It's Monday and I find myself back at work, tired from lack of sleep and anxious to just get on with it. But, it seems as if the fifth graders are yet to move to 4th grade, it is as if they are on a stand still. And so, a brief update on our long short vacation!!!
We left Korea a little over a week ago bound for England. After 24 hours of traveling we landed in Heathrow and headed to Daniels dad's house. We were meant to rent a car but with a few technical difficulties we were unable to do so. A few train stops later and Daniels brother-in-law Marcus and niece Clarissa picked us up at the train station. We headed back to the house where we met Daniels sister Deborah and nephew Guy. We spent the night in Caterham, waking up early the next morning to sort out Daniels visa.
The next morning after a few hours sleep we headed into London, dropped Daniels information off and had an "English Breakfast" at Prince Albert's Pub. After we ate Daniel promptly grabbed my arm and dragged me through London pointing to various landmarks, telling me what they were and then as we approached the next mark, eating his words and explaining that this place was in fact really it. In a few short hours we were able to see Big Ben, The London Eye, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby and no changing of the guards. We jumped back on train and headed an hour south to Chatham where we picked up Daniels sisters car. Deborah and Clarissa gave us a brief history of Chatham, the old cathedral, the castle, the tunnels which still run from one end of town to the other. The churches in England are amazing and each carries its own history, its own story. The church in Ludlow has the heart of a King beneath the alter, the church in Hereford has the remains of a knight in stone.
Now here is me, who has never driven on the left hand side of the road, or used my left hand for anything other than smoking a cigarette while driving, finding myself using my left hand for shifting, driving on the left hand side of the road, trying to avoid on coming traffic. Amazingly, although it takes a lot of concentration, it is a lot easier than it sounds. We made it the hour back to Caterham and jumped back on a train for London. (5pm- 4 hours of travel, 6 major sights seen, English Breakfast eaten, Pint for breakfast drank)
When we arrived in London we went to Charring Cross to meet one of Daniels childhood friends, Wes and his girlfriend Laura. There was an amazing show at Club Heaven, System 7 and some guy from the Orb, so we headed there and got back to their place around 2. The one and only time I got to ride in a taxi in London and it was the most hilarious experience.
We woke up around 9am the next morning and got back on the train to Caterham, showered and began our drive to Daniels mom's in Leintwardine. What was supposed to be a 5 hour journey turned out to be a seven hours journey. Through the countryside you are surrounded by nothing by fields and sheep, it is the most beautiful sight. The lanes are little more narrow then they are in the states which made it a bit of a challenge to navigate the biggest little car I had ever seen through the country, but we did it and made it to Daniels moms around 7pm.
Daniel's mom and step-father live in a small village Leintwardine, about an hour east of Wales, where the butcher the baker and the candle stick maker all drinks pints together in the evening. Where there are no police men, no "commercial" buildings, one small grocery store which is also the gas station and where each house comes with character, history and a story to be told. Daniels house has no number, it is simply "Sunny Bank on Dark Lane". His mother is amazing as is his stepfather, kind, brilliant and welcoming! They live on Dark Lane with their Springer Spaniel Blake who loves to sit in the car and chase rabbits.
(side note: as I write this it is 9:40am, one hour into the school day, I just went up to the fifth grade hallway, there is still not a teacher in sight. There is a soccer game in the hallway, a chair race at the other end and not a teacher in sight!)
The next morning we woke early to head to the next town over, Ludlow. I realized that Daniel had always said he was from Ludlow, a lie, it is as if I was to say I was from Georgetown, I am not. I am from Newburyport and he now is from Leintwardine, as small as it is. We parked our cars and walked through the common, similar to Maudsley, through the hills that look over at the old castle and down the hill to the Mill town that sits on the river.
Ludlow is a town that has all of the characteristics of the towns you read of when you studied Medieval Times. The streets are small and crooked, each building has its own character. The castle stands in tact and if you use your imagination you can see yourself living in that era. We had lunch in the Church Inn and visited the church near by, went to the cheese shop and purchased some "Stinking Bishop", the smelliest cheese I have ever eaten, delicious but smelly. It was amazing to be surrounded by so much cheese having come from the land of no cheese. I found that English meals are largely based on eating french fries, known to them as chips, bread and beef. It was a welcome change from kimchi and rice. Next stop, Wales.
There is no sign telling you that you have left England and entered Wales, the country where there are more sheep than people. There are sheep everywhere...EVERYWHERE! The land is lush and green, no a normal green, but a beautiful bright green. We drove an hour to Daniels brother Chris' gallery, Gallery on the Usk. The Usk is a river that runs through the small town, a town where Daniel lived for a little while. His brothers Gallery is amazing, stocking the most beautiful and one of a kind items from Artists all around the world including Daniels sister Helen!
We ate dinner with Chris and met his friend Alan, a world traveler with a magnificent knack for decorating. Close to his house there is a bridge, on either end there are two steel bars that are just wide enough to fit the small car we were driving through, the bridge zig zags all the way across the river for when this bridge was created the zigzags left a place for carriages to back into so another carriage could pass. While there we saw the grandchildren of Prince William and Harry's nanny, a sort of Welsh royalty, playing in the street. That was the closest I got to the royal family.
The next morning we woke up early and headed on a little day trip while Daniels mother and step-father prepared Christmas dinner. Hereford is a small town which reminded me a lot of Newburyport, small quaint shops, brick streets and all the shopping I needed. It was amazing to be surrounded by shoe sizes that exceeded size 5, pants that exceeded size 3, all things not ruffly and tacky. We stopped off at The Spread Eagle Pub for Steak and Guinness pie and made it back to the car before the rain began.
Daniel was in the Philippians for Christmas and I was in Korea so Daniels mom created a Christmas in February for us complete with all things Christmas, Daniels brother and his friend Allan. We had goose, delicious and tasting a bit like a red meat turkey. Christmas Pudding, England's version of Kimchi, the older it is the better, a rich dessert that is soaked in Brandy. Christmas cake, brussel sprouts and Parsnips. and Christmas crackers.
After dinner we headed down to The Sun Inn, otherwise known as Flossies, a small pub that resembles a house, where the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker and all the village people meet to drink and talk of the goings on in town. The owner, a 97 year old woman who sits in a chair for most of the night until one of the villagers, they rotate, come to put her to bed. It is in this pub that the Mayor is elected, or more so chosen. The mayor wears a necklace made of rope and trinkets that people attached over the years and as part of their initiation they wear a squirrel fur cloak . The best part of their system is the way the mayor is chosen, in the simplest of ways, the current mayor chooses who he wants to take his place.
The next morning we woke up early to go and hear the bells rung at the church. Each Sunday eight people meet and pull large ropes that extend into the ceiling. At first it seems as if there is no rhyme or reason however, after a bit you see that there is a method and the music they make is beautiful. Daniels step-father John is a bell ringer, he rings the heaviest bell of all.
Later in the afternoon we drove to a small town outside of Birmingham where we saw Daniel's sister Helen's exhibition at the glass museum. She is a well known glass artist who creates hand blown and etched cameo glass. Her work has been featured in movies such as Sense and Sensibility. The glass is amazing and Daniel and I had the chance to pick our favorite piece that we want as a wedding gift. You can see her work at http://www.helenmillard.co.uk/. We left the museum and headed north to North Bridge for lunch and a trip to a traditional candy store.
The next morning we woke up early enough to watch Hot Fuzz, a movie it seems is based on the village where Daniels mother lives and then we were off on our journey back to Caterham. What should have been another five hour journey soon became an eight hour journey due to our lack of directions. We arrived back in Caterham and met Daniels Dad for dinner before meeting his Uncle Steve and Aunt Gil for a pint.
The next morning we were off for London to pick up Daniels visa and do some shopping. We wandered around Oxford Circle, Soho, Covent Garden, Parliament, the London Eye and ate some traditional Cornish Pasteys while watching some street entertainers. The night we met Daniels friends, Coincidence Steve and Wes with their girlfriends for a Mexican dinner. We jumped back on the train and got home just before midnight to get up for our flight in the morning.
I cant believe how expensive England is, although a beer may only be 4 pounds, that is actually 8 dollars. The transportation system be it trains or the tube is privatized so the prices are ridiculous. For a hour long journey it cost 25 pounds, the equivalent of $50USD for the two of us and at the start of the journey the train was late leaving only because they "couldn't find the driver". There are many catches to using their system, if you buy a return ticket you pay one dollar more as opposed to double, it is more expensive before 9:30 and if you book weeks in advance the price is almost half what you would pay on the day of. On the other hand the similarities between England and the places where I grew up are endless and aside from the difference in speech are virtually the same. There are many of the same cities, Ludlow, Worcester, Leomenster, and the architecture and cobble street roads are the same. As Daniel says, we just want to be like the British.
As we walked to the train station we realized that we had enough money left to take a taxi to the airport, call it Daniels intuition or our laziness but had we taken the train we would have missed our flight, the entire way to the airport on the radio we listened to all of the problems on the tracks because of delays. Lucky for us we arrived with plenty of time to spare. Heathrow is the worst airport in the world. Instead of assigning gates as most airports do, they have 4 areas where everyone crams into seats surrounded by overpriced stores. Instead of having you take your shows off and putting them through x-ray with your bags, you go through a separate x-ray machine that is only for shoes making the lines longer and your aggravation greater.
12 hours later we exited the plane in Hong Kong, tired and headed to our hotel. One of the main reasons I was so excited about going to Hong Kong was to meet with the woman who would be making my wedding dress for half the cost of buying it in the states. I picked out my fabrics, got measured and was told it would be ready in a month! Back to Hong Kong I will go in June with a few friends for a short weekend, hoping my sister and friend from home can join us, a long flight for a weekend, but it would be amazing to see them!
We spent the remainder of the day on Kowloon Island, an island saturated with people, crazy amounts of people, yet it is clean and maintains a sense of order. The stores all seem to be either posh or horrible with no middle ground. We took a night ferry back and visited a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant for dinner. It was amazing, in the section of Hong Kong known as Soho, the hipper part of the island, we had Peking Spare ribs, Pan Fried Mutton, Sweet and Sour Chicken and Chinese Fire Juice. A trolley ride back found us and hours walk away from our hotel and a bit lost.
The next day we slept late and didn't get started until 3pm. We took the MTR to Admiralty and walked to the Victoria Peak Tram Station. Victoria peak is the highest peak in Hong Kong, by day you get a sense of the lay out of Hong Kong and by night you have a free ticket to the most amazing light show. Hong Kong is the land of all things bright, every electronic maker in the world has a large sign the screams their name, Samsung, Panasonic, Sharp the list goes on and on, at night it is a sky of advertisements.
We stayed on the peak for dinner eating at Bubba Gump's Shrimp and walking around the mall that sits on the top of the peak. The tram which brings you up has been operating for many years and is a bit of an exciting ride, at times you are on a steep incline, if only it would move a little faster.
Hong Kong wasn't really all I hoped it would be. I expected to fall in love instantaneously, maybe regretting that I had chose to live in Korea rather than Hong Kong, instead I found myself thinking I could never live there. It may have been that we were only there for a short time or that we were on the back end of an amazing and action packed vacation in a different time zone, I think with a little more time it would have been more enjoyable. The city self seemed a little hard to navigate, with so much to see and so many ways it seemed you could get there. They are however, in many ways more efficient, when you go to the Airport Express Train you can check your luggage right there making your trip to the airport much more comfortable without all your luggage. The people seemed short, not as pushy as they are here in Korea, but shorter. I am looking forward to my trip back to pick up my wedding dress in June, hoping to see a bit more.
And so, we are back, in Korea wishing we weren't here, wishing we were still on vacation, wishing we had gotten a chance to visit the states and see my family and excited to head back to the UK sometime soon.
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