Post 13- Wales Excursion

An over cap to this weekend is Thursday excursion to South Wales, my weekend in Ireland, Snow Patrol concert and St. Patrick’s day. Phew!

So it made most logical sense to split it up into 4 blogs.

 

Our excursion on Thursday, March 12^th was to Southern Wales. We boarded Arleen

 

 

and set off to the Big Pit. The Big Pit is a coalmine that used to be a working one, but is now a museum. When I say museum, I don’t mean galleries of pictures, but this was a tour through the actual underground coal mine.

 

            Like Mari, our trip organizer, said, it was important for us to see a very different side of England. So far we’ve seen all the history having to do with education – like Oxford, Christianity – all the cathedrals, and royalty/parliament. This was very different because this was a tour of a coalmine. This tour told us about what it was like to live life as a coal miner. A coal miner had a very poor life.

            Our Big Pit tour guide took us down underground in one of those metal-gate elevators. And explained the different parts of how the mine worked, as well as the life of the people who were miners.

            There were interesting things about how it worked down there, like how they used horses, who lived down there and almost never saw sunlight.

            The miner life was the thing that struck me the most. Someone who was born into a mining family was basically stuck there for life. As a child, at the age of 6… SIX!.. they would be put to work in the mine. Six year olds would have the door job. They would open and close doors inside the mine to let people through and not let air though. They would work 12-hour shifts, and if their family could not afford a candle, they would be in total darkness most of the time. They would also be attached to their door, as to not stray away and get lost in the dark.

            As a miner, a family would live in a house owned by the mine owner and pay rent to him. They would get paid in vouchers for the mine store, so they would buy all their food and supplies there, of course being ripped off, since they could not shop anywhere else with these vouchers. And of course, the only skills they had were how to mine. This was a life that was pretty much impossible to leave. Miners had to follow the rules of the mine owner because if they were fired, they would have nowhere to go. They would not have a house, a job, or any skills to find a different job.

            So they were forever stuck to live poor, to work 12 hour shifts, with no difference to being a man, woman, or child. It is really sad that even the horses in the mines were treated better than the people, because they were always well fed.

            Also it was very dangerous down there. If there were nitrogen in the air, (which I guess happens if water leaks in), people would die without even knowing that they are dying. They would just keep breathing it for a few minutes until they just fell over dead. If you saw someone fall over dead in front of you, you RUN, because you are also breathing this air. If there was an explosion, they were stuck there to burn. (And explosions did happen from the way they used electricity down there). If the ceiling collapsed, they would have no way to get out.

            Really, it is very sad. We are so lucky today to live in a time with laws against this kind of thing, in many parts of the world, anyway. So this trip was more depressing than anything else..

 

            I found the tour guide’s accent cool because it was very different from the English accent I keep hearing. Actually, I hear differences in different English accents now. When I got here, there was only one, English. .. but now, I hear so many different ones, like how Californians sound different from Texans, different from Minnesotans, New Yorkers, etc. Well, I could not hear it before, but I hear them now. I love it J

 

We couldn’t take pictures down there because we were not allowed to bring anything electronic down there, including our watches. So sorry, no pictures.

 

Then we went to a Castle, the Chepstow Castle to be specific. It was pretty cool. It’s amazing to me that castles are real! They seem like such fairy tale things, that I have a hard time believing that they actually exist. (Or remnants of them, anyway.) I decided to do back handsprings and stuff on the grass in the castle. T’was a good time.

 

Back Handspring at Chepstow Castle

 

 

Here is a view off the side of the Castle:

 

Chepstow Casle View

 

That was all for our excursion. 

Post 12- Glastonbury & Wells

Hey folks!

This past Thursday’s excursion (March 5, 2009) was to Glastonbury and Wells.

 

At 9 am, I was at the coach park (parking lot for busses) to meet Arleen (our bus). .. Yes, our bus has a name .. I should take a picture of her next time for you guys so you believe me.

 

We first headed off to Glastonbury.

 

Glastonbury is a very small town not far from Bath with a huge history. Glastonbury’s history includes Jesus Christ, the Holy Grail and King Arthur.

 

We got a tour of the Glastonbury Abbey. Our tour guide was a lady who works at the Abbey. At the beginning of the tour, she told us that everything she will tell us not necessarily fact, but it is what is believed here. A lot of it has great support, and some might be myth. We are to decide for ourselves what is real and not. I guess the same goes to you from my rendition.

 

First though, this is me using the “Dog Loo”

(For you slower ones, loo is bathroom here. I hear it all the time, like when someone needs to go, and I am using the only bathroom in the house.)

 

 

Anyway. The most important place of history in this place is that is it believed that the first church, (EVER), was built here. It was built by Jesus’ great uncle, Joseph of Arimathea in Glastonbury, which was then pretty much an island at the time. The guide told us there are a few stories of how this happened, it might have been just Joseph who built it after Jesus told him to, it might have been them together, or it could have been Jesus. All three of those stories could be true. That original church burned down in a big fire that still shows in an ash layer underground. When it burned down, they built the huge stone church that is the Glastonbury Abbey. This one was built in 712. If I understand correctly, this is the first stone church.

 

            The church was destroyed by King Henry VIII in the 1500’s. The ruins still stand.

 

           

 

The other famous legend of this place was that King Arthur lived somewhere close to here. His and his wife, Guinevere’s bones/bodies were discovered here in 1191, and were later reburied on the property of the Abbey. It is said that the Holy Grail is hidden somewhere here, but of course, no one has ever found it.

 

We also got a lecture in the Abbot’s kitchen (Abbot= main guy in the Abbey), about how the monks lived in this church, what they ate and did. That was pretty interesting. The life of a monk sounds very hard, but it was a lot better than the poor life in England. At least they had good food to eat everyday.

 

After the Glastonbury Abbey, we all took a hike up to the Glastonbury Tor. A Tor is a big hill, basically. This one is famous for St. Michael's Tower, which is at the top of the Tor, as well as being part of the King Arthur legends and the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey was hung there when King Henry VIII ordered the Abbey be destroyed.

 

It was quite a hike to get up there. It didn’t look that far from the bottom, but it took a lot of energy to get up all those stairs. The view from the top was great though.

 

              

 

We then had a little free time to get lunch and check out the town. The town, like I said, is pretty tiny. After a delicious pasty, cookie and milkshake (I know.. I’m a pig), we checked out the town, but there wasn’t much to see. The town is known as “alternative”. The shops are kind of a hippie-ish/witchcraft theme. There weren’t many, and they were very small.

 

            Anyway, we boarded Arleen to head to Wells. In Wells, we also got an official tour of a cathedral, this time the Wells Cathedral. This one is from 1239. If you look closely, you can see statues on the building. There are about 300 of them all around the cathedral. Each a statue of a real person in history. Not all are identified of who they are statues of.

 

  

 

This is from the inside:

 

  

 

It did look a little strange that there were modern looking inverted arches. (Look at the first picture, the far back.. left half of the photo). Our tour guide explained that they are not modern at all. They are from 1338 from when some of the cathedral started “sinking” into the ground and something needed to be done. An architect thought of this idea. The X arches are attached to the main columns to keep them supporting each other and it has kept the cathedral together all the way to today.

 

This big stained glass window is from 1340.

 

 

And this is the oldest piece of wooden furniture. It dates back to 1120.

 

 

See, told ya.

 

 

This clock is the second-oldest surviving clock in England. It was made in 1390. Isn’t that incredible? According to Wikipedia, the original mechanism is still running, but it is now in the Museum of London, not here.

 

 

The outer hand, the sun, is the hour hand. It's a 24 hour circle, so being at 3 o'clock, it looks like 1:30, but its 3. The minute hand is the star in the circle second from outside. Its at the bottom a little to the right.. see it? It was 3:28 or so when I took that picture.

 

Do you like this “picture tour” of what I saw?

The next picture is of a weird staircase leading up to the Chapter House. This was basically a courtroom in the church.

 

 

            When we walked into the Chapter Room, I heard a lot of people have the same reaction. The room felt like heaven. We had to walk up a staircase to walk into this very bright, white room.

 

 

(It doesn’t look bright in this next picture, but trust me, it looked more like the previous picture .. I just wanted to put in the next one because I like it.)

 

 

The defendant would sit on that center circle seat, and all the important men of the court would sit around the outside. There is a seat for each one. (See the plaques with names at the top of each seat?)

 

Lastly, the tour guide walked us to the famous little enclosed little choir men’s street. This street and houses were built in 1363 so that the choir men of the cathedral had a safe place to live. Still to this day, the only people who live on this street are the choir men and other people who are employed by the cathedral.

 

  

 

So, as you can see, this tour was all about old, historic cathedrals. To me, it is just unbelievable to see buildings from 800 years ago that are standing strong. I don’t know anything about architecture, and it is overwhelming for me to try to understand how well these cathedrals were built to still stand after so long. It also blows my mind that the people of the 1100’s were so sophisticated in how to do this.

 

 

Post 11- End of Feb Weekend

Last weekend was not a travel weekend, but I thought I’d write about it anyway.

 

Thursday after our excursion to Oxford, everyone decided to go out. There is a pub/bar here called Belushi’s that a lot of people went to 2 Thursdays ago and said it was really fun, so we went. Thursday night is special at Belushi’s because its “Ladies Night.” All that means is discounts on drinks for girls. The best offer was 2-for-1 cocktails, so I enjoyed a couple of those. Everyone danced all night, then took taxis home.

Here are pictures from Thursday night (mostly of me and Bailee, since she’s the rabid picture taker):

 

           

 

            Yes, Sonia, I am wearing the sweater you sent me!

 

On Friday, during the day, I had my first Fish & Chips here. FINALLY, RIGHT?? Then Lauren, Angela and I went to the train station to finally buy our train tickets for all the times we need to get to London.. but somehow.. it did not work out. I got train prices for the dates I needed, but I did not buy the tickets. (That’s the goal for tomorrow now.)

 

At night, Lauren, Angela, Henry and I met up with our friend Miles. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned him, but he is someone we met one of our first nights here, and have hung out with him a bunch since. Anyway, he is a musician, and told us he was playing a gig so we went. I ran into Emma and Vicky Baskerville there.. (if you want to know how I know them.. I’ll give you a clue, the gym I go to is called Baskerville’s Gymnastics… yes, their family owns it, and they coach there along with their parents.)

The gig was at this charity event to raise money for the British Heart Foundation, or something along those lines. The event was put on by a girl, who had a pretty good turnout of people, but it wasn’t too well organized. For example, she had a 3-legged race, but didn’t bring things to tie people’s legs together.

We waited for a long time for Miles to play. Waiting and waiting.. Then the head girl announced about the 3-legged race. Lauren and I were like, why not!! Emma and Vicky also decided to do it. Lauren grabbed the belt off her pea-coat, and we went outside and tied our legs together. I told her to tie it tight, because I thought; it would be easier that way. My reasoning was, when one person moved, there was no stall time to mess the rhythm up, and we would move together easily. BOY, WAS I WRONG!! Being tied so tight made it so much harder! And by harder, I mean that when one of us moved, the other did not have a chance to think to catch their balance, and yes, I fell. I fell toward with a straight body, kind of into pushup position, onto the wet ground. (My fall wasn’t as bad as the guy who decided to do the race still holding a pint of beer in his hand. When he fell, he ended up with a bloody hand because he fell on top of the glass that broke in his fall.. genius eh?) I got back up and we kept going. The run was around the block, and the hardest part was not even the being tied, but in my opinion, the combination of running and laughing so hard. My stomach hurt and I felt like I could barely breathe, but it was so fun. We ended up pre-last, I think. But we didn’t cheat like some people did!!

This is Lauren and I with our tie:

 

When we went back inside, Miles told us he already played and we missed it. We were like, “WHAT!?? We were only gone for that race! It was like 10 minutes!” But I guess he only played like 2 songs, because they were missing a mic, and it doesn’t work so well without a mic..

Then, they were having a pushup contest. Two or three boys went, and I was the first brave girl to go. It was how many can you do in 20 seconds. I did 21. Not bad eh? 6 months ago I would have been able to do wayyy more.. oh well.

 

Lauren and I walked home, picking up a delicious steak wrap on the way. It was a good night.

 

Saturday was great because I got to see my first football game!!

First, I spent the morning trying to get some postcards done. I went down to this area 20 min walk from my house where there is a post office. I went into this little library, and wrote 5 postcards, before it was noon. (The post office closes at 12:30 on sats.) So I went and sent the 5 out of the 30 or so I need to do. I guess a small accomplishment. Then I went home and soon after left for the game. The game was at Twerton Park, which was a 30 min walk from my house. 10 minutes in, I walked by Lauren’s house and we kept walking together. Online, I read the game starts at 3:30. Our plan was to get there at 2:30. With me leaving the house 15 mins late, and getting lost on the way, we didn’t get there till 3:10, only to find out that the game started at 3. Bummer! But that’s ok.

The game was Team Bath (University of Bath’s team), versus Dorchester,  team from about a 2 hour drive away. Bath was really good! They won 3-0. Number 11 scored, then 10, then 11 again. Not that you know who those people are, but neither do I, really. Anyway, it was a good time, although mellow. Their university games here are not big like ours.

This is some pics of on the way to the game, the game, and on the way back:

                    

 

            Saturday NIGHT was a blast. Everyone met at Wetherspoons, the usual meeting place. It is a super crowded, cheap, student-type pub. From there, we went to Opa! Opa is a bar I hadn’t been to before. I was amazed by the place. It was made so that the walls sometimes looked like rocks and there was an outside area. Walking through this place, seriously felt like a Disneyland ride. Like Pirates of the Caribbean or something. I loved it. It got wayyyy too crowded later in the night, so I would like to go back there on a less busy night, maybe a Wednesday or Thursday.

Here’s a couple pics from there:

  

 

Sunday, Lauren and I went to Bristol. We wanted to bike or walk there. There is a 13 mile bike/walkway from Bath to Bristol, but we decided against it and just took the bus. We didn’t really do anything exciting there.. just shopped. In one store most specifically, Primark. It was super cheap. I bought a bunch of stuff, a sweater, nylons, jewelry, a scarf, flip-flops, and a few more things. It was fun. Sunday night, I stayed in.

That is all! Thought I’d share it though, because it was pretty eventful, even though I didn’t really travel anywhere, (except Bristol, but that’s not too far.)