Exquisite Architecture

Over the past weekend, I made a visit west- to Bath and Stonehenge. It was fantastic. For those of you who don't know, Bath is where the Roman Baths still stand, in all their glory, still naturally supplied with warm water from deep within the earth. It's pretty cool- and if it's not on your bucket list- it should be. My favorite parts were the Beau Street Hoarde, which is the largest amount of ancient Roman coins ever to be found, and a small display of engraved gems (impossible to photograph, unfortunately) that were found in one of the catch drains- assumed to either have fallen off of signet rings worn by various people or been thrown in as an offering to the goddess of the spring. Even though I'm not a history buff, in fact, I'm quite the opposite and avoid history whenever possible, it was pretty cool learning about the history of the Roman Baths, and actually being there and seeing it for myself, getting to feel the water and touch the stones (which may or may not have been prohibited).

 After seeing the Roman Baths, the group split- some went to the Fashion Museum, others went to the Jane Austen Exhibit, four went rambling around the city, and one- well, we don't really know where she went. We lost her for a few hours. I was in the group that went rambling. I'd much rather explore a city for myself than spend another three hours in a museum, staring at things behind alarm-equipped glass cases. So, rambling I went- through various gardens and parks, up and down streets, and we soon realized that all of Bath is like a giant bowl, the city center being the lowest point, and going out from there is entirely uphill. Seven miles later, we made it to the edge of the bowl, and although the walk was exhausting, it was so worth it.

We all met up in city center, except for one because nobody knew where she was. After about forty-five minutes of contemplating who would stay behind to find her instead of going to Stonehenge, she walks around the corner, as if she had never been apart from the group. Needless to say, we were all relieved to have found her. And, Stonehenge was fantastic (if you haven't noticed at this point, everything was fantastic).

As for what's to come- I'm leaving out on Wednesday to Ireland, going to spend the night in Dublin, then head out on a 2 day tour to see the Blarney Stone and Cliffs of Moher. Then it's back to Dublin for another night and a day and back home. Then the following, I'll be seeing Wicked in London- which I'm extremely excited about. But till then it's schoolwork and studying.