Goodbye.

And so Lauren's Great European Adventure came to a close on the lovely day that was July 5th, 2007...I learned more than I ever had hoped to learn, I met more interesting people than I thought existed, and learned more about myself than I ever thought possible.

Already I'm planning my next escapade that I hope will be even more adventurous than this original...will it be Japan...could it be Argentina...or maybe even Mexico. Only time will tell what life will bring!

Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

And so it ends...

The morning I woke up to go to London, I just couldn't believe it was almost over...6 months it'd been since I left home for Spain, and it was all about to end in just 3 short days. I road into Waterloo with these great girls I'd met from Australia who were traveling around for a month or so. My hostel was in beautiful Notting Hill, right on the edge of Kensington Park...so off I went.

My first hours there I spent them wandering through Kensington and Hyde Park...I met this woman, Nadia, from Germany who showed me around a bit...all the way through to Oxford St. and Soho. After I'd gone back and had dinner I decided to stop by Harrod's...the most overwhelmingly expensive store I've ever been in. Pretty good start to London!

Second day. I decided to go on the Free Tour which was just as great as the one I went on in Amsterdam...basically we went around to ever possible thing you'd want to, so I got my London covered. The rest of the day was spent with an old friend of my dad's in Camden Town. Thank you Anita for introducing me! That part of London is just great...there's tons of little shops and vendors everywhere, and a great place to finish up with any last minute gifts that you might need for family and friends. After Camden Town I just wandered around St. James Park which was by far my favorite of the parks in London.

My final day in London was wonderfully relaxed. I woke up and started my trek through Kensington and Hyde Parks...through Green and St. James Park...and as I came out of st. James Park and up to Buckingham Palace I realized I'd made a horrible mistake...what I hadn't thought about was that it was 11:15 am as I made my way past the palace...11:15 am means that all the tourist are rushing the Palace for the changing of the guard at 11:30 am...I've never been more terrified in my life. I literally almost got knocked over by this crazy tourist family backed by the rest of the tourist in London. Lesson learned. NEVER EVER BE IN THE AREA OF BUCKINGHAM PALACE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 10AM-12PM.

After my near death experience I continued along past Parliament and the Thames River and onto the South Bank which is just a wonderful part of London...highly recommend it. It was just a wonderful day to be out...it only sprinkled once. I came up to the Millennium Bridge and made my way to the last museum adventure in Europe...it was a good one to finish on, the Tate Modern. Luckily they were having a Dali exhibit as well where I got to see his Disney movie, totally hot...called Destino...seriously amazing.

After that I walked just a little further past the Globetheater, on to the London Bridge, finally up to Tower Bridge.

The following morning I made my way to the airport and got squeezed onto a flight that was a good 4 hours earlier than my original flight! After the lovely trip that is customs I came out to baggage claim where I was greeted by my lovely father and my beautiful mother who was waiting for us in the car.

Stones upon stones.

In the morning, I realized I had made a terrible mistake. I arrived at Temple Meads train station about 10 am, just in time to catch the 10:22 am train. What I had not taken in to consideration was the time and date. Saturday and late morning is not a good time to try to get somewhere...because people aren't waking up to get on the 7am-9am trains...they want the 10am-12pm trains...HORRIBLE! DISASTER...I mean, 2 cars! 2 cars only! standing room only! for almost 2 hours. Not cool...when I alighted from the helltrain I was greeted by more of England's incessant drizzle and the quaint town of Salisbury, gateway to Stonehenge.

Salisbury is a great little city...their cathedral is absolutely wonderful! However, my favorite thing of all in the city was The India Shop. It was one of those shops that just has everything...but the best part about it was the woman who worked there. The nicest woman I think...not originally from Salisbury by the sound of her accent...she sort of reminded me of Mrs. Doubtfire's accent. My trip there wowed me with some good old customer service!

Besides the India Shop, I had just a great time in my hostel...it was in this beautiful old house up a long drive so it was nice and peaceful. I hadn't had that for a while so it was pretty nice. They had a T.V. and I spent an obscene amount of my time watching it...oh well, sometimes you just need a break.

The important thing is that I made it to Stonehenge. It was beautiful...A bunch of stones, but it was a beautiful bunch of stones. It had this quiet sort of vibe to it, despite the entire this huge tour bus pulling up right when I got there...not sorry I did it.

The cooler side of England...

From Dublin, I flew into London Gatwick, and from there I took the train back over to Bristol.

And OMG, I loved Bristol. It's a really laid back city with a mountain of ridiculously interesting things to do. I got in early afternoon and just roamed around a little bit...got used to the pound which is incredibly frustrating because of the exchange rate, but so it goes.

My second day in Bristol was amazing! I started out at the St. Nicolas Market, which was off the chain wonderful...tons of vendors of jewelery, textiles, etc. I also had lunch from this great little stand called About Soup. I had their coconut Thai soup with a really tasty tabbouleh. I also seemed to find it necessary to drop all my money on these really beautiful throw pillow cases made out of saris...they are absolutely wonderful, and I know I could have gotten them a lot cheaper from the source, but oh well.

After the market, I got on the bus to Glastonbury, although the festival had already passed through, basically the week before me, I still wanted to see the city...more like town. Anyways, the abbey was absolutely amazing! I got to see where King Arthur and the Queen are supposedly buried which was fun. After that I went up to the Glastonbury Tor, which is this big tower on top of an ancient hill that is either the gateway to the underworld or where Avalon receded into the mists...your choice basically. All I know is that the town was something special, I can totally see what all the commotion is about because it's like when you go to Machu Picchu, there's an energy that is unmistakable. I fell in love.