A Night at the Fair

First of all, I have to note that I've been living in England now for over a month. How unbelievable. And how time does indeed fly.

This past Saturday Joe, Megan, Abby, the Boyfriend, and I all went out to Goose Fair. Goose Fair started out 700 years ago in Nottingham. It used to be where people bought geese for Christmas and hosted charity shops, places to sell vegetables, and other things that people in the fourteenth century would do at fairs. I'm really not sure of everything that they did there, but I do know what we did there. Which was to walk around a lot. And avoid pickpockets. The fair has the largest concentration of pickpockets in Europe. It's also the oldest continually running fair in the world. Just some cool facts.

The first thing we had to do at Goose Fair was to buy fair food. Abby got donuts, Megan got brandy snaps, and I got candy floss. Candy floss, by the way, is not as cool as it sounds. It's the exact same things as cotton candy. I also bought some overpriced and not so good Chinese food for dinner, but whatever. That's what you do at fairs- spend money that you didn't really want to spend.

At Goose Fair, unlike other, American fairs I've been to, you buy a ticket to each ride in front of the ride itself, not at a ticket booth. The rides range in price, and all of the cool rides were expensive, so we didn't get to ride the Ferris Wheel, which was large and you stood in glass encased pods, rather than sitting in rickety, swinging seats. Alas.

However, as safe as the Ferris Wheel was, the Fair definitely did not have the same safety standards that America has. In many cases, you could walk right up to any of the rides, and jump on if you wanted. You would also get seriously hurt, and in a large amount of trouble, but there's nothing there to stop you.  There were no fences around any of the rides. While waiting to get on one of the rides, we were waiting in the ride. While it was going. Until we got kicked out, that is.

The most fun part about Goose Fair was definitely the Fun House, which only Megan and I braved. It was really cheesy, but great fun, partially due to the fact that we danced through most of it. We probably made a spectacle of ourselves. It was wonderful.

There were multiples of every booth, every sort of food, and almost every ride. There was only one Ferris Wheel, and only one roller coaster, and only one bungee jump, but I saw at least 5 bumper cars. Most of the rides had some sort of American theme to them, like the "Miami Mambo". They also airbrushed many American characters onto rides. Which made for some odd juxtapositions, like Micky Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Bart Simpson. Or Buzz Lightyear next to a half naked woman. Apparently, half naked women are very American.

It was a fun time to be had, and we all enjoyed it. However, it was overwhelming, and not much could be done without spending many more pounds than we wished. We ended up heading back after about an hour and a half, and watching Donnie Darko. Which was amazing.