I’m sitting, now, on the grounds of Herstmonceux Castle in the south of England. It’s been the best weekend! I’m surrounded by fairytale land. Herstmonceux is a breathtaking, moated castle, originally built in the 1400s. It is surrounded by endless parkland and tended Elizabethan gardens. I’ve just been for a hike through some of the marshland and forests and I’m in awe. After walking about half an hour, I discovered a beautifully decrepit folly on the edge of a small lake. The doors of the folly have fallen off; from one side, you can look through the door frame, the building and the opposite door frame to see the gardens on the other side; superb. In addition to being unbelievably gorgeous, Herstmonceux is also the home of the International Study Center of Queens College, Kingston, Ontario. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to stay on the castle grounds all weekend, while visiting Aaliyah, who’s going to school here.
I got to Herstmonceux, by train, in the early afternoon on Saturday. Aaliyah and I toured the castle and ran around in the formal gardens for a while before dinner. The gardens are vast and the picture of what one would expect. There was a hedge wall which divided the gardens into various “rooms”. The largest room had many varieties of rose and a bunch of working sundials in tribute to the estate’s history as the former seat of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Surrounding the castle and the grounds are many sixties-looking astronomy buildings with their characteristic green domes, covering the telescopes within. Also within the gardens, perfectly, are a couple pairs of peacocks and peahens which put on a bit of a show for us. There are also, shockingly to me, more rabbits than I’ve ever seen. It’s almost Hitchcockian. At night especially, you can turn your head in front of the residential hall and see no less than 150 rabbits grazing. I’ve never seen anything like it.
After dinner in the castle’s cafeteria, Aaliyah, a bunch of her friends and I hopped a train to Brighton for Alia’s birthday. Brighton is a place that I’ve wanted to experience for some time. It wasn’t really as gaudy as I was hoping it’d be though. It did have the expected neon pier however, complete with carnival. It was really a great, touristy atmosphere. After some extremely mediocre Thai food, we went to the Funky Fish Club. We should have known just from the name… The Funky Fish was much more fishy than funky but we managed to have a good time. The music was pretty great, mostly confined to big Motown and funk classics. A very old, white man in a zoot suit provided entertainment with some killer dance moves and by dancing crazily with whoever could keep up. After about an hour and a half though, the power went out, repeatedly. To combat the situation, they turned the fans off. Does this sound like a bad idea to everyone? It got so disgustingly hot that we had to leave even having paid a cover. We were pretty disgruntled but didn’t let it spoil the evening. The rest of the night was spent frolicking on the beach and just kinda walking around the boardwalk area. Despite the Funky Fish fiasco we managed to have a great time and got home, ready for bed.
For all interested, you can keep track of my life, in pictures, by going to http://www.winkflash.com/ Username: seethepics Password: showme
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
"I've just been for a hike..." Good job picking up the Brit speak Whittle. :) I'm jealous you got to go to my work boyfriend's city of Brighton. ~T
i'm missing you like crazy this week. it hit me yesterday, that something was missing. it's you. and me. at natt spill. or, you. and me. in my living room. or you and me at hawks. who do i eat with now? god, i must be starving... love you!
Post a Comment