Exploring Durham

I've settled into Durham pretty nicely. We arrived yesterday around 10 am and checked into our hotel. Its a nice Marriot in just off downtown Durham. I have a view of the river from my room. The TV is pretty junky, but I wasn't anticipating watching much TV these 5 weeks anyway. After unpacking our stuff we did a little self-guided walking tour of Durham. We're definitely not in America anymore. There is much less food, new buildings, and attractive people. There was an open-air market going on yesterday in the town centre so it was a cool atmosphere. The town is on a pennisula formed by a river, so there are a lot of bridges, a river-walk and some cafes/restaurants along the river. Here are some pictures I took:

We enjoyed a guinness and watched a soccer match at the local pub called the Half-Moon, then ate a below average burger at the marriot. It was about 2 in the afternoon and the jet lag was starting to set in for both of us. I did not want to go to sleep for fear of waking up at 2am and being completely off kilter. Instead, the plan was to push through the night and wake up at a normal time on Sunday. I didn't feel like walking around anymore so I went to my room and relaxed - ended up webcamming with Taylor for awhile.

Matt woke up from his nap and we decided to go find something to do. The front desk pointed us in the direction of most of the bars and clubs. We ended up staying out for the whole night hopping around to the different clubs. People really like to drink here. The main difference I noticed was that you'll find a much wider range of ages at the bars and clubs here than in America. It was overall a real fun night.