The Traveler: I have been in England for over a week now, and it is perfect. I love England; it is exactly how I imagined it.

My train from Paris was a smooth journey (complete with second breakfast), but I did spend forty
minutes, yes forty, trying to get from Kings Cross/St Pancras to Southampton central. After being told by someone to go to London Waterloo, I went to the ticket machine, but it made no sense to me, so I succumbed and confessed to the ticket man that I had no idea how to get where I needed to be. He was very lovely and helpful, and if I had have listened to the first lady I would have got to Waterloo and been even more lost there; I had to change to a regional train at Waterloo, and she never told me that! I eventually made it to Southampton, and James and Natasha were waiting for me. I was really great to see them both. We ha a relaxing afternoon in the garden, and the sun was shining! No surprises that it didn't last long...

The next day was a BBQ at some friends' house, where I continued my gastronomical experiments (so far: horse, baby octopus, raw fish, duck) and at home-made pigeon and pheasant (something else in there, too) sausages... And I will say that they were pretty good, with tomato sauce, of course! It was a lovely relaxing afternoon, and everyone was really lovely.

Monday was another quiet day for me; after continuously doing things every day, it was perfect for me to do relatively nothing. After Natasha finished work, we went into Lyndhurst, had a walk around the village, saw the church that her and James were married in, saw the grave of the lady who inspired 'Alice' in Lewis Carol's 'Alice in Wonderland' an went to James' fire station. That night we had a disastrous attempt at making paella... But the apple crumble and ice cream afterwards was delicious!

For my birthday I spent the day in a cute English village called Wincester. Sadly, it did rain; I was looking forward to having a summer birthday. But despite the rain, Wincester was still very pretty. I walked down High Street, and then walked along the river Itchen, before I explored the ruins of Wolvesey Castle, prior residence of bishops from the C11th. It started to rain, and the few other people in the ruins left, so I had the whole castle to myself on my birthday. Oh, to be queen of the castle! After the castle, I walked back into the center of the village, and on my way I passed Janes Austen's house, where she lived the end of her life, and went to to the cathedral where she is buried. The cathedral was very pretty, and it was also a refuge from the rain. I walked around, and climbed up to the biblioteque, where many many old texts filled the shelves. I really wanted to look through them, but I couldn't. It was raining quite a bit when I left the cathedral, so I found a cafe near by and had a cup of tea, how very English! Not long later Natasha finished work and drove us home.

The city gate into Wincester

Along the River Itchen

Wolvesey Castle

Jane Austen's House

Wincester cathedral

I arrived home to a lovely bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine. We all cooked meatballs and spaghetti for my birthday dinner, and desert was chocolate mousse. Because James and Natasha had been working all day, and still had work to do, we postponed my birthday until Saturday, when we could all spend the day together and have a nice lunch at Jamie's Italian. On Wednesday I went into Southampton for some shopping, but there wasn't much else to do. The city's garbage men are on strike at the moment, so it's also quite messy there!

On Thursday was the world premier of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' part two. It was a hard decision to make, but I decided not to go into London for it. My reasonings were

1) That it would be crazy busy, and I expected that people had been camping out, so unless I was able to mosh to the front I probably would have been dissatisfied.

2) I didn't want to spend the whole day in Trafalgar/Leicester square, when I only have 1 month in England, and there is still so much that I want to do, and don't have time for.

Instead, I immersed myself in something else that I love, Roman history! I took the train to Bath in the morning, and went to the site of the ancient Roman baths. It was a bit of a train ride to Bath, but it was such a nice town to go to. It doesn't look like an English town though; it looks Roman. The baths are very well preserved, and they had projector screens with reenactments of what people would have done at the baths, such as walking around, slave girls following thier owners, singing and chatting in the hot room, worship to the 'magical' hot sping, and so much more. Being so well preserved, it is easier to understand what it was like in Roman England. Places like Pompeii are sometimes hard to visualise, as a lot of the city is in ruins. After seeing the baths, I walked around the city, up to the circus and the royal cresent. After looking in some shops, I took the train back home to Totton.

Pulteney bridge

Entrance to the Roman baths

inside the Roman baths

The Roman baths with the cathedral in the background

this is hot water that comes from the ground

As promised, James and Natasha took me to Portsmouth on the saturday after my birthday for lunch at Jamie's Italian. I love Jamie Oliver, and going to one of his restaraunts was something on my 'list of things to do overseas'. It was a lovely lunch, and I filled myself to the brim with polenta chips, Tusan wild boar sausages, and tiramisu. Yum! After a month traveling and not eating as much as usual, this meal nearly got the better of me! For the whole afternoon, i felt like i was going to burst!

starters

mains

desert!

I really wanted to make a day trip to Bighton, but was waiting for the weather to be relatively pleasent, as it is along the beach. Finally, it was suppose to be sunny, so another train ride, and I was on the English coast. It was a delightfully sunny day, with the scent of battered fish and chips, and the sound of seagulls. I almost wished that I had my bathers. After wandering, and becoming a little lost, in the maze that is called 'The Lanes' I wandered to the pebbled beach, and to the 'Brighton Pier. really wanted to go on the rollercoaster, but it required a minimum of 6 people to want to go on it. I didn't have 5 other people with me. So I walked back to the beach, and struggled to walk along the pebbles; they hurt feet, and feet sink into them. I wasn't game enough to test the water with my feet! I walked along the beach, in the sunshine, and then walked back up to the train station.