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Published: October 21st 2008
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After a ridiculous fun night of wine and chocolate, the girls and I woke up at 8:30 the next morning to go down and have breakfast with our British hosts. By the way, getting ready took about 30 seconds since none of us planned an overnight trip, not even a brush and we know how that can turn out with my hair (eek). Their dining room was a traditional British kitchen with all the old British hutches and whatnot. We had cereal and fruit and then the lady asked if we wanted boiled eggs. We didn't know what that meant until she set down boiled eggs in front of us in their own little holders. We were told to them chop them in half so we could dip our soldiers (aka toast) in them. I failed with my egg. It got butchered.
We then made our way back into Bath. We made our first stop at the Pump room, which, for those who have read Jane Austen, is where the main character in Northanger Abbey goes everyday to see if there are any hot new men in town. Ha. We were the first ones in the room for about 15 minutes!
The pump room is also where you can drink the natural spring water. It was gross, honestly, but I drank the whole glass. It has some 43 minerals in it. It was weird because as you drank, it would be hot and then there would be flashes of cold in the water. We also got coffee and a hot chocolate for Alyse, as well as a delicious bun with cinnamon butter.
Since we had planned literally the morning we left, none of us had suitable warm weather clothing so Alyse and I stopped to buy scarves. Mine was purple, of course.
We then headed to the Jane Austen Center which was disappointingly lame. The most exciting thing was the plastic statue out front and the man dressed up next to her to tell people how to get places. So instead of staying at the center, we headed up to the fashion museum.
The fashion museum is located in the assembly rooms where all the fashion balls used to be held. If you've seen a Jane Austen movie, the dancing scenes are most likely filmed in these rooms. We went through the fashion museum looking at all the dresses and tuxes
people used to wear. However, the outfits were cool but us 22 year olds mainly went for the dress-up room advertised in the fashion museum pamphlet. We put on hoop skirts and corsets and I felt like I had just put on an extra 20 pounds. I don't have a clue what women were thinking. Especially in Charleston. I was in England and I was sweating. Apparently after I put the bonnet hat on I looked as if I belonged to the 1800's. There was a woman taking professional pictures of the gowns and she asked if she could take a picture of the three of us dressed up. Oh dear.
After the fashion museum, we went to a part of Bath called The Circus which was a circle of grass with trees and then a row of houses twisted around it. The leaves were falling off the trees in the middle so we decided we'd take a break and play in the leaves. All the tourists wandering around probably thought we were the entertainment.
Since we had only bought a one way ticket to Bath, we assumed it would be just as easy to buy a one way ticket
back to London. We had a quick take-away lunch on the way to the bus station and waited in line for 30 minutes for the bus back to London to show up. Since we were first in line we were the first to find out that the bus was already overbooked. Sorry. We were also the first to find out that the buses were booked completely until that night which would be followed by a 3 hour bus ride. We asked about trains and found out that the Bath rail station was undergoing engineering maintenance, but , there was a rail replacement service with buses that came every half hour that cost 50 POUNDS. We all knew that our weekend had gone too perfectly for it all to work out without a glitch. So we basically sweet talked the man into getting our tickets to be on a group saver pass so it only cost us 30 pounds a piece. So penniless and happy, we finally made our way out of the city an hour after we planned on leaving but we at least were headed back towards London. We were driving through the hills that winds around and there
were sheep and stone lined farm fields everywhere. It was gorgeous. The perfect English image.
It felt so funny to be coming back into London after a packed 36 hours with just purses knowing we had been swimming and sleeping in bed and breakfasts and sightseeing. I've never packed lighter and it was the most perfect weekend.
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How Absolutely Delightful!!
Sounds like a perfect weekend!!! I am jealous! But happy for you!!!