Off the Couch and On the Road

I had a few days in London, and this time knew my way around so well it felt kind of like home. With the money running out faster than office workers on a friday afternoon, I focused on the free museums, parks, shopping centres and exhibitions and enjoyed the sunny, warm weather that London had bestowed upon me to make up for all the rain in Scotland.

It was onto Africa next, and I was both nervous and excited at the chance to join another group tour and not have to worry about the daily concerns of transport, accomodation and itineraries. They could figure it all out (that is the ‘excited’ bit), and I could sit back and try not to get mauled by wild animals in my tent (that is the ‘nervous’ bit). 

Joking! Kind of…

-Sarah

I can’t really say I’m a people person, not usually sociable with strangers, and so have not made many travelling friends (according to my definition of friends, anyway). But a few of the group I travelled with on the Indochina leg of my trip, most calling England home, were catching up over the weekend, and I could not wait to see them again.

We caught up for a few bottles of wine and an amazing dinner in Camden on the first night before having an early night, as we were all either sightseeing or working the next day. I (being unemployed) went to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, which was such an amazing spectacle – kind of like watching a brass band performance and military show while your face is squished between two black metal bars and five people are climbing on top of you taking photos, regardless of which part of your ass is in the way. But it was great (their photos may not be).

I also saw the Queen’s Gallery art exhibition, as well as a tour of the Royal Mews – where the Queen keeps her horses, stables, carriages and the gold plated carriage weighing two and half tonne, made during Queen Victoria’s reign only brought out for very special occasions (due to be used next in 2010 for an anniversary of some kind).

That night was an early but big one – after an Italian meal and hitting a bar, we stumbled home after a long night and realised it was only 1am. If it wasn’t for the stmbling, roomates might have thought we just returned from dinner. But it was such a good night out, and we recovered the next day with a big breakfast (two in fact, I needed McDonald’s first) in Islington, catching up with the rest of the group who couldn’t make the night before, and we had a few drinks and a walk around town before I had delayed catching my train long enough that I was actually running really late.

I ran for the train, made it by five minutes, and slept like a hibernating bear the entire train ride north. When I woke, the London skyline had been replaced with rolling green hills, mist sitting low on the moutains, and I could feel the temperature drop even inside the train.

And of course, it was raining. I had arrived in Scotland.

-Sarah

PS The crew asked why their names had never been mentioned during the Indochina trip. I said it was my blog and if they wanted their names published they had to start their own damn blog, because this one my friends, is all about me. And then I felt bad, and slightly selfish, because not everyone is unemployed and in fact, because they are supporting the economy and I am just taking photos of trees and mountains, I shall hereby mention that Kate, Harry, Hamish and Markus (and the ones who couldn’t make it, Anna, Charlotte and Sakai) totally rock. They totally rock indeed. You want more? Start your own damn blog.

It was a few hours on the bus to Bath – chosen purely because it was kind of close to Stonehenge and not because I knew anything about the town. It was quite a small town, set between the green rolling hills of the English countryside, filled with stunning scenery and sheep, spray-painted with pink and blue X’s on their backs (I wondered if the pinks were allowed to hang out with the blue’s, or if there was a bit of cross-territorial Romeo and Juliet action going on?).

If I had learned anything on arrival in the UK, it was never to go anywhere without an umbrella. I had use for it as soon as I arrived and decided to walk around to get my bearings, taking refuge inside a church of no particular importance until the rain stopped, and walked until I found a nice pub for supper.

The following day I visited Bath Abbey and Museum, where Bath college students were practising their speeches for a special afternoon service in the church which was stunning, it’s towers and high vaulted ceilings in view from anywhere in Bath.

The museum was set underground next to the church, and because of the special service I was the only tourist there, which meant I had a personalised tour from the curator, who kind of looked like he was around during the Medieval times he was describing to me, but had some great stories to share.

After the museum I visited the most famous of Bath’s heritage-protected sights – the Roman Baths. The 90 minute audio-guided tour took me through the temples and baths built over the natural hot springs between the 1st and 5th centuries AD.

The iron-filled water still bubbled to the surface of the springs at a rate of thousands of litres every day, at a more than comfortable temperature of 46 degrees celcius. The drainage system built all those centuries ago continues to pump water through mostly intact remains – many of the baths filled with pennies and coins from around the world, thrown in by tourists hoping to pay tribute to the mystical goddess that oversaw the baths.

That afternoon I joined a small bus tour going out to Stonehenge. The driver was hilarious, telling stories on the 40-minute drive out to the site, and stopping to show us various sites on the way, including some well-known Australian families’ ancestral lands, and well-known bands’ recording studios (always attached to a pub). On the way to Salisbury Plains, where Stonehenge lies, we visited Laycock Village, a small town about the size of my bathroom, owned by the National Trust with land only rented to those tenants who can prove their family heritage within the village, tenants including Camilla Parker-Bowles (who can afford to keep her house now she’s married to the future king, I suppose).

The incredibly quaint thatched roof village was also home to Harry Potter’s aunt and uncle during the filming of the Harry Potter movies, in which the anicent Abey (read: Hogwarts castle) also featured, standing within beautiful gardens. I didn’t pay to go into the Abbey to see the furniture and artwork, preferring to roam the stone carved cloisters instead.

Stonehenge was ok, not as impressive as i thought it would be, but simply the age of the stones and the mystery of why they were there (and whether Merlin the Magician is really buried here) was more than enough to make up for it. The original pine posts said to be raised here long before the stones were erected were in existence 2000 years before the pyramids in Egypt, which is amazing. The sones themselves were raised around the time of the burial of King Tutankharmun, and fell into disuse 3000 years ago – long before the Great wall of China and Parthenon in Greece were even dreamt of. Impressive, yes?

After my hectic and rather windswpt day (at least it wasn’t raining) I arrived in Bath and took one last walk around the old cobblestone streets before an early and dreamless sleep back at the hostel.

-Sarah

If, in Paris and london, I was having ‘Robert Langdon’ moments, in Oxford I was most definitely having Harry Potter moments, not surprising as many of the films scenes were shot within the university town.

With only a day and half to explore, I set off as soon as I had dumped by bags at the hostel and made my way to the tourist office. Armed with a map (rule no. 528: always know where you are) which included a self-guided walking tour, I figured I could start the walk and continue on with it the following day.

I started with the largest college in Oxford, the Christ Church College and Cathedral, which began as a priory founded in the 12th century and was created as a college linked to the cathedral in 1546. There is so much history seeped into the stone it is impossible to retell it all, but needless to say it would be amazing to live and study there.

Scenes from Harry Potter were also filmed within the college itself – Christ Church’s great hall becoming the dining hall, and the great staircase, ante-hall and cloisters also featuring in the film. This may have had something do do with my sudden interest in further education, I felt like I was walking around Hogwarts (the interest in study faded pretty quckly, let me tell you).

The college had another famous resident – mathemetician student and lecturer Charles Dodgson, who made up a story about a white rabbit for the Dean of Christ Church College’s daughter, named Alice. At Alice’s request, Dodgson wrote up the story and added illustrations, giving the book ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to her as a present (and calling himself Lewis Carroll. Ah, why not if you can?)

Many of the towers and characters are reflected in the book – the deer park (scenes with the fawn), the college forests, Dodgson’s love of work games, the treacle well, the Dodo (the remains of one being kept in the university museum), secret garden and the long corridoors and mysterious layout of the university grounds. And two fat little creatures guarding the fire grate in the great hall (Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee).

Ironically, Queen Victoria once write to Dodgson, asking him to send her his next book, as she enjoyed the others so much – he sent her his next book ‘Syllabus of plane algabraical geometry’. Classic.

Many more famous people, everyone from Kate Beckinsale to Hugh Grant, studied at Oxford, and many of the stars of Harry Potter live or studied nearby. The following day, I continued the walking tour through the streets of the town, exploring undercover markets, Trinity College and Church towers overlooking the town.

I caught the bus to Blenheim Palace – given to John Churchill in 1704 for winning the battle of Blenheim, and the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill – and spent hours looking through the palace and perfectly manicured gardens and grounds. There was also a marching band performance by the Church School of Scots in Melbourne which was great, albeit not as authentically English as I would have expected.

The afternoon was spent in one of the word’s oldest and biggest academic libraries in Oxford, the Bodleian Library, which began in 1426. The books, ancient wooden staircases up to reach the high shelves, vaulted ceilings and lecture hall ‘The Divinty School’ was so old and magnificent, I could have spent days roaming around looking at medieval texts.

Oh, and it was also used as the library and classrooms in the Harry Potter movies. Which just adds a few kudos in my books. Just a few. Not as much as learning all about the history though, of course…

-Sarah

It was Saturday in Canden Town, which meant I didn’t have to go far to be in the midst of all the action at the weekend Camden Markets. Thousands descended on what was one of the largest market complexes I have seen – everything from tiny stalls to massive stores throbbing with music. The whole main street of Camden was overflowing with bargains (if you weren’t Australian) in the way of food, everything from Indian to French patries and English pub specials, clothes, jewellery, antiques, furniture and gifts.

It took us – myself and some friends from home I had met p with – a few hours to wander through, though we emerged rather reluctantly empty-handed. It was a quiet, sunny afternoon which I ended with a movie, Die Hard 4.0, in one of the biggest cinemas I have even seen (I missed Bruce Willis by only a few days, damn it), and anticipation of heading out of the city the following morning.

-Sarah