a day out in ipswich

we saw ICHI for the first time a couple of years ago at Out There Festival and then we saw he was touring nearby so we got tickets and had a day trip to Ipswich. i'd never been to Ipswich before and the show was in the middle of the day so we spent before and after basically wandering around looking at the buildings. 

not even on the same street!

 

i really enjoyed Ipswich, there's a lot of (i'm assuming) tudor architecture and little carved details everywhere and it was just really cool. we went in Ipswich Minster and it's beautiful in there. 

left: Ipswich Minster right: shop with a wild mix of stuff and the man cave sign with the singing bowls was just chefs kiss

in my pre-trip research i found out about a vegan cafe to try out called Harvest Moon and we had iced strawberry matchas and pancakes and it was just a perfect re-fueling.

visited the ogre, i love him

ICHI was just as good as the first time. if you ever get the chance definitely check him out, very creative and fun and just, i love it so much.

and then the library, love to visit a library and this one felt so nice. there are board games and jigsaws to borrow, a cafe with some sort of haunted doll theme (we were too late and it was closed for the day) and also a study room with really nice details and teenagers laughing at you. i thought i'd be able to find out something about it because it's so fancy and old in there but apparently Ipswich don't want me to know. i think it's called the Wolsey Room, the windows are too old to open and that's all i could find out.

Wolsey's Gate on the way back to the train station. this was one of those proper, being a tourist vs living somewhere is weird moments because this is just on the side of a road that was full of rush hour traffic when we were there and it was a weird feeling to be stood in-front of a gate being amazed that it was built in the 1500's and wow this is so cool to see and all the people in their cars behind you, driving past it every day not giving a shit. but we liked it.

and then we walked along the river and saw an oystercatcher which was also really cool. 

tbh there'd been a lot going on in my little world for a couple of weeks and i was overheated and overwhelmed so i'd like to go back and have a better look around and take it all in more but it was a really good day.