Today is Sunday, and we touched down in London this morning at about 5 o’clock. After collecting our luggage, we boarded a bus for Birmingham. The bus ride lasted about two hours, and honestly that was when most of us finally got some sleep after traveling. Even though we were exhausted, we were excited to see the city. So, once we arrived in Birmingham, we stored our luggage in the hotel lobby and headed out to explore the city and get lunch.

Our first stop was O’Neill’s, a pub-style restaurant near the hotel. The restaurant had a wide variety of food, and one of the regular customers told us there was really no bad choice on the menu. While we were eating, a few soccer matches were playing on the TVs around the restaurant. The main match everyone seemed to be focused on was Burnley versus Aston Villa. Based on the reactions from other people in the restaurant, we wanted Aston Villa to end. However, the match ended in a 2-2 tie. Even though Aston Villa did not win, it was nice to immediately get a taste of England’s soccer, or “football”, culture.

After O’Neill’s, we went on a walking tour guided by Dr. Marks to get a better understanding of the city around us, both the layout and the culture. During the tour, we walked along the canals, explored the city’s art museum, went down New Street, through the shopping district, and even saw Saint Martin’s church. The canals in Birmingham were unexpected but beautiful. We were surprised to learn that the city actually has more miles of canals than Venice does! Dr. Marks told us that the canals were especially useful to the city during the industrial revolution as they were used to transport coal. But the canals are mainly a tourist attraction today, some people do live in boats along the canal or have small shops though. The canals are also lined with many cute shops and restaurants.

Another interesting thing that we noticed was there were many bull motifs, such as statues, around the city. Most notably was Ozzy the Bull, a giant metal statue of a bull located in the center of the Birmingham New Street station. Ozzy the Bull was created for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. After the games, it was adopted by the city as a symbol of strength and pride. Additionally, bulls are historically important to Birmingham. This is due to the Bull Ring market. This market used to be an important place for trading goods, such as cattle. In the Bull Ring market is Saint Martin’s church. Although the trading market has been replaced with a modern shopping center, Saint Martin’s church still stands in the middle of it.