Salisbury, England

Date: January 20, 2011

Drink: Venti Quad Vanilla Latte

Food: Chocolate Chip Cookie

I love Salisbury. If there was one city in all of England where I would move, it would be Salisbury. We actually went to Salisbury on our way back from seeing Stonehenge for the first time, but I’ve been to Salisbury before. And being that Salisbury is the deathplace of a love of mine – the third Duke of Buckingham, first creation – the city holds a special place in my heart.

Starbucks in Salisbury

The best part about the city is that the massive spire of the cathedral is omnipresent as you drive through the streets. And to make matters even better, we chose a cloudless sunny day to go out

a view of Starbucks from the other side of the old Market Cross

to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Though, the sun did hardly anything to warm our bones, which were chilled through and through from the biting cold sweeping across the Salisbury Plain. That’s why we needed to stop in Starbucks for a hot drink to warm us up. And it was a charming Starbucks.

For a more detailed description of our outing to Salisbury and Stonehenge, see my post at http://korastoynova.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/stonehenge-and-salisbury/ and for a more complete gallery of our full trip to Bournemouth, Salisbury, and Stonehenge, see our dancer’s gallery at http://www.emotionsdancesport.com/uk-championships-2011.htm.

location of Salisbury relative to London and Bournemouth

Westbourne, Borough of Bournemouth, England

Date: January 19, 2011 and January 21, 2011

Drink: Venti Quad Vanilla Latte, both times

Food: 2 Chocolate Chip Cookies

Someone from Starbucks, explain to me: why oh why do you not have a Starbucks Café in the downtown area of Bournemouth? I can promise you, if you had one on the high street near the Bournemouth International Centre, it would be packed with people. At least… packed with dancers during the UK Championships. But if the busy-ness of Starbucks Cafes around the UK at any time of day or year are anything to go by, I feel confident it would be busy year round. Anyways, for shame, Starbucks. Our choices

the evening of the 19th (can you see the big rhinestone glued on my forehead?)

were narrowed down to Costa Coffee (yuck, plus no free wifi), Caffe Nero (not bad, but expensive!) and a local coffee shop called Café Amour. We ended up there, upstairs, using their wifi that was limited to only 45 minutes. For shame, Starbucks, for shame!

The closest Starbucks to the Bournemouth city centre was some high street about a ten minute drive away, in a suburb of Bournemouth called Westbourne. Actually it was a very nice café.

on the morning of the 21st

Spacious, with lots of comfortable seating, and the baristas were good fun. Out of the three employees behind the counter, two of them were men that looked like active participants of the local goth or punk scene, which for me is great, cause they’re my kind of people! One was shaved bald except for a patch of hair in the back that reminded me of a landing strip (ha ha) and the other had a very interesting haircut of a mohawk on the back of his head, while in the front his bangs probably reached his shoulders and were brushed forward. Our second goth also had nice Crow-style eyeliner on. Like I said, great. They were seriously have a fun time with their job. And because I came in fresh from the competition, still done up with my competition hair, my competition makeup, and even had a huge Swarovski crystal glued to my forehead (I think you can see it in the picture), they really had a go at me. I loved it. I really hope they’re still there when I go back. And I could see I wasn’t the only one having a good time with these guys. Everyone who ordered a drink had a good laugh with them. They have a way of bringing genuine smiles to everyone’s faces.

Starbucks, if you read this, make sure you give some dibs to the Bournemouth café. I could tell everyone felt really relaxed and happy, and thoroughly enjoyed both the coffee and the company. But if you’re wondering why I’ve abandoned Starbucks for a few days… hello?? No café in Bournemouth?? Are you mad???

an idea of where Bournemouth is relative to London

Check-In

We are currently down in Bournemouth, sharing a coffee at the Starbucks Cafe which is a surprisingly long way away from the Bournemouth town centre. We actually had to get in the car to reach this cafe. More to come on this later 🙂