The big 25

Since my birthday happened to land on a Tuesday this year I kept things low key because I was hoping for work the next day. Unfortunately, I also woke up with a sore throat that day so chose to stay home and just relax which was well needed anyway after the fun weekend beforehand. I started my day off with a nice run around Lewisham. I found this great park not too far from home so ran the streets to it and went through the trails and then back home. It was definitely a challenge because the entire trip there was uphill. It felt so good to get out there though because it was a beautiful sunny day and I've been feeling sloth like lately without the gym. I thought about joining one here but they want far too much money and I just can't afford that. Anyway, when I got home from my run I was feeling so pumped up that I did an ab workout too. The rest of the day was very relaxing. I stayed in and had pizza and wings with the flatmates and skyped with friends back home. =)

The real fun happened yesterday when I took a bus tour to see Stonehenge and Bath with the flatmates. It was about an hour and a half drive outside of London. Stonehenge was really neat because it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. No one really knows how the rocks got there or their true purpose but there are certainly plenty of myths and suggestions about it. In any case it was something cool to see and I really enjoyed it.

After Stonehenge we got back on the sweltering hot bus and headed to Bath. On the way there we went through this area that is used by the military. There were tank crossing signs and you could see the tracks left by them. We also passed this small village that we were told was requisitioned in the 1940s by the British military. They gave the people of the town a little notice and some money to leave the town and then they used the village as a training grounds. They recreated a German village and practiced different strategies on how to take the town in order to ready their troops for battle in Germany. The town is still used today for that purpose and the townsfolk have never been able to return.

We got to Bath and had a few hours to explore the Roman baths and the city itself. The Roman baths were really neat too. You couldn't touch the water though because it was a nasty green colour, probably full of bird feces, is super hot, and comes through old lead pipes. We go to explore the whole museum which included the large bath area as well as many ruins that have been excavated. We got to see where the Romans would have lounged when they came to the Baths, the private rooms for the wealthier Romans, and loads of artifacts that were found there. On both the Stonehenge and Roman baths tours we used these audio guides which tells you many facts and the history behind the places. It was a lot to take in but really interesting stuff.

We spent so much time in the baths that we barely had time to explore the city. We ended up just going to a pub around the corner for some lunch. While we were there we saw on the telly that there was huge riot going on in Central London at the time. People had started a peaceful protest in Hyde Park because of the spending cuts but then some anarchists decided to ruin things and took to the streets and destroyed shops and banks along Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus. The images reminded me of the riots that happened in Toronto for the G20 Summit. Since these fools were causing raucous in the centre of the city our tour bus had to make some new stops on the northern end of the city because access to Central London was closed. It turned out better for us in the end because we were able to get dropped off at a station closer to home.

Once we got back home we relaxed for a bit then headed out to the Fox and Firkin down the road. Some of my friends met up with us there for some pints and good times to celebrate my birthday. There were some live bands playing which turned out to be awful. Despite the terrible music from the bands the whole night was awesome. We drank, danced, played ukulele and boggle late into the night then headed back to the house where we sang silly camp songs. All in all it was a great birthday!