Bath-Salisbury-London

That's the best I could do Helen, hope it's good enough!

Carolyn here - Ari and I were without internet access yesterday due to no phone line port on this netbook - which was the only access we had available in the hotel room and we were not informed of the access in the lobby downstairs... Oh, and did I mention hotel? Not a misspelling - hotel. Not hostel.

Back to yesterday - where I will start from the top, and then write a whole other post about what we got up to today.

We woke up around 7 and packed up our stuff and headed to the train station. If I say nothing else for Bath, they do have good signage if you know where to look. Made it to the train station to see that the next train to London (Waterloo) by way of Salisbury was in in about an hour so we walked back into town a teensy bit to have food. We were hoping that the station would have lockers or luggage storage of some kind... they didn't. I better get buff (or learn a lesson) from lugging this luggage over hill and down dale!

Interesting thing to note about Bath here... EVERYTHING CLOSES EARLY. I mean... Boots (a chain of drugstore type businesses) was closed at 6 on a Wednesday!

In an interesting twist of fate... Everything opens late too. So, we stopped at an odd and kinda skeevy place that happened to be close to the station and I had two chocolate croissants and a bag of crisps, while Ari had a chicken curry pastry and a chocolate croissant... and then we packed up and walked back to the station.

Got on the train just fine - it was surprisingly empty. The countryside here is beyond gorgeous. Ari and I were trying to explain/describe the greens and have continuously failed to do so. I think it hast to be the angle of the sun that is making them different to us - she thinks it is being in England, and all we wanted to do was get out of the train for a second and breathe it all in. Luckily, soon after we got to Salisbury and got off the train. We bought our continuation tickets from a very nice older gentleman who enjoyed a good joke on the American girls - and found out that the nearest place to leave luggage was a pub about 3 minutes down the road. (I cannot express how glad we were to hear that.) Dropped our bags off and paid a surely exorbitant and completely necessary price to leave them until 11pm that day if we needed to :P.

Headed back to the train station to figure out how to get to/where to pay for the tickets to Stonehenge when I spotted the first 'Adult' store I'd seen in England - and really people, with my area of study, how could I resist?

Walked in... and walked right back out. It wasn't REALLY icky - but it wasn't someplace I wanted to linger either - it was also TINY. Large bathroom sized. Weiiiiiird.

Anywho, we skeedaddled out of there and headed to the train station (where the Stonehenge Bus Tour has a stop) and waited for the bus. It showed up, (and we were very VERY first on) and learned a whole bunch about the area and the history of the area before we even got to Stonehenge. The only problem with the tour was that the syncing of the voiceover and the actual travel of the bus was off, so we ended up looking back over our shoulders to figure out what the bus was talking about. Again with the greens, and blue greens... I just think this language doesn't have the words for the colors we are talking about here. Also - FIELDS of the same yellow flowers - Ari says it looks like mustard, whatever it is beautiful.

Passed by an ancient fort called Old Sarum on the way to Stonehenge - why I mention this will become apparent later - that one has the option of entering on the way back.

Got to Stonehenge...

Can I just say wow? And that - oddly enough - I expected them to be bigger? At least on the initial approach I was like "huh, I expected larger stones" but after actually walking as close to them as one is allowed - nope. They are HUGE. And thinking of the logistical issues that must have arisen from trying to get the damn things there (and IN PLACE. 1/3 of the stones is UNDERGROUND?!) it's just impressive.


Did Stonehenge for about an hour, looked at, walked around, marveled at the sheep that were grazing all of 15 ft from the walkway around the stones, listened to the extremely impressive audio tour, took pictures... and then headed back towards Salisbury. We were both pretty dang hungry at that point (around 1), so while I wanted to go to Old Sarum - Ari was pretty much like "Eh, you choose. If we do, no food for at least 40 minutes more."

Chose to go to Old Sarum at the VERY last moment - got off the buss and started walking towards the entrance to the fort when we got sidetracked by two ponies that were chillin in the field next to the path.
The white one was obviously a unicorn, and so we tried to pet it... which it was having none of. Thanks to my miraculous clicking skills (and Ari being the most obvious lure for a unicorn - being as she is a fairy) it DID come very close to the fence... but still no dice. Then the sugar came out (no, we are NOT above bribing a horse) and while the unicorn got closer - it still wouldn't get within reach (technically it was within reach but it was not interested in being touched, so we didn't.) and we moved up the path.

Suddenly, another pony appeared! And it was a voracious kinda thing - leaning on barbed wire to get to the grass on our side of the fence - so Ari tried to give this one some sugar - which it gladly took from her. Moved on up the path to where it split, one way through a nicely marked gate towards Old Sarum, and one way up and around the area of the fort - unmarked but it looked like fun.

So, with some cajoling (and to be honest, sheer bullheadedness on my part) we took the unknown path around, and saw some BEAUTIFUL landscape - climbed up and down a steep hill, continued on the path thanks to the perfect timing of a pair of joggers, and eventually found a way up to the fort that bypassed the nice easy hill up to the entrance and instead went the long loooooong way around... Thanks for coming with Ari :D.



Climbed another tree or two (what can I say? I did do an entire quarter on the study of treehouses :P) and then tromped our way across the field to the way down... ish. Happened that the way down crossed right by the real entrance to the fort... so we went in (I am my fathers daughter sometimes - not good at passing up the free stuff :P) and looked around. It was quite honestly stunning - not a huge deal to most of my tech-y generation I wouldn't think, but to history and mythology buffs like Ari and I it was beautiful. Feeling the weight of the ages - thousands of years of human history... phwoar.


Eventually headed back down to the bus stop... where we waited for 40 or so minutes for the returning tour bus before accidentally getting on the wrong bus (dude. All the buses being red AND double deckered? Makes it somewhat easy to mess up!) and heading into town. Found out that the bus did not in fact go to the train station... so we hoofed it. Stopped back at the bar to pick up our bags and then headed to the station - and caught our train to London easily.

Enjoyed the countryside (and the inside of our respective eyelids) on the way in... and this is where the fun starts.

We were a weeeee bit late for our hostel check in time at that point (and yes, it was really all my fault - but I'm okay with it. Old Sarum and tromping was worth it.) so we headed the correct direction on the tube and when we got off it in what we thought was the right area (according to the map we had studied) we tried to call them.

And tried to call them.

And tried to call them.

Repeat ad nauseum.

By this point we had walked the street they were supposed to be located on twice with no sign of even the correct house number (one side of the street went to 34A, and the other side of the roundabout picked up at 48, we were looking for 40) and after asking plenty of passerby and shopkeepers if they had any idea where we were going, we decided to sit down and review the information we had at hand. We'd been looking for the hostel at the wrong address, couldn't find the hostel, they weren't answering their phone, we were exhausted and sore (and hungry, and needed a bathroom) and we didn't have a map with enough detail in the area.

We stopped at the Tesco in the area (essentially a mini grocery store) and asked if they had the number for a cab company to take us to the hostel (or any idea where we were going) and they said no, and no, and thanks for your business but bye bye now.

Thank the gods for one of the cashiers - he got out his internet enabled phone (ours was in the process of dying and internet is rather a large battery drain) and found a cab company with headquarters near us for us to call. We then tried to call the company... to no avail. Eventually he gave us his phone too - and we managed to get ahold of them. They said they'd be by in about 30-45 minutes, and we said thanks and hung up.

So we sat on the ledge outside... and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

(Seeing a pattern here?)

After about an hour (their longest estimate plus 15 minutes) we tried to call them again, and after figuring out the numerical selections needed to get a call through we got a hold of them.

To be told that they had never received a booking from us - and who had we talked to and they never took a job without getting a cell number and on and on... Until a sudden silence on the other end of the line and some hushed talking and "Your name is Ariel?" and then apologize and a promise to be at our location in the next 20 minutes.

30 minutes pass, and still no one. We've been scouting cabs that drove through the traffic circle for awhile, but none have come close enough for us to flag and we had thought ours was on the way. The nice cashier from earlier (whose name I sadly cannot remember) comes out for a smoke break and is astonished to see us still sitting there. He calls the company and complains at the same time Ari (who is now standing at the traffic circle) receives a call from them saying that they thought we had said "grove" instead of "road" and were trying to blame it on us. They will be there in 10-15 minutes.


10 minutes in to THAT wait time, FINALLY, an empty cab drives by and I flag it down - and as one of the passerby had mentioned a Holiday Inn being nearby (and we were now 5 hours late for our hostel checkin,) - we went to the Holiday Inn Express instead of the hostel.

Sweet sweet pizza, and a bathroom, and SHOWERS... And a private room all our own.

We ate, and passed out.

And now dear people...

Today.

Bath - Day 2

So, as Ari said - traveling was HARD. Got to the airport on Monday around 4:30am in Seattle and got off the final plane at 12pm the next day in London. Admittedly, some of that time was timechange - but still a lot of traveling. Ari was right about not sleeping on the plane though - my memories are quite a bit fuzzy of the actual travel part - though I do remember bits and pieces, and we have chronological pictures of hilarity. Got here (Black Mercedes whatwhaaaat!), checked in, got food, I took a shower... and we hit the beds.

Anywho, yesterday happened and we passed out - though we woke up quite a few times individually and together during the night - Ari was right btw, the drunk people were entertaining. Woke up at 8 and felt fantastic - which 15 or so hours of sleep will do for me. Got up, got dressed, and went on walkabout.

We went to a place called The Jazz Cafe and shared a full English Breakfast - which contained; toast, beans, pile of mushrooms, 1 piece bacon, 1 sausage, an egg and half a tomato. We also had scones and a maple-pecan plait. And tea.
Wow... that reads like a lot more food than it was, promise. I had some beans and toast, and a scone, and most of the maple-pecan plait - while Ari had the remainder. We also had tea. TEA! Love tea.

After our jazzy breakfast, during which we glimpsed a man in full Regency dress - and can I mention how lovely it was to sit down for tea and breakfast with jazz happening? - we went back on walkabout. Today was a very grey day, but in a soothing - beautiful kind of way instead of a scary-dark kind of way. The sun was visible, but not out and about.
- Kinda loving hostels so far, just had a lovely conversation with two Argentinean women about travel, our hometowns and places to visit. -

So, sunwise at least, felt like home. We walked for the next few hours, found a community garden area which was soothing but also uplifting in that it was a FULLY functioning garden area that this community had come together to build and maintain. It also had some great views, and some of the allotments had been used to create outdoor lounging areas - which we took full advantage of.

Wandered out of the garden area and followed the mental yellow brick road (aka, went whichever way we felt like) and found some random park - where I attempted and failed to climb trees, and then found ANOTHER park where I attempted and succeeded to climb a tree. YAY! Trees!

After that continued the wandering and gawking at the beautiful architecture... until we once again met the man with the Regency clothes. Guess where heeeee was?

In front of The Jane Austen Centre! Which we proceeded to visit, and have tea in their Regency Tea Rooms - which was yum. (PS, food porn to follow) Had a lovely time there enjoying the atmosphere, and then moved on. Went up the street a little to find the actual house that Jane Austen lived in (which seems to be a Dental Surgeons now)... And then followed the road to the Circus - aka a circle of seemingly identical and yet quite interesting houses.

- Okay, REALLY loving hostels now. Just had a three hr+ conversation with one of the aforementioned Argentinean women, named Ariana. I sincerely hope she does make it to (and in) LA - and that we meet again. I LOVE conversations like the one I just had/participated it. Checking privilege, learning from another person in an active exchange of ideas... Not to mention that she may be the soulmate of a friend of mine :P -

Right - so. We walked by the Fashion Museum before we decided it was too expensive, plus we were running out of time... so then we stopped at an old telephone booth and posed it in :P.

Finally found the Thermae Bath Spa that we'd been somehow not finding throughout our wanders (its really not as in the center of things as it looks on a map), and OH GOODNESS. It's expensive (25lbs for 2 hrs soak) but totally worth it. And yes I realize that that is not the abbreviation for pounds but its what I got. Work with me. We walked in and had no line at all before us - walked up to the desk and rented towels and got our nifty bracelets. A word about the bracelets here - blue plastic bands and with grey disks on the tops - they ended up being what I think of as ridiculously high tech. I won't bore you with the details but they opened lockers in a way I'd never seen before - bought food for you - opened turnstiles... seriously nifty. We went up to the rooftop pool first - with a quick stop for look arounds at the other options.

Rooftop pool people... ROOFTOP POOL. With views onto the roofs and surrounding area - beautiful. Sadly, no photography allowed on that level so you won't get to really see it - but gorgeous. Spent a good 40 minutes there, and then went down a level to the steam rooms... which were interesting. Four self contained, circular, rooms with glass walls that each had differently scented/flavored steam in them - contained in a larger and less steamy room that also had a waterfall shower and foot baths. Couldn't spend as much time there as we would have liked to just because it was too hot/humid for the both of us. Down to the pool on the under street-level level - not quite correct to call it a underground area because it wasn't. This pool had 4 large pillars which were symmetrically asymmetrical (very large tops and much smaller bottoms) and a much stronger current than the rooftop pool.

Went back up to the rooftop pool and finished off our spa-ing there with meeting some lovely women that we talked to about visiting and places to go in America, and they told us about Brighton and London before we had to leave - all in all a too short meeting.

Headed out of the Spa, got some bandaids on the blisters attempting to happen on my feet (Seriously... should have brought another pair of shoes. Seriously), and then went to the Roman Baths - which were magnificent. Awe inspiring, breathtaking, beautiful, historical (wonder if that one's been heard before?)... I quite enjoyed them, and the audio tour was tops.

After about an hour and a half at the Roman Baths (and realizing that we DID want to go to the Fashion Museum and just weren't going to be able to swing it timewise) - we wandered back out onto the street... where apparently it had rained. We missed it by being mostly underground - quite a good thing by the looks of the ground and the people around us. It had been very windy and somewhat sprinkly when we were at the Spa but the water on the ground suggested actual rain.

Found LUSH - had fun talking to the ladies there and bought a few things. We asked for a recommendation for a low to middle priced place for a nice dinner - and they recommended Jamie's Italian (a Jamie Oliver restaurant) which we proceeded to quite quickly!

Had a fabulous - FABULOUS meal. Admittedly a midsize splurge for us - but we've declared one really nice meal per town/city, and this was the only REAL meal we'd had today. Had, as far as I remember:
Bruschetta, Polenta Chips, Buffalo and ricotta cheese ravioli with a lemon and sage sauce, prosciutto, pear, pine nut and pecorino romano salad, lemon curd tart with pistachios and a raspberry and ameretto brownie with fresh raspberries.


Yes, we are aware that our tastes in food are ridiculous but for that amount, and quality, of food the price was EXTREMELY reasonable. The service alone was worth half the bill - our waitress was fantastic and helpful - and all the staff seemed to be of the same caliber. Walking through the kitchen was quite fun as well - seeing all the food and the ingredients - I had a seriously hard time choosing my food because it all sounded /smelled/looked amazing. Jamie Oliver maaaaan... He knows his stuff.

After that crazyamazingfantasticridiculously delicious food - we tried to get to a drugstore but by that time it seems everything was closed. Weird, as it was only 6:30 or so... but apparently everything opens late-ish and closes early right now.

We got safely back to the Hostel and headed to the Chill Out room at the very top to call banks, and parents, and so I could write up our days adventures - a task that took significantly longer for very good reasons (see Ariana, above) but is now complete.

And now, dear family and friend members?

It is time for bed.

Off to Salisbury (Stonehenge!) and then London tomorrow!

Bath

WOHOO!!! So guess what everyone? Carolyn and I made it! It was an absurdly long flight in which we kind of lost our minds. When I say lost our minds, I mean we didn't sleep and so it got VERY silly as we got more and more exhausted.  We took update photos hourly... here is how it went...

Before Even leaving... In Ari's house.

About to take off... still pretty enthusiastic...

Hour one... Doing awesome!

Hour two... a little hysterical... but only a little...

Hour three... loosing steam.

Hour four... got the blankies out...

Hour five... Carolyn is turning into a ghost...

Hour five... Ari praying to God we get there soon...

Hour six... Carolyn caved...

Hour seven... can't even summon enough strength to properly sass the camera...

Hour eight... slekgnaegflkjan!!!!

Hour nine... okay, we've almost landed... we can do this! (Probably).

Nope... No we can't.

Landed in London about an hour early and got through customs pretty quickly... It was a little silly going through customs as well. The woman who was questioning us had really hard questions and Carolyn who had been awake like 24+ hours at that point was just like, whaaa? So I had to take over the questions. Fortunately, I was somewhat coherent so it wasn't too much of a problem.

Got through and then immediately retrieved our bags from the luggage carousel. It was about 12 in the afternoon London time and the car we hired to take us to Bath wasn't scheduled to come until 3 p.m. Time to break out the international phone and give them a call.

Successfully managed to get a hold of the company and within forty minutes the car would be there to pick us up. Heading out to the pick up area, Carolyn and I plopped down and waited.

A little fresh air did us good...

Except we can't remember how to aim the camera...

yikes too far...

There we go!!! 

Waiting for our car outside Heathrow...

 Only slightly crazy at this point...

A black Mercedes came to pick us up.

 Our driver and our car!!!

In the car, so happy to be on the way to Bath and soon (hopefully) to bed!

It was... AWESOME. Really, there is no other word for it. I felt like a celebrity having the chauffer open the door for us and then drive us out to our location. It was wonderful.

The English country side is really a sight to behold. It's so beautiful right now with field after field of bright yellow blossoms.

The drive wasn't too long. We were both so exhausted at this point but I didn't want to sleep in case I slept too long and messed up my sleep schedule. Carolyn tried to fight it too, but having been awake a significant amount of time longer, she dozed a bit.

Bath is the most beautiful place. It's so breathtaking and just magical. I'm so glad we planned a visit here.

Driver dropped us off at the Hostel and we proceeded to check in.

I love/hate this hostel. Mostly love with only really a sprinkle of annoyance. The door you enter into is a narrow hallway with step ups randomly making it difficult to navigate with a rolly back pack while sleep walking. Carolyn led the way up one, two, three, four (?!) flights of stairs that just kept winding up and up this narrow building. Most of the doorways have steps, which is something to look out for but other than that it is so fun. I heard drunk people stumbling up last night and I can't imagine how they managed to get to their rooms in one piece.

 We were both soo tired we don't remember me taking this photo...

 Our beds... Carolyn on top, me on bottom.

Nifty mirrors!

So once we checked in and got situated in the 6 person dorm we're sleeping in, we headed out for a quick walk about before deciding food was in order. Ate in the pub that is below the hostel and found the food was really good, all fried but delicious the same.

Quick view of Bath from our door...

Trying to read the menu...

Not even attempting at reading...

Headed out on a longer walk about around the city but by this time I was lightheaded and dizzy with lack of sleep. Carolyn, who had gotten her 5th or 6th wind was good and had to lead me most of the way. Stopped and bought a towel because of course, we both forgot one, and explored before both deciding that it was time to head back and go to sleep. 

Beautiful beautiful Bath... 

 :D

I'm a sucker for churches...

I stopped at the one bathroom in the hostel before going to the room and when I came out of the stall, I was startled by a guy asking me where the paper towels were. This was new for me. I never had experienced really, a co-ed bathroom. Upon inspection of the room, I told him he'd probably have to wipe his hands on his pants at which he gave me a disgusted look.

I wish we had been able to sleep later but really it was 5:30 p.m. when we both passed out.

Woke up at 9:30 and thought for some reason it was the morning (I think it was because of the bright street lights outside). Carolyn had to explain to me that we had only been sleeping for four hours. That bummed me out. I was hungry and awake and ready to explore. Turned over in bed to get up but instead passed out again.

Woke up at 3 and was ready to get up and walk around. Carolyn was up too and we both agreed another three hours of sleep or so and we would get up. Carolyn fell back to sleep, I couldn't. I laid there until 5:30, zoning in and out of sleep. By 6:30 I couldn't lay there anymore and got up to shower.

Let's talk about the shower for a moment. Carolyn took one yesterday and had warned me about it, but I just wasn't prepared. The shower, while clean and simple, is tiny and there is no hot or cold option. Just PUSH. A little button that when pressed shoots out ten seconds of FREEZING water. I thought I was going to go into shock it was so cold.

I quickly learned that if you kept pressing the button, it would go longer than ten seconds and it would actually start to heat up. It is not really a get clean shower, but more of a rinse off the smell shower. I think I'll have to wait until London to get in a good proper shower.

It's 7:30 a.m. now and Carolyn is still asleep, though I'm thinking about waking her up soon so we can go get breakfast. I'm starving.

Carolyn will probably post next so see you all later!!

p.s. There is either a pigeon or a dying cat outside the window on the stairs where I'm sitting or in the wall.. I cannot tell. :/