Welcome to England

Well, I'm sitting in Yvonne's guest bedroom right now, thinking how awesome England is, and if it were just a bit more sunny, I would probably insist on living here. To recap the last few days:

Saturday, when we left Izmir, it was pouring rain and really quite horrid. We got to the airport, huge thanks to Pinar and her dad, and headed for the check-in line. Where we were told that our 10PM flight was delayed three hours. So we'd arrive in England at 3AM their time (5AM Turkey time). Not particularly happy news, especially when you take into account Izmir's airport: no bookstores, no magazine stands, just a couple cafe stands and a bar showing soccer. So we just sat and waiting, and people watched. This is also when we realized our flight was chock-full of babies and small children. Once on the plane, after about 20 minutes, the kid in the next row finally stopped screaming and thrashing around, and we were able to settle in for our four hour flight.

Arriving in England went smoothly, getting to our B&B was the same, although getting into the car with the steering on the right side threw us a bit. Our B&B was AWESOME, bed was so nice! It was actually getting light out when we finally crawled in (4:30AM) for about 3.5 hours of sleep. Then it was up, breakfast (real English breakfast, complete with coffee, tea, toast, eggs, tomatoes, ham, and sausage. omg. EVERYTHING looks better over pork products!), then back to the airport to catch our bus to Hereford.

Bus ride was normal, although long. But pretty comfortable and we saw some beautiful sites. England is really really pretty! Particularly the further west you get. It's very green with full-size trees and hedges along each property, as well as dividing fields and bordering the road. I have found that there is a reason English gardens are known world-wide.

Yvonne and Euan live in Eardisley, which is about 30 min from Hereford. It's a small but beautiful village, full of the famous black and white houses, one of which is their place. Although the doorways are a little short for Chris (he even managed to hit his shoulder on the stairway ceiling!), it's very fun to stay in a house that is centuries old! It used to be a forge, and there are pictures of it from the 19th century, as well as a sampling of the horseshoes that were made there. Because of its age, it's a little crooked and the floors are a little wavy, but it's all part of the fun! We'll try to get some pictures up on here at some point, as long as it's ok with Euan and Yvonne.

So, Monday we ran errands in Hereford as well as looking at their cathedral (which therefore qualifies it as a city instead of a town or village), the Mappa Mundi (a map c. 1300, the oldest medieval map still in existence), and the chained library (from the time where books were so valuable that they were all individually chained to the shelf). In between, we also grabbed a bite to eat (peppers, potatoes and goat cheese gratin) and stocked up on all the cheese that we have missed! That night we went out with Yvonne's family for Indian food. Mmmmm, how I have missed those flavors!!! Never fear though, we'll want to go out for much more Indian food when we get back home, so those of you who like it, be prepared!

Yesterday we headed to Hay-on-Wye, a town that straddles the border between England and Wales. It's world renowned Literary Festival begins in a few days, but we decided to beat the crowds and have a look around. A fun little village with massive numbers of bookshops, boutiques, gorgeous views, and fudge! When we came back, we tried all our cheese while we had tea. (Aren't you proud of my restraint, I waited a whole day!) We had Roquefort (my absolute new fav!), white cheddar, Red Leicester, Havarti, Swiss, a Hereford white cheese, and cream cheese with herbs and spices, all on crackers with locally-made chutneys. Bliss seems a bit of a weak word. How about nirvana? And it just got better. Yvonne cooked authentic ginger chicken with stir fry and rice, and we thought we'd died and gone to heaven. I watched her make it, and will attempt to re-create the experience once we're back home. However, I'm not at all confident it will be as good, especially since I don't own a wok, nor do I cook well on gas stoves (too clumsy with open flames). So we'll see. I'll pick some of you as guinea pigs to try it out on :)

Today is a chill day. We had some laundry to finish up, and a quiet day just doing not much sounded really good to both of us. Hopefully we'll get pictures posted soon so that you all can see how awesome this place is. And, just for Yvonne (who makes fun of our Americanisms), talk to you guys later! Miss you, dudes! It'll be awesome to see you all again!

The Neighborhood Association Meeting

"What?" you ask, "I didn't think they were organized enough for that."

Well, they're not. But sure enough, I witnessed one today. So, story time:

Remember that dog that earned my life-long hatred for interrupting my sleep awhile back? The one who barked and whined all through the night and made it impossible for me (and approx 40 other families in the vicinity) to get any rest? Well, they've been keeping it indoors more often, but as the weather has gotten warmer and we've started opening windows at night, they've decided it'd be a good idea to let the dog out again. And it hasn't gone mute yet. (Really, if it was human, it would have lost its voice looooong ago. Can anyone explain that to me? How do dogs bark constantly for hours without losing any decibels, but if we try to yell for hours on end, we eventually go hoarse?)

So, I was hanging laundry outside today, the dog was out, and it must have seen something, a fly, a piece of trash, who knows, but it went nuts, barking, yipping, generally freaking out. A lady on a balcony in the building across from this dog tried shushing it, which didn't really work. Then, apparently, the owner made an appearance, because then it was her turn to go nuts. She was explaining (from what I gathered, my Turkish really does suck) that she has a baby who is sleeping, but the dog's barking wakes it up, and can the owner please make it shut up?! Well, he took offense, and they were off.

Less than 5 minutes later, Chris and I (I had to run inside and tell him to start popcorn and then look out the window, this was entertaining!) are watching and we see someone's head poke out of their window, then they see what's happening, that the dog owner is outside, and they come out on the balcony and start yelling too. This attracts more neighbors, who do the same. Before we know it, there are 6 different apartments' residents hollering, pointing, gesturing, and fist-pounding at the dog owner, who is hollering, pointing, gesturing, and fist-pounding in return. Then I hear the neighbors upstairs get in on the action. Then the ones below us. Then I see people from other buildings come out, and they join in.

I believe when I finally collapsed on the couch laughing hysterically, there were five buildings represented, a dozen accusers, one defendant and his son (everybody brought their children out to watch the fun), and one dog, which, with all the commotion, started barking...

Whooo hooo, School's Out

For us, anyways :)

So, Chris and I will be coming home sooner than previously expected, everyone! YAY! We booked the tickets tonight for home for June 6. So exciting! Our new plan:

We fly out of Turkey on May 22 (holy crap that's coming up soon!) to London. We got a fabulous deal through Thomas Cook Airlines, but two downsides to that: 1) the baggage allowance is non-existent. literally. and 2) it arrives in London at 11:59PM. So we will be staying in a B&B for that night, then taking a bus to Hereford to visit Yvonne. Awesome girl, she's letting us stay for a week and showing us around England. After staying with her for a bit and relaxing (and catching up on gossip, of course!), as well as stocking up on pork, cheese, and good English ale, we're planning on renting a car to drive up through England toward Hadrian's Wall and Scotland, just taking our time and lots of pictures.

Next stop will be Edinburgh, Scotland, for a couple or few days, depending on funds and time. I'm really excited to see Edinburgh, it sounds so pretty and we have so many fun things that we're going to try and see. I'm sure we'll be blogging about it later.

After Edinburgh, we'll fly to Dublin on June 5 just for one night, mostly because we can't afford to stay any longer, but it'll give us time to at least see downtown for one day. We'll do Ireland right when we have more time and money. June 6 we fly out and we'll be in Chicago a little after 3PM! wow.

So, hope to see everyone soon after we get back and get on American time! And aren't you all proud of how short this is?!