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Published: March 21st 2009
I was well excited to get to travel to England for two weeks! I am horrible at planning, so I thought it would be more cheap and convenient to take a Greyhound bus for 1 1/2 days to New York to fly to London... as exciting and interesting as it was, it was completely unnecessary. Fun, though. On the journey, I met a woman at the station, and when she asked where I was going, I said England and she was so surprised that the buses ran that far... Then i met James, the meth dealing man 'fleeing' to New York to do a tattooing apprenticeship. ps- he was carrying a chainsaw in his luggage. He asked me to wander around Chicago with him during our layover. i had to decline. My one hour layover in Amsterdam consisted of me rushing from one terminal to the other to have to go through a security check again before boarding the plane. One of the bottom of my shoes fell off while walking so i probably looked really dodgy walking through the terminal with one foot and sliding my other foot with the broken shoe. The only photo i got from Amsterdam was
Wastebins in Amsterdam airport
Dispose of unwanted pets here... or does this mean 'pet what is inside'?there were lots places where a series of three bins were; one for paper, one for wastes, and one that said 'PET'...
Driving from the airport was interesting; it was a little crazy to see the cars driving so fast in the 'wrong' direction. All the cars are so small, the roads are much smaller, and wind quite a bit. The sides of the roads in some areas have cars facing both ways, parking on both sides of the road, usually half way up the sidewalk. Cars were weaving in and out between cars, and many roads built barely for 2 cars to pass were forced to squeeze one car at a time because the cars parked. It was really interesting to see. All the houses on the same street would look nearly identical. There were only subtle differences in the curtains or door knobs or only tell them apart by the numbers. Almost all the houses looked alike, all being made from brick and designed about the same. And so many more people walk than i am used to seeing!
I walked around the small neighborhood where Step lives; we ate at an old Opera house turned
to a pub. They couldn't play music because they didn't have a license to play, even the radio or their own CDs!
The next day, Step took me to see Bodium Castle, which i really like the old castles, and the drive up was amazing seeing country side along the long, winding road. The castle was fantastic to see, it was pretty crumbly as an old castle would expect to be, and there were lots of ducks being fed and swimming in the moat. We walked up several sets of narrow spiral staircases to identical rooms with small window slits, fire places, and wooden box toilets. That night we went to the town of Pluckley, apparently the most haunted town in England or Kent, to go for a ghost tour with a small booklet telling us allegedly where specific ghosts have been seen and their stories for being there. Many of the ghosts had stories from the 1500s and 1600s. We didn't see or hear any ghosts but it was still fun walking in the dark and reading these stories.
On Sunday i got to go to a big cat sanctuary where they try to breed endangered cats
obviously...
No further access beyond the invisible stairs... for potential release in the future. That was so amazing! My first job was carry two dead, gutted rabbits to a tiger cage for feeding. My favorite to see was the Amur leopards; there was a mom with two cubs and then two older brothers. I got the tour and story on all the cats. There was also a Palas cat that i have never heard of or seen before; it looks like a long haired house cat with short ears. Most the day Step and i dug a trench around the Chinese leopard cage so when it rains a lot, it doesn't flood so much.
Wednesday I saw Darwin's house which they turned more into a museum with a few items a bit out of place. There were some modern items that they tried to make looked belong in Darwin's house. And there were lots of displays, boards and educational displays, and interactive things for kids to learn about natural selection. It was okay but i wasn't too impressed with some of the things there but i still had another good time. Afterward we went to a Roman ruins with mosaic floor. It was real neat, they started
Stuck in a chimney
in a room at Bodium Castle excavating the site in the 1950s and built a building around it so you are inside looking at the mosaic below. There were lots of interactive things there as well and information about the wealthy family(ies) that lived in those times, in that building or ones like it. There were comparisons of people today and Romans back then. For dinner, i had Shepard's pie and potatoes, a particularly English meal.
During the weekend, Step drove his uncle Dave, Ad and I to Hastings- the sea side; unlike sandy beaches i am used to, this was cobble stone, although i have seen cobblestone beaches before. We walked around the town a bit and then got fish and chips we ate on the beach while gulls hovered above us while we ate, waiting for us to feed them. They put salt and vinegar all over the fish and chips. We all climbed a hill to get a view of the sea and Hastings. Dave claimed it was a mountain. Then we played crazy golf which i lost, and got icecream with flake, but i didn't like it because it was so chocolatey. I met a bunch of Step and Ad's friends
Bodium Castle Replica
What the castle would look like if it were the size of a shoe box at a bar one night, including Adam's brother, Steve, and wife, Helenka, who we are meeting in Central America this summer. Stumbling out from the bar we walked back and stopped at a kebab shop on the way. Definitely not a food you would want to eat sober, even soaked in ketchup.
The next morning, i headed to the cat sanctuary again and got loads of great pictures. We didn't do that much work aside from filling in rat holes and scooping poop because there were so many people there and not enough work to do.
I have also fallen in love with a condiment in England, Branston's pickle; it is a brownish color vinegary condiment with vegetable chunks in it. It's great with cheese on bread. That is all from me for now....
^Brosandi,
Út Í Óvissuna^
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Roy MacDonald
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Funicular Railway Towers
That's not a castle but the water tank enclosures which are part of the water balance system that the railway originally ran on. One carriage up one down. Built in 1903. The steepest funicular railway in the UK.