Birmingham is about dining, shopping and entertaining. It is a wonderful place to be lost there for a short vacation or a working trip. Twice I had working trips there, first time in March 2017, and then October 2018, so during such a short time, I followed, of course, my interest. If you are just wondering in the city centre, for sure that in the heart of the city you will find one of its oldest building. It is the Birmingham Cathedral and that is more than 300 years old. Its windows are magnificent! Its bright colours make a contradiction with the white, pure walls of the building itself.
Nevertheless, the building would be just an empty beautiful shell without the heart of people who spend their time there. It was magical to walk in a temple of the God, even though I am not a religious person on the eyes of others, and experience how people there follow an important message as respecting each other and love each other besides our differences. Being in a holy place where kids are taught to appreciate differences through lives of people e.g. Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, John Lennon, Mahatma Gandhi, etc. and every type of religion is welcomed. During workshops organised by parish youth workers, young people learn about human rights and how essential to fight for it. Being there as a stupid tourist, I was just stopped by one of the church people, an old, smart, lovely man, no clue who he was and what responsibility or role he took in the Cathedral, however this was not important. He just initiated a nice chat, being interested where I came from, how long I stay and was it the first time I had visited to Birmingham Cathedral. As it just had happened next to the drawings and messages made based on the lives of human rights fighters by kids, we just discussed about cultural diversity and acceptance. He just shared a short story from the life of Bishop Wilson, who was the Bishop of Singapore during the World War II and he was tortured as a prisoner during the Japanese occupation. After years of that, as Bishop of Birmingham he baptised two of his Japanese tormenters. The way how this man just shared the story of Bishop Wilson with a tourist then just gave a smile, wished a nice stay in Birmingham and walked away, it warmed my heart towards all beliefs and reminded me for their most important message: just being able to love.
Just next to the Birmingham Cathedral there is the Bull Ring Shopping Centre if you want to shop, eat, and entertain yourself. Loads of clothes, food and people you can find there. All British and European brands are available. Among all the fantastic shopping options, I would recommend the River Island because of their amazing advertisement campaign #labelsareforclothes. Its message as labels are only for clothes and not for people just really comes also from my heart. So I had just bought nice shoes from this brand. Look, they definitely made a good advertisement for their brand with a social message!
And still let’s stay in the city centre and visit to another shopping centre. Nevertheless, here in the Mailbox you can choose either spend a hell amount of money or make a window shopping. The Mailbox gives loads of opportunity for both. Just next to its entrance, there is a giant red lamp sculpture just for fun and suppose to be an advertisement for the brand of the lamp itself. For making funny photos, it is very useful scene.
The surrounding of the Mailbox is marvellous with the river bank, great restaurants and cafeterias. You can go even to a boat trip in the river or just having a nice lunch next to the river bank.
And if you want, you can become the companion of Doctor Who, the main character of the worldwide famous and popular BBC series that is all the time fighting for human values and of course for the good of human race. He and now from the recent season, she is doing it all the time without guns, only with logic and with her brave two hearts. BBC Birmingham is located in the Mailbox and provides a free access to the time travelling spaceship of Doctor Who. It seems to be a small blue police phone box for emergency calling, however inside is a spaceship. Or a lift…like here. Although everything is depends on your imagination.
