"Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, and many goodly states and kingdoms seen"

My dear readers,

I apologize for the tardiness of this post.  Life here in London has been extremely busy and we are approaching the deadline - two weeks from tomorrow I'll be hopping on a plane back home to the United States!!! I don't know where the time has gone.  I am both extremely excited to be home as well as sad to be leaving London, England, Europe, and this incredible experience and all the wonderful people I've met.  I've been up to a lot these last 3 weeks that I need to update you on first though before I get too sentimental and caught up with leaving.

After Scotland, I decided to stay in the London area for the most part and had an absolutely amazing time.  Tuesday I went to see The Noisettes in concert, who were out of this world.  Talk about a performance! Their opener was Marques Toliver, who is my new obsession.  Check him out! That weekend Emma and Hannah came down from Reading to visit and we went to see Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre.  It was Emma and Hannah's first time seeing this musical, my second, and it was incredible and I cried, as expected.  Les Mis is my favorite show of all time so I was so happy I got to see it in London, as I grew up listening to the Original London Cast Recording.  If any of you don't know any Les Mis, this will change your life.

After Les Mis we ran back across to the east side of town to go see the midnight premiere of Breaking Dawn Part II, the final installment of the Twilight Saga.  Go ahead, judge all you want.  It was great, and I am not ashamed.  We were one of maybe 30 people there - by far the least crowded Twilight midnight show I've been to - so strange!! I guess the Brits aren't as big fans?

The next day Hannah and I went to Camden and walked around the Locks and market.  Camden is a really neat area of London - very post-industrial and funky.  We then went to Hampstead in search of John Keats House.  Hampstead proved to be the most adorable area of London ever and if I ever live in this city again, that is where I am residing.  It has a nice quiet, residential vibe to it, with families strolling around and lots of shops and restaurants, but it's close to edgier Camden and obviously easily accessible to the central city.

Keats House was an unreal experience.  He is one of the most important poets of all time and to be in his house was a little emotional for me.  I finally purchased a book of his poems, which I've never actually owned because I've just read assorted material in classes.  There was a book club of older people having a meeting in the house and I have to say, I'd be quite satisfied with my life if I could join them and do that for the rest of time.  The title of this post is a line from Keats's poem "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer."

That evening the three of us went to St. John Bread and Wine for dinner, a restaurant I had read about in Bon Appetit or something a while ago and had found in London and been dying to try.  It fulfilled all expectations.  Inside, the walls are stark white and the tables are bare wood, a very stripped down feel to place all the focus on the incredible food.  Their theory on food is "nose to tail eating":  they believe in using all possible parts of the animal or plant to their best advantage.  We ordered Foie Gras and Duck Liver on toast; Butternut Squash, lentils, and  Yoghurt; and Plaice (a fish) in a apple juice browned butter sauce with croutons and some leafy green; as well as a bottle of their own red wine and for dessert, Quince and Sherry Trifle! Oh my goodness, it was one of the best meals of my life.  Everything was so fresh and delicious.  I'm so glad I can check "posh British dining" off my to do list!

Saturday was a day of work, but Sunday I went with my friend Evan to Bath!  We toured the Roman baths, which are incredibly well preserved, and just an awesome museum with lots of relics and historical information.  I wish we could have gotten in the hot spring water, as it was quite chilly out, but alas, we weren't even allowed to touch it!! They did have a part where you could taste the waters, as that is what people came to Bath to do, believing the waters to be healing with their mineral contents.  It was DISGUSTING.  It tasted like swallowing coins. Gross.

After the baths, we went to my real purpose in visiting - The Jane Austen Centre!! Jane Austen resided in Bath for a few years of her life, during which time she was relatively unproductive as the city was overwhelming and uninspiring for her. (Good thing she didn't try London, as that would have been REALLY overwhelming! Bath is nothing in comparison!)  The Centre had many interesting displays and I was completely nerding out and in a very happy and emotional state.  We had afternoon tea at the Jane Austen Tea Room, where I ordered Catherine Morland's Savory Tea.  She is the main character from Northanger Abbey, for you non-fan readers out there. :)

The rest of the day we wandered the city, seeing the Royal Crescent and taking in the surroundings which were filming locations for Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both of which have parts that take place in Bath.  Persuasion is my favorite of Jane Austen's novels, so it was really magical to be there and understand what she was talking about!

Monday I hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner for my flat and Evan since I would be gone for the actual holiday and wanted a feast!  I was assisted by my lovely flatmates who became my sous chefs.  My British flatmates loved it and want to have Thanksgiving everyday.  We had to do a chicken instead of a turkey, but it was my first whole roast chicken and it came out perfectly!  I feel much more confident now in my housewifery abilities/future knowing I can throw together a whole Thanksgiving meal.  Although I was across the pond to celebrate, I had so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and was surrounded by some wonderful people. :)

Skipping ahead to Wednesday, I headed to York with Brigitte and Carolyn to meet up with my friend Dan and see the town.  After missing my train due to the unreliable Hammersmith and City tube line, I made it there a little later and having spent more money than I desired, but it did not ruin the day!  We toured York Minster, the cathedral there, which is gorgeous!  We even did the rooftop tour which was worth the steep spiral staircase climb that nearly took our lives.

We also went to the museum Barley Hall which had a movie costume exhibit that featured COLIN FIRTH'S MR. DARCY COSTUME AND ALAN RICKMAN'S COLONEL BRANDON COSTUME AND KATE WINSLET'S MARIANNE DASHWOOD WEDDING DRESS and a bunch of hats from Pride and Prejudice as well, and Colin's outfit from The King's Speech!!!!!!  It was one of the most exciting moments of my time here, as well as my life.  Colin Firth's stature is perfection.  I can't handle it. Of course, we weren't allowed to touch it, unfortunately, but I did steal a graze of the King's Speech one. Shhh!  York also had a great milkshake place, which is hard to come by in England so that was great!! Overall, it was a really cute town and quite "English" as you would picture, which was lovely.

We all parted ways in the evening, and I was off to Harrogate to visit my brother and sister-in-law, Mark and Anne!!  We went out to dinner the first night and I ordered a whole pheasant - and ate the whole thing!! It was quite yummy!  Thursday we went to Betty's Tea Room for breakfast, a Harrogate standard.  I had quiche, which was delicious.  I hardly ever have good breakfast food here so it was really nice to have a quality meal! We then headed to Fountains Abbey, the ruins of a monastery built in 1132 and destroyed by Henry VIII, which in its prime was one of the richest abbeys in Europe where over 600 monks lived!!! It was MASSIVE, jaw-dropping, and inspiring.  The roofs were removed by Henry and many of the other parts were removed stone by stone by pillaging farmers and other locals for building materials years ago.  Now it is preserved by the National Trust.  It sits on a huge plot of land where sheep still graze and are farmed and a lovely river runs through the heart of the park.

That evening we went into Harrogate for their first annual Christmas market.  Harrogate is really cute.  It's almost a cross between York and Bath, because it was a bath spa town with mineral springs and has a lot of the stone buildings like in Bath, but it is smaller and more charming like York.  There were lights strung all over the town, even a manger and the words "Merry Christmas" which are hard to come by in the US!! Christmas here in England is much more authentic, I must say.  I find I'm enjoying seeing all the decorations and loving that I'm here for it while simultaneously thinking I should be home for it! It's a tough split.  Anyway,  we went to the grand lighting of the Christmas tree and even stood in the rain for it - an authentic Northern England experience.  They had bands playing, one of which was a Blues Brothers imitation, which I thought was rather random but they were entertaining nonetheless.

We bought some cheeses at the market and headed home to have a feast of cheese, Club crackers (which I hadn't had since I left home - so exciting!), jalepeno popper type things, and a whiskey tasting!  Mark and Anne are quite the scotch connoisseurs.  I tried eight different whiskeys in a progression from sweetest to smokiest.  Other than the burn, I like whiskey and am looking forward to becoming a real fan.  I finally tried Wild Turkey, which was kind of awful.  But the smokey ones I actually liked, which was surprising since I hated the one I had in Scotland!  I was glad I gave it a second chance.

Friday Anne had planned for us to tour a castle, but we got there and it was closed.  However, the drive there was stunning so it was well worth it.  It was great to be in a car driving through the Yorkshire Dales and really getting up close and personal with the English landscape I've come to love.  Yorkshire is the area where the Bronte novels as well as The Secret Garden, and many other works, take place, so it was great to absorb that scenery which I've always read about!  The moors were incredible.

We then went to Jervaux Abbey, which was much smaller than Fountains but still interesting and the best part was...it had a GRAVEYARD!! First graveyard in Yorkshire wooo!! After the abbey we made our way to Black Sheep Brewery and tasted a few brews.  Mark educated me as to the art of beer making and tasting, what hops are and do, etc. It was all very interesting and nice to be drinking with an informed person with refined tastes.  That night we had a beer tasting of which the finale was Mark's favorite British brew, Punk IPA, which was my first IPA, and phew was it hoppy!! It tasted like freshly mown grass, which wasn't a bad thing, just incredibly different from everything I've tasted before.  I liked it enough though to know that I want to like it, so I'm determined to have more IPAs.  My favorite was Guinness Extra, which is one of Mark's standards as well.

Saturday was a day wonderful beyond belief, as we journeyed to Haworth, hometown of the Bronte sisters.  Jane Eyre is my favorite novel and role model so going to her home was a complete out-of-body experience.  I am not ashamed to say i teared up quite a bit throughout the exhibit.  The Parsonage is well-preserved with many of their personal items, and attached is an exhibit with more information and original publications and other cool things.

It was really incredible to learn about the sisters' lives and find the parallels in their novels.  They truly faced a good deal of tragedy and it was heartbreaking to know that.  Charlotte Bronte's description of Jane as "poor, plain,and little" is quite similar to her own person.  They had a dress of hers and she was tiny!!  We couldn't take any pictures inside, which was upsetting, but I highly recommend going if you are ever presented with the opportunity.  On the main street still exists the pub in which Branwell Bronte, their brother, drank himself to death.  We didn't go in, for fear of being tempted to do the same. ;)

Next to the Parsonage is the old town graveyard that has over 60,000 bodies!! It was declared unusable by Queen Victoria because it was poisoning the water supply and people were getting seriously ill and dying.  The Brontes are buried in the church crypt though, so we didn't get to see their graves. The church was really lovely though!

After Haworth we ventured to Saltaire, a town founded by Titus Salt, a textile mill owner.  He bought land and created a tiny dictatorship essentially, where he owned every industry and controlled all housing and schooling.  The man was pretty awful but an absolute genius business man.  He created underground tunnel systems to get people quickly and efficiently to work.  He had indoor plumbing in the factory for the workers to use so that the river would not be a site for rubbish and waste, as in Haworth, lending to the success and well-being of his town.  He even created washing machines but people refused to use them and they would disappear again until the 1940s or whenever! On every corner and in the middle of every block was a high lookout tower house where the managers and higher position workers lived, so that everyone was always monitored.  There was no crime and no police system.  Titus Salt was the system, and the people. The design of one's doors and windows alerted the town to one's class level, therefore everyone always knew where everyone stood in power.  It was super interesting to learn about, however it was absolutely freezing and by the end of the hour and a half walking tour my feet were in pain from the cold, so I was glad to be on our way back to Harrogate. 

That night we went to see the town's Christmas Panto Play, an English tradition which is an audience-interactive show that caters more towards children but is still really entertaining for all ages.  This year's was Jack and the Beanstalk and it was really cute and quite humorous.  It was a little strange to be part of such an interactive audience because I'd never really been to anything like that before - strange but exciting! The little children's reactions were absolutely priceless and adorable. It had nothing to do with Christmas, but it put me in the Christmas spirit regardless as it's a communal activity, which is generally the point of Christmas traditions.

Sunday after mass, Anne and I went to a crepe place and had delicious crepes and I had a milkshake which was actually pretty good. Two good milkshakes in one week is quite a feat in England, let me tell you, as they generally miss the mark on the art of milkshake making.  Then I was off on the train back to London, and work, but in just two days would be off to Italy for 4 nights!! But I'll write that in the next post. Thanks for reading! :)