So my time in England was interesting to say the least - not to mention a very brisk 16C/60F & rain.
Let me preface by saying "I'm completely over buses" - lol...
First my flight from Barcelona to London left at 6:45am, but the earliest bus to the airport was at 5:00am which wasn't enough time to get to the airport. So I had to take the 11pm bus the night before to ensure I made my flight.
So I made my flight after a sleepless night in the airport - hopped up on espresso.
Landed in London around 8:15am. My host had to work until 6pm and couldn't meet me until after work. So I decided to go to Stonehenge for the day. I thought it would be simple enough to just catch a bus there and back - Nope!
When I arrived at Luton Airport I bought my tkt at 9:15am w/a 11:30am connection in Victoria. Well the bus was leaving at 9:30am and I had to be there 10 minutes prior. I arrived at 9:25am and the bus had already left. Welp, nothing I could do about it so I just waited for the next bus. It was at 9:55am, but it was a 90 minute ride to Victoria so I arrived at 11:25am, and needless to say missed my 11:30am connection to Salisbury/Stonehenge. So I asked when the next bus was to Salisbury/Stonehenge and found out it wasn't until 2:30pm. I've spent longer in bus stations and airport terminals so I decided to use the time constructively and do a little work.
So 2:30pm rolls around and I made my bus to Salisbury/Stonehenge (it was an absolutely gorgeous 3hr ride with rolling green hills straight off a postcard). I arrived at 5:30pm and made my way to the local city bus stop, which was only a few blocks away, and found out the last bus to Stonehenge was at 4:10pm - I'd missed it by an hour. So yeah I wasn't in the best of moods after that! Salisbury is a small countryside town so everything closes by 5pm.
Soooooo I spring in to 'seasoned traveler' mode and figure out Plan B. I knew I was going to have to stay the night in Salisbury and just wait for the first bus to Stonehenge in the morning at 10am, so I let my host know that I wasn't going to be able to make it (I felt so bad as I was really looking forward to meeting him). Of course all local hotels are fully booked so I bar/pub hopped all night drinking coffee - yeah coffee in pub - I'm such a non-drinker :)
My budget for London was completely blown already as I thought the roundtrip bus ride to Stonehenge would be around $30, nope it was $80 so I didn't want to spend anymore money on a hotel for half a night. Plus the dollar is weak against the British pound so the exchange rate wasn't in my favor.
So now I have to figure out how I'm going to make my 5pm weekly call the next day with my partners while everything is closed for the night. So after chatting with a few very helpful locals I got some helpful tips...
1. I booked my bus ticket back to Luton Airport online for 6:45pm the next day.
2. I went to the bus stop to buy my local city bus ticket to Stonehenge as soon as they opened at 9am, and confirmed the bus schedule back so I could be back in Salisbury for my 5pm call.
3. Went to the Tourist Information office a block away to check if there's an entrance fee into Stonehenge
4. The Tourist Information Office and Library closes at 5pm so I couldn't use their wifi for my call so I found a nice hotel nearby and was able to use their wifi. Remember I shipped ahead supplies, while in Ecuador, to my next stop in Northern Ireland, including a SIM card after unlocking my Att phone so I'll finally have data during the rest of my trip (if you remember I cancelled Att in Panama due to not being able to make emergency calls, nor them offering international calling for prepaid plans, so I had them unlock my phone, but I needed a new SIM to port my # over so I have to wait until I get to Ireland to do that). So in the meantime I've been at the mercy of free wifi at my hostels and hosts' homes.
Oh yeah and I'm still lugging around a carryon roller suitcase because my backpack broke before I left the states. I'm really looking forward to arriving in Ireland this week to restock on supplies :)
I also managed to find the vaccine for Typhoid in the Netherlands for a reasonable price, and they'll write me a free prescription for malaria tablets. Which is a huge score because most doctors in the EU won't accept a prescription from another country & I don't have a prescription, nor will they service non-residents without local or travel insurance (my insurance is only good in the states). So that's a huge weight off my shoulders knowing I won't be contracting typhoid or malaria - lol. I was most concerned about malaria because it's transmitted via mosquitos - for those who don't know I get bitten alive by any mosquito within a 100 mile radius no matter what - I think they hold daily meetings to track me down :)
Soooooo after all of that I finally made it to Wonder of the World Stonehenge and it was worth all of the drama :)
- I rode there on my first double-decker bus experience.
- There is nothing glamorous about visiting Stonehenge. It sits in a very isolated field - the only thing around for miles are cows and grass.
- The rocks/formations are extremely large (just like most of the images you see), over 5000 years later there's still debate how humans were able to construct it.
- It was formed in 3100 BC & is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, 2 miles west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of Salisbury. It consists of a ring of standing stones, with each standing stone around 13 ft high, 6 ft 11 in wide and weighing around 25 tons.
- It is very 'touristy' - they nickle/dime you to death to see it.
- I paid 15 euros for the 1hr, roundtrip bus ride from Salisbury to Stonehenge - where it drops you off in a parking lot by the visitor cener a mile away (when it could just take you all the way to the monument).
- It's an additional 17 euros tkt to take another bus that drives you from the parking lot to Stonehenge and to get close. If you don't pay you have to walk the mile and are only permited to see it from behind a fence about 50 yards away.
- I boycotted the touristy, rip off 17 euros and walked the 1 mile (I considered it my excercise for the day) and being behind the fence 50 yards aways was fine with me. They make you walk in overgrown, dirty grass, and it's like you are on display as the 'non-paying' visitor. I'm glad I got to witness Stonehenge but I have no desire to go back.
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| 1 mile walk to Stonehenge |
- It was raining, brisk 15C/59F degrees, windy, and I was still lugging a carryon suitcase.
I never met my host but apologized to him for the inconvenience and he completely understood. London has some of the most hospitable locals I've ever met. Even the customs agent asked about my travels when he saw all of the recent passport stamps. One of the workers at the restaurant in Salisbury even called some local hotels for me after he found out I'd missed the bus and didn't have a hotel to go to. Another local lady saw me wondering around 12am on the square and walked me to a hotel and called in a favor and asked them to let me hang out until my bus came - the gentleman at the counter was so accommodating and let me stay in the lobby free for several hours until my bus arrived, instead of waiting out in the cold, because I didn't want pay for a full night when I only needed a few hours (offering me tea, cookies, and wifi). I heard "Welcome to the UK" countless times and felt the most welcomed of any country I've ever visited. So if I ever hear again that all British are stuffy and uptight, I'll argue that under the table 10x because it's simply not true :)
Oh and on my way back to London (of course I had to catch the 5hr bus, and running on fumes having only slept a few hours in the past 2 days) to the airport to catch my flight to Ireland, I went back to Luton Airport where I'd flown into, instead of Gatwick Airport - glad I figured out in time that I was at the wrong airport. For those that don't know London has 4 aiports around city center and if you misread the airport code on your tkt you'll easliy go to the wrong airport like I did - it cost me an extra $35 euro to take the 2hr train from Luton to Gatwick - I was not a happy camper having to pay double just because I misread the aiport code :)
This is why I call my travels 'journeys' instead of 'vacations' - no matter what happens it's all part of the journey and allows me to keep moving forward undeterred :)
Oh yeah, and they really do drive on the left side of the road - it's an odd experience the first time - also...
Apartment = Flat
Bye = Cheerio
Bus = Coach
Tennis Shoes = Trainers
Gas Station = Petrol Station
Well that's it for England. Thanks for being part of this journey England - you didn't disappoint!
Next stop Northern Ireland to try to see the fleeting Wonder of the World 'Aurora Borealis' (aka Northern Lights). I'm going to Finland too as a backup just in case I don't see the Lights in Ireland (Iceland, & northern Norway are best places to see the Lights but I really have no desire to go to these countries so I'm hoping the Lights show up in Ireland).
Life is a journey... #EnjoyingTheJourney
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