Summer Solstice Stonehenge Style!

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June 23rd 2008

Published: June 25th 2008

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The Beast

In the last few weeks of my England stay, I'm trying to do as many things a possible. Upon asking anyone if they wanted to go to Stonehenge, Krystel informed me that they were going in two weeks for the Summer Solstice. This sounded like a good plan, so I signed up for the trip.

Meeting up after work at Shaun and Krystel's house, the tree of us, and Matt and Gill headed to the famous stones in our stylish Mercedes-Benz. With a little help from Jane, our friendly TomTom (sat nav) voice, we were on our way and cruising... until we hit road works where two out of three lanes were closed, adding an hour to our trip. But on our way again, it wasn't long before we got our first glimpse of the Stones.

As we drove passed, the sight was pretty amazing. You could already see that there were a fair few people there, and Stonehenge lit up at night is a sight to behold.

We made our way to the carpark, which was a massive paddock, and then started the trek to the site. This was a very interesting walk. It took us maybe

First Look at Stonehenge

20 minutes, and on the way, did we see some interesting people! There were so many hippies who looked like they had been doing this sort of thing since the 70s with their fully decked out vans, plenty of chavs (English version of a westie/bogan) and even a 'Rave Tent' all decked out with fairy lights, with load music and plenty of people there to join the fun.

After our little dark and slippery walk to the Stones, and may I add that none of us fell, the first thing to do was to touch the Stones. Not everyone gets to do that! We then had a walk around and took everything in. There was a really great vibe to the place with plenty of people beating on drums and dancing about. Not to mention the jugglers and people who spin those light up streamer things around. So between drinks, we joined in the festivities with some dancing until sunrise. One of the great conversations we had while waiting was with a teenager, who on finding out we all came from Australia, started singing us the 'Round the Twist' theme song. Remember that one. Who knew that show made

Me and a Stone

it all the way to the UK.

And in true English style, it was too cloudy to actually see the sunrise! I think you could tell the official time, as the partying suddenly got a lot louder. It was still a lot of fun, and it was amazing how quickly it became light.

A quick look at the Stones in the daylight was then the order, and of course photos of us standing so close. We managed to find a spot for this, only to be pushed out by a guy who was 'feeling' the stone. Interesting indeed. We then part took in the walk back to the car, and the fight to get out of the car park.

Very tired by this stage, we got back to London, stopping for a power nap on the way. We made our way to Kings Cross Station after dropping off the car, and being above ground for once while there, there was something we (well Krystel and I anyway) had to do...

Go to Platform 9 3/4 of course! Exciting (It's a Harry Potter thing for those who don't know)! After being very amused with ourselves, it was