Kat's B-day and Some Other Stuff

Scroll down for middle of the week, birthday update! 

Since the Paris trip was called off, and I’d been feeling a bit sick, this was just a calm week. I finally did some work, went for tea with friends and started planning other trips - specifically sorting out what’s happening for Christmas. Steve and I have been going back and forth, on the list so far is is Florence, Italy, Barcelona, Spain, Portugal and then back to Bodenseehof for a week. 

English winters are soggy and windy, but not too cold yet. It’s tricky planning day outings since the weather’s been super unpredictable, but hopefully this weekend will give us enough sun to visit some more areas around town. This week has been a bit more chill, kitchen table conversations, and lots of time walking around town. It was also was Lighting Up Canterbury, they’d been putting up lights around town and they finally flipped the switch. Streets were packed, lights were on, and they even had a little fake snow machine to make everything feel like Christmas. We walked around all the stores and looked at Christmas jumpers and decorations till the stores closed. 

After a work day, which was intercut with binge watching Orphan Black at the AKA house, we wandered into town and I finally went to a pub for dinner. Chiara, Alexis, Amy, Abigail and I walked down to the Black Griffon, which I chose soley because of it’s appearance and awesome name. I ordered a steak and ale meat pie and a cider, and was jokingly berated by some gentlemen at the bar for wearing a Christmas jumper in November. It’s such a laid back and homey atmosphere. There are no servers, if you want something you go up and ask for it, there are couches and games so you just stay as long as you like. There are no wait lists or rushing people out, if the place is full you go a few blocks down and try the next pub. 

After church on Sunday Chiara and I went charity shopping (thrift shops = charity shops in England). We didn’t get an accurate count, but there’s about 12 on one street so you can make a day of just going through them all. There was an R2D2 onsie in a store… I resisted… for now. From there I walked along the old city wall to get back home. 

(Not a lot of photos this time, sorry) 

Ok! It was Kat's 21st Birthday on Wednesday so we had a party to celebrate this beautiful human :) Here's photos!