Day 1

The flight over to England was probably one of the best flights in coach you could have. The plane was half empty. Scotty and myself had 4 seats for to ourselves. Having the extra room made it very easy to get some sleep on the way over there. We arrived at 8/9 in the morning and as soon as we were through customs we separated. Scotty had a ride to Wales and I went to figure out how to get to Leeds.

I got my train ticket validated and found out that the train I wanted to catch was not running at that time due to problems. So I took the train to Victoria station instead of King’s Cross and had to take the tube over. When I got to King’s Cross, the next train to Leeds left in five minutes. I decided to just get on incase there were more train problems getting there.

I’m glad I made that decision because I don’t know what the tornado that went through London did to the train schedules. While on the train I talked with a couple guys who the day before went to the Science museum and the “Game On” exhibit. The Game On exhibit was a couple rooms full of video games in a sort of progression of games through time. You were able to play all the games though. Listening to them, I decided that when I met up with Scotty, I would put in a vote to go play some games.

Before I knew it I was in Leeds and about 2/3 hours earlier than I expected. I decided I would try and find Ben’s office. So I obtained a bus map and started walking to the university. The weather was grey and there was a bit of drizzle. Walking from the train station there were walking malls with lots of shopping until I hit the university section. It seemed that every city I went to, the center of the city seemed to have a lot of shopping (Bristol seemed to have the least). It took me about half an hour to get to Ben’s office. When Ben answered the door, it seemed like I had just seen him a week before hand not 8 years ago. It was good to see him. After catching up for 15 minutes or so, I dropped off my bags and went out to wander a bit while Ben finished up his work.

I wandered back the way I came and wandered around downtown Leeds. There seemed to be a lot of covered walking malls. The inside of these malls looked like you were still on the street except if you looked up there was a glass ceiling. In one of these malls, I talked with these two nurses who were raising money by walking around the one of their legs tied together. They asked me for money but at that time all I had was a couple 20 pound notes on me so I had to tell them I didn’t have anything at that time. I tried going back later when I had some coins but they weren’t there then.

After a bit, I found the market area. I really liked the markets in England. The one in Leeds had a huge covered area. There were all kinds of food stalls and a section where the butchers were. Walking by the butcher shops was the first time that I heard people talk that I couldn’t understand a damn thing they were saying. It was not like any language I had heard before.

Around 4 o’clock I met back up with Ben and we took the bus back to his house. I really liked his house but more on that later. The night progressed nicely after that. I met Brigid, Ben's girlfriend but, didn'tget to see much of her that first night because she had to work. Ben made a curry dinner, while I took a much needed shower, and then we walked to the pub and had a couple pints. I really liked the walk. The temperature outside was nice around 45/50 F, it was really moist and it was my first chance to really walk through a residental area. The pub reminded me a two story coffee shop. Can’t remember the name of it, will need to find that out with a couple other things next time I talk with Ben.