The 19th

Yesterday morning I woke up at 7:30, showered, grabbed breakfast, and walked to the Oxford rail station (stopping to buy an umbrella because it was raining) to catch a train to Basingstoke. At Basingstoke, I changed trains and rode to Brockenhurst. At Brockenhurst, I got on a train to Lymington, which is where I got lost for the first time on this excursion.

After failing to find the bus stop in Lymington that Google maps had indicated, I went around pestering locals (7 in total, I believe) until I found the bus station which said that the bus line I needed doesn't stop there on Saturdays but stops somewhere else in the city so I went and found that place, then realized (with the help of 2 different bus drivers) I'd read the timetable wrong and would have to sit at the bus stop for an hour waiting for the next New Forest bus.

When I was finally on the correct bus, I was an hour off-schedule but I had made sure to give myself enough time to get a little lost. I got off at the Beaulieu stop at about 2:30 p.m. (approx. 6 hours after leaving Oxford.)

It was all worth it.

This is one of the 6 cars used to film "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

This particular model was onscreen for only a minute or two during the water scenes.

Mostly because her front end looks different than the other 5 cars due to waterproofing.

There's a hole at the back of this Chitty where the boat propeller popped up.
This model was used when the car was in the water but had not yet become a boat.

According to one of the museum employees, she still drives!

This model is owned by EON studios, who produced the Bond films and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. (Presumably because they're all based on Fleming novels.) We were not supposed to touch it.

...which is a rule that I would have ignored, but there were 3 extremely inconveniently placed museum employees at a help desk directly in front of it. No matter how many times I wandered around and came back, they were always there.

 I wanted to touch it so badly. I legitimately debated crossing the rail and just doing it since I'm never going to be in Beaulieu again, anyway. It wouldn't matter if I got kicked out of the museum for sitting in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because she's the only reason I was there in the first place. I didn't do it, and I'm still mad at myself for following the stupid rules. What are rules but agreed-upon social boundaries, anyway? What if I don't agree with them? I should've done it. The only problem would've been asking a stranger to take a picture of me jumping the barrier and climbing into an off-limits vehicle because he or she might then be associated with my criminal activity. If I had had a willing companion, I would have done it.

I did touch it before I left. One of the old man employees was watching me and I did it anyway. He'd been watching me come and go and generally act suspiciously, so I think he didn't say anything because he had expected worse. The worst part was that there was not a sign in front of her that explicitly said "DO NOT TOUCH," and there was usually one of those signs in front of the cars you weren't supposed to touch, but the 3 employees were watching me the whole f***ing time and if I asked them if I could touch it hoping they'd say yes and they said no, then I wouldn't be able to claim ignorance when I went ahead and did it anyway.

Truly Scrumptious' car was also on display, although its color has changed.

The "8" car was one of the original racing cars that inspired Chitty.
On some versions of the Ian Fleming book, the car looks a lot like these. 

And then - surprise! I stumbled upon the Ford Anglea from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
This is the real car used in the movie. It was briefly stolen from the studio, but the thieves dumped it,
presumably because of all the press that the theft attracted.

The only other car I recognized in that same exhibit was Mr. Bean's mini.

I grabbed dinner at the park's cafe and bought a book called "The Gentlemen's Guide to Motoring" in the gift shop. After that I somehow got myself to the Southampton Central station with the help of 2 different bus drivers who finished their routes and I alone was still on the bus because I was confused and so they dropped me off where I was supposed to be on their way back to the bus garage. Thank goodness for nice bus drivers. The rest of the trip was a train straight from Southampton to Oxford, and I got back around 8:30 pm.

Which I had assumed would be the end of my night until Amanda and Jenny and Kara invited me to go out with them and Francis (a student here that Jenny is fooling around with) and Stevie (another student here that Amanda is fooling around with). Presumably to prevent Kara from being a 5th wheel. We went to a pub and I had some chardonnay and then accidentally broke the stem of a wine glass, and then we went out dancing in one of the sweatiest and hottest clubs I've ever been in. (It was fun, though.) While there, I also discovered that I'm not a fan of Tequila and then lost my glasses. Luckily, I never travel without a spare pair, but they were those clear ones that I love so I ordered a new pair as soon as I woke up this morning.

After we left the club, Jenny and Francis found this really steep hill and decided that we were going to climb it, and I couldn't see and was wearing sandals but I was still the 3rd person to the top. You really had to dig your hands into the dirt. I still have dirt under my nails. I lay down at the top and looked at the stars, and so when I got back to my dorm both my front and my back were filthy. (The climb was more of a belly crawl.) It was a good night. I figured I wouldn't be satisfied without one decent night of drinking/dancing/delinquency, so that's been checked off the list. We drank and danced and I lost my glasses and we climbed a hill. That's about as delinquent as I get.

Obviously I'm somewhat tired today. I have an essay to write for tomorrow, and I'm about to leave to pick up dinner for myself from Pret because on the weekends we only get served breakfast here. There was a wedding here yesterday, and I swiped one of the leftover center-pieces for my window sill.

What can I say, I'm a rebel at heart.