"everywhere is walking distance if you have the time."

this morning i woke up to my alarm blasting at 5:05am, scaring the living daylights out of me because i thought it was the taxi driver calling to say he was outside to pick us up. thankfully, that wasn't the case and it was simply my alarm calling me out of bed to get ready to depart for Dover Priory and its White Cliffs. we left campus at 6:00am promptly, only to discover that it was raining (we should have guessed) and to find our train delayed by 15 minutes. No one wants to wait at the train station for 45 minutes in the cold (yes, we were actually quite early for once)! but soon enough, the train came and I plopped myself into a seat at a table (I needed to get some homework done despite the early hour) where there was a boy wearing a lei with paint smeared on his face. i'm assuming it was a late night for him as he was surely hungover.

anyway, after 2.5 hours, we arrived in London once again (I almost feel like a local!). Kristen and I figured that instead of taking the tube we’d walk to the next station where we changed trains. Little did we know that the next 60 hours would involve the most walking that I have done since being in the virgin islands- although in the islands we were able to thumb a ride and hitch hike, whereas here it’s illegal. We arrived in Dover, greeted by cloudy skies. When is the weatherman ever right? (it had said that it would be sunny. in England? yeah right). we walked to town center and first visited the Dover Museum and the Bronze Gallery where we learned all about the history of this little town and saw numerous artifacts dating back to several hundred years BC., including pots, glassware, jewelry, coins, pins, tools, even skeletons! And then its main attraction was the oldest boat in the world that the town came across and dug up in 1992. It soaked in a glaze for 16 months and then was frozen in order to preserve it. It was made with four oak planks and beeswax to fill in the cracks. After wandering thru the museum we went up to the top of this gigantic hill where atop sits a large castle. Disappointingly, the main tower and museum were closed due to such high winds, so back down the hill we went and we walked towards the ocean. Dover has an extensive port , and we watched as truck after truck after truck drove off cargo ships. There was even a French cruise ship- apparently on a clear night you can see the lights of France! We walked along the shoreline trying to avoid getting splashed by the rough seas. We followed signs for Dover’s White Cliffs, which is another reason why the place is so famous. Up and up we hiked (this town is a huge workout, no need to join a gym!) and soon we were atop the town overlooking everything that it had to offer- the castle, the port, and the cliffs. I only wish that there were blue skies so that my pictures could show that the ocean really was there, but according to my camera the sky and sea made up one giant grey mass. the scenery was great in real life despite the conditions. The cliffs are a chalky white- and they’re literally chalky. Peering out over the cliffs is a bit creepy, though. With the wind, and the slippery mud, we were a tad nervous as we kept hiking up and up. I really wanted to see the Lighthouse, but it being 4pm already and the national park closing at 5pm with darkness approaching and 2 miles to go, we decided it wasn’t worth it. (The lighthouse wasn’t open to go into anyway, but it is the first lighthouse to use electricity for its main light). So we turned around and lost our footing and got our feet stuck in the mud several times more before we reached the bottom of the cliffs. We made our way to our guesthouse and settled in for the night, calling it quits early after a long, long day. I watched a bit of rugby, and honestly, I think I do like it more than football (American football, that is). Before I fell asleep I prayed that the castle would be open the next day, desperately wanting to explore its grounds.

We awoke the next morning to gloomy weather yet again. We decided to walk up more inclines (seriously, this place is a hiker’s heaven) to the Western Heights. There was wild cattle roaming about, and we had to be careful not to step in any of their huge piles of dung. Again we saw views of the town, but what I was still hoping for was the castle to be open. So we went into downtown to the tourist info center where they gave the castle a ring to see if everything was open. And to my delight, everything was open! We made the hike back up one of the many cliffs and after nearly being blown away, we got to see the Great Tower, which was recently redecorated with 2 million GBP of refurbishments. It was beautiful. Afterwards we went on a tour into an underground hospital and barracks (the castle was turned into a place of defense for the wars). There are 3 underground levels, and it just boggles my mind as to how they built such an extensive underground network! 2,000 soldiers could be housed in them. The tour ended at Admiralty Look-out but due to 70 mph winds we couldn’t go atop for fear of being blown over the cliffs. Next we saw the Roman pharos which was an extremely old lighthouse (or what’s left of it) which sits alongside the church of St-Mary-Castro. Finally, we were ready to head on to the town of Canterbury for the rest of our trip.

Upon arrival, we entered a lovely little park and then made our way to the Christ Church Cathedral of Canterbury, which was absolutely stunning and huge. Its tall ceilings and stain glass windows were beautiful, to say the least. After staring at it in awe, our stomachs were grumbling and we found a busy restaurant where we sat for nearly 2 hours resting our sore legs, feet, and backs. By the time we were leaving, in came the crowd to get the party started. Kristen and I still don’t know how these girls wear dresses in the dead of winter and on top of that, no tights! They must be immune to the cold. Anyway, after warming up we headed back into the windy weather where we met up with a true ghost hunter for a ghost tour. He showed us buildings downtown where murders have occurred, and where the presence of spirits and ghosts have been heard and/or seen. After this spooky little tour, I was wary of walking a mile in the dark to find our hostel, but it had to be done. The whole walk I had the same feeling I had after watching Paranormal Activity (I was told the entire movie was 100% true). We finally found it and when we gathered our key I told the receptionist how we had just got done the ghost tour. Her response? “Oh!, we just had paranormalists come to this hostel a little over a week ago to perform tests on whether there are spirits here or not!” My response? “Oh great, don’t tell me that.”

We settled into our room, (thank goodness it was an all-girls room this time) and soon enough one of the other girls who was staying at the hostel for the night came in and immediately started up a little chitchat. She turned out to be the sweetest thing too! She’s from Northern England, just graduated from Oxford U, and is now living and working in London. (Considering that she majored in history and politics, she was fascinated by the US’s method of voting and how we register with a political party). She is now working for BBC News in the city, and she offered for us to come visit her whenever we wanted, and even said we could stay at her place if ever we needed somewhere to crash. We stayed up talking for a while, and discovered that she had been to America (including the Carolinas, and it’s so funny because she instantly put on a southern drawl), Spain (apparently England’s “Florida”), China (to teach English), and several other places outside of Europe. Surprisingly, she has rarely travelled to the countries within Europe. A couple big cities in Italy and Spain were about it..

Sunday morning (this morning) I was ready to face the “facts” about the paranormal activity within the hostel. The receptionist pulled out a binder titled “The Ghost Files” (seriously?!). We read about the presences that were felt by these ghost hunters just 1.5 weeks ago, and learned of the different methods and tools they used. Somehow, they can “sense” the names of the people too and they had typed up what each ghost looked like and what his/her job was in the house, etc. It was quite interesting! We then made our way to St. Augustine’s Abbey, which was really neat. It’s a bunch of ruins that date back to 597 AD! What English people don’t understand is that over in America we don’t have all of these great cathedrals and castles that have so much history behind them. Afterwards, we found a charming little Indian/Moroccan restaurant that was serving an all-you-can-eat buffet. obviously we hopped right on that bandwagon! Inside we felt like we were situated in Aladdin’s time—the waitresses even wore those little cuplike hats. Then came about the trivia question/answer that I learned several years back: What nationality is Aladdin? If you guessed Arabic you’re wrong…it’s Chinese. Hard to believe, huh? Well, after stuffing ourselves, we made our way back to London where we switched trains to find ourselves back in Lancaster. Home sweet home (for now).

And, that’s all folks!