Hey everyone well i’ve been here in London for a week now and havingagood time. I have seen alot of places over the week. Thefrist few days I just chilled out and checked out the local villagessuch as Odiham, basingstoke and Winchester. In Winchester therewere lots andlots of old cool buildings(mind you there are lots of cool old stonebuilding all round the place), to which i have take heaps of photos ofbuti haven’t but them on here to bore you. Some of the highlights werestaute of King Alfred the Great the horse and riderthe cathedral (ididn’t go through it as i was saving up for St Pauls), the museum andlots more. I have been down to Stonehenge and checked out thestones and and mounds in the paddock. I found it a bitfunny that everyone was having picnic in the paddock which had longgrass in it. Have seen heaps of countryside with lots ofpaddocks that are yellow with rape seed growing and heaps of other darkgreen paddock (not sure what kind of crop it is). Alot of thehouses are just built in groups and are joint houses. Don’t likethat idea as at nite you can hear the neighbours next door, especaillykids yelling out for their parents in the middle of the nite!!!! I hada day trip into London on my own which wasbit scary thinking about it but when i did it, it wasn’t that bad, welli didn’t get lost! Once in London my first stop was to check outthe London Eye. From here i could see some amazing views ofLondon City Once this was completed i head towards the Big Bento see that the amazing clock tower, then around to Westminster Abbeyand saw all the old buildings. Then my walking started across StJames Park through to Buckingham Palaceto my luck the changing ofguards was happening. however there were so many people around and ihad a phone from NZ bout a teaching job that i couldn’t concentrate onit. I did see some of it tho. I headed across Green Parkwhich was loaded with heaps of people as it was lunchtime to the trainline, on there and up to the agencies headquarters to sign some of thepaper work before continuing on to check out where the contiki officewas located. Once i had booked my accomodation for the nightbefore my tour leaves i head back to the train to only have to get onand off and swap so then i was heading towards St PaulsCathedral. Luck wasn’t on my side this time and i just missed thelast tour so all i could do was look around the outside of thebuilding. Never mind i will look inside another day, as i still haveplenty of time. I was really tired and hot so i thought i would headhome until i saw a neat bridge crossing the river. So as you do iwalk across it and back to say that i had been on it. Then thelong trip on the train back to where i was staying. The followingday i had an interview with another agency, in surbiton. Now ihave to choosewhich area i’m going to live and try and get work. As i’m unsurei might stay in a hostel and check out the schools and areas before ichoose. This weekend I went down to Portsmouth to look aroundthere, and i did the spinnker tower to see the sites. On thedockyards there was a big steam engine day so we checked out all theold cars, wagons etc. We also went on the HSM victory and lookedat all the old stuff on the ship, the Mary Rose which was theyrecovered half and we saw it been sprayed with wax, its been sprayedsince 2004 and will continue to be sprayed until 2009. From therewe went into the museum where all the stuff from inside waslocated. it was amazing how they could tell what each item wasand how well some of the things had kept. We also looked at theHMS Warrior and how they had restored the equipment to what it wouldahve been like in the old days. it was great to see. Weleft there and headed along southsea coast which was loaded and i meanloaded with heaps of people on the beach and at the local parks, mitehave been something to do with a big uni in the area that helped pushup the numbers. Today sunday i went down to Bath to check out the RomanBaths. A large amount of time was spent inside (like hours) looking atall the ancient building, baths and listening to the audio tours. Lunch was the next stop well more like afternoon tea, along side theAvon river. Well girls from work i have brough several charmsalready and my tour hasn’t even started i got one of Stonehenge, BigBen, a London bus, a bath, and St Pauls Cathedral, i have planned someothers have i will have to get when travelling around ont thetour. Monday will consist of repacking my pack and making sure itis less than 20kgs before heading to the hotel in London and startingmy tour. Am excitied about that it should be heaps of fun. Well ithink i have covered most things so better go and will try and updateyou when im travelling round.Hope everyone is doing well.Take careAllie
posted Sunday May xxxx