As mentioned in my last blog, I went to Stonehenge and Salisbury on Friday. We left early in the morning to head on over to the ancient wonder of the world. When we got there, I was a bit disappointed because people are apparently no longer able to walk right up to the stones. As I was later told by a fella from Salisbury (who’s never been to Stonehenge despite living about half an hour away), people would trash the area during the solstices and there’s now a rope to prevent people from strolling through the circle of rocks. Still, I got some stellar pictures, if I do say so myself. By the way, shout out to my friend Alex for the title inspiration of this blog post.
After we had seen enough, we went to Salisbury where we went to the Salisbury Cathedral, which has the tallest steeple in the UK. We had a tour of the building, despite a funeral taking place at the same time, which was a bit odd. I’m not very descriptive, so I’m not even going to try; I’ll just leave it at this: it was another beautiful church. However, there are two things that make it special; it has an original copy of the Magna Carta, which I’ve now seen two of, and it has the oldest working clock. If you looked at the clock, though, a clock would have been your last guess of what it was.
I also saw the building where William Golding (author of Lord of the Flies) taught and Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) attended as a student. Although the trip was dominated by the Cathedral, we had a bit of time to walk around. The city itself was very cute and small, with a few rivers going through it. I went to a nice pub, went to a coffee shop with Alex, and (unsuccessfully) looked for cheap black boots.
On Saturday I toured Wimbledon, thanks to Nana’s recommendation. The grass was absolutely beautiful, despite being much too long; it was an unheard of 16 mm long instead of the regulation 8 mm. How dare they. Unfortunately I was not able to see Centre Court because of work being done on it, but I saw Court #1 and walked around their museum. After the tour of the tennis courts, I walked around the area itself, which was visually astounding. I felt like I should have seen someone famous with every step; it seemed like I was even walking on an expensive sidewalk.
The next day I went to Hampstead Heath, another park within walking distance with a great view of the city skyline. I chilled there for a bit, juggled a football and enjoyed some people watching. It was the place to be on that beautiful day, I guess. Then I walked over to Highgate Cemetery and saw the grave of Karl Marx. It was a nice sunny day that needed to be spent walking around. My calves better be huge after this.
In class on Monday, we went to Brixton, the main Caribbean area of London. We took a tour of the area and learned about the discrimination that has taken place in London while also taking in the culture of the area. We walked along Electric Avenue (yes, like the song) and then I got some jerk chicken from a great Jamaican place. I’m going to have to return soon.
On Tuesday, the tube strike began. This disrupted (and still will, until tomorrow) all underground lines, making buses and the overground the only option. It made it really difficult to get a £3 haircut 4 miles away; I only got there 30 minutes late. After my nice English haircut, I got my first Indian food of the trip. I ordered some lamb kebabs and devoured them instantly. Dishoom serves some swell cuisine.
Finally, on Tuesday night I headed out to see my second Premier League side of London. Crystal Palace had an FA Cup match against Championship side Stoke City in their home stadium, Selhurst Park. Fun fact: this stadium is the inspiration for AFC Richmond in Ted Lasso. Anyways, Palace had an amazing crowd who were the most passionate fans I’ve experienced thus far. Their chants and criticisms were nonstop. The lad behind me seemed to believe he would make an amazing coach. Palace, the self proclaimed red-blue army, won 2-1 on a late goal, sparking an eruption of chants. “We’ve got super Pat Vieira, he knows exactly what we need. Mitchell at the back, Olise at attack, Palace on the way to Wembley.”
Abby comes tomorrow, so I’m sure we have a lot in store for the upcoming week.
Cheers
Another great week in the books!!!!
Hey Buddy! Nice pics! You’ve been quite the traveling young man since you landed across the pond over a month ago. Have you really even had a moment to log any of it in your journal? Where would you have gotten any spare time? Those rocks look amazing. It’s unfortunate that people had to ruin it during solstice for everyone else to be able to marvel & take in the pure beauty & wonder of these stones up close. It’s good you were able to get some nice photos. Alex did a nice job of naming the blog too! I would have to agree with you too, there would be only so many cathedrals that I would want to see. …