I got to London around 7 at night and just relaxed, got some dinner, and went on the internet to find out how to get to Stonehenge. I have been to London twice and I feel like I have seen most of the important things to see there so this time I only wanted to see Stonehenge and meet up with two of my friends that live there.
Online it said that you could get to Stonehenge by bus from the main bus station in London. My plan was to leave there around 9, stay for a while, and come back. I got to Victoria Station in the morning only to find that there was really no easy/cheap way to go to Stonehenge. After walking around for a while and getting frustrated, I found a place that had transportation there and back and admission to the site. Since that was my only plan I figured my other option was to aimlessly walk around London and wait till later to see some people, so I bought my ticket. The only problem was that it was 9:00 in the morning and the tour didn't leave until 12:45. So I decided to go to Harrods. Harrods is a very famous store in London that has almost everything. I had some time to kill and it was close by so I went. It was very fancy and expensive. They have a bunch of different rooms, such as electronics, pets, toys, chocolate, etc... My favorite room was the Millionaire room. The coolest thing there was a set of four framed pictures that you could buy that contained the robes worn by The Beatles on the album cover of Sergeant Peppers Lonely Harts Club Band. They wouldn't let me take a picture but it costs 70,000 Pounds.
12:45 finally came around and I got on the bus. Everything seemed to be running smoothly until they stopped and told us that we had to take another bus to Stonehenge and it would be there in about 20 minutes. An hour and a half later, the bus picked us up and everyone was in a pretty bad mood. I was frustrated because that is the only thing I really wanted to do and I also made plans to meet my friend, Chanelle, at my Hostel at 7:00. After a little less than two hours on the bus I saw a sign for Stonehenge and I knew we were close. Then just past one hill the huge monument came into view. It looked enormous. At that moment my heart almost skipped a beat and I felt like all that waiting just made me appreciate it more. We had an hour and a half at the site and they gave us audio-guides. I walked around and listened to the history and facts and snapped some photos
(I have some pictures but they won't upload because the internet sucks here)
There really wasn't that much to see and we surely didn't need an hour and a half there. I started talking to some people on our bus, one of whom was wearing a Buffalo Sabers hat and they happened to be from Interlaken, NY, about 30 minutes up the lake from Ithaca. Small world. They knew some of my teachers at IHS and their son played Hockey and the name sounded familiar but I don't think I know him.
I got back to the Hostel around 7:30 and went on Facebook hoping that my plans would fall into place. About 10 minutes after sitting down, Chanelle walked into the room and sat down with me. I was extremely relieved because I had no way of contacting her and she had been trying to call me but it was not working. We walked over to a restaurant and got a drink while we waited for her roommate, Linda, to finish work. We went to a bar near the London Bridge where she works and got some food and drinks. This weekend is a bank holiday in London so they don't have work so I altered my plans to come back to the South of the UK for the weekend to spend some more time with them. It was nice seeing them again and getting to hang out with some people that I knew. I have been on my own for just over a week no and although I love traveling on my own, at times it can get a little lonely.
After the drink we parted ways, planning on seeing each other again in a few days. Then in the morning I booked a bus to Manchester and then from Manchester to Edinburgh the next day.
I got to Manchester at 2:15 in the afternoon, put my stuff down in my hostel, and got a map. The receptionist suggested a few places to see and all the museums are free. I went to the art museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the People's History Museum. They were not that interesting but they were free and I just glanced at the exhibits. Later that night I went to a restaurant and had some Ribs that were not that great, and went back to the hostel to book a hostel in Edinburgh and relax.
I did not do too much in Manchester, but it was just a stop over so that my bus to Edinburgh was not excessively long. I liked it though. It is pretty small and I got the feeling that there is a lot to do there.
Now I am on the bus to Edinburgh and I got a book called The Shit My Dad Says. It is a non-fiction about a guy who gets dumped by his girlfriend at age 28 and moves back home with his parents. He is a writer and noticed the humor in what his dad said and started a twitter about it. Before he knew it he had a few hundred thousand followers and was being contacted by important people and he wrote a book. It is more like a collection of short stories but it is very funny, and every story has some sort of positive life message in it. It is very similar to the show Modern Family. I feel like both of the Dad characters are in fact the same people, and Modern Family also ends every episode with some kind of message about life. I finished the entire book on the bus and this was the first time that I have ever read an entire book in one day. Then I just put some music on and glanced outside at the beautiful Scottish countryside and the rolling hills go by. I don't think I have ever seen so many sheep in my whole life.
Then when I got to Edinburgh I walked to my hostel and was completely blown away by the buildings and architecture.
I will tell you more about Edinburgh in my next post though
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