England: phase 1.

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June 6th. The airport, the train station and the walk, lots of walking

Heathrow. Not what we expected. Sort of like a dirty Sydney. Half an hour through passport check, straight through customs, and directly to the newsagency that sold Cadbury chocolates. Caught a bus, the right bus. Caught a train, the right train even, and then low and behold we even found the backpackers hostel where we're staying. Amazing what two girls on their own can do when they have to. Unfortunately check-in wasn't until 2 O'clock so we decided to ditch the map and walk around London like a local. Well, we only got lost once, and that was because I was convinced, as always that I knew exactly where we were. We took a lot of photos, got sunburnt, saw tourist spots like The tower bridge, Southwark cathedral, which I will admit we did not pay a donation to look at. If I want to go to a church I'm not going to pay for that priviledge, especially as it was our denomination.
We discovered There are no public toilets in the greater London area, unless you buy something to eat. So obviously if you don't eat, you don't need to go to the toilet. Well, you can but it'll cost you 20p, if you can find one. We saw the London eye, Globe theatre, and lots of other fascinating places that nobody needs to know about.. And that was how we spent our first day in London.

June 7th. The river Thames, and Buckingham Palace

Up and out of the hostel bright and early this morning following a hearty breakfast of rice bubbles and cornflakes, provided I might add free of charge. First stop? a train ride under the river to Embankment Pier where we went on a cruise up and down the river from Grenwich to the London Eye. Almost an hour of hilarious dry humoured commentary from the crew who pretend to be tour guides voluntarily. We saw lots of touristy things, and took lots of (hopefully) awesome photos. Off the boat, and onto a bus. Not just any bus mind you.. a hop on hop off tour in a big red double decker bus, yay!!! well, we hopped off at Buckingham palace, took lots of pictures, sloppy drill work Peter, I took a video for you, then back on the bus til Hyde park. Off again and off in search of a quaint English pub for lunch. Yumm!!! Mum of course had to have a steak, and after a vodka and red bull I was ready to continue as well. The rest of the tour was uneventful, but then I'm not one for seeing the sights. Commentary was good, that same streak of dry humour must run through the water system. We had a drink in the backpackers, but the music was loud, so we didn't stay long, up to bed early and straight to sleep.

June 8th. 2 hrs there, 1/2 an hour back

Londoners have this interesting habit of spending their lunchtimes in the sun, which is really quite a nice thing to do, because there is a plathora of cute parks around where there is plenty of room for the poor men and ladies who have been stuck in an office all morning to spread out and relax. They come down in their work suits, spread out on the grass, then the men take off their ties, take off their shirts and roll up their pant legs.
However, one small problem in this seemingly brilliant idea, they are simply not gym junkies in London, there are no buff handsome men, bodies you want to take peeks at while eating your healthy pork pie, or your fresh fruit which you've picked up from a market stall. The eye is greated by the icy pale white flesh of the winter skin of someone who doesn't do enough exercise. It's really enough to give you indegestion!!

Anyway, back to today, we walked to the London eye which would have been fine, except once again I may have got us lost. We tasted the worst hot chocolate ever, actually we couldn't taste it, it was too hot!!! Meanwhile back to the London eye, absolutely amazing birdseye views, 360 degree panoramic. That's what the brochure said, and it's all true. It happens to omit the part that it often stops, which is a little scary, it doesn't stop to let you on, you have to climb in while the thing is moving, and it gets bloody hot up there.

A leisurely walk home followed by a drink at the pub that is mentioned in Charles Dickens book. One pub, in one book, I don't actually remember those small, insignificant details. What I do remember is the lady behind the counter looking at Mum with disbelief when she ordered her scotch with coke. After repeating the request with a worried look on her face, she inquired whether that would be a double. I also had a double vodka lemonade, she obviously doesn't realise you drink spirits with soft drink so you can't actually taste the spirits.

Met some lovely girls from Italy, two cousins who are in town for a couple of days. Chatted with them for awhile, then an early night.

June 9th. An old church, some fallen down rocks, and some nasty tasting water.

Well, the title sums up our day. After waking up early, and therefore waking up everyone else in our dorm early, we walked to an extremely posh hotel where we met our tour bus. Straight on to Victoria Station and then we were off!!

Our destinations?? First stop Winchester, then Stonehenge and finally Bath.

Winchester: Very pretty. Did you know Jane Austen lived there? neither did I. The church of course was gorgeous, and the tour guide filled us in on lots of fascinating facts about the area, and the history. Did some window shopping and we may have found an awesome chocolate shop. Only one person profited though, and it wasn't either of us, you'll have to wait til we get home to find out.

Stonehenge: I know I shouldn't be dissapointed, but I was, I mean I just always envisioned them a) in Scotland, and b) seen rising through the mist with the sounds of the bagpipes in my ear. Whoops that was in Glen Innes. a) they're in England, and b) it was a beautiful hot Summers day, no mist, and lots and lots of tourists. It was definately an experience seeing them, but I think I'd still rather prefer to think they were placed there by the gods rather than dragged by great hulking neandertholithic?? men hundreds of years ago. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Bath: I had to do it, I couldn't help myself, I know I shouldn't but still...the water was disgusting!!! worst spent 50p of my life!! Meanwhile the town was beautiful, the shops a little upmarket for me, and the actual baths themselves were like... funky!!! We were equipped with audio guides which told us the history, which was really interesting, and yes of course Mum visited the souvenir shop.

June 10th. Another highlight of the trip - The Harrods teddy bear.

I swear each one of our days is more jamm-packed full of stuff than the one before. Today we had decided to do some shopping. Where to shop?? Only the most famous address in London for us, so off to Harrod's we went. Think of an upper-class David Jones where everybody speaks with English accents, except for those with Irish, or Scottish, but you get the picture. We didn't actually buy anything from the main store just the souvenir shop, I think just about everybody profited. Shannon, I hope we got you the right bag, personally I think it's ugly, but it was your choice. So after Harrod's we of course had to walk up to Hyde park and have an ice-cream. There are horse trails in the middle of a city park, and people actually use them, how cool is that??

After that it was off to Petticoat Lane markets, which unfortunately are only open on a Sunday. Stopped off on the way home to collect our tickets to the theatre, and decided on where we wanted to have dinner. Then it was straight back to the hostel for a shower and freshen up before heading back in to the city. I've got to say those underground trains are pretty awesome, I don't know if they run on time or not, cause we never actually know what time they're supposed to come, but they come so frequently that it doesn't really matter.

Anyway, dinner was awesome, shared a bottle of wine, mum tried yorkshire pudding with her roast meal, eww, sort of like a tasteless stale bread roll covered in gravy. Then it was off to the theatre!! I love that line, I might type it again, off to the theatre!! The show was awesome, it was at the Vaudeville Theatre which we'd both heard of in novels before which was pretty cool. The leg room they gave you there though, oh my, they could have learnt something from the economy section of Qantas, and trust me that is not a good recommendation in itself.

Back to the hostel, and sleepy time.

June 11th. Took a tube over to Camden to wonder around....(The Waifs)

Up bright and early, woken by the melodious snores of an extremely pissed, sorry he didn't know what that word meant, inebriated young Canadian. Mum of course didn't hear a thing until about half eight. We'd already organised what we had planned on doing today, so straight after breakfast we jumped on the underground and headed towards Camden town.

Think of 'the Valley' with more variety, more goths, more hippies, worse smells, and more drugs. Meanwhile they had awesome markets, I swear the biggest I've ever seen and I'm a market girl from way back. Mum brought me something to remember England by, and trust me I'm not likely to forget it, probably because it'll still hurt two days after. Brought some clothes, a couple more souvenirs, it was really more interesting just looking though, not just at the stalls, but also at the people, and the buildings...And the policemen. They really do wear those funny little hats. I wonder why, they must be like seriously hot!!

Bacon and egg sandwich for lunch, the first real bacon we've tasted since we left, real meaning it wasn't boiled. Back to the hostel, a quick nap, and a beer from the bar downstairs. Now all we have to do is wash our clothes, repack our bags and we'll be all ready to move out tomorrow. We're picking up a car at midday and starting on the next phase of our journey. Six days of mum's driving?? well, I suppose it can't be any worse than my navigating skills, but still.

You may have heard, or not as the case may be that England won their first World cup game yesterday, well you'd think it was the grand bloody final the way people were carrying on. My goodness, such a fuss!!

Anyway, think of us traveling across the country, We have no plans, but I have a slight suspicion we may be heading South for the first bit, then following the coast. Be thinking of us..

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