Second Month: Pottering About

Throughout my first two months living in Leicester, I've had the opportunity to explore quite a bit. I thought I'd share some of the places I enjoy around the city centre.

When I researched the city beforehand there were a few places I was excited to check out, one of which being the Space to Breathe yoga collective. It's a non-profit cooperative which offers various styles of classes throughout the week. I really appreciate the location, it's near the heart of the city on the second floor of a rather unique building called the Clock Chambers.

The studio gets a fair amount of natural light which, as you can imagine, is fairly rare especially during the winter. On weekends in particular, it offers a very grounding to start the day.

Especially as the weather has gotten darker, damper, and chillier, I enjoy following my morning practice by trying out different local cafés. There are many scattered around the city center, I don't believe I've repeated any of my visits yet!

Accompanying a latte or cappuccino with a few hours journaling or reading is certainly a cozy way to spend the morning!

During the week, I typically get right to work in the morning. That said, I have the flexibility to work remotely some days and if I have a break in calls and meetings it's a nice change of scenery work from a café.

There's been some impressive latte art along the way as well!

Caffeine addiction aside, most of my exploration has been on foot or by bike. There a few spots that are nice to wander around. For one, there's the canal which winds through Leicester and passes my building. The path alongside it is pleasant to walk or cycle along, although you have to keep an eye out for swans, geese, ducks, and pigeons (especially the swans, they tend to lay strong and unwavering claim to the path).

One morning, further north but still near the canal, I was cheering on my friends while they ran a half marathon and luckily enough I spotted a muntjac! At the time I had no idea what it was, I was just very excited to see a tiny adorable deer-dog. Fortunately, there was a race marshal and a few other fans around to explain what the creature was and help me appreciate the rare sighting. Unfortunately, while my attention was on the muntjac one of my friends ran past. I caught up with him at the finish of the race at least!

Anyway, there's also an area just outside the city center known as the castle gardens. Not much interesting wildlife there, just squirrels and their less-attractive cousins. Surprisingly, the highlight of the area is a castle: Leicester Castle, in fact.

On that note, I've definitely found it to be true that a major difference between the States and the UK (along with the whole Europe) is that everything this side of the Atlantic is remarkably old. There's rich history, like the castle, mixed in with the modern urban landscape.

Even closer to my flat are remnants of a stone wall dating back to the Roman empire (apparently one of "the largest remaining Roman masonry structures in Britain"). It's currently being restored so I don't have photos of my own to share.

An amusing piece history about the area I learned since arriving is that Leicester achieved a degree of infamy in the 2013 film Richard III: The King in the Car Park. Think that one's a bit self explanatory.

Altogether, I'm enjoying getting to know my current home base! I look forward to continuing to try out new cafés, restaurants, pubs, shops, and more. It's hard to believe it's been less than 10 weeks since I arrived, not least because the winter feels milder here. I don't believe it has dropped below freezing so far, so it's hard to believe December is upon us. Snow is pretty rare here as well although rain is commonplace. I suppose I'll just need to travel a bit further to find some!