Leaving the train station we walked up High Street, which crosses this bridge as you go:
This part of the city has a large commercial area with lots of shops. We did stop at a couple different places and do some money-spending. Then we continued on up the hills into the older areas
At the top of the town are both a castle (which was later turned into a prison... two of my favourite historic things in one!) and a cathedral. To get to them you have to walk up a very aptly named road: Steep Hill. I tried to get pictures showing how steep this is, but it doesn't actually show.
New roommate at the bottom showing an uphill look.
From the midway point, a downhill look.
The walk was quite worth it however. This is what greets you at the top of the hill:
From here you can turn right to go to the Cathedral
Or left to go to the Castle. I chose castle, but unfortunately there was renovation work happening so the scaffolding prevented pretty pictures. Also part of the castle was closed, so I only got to walk part of the walls. However I did get some nice pictures from those walls.
It was a very, very hot day and there was absolutely zero shade on the walls. So I didn't stay up there long and instead went inside to tour the jail area. The most interesting part about the jail was the chapel. This jail was retrofitted to fit the separation model where prisoners were to be kept completely isolated. To make this work they had cubicles in the chapel. Prisoners wore masks to enter and filed in one by one. As each prisoner found their cubicle they closed the door so that they were isolated from the other prisoners and only then could they remove their masks. They had slanted benches to sit on which made it so they couldn't relax during the service at all, keeping them awake and alert for times as long as three hours on Sundays while listening to service.
Beyond being really creepy looking, especially with the dummies, this is such a strange and interesting approach to separation. Craziness!
After that I left the castle and met with my roommate again. We walked into the cathedral, but didn't go all the way in or anything (had to save something for the next time!). It was stunningly beautiful, and I found it very peaceful.
After that we took a random road and got purposefully lost exploring the city. When we found ourselves back at the main area we headed down for lunch. After a slight detour involving going the opposite way from what we were meant to, we made it to Wagamama. It is an Asian-fusion place where Jenny and I had lunch in London. Apparently it is super popular here. I definitely enjoyed it. We grabbed a quick ice cream (it was a hot day after all!) and walked back to the train station so we could make it back in time for our evening event.
Said evening event was a meet and greet for the new Canadians who had arrived so far and the Canadians who have been here for a while. I had a lot of fun, and met a lot of really nice seeing people. I am definitely nervous but also VERY excited to start training on Monday.
I love and miss you! But am settling in well and looking forward to the adventures ahead (both work and play).
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