Well, everyone, sorry for the long delay - we've been out and about. Here's a quick update of what we've been up to:
London, Day 2 - St. Paul's, the Globe, Millenium Bridge, Tower of London...basically we were walking all the live long day. We ended up at a pub on Blackfrier's Road and sat there for several hours, enjoying some good beer and good company. The walk back to the hostel took about an hour, but it was nice - along the Thames at night and then through Leicester Square.
London, Day 3 - Walked up through Hyde Park to the Natural History Museum, stopping at Kensington Palace and the Prince Albert Memorial on the way. It was actually a bit rainy out, so that was a bummer but we were ok once we got into the museum. It was a lovely building and there were some good exhibits, but my brain tends to shut down after long spans of time in museums so I got tired out. We decided to take the tube back to the hotel and made some supper in the kitchen there - talked with a nice Australian family who'd been traveling in Ireland, so they gave us some good tips. We bought some CHEAP wine and played cards for awhile, really relaxing.
London, Day 4 - Annie and I headed over to the British Museum again - there was just sooo much to see, we still didn't get it all in but made a valient effort. We went back to the hotel around 1 and met Peter (he'd been studying for his final all morning) and had some more Tesco lunch (basically, bread, cheese, and oranges, a standard lunch for us) before heading to Waterloo to catch our train to Salisbury.
Salisbury - when we got into Salisbury, we took a taxi out to our campsite, which was about a mile out of town, just since we weren't 100% sure where it was. We set up our tent on our pitch, then walked back into town and found a cinema to see the new Star Wars movie -we were all pretty excited to see it. GOod flick, despite some bad dialogue. Headed back up the road to the campsite. The next day, Annie and I took a bus to Stonehenge, then to Avebury (another rock circle, this one much bigger - the town is actually built within it). IT was really crappy weather and really cold, but Annie and I liked riding on a double decker bus around the countryside and enjoyed walking around with the sheep in Avebury. We checked out the cathedral briefly once we were back in Salisbury, but were more concerned about food - picked up some Indian takeaway and headed up the street to meet Peter at the campground (he had stayed at Salisbury for the day to study for his final...what a good student). After supper, we took a walk up a hill overlooking the campground. THis was by far the best thing we've done so far. The walk was neat, we had to traverse some barbed wire fences and really steep slopes...we climbed up a practically horizontal hill and as we came over the top, we spotted the ruin of a castle. Sooo cool. Turned out to be Old Sarum, the remains of a Bronze Age town outside Salisbury. We had been meaning to go there but it was SOO much better like this - in the dimming light (it was 9pm but still light out, so cool) and it was almost like we were the first to discover it. We played in the ruins, pretended we were storming the castle (Annie felt
Braveheart surge in her veins) and just enjoyed the evening - then figured out how to get down, it was practically dark and we were a bit disoriented, but eventually figured it out. I am sporting a few wounds from the fences but it was worth it. THe next day we went down into Salisbury again, lingered at the cathedral and in the close for a bit and listened to the choir. We were going to go on a walk but we were all a bit lazy so just hung around a coffee shop for the better part of the afternoon, then grabbed our stuff (this involved walking back up to the campsite again, then coming DOWN with all our crap and getting to the train station) and headed to Norwich. Rather long trip, involved 4 forms of transportation (train, tube, bus, train, taxi) to get to the University of East Anglia, where Peter lives.
Norwich - Annie and I stayed in PEter's room and he went to his girlfriend's room for the night, since she was gone - the rooms are REALLY small but it was great. Annie and I slept all morning and PEter took his final. He met us here this morning and we got some food and took a train down into Norwich city center. It was neat to see his stomping grounds, he showed us the cathedral and the castle and we got some waffles at this waffle shop he's been talking about all week. Also got to meet Claire, his girlfriend - fun! Now we're back in his room, it's naptime...yessss. We picked up some food from Tesco so we'll make dinner in a bit.
We're having a lot of fun exploring all there is to see. Last night Annie and I bought some cheese in a tube for our "awesome train snack" - a Peter Lake tradition - it was kinda gross but good in a weird way. Some of the biscuits are called "digestives" which is making us laugh a lot - if we want a cookie we say, "may I digest a bit, please?" Our accents are also all messed up. We've started adopting some aspects of the British accent already, which is funny, we particularly like asking each other "Are you all right?" which is basically like saying "What's up?" Annie laughs at me because I start speaking in an accent without even noticing. OF course, we've also got my occasional southern twinges coming in ("UM-brella" etc.) - apparently the other day I just STARTED discussing the south and was already twangy. Then Annie has adopted some Australian way of saying "yeah" from when we talked to the Australians at our hostel a few nights ago, and of course Italiano is interspersed in everything we say. Very weird group, we are.
Well, now I"m off - Annie and I have some trip planning to do before Peter reappears to cook dinner. Hope all is well, miss you all!
