I'll be honest, I had to look at my pictures on facebook to find out what came after Coventry and Stratford. It has been so long since then! But it was the Lake District, and it was SO FUN! It was probably my favorite in-country trip that I have taken.
We left the school on Thursday night and drove to a tiny little village called Hawkshead (which if you say it really fast sounds like Hogs Head, like the pub in Harry Potter!). We got there at like, 11:30 (our bus took a while to get to the hostel because the roads are so narrow, it had to go past the hostel and turn around!), so when we got there we pretty much just went to bed. Friday morning we got up and explored Hawkshead, got some outdoorsy equipment (wool socks, waterproof pants and jackets, etc) and then took a bus into Ambleside to go on a boat tour of Lake Wyndemere. It was cool I guess, but it was cold, and we were so looking forward to Saturday's activities we didn't really care about what we did there. When we went back into the village, we ate dinner at a nice little pub and I had probably the best lasagna and garlic bread I've had since being here- it was delicious! :) Yum-O!
Saturday was the day we were all waiting for. We got on the bus and went somewhere (I'm not really sure where... haha) and we were pumped up by Miss Molly Schmeidler giving us a wonderful motivational speech (Sparta-style) on the bus. It was hilarious. Something about scrambling those ghylls like we've never ghyll scrambled before... I don't even know- Molly does strange things. ;) When we got there, we split into groups based on what activities we had signed up for. Most people had decided to do either Rock climbing or mountain hiking in the morning, and then go Ghyll scrambling in the afternoon. I chose the mountain hike, so I started up the giant mountain. The walk up wasn't too bad, and the views were amazing. From about half-way up the mountain we could see the coast and the ocean in the distance... we could see for miles! And what was really cool is that there were snow-capped mountains surrounding us, and even some snow on the mountain we were climbing. It was beautiful. I might put some pictures on here... if not, just get on facebook. They're all there.
After we climbed the mountain and refueled with some food, we all got into our waterproof clothes, boots, etc, and got strapped into our harnesses and prepared to climb those waterfalls (because that's what ghyll scrambling is- climbing mountain stream waterfalls.) It was AMAZING. It was SOOOOO cold, but I didn't even care, because it was just so fun. We were all laughing the whole time. It was by far the most adventurous thing I've done ever. In my whole life. I felt like I conquered the world. Some of the walk up was just like, hopping from rock to rock trying not to step in the water, but some of it was literally climbing the face of a waterfall... a straight down, 20+ feet high waterfall. I don't even know what else to say- it was just great! When we were all on our way back down the mountain, we passed a place where the water under the waterfall was about 7-8 feet deep, and we all decided to jump in. Baaaad plan. It was freezing, and your muscles kind of decide to stop working. But it was sooo worth it.
I think one of the best things about the lake district weekend was that I got to hang out with a bunch of new people. None of the people (except the lovely Chelsea Burch) I hang out with on a regular basis went (Anna, Shaylin, Eileen, Amber, Sam, Audrey, Melody, Megan, etc) so I was basically forced to meet new people or spend the weekend alone. It was great. And I got to make new friends because I was one of two people with a waterproof camera, so everyone wanted me to take pictures of them. So it was good. I would LOVE to go back to the lake district in the summer. I think it would be even MORE fun.