London Day 8

I apologize in advance if there are any silly grammer errors as I did not feel like proofing this entry.

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On day 8:00 we woke up especially early, 7:00 AM, in order to arrive early at Stonehenge. We took a two hour bus ride to Stonehenge during which I caught up on my sleep. I have always been fascinated by the size, magnificence, and mystery surrounding the monument, and as a result this was the day that I had been anticipating the most out of all the sites on our trip.

The only real problem with Stonehenge is that writing about it does not do the monument justice. It is a huge circle of rocks, really not that interesting until you are actually at the site and can think about how the ancient people, with primitive tools and no modern technology managed to shape, transport, and stack, all of these multi-ton stones into one of the most recognizable tourist attractions in England. The only disappointing aspect of Stonehenge was the audio tour. I was hoping to learn different theories about how Stonehenge’s history and architecture, but nearly everything they said I already knew from a project I had done in high school.

After our eyes had gotten a full helping of Stonehenge, we all piled back on the bus and made a trip to the City of Bath. It was here that we visited the ancient Roman Baths for which I assume the city is named after. The baths contain the only natural hot spring and the only well preserved ancient Roman ruins in the United Kingdom. It is easy to see why the ancient Romans thought that these springs were inhabited by gods because they were green and steam constantly rises from them. The museum of the actual ruins around the baths, accompanied by an audio tour, was extremely interesting, and gave insight into how the Romans lived while they occupied Great Britain.

If the Bath trip had ended here it would have been for the best, but unfortunately it did not. I hit the town with Amber, Jill, Kristen, Jarod, and Angela for a fun filled shopping excursion. Or at least it would have been fun filled if A) I enjoyed shopping, or B) I had any money at the time. As it was it ended up to be extremely boring. There was some interesting Georgian Period Bath Stone architecture, and I had my first experience with Thai food, but those were the only highlights after leaving the actual Roman ruins.

The lion’s share of the bus ride back was once again spent by sleeping, but about halfway through our ride my slumber was interrupted by our bus breaking down. We were stranded for a short period of time until another bus from the same line pulled over and saved the day picking us up. We rode back with several natives of the area who enlightened us on some of the finer points of English culture, such as the knowledge that fanny is a rather offensive word for the female genitalia instead of an old ladies word for the gluteus maximus. The rest of the ride back felt much more like a party than a bus ride and it was a sad parting when we each went our separate ways.

Back at the hotel we hung out in the lounge and watched movies with a group of girls from Pittsburgh. We watched A Bugs Life and The Goonies while eating delivery pizza and drinking Scrumpy Jack Cider Beer. It was a good night, but after The Goonies was over everyone went to bed in preparation for our final day touring the delightful city of London.