London-Salisbury-Stonehenge
2009.03.30 15:42
Managed some time to go down to London last weekend, just before the Easter break (“break” being somewhat of a misnomer, as I’ll probably be spending it doing my assignments)…
Our final destination was actually Stonehenge… Yeah, I know it’s a bit of a cliché “tourist destination”… but anyway… it turned out to be a not-so-cliché trip after all, as we found a gem of a city called Salisbury, and learned a lesson in life about being homeless…
So here’s a map of our route from Google Maps… just click on the appropriate icons… and let’s begin our story…
(Btw, we sought the cheapest way we could to get there, which was the National Express bus to London, and then the Megatrain to Salisbury —both being promo fares :p)
London
Arriving at London’s Victoria Coach Station at around 23:00, we thought we could pass the night at some pub along our way to Waterloo Station, or even hang around that station, where we would then catch the 8:50 train to Salisbury the next morning.
(Here’s a link from Google Maps again of the walking route from Victoria Coach Station to Waterloo Station.)
Everything looked like it was going according to our plan… the night was still young, all of London was still alive… We managed to take pictures of Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the River Thames, and the London Eye… unknowingly falling to the city’s illusion, which we summed up as: “terang belum tentu buka”… :p
The last picture of the London Eye is the prettiest we thinks… kinda surreal… like a dream-like wander… because that exactly was the state we ended up being in… when we found out that everything started to close shop by midnight (the “terang belum tentu buka” bit)… even Waterloo Station, where we had expected to spend the night…
So we then had to keep moving and walking around town (back and forth Waterloo and Victoria), to beat the cold and keep our butts from freezing. Standing still and trying to sleep on a bench outside a closed railway station was no option —us being living survivors of such a (stupid) feat, along with our comrade of an old man whom we had met trying to do the same thing. (We can only pray that he had survived too!)
It was in this cold and dreary and exhausted state that we realized something which some (or maybe many?) of us take for granted: that of having a roof over our heads.. having a nice, warm place to rest our tired selves after the day… having a place to call home…
Just outside Waterloo Station, we had actually seen a homeless man sleeping behind some parking meters. Another tried to seek some comfort —huddling amongst his few belongings— outside an office building down Pall Mall.
Our plight was just the night cold and freezing wind… What of theirs, when it rains, or snows?
Be it Jakarta (or London), we are the fortunate ones who can actually call these grand cities as our home.
That one night, the gods made us see things from those of the unfortunate…
Btw, here are some tips for fellow travelers unlucky enough to get caught in a similar situation as ours. Any more suggestions?
- Mind the season and weather. Don’t think that being spring already, means it’s warm enough for an all-night prowl.
- We managed a few minutes of warmth by browsing into some 24-hour stores without actually buying anything. One can actually buy something that actually gives warmth as well.
- Grabbing a midnight snack at a kebab joint that was still open. Some kebabs, fish and chips, or falafels (for vegetarians), gives one the energy to keep going. Being in a small room, packed with other night prowlers, near a kebab roaster, added the warmth.
- Ours was on a weekday night. Weekend nights could prove to be of more luck in finding places to hang out till the morning.
- Don’t shuttle at all. Contact a friend in town or prepare proper accommodation.
Well, anyway… The morning sun finally dawned upon us as well, slowly but surely awashing the city with its light and warmth…
(We didn’t know what this pretty clock tower on that small intersection we passed through was called, so we just called it “Little Ben”… :p)
Salisbury
For a battered traveler, an hour and a half of sleep in a warm coach will suffice —Waterloo Station to Salisbury.
We had thought of Salisbury as a mere transit: when we (awake and) arrive there, we’ll just ask for the bus directions to Stonehenge… do our sight-seeing… and head back to catch the last train to London (and the last bus to Manchester)…
But then Salisbury wasn’t your ordinary country gal…
There was something mesmerizing about the place when we strolled down from the station to its city center… (We went downtown to grab some lunch and compare the bus fares. We finally took the tour bus, as its student promo fare made it quite comparable with taking the local bus.)
Salisbury turned out to be a lively little city, with nice little wonders here and there. The last picture, for example, is of a small shop trading the ware and ingredients for making beer and wine. The following pictures, meanwhile, are those of a small waterfall, ducks and swans in the city’s creeks, as well as the city’s various hidden gems and trinkets awaiting to be discovered by passersby (my favorite being the “Riverside Boy Statue”)…
We also enjoyed Salisbury’s strong sense of community spirit, as can be seen in the following pictures of children playing together in a park… and most particularly, of the city library… of which we wished there was one (even just remotely similar to it) back in Indonesia…
What we found quite nice about the city library is that there is an active forum for book recommendations and discussion from the community’s own readers, apart from the library staff…
Stonehenge
Having discovered Salisbury, Stonehenge seemed somewhat irrelevant. But then, having gone this far, we decided we might as well go the whole nine yards. So there: Salisbury – Amesbury (a small town along the way) – Stonehenge.
Clouds still hung in the sky and the air was still freezing when we arrived at the site, but we still managed anyway to get some nice shots of England’s most famous rock formations:
We learned that Stonehenge actually had nothing to do with the so-called druid culture (despite it being the site of such related activities during the yearly solstices), as the rock formations turned out to date far before that. Mystics aside, Stonehenge may simply be an astronomical and seasonal observatory for the prehistoric agricultural communities who are believed to have built it (and who are depicted in the following mural pictures)…
I personally was disappointed for another reason, as I had imagined Stonehenge being somewhere in a vast plain of lush-green, yet overlooking a nearby sea of deep-blue… when the rocks are in fact still pretty much inland…
Fortunately, my disappointment was soon forgotten, as we also managed to take snapshots of the bustling life surrounding the muted stones: crows, sheep, and some birds that we do not know its name, but are pretty sure suits the Indonesian term of “burung punai”… :p
We also learned of a traditional roofing technique still used in the area. It has something to do with horse manure, with the final roofing product said to be able to keep a house warm during winters and cool during summers.
The surrounding Wiltshire area, though not particularly distinct from any other countryside in the UK, was also an eye pleaser. The following is a shot of such a countryside, with Old Sarum —another of the region’s historic site— shown in the background.
Related posts:
1 Comment on “London-Salisbury-Stonehenge”
really taught us d hardship o/ being homeless, eh…we need to experience it once in a while in one o d cities in indonesia…mrasakan ky apa dimakan nyamuk sm masup angin tiap malem…
Leave a reply