Filthy black mud
After spending a week in London, we made a quick trip to Salisbury to go to Stonehenge. Then we spent a few (too many) days in Bath where it rained and rained. We saw a couple guys blowing glass, and found a health shop with yummy vegan goodies. We made the mistake of going on a comedy tour of Bath which started off promising but ended with toy stunt rabbits being chained up and thrown into the river. Hmmm...
Then we took the train to Birmingham to meet up with a couple guys we met in London, on the street, at 3am. Needless to say that hanging out with them failed spectacularly although we did get a free ride to Manchester. Manchester was largely disappointing. We went to a hot stinky crowded club, saw a nice library, listened to a little jazz but that was about all.
Much of our movements about the UK are dictated by price. We wanted to go to York but all the hostels were expensive. We opted instead to stay in Haworth, and i'm glad we did. It was a lovely country town, and famous for being the place where the Bronte sisters lived and wrote. We went to the Bronte museum and walked through the moors, saw Wuthering Heights, and lots and lots of sheep.
We also made a couple day trips to York and Bradford. In York, we went along to a free tour. Unfortunately our guide was not great; he was difficult to hear and most of what he said was useless info. There was one memorable moment though. He was telling us about some excavations that went on years ago and how they were pulling artifacts out of stinky black mud. He pointed to my black t-shirt and said "mud as filthy black as your shirt, madam. You wouldn't have smelt anything as bad." Which sounded like he could be saying that i didn't smell as bad as the mud (what a relief! :P), and this has become a running joke between the three of us: "well, at least i don't smell as bad as the black mud!"
From Haworth we caught the train to Edinburgh and spent the night in dodgy hostel. We ate in an expensive restaurant (*sob*) and did another crap free tour (they are now banned). Free stuff can be good but sometimes it's worth paying money.
Now we're in Dunfermline hanging out with Bren's family. His cousin has an adorable baby girl and a mischievous 6 week old gray kitten. We are enjoying sleeping in and chilling out with everyone. Maybe tomorrow *yawn* we'll venture out and see what Scotland has to offer.
Love Alex
