A tourist in the city I live in and Southwest England

England and london

The length of time between this post and the last one is in no way respective of the actual length of time between the trips and events that are depicted in the following.  In actuality, the events in this post begin IMMEDIATELY following the end of the last post.  

fade in.

The scene opens on a train from London to Salisbury, a small town a couple hours outside of London.  Two people, a male and a female are sitting next to each other as the train blazes past a train traveling in the opposite direction.

Tessa: Did you just eat that entire baguette?

Andrew: Yep.

end scene.

Salisbury was smallish, about the size of my hometown, but more interesting and had fewer suburban homes and walmarts.  On this part of our adventure we stayed in Bed and Breakfasts (4 in 4 nights), and our first was in Salisbury.  We were in Salisbury about 18 hours before heading to Cornwall. While in Salisbury we…

1. Celebrated Britain's Mother's day. (Free bottle of wine? Yes please.)

2. Saw an original copy of the Magna Carta (Published in 1215, only 4 copies still exist today.

3.  WELSH CAKES

4. Streamed the St. Louis Blues game live. (They won.)

and 5.  Rented a Vauxhall Astra.

Our adventure continued to Stonehenge, a quick 15 minutes north of Salisbury.  Stonehendge is old, and it ROCKS!!!!!! (get it?)  Stonehendge is now known to be a landing platform for aliens from distant worlds whom originally contracted humans to build it for them.   The humans were paid in sheep, that is why there are so many sheep in Great Britain.

Somewhere in Cornwall was our destination.  We ended at another bed and breakfast, walked to the sea, ate at a pub, walked back in complete darkness, chatted with our hosts (call me anytime, Alice), went to bed, woke up, ate full english breakfast (delicious and somewhat nutritious) then squeezed all our luggage back into the tiny vauxhall and made our way.

We stopped off at Land's End (the most westerly point in England), I found where the Top Gear episode that started at Lands End was filmed, then headed for B&B number three (that just rhymed).  My least favorite B&B, it smelled kind of like a nursing home.

Tintagel Castle is supposedly one of the birthplaces of King Arthur.  It was built centuries ago built high on a cliff overlooking the sea.  I like cliffs, and I like exploring so this was probably one of my favorite stops of the trip, and afterward we got ICE CREAM!  Oh, history lesson, King Arthur wasn't PHYSICALLY born there and that is because he is  not real (c'mon guys, he hung out with a WIZARD, and everyone knows magic isn't real.).

Our final B&B was more like an Inn, but tomatoes toMAHtos.  My parents got a sea view while Tessa and I overlooked some ugly courtyard with empty kegs and dirt everywhere.  We hustled back to Salisbury, caught the train for London, and our Whirlwind adventure of "Thomas Hardy Country" as my Mom would say, but Normal people would call it southwest England, ended.

Tessa was in London for 2 nights, but my parents stayed for 5.  I won't go into detail about each and every thing we did (happy?) but I'll give you the main points.


While Tessa was there:

1.Billy Eliiot: The first of 3 shows I saw in the west end while my parents were in town.  A fun musical based on the movie.  The actor playing Billy was brilliant.

2. In a forest, Dark and Deep: 2 person play starring the one and only Dr. Jack Shepard from Lost. I had to constantly repress the urge to scream "WE HAVE TO GO BACK!!!"

3. London Eye: for those of you that don't know, it's the huge ferris wheel thing.

4. Walks through Westminster.

5. Brindisa's chorizo roll: one of the best sandwiches I have ever had.

6. Tower Bridge and Tower of London

After Tessa left:

1. Les Miserables: This was the first time I had ever seen this, even though my mom has probably seen it some 15 times.  Brilliant.  The story, the music, the actors, the set.  I could have done without the lady next to me singing along, but it didn't ruin the experience.

2. Byron: An american style burger place that I have been dying to go to since I got to London (but didn't want to foot the bill myself). Delicious.  I miss good burgers.

3. Hyde park, a little shopping, Arsenal finally winning a game, and a lengthy bus tour capped off the trip.  While they were here I was as much a tourist in London as they were even though I (currently) live there.

They day after they left (less than 24 hours later) I was in Spain for my last long (more than 4 days) adventure of my semester abroad.  Currently, I'm making my way towards Madrid (via a 5 hr coach ride), having already been to Granada and Malaga.  And in less than 2 months I will be making my way back to the U S of A.  Where has this semester gone?