Two Days of Awesome

Hello!

Today's post is also going to include yesterday's activities because when I got back to my room last night I was simply too tired to write up a post! I've done pretty good to date though, so I'm letting this little slip up slide this one time.

Anyways, let's begin! Wednesday started off bright and early at 6:45. Our professor doesn't like to be late, so we ended up being an hour early for our train. Without any time to get breakfast in the dorm, I was forced to eat the dreaded.....McDonald's.

I had a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel. However I've suddenly started hating British bacon, as I'm craving the stuff that looks like this: 

As opposed to this crap:

I'm sorry to the Brits reading this and feeling offended by my Americanized love of Bacon, but honestly it tastes like it's not cooked even when it is cooked. Come on guys. We can do better than that. 

Besides being sworn off bacon, that morning we were heading to the Police College known as Brasmhill. The coolest building on the campus was built in the 17th century. It's a cool house! Upon arriving we got to take a little tour of the house. 

Backside

The dining room table is worth about 45,000 dollars

View from the front. You drive down that long driveway to arrive at the house. 

Batons used to carry warrants and hit people in the head

 This chest and painting has an interesting story. So apparently an Italian lady whose name I forgot was getting married and the group decided to play hide and seek in the house. The wife to be hides in this linen trunk, but the top closes down on her and she's trapped. No body ever finds her until a few years later when they're cleaning out the house and they open the trunk to find her skeleton in the linens. Apparently she haunts the house! Neat! Also, Bramshill House is the fourth haunted building in Britain. They showed us a cool picture taken back in 2010 and you can clearly see two figures wearing outdated clothes! Super cool

The expensive table

 They said if you took a picture of it, someone's head would appear in a photo of the stair case. Everyone said challenge accepted.

The little church

No floating head staircase

Cool ceiling

This picture is also worth a lot of money and was recently fixed after it fell and made a small hole which a  student made bigger by sticking his finger inside of it...they paid 5000 pounds to get it fixed.

The designs above the fireplace coincided with the gardens.

The library

Original wall

After the tour of the house we had a bit of lecture time and then lunch. I had some potatoes and a really nifty dessert! 

 After that it was back to lectures before heading back to the station in style:

Our taxi

 After we got back, Jordan and I went off to go get tickets to see Wicked! We got the tickets and then grabbed some food real quick.

 I've recently realized I've had a lot of ham and cheese sandwiches this trip, and not a single one has measured up to the one I had from Eat. In solidarity, I plan on not having a single ham and cheese sandwich this weekend.

It wasn't very good... 

 I've seen Wicked once before in Dallas, but seeing it on a stage that doesn't move was fantastic! The set was so much cooler! One of my favorite parts was the Ozdust ballroom scene and two pillar like things ascended from the ceiling and they turned out to be shiny light fixtures!!! They also had the sides of the stage lit up with Christmas lights! It all looked so cool!

 The theatre was really hot though, so I went out during intermission for some air.

 On my way back in, I decided to grab me a t-shirt since I got one the first time I saw the show in Dallas so I figured I'd keep up the tradition.

 After that we came home and went to bed preparing for today!

HIGHCLERE CASTLE!!!

Today also started off bright and early. Of all the things I forgot to print, I forgot to print my Highclere Castle tickets. The first thing I purchased. Go figure. We got up early and fixed that before heading off to the train station. We got on a train and I ended up at a seat with a TV. I watched part of an episode of a British TV show called Miranda before getting off at Reading to switch to our Newbury train.

My little TV

 After watching that episode and the few things I've seen on tumblr:

I just feel connected on a spiritual level with this show. Apparently some of it is on hulu in the US, so when I get back I know what I'll be doing!!

So after getting on the train, we end up getting off at the first Newbury station we see unaware that there is a second station until it is too late and the train has moved on. We ended up walking about a mile and a half to the actual station we were supposed to get off at, but we made it!

 After that we hopped in a taxi to Highclere Castle! On the way, our taxi driver told us that Andrew Lloyd Weber lived basically the British countryside version of next door! I just pictured Andrew Lloyd Weber going out riding a horse up to the property line between Highclere and his estate and just shaking his fist...

Anyways, we finally arrived at the castle! WE weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I sure did take pictures of outside and the garden!

First view

For you Boyfriend

 After touring the inside we ate at the cafe. I got chicken and potatoes and some chocolate cake! It was very delicious!

 Then we went off to explore the gardens! Now will just be a series of nature shots and pictures of me and pictures of the castle. You have been warned.

It was all so green

Hugging a tree

Sleepy time in the grass

 It was so much fun! I want to come back some day and just pack a picnic and explore the gardens. I could spend all day at this castle. It was beautiful on the inside and out. Fantastic!

After that we hopped on our train to go straight to London. We encountered some problems though, and ended up being stuck on our train for an hour right outside of the station. But we perservered, and continued to try our first attempt at The Book of Mormon lottery. We got there a little early, so we went into M & M's world for a bit! The store smelled like chocolate!

 We then walked around searching for possible places for dinner and for something cold and delicious for me.

 Where is Singin' in the Rain? No one knows.

 I ended up getting a Costa Red Berry chiller. It was pretty good, but not as good as my lemon chiller from a random coffee shop at Liverpool station.

 We then tried our luck!

 Unfortunately a lot of other people were trying their luck too.

 We ended up not getting picked, but we'll try again! We walked to Matilda to see if we could get tickets there, but nothing came up so we ended up just going to a sit down place and eating. I got...you know...ham and cheese. It still wasn't up to par. I'm swearing off of them this weekend so hopefully I'll have more interesting food than this!

Tomorrow we leave for our Mini-break extravaganza! Hopefully I'll be able to keep up, if not I'll see ya Sunday!

Thanks for listening!

-Pat