Master Shakespeare!
January 26, 2003 - 4:07 pm
STRATFORD, STRATFORD, STRATFORD!!!!
So, yesterday I went to Stratford Upon Avon with my Shakespeare class. For those of you who don't know this (how could you honestly not know though), Stratford is the place where William Shakespeare was born and is the place where he is buried. No matter how I describe how my day was, I will never be able to express the magnitude of what the experience was like.
We left London a little after 1 pm, and the ride was really smooth. I actually slept the whole way there. It was about an hour and a half bus ride. When I caught a glimpse of a road sign saying 'Stratford 6 miles' I immediately was alert. I wasn't going to miss any scenery.
I don't know why we didn't leave earlier in the day, because by the time we got there we only had about an hour before the attractions and the shops closed. Christina, a girl that was on my floor in Hayden freshman year, and I toured the tiny town together. Everyone else wandered off to the birthplace. We, however, wanted to see the grave (which is inside the Holy Trinity Church). We finally figured out which direction to go in, and passed the Swan Theater (the place we were seeing a play later that evening), and then walked along this cute little river (Avon River). Everything was SOOOO beautiful. There were so many ducks everywhere too. It wasn't that far to the church. It was kind of secluded off the path. As we approached it, the church came into full focus and was much larger than I had imagined it would be. I started walking really slow, because I seriously was about to cry. I was about to walk into Holy Trinity Church and stand in front of where his majesty, William Shakespeare, was buried.
The door to the church was really small. It had really old iron handles, and you had to bend over to enter. It was so adorable. The church still functions every Sunday, and our teacher was worried that there may be a wedding going on (thus, we wouldn't have been able to enter). But of course, Master Shakespeare knew I was coming, and made arrangements for it to be possible for me to enter. =)
Everything inside was so old. It was completely different than anything I'd ever seen. We started to approach the sector of the Shakespeare graves (his family is buried there too). We had to pay 50 pence to get in, and I had to restrain myself from donating all my money to the restoration of the church. I have to emphasize again that I took everything really slowly. Then, there the grave was...my Shakespeare, right before my feet. His grave was outlined with a blue cord, and it had a few flowers on it. It took SO much energy to stop myself from crying. It was overwhelming.
Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway, is buried to the left of him. His daughter, Susanah, and her husband are buried to the right. Pictures were forbidden in the church, but the girl standing next to me quickly took one. I thought that was so unfair, so I turned the flash off of my camera and took one too. No one even noticed.
I didn't want to leave the church, but it was closing, so Christina and I left. The rest of the afternoon we just wandered around town. We went into some shops. I really wanted to find a souvenir shop, but we didn't see any. There were some, we just didn't find them. We went to a street fair, and I bought some hot chocolate from a lady selling Polish food. =)
The hot chocolate was good, but I really burnt my tongue. We decided to eat in this adorable Italian restaurant called 'Caffe Uno.' I had spinach noodles covered with sauted mushrooms, served in a garlic, alfredo sauce. It was incredible, SOOOOO good. After that, even though we were full, we had dessert anyways. It just seemed wrong not to enjoy myself while I was in Shakespeare's company (yes, he was my invisible escort all day...it was our little secret). I ordered chocolate ice cream. When they brought it to me, they had put whipped cream on top, a drizzle of chocolate syrup on top of that, and then two large chocolate swirl cookies on each side. It was completely divine. It was the best ice cream I've ever had.
After we were done eating, we made our way back to the Swan Theater. We were a little early, but it was cold, so we wanted to wait inside. We ran into a few other girls from our class. We chatted a bit, and then one of them said that they went to some place and it had a picture of Judi Dench in it. Earlier that day, I had mentioned that our professor looked like a slightly younger Judi Dench, and they said that I was right. They apparently didn't know who Judi Dench was before they saw her picture. So we went inside the theater. And there, on the left side of the entrance, was a souvenir shop. I had a hard time deciding what to buy, because I wanted everything. I decided to buy this little tin with Shakespeare portrait on it, a pair of blue socks with the outline of Shakespeare's head all over them, and an adorable little charm of Shakespeare's head.
After the shop, seating began for the play. We were seeing Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. We were on the second level. I was breathless! The theater was designed like the theaters were back in Elizabethan times. It looked like the Globe theater. It was so beautiful, and every seat was good. I didn't know anything about this play, so I was a little lost in the first few minutes of it. I eventually got the gist of the storyline and completely enjoyed myself. It was so wonderful. It was really long though, it was about 3 hours. The guy who played the doctor was amazing. I really enjoyed their accents too. It was just great.
Then, we all got on the bus to go back to London. I was just thinking how much I wished I'd brought my copy of 'Shakespeare in Love.' I was craving that movie so badly. I really really wanted a dose of Romeo and Juliet, though, after a Shakespeare-soaked day. So, I made mental plans to watch the dvd as soon as I got back to my building. Well, I started to get in a comfortable position so I could sleep on the way home, when a few people said, "Tonya, we're going to watch 'Shakespeare in Love' on the way home." It was quite a weird coincidence. I'm telling you, William was with me all day.
During my introduction to the class on the first day, I mentioned how I'm obsessed with Romeo and Juliet. While the movie was starting on the bus, almost everyone said something to me about Romeo and Juliet. It's cool. People have been starting conversations about it outside of class too.
Anyways, as the movie began, and as Joeseph Fiennes (er..William Shakespeare) began to write Romeo and Juliet....I allowed myself to cry. I really started crying. I was so happy. The whole day was like a dream come true, and I had managed to suppress my tears of joy all day until that moment.
Needless to say, my craving for "Romeo and Juliet" was tended to, so instead of watching the film when I got home, I watched 'Dirty Dancing' instead.
