The Saga of Locating Jane Austen's House: Part II

And everyone thought I was going to post about Ireland, but HAH!  I'm just like a bad TV show on the CW, you all will just have to wait.

Waking up in London is possibly the greatest feeling I've had.  The first few seconds pertain to you realizing you are in a hostel bed that resembles a sleeping pod from some cheesy sci-fi film, but the seconds following it are more like: "Wow, I'm in London, England."

Neither of us had much confidence in this adventure to Jane's house, especially after getting to the train station and figuring out that to get to Alton (where her house is), it is an hour and a half train ride.  But we get to Alton.  Oh boy, do we get to Alton.

Reads: "A family lives here, please don't break our windows" Alton made me feel like I was going to get mugged at any second.

Oh, yeah, I was totally going to go into the sketchy alleyway with the murderous looking garage, thanks for the sign, dude!

Yes, we passed these things, and yes, we were terrified.  Halfway through the town, we were guilted into having lunch at a restaurant that resembled my Great Aunt Jo's condo in Florida.  Full of trinkets, cat figurines, and pictures of old ladies.  However, we did get directions to the real house.

Directions that led us down a sidewalkless highway:

Just in case I wasn't going to be shot in Alton, I can now become roadkill on the highway!

Cars and motorbikes zoomed past us at sixty mph, but we were determined.  Finally, we get to Chawton, the ACTUAL town that her house is in.  A beautiful, southern England town that was what I had exactly pictured this county to look like.  Thatched roofs, cobblestone streets, perfectly trimmed hedges, and horse farms with horses wearing adorable blankets.

Totally worth the eight near death experiences, now everyone be jealous please

The house was amazing.  It was worth all of the trials and tribulations.  I saw her writing desk where she edited Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abby, and Sense and Sensibility, and she lived in this house with her sister and mother towards the end of her life.  I also was able to see all of the costumes that the actors wore in the film renditions of most all of the movies!

Afterwards, we went down we went to go see the church she and her mother and sister went to, and it is were Mrs. Austen and Jane's sister is buried (Jane's tomb is in Winchester and was not buried with her mother and sister at this church unfortunately).

This is the giant house that the Austen women often went to visit a family friend.  It was bought and filled with historical furniture but was closed during this hour of the day.

Uh, Jane Austen went here, NO BIG DEAL

Cassandra (Jane's sister) and Mrs. Austen's graves

Completely satisfied with our author-stalking, we ended up home around ten or eleven.  It was one of those trips were it's "all about the story" (as some of my other Wooster friends have already figured out), but it ended up to be in my top three adventures.

When I got home, it was Sunday, and The Boyfriend was coming on Tuesday, so now that I'm all caught up I suppose I can write about our Ireland trip.

...Or my awesome new teapot I bought for seven pounds (yeah, I can write a whole blog post about that).

Just kidding.

Cheers!

Technically, Google Maps Don't Lie

Quite a bit of adventures have taken place, and I swear it that I shall write all of them down for my adoring fans (hah).

Opening on an early morning in Lancaster, bus stop.  The day is November 19, 2011 and the air is cold and unforgiving.  Enter: Annie and Caitlin, two Americans with one simple goal: author-stalking.  No, EXTREME author-stalking.
Basically, Caitlin and I went to London for round II.  It's my brilliant idea to catch the bus early but we ended up waiting thirty minutes in the freezing morning air. 

Two and a half hours later, we step off the train and into LONDON, the greatest city in the world (next to Edinburgh).  Then, it's off to the home of one of stars of British Romanticism poetry: John Keats.

The house was very intriguing.  Keats' didn't have any surviving family members through most of his young life so whatever was left of his legacy remains in this quaint house.  Like copies of his death mask.  Gross.

Then, we decide to step it up to the biggest celebrity of the Romanticism period: JANE AUSTEN.  And hold on, because this story gets pretty wild.

THE SAGA OF LOCATING JANE AUSTEN'S HOUSE: PART I

Spirits high and still full from lunch at an adorable cafe in Keats' hometown, Caitlin and I set onward to find the Austen House, located in Winchester, London.  A thirty minute ride on the tube later, (with an immense amount of changes, thank you) we arrive in Winchester.  We walk around, searching high and low, pretty lost, trying to find Jane's house.  The map gets us back on track and leads us into a newly developed area.  Finally, we ask for directions.

Us: "Excuse me, can you tell us where Jane Austen's house is?"
Girl: clueless "Jane...Austen?"
Us: exchange of mortified glances
Girl: "There's a listing of all the houses over there, sorry I can't help"

Wait.  What?  We look around.  The freshly built apartment buildings have signs that read: Keats' house ("What?  We were just there!  These are apartments!"), Shelley's house, and other glorified writers of the Romanticism period, tacked up on cheesy signs against the white walls of the complex.
Oh, god.  We have directions to an apartment projects area!

Yes, the apartments that stood before us were probably built in 2008, rented out on the cheap, and named after famous writers.  Jane Austen's house in Winchester isn't her real house, in fact, the only thing that remains in Winchester of Jane's are the "supposed" area where she stayed when she was extremely ill and her final resting place.

Determined not to waste the rest of the day, we hit up the touristy landmarks.  I'm sure as you all have expected from a blog called "The England Traveler", here's Big Ben:

The London Eye at night

Then, we decided to go find the hostel because it gets depressingly black at 4-4:30 PM.  This is the next issue we run into: the Holland Park Hostel is IN the park, however, by the time we got there, the park was closed, thus we were wandering this new part of London for about an hour.

The creep-tastic street we had to walk on to get to the youth hostel

We FINALLY found it after hiking through the narrow park-streets for forever.  After dropping off all of our heavy bags, we got onto the tube and went to Queensway, which is were both of us had orientation.  It was strange to be back and to actually know where everything was.  Exhausted, we hit the hay early, with great intentions of actually finding Austen's REAL house the next day.

Stay tuned, there's PART II to come!

Cheers (for now)!

Tyne Flies

I just realized something...in exactly one month, I'm being put on a plane back to the States.

I'm okay with that though, because December is Awesome month.  There's Christmabirthday (my birthday plus Christmas), New Year's Eve, and anniversary of one year where Boyfriend will get me a pony and a bouquet of kittens, AND Mom's going to have an advent calendar waiting for me so I can eat all the ones I missed on the 17th (cough cough, hint hint).

But anyway, yesterday I went to Newcastle.  I'm pretty sure this city forgot that it was a tourist attraction because the streets seriously lacked in signs.  However, they couldn't hide the awesome cathedrals or castles.  Now I am unsure of why people really need maps--hey, I didn't need one.

This is Black Gate and was built between 1247 and 1250.  It's the gatehouse to The Castle (literally just called The Castle) and even used to have a drawbridge where the footbridge is now standing.

Nearby, after you work your way around the maze of footbridges, is the actual Castle, which is the origin of Newcastle's name.

This ancient castle was founded in 1080, but then it was known as the Norman Castle.  After being destroyed, Henry II came into reign and it was rebuilt with new stone.  During the 18th and 19th century, it was used as a prison.

What I wanted most from Newcastle was obviously the Newcastle brewery, but unfortunately, it moved (sorry Stefan!)  But the Tyne bridges made up for it:

And St. Nicholas' Cathedral (also where the stories of good olde Saint Nick originate):

Because it becomes pitch black at 15:30 PM here, Hadrian's Wall did not seem like a good plan.  I wasn't going to be wandering sheep fields in the freezing darkness, so that landmark remains unchecked on my list.

However, I did feel very accomplished having beaten Newcastle at its whole "go home tourists, we don't have real signs for landmarks for you here" game.  And I have to say, the Tyne really does have some excellent fish.

Next stop: Back to London on Saturday with a friend!

Also, five days until Boyfriend gets here and we conquer IRELAND!  But more importantly, five days until he gives me Looking for Alaska by John Green, which I seriously need to read again.

Cheers!

Exxtreme Traveling

Yesterday, I did my laundry for the first time here.  Now, that may seem like a relatively uninteresting topic of discussion but I can tell you the following facts to make it a much more fascinating post:

1. The laundry room for Furness College is located down the little pathway and down the stairs, next to the student radio station room.  I wouldn't have found it if my friend hadn't pointed it out offhandedly.
2.  There was no way I was about to invest in a real laundry bag for a 10-week term.  Uh uh.  I was using my the bag my bedding pack came in (thanks Dad for raising me as a pence-and-penny-pincher).

Well, if you haven't guessed it...  It was the day that the students I passed to and from the laundry probably now know what my delicates look like.

But was it worth saving the money?  Oh, yeah.  I'm never going to see these people again and besides, all of my clothes are freaking adorable, including the delicates, thanksverymuch.
(Okay, parents, tell me all you want that I'm allowed to splurge on a laundry bag, I'm not going to listen!  I'm saving that money to get a sleeping bag so I can go hang out with the cool backpacking kids and you can't stop me!!)

In more exciting news...  Boyfriend booked his ticket!  He will be arriving, probably looking helpless and confused, at my giant University on the 22nd of November!  We are attempting to cram everything we could possibly do into his eight day visit, including an All-American Drunk Chicken Thanksgiving, which I'm sure will confuse the daylights out of my Chinese flatmates.

Exhibit A: Map decorated by Boyfriend

He's also got a fancy camera (that he's pretty nifty with) so he wants to get a picture of Stonehenge.  Then we gallivant around London and Lancaster, while making Ireland our top priority.

Exhibit B: He's humoring my author-stalking problems

Regardless of how much caffeine I will have to drink to keep up with him, it will be a fun visit.

Before that, is my weekend trip to Scotland with Arcadia, where I have Tour Guide Barbie for a whole two days!

Cheers!

P.S. My blog is lacking some Kate Middleton Fashion Sense (credit to the fashionable Kate in my life)