Tuesday
After leaving the cafe, we got on the tube and headed towards the train station at Marlybone - to which we then bought a few things to eat on the train at Marks and Spencer's - and then proceeded to get on the train. The train ride was a lot of fun, honestly, I think everyone should travel by train!! If I had any say in the matter I would only travel via train!
After a VERY short two hour train ride we arrived in Stratford and trudged the mile or so to the hotel - with all my stuff it really did feel like longer!! - to which we were met with horrible news: our rooms would not be ready for another four hours! So we decided to all go our own way until that time - I ended up sitting in the lobby with a few other people. At some point they all fell asleep, but I stayed up and worked on picture stuff.
After we brought our stuff up to our rooms and unpacked the few things we brought with us for this very short over-night trip, we got ready to go to dinner and than to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's performance of Julius Caesar. Here is where things got fun. We were told that dinner started at 6:30, so the first group went down to eat than and they would not let them in - our play started at 7:30...and we had to walk there. So when I came down close to 7:00 (the irony was that I was told by Prof. Dinielli and Sharon where to send everyone for dinner and I was the one who could not find the place!!) they had all just barley eaten. After a rather yummy meal that was included in our stay (yes, we all were really quite excited about this!!) the first group of us started heading towards the theatre. Long story short, what we did not realize was that it was HELLA far away!! so we left at about 7:20, figuring that would give us plenty of time...yeah, we were 10 minutes late! After we got to our seats the other group sat down about 10 minutes later. But Julius Caesar was very well done and we all enjoyed it...mostly. The beds in the hotel were nice at least - we stayed in a Holiday Inn, I just realized I forgot to mention that - although I must say, I was quite disappointed in the fact that there was only shampoo and no conditioner - lisa and I ended up borrowing from allie.
Wednesday
We woke up, got dressed, and than headed down to eat breakfast (also included...again, we were all thrilled!!). It was quite yummy! We than had another hour before we were suppose to meet in the lobby, so we all went back to our rooms - lisa slept and I read my book. We than headed down to the lobby to check our bags and check out.
We than all walked down to Shakespeare's birthplace and went on a tour of the house. It was really something. Afterwards we had the rest of the afternoon to wonder around - our train did not leave until 5:40. Everybody, in someway or another, did a bit of souvenir shopping as well as general shopping. After wandering around for just over an hour, Cynthia and I decided to go to Poundland - think 99 cents store but better - and than we decided to go on the hop-on-hop-off tour around Stratford-Upon-Avon - it would take us to his grave site, to Anne Hathaway's cottage (his wife) and Mary Arden's house (his mother). It was actually 9£ well spent.
We then all headed back to the hotel and collected our things and headed over to the McDonald's to pick up some food for the ride back. We than headed off to the train station - I swear, the walk back to the station felt longer than the walk there!! But eventually we made it, and I got to enjoy another two hours on the train.
We than got back to London and had to navigate our way back to the flat. See, right after we left (Tuesday) a tube strike started at 7:00 PM, and we got back the day before it ended; so we had to figure out which bus to take from which stop. Long - and exceedingly BORING - story short, we found a bus and managed to get to the flat...two hours later! Than we all went to our rooms and died - except for the girls from the other class and a few girls from mine, who went out - crazies. (:
I think I will leave off here...I have a couple of journals to work on and I have to get back to the flat because we are going to see A Winter's Tale with Ethan Hawke tonight! There are pictures below, enjoy!
cheers and aloha,
amanda
NOTE: Just so you know, I will be re-posting the picture slide shows, because I was re-organising pictures and they may not show up now. They will be organised by day, so enjoy!
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