After our lovely time in Edinburgh, we jumped on a train to Leeds, a town about two hours north of London, to see our friend Lucy. I met Lucy while traveling Eastern Europe about two and a half years ago (Summer of 2014), and we've been good friends ever since!
She was gracious enough to take time off work to show us her city and take us to some amazing places.
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| Yes, I'm a dork and took a photo of the trolley on the train |
Lucy picked us up from the train station and took us to a local place where she knows the owners, and we had some bomb-diggity pizza and sweet potato fries. The Britons sure do know how to make their Italian food!
After lunch, we went by a local park that had actually incorporated a cathedral ruin into it. The park and cathedral are open to the public, so there were families picnicking, playing rugby, and kids running around the stones and grass.
Afterwards, we stopped by a shake shop that made custom shakes to your liking, which meant throwing in a piece of pie, cake, candy bar, ice cream, what have you. Didn't snag any photos of it, unfortunately.
But next was a giant shopping center called the Trinity which encompassed a few square miles, I'm sure!
We found our way into a supermarket in one of the department store's basement (strange, I know), and Evan and I oogled at the different types of eggs they carried. Non-refrigerated and quite colorful. We saw pink, dark brown, and green eggs which depending on the type of chicken.
One thing we love about Europe is there lack of preservatives, hormones, and chemicals used in their food. All of their cows are grass-fed compared to grain-fed American cows. Believe it or not, we could tell a difference! The quality of food in Europe far surpassed that of the States'.
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| These eggs were a light green |
Also, different flavored milk. We had very little exposure to flavored milk in the states, so we were shocked at the range of flavors the UK had. We bought some banana milk, and it was pretty good! Simply tasted like bananas and milk...
Their chocolate milk tasted about the same, but their regular milk was definitley more rich and satisfying.
After wandering the town a bit, we found a place in the mall to eat dinner. The mall was techniacally indoors and outdoors, since the roof didn't connect to the walls of the building. Interesting, considering the UK is notorious for rain and wind...and it was definitley windy that day!
First stop was the Alchemist, a bar that specializes in drinks that change color, change taste, and fizzed with dry ice.
Lucy and I shared two drinks- one that changed color, and one that changed taste. The video is Lucy pouring the different syrups into the color changing one to, well, have it change color.
Evan ordered a daquri-like drink that tasted like bubblegum.
The next morning, Lucy had to work so Evan and I ventured to the local market to look for breakfast and snacks. It was a mix between higher-end products and fresh food, and what Americans consider a flea market. We did score some delicious pastries and a jug of milk to have for breakfast, though.
We stopped by the Corn Exchange, which was a circular building of shops. We think the building used to be the place traders came to exchange their goods, but the only thing going on that day was a bunch of high school-aged kids playing ping pong.
After the markets, we walked to The Royal Armories Museum which Lucy recommended. It had 5 stories of weapons, self-defense tools, and-- you guessed it-- armor dating back centuries.
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| A 5-story column displaying armor and weapons |
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| This man had a fine moustache on his jousting helmet |
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| This man had a lot going on...horns, glasses, and a dripping nose |
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| Whoever rides an elephant into battle is a badass |
At noon, we hopped on another train to head to London!
