To get there, this time I took a coach. I hadn't seen a convenient train connection, and the prices were ridiculous, so I ditched this mean of transport for that trip. It took about two hours (where one hour was jamming through london traffic) but eventually I got to Canterbury and headed off to explore.






Canterbury made an impression of a nice place to live. It obviously was old, some buildings were raised in the XVIth century that crooked by their own weight and time. However, I spotted a number of various shops, market stalls, cafes bursting with life and locals. It appeared to be a lively community despite flocks of tourists going back and forth from the cathedral to the coach and train stations. I found it much less pompous than Oxford and more welcoming. I think Canterbury would be a pretty cool place to study, but I didn't have a chance to see the campus. By the time I got there, the academic year was about to start so the students started to move in and I saw a noticible numer of them just hanging out downtown.












Not only from the outside, but from the inside as well... I think I haven't ever paid that much to see a scaffolding. The entire facade was wrapped up, but also the vaulting of the naves, I think I was much more dissapointed by the latter. But luckily enough, the cathedral is large and even if the main part was under renovation the rest of the complex was available, like the cloister and choir.

I don't want to give the cathedral a bad review, no, I'm just expressing my frustration that I didn't get to see the whole of it. The choir was impressive anyway and could work as an indipendent church. The crypt - creepy. I love the cloisters, though, I spend around half an hour there because I sat down and sketched. The grounds of the cathedral are enormous, I think that when I was exploring I accidentally went out of the tourist zone into a district of a seconday school? Oh well!





















 
 
















 








And back out in the town!