Stonehenge to Glasgow

 I'm out of London! 

My opinion of this city didn't end great. 

To get the negatives over with... 

It was rainy 

I was lonely 

My leg was killing me (likely cause for a lot of my sour view of London) 

Lines were long

People weren't that friendly 

My phone was STOLEN. Right after my visit to Stonehenge so all those pictures were lost. 

The bus ride from London to Glasgow sucked. Not only did I have to wait like 7 hours to leave when I was really ready to leave by like 4, but the strangers in front of me felt the need to share their entire life stories at 12am on a 9 hour bus ride, the guy next to me blasted his "Call Me Maybe" and futuristic style music on his earphones, and it was soo uncomfortable with me leg. 

One bad thing about traveling alone is it can be difficult to wander a city from 8am-10pm. Sometimes I just want a nap. There's only so much cafe and restaurant sitting, church exploring, museum seeing, and building observing one can take. 

But now, to end on the positives...

Wicked was INCREDIBLE. Best play I've ever seen. The music was amazing, it was so funny, and I thought the story was so creative.
I had a nice stroll through Notting Hill and Hyde Park, seeing Kensington Palace, being totally amused thinking about this whole royalty thing, and wandered this beautifully landscaped park filled with people, dogs, ponds and ducks. Loved the ponds. 

So Stonehenge was pre.tty. tight. The only disappointment I had with it was the (for some reason) unexpected touristyness of it. I was irrationally wanting just a big open field with some big rocks I could touch (and test their healing power), and just chill in the grass next to such strange wonders of the world. 

I did have a private tour where the bus driver just addressed "the bus" as "my dear."  Maybe that's part of what gave me false expectations of it being a wild, secluded site. Nonetheless, I'm definitely glad I went. 

I met an entertaining lady while waiting for the bus. Very talkative but worth it. She had such an interesting life. 

Oh! I got to go to Monday Mass! Seeing as how going to church in as many countries as possible is on my bucket list and I missed a perfect chance to go in London on Sunday, I was pretty upset with myself. But then, after my 5 hours of sitting in a restaurant, I decided to wander just a bit before Wicked started. I decided to go in to check out this church, Westminster Cathedral, and Mass was just starting! Perfect timing. So I experienced Mass for the first time, added that to my list for my bucket list, and lit a votive candle and said a prayer for Grandma Jeanne. That's the second country she's got a fire burning in. Even if she didn't get to travel these places herself, I'm bringing her with me! I lit it in front of the Irish cathedral inside the church too which was beautiful. This church was one of my favorites. It was really unique and all the little cathedrals it had on the sides were devoted to different saints from different countries and decorated accordingly. They were incredible. 

Ah, and I took a Catholic communion. Not sure what's supposed to happen there!

And now I'm finally in Scotland! It was nice and snowy this morning but now it's rainy again. But David and Mark, his roommate, took me to a good breakfast, then I did a quick one and a half hour tour of the Glasgow Cathedral, Necropolis, and Provens Lordship, a museum in the oldest house in Glasgow. 

The church was awesome, of course, the cemetery was really cool with crazy, big tombs along a spiraly hill with a good view, and my favorite part about the museum was the information about the "characters of Glasgow." These are the poor or disabled people that were often street performers. There were little write ups about them and sketches that were all interesting. 

Now David and I are just chilling, searching for a movie to watch tonight while eating some delicious Indian food. 

I think the rest of the week will make up for all the not so good occurrences from the beginning of the week.