Day 8, Thursday 11:15 AM Haworth

When you are on the road, the kindness of strangers means everything. For that reason it was extra hard to leave Brighton this morning. Our host Glen and our friend Paul have been so good to us. Paul looked honestly sad when he realized we were leaving for good today and not just for a day trip. He loaded our bags into the taxi and taking us both by the hand said "It was nice meeting you. We don't get a lot of Americans around here."

It seems that Paul's full time job is to sit on the street outside our Hostel and "help people." At least that's what he told us. In other words, he is a bit of a loafer! Meghann has a big crush on him anyway despite the fact that he is pretty grimy and his teeth poke out every which way. I suppose if you gave a giant pile of steaming dog poo an English accent it would suddenly be come irresistible, so I can't fault Meghann for being a little goo goo eyed over Paul.

We have a day of train travel ahead of us. I have been dozing in the sun from the window of this train periodically waking to munch on a milk chocolate digestive (my favorite English snack! Meghann is also now addicted as well!) There is nothing better in the world then chris-crossing England on a train as it softly rocks you to sleep.

We are headed for Haworth and I am all a twitter about it! Haworth is the home of the Bronte sisters. Charlotte Bronte is the author of my favorite book "Jane Eyre." I have been wanting to make the pilgrimage to her home ever since I started traveling. It has been on my list of places to visit on every single trip to England I have taken but because it is such a pain to get to I have always crossed it off my destination list at the last moment. It just seemed like such a waist of time to spend two whole days of train travel to get to a little village in the middle of the moors. But today I am finally going to make it there! We left Brighton at 10:30 AM. We should get to Hawroth by 5:00 PM if all goes well.

12:45 PM
We just had a slight lay over in London where Meg and I had to high-tail it over to another station to catch a train to Leeds. Thankfully we had just enough time to find the potty and grab a pasty from the Cornish pasty stand. YUM!

So my tattoo is getting darker and darker everyday! When I mentioned that this morning Paul said he had heard that some peoples never completely fade away! He looked at mine sprawled across my hand and said, "Yours will look like you haven't washed up properly after you have wiped your bum." And you know, he is right! What if my temporary tattoo isn't so temporary!

Last night Meg and I spent most of our evening on the beach. I loved every second! Meg was pretty good at indulging me for the first couple of hours, but by the third hour she was getting pretty impatient to get back to our hostel. I put her off as long as I could! The sun had nearly sunk completely beneath the waves before we started back up our street.

6:45

So, yea, we are in the middle of know where and I was totally right. It was a pain in the butt to get here! It is so late and we are so worn out we haven't seen much. We hit the first fish and chips stand we came upon for dinner and have landed in a heap on our hotel beds. Tomorrow we will explore.

I am going to detail our journey for you. From Brighton to London's St. Pancus was one and a half hours. We then had to walk from that station to Kings Cross (with our mondo packs on. By the way, Kings Cross platforms only go to 7, there is no 9 and three quarters!). From London's Kings Cross it was a three hour train ride to Leeds. From Leeds a 45 minute train to Keighley. At Keighely we walked a half mile to the bus station and caught a bus to Haworth. We got a little lost trying to find our guest house, but we are here. Finally!

The Moors are gorgeous!