Year Abroad: Three Countries in 17 Days: Part 4

We decided to do one last trip in the London area before grabbing our stuff from the hostel and heading back to Oxford for the night. Our goal was Hampton Court Palace, the primary residence of King Henry VIII. If you haven't already noticed, there was a theme to the English part of our trip!

Hampton Court was probably my favourite Tudor thing we did. It really made me think of everything King Henry VIII tried to be and was at some points, grand, flashy, and huge! When you get there there's a long driveway leading up to the gate. It's all done in a red colour and is quite spectacular. Every one of King Henry's wives spent time here. I think one of my favourite things about this palace is that they had actors, one for each wife, and six King Henry's representing different parts of his life, reenacting scenes of what it would have been like at the palace. We saw one of a younger King Henry playing an instrument with one of his favourite musicians/courtiers. They also had a scene about when Jane Seymour, his third wife, was giving birth to King Edward VI and how the doctor wanted to make the birthing process go faster while the mid-wife was saying to wait or Jane Seymour would die. It was then stated that if it was between saving the baby or the queen, the child was to be saved just incase it was a boy, which it was, and Jane Seymour did die shortly after childbirth. They had scenes involving Queen Elizabeth I and more. Many other kings and queens have lived in that palace and technically it still could be used as a royal residence if the Queen desired. It was interesting to see how the different monarchs, like the Georges, had changed it to suit their tastes. I really enjoyed it. There was also some really nice gardens and courtyards. We also stopped for high tea here which was pretty tasty!

After that we went and got our stuff from the hostel and headed to Paddington Station to take the train back to Oxford. We got on a really packed train, so we had to stand for the hour and a half with all our stuff and souvenirs, but we met a really nice girl our age whom we talked to on the journey. It wasn't too bad. That night I took Kaleen out to have an Oxford pub experience. I took her to the Eagle and Child and we met up with my other friends David and Sihong. It was a nice relaxing night before the next stage of our journey.

The next day we went to Burgess Hill which is close to Brighton in the south of England. Kaleen has family there so we went and stayed with them for two nights and visited. They were very nice people and it was very nice of them to put of a complete stranger. The day in between those two nights we went for a day trip to Brighton. When we headed off to Brighton we were given very specific instructions to not go over the bridge when we exited the train station, but to go under it. As we left the station we looked around and didn't see a bridge. Our first thought was that it was farther down until we realized that we were standing on it! Almost messed up our very specific instructions, but we got on track. After we went under the bridge we wandered through the Northern Lanes and the Lanes were are roads of interesting small shops. We wandered in and out of some of them, but our main goal was Brighton Pier. The pier was a lot of fun! When we first got down there it was quite foggy so we decided to go into the arcade they had there for a bit. Two hours later we emerged from the arcade to lots of sun. We didn't expect to spend so much time in the arcade, but the games were so addicting and Kaleen was doing so well and getting so many tickets! Kaleen got over 200, almost 300 tickets in the end. I only got 68. My arcade skills are not the best and we only played games that gave you tickets. Well, that's a lie. We also did those claw machines that never give you anything and we played some racing games. We pooled our tickets together and got some coasters to share along with some other small things. We then headed out onto the pier to enjoy the sun and the water. There were mini doughnut stands, so we decided to get some. First of all, those were not 'mini' doughnuts! They were bigger then I expected. On with the story. We got our doughnuts and sat down on a bench to enjoy them. I grabbed the first doughnut out of my bag and took a bit out of it. I then turned to Kaleen to say something when out of no where a seagull swooped down and grabbed the doughnut right out of my hand biting my finger in the process! I screamed! The seagull sat next to me, scarfed

down the doughnut and then looked at me almost as if it was ready to do it again. Kaleen and I quickly moved to be undercover. After that I wasn't in the mood for doughnuts as much any more. My finger kept bleeding on and off for the rest of the day! Following that traumatic experience we went into a haunted house ride, then we went on the carousel. Then we headed out. At the entrance to the pier we grabbed some food again. Kaleen got a hotdog and you wouldn't believe what happened. As she was walking towards me a seagull swooped down, landed next to her and took a bite out of her hotdog! She screamed louder then I did because she had more time to react while mine was more of a surprise. We got out of there as quickly as we could and I definitely never want to be near a seagull again if I can help it!