Pretty Pretty Please with a Castle on Top.

2 hour bus ride to a castle that’s closed? Count me in. Yesterday was our trip to Canterbury and Dover and basically everything went wrong. But it was still a blast… Cause we’re in Europe for pete’s sake!

We left our lovely London Center at 8 in the morn and headed to Dover. The next two hours consisted of a bus ride/movie about an archbishop dude who betrayed his best friend King Henry II when he decided that he actually believed in God and wasn’t going to serve him. Then he was brutally murdered in the Cantersbury Cathedral. ANYWAY! We got to Dover and walked up to this wickedly sweet looking castle. Only guess what? Closed. Somehow our scheduler person got the day wrong. So we took some pictures from afar and went to the beach instead. It was honestly pretty funny.. plus I got to take pictures on the beach of the English Channel. Oh and I grabbed a pretty sweet rock as a souvenir. The “white cliffs of Dover” weren’t what I was expecting, but I think that’s because we were in the city and not out in the middle of nowhere like you always see on the postcards. They were still sweet though. And the castle we almost went into was situated perfectly on the cliffs, so that made for a picturesque view.

The castle thing threw the rest of our day off, so they let us roam free in Canterbury for three hours while we waited for our Cathedral Tour to start. What did we do? Shopped. I’ve never really loved shopping until I came here. I mean, I liked it for sure, but something about being in Europe makes it SOOO much more enjoyable. Our tour of the Cathedral was pretty dang awesome though. I just love learning about things in our History class and then applying them straight to what you’re seeing. Like the dude that got murdered. “Today we are going to learn about Thomas Becket. He was an archbishop…etc. etc who was brutally murdered.” “Tomorrow we are going to drive to the place he was brutally murdered and stand on his grave.” Hmm.. If THAT doesn’t make history like 100 times cooler, you’re crazy.

Perhaps one of my favorite things that happened at the cathedral was when I snuck up on the organist!! The huge organ is in the main room and it was playing, like they usually are. Well I went down beneath in these cool movie-like tunnel things and was looking around when.. lo and behold.. the organist himself! Bangin away for all above to hear. I had to make my roomies proud and be a creeper, so of course I took a picture.

A couple things about London I’ve really appreciated this week: #1 – the weather. Ever since we went to Preston last week and I almost died of the cold, London has seemed so warm! Everyday I just think to myself, “Psh. I’m not even going to die in this cold. Bring it on.” #2 – If you fake knowing where you’re going, you’ll way impress your friends. I went on another London walk this week and I was in charge of leading. For some reason everyone is convinced I’m like the best leader in the world and they think I studied the trail before we went. Truth is I’d never seen it before, I just pretended to know what I was doing. Bahahaha I’m so sneaky! 

This picture kills me. Jumping picture gone horribly wrong! 

 Take 2. Much better. 

 We have no boys to kiss here. So we kiss rocks from the English Channel. 

 The Canterbury Cathedral organist himself. Consider yourself creeped!

 Pretty pretty please with a castle on top. 

 The castle we almost got to tour!

About a fourth of the Canterbury Cathedral. There was no way I was gettin the whole thing in one picture without running a mile back.