Alright, I split up the past week into four entries, because it's easier to put up pictures when there's less text to work around. This and the three entries below it are about the past Thursday through Sunday. Nothing interesting happened in the rest of the week before then.

On Thursday, I went to Oxford, and from there went to South Leigh. Before that, though, I just wandered around the city center and took pictures of all the colleges. Oxford is seriously full of colleges, and they're all amazing to look at. I then went to the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, which has a very high tower that gives pretty good views of the city. It was after going up the tower that I took the bus to South Leigh, and there's more information about that in the next entry.

After I got back from South Leigh, there was still a bit of daylight left (I got to Oxford around 9 in order to make sure I got see everything before it got dark at 5) so I went to Christ Church. This is where parts of Harry Potter were filmed, and it's a really pretty place, though not as impressive as I was told.

I really enjoyed Oxford, but there isn't a whole lot to say about it, because all I really did there was walk around and take pictures. Plus, nothing terrible happened to me, so it was almost boring in comparison to some of my other outings. South Leigh was amusing, but Oxford was just really pretty. Also really cold. I think this was one of the coldest days that I've been traveling on.

This entry's really lame, partially because it's the last one I'm writing and it's late here in England right now. I'm sorry. The others are good, though, I promise. Here's some pictures of Oxford. This first is of St. Mary the Virgin, and the next three are views from the church's tower (I don't really know what of, but it's pretty). The next three are from around Christ Church, and then there's two more just of the city itself, and the last one is of Oxford's oldest building. Sorry I don't have a better picture of it, but I just remembered it on my way back to the train station to go home.

My trip to Cerne Abbas will forever hold the title of "Worst Walk Ever", but getting to South Leigh comes in at a very close second. I think that South Leigh is the farthest from civilization that I have ever been, and it was a little bit awful since I was so alone and it was pretty cold out, but the area itself is very pretty, and the church was worth going to see.

From Oxford, I took a half-hour bus to a place (if you can call it that) called High Cogges (pronounced "cogs", as I learned after confusing the crap out of the bus driver). From this "place" I had to walk another half hour down the loneliest street I've ever been on until it literally dead ended at a cul-de-sac called South Leigh. South Leigh consists of a village hall, a couple houses, and St. James the Great. Luckily St. James is an adorable church, with some very nice Medieval artwork, so it was worth the trip. It also has what I find to be the most hilarious piece of stained glass ever, which I like to call "The Disgruntled Jesus". It's of John the Baptist preaching to a group of people, and Jesus is in the background looking extremely off put by the whole situation. Perhaps he's jealous of all the attention? In any case, there's a picture of it below.

When I finally made it back to High Cogges, I had to wait around a half hour for a bus to show up, which was really pitiful because it was so cold out and I was seriously the only person around. But I got back and finished my Oxford visit just fine.

On Friday I just did a little shopping in Bristol and hung out with friends, and got ready for even more traveling on Saturday.

Here are the South Leigh pictures. The first is of High Cogges, my bus stop, and the next is of the road I had to walk down to get to South Leigh. Then there's the village hall, and the outside of St. James the Great. The next two are of some of the artwork inside the church, and last but not least, The Disgruntled Jesus.

On Saturday, I went to Coventry and Stratford-Upon-Avon. I did both in one day, which was really not a good idea because it wore me out entirely, because they are both around three or more hours from Bristol, but only an hour and a half away from each other, and it costs much less for a bus between the two cities than for train tickets to each individually from Bristol. It took a bit of planning, but I managed to get what I needed from both places on the same day.

The train to Coventry is over three hours, so I was going to be leaving around 7 in the morning, but unfortunately that's about when I woke up. Luckily I caught the 8:00 and it really ended up not making much of a difference, because I got done sooner than I thought I would.

Now Coventry is the most normal-looking town I have been to so far, in that it's not a very touristy place to go. The reason I was there was the Holy Trinity Church, which contains a Last Judgment painting that I wanted to see for my thesis. Just across the street from it is the Coventry Cathedral, which, I have to say, is one of the most amazing places I have been to yet, aside from Wells Cathedral. First of all, it's a modern building, which is amazing in and of itself after all these weeks of Medieval churches. Also, it's built on the ruins of the original Coventry Cathedral, some of which is still standing, because the whole city was pretty much done in during one of the WW's (I don't remember which). This fact is also what accounts for Coventry looking more like a city that I'm used to, since most of it is fairly new in comparison to everything I've seen so far.

In any case, there really isn't much else to see (in my case, anyway) except for those two churches, so once I got done there I moved on to Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Here are some pictures, the first seven are from the Coventry Cathedral: two of the outside (that massive statue is of the archangel Michael defeating Satan), one of the ruins from the original cathedral, and four from the inside of the new part. The next three are from the Holy Trinity Church, which was actually so poorly lit that I had a hard time documenting the Judgment Day painting. My cellphone actually worked better than my digital camera, but these are what I have on my camera of the building.

After spending a few hours in Coventry, I took a bus to Stratford-Upon-Avon, which is around an hour and a half, in order to see another church. SUA is also where Shakespeare was born, so there's a little section of town where is house if preserved that's dedicated to him. The town is really cute, but not all that impressive, especially since it's the home of one of literature's greatest contributors. In any case, I only spent about two hours there before I had to catch another bus back to Coventry in order to catch my train home.

On the way from the bus stop to the train station I got lost, and being in a strange town in the dark with no idea where I'm going is never fun. I got there eventually, though, and even caught an earlier train, so I got home about an hour before I thought I would. My shoes, however, are completely done. The left one has received some sort of puncture wound on the heel that goes all the way through, meaning that any water that would be repelled by the water-proofing spray on it is simply absorbed through the bottom, soaking my entire foot. My plan is to buy some cheap ones to hold me over for the next week tomorrow, because I really can't have shoes like that in the rainiest city of the rainiest country in the world.

Almost the whole weekend was spent in transit, but it was still really fun. But I didn't even know how tired I was until I actually went to bed and didn't wake up until after noon on Sunday. It was rough. It's weird to think that, in thirteen days, I'm going to be heading home. I had put that god-awful flight in so far out of my mind that I forgot about it, and now I'm having flashbacks and getting nervous for the return.

In any case, here's some pictures from Stratford-Upon-Avon. The first is of Shakespeare's birthplace, the two of the church I came there to see, and two more just of things in the center of town.

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.