Well the last time I wrote I was with Scott in Cambridge staying at the flat of a guy named Marco. Scott found him off of couchsurfer and he turned out to be a really good host to us. That night we just had dinner, talked for a bit and then headed off to bed. The next morning Scott and I got up about 5 AM so that we could make it to the bus station to go back to London. We had my rolling suitcase with us which is quite heavy and now one of the wheels is kind of shot (we tried to ditch it in London but weren't able to). Anyways it was quite a drag carrying that with us to the bus station but we made it in plenty of time. Our bus ride was about two hours back to London and then we caught another bus from London to Portsmouth. We got to Portsmouth about 2:30 (we did ditch my bag this time) and headed to the futbol (soccer) stadium that Scott wanted to see. A security guy met us outside the stadium and showed us in for a few minutes and let us take a few pictures. I'm not much for soccer stadiums but it was pretty cool. After that we walked over to the megastore next door to see if they had some jerseys. We were in luck, they had some that had been printed up for someone but not taken that were on sale for £3 which is a great deal (about $4.50 US). So I ended up buying my first soccer jersey, I figure it's a pretty good souvenir for Europe. After that we went and found the birthplace of Charles Dickens. They had turned the house into a little museum that you can tour for £2.50 so we did that. It gave a nice little history of Dickens parents and himself.
The plaque next to my head says it is Dicken's birthplace
After visiting the Dickens's house we walked back to where the bus dropped us off and then started walking down the coastline towards the Southsea Castle. It was quite a walk and our feet started hurting along the way but we made it. The castle was actually kind of small, not really what you would expect when you think of a castle. Apparently it was pretty important though for defending the coast. They had these stone pillars out on in the sea maybe a a half mile out that they mounted antiaircraft guns on during WWII. Another thing kind of cool in Portsmouth is the Spinnaker Tower. You can go up it and get an aerial view for a price but we didn't do that.
Spinnaker Tower
We came back from Portsmouth that same night on the bus and got back into London about 10:30 at night. We didn't have anywhere to stay for the night so we sat in the bus station until they kicked us out and then we walked around London for the rest of the night. There was a restaurant that Scott wanted to go to but it was closed (it used to stay open real late I guess). Walking around London at night was kind of a cool experience. Aside from being tired and my feet hurting it really wasn't too bad. We walked by St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Tower and Tower Bridge, the London Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and a number of other famous sites.
Tower Bridge by night
When morning came we went into a McDonald's and I got breakfast then we went back to the bus station walking by Buckingham Palace on the way. We caught the bus and made it back to Bristol about 4 in the afternoon. It was nice to get back and use a shower, change clothes and just relax. I think we'll be taking it easy the rest of the evening as at least my feet still hurt a little.
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