English Christmas

As Erica and I were home in November (see above), and I got to partake in Thanksgiving we decided to experience an English Christmas. With visions created by Dickens we had Great Expectations, and we were not disappointed.

We had a nice two week official holiday; the University was closed from the 23rd to the 5th. We partook in Christmas week in Guildford (pronounced Guilford) and were invited to dinner near Basingstoke.

We ate so much delicious food and tried new Christmas day treats such as ginger wine; elderflower wine; roast lamb; pork and chestnut stuffing, which was rich and flavorful along with being breadcrumb free;  crackers (inedible but fun and toy/gift included!); and trifle, a layered dessert consisting of sponge cake, jams, and custard. A few brisk morning jogs along the River Wey helped burn off the calories. For Boxing Day we went shopping and played games. On Saturday when non-merchandising locations reopened, we took a trip to Stonehenge and the best Indian curry in the South East. Stonehenge was exceptional since it was only 5 days after the solstice and the stones framed the sunset.

So much good food!

Our friends exploring Woodhenge, a nearby and associated neolithic site.

After parting goodbye to our wonderful hosts and fellow lodger, we hired a car, and I drove us back up north to frolic in the snow covered Peak District surrounding Thor's cave.

Climbing deeper into the cave. One cannot go very deep.

The next day we went to see the Ewloe castle hidden in the woods, and explore Flint—namely the English castle, Aldi, and a Polish foods store.

The Welsh castle.

The shopping was for New Year's Eve dinner with our friend Sohan, who travelled down from Edinburgh. After dinner we partook in fireworks by the Liverpool docks. After a late night we rested on the first day of 2015 before heading to York and Newcastle.

In York, we wandered the Shambles and went to the Yorkshire museum before enjoying Evensong at the York Minster, our first Anglican service. By the way, the Yorkshire puddings are really delicious (imagine combining aspects of waffles, crepe, and pizza dough) and nothing like American pudding, including bread pudding. Before Newcastle, we surveyed the Roman bath at Chester's Roman fort. Sohan and I concluded that is was well-designed and well-situated in front of the River Tyne. We got some great pictures of Hadrian's wall with frost-covered grass and a full moon. After a brief survey of Newcastle's castle and bridges, we dined at an excellent Japanese restaurant (St. Sushi). The next day we saw the Tynemouth castle and priory before leaving Sohan at the train station and driving back to Liverpool.

Autumn adventures!

We have been having a gorgeous autumn here in Europe :) a couple of weekends ago I spent some time visiting friends (old ones and new ones!) in Stockholm for a concert/hang-out weekend. There the colors were in full-view and we had a day of strolling around the parks near the city center.

Stockholm!

I missed these leaf piles the past few years :)

yellow!

orange!

hanging out with Dragan, Kuba, and Henric

Last weekend Austin planned a lovely birthday trip for us in Wales! I think my favorite hikes in the UK so far. Not too busy, gorgeous scenery, nice place to stay and friendly people, and some lovely fall colors to go with it all :) happy to be so close to this gorgeous place, I want to come back in winter too if Austin thinks he can handle the winding roads :D

our first hike around a glacial lake

on the big descent from up in the hills

whee!

gorgeous sun and shadows

the end of the first day hike

a really nice guy took a photo of both of us :)

even more sun :D

slate quarries 

Caernafon castle and the hills we just came from

Today we took it easy (Austin is finishing up a paper for an upcoming deadline) but we took advantage of a warm and sunny afternoon. We hopped on the local train across the Mersey and did this really lovely walk in a park Austin found earlier this summer. Nice quiet forest away from the busy city, that fresh autumn air, and I even saw a FOX :D but of course he was fast and shy so he got away from us before I could take a photo.

a HUGE tree that had fallen over, because I pushed it :P (just kidding)

someone carved a dragon head into this log!

Next weekend if the weather is good again we will probably try to do another Pennine hike before November sees us traveling back to the states again. Until then its time for some relaxing after a busy weekend already :P

Happy anniversary! And new photos uploaded

Can't believe it's been two years since we got married :) Along with celebrating our wedding anniversary with a trip to Northern Ireland the weekend before, we also enjoyed some lovely dinners at home and out in Liverpool.

Austin made us some lovely pasta after a busy day of work, and then later in the week we had some amazing sushi and some of the best Japanese food we have had in a while. A good way to celebrate and looking forward to more celebrations to come :D

I also finally uploaded photos after a month of being busy, so stuff from the past month is now on Picasa for all to see here

Dinner on our actual anniversary

Sushi and japanese! Amazing.

Winter is Coming ...

Cooler weather is quickly on its way here up north! We had a great summer and topped off August with some wonderful trips. Looking forward to my parent's visit next week as well to kick off September the right way :) maybe they will bring a last bit of warm weather with them before it's sweater and tea season here in England.

I haven't even had time to look at all my photos from Finland, Estonia, and Northern Ireland yet-so many great shots I don't even know where to start! Here's a few pictures that were sitting on my phone. We had a wonderful trip to Helsinki to visit our good friends Dragan and Sohan and really enjoyed our ferry trip to Tallinn to see the lovely capital of Estonia. Last weekend was a bank holiday weekend here so we decided to make an early anniversary trip to Northern Ireland. Amazing views, good weather (windy but not rainy) and a fun way to celebrate two years of marriage. It was also quite fun to draw parallels between this trip and our honeymoon in Maine, of which there were quite a few. I do like the Irish accent better, though!

Helsinki together for the first time :D And the Finns can't spell my name

At the pier getting ready to get on the ferry

Lunch with two of my favorites :) and Azerbaijani food :P

Old town Tallinn

Epic Ireland :D

 The good ol' rocky coastline :)

This trip may or may not have been inspired by Game of Thrones :P We even went to winterfell!!