Literary Europe VI - D. H. Lawrence

Wow, am I behind!  Got busy for a few weeks with traveling and my coursework, and now I have so much to update!  Hopefully I can get it done before "midterms" set in....we'll see.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I went to Nottinghamshire to visit D. H. Lawrence's Birthplace Museum, as well as to see some of his early childhood homes.  While there I learned a lot about Lawrence, such as his influences in his writing, and what his childhood was like.  I didn't know what to expect when going to his home town, but everyone at the two museums (the birthplace and the heritage centre) were very helpful and knowledgeable about Lawrence and the time period.  Another nice surprise was the blue line that circled throughout town to all the places D. H. Lawrence lived or wrote about - it ended up being really relaxing and fun to take a leisurely walk and experience some important parts of Lawrence's childhood and the various places that made it into his books.

In my usual fashion, here are some pictures:

Sign leading to Lawrence's birthplace museum.

The sign of the phoenix (Lawrence's personal symbol) can be found almost everywhere.

Heritage Centre with a D. H. Lawrence exhibit.

Cool window shade.

His mum's dresser....if that's the right word...

Lace his mum would sell from the front room of their first house.

Photo of me with a photo cutout of Lawrence's family :)

One of Lawrence's work desks!

His travel trunk!  Even has his initials!

Yup...the phoenix is on their trashcans too...I only hope someday my personal symbol can be on a trashcan ;P

One of his childhood homes (the one with the blue plaque).

Another of his childhood homes.

The pub Lawrence wrote about.

Nottinghamshire overall was cute, but kind of small.  I ended up spending a few hours drinking coffee at a pub because it was the only place open.  I originally planned way too much time for going to the museum and for catching my train.  It probably would have been smarter to go to Nottinghamshire for the afternoon, and then to Nottingham for the evening (or another day altogether).  Overall, I saw what I wanted to see - D. H. Lawrence's birthplace, as well as various places of interest related to him and his novels.

Snow!!!

It has finally snowed in the south east of England!  We got about 4 inches, which is just enough to play in, but not too much to make it a pain to get around.  Being from southern California, I haven't seen much snow.  I definitely haven't seen any in the past 10 years or so of my life...so I was pretty excited to see snow here!  It started snowing the night I was leaving London, and when I got back to my University, there was plenty of snow around.  Here's several pictures from the past weekend, the first few are when I went out by myself to take some pictures, the second set are from when my flatmates and I went out to play in the snow.

Our lake frozen over!

Making a snow angel.

Throwing snowballs!  You can see them in this picture if you look carefully.

Nga & Matt posing with Lance, our snowball.

All of us with Lance, our gigantic snowball.

Nga falling off of Lance

Hot chocolate & snow :)

Literary Europe V - Poet's Corner & George Orwell

Hello again!

On my most recent trip to London, I went inside Westminster Abbey to see Poet's Corner, and then I went to Islington to go to a house George Orwell used to live in!

Unfortunately, they don't allow photos to be taken inside Westminster Abbey, so while I saw Poet's Corner, I have no photos to show for it.  However, if anyone is thinking of going to London, and really likes British authors, I'd definitely recommend coughing up the 16 quid to go in and see it.  Although it is frustrating that you can't document your visit, it is still really cool to see all these memorials and burial sights of so many literary giants.  They have plaques, busts, floor tiles, and stain glass windows to commemorate Shakespeare, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Milton, Dylan Thomas, Lewis Carroll, and many more.  A couple of these famous authors are buried here, including Dickens, who was apparently buried here somewhat against his will.  Westminster Abbey is also in itself a beautiful cathedral, with some great detail work - almost too much to take in.  This is also where most of England's royalty is buried, and they have memorials and burial sights to many of history's greats - such as Newton, Darwin, and many more.  It is expensive, but worth the visit if you have the time to wander around - took me about 2 hours, and I walked through most of it quickly (except Poet's corner, of course).

After that I took the "long" journey out to Orwell's house in the burroughs of Islington.  Got a bit lost as it isn't a super touristy part of London, but I was ecstatic when I found it, and probably ended up looking suspicious taking so many pictures of his home.  Anyway, at least I have photos to show for something!

Canonbury Square.

Walking up to the front of his house.

Plaque confirming it is George Orwell's house!  (Though, probably more of a flat.)

Of course, the sign said that the entrance to his house wasn't at the front...

...and I just had to find out how he got into his house...

And this is it!

I happened to come by right when the postman was delivering mail, so I got to sneak a quick peak inside!

After finding his house, I decided to stop for a break from my walking at The George Orwell:

It's a nice bar within about a 15 minute walk from Orwell's house.

It has a really nice, relaxed atmosphere, with a pretty friendly staff.

Then for dinner I went to "The Shakespeare" - closer to central London.  The food was okay, definitely not my best meal out in England.

But all in all, despite getting lost several times, I had a pretty good day at Poet's Corner and going to George Orwell's house :)