Tripping

Scotland was good, spent a lot more than I should have. Always a sign of a successful trip :) Not too hungover either.

Today I travelled north once again, however this time a more subdued 80 miles to Birmingham. Why....? Why not? Travelled by train, and took advantage of the upgrade to First Class for £10 deal. So after complimentary snacks, drinks and wider seats I was ready to see what was so great aboutEngland'ss second city.

After negotiating Birmingham New Street Station, and emerging from its cavernous internals, I was faced by the Bullring. Theydon'tt seem to have made a total hash of it like Wembley. Inside its huge, three floors of 160 stores, with some departmental stores reaching 4 or 5 floors. Names such as Debenhams and Selfridges, Dixons and Starbucks create an all together pleasant experience. It seems very bright and airy inside, way better than the Galleries back home.

After wandering around inside for an hour or two we headed out to find if there was a 'High Street' to speak of; only to exit and then walk straight into another shopping centre. So another hour of browsing and contemplation of how to get suchextravagance'ss back to the train. By accident we took a wrong turn and appeared on the High Street itself. Walking along in the 30Celsiuss heat we tried to make sure wedidn'tt look too much like tourists.

Surpriseesurprisee we ended back at another mall, this time slightly smaller but with more high street names. More astonishingly enough was another mall that we didn't venture into, as it compiled nothing but eating establishments.

So it would seem that Birmingham centre is infact a number of malls that are interconnected by areas of Non-Air-Conditioned street sellers. I say this because although there may be a high street to speak of, theres guaranteed to be a way into the same store via the door from the mall.

In other news, England are out of the World cup; as I speak someone is driving around tooting their horn, while an ambulance screams away to pick up the latest suicide victim. Ah well only another 10 weeks til the rainy season, then we can go back to being the miserable bastards we usually are :D