Hard lines with the UEA exchange... can't believe that no one from Norwich wanted to go to Colorado! Especially with the exchange happening in January... OK, so I imagine it's pretty damn cold in the mile-high City in January, but then I'm sure there's plenty of skiing to be done?!
Anyhow, fantastic news that you're likely to be coming to the UK, Seth. I think it's fair to say that, as a university, Lancaster's reputation is not as strong as that of UEA; and that (as someone has said) Lancaster's a lot further from Roots Hall. In addition, as a place to live, it will be an unusual experience - you're swapping a mediaeval East Anglian agrarian city for a industrial revolution Northern working town.
However, Lancaster is really well connected for going to see places - it's much less cut off than Norwich. It's also very near some of the most beautiful scenery and places in the UK - scenery which is a LOT more interesting than that in Norfolk. All of the following are within very easy striking distance of Lancaster:
* Blackpool (30 min)
* Lake District (45 min - 1h 30m)
* Manchester (1h 15m)
* Liverpool (1h 30m)
* Harrogate (2h)
* Leeds (2h 15m)
* York (2h 15m)
* Glasgow (2h 30m)
* Edinburgh (3h 15m)
As for football matches, we've got the following in that part of the world from the New Year onwards:
* Mansfield, 22nd January - it'll take you about 4 hours on public transport to get there, or about 3 h 15m to get to Nottingham (where, hopefully, someone could pick you up!).
* Bury, 26th February -
**at Roots Hall**. This could be your first trip to the home of football, Seth! Bury is in Northern Manchester, so shouldn't take you too long to get there - there are direct trains from Lancaster to Bolton (taking c. 50 minutes), and then it's a bus ride (no. 524) from Bolton to Gigg Lane, Bury (40 mins), which drops you off practically outside the ground. You can then catch the Bury FC Supporters' Coach from Bury to Roots Hall - which is likely to be the cheapest and easiest way to get to the game. The Bury fans are a great bunch as well, so that should be a really easy way to do it. You'll need to monitor the Bury website to find out about coach times etc... you may need to leave Lancaster pretty early on the Saturday morning, and it may put you back at Lancaster VERY late on the Saturday evening - I haven't even managed to work out
how you get back from Bury to Lancaster when you get back to Bury... I can get you as far as Preston (by taking the Metro back into Manchester), but then it looks like a taxi from Preston to Lancaster, which would be c. £20-30, I'd guess... Not a cheap trip, all told.
*Chester, 5th March 2005. This should be one of the easiest - a train to Crewe (@ 11.06 a.m.) and then one to Chester will take only 2 hours. Takes about 2h 50m going back.
*Cheltenham, 19th March 2005. Not a bad journey - takes 2h 45m if you catch the direct train at 10.08 a.m.! However, there doesn't appear to be a train back... (seriously!), so you might have to ask West Country Shrimper to introduce you to her female friends... There's a direct train back at 10.12 the next morning.
*Macclesfield, 9th April. This will be the easiest game for you to get to - 1h 45 mins going, 1h 56 mins returning.
None of the other games involving Southend look particularly easy for you to get to. However, there are plenty of football clubs to go and watch games at locally - you should find it very easy to get tickets to Blackburn (Premiership - their ground is almost never full), Preston (Championship - again, huge ground, rarely sold out) or Blackpool (League One) - all of which are less than 1 hour away from Lancaster.
Finally, with all these train journeys, make sure that you get a Young Person's RailCard - you'll get a third off all travel, which will definitely be worth it... you'll just need to take evidence that you're a full-time student and/or under 26 years old to the station in order to get one.
Look forward to seeing you in the UK, Seth!
Matt
