This is my travel journal from my study abroad trip to the UK and France. The names of my teachers and classmates have been changed for privacy reasons.
DAY 20 - June 8, 11:15 am - Train
Sitting on a train to Salisbury, going to Stonehenge.
The last time I was here, I saw just about every major tourist attraction in London, but I never got to see Stonehenge. See, the tour company had booked us on the solstice and the place is always closed on the solstice. Talk about poor planning! It's not like this was a surprise. What, was some guy in the agency going "Well, last year it was closed on the solstice, but surely it wouldn't...It's closed again?! How's a person supposed to predict when the solstice is gonna happen?"
Five minute googling directions, and I made my way to Waterloo Station and hopped on a train to Salisbury. (Our tuition covered all these travel passes and I'm gonna use them!) It's not too hard to get around here. I just asked an officer which platform I needed. As soon as I walked away from him to have a look around, PIGEON! Yes, I got hit in the head by a pigeon again! Got a picture of the little bastard so I can report him for harassment.
Anyway, I was looking for something to do until the train came and I saw some people with cameras. And I thought "Oh, something's going on!" I wandered over to watch what I thought was a news report or something, because the camera was aimed at one professional-looking woman. Then I saw a clapper board and realized that this was for a show or a movie or something.
I could sort of make out the title on the board, and I slipped up to a guy who looked like he was part of the production team to ask what was happening. They were filming scenes for a TV show called Spooks. The episode they were filming just then is supposed to air in November, so I'm going to try and catch it then. I want to know what was going on in that scene. They did several takes of the woman just walking through the station. I snapped one picture, as discreetly as I could because I remembered how the ushers at the theatre were and I didn't want to get shooed away.
It was really interesting to watch, anyway. I got to see all this stuff I learned about in film acting class in action. First off, this answered a question I'd always had about how they go about filming in public places. I wondered if they had to rope off an area and hire a couple dozen extras or something, but they just put down some spike tape and go! Well, I assume they have to call ahead and pay a fee first. Everyone in the area who isn't part of the show just goes about their business as usual. There's usually some people stationed at both end who tell the other people that there's filming going on and to just act casual.
I didn't see any of those people, I just wandered in. Not on camera, of course. That would have been stupid. I just hung around with a couple other people, trying to stay off camera and watched. Did my best to stay out of everyone's way. There was a camera almost behind me and I moved, but nobody actually told me to scoot over so I can assume that I wasn't in the sight line. Or maybe the back of my head's going to appear briefly in some making-of documentary.
Anyhoo, they packed everything up in handy little carts and moved down the station. I followed to see if they would film some more and because they were headed towards my platform. I didn't get to see the rest of the shooting since it was time to board the train.
So here I am, alternately writing and smiling at the cute guy across the aisle. Like I've said earlier, the last time I was in London, it was a week-long tour and I saw just about all of the major tourist attractions. I rode the Eye, saw the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham, went on lots of bus tours...but that's a story for another day. We didn't have a lot of time to actually stop and enjoy the culture, so that's what I'll be doing a lot of this week.
Besides, why would I want to have the same adventure as last time when I could be making a new one?
Five minutes later-
It's going to be a long train ride, so here's an anecdote from my last trip:
Not only are the escalators at the Underground very long, there's also a certain etiquette. Stand on the right, walk on the left. This is a very efficient thing to do. Well, two of my classmates at the time didn't get the memo, and took up the entire left side during a busy hour. This started a pileup of irritated business-people, but the kids were further up than our teacher could reach. So all these bystanders were treated to a loud, increasingly Southern-accented, argument between teacher and students
Later that night-
Stonehenge was amazing. I think I took enough pictures to build a small 3D model. When I got off the train station, I had a little trouble because I tried to go through the barrier with my tube ticket and not my train ticket, and I'm sure there's some train station employees chuckling about that now. Went outside to find the bus right there. I was pretty sure it was the right one, because it had "STONEHENGE TOUR" written on it in big letters. The ride cost about ₤15 with a student discount, and that was for a round trip plus admission. Not a bad deal. We drove through Salisbury, which is a pretty little town, and then all the way to Stonehenge where we had to stop and wait out a sudden downpour.
Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long for everything to clear up. I picked up a free audio tour and listened to dueling narrators tell me interesting facts about the stones. It was weird: they never actually acknowledged each other, but their voices would kind of shove each other aside like "Move over, Skippy. I'll show you how to lead a freakin' tour!" And it was like any other audio tour where you see a sign with a number on it and hit the corresponding track. (Yet you still have to make sure you don't walk ahead of the tour.)
It's a beautiful place. Quite literally in the middle of nowhere. After the bus stop and tourist buildings, there's nothing but hills and trees as far as the eye can see, and the road disappears into the horizon. It's very calm, serene, windy...good place for a mysterious stone monument.
You walk a wide circle around the stones, but you're not allowed to actually get close enough to touch them. It's not surprising. I've seen what people do to rest stop bathrooms, so there's no way tourists should be allowed to touch the stones. (See? This is why we can't have nice things!) They are smaller than you'd expect. That's probably because you're at a distance, or because everything is bigger in your imagination. But I'm pleased to say that it's exactly as mystical and awe-inspiring as you'd think.
At one point near the end of the tour, the audio guide said "You will find the seventh marker next to the TARDIS, which looks like a sentry box." I stopped and listened to that bit again. And then one more time just to make sure I had heard what I thought I heard. So I shrugged and went onto marker seven and stepped into a blue police box with twenty other people. We signed a liability waiver and got to go see Stonehenge under construction. There was a lot of running involved and I got kidnapped by aliens, but altogether it was a really good deal for ₤15.
You may have noticed I'm kidding. There was nothing next to marker seven. I even took a picture of it. I even went to far as to casually ask one of the tour guides about it, but she didn't know anything. Well, after the tour was over there wasn't anything to do but stare at sheep until the bus came back. When I got back to Salisbury, the driver made us all get off at a stop a few blocks away from the train station. A random woman in the street walked me halfway because we were going the same direction, and I'd asked nicely.
We also had a lovely conversation, because talking to strangers is fun, kids! Here's an anecdote from my last trip: my friend and I met this nice woman named Gladys who had lots of children and even more grandchildren. She spoke about five languages, and she told us about all these places we needed to visit in Paris, and where to find good prices. I still think of her as one of the most interesting women I've ever met.
I got back just in time to meet up with my pen pal again. We hung around the lobby and talked some more, then we went to eat at the Giraffe. I had a chicken quesadilla that was surprisingly good. Also, he prevented me from wandering into traffic.
I'm not joking, I've almost been hit by a large amount of cars on this trip. When I was a kid, we had it drilled into our heads that before crossing the street, we should look left, then right, then left again. This doesn't work when the cars are driving on the left side of the road, though. It wasn't so much of a problem in Edinburgh because we took the bus everywhere and most of the places we walked didn't have much traffic.
Here...wow. I can't believe I wanted to try cycling through these streets. I already suck as a pedestrian, let's throw a bicycle into the mix!
Sitting on a train to Salisbury, going to Stonehenge.
The last time I was here, I saw just about every major tourist attraction in London, but I never got to see Stonehenge. See, the tour company had booked us on the solstice and the place is always closed on the solstice. Talk about poor planning! It's not like this was a surprise. What, was some guy in the agency going "Well, last year it was closed on the solstice, but surely it wouldn't...It's closed again?! How's a person supposed to predict when the solstice is gonna happen?"
Five minute googling directions, and I made my way to Waterloo Station and hopped on a train to Salisbury. (Our tuition covered all these travel passes and I'm gonna use them!) It's not too hard to get around here. I just asked an officer which platform I needed. As soon as I walked away from him to have a look around, PIGEON! Yes, I got hit in the head by a pigeon again! Got a picture of the little bastard so I can report him for harassment.
Anyway, I was looking for something to do until the train came and I saw some people with cameras. And I thought "Oh, something's going on!" I wandered over to watch what I thought was a news report or something, because the camera was aimed at one professional-looking woman. Then I saw a clapper board and realized that this was for a show or a movie or something.
I could sort of make out the title on the board, and I slipped up to a guy who looked like he was part of the production team to ask what was happening. They were filming scenes for a TV show called Spooks. The episode they were filming just then is supposed to air in November, so I'm going to try and catch it then. I want to know what was going on in that scene. They did several takes of the woman just walking through the station. I snapped one picture, as discreetly as I could because I remembered how the ushers at the theatre were and I didn't want to get shooed away.
It was really interesting to watch, anyway. I got to see all this stuff I learned about in film acting class in action. First off, this answered a question I'd always had about how they go about filming in public places. I wondered if they had to rope off an area and hire a couple dozen extras or something, but they just put down some spike tape and go! Well, I assume they have to call ahead and pay a fee first. Everyone in the area who isn't part of the show just goes about their business as usual. There's usually some people stationed at both end who tell the other people that there's filming going on and to just act casual.
I didn't see any of those people, I just wandered in. Not on camera, of course. That would have been stupid. I just hung around with a couple other people, trying to stay off camera and watched. Did my best to stay out of everyone's way. There was a camera almost behind me and I moved, but nobody actually told me to scoot over so I can assume that I wasn't in the sight line. Or maybe the back of my head's going to appear briefly in some making-of documentary.
Anyhoo, they packed everything up in handy little carts and moved down the station. I followed to see if they would film some more and because they were headed towards my platform. I didn't get to see the rest of the shooting since it was time to board the train.
So here I am, alternately writing and smiling at the cute guy across the aisle. Like I've said earlier, the last time I was in London, it was a week-long tour and I saw just about all of the major tourist attractions. I rode the Eye, saw the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham, went on lots of bus tours...but that's a story for another day. We didn't have a lot of time to actually stop and enjoy the culture, so that's what I'll be doing a lot of this week.
Besides, why would I want to have the same adventure as last time when I could be making a new one?
Five minutes later-
It's going to be a long train ride, so here's an anecdote from my last trip:
Not only are the escalators at the Underground very long, there's also a certain etiquette. Stand on the right, walk on the left. This is a very efficient thing to do. Well, two of my classmates at the time didn't get the memo, and took up the entire left side during a busy hour. This started a pileup of irritated business-people, but the kids were further up than our teacher could reach. So all these bystanders were treated to a loud, increasingly Southern-accented, argument between teacher and students
Later that night-
Stonehenge was amazing. I think I took enough pictures to build a small 3D model. When I got off the train station, I had a little trouble because I tried to go through the barrier with my tube ticket and not my train ticket, and I'm sure there's some train station employees chuckling about that now. Went outside to find the bus right there. I was pretty sure it was the right one, because it had "STONEHENGE TOUR" written on it in big letters. The ride cost about ₤15 with a student discount, and that was for a round trip plus admission. Not a bad deal. We drove through Salisbury, which is a pretty little town, and then all the way to Stonehenge where we had to stop and wait out a sudden downpour.
Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long for everything to clear up. I picked up a free audio tour and listened to dueling narrators tell me interesting facts about the stones. It was weird: they never actually acknowledged each other, but their voices would kind of shove each other aside like "Move over, Skippy. I'll show you how to lead a freakin' tour!" And it was like any other audio tour where you see a sign with a number on it and hit the corresponding track. (Yet you still have to make sure you don't walk ahead of the tour.)
It's a beautiful place. Quite literally in the middle of nowhere. After the bus stop and tourist buildings, there's nothing but hills and trees as far as the eye can see, and the road disappears into the horizon. It's very calm, serene, windy...good place for a mysterious stone monument.
You walk a wide circle around the stones, but you're not allowed to actually get close enough to touch them. It's not surprising. I've seen what people do to rest stop bathrooms, so there's no way tourists should be allowed to touch the stones. (See? This is why we can't have nice things!) They are smaller than you'd expect. That's probably because you're at a distance, or because everything is bigger in your imagination. But I'm pleased to say that it's exactly as mystical and awe-inspiring as you'd think.
At one point near the end of the tour, the audio guide said "You will find the seventh marker next to the TARDIS, which looks like a sentry box." I stopped and listened to that bit again. And then one more time just to make sure I had heard what I thought I heard. So I shrugged and went onto marker seven and stepped into a blue police box with twenty other people. We signed a liability waiver and got to go see Stonehenge under construction. There was a lot of running involved and I got kidnapped by aliens, but altogether it was a really good deal for ₤15.
You may have noticed I'm kidding. There was nothing next to marker seven. I even took a picture of it. I even went to far as to casually ask one of the tour guides about it, but she didn't know anything. Well, after the tour was over there wasn't anything to do but stare at sheep until the bus came back. When I got back to Salisbury, the driver made us all get off at a stop a few blocks away from the train station. A random woman in the street walked me halfway because we were going the same direction, and I'd asked nicely.
We also had a lovely conversation, because talking to strangers is fun, kids! Here's an anecdote from my last trip: my friend and I met this nice woman named Gladys who had lots of children and even more grandchildren. She spoke about five languages, and she told us about all these places we needed to visit in Paris, and where to find good prices. I still think of her as one of the most interesting women I've ever met.
I got back just in time to meet up with my pen pal again. We hung around the lobby and talked some more, then we went to eat at the Giraffe. I had a chicken quesadilla that was surprisingly good. Also, he prevented me from wandering into traffic.
I'm not joking, I've almost been hit by a large amount of cars on this trip. When I was a kid, we had it drilled into our heads that before crossing the street, we should look left, then right, then left again. This doesn't work when the cars are driving on the left side of the road, though. It wasn't so much of a problem in Edinburgh because we took the bus everywhere and most of the places we walked didn't have much traffic.
Here...wow. I can't believe I wanted to try cycling through these streets. I already suck as a pedestrian, let's throw a bicycle into the mix!
