when it’s all you have, it’s all you’ll ever need.
This is going to be quick with not much talking because I have to leave in about a half hour to catch my train to Paris! But I need to fill in what’s been going on the last couple weeks because I’ll be on the European mainland until the 21st.
So my lovely friend Sarah came to visit me from Italy last weekend and we had quite a splendid time if I do say so myself. She came in late Thursday night (really Friday morning), and after my Friday class I took her around central and showed her the sights. I even took a few pictures of places I’ve been to multiple times before because the sky was gorgeous.
Oh, more importantly, we finally went to Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross. Off to Hogwarts, guys, see you later.
I was also happy to see that they took the huge construction monstrosity away from Lincoln. Now there’s just a fence. Yay
We also found a bird lady, my future self, in St. James’s Park.
The next day, we signed up to go on a guided coach tour to Stonehenge and Bath, which was sooo much fun. Stonehenge was pretty mind blowing; it’s so weird seeing such ancient history right on the side of the highway. The weather was almost as mind blowing: within ten minutes, there was rain, sun, wind, and hail…and it continued all day, which it made it quite an interesting trip.
After Stonehenge, the coach booked it to Bath and left us on our own for a few hours. We went through the Roman baths, which were incredible, and then wandered the streets for a couple hours, seeing the most important things (including the…gift shop of the Jane Austen Centre). Bath is absolutely one of the most beautiful cities I have been to. It’s in the countryside and all the buildings are made out of the same stone and it’s just gorgeous.
My favorite.
The drive home was also pretty beautiful. Almost everyone on the bus passed out except me, and I just listened to Bob Dylan and enjoyed the gorgeous English countryside.
Sunday we didn’t do much besides church and hang out at Cheshire Cheese. Monday we went around to some more of London: Natural History Museum, Harrod’s, Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens, The London Eye, Tower Bridge, etc. We ate lunch on the Southbank and went to Cheshire Cheese to get chocolate pudding and cheer ourselves up that Mamma Mia was sold out. The views from the Eye were pretty gorgeous. I don’t know if it was worth the exorbitant price, but it was just one of those things I had to do living here, so it was fun.
All in all, a great trip, I do believe. Last week was mostly catching up on sleep, writing a paper, and going to the last of my classes. This past Saturday, I decided to take a trip myself to the London Temple, which is about a 45 minute train ride south of the city. It felt like quite a pilgrimage walking the 2+ miles from the train station to the temple in a skirt, but the countryside was, as usual, gorgeous and there were some cute little houses on the road through Lingfield and Newchapel. The visitor’s centre at the temple was closed because of General Conference, which I had somehow completely forgotten about since Sarah and I had been talking about it a week earlier. But I guess if you’re going to forget General Conference there’s no better place to do so (I made it back in time for the afternoon session anyway). The grounds of the London temple are beautiful and I stayed there for a few hours, reading and enjoying the peace that you can’t get anywhere else.
future house.
The last couple days have been pretty chill: General Conference and going to Hyde & Kensington to read. I finally found the house that J.M. Barrie lived in across from Kensington Gardens, and I think where he wrote Peter Pan. That was exciting. And now I really have to leave for my train; I will see you loves in 2 weeks!
