[Photos] UK 03 - Chichester Streets/Walking/Roman Walls

[moonvoice]

I enjoyed just walking around Chichester. We were really well-located, even though each of our little flats (all owned by the same person) had something wrong with it. Mum and Simon's on the third floor had no heating (not good, it was fixed towards the end) and tiny televisions but they did have shampoo and conditioner in the shower, Simon Jnr and Queenie's room had a giant television but was dodgy in other ways, our flat had no toiletries, and if you ran the bathroom tap, water would come out of the shower drain. :D

Chichester was cold, gloomy, wonderful. I didn't really feel any profound connection to the land or anything there, though I did appreciate the reminders of Spring and very much enjoyed seeing squirrels (which we don't have here). Some street art, though not much compared to other places, but it was nice to see. Played a lot of Pokemon Go here, lol.


Walking into Chi.




Just me again, being fascinated by the brickwork.



The walk out from the place we were staying at. By the way Google Maps is useless in Chichester, but most people use another app anyway. It was helpful elsewhere though.



The collection of flats where we stayed. Though our building was on the far right, so you can't see it, but it all kind of looks the same anyway. Every morning there were seagulls on the vents, enjoying the heat coming up. In fact, I loved being able to lie down with the windows opening, listening to the gulls every morning and evening.



For Mum, part of the purpose of this trip was to meet extended family she'd previously been barred from seeing due to family drama (which is a very long soap opera style story I'm not going to tell here.) This included her sister Trudy, whom she'd never met before as *her sister* (previously, she met her at her Dad's funeral, where Mum had been instructed to lie and say she was a 'friend of the family' instead.)

This also meant meeting new extended family, and I got to meet my cousin Honey, who was a budding artist and we ended up getting along really well. (In the photo: Honey and my Mum, whose hair is still recovering from chemo).



One of the staff on the plane over gave me a rose. Customs let us take it with us.



Walking past a house, I liked these.



Walking up to the Roman Wall



Loved the little cutout of the owl in this person's window.



Daffodils, or as the locals call them, 'daffs.'



This door marked one of the side entrances to a boarding school for ages three years old and up which seemed pretty fucking monstrous, if you ask me. Like, putting your kid in daycare is one thing, but shoving a three year old in a boarding school? AhhhHHHH. I'm sure it's a very rich and classist thing to do. It looked like a rich, classist school.



Liked the cold-blood horses we saw everywhere, including on the stained glass.





Loved this little bit of street art.



I remember I was really sick and depressed this day. I hadn't yet come down with the virus, I don't think, but I was in excruciating pain due to Fibromyalgia, and in the end I'd left the house to go wandering slowly on my own, while everyone else did social, family things that I was too low on energy to do.







I did end up making it up to the Roman Wall. So, about this wall (on the right), they're the most intact of Roman walls (the Chichester ones) in the South of England. Four main Roman streets still define the shape and look of the city (intersecting at the Market Cross, which has another Roman monument standing there), the walls that surround the streets date from the 3rd century.





Spring



The Market Cross intersection monument.



I did a Pokemon Go raid here. Also, while sitting here, the Chichester Street Markets were on, and there was an older woman hawking her strawberries, bawling out the prices, god she had some lungs on her. Her and the vendor next to her frequently competed to see who could be the loudest and I don't think I'll get 'frESH strawBERRIES two POUND fifTEE' out of my head any time soon.



This should really go into the Arundel Castle post, but that's mostly going to be filled with rage, so instead have a picture of Glen with what he got from the Castle shop. He called him Lance A Little. Yes. Really.

Just picture Glen being like 'which one do you find cuter' (out of two tiny soldiers) and me being like NO, NONE. And Glen being like 'what? you don't love them????' and me being like 'this is on you man, you gotta pick that, oh god' followed by me walking away. Lmao. So while I didn't support the purchase of what Glen calls the 'chibi soldier' I did appreciate how much Glen loved it.

Comments

[cmcmck]

The squirrels you'd have been seeing are American greys and not native- our own little reds are only found further north these days which is such a shame.

[moonvoice]

Yeah, I'm aware that they're the feral grey squirrels, I almost qualified what I wrote and then thought 'no one will care' but it's the internet, lol. I still like seeing them because we still don't have them. There was a lot of good activism in Scotland around the red squirrel in particular.