Birmingham, England

Happy Weekend Everyone! Gosh, it has been a long week and I am so glad it’s the weekend. 🙂 I hope everyone’s week was great and that you are now relaxing because you deserve it!

Last weekend, Emma (a fellow Luther student) and I decided on a whim to get away since we had reading week this week. So we decided to run of to Birmingham for 4 days (Friday-Monday). This was a much needed break because things were getting a bit stressful with class workload. We came back to Nottingham refreshed and focused.

Birmingham is definitely a city I would recommend taking the time to explore. It is the second largest city in England, so you can imagine the several neighborhoods there are. Emma and I did not get to all the neighborhood, but we did get all of the city center explored and its near surround areas.

Day 1:

We took the train and arrive early evening on Friday. There is going to be great advice in a few moments so keep reading! It turned out that the hostel we booked was in a less than ideal place. It got great reviews on hostelworld.com, but we learned the hard way that extra research is required. In other words, CHECK THE LOCATION! We orginally booked a mixed dorm, but the receptionist kindly switch us two over to a private double for a small charge. Since the neighborhood did not feel the safest, we made it a priority to get back to the hostel before 8PM each night. I am sure we would have been fine, but better safe than sorry.

Our first night there, were stumbled onto area that was very hip. We paid a one pound to get into the area and there were food trucks from different areas of the world. We had some Caribbean style fried chicken with homemade coleslaw and sauces. Very delicious! After dinner, we looked online and found an indoor 18+ mini golf. The outside of the facility looked like an abandon warehouse, but the inside was buzzing with fun music and lights.

Day 2:

This was a very relaxing day spent inside since it was raining all day. We went to a coffee shop to chat and do some reading. Emma was reading a fun romantic book, while I was getting some research reading done for my final paper of the semester. Around noon, we went to the largest indoor open market. It sold everything you could possibly need! You can buy anything from jewelry to fresh fish. Out side the market was an enormous fresh fruit and vegetable market! There is nothing better than having fresh fruits and vegetables.

We lost track of time and realized we had not had lunch and were starving! So we went up to the first place we found, which happened to be a burger joint. BEST decision! Neither of us have had a burger since leaving the US, so this place will nailed it. Everything was fresh and the burgers were handcrafted and gourmet. That burger filled us up to the point where we skipped dinner. Don’t worry, we had dessert. ;).

The Birmingham library is the place to go! The architecture is one of a kind. The inside is breathe taking. There is a total of 9 floors and a secret garden! We were able to walk out onto the terrace to get a beautiful view of the sprawling city. If you are going to a library, you have to read there! That is what we did for a couple of hours.

We walked around the massive mall. I am pretty sure it is bigger than Mall of America! There were even more stores outside the mall, so we spent a good amount of time exploring those shops.

Day 3:

This was an art filled day. We checked out the art gallery after going for brunch and coffee. Emma and I do understand art as much compared to our flatmates, but there were some fun and interesting paintings. My favorite was statue of a Jesus on a female and male body with wings. The artist was playing with religion and female and male bodies. It was an intriguing piece.

This was a pretty chill day. After the museum it was almost time for dinner, so we walked around a little bit, then went to dinner. We treated ourselves to some Vietnamese cruisine for the night. It felt like a movie night, so we went to get some Ben and Jerry’s before heading back to the hostel.

Day 4:

This was my favorite day! Emma and I went to Cadbury World!! Since we went to a Monday, we got extra discounts on top of the student discount. Score for us! They gave out several candy bars and a cup with melted chocolate with a couple of toppings. YUM! There were interactive activities with chocolate. For instance, we got to write our names in chocolate and chop and spread some chocolate. There was even a cute ride we go to do through a decorated room.

Overall, this was a great and relaxing weekend! It was very much needed for the both of us. In a way, this was our form of self care. 🙂 We live in a time where things keep moving forward and we forget that we are human and we can only do so much. If we take a moment to stop and take care of our physical and mental health, we can achieve so much more without getting burnt out. So the two important advice I have is do extensive research of the hostel you decide to stay in AND remember to take a moment for yourself. 🙂