England, Part 2 (ok not so quick)

So for my second part of my journey I headed up to Birmingham where I met up with Amy to stay w/ her at her parents house. Although Birmingham was not the most exciting of cities (sorry guys) it was great to see Amy, and her family was way too nice in hosting me. So I spent a day in B-ham, where after eating breakfast on Amy's boat I met up w/ sophie, kate, and phil and we went to a science museum was made for 10 yr olds, but still enjoyed it. Our fave part? The 3 screen 3 character part where we got to preform surgery... very, very graphic surgery. It really was great seeing everyone. The next day I did the tourist thing and headed for stratford-upon-avon, being as I usually am I got a late start and got in around 2:00. so I went to see the 3 Shakespeare houses in the center of town, and took some time to walk around, then headed out on a tourist open top double decker bus to drive out to see the other 2 houses (outside only). I then returned to the house and was amazed by what American TV transfered over (one tree hill and not gilmore girls, seriously?). Next day I went up w/ sophie to sheffield. I spent a lazy day sleeping in before grabbing cheap dinner. Next day I explored sheffield and the galleries, day after that I went to a small country town in the peak district hathersage (which is known for being near rock climbing) to do some kind of hikeish thing, but just walked arouond the hilly country town and looked at sheep. Then the sky turned black (and the wind began to whip) so i decided to head back to sheffield and catch a movie (ps i love you... ps i hated it). That night I took a 5 hr bus, got into gatwick at around 3:45, waited in the airport and ended up having to ruin my amazing (or really sophie's amazing) packing job because they told me my bag was too wide (it would have fit). So after being grumpy and feeling like I was going to throw up (honestly that feeling lasted until about 2 days after i got into rome) i finally made it onto the airplane and got some sleep before....