I'm not lost...just undiscovered

(Lyrics from a James Morrison song, "Undiscovered") that's exactly how Katie and I felt yesterday. Ok let's start from the beginning. 11 of us got up early to get to the train station by 7:45 (actually, 10 of us got up early, Andy didn't wake up, but he ran to the train station and made it!) and took a train to Salisbury. We made our connections without any problems (I was so proud) and we thoroughly enjoyed our first train ride through the English countryside! It was beautiful - we even got to see the sunrise. When we got to the train station in Salisbury, we caught the next bus to Stonehenge and rode 20 minutes out into the middle of the country where Stonehenge is located! It was amazing! We got to have an audio tour and hear all about the different theories about how those stones got there and why they were brought from so far away. It really is mysterious - no one really knows why they are there or how exactly they got there, but they're there, standing on end in the middle of a field with some sheep! Some people think that it was used as a calender because of the (amazing) way the stones are set in accordance with the pattern of the sun throughout the seasons, some people think it had something to do with the stars, some people think Merlin had something to do with it...who knows! 1/3 of each stone is buried underground to hold them in place (how did they dig such huge holes???) and the largest stones weigh about 45 tons! The whole thing was just amazing and beautiful. It was so strange to stand there looking at something so old and think about that people thousands and thousands of years ago built that! I wonder what happened to those people, that no one was there to pass down the story of Stonehenge and now it is all mostly a mystery to us. It was also neat to be out in the middle of the countryside like that - there were just rolling green hills in every direction (and sheep!).
After we left Stonehenge, we went back into Salisbury and made our way through the town to the Cathedral - it was incredible! This cathedral has the tallest spire (steeple in American) in all of England, maybe even Europe. It also has the oldest working clock in Europe. That thing has been keeping time for who knows how long! This cathedral was amazing - the structures and the stained glass - it was all so cool. There was a beautiful wedding going on while we were there too! There was a really pretty court yard in the middle, and in the Chapter Room they had one of 4 surviving original copies of the Magna Carta! It was so strange to look at a piece of paper that was written on about 800 years ago that influenced so many people all over the world for so many years. We also saw some writings by Geoffrey Chaucer - how weird to look at a piece of paper and think "Geoffrey Chaucer wrote those words right there with his own ink." That's just bizzare to me.
Well, about half way through looking through the Chapter Room, I looked around and saw Katie Stansell and realized that she was the only person from our group that I'd seen in about 20 minutes. So I walked over to her, mentioned it, and, not being immediately concerned, continued looking at all the neat stuff. Well, we left that room, hung out in the court yard for a while, and then decided we better go catch up with the others (There we all are on that bridge up there before we got separated...) Well, we left the cathedral and went out into the meadow next to it - a wide open space where it is easy to see everyone - and didn't see anyone we knew. So we figured they were still inside so we sat down to wait. Well, after going back inside and checking around and then waiting about 30 minutes outside of the cathedral, we decided they must have left us and we had no idea what to do. We didn't know where to look for them, or where they would have gone...I mean, did they really leave us? Do they even know we're gone? We weren't lost, we knew exactly where we were - we just had no idea where they were! So we walked around Salisbury, and we walked some more. We stopped at a chocolate shop to calm our nerves (English pastries work miracles) and kept walking. I tried on a few hats (I really need to buy one so I'll fit in...) and we kept walking. We went back to the train station and then walked back into town. By then we were so tired of walking that we just decided to go to the only place we had talked about eating dinner and hoped that they would show up eventually to eat. Well, sure enough, about 15 minutes later, they showed up! Then we all tried to figure out what in the world happened (I dont think we ever really figured it out) and then we just gave up and decided we were just glad no one was lost so we went to celebrate in the restaurant, where I experienced my first dinner of fish and chips! It was delicious after a long day of being misplaced (I prefer that to being "lost"). We caught the early train back (lucky) and high-tailed it back to Canterbury Lane. I've never been so glad to have a bed - it was a great first trip, but I dont know how I'm going to make it through multiple days of traveling. I'm gonna have to work on my stamina - that one day wore me out! But I'm very excited about traveling now - it's so much fun! Especially on trains! Time for some homework now - it's back to classes tomorrow. Cheers!