Exited Pursued by Shakesbear

Just this past Friday, Nekol and I went to Stratford Upon Avon and had an absolute blast.


The trip started out rather rocky as Nekol and I missed our train on two accounts: we left our house late and my reference number didn't work AGAIN. I really don't like this whole reference number deciding to be mean thing. Anyways, so I go and queue up to talk to the ticket office and see if they can print out my tickets by swiping my card just like they did at Paddington Station...Marleybone Station apparently doesn't work that way. So they told me to go to Information and they would let me look up my reference number on their computer....


Really? They'll let me check my email on their computer? ... huh...


So I go over to the Information Desk and ask this charming lady and she tells me to come inside and look up my email. I hurry inside and am gently teased by another worker, "Who didn't remember to print off their email?" And I told them I apparently had the wrong number written down and the two ladies comiserated about how it was a little confusing. I find my number though, thank the ladies, and go to print out my tickets. With tickets in hand, Nekol and I step back to look at the departure board.


Absolutely nothing. 


We're a little confused and look at our clocks to see it's about thirty minutes to the next hour so we'll wait around for the next round of trains to go on the board for departures. We walk around a bit, go to Burger King and are disappointed to see that there are no french toast sticks for sale before going to sit down on a bench. I decide to go to the bathroom and find out it's 30p...seriously, it's like UrineTown sometimes. 


Anyways, Nekol goes to look at the board and realizes we won't be able to catch a train until almost eleven. Resigning ourselves for an even longer wait than initially planned for plan b...we go to a coffee shop inside the station so we're not directly in cold air and flight paths of pigeons, some which nearly took off my head with their wings. We order two hot chocolates and decide to just wait around leisurely. I end up messing with my camera because my computer refuses to recognize it and Nekol dozes off in the chair in front of me.


Finally our train comes and we go to catch it. Sitting down in our seats, we get cozy and pull out books and begin doing research for our essays that are due on Wednesday...yes, we're -that- dedicated. Anyways, it's a nice enough trip...it's two hours so we entertain ourselves by iPods and books...until Mr. Conductor comes.


So we're on a different train...not all that bad really right? I mean, the car was not full at all by any means.


Wrong.


Mr. Conductor says we are on the completely wrong train and are forced to by two new tickets to get there...Nekol and I look at each other and I just hand him my card...he tries to insert it after I've told him it doesn't have a chip and asks me if I have another way to pay. I hand him all the cash I have so I cover Nekol and my ticket since it was my blunder in the first place. We get two new tickets and I go to sulk in my own little corner for a few moments and get over my self-hating, why did we leave so late and why am I such a failure mood. 


That all evaporates when we get to Stratford Upon Avon....a place I think I would love to live/work. We walk from the station to our bed and breakfast and walk straight through the center of town and cross the bridge. It's absolutely fantastic little town. I giggle at every shakespeare related shop name/residence I see. It's like a dream come true. 


Nekol and I walk down to our Bed & Breakfast which is called Sunnydale, yes all my Buffy friends, Sunnydale, and we are such nerds because we have our own bathroom, shower, towels, comfortable bed, t.v., blowdryer, and closet....this is the nicest place we have stayed on our travels yet. 


We quickly set all of our things down and head out to town to try and get to see all of Shakespeare's houses in town. We aren't going to fool ourselves, it's already 1400 and there are three houses in town and two outside of town that you kind of need a bus to get to. So, in all reality...how many are we actually going to be able to see? Nekol and I go to the information center and get our tickets and decide to go to Shakespeare's birth place first before going to the other two. I am awed and amazed and love every moment of it. I seriously can hardly breathe at some points it's just that amazing. 


Nekol and I make haste to the other two houses while trying to give each one their due. We really lost out by not getting there four hours earlier but we did what we could. At the last house, I bought Shakesbear and he has become my new sleeping buddy, however, I pose this question: What is with the English and their fascination of the stage direction from Winter's Tale, exited pursued by bear? It was -all- over the place at The Globe's gift shop. 


Nekol and I then look around at all the shops, ducking out of this one here and there before heading over to the oldest pub in all of Stratford where we both get a cider. We end up talking to this lovely couple who recently moved to Stratford and have one of the most interesting conversations with them. Soon they leave though and Nekol and I decide we will head back to the Bed and Breakfast before going out on our nightly haunt...literally. 


Around 9:40 Nekol and I head over to Tudor World/Falstaff Experience...how sketchily cool does this sound? Very much so. 


Nekol and I participated in a ghost vigil/medium workshop that spanned two hours. It was one of the most coolest/weirdest/creepiest things I have ever done. For those of you who don't believe in spirits or are rather skeptical, take everything I am about to tell you with a grain a salt as you always should.


The so called Falstaff Experience begins out creepily enough as we are waiting outside the oldest, most haunted house in Stratford Upon Avon. Tall wooden doors bar our entry, eerie music plays, and fog starts flowing out from the cracks. Soon the doors open and the growing group is admitted and, after being all accounted for, take a short walk down an unlit cobblestone path to a small back room. Here in this small room we are introduced to our medium for the night, Penny, and her friendly assistant, Sensitive Dave. 


A poll is taken of our group: about five or so believe in spirits, one is a complete and total skeptic (a older man who oddly enough was with a group of believers), and the rest want to believe but desire a bit more proof.  Without further ado, the group is led back down the dark cobblestone path and into the gift shop of the establishment which doubles as a museum during the day. The gift shop is -very- narrow and it's hard to see anything, mainly because the only lights we have are two lanterns, and Nekol and I are at the very back of the group. Two sets of dowsing rods are given to people at the front of the group and Penny begins speaking with spirits that seemingly have accompanied people on their trip to this ghost vigil. Nekol and I are in the back of the group and experience nothing but our legs from mid-calf down beginning to absolutely freeze. To entertain ourselves we make up a song to dedicate to Spirit Cat in the form of Smelly Cat from Friends.

Soon after, the group is lead through the rest of the house. Temperatures change slightly here and there, the building remains almost pitch black save the two lanterns trying vainly to light the oppressive darkness. The second place the group stops is on the main stairwell where one woman is anxious to use the dowsing rods because of 'what happened to her last time.' Penny warns the group that there is a spirit present named John Davis, who killed several women in the building and that there was someone in the group who fit his type but she won't say what the type is so as to not sway our opinions. I think, my type? No, that's too cliche, there's no way it'd be that way. The lady begins to whimper and say that John is right next to her. Penny says it's not her that the ghost is looking at. The air around my face, suddenly, is filled with a choking smell of alcohol, as if someone was breathing in my face. I say loudly that the air smells like alcohol and the eager lady across from me with the dowsing rods is all to eager to agree. Quicker than anything, than the smell appeared, I feel as if someone placed cold hands on my cheeks. I cried out and began crying, having been caught completely off guard by whatever had just happened to me. Sensitive Dave ascended the stair after Penny told him to bring the light to me and stand next to me. We tour the rest of the building without much of any other issue.

The group is then brought back to the first room we were in for refreshments of tea, coffee, mince pies, and biscuits. Then we were broken into two groups of ten. Nekol and I are placed in the medium workshop group first. The workshop begins with glass divination. The workshop leader takes a wine glass and sets it upside down on a small circular table with yes written at one end and no on another. All of us place our fingers on the bottom of the glass and ask the spirit to move it on the table. The glass is reluctant to move and does nothing but nudge slightly or tremble. The glass seemingly wants to move but doesn't have enough energy or will power to do so. Soon, it slides to the edge of the table. Eventually, we get it to move quickly around the table. We ask it to go the other direction, and it slows down and stops before slowly going the other direction, slowly at first and picking up speed. After a time, our guide suggests we move on to the scrying crystal, and the glass goes even faster  and then falls over. We pass around two scrying crystals, and prepare to ask the spirit yes or no questions. Nekol and I end up with the same crystal which is actually one we preferred to the other...mainly because it looks cooler. We ask "can you show me my yes, please?" (the crystal swings backwards and forwards) and "can you show me my no, please" (the crystal goes in a circle). Then we asked it personal questions, and the spirit gave answers. Finally, we did some automatic writing, which was kind of cool but not all that impressive. Mostly the planchette created circles and one heart.

Then we switched groups, and the smaller group toured the building. The already small group of ten split into smaller groups, and I insisted that we stay with Penny rather than going with Sensitive Dave. She's been doing this a lot longer than Dave and not that I'm thinking anything is going to happen, if I have a serious scare I want someone who is well trained to be with me. We begin in the gift shop again, and Nekol says she's getting extremely cold. Shivering. Then she began to warm up, right when the woman next to her declared that she's gotten colder. The dowsing rods are moving to Penny's requests, and it is rather creepy. We move to a storage type room, that I don't like the feeling of. Honestly, we walk in and whether you're a sensitive or not, you would want to walk right through and just leave that room behind you. We stand in a small cluster and turn out all the lights. Penny speaks to the spirits a bit, and we hear a stomach growling. We all laugh. I comment, "Way to go, Nekol." Nekol's stomach had been growling throughout the medium workshop, but she declared "For once that wasn't me!" And Penny says, "Really?" No one is laughing anymore... Throughout our time in the room, we kept hearing stomach growling from different points in the room. Penny requests the sound to make another noise, and Nekol and I both beg it not to in our minds. We move to another room. Someone declares that they smell something but not going to lie, totally don't. We enter another room, and I get really cold. Penny announces that she feels warm, thanks to William, the noble gentleman ghost, and I personally wish this William would come warm me up. Enter another room. One of the women in our group doesn't like it, and several others voice feelings of oppressed anger, and the air feels as if someone is smiling. This sounds a bit nutty but you know when someone is smiling just because of the air the room takes on.  Nekol is holding the dowsing rods and feels none of this, just excitement for holding the dowsing rods and having them move. They cross and point to me and the woman who is not happy about the room. Penny asks if anyone else has 'girly pains'. No one else admits to that...

In a last room, we meet the spirit of Lucy, a young pickpocket who worked in taverns. We use the scrying crystals again, and she moves them how we ask her to. Then we loop an engagement ring onto the chain and watch as she twists and moves it, trying to pull the shiny piece of jewelry off of the chain. It was quite impressive.


After this we head back to the starting room where we get a short debriefing, are able to pet the dog that lives on the premise, and head back to the Bed and Breakfast.


Nekol and I are now wired and talk to each other for a while till about two a.m before drifting to sleep. We wake up shortly there after to head down for breakfast where we enjoy a small charming breakfast and then driven to the train station by one of the owners of the B&B (it was owned by a cute asian couple). Nekol and I both found seats and settled down and napped the entire rest of the way to London.