From Glasgow, I flew to Birmingham to meet up with another friend. He picked me up at the airport, bless him! We spent a few hours catching up, had lunch at a nice little café and went to a nature park, where we walked up a hill and sat on a bench for an overview of the city. It was nice to reconnect and chat; soon he had to return to his home town and I went to my airbnb. The place was in a very residential area in the southern outskirts of Birmingham and had a strange layout with no windows, just a couple of skylights. I only stayed there for a couple of days, but in hindsight, it would have been better to just save the accommodation cost and fly off again later on the same day.
Birmingham was forgettable. I took the bus and train to the city centre, a one-and-a-half-hour ride, to see what it is all about. Well, I did find a cathedral that was not too exciting (not after being in Edinburgh), but the main feature was the commercial pedestrian zone. I rushed through crowds of people coming from a wide cross section of countries and cultures, and since I’m uncomfortable in crowds and shopping is generally the worst pastime I could possibly imagine, I just wanted to get out of there, though I was still hoping to discover something interesting. I guess the coolest thing I saw was a furious bronze bull in front of a shopping mall. While there were a few cool older buildings, as you can see on the photos, mostly it was an uninspiring visit. I also found that the Brummies (people from Birmingham) were not quite as welcoming and friendly as the Scots, making it overall a less than mediocre experience.
On my way back home, the bus made a long stop at what looked like a terminus station in the middle of residential nowhere, and everyone got off. Google maps told me that I could walk to my airbnb in twenty minutes, so I started out but then lost my energy in the heat and sun. I made it to a bus stop and got on the next bus—well, it did not go the way google predicted, and the bus driver seemed helpless when I asked him how I could get to my destination from where I was. A passenger was so nice to tell me that I could change to the ”right” bus at an upcoming station, and he would show me where. It was still a 15-minute ride until the guy got off with me and pointed to my bus stop on his way to the pub. That was indeed nice of him. It took another twenty minutes for the bus to come, and by the time I finally got home, it had become a two hour and forty minute journey. The detour did give me the questionable opportunity to see some of the residential outskirts of the city. I also missed my chance to have lunch at the café I’d been to earlier (that actually had decent food)—by the time I got there, the kitchen was closed.
My last full day in Birmingham was rainy with thunderstorms. I spent the day inside my sweltering but windowless airbnb with closed skylights due to the rain, mostly spending my time writing. I wish I had just gone to Bucharest immediately rather than waste my time here in pricy England.
Cool that you had a friend there to meet you! You are certainly getting to know buses in different cities… I have got you out shopping before, and it wasn’t the absolute worst past time. We made it fun! At least, in my head, we did 🙂