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!