I should get a spanking--

-- for being a day late already.

So, I got into Bath yesterday. My trip through London was a hard one-- I was so stressed-- and I stayed the night in a youth hostel. That wasn't really a bad experience. I was just tired and upset. I took a bus at 9:30 am yesterday, and for about three hours travelled through the south of England. The countryside was really very nice. I enjoyed it a lot. When we arrived in Bath, I couldn't figure out where to catch my bus, although it runs every ten minutes and I should have been able to. I finally found out that the bus stops outside the train station, not the bus station, and I caught it there. We travelled past Victoria Park, up to the bed and breakfast I'm staying at. Immediately I was charmed by the empty milk bottle waiting to be filled outside the door. Immediately the mistress of the household hated me because when she took me into my very small room, I didn't lift my very heavy suitcase and I scraped the corner of the wall. I don't blame her for being upset-- in fact, she was much less upset than I would have been.

Anyway, my room is small, but it's lovely. I debated youth hostels versus bed and breakfasts, and here is my rationale on choosing a bed and breakfast:

* I don't have to pay for breakfast.
* I don't have to pay for luggage storage, because my room is a single and no one can get in to steal my stuff.
* It's only like 6 pounds more a night (okay, that's like $12), if that. It's really not bad. The currency change and the weakness of the dollar is really what is throwing me.
* And it's just so much more comfortable, and I can read and write there without being disturbed. I really don't think this would have been possible in a hostel.

That's why I'm staying in a bed and breakfast. I hope all is well with this.

I was exhausted, so I had some cookies-- Kristina was generous enough to provide me with food for travel, and it's been keeping me up in some low times-- and then I took a nap. When I woke up, the day was still young, so I decided to go into town. It was 4:00, too late to really do anything in town, so I just decided to find the Caffe Nero (where I'm getting my wireless access) and have dinner. I was going to catch the bus back into town, but when I got on, I couldn't find the right money. I had kunas mixed with euros mixed with quarters mixed with pounds-- and then the paper money-- I told the driver I would get my purse straight and catch the next one. But then I started walking into town, and I found out it's only about a half hour walk, and a pleasant one at that. So I'm not going to take the bus anymore, unless I'm going to the bus station.

When I got into town, I almost immediately bumped right into the Pump-Room and the Roman Baths. I love Bath. It is beautiful. Everything is honey-colored at this time of day, late afternoon into early dusk. As I walked toward the Pump-Room I heard a street performer (there are many here) playing part of Swan Lake on a recorder, and later he played "Amazing Grace." It was lovely and eerie. I wandered around for a bit and finally headed up towards the Jane Austen Centre, which is when I found the Caffe Nero. So I came in and connected to the internet, checking up on my e-mail and taking care of other small tasks. Finally, my computer died because I didn't have access to an outlet (the key tables were all taken by other customers so I was outside) and I took off. I have to admit, I was feeling pretty homesick, so I finally gave into all of my darker and deeper urges and went to a McDonald's. I was hungry, I needed that heavy and greasy feeling in my stomach, and I just went for it. It was satisfying, too. The McDonald's was filthy, by the way. I thought McDonald's restaurants in the United States were dirty, but they are pristine palaces of sanitation and beauty compared to the restaurants here. Food all over the floor-- literally-- people eating in the messes of other people. I finally ended up eating at the computer consoles so I didn't have to sit with other people who were eating, and because that part was almost clean.

And I had to take my cheeseburger back, because I ordered it plain and it wasn't. Was it my accent? Perhaps. I feel like the McDonald's restaurants in the United States have adapted to my needs, but they certainly haven't here!

I won't have such a guilty relapse again, hopefully-- I'll try to immerse myself in pub culture and such. Although there is a Ben and Jerry's just across from the Pump-Room, and I haven't had a dessert yet in England, so I think a trip there may be in order. But the contrast between Ben and Jerry's and McDonald's is a very great one. After I had dinner, it was still light out (until 8 pm, actually, a lovely improvement over the winter sunsets). I walked up to the Jane Austen Centre, so I had a decent idea of central Bath-- I was also looking for a store to buy a notebook at. This is is something I need to do, so I can keep track of receipts and such, because I'm paying for this out of my own pocket now. I think I'll probably end up going over budget-- the pound is just so strong that I can't see not doing it-- and I hope I don't encounter any problems. I won't elaborate too much, but it's a fear right now. Luckily, I've been reassured somewhat by the URP on this matter. This, too, is a part of my travel experience and should be logged.

I walked home after that, singing to myself (Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, other female, um, rockers). I carefully stopped mumbling whenever someone was a couple hundred feet away. It was a nice walk. When I got back to the bed and breakfast, I wasn't really ready for bed, so I gave into another American urge and watched "Friends" and "The Simpsons," and then two British TV shows. One was a talk show, with David Carradine as a guest (the weird, silly, dumb American I guess). I don't usually watch much TV, but there it was. Read a bit of Northanger Abbey, took a shower, finished off the cookies. That was my day.

Now today, I was ambitious. I woke up at 7:30 am and got ready, then went to breakfast downstairs-- a sort-of full English breakfast (I don't eat eggs, so it wasn't completely full). I had coffee, orange juice, corn flakes, bacon, sausage, tomato, and toast. Wow, so much food. And it was delicious. The bacon was particularly good-- cut like our bacon, but thicker, more like sliced ham. I wasn't a fan of the sausage. It was too finely ground. I went up to my room and grabbed my laptop, digital camera, and purse, and I was off! I spent two hours at the Caffe Nero, doing e-mail stuff again, and then found out that the Jane Austen Centre walking tour left at 11 am, not 1:30 pm, as I thought. So I took off for that, and bought my tickets. We went around the city, but I won't update on what we saw here-- I'll provide that as captions for my pictures. I was amused by the other Austen fans-- old women, mostly, who kept commenting on the BBC productions-- by also amused by myself being amused. I was the only one who had read Northanger Abbey and felt like it was my secret weapon.

After the tour, we went to the Jane Austen Centre. I listened to a talk upstairs, where the woman gave a brief biography of Jane Austen. Most of it I think I can find online, but I did think it was interesting that Henry, Jane Austen's caddish brother, was possibly the inspiration for Mr. Wickham of Pride and Predjudice. After the talk, we were admitted to the museum. There were some period costumes, detailed explanations of each place that Austen lived, several displays on the importance of income in Georgian times and what each income actually means, examples of Austen's letters, pages from the Bath newspapers, displays on the importance of the Navy in Austen's writing, a discussion of what might have killed Austen (the disease has been generally agreed upon, any Austen scholar knows it, sorry for not remembering here), a cross-stitching by Austen, a dollhouse of a Georgian mansion, an example of a Georgian garden, and many other things. The museum was very full at first, but the crowd quickly thinned. I watched a DVD about discovering Austen, but it was more about how witty and charming she is and how much we all love her. Afterwards, I went to the gift shop and bought some postcards. I understand books, postcards, bookmarks, mugs... all that. What I don't understand are the doilies and quills they were selling. Why buy those? You could buy them anywhere.

So after that, I came back here to Caffe Nero, and I had lunch. I've been here ever since, working on the computer. I feel like I'm secluding myself with the internet, but I'm going to go get dinner soon. I want to get the pictures from today onto my computer, and maybe get them online? We'll see. My entry for tomorrow will be more detailed, because I won't have to worry about two days. And also, I'll hopefully have more detail to record, rather than skipping all of the museum info you could find anywhere. It's been informative for me, but I don't think it matters much who you read it from...