Omouse's Strange Internet Ramblings Part 3

Omouse's Strange Internet Ramblings - The Travels Part 2


The rest of the great saga of Omouse's trip through the United Kingdom.


April 18 - Roman Bath Fires, wiggly cathedral tongues, and Jane Austen
April 22 - War ships, and seaside views

April 18


So we've skipped a day or two. Drat. Now I shall have to plague my memory. Why does it seem like so long ago? Okay, Bath day #2. I had a nice leisurely sleep in and headed for the Roman Baths Museum. It was about 10:30 and I was about 1/3 the way through the museum with my little hand held audio guide when they anounced they were doing a 1/2 hour tour of the actual baths part.. Deciding that live entertainment was the better choice, I headed out to the steaming naturally heated pools. The guide had given about 5 minutes of the tour when an alarm went off. Fire alarm. Everyone calmly exited the building. Up pulled the fire trucks and we were told to come back later as this might take an hour or two. I wandered over and purchased a cheddar baguette for brunch and wandered back to hear one of the museum people say "It was a real fire! I mean flames and everything." At least, I thought, they'd have plenty of whater to put it out. (The hot spring gushes out at about a half million liters a day.) I decided to go to the abbey vaults museum which happened to be convienently around the corner. It was pretty dry. Lots of stone carvings... ooh. I came out of the vault and the Roman Baths had reopened. Apparently the fire was caused by some workmen. To get back into the musuem we showed our stubs and were told to go around the crowd. They called us fire damaged. After fighting the crowd to get back to where I left off (and there was quite a crowd) I continued my progress. About 1/2 way through the musuem my audio guide went on the fritz and I did a rather unpleasant imitation of a salmon swiming upstream. After getting a new thingy, I did the smart thing and jumped the rope barrier to skip half the crowd (I got a few dirty looks for that one). I finally finished (with my 1/2 hour guided tour) at about 3:00.

I then went to the Sally Lunn Bun Bakery - the oldest building still in use, the Paddington Bear shop, and some other cute little shops. By that time I was tuckered out and had dinner at a pub and since I had finished the book I bought, I went to the bookstore and bought 2 books, each only 99p. I bought ym favorite - Jane Eyre and who cold go through Jane Austen country without buying one - Emma which I haven't read yet but Jane Eyre is what caused my lack of devotion to this ongoing letter thingy. I finished the book about 1/2 hour ago. Ny third reading of it and I still couldn't put it down.

The next day I headed for Winchester and arrived about 1:00pm. Alas and alack, there was no place to store my luggage until 5. Undaunted I headed towards the Cathedral and caught the tour. The cathedral is not spectacular on the outside. It's rather daunting and Victorian Gothic. The inside has so much detail and the carving was spectacular. The guide even showed us (even though he wasn't supposed to) a carving under a seat with a tongue that could wiggle. The cathedral's crypt is flooded most of the year and they actually had to have a deep sea diver spend 6 years storing up the foundation of the sinking cathedral with bags of cement. This is also the cathedral where Jane Austen is buried. After the tour I went and had an early dinner before wandering over to the hostel. It's an old water mill. I think 1797 and the room I'm in is sort of an attic with odd beams sticking out everywhere. Some of the old deteriorating wood makes me nervous… but the shower was nice and nice showers in hostels are not something to take for granted. After settling in I took the little river walk. (little refering to the walk as well as the river. I laugh [hahaha] at what they will call a river.) I then headed up up the hill to St. Giles lookout which provided a great view of the town. After sitting on a benck for a while, admiring the view and deeply embroiled in thoughts of life, I headed back down to town and read some more Jane Eyre before drifting off to sleep.

Aha! Now we are caught up with today which was filled primarily with Jane Austen. I caught the 10:05 bus to Chawton, which is little more than a wide spot in the road (which of course includes a pub... all British wide spots in the road must contain a pub.) and Jane Austen's house. It was quaint and an interesting museum. I got back to Winchester about 1:15 and basically wandered around the rest of the afternoon. I went into the local museum... more artifacts and stone carvings. I had lunch by the river and fed the ducks. Very pleasant... until it started to rain. I went indoors to shop. It stopped raining. I went outdoors... started raining... well anyway you get the picture... at any rate, I feel those sniffling people in the hostel at Bath have given me the start of a wretched cold. I can feel it trying to sneak up on me. Thank goodness I only have 2 more days before I'm back to Canterbury. I don't think I was meant to be like most of these Australians who live out of a backpack for 3 months. Nope.

That's all I've got so far so I'll write about my journey to Portmouth and Brighton tomorrow. It's 10 and I'm tuckered.

April 22


The journey to Portsmouth was fine enough I suppose... although it rained on and off throughout the day. The trains station was right on the harbor (I wonder why they call it Portsmouth Harbor Station?) and I dropped my luggage off at the tourist informations center (for a modest fee) and headed to see the ships, The Mary Rose, The Victory and the HMS Warrior as well as the Naval museum. My first stop was for a guided tour of The Victory, which was Admiral Nelson's flagship during the Battle of Trafalgar. There was a plaque on the spot where Nelson was shot during the battle. Our guide told us that in order to carry out Nelson's wish not to be buried at sea, they put him in a barrel and pickled him in brandy (which the sailors later drank... ugh) They are very proud of their ship and the guide said "the only reason the United States exsists is because The Victory was over here and not over there."

The second ship was actually just the remains of Henry VIII's favorite ship which had been brought up after 400 years at the bottom of the ocean. (Scary pictures of Charles in a diving suit with this one.) In order to preserve The Mary Rose she's being sprayed 24/7 for about 20 years with a wax and water solution. ooh neato.

The HMS Warrior was one of the first iron clad ships and is an excellent preservation of a Victorian ship. It was amazing to wander around at my own leisure and imagine what these people's lives were like. The Naval Musuem had lots of neat artifacts and such, but I think was dwarfed by the actual historical monuments that we were allowed to board and see everything in context.

After leaving the ships and Portsmouth behind, I headed towards Brighton, my cold in full swing. I was not the happiest or spunky of people upon my arrival to this seaside town. My room was #18 at the hostel and had 10 beds in it. It was sheer bliss when no one else showed up and I got the room all to myself. The room was at the top of the building (lots of narrow winding staircases) and I had a great view of the sea and both piers. Feeling dreadful, I was not about to go down and wander about... I took a shower and went to bed...

The next day I refused to let my cold affect my view of Brighton although I was not very impressed with this seaside resort. I seemed a little run down to me and the beach was not sand but rocks, lots and lots of rocks. I headed over to the Royal Pavillion which was a royal palace for one of the Georges (Prince Regent and later King... that George...) and Victoria. It looked Indian on the outside, but the entire decor inside was done in Oriental style. It was beautiful and had been restored to the Regency design that it was originally intended to be. (Drat those Victorians and their decorating techniques.) They were still in the process of restoring and replicating several items which had been carried off to Buckingham Palace when Victoria sold the place to the city of Brighton.

After leaving the palace I wandered around and bought a Snapple lemonade, a cheese bap, and a desert - this fudge swirl chocolate thing... good... and headed down to the beach. I sat on a bench and ate my late lunch. A dog came up to me and just sat there... looking at me. It looked hungry. I fed it a blackcurrant shortcake biscuit. It tried to adopt me. awwww... okay, after I profered no more food and walked a distance it stopped following me. I went back to the hostel, claimed my luggage and headed for the train station for the long frequent changing journey back to Canterbury. I was very happy to be home... although I walked out of the train station and felt a moment of confusion... I was at Canterbury West instead of Canterbury East... and on a different side of town than I expected. But it was still only a short walk to the bus stop that would take me back to uni. I'm ending here... because that's where my happiness to be home wore off and I discovered my computer, printer, ring and a book I'd just bought for my best friend had been stolen. But I want to end on a happy note! ummm.... give me a while to think of one... 'kay?

Clare thought of one for me... I kinda like it...

"So I eventually arrived at university and although some of my stuff had been stolen from the storage rooms, I'm gonna get my own back and attempt to sue the university for being so casual about the whole affair!! I also finally met up with Clare and Debbie after four weeks and was glad to see them again because I had missed them so much. I also wanted my plant and bag of stuff back from them!"

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