Day 356: Stonehenge!

It would have been smart to look up opening times before we woke up at 5:30 in the morning, to arrive at 6:00 to watch the sun rise over Stonehenge. But, we’re not always the smartest… and we rolled up to Stonehenge just after 6 to discover that we couldn’t get in. As it turns out, you have to book a special sunrise “inner circle” tour (like this one) if you want to do what we were planning on doing for the regular admission fee on our own. James tried to coerce a car full of German tourists to partake in distracting the guards and running for Stonehenge, but they weren’t buying it. Instead, we crawled back in the car, the boys dropped me off to go back to sleep and went in search for breakfast for all. We returned about four hours later and had a more successful visit, even if it wasn’t as successful as we had planned.

Have these stones been modified? Is that a concrete patch above? It seems like a few of the stones had patches on them… If so, I’m not sure how I feel about that! Either way, I couldn’t resist taking one last photo from the expressway as we drove away from Stonehenge and back towards London!

Day 355: An Englishman’s first Chinese fire drill

Contrary to the photo below of our flat tire, this little road-trip turned out to be part of one of my most favorite days in England with James. If you’re perplexed, and haven’t watched the video above… just watch and you’ll see why. How baffling it was to both me and Andrew that James had never heard of a Chinese fire drill before! Baffling and absolutely adorable. “Do we go clockwise or anti-clockwise?” I mean, who even says anti-clockwise? James will be moving to America soon, so it simply felt like the right thing to do… Especially since we were stuck in traffic en route to Stonehenge. We certainly gave all of the cars surrounding us something to laugh at while they waited for their turn to see a bunch of ancient rocks in the middle of nowhere!

In the end, we decided to save Stonehenge for the following morning (to avoid the traffic) and instead headed straight for James’ sister, Caroline’s house in the countryside. Caroline and her wonderfully welcoming husband, Neil have a home that makes me second guess moving to New York City. It was so calm and quiet that I think I can safely say Andrew and I finally felt completely relaxed for the first time in a long, long time on this trip. So relaxed, that Andrew fell asleep while the rest of us had an apéritif and caught up since we last saw each other (at least since Caroline and I saw each other last, as it was the first time I met Neil)! We took the dog for a walk… we took in a beautiful view overlooking Lord Bath’s estate below… and Andrew practiced his British accent with some gentle coaching by James. Usually it’s the other way around, us coaching James, inserting as many “yos” and slang words into his formal accent as we can. Back at “home” (our home for the night) I could barely make it through desert, and snuck up to bed early, if nothing else to revel in the calm before our visit to Stonehenge, reunion with other friends in London, the Notting Hill Festival, and oh right… our transatlantic flight to Peru!

Day 354: Portsmouth

First stop in Portsmouth: Fort Nelson. It was here where it was reiterated that I’m simply not into military museums (and preserved forts) but if you are, then I highly recommend going for the free shooting display. Second stop in Portsmouth: the waterfront. The cockles were ok (a bit sandy for my liking) so it’s safe to say that I was much more excited to be introduced to my very first “2 penny pusher.” How gloriously addicting these machines were! Furthermore, I can’t even begin to describe how good of a thing it was that James whisked us away to a local pub when he did, otherwise, I might still be standing there, waiting for that one mountain of pennies (pence?) to fall!

Thankfully, it was a gorgeous day to walk around the fort and we cruised through the underground tunnels and the museum full of old artillery, guns, and vehicles, taking everything in simultaneous to continuing to catch up on things since we last saw each other over a year ago. James and Andrew tried to get me to compete against a handful of little ones in an obstacle course (that was for children only) but I refused, assuring them I would win. Once the guns were blasted, we made our way to the waterfront where James made us try cockles and then we camped out at some 2 penny pusher machines until he recognized he had introduced us to a game that could possibly destroy our daily budget (even though it only cost 2 pennies to play). We quickly headed to a pub and then home to have some fish, chips, and mushy peas!

Mushy peas? I know, I was skeptical as well, but they’re really quite good! Almost like eating mashed potatoes in a way… I quite liked them and was a little surprised that I had never heard of them before. Does this dish even exist in America? It seems like something that would be in the south… but I definitely haven’t had it in Kentucky!

Day 353: The day we waited for laundry to dry

Seriously. That’s what we did. The day in a minute doesn’t get any more entertaining than watching a cat sit on our bags. Because when we weren’t checking the laundry, we were watching Allan, waiting for him to do something weird. (He is a bit of an eccentric cat.) 

It was gorgeous, beautiful weather our first two days in London. Until this morning, when we decided to do laundry and let it air dry before we headed south to Portsmouth. Of course, it rained. We (Allan included) stared at each other, and the laundry, until it was dry enough for us to pack it up and go.

Day 352: “What’s a Cornetto 99?”

Day 2 in London was more of the same, except we got to sleep past five in the morning. (What a relief!) Another wonderful homemade breakfast and we were out the door, again on bikes down to the River Thames. This time we jumped off of them and spent a couple hours exploring the Tate Modern before James introduced us to a Cornetto 99!

“What’s a Cornetto 99?” I asked James. He simply smiled with a twinkle in his eye and told me I would find out!

While it’s no longer 99 pence, it’s still delicious and worth every penny (at least once). In Kentucky, my friends would call this a ‘creamy whip.’ In other words, it’s a perfect (almost a cross between whip cream) ice-cream cone with a little cookie sticking out, and some chocolate drizzled on top if you prefer! It’s delicious. Try one the next time you’re in England!

The Tate Modern is – get this – free! Aside from special exhibitions. This is a LOT and more than enough to keep you entertained. Andrew and James headed up to concentrate on one exhibition, while I sprinted through several just to see what was there. My favorites included the Joseph Bueys photograph on canvas, the room full of Communist propaganda posters (of course), the dimly lit room full of HUGE Rothkos (too dark to photograph) and the Glenn Ligon (America) painted neon light piece below.

It was a great visit, but I have to admit, I was a little bit art-museum-ed out after spending so many hours inside them in Paris. We biked around some more, I got that sweet picture of James biking in between buses and taxis (above), and we stopped off at a few pubs in between. We weren’t exactly the perfect tourists, and I’m sure we could have done sooo much more with our day, but we were still reveling in James’ company, and letting go of the reins for a bit.

Day 351: London immigration at 3 in the morning; not my favorite!

London Immigration: How long will you be in England?
me: A few days, five I think.
Immigration: And then you are flying back to the United States? To teach?
me: No…
Immigration: Where are you going next?
me: (thinking) Peru. Yes. Peru.
Immigration: Don’t you need to get back to school? (I filled in “teacher” under occupation.)
me: No… I’m not teaching right now. I was teaching. In South Korea. But now, we’re traveling. (as anyone with eyes and a brain can tell by looking at the visas and stamps in my passport, which was in her hands)
Immigration: How are you finding your trip? (I thought she asked.)
me: Well, I’m really tired… (as it was in the middle of the night)
Immigration: (blankly staring at me) I don’t care.
me: I’m sorry, perhaps I misunderstood your question?
Immigration: How are you funding your trip?
me: Ohhh. funding. Well, with money. (Clearly confused.)
Immigration: How much money do you have on you?
me: In cash? Well… nothing… (thinking we spent all of our euros before getting on the bus heading to a country that doesn’t accept euros…)
Immigration: What about credit cards?
me: Well, there’s no money on them… I paid them off.
Immigration: You have no money?
me: You mean, what money is in my checking account? Of course I have money in there…

At this point Andrew’s immigration officer came over to my immigration officer’s desk.

new Immigration officer: Where are you staying in England.
me: With a friend.
new Immigration officer: Who is he?
me: His name?
new Immigration officer: Yes.
me: James.
new Immigration officer: How do you know him?
me: We met in Korea. We were teachers together.

By this time, I’m starting to wonder if the rest of my evening is going to be spent in the passport control building. I’m even imagining them inspecting my luggage: full of Haribo gummie candy, a bottle of Absenth, and some pretty well worn clothes that needed a good washing. But suddenly, Andrew’s officer turned to mine and told her that I answered all of the questions with the same answers Andrew gave.

I practically had to pinch myself before rolling my eyes and telling them both we answered the same (and truthfully) because we weren’t terrorists! We just wanted to spend the year traveling around the world! I realized later, when chatting with James and others that they probably suspected we were going to try to find jobs in England. Again, I rolled my eyes. Leave Asia to work in the (technically) E.U.? Sorry friends, but no thanks! I’m taking plenty of chances leaving Asia to work in America as it is!

James’ sister was happy to hear London immigration gave us the run-around. I get it. A run-around is great. I’m all for spelling things out. We have done it before (Israel) but it seemed like a giant waste of time this (very early) morning to mumble non-specific questions and then get frustrated with me when I don’t understand! I’ve also had one too many passport control “officers” and flight attendants look at my old Burmese visa thinking that it is the most important page (with all of my information on it)… so it’s become a challenge for me to know if I should take them seriously or not…

Of course we arrived in London nearly an hour early, just after 5 in the morning. We were exhausted, but once James arrived (with bells on) and we had a coffee, we began to shake ourselves awake a bit. Then came breakfast. A giant English feast of a meal before we hopped on bikes to ride around the city. We stuck mostly along the Thames and I didn’t photograph much, and instead enjoyed the feeling of having a friend again (one we don’t really feel often on this trip) and a friend who made all of our decisions for us! What a lovely break!