There And Back Again (From Birmingham)

Yes, yes, Birmingham has its beautiful places. There, it's out.

It's also got enough to offer to entertain yourself, good places to eat at and to leisurely take a stroll in the sun.
But it's more like a huge present clumsily wrapped in torn up old newspapers and with lots of hideous padding to push aside to get through to the treats you deserve and, let's be honest, can expect from UK's second city.

I was lucky to have spent one night in this city so I could invest enough time to find these beautiful and charming places.

My favorites were undeniably the canals, the most romantic place in "Brum" as the citizens like to call their hometown. The canals are a system of historic waterways interspersing a part of the city and which were once used to transport the coal fueling the Industrial Revolution. The canals are still in use today, but to transport goods more friendly to the environment like tourists and mobile breakfast facilities (yes, you can have your breakfast on one of these long narrow boats).
It is a perfect place to relax in one of the many cafés or to take a walk along the red brick buildings and iron bridges, near to the water.

Alongside the canals is Broad Street, not very promising in daylight, but supposed to be one of the highlights in Brum's nightlife.
The National Sea Life Centre is situated nearby as well and was really worth the visit on my second day just for the means of relaxing with perfectly soothing music, albeit being quite expensive.

Crossing the motorway going right through the city (eh!?), one reaches the main city centre which spans from the Victoria and Chamberlain Squares with a collection of varied important buildings from the 19th century like the Town Hall, the Council House and the Museum and Art Gallery, over the shopping mile named New Street and the equally named main train station which is merged with a shopping mall and finally reaching the Bullring, yet another enourmous shopping mall boasting three floors, each of them leading outside to street level on different sides, so it's easy to get lost.

Actually I got lost several times in what seemed like the outskirts of the city, but which were only the vast deserted streets allowing one to travel between the lively centres. The construction sites sprinkled like seeds throughout the city also allowed a glimpse on what Birmingham might look like once it's risen from its ashes.

Naturally and finally, I must also mention the food aspects of this city as this is what I'm thriving on most in life! So what better way to start this weekend's trip than go visit Cadbury World with a French gourmet friend of mine named Charly? Yes, Charly and the Chocolate Factory was the name of the game and it played and tasted quite well as we were handed fresh chocolate bars everytime before being led to the next children's ride attraction.

Some chocolate bars later and having attained much knowledge about how chocolate was produced in one of the world's largest confectionery selling companies whose name never really caught my attention, we were on our way back to New Street train station and from there to the Chinese Quarter to find something to eat with a bit more meat.
This is where things seemed to go as wrong as they possibly could. We thought we missed the Quarter, but actually passed right through it without even noticing it. Not wanting to waste any more time, we went to an English pub where I had the absolutely worst rumpsteak in my life ever. This was no steak, it was the literal shoe sole with the laces pulled through. That I was served peas instead of beans might have been a mistake, but the sole must have been done on purpose.
Oh, Charly also opened a small bag of mint sauce and let me smell it. No comment on that one.

Later that evening I wanted to try Balti food which is a special kind of Indian food and was invented in Birmingham. I was told where I could find the most and best Indian restaurants near the Chinese Quarter, but found only two which had also been closed long ago.
I gave it another shot and asked a handful of people for a sushi restaurant near the Chinese Quarter. I was either stubbornly given directions to "Wokmania", which was exactly what I was repeatedly not looking for, or just received a blank, puzzled stare.

Was I really expecting too much? It turned out that I was.

Finally I made it to a Japanese restaurant with an extensive list of nigiri and maki on the menu, but as I wanted to order I was told they didn't do sushi anymore. Instead I chose a bento box with unbelievably tender sirloin steak stripes, fresh vegetables, even some sashimi and a miso soup. After the tenacious experience earlier that day it felt good to know that at least the Japanese cuisine is reliable wherever you are.

I didn't want to give up on my sushi though, so on my second day I seized the chance as I walked by a sushi restaurant by accident. My experience there was the same as with the whole city itself. You are only offered four different types of maki, but these were extra-ordinarily good.


Take a look at the photos I took in this slideshow:

Here are my top places to visit in Birmingham:

• Cadbury World
• Victoria and Brindleyplace Squares
• The canals
• Bullring Shopping Centre
• Glee comedy and music club
  
• National Sea Life Centre
• Mount Fuji Japanese Restaurant