Bath: Day 21

Photo 1: Buckfast Abbey
Photo 2: Cute otters :)
Photo 3: Girls and I melting in the butterfly sanctuary
Photo 4: A pretty butterfly! That's for you, Mom!
Photo 5: Holy Trinity Church ruins
Photo 6: Old graves
Photo 7: Sherlock Holmes class


This is a day late because I decided to be smart and not put my laptop in my overnight bag to save my shoulder, so here goes!

We had quite the busy day yesterday. First, we went to Buckfastleigh, a town that is extraordinarily tiny. The initial stop was for the ruins of the Holy Trinity Church where we had to climb 195 stairs to get to it. It actually wasn't as bad as it sounds- there was a "wishing stone" and a "nookie bench"...the English are very odd. Anyhow, so the ruins were awesome. The oldest grave we found dated back to 1790! In fact, Doyle's inspiration for the evil character, Hugo, in The Hound of the Baskervilles is buried here (we saw the tomb). So, being the total outdoor, rough-it, kind of girl that I am...I managed to stumble into some bad plants whilst trying to capture a very picturesque view of Buckfact Abbey from the top of the hill. Needless to say...my legs became red and it itched and burned for a little while. I should really not be allowed to be outside for more than ten minutes- for the safety of myself and others.

From the ruins we got some free time to explore the "town". My whole class grabbed some lunch and ate in the park and then headed to the butterfly and otter sanctuary because there was nothing else to do there. The butterfly sancturary was, of course, a zillion degrees so I did not stay in there too terribly long, but they were gorgeous and the turtles were so cute! And the otters had SUCH funny personalities. I named one of the otters Nigel (the one standing up). We also saw a steam engine that actually still runs which was pretty neat.

Afterward, we went to Buckfast Abbey that is still the home to monks and nuns. It was absolutely stunning, but there was a most unpleasant woman working inside the church. I totally forgot flash was on and I went to take a photo inside the church and it went off. She started yelling at me and then made a point of complaining loudly to her co-worker that "I cannot believe people would not know better!" even after I told her I was sorry and did not realize it was on. So, my temper wasn't very good at that point and I decided to say perhaps they should display signs exhibiting "No Flash" so that they would not have to exhuast themselves telling many people not to use it. Awful woman. But it didn't ruin the experience. The stainless glass and the chandelier were magnificent. The true wonder of the abbey was how it was constructed. The original abbey was burned down and then four monks (only one was a mason) rebuilt it by hand over 32 years. Amazing.

The girls and I and Jonathon, our academic advisor who is really cool, went out to the pubs later on to hang out and just play som pool and chit chat. It was a good time, minus the fact I got glass in my hand...(yes, it was a bad day for my body) While I was talking I threw my right hand down on the table where I did not realize small pieces of shattered glass was and got it stuck in my hand which caused me to bleed for a little while. It was bad luck. THEN Sam, Rebecca, Amanda, and I all got lost trying to figure out our way back to the hostel and there were these creepy cats following us. It went along with the Dartmoor theme.

Unfortunately, the hostel was FULL of little kids at a camp there so we heard little feet running about and it was SO hot and humid that sleep was not really an option. But it was still a cool day nonetheless.