Canterbury

Today is the first real day of 'London weather' that I have had since I got here. It is rather gloomy and overcast, there is a slight breeze and intermittent rain. Thankfully, especially for those of us who do not like being cold, it is only chilly out. I suspect that that will change shortly though. I already miss the sunshine though.

Fortunately, the days that I was in Canterbury visiting Robin and touring about with some other girls from QM were very sunny and not too cold, just very windy. I must amend this statement slighty in saying that I was not cold. The girls that we were going around with were very cold. They sacrificed warmth (like my nice fleece jacket) for fashion (their rather pitiful tights and cotton sweaters). Those that have spent any length of time with me, know that I greatly dislike being cold, and will tell anyone who will listen how to best avoid getting cold, (example, I made a power point presentation for the Hellions on how to dress for cold/rainy tournaments). Robin and I were dressed warmly, we even had flip-flops on (after unfortunate incidents with blsiters, but that is another story) and were just fine. So I really had no sympathy for everyone else, but back to Canterbury.

Toni, a fellow USC student at QM, and I went on the tube to get to Victoria station to catch the bus to Canterbury on Friday afternoon (after my exploration of Portobello Road). Despite having a phone loss on the tube (it was actually in her backpack, but caused a lot of drama) and heading to the 'bus' station instead of the 'coach' station, we made it to the bus on time and made our way out of the city and into the countryside. It was a very lovely drive and I was fascinated by the way that the city turned into industry and slowly into the quintessential English countryside. 

We got off in Canterbury, and met Robin at the bus station to take another bus up to her house/apartment at Kent. We had some dinner (thanks again Robin! yummy!) and went out to a club on campus. We had to get the dance floor going because all the little awkward first years wouldn't do it and the DJ wasn't playing really danceable songs. I must have looked like a madwoman attempting to dance to rock and roll at a club, (another good question would be when don't I look like a madwoman dancing...) but we had fun. Called it a night early-ish because we were knackered (British for tired as hell) and had a big day planned.

Saturday we woke up after a surprisingly restful night spent on the floor and headed into Canterbury to meet up with the other QM people arriving on the bus from London. We found them in the Top Shop (England's version of Forever 21) and then made our way to the Cathedral. Robin split off from the group as she had already seen it and didn't want to pay again, and the rest of us headed in. We got a discounted rate (besides the student one, they discount everything for students, it's awesome!) because there was a church service going on, but we stayed long enough to see the nave of the Cathedral anyway, so that was lucky. 

The Canterbury Cathedral is famous for lots of reasons and has been involved with all sorts of British history, even today. I don't really want to go into all the details, but some of the high points were the murder and martyrdom of Thomas Becket, Henry VIII changing it to the Church of England, stained glass installed in the 1950's with swastika's embedded in it to show the plight of the Holocaust victims (I couldn't find any), really pretty architecture. It was really interesting and great to go and see.

We were attempting to do a jumping picture in front of the Cathedral, and an old woman in the background (not pictured) told us off a bit. It took her awhile to come over to us to do so, for she had a walker, so she must have been very upset. For the rest of the day she was known as "that old hag." I saw her shaking her finger at some accordionist later in the day, so probably aptly named.

After getting out of the Cathedral we found Robin again and had some lunch and found an old fashioned candy shop. I was dead set on finding some sherbert lemons (because they are in Harry Potter) and they had some! Dumbledore was totally right, they are fantastic. I also got some sour plums and raspberry fizz balls, which actually did fizz in your mouth. I will never get rid of my sweet tooth I am afraid, candy is just far too awesome.

We then tried to go to The Canterbury Tales (the English majors just had to see it) but some of us decided it was too expensive (and too hokey) so we split up. We ended up going to check out the Norman Castle, which was built after William the Conqueror came over in 1066, and was used as a prison until about 1200 and most of the walls still stand today. We had fun exploring the ancient building.

We then wandered around Canterbury enjoying the cobblestone streets, the quaint (non-tourist parts) houses and pubs, and found a butterfly garden. By then we were all exhausted from walking all day, so we made our way to a pub for dinner. I attempted to expand my palette by getting some steak and kidney pie, but a very nice waiter told me not to try it there, so I had a lovely chicken pie with gravy and some ale and felt very English. And satisfied.

Then we headed back to the bus station, parted ways with Robin, and headed back to London. I slept almost all the way home, and must have been doing something very awkward in my sleep because the woman next to me gave me the nastiest look when we got off. Oh well.

It was a great weekend!