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| Leaving Wales |
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| This picture is entitled, "Wales countryside from a speeding tour bus" |
Next day of the trip- Saturday! We had another early morning combined with a
lovely long bus ride filled with cigarette smoke. This bus driver was pretty consistent- I’ll
give him that. Our first stop was at
Stourhead, every girl’s fantasy. This is
it ladies, the holy land. The place
where they filmed parts of “Pride and Prejudice,” Kierra Knightly version (and
therefore not as good as the REAL BBC 6-hour version). This is a HUGE estate complete with over
2,500 acres of beautiful gardens to explore.
It had everything I could have asked for – streams, lakes, birds, trees,
bridges, pavilions, rock arches, rock caves, statues, EVERYTHING. Commence construction on exact replica of
Stourhead.
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| Get ready for picture overload... |
We had a fantastic time
hiking around, exploring the area, and of course paying homage to the pavilion (the
Temple of Apollo, to be specific) where Darcy and Elizabeth meet in the pouring
rain. America is pretty dang awesome,
but we need to organize ourselves and start clearing off acres of land to make
room for estates like this. I suggest
starting with Wyoming, cause barely anyone lives there, right? At least that’s what my friends at school
from Wyoming tell me.
After reluctantly leaving Stourhead we made our way to
Stonehenge. This was one of my main
reasons for wanting to come on this study abroad, believe it or not. I took a class all on Thomas Hardy, and the
final scene in his novel, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, takes place
epically at Stonehenge. It’s an amazing,
tragic, and wretched book that everyone should read. A lot like Wuthering Heights, if you
like that kind of painfully tragic thing.
I do.
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| A bird colony lives there |
So at Stonehenge they don’t let
you chill right next to the stones like they do at Avebury. They keep all the scummy little tourists back
about 20 feet from the stones. But you
are able to walk all the way around Stonehenge and get a good look all around it.
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Keeping us far away from Stonehenge.
Probably a good idea though, seeing how we'd probably climb all over them if we were allowed any closer. |
But really, Stonehenge is
amazing. I can’t believe people actually
made it. It’s one of those moments where
you just can’t believe that you’re looking at something, because so well-known
and famous. It is so amazing to look at
and try to figure out the meaning behind it and why they went to all that work
to create it. Definitely worth the trip.
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| "Neolithic Bird Atop the Artistic Pillars" |
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There were all these crows with funny-looking (wow, that's not politically correct at all)
beaks around Stonehenge. Special Stonehenge crows. |
After (reluctantly) leaving
Stonehenge we went to Chawton to see the house Jane Austen wrote most of her
novels in. Austen lived there with her
mother and younger sister on the goodwill of her older brother, who had
inherited a fortune from an aunt. It was
a pretty big cottage for the day, and had the cutest little tour guides. They were these tiny little women who shared
our enthusiasm for Austen and loved showing us the smaller details of the
house. I even got to play a bit on Jane’s
piano forte while I was there! Every
girl’s dream J After walking
through her rooms we went on a little walk outside that Jane made weekly to the
church and her brother’s estate (which was right next to the church). It was a bit rainy outside, but that just
made it more romantic. I think my
feminine side has definitely come out more on this trip, which may be due to
the fact that I’ve seen so many fantastic historical spots (many that are
associated with Austen) or that I live with like 40 girls right now.
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| Jane's cottage |
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| Paying my respects to Jane |
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| Rainy outside Jane's house |
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| Little peek into the house |
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| Walk from Jane's to her brother's and the church |
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| Jane's brother's estate, with the church directly to the right |
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| In front of the church |
We stopped off for a bit in the
church she went to and then went outside to look at her mother and sister’s
graves. Then it was back on the bus and
a long 2 ½ hour ride back to the center.
We got dinner and ice cream for my friend Lyssa’s Birthday and then
watched “Pride and Prejudice” in honor of the day’s events. Overall a very successful two-day trip!
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| A religious place of religious worship |
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| The Austen graves |
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