Hey All!

Yesterday was another amazing day in the UK. The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny. Laura and I got up at around 630am and were greeting by the thickest fog I have ever seen.  Everything during the walk from Bader to the Castle was veiled by this vast white sheet.  It was really eerie, especially around the castle.  We had breakfast and jumped on the coach.  I didn`t really enjoy that coach ride at all, twisty narrow roads and rushed breakfast equates to a swirling stomach in my world. I finally managed to get to sleep about 50 minutes into the ride and I didn`t wake up until we got there.  The ride took about 2H, just like a London trip but a little more to the east.

We had a little bit of a walk from the coach park into the actual town of Canterbury because the streets there were not made for very much traffic.  First off, I absolutely loved the town.  I think that it is one of the coolest, and yet most historic places I have ever been.  We were all split up into groups with different tour times, Erik, Kayla, Laura, Owen, Shyla, Karly and I all had about an hour of free time first.  We walked around the cobblestone roads and ducked in and out of tiny shops. The architecture was amazing, buildings displaying ornate stone carvings and medieval brickwork masked a common Starbucks or FedEx. After a while, we met in the town center in front of the Canterbury cathedral and had the opportunity to listen to these boys, about our age, playing the guitar and singing on the edge of a fountain.  They were playing popular songs, Snow Patrol, Plain White Tees, Oasis, Beatles, etc.  Their voices were good, but were made great by the echo and amplification from the surrounding buildings; it was just a really cool experience. 

I was split up from everybody else for the actual tour of the Cathedral, which I didn’t mind.  Most of them are in art history and had to go on a different tour with some of the profs.  I was really happy that my tour was lead by a guide instead of a prof.  The tour was as amazing as the Cathedral itself.  For those of you who don’t know, I will give you a bit of history and information.  I loved learning about this, but I can’t exactly remember the dates and times very well, which is why I wouldn’t make an excellent history student. Here goes:

There is a bunch of history before this, but I’m going to tell you a bit about why this church is so significant.  Canterbury Cathedral was the site of the terrible murder of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas was an ordinary man, a friend of Henry II before he was crowned. Anyway, the two men were partiers and liked to indulge in many substances, women, and much alcohol.  When Henry was crowned, he chose his good friend Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury thinking that if the king and archbishop were friends, the state and the church would not have any conflict.  Well much to Henry’s surprise, Becket took his new role very seriously and followed the word of the Pope in almost all matters, often causing disagreement between the two men.  In June 1170, the archbishop of York and the bishops of London and Salisbury held the coronation of Henry the Young King in York. This was a breach of Canterbury's privilege of coronation, for which the Pope suspended the three. But for Becket, that wasn't enough, and in November 1170, he excommunicated all three. While the three bishops fled to the king in Normandy, Becket continued to excommunicate his opponents in the church. Soon word of this reached Henry who was in Normandy at the time. After these latest venomous reports of Becket's activities, Henry is reported to have raised his head from his sickbed and roared a lament of frustration. The King's exact words are in doubt, and several versions have been reported: “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” Whatever the King said, it was interpreted as a royal command and 4 knights set out on horseback for Canterbury.  They burst into the church and brutally attacked the Archbishop of Canterbury in his own cathedral.  Using swords and blunt force, they chopped Becket up and left his remains strewn about on the marble floors.  The monks immediately worked to give Becket a proper burial.  Years went by and pilgrims started to say that they experience miracles upon visiting the tomb.  Those who were blind could see again, those who were handicapped could walk again; those on their deathbeds would jump up and dance.  As news travelled, the Canterbury Cathedral became one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in all of England. This is of course were Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was born.  Anyway, in order to thank the church for the miracles it gave, pilgrims gave monetary donations, which is why the church is as beautiful as it is today.  The monks placed a donation box on the tomb of Becket, who was awarded the title of St. Thomas of Canterbury, which was filled twice daily.  The church welcomed the pilgrims with open arms; pilgrims meant donations as well as business.  The church owned many of the hotels and restaurants around the cathedral as well. The church even modified the structure of the cathedral to accommodate more pilgrim visits without disturbing the study of the monks by adding tunnels and separate stair cases. Years later, Henry VIII, governed the state and had an extreme hate towards St. Thomas because he represented an instance in which the government and the church collided and the people sided with the church.  At this moment in time, Henry VIII was challenging the church and did not like to be reminded of Becket.  He ordered that Becket’s tomb be removed, destroyed, his bones be ground up and scattered on the roads around London, that his name be scratched out of any records and that anything thing to do with him inside the church (stained glass, murals, etc.) be demolished. The only thing that stands in the place of St. Thomas’ murder site is his name carved in the stone floor, and the only thing that remains in the site of his tomb is a lit candle.

I was completely engaged in everything the guide was saying as we walked through the church, passing Becket’s murder site and empty tomb site.  After the tour, we were lead into the gift shop (of course!) and we passed a rather interesting sign on the way, check out my pictures on www.photobucket.com/jessicaphoto to see if you can spot it. I bought a couple small things in the gift shop, including the most contradictory and hilarious thing ever, an official Canterbury Cathedral shot glass! Hahahahhaa.

Afterwards, we met up for lunch, debated about whether or not our packed egg salad sandwiches were still good after 5 hours of non-refrigeration in our backpacks on a really hot day.  We decided against them, too much of a risk with a twisty 2 hour coach ride home.  We were thinking cheaply and thought about McDonalds and Pizza Hut slices, what we came up with was much better.  For less than 5 quid each, we headed over to TESCO, a grocery store and got the best picnic ever. We sat down in the park and enjoyed water, grapes, baguette, brie, apple, sushi and chocolate. After lunch we checked out a couple more shops, were entertained by musicians and headed over to the Canterbury Tales exhibit.  We walked through the displays of wax figures while the tales of the Knight, Miller, Wife of Bath and Priest played on our audio guides. I loved the tour here as well. My favourite tale by far, belongs to the Miller as it did when I read Chaucer in class.  We had more free time, which we spent the majority of in Siesta an absolutely wonderful completely fair trade shop.  I bought a cool mug that says ‘think globally, drink locally’. Then we sat down on the side of the road and watched Erik and Owen play with the hacky sack they got at the fair trade shop, as you see in the extremely long video I took then. After that we headed back to the coach and I slept the entire way home.  We arrived at the castle around 830pm, for late dinner.   It was still amazingly foggy and I managed to get some good shots if you check out my pictures.  We played cards and hung out in my room and then went to bed at a reasonable hour because Owen and Laura had field studies this morning. This is possible the longest post in the history of blog posts….I hope you can make it through!

Love and Cheers

Jess