last week our group took a trip to the north of england. we were a little more briefed on this one, so it wasn't quite as ambiguous and mysterious as our trip to "the west" (honestly i still don't know where i was for those three days). we went to liverpool, the lake district (ambleside and grasmere), and chatsworth. i tend to overuse the phrases "changed my life" "amazing" and "magical." however, this trip was all of those things. ( thesaurus.com synonym for magical: occult. thanks for nothing.)
first, liverpool:
sum up: oasis concert (we sadly were not able to attend. but i'm positive that it was epic). the next morning lauren, hailee, anna, lauren, holli, and myself went to the cavern club, which is the venue the beatles first played. hailee and i shared an i-pod on the walk there listening to abbey road, and as we got closer, "hey jude." i'm kind of a sucker for perfectly soundtracked moments. this was one. we turned the corner to the alley where the cavern is located just as the song reached its climax. i got chills. it was fantastic. go the beatles.
after visiting the cavern, we went to go meet our group at the liverpool docks. these docks are where the majority of ancestors started their emigration to america. this was such a unique experience for me because i've never really "gotten in touch with my roots." (i'm not sure if the quotation marks are necessary, but i'm leaving them.) it made my ancestors more real to me, standing in the same place they stood, and thinking about everything they were leaving behind and sacrificing. anyway. i loved it.
liverpool docks. (everybody loves to give directions here by saying "oh it's just by the docks." or "just go to the docks and turn left." the whole city is "the docks.")
after we collected our beatles memorabilia, we set off for preston. we visited the preston temple and took a walking church history tour. also very cool.
anna, hailee, myself, lauren, and holli at the preston temple.
the river ribble where the first converts to the church in england were baptized.
and THEN.
we went
to the lake district.
as soon as we got off the bus at our hostel, this is what i saw:
lake windermere.
i've never quite understood what it meant to revel in something, but as soon as i was in the lake district, i got it. oh, i got it. i'm not good at describing nature. i'm no wordsworth. but visiting the lake district made it perfectly clear why the romantics wrote what they did. it was beautiful. green hills mazed with stone walls, sheep, mist, trees everywhere, glass lake. agh. i was so happy. the first night we didn't have much time except to eat and explore ambleside. well, turns out england shuts down at like 5 o'clock. hillary, holli, and i just walked on the shore of the lake and into town. we tried to investigate a haunted barn, but turns out mostly it was just really muddy and hillary is awful at climbing fences that come to her shoulders.
we watched her do this for way too long. (we're good friends)
after wandering, holli and sat on the dock of the lake and listened to some good music. it was magical.
the next morning, some of us woke up early to hike with professor benfell to grasmere, where dove cottage (wordsworth's home) is. i'm not even going to try to explain it. pictures.
i was in some type of transcendent state by the time we got to dove cottage. because i'm a nerd. we toured the cottage, and i bought a pocket wordsworth anthology.
lauren and i putting the books to our faces (we don't actually read)
i was beyond happy but oh it gets better.
we found out it was national poetry day.
i'm big on days/holidays. i enjoy throwing unsuccessful themed parties for days. they are a huge part of my life. the fact that i was at wordsworth's cottage on national poetry day knocked me out. lauren, holli, and i caught the end of a poetry workshop at the wordsworth museum. it was taught by the most attractive english man ever. afterwards, we walked out and there was a television crew interviewing different members of our group about national poetry day. some of the girls told them that i had memorized a wordsworth poem and could recite it. (i memorized it for one of my classes here and wanted to pass it off in the lake district. which i did on the hike earlier) i sort of tried to avoid it, but then decided what the heck here i am at dove cottage 15 mintues of fame blah blah blah. so i did. recited "the world is too much with us"
it looked like this:
after this i was absolutely convinced my life calling was to study poetry. stuff like this happens in the lake district.
the rest of this magical day include bonding with an australian bartender, spending time in a cathedral, reading poetry aloud before taking a late-night dip in lake windermere, and an acoustic guitar sing-a-long at the hostel. so good.
holli looking good with george.
the rest of the trip:
-beatrix potter's cottage
-parsonage where the brontes lived
they would live by a graveyard.
the three brontes. so shy.
the chatsworth palace. the movie "the duchess" is based off of the family that owns this. it was also the interior of pemberly in the latest pride and prejudice movie. so of course we went. it was beautiful though.
interior:
yeah that's a rembrandt. yeah that's a lot of books.
i don't have any explanation for this.
and there you have it kids.
the north.
whaaaaaaaaaat up.
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