Waaay Dover There

Dear Grace,

I'm going to impart some wisdom with you, should you ever travel to London one day: never eat at a buffet in Chinatown. Seriously, waaaay overpriced, and seriously the worst Chinese food I've ever had in my life! The menu kind of tipped me off that it was going to be an interesting experience haha.

Still, it made for a good story and for experience points. I had my first full-fledged shrimp there, although I admit I almost couldn't stomach it. Can you blame me? Just look at it! It was staring at me!

Well anyway, I ended up buying a fan while we were in Chinatown, and oddly enough it ended up being extremely useful yesterday on our trip to Dover. The day started off chilly and very very humid in London, but by the time we got up to Dover (where we got to go exploring the castle) the sun was shining, and it actually got almost hot. So I didn't have to use a tour pamphlet, as I had an actual fan to cool off with.

The first view of a castle always makes me giddy and gives me butterflies.

Unfortunately, for some reason my professor thought that two and a half hours would be enough time to explore the castle AND walk a mile to the white cliffs of Dover and back. It's not. In any case, I spent the majority of the time there with my dear friend Rose, which of course means it was a good time :)

We explored the castle and had a jolly time running away from the sea of kiddies there on field trips. Seriously though, once we were inside the castle it was like running away from a flood. Every time we'd go up a floor, we'd see a swarm of kids coming up the stairs and have to book it up to the next floor to escape drowning.

Doing this so many times of course brought us up to the roof of the castle, where there were spectacular views of Dover all around.
 

Lowlight of my day: I had planned my outfit with care yesterday with the distinct image in my mind of standing on the edge of the white cliffs with my skirt and hair flowing in the wind. Unfortunately, as I said before, there simply wasn't enough time to walk down to the cliffs (even though the coach could have driven us there in five minutes). I was told that the road we would be driving on would go along the cliffs, and we'd be able to see them through the window, but as we were driving away my other professor announced over the intercom "...if you look out the back window, you can see the cliffs behind us..."

So basically I got one fleeting look at the cliffs from far far away. However, I did manage to get a picture of another cliff on the opposite side of the bay:

So now I have been to the cliffs of Dover! Next time just I'll make for dang sure I get to run around on them and get pictures.

Our next stop was Battlefield Abbey, which was basically the ruins of an old abbey (part of which has been converted into a school) and the battlegrounds from the Battle of Hastings.

The whole abbey was so beautiful so peaceful. There weren't very many people there, so it was easy to find places where you could be completely alone.

I can't say why I love old ruins so much; not ruins that have been reduced to nothing but foundations or only have fragments of what used to be there, but places that have simply been abandoned or forgotten. I suppose it has something to do with the mystery of it; there's something so delicious about it all.

I spent my time in Hastings on my own, and in my explorations what should I stumble upon, but this!

I don't think any further explanation of what it is or of my present delight in finding it is necessary.

I finished seeing the entire Abbey in 30 minutes, and was left to my own devices for entertaining myself for another hour and a half after that (should have been at the cliffs). So, I went to this little place:

which was absolutely charming, and enjoyed a pot of tea and a scone, and a little bit of Pride and Prejudice for a bit. After that I still had an hour to kill, so I took an evening stroll through the lovely town of Hastings until it was time to go.

I leave you today with my latest video of my adventures as of yesterday.