Turkey, Gravy, Pumpkin Pie

When we went to our four hour long study abroad orientation meeting way back in April, we were warned that about three weeks in the novelty would wear off and we would begin to feel homesick. Well, that never really happened to me. Some of the sights of Oxford lose a bit of their astonishment factor after you see them every day, but I haven't had any problems with homesickness, at least until today.

As you probably already know, at least if you are an American, today is Thanksgiving, a day dedicated to food and family. At this very moment, if I was in the United States I would be having an untraditional Thanksgiving dinner of fried fish at our neighbors house at the beach. I would be surrounded by my parents, two younger sisters, and an assortment of friends (though they are almost all my parents' age) I made over the summer. It would be sunny outside instead of dark, rainy, and super windy. I admit that I am feeling a little left out, but studying abroad does require some sacrifices.

It wasn't until today that I actually felt homesick. It is definitely hard being half a world away from your family on a day dedicated to being together. Then, to make matters worse, Thursdays are my really long class days where I have to be on a bus at 8am and I don't get back until 4:45pm. On a side note, it was night-time dark by 3:45pm today. There is just not enough hours of sunlight here.

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We did get to have Thanksgiving dinner with all of the 24 people from my American university along with a few of their parents. It was very delicious, in my opinion. There was turkey, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, vegetables (brussels sprouts, green beans and broccoli), cranberry sauce, stuffing, and gravy. The sweet potatoes were really good, especially when mixed with a bit of the cranberry sauce. I was also really fancy and drank apple juice out of a wine glass. Everything just seems to taste better out of a nice cup.

I was surprised when I had to explain to two people at my table what a brussels sprout is. We eat so many different fruits and vegetables in my family that I forget that what is common knowledge to me is completely foreign to others.

We had a really good time just eating a bunch, hanging out and talking. Our group of 24 were hardly separated the first few weeks we arrived in the UK, but now we rarely see each other. A lot of catching up was done about classes and trips everyone has taken recently.

Next, came dessert with a choice of apple pie or pumpkin pie. Caitlin got apple and I got pumpkin so we could share and have both kinds. I think the pumpkin pie was made with real pumpkin, but it tasted a bit more like pecan pie than pumpkin pie to me, though there was no nuts in it. It might just have had different spices than I am used to. The apple pie was good, with tart apples to balance out the sweetness of the crust. The crust to filling ratio was off, with much more crust than filling, but it was still good. Vanilla ice cream probably would have made it perfect to balance out the dryness of the crust.

Even though the food was traditional for a Thanksgiving meal, it just felt more like a catered dinner with friends than actual Thanksgiving. I guess the only way the holiday can really feel right is to be with your family (who I am hoping will Skype me within the next little bit). 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Madman in a Box

I am going to preface this post with the warning that you probably need to know at least a little bit about Doctor Who to understand what I am going to be talking about. There is also a chance of spoilers for later seasons of the show, so you have been warned.

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Walking into the Doctor Who Experience, housed in a long grey and blue building resembling a giant tent, we were afraid we would not be allowed on our tour because we were ten minutes late. Our worries were unnecessary as the man scanning our tickets did not even check the assigned time.

I was surprised by the the number of children on the tour. I know that Doctor Who is considered as  family show (that is why it airs at 8pm instead of later), but all of the people I have known to watch it are all at least teenagers. Some of the aliens and situations could also frighten young children (i.e. the creepy Silence creatures and the Weeping Angels).

We queued in the lobby next to the small cafe until we were allowed in to the "adventure" portion of the tour, which would be followed by the exhibition. Our group of about twenty people filed into a dark room with a projection screen. A compilation of scenes from the episodes of the 11th Doctor were shown, ending on a final shot of the crack in the universe first shown at the introduction of Amy Pond, the Doctor's companion.

I thought, "It would be so cool if the crack in the screen opened up for us to move to the next section, sort of like at the Harry Potter Studio when the screen opened to show the doors to the Great Hall." And what do you know, that was exactly what happened. It was a great start to the tour.

The frist room was built to look like we were in the UK starship from the episode, "The Beast Below." The room was dark and lit with red lights. A Frowner, a creepy clown-like doll inside a glass case, was behind me and I kept waiting for it to move.

Inside the TARDIS

The story for the Adventure began here, with the Eleventh Doctor appearing on a screen and telling everyone that he was stuck in the Pandorica (a large stone box  that was thought to be only a fairytale). The Doctor was trying to call his companion Amy to help him but he just got us "shoppers" instead.

Moving to the next room, we were inside the TARDIS (the older version from the 9th and 10th Doctors). Joysticks were arranged around the center console labeled "navigation," "diagnostics," and "mechanical." When told by the Doctor on his screens, the kids in the group messed with the joysticks. Some caused smoke to filter from the console, others made the metal platform under our feet rock slightly.

Alerts began to sound, telling use that the TARDIS was being boarded by unknown creatures. We left the TARDIS console room quickly, and walking down a hallway. We ended up inside of a Dalek ship. Three Daleks moved out of their alcoves accompanied by a lot of smoke while yelling, "EXTERMINATE" in their robotic voices. Their rant about how they are the superior species and how they were going to eliminate the Doctor was cut short when their ship was attacked. The attackers were another group of Daleks who claimed that they were the Supreme Daleks. Of course, the two groups got into a fight about who was better and the ships starting firing their lasers at each other.

We took this opportunity to escape...right into a Weeping Angel graveyard. Now, the thing about Weeping Angels is that they are frozen whenever someone is looking at them. They can only move when they are unobserved, so the only way they can not get you is if you keep you eyes on them. Whatever you do, don't blink.

The graveyard was full of stone angels and the lights flashed off and on, tricking your eyes into thinking that they might have moved. Our group moved through this section quickly, urged forward by the voice of the Doctor telling us to hurry and not to blink.

The final room was decorated a bit like a jungle with a rock face in front of us. A 3D video was projected onto a screen in the rock face showing the swirling time vortex being put to rights, and the Doctor being released from his prison inside the Pandorica. Us "shoppers" had helped save the day.

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Weeping Angel

The exhibition portion of the tour was full of props and costumes from throughout the Doctor Who series. There were all of the different sonic screwdrivers used by the different incarnations, as well as a display showing the main outfits of all eleven doctors.

All of the creatures were represented from the Face of Boe, to Cybermen, the creepy Silence creatures, and Silurians. A very interesting display showed the evolution of the Daleks. They have gradually become larger over time and changed colors. The most recent versions are about five feet tall and are painted in solid colors like red, blue and yellow so as to be able to tell them apart. Older Daleks tended to be more metallic colors.  

Each companion of the Doctor had a poster and one of their main outfits on display. I was disappointed that the plaques only told the basics about each character instead of special, behind-the-sences knowledge. I would assume that most people at the Doctor Who Experience already know the basics behind each of the characters. 

I had a really great time on the tour. It was nice being with friends that you can geek out with and no one will judge you for your strange interests.

Cultural History and Scones

On Friday the 9th, we decided to explore more of the attractions Oxford has to offer. The four of us met Beth and rode into downtown Oxford, walking down Cornmarket Street to the Ashmolean. The Ashmolean is a museum filled with ancient artifacts like pottery, weaponry, and coinage, as well as several art and sculpture galleries.

Most of the rooms focused on either British, Roman or Chinese history. I most enjoyed looking at the currency exhibition and the pieces of jewelry scattered throughout the various rooms. They had bills displayed from all over the world, including money printed by the Confederacy during the American Civil War. There were thousands of coins in a range of sizes marked with the ruler of the time. The biggest ones were about 1 1/2 inches in diameter with the smallest about 1/4 inches in diameter. If coins today were that small I think I would be loosing them all of the time. Historians use coins to determine who were the rulers of Ancient Rome as each emperor had their likeness stamped on coins during their reign.

We moved on to the art galleries which were decorated with jewel toned wallpaper to fit the time periods of the paintings in their gilt frames. I perused most of the paintings quickly, pausing to read the plaques describing the artist and painting when one caught my interest. I can appreciate art and fairly intelligently discuss the symbolism and possible meaning the artist was trying to convey, as well as art techniques used, but I am very picky about what art I really enjoy.

At one point we all got a little separated as the rooms all seem interconnected, creating the feeling of a maze where you don't know where each turn and new doorway will take you. I managed to find Caitlin and we sat on a bench waiting for the others. To pass the time we discussed the painting directly in front of the bench. The focus of the painting was a sitting figure with shoulder-length blond hair, robes of pale pink and cobalt, and a light shining around the head. My guess was that the person might be the Virgin Mary since I believe she is often pictured in pink and blue robes with a halo. Seated around the figure were older men with greying hair and thick beards. To the far right were two more people, a man and a woman, with golden halo hovering over their heads.

The halos suggested a biblical scene but I did not know which one. Caitlin and I tried to make up stories about what was going on, and why all of these men were surrounding this feminine figure. Giving up the guessing, I rose from the comfortably padded bench and read the information plaque. We were pretty far off the mark. The central figure, which we thought was a woman due to the longer hair, fair face, and pink robes, was actually Jesus as a child when he first preached to the learned men of his village.

By this time we had managed to find each other. Only one floor was left for us to see and we moved through even more art galleries fairly quickly. The final room was smaller than the previous ones and decorated with emerald green wallpaper. Looking in the first alcove, I found that all of the paintings were appealing to me, and I spent several minutes reading their information cards. It was only when I was moving to another section to the room that I saw it was dedicated to artists of the Pre-Raphaelite art form which happens to be by favorite style.

The Pre-Raphaelite style is highly detailed with an emphasis on Nature. The paintings often depict characters from literature and myth. Scenes deriving from the Arthurian legends, Greek mythology, and the Shakespearean plays were all popular with the artists of the style.

William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Rossetti are often considered the founders of the art movement, though I am most familiar with the works of John William Waterhouse.

The gallery featured several paintings by William Holman Hunt which I found breathtaking with their emphasis on detail and the use of vibrant colors. I particularly liked The Afterglow in Egypt. According to the information plaque, Hunt had a very hard time getting the Egyptian girl in the painting to stand still long enough to sketch her properly.

Afterglow in Egypt
by William Holman Hunt

In the opposite alcove, there was a Waterhouse painting, and I had a bit of an "Oh my goodness, this is an actual painting by John William Waterhouse" moment. The Internet is so useful to learn about art, but it can not compare to actually standing before a famous painting in real life.

Ariadne by John William Waterhouse

The Waterhouse painting in the Ashmolean was Ariadne. It depicts Ariadne, the princess who gave a ball of string to Theseus to guide hime in the Minator's labyrinth. The two fell in love and eloped together but the goddess Athena demanded that Theseus leave Ariadne on a beach. The painting depicts the young woman, two leopards at her feet, reclining as Theseus' ship sails away.

We left the museum after I finished looking at the Pre-Raphaelite room and made our way down High Street to the Vaults and Garden Cafe for afternoon tea. The Vaults and Garden is in a beautiful rectangular room with vaulted ceilings that is attached to the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. The rustic tables and chairs were made from dark wood, and the dim lighting gave the cafe a very cozy feel.

I ordered English Breakfast tea and a scone. The tea came in a small green teapot to keep it warm. There were steel creamers, only two inches high, for holding the milk and sugar cubes. The large, golden brown, freshly made scone was served with clotted cream and raspberry jam. The scone was crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. I cut small pieces from the bread, spreading it with clotted cream then jam. I ate very slowly to appreciate how delicious all of the food tasted. I absolutely love the idea of having tea and a small snack in the afternoon to hold you over until dinner.

Caves and Italian Food

This past weekend was full of activities with a trip to Cardiff on Friday, Bonfire Night on Saturday, and  then a trip to Chislehurst Caves and London on Sunday.

Amy, Caitlin and I have several days left on our BritRail pass so we looked for day trips that take less than two hours to get to by train. Caitlin suggested Chislehurst Caves, a place she had visited on a previous trip to England. Caves are cool, and a nice change from museums so we agreed. Libby was sick from Bonfire Night so she stayed at the flat to rest.

Chislehurst is a suburb south-east of London. The little bit of the town we saw on the walk to the caves seemed quite and traditional with its brick houses and corner pub. We worried that the caves would be difficult to fin but we had no problems at all. You just walk down the road from the train station, turn right past the pub and then there are giant brown signs pointing the way. It was probably only a seven minute walk from the rail station to the caves.

The tours started on the hour so we had about fifteen minutes to wait around in the lobby which was a combination of wooden pew-like benches and a separate room with a small cafe.

At noon, our tour group, made up of about six parents, six children, and us three, ventured down to the caves entrance which was under the building we were in. Old fashioned oil lanterns were distributed among the adults to light the way. Only a few parts of the caves were fitted with electricity and lights from flashlights, cameras, and other technology would not be good for our eyes inside the caves (therefore I have not photographs from inside the caverns).

The Chislehurst Caves were formed completely by hand as the Druids, Saxons, and Romans mined for chalk. The maze of caverns would measure 22 miles if it could be stretched into a straight line. Over the centuries it has played host to sacrificial ceremonies of the Druids, music concerts, and murders hiding bodies.

During WWII, when London was being bombed by the Germans, 15,000 people used the caves as a bomb shelter. Families would pay a weekly fee and be assigned an "address" which would be painted on the cave wall. There were showers, a hospital and a chapel. People slept on narrow bunk beds, at least three beds high. Every night at 10:30 pm, all lights had to be extinguished because they could be seen through cracks in the ground by the German planes flying above. This would leave thousands of people in absolute darkness until morning. I have no idea what you would do if you needed the toilet in the middle of the night, but the rules worked. Not a single person died from bombings while sheltered inside the caves.

One child was born in the caves in the hospital. The baby girl was christened in the cave's chapel and named Cavena, though she preferred to go by Rose.

In the mid-20th century, musicians discovered the pleasing affects of the cave's echoes and began to hold concerts down in the caverns. David Bowie, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix all played there at one time or another.

Our group looked at the chapel before moving farther into the dark reaches of the cave with only out lanterns as light. We stopped at the alter of the Druids where women and children were sacrificed to the gods. Our group was told by the tour guide to gather in an alcove next to the alter and he would leave us in the dark for several seconds to experience the all consuming blackness. Caitlin was kind enough to hold my hand for this part. I was not frightened, but it is nice to know that you are not alone when you can not see anything.

The guide walked some ways away and began to bang on a metal drummer to show us how well sounds travel in the confined space. The drumming stopped and we waited for him to come back when, "Bang!," he hit the drum one more time incredibly hard. We all startled and jerked then began some nervous chuckles to ease the tension. I was trying to listen for the tour guide's footsteps coming towards us. Everyone screamed as his flashlight came on right before us. I guess he had used the time we were recovering from the loud bang to make his way back to us unheard for the express purpose of scaring us.

Next we moved on to the area that was considered most haunted. Before walking down the narrow corridor to this area, the tour guide said, "Now, before people report seeing a white mist, they usually feel a chill and sometimes the echoes in the cave are dampened. It is impossible to feel a chill because the caves are always at a constant temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit not matter the weather outside."

Right when he said that I felt a chill move down the back of my body until a tingle set up residence in the backs of my calves. Then when we walked through the tunnel to the cavern beyond I thought that the echoes were less pronounced. The tour guide remarked on that too. I decided to focus on looking straight at the tour guide instead of looking around for fear of actually seeing something possibly supernatural in origin.

He told us that the ghost is believed to be that of an 18 year-old woman who was murdered by her husband, a miner in the caves, in the late 1800s. He weighed down her body and dumped it into the pool in the cavern where we stood. Her skeletal remains were not discovered until the 1930s when workers were preparing the pool to be used for irrigation to grow mushrooms in the caves.

The tour ended soon after and we caught the train back into London. We walked around Covent Gardens and admired the Christmas decorations that were already put on. Suspended from the roof over the market were giant red ornaments and shiny disco balls. The varied slightly in size but most had to have been at least six feet in diameter.

We spent a long time wandering around looking for a candy shop that Caitlin had visited on her last trip to England. We were about to give up the search when we found the little shop with its red awning. Amy bought toffee bits to try to replicate the toffee and whipped cream combination we had on our Starbucks samples in Cardiff. Caitlin bought some pear drops and cherry bakewells.

Pear drops look just like gumdrops, but hard. Amy found out that out the hard way when she tried to bite into one. I really did not like those because they tasted too artificial. The cherry bakewells on the other hand were delicious. The hard candies are based on an English tart of the same name made from cream and cherries. They were amazing because they did not have the fake cherry flavoring. The candies tasted just like black cherry ice cream to me. If we ever find ourselves in that part of London again I will be buying some to take home with me.

Our lunch was eaten at Bella Italia, an Italian restaurant where Amy ate with her parents when they were visiting. I had Cannelloni Ricotta which was a rectangular noodle spread with ricotta cheese and spinach and rolled up. The tomato sauce was creamy, orange was delicious. It actually tasted quite similar to the tomato soup served in one of the eating places at my American university.

Before dark we walked down to Piccadilly Circus, just to say we have been there. Some post cards were bought and we popped into the M&M store to look around. As the sun went down we headed back to Oxford, not wanting to be wandering around London in the dark.

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day, also known as Poppy Day or Armistice Day, is observed on November 11 in the United Kingdom and several former British colonies. It is a holiday in honor of the cessation of fighting in World War I at "the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month" in 1918. Today, it is a day to honor all members of the armed forces who have ever died serving their country. The United States similarly observes Veterans Day on November 11 which honors all veterans of the American armed forces.

The red poppy flower is the symbol of the blood spilt during the violence of WWI. These flowers bloomed on the battlefields of Flanders, Belgium where some of the highest casualties of the war were sustained.

Since the end of October, poppies made of paper and plastic have been available in stores around Oxford and the rest of the UK. You make a donation which will go to the UK armed forces and then take a poppy. Many people pin the poppies to their coats as November 11 approaches.

I got my poppy while we were in Cardiff at the Doctor Who Experience. For some reason mine is all curled up while everyone else's seem to lie flat. I'll just blame it's less than perfect appearance on the rain.

Caitlin, Amy, Libby and I happened to be on a train at 11:11 a.m. on November 11. I was expecting someone to come on to the train's intercom and announce a moment of silence. I sat with only one headphone in so I would listen for the announcement. I kept checking the time, but 11:11 a.m. came and went. There was no collective moment of silence on the train at all.

This was really unexpected to me as we had been led to believe that Remembrance Day is an extremely important holiday that is observed by most English people. I had expected almost everyone I saw today to have a poppy but there was probably only one out of every thirteen people actually wearing one. It almost seemed like us, the Americans, were trying harder to respectfully observe the holiday than the British citizens were. However, they probably do more for Remembrance Day than we do for Veterans Day in the United States.

While in Bournville visiting Cadbury World, we did see a memorial to soldiers of WWII outside of the Bournville Baths. Six wreaths of plastic poppies were displayed in honor of those who died serving their country.  

WWII Memorial in Bournville

More information about Remembrance Day can be found here.

Drinks with Friends

I have never been out to drinks before considering that I am not yet at the American legal drinking age of 21. The practice also seems more common in the UK, where in the US I feel it would be more likely to hang out with friends at home than at a bar.

Tonight, our British friend Beth invited the four of us out for drinks. We first went to the White Horse, a family-friendly pub chain that we have gone to several times for dinner because it is within walking distance of our flat. The pub has a bar of pale wood and many tables in varying shapes. When we arrived there were several families with children eating dinner.  

I am still not comfortable enough with drinking alcohol to order something for myself, but Libby, Amy, Caitlin and Beth all got drinks. Caitlin and Libby had the winter version of Rekorderlig cider, a blend of apple, cinnamon, and vanilla flavors. I tried the cider and it tasted close to American apple cider with only a hint of alcohol coming through.

We sat and talked for over an hour about topics ranging from the Presidential Election to our trip to Beth's house in two weeks. Flipping through the drink menu to see the Christmas drink specials caused Beth to ask if we had ever tried the glittery version of J2O, a popular fruit drink originally designed to target people at clubs and pubs who were not drinking. None of us had ever tried any of the J2O flavors, nor drank anything with a shimmer before.

Beth kindly offered to buy one for us to taste. The drink comes in a bottle the same size as a beer bottle. The liquid inside was a cranberry or wine shade of red, and it shimmered. It was so pretty, reminding me of some types of nail polish. It tasted very good as well, like cranberries and grapes (I am not sure what flavor it actually was).

At 8:30 pm we rode the bus to the St. Clements Street stop to visit the Half Moon Pub where it was supposedly karaoke night. The pub was small, arranged in an "L" shape with a stage with a young man playing guitar. The lights were dimmed and all of the tables occupied.

Instead of standing waiting awkwardly for a table, we chose to walk up the street to the Angel and Greyhound Pub. Caitlin, Amy and I went there on Tuesday night for dinner and found it to be a slightly higher tier of pub. By this I mean that it did not smell strange, there was enough light to see comfortably, and a majority of the customers were older than university age. I felt much more comfortable here than in the dim confines of the Half Moon.

Beth got a small bowl of marinated olives and garlic while Libby, Caitlin and Amy got glasses of warm Winter Rekorderlig. All the tables here were full as well (I did not expect it to be so busy on a Thursday night) so we sat at a table on the back porch. The porch was actually really nice with round wooden tables and planters that would hold flowers in the summer. I was comfortable in my jacket and scarf even though the temperature was in the high 40s Fahrenheit. I guess I am just adjusted to the cold now and I do not feel it like I did when I arrived in September.

Glass of warm cider

The warm cider tasted just like apple juice, the alcohol taste even more faint than we drunk cold. I did enjoy the sips I had and I might order some for myself next time we go out for drinks.

At about 11:00 pm we decided to call it a night and head back to our warm flats. There were few people on the bus that late so we got seats in the very front on the top floor. It always feels a little like you are on a roller-coaster from that vantage point. We of course had to take pictures acting silly, pretending to actually be riding on the theme park ride.

Now I am off to bed, but I will leave you with the best quote of the day:

"I look like a horse in headlights" - Amy

A Day Trip to Cardiff

This past Friday, November 2, Caitlin, Amy, Libby and I went on our first day trip outside of Oxford. Our destination was Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, our main goal to visit the Doctor Who Experience.

When we left for the train at 7:45 am, I was worried that the weather was going to be miserable. The forecast for Cardiff was a high temperature in the low 40s Fahrenheit and a 70% chance of rain. Looking out of the windows on the train ride, our spirits lifted as we saw white clouds with some bursts of blue sky. Since being in England I have learned to appreciate any little bit of blue that manages to peep through the almost constant cloud cover.

However, all of these hopes were dashed when we emerged from a long underground tunnel under the Severn River into Wales, to be greeted with a sky that was dark with an almost greenish tinge. All l could think was, "What have we gotten ourselves in to?" and "Don't worry. They do not get tornados here in England even if those clouds do look really ominous."

We had to transfer trains several times in Cardiff until we reached the stop for Cardiff Bay. By this time we were running late, it was 11:45 am and the entrance time on of Doctor Who Experience tickets was for between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm. We were planning to use Libby's iPhone for directions but neither the Apple version or the Google version were working properly, so we walked briskly towards the bay since we knew that it was somewhere in that area.

We were in such a rush that we had little time to appreciate the fact that it was actually very sunny with fluffy white clouds in the sky. Time ticked on until we found a tourist information centre and the woman working kindly gave us a map and the directions we needed. We just needed to walk right along the bay for about ten minutes to get to the Doctor Who Experience, and even though we arrived ten minutes after 12:00 pm, the employees did not even check our designated times on our tickets. We had been worried that they would not let us in.

(Full details on my time at the Doctor Who Experience are posted here)

After leaving the Doctor Who Experience, we strolled casually along the waterfront admiring the modern architecture of the surrounding buildings and the way the sun glistened on the water of the bay. The rays of sun made it feel unusually warm and we unbuttoned our coats and found little use for our scarves and gloves.

We were starving by this time and decided to take the recommendation of our British friend Beth's friend Daniel who studied in Cardiff, and eat at Eddie's American Diner. It might seem strange to want to eat American food while abroad, but sometimes it is just nice to be able to look at a menu and know every dish being offered.

Eddie's American Diner was a long, rectangular restaurant decorated like a 1950s diner. Red, vinyl booths lined the right-hand wall with the open kitchen on the left, separated by a counter with bar stools. All of the booths inside were taken so we had to sit at the tables outside, though it was colder now that we were in the shade. The tables outside were small and silver with two matching chairs on one side and a red and black bench seat designed to look like that of the seats in a 1950s car on the other. The place looked strangely familiar to us. We figured out why when Amy returned from the restroom to tell us that a scene in a Doctor Who episode had been filmed in the restaurant.

We all ordered various kinds of burgers and a side order of french fries to share. This diner at the little things that we had been missing since leaving America. Things like ice in your drinks, the square, orange cheese slices, and, for me personally, mustard for my burger. The only thing not typically American were the buns which tasted freshly baked with a crisp outside instead of the soft, full of preservative kind that we would have gotten in the States.

Sitting at our table deciding what to do next, we watched as an employee left the Starbucks Coffee Shop next door with a tray of free samples. All we could see in the cups was a bunch of whipped cream, we wanted to try some even though we had no idea what it was. We then walked by her post on the sidewalk, trying not look like we had taken that route for the express purpose of being offered the samples. The small red, Christmas themed cups were filled with a new toffee flavored coffee that was actually pretty good considering I do not typically enjoy anything coffee flavored. The best part though was the frothy whipped cream sprinkled with crunchy toffee bits.

Our coffee cups in hand, we walked back to Roald Dahl Plass to take pictures of the Millennium Centre and the Millennium Tower. The Millennium Centre is the setting for operas, plays and concerts. It is a newer building constructed in a modern architectural style, its most notable feature being the curved, copper frontage embellished with the phrase "In These Stones Horizons Sing," in both English and Welsh.

Millennium Centre

The Millennium Water Tower is a semi-circular sliver tower set directly across from the Millennium Centre. It is basically a tall water feature, with water cascading down its flat, metallic sides. This area of Cardiff Bay was also strange to be in because I had seen these sites before when watching Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood.

Millenium Water Tower

Knowing that it would be dark in several hours, we chose to leave Cardiff Bay and head into the city centre to visit The Cardiff Story, a free museum about the history of the city. I found it very interesting because it was more interactive than most museums and it focused more on the individuals who had lived in the city throughout the years.

All of the exhibits were found in one main room with alcoves dedicated to different subjects like the coal and steel industry, the docklands and the city's beginnings. One station held a dollhouse with each side showing the progression of family life over the past two hundred years. The little rooms were decorated for the time period with hand carved wooden people. With the press of a button some parts of the people would start moving. The little boys sitting at the dinner table holding knives and forks bang their fists on the table. The modern woman typed loudly on her laptop while her husband was in the kitchen cooking.

Caitlin, Amy and Libby had a fun time rolling a dice which was just light dots projected on a table which you touched to roll, and then moving their pieces along a game board designed to relfect the history of Cardiff. The person with the train piece invariably won because it was so much more useful to the development of the city than the horse piece.

We exited the Cardiff Story just before it closed at 5:00pm. Not wanting to wander around Cardiff in the dark, we decided to end our day trip and return to the Cardiff Central train station. Luckily, we only had to wait on the train platform for about twenty minutes as the temperature had dropped considerably with the setting of the sun.

The nearly two hour train ride was uneventful. I wrote notes for my day to aid it writing blog posts later (this post in fact) and then spent the rest of the ride listening to an audiobook version of Peter Pan on my iPod.

Our first day trip was deemed a success. Our main goal of visiting the Doctor Who Experience was attained, and it never rained more than a brief sprinkle.