Canterbury Tales

26 February 2009

Canterbury Tales

Late on Wednesday night, my friend, Anna, arrived from Sweden. Anna and I met back in 2002 when we both studied at Sussex University in Brighton. We hadn’t seen each other since the summer of 2003 when Anna visited the US. As soon as I told Anna I was coming to England, she started to look into booking a ticket to visit. Being that she is an anglophile, like myself, she was happy to have an excuse to come to the UK and of course, to re-unite with me!

Her flight from Uppsala did not arrive at Heathrow until 9:30pm. Unless one is able to take the Heathrow Express train, it is usually a long and painful underground ride to get from the airport. As luck would have it, Anna’s mobile phone battery was low and my pre-paid UK SIM card ran out of money just as we were trying to coordinate how she would get to my flat in Streatham! I was impressed she made it here so easily, although slowly, especially when the bus driver didn’t even seem to know the stops on his own bus! I walked her back to my flat and welcomed her to my damp little bedroom. Anna and I snuggled under the covers just as the baby in the next flat started crying…welcome to my world!

Anna got to sleep in during the morning while I went and worked a half-day at the hospital. I made sure to give her the run-down of some of the “rules” of the flat, according to Charlotte: hot water only comes on for 1 hour in the morning between 7 and 8 am, make it a quick one as it often runs out of hot water, after your shower you must use the specially designated rag to wipe up any residual water on the walls or tub, place the bathmat on the radiator to dry when you are finished, if you are cold in the bedroom turn on “the fire” (Charlotte’s term for my space heater), and if you are still cold, here is the trick to sneaking in and turning on the heat for 1 more hour!

Anna took the bus to meet me near the hospital at lunch time. She picked up a light lunch for us at Sainsbury’s and we hopped on the tube to get us to London Bridge rail station for our ride to Canterbury. Once we bought our tickets, which were not cheap at £20 round trip, we navigated our way to the east station and found our platform. I perused through a little shop while we waited and decided to get some crisps (aka. chips) for the 1.5 hour ride. They definitely had some interesting flavors including: roasted chicken & thyme, Thai sweet chili, and Buffalo mozzarella & herbs. But I opted for the chocolate and chile flavour. I will say that it wasn’t terrible but I definitely wouldn’t buy it again, although I found the crisps strangely addictive and quickly devoured the bag! Anna told me about her morning at the flat. She got to meet Roger, who was kind enough to turn on the radiators for her! She then realized she should rush for the shower while there was still some hot water. Anna tried her hardest to take the speediest shower ever, neglecting even to wash her hair for that day! Anna also commented on the serious humidity in the apartment. All of the windows are covered in water, almost like a steam, but heavier. Charlotte puts these little humidity absorbent boxes the windowsills but I don’t think they make much of a difference. When you touch the curtains, they are heavy with moisture. Anna was quick shocked at this state of affairs! She blamed it on the single-paned glass windows in the apartment, and she may be right about that. It certainly doesn’t help with the heating problems!

Anna and I felt like we had gotten stuck on the slow train to Canterbury! We were anxious to get there as we only had the afternoon, but frustratingly enough, it seemed as if the train stopped every 10 minutes! And it wasn’t just the number of stops, but the fact that the train would wait in the station at some of the stops for a full 5 minutes! I suppose this is somewhat typical for England though, and people here don’t make much of a fuss over it. They quite calmly just accept that this is the way it shall be!

At last, we hopped off the train in Canterbury! Once we emerged from the station, we found ourselves on curvy roads lined with quaint Tudor-style buildings. Once we walked a bit further, we passed through an arch in a stone wall, which would have been the old city wall. From this point on, many of the streets were actually closed off to cars so we could walk around quite aimlessly, taking pictures, and not worry about getting run over! We stopped for a piping hot cup of Earl Grey and found the Canterbury Cathedral!

I thought the cathedral was well worth the €5.50 entrance fee, and more! It might very well be my favorite cathedral ever. It has been around for 1400 years, or so I read, although there was a major fire in 1174 which apparently ruined most of the church as it was at that time. It is in history not only for being a major Christian pilgrimage site, but also famous for, Thomas Becket. Becket was made archbishop in 1162, but later seriously irritated King Henry for disagreeing with him too much. Henry later had 4 of his knights murder Becket right at the altar in Canterbury cathedral. This is apparently the very thing that made Canterbury such a famous cathedral as Becket was canonized soon after and the pilgrims came in floods. This gothic style church is really an immense place with many different nooks to the cathedral, not just one long open space as others are. There were different chapels/altars within the cathedral including tombs and a crypt. The ceiling just seems to be miles high so I can see how it feels as if the cathedral is encasing the heavens. There is so much detail to the carvings all over the walls and ceiling. I could have spent a few hours in there taking pictures and exploring all of the corners of this cathedral. I actually ran out of time because I was taking so many photos and looking at every little thing. Apparently I missed out on one of the most famous parts of the cathedral, the underground crypts which is all that was left from the fire in 1174. It also holds the altar where Becket was murdered. I can see how this church is fitting as the real center of the Anglican church, with such history and really impressive architecture!

After they finally kicked us out, we walked around the cathedral grounds. There are some stone ruins of what I assume may have been other buildings destroyed in the fire, but I am not sure. Adjacent to the church is Kings School which is a top English prep school. All of the buildings are beautiful and old and look like the same era of the cathedral. It is hard to imagine that one could actually attend school there! We saw a few kids who looked like they were on their way to choir practice or something. Otherwise, the area we explored was very serene and quiet. The birds were chirping at dusk and we stayed in the cloister area watching as the setting sun painted the side of the cathedral a warm pink color. We made a little friend along the way, a ginger colored kitty who was lurking about. He took to Anna the most! I felt like I could have explored the outside of the cathedral for longer still, but we saw one of the guards come and start closing gates and Anna said she preferred not to sleep in the cathedral that night. I, however, wouldn’t have minded!

By the time we left, it was all but dark out. We wandered around some more of the pedestrian streets of Canterbury and went in a few shops. I have found it a bit frustrating how early the stores close in the UK. We would have liked to look around more but since it was around 6pm, almost everything was closed! We decided to eat some dinner there before catching the train back to London. We ended up at a cute pub very close to the cathedral called The Buttermarket. From reading the back of their menu, I learned that there has been an inn on this site for at least 500 years. In the area outside, there was a butter and dairy market at one time. The pub is said to be haunted now…I suppose that may be possible with a 500 year old history! I enjoyed an English ale with my bangers and mash (aka. sausage and mashed potatoes). I can’t say it was the best bangers and mash I have had, but I did enjoy the pub. It had that great cozy, relaxed, homey feel that the lovely pubs in the UK have. I still haven’t figured out why most of the pubs in the US are just large, cold places with ridiculously loud music. I think we could stand to have a few more cozy little pubs in each town, its such a good place to socialize and an excuse to get people off their couches, away from their TV and internet, and socializing with real humans!! With our bellies full of beer and food, we headed back to the train station and home to London.