Day Trips: A Montage

I'm going to try and keep this short and concise (ha! yeah right). It isn't full of much "happenings," just pictures and places. I just have too much to do, paper-wise, here and I should be researching for my terrifying Early/Modern British Theatre paper. What was I thinking taking that class?!?

Weekend trips: Go!
Sheringham

This is a beach front town on the North Sea -- about a 3 hour train ride from Cambridge. It was just a small group of us that went, lead by the amazing Jacqui, and we honestly did nothing but lounge around all day.

The town reminds me a little bit of a coast town in Maine. Like... seafood and ice cream everywhere. Just with more pubs.

It's hard to get used to the heat in England. I don't like it. I'm used to cloudy, semi-rainy, chilly weather now, and it is what I would prefer. Yes, I know it's summer, but I can't help it.

Sheringham was interesting. I'll just say this: I never want to hear an English person say ever again that American's are overweight. I have never seen so many lumpy (and unattractive) people in my life. And not only that, but they were like caricatures of real people. And too many people here own Crocs, which I think should be outlawed. I don't care if they're comfortable. Basically, while eating our fish & chips, lounging against a concrete wall overlooking the water, we people-watched like no time in my recent memory, and there were 1,000-page stories a minute, let me tell ya.

The beach, itself, was kind of a joke. When we got there the tide was up -- all the way up. And yet, there were still people on the rocks, soaking up the rarely-seen British sun. I mean...

Right? This is Britain, ya'll. Oy vey. I don't even wanna know what they'd do if they saw a Hawai'i beach.

It was an all-day outing, not too eventful, but fun nonetheless. It was good to hang out with people and just do nothing.

Stonehenge

This is definitely going to be a short section.

I saw it. It was there. I beheld it in all it's mysterious Celtic glory. That's it.

There really isn't anything to report other than
a) It was really cool to see,
b) I don't understand why people have to pay to see it, considering it's right on the side of the highway and all you'd really need to do is pull over,
c) There were way too many people there, and
d) It would have been worth it had I been able to get close to the stones and touch them... or something.

And could this picture be any less attractive of me? Yuck-O.

We were only there for an hour. It was like the Grand Canyon. "Great, there it is..... Let's go."

Then we headed off to...

Bath

My favorite town I've been to since being abroad, hands-down. It wasn't like Edinburgh -- which was a constant party, and totally happenin' town -- but it was a town I could see myself moving to, working in, and raising a family in.
The only thing we really "did" was see the Roman Baths. Not remarkable, but interesting nonetheless.

We got big phones from circa 1982 that informed us about all the sexy bath history.

That picture up-left looks like I'm about to pop-a-squat. Hot!

Anyway, I just loved the town. I dunno. We didn't do much -- mainly us girls shopped and walked around while making the guys tag along (they were such troopers, really), and I just got to enjoy the atmosphere of Bath. It was a little downtown Santa Barbara, a little Piedmont (geographically) and a little Ashland -- only with lots and lots of British flare!

If you want to go and spend a month or two in a cottage somewhere and just enjoy the British life, go to Bath. That's all I can say.

Salisbury

This was kind of a pointless outing. We stopped here for a few hours on our way home, to see Salisbury Cathedral. Well, our group actually went to the Evensong service (which totally blew compared to the King's Chapel performance! Salisbury choir is not good... not even kind of)... we were supposed to take a tour, but it started later than we could do, so we just found a pub and had some food before getting back on the bus to pass out for the 3 hour drive home.

The cathedral was beautiful, yes, but after a while they just all start to look the same. I mean... I get it: Gothic architecture: Amazing. I still think King's Chapel is the best.
The highlight of Salisbury was the menagerie of white swans in the river.

I mean... crap, they were everywhere and they're mutants! They were huge! And I felt sorry for the ducks who just wanted food. Granted, they held their own.

Alright. Yay. England! Wahoo!

This weekend will see me heading down to Barb and Charlie in Brighton for Friday and Saturday and then back up to go to Oxford on Sunday. Another busy weekend of traveling, but I am excited to see more of England, because that is my reason for being here.

I have so much to do in the next 3 weeks. And I may just not pass my British Theatre class because I've never taken a class more hard or complicated in my life.

I mean, check out my paper topic!

What do plays matter in Shakespeare's time?

What?!?! Vague, much?! Broad, endless topics infuriate me. I'm too much of a generalizer when topics aren't specific.

Oh well. Off to read about morality in Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy. Wish me luck that I don't have an aneurysm.

PS. A shout-out to Carlin for introducing me through praise to Jeff Buckley, who is now my music companion. I needed to stop listening to Joshua Radin, Snow Patrol and The Smiths on constant repeat, despite how bomb they are. Buckley's remarkable, and very much my taste in music. Though, I still maintain that no one sings "Hallelujah" like Rufus does. I find it blasphemy to say otherwise.