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!