Last night I arrived in Newcastle, in the rain.The tour ended quite nicely, I finished up by getting a last minute gift for someone and in the pouring rain walked to the station.The lady I asked gave me crap directions so I ended up walking 3 blocks out of my way, in the pouring rain to the station.Then, once I got inside everything went to hell, the bag that I was carrying dinner in broke, well, disintegrated and I dropped stuff all over.Then the shoulder strap on my luggage broke and it was just a mess.Finally I sorted out where I was going and got on the train about to cry because I was so stressed out.My feet were soaking wet, so was all my clothes and I was tired and hungry.I finally got it all sorted and ate my sandwich and calmed down. I filled out some more post cards; I'll be getting them in the mail soon.

I checked into my hostel easily and it was nice.I ended up in a mixed room (that was all they had) and this one guy was freakin' chatty Kathy, seriously, he wouldn't shut up.Finally I just got up and walked out and let him talk to himself.I attempted to upload more photos, I think I got a bit to finally work, hopefully now that I'm stationary I'll get more up. I watched some TV on line and Skyped for a bit before packing up. I went to sleep pretty early; I hoped to be in a deep sleep before all the guys got back from their drinking extravaganza.Apparently my plan worked because I slept through one of them drunkenly falling out of his bed.

Today was a grand adventure. It started out quite early, I got up at 7 and got ready, and then I went downstairs and put my luggage in storage and headed out to the bus to go to Hadrian's Wall. It turns out that only one bus departs from Newcastle per day to go out to the wall so I'm lucky I met this nice Aussie girl who filled me in about the time and pick up location, because visitor info opens at nine so I would have missed the bus. It was quite a long ride, about and hour and a half to the first stop, Housteads. This was a fort along the wall that has mostly been demolished, but the National Trust has taken over and preserved it. It was quite a hike out to the site, about 15 minutes, straight up hill (and quite a steep one at that!) the Romans sure knew how to pick the high ground, there is no way an arm could have charged up that hill with any effectiveness.I was amused by the fact it is in the middle of a sheep farm, so we walked serenaded by the baaaaaaaa-ing of sheep.The fort is fenced all the way around to keep out pesky sheep!

I went in (since I'm a member of the National Trust I got in for free, I have now broken even) and walked around, taking loads of pictures. It was raining for quite a bit but I don't mind, I still took my pictures. My shoes got soaked clear through again (I dried them out with a blow drier this morning, that was useless). I think I have the makings of one nasty case of trench foot because my feet are always so waterlogged (just kidding Grandma, my feet are fine, if a bit wrinkled). After Housteads I went to Vindolanda and explored, it was quite cool. The most fascinating thing is that it is still a functioning archeological dig; I saw them at work today. It was here that many artifacts have been found due to the type of soil, they have even recovered several hundred letters! It is quite fascinating.

After visiting Vindolanda I went back to Newcastle after taking a quick train ride (the bus didn't go all the way back until 6 PM and I needed to be in York before that). I arrived in York and met up with the program, I ran into Laurel in the reception area. The rooms are quite nice and decent size. The people are awesome as well; I think this is going to be a lot of fun. Anyway, it is past midnight, I think I'll go now!