wander lonely or as a crowd

On a storefront in Grasmere

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

After seeing the aforementioned lake, Ullswater, it's easy to see where William Wordsworth found inspiration for his poem "Daffodils".

Such a view would tug at the heartstrings of any poet.

No daffodils in February

Ullswater lies in the heart of the Lake District and is the second largest lake in the District. It was one of the many I saw on my brief weekend trip with the International Student Centre. A fun fact about the Lake District is that out of the 20 major lakes in the area, only one is actually known by the name 'Lake': Bassenthwaite Lake. The rest are either waters or meres. To say "Ullswater Lake" is to say "Ulls Lake Lake".

On Saturday, the bus left at 9 am from Edinburgh, with our lively tour guide chattering away. Gary works with Haggis Adventures and was honestly hilarious. He hails from the Lake District, so this tour was near and dear to his heart. The first stop was Gretna Green, a village right on the Scottish-English border. This village is reportedly the first village in Scotland, and one of the most popular places to be married. Back in 1754, a marriage act was imposed in England requiring any person under the age of 18 to have parental consent before marrying. In Scotland, however, boys as young as 14 and girls as young as 12 could still marry without parental permission. Thus, a tradition of eloping to the Scottish border was born, with blacksmiths in Gretna Green holding enough authority to perform a marriage ceremony. Crazy kids.

A romantic setting for a wedding, I guess.

Overall, the village was a bit too touristy for my taste, but the elopement stories were harrowing. Fathers would literally be chasing after their sons or daughters by moonlight, trying to stop their carriage from reaching Scotland. Next up was Hadrian's Wall, which was built beginning in 122 AD. Hadrian was a Roman emperor who wanted the wall as a defensive mechanism. It's 73 miles long, and people often walk the entire length of the wall.

Also, while in Gretna Green, I found something I'd never seen in Scotland or England...

...ROOT BEER! If you know me, you know that root beer is my favorite. However, a couple sips in, I began to understand why the UK doesn't brew this drink. I'm not sure they have the hang of it, really. Oh, it started off fine enough (I was desperate for root beer, so I'd take anything, right?) but halfway through, I noticed a tang. A distinct, fruity tang. Root beer should not be fruity. And so the search continues.

One other place we visited on Saturday was Northumberland National Park for a brief hike (or hill-walking, as the Scots call it). It was a great day for a walk. The destination was a small waterfall in Aira Force. Luckily the English rain held off for the entire trip! Well, most of it.

 
Saturday night was spent at a hostel just outside of Keswick. I didn't know any people coming into the trip, since no one from my program was going, but I knew I had to go to the Lakes even if alone. This made the first day not as fun as it could have been, I think, but it worked to my advantage later. At the hostel, I MADE FRIENDS. It's a lot easier to meet people when you know no one, since if I had come with a friend I would have just spent the time with him/her instead of branching out.

On Sunday, we had a short time to roam in Keswick and also visited the Pencil Museum, home to the first pencils and the largest colored pencil in the world (it's in Guinness — look it up!). The Lake District is a huge backpacker/biker/outdoorsperson destination, so every other shop was a fancy outdoors outfitter. I met a shop keeper there who had actually been to Minnesota about 30 years ago, though he had forgotten which part.

Part of the largest colored pencil

oh, did I mention it was beautiful there? (bad quality b/c ipod from a bus window)

Next up was Grasmere, where Wordsworth lived for fourteen years. I saw where he was buried, his daffodil garden, and briefly saw the house where he and Dorothy lived. It would have been nice to actually walk up to their house and see it, but no time. That's the downside of being on an organized tour — no flexibility in activities. I mean, we had some time to wander, but also needed to find lunch. But as my dad told me, the benefit of doing this tour is getting an overview and scouting out places to come back to later on!

The entrance to the Daffodil Garden

William and Dorothy's grave

Daffodil Garden sans daffodils

I took a class on the Wordsworths, Coleridge, and other poets of that era last year, so it was very cool to see where they lived and wrote! After Grasmere, we went on a little hike in the White Moss Wood. There were so many trails threading through the hills. This is definitely another place that I want to come back to, just to explore more of the trails and hike further in!

Here's us in front of Rydal Water. Danielle actually goes to Macalester College in Minnesota, which is a pretty amazing coincidence.

Bettina from Germany, myself, Danielle from Wisconsin

Do Not Feed The Vicious Swans

Our final stop was Windermere, the largest and most popular lake in the Lake District (and in England). Our guide was able to get us a cruise on the lake for just six pounds ($9). Cruising is one of the lake's most popular activities — Over 1.5 million people cruise Windermere each year. Though it was cold (of course), it was fun.

I actually didn't visit Windermere. I just photoshopped myself in.

Ye Olde English Town

Instead of outdoors shops, every other shop was a Windermere Lake District Ice Cream shop. Though there was a fair share of outdoors ones, too... It was too cold for me to be tempted by ice cream, however.

I know it's been awhile since my last post, so hopefully this beast makes up for it. I'll post later this week about what I was up to for Innovative Learning Week. It's back to classes and reality for now!