Winchester, Jane Austen, & London

The day we left the Isle of Wight felt like the beginning of the end. After a couple of brief stops in Winchester and at the country home of Jane Austen, we would be in our last stop: London. Everything had happened too quickly and I wanted to go back and do it all again (even the Moors, but definitely not Norwich).

The main purpose for our brief stop in Winchester was the be able to see the place where Jane Austen was buried in the cathedral, but alas, the cathedral was closed for that one day for preparations for some sort of flower show. It was the greatest tragedy of the trip.

Instead of touring the cathedral, we were set loose on the town. Audrey and I wallowed in sadness for quite a while, hardly caring to look at anything because we had lost our opportunity to look upon Jane Austen's grave. Our mournful meanderings somehow led us into a store called Primark which actually turned out to be heaven. It was like Target meets Forever 21 meets something America doesn't even have. We later found the Primark on Oxford Street in London which was three times bigger than the Winchester Primark, and it was our undoing. I've never bought so many clothes at one place with so little money in my life. 

The shoes Audrey and I bought at our first Primark trip.

It was a good thing that we didn't have a lot of time in Winchester because Primark had the potential to suck me dry. From Winchester we took a coach to Chawton, Hampshire to the house where Jane Austen wrote her most famous novels. DREAM COME TRUE. If you don't know it already, Jane Austen is my favorite author and is one of the main reasons I first became interested in literature. This was a mighty and oh-so-very-important pilgrimage for yours truly.

The fabled writing desk. 

Like every other place on the trip, we left Chawton much too soon, but London was next. 

LONDON, LONDON, LONDON, LONDON, LONDON. 

We settled ourselves in our hostel at Holland Park and there were twelve of us crammed into that room. Four bunk beds with three beds situated in a Tetris style which made for some interesting feats of bed-climbing every evening. We spent ten whole days in London, and in my memory it is one massive Londony blur. 

The Millennium Bridge

I do remember that on our first full day in London we went to the Globe Theatre (another major dream come true, and rest assured that plenty of tears were shed) and saw an all-female cast perform my favorite Shakespeare comedy: The Taming of the Shrew. It was incredible. I had to keep reminding myself that the woman playing Petruchio was actually a woman. (And she was a beautiful woman, so that speaks volumes about her talent). Watching a play at the Globe was unbelievable and standing in the Yard for hours was a test of physical, emotional, and mental stamina. But it was well worth it; it felt much more authentic to be standing than it would have been to sit. 

The Globe Theatre

The Globe

Following the play, I led Hannah Wing and Cara G. along the Thames because I simply HAD to see the Houses of Parliament on my first day in London. And somehow I knew how to get there...I really did. We didn't even get lost, much to my own surprise. (It would be pretty hard to get lost from the Globe to the Houses of Parliament unless you were heading in the wrong direction because all you have to do is follow along the river). 

And that is how London all began.