stratford-upon-avon [days twelve & thirteen]

well, we stopped at haworth on our way. and i thought york was tiny? haworth was even tinier and quite adorable. though it wasn't always that way. it's where the bronte sisters (the authors of wuthering heights and jane eyre) grew up, and in their time it was a rather tragic and dirty place. luckily, we got to experience the cute and quaint twenty-first century version. we got a tour of their home and the church that their father owned, and walked down the path that they took to the moors (a heavy inspiration for much of their writings). we also walked through the darling little soap shops and candy shops, and got a bite to eat at a cafe before hopping back on the bus to head for stratford.

stratford-upon-avon is where william shakespeare was born, and it's where we stayed for days twelve and thirteen of our journey. we got there on sunday evening, and, knowing that most things would be closing, and those that would be open might not take large groups, we immediately set out looking for somewhere to eat. we were right on both accounts, most places were closed and those that weren't wouldn't seat a party of eleven. so we split up, and six of us ended up at a fancy french resaurant. the soup, wild rice, and steak was a nice break from meat pie and fish and chips that my belly has been full of these past weeks. we're also getting back to a lower latitude (or is it longitude?), so dinner time came at dusk like it ought and when we went to bed that night we didn't have to close the curtains to keep out the sunlight. oh how i enjoy a bit of normalcy.

we're staying at the falcon inn. it was built in the 1600s, when shakespeare was still around.

the next morning we breakfasted on a traditional english breakfast, of which i am no fan (tomatoes, mushrooms, and baked beans to not belong in my belly before noon), and walked to shakespeare's house which is now a museum. this was the best museum i've been to yet, very modern and interactive. i've had thoughts here and there in the past of how influential shakespeare is and has been to our world, but not until this exhibit did i fully realize his effect. it's incredible how often he is quoted and his works alluded to. at one point they said that at any and all hours of the day, somewhere in the world his play macbeth is being performed. wow. we'll be seeing macbeth ourselves at the globe theater in london. and in the mean time, that night we had tickets to see romeo and juliet at a local theater put on by the royal shakespeare company. but more on that later.

here is shakespeare's houseand good old william himself
[yet another note on foliage (i can't help myself, they have cool plants here): english poppies. i will grow english poppies in my future garden. they had them in the gardens at shakespeare's house and they were magnificent. i mean, they're poppies. but they're giant, huge, magnificent poppies. so big and so colorful and so going in my future garden.]

for lunch we went and visited stacy, a point loma alum who now lives in cotswolts, a little town in the english countryside. it was so exciting to think that, like stacy, i might end up somewhere i would have never thought, as i'm sure she never imagined someday living in "rose cottage" as she does now. fun fact: the man who originally played dumbledore in the harry potter movies was her neighbor before he died.

we then spent the afternoon at warwick castle. at one point, earlier on in the trip, i was told that this was the most picturesque castle we would see, like something out of a fairytale. so, accordingly, i made this mental image of something exraordinary. and at first glance, just for a moment, it was. and then i realized what they had done to the place. warwick castle is not just a castle. it's a castle that has been turned into a theme park. there are no rides or anything, but there are attractions, and games, and shows, and mascots in mideival costumes, and thousands and thousands of tiny children in plastic armor helmits running about, stabbing strangers with their styrofoam swords. it was a disgrace. they turned this magnificent castle into something cheesey and ridiculous, a mix between medieval times and disneyland. i mean, if i were a kid i would probably have thought it the neatest thing since my little pony. but as an adult, i just couldn't appreciate what it's become. something i could appreciate, though, was the peacock garden. that's right, a garden of peacocks. i could have spent all day watching those things burst their tail feathers open and shake them all about with their funny little mating dance. i know they were trying to impress the girl peacock, but ended up amusing me much more (she was playing hard to get--as she is supposed to--whereas i was doing all i could to get them to open up their feathers and flirt with me. i guess i wouldn't make a very good girl peacock. i'm too easily entertained). there was an eagle show that was also pretty cool. i never before realized how huge eagles are. and if you haven't either, let me tell you...they're huge! and amazing. they flew right over our heads and all around the castle, but would always eventually come back to the arm of mr. bird trainer man who was putting on the show. i have to admit, i kind of want to grow up to be an eagle trainer now. those birds were just so darn cool. i guess i'll make it my back-up plan if teaching falls through.

the castle

the gimmicksand the birds

when the time came to go, though i was a bit sad to leave the peacocks and eagles, i felt no woe in leaving warwick behind. and i had something more exciting to look forward to. like i mentioned before, we had tickets to see romeo and juliet that night. by this point i had misplaced my camera (so please excuse the lack of pictures), but i didn't let it ruin my evening. we got all dolled up, walked over to the theater, and found our seats. the lights dimmed and a man in modern clothing with a camera stumbled on stage and began taking pictures, of the setting, of the audience. for a moment i thought, "oh no, this crazy tourist is making a fool of himself." but then a lady walked up and handed him a head set, which he put on and pressed play. and we all heard along with him, "deux ménages, d'égale dignité." confused, he skipped the track, and then, "due famiglie di ugale nobilità." and so he skipped again, until, "two households, both alike in dignity, in fair verona, where we lay our scene..." and by that point i was already in love with the production. this modern man turned out to be romeo, and juliet also was dressed in modern garb--a sun dress and high tops. the actors performed incredibly and they blew me away, each and every one of them. anyone who can memorize and deliver all of those lines, understand and convey the meaning of them, and bring life to such language, i believe must be a super hero of sorts with super powers. i just cannot grasp the time and talent that goes into it all. by the end of the play, romeo and juliet were in traditional costumes and the rest of the cast in contemporary clothing--which i meant to take as a symbol of forward versus traditional thinking, but who really knows. i was surprised to find that a lot of people actually did not like the play. not at all. many of them told me that after the first five minutes they completely gave up on the persuit of understanding the language, and therefore tuned out entirely. now, i would be lying if i said that i fully understood even half of what was said. but every once in a while i would catch a line that was so beautiful and so intriguing that i would do my best to hold out for the next captivating thing to be said. and although i did not comprehend it all, i still think that the language is winsome and bewitching. i couldn't help but find it fantastic. and now i am so looking forward to seeing macbeth. though, i will admit that a part of me wishes we were seeing twelfth night or midsummer night's dream or something else a little less tragic. but hopefully i will love the next play just as much as this one. it really was the perfect way to end my time in stratford-upon-avon. now onto oxford!

oh no!

my camera is currently m.i.a.! i'm hoping and praying that i left it on the bus, and that it will be sitting there, waiting for me in my seat come tomorrow morning. if you could say a prayer, too, that it makes it's way back to me, that would be great. thanks! until i know for sure that it's gone, i'll refrain from posting any blogs (what's a post without pictures?). in the mean time, isle be seeing you...

england! [day eleven]

this post is a day late, but i am officially in england! we crossed the border out of scotland yesterday morning, stopped at hadrien's wall (an old roman settlement with a wall to keep out the crazy britains and scots), and eventually made it to our stop for the night: york. everything there is so small and quaint. at least the little that i saw of it. there was an especially cute park with a little river running along it right across from the place we stayed, with geese that i would have loved to feed swimming along the stream. but it was cold and cloudy and rainy, so we didn't get to venture much. we wandered the town a bit, had some fish and chips at "the codfather" (badum-cha), and headed back for a night in, due to the rain and the fact that everything closes at 5:30pm in the small towns of the british isles.

some of the housestead (the roman community)and the wall
[if you can't tell by my being bundled up, it was freezing there. it was up on this hill which made if very windy, and it was also raining, and even though i didn't have a thermometer with me to vouch for it, my instincts were telling me that it was 25 degrees with the wind chill. needless to say, we didn't stay there long. and in an attempt to stay warm i got hot chocolate, which i then spilled all over myself, and so got a scarf instead. the gift shop must make a lot of money when it's cold. they sure did from me.]

this is the closest that i've gotten to sheep yet. we tried to pet them, and almost gave them a heart attack instead. woops. poor things.
the entrance into the center of town in yorkwhere we ate. and also where we had the rudest waiter ever. he thought he was being funny, but it just made everyone feel awkward. those of you san diegans reading this, you may have heard of or been to dick's last resort, the restaurant in downtown. it was almost like our waiter thought he worked there, like he thought he was getting paid to be rude. good thing tips aren't required in europe, but he wouldn't have gotten one anyways.
and even though the waiters aren't too great in york, i did find one thing there that i like a lot. remember that copper beech tree that i want to plant in my future yard? well i found this tree (they're all over england actually) that i will plant right next to it. it's like it came right out of a kidnergardener's drawing. i love it. now i just need to find out what it's called...

bagpipes and kilts, kilts and bagpipes

we leave scotland tomorrow and head for england. in tribute and remembrance of my time in this country, here is a montage of some of the kilts and bagpipes that i saw while i was here. and yes, everyday men do walk around in kilts. i even saw one man wearing a fox as a coin purse around his kilt, but i didn't get a picture of that. here are some of the pictures that i did get, though. enjoy!

edinburgh! [day ten]

a good way to measure the greatness of your day is by the soreness of your feet. and let me tell you, today made my feet sore. so, so sore; which translates into, "today was a great, great day." i probably walked at least 10 miles. all around edinburgh. i saw the city from nearly every angle possible, as we went from hill top to hill top to hill top.

the whole big group of us started out together by going to the edinburgh castle, which i have decided to call castle town, because it's like a whole town inside of the castle walls. this was the first hill top of the day, and allowed us a wonderful view of the city we had yet to explore. our tour guide told us some funny stories in his funny plaid pants, and informed us all about the wonders of the scottish people.

here's an outside look at the castle from below

and and inside look at the castle town inside the castle...town...walls...thing...the crowned jewels were inside this clock tower (but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the buildings)the castle town's chapelmr. tour guide man. tim was his name, i think.
and the view from the top. you can't really see it, but on the other side of that tree on the right there is a big cliff on a big hill. we hiked up that later in the day. and see the hill out in the distance just to the left of the center? we walked up there too. just wait, you'll get a better idea of it all as the blog goes on (hopefully).

after a look around the castle, we all headed over to the writer's museum. now, i love literature. and i have so much respect for authors and am all about a nation having pride in their countrie's literature. but let's be real for a minute. the only legitimate, world renowned scottish author worth investing a museum exhibit in is robert louis stevenson (he wrote kidnapped, strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde, treasure island, etc.). i think that the museum curator was well aware of that as well, as nearly the whole museum was dedicated to him. i bought a book of his poetry that reminds me of shel silverstein. i love shel silverstein, so i'm excited about this book.

after the museum some of us went off to start our exploring. we walked along the royal mile on high street (the most famous street in the city), and shopped, shopped, shopped. it was a beautiful walk. in between the shops are giant churches and amazing buildings. this city is known for its incredible architecture [dad, now i know why you want to come here. you'd be doodling blue prints on napkins all day after seeing a city like this]. here's a look at the royal mile and some of the very, very, very cool buildings around edinburgh.

one of the tackier shops of the day...

man, i look good in plaid. too bad i'm not scottish.and now feast your eyes on some of these stunning little structures. and by little i mean big.
at the end of the royal mile is the holyrood palace. it was closed today so we couldn't go past the gates, but here's a look at her from the outside.

once at the bottom of high street, we made our way up the next peak of the day. up up up the hills of holyrood park, along the cliffs to king arthur's seat. now, technically i didn't make it all the way to the seat. but i still got to take in another view of the city, and this one was by far the best panorama.

a view of the hill from the bottom
and here we go, starting the hike up itdon't worry. i didn't get hit by any dangerous falling rocks.once you go to the top of the other side of the hill you get to this. see the peak on the left side? on the tip top pointy part of that is arthur's seat.

i opted out of that climb and layed down in a field of fluffy grass, taking in the amazing view i already had before me. if you click on this picture you can see it in a larger scale, and if you look off in the distance on the left hand side at the top of the skyline you can see the castle that i was at earlier in the day. now, if you look to the far right hand side you'll see a big green hill. that's where we were off to next.[side note: the weather here is crazy. at the top of the holyrood hill we could see all of edinburgh, and all around the city different weather was happening. (maybe you can tell by looking at the picture). in one part of town it was sunny and clear, and in another it was cloudy and raining. and all the time, no matter rain or shine, there is freezing cold wind. and i mean freezing. basically, i couldn't feel my hands all day. so note to self, next time i come to edinburgh--bring gloves].

once we made it to the bottom of the holyrood hills, we experienced some rain ourselves. and it wasn't just any rain. it was edinburgh rain. which means it was freezing rain mixed with ice wind, coming at you from all directions. luckily (like i said) the weather is crazy, and the rain stopped after five minutes and we were back in the sunshine. so once the downpour ceased, we made our way to the final peak of the day: calton hill. calton hill has a bunch of beautiful monuments on it, as well as yet another breathtaking view of the city.

one last look at edinburgh. see if you can spot the castle.

by the time we made it back, we were hungry and sore and tired and loving every minute of it. all of those things were just proof of how well spent our only day in edinburgh was. thanks for frolicking with me, katie and cynthia. i so enjoyed your company, and the adventure wouldn't have been the same without you girls. and thank you edinburgh for the amazing sights and incredible experience. i hope to come back here some day to see even more of the city (if that's possible). until then, isle be seeing you...