Stratford Trip: Part 2

THURSDAY, JUNE 2ND. DAY 37.
This day started out with an authentic english breakfast provided by our B&B hosts. It included a sunny-side-up egg, toast, rashers of bacon, sausage, and baked beans. I wouldn't really recommend most british food...it's kinda tasteless sometimes. Then we met at Shakespeare's birthplace and took a tour of that. Next we went to New Place and Hall's Croft (Shakespeare's son-in-law's house). It was a lot of time period-ish artifacts and supposed objects that might've belonged to Shakespeare...after a while it all blurs together so I am not really clear on everything I saw haha. My favorite parts are always the gardens so that what I usually make b-line for. We then ate at another pub, I had my first fish and chips in the UK...which were actually pretty good considering I do not like seafood. 

Shakespeare's diggs

gardens at hall's croft or new place or both, i still don't understand what they are

this is what we do 

After our meal we went to the Holy Trinity Church to view Shakespeare's grave and pay our respects to the great bard who is responsible for out being in England at all. Thank you Will, thank you. Earlier we had passed the avon (river) and had noticed row boats for rent- something I could not possibly pass up on. So into Miranda we went (our boat named after one of the main characters from The Tempest). I loved it. Simple and slow things like this always make my day. It was, me, carolyn, and patrick in the boat. Patrick who is also from Florida had never kayaked or canoed (don't know how that happened), so he had some trouble in the beginning. Eventually carolyn switched him out and he also had difficulty hahaha it was pretty amusing. So I joined Carolyn to help and we rowed Patrick about the avon whilst trying not to run into narrow boats and other row boats. 

view of the trinity church from the river

view of the theatre from the river

Then we went to Moo Moo's to get milkshakes. Best decision of my life. So in Europe they have these candy bars called Buenos. They have a soft hazelnut inside and a chocolate wafer outside. Best things of my life. And this milkshake place had the option of paring them with ice cream into a cold creamy concoction of goodness in my mouth. BUENO MILKSHAKE. If you notice my face in the picture...yeah I was excited. But this place had hundreds of flavors, no joke. So great. Then we went to the "Creaky Cauldron" to get butterbeers of which we paid for completely in small change to get rid of our coins...took us a while to count it up and even longer for the cashier to haha. 

After that we walked around the shops and later had a picnic dinner by the river. We also saw a trained rabbit that ran around like a dog and tripped people, most entertaining thing I've seen in a while. After that we went to the theatre to see "Macbeth". And it was incredible. They replaced the weird sisters with children which made it especially creepy, plus the special effects were very cool. And afterwards we waited at the stage door again to get autographs. We got Macbeth's autograph and Ross's. The actor who played Ross also played Antonio the night before in Merchant. His name is Scott Handy and he was also in the movie "A Knight's Tale" as the servant of Count Adhemar. 

me and holly

patrick and i

amberly, dezi, and i

http://www.rsc.org.uk/

Patrick Stewart's Autograph on the first ticket. Jonathan Slinger and Scott Handy's on the second.

Roadtrip to Stratford-upon-Avon: Part 1

So a long long time ago our study abroad group went to Stratford-upon-Avon in a coach for three days, making pit-stops all along the way. So here is my overdue ode to my man Shakespeare.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1ST. DAY 36.
The night before we left I had gone to a concert so obviously I went to bed late and couldn't pack because my roommates were asleep...and then in the early hours of the morning my brain wasn't functioning properly so I packed poorly and forgot my camera...again. I don't really know what is wrong with me, but maybe if I got some sleep I could figure it out. I even packed the chargers and everything...I also brought my point and shoot camera but again thanks to Madam Tussad's it is still broken and won't work. Love my life. So I asked the ever wonderful Carolyn if I could put all of her pictures on my computer, which I did and so all the following pictures are either hers, amberly's, patrick's, or someone else's on facebook.

We met in our flat at 6:30am and boarded the coach. For some reason I was wide awake and couldn't sleep so while everyone was snoozing me and Amberly played the alphabet game (her ridiculous rules) but I still beat her. Hah. First stop was Coventry Cathedral, amazing place. It was bombed during WWII so the old part of it is pretty beat up, but they added a modern section of it and I loved the new addition. The stained glass and architecture was something I hadn't seen before and it was really interesting.

New portion

Old portion

there i am.

After that we went to Kenilworth Castle. Easily one of my favorite places in England so far. It was also bombed in WWII so it is mostly in ruins but I like it better that way because they let you explore it in peace. No stuffy audio or tour guides, no fake furniture or paintings to make it feel period appropriate, no herding huge groups of tourists, and definitely not boring. We climbed upon the rock walls, picnicked on hill overlooking the green fields, and then explored the gardens. 

me and amy 

amberly, preston, carolyn, me, patrick, and holly

me, preston, and holly

amberly and i

you can see me but i am really tiny

carolyn, lauren, me, holly, and preston

picnic

Next we went to Anne Hathaway's Cottage. Fun fact: Anne Hathaway was Shakespeare's wife and they had a quick marriage once she got pregnant. While there me and Amberly went cavorting around the orchard, maze, and gardens pretending we were witches to entertain ourselves...we are the youngest ones out of the whole group so we have to entertain ourselves in such ways every once in a while. In the end I beat her in the wizard's duel with a quick disarming spell and avada kedavra (i know it's harsh but it had to be done). After that I took a quick look about in the cottage and smelled the flowers with Carolyn.

This is my "I will thwart you maze" face.

this is kinda what the orchard looked like but better

carolyn, amy, me, and amberly

After that we went to Mary Arden's farm (Mary Arden was William Shakespeare's mother). We watched a falcon show thing. Then me and Amy went around the back parts of the farm and made animal noises...at the animals of course. Anyway, there was also this really cool tunnel made out of willow tree branches with mushroom stools inside. Definitely my favorite part of that place. 

me and amy

patrick, amy, camille, dezi, lauren, me and carolyn

And as if that wasn't enough to do in one day we hadn't even gotten to Stratford yet. We were all spread out amongst like four bed and breakfasts, so we pulled in to town, dropped off our bags, and ate some pub food before the show. I got steak and ale pie and it was really good. We then got treats and headed for the theatre to the Royal Shakespeare Company's version of "The Merchant of Venice". It was set in Las Vegas complete with elvis, gambling, game shows, and dumb blondes. It was interesting but they didn't really follow through with the concept all the way to the end so I didn't think it was a successful show. But one thing did make it worth it. Patrick Stewart was the actor for Shylock! He has starred in X-Men as Professor Xavier, and in Star Trek as Captain Jean Luc-Picard. Afterwards we waited outside the stage door and got his autograph. He was also pretty nice too. Here are some pictures Patrick snuck and took and in the last one you can see Sir Patrick Stewart!

you can barely see me on the side waiting for him to sign our stuff