Trip day 3
Day 154, March 12 2009 day 3
Got up and had crepes with bananas for breakfast, which was a nice change to a traditional fry up. I paid for the hotel, £60 for 2 nights, not bad, and headed right out to the Natnioal Gallery. I was really hoping that this would indeed be worth me doing this rather than just leaving and getting to Canterbury earlier. I was glad I did though. There were some really nice Renaissance period art and sculpture as well as some really famous stuff. To my surprise they even had a Monet “haystack” and a few others by him; his impressionism is just so nice to look at. They also had a few Van Gogh’s and Rembrant’s and lots of others that were just really pretty but I’d never heard of the artist before. Again, it was totally wroth it and once again, free. I only had to pay for the castle here, everything else, all that culture was totally free, gotta love that.
Knowing I needed to skedaddle, I quickly hopped on a train and was on my way back to London. The train ride was a bit like the last, pretty boring but really pretty scenery and stuff. I tried to write my journal entries for the days in Edinburgh so far but my pen ran out of ink, so that was a huge bust. The other bummer for me was that as we got closer and closer to London, the train really started to fill up, then I realized I’m going right through London during rush hour with a very hefty bag due to all my clothes and presents that I bought. Shit. The tube was SO crowded going from Kings X to Victoria, I was face to back with some dude and had my bag on my shoulder the whole time weighing me down and cutting into my shoulder. Eventually I got to Victoria station where I experienced the first trouble I’ve ever had with the train system. First I couldn’t for the life of me find where the next train to Canterbury East was on the boards, so frustrating! I finally found it on the 3rd page of one of the destinations but also found out that the train was separating at some point. So people who wanted to go to one place had the first 4 cars, another the middle 4, and Canterbury and beyond the rear 3, but which side was the rear? Eventually, because as my dad said before I left more than 5 months ago, “you’ve got a good head on your shoulders, you’ll do fine,” I figured it all out and was on my way. The train was even crowded and when I was asked by this lady to move my bag so she could sit next to me I understood. But when I lifted my bag, RIPPPP!!! A big hole had formed right by one of the handle straps. Shit! Now I was pretty pissed. I needed that bag for when the Matt’s came and other stuff as well. Damn it! I was thinking, this Cathedral I’m going to better be worth it! Once I calmed down a bit though, I realized I could proly just duct tape it and if not I’d deal with it. Finally got into Canterbury and was happy to find how nice it looked, especially the Cathedral at night. Checked in, got some grub, and went to check out the town at night a little bit. Went and tok some pictures of the Cathedral at night, very amazing and lots more of that to come. The other cool thing I did was watch the Man City UEFA Cup match in a pub and then found another pub which was the coolest I’ve been since I’ve been here. It was named the Thomas Beckett and had dried hop vines hanging from the ceiling. There was also a guy playing piano and just had a great vibe. Had another drink there and then back to my hotel. I actually took a bath, which I haven’t done in forever, it was pretty nice, and went to bed, lots of Cathedral viewing coming up tomorrow. Until next time
Got up and had crepes with bananas for breakfast, which was a nice change to a traditional fry up. I paid for the hotel, £60 for 2 nights, not bad, and headed right out to the Natnioal Gallery. I was really hoping that this would indeed be worth me doing this rather than just leaving and getting to Canterbury earlier. I was glad I did though. There were some really nice Renaissance period art and sculpture as well as some really famous stuff. To my surprise they even had a Monet “haystack” and a few others by him; his impressionism is just so nice to look at. They also had a few Van Gogh’s and Rembrant’s and lots of others that were just really pretty but I’d never heard of the artist before. Again, it was totally wroth it and once again, free. I only had to pay for the castle here, everything else, all that culture was totally free, gotta love that.
Knowing I needed to skedaddle, I quickly hopped on a train and was on my way back to London. The train ride was a bit like the last, pretty boring but really pretty scenery and stuff. I tried to write my journal entries for the days in Edinburgh so far but my pen ran out of ink, so that was a huge bust. The other bummer for me was that as we got closer and closer to London, the train really started to fill up, then I realized I’m going right through London during rush hour with a very hefty bag due to all my clothes and presents that I bought. Shit. The tube was SO crowded going from Kings X to Victoria, I was face to back with some dude and had my bag on my shoulder the whole time weighing me down and cutting into my shoulder. Eventually I got to Victoria station where I experienced the first trouble I’ve ever had with the train system. First I couldn’t for the life of me find where the next train to Canterbury East was on the boards, so frustrating! I finally found it on the 3rd page of one of the destinations but also found out that the train was separating at some point. So people who wanted to go to one place had the first 4 cars, another the middle 4, and Canterbury and beyond the rear 3, but which side was the rear? Eventually, because as my dad said before I left more than 5 months ago, “you’ve got a good head on your shoulders, you’ll do fine,” I figured it all out and was on my way. The train was even crowded and when I was asked by this lady to move my bag so she could sit next to me I understood. But when I lifted my bag, RIPPPP!!! A big hole had formed right by one of the handle straps. Shit! Now I was pretty pissed. I needed that bag for when the Matt’s came and other stuff as well. Damn it! I was thinking, this Cathedral I’m going to better be worth it! Once I calmed down a bit though, I realized I could proly just duct tape it and if not I’d deal with it. Finally got into Canterbury and was happy to find how nice it looked, especially the Cathedral at night. Checked in, got some grub, and went to check out the town at night a little bit. Went and tok some pictures of the Cathedral at night, very amazing and lots more of that to come. The other cool thing I did was watch the Man City UEFA Cup match in a pub and then found another pub which was the coolest I’ve been since I’ve been here. It was named the Thomas Beckett and had dried hop vines hanging from the ceiling. There was also a guy playing piano and just had a great vibe. Had another drink there and then back to my hotel. I actually took a bath, which I haven’t done in forever, it was pretty nice, and went to bed, lots of Cathedral viewing coming up tomorrow. Until next time