England, nov 12-21

[Swagger]

Hi everyone.

Ill be making a trip over to england in Nov for 9 days, to help get my sister accomodated at her new place with her new baby. While most of my time will be spent with her, and helping her move from london to norwich, I should have a day or two to myself, and Im looking for some advice on what to look for while Im there. What would be some good, exciting solo activities I could pull off over the weekend? Im early 20s, enjoy socializing and meeting people, but I dont tend to fit in at the very high end trendy clubs, although I do like a good time and enjoy dancing.

Traveling solo can be tough, I hear, if you want to party. Are londoners pretty friendly to random americans that come up and talk to them in bars/clubs? I want to have a good time, and to me that means getting to know the locals and partying.

I also want to get in a show while Im over there of my favorite group atm, Pendulum

http://www.myspace.com/officialpendulum

I can see 4 dates that might do well, but I dont know about traveling to and from norwich to these cities; and Id like to hit up the show that would be the most exciting or in the city with the most to do, of these dates/places, so if anyone has been there, some feedback would be great

Carling Academy (Live Tour) Newcastle, England
Nov 17 2007 9:00P
Leeds University (Live Tour) Leeds, England
Nov 19 2007 8:00P
Rock City - All ages (Live Tour) Nottingham, England
Nov 20 2007 12:00A
Leicester University (Live Tour) Leicester, England

I cant find much on them on the web, although I havent had all the time in the world to look; Im taking 18 credits this quarter

This will be my first international trip in 2 years, last place I went to was Japan in 05. I'd consider myself pretty well traveled, but I dont know any english ppl tbh. I was there for 2 days during my last trip to europe 10 yrs ago, but I didnt spend enough time there to really get a feel for the place.

Anyway, this is my first post on this site, I plan on making a few more as I begin to travel more once I graduate here soon.

Thx :D

[lauren313]

Hey, welcome to the boards!

Norwich is a seriously great city! My boyfriend lives there, so I'm a fairly frequent visitor there, and I enjoy it every time, I'm sure your sis will love living there, and you'll enjoy visiting.

Unfortunately, Norwich is a bitch to get to from too many places in this country!!! Your best bet transport-wise would probably be Nottingham. It's around 2.5 hours on the train, but your ticket would be around £30 oneway. I've not been before, but Rock City is quite a well-known venue, so you'd be in for a good night I should think.

For Leicester, you'd have to get a train from Norwich to Peterborough, then Peterborough to Leicester. This is the route that I take to get back to Birmingham, which is a couple of stops after Leicester. The journey would probably take (including waiting time at Peterborough) around 3.5 hours, and cost you maybe £20 one-way. Buses are always an option, but not a very nice one, the journey would probably take you nearer 6 hours. Positive point for Leicester is that it's at a uni, so it would be a really good crowd, and I'm sure you'd have a wicked time!

Leeds will take you around the same amount of time, with one change. Newcastle is around 4 hours on the train, again with one change.

I'd go with Nottingham if I were you. Not too awful to get to, and it's a decent size city too!

Anyway, hope that helps a little!