Adventures in Kent

January 2, 2018:

In the near dark, we arrived in Denton which appeared to be a village of four or five houses and a pub at  a curve in the road in the midst of a forest. Our instructions were that the house where Brittney had agreed to cat-sit was "across the street" from the bus stop. So we were perplexed when we looked across the street and saw those same four or five houses.

Thankfully, Brittney had access to data and she managed to get in touch with the girl we would be taking over from who came out to meet us. She was bright and fun and gave us the in-depth tour of the house.

Once again, I had pictured this:

However, the house was bound to become a character in our stay there. We had to ensure that the windows were opened if we took a shower and then we had to squeegee the whole bathroom, we couldn't flush any toilet paper unless it was a number 2, the bathroom door could not be closer or we would be trapped inside, the heater sometimes cut out, and then the cat's food schedule and care ritual was pretty impressive on top of that.

After getting the grand tour of all the house's quirks, I went across the street to the pub to see if I could get take-away for dinner. When I entered there seemed to be a number of locals in front of the bar on the left side of the building, and to the right there was a fancy dining room. I approached the bar to ask about take away and did not clearly hear what the bartender asked me, so I said the standard Canadian "How are you?" She asked me to repeat myself, an expression of confusion crossing her features. I was not following the script. I said, loudly, "How are you?" She did not know how to answer. She said something like, "I'm good." Awkwardness. She asked, "Are you alright?" Standard British greeting. I felt as though I was being asked if I needed to be taken for therapy or to the hospital. I guess that's understandable considering I'd nearly shouted at her to overcome the confusion. I said, "Yes" and we both attempted to salvage the interaction through politeness and hesitancy. They couldn't do any of the vegetarian meals as take-away for some reason so I had to sit by myself in the pub - Brittney had brought some left-over soup as she was feeling ill. In the end, I survived and managed to eat a delicious risotto.

We benefitted from the fireplace once we figured out how to get a fire going (an hour later) on our first night, but we both slept terribly that night. I slept on a futon in the nook of one room - my legs and shoulder kept falling asleep because the floor was so hard and I overheated under the blankets that I was using as sheets and covers. Brittney had a similar experience in the bed which was very hard. We thought we'd try a different configuration the following night: she slept on the downstairs couch (where she overheated) and I slept in the hard bed (and woke up with pain in my shoulders all day). So the third night, we put the futon on top of the bed and had the least awful sleep possible given the conditions. In the meantime, we spent some time exploring.

January 3, 2018:


What I imagined Kent would be like:



It turned out to be me getting off the bus too early in Folkstone and having to walk for over 40 minutes without wifi or data to meet with Maddie (of the Lyon exchange fame) at the bus station. I assumed, wrongly, that Folkstone would be as small as Denton and that there may only be one bus stop. It should have occurred to me that my anticipated arrival time was still 12 minutes away and that I was meant to get off at the bus station, not a bus stop, but hindsight is 20/20 they say.

So I had a scenic tour of most of what Folkstone had to offer and saved myself by carefully reading and navigating a map posted on a gas station.

Who needs a knight in shining armour when you can have a map and your own brain!

Red cheeks, don't care. Weird hair, almost there.

Maddie hadn't received my desperate text message explaining my mistake, but she had waited for me anyway and we carried on as if this was the plan all along. She explained that the Veteran's Walkway I'd just climbed up (and was now climbing back down) was the work of locals who knit poppies each year in remembrance and compared it to the multi-million dollar archway that the mayor of the region had insisted on erecting (compensating?) for the purpose of attraction tourists. It was immediately obvious to me why Maddie and I had got on so well when we lived in Lyon.

We went to a delicious vegetarian cafe for lunch and walked around parts of the city. There was recently an art installation that happens every year so we checked out some of the installations that were chosen to stay, including one about gentrification which particularly resonated with me. Folkstone felt a lot like Hamilton in some respects. Most of the blue collar jobs in the port had become redundant because of the Chunnel and other methods of transport for trade, so there is increased poverty and homelessness, so the arts began to thrive and now Folkstone is being gentrified with Londoners buying second homes for their holidays, driving up housing prices and turning the town into a tourist destination. I couldn't help but be reminded of James St. N. and the development that has happened and is happening there because of the thriving arts scene.

I saw the Cliffs of Dover from a distance, and that seemed good enough to me. It was so windy that there were people out surfing which was extremely bizarre given the chill. We walked along the coast line and talked about Maddie's PhD research and different experiences that she'd had as a PhD student, and my Masters research and experiences teaching. We talked about mutual friends from Lyon that we'd both kept in touch with and the hours passed like minutes.

I did a quick grocery shop. Is it just me or do the British have a super strange language where "rude" means "innuendo" but they have no problem boldly putting the word "nuts" next to a word I initially thought said "sacks" so....

I made it back to Denton, thinking about how distance and time didn't seem to matter when it came to making good friends (rather than dwelling too long on the nuts & snacks issue), and Brittney and I made pasta for dinner before cozying up to watch K-drama in front of the fire.

Park Hyung Sik was keeping things toasty on-screen while we snuggled up with the blankets and our tea.

January 4, 2018:

Brittney's American PhD friend joined us for a day trip to Margate, which is a special town famous for its casinos and for the low-income housing on the waterfront.

It's also famous for a mysterious Shell Cave, which we decided to visit. Brittney and I didn't really know what it was, so we were a little shocked to find that it was somehow located in the middle of the city, rather than near the coast.

Was genuinely tempted to sing "Part of Your World" at the top of my lungs, but felt compassion for my companions and opted to spare them my self-indulgence.

We amused ourselves generating hypotheses about the origins and purpose of the cave and its shell patterns, determining that it might have been built by a man pining for his lost lover, or by a cult of women who worshiped nature (this seemed the most likely based on the prevalence of flower, heart, and uterus patterns we found throughout the cave).

This is 100% a uterus.

<3

We convened at the "Lighthouse Bar" which ranks as one of the top strangest experiences I've had as a customer. The bar was not heated and the bartender disappeared after serving us and did not return for the entirety of our stay. Unfortunately, we couldn't climb to the top of the lighthouse but we got to see the sun set as we discussed Russian, Chinese and US politics. My favourite! I even got some book recommendations.

January 5, 2018:

Realizing that although I had made the wise decision to book a late flight, we were not a simple 30-hour train ride away like we would have been in London and in order to get to Gatwick, I would need to leave Denton around 5am, we decided to spend the night back in Brittney's dorm. Buses don't even run that early through Denton. That morning after our first good sleep (see above), we packed up and caught the bus to Canterbury.

We went for a vegan lunch and took in some of the local sights, including Canterbury Cathedral.

I'm still not sure if this was a Catholic Church or a Church of England because it kept referring to the Pope but then didn't really seem Catholic in the end? I'm sure I could do a Wikipedia search, but I'm not really sure if I care that much. What was interesting was the stained glass, in particular. Most of it had to be protected during World War 2 bombings but a bunch of it was destroyed so there are some more modern artistic renderings there which made for interesting contrast. This wasn't necessarily newer but the photograph of the angel stained glass above resonated with me a lot. She looks like a girl on fire. Feminism! Hunger Games! All the things!

We had a wonderful sleep on the dorm beds (ironically) and we woke up bright and early to catch my trains and my flight. I was sad to say goodbye to my travel bestie. It's been over 10 years since our first trip together and I know there will be others. <3 I'm grateful to her for hosting me despite her current workload for her Masters.

Early morning view of London from a tube station.

Pip pip cheerio! (And welcome back to -23 degrees Celsius in Toronto!)

And a Warwick New Year

December 28 & 29th, 2017: Getting There

My plan had been to sleep through the overnight flight and to wake up somewhat prepared for the jetlag that inevitably awaited at the Gatwick Airport for me to crash and burn. The universe (or flight attendants?) had other plans.

Our flight left at 9:15pm from the Toronto Pearson airport, and although it would have been logical to do meal service in the "morning" closer to our arrival around 9am in England, Air Transat thought that it would be better to serve dinner at 10:30pm EST (or 3:30am GMT). Right. If anyone can explain to me why this happened, I'm very curious and would be happy to find out.

I put the "Do Not Disturb" sign up on my seat's screen device and had my eye cover on. The flight attendant shouted at the people in the seat's next to mine and made sure to bump into my shoulder at every occasion. I do my best to be gracious but it was well past my bedtime and I was already annoyed when I sat down and realized that seats are shrinking on flights - not horizontally but vertically. I could see every head in the rows ahead of me. It's like sitting back in grade school with desk in a row. On a flight costing over $1000, it would be great if we could maintain some semblance of privacy and if we were allowed to sleep!

Okay.

I feel better now.

There was joy on the other end of this special trip across the ocean, however.

I made my way uneventfully to the Marylebone train station where I was meeting Brittney (the purpose of my trip) and had time to sit down for a vegetarian breakfast at Gino's coffee bar. English breakfast is my ideal breakfast. It makes me so happy that it's taken for granted that brown beans and mushrooms will be included.

Even more joy awaited at the Warwick train station where Brittney and I met up with Hattie! It was the first time I had seen her since her visit to Canada in 2014. It's hard to believe that it was immediately before my first teaching job and that I am now in my fourth year as a teacher. (Throughout my trip, my Facebook memories kept recalling my trip to Scotland with Talaira during my exchange as having been 5 years ago. Freaky.)

This is the house used as the setting in The Holiday

I held out until 9pm before I needed to crash. Hattie's farmhouse was beautiful and enormous as it normally houses 4 couples and a baby. Dinner was wonderful as usual, and we even managed to sneak in a walk around the farmland just beyond her fence. It was a damp cold, but the walk was invigorating and the whole layout reminded me so much of The Holiday. The road to her house was a single lane, so if you suddenly came across runners or bikers or other vehicles, you had to quickly pull off to the side. Remind me never to volunteer to drive in the English countryside.

December 30, 2017: Cadbury World

Hattie had compiled some choices for our itinerary, promising it would not be as vigorous as Arthur's Normandy tour, and we were in consensus that we should visit Cadbury World.

This was an excellent choice. The history of the Cadbury brothers and the ethics they used to develop their business was pretty fascinating. As Quakers, they thought it was necessary to support the entire community, creating a healthy and supportive working environment for their employees. They essentially created the village of Bourneville to combat the growing problems related to poverty in Birmingham as a result of the industrial revolution.

They moved from the coffee/tea business into the chocolate business as a result of growing popularity among the upper classes at the time. They sort of skirted over the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism's role in procuring sugar and cacao beans for the production of their chocolate, but hey, that would be a downer, and this place was aiming to be the next Disneyland. They have even created 4D cinema productions where you get to live the experience of production from the bean to the chocolate bar. There are also characters called Chuckle Beans which would totally trip someone out if marijuana was legal in the UK. It was great fun.

Mondelēz purchased Cadbury as part of their acquisition of part of Kraft in 2012ish. Dairy Milk bars are one of the only mainstream chocolate bars that has Fair Trade certification, but only their pure milk chocolate bars have the logo. (Side note: I have emailed to enquire about this because I don't understand why they would go to the trouble of certifying their biggest product and not do so for their candy bars with almonds in them, etc.)

Always taking photos for my students.

In any case, we left with our arms full of Curly Wurly, Freddo, Wispa, Fudge, and Creme Egg bars which disappeared gradually over the next few days. New Year, New Self-Control, or something.

For dinner, we went into Stratford-upon-Avon and waved at Shakespeare's birthplace (JK it was too dark, so I don't know if we passed it or not, but I've read the plays so does it really matter if I see where he was born?). We had super delicious Indian food at Balti's Kitchen. Brittney and I devoured our korma curry and papadams. It was the perfect blend of sweet and spicy. The bonus was it was bring your own drinks. We all had to roll ourselves to the bowling alley where the music was much better than any skill demonstrated by our group. I got put on the "bumper" team and scored the highest score of my life. I barely even used the bumpers, probably! The other team had some competitive members who made us put the bumpers down when our score got too close to theirs....

December 31st, 2017:

Bright and early at 2pm, we went down for some "breakfast" of left-over korma and prepared for our big day out at Warwick Castle.

We laughed about each castle having its own claim to fame - Visby, Sweden has the most intact wall for a medieval city, the castle in Blarney has the Blarney Stone, the castle in Edinburgh is the inspiration for Harry Potter, and apparently Warwick is the most well-preserved medieval castle in Europe. We don't know how true any of these things are, especially as we learned that Warwick Castle had been purchased by the company that owns Madame Tussaud's when the family that owned it went too far into debt to be able to repair it.

New Year, New Me?

It was beautiful in any case and well worth the trip. Different parts had been constructed in different eras. Initially, it was an Anglo-Saxon stronghold made out of a wooden wall. Then William the Conqueror started establishing stone forts according to Norman architecture which introduced the stone structures at the top of the mound. Later, towers and walls were introduced by the Earls of Warwick and the statesrooms as well. This was a castle whose various owners helped determine the outcome of the War of the Roses (British Civil War) and which was abandoned by the Tudors. Hitler's Nazi Secretary was held prisoner here for a night. War was the predominant source of funding for this castle.

We saw a birds of prey show that was pretty spectacular and had some interesting tour experiences, but ultimately it was just good fun.

 

We returned home to dress ourselves up and get ready for a night of fondue, picture telephone, Auld Lang Syne, political discussions about Canada's decision to legalize marijuana, and Taboo. It was a blast and I can't share the details, but I can highly recommend any of the above for a stellar New Years Eve.

January 1, 2018:
We benefitted from crepes the next "morning" at around 2pm. Nutella and banana for me. Lemon and sugar for some. Butter and jam for Brittney (to amazed looks for some reason). Yum. I don't understand why these things are called pancakes in England though.

We said a fond farewell to Hattie with big hugs at the train station, hoping to make it to Canterbury before it got too dark. What a wonderful way to spend the holidays!