I think I am finally adjusting to UK time. Ironic considering that I am leaving England tomorrow. Oops I’ve been a terrible blogger!
Here are some snapshots of trip highlights so far:
Oxford: I love this city. It’s almost monochromatic – so many of the buildings and the cobblestone are made of this warm, tan-ish yellowish stone. Maybe it’s meant to cheer up the perpetually grey sky! No - we’ve had a few days of sun, but January is quite bleak on the whole.
Still, heedless of the weather, I decided that I wanted to go to the top of a castle to get a view of the city. After walking all the way there we found out that we would have to pay for a tour, but there was an option of going up the "mound" for only a pound. And for some idiotic reason, I thought the "mound" was the castle tower, which I was more interested in climbing than in paying for a tour of the whole castle. It turns out the mound was just a gated off hill. So yes, we paid to climb a hill. In the rain. And took lots of pictures pouting at the top "look what Rachel made us do!" Needless to say, my friends have lost trust in my activity choices... lolol
The next day I didn't improve much on that reputation! I was determined to go on a bike ride, and took them to this path that goes to White Horse Hill which in the summertime is BREATHTAKING. But in the winter, the "ridgeway" is full of mud and white horse hill was so windy we couldn't even hear each other. Another pouting photoshoot at a muddy intersection ensued... it was definitely cold and overcast, but the view was still spectacular and the exercise felt great. plus it was amusing to watch these indomitable, hardy British parents taking their reluctant children on walks up the hill - little lisping British voices lost in the wind "mum i need to keep my body warm!"
Of course both days ended up being great, my blunders aside. The rest of that day in Oxford, we toured Christ Church College, and saw the dining hall where Harry Potter's great hall dinners were filmed, went to a famous botanic garden with a bench associated with the Golden Compass series (which my friend Julie said she'd wanted to see for ten years - the famous bench i mean), saw the Natural History museum, and had dinner at a pub called the Cape of good Hope - some great soup and risotto and cider... and took a taxi to the hotel where my aunt play bridge every other week.
The next Big Outing we had was our trip into London. We took the train in, found the Swiss Embassy (I had to work on getting my passport stamped with a visa over here…. Thankfully that all worked out!), then took the “Tube” over to a section of the city with a cluster of museums, including the Science museum where we spent some time. Julie kept looking for exhibits about time travel/ futuristic explorations, but the exhibit that sounded like it was about Time ended up being about clocks through the ages - from the Sundial to the cases of various watches up to the digital clock on the back wall counting down the milliseconds. (timepieces are A bit less exciting than THE FUTURE… )
At the museum café, we met Kayla’s friend Hilary who is studying photography in London for the semester. Then we could all stop worry about getting lost because Hilary is a Tube genius! I also got a little lazy about taking pictures! We had a really nice time walking in Regent’s park and then found Abbey Road and took a Beatles picture… which felt a little less cool than expected because there were crowds of other tourists all doing the same thing, waiting to walk through the cross walk and all I could think was “gosh it must be annoying to live on this street and have to wait to drive through here for everyone’s pictures…” But Hilary and Kayla seemed to be experts on the Beatles’ picture, so our rendition was a lot more accurate than the other tourists’ – Julie even volunteered to be Paul and go barefoot. That definitely put us a notch above the rabble
That mission complete, we went to eat. We found a really nice Italian restaurant in Covent Garden and then wandered around… and eventually found a café to have desert before heading home.
Other daytrips included Bath and Stonehenge. Bath might be my favorite little city, or is neck and neck with Oxford. Kayla said it’s probably because of the Roman influence speaking to my Italian genes. There were some incredibly talented street performers outside the Abbey – first a woman with a powerful, clear operatic voice, then a fiddle player, later a guy with an acoustic guitar… We ate in the museum café and toured the ancient Baths. I’m a little jealous of the Romans to be perfectly honest – they would soak in hot springs, get massages, dry out in heated rooms… and then go through the whole process in reverse. No wonder it was considered a spiritual experience.
Stonehenge and Avebury are both ancient stone circles. We toured them on the same day – they’re a little over half an hour apart. The stone circles definitely have a mystique. It was funny to see something as ordinary as sheep, and tourists with audio guides walking around a formation that looks so mysterious and imposing. We were joking about the sheep being specially selected to guard the stones… I really liked the section of the audio guide section “myths and legends.” If the stones aren’t some kind of observatory or calendar, they were definitely brought by Merlin. Or aliens.
At Avebury, we ate at the only known pub inside an ancient stone circle: The Red Lion. I got excited because the lion on their sign looks like Aslan on the Narnian’s shields (please no one make fun of me). Plus, we were inside a stone circle… maybe the Stone Table was here too…
This week we went back to London just to pick up my passport. We didn’t have much time to spare but I did arrange to meet an Italian relative from Norwich in London – a lovely older woman named Luciana who is my grandfather’s late cousin’s wife. I met her at my cousin’s wedding, but immediately felt like she was family. She even invited me to stay with her and her relatives in Florence some day.
I think this is turning into a long enough entry. I’m going to try to write shorter entries more frequently and not play catch-up (I hope). I really enjoyed our outings in England but the thing that always means the most to me when I come to England is just seeing my aunt Gail and my uncle Jonathon. It’s the little moments – chats at dinner, walks, watching in wonder as the hermit crab in their salt water aquarium molts its shell… I too am changing, molting. I’m ready for something different, something that scares me a little. The prospect of living in a city scares me a little. But I am mostly just excited, mostly just anticipating being surprised by joy, as Lewis might say.
In the car on the way home from the last London trip to the embassy, Kayla played a lot of Crosby Stills and Nash. Opening the window and letting the cool damp night air flood into my face, looking at the hints of stars, these line jumped out at me:
When you see the Southern Cross for the first time,
You understand now why you came this way.
'Cause the truth you might be runnin' from is so small.
But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a comin' day.
The harmonies and everything behind them just gives me chills. I’m not sure how to explain the connection I felt in the lyrics to my own life… but it was very strong and startling. The truth you might be running from is so small… maybe as small as forgetting to notice all the potential joy that surrounds you every day: this eternal sense of wonder…
We’ll see if I’m so dreamy and idealistic tomorrow when I’m terrified! Haha
