I'm rather cold and wet sitting in a train station in Salisbury. My sole reason for coming here was to see Stonehenge. And I saw it. Gee golly wow (I'm not sure if the sarcasm was appropriately conveyed there). When I got there after the 40 minute bus ride from town, it was raining rather briskly. I spent maybe 5 minutes staring at the monument before seeking shelter. The stones themselves were fairly unimpressive. This is another one of those 'I thought it would be bigger'. The biggest insult though, was paying £5 to stand about thirty feet away from the stones only to realize that that the road is only about 50 feet away and I could have viewed it for free there. The only advantage of paying was the ability to see the other side. Oh yeah, they also give you an audio guide, but I was too frustrated and wet to listen to it. I'm really not that bitter about the whole thing, it was an amusing (albeit expensive and time consuming - in total it probably cost me close to $50 and totals about 5 hours of travel) experience.

Anyway, yesterday was another walking tour of London (this time supplemented by a day pass for the tube). Part of my objective was to visit a couple train stations and a bus station to check fares and times for Salisbury and Nottingham (I was wrongly informed by an apparently lazy rail clerk that you had to go the specific station to get the info). This left me with a fairly wide area to cover. I started at the British library which sounded really cool, but it got a lot less interesting when I discovered that it was not a public library. Basically you could go into the lobby area, but you needed a reader's pass to get near any of the books. I did find a place where you could listen to famous authors and other famous people. I found a clip of tolkien reading excerpts from LOTR and an amusing Noel Coward clip (don't know who he is, but I definitely recognized the voice). After that I walked by the British Museum, deciding I would check it out later in the day because it was open til 8. Walked around for a bit and happened upon a Border's(the book store). I spent at least an hour in there, I had to drag myself out. It was just so nice to be in a full English language bookstore, instead of just a small English section. I finally settled on 3 books. I'm now carrying around 6 books in my pack, I really need to get rid of some. After that I grabbed some chinese food on the street before taking the tube down to Victoria Bus Station to check fares. Found the fares for Nottingham, much more reasonable than a train. The Salisbury buses had too limited a schedule, so it would have to be a train trip. After that I stopped by Buckingham palace , which I have to say was laughably pathetic. I then walked by Westminster Abbey and Big Ben . I was about to get on the tube when I notice a poster for the Dali Universe advertising 500 of his works. It was only 2 minutes away, so I went over there. I decided to pass on it after finding out that it only had one painting, the rest are sketches and sculptures. Getting back to the tube I went to Paddington Station (they actually have carts selling Paddington Bear merchandise) only to find that trains for Salisbury did not leave from this station. Fortunately, the clerks here were more helpful and gave me times and sold me a ticket. I then walked through Hyde Park, which was really nice. I was a little disappointed to find Speaker's Corner empty (according to the guidebook, the crazies only do their schtick on sundays). I then went back to Victoria station to actually book the ticket to Nottingham. I wethrough Piccadilly Circus and then found my way to a guidebook recommended Thai restaurant. Quite good and reasonably priced. At this point it was too late to go to the British Museum(I actually wasn't that keen on going, I just kinda felt that I should), so I went back to the hostel. Went out again briefly to burn some pictures onto a cd (number 3 for the trip), I finally found a place that would let you use a burner. Got back to the hostel, got a hold of Ross (apparently he'd been tying up the phone by being online the previous night). The rest of the night, I hung out in the bar for karaoke night. I only sang once, but it was still fun. I spent most of the evening talking to this girl named Michelle. Fun evening.