Knackered From Faffing About All Weekend Part 2

Day of the Dead Ball

After a short recovery from our Thursday night carnival, we managed to make it to the Day of the Dead Ball in Bristol Friday night. The Day of the Dead is originally a Mexican Holiday to remember the deceased. The ball we attended was put on by the Invisible Circus, which is a group of people who dress up eerie, dead looking costumes and face paint. They do various acrobatic acts and walk  amongst the crowd scaring people. Originally, we thought that we were supposed to dress up too. We had decided to go as dead pirates and we were ready in full costumes. It was a good thing that we looked up the event to make sure the dress was costumes. As it turns out, the dress code was slightly more formal than what we had prepared for. Although it would have been funny, I feel that it could have been slightly embarrassing! 

Highlights from the evening:

We got our first taste of Thatcher's Scrumpy cider brewed in the west country. It was excellent and we didn't need many to have a good time. 7% alcohol. 

Genesee was given a long stick. The next thing we knew, there was a man hanging from the ceiling covered in bright colors and paper mache. Yes, Genesee was the lucky girl who got to take a good whack at a human pinata! 

There were also two 12 feet skeletons dancing amongst the crowd. I suppose its hard to explain so you will just have to watch the video. 

Knackered From Faffing About All Weekend Part 1

Where to begin? It is Wednesday and we are just now recovering from our eventful weekend. We traveled south and stayed with a friend in the small English village of Wrington (population 2,500). It really was a beautiful place and our friend and his mother took very good care of us. Our trip contained two very big events; Guy Fawkes Day and an invisible circus.

Guy Fawkes Day

Every November 5^th, the English celebrate Guy Fawkes Day, or Fireworks Day. On November 5^th of 1605, a British mercenary called, you guessed it, Guy Fawkes was arrested in the basement of the House of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder. He was attempting to blow up Parliament in hopes of killing the king who was intolerant of the Catholic religion. However, many innocent people would have been killed as well, so Guy Fawkes Day is actually a celebration of his capture execution and effigies are burnt of the man every year over massive bonfires.

We went to the small town of Ottery St. Mary to celebrate Fireworks night and was treated to a one-of-a-kind experience. The first event was a gigantic bonfire with an effigy of Guy Fawkes hanging over it. Everyone watched and finally cheered while the figure caught fire and slowly burnt. Then a visitor heads to one of the many congested streets in which locals make up teams of 5 or 6 and compete in keeping a tar barrel aflame for as long as possible. All the while carrying it over their shoulders and running through the crowd. One can’t truly appreciate their lives until they are standing in front of a team of 5 gigantic men carrying a gigantic flaming barrel and has a mere second to figure out whether leaping left or right will lead them to safety. Katy had a close call once and wound up on the ground crawling out of harm’s way. We knew what the idea of the event was but nothing could truly prepare us for the crazy tradition. In the video clip we have posted at the bottom, you can see our friend leaning up close for a good shot of the inside of the barrel. However, he almost catches his head on fire when they re-ignite the barrel with lighter fluid. A scary moment for all of us.

Life is Rio Ferdinand

Five days after our departure from America, we are finally settled in our "luxurious" hostel. In the past five nights we have had four different beds, getting a taste of what it's like to be real nomads. We were lucky to have our good friend pick us up from the airport, and even luckier to catch the very last train out of the station. The people we have stayed with have been great and have shown us a really good time. So far, we have done a lot of exploring of the city and are beginning to get a hang of the transportation system. For Halloween, it was the birthday of a friend so he threw a party in a music studio, complete with numerous band performances and a bar. We wanted to dress up as American tourists but didn't have the time or money to pull it together. I guess we will have to wait until next year. 

On Sunday our friends from Bristol and Leamington had to return home and we were left, luggage and all, to fend for ourselves. The hostel where we are staying conveniently has a bar located beneath it. Last night we met a lot of really interesting people from countries ranging from Canada to Barbados. The bartenders also gave us a crash course on Cockney rhyming slang in which "Cockneys", working-class East Londoners, use rhyming words in place of the original word they wish to use. For example, if one were to use the stairs, a Cockney would say they were to use the apple and pears (My Fair Lady may ring a bell). So when we mean life is grand, we say life is Rio Ferdinand! Without a doubt, some of our favorite information so far.

On Thursday, we are taking a bus to visit Ottery St. Mary, a small town in Southwest London where they celebrate Fireworks Day, or Guy Fawkes day, by running through the streets with flaming barrels of tar (http://www.otterytarbarrels.co.uk/index.html). Yes, seriously. Then on Friday we are headed to the Invisible Circus in Bristol (http://www.invisiblecircus.co.uk/) We are very excited for both!

Here are a couple of pictures to sum up our first week.

Halloween

Our Friends who took care of us our first week.