The UK Update! (sorry it's so late)

                                                             Aberystwyth Castle, Wales

                                                                 View from the Castle

                                                           Entrance into the Castle site

                                                     Ashleigh and Tomoe at the beach
                                                             Jonathan at the beach 

                                        Tomoe and Beasel the dog at our first WWOOF farm
                                                The view from the WWOOF farm in Wales
                                            Some of the buildings from the WWOOF farm
                         One of the gardens from the farm and Tomoe's yurt in the background
                                 17th century chapel on the farm grounds along with it's cemetery! 
                                                            Another view of the chapel.
                                          Jonathan outside of the main house at the farm. 
                                           Some of the front garden that Jonathan tended. 
               View from the front porch out towards Jonathan's garden and the poly tunnel 
                                                                       Cardiff Castle 
                                                   Stone circle in the park in Cardiff. 
                                                       Two nerds on a bench in Cardiff. 
                                                   Part of the extensive gardens in Cardiff. 

                                        A cathedral we passed on our walk to the bay in Cardiff. 
                                                       Sculpture near the Cardiff bay. 

                                                              Ashleigh at Cardiff Bay.
                                                   Obviously, this is Karl Marx's grave. 
                                              Old headstone from the cemetery we visited. 

Hey everyone! (Sorry, we are still working on getting the pictures up correctly)

 

Here is what we did in London, Cardiff, and our first WWOOF farm:

We arrived in London late Thursday evening (August 14^th) and were immediately struck by the hustle and bustle of the old city as soon as we walked out of the train station. After a short walk to the “tube station” (subway stations for us Americans) and a bit of confusion as to which stop to get off at, we arrived in a bourough of London known as Brixton, where our hostel was located. As we came to find out, Brixton is somewhat of a rasta hotspot in London. There are plenty of bars, restaurants, markets, and shopping in and around the area. According to wikipedia, it is the unofficial Afro-Carribean capital of London, which was very apparent, and it contributed greatly to the overall vibe. There was a huge open-air market next to the train station, which sold “off-license” vegetables and meats. Whole skinned animals were strung up from some of the market stands. It’s not what you would have in mind if you think LONDON, but in my mind, it was a unique place to call home for a few days. The hostel we were staying at, however, was less than desirable. It was on top of one of the most popular reggae and ska clubs in Brixton, featuring live music three nights a week (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) until the wee hours of the morning. Not to mention there were a whole slew of permanent residents in the hostel; one of which was our roommate who felt no shame in bringing boys home at four in the morning, or sleeping almost completely naked. It ranks as the worst hostel experience I’ve had, but as we began to talk to some of the locals, it seems London is notorious for having awful hostels. The Hootenanny was no exception.

 

So, needless to say, sleeping was kind of difficult. We woke up around two in the afternoon on Friday. We tried to make the most of the remaining daylight and headed down toward the Thames River to see what sites we could see. First, we visited Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. This isn’t the original Globe Theater; it is a reproduction that was finished in 1997 and built near the original site. The original burned down in the 17^th century. We bought “groundling” tickets (only five pounds!) for a Sunday night performance of Troilus and Cressida, a lesser-known Shakespeare play about the Trojan War. After that, we walked over to the Tate Modern. The Tate is one of the most popular art museums in the world. We were able to see more Pollacks and Picassos, as well as more modern pieces from art-world big-shots I’d never heard of. My favorite exhibition was on the top floor. It attempted to show the lineage between Cubism, Futurism, Vorticism, and Pop Art. Here, we saw more works from Matisse, Warhol, and Balla; some really cool pieces by David Bomberg; a room devoted to the Fluxus Movement (which Yoko Ono was a part of); and, a room showcasing Communist propaganda. The latter was particularly interesting, because I had never considered the artistry involved in creating propaganda. A little later on, we went to a swanky restaurant overlooking the Thames. Here we met up with some local Londoners who were taking their Dutch cousin out for a night on the town. After dinner, they invited us to come along. They really showed us a good time. We ended up back in Brixton (somehow), which made for a quick and safe walk back to the hostel.

 

Overall it was a good night, but I think it will be the last that we drink that much for a while. After a night like that, it really takes a day to recover, and when you’re trying to make the most of a vacation, it’s just not worth it. So, yet again, we woke up at two, this time with headaches and uneasy stomachs. On top of this, there was an issue with the tube so we got a severely late start on the day. After a failed attempt of visiting the British Library, we decided to make all the usual stops on the London tourist list. We took our time getting to Big Ben and the Parliament building, taking a stroll through the heart of London all the way to the Waterloo Bridge. We walked along the Thames for a bit, visiting the beautiful gardens lining the waterside. After arriving at the Parliament Building, we snapped some pictures and made our way to Trafalgar Square, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then made our way to Buckingham Palace. 

By Saturday, we had become immune to the loud reggae downstairs. We were able to get to bed early and wake up at a decent hour on Sunday. Our first visit that day was to Highgate Cemetary, where Karl Marx is buried. For those of you who don’t know, I grew quite fond of the man after doing an independent study on him with one of my favorite professors while I was at St. Edwards. I just had to get a picture next to his grave in London. Beyond that, Highgate Cemetary is a wonderful place; I actually found it very peaceful. There are hundreds of grave markers piled into a relatively small place. I had never been to a cemetery quite like it. After that, we took a trip to the British library, where we were hoping to see the desk where Marx wrote Das Kapital, but it was no longer on display there. However, we did find a remarkable exhibit housing dozens of historic documents. We were able to see an early copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, complete with Medieval illustrations and calligraphy, a document thought to contain Shakespeare’s handwriting, the Magna Carta, original handwritten Beatles lyric sheets (they have really awful handwriting!), and important religious texts from all of the world’s major religions. There was a pristine Daoist scroll, which contained an absolutely mind-blowing illustration. There were multiple pre-Gutenberg Christian texts, going all the way back to when the books of the Bible were actually books, and not a single canonical text. It was pretty unbelievable exhibit to stumble upon, and even though we didn’t see what we had come for, we were glad we went. After that, we made our way to the Globe Theater to catch the Shakespeare play we had bought tickets for. Troilus and Cressida was a great play; we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was by far the most exciting Shakespeare production I had seen (which doesn’t say much). The actors were dead on. It was even cathartic, something I had never really experienced in the context of a play before. We had bought cheap tickets, so in the usual Shakespearian tradition, we were standing in front of the stage. It was fun, even though it was a little hard on the legs; I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

 

Monday, we took a bus to Cardiff, Wales, which is its tiny capital. It was quite a relief from the busyness of London. The city center is no more than a mile long; it’s located next to a bay; and there was plenty of cool architecture and parks to keep us interested. We didn’t do much in Cardiff besides walk around and take pictures. On Tuesday, we visited a wonderful arboretum that surrounded the main castle. Then we took a walk down to the bay.

Wednesday, we took a train to Caersws (care-SOOs), Wales, where we would then take a bus to Llanidloes (lan-id-lows), Wales, and from there, head to the WWOOF farm. Caersws and Llanidloes are part of a string of small towns in Northern Wales, which were about twenty miles apart. There was a local bus service that connected these towns with the main “urban” area and popular vacation spot Aberwristwyth (aber-wrist-with). We had no problem reaching the WWOOF farm. One of the hosts, Fran, picked us up in the Land Rover at about noon on Wednesday. We had just caught the end of lunch, and were able to sit down for the first of many amazing meals. That night we had a very elaborate Indian dinner. The whole area was very rural, and our hosts were no exception. Kevin and Fran had three children, Freya, Ionna, and Merlin; Freya was away, so we didn’t get to meet her. Kevin and Fran had lived in the area for twenty-two years, and had raised all of there children there. Along with the farm, Kevin runs an archaeological company and takes great interest in the Neolithic people that once populated Wales. Our hosts were some of the most ambitious people I had ever met. Along with managing four fully productive growing areas, having a small herd of sheep, two cows, a horse, bees, and an active interest in making cheese, wine and beer, they also are in the process of restoring a 17^th century chapel, and demolishing, moving, and rebuilding another barn from the 19^th century. They have made plans to build a small Neolithic settlement, which, when completed, will mimic the living situation of people at the time. For this, they have tracked down three Soay sheep, which are said to be the most primitive sheep to survive the sheep husbandry process, i.e. the sheep that would have been around closest to the Neolithic period. From soil samples culled from the archaeological digs, they hope to determine some of the crops the Neolithic people grew and are seeking those out as well. All of this, as well as Neolithic dwellings, will make up the Neolithic settlement. Our role in all of this was simply to lend a helping hand when needed. They assigned each of us a garden to tend. Ashleigh tended the green house and tried to salvage a garden they had started on top of a nearby hill. I had the main garden in the front of the house; mostly I weeded and picked strawberries, blueberries and zuccinnis. Ashleigh seemed to produce a lot of peaches. Along with this, they had us clearing areas for new dwellings, moving stone, chasing sheep; basic grunt work we were happy to do. That Saturday, we took a trip to Aberwristwyth with a fellow WWOOFer named Tomoe. Aberwristwyth is a neat town, with one of the most unique beaches I’ve seen.  From what I understand, the sandy beaches are mixed with bits of slate to produce this strange gray color. There were also these cool rock patterns lining the beaches. 

Right now, we are in the Netherlands, we’ll have a blog up about what we did here in the next couple of days (hopefully). We’re heading to Belgium tomorrow. The WWOOF host we were planning to stay with ended not being able to take us. With the three weeks that opened up for us, we’re taking a cheap flight to Istanbul, Turkey!! We’re very excited; we’re leaving on the 3^rd. From there, we plan on making our way to Budapest, Vienna, and Krakow. We’re not sure about the details in between, but we may also be making a stop at Sofia, Bulgaria, and Belgrade, Serbia. We also might just take a plane to Budapest… not sure. We’ll let everyone know how this turns out, as well as our short trip to the Netherlands, in a couple of days.

 

Take care!

NEW YORK NEW YORK!

Hello everyone!!

Ashleigh and I are in London having a great time! We haven't much time to do any updates, so we're a bit behind on the blog. Here is what we did in New York.

We arrived at New York’s LaGuardia airport in the early evening on Wednesday. For those of you that don’t know, LaGuardia is situated right in the middle of the Queens, which, by all accounts, is a little rough around the edges. Our friend Mark has family in Brooklyn who agreed to put us up while we were staying in the Big Apple. Getting their proved to be easier said than done. We ended up taking the wrong bus through Queens, taking a round-about route on the subway, and then an unplanned walking tour of Brooklyn, which put us at the opposite end of the borough from Mark’s sister Rebecca’s apartment. We finally arrived at Rebecca’s around ten o’clock with empty bellies and achy feet, but grateful to have finally found our friends and a roof over our heads.

Rebecca’s apartment was a bit crowded when we arrived. New York apartments are notoriously small and expensive, and Becca’s was no exception. Not only were our friend’s Dan, Mark and Larsen staying with Becca while being on tour, but Becca’s old roommate Chris was moving back to NY on the day we arrived. Counting Becca, her current roommate Casey, ourselves, and those mentioned above, there were a total eight people staying in the already cozy one bedroom. No complaints though, Becca offered us the fold-out couch in the living room where Ashleigh and I slept comfortably our first night, the rest piling into the bedroom, which was a bit more spacious.

We woke up relatively early on Thursday to try and make the most of our first day in New York. Larsen, Ashleigh and I decided to take the subway to the Natural History Museum, where we spent most of the late morning and early afternoon perusing ancient artifacts of various cultures, dinosaur bones, scale models of some of the world’s most fascinating animals, and displays housing some of humanity’s greatest taxonomical achievements. Stuffed finches to polar bears, otters to water buffalo, storks to toucans, I’ve never seen so many stuffed animals in my entire life! The Natural Museum of History houses some truly remarkable artifacts from virtually every culture that has ever existed. We particularly enjoyed the artifacts from Central and South America. Here are some pictures Ashleigh took of our day at the Natural History Museum: 

After the museum we took the subway to Greenwich Village, where we walked around a bit, ate a slice of the best veggie pizza ever, and walked around some more. I made a quick visit to the New School, while Ashleigh and Larsen had a cup of coffee. That night, I played a show at a loft in Brooklyn, where we had a chance to talk to some of the locals and hang out with Dan and Larsen before they continued on with their tour.

The next morning, Ashleigh woke up with three mysterious bug bites on her arm, which we later determined were caused by bed bugs. EW! Apparently bed bugs are a huge problem in New York City; we kept seeing advertisements for bed bug exterminators on the subways and plastered on the sides of buildings. Regardless, Mark had another sister in New York, who happened to be out of town and had kindly offered up her place to Mark and a few lucky friends. Given that Becca’s place was crowded, and Ashleigh had suffered from a bed bug attack, it was a natural move downtown to the “spacious”, bed bug free, two bedroom. We spent a lot of our time hanging out on the roof of the building. It had an incredible view of downtown New York. It was nice to go up for some fresh air and take in the city in all its glory. Ashleigh took plenty of pictures with her fancy camera and fisheye lens. Keep in mind, most of these pictures were taken at night.

Earlier that day, Ashleigh, Mark, Chris and I took advantage of free target Friday at the Modern Museum of Art. Free admission began at four, and when we arrived at said time, there was a line already a line around the block. We had no problem getting in, but the museum was unbelievably crowded. There was an exhibition by Song Dong, where he put on display the contents of his Chinese mother’s house. I won’t go into detail about the artist’s purpose for creating the work (you can read about here), but Ashleigh and I both found the exhibition intriguing. We also saw other famous artworks from Andy Warhol (Campbell Soup Cans and Marilyn Monroe), a few Picassos and Pollacks, and one of Salvador Dali’s most famous pieces, the name of which escapes now. I was also pleased to see Giacomo Balla’s Street Lamp, which you can see a reproduction of here.

On Saturday, Mark, Ashleigh, and I took advantage of our new sleeping arrangements and slept until the early afternoon. We spent the rest of the day wandering around central park. We walked past the Dakota (John Lennon’s apartment where he met his demise that fateful day in December 1980) but didn’t realize it until later after we looked at a map. That evening, we walked over to Lincoln Center to catch Rhys Chatham conduct a 200 guitar symphony; it was utterly astounding. The guitar players were lined up around the audience on the ground level. Chatham stood at the front of a big stage, where he directed four conductors, who in turn conducted a section of guitar players. The result was huge walls of sound coming from all different directions. It was enough to give me goose-bumps. One man even stood up during the pieces climax, and raised his hands in the air in praise of the piece’s sheer sonic magnitude. Really… it was that intense.

Sunday, we decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Arriving later than expected, we were only able to see a fraction of the museums contents. I really enjoyed the Met because it is like a walking history of art. We saw artifacts from ancient Greece, Rome, Cyprus, Assyria, Sumaria, and Egypt. There were also paintings and sculptures from the medieval period, as well. I was a bit disappointed with the Byzantine collection, only because it did not house  as many painted icons as I was hoping for. Even then, the place is so huge, I may have just missed them. However, the collections ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary art are EXTREMELY comprehensive. We saw pieces ranging from Michealangelo to Chuck Close. Time was not on our side that day, and I feel like we missed most of the museum, which is amazing considering how much we got to see. It is definitely a place I would like to visit again. We forgot the fancy camera that day, so these pictures were taken from Ashleigh's phone...

While we were at the museum, we met up with our friend Elliot and his brother Austin, who just happened to be in New York at the same time we did. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and went back to the apartment to hang out on the roof, before they had to make their way back to New Jersey where they were staying. It was a great way to spend our last night in New York.

We flew to Birmingham, UK the next day. We had an hour lay-over in Dublin, which wasn’t too bad. We had no problems making our way to Coventry, where we had reserved a hotel to get over jet-lag. Our days in Coventry were pretty boring. We took lots of naps and ran little errands here and there. The town itself was very mundane: a lot of post-WWII buildings. There was an old cathedral in the city center, which helped give the town some character.  I made a quick visit to the University of Warwick, got a feel for the campus and left. No one was around to discuss the program I applied for. Overall it has been very relaxing and a great way to transition into the European way of life. We'll do another update of our adventures in London. Next stop Cardiff, Wales!!