Keswick

We have arrived in Keswick via a terrible bus ride from Edinburgh but the Lake District is beautiful...rolling hillsides, sheep, and cobble stone pathways, so my spirit is holding onto hope.
Unfortunately, both Bis and I are sick and it has gone from bad to worse (a nasty sinus infection that has evolved into an ear infection....) Today we made the treck into town from our hostel in attempt to find a doctor. It was quite a pitiful sight to see us tromping through the mud in search of drugs but we finally made our way to town, found the "surgery" and spoke to a nurse. Fortunately beacuse my mommy has taught me to remember the medicines my body loves we were able to skip a very expensive consulatation with a doctor and basically tell her what we wanted. I'm off now to see the chemist, to finish Romeo & Juliet and then to bed. Oh sweet sleep!Hoping the morrow will bring healing. Farewell and love to you all.

Tea Time

Bis and I are enjoying a cup of tea
at a local shop off the Royal Mile.

Here is a huge monument in honor of Sir Walter Scot. Besides being a helpful point of navigational reference, this monument indicates how much the Scottish people revere their writers. They consider literature to have a significant voice and role in shaping their national and cultural identity. I wonder why we don't honor our American authors in the same way?

I have arrived!

Travel Day: We flew direct from Seattle to London and then from London to Edinburgh and finally took a bus ride into the city and our hotel. That night I got a bite to eat, walked around the sleepy city, already locked up for the night, and then attempted to retire for the evening as well. All to no avail. Two days of travel and zero hours of sleep. Hope tonight will be better...

Day 2: Today we went on a walking tour of the city in the morning. Our guide led us past Victoria's garden, art museums, many monuments, and finally to a huge stone castle. It is situated high up on a mount of volcanic rock and is paved with cobble stones that were laid by French POWs. There is so much history in this place- you can literally see the layers of it in the architecture and city construction. After our group time ended my friend Bis and I traveled through the streets on our own. We ate lunch at a little cafe, spoke with a friendly little man at the Writer's Museum (featuring Robert Burns & RL Stevenson of course), visited a massive gothic cathedral, got a local paper, and scoped out little events including a storytelling gathering we are planning on attending tomorrow. The people are interesting. At first they seem to be cold and very reserved; locals walk around with stony faces and make no effort to acknowledge your existence. Yet, after making an inital effort to talk to people I have discovered that they are very warm, eager to tell stories and display their rich history. Their stony exteriors melt away to reveal an endearing sense of hospitality. It feels something like being taken in from the cold and seated by the fire to warm your hands and sip a cup of tea.

British Isles Itinerary

Edinburgh 26 March – 30 March
England’s Lake District 31 March – 5 April
Liverpool 6 April
Dublin 7 -11 April
Dingle 12 -16 April
London 17 April – 5 May
Bath 6 – 8 May
Stratford 9 – 12 May
Cambridge 13-22 May
Oxford 23-29 May

Easter

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Here is a love note for Carissa Joy, the artistic/tech-creator of this site:
Shouts and claping and a whistle for creating my blog! Thank you dearie.

“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”