Stratford-Upon-Avon

Yesterday may have been my favorite day of the trip so far. Every day is a great day, but visiting Shakespeare's hometown was pretty spectacular.

My travel buddy was Zainab. On the train ride over, we worked on our journals and tried to read Mrs. Dalloway. Sadly, these two American women sitting in front of us were having a loud enough conversation to be annoying, but still soft enough that I couldn't justify saying something to them. Then water started dripping on me from the air conditioning unit or something so Zainab and I moved.

There were a lot of swans there. Here's a baby swan!

The train ride was about two hours. We ended up at this adorable little train station at the edge of a sleepy little town. Once we had consulted the map, we followed/blended in with some American high-schoolers (I was wearing my backpack) and walked to the Royal Shakespeare Company's Theater (Theatre?) where we purchased tickets for the matinee show of "The Merchant of Venice."

We spent the next hour exploring Stratford-Upon-Avon. A regatta was happening on the Avon. It looks like Crew is a youth sport here. There were so many swans as well. Zainab and I walked to the church where Shakespeare is buried. The church was beautiful with stunningly intricate stained glass. My favorite part was that the church had hired this old adorable man to talk about Shakespeare. Some memorable quotes: "There lies Shakespeare between the blue cord. To his left lies his wife. Her first gift to him was Susannah. You can do all the research you want of Susannah and John, but you will find nothing but happiness." All that was said in a proper English accent. He also twirled his cane as he spoke. I kid you not.

Then we went to the Theatre for showtime. Guess who played Shylock the Jew? Yeah, only PATRICK STEWART! Yes, I saw Professor Charles Xavier/Picard/Macbeth live. The production was great. I wasn't on board at first because they set the play in present-day Vegas, but it was so cleverly done and they captured how ambiguous, imperfect, even dark the ending is that I came around. An Asian girl with broken English approached me after the play and asked if Portia and Bassanio end up together. I had to break her heart and say that we don't know, but that it didn't look good for any of the couples, really.

Shakespeare's birthplace

To be, or not to be: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows-I'll stop now

After the play, Zainab and I got ice cream from a cute river boat and then took a bunch of awesome pictures around this memorial statue to Shakespeare. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I was nerding out.

This guy!

We hit up the Shakespeare gift shop where I purchased an eraser that reads "Out, damned spot!" (name that play!) and a really nerdy shirt that says "Will Power" with depictions of nine of the plays. Then we visited his birthplace. A group of tourists were taking pictures in front of the building. That's fine, but each of you gets one, maybe two pictures. NOT 7 EACH! Share the wealth.

Zainab's noble recitation

I got dinner from Snappy Pizza Express. It was fine until they turned on music right after the two of us walked in. We ate at the train station. Zainab recited/performed a Shakespeare sonnet for me and I tried to remember the St. Crispin's day speech I had memorized fall semester but could only get like 10 lines of it. So sad. On the way back from the town, the train stops at like every little hamlet in the country. The train ride took three hours and I didn't get back to Regents until 10:40. Long day. But worth it! And I also needed the reading time. I still have 100 pages left of Mrs. Dalloway.