Rochester and Canterbury...and dodgy pics.

So, today we woke up mondo early for a long coach trip to visit the ancient castle at Rochester and pay homage to St. Thomas Becket at the cathedral of Canterbury. It…was…AWESOME! Zach and Chelsea bought doughnuts down at the Tesco for everyone, but I passed. The last thing I need on this trip is an upset stomach! Besides, coach trip = sleeping, and the sugar definitely wouldn’t have helped that.

The Rochester castle is extremely old and crumbling—it was very closed in and dark, very unlike Warwick Castle, which was much larger and open.

It looked like the perfect setting for a filming of Hamlet…I think I even saw his father’s ghost up in the tower!

Is that you, Hamlet?!

View from the top tower.

Me inside Rochester Castle!

Canterbury was inspiring, too. It’s strange how none of us look forward to staring at yet another cathedral, but once we get inside everyone is like: “Oh, wow!” Every church never ceases to amaze us. The carvings, the ancient, stained glass windows, the small, almost forgotten prayer chapels, the respectful whispers all wrapped in the solemn presence that is the church—it’s a very humbling experience.

The Square outside the church.

Walking along side the cathedral.

The site of St. Thomas' murder. Poor guy...

Exploring...

I lit a player candle just for you Miss Peggy; that lil’ guy on the bottom is burning bright with a prayer just for you!

We got back and went out to dinner at the Hard Rock Café: London for my roomie Marika’s birthday.

She wanted to make me look good. =D

Josh singin' something.

Gurinder, Violet and Mick.

I got to look at a creepy life-sized puppet of Mick Jagger with huge lips while I ate. But seeing the waitress make Marika stand up on her chair while the whole restaurant sung “Happy Birthday To Mmm-Hmmm” was totally worth it. =D

Happy Birthday, Marika!

On the way home we stopped at a really nice bar-pub-thing and I ordered my first Cosmo cocktail. It was pretty much disgusting. I just really can’t stand the aftertaste or smell of alcohol. But the one thing I have liked was Pepsi mixed with Malibu Rum. I could drink that every day. Sweet.