Churches, Rocks, and Baths

I got back a couple of days ago from an impromptu road trip across southern England. An American friend of ours called me up and said that he and another friend of his (a guy we actually met at a restaurant in Brick Lane) were renting a car and driving around and if I would like to come. I took him up on his offer and eventually at 6:30am on Saturday morning we all met up and drove off.

The first place we stopped at was a town called Salisbury. We went to the famous cathedral there and walked around it for about an hour. The place is huge! It was actually really cool to see because we pretty much had the place to ourselves (compared to a place like Westminster Abbey at least). I was able to see the giant vaulted ceilings and other interesting architecture. I even got to see the Magna Carta, which for some reason is there. It was neat because a little old British woman told me all about the history of it and boasted that their Magna Carta was in such better condition than the British Museum's Magna Carta. Funny lady.

Next, we went to Stonehenge. It's funny to see because it's just right off of a little highway. I'm sure the Stonehenge historic society (if there is one) is angry about the touristy nature of the site but it did make it easy for us to find. I didn't think I'd like Stonehenge that much (I dunno...rocks in a circle? come on) but with the little audio guide they gave us, the walk around the legendary place ended up being absolutely brilliant! I learned a lot about the history (did you know that the devil actually brought the stones there from Ireland?!) and absorbed as much as I could of the atmosphere around the area. Would recommend.

The last place we trekked to was Bath. This town is famous for the roman bath houses in the area and has some other very charming elements to it. We only did a small amount of touristy sight-seeing before we started just hanging out for the evening. We enjoyed some pints at a local pub, ate some nice italian food at Pizza Express (nicer than it sounds), and ended up going out to a couple of different clubs and bars that night. All in all it was a long night.

Now during the road trip it was just me and my two buddies, Jon and Jonathan. When we got to Bath, though, we met up with Erika and her friends who had taken a train that day. We all hung out and did the things mentioned above but when it was time to go to bed I decided to forego the 9-mile trip outside of Bath to sleep in the room Jon had booked (it was the only available one on late notice but I think it only had two beds). Instead I snuck into Erika's female-only hostel and slept all night there. It was kind of fun hiding under the covers when someone would walk around in the room and I ended up sneaking out early in the morning without anyone yelling at me. I felt like I was my brother Casey back at college (I'm sure he did stuff like this).

Finally it was time to go home. The guy who had rented the car (Jonathan) lived 3 hours north of London so it wasn't really on the way for him to take us home. We ended up getting a cheap bus ticket though, and made it home by mid-afternoon. 100% successful trip. I don't have the pictures uploaded yet but I'll get 'em soon.