Friday, October 09, 2009

A Photographic Diary of My Trip: Stratford

After spending more than a week in London, the program switched scenery to Stratford, birthplace of Shakespeare. I could only expect from Stratford what little I knew about small towns in the English countryside - think the village green from Hot Fuzz, without the excessive gore and awesome soundtrack, meets Pride and Prejudice's picturesque open country. What I found was a small town that's been Shakespeared out - his name is everywhere, the puns are endless.

The birthplace of Shakespeare

A day trip to Warwick Castle - the castle is beautiful, but it's been commercialized into some kind of cheesy theme park for kids

gardens behind New Place/Nash's house - where Shakespeare retired and where his granddaughter lived

A bust of Shakespeare that's been mounted over his grave in the Church of the Holy Trinity

Where RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) performances are held - part of my program involved watching RSC productions of A Winter's Tale, As You Like It, and Julius Caesar.

Happy memories at the Dirty Duck, popular pub for RSC actors and thirsty UCLA students - far too many nights spent here!

One of five Shakespeare-inspired statues in a garden in the main square, just by the Thames River

EDIT: I almost totally forgot about mentioning a very unusual incident, where my friends and I got recruited to be extras in a new, low-budget film called Will's Diaries. It was the funniest thing because we were told to pretend like we were talking, and the filming took so long that by the end of it, my friends and I were wildly gesticulating for fun. I'm sure they'll cut us out of it, haha. And it was also funny because the guy who recruited us was talking about the film and where they were filming, and he asked us if we knew about the Dirty Duck, and let me tell you - we know all too much about the Duck. And we even had plans to go there that night, so it was a bit awkward and funny to have filmed there, go back to the hotel for dinner, and then show up again that very night. I don't think the bartenders liked us very much :o)

4 comments:

Ayin said...

wow!

amy kelinda said...

Beautiful! And I love the Hot Fuzz reference - I can totally see that, haha!

Michaela India Anderson said...

Hey Christina,
I tired Silca little parcels that you get in shoe boxes in a zip lock bag as well to dry out my phone, thanks for the rice tip:)
www.mickeyanderson.blogspot.com

Sarah Klassen said...

woaaah! :)