If watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations started my transformation into a foodie, St. John Restaurant by Smithfield Market has completed it.
Watching Bourdain, he seemed so happy and content with discovering new food or just eating traditional food done right. The more I watched him, the more offal seemed appealing to me. Whenever I went out to eat in the States (not often) I started to look for the oddest choice on the menu and order that. My Paris culinary adventures culminated in the ordering of a pig's trotter. I was well on my way. St. John pushed me over. I've been there twice now and we have plans to go back our last week here.
The first trip I started with what is supposed to be the signature dish of St. John and a dish that Bourdain said would be in his death row meal. Bone marrow and parsley salad. You get three bones, wet sea salt, parsley and two pieces of toast. You scrape the bone marrow out onto the toast, add the salt, spread the mixture on the toast and then top with parsley. It is amazing. Foodgasms with every bite. For my entree I had faggot, which is a meatball traditionally made of pig heart, liver and fatty belly meat (thank you Wiki.) It was also really good. I wanted to order the rabbit saddle, but they were out. My friend Chris had the chitterlings, which were so good that I regretted ordering the faggot. Debi had smoked eel and bacon which was also amazing.
I went for the second time tonight. To start off, I had ox heart. It was delicious. It just tasted like a piece of meat that was really well prepared. My friend Scott had black cuttlefish cooked in its own ink, which was also really good. My entree was rabbit and bacon in a mustard sauce, which proved to be the favorite of the table. The mustard sauce was otherworldly, I was sipping at it even when all the meat was gone. For desert we ordered madeleines and we each got our own dish. I got the eccles cake and Lancashire cheese. I'm not sure why, there was no way I could finish it. It was really good, but the madeleines were even better.
I have not been to a lot of restaurants, let alone highly regarded ones. However, St. John seems special. It does traditional food really well. It's kept simple and it's kept good. The restaurant itself is very simple, with the whitewashed walls and floor. You know when you walk in there you're not going to get any fancy food plated divinely or any frills. You're just going to get some damn good food that makes you want to come back for more. I say this is my favorite restaurant in the world. So does Bourdain. His opinion makes me feel a little bit better that I'm choosing a favorite restaurant so early on in my growth as a foodie.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Visitors
I had two visitors this past Saturday. My brother Ted and a friend from Northeastern, Jaime. Jaime came in Friday afternoon. It was really too late to go sight-seeing, since it was dark, so we thought maybe we could go to Greenwich and watch the new Bond movie. So we went to wait for the 177 bus. This turned out to be a problem, as it never came. There was a woman that had been standing there for at least 1o minutes longer than us, we waited for probably 30 minutes and it still hadn't come. She was still standing there when we left. Instead we went to the Hob for awhile, until it was time to retire.
The next day Jaime and I met my brother by Parliament, and I took them around to some of the major sights. Parliament and Westminster, down to Buckingham, then to Trafalgar and onto Piccadilly. Jaime really really wanted to see a musical while she was in town and she was able to convince my brother to go see Spamalot. So they bought half-price tickets. We walked to the theater and I dropped them off. I decided to take advantage of the time and I went to the National Gallery. I'm not big on fine art, but it was something I had wanted to go to. There were some paintings I really liked, they mostly revolved around Greek mythology. Then some of the rooms were just painting after painting of Jesus or Mary or other biblical scenes, it got repetitive.
After the Gallery and Spamalot, I took them to Soho. We walked around a while until we came upon Leicester Square, where we decided it would be good to try and see the new Bond. We went and saw the showtimes, but the closest one was three to four hours away. So we went for food. We found this place in Soho that was a French/Italian restaurant. I got the foie gras as a starter then the coq au vin as the entree. It was pretty good and reasonably priced. After dinner we went back to Square and bought tickets, then saw the movie. It was OK. I might've liked it more had I remembered more of Casino Royale, since Solace was almost a sequel.
After the movie it was pretty late so we went back to New Cross and hit the hay. I had to wake up at around 5 in the morning to make sure Jaime got on the correct bus so she could get to London Victoria so she could take the Gatwick Express to get her flight.
So everyone is gone. Though my papers are technically due on the 5th, I leave for Amsterdam on the 4th. I have a lot of work to do.
The next day Jaime and I met my brother by Parliament, and I took them around to some of the major sights. Parliament and Westminster, down to Buckingham, then to Trafalgar and onto Piccadilly. Jaime really really wanted to see a musical while she was in town and she was able to convince my brother to go see Spamalot. So they bought half-price tickets. We walked to the theater and I dropped them off. I decided to take advantage of the time and I went to the National Gallery. I'm not big on fine art, but it was something I had wanted to go to. There were some paintings I really liked, they mostly revolved around Greek mythology. Then some of the rooms were just painting after painting of Jesus or Mary or other biblical scenes, it got repetitive.
After the Gallery and Spamalot, I took them to Soho. We walked around a while until we came upon Leicester Square, where we decided it would be good to try and see the new Bond. We went and saw the showtimes, but the closest one was three to four hours away. So we went for food. We found this place in Soho that was a French/Italian restaurant. I got the foie gras as a starter then the coq au vin as the entree. It was pretty good and reasonably priced. After dinner we went back to Square and bought tickets, then saw the movie. It was OK. I might've liked it more had I remembered more of Casino Royale, since Solace was almost a sequel.
After the movie it was pretty late so we went back to New Cross and hit the hay. I had to wake up at around 5 in the morning to make sure Jaime got on the correct bus so she could get to London Victoria so she could take the Gatwick Express to get her flight.
So everyone is gone. Though my papers are technically due on the 5th, I leave for Amsterdam on the 4th. I have a lot of work to do.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Turkey Day
Thanksgiving started like most post-Sandwich Thursdays - in a haze. It was a little worse this time, because my brother, Ted, was in town. I hadn't gone to a show as I usually do on Wednesdays. So we were at the Hob earlier than usual, then we went to Sandwich.
We woke up and went to the green, where there was an American football game going on - the Pilgrims vs. the Indians. The Pilgrims won. We even got a Brit to play, though the first time he got a pass, he threw it forward again because he was used to rugby. The game lasted maybe an hour.
Ted went back to sleep for a little and I went to go help with shopping and cooking. And by helping with cooking I mean standing around drinking water and occasionally basting the turkey. Pretty soon everyone started showing up. We probably had around 20 people in the D4 kitchen. It turned out pretty well.
We had the turkey, of course. We had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, scallops, mac & cheese, cranberry sauce, stuffing with Italian sausage and bacon, many pies and types of dessert, lots of wine. It was a great spread, huge. And we ate most of it. The Brits there loved the holiday. After we ate our first plate, they asked us what now? And we said more food. After we had all eaten enough and we were all in food comas, they asked again, what now? We said this is it. They replied by professing their new found love for the holiday. Later on in the night, people would hover around the food with forks, slowly picking at food and at the turkey. Everything was so good and there was still so much. The rest of the night we just sat around, talking and drinking. It was a great Thanksgiving.
We woke up and went to the green, where there was an American football game going on - the Pilgrims vs. the Indians. The Pilgrims won. We even got a Brit to play, though the first time he got a pass, he threw it forward again because he was used to rugby. The game lasted maybe an hour.
Ted went back to sleep for a little and I went to go help with shopping and cooking. And by helping with cooking I mean standing around drinking water and occasionally basting the turkey. Pretty soon everyone started showing up. We probably had around 20 people in the D4 kitchen. It turned out pretty well.
We had the turkey, of course. We had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, scallops, mac & cheese, cranberry sauce, stuffing with Italian sausage and bacon, many pies and types of dessert, lots of wine. It was a great spread, huge. And we ate most of it. The Brits there loved the holiday. After we ate our first plate, they asked us what now? And we said more food. After we had all eaten enough and we were all in food comas, they asked again, what now? We said this is it. They replied by professing their new found love for the holiday. Later on in the night, people would hover around the food with forks, slowly picking at food and at the turkey. Everything was so good and there was still so much. The rest of the night we just sat around, talking and drinking. It was a great Thanksgiving.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Dublin
Dublin was the second weekend in a month long stretch of no rest. I'd be there two nights with Scott and Jen, then Debi, Sam and their friend Lidia would join us on Saturday night.
Dublin was my first experience on the infamous Ryanair. I had heard so many warnings about them; dodgy takeoffs, dodgy landings, bad customer service... I had no problem with them at all. The Irish woman at the check-in desk was probably the nicest airline employee I've ever met, and she just started the long run of incredibly nice and helpful Irish that we came across during our time in Dublin.
The city was... ok. It was very Americanized, lots and lots of pizza and hamburger joints. After I got back, I was talking to my friend Liz about it, and she thought it was a lot like Boston, which I have to agree with. It didn't have that European city feel to it. What added to the Boston feel was the streets. Though on a loose grid system, the streets change name every block, so if you're looking for a certain street you might not find it. So my advice? Buy a map. Of course, we got into the city when it was dark and rainy and we couldn't find our hostel... Not the best beginning. When we were wandering around, we did see a city map hanging in a window. While we were trying to get ourselves oriented, this guy walking down the street and stops and asks if we need any help. Incredibly surprising, no one would do that in the States.
We eventually found our hostel and settled in. Then we went out to the Temple Bar area. As we quickly found out, Dublin is a pretty damn expensive city. We went to this pub and ordered Guinness & beef stew for 16 euro. It was really good, but... it's stew. Granted, we were in a big tourist spot, but other places we went were still expensive. Later, we learned that if we wanted to save money, we should've stayed on the north side of the river.
For the night, we went to this one club type place and sat up on the roof the whole night, just drinking Guinness and talking. The great thing about Guinness in Ireland, that in addition to it tasting magnificent, is that's a domestic beer and therefore cheaper. A little slice of heaven. As I went up to get another round, the bartender started talking to me in an incredibly heavy Irish accent. It was a bit hard to understand him. But what I really got out of this conversation was a lesson about Budweiser. He told me that whenever he went to the States, he could never find a pint of good Budweiser. I say, what do you expect, it's a crap beer. He insists that it's not and gives me a sample. And you know what? It was really damn good. They should sell that stuff here.
The next morning was our sight seeing day. First, we stopped at a hotel/restaurant on the corner of our street and got an Irish breakfast, which was of course amazing. Then we walked to Trinity College. We didn't go see the Book of Kells or anything. None of us were that interested and we were trying to not spend too much money. The campus, however is gorgeous. The courtyard you first walk into is beautiful and the architecture was very cool.
From there we walked down the street to Dublin Castle. Again, we didn't go in. The Castle didn't seem too big or unique. Though the courtyard, I thought was impressive, just like at Trinity. Then we walked even further down to Christ Church Cathedral which was pretty impressive. I kind of wanted to go into this, but money and time concerns didn't allow for it.
We were going to go to the Guinness factory with my friend Ashley, who is there for a year for her major. So while we were waiting for her, we went to this pub across from the church called the Bull & Castle. It had a pretty good beer selection and while a little pricey, was still better than most places we had seen. We finally met up with Ashely and her friend and walked to the factory.
The factory is massive. It's seven flights, five of which are a self-guided tour. It was pretty impressive, but if you've been on one brewery tour, you've been on them all. It was basically the same as the Sam Adams tour, except more interactive and just bigger. But the story was the same. On the top floor is the Gravity Bar. It give a 360˚ view of Dublin. It was dark, so we couldn't see much, but it was still a cool sight. And the Guinness at the factory is really all it's made up to be. It was like the nectar of the gods.
After that we walked back, with Ashely leading, and somehow ended up on the other side of Trinity. We went to a pub and had dinner. I just had fish and chips, which was the first time I had an order of that while abroad. Again, nothing special, especially for the price. This is when Ashley and her friend went home, since they live outside the city and apparently the bus service is horrible.
So we headed back to Temple Bar. I had somehow developed a massive headache by this point, yet we still went to a club for several hours. The club was nothing special and actually kind of annoying. While we were walking back we saw a hot dog stand and we each got a 4 euro hot dog, which kind of made everything better. I felt like I was at a ball game paying those prices for a hot dog. We were in a deep sleep until around 4am when some of the people sharing our room came back and were generally incredibly loud and rude. They did not whisper, they turned lights on, one of the guys started tickling a girl, they were taking pictures with the flash on... generally just being wankers. It sounded like there were a bunch of them, but when we woke up the next day and met them, it was just four kids from Wales.
On Saturday we got up around noon and got ready. We were supposed to meet the other group of people around the Spire. We went to a cafe right on the corner by the Spire, had another Irish Breakfast them met up with Sam, Debi and Lidia. The plan was to go to the Jameson factory. So we walked over the factory. Lidia and Jen didn't want to do it, so they went shopping and I went through the factory with Scott, Sam and Debi. Again, the factory was pretty standard stuff, except I learned a little bit more about Whiskey. Plus, there was free Jameson at the end. We then went to the bar downstairs and got an Irish Coffee, because we had heard they were amazing, which they were.
After that we had to walk back to their hostel to drop some stuff off and meet back up with Lidia and Jen. We were trying to figure out where to go that night and eventually decided to go back to the Bull & Castle. We went upstairs and were able to secure a long picnic table to seat all of us. We had a nice long night there. Met many many friendly about around the bar and outside. They even had Sam Adams, which was a nice surprise. They also had the best food we had in Dublin. And all we got was an appetizer sampler. I think that's a good comment on Dublin's food. It was a good night, we left and walked the girls back to their hostel, got some pretty tasty pizza and went to bed. Then we flew home.
Picture link added on the right.
Dublin was my first experience on the infamous Ryanair. I had heard so many warnings about them; dodgy takeoffs, dodgy landings, bad customer service... I had no problem with them at all. The Irish woman at the check-in desk was probably the nicest airline employee I've ever met, and she just started the long run of incredibly nice and helpful Irish that we came across during our time in Dublin.
The city was... ok. It was very Americanized, lots and lots of pizza and hamburger joints. After I got back, I was talking to my friend Liz about it, and she thought it was a lot like Boston, which I have to agree with. It didn't have that European city feel to it. What added to the Boston feel was the streets. Though on a loose grid system, the streets change name every block, so if you're looking for a certain street you might not find it. So my advice? Buy a map. Of course, we got into the city when it was dark and rainy and we couldn't find our hostel... Not the best beginning. When we were wandering around, we did see a city map hanging in a window. While we were trying to get ourselves oriented, this guy walking down the street and stops and asks if we need any help. Incredibly surprising, no one would do that in the States.
We eventually found our hostel and settled in. Then we went out to the Temple Bar area. As we quickly found out, Dublin is a pretty damn expensive city. We went to this pub and ordered Guinness & beef stew for 16 euro. It was really good, but... it's stew. Granted, we were in a big tourist spot, but other places we went were still expensive. Later, we learned that if we wanted to save money, we should've stayed on the north side of the river.
For the night, we went to this one club type place and sat up on the roof the whole night, just drinking Guinness and talking. The great thing about Guinness in Ireland, that in addition to it tasting magnificent, is that's a domestic beer and therefore cheaper. A little slice of heaven. As I went up to get another round, the bartender started talking to me in an incredibly heavy Irish accent. It was a bit hard to understand him. But what I really got out of this conversation was a lesson about Budweiser. He told me that whenever he went to the States, he could never find a pint of good Budweiser. I say, what do you expect, it's a crap beer. He insists that it's not and gives me a sample. And you know what? It was really damn good. They should sell that stuff here.
The next morning was our sight seeing day. First, we stopped at a hotel/restaurant on the corner of our street and got an Irish breakfast, which was of course amazing. Then we walked to Trinity College. We didn't go see the Book of Kells or anything. None of us were that interested and we were trying to not spend too much money. The campus, however is gorgeous. The courtyard you first walk into is beautiful and the architecture was very cool.
From there we walked down the street to Dublin Castle. Again, we didn't go in. The Castle didn't seem too big or unique. Though the courtyard, I thought was impressive, just like at Trinity. Then we walked even further down to Christ Church Cathedral which was pretty impressive. I kind of wanted to go into this, but money and time concerns didn't allow for it.
We were going to go to the Guinness factory with my friend Ashley, who is there for a year for her major. So while we were waiting for her, we went to this pub across from the church called the Bull & Castle. It had a pretty good beer selection and while a little pricey, was still better than most places we had seen. We finally met up with Ashely and her friend and walked to the factory.
The factory is massive. It's seven flights, five of which are a self-guided tour. It was pretty impressive, but if you've been on one brewery tour, you've been on them all. It was basically the same as the Sam Adams tour, except more interactive and just bigger. But the story was the same. On the top floor is the Gravity Bar. It give a 360˚ view of Dublin. It was dark, so we couldn't see much, but it was still a cool sight. And the Guinness at the factory is really all it's made up to be. It was like the nectar of the gods.
After that we walked back, with Ashely leading, and somehow ended up on the other side of Trinity. We went to a pub and had dinner. I just had fish and chips, which was the first time I had an order of that while abroad. Again, nothing special, especially for the price. This is when Ashley and her friend went home, since they live outside the city and apparently the bus service is horrible.
So we headed back to Temple Bar. I had somehow developed a massive headache by this point, yet we still went to a club for several hours. The club was nothing special and actually kind of annoying. While we were walking back we saw a hot dog stand and we each got a 4 euro hot dog, which kind of made everything better. I felt like I was at a ball game paying those prices for a hot dog. We were in a deep sleep until around 4am when some of the people sharing our room came back and were generally incredibly loud and rude. They did not whisper, they turned lights on, one of the guys started tickling a girl, they were taking pictures with the flash on... generally just being wankers. It sounded like there were a bunch of them, but when we woke up the next day and met them, it was just four kids from Wales.
On Saturday we got up around noon and got ready. We were supposed to meet the other group of people around the Spire. We went to a cafe right on the corner by the Spire, had another Irish Breakfast them met up with Sam, Debi and Lidia. The plan was to go to the Jameson factory. So we walked over the factory. Lidia and Jen didn't want to do it, so they went shopping and I went through the factory with Scott, Sam and Debi. Again, the factory was pretty standard stuff, except I learned a little bit more about Whiskey. Plus, there was free Jameson at the end. We then went to the bar downstairs and got an Irish Coffee, because we had heard they were amazing, which they were.
After that we had to walk back to their hostel to drop some stuff off and meet back up with Lidia and Jen. We were trying to figure out where to go that night and eventually decided to go back to the Bull & Castle. We went upstairs and were able to secure a long picnic table to seat all of us. We had a nice long night there. Met many many friendly about around the bar and outside. They even had Sam Adams, which was a nice surprise. They also had the best food we had in Dublin. And all we got was an appetizer sampler. I think that's a good comment on Dublin's food. It was a good night, we left and walked the girls back to their hostel, got some pretty tasty pizza and went to bed. Then we flew home.
Picture link added on the right.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Windsor, Stonehenge, Bath - Finally
>I'm walking down a street that looks like any other, when all of a sudden the opening drum beats of "Moby Dick" by Led Zeppelin are blaring out of some unseen speaker system. A little strange, but I quickly realize this is good walking music and I fall into a rhythm, only to have the song stop after about 30 seconds. Then after a couple moments, the song starts again. All of a sudden, I'm hit with the realization that this is not an awesome song blaring out of some unseen all-powerful stereo system, but it is in fact my ringtone, and I am, in fact, dreaming.
"Hello?"
"Tris, are you coming?"
"What time is it?"
"7:05"
"Crap, I'll be right down."
This is what Club Sandwich does to your Thursdays. Lord Sandwich takes all your plans for Thursday and utterly destroys them. It doesn't matter if your plans were ambitious, like a tour of three of England's popular tourist attractions, or something simple, like get to Goldsmith's Cafe by two. Sandwich crushes these plans. If you do happen to get done what you had planned, Sandwich still makes sure that you will feel at your absolute worst while accomplishing your plans. You will think you're going to pass out, or fall over; maybe you'll even think, in your melodramatic state, that you will die.
Despite all this, Sandwich is the place to be on Wednesday nights in New Cross. The Hob has 20% off drinks all night, yet no one really goes there. It's Sandwich, or you're staying in getting work done. Sandwich usually involved an hour or two of pregaming, then standing in line for a little until you're let in around midnight. Then you dance hard for three straight hours, with little to no water and lots of drink specials. Then things are blurry and then you wake up exhausted physically and mentally.
This is what I was dealing with at 7:05 in the morning on Thursday October 23rd. Usually, you get to sleep in on Thursdays. No classes, nothing to do except sleep off Sandwich. Getting less than four hours of sleep is not a good move.
It wasn't planned this way. I was going on the bus tour with Cait, Scarlett and Jen. We had gone to our theater class and then the show, like every Wednesday. There was a general consensus, at first, that we wouldn't go to Sandwich that night. We had to leave New Cross around 6:45 to get to pick up spot by 8, that's way to early. By the time we got off the train from London Bridge though, we all knew we were going to go. And this is why we were all running very late that morning.
I got ready and downstairs so quick that I forgot my ticket. We had a cab waiting for us, since there was no way we could take the bus. We were almost in the cab when I had to run back upstairs to get my ticket. We got to the hotel where the bus was supposed to pick us up at and we all just kind of sat or stood around with that post-Sandwich look on our faces. What didn't help is that it was a stereotypical English weather day. Overcast and rainy.
Eventually we get picked up, taken to another drop off point where we get on the bus that will take us on our tour.
First stop Windsor. The castle was nice, nothing especially outstanding, at least in my opinion. They turned the moat into a nice garden type area, which was nice to look at. The girls loved the guards, of course. I liked the church best, but we barely had time to see it, which is a problem on these tours. Since three locations had to be packed into a short window, not much time was allowed for at each site. For Windsor, I would've liked to walk around more and stay in the church. It also would've been nice to explore the town a little, instead of just the castle. As it was, we were getting close to the departure time, when we got caught by the changing of the guard and had to wait for about ten to fifteen minutes before they would let us pass.
Our next stop was Stonehenge. The site is extremely underwhelming. You can't get close to the stones, which in part I understand because they don't want people touching them or climbing on them, but they could let us get a bit closer. We were so far away it was hard to appreciate how massive the stones actually are. It's also right next to a highway. I went expecting ancient, mysterious, mystical Stonehenge to be this peaceful place, yet I couldn't get past the cars whizzing by. The tour could be improved by shortening the time at Stonehenge and extending time at either other site.
After that we went to Bath. The drive to Bath was a long one. In between trying to sleep, I was able to see bits and pieces of the Cotswolds. That is something I also would like to do, travel through there, it was very beautiful. Another problem with tours, is the tour guides. Does anyone really listen to every single word and fact they say? They go on and on and on. You can tell they don't like their jobs, they're just repeating everything like an encyclopedia. The humor they interject to make it seem like they're enjoying themselves comes off as condescending sometimes. It's OK to tell us when we're passing an interesting site or something like that, but stop with the rambling. This happened in Greece too. It was why I was reluctant to do a tour like this, but I also knew that I would never get anyone to go on day trips either. Do tourists like this? I hope I never do one again.
Bath was a really cool town. I would've like to spend a day or two there. The Roman Baths were really cool and I really liked the Abbey right outside also. I would've loved to explore the town more. We had about 45 minutes after we were done with the Baths, which is enough time to walk around a little, but not enough to really explore or browse the numerous shops. I could've used more time here than the tour could ever allow.
One more complaint about tours is the lunches. When we booked the tour, we were told that we could book with or without lunch, we did without lunch. We assumed we would eat in the town of Windsor or something on a free lunch hour or whatever. No, they took us to this roadside country pub. Nothing else around us. That's fine, the food was good, but why even make lunch an option if there's no where else to eat? It's a complete racket, tour groups and restaurants hooking up. That happened in Greece, we'd pass through these small little towns and you could see all the good local restaurants, and we'd wind up at some buffet. Yet another reason why being a tourist sucks, but being a traveler is awesome.
As always, pictures added on the right. Up next, Dublin...
"Hello?"
"Tris, are you coming?"
"What time is it?"
"7:05"
"Crap, I'll be right down."
This is what Club Sandwich does to your Thursdays. Lord Sandwich takes all your plans for Thursday and utterly destroys them. It doesn't matter if your plans were ambitious, like a tour of three of England's popular tourist attractions, or something simple, like get to Goldsmith's Cafe by two. Sandwich crushes these plans. If you do happen to get done what you had planned, Sandwich still makes sure that you will feel at your absolute worst while accomplishing your plans. You will think you're going to pass out, or fall over; maybe you'll even think, in your melodramatic state, that you will die.
Despite all this, Sandwich is the place to be on Wednesday nights in New Cross. The Hob has 20% off drinks all night, yet no one really goes there. It's Sandwich, or you're staying in getting work done. Sandwich usually involved an hour or two of pregaming, then standing in line for a little until you're let in around midnight. Then you dance hard for three straight hours, with little to no water and lots of drink specials. Then things are blurry and then you wake up exhausted physically and mentally.
This is what I was dealing with at 7:05 in the morning on Thursday October 23rd. Usually, you get to sleep in on Thursdays. No classes, nothing to do except sleep off Sandwich. Getting less than four hours of sleep is not a good move.
It wasn't planned this way. I was going on the bus tour with Cait, Scarlett and Jen. We had gone to our theater class and then the show, like every Wednesday. There was a general consensus, at first, that we wouldn't go to Sandwich that night. We had to leave New Cross around 6:45 to get to pick up spot by 8, that's way to early. By the time we got off the train from London Bridge though, we all knew we were going to go. And this is why we were all running very late that morning.
I got ready and downstairs so quick that I forgot my ticket. We had a cab waiting for us, since there was no way we could take the bus. We were almost in the cab when I had to run back upstairs to get my ticket. We got to the hotel where the bus was supposed to pick us up at and we all just kind of sat or stood around with that post-Sandwich look on our faces. What didn't help is that it was a stereotypical English weather day. Overcast and rainy.
Eventually we get picked up, taken to another drop off point where we get on the bus that will take us on our tour.
First stop Windsor. The castle was nice, nothing especially outstanding, at least in my opinion. They turned the moat into a nice garden type area, which was nice to look at. The girls loved the guards, of course. I liked the church best, but we barely had time to see it, which is a problem on these tours. Since three locations had to be packed into a short window, not much time was allowed for at each site. For Windsor, I would've liked to walk around more and stay in the church. It also would've been nice to explore the town a little, instead of just the castle. As it was, we were getting close to the departure time, when we got caught by the changing of the guard and had to wait for about ten to fifteen minutes before they would let us pass.
Our next stop was Stonehenge. The site is extremely underwhelming. You can't get close to the stones, which in part I understand because they don't want people touching them or climbing on them, but they could let us get a bit closer. We were so far away it was hard to appreciate how massive the stones actually are. It's also right next to a highway. I went expecting ancient, mysterious, mystical Stonehenge to be this peaceful place, yet I couldn't get past the cars whizzing by. The tour could be improved by shortening the time at Stonehenge and extending time at either other site.
After that we went to Bath. The drive to Bath was a long one. In between trying to sleep, I was able to see bits and pieces of the Cotswolds. That is something I also would like to do, travel through there, it was very beautiful. Another problem with tours, is the tour guides. Does anyone really listen to every single word and fact they say? They go on and on and on. You can tell they don't like their jobs, they're just repeating everything like an encyclopedia. The humor they interject to make it seem like they're enjoying themselves comes off as condescending sometimes. It's OK to tell us when we're passing an interesting site or something like that, but stop with the rambling. This happened in Greece too. It was why I was reluctant to do a tour like this, but I also knew that I would never get anyone to go on day trips either. Do tourists like this? I hope I never do one again.
Bath was a really cool town. I would've like to spend a day or two there. The Roman Baths were really cool and I really liked the Abbey right outside also. I would've loved to explore the town more. We had about 45 minutes after we were done with the Baths, which is enough time to walk around a little, but not enough to really explore or browse the numerous shops. I could've used more time here than the tour could ever allow.
One more complaint about tours is the lunches. When we booked the tour, we were told that we could book with or without lunch, we did without lunch. We assumed we would eat in the town of Windsor or something on a free lunch hour or whatever. No, they took us to this roadside country pub. Nothing else around us. That's fine, the food was good, but why even make lunch an option if there's no where else to eat? It's a complete racket, tour groups and restaurants hooking up. That happened in Greece, we'd pass through these small little towns and you could see all the good local restaurants, and we'd wind up at some buffet. Yet another reason why being a tourist sucks, but being a traveler is awesome.
As always, pictures added on the right. Up next, Dublin...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
