"Heaven take thy soul, and England keep my bones!" - WIlliam Shakespeare

I’m back!! I just got back from the best spring break of my life!! I spent an unplanned 3 weeks in England and Ireland thanks to the volcanic eruption in Iceland. I was stuck in Ireland for a complete extra week! Life was hard, let me tell you! I have so many amazing stories I have to share, and I’m going to start with England. I completely fell head over heels in love with this country. England is fun and beautiful and full of history. London is enormous, and the 5 days I spent there were about 5 or 6 too short. There is just so much to see, and so much to do that I couldn’t possibly fit everything in my schedule. That’s ok though, because I am perfectly content with coming back! In fact, I’m already planning to do so the last weekend in May. Hmm…what shall I tell you about first? Well, I traveled with four other girls, and we arrived in London late Thursday night. When we got to our hostel, we were a little bit surprised by our dorm style room that slept 12 people. See, when we booked the hostel, the website simply told us we were booked to stay in a dorm room complete with a bathroom and shower inside the room. The price was good, the ratings were relatively good…so we went ahead and booked it. We were expecting to maybe have to share the room with one other person. Because there is no way there could be more than six beds in a room, right? Wrong! There were 12 beds in the room, and they were all occupied. And what’s worse, is everyone was asleep by the time we got into the room! So basically there was no way to tell if a nasty 40 year old man was sleeping naked in the bunk bed next to me. The room was pitch black! We had to find a place for all our stuff, and make up our beds, in the dark. By the time I laid in bed, my eyes finally adjusted enough to faintly see that there was a male sleeping next to me. It was kind of awkward because the beds were all pushed up next to each other, and I sort of felt like I was sleeping with a stranger…actually, I guess I was sleeping with a stranger. Needless to say, that was kind of weird to me, and I ended up pulling an all-nighter with one of the other girls who was equally freaked out. By the time morning came, light shone brightly through the windows of this concentration camp I appeared to be staying in. I don’t know how else to describe it. The bunk beds were steel, and the linens were plain white, and the walls were badly painted with orange-red paint. But, it was clean. So that was a plus. As the room brightened up, I snuck a peak at the guy sleeping next to me. He was sort of extremely handsome! He was probably in his early to mid 20’s with dark, wavy hair. He had a little bit of scruff on his face, and he was in great shape. And, he had a tattoo on his wrist. I wasn’t leaning over him as he slept or anything just to see what he looked like. Promise. Anyways, I was pretty excited to talk to him later that night at the hostel. Unfortunately, once we got back, he was gone. And what’s even better, he had been replaced by a 40 year old man with way too much chest hair, who thought it was a good idea to sleep in boxer-briefs. Luckily, we took the bed closest to us and moved around so he had to sleep on the opposite side of the room. Ok, now I’ll actually talk about London! The first day we were there, we went exploring and we walked, a lot. We went to the Natural History Museum, we got a cute, black taxi to take us to Piccadilly Circus, we walked on Fleet Street to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and we went to a cute, little park! Piccadilly Circus is a lot like Time Square in New York. It’s more modern and full of energy. They say if you sit in one place in Piccadilly Circus for more than an hour, you’ll either see someone you know or someone you recognize. I’ll bet it’s more like you see someone you recognize form 20 minutes before because they’re lost and don’t know where they’re going. We decided against sitting for an hour and doing nothing with our lives. Fleet Street was super exciting! For those of you who don’t know, Fleet Street is where Sweeney Todd worked in his barber shop. I found the address of his shop, however, there is no longer a barber shop there. It is now some kind of internet/bookstore something. I did sing songs from the musical while strolling down the street, though. I wanted to film this, but I drew enough attention as it was so I decided against it. Looking back, I sort of regret that decision. But, oh well. I also sang “Feed the Birds” on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is beautiful by the way! And enormous. It’s one of the biggest cathedrals I’ve ever seen. I took a lot of pictures! A couple of the girls and I went on a Jack the Ripper tour one night. That was pretty cool! The tour guide was a Jack the Ripper expert, who had written two books about him. He was very knowledgeable and super funny. His name was Donald Rumbelow. You can Google him. I bought his book and he signed it for me! He showed us the exact spot where two of the Jack the Ripper prostitutes were murdered. We also saw this pub from the 1600’s. It’s still standing, and in full service! It’s called, “The Ten Bells”. And that pub was once the hang out spot of both the 1880’s prostitutes, and Jack the Ripper. Crazy! There is a picture on my facebook, if you’re interested. That was a pretty cool tour. It was through this tour company called, “London Walks.” I highly recommend taking a few of these tours if you’re ever in London. They are super cheap, and they offer hundreds of different tours. All the tour guides are fun and outgoing, and it’s a great way to see London. We did a few different ones, and they were all amazing. The next day we bought a red bus ticket and did the whole double-decker bus tour thing. That was pretty neat. We went and saw Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street, J.K. Rowling’s apartment, Big Ben, the London Tower, and London/Tower Bridge. J.K. Rowling’s apartment doesn’t exactly fit in with that list, but I wanted to throw it in there. We actually took a boat tour and floated along the Thames River to see London Tower and Tower Bridge. That was a lot of fun! I learned that the Thames River is one of the cleanest rivers in Europe. The English are very proud of this. Apparently, if you take a glass of water from the Thames and let it sit for an hour, all the dirt will sink to the bottom, leaving a glass of clear water. I heard that from three different tour guides. Speaking of tour guides, every single English guide is just fantastic. They all have this dry, sarcastic British sense of humor, and I love it! It was like I was living in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Later that night, I went and saw “Les Miserables” in Piccadilly Circus. I’ve wanted to see that show for so long, but never had the opportunity. Finally, my dream came true. It was spectacular! The music is beautiful, the voices were amazing, and the story was soooo good. I saw it with two other girls, and we were all crying by the end of the show. Alright, London was absolutely brilliant, but Stratford-Upon-Avon was just as wonderful. For those of you who don’t know, William Shakespeare was born in Stratford. Yes, the one and only, William Shakespeare. And I, Kathryn White, went and visited his homeland. Not even just his homeland, I actually visited his home! I walked on the stone floor that Shakespeare walked on, I strolled the gardens where he strolled, and I visited the church where he was buried. AMAZING. Words can’t even describe that experience. Well, I’m sure Shakespeare could come up with words to describe it, but I cannot. The city was adorable. All the shops and restaurants were named after works of Shakespeare, and there were even actors dressed in Elizabethan attire, reciting lines of Shakespearean dialogue. So what I’m basically telling you is I found Kathrynland. I mean, I really loved it. I took the train there, and saw the beautiful English countryside on the way. I saw real pastures with sheep grazing everywhere. It was just like the movies! Obviously, I am in love with England. Not just the place, but the people as well. I met some of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. And I fell in love with almost everyone I talked to. Their accents are amazing! As are their word choices. They say “brilliant” and “lovely” and “cheers”. I think those are the top three words in their vocabulary. I’d love to start using them regularly, but it just doesn’t sound the same without the British accent. I don’t know why I wasn’t born in England. That thought crossed my mind at least 50 times while I was there. I would love to move there. It would be like living in a fairy tale. And, I have officially decided that I will marry a man with a British accent. I don’t know why I said “officially”. I don’t really know what that means, but whatever. Anyways, that concludes my London/Stratford rant. I hope I gave you a little taste of what England has to offer. If you have the means, I highly suggest you get off the computer right now, pack your bags, and go visit England yourself. You will not regret your rash decision, I promise.