When it Rains, it Pours

Yesterday, after a measly 3 hours of sleep, we woke up at 7 and headed to Cambridge. I was able to sleep most of the 2 hour ride, but I couldn't shake my Harry Potter hangover. When we first got there, we went punting. It's quite similar to gondola-ing. Owen (one of the Gardner's boys) was willing to be our punter, and he did an awesome job! We passed everyone and were the only ones to get to the end and back.

Kelsey and Grant, with Owen, the champion punter.

Hilary, Catie and I

Cambridge was so beautiful. I would love to go to college there. If only I could become a freaking genius overnight. We made our way towards town, but had to stop halfway to get some caffine to wake us up. It was really pathetic. We got to the town market and looked around. It was so great! There were fresh fruit and veggie stands (where I got an AMAZING apple), bread, home made treats, and hand crafted jewelry. So fun.

After the market, we walked around the different colleges and shops. We had a terrific 'jacket potato' lunch (baked potato), and explored some more.

King's college

We were sooo tired by mid-afternoon, so we decided to sit in a McDonald's for the last 45 minutes before we had to be back to the bus. Well, we all ended up falling asleep. In McDonald's. In McDonald's. Who does that? Us apparently.

Today, we got ready for a lovely country hike with the London Center. Or so we thought. We got to the train station, and arrived in Kent, home of beautiful lavender fields, barley fields, and lovely countryside. We met our tour guide and started the walk. This is where we found out that it was a 9 mile walk. We were thinking maybe 3 miles... nope. Did I mention it was raining? Yeah, it rained the whole 6 hours. Sometimes poured.

We started walking,  and before two hours was up, our jeans were soaked, shoes muddy, and we were kind of... miserable. We made it to a small farm and practically begged them to let us use their equipment barn to take shelter for lunch. There were about 60 of us in the group, and it was so nice to thaw out, and the farm had delicious homemade treats for us to enjoy. By the time it was time for us to head out again, everyone started getting this look of misery on their faces. We did not want to finish! But we all kept trudging.

This is what it was probably supposed to look like:

It already was so beautiful, and I tried to make the best of it and enjoy the scenery, but it was hard to look around, since I was constantly looking down, making sure I wasn't going to step in a huge, muddy puddle, and trying to keep my umbrella from turning inside out. I tried not to be miserable. I really did. Our tour guide said that he's done this 6 times a year for a long time, and this is the second time it rained on him. Lucky us!

The sun came out during the last 15 minutes of our journey. Ironic, right? We were all happy to be back on the train back to London. Here are some pictures that Kelsey took from the walk. I never took my camera out, for fear of getting it wet. Little did I know, the rain was soaking through my backpack and getting it wet already. Don't worry, I found out during lunch and was able to wrap it in plastic bags to keep it dry, and it's fine. Anyway, pictures:

Here's the sunny part.

Right now, we're all cozied up in bed in dry clothes, watching a movie. It feels sooo nice! We have an exciting week ahead... including PARIS on Wednesday! Woo-hoo!

Until next time!