Days Five and Six: Glastonbury and Dublin

A mixture of a long day and no wireless made posting yesterday quite unappealing. As a result, today's post is two tales in one!

Yesterday, we set out early for Bristol, but because of tube repairs, ended up having to take the later bus. When we got to Bristol, we still had to drop off our bags at the hostel. The directions on our reservation only said that it was about half a mile away. Luckily, Bristol (unlike Salisbury) has excellent street signs, and we had bought a map. We dropped off our things, then headed out to the bus station. we just managed to get on the bus to Glastonbury, but we were still quite late. By the time we got there, it was verging on three thirty.

However, we also got off a stop too early, so we ended up not in the town, but in a neighborhood about three miles out. We could see the Tor from where we were, so we simply started walking towards it. We soon realized we were lost when we could see nothing around us except hedges and cows. LOTS of cows. We turned back around, and ended up asking directions in the local hospital. The women at the desk were really sweet, and very helpful. Before we left, one of the women took my hand and said, "If you're feet get blisters, be sure to come back, dearie, and we'll fix you up."

Now pointed in the right direction, we set off down the road. The only problem was, we weren't exactly sure when the next bus would come, and we were supremely unhappy with the idea of having to miss our flight the next morning. On top of this, the walk was long. By the time we got to the Abbey, it was almost five fifteen. By this time, most everything was closed. However, we were able to get into the Abbey, where we got lunch and were able to walk among the ruins. The Abbey was built in the eleventh century, and despite now being in ruins, you can still see parts of the colored decorations that had been painted on the walls, and sections of the tiled floors. Most interesting, however, is that King Arthur and Queen Guinevere were said to be buried next to the high alter! We got to see their graves, which are now simply a marked-off plot of land. There was once a grey marble tomb, but it was destroyed some time in the sixteenth century.

After that, we simply sat in the square and people-watched, as most everything was closed. It would have been nice to climb the Tor, which is said to be the entrance to Avalon, and to drink from the Chalice Well, but we just didn't have time. However, we got to see the most exciting part, the Abbey, which was said to have been founded by Saint James, Jesus's brother-in-law, thought the current Abbey was built later.

When we got home, we went straight to sleep, as we had to wake up at five this morning in order to get on our plane by eight. We made it, though, and boarded just in time. We made it into Dublin by ten, signed into the hostel, then set out to see the sights. First, we went to Trinity College, where Burke, the author of "The Nature of Beauty and the Sublime' was once dean, and where the Book of Kells now resides. I got my picture taken with Burke's statue, and then we went inside to see the book.

I got in trouble almost immediately for taking pictures. A security guard said, "put your camera away or I'll have to shoot you." I said, "With a camera?" and he responded, "With a gun!" In print this sounds rather off-putting, but in the moment it was quite funny. The Book of Kells itself seemed quite small, actually. You were only able to see two pages, which makes sense, but I wish I'd been able to see more. I feel like there had to be a way to make more of the pages visible.

From there, we went to the First Christ Church, which was huge, beautiful, and full of an assortment of strange things, from an iron heart reliquary to a mummified cat and rat that had gotten stuck in the pipe organ. After that, we came back to hostel to chill for a bit. We'll be going out tonight, where hopefully we'll get to meet tons of new people. Tomorrow we'll be bussing to Cork, to see Blarney Castle!

London, Day Three: Salisbury

Yesterday we awoke tolerably early, at about eight thirty, had breakfast, and hopped the train to Salisbury. On our way to the train station, the underground was inexplicably host to gaggles of cosplayers! Turns out there was an Anime convention in town! It was really exciting to see the normal masses of people punctuated with garishly costumed kids in bright wigs.

The train ride to Salisbury was only an hour and a half, so we were in town before we knew it. We had a hell of a time finding the tourism office, but once we managed to buy a ticket, we were on our way to Stonehenge. It really was mystical looking, despite being surrounded by crowds. It was a stormy, drizzly day, and ravens were perched everywhere across the grounds and on the stones themselves. One can see why early archeologists thought it was a place of sacrifices.

On the bus ride back to Salisbury, we also got to see a crop circle, the first in England. It was fading a bit, but someone (or something) had flattened a wheel shape into a field of yellow flowers. It was quite beautiful.

From there we went to the St. Thomas Beckett church, which hosts some of the oldest remaining heraldry insignias in England, along with a recently rediscovered painting of the Divine Judgment. It was amazing to sit in a church that was over a thousand years old, yet still in active use. Right under Queen Elizabeth I’s heraldry, marked as dating from the 17th century, was a playpen for younger children’s Sunday school. We just simply don’t have enough history in America for such things to occur.

Today, we’re off to Bristol and Glastonbury. I can’t wait to see the supposed burial place of King Arthur!

London: Day Two

Yesterday Erika and I woke up bright and early, at seven o’clock. Two fellow travelers from Alabama, a brother and a sister, were getting ready to depart, and inadvertently woke us. It was such a beautiful, bright morning that we really didn’t mind. Turns out, they know a girl from Mary Washington that Erika also knows. Talk about small world. Unfortunately, today was to be their only day in London, and they were going to take a bus tour to see the sights. Had they had more time, we would have invited them to Salisbury with us tomorrow.

We went down for breakfast, where we had tea in the bar and watched the news. A serial killer, calling himself the “Crossbow Cannibal” has recently been apprehended for murdering three prostitutes. He was actually caught on CCTV cameras chasing down a girl and shooting her with a crossbow. It’s really strange. All the papers have been running front page articles about it, allowing me to keep up by reading discretely over peoples’ shoulders on the tube, or just by nicking leftover papers outright.

First stop this morning was the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was my favorite for the day. They had a huge collection of Medieval and Gothic artefacts, from early alters to huge golden chalices. I took at least two hundred pictures there. Additionally, they had a huge display of jewelry, including Lalique art-nouveau, all of which I wanted to steal. The most interesting display, however, was of Walpole’s Strawberry Hill estate. He was, as Erika termed it, a trip. He loved to collect things from the Gothic and Medieval eras, and basically turned his estate into a mini Gothic castle, designing every detail to be authentic. I was really sad I couldn’t take pictures.

After the V&A, we went to the British Library. We weren’t expecting them to have a whole lot beyond the original Alice manuscript, but they had TONS of stuff, including the oldest manuscript of Beowulf! I was definitely impressed. We spent about two hours in the room, looking through manuscripts, including a few Oscar Wilde letters.

From there, we went to the Museum of London, which traces the history of London from prehistory, to roman Londinium to modern day. Pretty interesting, but by this time we were pretty museum-ed out. We went back to the hostel, then out to get Indian food at a really nice place down the street. That night, we went down to the bar beneath our hostel and had Snakebites (beer, cider and black currant) with a few people we met. They were from South Africa, and we taught them to fist-bump, like true Americans.

Today we head out to Salisbury and Stonehenge day trip, then back to London! :)

London, England: Day One

The flight here went well. We sat next to a teenage (well, twenty, but he seemed younger) boy who was going to visit his internet girlfriend. We barely slept, and went straight from the airport to the hostel, dropped off our bags, then went to the British Museum.

We went through basically everything, though by the end, we were dragging. We got to see artefacts from Sutton Hoo, which is one of the most important and complete discoveries of Anglo-Saxon history. It had one of the most pristine helmets ever found, along with engraved swords and samples of woven cloth, all from the tenth century. Really cool. Also, we got to go through the whole Assyrian and Babylonian galleries, which contained HUGE statues of bulls and bird-headed protection spirits. What was most interesting, however, was the galleries that basically chronicled the history of the museum itself, which was set up like a hall of eighteenth century curiosity cabinets. I took more pictures than should be legal.

After the museum, we went to lunch, and walked around a bit before we decided we REALLY needed to sleep becuase we were both feeling majorly sick. After a nap, we went to go get sushi from Harrods, where all the plates are placed on a conveyer belt and you get to pick what looks most tempting. It was delicious and really diverting at the same time.

After dinner, we tried to go to King's Cross to see Platform 9 3/4, but we couldn't find it! We went down both platform nine and ten, but nothing. The internet said sometimes the sign moves, so maybe we were just unlucky. At least we got to see the station, though I saw no Voldemort horcrux-babies, thankfully. :)

Tomorrow will be the Victoria and Albert Museum, which has an exibit on Horace Walpoleand maybe the Museum of London?

Charlotte, NC

Erika and I are sitting in the Charlotte NC airport right now, hanging out. We arrived at around eleven this morning, and have been talking, planning and reading for the past six hours, waiting to board our eight hour flight to London. Hopefully, we'll get to sleep during the flight, as we'll arrive at around seven AM London time/two AM our time.

In Norfolk I was patted down, and my bag was inspected because my metal water bottle apparently looked like a weapon. They asked if I had anything "dangerous" in my bag, and to please not attempt to touch it as he was inspecting it. Creepy. The Charlotte airport has both an official Nascar store and resturant, and rocking chairs along the windows where you can sit and watch the tarmac. Quite an adventure so far. :) We'll be boarding soon, so more later.

The Journey Begins In One Day!

Erika and I will be leaving at nine o'clock Wednesday morning. Wish us luck!