The Wall

Yesterday was my first day exploring the Wall.


In my last blog I mentioned that I was planning on starting at the western end of the wall and working my way east back towards Newcastle. However, this idea was scrapped once I started planning my route. I spent most of Wednesday night just trying to figure out how I was going to get around the Wall.


I decided that the sites on the Wall that I wanted to see were: Birdoswald, The Roman Army Museum, Vindolanda, Housesteads and Chesters.


So, I got my map and my bus timetable out and spread them over the floor in my dorm room (I was the only one in the room on Wednesday night so I didn't have to worry about being in other peoples ways) and attempted to figure out how it was going to work.


The Hadrian's Wall Bus is a great service, but it does have its downside. While the bus runs quite a few times a day in both directions, the bus doesn't cover every stop and gets less frequent in the afternoon when you are wanting to head home.


I decided that for my first day on the Wall I would visit Chesters then Housesteads then Vindolanda. My time at each site was very much dictated by the bus. I would leave Newcastle at 9:00 and arrive at Chesters at 10:15. I would have 1 and a half hours at Chesters and would then travel to Housesteads. I would arrive at Housesteads at 12:00 and leave at 2:30. I would then arrive at Vindolanda at 2:40 and depart at 4:30 and arrive back at Newcastle at 6:00. It was going to be a long day, but the visit for each site was as good as I could arrange.


I was up very early yesterday morning (well early for me) to catch the AD122 bus from Newcastle to Chesters. The bus was due to leave the Newcastle central station at 9:00am. The Newcastle central station is actually the train station, but some buses leave from out the front. I arrived very early so I could find out where exactly the bus departed from. I asked at the station, but of course they didn't know. All they could tell me was that it was outside somewhere - very helpful!


I checked all of the bus shelters along the front of the station but none of them said that the AD122 departed from them, so I just had to hang around and keep my eye out for the bus.


By 9:10am I was getting really worried as the bus still hadn't arrived - it shouldn't have been late as we were the first stop of the day. I was convinced that I had missed it or that I was in the wrong place. However at 9:15 the bus turned up! Hooray!



Our bus had a guide on it, which was a nice surprise, so we were given a running commentary on the way out of Newcastle.

I had decided that my aim for the sites was to find the baths, the latrines and the drains at each of the sites that I visited. I know that sounds a bit weird, but there was something I was aiming to prove.

We arrived at Chesters around 10:30 (slightly later than we were supposed to!) and I set off to explore.

Chesters was a really nice site. The fort is situated on top of a hill overlooking a lovely river. There was quite a large number of foundations of Roman buildings remaining so a lot to explore. The buildings that we can still see are: the gates, the Headquarters building, the Commander's house, the barracks and ..... the bath house!


One of the first things I noticed at Chesters was a drain running under the first gatehouse. Between the barrack blocks there is a very well preserved drain running the length of the barrack blocks. In the headquarters building there is a well in one corner of the courtyard and drains that run along all sides of the courtyard. The drains around the courtyard would have been connected with gutters that ran around the roof of the courtyard to catch rainwater and carry it away to flush other drains and the sewer.

In the commander's house, there was a small bath house located at the end closest to the edge of the hill. It was a very small bath house that would have had a limited number of rooms - mainly just a hot bath, a cold bath and a hot room where you could get a massage. There was evidence of the drains that would have carried the water both into and out of the bath house. It is highly probable that there would have been a small latrine attached to the bath house, but there is no evidence left that one existed.

The majority of the fort is on the flat top of the hill, but the bath house is located on the side of the hill, down towards the river.

It was relatively large for a fort bath house. It contained a changing room, a cold bath, a series of hot rooms, a hot bath and warm rooms as well as a latrine. The bather would have followed a set route through the rooms. They would have started in the change room, moved onto the hot bath to plunge quickly to open the pores, progress to the hot room where you would have had all of the dirt and mud scraped from your body, then into the warm room and then finally into the cold plunge to close the pores and refresh the body.

The latrine was positioned after the last bath so that the dirty water could be used to flush the latrine.

Latrines in Roman forts were constructed in the same way. Around the walls of the room would have been a bench with holes cut into the surface for people to sit over. Below the seat would have been a large sewer or drain to carry away the waste. Around the centre of the room, on the floor, would have been a small channel that would have carried clean water to allow sponges to be washed in. As they didn't have toilet paper, sponges were used instead.

The latrine at Chesters was quite well preserved. You could see the drains that led into the latrine and then the large sewer that led out of the latrine. The sewer led out of the building and the waste would have been allowed to flow down the side of the hill and into the river - not the most hygienic situation.

After the bath house I wandered over to another gatehouse. This gatehouse was at the highest point of the site. At the side of the gatehouse was evidence of an aqueduct that was bringing fresh water into the fort from in the hills. There was also a water tank which would have been fed by the aqueduct. From this point the whole fort would have been supplied by water. Part of Hadrian's Wall could be seen at this point, meeting the wall of the fort next to the gatehouse.

Chester was a really nice site to visit and I was surprised by the amount of Roman stone that had been preserved. It was in a really peaceful spot in the country with wonderful views.

I headed back to the bus stop to catch the bus to Housesteads. While I was waiting at the bus stop I was chatting to a man who lives in Newcastle. He grew up in an area of Newcastle that had an original Roman temple right near his house. He is so used to it being there that he is often amazed at the number of tourists who are interested in seeing it.

The bus finally arrived and Housesteads was only about 15 mins down the road.

I was very excited about seeing Housesteads. The latrine at Housesteads was a large part of my honours dissertation.

The fort at Housesteads is positioned on a hillside, but the bus stop is of course at the very bottom of the hill. It was a bloody long walk up along a steep, rocky path. Unlike most forts, Housesteads is not positioned on the flat at the top of the hill. Instead, it is positioned on the hill side, so the entire fort is on many different levels. There is quite a lot of the fort that has not been excavated - or if it has been excavated, foundations no longer remain for much of the fort.

My very first stop was the latrine. I just had to go there first. I got quite emotional, finally seeing the latrines in person. Even though I had studied them, they were a bit different to what I had imagined - the sewer underneath was deeper and the whole latrine was larger than I had imagined. The latrine at Housesteads is very large and would definitely be one of the best preserved in the entire Roman Empire. Pretty much everything except the benches above the sewer still remain, so it is certainly a great latrine to study. The latrine is positioned against the fort wall and the sewer simply exits through the fort wall and the waste would have been allowed to run down the side of the hill.

After spending quite a bit of time at the latrine I decided to explore the rest of the site. I headed next to the Commander's House and located a very small latrine within that building and there was a small bath house as well. Commander's and their family would have wanted to have the privacy of their own bath house so they did not have to bathe with all of the filthy soldiers.

Behind the Commander's house was the hospital. Most forts had a hospital of some kind, even if it was merely temporary. At Housesteads the hospital was quite large and contained its own small latrine.

I wandered up to the highest point of the fort which was the wall and from there you could see for miles around. You could also see Hadrian's Wall where it entered the side of the fort and further along the fort wall you could see where Hadrian's Wall headed off over the hillside.

It was a really nice visit, but the walk back down the hill to the bus stop was not fun. The pathway is steep and very rocky. I could feel one of my ankles getting sore each time my foot landed badly on one of the millions of stones. I didn't sprain my ankle, but I could feel it heading that way so I took my time and was very careful.

I hopped back onto the bus and headed to my last stop of the day, which was Vindolanda.

Vindolanda is not one of the forts on Hadrian's Wall. It is actually an earlier Roman fort that is positioned on the Stanegate. The Stanegate is a Roman road which leads between Carlisle and Corbridge. Although Vindolanda is not on Hadrian's Wall, the bus still visits that site as it is a popular site and excavations are still ongoing.

Before the fort walls was the civilian settlement and just before the civilian settlement were a series of wells and water tanks from Roman times. The wells were constructed to supply water to the water tanks and then to be funnelled to the fort.

When I got to the fort, much of the site was roped off and excavations were happening. Not a great deal of the site has been excavated at this point, only some of the civilian buildings that were outside the fort walls and a couple of the buildings within the fort. It was really interesting seeing the excavators at work. They were more than willing to talk to people about what they were doing and what they had found so far this season. I spent a bit of time just watching them work.

There are 2 bath houses at Vindolanda. One was outside the walls, next to the civilian settlement, but was a military bath house and the other one was on the other side of the fort, just outside of the walls. Each of the bath houses contained latrines that were easy to spot and it is very easy to see the pattern of where they chose to place latrines. The latrines are always placed as the final room, so that the used water from the baths could flush the waste from the latrines. Once again, the waste water was taken out of the buildings by drains and then allowed to just run down the side of the hill.

As I wandered around the site I could also spot a large number of drains running along streets and beneath buildings.

Vindolanda was an interesting sight, and I'm glad I stopped to see it.

After Vindolanda I jumped back onto the bus and headed back to Newcastle. I was exhausted by the time I got back and pretty much headed straight for bed.

My interest in identifying the latrines and the drains at the site was not only based around my honours dissertation. I was hoping to prove that things like drains are more common at sites than is generally published, and I found that I was right. I identified drains all over the different sites, not just connected with bath houses and latrines. It proved to me that while they are very common, they are just not reported in archaeological reports with the same amount of attention and focus because many people don't consider them interesting. I feel that this information will be very useful for me to complete further studies and I feel that I will have to spend time exploring sites myself rather than just relying on archaeological reports.

I really enjoyed my day spent exploring the forts along the wall. I am aiming to also see Birdoswald fort and the Roman Army museum. I was going to do them today, but because my ankle was still feeling tender, I didn't want to push it too far, so I've had a quiet day today in Newcastle and will hopefully head out tomorrow morning to finish seeing the sites on the wall.

Newcastle day 5

When I got up this morning the day look cold and grey again. However, I was not about to lose another day of sightseeing, so I headed out.

The plan for today was: South Shields and the Roman Fort of Arbeia, Whitley Bay, Wallsend and the Roman fort of Segedunum.

My first stop was South Shields. South Shields is at the very end of the metro line. Not far from the metro station is the South Shields museum. This was a little bit disappointing. It was quite a small museum that seemed to focus on the life of Catherine Cookson. It certainly wasn't called the Catherine Cookson museum, but that was what the majority of the exhibits were focused around.

However, the museum was free, so I wasn't overly concerned that I hadn't enjoyed it!

Next I headed up a rather large hill to get to the Roman fort of Arbeia. The fort of Arbeia isn't part of the Hadrian's Wall forts. It was constructed mainly to be a supply fort based at the mouth of the river to funnel supplies to forts throughout Northern England and Scotland.

When I had been looking at digs that I wanted to do while in Europe, there was one available at Arbeia. I was really interested in participating in that particular dig, but it was very expensive and the timing conflicted with the Villa Vignacce dig in Rome, so I had to forget about it. I'm extremely glad that I didn't put my name down for the dig at Arbeia.

The site was very disappointing. As it isn't part of Hadrian's Wall, I don't think they get the same number of tourists. Because of this they obviously haven't spent the same amount of time and money making the site accessible to tourists as most of the other sites have done.

I find the fort of Arbeia lacked any detailed information on the layout of the fort or the progression of building over the period of occupation of the site. They weren't even able to provide me with one map that explained the layout of the site! Many of the foundations lay unmarked. They had reconstructed one of the barrack blocks, but I feel that they made many assumptions about how the blocks were used, and it seemed as though it was quite tacky in the way it had been done. Obviously there are excavations continuing at this site as there is still much to unearth, but there is no information regarding what they believe they are unearthing or how long this is going to take.

Overall, I feel that the site is badly managed and not designed to appeal to tourists or even those of us who have an archaeological background. I was really quite upset as so far this was not a good start to my fort exploration over the next couple of days.

So, I headed back into South Shields so I could go to my next stop which was Whitley Bay.

To get to Whitley Bay via metro you have to catch the train back to the main Newcastle train station, and then hop onto a different train that is heading out towards Whitley Bay. The big problem is that Whitley Bay and South Shields aren't actually all that far apart. They are only really separated by the mouth of the river and then Whitley Bay is a few more miles North. However, the local council have come up with a good solution. There is a ferry between South Shields and North Shields on each side of the mouth of the river. From North Shields you can catch the metro and it is only a few stops to Whitley Bay.

The ferry ride was included in my metro ticket, so I didn't have to pay. It's only a 5 minute crossing so it was quick and easy. Something that was really sweet on the ferry was the Captain's dog. Obviously the Captain takes his dog - a lovely Golden Retriever - on the ferry every day. The dog is very well-behaved and friendly. I was eating my lunch on the ferry crossing, so it didn't take long for the dog to find me very interesting. He trotted over to me and gazed at me with big, limpid eyes just hoping that I might feel sorry enough to drop some of my lunch! It was so cute and caused everyone on the boat to laugh. He was such a lovely dog and he didn't get any of my food, but he got some pats.

We arrived at North Shields and I had a bit of a walk to get to the metro. Once I was on the train it wasn't long before I reached Whitley Bay.

Mum and Dad really wanted me to see Whitley Bay so I could experience a proper English seaside. And boy, did I get a typical English seaside experience!

It was cold! And windy! And grey! Everything I expect from an English beach. But it was a bit of fun and very different to what we're used to as a beach coming from Australia. One thing in particular that I really missed was the smell of the ocean. I was surprised to discover that as I got closer to the beach I couldn't actually smell the sea. There wasn't that salty feel to the air that I'm used to. That was a bit of a shock and I don't know why that smell doesn't exist. I'd be very intrigued to know if anyone knows the answer?!

I didn't hang around at Whitley Bay for long. Much too cold. Instead I headed to Wallsend.

Again I was on the metro and it wasn't far to Wallsend.

The main attraction at Wallsend is the Roman fort of Segedunum. As the name of the town suggests, this is the end of Hadrian's Wall, and Segedunum was the fort that marked the end of the wall.

After my experience at Arbeia earlier in the day I was a bit worried about what Segedunum would be like. I was pleased to find that it was a lot better. This site obviously has quite a large number of tourists that visit and so they have both more money and more desire to make the site accessible. One thing that they have done which is very good is a tower raised quite high that gives views over the whole site. From the tower you can really gain a better appreciation for the layout of the fort and the size of it. The fort is organised in a very regimented manner with clear divisions between troop accommodation, captain's accommodation, stores and administration.

The museum that is attached to the site currently has a very interesting extra addition - the head of Hadrian.

Ok, so it's not his actual head, but a large bronze bust of his head that was once part of a statue in London. The body is long since lost, but the head was discovered some time ago at the bottom of the Thames and has since been on display in the British Museum. It is currently touring around the forts along Hadrian's wall and I was lucky enough to catch it at Segedunum.

At Segedunum, the big draw card is a reconstructed bath house. I was quite interested to see this, naturally. It has been done in quite a faithful manner, without adding too many unnecessary extras that would really only be assumption and not fact. They had been quite witty in one respect with their reconstructed bathhouse. They had built into the bathhouse toilets for the people who visited, but what I really like was that the access to the toilets was through the reconstructed latrine! It was hilarious! I was also very impressed by the reconstructed latrine. They had done a good job reconstructing them exactly how I had always pictured them to look.

I left the bathhouse and spent quite a bit of time exploring the ruins of the Roman Fort. Once again it had been done in a very accessible way. Where they had foundations remaining they just cleared up the area around them so they stood out, but where the foundations had disappeared they created an outline and filled it in with large pebbles so you could get an idea of the layout of the whole building. It was really well done and there was a lot of information provided regarding each of the buildings, how they were used and how their use changed over the occupation of the fort.

I also managed to find the location of the latrine within the ruins of the fort. The latrine is located in the hospital - or at least what they assume is the hospital. It isn't a very large latrine, and I can't imagine it would have been the only latrine in a fort of 600 men. I'm sure there would have been other latrine buildings. They may have been built into the walls to allow for the best drainage or they may have even been located outside the walls, but I'm sure there would have been more latrine buildings.

Ok, enough of the latrines. I'm sure you're all thoroughly bored by now (even though I could talk for hours!). The rest of the site was really interesting and I enjoyed wandering around exploring it all. I also managed to see the start of Hadrian's Wall and also an old coal pit entrance. The pit was in use between the 1700's and 1850. It was eventually lost until recently when it was once again uncovered. You certainly can't go into it, but you can see the foundations of the structures around the pit entrance - buildings for the boilers and the machine to pump air into the mine. I found it quite interesting. I guess I never assumed that you would need all of these buildings around the pit entrance. I always just assumed that all that would be there was the entrance to the pit and that was it. The entrance to this pit was 5m from Hadrian's Wall.

Segedunum fort and Wallsend turned out to be a great ending to the day.

I am going to attempt to have an early night tonight as tomorrow will be the start of my adventures along the wall.

I'm not entirely sure what order I'm going to do it in yet, I'll have to figure that out tonight. I was thinking I might start at a point further west along the wall and work my way back over the next couple of days so by the end I'm close to Newcastle rather than doing it the other way around. I'll have to do a bit of research tonight and organise an action plan!

There is a good bus (called the AD122 - really lame!) that follows the course of the wall. The price isn't bad either - you can buy a 3 day pass that only costs 15 pounds, which is pretty good.

Ta Ta for now. More tomorrow.

Newcastle day 4

I had big plans for today. I was going to visit the BALTIC gallery and the Sage Gateshead and then head out to Wallsend and South Shields.

When I got up this morning the day was looking a bit grey, but not too bad. It was completely different when I got out of the hostel.

Newcastle suffers from quite a strong breeze. Today it was absolutely freezing. I think the wind comes in straight off the North Sea, so it has a serious bite. I was actually wishing for my gloves, it was that cold.

I headed out and went straight to the BALTIC gallery, which overlooks the water (so the wind was even stronger!). It is a very modern art gallery. Normally I'm not a fan of modern art. I find it is often bizarre and very Avant-Gard. I was happy to find that I was wrong.

The first exhibit was 2 sculptural pieces. They were both life size trees. One was standing and the other was fallen. From a distance it looked like the trees were covered in flesh coloured leaves, but when you got up closer you could tell that they weren't leaves, but were in fact the heads of different animals. I know it sounds really weird, but it was very interesting and didn't look as disgusting as it sounded.

The second exhibit was a woman who drew pictures of the development of life at the cellular level. The pictures were very childlike and innocent. There was also a second part of the exhibit which was a white room with several mirrors with the same images from the drawings in the centre. We had to wear shoe protectors to go into the room. What was really interesting was that my reflection in the mirrors appeared purple, but the reflection of the other person in the room was orange. It was very strange and intriguing. I would love to know how it worked.

The final exhibit was a multi-artist exhibit which was based artists who use other people as their medium. It was quite an interactive exhibit. One thing you noticed straight away was a series of text being projected onto a wall. There was a woman (obviously an artist) off to one side who was producing a stream of writing regarding the different people in the room and the way they reacted to certain parts of the exhibit. That was very interesting to watch, although I must admit that she produced quite a few typos and I reckon I could have produced much more interesting information!

Another part of the exhibit was a video from Poland. What the film maker had done was gathered together several small groups of people. The groups were: Catholics, a group of young people supporting a Polish only Poland, a Jewish group, and a group of young Socialists. Then each group came into a large room separately and painted a large painting showing their beliefs. Then over a series of 4 meetings, the groups came together and were allowed to add to each others images in any way that they wanted.

It was extremely entertaining. As you can imagine, hostility broke out very quickly between the groups. There was no actual violence, but it wasn't far beneath the surface waiting to explode. One group would deface the others work and so that group would retaliate and then someone would get really pissed off and would set fire to one of the other group's paintings. Each week got progressively more combative. The film maker did not intervene, merely recorded what happened at each meeting. Of course neither group changed their opinions about each other in any way, in some ways they seemed to become more focused in their beliefs. There seemed to be no point to having these groups meet other than to observe the outcome. It was very interesting to see how these people reacted as individuals and how a group mentality overcame all of them and directed their actions.

It is certainly an exhibit I would see again.

Next to the BALTIC gallery is the Sage Gateshead. The Sage Gateshead is an entertainment/theatre complex. The building has the most amazing design and shape. Externally it is all glass and seems to flow along the landscape. In a lot of ways it looks like a worm or a caterpillar that is slowly crawling across the landscape. It is rather hard to describe so I will try to get some photos up soon.

I wandered around the Sage Gateshead. I was interested in just seeing what it looked like from the inside and also seeing if there was anything interesting being performed over the next week that I would like to see. Unfortunately there wasn't anything very interesting on.

My original plan had been to leave the Sage Gateshead and to head over to Wallsend and South Shields, but it was just so cold and windy and miserable that I couldn't handle it anymore. I decided to call it a day and head back to the hostel. I have quite a lot of time in Newcastle, so it shouldn't matter if I have one short day.

It is nearly summer over here, but you would never guess it. To me it feels like winter. I'm looking forward to actually experiencing a bit of heat. Can you believe that I actually said I was looking forward to hot weather?! That will probably change once we have a few hot days!

Newcastle day 3

I had a rather busy day yesterday.

I switched rooms yesterday without any problems. I'm a floor lower, so less stairs. Yay! That may sound a bit silly, but with my first room I had to go down a set of stairs just to get to the bathroom. Slightly tricky in the middle of the night when you're half asleep!

I was chatting with a boy from Adelaide in the tv room while I was waiting for my room to be ready. (He cheers for Port, so was happy that Adelaide lost to the Eagles!) He mentioned that there was a music festival happening in Newcastle that day. It sounded interesting, so I got online to find out the line-up. I'm glad I checked to see who was performing before I bought a ticket. The headliners were a band called The Streets - they did a song called 'You're fit, but don't you know it'. I can hear Lachlan groaning! The Streets are a group of white guys from Birmingham that attempt to do rap. That certainly made my decision for me, there was no way I was going! It also explained why the hostel was filled with young punk/pop wannabes. Bleh.

One I'd left the hostel my first stop was the Discovery Museum. It is a museum on the history of Newcastle. It was quite interesting watching the changing history of Newcastle over the last several hundred years. Much of the museum was aimed at kids, but there was enough information for it to be enjoyable for adults. Unsurprisingly there was quite a bit of information regarding the coal mines in Newcastle. They even had some of the tools that were used in the mines at the start of the 1900s. I took photos, of course.

After the Discovery Museum I headed to Blackfriars, which was once a medieval structure, but now only the foundations remain. It has been turned into a rather nice park area.

Right behind Blackfriars is Chinatown. Chinatown really only consists of one street - Stowell Street. It was nice wandering along Stowell St looking at all the Chinese restaurants. It's amazing that in the heart of Newcastle you suddenly come across one street that has Chinese lanterns hanging from each building, and the buildings are all brightly coloured, and then at the end of the street it just goes back to normal Newcastle.

There is a Chinese arch at the end of the street that is pretty impressive. What I found interesting is that when you look up the hill, through the arch, the Newcastle United football ground is perfectly framed. It certainly says a lot about the diversity of the city.

My next stop was the Blue Carpet, which is in front of the Laing Art Gallery. I hadn't noticed it when I was first at the Laing Gallery so I thought I'd better stop back and have a look. In the area in front of the Laing Gallery the ground is covered in large slabs of concrete with lots of blue glass sprinkled along the surface. During the day you wouldn't notice it unless you were looking for it, but at night under the street lights it probably glows and actually looks like a blue carpet.

After the Blue Carpet I did the long trek out to the Seven Stories museum and the Biscuit Factory.

The Seven Stories bills itself as a museum of the history of children's literature. Unfortunately it doesn't live up to its expectations. It isn't really a museum, it's more of a kids discovery area. While that is great and it's important that kids are interested in reading, there isn't much to appeal to adults. I was quite disappointed. There was an exhibit dedicated to the work of Roald Dahl which was quite interesting and I spent a bit of time in there. There was also a room where the museum said they had original children's book manuscripts. It turned out that they had a couple of pages of manuscripts that were hidden behind doors that you had to open to 'discover' what was hidden behind. I decided to stop in at the bookshop at the end and they had a collection of Classic Children's Books. I don't know how 'Classic' you could call them - they didn't even have The Magic Far Away Tree or a collection of classic fairytales.

Overall I was exceedingly disappointed. I think a museum displaying the history of children's literature would be very interesting and is sadly lacking from any museums.

My last stop for the day was The Biscuit Factory. The Biscuit Factory is a museum/art gallery that is housed in a converted biscuit factory - who would have thought!

It was a lovely art gallery with a great selection of glass work and paintings. The best bit of course is that everything is for sale! I didn't buy anything, mainly because most of it was slightly outside of my budget, but I was tempted by a lot of it. Something that was rather silly that I spotted was a series of framed pictures of a cartoon elephant called Dennis. Each shot was a different portrayal of Dennis heading somewhere. The one I found really cute was a shot of Dennis with a toy bucket and shovel clutched in his trunk heading off 'to see the paleantologist'. It was so sweet.

When I got back to the hostel I was making myself some dinner when the kitchen and tv area was invaded by 17/18 year old German tourists. There seems to be a whole group of them in the hostel at the moment. All I can say is that they are little shits! Even though only a couple of them were cooking the whole group of 15 or 20 of them had to be in the kitchen at the same time. Makes it slightly tricky when you're trying to cook as well.

I know, I know. I'm being intolerant, but my peace and quiet was so very rudely shattered.

Anyway, enough of that. I'm about to head out now. Lots to do today.

Newcastle day 2

Good morning everyone!

Well yesterday was a lovely day.

I'd read in a guide book that there were markets happening along the river, beneath the Tyne bridge on Sunday mornings, and as yesterday was Sunday, I said 'why not'.

I decided to put my map away and just head downhill until I reached the river. It's rather nice to walk around without a map glued to your hands. You certainly see a lot more.

The markets were lovely. There were of course some cheap and crappy stalls, but the majority was good quality.

Some of the stalls I saw were: a Fudgery with the most glorious array of large blocks of different flavoured fudge which you bought by the pound, home-made ice-cream of which I had a scoop of Hokey-Pokey, Italian food - olive oil that was stored in large silver vats and siphoned off into bottles (gorgeous), a little cake stall with all sorts of cupcakes with mounds of icing, one-of-a-kind t-shirts, lots of handmade jewellery (I had to resist!), a stall that was selling freshly cooked noodles with chicken and vegetables (I had to stop and have some for lunch), and the funniest little coffee bars - the coffee bars were tiny (and I mean tiny) little trucks that had a coffee machine built into the back and they just opened up the lid and the back and could make coffee straight away. They are obviously common because there were 3.

There were also a lot of stalls selling prints of different parts of Newcastle. There was one artist in particular that was selling prints of his original paintings of scenes of Newcastle that I found very interesting. I nearly bought a picture of a girl standing under a bridge, sheltering from the rain that was set just around the corner from the markets - but I resisted (mainly because it wouldn't have fit in my suitcase!).

There was also a woman doing hair wrapping. I used to have it done to my hair when I was little down at the markets in Subi. What they do is get a small section of your hair and using thin wool, wrap it around that section of your hair in different patterns. I had the most childish impulse to have it done to my hair, so I caved in and got it done. It was my big extravagance for the day - 3 pounds! I got it done in Blue, Yellow and White in celebration of the Eagles victory! I'm liking it so far and will leave it in as long as I feel like putting up with it.

I think I mentioned in my last post that I was interested in finding out the tilting times of the Millennium Bridge so I could watch it. It turned out that it was happening at lunch time yesterday when I was down at the markets. I was already in the area so it sounded like the perfect opportunity to watch it happen. It was really rather amazing.

The Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that has the most unusual shape. It is rather hard to explain, so here are some pictures that I hope turned out ok.

This is the Millennium Bridge before it tilts to allow ships underneath. The pedestrian path is down the bottom at the back.

This is the bridge as it is starting to tilt.

This is a side view of the bridge in its final tilted spot. It looks pretty amazing. The walkway is on the left hand side.

This is a view of the bridge from underneath when it is tilted.

These are the big pistons that drive the tilting action. It is a lot quieter than I thought it would be. It is practically silent.

It was great fun watching it. It was really interesting that the bridge is designed to function this way. There were heaps of people standing along the river watching it.

All in all, I had a great day exploring.

I nearly forgot to mention that the worldwide Bell Ringers conference is in Newcastle at the moment. For the last 3 days the bells of the nearby cathedral have been ringing several times a day - and not the standard hourly ring, but a proper 20min piece. It's been pretty amazing. I've been woken up most mornings by the sound of the bells - rather lovely. I made the mistake of walking past the cathedral one day when the bells were ringing. I think in the future I will avoid doing that again. It was deafening!

I saw yet another street performer. This one was at the markets and his trick was to get audience members to wrap him up in chains and padlock it all together and then using a hair clip escape in under 2 mins. It was entertaining. The different street performers obviously train together, because they all have the same patter and comments. Even so, it's fun to just stop and watch for a while.

Anyway, I'm going to head off exploring soon.

I will be staying in Newcastle until 1st June and then will head straight to Edinburgh from here. I've had to change rooms today, so I'm just waiting until I can put my luggage into my new room and then I can head out for the day. Toodles for now.

Newcastle part 1

Yesterday was my first day in Newcastle. After the day spent on the bus, I ended up sleeping in rather late!

I spent most of the day just wandering around and getting to grips with Newcastle. My hostel is located on Grainger St, which is right in the centre of town. I wandered up Grainger St until I got to the Monument to Earl Grey (yes, of the tea, but he doesn't have a monument for that reason!). I'd noticed a lovely covered market as I'd been walking up Grainger street, so I doubled back and headed into the Grainger Market. It was rather lovely. Meat must be a very important part of the northern diet, because I saw at least 8 butchers in Grainger Market (and it's not an overly large market)!

After Grainger Market I wandered up to Northumberland street - which is a pedestrian mall. Right at the start of Northumberland street was a street performer. I stopped to watch some of it. His trick is being a contortionist. The audience spent most of their time groaning as he twisted his body into disgusting positions. His final trick was getting out a straight jacket. It was all rather entertaining.

After that I wandered along Northumberland street - it reminds me very much of the Hay Street Mall. They are trying their hardest to make it look pretty, but there is only so much they can do.

Next I headed east towards the Laing Art Gallery. I didn't really have any intention of going inside, but once I realised it was free that made my decision for me!

It turned out to be a really interesting gallery. They have an exhibit at the moment which is touring around the UK. It's an exhibit of paintings portraying different aspects of love. It was a rather lovely exhibit. They also had something very interesting in the Laing - a piece from Yoko Ono. The piece was called Secret Work III. It consisted of 5 large, white canvases covered in little pieces of paper with messages written on them. It is actually an interactive piece of work. The canvases arrived blank and people who visited the display were encouraged to write a message about some one you care about and attach it to one of the canvases. Eventually the canvases will go back to Yoko Ono and be displayed. I thought it was a really intriguing idea, and spent quite a lot of time reading all of the messages. Some were heartful, some were silly. I couldn't resist adding one of my own. I'm not going to tell you what I put on it!

After the Laing Gallery I headed down to the river. It's not easy to get down to the river. There is no direct, main route. I went down through the Castle Keep and then there are hundreds of little steps that wind down to the river. After walking down all those stairs I decided that I was going to find an alternate way of getting back up. I walked along the swing bridge and then along the Quayside, past the Law Courts and the Guildhall until I reached the Millennium Bridge. Apparently it tilts to allow ships to pass under it. I'm going to find out when it tilts (they have a website) and then go down and watch.

I managed to find a route back into the city that didn't involve stairs, so I meandered my way back towards the hostel.

I'd popped into a tourist information centre earlier on and found some information regarding Hadrian's Wall. I think I might base myself in Newcastle and then do day trips out to the different forts. There is a dedicated bus line as well as trains that follow the route of Hadrian's Wall, so it should be easy enough to get around.

The architecture in Newcastle really surprised me. I'd always assumed that Newcastle was grey and depressing, but some of the original Georgian buildings are amazing. In fact, Newcastle has the most number of listed buildings after Bath and London. From what Mum and Dad have said, there has been a rather big push to revitalise other areas of Newcastle to make it more appealing. So far I think they have been quite successful

The Geordie accent! Oh My God! It makes no sense! As I wander around I like to listen to people talking, but I can't understand a word that the Geordies say. Apparently 80% of the Geordie language is made up of Anglo-Saxon words, compared with English which is only about 30%. I feel like I'm in a European country where I don't speak the language.

Being Sunday today, there are markets happening on the Quayside under the Tyne Bridge. I'm going to head down there and have a wander around, and enjoy the sun.

I should mention that while the sun is out, it's still freezing cold. I think we're averaging about 10-15 degrees during the day. To me that says winter, but not over here.

Anyway, I'd best be off and enjoy the day.

Almost forgot - The Eagles won! Yay!!!!! Very happy (although not happy about the stupid 50m penalty that went against us).

Newcastle at last!

Well, I have arrived in Newcastle. It's 10:45pm and I have only been here for half an hour. Now, I hear you saying 'but I thought Casey was due to arrive at 7:30pm, how can she have only been there for half an hour?' It is indeed a very good question to ask and the answer is rather long.



So, I checked out of my hostel in Oxford this morning and headed for the bus station. My first bus was with Stagecoach and would take me through to Milton Keynes, where I would have to swap to a National Express bus that would take me the rest of the way.



I got onto the Stagecoach and it didn't take me long to realise that this leg wasn't going to be particularly fun. The Stagecoach bus looks like a coach but acts like a local bus in that they don't announce any of their stops. I was worried that I would miss my stop, so I was paying very close attention to where we were going. Finally we entered Milton Keynes and drove into the Milton Keynes Train Station and I could see that the Bus Station was across the road, so I hopped off. I wasn't entirely positive where I would have to go for the bus I needed (as some seemed to be at the train station and some at the bus station), so I went into the train station and asked at the information desk. To say the least the woman was not at all helpful. As soon as I said the word bus she said she couldn't help me and when I asked where I could go to find out information she just said she had no idea. That wasn't particularly helpful, but I knew the bus station was across the road, so I grabbed my bags and headed over there.



I walked up to the counter and asked about my bus and they said, 'this isn't the right bus station, you have to go to the other Milton Keynes Bus Station'. I asked how far away it was and was told that it was a 30min walk away. I had 1 hour to change buses, but I wasn't about to spend 30 mins of it walking in a vague direction and getting stressed, so I headed back to the train station and hopped into a taxi. It cost me 6 pounds, but I didn't care.



The bus station that my National Express coach was due to leave from was the most unlikely coach station I have ever seen. All it consisted of was a small area off the side of the road where the coaches could pull in with a couple of really crappy demountables that contained the coffee shop and the office. It looked like such a little hole-in-the-wall of a bus station, but a major coach bound for some part of England would go through every 2mins! It was very strange.



At this point I still had a good 40 mins to wait, so I got myself comfortable and watched all the other coaches pull in and out. My bus was due to arrive at 14:10. That time came and soon disappeared. I wasn't overly worried, as buses are often late. About 10mins after it was due to arrive, a message came over the speakers to say that anyone catching the 425 had to instead catch the 426. The 425 was my bus, so I was a bit concerned at this point. They didn't provide any other information, so I headed over to the office to find out what was going on.



The office informed me that the 425 had broken down and that the 426 bus would pick us up instead. However, it wasn't travelling the same route as the 425, instead it would drop us off at Leicester and then a new 425 would meet us there and take us the rest of the way. So, my bus trip had gone from one change at Milton Keynes, to 2 changes, also they didn't tell us what time the 426 would be coming through, just that it would be picking us up.



There was a group of us who were all waiting for the same bus, so we clustered together and waited and waited and waited. Finally an hour after our original bus was due to arrive, the 426 bus turned up. We piled onto an already rather full bus. I don't think the people travelling on the 426 were particularly happy to see us as their bus had to detour to collect us and then we had to squish on with them and take up all the free space.



Finally, though, we were on a bus and heading somewhere. It took about an hour to get to Leicester and when we arrived...... our 425 was not yet there! Surprise surprise.



The bus driver of the 426 was not particularly happy. He had already been delayed picking us up and now he had to wait until we were collected, which would make him even later at his destination.



Half an hour later, at 4:45pm, the 425 arrived. We all gave a cheer and clambered onto our bus. Finally we were away and felt like we were actually heading to Newcastle. The feeling didn't last long. Just outside of Leicester were traffic jams as far as the eye could see. It took us 2 hours just to reach Woodhall, where we stopped for a break. It was rather demoralising as we felt our 7:30pm arrival time slipping further and further away.

From Woodhall onwards the ride was relatively smooth. There was still some road works happening along the motorways that did slow us down a bit, but it wasn't too bad.

Our first stop was Darlington, then it was Durham and eventually Newcastle. 2 people were still on the bus at the end as the final stop was South Shields. In the end the bus arrived 2 and a half hours late. I think I ended up spending 11 hours travelling today! Luckily the hostel is close to the bus station, so it didn't take me long to get here.

The drive through England was rather lovely (not counting the bus stuff-ups). It was quite grey and overcast today, but the scenery was still beautiful. The amount of Canola growing is astonishing. At one point I could see fields of green and gold spread out for miles around me. The Green and Gold made me feel rather homesick!

The final bit of the drive into Newcastle was nice. The approach is down a rather large hill, with Newcastle spread out below and beyond. As it was getting dark, all of the lights of Newcastle spread out before the bus. It reminded me very much of the approach to Perth from Kalamunda at night, and when you see the lights of Perth spread out before you, you know you're not far from home. So, it was a rather nice feeling as we drove into Newcastle. It will be interesting to see how I feel about Newcastle once I start exploring in the light of day.

I'm exhausted at the moment and am going to have an easy day tomorrow. I have absolutely no idea what I want to see in Newcastle or how I'm going to do it. I am not at all prepared as I didn't think I would be in Newcastle quite this early, so I think tomorrow morning will be research!

I also want to see some of the forts on Hadrian's Wall while I'm up this way, so I have to figure out how I'm going to do that. They are not particularly easy to visit in terms of accommodation and transport, so I'll have to figure something out tomorrow.

Oh well, that's for tomorrow. For now I am off to bed. Night.

Oxford

After my last Bath post I managed to get some photos up, as I'm sure you can see. I spent the rest of my first night in Oxford doing some much needed clothes washing. I also met one of my room mates, a girl called Kate from Sydney. She has graduated from Med school and is currently interning at a Sydney hospital.



The following morning was my first day exploring Oxford.



Another one of my room mates was a girl from Minneapolis called Lane. She is studying theatre and will be in London to study for a few weeks. She is travelling around England with her Aunt and Uncle before her course starts.



Kate was telling the both of us about the UEFA cup final which was on that night. As Lane was heading out to explore with her Aunt and Uncle, we decided that the three of us would meet up that night at the hostel and head out to a pub to watch the match - Lane had also only turned 21 the day before, so we were going to buy her a few drinks!



Kate told me about a 2 hour walking tour around Oxford that was on that morning that was supposed to be very good, so we decided to do it.



The tour guide was great. Her name was Ursula and was originally from Germany, but has been living in Oxford for 43 years. Her accent is very thick and she reckons that as the years go by the German gets thicker, rather than disappearing.



The tour was a lot of fun. Most of the colleges don't open until the afternoon, so there were only so many things the tour guide was able to show us. She took us to Jesus College and into the Dining Hall and the Chapel. The Dining Hall is so ornate and yet it is used every day by the students for breakfast, lunch and dinner.



We saw Exeter College (where Tolkien was an undergrad). She took us through the Covered Markets, which are absolutely stunning. It has the most gorgeous shops. There is this really amazing cake shop where you can stand and watch them frosting the different cakes. We went past St Marys Church and stopped to look at the Radcliffe Camera - absolutely stunning and its a pity you can't go inside - and then into the forecourt of the Bodleian Library. The tour didn't take us inside the library, so I was determined I was going to go back and see it. We also went passed New College (one of the oldest Colleges at Oxford) and into St Edmunds Hall. It was really fascinating and I find it amazing that these Colleges are tucked down little back streets and you wouldn't even know half of them were there. There are 39 colleges in total in Oxford, but it would be impossible to see them all.



After the walking tour Kate and I stopped and had lunch and then took a little back alley, called Magpie Lane, down to Merton College (which was closed), then we continued down the side of Merton College heading towards the river. Behind Merton College was a cricket oval and there were some young boys in their whites playing. It was nice just standing there and watching them play.



Beyond the cricket oval is Christ Church meadow and to the right of the meadow is the back end (the tourist entrance!) to Christ Church College. We decided to head down to the river and come back to see Christ Church a bit later. The walk down to the river is so beautiful. Christ Church meadow is literally that - a meadow. There were even cows!



I really wanted to head down to the river because the rowing Eights was starting that day and I really wanted to watch some of the races. When we got to the river we had to turn left and keep walking for quite a long time to get to the boat houses. Each college has a boat house with its own little dock and all of the students were down there in their colours getting ready to either cheer their team on or take part in one of the races. Kate and I found a nice spot on the grass and watched some of the races. It was great fun, but we had no idea how the race worked. It's all based around bumps, where you literally attempt to 'bump' the boat in front of you. I'm sure there is more to it than that, but I couldn't figure out what.



After a while we headed back to Christ Church College to have a look around. It is a rather amazing college, although rather snooty! They have a magnificent enclosed quod that was supposed to have a roof, but was never built. We managed to get there when the Dining Hall was open to visitors. In one of the windows in the hall is some small stained glass images from Alice in Wonderland. In amongst all of the family crests are these cute little rabbits and other creatures! It was really rather sweet.



After that Kate - who had a hop-on hop-off bus ticket that hadn't yet expired from the day before - decided to ride around a bit on the bus, while I decided to wander around the main street of Oxford and then head back to the hostel.



Once back at the hostel I managed to upload a few more of my photos before the three of us were due to meet up to go out to watch the soccer.



Lane and Kate both arrived back at the hostel around 6pm, so we headed out not long after. Not far from the hostel is an Irish pub called O'Neills, which looked pretty good, so we decided that would be our pub for the night. We had some burgers and a few drinks while we watched the match. The three of us had a great time. We didn't entirely know who we were cheering for, but we would cheer when the crowd cheered and boo when the crowd booed. It was fun. When the 30 mins of extra time started, we decided we'd had enough of standing, so headed back to the hostel and sat in the tv room with other people from the hostel and watched the rest of the match. I felt so sorry for the Chelsea guy when he slipped. The do-or-die penalty shootout is really stressful. We weren't even barracking for anyone and yet we were on the edges of our seats!

It was a really good night.

This morning both Kate and Lane were leaving, both for Stratford - weird coincidence!

It was hard saying goodbye, as we'd all gotten along so well, but I contented myself with a day exploring Oxford at my leisure.

Before I could head out I had to figure out what my next stop was going to be and how I was going to get there. Today is my last day in Oxford and I have to check out by 10am tomorrow morning, so it was rather important I have a direction to head in!

As I said in one of my previous blogs, I didn't think I would be able to get to Cambridge. Turns out that I can't get to Cambridge. There is absolutely no accommodation available. So, instead I decided to head to York (which was due to be my stop after Cambridge). I knew I was attempting to book my accommodation only the day before, but I haven't had a problem so far, so didn't think anything about it. All I can say was that it wasn't as easy as I'd hoped. It took me 3 hours to find somewhere to stay. In the end, I can't get in anywhere in York, so I'm going to have to go to Newcastle!!!

I know, completely insane.

What I didn't realise at the time is that it is a long weekend this week, with Monday a public holiday, so accommodation is booked solid everywhere! It's not tourists, but all the locals who are going away for the weekend. To make it worse, there are only 2 hostels in York, and one of them has closed for 6 months for rennovations. I could have booked into somewhere in York, but it was going to cost me a minimum of £60 per night. That is well and truly over my budget. I looked at Stratford-on-Avon, but that was full, so I decided to see how Newcastle was looking. There aren't many hostels and all of them were booked. I took a chance and called one of the hostels in Newcastle on the off chance that they had a walk-in bed free, and they were able to give me a bed for 3 nights! Yay! The saga, however, was not over at this point. While I had accommodation, I still had to find a way to get to Newcastle. The train was going to cost £80 to get me from Oxford to Newcastle, and I was going to have to change train stations in London. Bleh. It looked like the bus was going to be the best option. The cheapest bus fare I could find was £33, which isn't overly cheap, and it's going to take 8 hours to get from Oxford to Newcastle, but at least I have a way to get there. Yay! So, I leave Oxford at 11:30am tomorrow and get into Newcastle around 7:30pm. It's going to be a long day.

I didn't end up getting into Oxford to explore until lunch time today. Luckily nothing really opens until the afternoon, so I hadn't missed anything.

I had to do the Bodleian library, but you can't do it on your own, you have to go with a guide, so I bought a ticket for a 2 o'clock tour and then headed over to St Mary's church. You can climb to the top of the tower of St Mary's Church and you have the most amazing view over Oxford. It's not the easiest climb I've ever done (very narrow and steep spiral staircase), but the view was worth it. The Radcliffe Camera (large rotunda building, which now houses part of the Bodleian library) is only 5 metres from St Mary's Church, so you get a view of it from the tower that you just can't get on the ground. From the top of the tower you have 360 degree views over Oxford. It's very easy to spot the Colleges amongst all of the other buildings, because they all fly their flags from highest point of the College, so whatever direction you look in you can always see several flags fluttering.

I headed back to the Bodleian for the start of my tour. They take you through the old divinity school, which is below the Bodleian library, before taking you upstairs into the oldest part of the Bodleian library. It is absolutely amazing. The books are so old and beautiful. They used to chain the books to the shelves so that they couldn't be removed, and there are still a couple that are chained. It was just beautiful and I wish I could have seen the rest of the Bodleian library, but it's off limits to tourists. The Bodleian library is the second biggest in the UK and receives a truck full of new books every week. The Bodleian library was the first copyright library in the world, so they receive a copy of every book that is published in the UK every year and have been doing so since the 1600s. They have over 30 million books and it grows every day.

After the Bodleian library (which I could talk about all day), I had another walk through the covered market. It is just so beautiful and has some really interesting shops - the most gorgeous florist that I've taken photos of and will attempt to post sometime soon.

I wandered up to the Ashmolean museum, which is a museum that was a collection of one man's travels in the Victorian era. It is a funny little museum with an odd collection. The displays don't look like they've been touched since the Victorian period, with little hand written descriptions in each display case. I was particularly interested in seeing it because of the extensive Egyptian collection. It was rather amazing, and all crammed into 4 small rooms.

I wandered back from the Ashmolean into town and passed an open market that was just starting to close up for the day. I think it only opens once a week, so I'm a little disappointed I missed it.

After that I just decided to head back to the hostel and attempt to repack my suitcase yet again for the trip tomorrow. Wish me luck.

I'd best go, as I only have 1 min 14 sec before my internet expires! Will update again soon. Sorry this was so long!

More Photos

Mansion House - famous from Great British Menu!

Tower of London. Last time I was here there was an ice rink in the grassed area in front of the tower.

Picture of Tower Bridge taken from the ferry.

Canary Wharf - from the ferry

The approach to Greenwich on the ferry. Those large, white buildings are part of the Royal Naval College.

The name of the shop is pretty self evident. "First Shop in the World"

First view of the Greenwich Observatory

The line on the wall marking the Prime Meridian

Me standing with one foot on either side of the line.

Statue marking the line

View from the Observatory overlooking some of Greenwich and Canary Wharf in the background.

Photos

The internet was being silly, so there are only a couple for now. More later.

Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus

Big Ben

Houses of Parliament

Art in front of National Gallery.

Bath continued

So, I shall pick up where I left off yesterday.

I left the Internet Cafe and headed to the Herschel Museum of Astronomy. Something I find very intriguing about England is that there are tiny museums everywhere. Often very few people visit them, but because of a loyal group of enthusiasts the museums continue to remain open. The Herschel Museum is like this.

Herschel was a musician and composer who was enthralled with stargazing, but unhappy with the quality of telescopes available, so decided to build his own. Using his new telescope he went on to discover Uranus (doubling the size of the known Solar System), several of its moons, and several of the moons of Saturn. From this point he became a celebrity and many wealthy people commissioned him to build bigger and better telescopes for them.

It was an interesting little museum.

I headed back to the hostel to have a bit of a rest before I headed out for dinner. I got back to find that there were more people in the room! One was a woman in her mid 60s from Auckland, New Zealand. She was very friendly and we ended up having dinner together which was nice. Turns out that she is in a pacing syndicate in New Zealand and just last week one of her horses won a 2 year olds race worth $200,000. She was very excited. I mentioned that Dad was in a pacing syndicate as well and she wondered if you'd heard of a trainer called John Small, who is training their horses and is originally from Perth?

Last night the hostel didn't seem so bad because there were more people around. Even so, it was still pretty quiet, but it was nice having someone to talk to.

Other than the hostel, I had a wonderful time in Bath. It's such a pretty little place, full of character.

Today my train didn't leave until 12:40, so I had some time to fill in. I spent quite a bit of time at the post office getting stuff boxed up so I could send it home. Then I called Mum and we chatted for a while and I sat in a coffee shop and watched the world go by.

I went back to the hostel and picked up my luggage and headed for the train station.

The trip from Bath to Oxford by train was only 1hr and 15 mins. It was over before it had really begun. The countryside was beautiful, but these trains travel so fast you only get an impression of green and yellow and not much else.

The hostel in Oxford seems quite nice and professional. I'm in a 6 bed dorm with its own bathroom - luxury! The hostel isn't in the centre of town, but it's only about 5-10 mins out. I've spent this afternoon getting washing done and checking emails and stuff. I have two full days in Oxford so I will be getting out bright and early tomorrow morning.

My next stop was due to be Cambridge, but I may not be able to go there. The bus from Oxford to Cambridge is cheap and quick, but there is no accommodation in Cambridge. There is only one hostel and it is completely booked for several weeks. There are some b&b's, but they're expensive and none have accommodation at such short notice. I may have to try and call the hostel tomorrow and see if they've had any cancellations, otherwise I think I will be heading straight on to York. I will be back in England again in August, so I can always do Cambridge then.

Anyway, I'm about to attempt to put some of my photos up (not too many, I promise). We'll see how it goes. If you don't see anything, I haven't been successful and will try again another time.

Bath

I think I managed to pick a pretty dodgy hostel for Bath. It looked nice to begin with, but as they say, appearances can be deceiving.

The bedrooms are fine, with bunk beds and wood floors, but the bathrooms aren't brilliant. They look ok until you try to use them. They've installed water-saving showers, so I assumed that the water pressure wouldn't be brilliant, but I could live with that. Turns out that isn't what they mean by water saving. The showers in the hostel have one button, and that is on. There is no way to control the temperature and there is no way to turn them off - this feature is made worse by the fact that the water only stays on for 30 secs and nearly blasts you across the shower stall in the process. Because you can't control the temperature they seem to have 2 settings - the water is either boiling hot or freezing cold. Attempting to have a shower last night was an interesting experience. I'm catching the train to Oxford tomorrow, so I think I will hold off on having another shower until then. I don't care if I stink!!

They have a common room with only one computer, but as of yet I haven't had to wait as the hostel seems to be more than half empty.

I am in a 10 bed room, but last night there were only 3 of us in there. It's actually a little depressing that there isn't anyone around, but it's only one more night and I'm enjoying seeing Bath, so I can put up with it a little longer.

First thing this morning I went to the train station and bought myself a ticket to Oxford for tomorrow morning. It was surprisingly cheap - only £13. The bus, which would have taken 4 hours longer, would have cost £35. I've booked a hostel and I think it looks a bit better than the one I'm in at the moment. It's the YHA, so it should be pretty popular. None of the hostels are in the centre of Oxford, but it's only a 5-10 min walk in which is fine.

I'm having a relatively leisurely day exploring Bath.

Bath reminds me very much of a European town. It's small, with beautiful architecture and very classy boutique shops.

After I bought my ticket to Oxford I headed to the Bath Abbey and had a quick look around. It has a magnificent Organ, but after a while, once you've seen one church you've seen them all.

Next I headed to the Baths! How could I resist! I didn't spend anywhere near as much time in the Baths as I did last time. There are a few new additions. One very interesting addition is to the audio tour. They still have the standard audio tour, but they also have Bill Bryson giving his opinion of the different parts of the Baths. I decided to just listen to what he was saying as I wandered around. I found it very interesting, as we found many of the same things fascinating. One thing in particular that he was intrigued by was the remaining section of arch that originally supported the roof, and just how massive it was and the extraordinary engineering skill it took to design and build something like that - he even compared it to viewing the skill of the Pantheon (my favourite place).

After the Baths I headed to the Jane Austen Centre. Yes, it's tacky. It doesn't have a great deal of substance and only really focuses on the time she spent in Bath, not her whole life. But at least now I can say that I have done it. I very nearly bought myself a large poster of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy! (I'm kidding, you can relax.) Apparently they sell quite a lot.

I headed up the hill and wandered around the Circus (impressive, but not as big and grand as I'd always imagined) and then walked along the length of the Royal Crescent. The view from the Crescent is rather spectacular. I had always assumed that the Crescent right in the centre of Bath, but it isn't.

Next I headed to the Assembly Rooms and the Fashion Museum. They were quite interesting. They have some amazing outfits that you can't believe have survived as long as they have.

Next I wandered back down to the river and walked across Pulteney Bridge and then walked along the river for a little while.

I'm just in an Internet cafe at the moment and I'm going to head off as soon as I finish this and attempt to see the Herschel Museum of Astronomy. They have very weird opening hours, so who knows whether or not they will be open.

I'm going to have dinner out tonight. The pub in the bottom of the hostel is either empty (as there is no one in the hostel) or full of locals cheering on their rugby teams (not particularly attractive).

My train doesn't leave until 12:30 tomorrow, so I'm going to go to the post office and send some stuff home as my bag is already too heavy and then maybe pop into No.1 The Crescent, which is a museum that has been converted back to its original Georgian splendour (and isn't open on Mondays).

It's been nice taking my time and just wandering around Bath. It's surprisingly quiet in the centre. There don't seem to be many tourists around at the moment, so it isn't taking as long as I had thought it would to see the sites. It's been a nice day so far.

London to Bath

I really hate packing! My suitcase doesn't like me. No matter how much I take out it still seems to be completely full.

I was up early this morning to make sure everything was packed so that I could check out and head to my bus.

My bus was due to leave Victoria Station at 11am, so I decided that I would aim to leave the hostel at 9am, which would give me heaps of time to get through the tube to the Victoria Coach Station. It turned out to not be quite as easy as I had imagined.

I checked out of the hostel and headed for Russel Square tube station. Russel Square is one of the only tubes that has a lift, most have escalators. A lift is a marvelous invention, but only when properly utilised. At Russel Square, to get to and from the lift, there are stairs! Stairs! How stupid is that. So, there's Casey with her 20kg suitcase, her laptop and her backpack attempting to go up and down stairs. I finally managed to get down to the platform and shoved my way onto the train. The carriages were just about full and I ended up having to stand in the entry way in a very uncomfortable position. However, I consoled myself with the knowledge that I didn't have very far to go. My plan was to catch the Piccadilly line from Russel Square to Green Park (or something similar) and change to the Victoria line, which would then be just one stop to Victoria Station. However, my plans were dashed when I got to Green Park and discovered that the Victoria line was closed for maintenance. There had been no information prior to getting off at Green Park, so I was really frustrated. Anyway, I found that at Green Park I could change to the District/Circle lines and catch the tube to Westminster and then from Westminster I could change to the Northern line and catch that to Victoria Station!

So, instead of the 2 train rides I was anticipating it turned out to be 3!

Anyway, I finally arrived at Victoria Station and headed off to find the Victoria Coach Station. Logically I assumed that the Victoria Coach Station would be attached to Victoria Station, even if merely by an underpass or something similar. So, I followed the signs and all they did was lead me out of Victoria Station and up the street. I was really worried that I had missed where I was supposed to go, but kept heading in the direction that the signs had pointed. After a good 10mins I finally spotted the Victoria Coach Station. It wasn't at all close to Victoria Station, other than being in the same suburb.

In the end it took me an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes just to get from my hostel to the Victoria Coach Station.

I was absolutely exhausted by the time that I got there and rather stressed.

But I did make it and it turned out that the bus was half empty, so I managed to snag the 2 seats at the very front of the bus for myself. I had a great view.

The first stop for the bus was at Swindon. Honestly I would have to say that it's a rather depressing looking town. Not somewhere I would particularly like to visit, but half the people on our bus got off at Swindon.

After Swindon we seemed to take more country roads. It was lovely driving along small country roads surrounded by green and yellow fields. The canola was in flower and it was just beautiful.

It took 3 hours to drive from London to Bath, but the time seemed to just fly by.

Once I arrived in Bath I had a bit of a dilemma. I'd booked 2 nights in a local hostel and on their website they had provided information on how to get from the train station to the hostel. Probably silly of me, but I assumed that the bus station and the train station would be next to each other, and therefore I would be able to find my way to the hostel without any problems. Once again it turned out that this wasn't the case. I had no idea exactly where I was once I got off the bus, but I just followed the signs pointing into the city centre and eventually came across the Roman Baths and the tourist bureau. I grabbed a map from the tourist bureau and found where my hostel was located. I turns out that it's only 200m north of the Baths, so it's right in the centre of town.

The hostel is also a pub, so it was rather crowded when I arrived. It turns out that there is a rugby match on at the moment between the Wasps and Bath, so the pub is full of locals. I managed to get my room key and headed up yet more stairs! I'm in a 10 bed room, but at this point I'm the only one in there. That could very likely change this afternoon, but I certainly wouldn't mind a room to myself. Fingers crossed.

I'd best go. I'm running out of credit and I have plenty of exploring to do while the sun holds out.

Kew Gardens

Hi everyone,

It's Sunday morning here and I am getting ready to check out of my room and make my way to the bus to Bath, but I couldn't resist posting one last time before I left London.

I spent pretty much all of yesterday at Kew Gardens, and saw only half of it.

I had a wonderful time. It was such a change from London. In the gardens it was quiet and green and there were birds fluttering around, it was so lovely.

It rained most of the time I was in Kew Gardens, but it was only light, so I wasn't bothered. If anything I think the rain kept the majority of people away, so you could be completely alone in certain areas of the park. I explored the dome with all of the tropical plants, and the conservatory with the cacti and the orchids. Inside the conservatory they had one of those huge flowers that only blooms once a year and then promptly dies. I can't remember the name of it, but it must have only flowered a couple of nights ago as it was only just starting to wilt and die. It was really beautiful and a lot bigger than I would have imagined.

I visited Kew Palace, which was very interesting and not at all what you would expect of a palace. It was surprisingly small. The Queen's garden, which was behind the palace, was beautiful. It seemed to me to be the epitome of an English country garden, with hedgerows and vine covered archways and lots of herbs in the flowerbeds. It was so pretty and I could have spent the whole day just sitting in there enjoying the serenity.

My last stop was to the Azalea garden as I know how much Mum loves them. They were all in bloom and the colours were amazing - reds, oranges, yellows, pinks and everything else you can imagine.

It was a lovely day just spent meandering around, enjoying all of the green and the fresh air. I am extremely glad I went.

I'd best leave it here as I need to get my stuff together so I can check out. I have to lug all of my luggage down four flights of stairs! Yuk!

Wish me luck getting through the tube with all of my bags. I will try to post again once I get to Bath.

London part 5

I spent this morning in the Museum of London. It has a very crappy exterior, all brown 70s brick, but the interior was very modern. The Museum, as you can probably guess, details the history of the city of London.

I was really disappointed with the Museum of London. Only one of the two floors is currently open to the public, as one of them is being refurbished at the moment. So this means that all of the displays from 1666 onwards are currently unavailable and won't be open to the public until Sept/Oct 2009!

Totally ridiculous.

I understand that it's hard to run a museum and do renovations at the same time, but you'd think they could shuffle around their exhibits a bit so they could have some information on all aspects of the history of London, particularly as it's unavailable for such a long period of time. They have a huge open foyer that has nothing in it that they could have used.

I also found that the exhibits were aimed at children, and not particularly designed for an adult crowd. The displays were gaudy and over-the-top and they provided little useful information. To top it all off, the museum was full of lots of screaming children bumping into you when you're trying to look at something and touching everything that they weren't supposed to. Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I know, I know, I'm highly intolerant.

All in all, not the best experience, and I would not recommend it as something for people to see when they came to London.

Once I'd left the Museum I headed down towards the river. I had my ticket to see A Midsummer Night's Dream and was getting rather excited.

It was seriously freezing today, so I'm very glad that I got a seat and didn't stand with all of the plebs. I even splashed out and hired a cushion so that I didn't have to sit on the hard wooden benches.

The performance was fantastic. The costumes were great and the actors were absolutely superb. I love Shakespeare and you could tell that the actors love Shakespeare as well because of the energy they put into their performance.

There was a lot of physical comedy in the play which made it even more enjoyable and the actors spent quite a bit of time in amongst the audience, not just on the stage, so you really felt as though you were a part of the action.

What I love about performances is watching the actors faces when they aren't the centre of the action and watching how they respond. I noticed today that during the last act when the terrible acting troupe performs their play for the court, the man playing the Duke was having a hard time not laughing at their performance, and by the end he had tears rolling down his cheeks. It made the play that much funnier because someone who has rehearsed it and seen it performed hundreds of times still finds it incredibly funny.

The play ended up being 3 hours long, but I never even noticed. At the end I was wishing that it would go just a little bit longer.

Anyway, I'm going to head off to bed. There is a rather long queue behind me for the computer (nothing unusual).

Tomorrow is my last day in London. I'm going to head to Kew gardens in the morning, as long as the weather is ok.

Sunday morning I'm checking out of my hostel and will be travelling to Victoria Station to catch a bus to Bath. It takes twice the amount of time as a train, but it's 3 times cheaper, and with the amount of money I spent in London - I need to save every cent!

More soon.