i know you've all been anxiously awaiting news of my latest adventure. sorry if i've left you hanging, but to put it quite simply, by the time i was done with almost two weeks of sightseeing, socializing, and sailing (quite literally, i'll get to that later) back to the homeland, i was flat-out beat. the trip itself though, was extraordinary. i saw so many things & met interesting people along the way. i could bore you with hundreds of photographs & a journal-like recount of the day-to-day, but i'd rather just share some high- (and low-) lights of the overall experience. here goes...
on a carousel in rennes. i thought it was pretty appropriate.
day one: lannion -> rennes -> st malo.
rennes was brief, as i was only really there to get the medical exam (i.e. chest x-ray & height/weight check)... everything went fine. i'm healthy, per usual (knock on wood). i then travelled by train to the lovely town of st malo, where i stayed with some fellow language assistants i found, curiously enough, on facebook. meeting them was definitely one of the highights of my trip, and i hope that lisa, colin, laura, & mariana all have the chance at some point to come visit in lannion, so i can return the favor. i was warmly welcomed by smiling faces, a hot traditional scottish meal, & later, a sortie. i left with new friends. they introduced me to the town they are currently calling home, and i'll be willing to say that grand times were had by all.
vivent les assistants!
day two: st malo -> weymouth.
intra muros from the ferry.
at the port of jersey at sunset. gorgeous.
the next day i met yet another assistant, kate. we all got the chance to partake in an afternoon "tea" & tour the intra muros, the ancient walled city part of st malo. it was great to wander around the city & take in all the fresh sea air. it just so happened that laura was taking the same ferry to weymouth that evening, so i had a travel companion & everything. her mom even gave me a ride to my little b&b (that i reserved via text, mind you) on alma road. although there was a lot going on that saturday night, i was exhausted & was more than ready to crash. christine, my hostess, was warm & smiling, and made me feel right at home.
day three: weymouth -> bournemouth -> salisbury
the channel. weymouth.
alma road & soaking. word. weymouth.
i woke up pretty early & got the chance to wander around deserted weymouth a little before having breakfast & catching a coach to my next stop. while it wasn't exactly raining, i somehow managed to get completely soaked in under 20 minutes. it wasn't too terribly cold though, so it was sort of refreshing in a way. call me strange. go ahead, do it. breakfast was a new experience, as i had never stayed in a true b&b before. while i was expecting something along the lines of continental, or even maybe an egg & some toast, i was pleasantly surprised by my first-ever full english breakfast. delicious, and it kept me full & warm all day long. the next stop of bournemouth was in honor of brittany rice. she was the one who wanted me to go there (so she could live vicariously through me), and i ended up there in part that there were no direct busses from weymouth to salisbury. so bournemouth it was. i wandered along the beach mostly, even though the weather wasn't fantastic... took in some great views though from the cliffs.
bournemouth.
the closest europe gets to "fall colors". bournemouth.
next on the list was salisbury. it didn't take me long to find a hostel, and i checked out some of the sights including the cathedral, which was celebrating its 750th anniversary and one of the four surviving copies of the magna carta. pretty sweet. my day ended with a fish 'n chips & a chat with my for-the-night roommates.
day four: salisbury (amesbury, stonehenge) -> winchester.
yes, that's right, i went to winchester... silly me. but let's not get ahead of ourselves. i woke up in salisbury with big plans to visit avesbury (not to be confused with the town listed above) & stonehenge in one fell swoop before heading off to winchester. anyway, it wasn't until i caught a bus to amesbury (and spent seven pounds) before i found out that you can't really get to avesbury easily from there... it involves several bus transfers, and basically if i had alternative transportation, it might not've been a problem. anyway, i figured i'd make the most of it, head back to salisbury & hop on a stonehenge tour (pretty much against my will at this point, but contrary to what my guide book had said, there are no longer public busses that run out to the site). it really was just a bunch of rocks, but pretty cool, and probably worth seeing in the long run.
stonehenge in all its glory. it was a pretty nice day, too.
stonehenge.
salisbury cathedral.
some guy snapped this picture with a fancy camera & e-mailed it to me... i have no idea what he did to the colors though, as i'm wearing a red jacket.
after my audio-guided tour, i headed back to salisbury, and snapped a few pictures before leaving for winchester. the drive wasn't too terribly long, and lovely. lots of little thatched houses, farms, & rolling countryside. gorgeous. my arrival in winchester left me about an hour or so of daylight (it gets dark a little after 4pm), enough to pretty much just check out the cathedral. even when it got dark, i continued to check the place out & have a pint before meeting my couchsurfing host. the stay was short, but i enjoyed the chat i had with valerie (her great great grandfather married jane austen's brother's daughter... i was in austen country after all, her grave is located in the cathedral.) before heading to bed.
winchester.
winchester cathedral.
day five: winchester -> london.
i woke up long before dark to catch my coach & arrived in london fairly early. besides having to lug around my suitcase and being already exhausted, i managed to squeeze a lot in. buckingham palace & the guards, green park, st james park, whitehall, trafalgar square, the national portrait gallery, covent garden & piccadilly circus. i met up with my buddy scotty (from home, who now lives in london) & his buddy sean (who was also visiting). we had a traditional pub dinner in liecester square & i was introduced to my first-ever "snakebite" (if i'm right it's a combination of cassis, cider, & lager)... totally british, and delicious. we met up with some of scotty's friends at "the volunteer", a pub on infamous baker street, just next door to sherlock holmes's ficticious home. the party moved upstairs, where i continued to meet new friends (brittany, sarah, julie... thank you ladies so much for everything)... and again, grand times were had by all.
day six through eleven: london.
trafalgar square.
scotty & me, "volunteering".
the london skyline.
like i promised earlier, i won't bore you with all the details. i got the chance to check out museums: the imperial war museum (a piece of the berlin wall & the trench experience), the national gallery (van gogh's sunflowers, da vinci's virgin of the rocks, monet's water lily pond), the tate modern (lichtenstein, picasso, braque, gris), the british museum (the rosetta stone, ancient greek & egyptian sculptures), the british library (original beatles lyrics, da vinci's notebooks, some more magna carta, original music manuscripts by bach, mozart, beethoven, & schubert). i had curry at camden (a trip of a market, and in my opinion, a must-see of london) & went to jersey boys (the musical) with my good friend sally rose.
sally & me at jersey boys.
with new friends, josh, mike, & brittany after a delicious indian meal on brick lane.
i met two students from san francisco who're currently studying in norwich (josh & mike), and went sightseeing with them. i had g & ts in "members-only" parliament, with our lovely "tour-guide" brittany, who's doing an internship there. i went out to dance clubs, old pubs, and a pool bar for a birthday celebration (my friend chris's 25th), london-style. i ate indian food three nights in a row. i walked along the thames, almost pet a squirrel in hyde park, & went swing dancing at 100 club on oxford street.
hyde park, london.
parliament & "ben"... & the eye of course, my last night in london.
and believe it or not, there's so much more to see & do that i have to go back. i guess i was expecting london to be like any other city in europe... and it's not. it's new york with more history, elegance, and haute couture, dancing to a euro beat. needless to say, my trip was incredible.
day twelve (november 4th, baby!): the journey home. london -> luton -> gatwick -> portsmouth -> st malo.
after saying my goodbyes & dropping a couple last pounds on postcards, i took the train out to luton to catch my flight. fleur was taking the same plane as me, and i had been looking forward to hearing about her break & sharing mine. i did an online check-in, per the book, and got through security. at the gate, i was denied boarding, and was told that i was supposed to have done a "special" check-in because i am not an e.u. citizen. to put it simply: ryanair screwed me over. i had read the fine print, but was told my passport/visa combination would not suffice as a "national identity card"... and was promised guidance in getting home, which i also wasn't given. after a bunch of running around, tears, and basically freaking out, i knew i could make it home... somehow. i booked a couple coaches to portsmouth, not knowing if there was a ferry running that evening or even the next day. there were only two flights offered by easyjet, and those were to paris at 200 quid, which would've been impossible, and i still would've missed work. i figured i'd just travel home sort of the way i came... and guess what? to my surprise, too, it worked. i met a very kind gentleman on one of the coaches who helped me out a bit, and i ended up taking an overnight ferry back to st malo, on which i knew i wouldn't be able to sleep. there is a silver lining in this predicament. the ferry, or ghetto-cruise-ship as i like to think of it, had the bbc. it was election night. i talked the man with the remote into letting me watch t.v. all night long. soo... i had a cidre at the bar, and after listening to some really bad cruise ship entertainment, i headed to the dining room to watch the election. brittany, i wore the obama shirt you sent me with pride. while sitting there, some others joined me... some aussies & brits from the techno bands pnau & blamma! blamma!, who were on their way to rennes for a gig. we made a party of it all, and stayed up almost the whole night. oh, what a night.
before i left london, mccain & obama duking it out at trafalgar square.
day thirteen: there wasn't supposed to be a day thirteen. st malo -> lannion.
after waking up, the first question i asked was "who won?"... and i wasn't sure if anyone knew for sure at this point. i got off the ferry & walked to the train station in st malo, bought some tickets to lannion. i asked the woman in the newspaper kiosque if she knew who had one in the presidential election... when she responded, i kindly asked "
c'est sur?" and she replied "
oui." after a train back to rennes, back to st brieuc, & a bus to lannion, i arrived in one piece, and only short 100 quid. not too bad. in the end, it makes me proud i could navigate through europe
toute seule... and proud i can call myself american. even with a very big hiccup in my plans (i'm still in disbelief), i found my way around it, and still ended up having a good time.
