Yesterday was quite a long day and I definitely slept in today. I'm now on the tube headed to Victoria Park for the last day of a ten day music festival. It seems to be Firefly style and I'm pumped.
So yesterday started off fearing I had missed my bus for my day long tour. My grad school friend tried to warn me, but Victoria Station and Victoria Coach Station are not the same place and it's actually a bit of a walk to the coach station from the underground station. After her advice I gave myself a half hour, and got to the station like 2 minutes before 7, when I thought I was leaving, however there was nothing no longer showing on the screens. I pulled out my ticket and read more thoroughly, my tour boarded at 7:45, it had just stated that tours start as early as 7 in much bigger font... So I was actually pretty early, which was good, had time to get breakfast which I otherwise would not have, even though my alarm went off early enough to do so... Seriously my morning self is the worst, if my life depended on her I'd be dead lol.
So first stop of the day was Windsor Castle.
The castle doesn't actually open until 9:30, and we got there at 8:30 but holey mackerel am I glad we did. That line was outrageous by the time we left and it was nice to not have too many other people there as I was going through the apartments. However I definitely could have spent more time there so I highly recommend heading out there on the many public transit options first thing in the morning on a weekday. When you first walk through after checking in there's a lovely view of the garden.
Then you get corralled towards the terrace and the first thing you see is an ice cream shop. Even though it was only 9:45 I of course got the award winning blackcurrant ice cream and a scoop of mint chip and enjoyed the terrace and reading all about the history of the construction of the castle over the years.
Then I headed into to view the estate rooms. You're not allowed to take pictures in here or in St. George's chapel. Which is a damn shame because there was so many picture worthy sights. Just so extravagant, everything, it's definitely hard to describe but very much worth the trip. And again, go early in the day cuz I was definitely annoyed with random bouts of congestion as I was going through and I'm sure as the day goes on you're at the mercy of the crowds speed which would have driven me mad. So many different rooms with different themes and so many paintings everywhere. The armour room was pretty interesting where they described where the swords originated from. It was interesting to learn that the king and queen had their own entire sides of the castle, basically an acknowledgment that they didn't marry for love, but for money and power, and they only had to see each other for obligatory outings and I guess to make heirs every once in a while. I found it funny that all the paintings in the king's bedroom was ladies with their tits out. While we were there the flag indicated the Queen was in, but her quarters are on the opposite side of where the public tours the castle. I eventually made my way to St. George's chapel which is apparently where Prince Henry and Megan Markel were married.
The square structure in the corner of the building, middle of the photo and as far away as possible is where the Queen lives. She apparently is not a fan of Buckingham Palace at all. According to the flag, she was in while I was there. I wonder what her favorite ice cream flavor is cuz I have a hunch she was the one that had to approve it being on the terrace and was probably psyched about it.
I hadn't been in a church of my own volition for a long time, it really was beautiful. Shortly after entering they had those intention candles, light one for those that have passed. I've lost a lot of family across the years, no one too recently luckily, but I decided to light one, for all of them, but mostly my maternal grandmother. I genuinely feel a kinship with her and I desperately wish I had gotten more time with her, I think she would have loved this adventure of mine. I made my way through, learning more about how quickly history changes when a 20 year old dies in childbirth or when they need to go to the 57th in line to find a practicing Protestant. The Queen's parents are buried in this Chapel, there's a room dedicated to them, I wonder if the chapel is closed on the day of their deaths so she can grieve in peace... There's a little room at the end of the tour that they say is for private prayer, I decided to go in, performed the sign of the cross in who knows how long and attempted to pray. I mostly just sent thanks to the universe for the opportunity to be on this trip and all the good in my life, but as I sat there it eventually turned into a conversation to my "higher self" if you will. To past me, present me, future me, just an acknowledgment of everything I've done to get to this point, and a promise to keep moving in this direction of growth and realignment. I don't think there's this being that passes judgement on us, I think in the end we are all our own god, and the only judgement at the end of the life we have lived that matters will be our own.
Well our tour guide was named Lucy, and she was like an irreverent Mary Poppins. Had on a green dress with black polkadots and bright blue umbrella she'd hold up for us to see. She warned us on the bus that we had a tight timeschedule and that the bus waits for no one. I headed back when I needed to but made the mistake of thinking the bathroom would be quick. I seriously will never understand why they give the same amount of real estate and stalls to men as women. That's a horrible planning decision and definitely decided by men. We should have two thirds of the space in all honesty, so dumb. So I ended up being five minutes late and they had just started to pull out but the driver saw my red hat and stopped. Never been more grateful for this red hat of mine. I however passed a mom and daughter on our tour that were waiting for an elevator, I mentioned this to Lucy but we didn't wait. So word of advice, take departure times seriously. I was early the rest of the trip lol.
The next stop was Bath, a UNESCO world heritage site. Where I didn't have the time to see much else other than the museum which was very cool though. I recommend spending a whole day here or two if you can.
At the end of the tour they allow you to taste the water from the hot spring with warnings that it isn't great. I tasted it and it was fine, just warm. Then I read a quote from some Roman from forever ago complaining that it was leady. LOL my Philly ass is so used to leady taste I couldn't tell. Once you leave the tour Bath Abbey is right outside. I didn't have a chance to go in unfortunately.
From Bath we headed to Lycock for a late lunch at the eldest pub in town, built in 1361. The town only has four roads. They also have strict rules about modernization and you won't see any satellite dishes or anything. Because of this a lot of period productions are filmed here like Downtown Abbey and Harry Potter.
Harry Potter's parent's house.
In one of the last towns before reaching Stonehenge Lucy pointed out this stone domed windowless building, telling us it was the town prison, and that if anyone ever got way too drunk and disorderly they'd be put there for the night, hence the term blind drunk.
Finally Stonehenge. I didn't take a lot of photos here, I mostly just took it in and sat on a bench and wrote in my journal. It was so crazy to have the Neolithic monument to my left and a highway to my right. They still don't fully understand what Stonehenge is, but it's clearly a solar and lunar calendar, as well as a burial ground with a slaughter stone. Lucy our tourguide is an anthropologist by trade and she postulated that since many other "henges" have been found, that perhaps it could be likened to a cathedral with the others being churches. They have found animal remains proving people from as far as Scotland traveled to Stonehenge.
There's a processional avenue leading to Stonehenge, it leads you to believe this was an annual pilgrimage to gather and honor those of high importance. I love this idea of them being doorways into the next life... And people from these various tribes gathering around to feast and dance and honor their loved ones. I had the urge to let my feet touch the grass where I was sitting so I did just that. Crazy to say but I definitely felt such an energy coming from the ground through my feet and to my heart. I just felt very grounded and alive. I decided this was a great place to pick a flower for England, and I eventually found a bright red poppy.
Once I finally got back to the city around 8:30 I headed to a place called Poppies that a few people mentioned on the tour being known for it's fish and chips. Man was this rec right on point. The place was founded by Pop in 1952 and the decor hasn't changed, nor the playlist. The whole place is a throwback and I loved it and found myself dancing in my seat as I ate my meal and enjoyed the on the house mushy peas my server insisted I had to try. It was a really nice way to end the night and having to walk through Chinatown on my way home was certainly enjoyable as well.
After such a full day on Saturday it was so nice to spend Sunday chilling in a park at a music festival. When I first got there I headed to a stage that I thought was for Julien Baker but was instead for KOKOKO and I ended up staying because their energy was fire and I found myself enthralled with a group of people just freely dancing and showing each other affection and just you felt the love and good vibes coming from them. For a moment I wished I wasn't alone, but the energy around me was so powerful and all of a sudden I remembered a story I saw floating on the internet of a man's young daughter just learning to speak that would shout out happy randomly when she was just happy. In that moment I knew I just was happy to be at this festival dancing in the sun among so many people from all over hearing all sorts of languages and briefly wondered if this was anything like the feast they'd have before the ceremony at Stonehenge.
Eventually I headed back into the City but it was quite mayhem leaving the park where several gates were closed. I ended up missing the overground I wanted, and then proceeded to wing it home. I ended up having to walk nearly 3 miles by the time I got back, but there was a McDonald's and it had gotten chilly and those warm fries were heavenly. I got a chance to see Little Ben and eventually a spectacular view of Vauxhall while crossing the bridge. I was so very happy to see it and was lucky enough to end the night on a video chat with my best friend who happened to be watching Lady who promptly head butted the phone to say hello and my heart nearly leapt out of my chest. I will certainly be happy to see her when I get home.
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