Canterbury Tales

This past Monday, we went to Canterbury. I woke up in time for breakfast, which was great, because breakfast turns into breakfast and lunch because I steal bread and apples from the dining hall for that afternoon. So we left the Highbury Centre and took the tube to Victoria station, where we took a train to Canterbury. You know me and trains. This one was excellent. It wasn't Great Western, but South Eastern, but still good. I sat at a table with Zeke, Tabitha, and Eri. Part of the time, I read my book from Jordan, and at one point I played chess with Eri. But most of the time I just looked out the window. Because for the first time, I had hills and fields and grass that didn't end. The first train ride was nice, but we went through cities and everything was covered in snow. But this was like the car ride to Houghton. In a train. It was beautiful. The sky was awesome and I was in such a happy mood. My lunch was the bread and apples, then a back of crisps, my nalgene of water and some candy.

So we get to Canterbury, and it's warm. Like, in the 50's. And the sky was blue and there were clouds everywhere, and I saw over 2 dozen planes with crisscrossing contrails. I love those. Our hotel was amazing. I can't describe it. It had no rhyme or reason to it. The floors were crooked. The ceilings were different heights. To get to Adam's and Eri's rooms, you had to walk on the roof, which had a table and chairs on it. It was like all the construction workers got drunk and said "hey, let's throw a wall here and some stairs here and maybe a floor here and let's see what happens." Oh, and we were on top of a Starbucks.

Steve's and my room was awesome. They actually NAMED the rooms, and we were in the Golden Galleon. The walls were blue and there was a model ship on a shelf. My bed was by the window which overlooked the town square. Oh man, the town was great. It had cobblestone streets and oldschool buildings and castle-like buildings everywhere. And a river ran through it. (Get it? But really, one did).

So the only thing we had that day was a guided tour of a cemetary then the ruins of an abbey. Both were awesome. I took a lot of pictures. I'm not going to put any on the blog though- these are so cool I only want to show them to you in person! :)

We had free time for the rest of the night. We went shopping through the town. There were a LOT of thrift stores and we went to almost every one. I bought two Looney Tunes tapes, a Thomas the Tank Engine tape, and a Robin Williams stand-up comedy tape, for the following prices: 33 pence, 33 pence, 1 pound, and 49 pence. Isn't that cool? But apparently UK VHS tapes are different than US. I didn't know that until this afternoon. But I think I can convert them easily enough. And either way, now I have more cartoons in London! Also today, I bought a pair of Louis Armstrong cds (I'm listening to it now!). We found a Tesco that had jam-filled doughnuts for 14 pence each. I bought 3, but ended giving one to a busker and his dog. Also, at the Canterbury Cathedral, I donated 2 pounds and some change. For the entire weekend, I brought a ten-pound note, and after all the stuff I just talked about, as well as a VHS I bought for my friend that cost 1 pound, I still brought back change.

Before dinner, we went to a worship service at the Canterbury Cathedral. It was by far the coolest building I've ever been in. I can't even describe it. I'll show you pictures when I come back.

Dinner at the hotel was incredible. It was by far the best meal I've had in the UK, and rivalled some US meals. It was hot beef, carrots, and potatoes. I had a thick slice of vanilla cheesecake for dessert. It was like eating a hug. That night, my friends and I went through the town. I got yelled at by my friends when I kept making fun of drunk people. This one woman was totally smashed and was annoying, and I just stared at her. She yelled "stop f-ing looking at me!" I called back, "I'm sorry, you're just so pretty." It was funny and scary. After we got back to the hotel, we played cards and went to bed.

This morning we woke up at 7 to a fire alarm. Some jerk in Starbucks had set it off. But we had an incredible breakfast- bread, cereal, toast, eggs, tomatos, sausage, bacon...so good. We amused ourselves by setting the jars of marmalade on the floor and watching them roll all by themselves.

After breakfast, we had a tour of parts of the town (from the same guide from yesterday- she talked like, looked like, and reminded me of grammy) who also gave us a tour of the cathedral. It was sooo cool. After the cathedral, we wandered around the city, going to more thrift stores and eventually went back to the train station. On the way back, I read my book and fell asleep.