{"id":4291,"date":"2013-11-23T04:00:11","date_gmt":"2013-11-23T02:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johannazweigerintheukparttwo.wordpress.com\/?p=794"},"modified":"2014-11-22T14:53:01","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T14:53:01","slug":"theres-graffiti-on-every-wall-and-no-ones-bothered-06-05-12-05-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johannazweiger.at\/?p=4291","title":{"rendered":"There’s graffiti on every wall and no-one’s bothered (06.05. – 12.05.2013)."},"content":{"rendered":"

My 30th week in England was full of lovely weather (up to 20\u00b0!) and a certain feeling that my time at Derby High was slowly coming to an end. More on that later.<\/p>\n

Monday was – surprisingly – a day off for me as all my lessons on that day had been cancelled in advance. So I met up with Ada, another volunteer for FORMAT13, drinking Costa-coffee, having a nice dinner and enjoying Derby in bloom (loved the flowers!). We also went to a lovely spot next to the river, one that hadn’t seen before so I was super excited.^^<\/p>\n

As I said, this week was kind of dominated by saying goodbye to loads of people at Derby High. My U6-girls had their oral exams on Tuesday, L6 on Friday. And as I found out later, they all did very well. \ud83d\ude42 Thursday was the day when U6 had their “Leavers Service” at a parish church in Littleover. Loads of speeches obviously, one of them was delivered by the Head Girl who also was a student of mine. I still remember one of her many statements very well: “You can take a girl out of Derby High, but you can’t take Derby High out of a girl”. Oh dear, loads of tears … but it was a nice service, especially as they also sang a few songs together. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Even though the week had started with loads of sunshine, it got much worse for the weekend that I spent in Bristol, visiting Eva (another FLA from Austria) and her lovely family. One thing straight away: Bristol’s great, very different from most other places and very colourful, too. So even though the weather was sh*te, we had a brilliant time.<\/p>\n

The first thing that strikes your eye is Bristol’s train station “Temple Meads”. It seems as if this stunning building was taken straight from a “Harry Potter” movie (see pictures below).\u00a0 \ud83d\ude09 After my arrival on Friday I had some time to stroll around in the city so I visited a lovely church named “St. Mary Redcliffe” which is located somewhere between the station and the city centre. Loved the ceiling … very impressive indeed. I also checked out Bristol’s “docks” (the harbour) and many of the city’s graffiti. Bristol’s known for its street artists, one of them becoming more and more famous recently: Banksy. If you’ve never heard of this gentleman you’ve missed some great stuff! By the way: Banksy’s identity is not known until this day, so people are in fact just guessing that he’s from Bristol.^^ Saw two of his original pieces … so I’m sold. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

Saturday was packed with sight seeing: Eva, her daughter and I started the day at St. Nicholas Market, then moved on to the city’s cathedral and Brandon Hill, a lovely\u00a0 viewpoint that provides you with a view all over the city centre. We then moved on to Clifton, the poshest area in Bristol. Its highlight is without a doubt “Royal York Crescent”, a row of mostly white and multi-storeyed buildings that are super expensive of course.^^ I’ve never seen anything like this before, it was just amazing! Not far from the crescent, we had a look at Bristol’s landmark, the (Clifton) Suspension Bridge. And last but least, we walked down Bristol’s “Christmas Steps”, a steep lane full of cute little shops.<\/p>\n

After this very “demanding” day there wasn’t much left to see except for a famous ship called “SS Great Britain” that lies in Bristol’s Harbour (where she was built). It was the world’s longest ship in the mid 19th century and a passenger ship that was transformed into a museum. Unfortunately, not a lot of the interior is from back then, so it all seemed kind of fake, but on the other side you could “go down under” the \u2018sea\u2019 below a massive glass plate and walk along her massive hull and also see the propeller. As it says on the ship’s website: “To stop the ship from corroding the air under the \u2018sea\u2019 is kept as dry as possible by giant dehumidifiers. State of the art twenty-first century engineering safeguarding the future of state of the art nineteenth-century engineering!” Good stuff indeed.<\/p>\n

So thanks Eva for having me! I’ve had a great time with the three of you! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Bristol pics:<\/p>\n