Winchester- Closer to Sam and Dean than ever

So, our last night bus back from Newcastle (and EVER!) was UTTER HELL. I have no idea why but neither of us slept, we were uncomfortable and when we arrived in London, we probably looked like we had been throuhg the ringer. I felt like my face was like the saggy dog's in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It sucked. I did go pick up some groceries and some hot chocolate as a treat since the weather sucked sucked sucked. The bus to Winchester wasn't a big deal but when we arrived, it was still raining. The bus dropped us off exactly where we needed to be. It was right next to the Information Centre and across the street from the bus station. The man in the info centre was incredibly helpful and pointed us off into the direction of the cathedral.

This being our first outside London Cathedral, I was really excited. Plus, itwas one that I hadn't been to before so it was a whole new experience. The ouside was typically Gothic and the inside was also typically Gothic. We were immediatly greeted by two old men that worked in teh cathedral- David and Brian- who told us about the tour and waited with us until the tour started and chatted with us. I love friendly old people. Kate, our tour guide was also a friendly old person and she was excellent- so very cute. Winchester Cathedral is really cool in the fact that the back half of it is Norman. So there are extreme Gothic elements, but also some lovely Norman pillars and stones in the back after the choir area. The walls and ceilings are ornamented and painted and Jane Austen is buried in the cathedral, having lived in Winchester right ebfore her death. Another interesting point about Winchester is that it's so low to the water source that it often floods. The crypt was flooded the day we were there and we learned the story about teh diver whol spent days under water for four hours at a time, blindly putting in sandbags underneath the church so that the water could be pumped out and cement pumped in in order to make the foundations stronger.

And taht was pretty much Winchester. We walked up to teh old gate that used to be the boundary of Winchester but the rain was still lashing down so we spent the last hour sitting on this comfy bench in the visit centre waiting for our bus. The ride to Saslibury was an experience- two large buses coming at each other at high speeds, water rushing everything, slamming of brakes, banging of doors, it was a rush! No need to learn how to bunjee jump- just go a ride a bus!

Salisbury was wet but very cute and the road to the hostel wasn't far. The hostel was absolutley lovely and I got to meet up with James and Michael and we chatted (Michael only for a bit) but James for a few hours before he had to close up the hostel. It was lovely lovely lovely to have a shower and a warm bed again and we were just praying that the weather the next day would be favorable.