Week One as a "Backpacker"

After saying goodbye to Jen Sunday the next 2 days, I spent indulging myself in a little R&R to recuperate from the term of hard work. On Tuesday, I set out on a train to Bath, in South England, all alone (don't freak out Dad, I'm safe and I was careful!) The first night in the hostel, which was only £12 and was the best one I have stayed in in the UK thus far, I made some new friends. I was sitting on my bunk looking at the maps and lists of attractions, and This girl, Alysse, walks in and is talking about how she is homesick, I make small talk with her and we decide to go to the pub to watch my beloved Man Utd. play (against Munich, and we lost!!!) We spilled our life stories and got some late night munchies, and we friends instantly.

The next morning I went on a walking tour of Bath, highly

recommended, and saw all the sights in Bath: the Abbey, Sally Lunn's house, the parades from the 18th c

entury, theaters, famous people's houses, the Queen's square, the Circus, the Crescent, and more things that I am forgetting.

Then in the afternoon Alysse and I met up to go on a bus tour of Stonehenge (absolutely magnificent) and Lacock, a small village that has been mostly preserved, and bonus, has 2 houses that have been used in Harry Potter films!! So we were stoked!

The next day I went to the Roman Baths, which was really cool, and I can't believe I almost didn't pay the £13 to get in, because it was totally worth it! Then made the hike up the hill to the Fashion Museum and Assembly Rooms, built in the 18th century as the new center of the social scene in Bath. Later, went back down the hill to Queen's Square Park to eat my PB&J that I brought from home, and read my book for about an hour before heading for a walk down the Avon River and the Pulteney Bridge. I happened to stumble across the Postal Museum and an Art Gallery which

were interesting to walk around. I then had run out of things to do and my train wasn't for 4 more hours so I decided to go to the train station to get my itinerary (there were a few connections I had to make) and go find a pub to sit down in and get some food. On my way to the train station, it starts HAILING!! Out of no where, I'm walking down the street, it sunny, I have sunglasses on and shorts, and it starts hailing. I was tired and put off at this point, so I asked the man if there was any way I could get on an earlier train, he said there was one leaving in 35 minutes. So I hoofed it back to the hostel, grabbed my bags, and called my friend who was to be picking me up, to ask if I could please be picked up early. So I hopped on the train back to Denbigh, and felt satisfied and fulfilled.

Dublin on Thursday, and I think I'll try to hit up one of the medieval towns around here this week that I can catch a bus to, although, today (Monday) is a bank holiday, and everything is closed. Tonight, curry and film night with the gang, along with my apple cobbler/tart/crumble thing that I made from some of the excess food from the boarding house. It turned out really nice. Thanks and Gig'em.