Trip to Stratford-upon-Avon

A brief introduction

I've told you about my visit to United Kingdom and now I want to tell you about our excursion in Stratford-Upon-Avon. This was an excursion our school organisators planned for us, or at least it was on our schedule on the first Saturday of our being there in Cambridge and studying there in Studio Cambridge Sir George School. Well, you know, we were very excited as we had never had an excursion with so many foreigners, well, at least I had never had an excursion with foreigners, if you want to know the truth.

My host mother was really nice and lovely and she told me the day before, that she was not working on Saturday and that she could prepare some hamburgers for me or whatever I would like to eat. That was a pretty good offer, but I knew I wouldn't eat much during the excursion, so I thanked her and told her not to bother, as I usually didn't eat on the excursions. She was kind of surprised and maybe even thought that I was too shy to ask her to prepare something for me, but she didn't get all crazy and stuff like that as they do here in Georgia and won't leave you alone until they have put something huge in your bag just to eat on the road. Well, not everyone here is like that, but many people are. So that you know now.

The very morning

So, it was early in the morning when I got up and got ready for my exciting excursion that I had been looking forward to so long.

So, imagine, it’s like 7 in the morning, and since I decided that I didn’t want to go on an excursion and I would go to London that day or the next day, I could sleep for some time in the morning until I get up and get ready for London, and the mobile phone rings suddenly. I’m half asleep answering the phone with that strange voice people have when they are kind of awake, but still asleep, “Hello…” “are you at school already? ” I hear someone’s voice, which is very loud for me at that moment. I need some time to process what I was asked, and then, very slowly, I answer: ”What? No. ” and then I realize I should tell him something, and I tell him that I’m sleeping. Wow, that’s just so many details in one answer!

Well, I knew I didn’t have a chance to get on time at school, as the school bus was leaving in half an hour, I think. And besides, I had already decided that I didn’t want to go on that excursion. But still, something was calling me, like that “Berlin Calling” and I just couldn’t let myself sleep there, when I could really have fun with all the other students at wherever we were going on that excursion. I remember, I didn’t even know where we were going to go and I didn’t even care as far as I was concerned. I didn’t care until it was London where we were going, but I knew it wasn’t London, so, you see now… So, something in my mind told me to get up at once and just go! And so I did. As I've mentioned already, my host mother told me the day before, that she was not working on Saturday (that’s when the excursion was) and so she had a day off and that she could prepare something for me to take with me on the excursion, could it be hamburgers or whatever I would like. Well, I didn’t want her to bother so much for me and I told her I didn’t want anything to take, and probably, another reason for that was that I didn’t really eat much on excursions and it would be bad if I just said yes and she prepared all those stuff and I didn’t even eat them. So, I got dressed and rushed out of the house, and at the same time, I was sending text messages to Mariam, who was already at school and she said some students were not there and they were waiting for them. And they could wait a little longer too, if I didn’t get there on time. And it was really funny, that when I got there two of our friends were not there, including the one who phoned me that morning. I was really surprised, because I thought he would already be there and that he just phoned because he was waiting for the rest of us or something like that.

Okay, now, you know we were late at the registration on our first day at Studio Cambridge Sir George School, and now, we were late on our excursion, too. What a great performance, Georgians! But, hey, what can you do?! The school organisers were so kind, that they took into account that we were international students and we were just 16-years-old and alone somewhere in the middle of United kingdom (well, not somewhere, but in the very center of the city of Cambridge, but still…) and we could have been kind of confused with all the things we had seen and, you know, the culture shock that people bump into when they go to another country and stuff like that. And imagine, they waited for those two for more than half an hour, I guess. I remember that, because when we told them they were late, they just said, that they would wait for them for another 20 minutes or so, and then after that they also said that they would wait a little longer, too. So, finally they arrived, I don’t know where they had been, but seemed like they had been running a lot! And there we were, ready to go!

The trip was just crazy. I must say, there were just us, Georgians and many, many Italians there in our bus. I guess, there was not anyone else from other countries. Or maybe they went somewhere else, or just didn’t want to go on an excursion. Anyways, the bus was pretty large, the seats were really comfortable and everything was just perfect. And I don’t know why I even thought of not going on excursion with these great people in a great place.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, that I asked about the destination and they told me we were going to Stratford. Well, I guess, they assumed that I knew the whole United Kingdom by heart, or England at least, that I would definitely know where this Stratford was and why would people go there on an excursion. “Okay”, I thought, “we will get there and see! ”

Getting to Stratford-Upon-Avon

I don’t remember exactly, but I guess our ride was not very long. It was something between 40 minutes and one hour, perhaps. Or, maybe it seemed so short because of the fun we had on the bus.

So, we arrived in Stratford-Upon-Avon! Our bus stopped nearby the town center somewhere near the railway station, where other buses stopped, too. There we went in a building, where there were maps and some information catalogues of Stratford. It was a Stratford Leisure & Visitor Centre and they had many other things, such as 33 metre pool, teaching pool, sauna and steam rooms, sunbeds, café and stuff like that on the second floor, I guess. And there were also these snack machines and we bought some snacks, chocolates mostly.

While I thought that Stratford would be a small town, not very different from my home town in matter of size, I was rather wrong. This town was really large and though it was autumn already _ somewhere in the middle of September, there were so many flowers bloomed in the streets, that I couldn’t help myself but stare. The streets were clean and cozy and this was just amazing, how everything can be so cozy in a large town like it.

We crossed some streets, looking around. Then I saw this white building with a greenish dome and clock on it, and I thought it was a church, I think because of the dome, but it turned out that it was one of the branches of this British multinational bank called Barclays. So, we went towards it and then we saw something yellow hung between it and another building opposite to it. The inscription said “Shakespeare’s Birthplace”, and then I realized what was there to be seen! We went down that kind of narrow road of Henley Street, where there were souvenir shops and other shops and many people around. There were these musicians in the street and they were playing some kind of modernized traditional music and they pretty much had fun and people were gathered around them enjoying the music. It was a great sunny day and it was Saturday as well, so everyone was just outside living their Saturday lives.

Shakespeare’s birthplace

And then, there it was, Shakespeare’s birthplace. The house, where he was born, brought up, lived and died. I’ve written details about Shakespeare’s birthplace in another article, you can check it out here. While in this article, I’ll just tell you about my impressions of the place from the outside.

The building was not very small, in fact, it was pretty big. It had two storeys and the third one was the attic one with three windows. I think, it was three buildings together or something. There was this one door and another one was the entrance with four windows on the first floor siding the street, four windows on the second floor one of them with a kind of a balcony look, where there was a sculpture looking out of the window, and then there was the attic. And then there’s one building from behind, where you will see a small garden full of flowers, and the flowers are in front of the house, too, from the street side.

There was of course a souvenir shop next to the building, where you could find all the necessary and unnecessary stuff that you would want to buy. There were many books and things with Shakespeare portrait on them and phrases from his plays, etc.

There was this man dressed like Shakespeare and you could take photos with him, and, also, there was a large picture where you stand behind it and put your head in a place where its head should be and there’s this guy’s picture with your face in it, so, there was this picture of Shakespeare and you could take a photo with your face in it instead of Shakespeare. Now that I’ve described it that way, it kind of feels strange…

On the opposite to Shakespeare’s birthplace there was this great shop full of Christmas gifts and other stuff that I just liked so much that I couldn’t decide what to buy. It was just the middle of September, but these people had already started selling Christmas decorations and stuff like that and, I must say, there were some great decorations and toys there. Finally, I decided to buy a lovely soft standing snowman with a colourful scarf and hat on him. I still have it and I put it under my Christmas tree every year.

Our given free time

After arriving there at Shakespeare’s birthplace, we were given a free time to roam and wander and do whatever we wanted, see whatever we wanted and to come back there exactly at 12 o’clock (if I remember correctly). So, we had one hour to sightsee things in Stratford center. Of course, we divided into groups _ it was up to us who we would go with. Me and Mariam were the only Georgian girls there and, of course, we went together as it’s easier to understand each other and also, we had the same interests there, I guess, and those were sightseeing as much as we could and take some good memories and impressions and stories with us.

First of all, we saw Shakespeare’s birthplace, of course. Then we went in the souvenir shop and then in that Christmas gifts shop and then just went up to the beginning of Henley street and went where all the huge shops were. There were also many Halloween masks and decorations and things like that in every shop. So, after reliving the historical Elizabethan era of Shakespeare, we just went to the modern one and decided to look around the town center a little bit.

There were so many places there and I don’t know whether it’s an England thing or not, but there are so many places in just one building and the signboards are so small that if you are not careful you can miss them. There was this McDonald’s sign and it was so small I couldn’t even see it then. And if you don’t live somewhere where McDonald’s is something you haven’t heard of, you will agree with me, that it’s become kind of an essential thing while being on road or something like that, because you can enter it and just get whatever you want in seconds and you don’t have to wait long, and that’s a really good thing when you’re in a hurry, etc.

Riverside park photoshoot

Then we had a Riverside park photoshoot and we took many photos there. It was a lovely park where many people were walking and skateboarding and stuff like that. There were two black musicians, too, and they were all dressed up and suited and played jazz music.

We waited there for others and then went to bus for our next destination that was Warwick castle!

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