Blogs from Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

The sun came out the wind blew strongly from the south and the rain stayed away as we walked from the Bewley's Hotel into the heart of Leeds, with a stop at a Starbucks for breakfast. Leeds is a very busy and one would say one of the neater cities we have been to in the UK. The population is very mixed multicultural and their shops range from the low cost to the exclusive. We saw $10 watches and one over $25,000. The new Trinity Leeds has many many pluses, but may also be the cause of some stores in other parts of the city centre closing. There are quite a few lanes and "mini malls" with their own features. There are also many "civic" buildings such as the Town Hall, Museum (closed on Mondays), Art ... read more

Hiya! I have alighted in Leeds as a PhD student in Tibetan Buddhism at University of Leeds. It's hard to believe that only a year ago I was preparing a trip to Asia with a group of Turkish students at Robert College in Istanbul. But I've already nearly completed my first year in the Theology and Religious Studies department - it has been positively 'enlightening' working on my doctorate studies. So I thought I'd keep a blog on the fieldwork to places here in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. May it be a source of entertainment for any interested readers - it has certainly been an interesting experience thus far. Namaste! Layne... read more

LONDON AND LEEDS, ENGLAND - SIGHTSEEING (PART 1) I am going to write the English part of the trip in a few sections, because some of the sights we have visited have been real surprises and deserve mention on their own….. We got into London, and was met by our Best Man, Ian Wheeler, which was appropriate since we are celebrating our 25th on this trip. We stayed with him and his wife Annette for three nights and had a lovely time. If ever you need a Bed and breakfast in the outskirts of London, Chez Wheeler is the place for you! We would come down to a wonderfully set table with cereals, fresh fruits, yogurts, coffee or tea, toast or pancakes or anything cooked if our heart desired. The first day we just ran an ... read more

June 24th: Wishes DO come true! The weather is gorgeous today and I've been all around Leeds. It has been a day of smells, that lovely post rain smell.... to sort of quote Outkast it's just "so fresh, so clean" being that Leeds is a University city there is also the smell of Saturday night's vomit congealing on the footpath, but being a SUNNY Sunday there is also the welcome aroma of BBQ, hmmm. Got the Newcastle to Edinburgh train booked at Leeds Station and wandered off to ramble around Leeds Uni, Hyde Park, Meanwood park and my old 'hood'. I've been seeing a good bit of that 'northern hospitality' people being happy to stop and converse with me even though they don't know me. I wandered back into town, taking more photos than most Leeds ... read more

Goddamn passport issues. Having already wreaked havoc with earlier holidays this year to Turkey and Norway, my own passport issues had now reared their head and meant that I couldn't travel overseas on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Weekend. Four-day weekends are oh so rare in the UK, so when they come around I would usually append a few days leave onto them for a proper trip away. Without getting into detail, I wasn't completely sure if I would be able to travel overseas for the long weekend until quite late on, so I didn't have anything organised for quite a while. Just because you can't travel overseas doesn't mean you can't have a decent holiday of course. I've said many times that I haven't done as much tra... read more