Saturday, June 21, 2003
OK, the much belated England post, at last:
On Thursday I left Rome and had a comfortable if uneventful flight to the UK. I had no trouble catching the train from the airport to Arundel, where I was staying. England is really beautiful -- and so lush and green; Arundel is a lovely English village in Sussex, next to the river Arun; it is full of antique shops and sits in the shadows of a huge cathedral and of course Arundel Castle, which is immense and absolutely beautiful (even if many of the impressive parts are all Victorian, as Alec pointed out).
I walked around and sketched for the afternoon, and called Alec to let him know I'd arrived, and we made plans on when to meet the next day. And then, I started to get nervous. Really nervous. I completely lost my appetite and had trouble sleeping. I forced myself to eat something for breakfast the next morning... but then I had to try not to throw up. Then at last Alec arrived.
The manager of the little place I stayed informed me that my friend was here and wished me luck. I went downstairs on shaky legs; Alec grinned widely when he saw me, and I smiled back as best I could as I had to concentrate on not falling down the steps. But within moments we were saying our hellos -- and after that, I wasn't really nervous anymore.
Alec is a wonderful person -- he's not much different than he is online. He is very sweet all around, and very generous, and we got along as well in real life as we do over the internet.
He is also a walking encyclopedia. After our initial meeting we headed toward Arundel Castle, which didn't open till eleven, so we walked around the town for a bit until we were allowed in. After that we explored the grounds of the castle, and Alec explained a lot of the history of the place, how many times it had been rebuilt and which parts were newest. He knew something about every room -- and something about almost every portrait hanging on the walls. It's incredible how much knowledge he has stored away.
After the castle we had lunch (or, at least, Alec did, and I had coffee, as I still had no appetite whatsoever, and didn't regain any appetite till the next day) and decided to spend the afternoon in London. I of course wanted to see the British museum more than anything, so we drove into the city.
Being on the wrong side of the road is way less entertaining than I expected, just for the record, though it is a bit weird at first. And I only went to the wrong side of the car once the whole time (which was rather funny, though. I stood there waiting for him to unlock the door and he came around to my side; for a second I thought he was going to open the door for me, which was odd. Then he gave me an amused look and just said, "wrong side".)
The British Museum turned out to be something of a disappointment -- a large portion of it was entirely closed off, so we only got to see the Greek and Roman, Ancient Near Eastern, and Egyptian exhibits. Which were amazing, of course, but I did want to see the rest of it! After that we walked around London for a while. Alec says he doesn't know London well, but he has an interesting definition of not knowing a place, then. He does know a lot of historical tidbits of information, and he knows where things are and where things used to be. He gave me the quick tour of the city -- that is, we drove by all the "important" places on the way out. It was fun.
Saturday we went into Brighton and had coffee and a light breakfast, and then visited Brighton Pavilion, which is an amazingly gaudy place that has such an appeal it's unbelievable. All of the rooms are decorated in an extreme and outlandish Oriental style, yet it all comes together and creates a beautiful setting despite all its oddness. I've never seen a place like it. Afterwards we walked near the seashore, and went out onto the pier. I found it hilarious that all of the locals thought the weather was quite hot (it was sunny!) and there were plenty of people on the beach. I found the weather quite nice, but by no means beach weather -- 75 degrees is nothing for a Texan.
After Alec dropped me off in Arundel I spent the rest of the day shopping for my family. I called him later and he told me he'd take me to the airport the next day, and that his family wanted to meet me. So he came by to collect me after I went to Mass at the cathedral, and we stopped briefly by his house for coffee, which was very pleasant. From there we went on to the airport, and he waited with me for a while after I'd got my boarding pass and such. We said goodbye and I went through customs, and left England an hour later. And then I made a gruelling trek back to Castiglion Fiorentino and didn't return until 10:00 at night, at which point several people were rather sick with worry. Ah, the wonder of train travel.
So that was my English weekend. I had a marvellous time -- and I really miss that 75 degree weather. :) Italy is still lovely, but perhaps not quite as enchanting as before. But of course, I haven't been to Venice yet!
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