whoops

I'm slacking on this whole blog thing- I forgot to mention what we actually did in Salisbury- minor detail. We stayed there one night and on Sunday before going back to London was explored the town a bit and saw the cathedral- its the tallest one in the UK (!). There is a copy of the Magna Carta there too- had to get some history in the trip.

We drove out to Stonehenge- the approach is so weird. I don't know why but I always expected it to be up on a hill or insanely tall, but you literally are driving down the road and...there it is. It still is amazing- how the hell did they get those rocks to sit so perfectly like that!? It was exciting to see it...with hundreds of other tourists. Definitely the most touristy thing we have done so far. Then we went to Old Sarun(m?), yet another Roman earthenwork. This one gets bonus points though because they had a tasting of gin, mead, and liquor. It was actually really interesting though- they literally dig a giant hole in the shape of a circle and dumped it in the center to make a fortress-like place and built on it. Impressive.

Anyhow- back in London now you can tell its Spring Break over here too because there are way more people out. Busy Busy. Excited for Ireland!!

The suspension bridge was in Bristol..forgot to look that up before I posted!

Almost spring break!

Did our laundry at the University on Friday- gotta love colleges, everything is cheaper there. DuPuy met with some of us for meetings and everyone else wandered around the campus and played a bit of soccer. After we were let loose in Bath- I went to our new favorite cafe, Jika Jika, to read and chill for a bit then walked around and sketched until we met to watch The Hurt Locker. What an amazing movie! I highly recommend it- war is a drug (?) interesting topic...we walked around and had some dinner then went to a pub before we had to meet up with DuPuy to drive back to the hostel.

The next day we left for Salisbury and stopped at ___ to look at a suspension bridge. The engineers in us were all geeked out. Driving away from it was crazy because it literally looked like it was just resting on the two cliffs- like you dropped a ladder across them and could drive over it. Technology is freaky sometimes.

Next stop was Castle Drogo- the roads getting there were giving me a heart attack. It was a 1.5 lane road basically with tons of turns so at any moment you could turn the corner and ram into another car. Luckily we made it out without a scratch. The house was amazing though- from the outside, not so much, but the inside made up for it. The design that went into every space and entrance and light switch was phenomenal. Lutyens knew what he was doing.

Last stop was Poundbury. It was an application of Leon Kreer's ideology on urbanism- he was working with Prince Charles to commission it. The urbanism I can appreciate, but the architecture and design of some of the buildings were sub par. It was all too similar and all of the buildings had to subscribe to a particular style- it could have used some variation. There were a lot of great episodes within it, but as a whole I didn't like it too much. Before leaving DuPuy got the energy out of us by taking us to an old Roman earthenwork we ran up and climbed all around. Good times.

It feels good to be back in London. After being on the road for a few weeks its nice to be back in a familiar place. We walked around a new section of London we hadn't been in before (up around Hyde and Regents Park and Oxford Circus). There is some extremely expensive shopping around there! Liberty scarves- the cheapest I saw was 110 pounds! Good thing I don't have my debit card yet...Is going to be a hectic night- leaving for Spring Break tomorrow so we need to get everything in order before the morning. We are going to have a lot of flights to get to over break so hopefully we can get all the local transportation to the airports figured out! I'm excited to be traveling around Europe without a chaperone- I have always been with a teacher or my family! Exciting but scary....hopefully it ends well :P

So I realized in my last post I was dating everything as February- whoops!

MARCH 8, 2009

We all went out to Jamie's Italian (its owned by Jamie Oliver!) for dinner- not as good as we were all expecting, but definitely not a bad meal. We met up with DuPuy after to go to the Eagle and the Child: a bar Tolkein and C.S. Lewis used to meet at all the time (!) to have a drink. We went back semi early- leaving for Bath tomorrow morning!

3/9/10

Made a pit-stop at the Ashmolean Museum before leaving Oxford. Definitely a good call- not only was the addition to the museum amazing architecture, the exhibits were excellent! I wish we would have had a bit more time there but we had places to go! On the way to Bath we stopped at two random smaller towns that DuPuy thought we would find interesting: Bibury and another one I can't remember at the moment...they were both in the Cotswolds though which is quite amazing scenery- most of England is though. We made it to Bath and wow is the topography dramatic! I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this! It is all pretty monotonous and autocratic facades too, but I (surprisingly) love it! DuPuy took us the the College pub for dinner and a drink then back to the hostel. The hostel is...interesting. You drive up this ridiculous hill to a Palladian-looking building only out find out that your room is out back in some rando building. Definitely not my favorite one. Excited to wander around Bath tomorrow!

3/10/10

Drove down to the city center and started following DuPuy. The streets here are great- good feeling, right building heights, very pedestrian friendly. We trekked up to see the circus (very impressive) and the royal crescent (still not sure if I like it or not). Next we went into the Roman Baths- they were great but I can't believe they charge so much to go in them! We drank some of the water- it was warm! So weird, I couldn't drink all of mine. We were allowed to wander then we all met up for dinner at a pub (the Beau Nash, haha) to watch the Man U. game- they won 4-0. Back to the hostel and bed late. I have to present on Wells tomorrow, need to research!!

3/11/10

Drove to Stourhead first. Probably my favorite garden we visited thus far. It was extremely well maintained and it was an manageable size to walk around. There were these ducks that kept following us- mainly because the boys were feeding them though. AFter a coffee break we drove to Wells where I presented on the city. I was very impressed by the interior of the cathedral- the outside was a bit off- the scale was wrong for how detailed the sculpture was and the h/w proportion didn't feel right. It was recently cleaned and it was beautiful! Plus, there was a window of Jesse- so naturally I liked it :) The chapel house was very impressive though- 36 ribs springing from a single column to support the roof! We drove to the Cheddar gorge next- so cool, it was like a mini grand canyon! We were climbing around- a goat kind of started following me and I freaked out a bit. No cheese though, everything was closed by the time we got there! Went out for Indian with DuPuy in Bath and went back to the hostel early- a few of us are feeling a little under the weather (!) we need to clear it up before Spring Break. Laundry + free day tomorrow!!

Harry Potter!!

2/6/10

Left Manchester today- off to Oxford!! We wandered around and tried to sneak into various colleges (there are 38!!) to have a look at them. There is a refectory and dining hall for EVERY college- that’s the life. The housing is amazing. They all have courtyards and beautiful brick architecture. We went up St. Mary’s church to have an aerial look at the town. It was so crazy though- when the bell struck for 2:00 we could feel the tower moving!! We went into Christ Church- they filmed parts of Harry Potter there!! I definitely recognized parts of it too- thats how you know I've seen the movies too many times. The night out was much more successful than in Manchester- there were people out!! We went to a cheap pub then went over to the Purple Turtle, but people didn’t want to pay cover so we just ended up at O’Neil’s. Fun day- I am definitely liking Oxford so far.

2/7/10

Oxford is freezing!! We woke up and drove to Stowe. I wasn’t completely blown away by it. It was essentially a mansion with thousands of acres of land with follies scattered around it. The follies were supposed to be laid out with references to one another, but I didn’t really feel it when I was there. Perhaps it was because it wasn’t maintained too well- not enough money. Such a shame. I bet it was beautiful when it was first completed. We drove back to Oxford to meet up with Nick at Magdelein College and explore. I was literally frozen to the core by the end of the day- we were outside for 7 HOURS! I was pissed- and I made sure to let DuPuy know. We stopped in for a beer at a pub close by and then went to an amazing Thai place for dinner. It was off this back alley- that’s how you know its good. I went back and pretty much fell asleep right away. Long, cold day.

2/8/10

I finally went running this morning! First time since we left Kiplin- it felt great. Plus now DuPuy can’t guilt trip me anymore for not running. We went to the Sheldonian Theatre first to sketch and then we drove to Blenheim to see the house and gardens. It reminded me of something you would see in Providence, RI like the Breakers or the Biltmore. We had a quick lunch and DuPuy dropped us off in town so we could wander around. I got an Oxford t-shirt just because I wanted to feel smart and have people question whether or not I actually went to Oxford when I wear it back in the states. Back in the Hostel now to try and warm up before going out for dinner. Leaving for Bath tomorrow.

Manchester

We left Kiplin on Tuesday. It was bitter sweet: I am happy to be traveling and seeing all of the country, but it was nice to have a home base at Kiplin.

The first place we drove to was Saltaire- I really liked it at first, but then as we were walking around it seemed almost unsafe. A lot off people had braces on their steering wheels so their cars wouldn't get stolen...not enough eye on the street! Jenny and I had a great lunch though- tomato and lentil soup with brie and crackers. We went to an art museum and I went a little crazy int he gift shop- there was so many amazing books and cards! After we drove straight to Liverpool and walked around the city a bit until dinner. It seems like a pretty cool town, but the Beatles thing makes it a little touristy.

The next day we were in Wales- what an amazing day! The sun was shining and the scenery was spectacular! The language is ridiculous though- can I buy a vowel!? We went to two Edward I Bastides- Conwy and Canaerfan- that were really interesting. Then we drove down to Port Meirian. It was literally a Disney World. This rich guy essentially bought a ton of land and designed buildings in every style imaginable. It was interesting to see though thats for sure.

Thursday we left for Manchester and stopped in Port Sunlight and Chester on the way. Port SUnlight was so picturesque! I felt like i was in Pleasantville. It was great to see how some people were reacting to all of the horrible living conditions in the cities at the time, I think it might have just taken it a little too far with the open space. It was literally sprawling! Chester was crazy- it was an old Roman Castrum and so we walked all the way around the city on the Roman Wall, and explored the actual city. I have never seen more Tudor style buildings in my life! It was weird though, most everything was shops- and we didn't even have time to shop!! There was an amazing movement system along the streets- there would be stores along the sidewalk with open almost porch-like walkways that stretched all the way across in front of another level of shops. Very neat.

Once we got to Manchester we went out to dinner as a group. There was a snafu with our room though because they hadn't cleaned it yet- we got two free bottles of Champagne. AFter we went out to get Indian food- it still hasn't let me down. I LOVE INDIAN FOOD. The meal was amazing plus Sara was able to get a free bottle of wine because it was her birthday. We went back to change and get ready to go out, but the night was a bit of a bust. There was literally nothing open! No one was out and everything had already closed for the night...not to great of a first impression.

Today (Friday) we walked around with DuPuy in the morning and then were set loose at 11:30. It was freezing so we went to get 'hot drinks' and then did some shopping. It is really expensive shopping around here- unfortunate- so I didn't get much. Then Sara and I went to the 23rd floor of the humongous new Hilton that is built here to get some arial views of the city and had coffee. Hopefully tonight will be a better outing than last- then were off to Oxford int he morning!!

Farewell Kiplin!!

Yesterday was review day- wow was it long. We started at 2:00 and ended at EIGHT!! It was a great review though I have to say- Nick has a lot of great ideas, I'm glad he came for the review. After we drank and played Rook (Jenny's amish game, its a lot like pitch) and watched the Hockey game- poor US.

Today I tried to sleep in because we had a free day, but I still woke up on my normal schedule of 8:30- its really unfortunate. I finished packing..sort of...and we played soccer for about an hour. It was a beautiful day- sunny and 50, what more could you ask for!? I went on a farewell lap around the lake and then we went into Richmond for a few errands and food. We are going to try and go to the cheap monday night movie and watch Invictus, but there might not be any seats left- we shall see.

We're leaving for the road tomorrow- I have to say I will miss Kiplin Hall and RIchmond, but it is going to be so amazing to be able to travel around the country and see so many cities. The there is Spring Break- I'm so pumped!! We are trying to/ I am planning a trip to either ROme or Barcelona for the beginning of April- its relatively cheap to fly round trip and we are already in Europe we might as well travel to another country for a weekend!! Hopefully we can manage to get it together in time....

I decided I am not going to bring my computer on the road simply because of space- I have too many clothes!! SO picture posting on facebook might be few and far between. Cheers!