A year living in Plymouth

Hello again travellers! I'm thinking that this entry will be a little longer than the previous ones I've been uploading, because today I'm going to tell you about a city that has become my second home: Plymouth, in Southern England

I had the opportunity to study in this city for a year, and I thought it would be a great idea to share my experience of living in Plymouth with you. Just in case you ever consider visiting it or, who knows, studying in this wonderful place.

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Living in Plymouth

Plymouth is a reasonably sized coastal city in the southwest of England. Although its geographical location means the weather may not always be great, it wasn't usually anything that I couldn't put up with. England had always been depicted as very grey and rainy country, and that it truly is, but as I was lucky enough to live near the sea, there was amazing weather more or less throughout the summer months (obviously it wasn't the 30 degrees I was used to getting in Spain, but it was almost better). In addition, although it rained practically every day in winter and it was quite cold, the city has a huge assortment of leisure activities and things to do. Even if the weather isn't looking good, I assure you that if you get bored, it's no one's fault but your own.

Lifestyle in Plymouth

Life in Plymouth is very quiet, because although the city has many inhabitants, it is quite large, and therefore it is never very crowded. The city centre is the busiest part, but the surrounding areas are usually very nice neighborhoods. What I liked most about living in Plymouth was being near the sea, no question. Especially since I'm used to living in the Spain's capital of Madrid, so I only see the sea when I travel. The fact that the city is so close to the water makes it even more peaceful and means that there are a lot of things to do.

Entertainment

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I promise you that getting bored in Plymouth is actually quite difficult because there are always lots of things to do. In this section I won't list the tourist attractions, which you can find below, but instead the things you can do to keep yourself entertained in the city, particularly for when the days are especially grey (something that happens often).

• Royal William Yard

A little out of Plymouth (but still part of the city nonetheless), you'll find Royal William Yard, which is a set of buildings that served a very important military and defense role in the past. It is located just at the seafront, and is surrounded by a fortress made of precious stone. Currently, it's full of restaurants and coffee shops where people go to spend the afternoon or have dinner. This is the area where people usually stay if they visit Plymouth. They also usually organise events here throughout the year, as it's a very spacious area given its location on the outskirts of the city. I must warn you that the atmosphere in this area isn't very lively. This is because it's an area which is usually used for specific occasions, so coming here isn't part of people's daily routines. Still, it's worth visiting to see the beautiful buildings. The thing I like most about Royal William Yard is the main entrance between two of the main buildings, which has a beautiful golden statue on top of it.

To get there, you can walk (it will take about 30 minutes) from the center of Plymouth; you can go by car, you'll have no problem finding parking; or you can catch a bus, at bus stops number 34 or 34A.

• Plymouth's Theater Royal

The Theater Royal is the city's main theater, and is a huge building located right in the center. I was quite pleased to see that, despite Plymouth being a relatively small city, there were always a lot of plays and musicals on the billboards. Aside from being a large amount of variety, the productions also changed every few weeks. I had the opportunity to go on many occasions. I had the chance to see Michael Jackson: Live and Singing in the Rain, among others, and I really loved it. The theater isn't very big and the stage is quite simple, but it's still very well equipped and has a fairly large capacity. Something that was very typical in the theater (I'm not sure if it was just typical in this theater, but I imagine it's done in different theaters across England), was that you could buy small ice cream tubs during the intermission, So if you go, don't forget to buy at least one.

• Vue Cinema

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Vue Cinema is a well-known chain of cinemas in England. Although this probably sounds familiar to you if you've been to any other English city before, I thought it would be useful to mention it because Plymouth has a really huge cinema. They had subtitled films, sing-along films, and the billboard often had new things on it, making this cinema a very good option for a rainy day.

• Drake Circus

Drake's Circus is the largest shopping center in Plymouth. It is located in the lower part of the city, just before reaching the Barbican neigbourhood. Inside, it has lots of clothes shops, supermarkets such as Marks & Spencers, coffee shops, restaurants etc. There are also several long streets outside with even more shops and cafes, so I can promise you that if you decide to spend the day here you won't get bored at all. I recommend Café Nero which is a coffee shop (it's a chain, but I love it), or the one just opposite it called The American Coffee.

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To get to Drake Circus you can catch absolutely any bus, because right outside of the shopping centre, just in front of the Royal Theater, is the main bus stop, where all bus routes terminate.

Lots of events are organised here too, such as activities for children, marquees, and in winter they even put up an ice skating rink, so you can imagine what the atmosphere's like then. Additionally, in the streets I have previously mentioned, the ones with all the shops, you can usually find lots of street performers playing or singing, giving Drake's Circus really charming atmosphere.

Transportation: how to get around

Something that pleasantly surprised me about Plymouth is how great its transport network is. There isn't a subway, because the city itself is not large enough, but the bus network is very efficient. There are a lot of routes that run around the city, and all the lines converge on the Royal Parade. If you need to get somewhere, I assure you that you'll have no problems finding a bus to take you there. just get on Plymouth's citybus, which is the name of the city's bus company. In addition, if you need to go to a nearby town, such as Modbury or Salcombe, there are also intercity buses that will take you there (but yes, they're a little expensive).