Pilgrimage to Canterbury and Dover

St. Pancras station in London

This past weekend, Alex, her friend Jimmye, and I went on an honest-to-God pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral, and by that I mean it took just as long and was just as difficult journey as it used to be. We were supposed to take a train to London and transfer to Canterbury, but as it turns out, from Oxford to London Paddington we had to transfer at Reading. There, the train was 15 minutes late, and as we attempted to get to St. Pancras to board our second train, we found that all the tube lines leading directly there were down. Way to go, London. We ended up having to take a round-a-bout way that involved the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines, and we finally got there to MISS our train by one minute. Sighhh. We took the next train immediately available, and had to transfer at Ashford International before finally arriving at Canterbury West at 12. That's right. Sunday morning, from 8 to 12 AM, we were on a total of 5 trains (not including the tube) just to get to Canterbury, where we spent only three hours to see the cathedral. We were a mess. Still, the trip was worth it: Canterbury Cathedral is absolutely beautiful. At certain parts, I can really see why they originally wanted to film Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets here, but the cathedral refused, because they thought it was inappropriate for it to feature in a movie about wizards.

In any case, we decided to have tea as we waited for our next train. Tea time at England is amazing. When I get back to Stanford, my future roommate and I are going to have a house-warming tea party. We're going to try making scones, especially since I got the recipe for the best scones in Oxford. After looking it over, though, I'm really scared of eating them. The recipe calls for 250 g of butter. Imagine that on a balance in lab. Oh my god that amount could probably kill someone.

BUT THEY ARE SO DELICIOUS! To be clear, this is at Canterbury. These scones still can't hold a candle to the ones at The Rose at Oxford. 

We arrived at Dover later on that night, and we spent it dawdling in our room, watching TV, and having dinner, after which we bought candy for dessert. I think it's the quality of the chocolate here, but Twix is so much better. Also, I discovered a candy known as Bounty, which is essentially coconut covered in dark chocolate. Why hasn't anyone introduced this to me before?!

Anyways, the next morning, we got up early to go to the white cliffs of Dover. Those stretch all along the southern coast, so we only got to see a small segment. We were especially lucky to have good weather; we couldn't walk as far as we wanted because of the massive puddles covering the paths. It's such a beautiful place that all my pictures came out amazing. Still, we could see the coast of France all the way on the other side.

What?! We're in France?! Haha, my cell phone was clearly confused.

Dover Castle from the distance. If you walk along the edge of the cliffs, you see windows in some areas. That's where they dug tunnels to hide in during WWII.

Port of Dover.

Beautiful. It was sad to leave, but we arrived back in London later in the day to meet up with friends at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum. It was okay--the latter was pretty tame, especially since they didn't even have any live animals. I'm thinking about going back to the V&A, though, since I didn't have enough time to look at everything. Also, they're right next to Harrod's, and I'm definitely checking that out before I leave.

Can I just say that I have left work for the last minute so much now that I can write two 4-6 page papers in fewer than 2 days and get 7-8 hours of sleep in-between? Quality varies, though, haha.

And, in other news: Lyon, France for Thanksgiving weekend. I didn't know it when I made arrangements, but its the gastronomic center of France AAAAAAAAH!