April 28: Salisbury and Stonehenge

Penny and Anna from my Paddywagon tour in March, and Anna’s friend Georgette met Houman and me at the Woking train station last Saturday morning for us all to take a day trip out to Salisbury and Stonehenge. Less than an hour after the train left Woking we arrived in Salisbury, where we found a pub for lunch, The King’s Head Inn, then met a tour bus at the train station to take us out to Stonehenge. Claiming student status, we all boarded for ₤13.50 each (₤3 cheaper) and enjoyed the commentary by our guide on our way out of Salisbury towards Stonehenge.

The view approaching the ancient monument is breathtaking (above). The stones rise in their impressive formation much taller than I expected, and really stand out from the grassy slopes around them. Our bus tour included entrance, so we breezed past the queue and into the monument area. Stonehenge is 5000 years old, built in the times of the pyramids in Egypt. The stones themselves come from up to 250 miles away and were hauled to this spot most likely with the aid of the River Avon from the Western part of England. The outer circle would have once served as a calendar: based on which slot the sun shone through, a visitor would know what month he/she was in at the moment. It is still unknown if the site served as a monument of sorts or as a temple.

Behind Stonehenge, there is a field enclosed by an 'electric fence'. I marvelled that these sheep just graze casually every day next to one of the oldest structures in the world that sees thousands of visitors daily, as though they couldn't be bothered. Oh, and the fence isn't electric.

After arriving back in Salisbury, we walked to the Salisbury Cathedral, where we found many people enjoying the sunny and warm weather on the lawn outside the cathedral. – Yes, I do love this English weather; it’s been sunny and pleasant the whole time I’ve been here. – The cathedral is much larger than I was expecting. Completed in 1258, the spire wasn’t added until 1320, and the structure was never really meant to support its weight, so there is still trouble with support, even after the flying buttresses were added. The 5 of us sat in the sun for a while resting before moving on the Salisbury markets.

We all marveled at how wonderfully inexpensive all the wares seemed. Though Woking is 33 miles outside central London, you wouldn’t know it from the prices of basic things like sandwiches and groceries. Houman and I bought several items, like bags of nuts, from these markets since they were such a bargain.

That evening, we cooked a big dinner at our flat for the 5 of us, plus John, who came out to Woking for his last night in London. It was our first dinner party, so we learned the hard way that we only have 4 large plates and exactly 6 forks. So we won’t be able to have more than 4 guests at time. We made do for the missing plates with small plate + bowl combo for our feast of spaghetti Bolognese with salad. Thankfully our big red leather wrap-around couch could accommodate us all, so we could watch the English competition for the next Grease Sandy and Danny pair.

Our conversation turned into a heated discussion about the Australian vs the American twist on the English language. It was nice for the match to finally be evened out as there were 3 of each nationality represented, as opposed to my Paddywagon experience that was pretty much just me against 13 or so Australians. We proved that Australians add ‘r’s to liaise words ending with a vowel to those starting with a vowel (i.e. ‘I’m going to visit Australiar and New Zealand’) - the English do this as well - and that they can’t for the life of them say ‘No’, but rather ‘Niaohw’. The Australians made their way on the train back to London from Woking around 11 PM to make sure they made it before the tube stopped running at midnight, and John, Houman and I continued on to party it up in Woking at the R.S.V.P nightclub. This club is a favorite among the local teenagers and plays pretty rubbish music. The DJ refused my request for The Killers ‘Mr Brightside’ because it wasn’t R&B, and it was allegedly ‘R&B Night’ that night, but when he started up with techno, I marched back to plead my case since he’d set precendent for non-R&B music, and was turned down again because apparently The Killers are considered ‘Indy’ music and no one would like it. Total rubbish. We found ourselves instead trying to dance to music that came out while we were in high school or earlier, but not the good songs. Oh well. There are many great things to be said for English life and culture, and I definitely love it here, but Americans really have it right when it comes to new and popular music. Or maybe it’s just Woking.