Byways House Salisbury

... but the line was always out the door and along the street and you couldn't book. Still, Bath is a city full of excellent places to eat. Plus I've just booked myself in for lunch at Jamie's 15 restaurant in London on my last day in the UK, so that should be awesome!

Anyway, back to Bath. The hostel was pretty average and the showers were horrible, but I loved Bath. Teresa and I had so much fun! There are tonnes of tourist attractions, especially if ...

Today several Trussell Trust staff and volunteers have bruised upper arms from loading hundreds of boxes filled with a reocrd breaking 3800+ Christmas Shoeboxes onto a rather large lorry... The bruises were worth it to see the lorry pull away and begin its 2,450km trip to Bulgaria to transform thousands of Christmases.

We have to say a huge thankyou to all those who donated boxes and to all those hardy souls who braved the cold in ...

Booked flight today - Guatemala on Feb 22nd 2010. So to mark the occasion I thought I'd start my travel diary today as well.

Two months to go - and a lot of list-making, planning, shopping, getting vaccinated, freaking out, and bouncing with excitement to do!

... afternoon, we made it into the town of Bath. Di brought us to see the Circus (on a large roundabout) and the Royal Crescent (in a huge, open, green space) – two residential areas with interesting, curving architecture (the Royal Crescent was built by architect John Wood, Jr., in 1767-75).

Previously in the day, the rain had been of the misty kind, but during our stops to the Circus and the Royal Cresent, it turned into a bona fide downpour, so Di loaned ...

But it also has a big Cathederal, and this one houses one of 3 copies of the Magna Carta.

I noticed that 2 of the little praying areas (I'm not a church goer so I don't know what those gated off areas are) still had their original painting on ceiling. I can't understand why (during the reformation I think) they got rid of the beautiful colourfully painted ceilings - whitewash is soo soulless ironic really. Now there are only a few churchs in the country you can see them in ...

After Stonehenge, we started driving towards Bath which is a couple of hours away, so the driver gave us a bit of a tour on the way there. We saw things like the "worlds smallest prison", and a horse scraped into the side of a hill exposing white soil? beneath the grass. Apparently it was put there to signify if you were in a certain kingdom or not (forget the king's name of that area). We also learned that the Red Lion Pub is the most ...

... i cant remember exactly) still layed. It was so cool and you got amazing views of the town because the castle was build on a raised area of town.

anyways, i am going to stop typing now because this computer is SO SLOW and it takes like 10 seconds to show up what im typing and i'm about to throw it through a window, so it's better if i just stop and try again later.

BYEEEE.

... papers are all signed, they just need to get in the mail! I was thinking about it on the bus ride home, how I almost went to the Netherlands. I think I would have always regretted it if I did. I have been waiting to study abroad in France since I was in High School. I cant wait. The program runs Jan 20-May 21, so it also means that I can travel with Brit and Chris in January which I am getting REALLY excited about. There are lots of good things ahead!!

... to take us there, and he told the lovely tale of a teenage girl who had once asked him upon approach to the stones, "why did they build it so close to the road?" Alas, unanswerable. Although that probably is his standard joke, I liked it and have used it many times as if I was the one overhearing. I can't say my first reaction wasn't, "hmm, intriguing question." But the stones were actually quite interesting. You can't get near them anymore of course. I politely kept ...

... amazing as we approached from the south but the kind lady wouldn't stop waffling. I left her in the field with the rest of our small group so that I could awe myself, going dreamy and drawing figures in my vision that could block the tourists out. It is a magnificent structure and well worth the visit for anyone going in that direction. I left for Street at noon ...