the entire store was all different kinds of chocolates, and even chocolate covered cheesecake. I decided that it was definitely worth buying £10 worth, which isn’t a whole lot, but it will definitely be worth it in the long run! The mall also as Legoland, which we didn’t actually go into, but I did get to meet Harry Potter (or the Lego version of him anyways).

The most interesting store, however, had to have been the one that was part Sushi bar, part candy store, part bakery, and finally, part clothing store. What I loved, however, was that the majority of the food section was ‘specialty’ foods from America. This includes Lucky Charms, Reese’s, Pop Tarts, and Jiffy Puff marshmallow mix. Definitely not specialty in the United States, but definitely had a specialty price here in the United Kingdom. I guess it would have been more than worth it to bring an extra suitcase of all that stuff and make some extra money!

I think I am ready for the next Royal wedding with my new fascinator!