Playing Tourist

HELLO SUNDAY MOURN’

I awoke with plans only to tour Nottingham’s own castle* later in the afternoon. After mindlessly running through my morning routine I opened up the following message from Amy:

Uh, yah! Totally! I scrapped whatever measly breakfast I had been mentally planning and set off to get ready for my newer, better, more posh plans.

Being that it was a Sunday*, Amy had double, triple, quadruple checked that both the White Rabbit Tea Room annnnd the castle would be open. There simply wasn’t room in our itinerary for disappointment. We stumbled around Nottingham’s city centre area, getting lost, asking for directions, forgetting said directions, and repeating the process until lo and behold we spied it up ahead.

Above is what we should have seen. We did see a similar image except the door was closed, the curtain was drawn shut, and the lights were off. Oh yeah, and the door was locked. Yep, it was closed.

Not ready to give up we found a nearby establishment and looked to see if it met all of our criteria. Is it open? Check. Serving brunch? Check. Does it have tea? Check. Whattabout scones?! Check, check, check! Maybe it was because our expectations had been mercilessly crushed by The White Rabbit, but by the end of our leisurely meal the disappointment from earlier had been long forgotten. In it’s place were full bellies and even fuller hearts (cue cheesy music).

Below is Katie’s Egg Florentine. I couldn’t have been bothered to whip out my camera at the mo’, for my hands were a lil’ occupied holding a fork and a knife (the instruments for which I used to stuff my face). I can assure you my Eggs Royale looked nearly identical, just replace the spinach with salmon (mmmmm protein!).

As we left Amy (brunette on the left) was visibly nervous that the castle wouldn’t be open. Who could blame her though? Websites here clearly aren’t held to the same integrity that they are back home. Theheheh. We arrived at the castle and quickly this conglomerate of international students formed. In total there ended up being 22 of us. Woah!

We entered through the gates and saw the castle! OooOoooh so intriguing. Much mystery. Thanks to the blood n’ gore that had surrounded Oxford’s buildings history, I expected much of the same from this Nottingham Castle (because every old building is like the same, right? Right?). I buzzed around from plaque to plaque looking for key words. My list included but was not limited to:

• death
• hanged
• gallows
• pyre
• burned
• sentenced
• escaped
• beheaded

No such luck really. I found a handful that mentioned the Royal Sherwood Foresters Militia and the Robin Hood Rifles, but alas, no beheadings. We circled the perimeter of the grounds taking in the panoramic view of Nottingham.

We entered into the castle* expecting to see some real medieval goodies. Like the set of Tudors or How to Train Your Dragon. Surprise! It’s actually now a museum! I looOOoooOove museums and I attribute this mainly to my Grandma & Pop-Pop (thanks for all those birthday trips y’all!). However touring a museum with 22 international students is not exactly the same.

It felt like we were running through the museum at a dead sprint. I think we covered the four floors in under 45 minutes. NEW RECORD! YAY! After everyone had quickly bustled through the art hall I quickly got with the program and followed suite. Fingers crossed I absorbed some knowledge/culture through osmosis!? On the way out I snapped this selfie with a Lord Byron bust. Sah gucci.

As we left mumbling ’bout how yet again our expectations hadn’t quite been met we looked back and it was clear that the joke was on us. Our departing view was the stuff postcards are made of*. This quickly prompted a mini photo shoot. Some of results are pictured below.

^^Not ready^^

annnnnnnnd got it!

We scurried along to join the rest of the gang at Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (est 1189). This pub was rumored to have been the oldest in England*. The real hot spot for the crusaders back in the day. This storyline somehow morphed into a running joke that Jesus himself visited the pub. So now not only have I wined n’ dined where J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis did, but also Jesus. Man! I’m on a roll!

Of course we were sidetracked by the Robin Hood statue.

But we made it! Only to find our clique already one pint in!

After everything it was still an A+ day. I’m really really reaaaaallly lucky to have been placed with such an awesome crew.

Muchos besos!

*Somehow, after like day one, my flatmates dubbed me as Weird-Castle-Girl. Apparently I get really excited whenever the topic of castles comes up. Apparently I also make sure that this topic comes up often. Whatevah.

*For those who aren’t in tha know, Sunday in Europe is not the same as Sunday in ‘Merica. Stores here close (if they’re even open) at 4:30pm or 5:00pm. I was told by my Aunt & Uncle that this isn’t so much as a religious thing anymore as it is a matter of principle. I was also warned it’s much worse on continental Europe. Meh.

*Nottingham’s Castle actually isn’t technically a castle anymore. The original was almost demolished in its entirety in 1649. Lucky for us, the Duke of Newcastle built a mansion on the same grounds. Not so lucky, rioters burnt it to bits in 1831. In 1878 it was reopened as the Nottingham Castle Museum. According to one of the cooler exhibits, it kinda-sorta holds the same layout as the original castle.

*Shocker! There was a postcard of this image in the gift shop (and I bought it)! Ha!

*There are also several other world’s/England’s/Nottingham’s oldest pubs, so who knows. Guess I’ll just have to visit them all! Ohohoho!