Jul 25, 2013
Friday: I almost missed my bus. I made it with a minute to spare.
I blame Carl. He shouldn't let a person with a guide book of his country decide
on what time to leave. Basically there was a lot of running between metro
transfers and to the Victoria Coach Station. I was supposed to be there 10mins
beforehand as the bus driver so nicely told me when I was getting on. Sorry
Carl, next time, don't listen to tourists!
I hadn't seen Tash since she left almost 2 years ago. She had become a
close friend of mine and I missed her quirkiness. It's great that she was in
town for the summer.
Got off the bus, found a taxi and made my way to the university.
Luckily it's easy to spot Tash, she's got bright bleached hair. I spotted her
right when I turned around. It was awesome to see her! A bit surreal as well.
She had one more class, a meeting and then we could have a mini reunion. Since
she was staying in the university, she also ate at the cafeteria. She let me
use her lanyard so I could eat free. Score! Dropped my backpack at her room
then headed to town for some beer and catch-up and afterwards a movie (End of
the World).
Saturday: What a lazy day! We basically bummed around the whole
day. Woke up close to noon, had some lunch, laid down in the shades of the
trees and read (I fell asleep), went inside and watched Torchwood (it started
getting foggy and chance of rain was high), had some dinner, more Torchwood and
then went to sleep. It was a nice and relaxing day. 
Sunday: Thanks to our laziness the day before, we were told that
the Cathedral was free on Sundays! Horrah! Ate some food and headed down to
town to line up for the cathedral. The line wasn't too bad, it moved along
pretty well. When we got to the ticket booth, we found out it wasn't free.
Boo.. But I guess that was ok since I wanted to see it.
The Cathedral was massive! I really liked looking at all the
sculptures.
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| This is where Becket was murdered. |
Tash told me the story of Thomas Becket which I will try to remember
correctly now. Becket was the Archbishop of Canterbury and he was friends with
King Henry but then King Henry wanted power over the Church and Becket did not
like that. A constitution was made that gave King Henry power over the church,
Becket wouldn't sign it, he fled and was exiled in France for 2 years. A
compromise was made and he later returned to Canterbury. Henry is said to have
uttered words that were interpreted by his men as wishing Becket killed. So 4
knights interpreted it as a royal command and set out to Canterbury where they
killed him inside the Cathedral.
Soon after Becket became a martyr and 2 years
later he was canonised by Pope Alexander III. King Henry walked all the way to
Canterbury to Becket's tomb and later became one of the most popular pilgrimage
sites in England. Becket's assassins fled north where they remained for about a
year. They were not arrested and neither did Henry confiscate their lands.
Seeking forgiveness, the assassins traveled to Rome and were ordered by the
Pope to serve as knights in the Holy Lands for fourteen years. The End.
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| Royal baby announcement. |
While we were there, the choir came in and started practicing. It was
really nice to hear the singing while being inside. We stayed for a bit and
just listened.
Afterwards we went and had lunch at a pub. It was really good to eat a
real burger and chips. Delicious!
Walked around a bit and bought 10pounds of mostly chocolate from the
pound store. It was amazing! Giant Cadbury chocolate bars for only a pound!
That would be about 5,000KRW (about 5USD).
Walked past this beautiful scenery along a bridge. That is exactly what
I think an English countryside looks like. Beautiful.
Once we got back to Tash's dorm room, she went to work on bleaching her
hair even more. The cup that the bleach came in looked like a slurpee cup.
Took some photos, watched some Torchwood and packed a bit.
Made it back to Latimer Road just fine. Got a little lost at one of the
big train stations, I think it was Paddington Station. I didn't know that I had
to actually leave the station to transfer. Unless I didn't have to do that and
I just ended up paying more....?
