Julie and I.O.W

On Thurs last week, my friend from Hope/flatmate, Julie, came to visit for a few days!

We spent Friday in Brighton (at at Bill's of course) and shopped around, and saw the seafront there. then it was back to Eastbourne where we ate fish and chips, met up with some of my other friends here and had a drink at a pub. the next day, we were off to Isle of Wight for 2 days!!!!

I had planned out our accomodation and trasnportation prior to her arriving, so everything was set and ready to go! we caught the train from eastbourne around 9:45 am and arrived in Southhampton (where the ferries leave from) at around 12:30. the ferry ride over only took 23 minutes and we decided that we ought to just go right to the Osborne House instead of traveling back and forth between our destination and our hotel.

So, we got off the ferry and went to get some travel info for the island. we walked in and heard the tourist info woman explaining the directions for Osborne House. it sounded simple enough, so Julie and i headed off in search of the house. we first came to the 'floating bridge' aka a smaller ferry that only takes about 5 seconds to cross the little river between East and West Cowes. Once we were on the East Cowes side, we checked a map for the House and were off again. we trekked up a road walked for about 20 min.....then we started to wonder if we should just wait for a bus (since were were walking around with our luggage...which looked a little out of place) but when we were about to give up, we finally spotted a sign for the House that it was only 100 yards away!! VICTORY!

we got to the Osborne House, and had just enough time to walk through the whole house and walk around the grounds and the Swiss Cottage in the back of the land where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's kids would hang out to learn gardening, cooking, and cleaning. The House sits on 1,000 acres and overlooks the water where we could see all the sailboats!! it was magnificent to walk through the house where the Queen and her family retreated for privacy during the summer! What was interesting, was that for such an extravagantly enormous place, the rooms were rather 'small'. the bedrooms were not that spacious, however they did have a seperate bedroom, changing room, and wash/bathroom. so i guess that makes up for it? and of course, not to mention all the lavish fabrics, ornaments, and moldings throughout each room of the house!! especially in the drawing room (my favorite!) the decor was breathtaking with the old paintings and the brilliant gold/yellow fabric of the couches. i couldnt possibly imagine living there and having so much house and land to wonder about any time i pleased! what a luxury to be Royal ;)

So, our hotel was a small place called the Braunstone Hotel in Newport, and our room was very nice! The bed was really comfy and the breakfast in the morning was nice too. Our first night there, after traveling all day and walking around and catching buses, we decided to chill out and see 'X-Men Origins'. We really liked the movie and it was a great way to end our wonderful day!

The next day we walked a bit around Newport, then took the bus back to West Cowes and stopped in a cafe for a bit and then shopped around before catching our ferry back to Southhampton. Overall, i just could not believe how absolutley Perfectly everythign worked out: the trains, the buses, the ferries, everything! when we were lookign at a bus timeline outside the Osborne house, it arrived just seconds later for our destination! and whenever we walked somewhere, we never got lost. never missed a stop or a train. everything was timed perfectly!!!

AWESOME AWESOME!! cant wait to go back to the island! it was beautiful!