Most Interesting Place
Dec. 10th, 2013 04:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tifaching wanted to know the most interesting place I've been.
I've been lots of places and I find every place interesting. Even drab places seem interesting in their very drabness. But the most interesting place to me is the UK.
I laugh at myself, because I am a hardcore Anglophile. It bemuses me. I'm not even of English derivation (my ancestors are almost entirely Germans who settled in western Virginia in the mid1700s). But as an avid reader, and an English Lit PhD (romanticism) my mental landscape slowly but surely coalesced into the idealized English countryside and the mythological landscape of Old England. It's pretty weird really.
I was a Junior in college in the spring of 1989 when I spent a semester living in London. I lived in Muswell Hill (N10) and traveled by the Northern Line to the Finsbury Park tube stop. I attended a very friendly Anglican church there (the first inkling that I would eventually become an Episcopalian). I brought my guitar to England and busked on the street. I went to every art museum because I was taking both Modern Art and Landscape Painting courses. I went to see tons of Shakespeare. And, I was reading 19th c. lit that year. I was in a program with a lot of other Americans, and I had a roommate, but I don't make friends quickly so I was pretty much on my own that semester. I traveled every chance I got, and for spring break I went everywhere.
Some of my most vivid memories:
--the rooks at the Tower. They are so Tall!!! and loud!!! I love that the birds are a protected insitution.
-- Some of the paintings at the National Gallery and the Tate. We stood in front of them for hours.
-- Walking to St. Paul's as part of a Lenten procession. That was so much fun, walking all the way from Muswell Hill and converging on the Cathedral as part of a huge crowd.
-- I visited lots of English Cathedrals, including Canterbury (where I bought a pilgrim's cross that is one of my most treasured possessions), Salisbury, Durham (where the Venerable Bede is buried) and Winchester, and also York Minster, and St. Giles in Edinburgh, the home of world Presbyterianism (I used to be a Presbyterian).
-- Of course I went to Stonehenge, but I have much stronger memories of Avebury and Glastonbury Tor. I bought a chalice at Glastonbury that I used in my wedding. Plus, Camelot hill fort!
-- the Roman baths in Bath were very impressive. I have a pendant of the Sun God's face from Bath.
-- Solsbury Hill, the place that Peter Gabriel wrote about in his song, just outside Bath.
-- Scones with delicious Clotted Cream.
-- Tandoori Chicken (I'd never had it before)
-- Kebabs (so delicious! I'd never had them before either!)
-- the time I went outside to photograph a rainbow and found a pile of ha'pennies on the sidewalk. Fairy Gold!!!
-- the Crown Jewels. WOW.
Everything had this sheen of history and legend around it. It's hard for us to experience that in the US, because on the East Coast, so much of Native history was wiped out. In the West a little more survives. We are a very young nation.
My husband and I went back in 1995 or so, and we visited Wales and had the most fun. We stayed at a lovely vegetarian hostel and climbed Cader Idris and just LOVED IT.
We plan to go back this summer with our son and spend some time in Devon and Cornwall where neither of us have ever been. Looking so forward to it!!!
tifaching wanted to know the most interesting place I've been. I've been lots of places and I find every place interesting. Even drab places seem interesting in their very drabness. But the most interesting place to me is the UK.
I laugh at myself, because I am a hardcore Anglophile. It bemuses me. I'm not even of English derivation (my ancestors are almost entirely Germans who settled in western Virginia in the mid1700s). But as an avid reader, and an English Lit PhD (romanticism) my mental landscape slowly but surely coalesced into the idealized English countryside and the mythological landscape of Old England. It's pretty weird really.
I was a Junior in college in the spring of 1989 when I spent a semester living in London. I lived in Muswell Hill (N10) and traveled by the Northern Line to the Finsbury Park tube stop. I attended a very friendly Anglican church there (the first inkling that I would eventually become an Episcopalian). I brought my guitar to England and busked on the street. I went to every art museum because I was taking both Modern Art and Landscape Painting courses. I went to see tons of Shakespeare. And, I was reading 19th c. lit that year. I was in a program with a lot of other Americans, and I had a roommate, but I don't make friends quickly so I was pretty much on my own that semester. I traveled every chance I got, and for spring break I went everywhere.
Some of my most vivid memories:
--the rooks at the Tower. They are so Tall!!! and loud!!! I love that the birds are a protected insitution.
-- Some of the paintings at the National Gallery and the Tate. We stood in front of them for hours.
-- Walking to St. Paul's as part of a Lenten procession. That was so much fun, walking all the way from Muswell Hill and converging on the Cathedral as part of a huge crowd.
-- I visited lots of English Cathedrals, including Canterbury (where I bought a pilgrim's cross that is one of my most treasured possessions), Salisbury, Durham (where the Venerable Bede is buried) and Winchester, and also York Minster, and St. Giles in Edinburgh, the home of world Presbyterianism (I used to be a Presbyterian).
-- Of course I went to Stonehenge, but I have much stronger memories of Avebury and Glastonbury Tor. I bought a chalice at Glastonbury that I used in my wedding. Plus, Camelot hill fort!
-- the Roman baths in Bath were very impressive. I have a pendant of the Sun God's face from Bath.
-- Solsbury Hill, the place that Peter Gabriel wrote about in his song, just outside Bath.
-- Scones with delicious Clotted Cream.
-- Tandoori Chicken (I'd never had it before)
-- Kebabs (so delicious! I'd never had them before either!)
-- the time I went outside to photograph a rainbow and found a pile of ha'pennies on the sidewalk. Fairy Gold!!!
-- the Crown Jewels. WOW.
Everything had this sheen of history and legend around it. It's hard for us to experience that in the US, because on the East Coast, so much of Native history was wiped out. In the West a little more survives. We are a very young nation.
My husband and I went back in 1995 or so, and we visited Wales and had the most fun. We stayed at a lovely vegetarian hostel and climbed Cader Idris and just LOVED IT.
We plan to go back this summer with our son and spend some time in Devon and Cornwall where neither of us have ever been. Looking so forward to it!!!
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no subject
Date: 2013-12-10 11:40 pm (UTC)I think the British Museum was my favorite place but I could have spent days in the National Gallery. There was a painting of Lady Jane Grey there that haunted me.
The Crown Jewels. Just unreal.
I loved Stonehenge and Bath. The sense of age and "how did they do that?" when looking at the scope of the cathedrals.
And yes- scones and clotted cream. I keep saying I'm going to find an English tea in my area and go, but I never do.
I've been to Canada and Mexico a few times, but most of my traveling has been within the continental U.S. I'd love to get back to England and see more of Europe.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-12 12:59 am (UTC)