Home Sweet Home

When I left home on Monday morning my planned destination was the British Museum, a thirty-minute walk from my house. However, on the way I discovered the Wellcome Collection, a find that I glad I encountered before leaving London. The collection was founded my Sir Henry Wellcome and it is essentially all the artifacts he collected in his lifetime as a patron of science. Their current special exhibit is called, “DIRT.” It covered everything from the cleaning habits of the Dutch in the seventeenth century, London during the cholera outbreak of 1854, the revolution to the medical field following the use of antiseptic, the “untouchables” of India to the largest municipal landfill in the world in Staten Island. It was a really intriguing portrayal of how dirt is present in everyday life. The permanent exhibits are the “Medicine Man” and “Medicine Now.” In the “Medicine Man” section, I was able to see an assortment of odd artifacts concerning health and medicine. For instance, vintage artificial limbs, chastity belts, Napoleon Bonaparte’s toothbrush and a lock of King George III’s hair. In “Medicine Now,” I learned about genomes, malaria and obesity. After several hours in the Wellcome Collection, I proceeded on my way to the British Library. As an English Literature minor, I have never experienced such literary ecstasy as I did in the British Library. I was able to see a 1410 copy of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” handwritten notes by Jane Austen and her writing desk and works by John Milton. It was magical. The library had other cool items unrelated to literature like Mozart’s marriage contract, handwritten pieces from Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Magna Carta. It was an awesome day of planned exploration and accidental discoveries.

Tuesday was my last full day in London and I wandered through the day with a feeling of slowness. The feeling hung on all of activities from packing to reading in the park. “Slowness” is the only adjective that comes to mind to describe the feeling, yet it does not do my mood justice. I felt I was neither here nor there, a no man’s land of abandoning London and not yet in the embrace of Seattle. The weather seemed to echo my feelings as throughout the day it failed to decide which meteorologists’ forecast to adhere to. The day waffled between sunshine, dark clouds and rain. For me, the sunshine was the feeling I would soon be in Seattle and I wished to bask in that emotion. However, in the distance were the dark clouds that indicated the foreboding feeling I felt concerning my departure from London. Finally, the rain manifested itself today, Wednesday, in tears.

I write now from my flight to Seattle seeking to capture this odd medley of feelings that are cycling through my day of travel. As I left London this morning, I said cheerio to the city with the realization I was saying good-bye to this phase of my life. It will be a rare gift if I ever again have the opportunity to spend half a year exploring one foreign country. On my flight from England to Iceland I grieved for all that I was taking leave of. My landing in Iceland marked the half waypoint from London to Seattle and with it a shift in sentiment. It is now three hours and counting before I land in Seattle. I will be home and with it brings excitement and anxiety. I wonder how things will have shifted in my absence. My relationships, my responsibilities and myself. I question if I am ready. I suppose in three hours I will know.

Today, Thursday, I am home. It feels natural and right. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog while I was abroad! Now my eyes are turned towards home sweet home.

How Time Flies

Today is Monday. My second to last full day in London! Last Monday began my hurried scramble to see everything I have wanted to, but not had the opportunity to visit in London. Sunday I met up with the girls for a picnic in Regent's Park. From there, we headed to 221b Baker Street to the infamous Sherlock Holmes residence. I am not sure it was worth my £6, but considering its three block proximity to my house, it was something I needed to do before leaving London. We wrapped up the day with a visit to Abbey Road, where we upset traffic with recreating the iconic pose of The Beatles crossing the street. I spent last Monday at the Tate Britain. It is an impressive museum that houses centuries worth of art. My favorite piece was a painting of Queen Elizabeth I from around 1575. I find anything concerning the Tudors to be mesmerizing and fascinating.

On Tuesday, Amy and I visited the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, which was epic. I loved the first hand video accounts from the employees who manned the British government from underground. I could imagine how stale the air must have been with a constant bloom of cigarette smoke. In the Churchill Museum, I learned many new tidbits about Churchill’s life that I was previously unaware. For example, that his mother was American or that his opposition to India’s independence almost cost him his political career. In the afternoon, we headed for the Wallace Collection. The Wallace Collection is a smallish assorted gallery that was collected over several generations by a single family. This included everything from eighteenth century paintings to antique armor and weaponry to Victorian furniture. I really enjoyed the fireplaces in each room, along with various clocks from grandfathers to mantel clocks.

Wednesday was reserved for Oxford with Amy, Bri and Mary. The town itself is very cute. Our first attempted stop was the Christ Church part of the university. However, unfortunately we were unable to visit due to a visit from a more important American, Michelle Obama. Instead, we wandered around the town and through the covered market. We had lunch the famous Turf Tavern, apparently famous for its “education in intoxication.” In the afternoon we went through the Magdalen College area of Oxford University. The grounds are beautiful with lovely old buildings. The grass was gorgeous and inviting, but the sign that reads, “Keep off,” maintains its pristine beauty. Next, we rented a punt to float around on the small river Cherwell (more of a canal). Punts are these flat bottom boats that the closest thing I can compare them to are the gondolas of Venice. They were a highlight of the day.

Thursday I hibernated to avoid the off and on monsoons of the day with the occasional thunder and lightening. I spent Friday at Kew Gardens, which is a massive botanical garden on the outskirts of London. Everywhere is something beautiful whether it is evergreen trees or blooming seasonal flowers. I had five favorite areas inside the garden. First was the Princess of Wales Conservatory, where I experienced multiple controlled climate zones from the humid rain forest to the arid desert. Next was the Palm House, which is only a tropical rainforest environment. The last greenhouse was the Temperature House, which is apparently home to the world’s tallest indoor plant and the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse. I loved the Xstrata Treetop Walkway where I walked along a bridge that was constructed eighteen meters into the air so you are able to walk among the treetops. My last highlight was the Japanese Garden. It was gorgeous and from what my untrained eye can discern it is authentic to ancient Japanese architecture and garden styles.

Friday was Mary’s last night, so we went to see Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare’s Globe. They play itself was well done and entertaining, but the true focus of our attendance was based on the actor who played Leonato, Joseph Marcell. All four of us grew up watching the television show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Joseph Marcell played the English butler, Geoffrey on the show! The following evening was Bri’s last night so we went to a local pub, the Gunmakers. It was an interesting evening based on the company we acquired of a group of blokes from Manchester who had come to London to watch the game of Manchester United versus Barcelona. British culture at its finest!

Home to Horwich

I arrived in Horwich on a late evening train from London on Friday, May 13. Dad, Uncle Colin and Chris greeted me at the train station for a brief hello before calling it a night. Saturday I was reunited with Amy and Paige! While Grandma Renee was not turning ninety until Wednesday, we celebrated her birthday on Saturday. Emma planned a wonderful party of friends and family with lovely decorations and a cute cake. The party’s highlight was a WWII singer who entertained the crowd with wartime songs of love and patriotism that Gran Renee sung along to for every song. Sunday was a low-key day with a brief trip to an indoor market with many stalls to wander between.

On Monday, our group went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. We saw old locomotives, early nineteenth century textile machinery and did children’s science experiments. Tuesday we went to Smithill’s Hall and Coaching House. We ate lunch in the coaching house that has since been converted into a restaurant with Ivy and John. Following lunch we toured the stately home that now serves as a museum. I have multiple memories of eating at Smithill’s from previous trips to Horwich, but the tour of the hall was new and highly interesting. Our guide spoke to us about the home’s history and explained the significant of woodwork all the way to additions made to the hall from the Middle Ages to Victorian times.

Wednesday began with a walk from Rivington Barn up to the Pike. The Pike was originally part of a communication system dating from the Normans. It is a large stone tower that stands alone on a hill and would be set on fire as a warning to everyone of an impending threat. The watchman on a neighboring pike would see the blaze and lite his own post as part of the communication chain. After making it to the top of the hike to see the views of Horwich and surrounding fields, we headed down to Rivington Barn for lunch hungry and muddy. In the afternoon went to Bolton’s Museum and Aquarium. The museum consisted of three smallish galleries of Egyptian artifacts, paintings and sculptures and finally an exhibit on Bolton’s development with an upstairs of various taxidermy animals. The “aquarium” was a rather pitiful room of tanks that reminded me of the fish section of Petco. As Wednesday was Gran’s birthday, we went to dinner with the entire family at a British carvery (equivalent of an American buffet).

The next day was a spent driving around northwest England’s countryside on a mystery murder tour. In the 1600s, Pendle was an English village that hung several supposed witches. The mystery tour was based on the geographical region around Pendle stopping in church graveyards and going down footpaths. The drive was gorgeous with stunning scenery of Pendle Hill, sheep and cows and the villages of Newchurch, Barley, Barrowford and my favorite of Downham. Friday was another really enjoyable day of caves in Ingleton and the Skipton market and castle. In the caves, we walked about a mile into the earth to see calcified limestone and other geological scientific terms I have forgotten the names of! It was damp, dark and really cool. At some parts we had to fold in half to fit through the tunnel. Skipton market was nothing to right home about, but the castle was a highlight. It was built as a small residential castle, yet it was still fortified enough to hold off Oliver Cromwell in a three year siege during the English Civil War. We saw its kitchens, banqueting hall, dungeon, chambers and lookouts.

Today, Saturday, was my last day in Horwich. We went to Camelot theme park with the entire family and spent the day on rides with the occasional threat of rain. Today was bitter sweet. I said good-bye to my English side of the family for a period I know will at least be several years. It was great to get to know them as an adult, but disappointing to know it will be years before I have the opportunity to see them again. This is especially sad to me now that we have developed relationships separate from just the familial association of my dad. My eyes watered but I smiled saying, “see you in a few,” even though that "few" means a few years.

Back in London!

I have not managed to update my blog since I set foot in Paris almost three weeks ago. I spent a relatively uneventful two days in Paris wandering around the city and recuperating from my three weeks of spring break travels. I watched the Royal Wedding on a television screen in Paris, a decision I now regret. I returned to London on April 30th and celebrated a return to my city. London welcomed me back with open arms, although I think I missed London more than London missed me. The last two weeks I have been busy becoming reacquainted with London, appreciating the ability to speak English and dragging myself to prepare for finals. This will be a brief recap of what I have been up to.

My second night back in London, Amy and I attended a burlesque performance called the Hurly Burley show. It was an extravagant and tantalizing parade of beautiful women! My favorite performer was a fire-eater who set flame to her nipple tassels, while swinging them around and moving in a brilliantly choreographed dance. The next morning I was mischievous and spend a little too much time and money in Burberry’s outlet store.

The next week was full of museum I have wanted to visit since initially arriving in London in June. I spent Tuesday, May 3 at the Imperial War Museum. They have an incredible collection of retired war tanks, airplanes and submarines to peruse. Another favorite was (I will call it an exhibit for lack of a better word), but an exhibit that simulates the trenches of WWII. I cannot imagine living in such a hell and I wondered if my Grandpa Ronald had to spend much time in trenches. The most moving gallery was a large portion of the museum devoted to the Holocaust. I once had the opportunity to hear a childhood Holocaust survivor, but prior to this exhibit I was never so affront with the horrors through photograph and recorded video interviews of survivors. Awful.

Wednesday the 4th I spent at the Natural History Museum. It was fun to see the dinosaur skeletons, fossilized bugs and so much creatively displayed information about Earth’s history. My favorite was the “Sexual Nature” exhibit chronicling the reproductive habits of the world’s insects, marine life, mammals, all the way to barnacles and preying mantises. Thursday I went to the National Army Museum, specifically to see an exhibit devoted to the “Wives and Sweethearts” of army personnel. It was a powerful and moving display of the challenges of such relationships through love letters and photos. Friday morning I pretended to study before going to a stand up comedy show. HILARIOUS.

On Saturday, May 7 my friend Hannah arrived for a few days on her way to a summer study abroad program in Italy. She landed in the late morning giving us just enough time to race off to the Harlequins versus Wasps rugby game. I have no understanding of rugby’s rules. After the game all I have tell you is the stadium had delicious Cornish pasties and rugby players have large thighs. That Sunday (which was Mother’s Day), we went to an afternoon tea at the Sanderson Hotel that was themed like the Mad Hatter’s Tea of Alice in Wonderland. It was so cute and entertaining with brightly colored sandwiches, lovely scones, bottomless cups of tea AND lollipops that change from hot to cold in your mouth! We wrapped up the day with a dinner picnic in Regent’s Park.

Monday morning Hannah and I went to Westminster Abbey. It is a gorgeous cathedral. I have a morbid fascination with deceased English monarchs, especially the Tudors, so I was thrilled to see the graves of Elizabeth I, Mary I and Mary, Queen of Scots. It was captivating to see even the graves of non-Tudors like Richard II (better known as Richard the Lion Heart) and Charles Darwin. I had to finally submit to studying in the afternoon. After Hannah I celebrated my successful studying with pints and pub grub. I took my Rise of the Novel exam on Tuesday morning, which I am confident about. Wednesday Hannah was left to her own devices while I spent more time studying. We rendezvoused in the afternoon to have more pub grub and to see the play “All’s Well that Ends Well” at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. It is an experience just to go the outdoor theatre and attempt to imagine it in the Elizabethan era.

Hannah left Thursday morning, just in time for my second exam on early modern identities in Renaissance English literature. I feel like it went well. Friday was my final exam in cultural criticism, although it is the one I feel nervous about. Either way, I am thrilled to be done with school for the summer! Now I am up Horwich with the family for the next week!

Prague back to Paris

April 25th began a long travel day. I was slow to rise knowing it was my last time in a bed for the next day and a half. Once breakfasted and checked-out, we dragged our bags down to Fira’s bus stop to catch our 11am coach to Santorini’s port. Our ferry was not scheduled to depart until 3:30pm, so we killed three hours in a café enjoying Greek yogurt and honey. The girls took my suitcase, so I could ninja ahead onto the boat to stake out a table. We learned our lesson from having to sit in the hallway on the first ferry. We made it to Athens at 11:30pm where Bri, Mary and I parted ways with Amy to head to the airport for our 4:25am flight to Prague. I slept on the flight, cherishing the two hours of shuteye.

We landed in Prague at 6:30am where Mary and I spent the next ten hours exploring the city during the layover before our flight to Paris. Still trying to wake-up and rally, we made it to the Old Town neighborhood of Prague. At 8am we watched the Astronomical Clock (in above picuture) in the town centre strike the new hour. It is a beautiful, giant old clock that tells several different version of time with celestial hands and astrological signs. We wandered through the Old Town Square and across the Charles Bridge. It is Prague’s oldest bridge with impressive stonework and large religion statues. I love that both the streets and sidewalks are all cobblestone.

Once we crossed the Charles Bridge to the Little Quarter, we made our second stop for coffee. We continued up through the Little Quarter to the Castle Quarter. Here we investigated the Prague Castle, although I would call it more of a palace since it has no fortification. Inside Prague Castle, my favorite building was St. Vitus Cathedral. It has a gothic façade and an interior of imposing vaulted ceilings and stained class. The stained class looked almost mosaic due to the small size of each colored piece that is welded together with iron.

Our lunch was a traditional Czech meal of duck, dumplings and cabbage with apple strudel as we dined on wooden benches. It was now time to head back to the airport. I loved the brief detour in Prague, although in our short time, I failed to master the monetary system of the Czech koruna. I pulled out a 1,000 koruna note from the ATM, yet it is only equivalent to $60. I felt confused all day attempting to figure out conversion rates in my head when a latte was 85 koruna and we spent 624 koruna at lunch!

Santorini

On April 21, we arrived in the dark early hours of Thursday morning at Athens’ port to catch our ferry to Santorini. The idea our eight hour ferry ride would be a “Mediterranean cruise” was hopeful. The first 2.5 hours were spent on the deck until our feet no longer had feeling from the wind, but at least we could sit. We moved inside and hunkered in the hallway with the four of us rotating between the floor and two chairs. At the first port, we were finally able to snag a table when some passengers disembarked, so the last three hours were bearable. Welcome to “OIKONOMIKH θEΣH” or economy class. The ferry ride outside was beautiful past islands, distant coastline and the occasional cruise liner. The water was a gorgeous dark blue water with strong winds creating miles of white caps. When we made it to the Athinios Port in Santorini, we caught a bus to our hostel in the main town of Fira. After check-in, we had dinner, explored Fira’s downtown with window shopping. We wrapped up the day by spending over twenty minutes watching the sunset over the smaller, adjacent Kea Kameni island that house Santorini’s volcano.

Friday morning we took the brief cable car ride down the island west cliffs to catch our sail boat to Kea Kameni to hike around the volcano. There are lots of black rocks that serve as the remnants of century old eruptions. Yellow lines stained some of the black rocks from the high sulfur levels. Steam seeped through the ground that was hot to the touch. Our boat then carried us to Palia Kameni, which is the even smaller island next to Nea Kameni. Here we jumped from the boat into Ballos Bay to swim 50 meters into an alcove of natural hot springs. Once back on the main island, we rode donkeys into Fira to allow us the opportunity to rinse away the salty sea from our skin and hair. In the evening we rented ATVs for the next couple of days. We rode them up to Pyrgos for their Good Friday celebrations. They line all of their buildings’ roofs with large torch candles. Once the sun set and the Greek Orthodox service ended, the village lite up. As we drove away from the Pyrgos in darkness, the village looked ablaze with three light cross to mimic Calgary where Jesus was crucified.

Saturday was our first full day of ATVing around the island. We headed south out of Fira with our first stop being the Red Beach. Because Santorini was built through several volcanic eruptions, the island has several different colored beaches. The Red Beach consisted more of giant rocks than sand, but it was beautiful. The water around Santorini is a deep healthy blue, but the closer you get to shore and the shallower the water, it turns a turquoise color. We searched fruitlessly on the ATVs for the White Beach. Instead we found the light house at the very most southwest tip of the island. The view from there is lovely, because with your back to Santorini you see nothing but the ocean bending over the horizon. Back on the ATVs we found another beach nook with a Greek snack shack where we feasted on Greek yogurt and honey, spending a few hours staring into the distance trying to decide where the ocean ended and the sky started. We then went to the most opposite end of the island to Oia for the sunset. Unfortunately, dinner at a terrible restaurant caused us to miss the sunset. Oia however is a lovely town, so we decided to return tomorrow.

The 22nd was Easter Sunday, although we did not dawn our Easter best for the second day of ATVing. We went first to Kamari Beach – one of the island’s black beaches. We stayed long enough to watch the tide come in before driving up to ancient Thira to find it closed for Easter. At this point we headed back to Oia. We had lunch and wandered around the cute shops. Like most places in Santorini, the view is postcard perfect. ATVing was surprisingly cold from the wind chill off the ocean and the fact we under packed expecting warmer weather as the temperature hovered in the low sixties. Back in Fira, we had two hours before the ATVs were due back. Amy and Bri decided to do more shopping, so Mary and I took-off towards Kamari and went off roading on the first dirt road we found. It was a blast as the ATVs went much faster with half the weight as Mary and I took turns literally eating each other’s dust. When I was leading us back to Fira, I must have driven onto private property as I was charged by an angry German Sheppard trying to get back to the main road! We made it back onetime and said good-bye to Thelma and Louise as we had dubbed our ATVs. We watched the sun go down over the caldera and our last night in Santorini. Back at the hostel we packed up and showered to wash away the road dirt and sea mist.

Athens

On Monday I left Paris for Athens, Greece on a three hour Olympic Airways flight. On board they served me a lunch of octopus and pasta (which I later learned is a normal meal in Greece). I arrived at our hostel to meet Amy, Bri and Mary in the shadow of the Acropolis. My expectations of Athens quickly adapted as I realized it is not a beautiful city. It is covered in graffiti, dirty and overrun with stray dogs that were all in need of my adoption.

Tuesday was kicked off with three cups of coffee and exploring the Acropolis. All that remains are a few crumbling pillars and walls that once held of the ancient buildings devoted to Athena. Understandably, the ruins were covered in scaffolding due to the Acropolis’ ongoing restoration, yet I still felt disappointed by the metal construction hiding the marble architecture. The view from the Acropolis is lovely and expansive as the city sprawls over the hills with uniform looking square building of the same height. We walked down the massive hill to Socrates’ prison that held him in his final days before his hemlock execution. We wandered down a long stone path to the dilapidated Temple of the Olympian Zeus. I enjoyed these ruins more than the Acropolis simply because of the absent scaffolding. They are lovely reminders of the city’s history. We walked through the National Gardens, past the Greek parliament and looped back through the flea market to Monastiraki Square. We spent the evening on our hostel’s roof top bar with great views of the Acropolis. We drank a Greek lager called Mythos served in glasses that hold a half-liter of beer!

On Wednesday, we headed through Monastiraki Square and the corridors of the flea market to the Ancient Agora. It was the market place of the ancient Greeks that has since been reconstructed to include some of the original marble. My favorite statues belonged to Aphrodite and two men depicting the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Agora also has a little museum of several centuries worth of pottery and household ceramics. As we walked by the remnants of the speaker’s platform, I imagined the times Socrates and Plato had stood there spewing their ideas. I was impressed by the water clock the ancient Greeks had developed to time speakers. Water dripped through the basin of a ceramic vessel and when the last of the water emptied, six minutes had passed and it was time for the next speaker. The temple in the Agora is I think the best-preserved ruins we saw in Athens. The less well-preserved buildings are the Olympic stadiums from 2004. It was depressing how ramshackled and covered in graffiti these athletic building built for champions had become in just seven years. They could be a metaphor for Greece’s current economics.