Wednesday, I woke up in Betws-y-Coed, Wales and went to bed that night in Birmingham, England. Below are some pictures from the train ride out.
The ride out was beautiful, but I was very sad to be leaving. On top of my somewhat melancholy mood, the trains were absolutely packed, because at this point airports were still closed due to the volcano. There was nowhere to sit, so my friend and I along with half a dozen others had to stand for about an hour on the train until it terminated at some station and there was a mass exodus onto the platform while everyone tried frantically to find their connection. By some great miracle (and the help of a friendly young station worker) we found ours and rode the rest of the way to Birmingham without incident.
At this point I must confess that I have absolutely no pictures whatsoever of our destination city. I try not to judge, but I really found Birmingham rather unremarkable and not very photogenic. It was kind of like Belfast, but with oddly empty streets, lots of sketchy alleyways, and numerous warehouses and construction areas. Our hostel was down a side street and situated between several auto shops under a railway bridge -- I'm not going to lie: I had my doubts when I saw the place.
It quickly revealed itself as a lively and youthful oasis in the midst of its industrial surroundings, however. Every wall was painted a bright, gaudy color and the common room was decorated floor to ceiling with memorabelia from around the world. There was a cozy entertainment room, where guests were watching Lord of the Rings when we came in, as well as every kind of board game and video game you could imagine. They also offered free breakfast and dinner, which was a nice bonus.
If I hadn't been surprised when I walked into the lobby, I sure was when they let us into our room. Rather than the usual bunk beds, this dorm had a wall of capsule beds, or "pods." It was quite a novelty, but the room was crowded and it was near impossible to sleep in them. Plus, mine was VERY pink and dark inside, which I found slightly unsettling for some reason.
We spent the next day exploring the city. After wandering around the city and checking out the Bull Ring market we found our way to the Jewellery Quarter. Believe it or not, much of B-ham's industry was (and still is apparently) made from the jewelry trade. There isn't much to do there if you don't have a couple million pounds to bust, but the one diamond in the rough (no pun intended!) is the unassuming little Museum of the Jewellery Quarter.
Although it only has 2 small galleries, they offer a free tour of the old jewelry factory owned by the Smith & Pepper company. The story of the place is fascinating: The company was founded in 1899 and ran for over 80 years in the building that is now the museum. In the 1980s however, they were still using the old techniques and their facilities were so out of date they were forced to shut down. With that, the owners closed up the shop, leaving everything behind (right down to a full jar of marmite and preserves) and there it remained untouched for almost a decade.
During the tour, the guide demonstrated traditional jewelry making using the tools in the old factory (all of which still worked!). It was absolutely fascinating! Below is a short video I took during the tour so you can see for yourself.
I have tons more pictures from the factory but I think I'll leave it at that for now, lest this post gets obscenely long and tedious. It was quite the enjoyable and relaxing day, all things considered, and I certainly learned more about jewelry making than I ever thought I would!
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