Well, last time I was so worked up over my Cerne Abbas ordeal that I forgot to mention that the rest of the week even happened. But it did. Last Tuesday I had lunch with the woman who mediates between my home university and Bristol, and I got to tell her about all the good times and problems I've had so she can work to improve trips for study abroad students in the future. She also paid for my lunch.

Wednesday I went to see the SS Great Britain, which I was supposed to see with Ruth, but we arrived ten minutes or so after it closed. It's actually not that big of a boat, but it's very pretty, and the inside is full of mannequins acting out typical scenes from boat life, I guess. I didn't know the mannequins were going to be there, and the kept scaring me half to death every time I turned a corner and saw one.

Isn't she charming?

On Thursday, there was a Thanksgiving dinner offered for the study abroad students. What was funny was that most of the kids who went weren't actually American, and they kept asking those of us who were if the food was right as so on. It was okay, but of course nothing compares with a real Thanksgiving dinner with your family. It was still fun though.

And you already know about Friday. Saturday I went to Salisbury, and that went much better, mostly because Salisbury is a real town with more than one street and twelve people living there. Again, I saw some churches, one of which was for my thesis, so I felt productive. However, it started to rain as I was walking to the Salisbury station to catch my train home, and a car drove through a puddle as it passed me and splashed water all over me. Seriously, I was soaking wet. Once I got to the station, there was a train preparing to leave, so I asked where it was going in hopes that I could just hop on instead of waiting for my scheduled train. The girl I stopped said some town I didn't recognize, so I let it go only to find out that it actually was going to Bristol and that girl only said on of the stops. So I had to wait for almost an hour in my wet cold clothes until the next train came.

Sunday I didn't do anything other than try to overcome the trauma from my weekend trips. Thursday I'm heading out again to Oxford and South Leigh, and hopefully the fates are on my side this time.

Lastly, here are some pictures from Salisbury. The first two are from St. Thomas, the church I visited for my thesis, featuring a Judgment Day painting. The next three are from the Salisbury Cathedral, which is really impressive, and the final two are just from around the town.

So, I got up this morning and went to Dorchester by train, which is two hours. Then I took a bus to Cerne Abbas, which is another half and hour. All well and good. However, that's where the smooth-running portion of the day comes to a close. Once in Cerne Abbas, all I wanted to do was see the Cerne Abbas Giant, which is the image of a large naked man holding a club etched into the side of a hill. Some say he's a fertility god, but I've also heard that it dates to the time of Cromwell, so there's at least a few ideas about why he's there. In any case, he's maintained for historical purposes and I wanted to see him. I saw a sign that said "Giant Hill". Now one would think that this path would lead you to see the Giant, but it doesn't. It leads you up the right hill, but on the other side, so you just end up walking for about an hour for no reason. Like I did.

And it was no ordinary walk, either. No, the path to fruitlessness is paved with layers of mud and thorn bushes. I currently have little cuts all over me, and I actually had to wash my shoes when I got home in order to make them look presentable again, but a whole lot more happens before then.

Did I also mention the poo? Yes, Giant Hill is covered in smaller hills of livestock excrement, which one must constantly keep out watch for, while also battling wayward bramble branches and maintaining proper footing on the sloshy ground. It was a challenge, but I kept going because I figured, it can't be too much farther, I just want to see this stupid thing, but only when I finally gave up and turned back did I find the correct trail that lead me to the Giant in about ten minutes. I wanted to die.

The Giant is blocked off from the public by a fence, but for some reason a whole herd of sheep live inside that fence and graze on him all day. It was a little strange, but I was just happy to finally find the thing, since I was starting to doubt it's existence. He's actually easiest to see from the street leading out of town, and I got pictures of him both close up and farther away.

Other things I saw in town included the Abbey, local church, and some of the scenery, and that's really about it, since the whole town is only two streets. It's pretty far out in the country, which is why it took so long to reach it, and you're pretty much done seeing it in about two hours (or three and a half, if you take the wrong trail). The first thing I looked at was the Abbey, which is beautiful, but I quickly realized that, while I remembered to charge my camera battery, I forgot to reinsert the memory card, so after about two pictures the camera was full. Devastating. Luckily my phone takes pretty descent photos, so I managed just fine, but I really should have realized then that it was doomed to be a bad day.

As I said, the town is really small, so I was done looking around at about three, but the bus wasn't coming to pick me up until 5:20. Oh yeah, the bus doesn't come at all unless you call the company and tell them ahead of time when and where you want picked up. That's how out in the boonies I was today. So, since I had already booked my trip back to Dorchester, and pretty much everything in town shut down at 4, I had to pretty much just loiter around for a hour until the bus showed up, early, thank God. However, when I got back to Dorchester, pretty much everything there had closed up, too, except for restaurants (keep in mind that it's dark by 5, so not many places stay open). I got something to eat, but the train back to Bristol didn't leave until 8. It was a long and cold wait, since there really wasn't anywhere indoors for me to hang around.

It was about ten minutes past when the train was supposed to arrive that the bus came. Apparently something happened to the train, and now the bus had come to take us to alternate stations. We went all over the place. It was like a train station tour of south-western England. However, by the time we got to where I was supposed to pick up my train back to Bristol, it had already left, so I had to take another bus to get home. Luckily none of this cost anything, but since it was buses and not trains it took an extra hour to get home, which means that I didn't get to Bristol until 12:30 at night. Plus, it's a 20 minute walk from the local station to my dorm.

That was seriously the worst I have physically felt, if not in my life, then in a very long time.

The transportation system here in general seems to be a bit horrible. Trains get cancelled enough for them to have buses on call, more than once I've heard of people's flights getting moved over three hours back, and all of the buses and trains are pretty expensive. It's very frustrating.

In any case, I don't regret having gone to Cerne Abbas, in spite of all that madness. Here are some pictures. First two are of the Abbey, then one of the view from the walk in the wrong direction, then one of the local church (St. Mary the Virgin, I believe). The next two are just from around the town, and lastly comes the Giant.

Right, so after I dropped Ruth off at the bus station, I had a little bit of time to myself before I headed off with a group of friends to Cardiff. It was an afternoon trip, so all we got see was the castle before it got dark, but it was still a really nice trip.

Sunday I walked to the Bristol Blue Glass factory, which is on the outskirts of town. It took around an hour, but it was one of the only really nice days I've seen in England so far, so I was happy to be outside. Oh yeah, my umbrella broke under the force of the wind and rain on my way back from the bus station last Saturday, so I'm now on the lookout for a new one. It was really embarrassing.

The factory itself wasn't all that impressive (it's blown glass, if you went to elementary school in Ohio you probably took a field trip to see it done), but apparently this stuff is somewhat famous, so I picked up a few pieces to bring home.

The rest of this week hasn't been too eventful, unfortunately, but hopefully next week I'll get to make a few trips and see some sights (churches and castles, because that's seriously all they have around here).

In any case, here are some pictures from Cardiff Castle. I honestly don't know what all the different buildings are, but any pictures you see taken indoors are inside of the white building with the pointy tower. To be a good tourist I should probably read some of those informational plaques they put out, but I always forget about them. Oh, and the last picture is of the outside of the castle after dark, when they turn on the Christmas lights. Very pretty.

So here's most of what happened last week. Ruth came in from Russia on Monday evening, and we spent the week looking at, what else, churches. It was good so see someone from home, though, and it was a good time, in spite of the poor sleeping conditions (she slept on the floor and I gave up my comforter as a makeshift mattress, so we were both somewhat cold and uncomfortable).

Tuesday I took Ruth around Bristol, to the cathedral, which I've already put up pictures of, and the harbor area. We were going to see the SS Great Britain, but it closed right before we got there, which was disappointing. But I'll see that boat someday, I promise. And no, I don't know why the bridge looks like it has trombones on it.

Wednesday we went to Glastonbury, where we saw the Abbey and the Tor, which are both just really old churches. The Abbey is pretty much in ruins, and King Aurthur is supposedly buried there, which means that there are a lot of "magic" and pagan-ish type stores all over the town.

It actually took some time to get into town because Ruth and I missed the bus stop and had to get off at the next one and walk back. Also, the Tor is up a hill, and walking up to it was one of the most exhausting experiences of my life. In any case, here are some pictures of the Abbey:

Now here's the Tor. I'd say it was about a 15-20 minute walk straight uphill. I still can't decide if it was worth it.

Thursday we went to Wells, allegedly the smallest town in England, and saw the Bishop's Palace and Cathedral there. It was gorgeous. The palace has a beautiful garden (and a mote!), and the church is amazing on the inside, as well as really impressive outside. These first five pictures are all from around the Bishop's Palace.

These next pictures are from the cathedral, and if the one's of the inside look a little off, it's because we were supposed to purchase a license to take photos of the inside, and I didn't, so I was taking care to not be seen photographing anything.

Friday we didn't go anywhere special, just wandered around the city again, and looked at Temple Meads Station, a really beautiful train station, and the main one for Bristol, and yet another church, this one called St. Mary's, I think. It's hard to keep up since they're so many of them.

On Saturday morning, I took Ruth back to the bus station so she could catch her plane in London. The rest of my weekend was pretty eventful, but again, that'll have to wait until later. At least I'm only one week behind now!

So, it's again been far too long since I last updated. Sorry. I acutally have been doing things with my time, though.
This stuff is from two weeks ago.

Thursday I went to the nearby Brandon Park, which was beautiful, and saw Cabot Tower. I don't really know what Cabot Tower was for in the past, but I do know that you used to be allowed to climb to the top of it until about a year ago when they started working on some structural damage. It was still interesting to see. Here are a few pictures of the park and tower:

Friday night I went with a group to the Bridgwater Carnival, which was celebrating Guy Fawkes Day. Other than the fact that it wasn't actually a carnival but a parade, this was seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen. The floats were massive, covered in lights, blasting music, and people were dancing around on them. Of course it was raining, and my fingers were pretty much numb by the end of the night, but it was worth it. The parade is so massive that it takes three hours for it to completely pass any given spot on the route. Here are a few pictures. The first is depicting Fawkes' plot (note the barrels of explosives around the bottom of the float), and the other two are just random.

Saturday was very low key, since I was tired from the carnival, and on Sunday, I went to see the Airborne Toxic Event in concert, which was awesome.

On the following Monday (that is, Monday of last week) Ruth came by to visit for a week from Russia. I'll talk about that a little later, though.