Hello HELLO~~
I have just come back from Sheffield! And will be setting out to Edinburgh soon! Ah so much traveling so excited so excited. 😀 😀
So Sheffield is REALLY close to the Peak District National Park in England which is the OLDEST and BIGGEST in England AND is near something called the Chatsworth House (you should google it) where all the Dukes of Derbyshire (I think) live AND WHERE PRIDE AND PREJUDICE WAS FILMED. Yes!!!! Mr. Darcy ahhh!!!
But before we get to pictures of Sheffield (which I mentioned in my last post is where my mom studied her Masters and thus I was making a mini pilgrimage to see where she spent a year of her life in her early 20’s…) I also visited ANOTHER majorly historic place last week…The Eagle And Child pub!! It’s a pub in Ox where Tolkien and CS Lewis and a bunch of other writers met and wrote in!!! Super cool! See pictures below.
This is the room where they met:
Hence books on the wall…?
The nachos that I shared with Michelle and her boyfriend Chris who was visiting 😀
My very delicious melted cheddar and spinach pie:
Alright on to Sheffield!!
I stayed in a SUPER cute Airbnb with a host named Helen who’s an artist and her daughter recently left the house to study at Leeds which I’m assuming is why Helen started Airbnbing out the room.
All the paintings on the walls around the house are originals! They’re all her works!!!
 
Isn’t it such a cute place?? And it was a short walk from Sheffield city center.
OKAY so I arrived on Friday evening, and Saturday I spent the ENTIRE day at the Chatsworth House, which was SO cool!! Just so super fancy. And I can’t believe the current duke and duchess (who are like the 11th Duke and Duchess of Derbyshire I think) live here!! And they’ve got like grandchildren and everything…
THIS IS THEIR LIBRARY. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT. If I had a library like this I would cry.
Maze garden and rock garden outside:
They have their own sculpture exhibit IN THEIR HOUSE!!
Oh and this is what passports looked like back then!
And omg can you imagine having a meal in this dining room??
And their great hall for receiving guests…
Casually a bed that could fit five of me lying side by side:
More princess beds…
I think this was part of the master bedroom…
And of course so much China. So much. All over the house. I won’t even include all the pictures here, but trust me. So much.
And then I also got to hang out with Helen and her partner Gary and her nephew Will and her friends Joseph!! It was actually SO great having a kind of family and home base in Sheffield!! I mean I love traveling alone because you get to sightsee at your own pace and skip things or stay longer at things at your own discretion, and don’t have to stop to eat or use the restroom or whatever when your travel partners want to. But I don’t like coming home to a hotel or hostel at the end of a long day of sightseeing alone so Airbnb and couchsurfing are totally the perfect fit for me!! It was so great coming back to a HOME and being able to cook food (I found a Chinese supermarket in Sheffield! Just randomly! Was so happy.) and have people to talk to about my day…. 🙂
Oh and at Joseph’s house (where we watched a very good film called Five Broken Cameras by the way; it’s a documentary about the Israel/Palestine conflict) I got to hold his pet ferret. Yes, a ferret. I know!! See below.
Joseph also cooked us a VERY healthy and nutritious vegetarian meal!! This was so tasty: beets, lettuce, sweet potato, goat cheese…
Aaaand that was my adventure in Sheffield! Quite a weekend! Packed a LOT into two days…and now I’m off to Edinburgh this Thursday until next Monday! I’ll be couchsurfing for the first time–I’ll tell you all about it next week. Can’t wait!
Cheers,
Em