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Hi me dearies, it's Sonja, and I am about to bring you up to speed with 3 weeks of travels in the UK. Hope you're nice and comfortable... =)
I have absolutely loved the Mother Country. Even the things that are meant to be not so great - the weather and the people - I've found to be wonderful. Yes, even the rain too. I think the rain really suits England.
I started in London and spent a week there. It's such a great city, I really don't think one could ever run out of stuff to do there. I did most of the touristy stuff and it was all very fun. I wasn't expecting to get excited upon seeing the cliche icons of the city such as Big Ben and Tower Bridge but excited I did get. Ahhh it's Big Ben!!! I'm *really* in London!! And so it went.
The highlights were:
* Westminster Abbey - so many English kings and queens are buried there, including my beloved, Elizabeth I. Funnily enough, her and Bloody Mary's tombs are next to one another. The Poet's corner blew my mind - soooo many famous writers are buried there. Newton's and Darwins tombs are in there too.
* The Tower of London - this is probably one of my favourite things I've seen so far on the trip. I loved hearing all the stories of famous prisoners and executions. Fascinating stuff. Oh and the Crown Jewels are so pretty.
* Changing of the guard in front of Buckingham palace. Yes, I stood around for ages with a few thousand other people waiting for them to march out in their silly uniforms...some things just have to be done.
* Seeing a squirrel carrying a walnut in a park - adorable! We oughtta get us some squirrels back in Oz.
* Tate Modern & National Portrait Gallery - I didn't think I liked modern art or portraits, but that must be because until London I'd not seen many good examples.
* St. Paul's cathedral. I was actually thinking about skipping the inside because I've seen so many churches on this trip, but I'm so glad I went in. It's really really beautiful.
* Seeing Les Miserables at the West End - I cried. A few times. Sooo good.
* My hostel - it just had such a great vibe, I felt so comfortable there. Met some really nice people too. In fact, because I loved London and my hostel so much, I decided to change my plans around and come back for the Notting Hill carnival...but I'll get back to that.
Then there was beautiful Cambridge. It was meant to be just a day trip from London but I fell in love with it and went back the next day too. It's quite a small place, and it's pretty all over. Beautiful old buildings, perfect green grass, a river...sigh. The highlight for me was the Christopher Wren library in Trinity College which has original manuscripts of Winnie the Pooh and some of Tennyson's poems. I was seriously having trouble breathing when I saw the poems. Another awesome thing was coming across a film set and chatting to one of the crew who's worked on all the Harry Potter films. He told me all about the actors' personalities...I couldn't believe I was actually standing there having a conversation about Daniel Radcliffe & co with someone who knows them. Ahh!
Bath was next. It is a very pretty city. Felt amazing to be walking around the same streets that Jane Austen used to walk through. I saw one of the houses she lived in too. Weeee =) From Bath I went on 2 daytrips - to the Stonehenge and to a group of villages known as the Cotswolds. I actually found the Stonehenge to be quite incredible, despite hearing from a few people that it's not all that impressive. The fact that each one of those stones weighs a few tonnes (some up to 45) and that they were dragged to the site from up to 400 kms away and arranged in that way in a time when there was no technology aaaand the fact that no one knows what the point of it all was...is amazing to me. On that same daytrip we also visited a small village called Lacock, where parts of the original Pride and Prejudice and Harry Potters were filmed. Enough said =) The Cotswolds daytrip was as beautiful as I expected. These villages are so so so adorable, every picture you take is like a postcard. Not surprisingly, to own a house there requires megabucks.
From Bath back to London for the Notting Hill Carnival. I have never seen so many people in my life. It was like NYE in Sydney multiplied by 50. Every street you look down, all you see is an impenetrable crowd. It was just crazy. So much music everywhere, and the parade was really cool too. It was a lot of fun!
Then onto Oxford. It's bigger than Cambridge which is why I like Cambridge better, but Oxford is stunning as well. The colleges are just dreamy. My favourite was the one with the deer park - unbelievable! Imagine having a deer park with 60 deer in the place where you live and study. I love you UNSW...but you really can't compete =(
And then, the ultimate highlight - the Lake District. I felt like I did in Switzerland. Content and at peace. I went walking all day every day, despite the rain and mud. On the first day it rained for almost all of the 7 hours I was out. I was soaked through, my sneakers had puddles in them, I slipped and slid down the hill and had mud all over my clothes, a but it was a perfect day. Nothing could ruin the Lake District. I really wish I'd had much much more time to spend there. The hostel I stayed in was so cute and cosy and I made some new friends there. We went out to the local village pubs, which was great fun - the pubs in England are 100s of years old!! This is what the barman in one of the pubs said to us: "Here's your beer. If you want you can go outside and go badger feeding, they should be out about now". To him, it was obviously quite a normal thing to suggest, but to us it was out of this world because seriously when would you ever get such an offer in a normal city pub? So we went outside, and sure enough we saw a badger having a meal. Way cool =)
Sadly, I've now left England and am in Edinburgh. I like the city, but I miss the countryside. I'm going to see the castle tomorrow and then I leave for Paris to meet back up with Chewwieeee. I'm excited about the latter part but I'm sad to be leaving the UK. Really sad.
Hugs to you all,
Sonja
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