Rob’s European Vacation 2009

So if you haven’t noticed yet, I haven’t quite got the hang of being consistent in my journal writing.  I will promise to do my best to keep up and at the very least fill you in on the past few days whenever I get the chance…

So Day 4 in Europe and in London…  Thanks to my new friend Miguel, we booked a trip out to Stonehenge and Bath the night before (49 Pounds) so we got up kind of early and hit breakfast as soon as it opened up at 07:30.  After our meatless breakfast (at this point I’ve been eating a non-egg and non-meat breakfast for a week and missing some of the cafe’s awesome food) we headed over to the West Kensington Underground Station and went on to the Earl’s Court stop.

After finding which exit to take and waiting for the bus for a while and then hopped on when it arrived.  The drive to Stonehenge wasn’t too bad, just an hour and a half of mostly motorway.  On the way though we heard some info from our tourguide and learned that they have a door in the middle of the bus on the other side that’s called the Continental Door because it opens up when they’re in France or Belgium.  Of course I say this is the right side to open up of course, lol.  It’s still trippy to drive on the left…so weird.

After a bit we went over a hill and BAM there’s one of humanity’s oldest surviving structures…next to a major road.  So weird, they built a road within feet of one of the stones.  We “alighted” (one of the fancy British words I learned) from the “coach” and made our way to the entrance.  The fee was paid for with the bus ticket and we received a little handheld audioguide.  Walked through a tunnel and up to Stonehenge.  They don’t let you get too close but they give out some really cool information and you can totally see how the stones line up and could be used for Pagan rituals.  I don’t think they were Druids because Druids came much later…they say Stonehenge was around 2300 BC I think.  One of the really cool things was that they pointed out these huge mounds of dirt that were all around.  The mounds were actually burial sites of people.  I found that super interesting and wish they had done some more excavating prior but they haven’t done much apparently.

After Stonehenge we got back on the bus and headed to Bath which was an hour drive away.  Bath by far exceeded my expectations.  SUCH A BEAUTIFUL CITY!!  Apparently there was a father-son team of architects that designed the whole city. Well planned out and way cool.  After that we disembarked from the coach and made our way to the Roman baths.  Again super cool and awesome that there is sooo much history in that place.  One of the cool things I saw was they found all these pieces of metal with etchings in them that were apparently gripes and curses against theives of their day.  The ancient Romans and Britons said things like, “That Donisus stole my pair of glove and I wish upon him eternal pain”.  I found that just so funny that they wrote these things down and they still survive!!  Tons of ancient Roman ruins and we actually got to walk on the very stones the Romans laid down in the baths.  The baths themselves were nasty and unsafe but they’re still flowing to this day.

After the Baths, Miguel and I walked around the town and took some pictures of the Circle and Half Crecent and had some lunch at the Crystal Ship Pub and ordered an amazing Sheppard’s Pie.  I love that stuff soo much.  We had a great time and got back for the long bus ride to London.  All in all my time in London was well spent and fun!  I went to bed and got up early because I was heading to Paris!

Day 1:  Arrived in Heathrow at around 9 in the morning.  Took about an hour and a half to get through customs.  I mean what is wrong with this place when they have 3 Custom guards servicing 2 jumbo jets that come in at the same time?!  Ok, enough of the rant.  Got on the Underground (not the tube or subway) and got to my hostel.  Easy find with the directions I had.  Couldn’t officially check in till 2 so I dropped off my big bag and grabbed the Underground to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey and the HOP (houses of parliament).  Got off the underground and BAM..there they were.  Big Ben is awesome and covered in gold and really impressive.  The HOP are cool and Westminter Abbey looks ok from the outside, I didn’t go in cuz I was feeling really jetlagged by this point.  So I was exhausted and decided to go back to the hostel and check in and go to my room.  Got into my room, two other guys and one girl from South Africa.  One guy has an alarm clock that goes off at 6 in the morning and the other one comes in late and makes a lot of noise.  FUN!  Oh well, roll with the punches.  So I went back out that night and caught a London Walking tour called “Apparitions , Alleyways and Ales” .  Kind of cool, got to see more of the city and meet some nice people.  Went out for an Ale afterwards and found out why the whole city was out and about, it was St. George’s day, the patron saint of England.  Got a fake plastic flag for a souvenir, lol.

Btw, bad spelling in this post because this computer is awful and I’m not using firefox to spellcheck, lol.  Oh and another thing…no free wifi around so I gotta pay to use their computers.

Day 2 – Woke up late after being woken up by early guy.  That’s not to be confused with science guy either!! lol.  Took a shower, only one shower per floor for about 20 people..and was late to breakfast.  Guy gave me grief but I managed to get some Cocoa Puffs out of him.  Took off and hit the Underground and went for 13 hour straight.  Did the British Museum, National Gallery, walked through Soho, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the Pall Mall and saw Buckingham Palace, St. Jame’s Palace and did a Jack the Ripper tour.  Oh and I went to Harrod’s for my mom to take pics of Di’s rememberance thing.  LONG day and my feet, legs and back are killing me.  It’s 11pm and i’m about to turn in.  See ya all later!