Day 22-28: England - London, Oxford, Portsmouth, Bath, Stonehenge, Nottingham

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Day 22: April 27 - TURKEY - Istanbul, ENGLAND - London
Accommodation: Globetrotter Inn Hostel, Hammersmith, London

All things must come to an end and today was the day I was to leave Istanbul. I’d said goodbye to everyone the day before (or at least I think I did) so it was just me left on my lonesome. I was just a tad hung over when I woke up so packing my bag consisted of throwing everything into it as fast as possible, finding out later down the track that I’d accidentally left things under the bed in the rush.
A few of us still hanging around at the hotel had arranged to get an airport shuttle together so along with it went most of the rest of my Turkish money. I checked my bags in and was pleasantly surprised to find a Burger King. Hangover food! Luckily I had just enough coins left to pay for a meal. Hooray! So I downed that pretty slowly with my jumbo size Coke and piled onto the plane back to Heathrow for a fourth time. There weren’t as many Aussies on this one as the plane coming to Istanbul had, but there were still a whole lot of them.
Back in London I took the Tube back out to my Hammersmith hostel, dumped my stuff, did some laundry and headed off to bed. Just another uneventful travel day, but with so much of London ahead of me.

Day 23: April 28 - London
Accommodation: Globetrotter Inn Hostel, Hammersmith, London

It felt strange that I’d been to London four times but this was the first time I would be exploring it. Finally I was in a place I could feel familiar with.
My Samsung digital camera had died on me at some stage in Turkey, and I’m pretty sure getting it wet while on the Maid On The Mist at Niagara Falls did it. So I was on the hunt for a new one, and I scored a funky Ricoh 5 mega-pixel beauty at Hammersmith for a reasonably good price. The battery needed 2 hours to recharge so once it was done I was into the city to go sightseeing, but it was already 11:30am so I was on a bit of a rush.
First stop, Tower Hill Tube station, to see what exactly? The Tower of London! I didn’t care if it was going to cost me 15 pounds (AU$37.50), it was one of those things I just had to do, because I love castles and it was my first one! So that took me a good hour, then I wandered over the London Bridge (which contrary to nursery rhyme belief is not falling down) and saw my first batch of double decker buses, walked across the bank of the Thames past the Modern Tate and the Globe Theatre, and I stopped at an old style London pub for lunch to have a pie and mash and gravy and a pint of real ale. Then I came across the London Eye, which I figured I’d do because it was a major attraction and I’d get a good view of the city. After lining up for ages it only took an hour to get on. The views weren’t as spectacular as I was expecting but were still nice to see. After that I just wandered around checking out Big Ben and parliament, Westminster Abbey, Downing Street, some park I can’t remember the name of, and Buckingham Palace. On the way I saw a group of guys dressed up in full 70's punk gear with matching multicoloured mohawks with a sign saying something like "why bother lying? need beer money, photos £2" haha I should've stopped for a photo.
By then it was getting dark and I’d walked a fair way so I went back to the hostel, ate something, then went to sleep.

Day 24: April 29 - London, Oxford
Accommodation: Oxford YHA

I didn’t really have any plans today, so I packed my bags and took the camera for a walk. I thought I’d take it easy today so I went off to find the Marble Arch and Hyde Park (neither were as impressive as I expected) then went looking for an alarm clock to replace the one I left in my Istanbul hotel room, and also found myself a £2-per-hour net café where I wasted a good 2 or 3 hours. I went to check out the Changing Of The Guard at Buckingham Palace but it was taking too long to start and too many people were there for me to see anything so after I saw a bunch of guards on horses I ditched it. Then I basically grabbed my bags and went to the Victoria coach station to go to Oxford. I was standing at the Megabus terminal for ages wondering why my bus wasn’t turning up but the place was an absolute shambles as it was, so I asked an official where to catch my bus and he said the other side of the building. Whoops! When I got on it was a double decker with only five other people, and only cost me 5 pounds. Bargain! I dumped my bags at the hostel, and got my camera out to take lots of photos of the old stone buildings and university and anything else that looked nice. I pretty much did everything I wanted to in the space of 2 hours.
Tonight I was off to see a band, The Datsuns, one of my favourite live bands that just happened to be playing while I was there (well, I sorta organised to be in Oxford just to see them). Had a few good English pints, had a good rockout, got into a moshpit, money well spent. By the time it was over it was midnight and it was time to sleep.

Day 25: April 30 - Portsmouth
Accommodation: Portsmouth and Southsea Backpackers

I caught an early bus out to Portsmouth which I’d booked about a month in advance for only 1 pound (you find some awesome deals when you do your research). This was a small seaside town and after dumping my bags I went fish 'n' chips searching, and I wasn't disappointed. I found probably the best I've had for as long as I can remember and I was eating it by the sea. I don’t know why but it makes it taste just that much better.
Walking around the little seaside town I found there was some sort of fair going on in the main park with clydesdale horses carrying carts around and a handful of hot food and arts and crafts stalls lined up so that was interesting but nothing too special.
I checked out a fort that King Henry VIII had built (or one of the Henrys) and was still pretty much intact, and just wandered aimlessly around town finding various maritime and war monuments and things. I came across a bunch of modernised shops which really killed the atmosphere of the town and were really out of place, and would’ve looked better crammed into my local Westfield shopping centre. Such a disappointment.
Then I figured I had enough time to catch a ferry so I did and went over to the Isle of Wight for an hour or two. It was a short trip but I like all ferries nonetheless. I went to the visitors centre and didn’t realise the island was so big that I could’ve spent a week there doing all sorts of activities, so if I get around to it I’ll definitely go back and spend some time over there, although I’ll probably end up visiting several other places that I haven’t been to before other than going back any time soon.
That was pretty much my day, but I was only really stopping here for a place to visit on the way to Bath.

Day 26: May 1 - Bath
Accommodation: St Christopher’s Inn, Bath

This morning I caught a rather comfy train ride to Bath, got off at the train station, and grabbed a map from the train station to get to my hostel. Along the way I saw so many sandstone buildings and greenery and large drooping trees everywhere, it was beautiful. Even the retail shops looked pretty historic. I found a pub called St Christopher’s and figured it was just a coincidence that a pub had the same name as my hostel, but then by chance I looked inside and noticed a tiny little reception to the left of the bar so I trudged in feeling a bit wary of a hostel run by a pub. I was told I was too early to check in, but luckily I scored well as after leaving one hostel and arriving at another one I fond I turned up with enough time for their included free breakfast. So I stocked up on toast, cereal, juice, and unlimited coffee with scoops of hot chocolate, and set off on my discovery of Bath. I took my newly acquired map with attractions outlined and figured first off I’d visit the place which was the furthest away. Unfortunately the map didn’t show where the hills were, and I was about to find the town’s biggest one.
I crossed a nice little river and found some steps heading up to a canal with the cutest long houseboats half submerged so that you had to climb into the top and basically sat or slept almost underneath the water. So I followed this river for a little while and then I came to the road to take me to the American Museum, and the hill was huge! It sort of curved around and it just kept going and going. Not one to back down from a challenge I climbed it, and about 45 minutes later I conquered the top then found I had to walk another 15 minutes to get to the road I was looking for. Passing Bath University, famous for its rugby, I finally got to my destination after about 1¼ hours. Still it was worth it.
The American Museum was basically a 19th Century Pennsylvania-style two-storey house with all the trimmings from the period from old furniture to big four-poster beds to rifles and guns and all sorts of things. There was even a short history of America from the period. It was unusual yet refreshing to see something this old in a small English town.
Back down the hill I went and took some beautiful pictures of the rows of stone buildings of the town from a distance. I realised a lot of attractions cost some sort of entry fee and I wasn’t in the mood to shell out much money so I basically went looking for the ones that were free. I realised Jane Austin was born here and her museum was free but I couldn’t find it and wasn’t on a huge mission to see it so I didn’t try too hard. I basically wandered around through parks, over bridges, under overhanging trees, through narrow streets mainly built for pedestrians, and back to the Bath Cathedral in the town centre, next to the Roman Baths which cost way too much for me to bother going in i.e. £15 / AU$37.50. I realise this is the reason the town was built but I just couldn’t justify paying that to go in.
So I found a nice park to sit and relax in after my long walk in circles around the town just looking at random things, found a place that made homemade pasta, and went for a sleep. About an hour or so before the shops closed I booked a tour at a tourist shop. I wanted to do one of the Cotswolds tours which I’d heard was very nice but it was booked out, so the only other tour I could do was that of Stonehenge. Well, I guess I was going to do it sooner or later.

Day 27 - May 2: Bath, Stonehenge, Avebury, Lacock, Castle Combe
Accommodation: St Christopher’s Inn, Bath

I walked a more 200 metres down to a bus stop where I’d be picked up by a tour. I was there with 5 minutes to spare but forgot the battery in my camera and had to sprint back to my hostel room, shuffle around for it, then back to the bus. It was a minor superhero effort to get it down within 5 minutes, but I seem to work well when time is tight. Most people on this bus were in their 40’s or 50’s but I didn’t mind because I just wanted to see the sights and at £25 it was a good deal to me. The tour company was Mad Max Tours if anyone’s interested.
So we left Bath and set off down some freeway and our first stop was the place everyone’s heard about, Stonehenge. It was cold and windy out there and we were given an hour to see it. I walked around it, took photos, and saw all I needed to see in 15 minutes. So to fill in the time I walked around it 3 more times and tried to take photos in different ways and to get warm in the cold. It’s a lot more boring than I expected, but it was roped off with heritage staff keeping a watchful eye on us. I spoke to one of them who said some tours booked in advance go beyond the rope at nighttime and it’s more spectacular then, so they say.
Then off we went to a spaced out circle of rocks at Avebury. Our guide told us the story of the ring of rocks then pulled out two metal rods and showed us if we held them loosely in our hands and walked towards the middle of the ring as we reached the middle the rods would move away from the middle as if there was some sort of magnetic field here. It was quite remarkable and spooky.
With our guide pointing out several things along the way, we found a large white horse carved into a hill off in the distance which proved that underneath the grass and soil was a layer of chalk, which is probably why someone decided to carve a horse.
Next we hit a nice little village called Lacock with stone buildings with thatched rooves, boutique shops, old style houses, and a nice little pub for lunch. I sampled the local brew and was pretty satisfied with it, as well as my meal.
Then we moved onto a tiny little village in the Cotswolds called Castle Combe. Apparently the cost of the houses of the people living there start from £1 million pounds and up so it was more of an investment or a showing of vast wealth to buy property rather than a first choice place to live. You can walk through the whole town in 5 minutes or less. We were showed the creek where part of the original Dr Doolittle movie was filmed (I don’t remember it that well) and apparently a movie called Stardust was currently being filmed there with Robert Deniro and Michelle Pfeiffer staying in a hotel nearby when not filming. Not surprisingly they weren’t out in the street at the time.
This was just a nice relaxing day to see the countryside with a few nice stops along the way. I got back feeling pretty satisfied that I’d had a good day and finished it off with a few pints in the ground floor pub while watching a Premier League match. Some Aussie in the pub was a Blackburn fan so I cheered them on with him.
Unfortunately while I was asleep the Irish guy in the bunk above me came in about 1am and woke me up with his drunken ramblings (I seriously could not understand a word he said), and who knows what he was doing but he took forever (probably too drunk to know what was going on). Then he snored like a chainsaw and wouldn’t stop so I had to take my door key and pillow and doona outside. The floor was surprisingly comfy outside the doorway though. These are things you have to deal with in hostels sometimes, and you adjust and get on with your life.

Day 28 - May 3: Nottingham
Accommodation: Igloo Hostel, Nottingham

My Bath time was up so I piled more free breakfast into me and wandered off towards the bus station. For some reason I couldn’t get a direct train from Bath to Nottingham via Bristol, and I had to get a bus to Bristol train station because the 15-minute train from Bath to Bristol would cost 10 pounds more than the bus. English public transport, I don’t get it. The bus trip itself was pleasant, but Bristol had loads of ugly construction work going on everywhere, the bus wouldn’t stop at the train station and took me to the bus terminal meaning I had to get a taxi, the construction was holding up traffic and the taxi meter was ticking over even while we were stopped, I finally got there and some guy came up to me begging for change, but I got to my platform with time to spare. Not so good for my first impression of Bristol. At least my train ride was smooth.
Why was I going to Nottingham? Well, I wanted to see a band, and this was the most convenient place to see them without spoiling my tour plans, and with England being so small and transport being cheap if booked ahead I went with it. The train station was pretty much surrounded by a shopping centre which I had to walk through to get to my hostel. I figured the walk would be alright, but it was up a hill and took 20 minutes. I was puffed by the time I got there with my 30kg of bags, but was getting used to my hostel-searching walks. I relaxed in front of the TV for a bit on arrival, found a nice Indian restaurant with a pretty mellow taste, then went in search of Rock City where The Streets would be playing tonight. Finally, I get to see English band The Streets in England! This was special, and it was a fun night. I got to hang with the locals, mostly groups of chav-like guys downing large cans of ever-so-unclassy Carling, but I figured while I was there I'd join in and after all the cans of Carling were the cheapest beers on offer. The venue was relatively small and intimate for such a popular band, around 500 squeezing into the place. So from the crowd there was a bit of dancing, moshing, singing, shouting, clapping and whatever else, which I joined in on. Before the encore a backdrop of the UK flag lit up and the national anthem started playing, then the several hundred drunken English lads shouted it out in full voice. It was a pretty funny moment. Then after a few more songs it was all over and band leader Mike Skinner jumped into the crowd for a bit of a crowd surf, and then it was all over. Top night.

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