Bath, Stonehenge, and the Last Day in London

Stonehenge

The Roman Baths

SPQR

The Jane Austen Centre

Last view of Capernwray and the surrounding hills

Final impressions from my window--a view of the courtyard.

Abbey Road!!

Inside one of the last trains we rode on in Europe--finally making it out of Italy!!

Border of France/Switzerland from the train

On the tube with my suitcase--almost home in London.

The Sleeping Beauty Motel

At the Tower Bridge again. The bridge was raised so that a sailboat could pass through.

I want MORE LONDON!

Better pot-luck with Churchill today than humble pie under Hitler tomorrow.

Don't waste food!

WWII posters at the War Museum

Oh, look...another cathedral.

Tate Modern. I like this art gallery.

We went to Legally Blonde!

Home

I am home again, and it is nice...but strange.

And, I don't have anything to do--so if you aren't busy or need something done, let me know.

Finishing Well

I left London last night at 9:50, and should have arrived at Capernwray by 7:30 this morning. However, one of my trains was changed, so I ended up waiting in Manchester Piccadilly station until 5:45 (instead of 4:15), and I got to Capernwray by 9. I am pretty exhausted! I'm staying in a guest room here tonight, which is really nice. Hopefully I can finish repacking soon and be able to get a good rest before another early morning tomorrow!

I tried calling to arrange a taxi to take me to the train station tomorrow morning, but none are running in time for me to make my train at 6:15 am. Fortunately, one of the staff members here heard about what was going on and kindly offered me a ride.

The last two days in London were really fun, but bittersweet at the same time. Coming back to London made me realize how much more I really want to see in London still, even though I've spent a lot of time there. And the UK/England in general is just really nice...definitely a second home to me now. I want more time here, but not now; it is time to come home.

Jaline's last day with us was on Saturday. We didn't have much time, but we managed to have a nice walk along the river, snap a couple pictures of Abbey Road, and surprisingly, go to another musical! I was glad we could end with something fun for Jaline, before she flew back home. We were going to go to Macbeth, which I really really wanted to do, but by the time we got there all the tickets were sold. The gift shop at the Globe is a dangerous place--there's a lot of really cool stuff in there, which I was tempted to buy.

Since the Glove thing didn't work out, we asked around for the closest theatre, and took a bus there (it was after 6, so it was nearly time for all the musicals to begin). That particular theatre, the Savoy, was showing Legally Blonde. We asked about tickets, and they were 42 pounds and up, which was a little more than we wanted to pay. The lady at the ticket office was really nice though, and we ended up getting 62.50 tickets for 32.50. It was a really funny, lighthearted, and well...pink musical.

Really funny, because Jaline HATES pink. I've been bugging her about it the whole trip. She really enjoyed the musical, but let's just say she wasn't rushing to be first in line to buy the pink feather boas at the end of the show.

Yesterday, I spent the day at Stonehenge and Bath, which was really enjoyable. It was certainly another highlight for me on this trip, and just a nice way to end the adventure. I'll have to put pictures online once I get home, now that I'm back to "Capern-net". :)

Okay! Well, it's time to get back to packing. I can't wait to see you all tomorrow and to finally unpack, for real, for the last time (at least for a while).

3 Days

Hey everyone! I made it back to London!! It feels so good to be here again...it's almost like being home. Almost.

I will be home for real in 3 days, and I still can't even imagine what it will be like to come back!

Today we were supposed to meet up with 2 of the guys from Capernwray, but we didn't find them at our meeting spot, so I'm not sure if it will work out or not now. They may have gotten a flight unexpectedly, which would be great for them, but it is kind of disappointing to miss out on seeing them.

I am sitting in a Starbucks in downtown London, drinking my caramel frapp with toffee nut and a fruit salad (p.s. Thank you uncle Cam--I am still using up the starbucks card!). This feels like being home again. The people around me are speaking English again, in their beautiful accents, which I am definitely not used to anymore. This morning, we checked into our new hotel (the Sleeping Beauty!) and met Courtney at Victoria Coach Station. I am so thankful that her flight arrived on time and that she is able to come hang out with us for the last couple days.

Plans for later today: see Abbey Road, a couple parks...perhaps even go to another show, if we can find any inexpensive tickets last minute.

Jaline flies home early tomorrow morning...it will be a sad and strange goodbye.

Running Out of Ideas

I am running out of ideas of things to do. There's only so many times you can go on facebook when nobody from home is online because it's the middle of the night without getting a little depressed.

I started my day bright and early--5 am, and since then, I have watched Jaline play a computer game, got another free sandwich from Chef Express, waited for my ipod to charge, uploaded a bunch of youtube videos to watch for later occurances of boredom, read some of a book, and pretty much organized/planned my entire life using a program I found on my computer!

This left me with nothing else to do but to look up random words in my computer's dictionary. Not only was this temporarily entertaining, but it was highly educational.

Did you know that sisyphean means endlessly laborious and unfruitful?

Also of note: vagabond--a homeless wanderer who has no permanent place to live. Synonym(s): drifter, beggar, hobo, traveller, wanderer, gypsy, nomad. Anytonym(s): resident.

How about that?

Pompeii and the Colosseum

Watching the sun set from the train with friends.
New Pompeii...

And Old Pompeii, at the ruins...this is in one of the homes in the residential area.

The Forum and Mount Vesuvius!! I can hardly believe that I got the experience to see all this in real life!

Mount Vesuvius/Pompeii was all in all a really cool experience, and one of my favourite parts of the entire trip.

Remains of one of the Pompeii/Vesuvius victims...kind of morbid.

A rock I found that looks like a skull!

Ah, the Colosseum...I took a lot of pictures of it!

My favourite gladiator--sporting cargo shorts, black socks, and sport sandals. Pretty much the real deal. Nice.

I liked Rome...but 138 hours in an airport? It's getting a little tiring, and ridiculous. Quite frankly, I am extremely excited to be hopping on another train tomorrow!

London, here I come! Finally!

The good thing that's come out of all of this is that there are more Capernwray students still stuck in London, and we are going to meet up with them for the day on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to it...almost as much as I'm looking forward to finally taking a shower! Haha!

And, I think as far as we can control, all our plans are worked out with Courtney. We should be able to meet her at Victoria Station on Saturday morning. From there, we'll bring her stuff back to our hotel, then go back to Victoria to meet up with our other friends from Capes who have also been stranded and spend the day together!

As for Sunday, Jaline's flight leaves early in the morning, so she'll be checking out of the hotel at around 4:30 am. That will be a tough goodbye...I don't want her to go!! Courtney, Kim, and I are spending the day in Stonehenge and Bath. I am really looking forward to that tour, and it's nice to think that we have some fun in store for us still, before we go home.

It's also nice to think that they have given us SO much free food here that we won't even have to buy food in London! Seriously, they are spoiling us. As much as this experience has been unfortunate and an inconvenience, it's been fun...and we've made some Italian friends.