Day ten: Traveling to the ghetto. . .

Sept 24, 2010

We are in the ghetto! A British ghetto! I am not joking! But I am ahead of myself. . .

Today was a travel day so there is not really much to report! Our ferry was late getting into Guernsey so that put us behind schedule all day. I felt a little bad about leaving Guernsey. I really liked it there! Funny thing is the book that inspired that little adventure, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" was unknown to nearly everyone we talked too! No one in England had heard of it, we could not even find a copy at the book stores we went to. In Guernsey we saw the book at various locations but when we asked people if they had read it they all said they had never heard of it! One man detected our American accents and then and then asked "What brings you go Guernsey? Is it the book?" Of course we did not even need to ask what book! I squealed "Yes, but no one here has heard of it!" He just nodded and said in his Guernsey accent, "ahhhh yes, I have read it, but it was given to me in Oklahoma." So, there you go. I beseech the people of Guernsey to read the book! It is divine!

Anyway, after the ferry we spent a couple hours on a train and now we are in Southampton. The only reason I settled on a room in Southampton was because it was the only place I could find an available room in all of Hampshire! Now that we are here, the neighborhood we are in seems a bit dodgy. The houses look like they are caving in and the street is littered in trash. Our landlady met us outside with a cigarette hanging from her lips. She was wearing a tight pink tank top and pink see-through pajama bottoms (I could see the cartoon print of her underpants). She made me swear to her three times we would not smoke or drink alcohol in the room. Apparently this is a big problem as she has to go around at night sniffing under the doors to make sure no one is smoking. We have a TV in or room that only receive static. The bathroom and toilet are down the hall. When I asked our landlady about the safety of the neighborhood she assured me it is perfectly safe as "there are police cars everywhere! You walk outside and you will see them on every corner!" Somehow that didn’t make me feel better. We have locked ourselves in for the night! Its only for two nights. . .

As today was just a travel day and we did not take great pains with our appearance I promised the gals I wouldn’t take their pictures, so I have none to add to the blog today. But tomorrow we are going to Jane Austen’s House! So stay tuned!