Wasting time again

I feel like I've wasted quite a bit of time on this trip, but this time it's not actually my fault! Here's the deal: I need to check out of this hostel and move across the city to the Earl's Court youth hostel. But check-out time here is 10 am, and check-in time there is 2 pm, leaving me four hours to kill. I *was* gonna store my luggage and go across the street to the British Library so at least I could be doing something sight-seeing-y while I waited, but the lockers in luggage storage are WAY too small to hold all my giant suitcases, so I'm just sitting on a couch in the hostel's café area, keeping an eye on my nearby bags, surfing the internet, watching World Cup coverage on some British sports channel, revising my itinerary, and now blogging. Fun stuff. In the next half hour or so, though, I can head off for Earl's Court and check in, and after that I think I'll go to Notting Hill for the Portobello Road Market, which is supposed to be really hopping on Saturdays.

So, I want to share pictures of my trip but I don't feel like posting them all to facebook right now (partly because I'm realizing that when I get home, I won't have the fun of showing my pictures off because everyone will have seen them already), so I'm gonna sum up my week here and post pictures to accompany everything. It seems like a fair compromise.

So:

Friday, June 4th
Arrived in London, checked into hostel #1 (after getting lost due to some bad GoogleMap directions), and then went off to explore the Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens area. That's about it.

Sunken Garden outside Kensington Palace

Saturday, June 5th
Spent most of the day at the Tower of London, which is actually not what I expected. I don't know how I managed to make it through life without ever actually seeing a picture of the Tower or reading a detailed description of it, but I was prepared for a literal tower. A lone tall structure looking all ominous and foreboding looming over London, preferably with lightning bolts in the background, à la the Tower of Terror at Disney World. Actually, the Tower of London is a whole castle, and it wasn't always a prison. It was actually quite interesting to walk around, and there are lots of exhibits, from armor to the crown jewels (and oh my Lord, are they over-the-top with the gem-encrusted-ness. No one really needs that much bling. No one.).

The Tower of London

After the Tower I killed time in the area before going on a "Grim Reaper Tour" of the East End, where we covered the more morbid facets of London history, such as the Plague, executions in the Tower, Jack the Ripper, etc. It was good but by the time I got back to the hostel my feet were killing me (and I wore sneakers and everything!).

Tower Bridge

Sunday, June 6th
Woke up a little later than I intended but still made it to Windsor to see Windsor Castle. Unfortunately I met a sketchy guy on the train there and it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the day. (He was at least 20 years older than me and he asked me if I wanted to go around with him and sightsee all day. I said no thanks, I had plans already. (The plans being not to get saddled with a random stranger all day.) He replied, "Look, I'm not looking for anything, I just want someone to go around with, have fun," which further freaked me out, so I repeated my refusal, but he insisted, "Look, if it's money, don't worry about that, I'll pay for everything." SO SKETCH. I told him once again that I already had plans, and he finally gave up. But it was kind of unsettling and I spent the rest of the day on the lookout for him - I mean, Windsor's not that big so odds were good that I'd see him again. But luckily, I did not.)

Windsor Castle was cool, but my favorite part hands-down was Queen Mary's Dollhouse, which is a dollhouse built on a 1:12 scale with electricity and working plumbing. It was amazing. (No pictures allowed, though...sad.)

Windsor Castle, inhabited for over 900 years

After getting some lunch and buying some souvenirs, I walked over to Eton College, one of England's most famous public boys' schools. (In England, what we call "private schools" are referred to as "public schools." Yeah, confusing. I know.) The grounds were pretty but I was exhausted (I didn't realize it at the time, but I was getting sick.), so I didn't enjoy them quite as much as I might have otherwise. =(

Eton College

Monday, June 7th
Did basically nothing of interest all day, as I was getting sicker and also had to move from hostel #1 to hostel #2. Other than that, I just spent the day reading.

Tuesday, June 8th
Woke up early to take the train to get to Chatsworth, up to the north in Derbyshire, but when I got to the train station I got a terrible surprise: a one-way ticket alone cost £80 (well over $100 US). I was really bummed because Chatsworth was the one thing I wanted to see the most while I was in England. I decided to salvage the day, though, and go to Bath instead. I took the bus and got there in the early afternoon, at which point I did a quick tour of Bath because most of the attractions I was interested in closed at 5 pm, which left me only about 4 hours to hit them all. I managed to: 1.) eat a cinnamon butter bun at Sally Lunn's, which is famous for both the Sally Lunn bun and for being located in the oldest house in Bath:

Sally Lunn's - the line was almost always out the door.

2.) take a quick peek at Bath Abbey:

Built on the site where the first king of England was crowned

3.) tour the Roman Baths Museum:

No swimming allowed anymore... =(

4.) Sample some of the mineral water in the Pump Room (just like Jane Austen used to do! ... It tasted, to borrow the description of the woman next to me, like warm water with baking soda in it.):

Mmmm...?

5.) Go to the Jane Austen Centre!!

Yeah. Like I would miss going to the Jane Austen Centre.

6.) See the Royal Crescent, where some of the action in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion is set:

Where the rich people lived.

Unfortunately, this was that day in the middle of a cold when you hit absolute rock bottom and alternate between being too hot and too cold all day whilst sneezing, hacking up a lung, and constantly blowing your nose, so I didn't enjoy Bath as much as I'd hoped.

Wednesday, June 9th
As I was still not feeling fantastic, I slept in and bummed around the hostel all day long. I don't really feel like I wasted a day, though, because if I'd tried to go out and do something I wouldn't have enjoyed it, being sick and all, and I would have just worn myself out so I wouldn't enjoy the next thing or the thing after that. So really, this was the best option.

Thursday, June 10th
Feeling much better, I headed out to Salisbury to see Stonehenge. I ended up buying a ticket that also got me in to Old Sarum (which the snooty bus station ticket man told me was more interesting anyway). Funny story about the snooty bus station ticket man: he had such an obvious low opinion of Americans that it was actually very amusing. As he was showing me the prices for my different ticket options, he was like, "This covers admission and...'round trip,' in your language...When you get to Stonehenge, pick up an audio guide, I think they might even have them in your language." I really wanted to be like, "My language? You mean English?" but I refrained.

Anyway, Stonehenge was much smaller than one would expect (even after being told it's much smaller and preparing oneself for it), and it was set in like the middle of not quite a highway, but a bunch of roads, which was unexpected, but it was still cool. And Salisbury Plain, the area around it, is absolutely beautiful.

Getting blown away by the freezing wind on Salisbury Plain

Old Sarum was cool as well, although there really isn't much left of it, but being on a hill, the view was fantastic.

And then, true to form, I returned to the hostel and vegged out for the rest of the night.

Friday, June 11th
I managed to make it to Chatsworth! It certainly wasn't an ideal arrangement, as it involved almost ten hours on the road, one hour sitting around the Sheffield Interchange, and only about 2 hours and 15 minutes actually AT Chatsworth, but it was worth it. I'd really, really wanted to see it, and while it was (again) not what I'd expected, it was still really cool, especially since I could recognize certain parts of it from the adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. (In particular, the hall with the staircase. You might remember it from the 2005 version:)

Did I stand here picturing Keira Knightley walking through this hallway? Yes. Yes, I did.

I had just over an hour to walk around the grounds after going through the house, so I explored a bit (but not as much as I'd have liked...I didn't want to go too far and miss the bus).

Part of the house/grounds and the surrounding countryside...the rest of my pictures haven't been uploaded yet.

The 50 minute bus rides to and from Chatsworth from the Sheffield Interchange (where the coaches from London arrived and departed) were actually very pleasant: the area is smack in the middle of the Peak District National Park, so some parts are very pastoral and picturesque, while others are more ruggedly beautiful. Either way, I definitely had a good day, despite all the travel time.

And that brings us right up to now. It's quarter of two and I should get going to hostel #3 (the final hostel!!!) so I can have some time to actually do something this afternoon and/or this evening. I have no idea what the wifi situation is at Earl's Court, so this may be my last entry before I'm stateside again (!!!). If that's the case, I'll hopefully see you soon, and thanks for following my European adventures!