British | England Adventures

As previously mentioned in my most recent post, I met a band called The Four Roads during my visit to Canterbury. If I had to compare them to another band, I’d say they sound similar to Mumford and Sons. After lunch, we went to talk to the band and see what they were all about. My friend that I was with was hesitant to go over and talk to them, but I thought, why not?! We are probably only going to come to Canterbury once in our lives, no one knows us here, so why not go make some new friends? We went over to the boys and they asked where we were from, so I said “Boston!!”. They were immediately struck by our American accents and the mention of Boston. They were playing music so we didn’t have a good chance to talk that much. Being the weird teenage girls that my friend and I are, we wrote messages on American dollar bills and tossed them in the boys’ guitar cases. We also took a picture of ourselves, and the boys happened to jump in the background! We took a card with the link to their Facebook page on it, and we were on our way.

A few weeks later, I noticed that one of the members of the band, named Jonas, posted something on Facebook that mentioned looking for the American girls that he had recently met. A British boy in a band was looking for me… how awesome is that?! I was able to connect with Jonas over Facebook, and to this day we still talk! We skyped for the first time about a month ago, and he even sang me a song! He sang “I Will Wait” by Mumford and Sons. How sweet! I’m so glad I talked to the band in the first place when I was in Canterbury; I was able to make a new long distance friend from it!

Check out The Four Roads!

Sadly, the day has come. Our last full day in the gorgeous country of England. We boarded the bus early in the morning, and took our last drive through the countryside of England. After a few hours of gazing out the window listening to Coldplay on my iPod, we reached Canterbury! I had read the Canterbury Tales in my high school senior english class prior to this trip, and did not particularly enjoy them. I’m not sure what I disliked the most: the story lines? the difficult language? the characters? What ever the reason may have been, let’s just say the Canterbury Tales were not my cup of tea. Our first stop in Canterbury was of course, the Canterbury Tales Museum. Even though I hated the stories, I was obviously willing to keep an open mind about the museum. It was actually really fun! We took a walk through each of the story lines, with the characters, quotes, settings, and everything! The effects and props were slightly aged, which added a humorous touch when a character’s movement malfunctioned or got stuck. The sound effects also added to the enjoyment in the museum. My friends and I screamed a few times when we heard thunder strike while we were walking through each of the stories. Besides the fun that the museum offered, I was able to understand the tales even more! Seeing the stories live and up close made them more fun and more interesting to learn about. I hope my english teacher back in America was impressed about my knowledge of the Canterbury Tales after this trip!

After the Canterbury Tales Museum, we took a walk over to the Canterbury Cathedral! This cathedral was beautiful, with it’s classic British architecture, stained glass windows, and tons and tons of seats for all of the visitors and worshippers. I grew such a huge appreciation for buildings like these cathedrals in England. Nothing in America can compare to the beauty of the churches and cathedrals in Europe. We took a walk through the Cathedral and briefly learned about the history of Canterbury. Unfortunately, our bus was leaving within the hour so we really had to rush through the tour. Next was lunch! We had an hour of free time, so my friend and I headed over to a cafe to grab some sandwiches. On our way, we saw a group of 4 boys playing guitar and singing in the area called The Buttermarket. Being the average American teenage girls that we are, we had our eyes peeled for any attractive British guys throughout the whole trip. These ones especially caught our eyes because they were singing! Come on, who doesn’t love cute, British musicians? We ate our lunch quickly and literally ran over to see the boys again. Next post, all about this band, The Four Roads! Stay tuned.