Northwards bound!

So, this past week our group took a trip up to Northern England and Scotland.  It was an amazing trip and my favorite part of the Study Abroad so far.  As much as I’d love to blog about it in detail, I’m just going to try my best to do quick summaries of the different days and what we did so I don’t get dreadfully behind in blogging.

Monday: Church history and a very special dinner

            Monday was a lot of time in the coach (bus).  At the rest stop, it was a lot of fun because I got to play red rover with my professor and his family.  I have to say, I never thought I could say I’ve played Red Rover with my Professor!  But, now I can and it was a lot of fun!  Unfortunately, I kind of hurt my knee while playing, but it ended up being all right.

            We also stopped in the Preston area to see church history sites.  We got to stop in the Preston MTC (missionary training center), see the Preston temple, and the River Ribble (the place where the first converts were baptized in England).  This was especially cool because some of my ancestors joined the church around this area and were taught by some of the missionaries who were baptizing there.

The Preston Temple

The River Ribble

            Then, we made our way up to Ambleside in the Lake District.  This area of England is absolutely gorgeous!  It’s green, full of low mountains and lakes, and is simply breathtaking.  I had forgotten how much I missed mountains until I went there (you see, I’ve never lived in a place without mountains before I studied in London).

            Well, that night we had the opportunity to eat in Dove Cottage (the place where Wordsworth lived)!  We ate food from the Wordsworth family recipes (the best part was the lemonade with brown sugar in it) and explored his garden and the little village nearby.  It was so peaceful and picturesque.

Wordsworth's cottage

One of the lakes

Tuesday: A Man worth his Words and a View to Match!

            Tuesday morning, we made our way back to Dove cottage and got to study from some Wordsworth manuscripts and see some very special and early edition Wordsworth and other authors.  One of my favorites was a second edition Jane Eyre.  It was also fun to try to decipher the old fashioned handwriting-it honestly reminded me of indexing!

            That afternoon, we went on quite an adventure.  Our scheduled hike for the afternoon was supposed to be about 2 hours long, but it ended up being a 4 hour hike.  You see, the hike was much longer than we originally supposed.  I absolutely loved it!  It was a difficult hike: there were quite a few steep hills, it was the hottest it’s been since we’ve come to Europe (there was a random heat wave this past week), and the map we had was less than clear.  However, it was one of my favorite experiences of the week.  The scenery was gorgeous and the company was great!  It was peaceful and just gave me time to appreciate the beauty that God has created.  I also love hiking itself, so that part was fun as well.  I was pretty exhausted afterwards though.

At the beginning of the hike

"Not all who wander are lost"

End of the hike by the lakes!

            That night, we went on another hike.  This one was much less intense and was just a nice jaunt through the woods to go see a waterfall. It was nice and quite a bit cooler than the afternoon had been.

Wednesday: Goodbye England, Hello Scotland!

            Wednesday morning, we went on another hike around Ambleside and just took in the beauty.  Before we left, I had the most delicious, and probably most unhealthy, donut ever!  It had caramel frosting with crème filling (I felt like I had deserved it after all the hiking).

            After a long time in the coach, we made it to Edinburgh, Scotland!  That night we saw St. Giles’ Cathedral, some really cool monuments, and had dinner at a super awesome place—The Elephant House Cafe!  For all of my fellow Harry Potter fans out there, this is where J.K. Rowling wrote the first 2 Harry Potter novels.  Between Harry Potter, elephants galore (my favorite animal), and a delicious salad-who could ask for more?

            Later that night, we hiked as a group up to Arthur’s Seat, a mountain that overlooks Edinburgh (and the place where Orson Hyde dedicated Britain for missionary work).  Yes, that is 4 hikes in 2 days, if you were keeping count.  This was my favorite of all of them!  It was somewhat steep, but we got our way all the to the very top of the mountain.  So, I fulfilled one of my life dreams-reaching the top of a mountain and just looking around.  It was fantastic!  The sunset was absolutely gorgeous!

Thursday: A kilt and some Italian food?

           Thursday, we enjoyed some more of Edinburgh. We had an awesome tour guide (who was wearing a kilt) and punned even more than my dad (which is definitely saying something!).  We toured the castle and a really cool museum.  I loved Edinburgh-I just felt so at home there! Then, we had a really long coach ride to York.  We found a really yummy Italian place for dinner and then walked along the medieval walls until it was time to go back to our hotel.

Friday: Who knew the great wall was also in England?

            Friday, we toured York Minster and the town.  York had so many cute little shops to poke your head into and a really cute market. I also had the opportunity to actually walk on the medieval walls.  I swear, it looked like the Great Wall of China had been transported to England and shrunk a bit.  We also ran into a really cool street performer.  He was hilarious, juggled oranges, rode an 8 ft high unicycle and juggled knifes while he was on it.

On the walls

            Then, we went to Fountain’s Abbey (after another long coach ride; can you sense a pattern here?).  It was an old Norman abbey that was in ruins.  It was gorgeous in a sort of haunting way.  There was also a gorgeous buttercup field next to the abbey. It was so much fun to play around in, take pictures, and just so beautiful!

I felt like Indiana Jones

So, it was a fantastic, pretty long trip.  I had a great time and I'm just so glad that I had a chance to see all of it.  

You just can't sit down in a hoop skirt

Saturday (yesterday) was one of the best days I've had out here in London.  I had finished homework and was even ahead of schedule, so I took a day off of schoolwork and just explored some more of the city.  In the morning, our class toured parliament.  It was beautiful inside and I loved it!  I had watched the House of Commons debates before with my dad so it was fun to actually see the place where that takes place.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, but here's the pictures I could take:

When I got back to the Centre, I was greeted with a fantastic surprise.  I got a letter/package from Joel.  I had mentioned to him that I missed peanut butter and granola bars and he sent me Reese's and Chewy granola bars (he even took out the Smore's ones =D ).  It was so sweet and considerate.  Joel's the best! I love him so much!  This alone would have made it a fantastic day.

Afterwards, I went to the V+A (Victoria and Albert) museum.  It was such a fun, quirky museum.  It was one of those "everything but the kitchen sink" sort of places.  There were also interactive parts of the museum which always makes life even better.  It was probably my favorite museum I've been to here because it was just such a breath of fresh air.

They had period clothing,

Stained glass,

Costumes to try on,

Metal work,

Glass work,

and even hoop skirts to try on.  By the way, it is impossible to sit down in a hoop skirt.  I attempted to sit down and the skirt literally just flipped upwards.  When Jessica tried, the chair just kept moving backwards.  I have no idea who wore hoops were actually able to sit.  It was a skill!

Then, we went to Hatchard's, this old bookstore that's been operating for over 200 years.  I think I was there for at least an hour just staring at all of these wonderful books on the shelves.  I especially loved all of the children's books.  I read a lot as a child and it was fun to look at all of the different editions of my favorites such as the one below:

We also stopped briefly at Harrod's. It was pretty crazy.  It was by far the ritzy-est thing I've ever been in my life.  I don't know if I was impressed, surprised, or slightly disgusted at the opulence of it.  The food court was impressive and looked delicious. I was surprised that the elevator was Egyptian themed and played opera music.  I was disgusted that a pair of flip-flops cost around  £130, which is over $200.  Ridiculous.  (not everything was like that, but there were enough things like that that I thought it was ridiculous)

These Jubilee cupcakes were pretty cool.

The Egyptian elevator.

Then, we went back to our neighborhood after a long day of adventures and enjoyed a delicious end to the day:

Some delicious caramel cheesecake with clotted cream!

Walking through Austenland

Just as some background to this post and to further explain why I was so excited, I have to explain that I love Jane Austen.  She's been one of my favorite authors for years now.  I've read all 6 of her books, several of them multiple times (especially Pride and Prejudice).  I love watching film and stage interpretations of her works.  I love her works because of their engaging characters, wit, social satire, unforgettable plots and romances.

So now that I've explained that, my excitement over Wednesday's day trip will make more sense and have some more significance.  On Wednesday, we travelled to Chawton and saw the Jane Austen house and where she attended church. Then we travelled to Stourhead gardens (where Darcy proposes to Elizabeth Bennet in the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice).  After that, we traveled to Bath (a location of many of Austen's books).  So, as you can tell, it was a fantastic day for an Austen lover like myself!

First, Chawton:

It was literally like I was walking through a Jane Austen novel.  It was a gorgeous English countryside town.  There was a large manor house, a parish church attached to it, and a cottage where Jane lived herself.  After seeing this scenery, it was so easy to imagine what Austen was envisioning while she was writing the novels.

I especially enjoyed the Jane Austen house.  They had some fun, interactive parts like writing with a quill and grinding lavender for a little satchel.  They even let me play on the pianoforte!  It was a dream come true!  Along with that, they had furniture from that time period in the house, along with some of Jane Austen's things as well.  It was a fun little house and travel back in time to the Regency Period.

In front of the Jane Austen home

Playing the piano forte

Being quite proper

Next, Stourhead Gardens:

It was like walking through a garden of Eden!  It was absolutely incredible.  It was the perfect weather for it, somewhat sunny and not too chilly.  It was simply breathtaking. It was nice to have a few hours to take it easy and enjoy the beauty of nature all around me.  

I also loved standing in the place where Pride and Prejudice was filmed.  As I was walking around, I definitely had the soundtrack playing in my head and was replaying the scene in my head (I had just rewatched the movie the night previous). 

Katie and I also got to talk to one of the rangers (for lack of a better word.  tour guide might be more appropriate) for a while.  It was fun to talk to an actual Brit about how loud Americans are, what she thought about the Olympics coming to London, her favorite things to do in the area, and stuff like that.  She was quite friendly and it was lovely talking to her.

Then, Bath:

We got to go to the old Roman baths while we were there.  It was really cool to see such an old place so well in tact.  The architecture was really cool and the hot springs itself were as well.  You could literally see steam rising over the baths.  I also got to taste of the so-called "restorative" bath waters.  I don't know if restorative would exactly be the word I would use for them.  Maybe if restorative means water that tasted like rotten salt water that would definitely be the word I would use.  I'd probably come up with a slightly different name like "This water's kind of, um, Interesting".  Although, restorative does have a better ring to it......  either way, it was a good experience.

We were really rushed for time while in Bath, but I absolutely loved the city.  It's a medium to large city nestled in this lush, green area of England.  The buildings feel like the British version of Italian buildings.  It was a cool cultural mixture.  And also, I had the best meat pie of my life while I was there.  Good food is always a plus.  

A delicious pasty!

It was also fun to see parts of Bath that played into Austen's stories like the Pump Room that's so vital in Northanger Abbey and so much more.

Day in Austenland?  A total success!  What a wonderful day!