Today was my day trip to Wales. I got up at 6:15 so I could get ready and be sure that I wasn't late to the International Student House. I left around 7:15 thinking it might take a while to get there, I was wrong. It took 15 minutes to get there and I found the student house maybe a couple minutes later. I walked by it to see if there would be any coffee shop open, but as it was Saturday morning and no one really works that day, most things were closed. I decided to head to the student house and sit until the bus got there. I was the first one there for the trip and then another girl shows up. Her name is Amanda and she is also studying abroad, but more as an exchange student. She is from California and attends San Diego State University. She seemed pretty nice and was very talkative. We finally got onto the bus and we sat for about 2 or so hours before making it to Gloucester, England. This tour was different than the Scotland one. On this tour the guide just told us about what we would do for the day and then let us do our own thing until we arrived. At our first stop, in Gloucester, we went to St. Peter's Cathedral. This is the cathedral where Edward II is buried. I believe he is the only king to be buried outside of London. This is also where they filmed part of Harry Potter. Where the kids are walking outside through hallways, they were supposedly filmed here, or at least based after these ones.
cloisters
Now, to actually take pictures in the cathedral you are supposed to donate five pounds. I did not do that, five pounds was a little excessive, but shhh. The cathedral was quite gorgeous, as are most. After the cathedral Amanda and I walked to a small bakery where we grabbed a late breakfast. I got a chocolate muffin and hot chocolate. Which the coach driver wasn't too happy. He just said not to spill it, ok I won't. I wasn't planning on spilling it anyways. After we all loaded the coach again we headed into Wales. Our first stop in Wales was Tintern Abbey. I was quite excited for this. I looked up pictures online and it looked gorgeous, plus I think I have read the poem 'Tintern Abbey' by William Wordsworth, so I had to go. We were only given 1 1/2 hours at the Abbey and then to eat. The tour guide said that it would take us maybe 20-30 minutes to walk through, maybe if you were walking through. I don't know how long Amanda would have spent if she hadn't of been walking with me, but I took an hour to walk around it and I still didn't see everything. There are too many walls of the Abbey to see! We finally headed to a pub across the road, 30 minutes before we were supposed to be on the bus, to grab some lunch. We quickly figured out what we were going to eat and ordered. I got fish an chips, Scottish haddock again. We sat down and waited, wondering when our food was going to arrive. Amanda went and asked for some to go containers since we would probably have to eat a couple bites and go. Sort of right. We got our food about 5 minutes before we were supposed to be on the bus. I piled in my fish an chips into the container and she did as well and we headed out. We got on the bus and started eating, since we had to wait for a few other people. The bus driver smelled our food and wasn't very happy because it would then smell up the coach, oh no. I'm sure he hated us at that point. Everyone got on the bus and we were headed to Chepstow, Wales. Chepstow is right on the border of Wales and England. We just had about one hour there to do what we wanted to. Amanda and I headed to the river where on the bridge it has a sign, so you can straddle both Wales and England. Kind of cheesy, but we did it anyway.
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Amanda and I decided to then walk through the town. We stopped at an antique store, that had a lot of random things. We walked by the castle in the town and then up behind it, on a mud path. It wasn't the best view because the trees were in the way. If the trees hadn't of been there then we would have had a very good view of the river and looking into England. Shortly after it was time to head back. The bus ride was about 2 hours again and no one really talked. I listened to music and napped for most of the way back. When we arrived into London I headed straight to VH. A girl was having a little get together in the VH conference room as an early birthday. She invited me one evening so I decided I would go, maybe be a little social. Of course, when I was in the room with all the people I ate some cheesecake, had ice cream and didn't really talk to anyone. They're all friends....oh well. I didn't really want to go out with them so I headed back up to my room when they were getting ready to go out. The rest of the night I spent in my room, I tried to stay up until Kiley arrived later that night but it was kind of hard. It was a good day though. I'm not sure I want to do another tour through International Student House, but I'm glad I finally got to see Tintern Abbey! Cheers
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