Jarrow, England
It's beautiful, sunny, clear and blue. We stopped in Jarrow to see the cathedral where Bede worked. They had a display of small models of wood buildings from America, as well as artifacts from Bede's time. The stained glass windows in the church were of the first ever made. There was a lovely herb garden around the museum. EB and I recited some Shakespeare while we leaned against a stone wall among the herbs. We decided to start a Shakespeare reading club in our house.
We walked across the beautiful grass lawn park to the ruined Cathedral, which was fun to climb and eat on. I picked up litter all over the grounds. Then we went inside the functioning cathedral beside the ruin and saw the old benches, and possibly Bede's chair. There was a massive and beautiful carving of Bede out of a single trunk of a tree. Then we got back on the bus.
Hadrian's Wall, Housesteads Roman Fort. It's beautiful and sunny. We climbed a hill to get to the fort, which we could see from the parking lot. It was very large. First I lay out on the wall and imagined looking down on everything, the valley full of Scots and Picts, with the breeze and the sunshine. The sheep with blue splat gun marks below like warrior Scots, who paint their naked bodies blue before battle.
I started walking down on the wall. It was a thrill. I caught up with CJ and Christy, who were singing "Yes it is, No it's not" across the entire valley. As we walked along the wall we pretended to be Romans, Picts and Scots. I was the Roman, and they were charging after me. Christy tripped and fell down the hill, so I charged her back and killed her. CJ killed me. We took pictures attacking each other. I don't think mine turned out though. We walked back after meeting John at the top of the hill far away along the wall. We were a little late in getting back to the bus. We went to Vinoland, which was a recreation of how the Housesteads Roman Fort would have looked when it was functioning, but it was very expensive and our National Heritage Cards didn't cover it, so we returned to Once Brewed Hostel (Hadrian's Wall).
At 17:30 it was still clear, until late. I was in a bad mood, so I spent some time by myself outside before and after dinner. I opened up my camera back at dinner and exposed some film because I didn't think that it was forwarding (explanation: no film). I was wrong. Luckily, many pictures were saved.
I got my warm clothes ready, because Drew Curtis and I had thought of staying out all night and sleeping on the wall somewhere, and headed over to Twice Brewed Tavern. I had a Newcastle Brown Ale and a double Talisker. Then, in the pitch dark, I went to the highest point in Hadrian's wall with John. We wouldn't have needed a flashlight, but he kept turning it on, so we couldn't see as well when he turned it off. I got to piss on the wall a few times on the way up after all I had to drink. We met An, and David and Elizabeth Faldet on their way down, and I persuaded An to go back up with us. We met the others on top. On our way back, we sang choir songs the whole time. It was great fun in the dark.
Back to Twice Brewed tavern. An and I shared some drinks (a McEwan's Heavy and then a McEwan's 80L). I had a few other drinks I was very drunk. We all went to bed sometime.
1993