STONEHENGE!!
Sooooo,
I went to Stonehenge today! Okay so here's the blow-by-blow...I wake up at around 6:30am to take a shower so Lucie and I can meet the bus at 7:30 which we of course miss. No worries there's a bus every 10 minutes! We hope on and take it to the train station which is incidentally where the car rental place is. Lucie has reserved some sort of Voltzwagen for our expedition today so she can make it to her interview on time. (Her interview is the whole reason we were going to be near Salisbury which is were Stonehenge is). Anyhoodles, she needed to have 200 pounds on a card so they can take a deposit and ...lo and behold! None of her cards have sufficient funds because Ed gets paid tomorrow.
Problem.
Lots of panicky calls to Ed ensue...and she tried all her cards too. Finally I suggest trying my card which will work if the guy puts me down as primary driver...and thankfully I have the equivalent of 200 pounds on my wachovia card (money reserved entirely for electricity). So onwards we go!
Next Lucie tried, with the aid of her Garmin, to maneuver us out of the city which she did beautiful driving a manual...which she only just learned to drive about 3 weeks ago. Some 2ish or 3ish hours later we find ourselves in Ringwood, the town where she is to have her interview. She departs from me at 1230 with strict orders to be back at the car by 2pm because most interviews only take about an hour. So I start walking around, and I kept myself within a 5 block radius of the vets office so I wouldn't get lost (which is exceedingly likely, as many of you know). I found a supermarket type place called Iceland and I bought some chocolates to take back to the states with me. After this I was in the process of hunting around for somewhere to eat that was britishy and looked delicious. At this point the weather is drizzly (has been for some time now) and the ground is quite wet. As I was attempting to quickly scurry across a roundabout (have I mentioned yet how these British simply ADORE their roundabouts) I slipped due to inattention / horrid balance. I crashed down on both my knees and now have two new gashes on my right leg and one new scrape on my left. I also tore open my jeans some more. Siiighs and embarrassed running ensued. I caught my breath and looked at the damage in a park that ended up being a war memorial. I hobbled my way to a fish and chips shop and got a delightful order of sausage and chips. They put salt and vinegar all over it and it was delicious!! (All i could think at this time was how Paul is never going to be able to have a proper order of chips in England because the *proper* way to eat them here is with salt and vinegar poured on).
I walked to what I thought would be a flower park but really just ended up being the back flower area to an apartment complex, sat on a bench, watched the flowers and ate my delicious british food! It was amazing! Then I stood up and went to a few nearby shops which were all the size of my kitchen in gainesville. It was fairly awkward. After this I went to stand by the car because it was about 1:40 and I was annoyed with my bloody, painful knee. I thought i would only have to wait about 20 or 30 minutes....little did I know. About one hour in I was so bored of playing tic tac toe on the car (with myself) that I started drawing in the gravel. (Pics are on fb of course). Then a lady comes out and snodily informs me that we parked in a private parking area and to not do it again. Some awkward standing around happened after this. At about 3 I decided to just enter the animal clinic as I was pretty much wet all the way through, freezing from the rain and tired of standing and looking awkward next to a car. As I entered the clinic and asked if I could sit for a minute or two, of course I hear the dulcet tones of my sister saying her goodbyes. We leave and finally head to Stonehenge. We get there and park. It is AMAZING! So much better than I thought it was going to be. There was a guided tour (on a radio type device) and we followed the numbers on the ground to see the various vantage points and learn about it from these points. After much admiring and picture taking we head over to my favorite part of any exhibit or museum...the giftshop! I browse and get a few postcards. Then I head to the coffee shop and have my first cup of coffee in DAYS! I was having withdrawal symptoms. Some strange, older English lady was talking to my sister as I approached. I sat and had my donut and coffee. We chatted a while and departed as it started raining harder than a drizzle. We headed back for the 2 1/2 hour uneventful journey.
My sister made us a delightful meal of spaghetti and garlic bread. We watched bridget jones whilst I chatted with my love and various friends and posted the pics. And there you go! Completely up to date. I will go to sleep soon as I have an early day tomorrow. London! I am so excited!!!! Museums forever! Hopefully another update tomorrow! Until then
Cheerio!
I went to Stonehenge today! Okay so here's the blow-by-blow...I wake up at around 6:30am to take a shower so Lucie and I can meet the bus at 7:30 which we of course miss. No worries there's a bus every 10 minutes! We hope on and take it to the train station which is incidentally where the car rental place is. Lucie has reserved some sort of Voltzwagen for our expedition today so she can make it to her interview on time. (Her interview is the whole reason we were going to be near Salisbury which is were Stonehenge is). Anyhoodles, she needed to have 200 pounds on a card so they can take a deposit and ...lo and behold! None of her cards have sufficient funds because Ed gets paid tomorrow.
Problem.
Lots of panicky calls to Ed ensue...and she tried all her cards too. Finally I suggest trying my card which will work if the guy puts me down as primary driver...and thankfully I have the equivalent of 200 pounds on my wachovia card (money reserved entirely for electricity). So onwards we go!
Next Lucie tried, with the aid of her Garmin, to maneuver us out of the city which she did beautiful driving a manual...which she only just learned to drive about 3 weeks ago. Some 2ish or 3ish hours later we find ourselves in Ringwood, the town where she is to have her interview. She departs from me at 1230 with strict orders to be back at the car by 2pm because most interviews only take about an hour. So I start walking around, and I kept myself within a 5 block radius of the vets office so I wouldn't get lost (which is exceedingly likely, as many of you know). I found a supermarket type place called Iceland and I bought some chocolates to take back to the states with me. After this I was in the process of hunting around for somewhere to eat that was britishy and looked delicious. At this point the weather is drizzly (has been for some time now) and the ground is quite wet. As I was attempting to quickly scurry across a roundabout (have I mentioned yet how these British simply ADORE their roundabouts) I slipped due to inattention / horrid balance. I crashed down on both my knees and now have two new gashes on my right leg and one new scrape on my left. I also tore open my jeans some more. Siiighs and embarrassed running ensued. I caught my breath and looked at the damage in a park that ended up being a war memorial. I hobbled my way to a fish and chips shop and got a delightful order of sausage and chips. They put salt and vinegar all over it and it was delicious!! (All i could think at this time was how Paul is never going to be able to have a proper order of chips in England because the *proper* way to eat them here is with salt and vinegar poured on).
I walked to what I thought would be a flower park but really just ended up being the back flower area to an apartment complex, sat on a bench, watched the flowers and ate my delicious british food! It was amazing! Then I stood up and went to a few nearby shops which were all the size of my kitchen in gainesville. It was fairly awkward. After this I went to stand by the car because it was about 1:40 and I was annoyed with my bloody, painful knee. I thought i would only have to wait about 20 or 30 minutes....little did I know. About one hour in I was so bored of playing tic tac toe on the car (with myself) that I started drawing in the gravel. (Pics are on fb of course). Then a lady comes out and snodily informs me that we parked in a private parking area and to not do it again. Some awkward standing around happened after this. At about 3 I decided to just enter the animal clinic as I was pretty much wet all the way through, freezing from the rain and tired of standing and looking awkward next to a car. As I entered the clinic and asked if I could sit for a minute or two, of course I hear the dulcet tones of my sister saying her goodbyes. We leave and finally head to Stonehenge. We get there and park. It is AMAZING! So much better than I thought it was going to be. There was a guided tour (on a radio type device) and we followed the numbers on the ground to see the various vantage points and learn about it from these points. After much admiring and picture taking we head over to my favorite part of any exhibit or museum...the giftshop! I browse and get a few postcards. Then I head to the coffee shop and have my first cup of coffee in DAYS! I was having withdrawal symptoms. Some strange, older English lady was talking to my sister as I approached. I sat and had my donut and coffee. We chatted a while and departed as it started raining harder than a drizzle. We headed back for the 2 1/2 hour uneventful journey.
My sister made us a delightful meal of spaghetti and garlic bread. We watched bridget jones whilst I chatted with my love and various friends and posted the pics. And there you go! Completely up to date. I will go to sleep soon as I have an early day tomorrow. London! I am so excited!!!! Museums forever! Hopefully another update tomorrow! Until then
Cheerio!