Recovery

It has now been exactly two weeks since the swim. ALREADY. I know! I cannot believe it myself. My salt blister scabs are nearly completely healed from the salt water chafing of my swim suit, but other than that I am completely recovered. I haven't even swam for those two weeks! It feels odd, but I know that I really needed the break both physically and mentally.

Last week, we stayed in Nottingham, which is north of London. For those of you that recognize that name, it is because of the myth of Robin Hood. However, me being a huge story nerd, I LOVE the myth of Robin Hood and I think the child in me will always think there is some truth to the legend.

We arrived in Nottingham on Saturday, August 13th, in the late afternoon. First off, we went to find our hostel so we could drop off our luggage. When we arrived, we noticed we were in a rather desolate area. Shops were all boarded up, weeds over grew some parts of the sidewalks and there were lots of alleyways littered with trash. Our hostel was above a pub, so we had to walk through a section of the pub to get to the stairwell to our hostel. The smell of beer and cigarette smoke hung heavily in the air and it followed us up the stairs as well. When we arrived on the second floor of the building, our hostel manager greeted us and showed us to our room. We had asked for a double private room with twin beds, but he put us into a 3 bunkbed room. I was okay with that-at least it would just be the two of us and we would not have to worry about locking up our stuff. The room smelled awful, the carpet had a lot of hair and little pieces of dirt all over it, and our bed linens smelled like they hadn't been washed. I sat on my bed and turned towards the wall. To my horror I saw dried chunks of puke on the wall from whoever last slept on the bunk above mine. I gave a hopeless look to K. "Oh my goodness...." I thought.

We found this note left from the previous tenant on one of the bunk beds. It says, "Your hostel is a joke. We're leaving. Greet Lewis." Just a little unsettling!

As we started to half-way settle in, I began looking online at other reviews for this hostel. Quickly I began finding terrible reviews, a couple of which accused this very hostel of scams and the managers trying to get the tenants to pay for damages they had not done. After reading a couple of them my heart sank and I began asking K if we should rough it for the first two nights and then try to cancel the last couple of nights and go find another place to stay. I then went and politley told our host that our plans had changed and we would be leaving early, requesting a refund for the remaining nights.

Then, to my surprise and shock, he rudely blurted, "Nope." "What?" I said, "No. We cannot give you a refund because you changed your mind." To which I replied, "Well, this is a backpacker's hostel is it not? We are travelers-our plans change!" He shot back, "I'm sorry, but we cannot just refund everyone who changes their mind." The reviews of scams were racing through my mind and I began to worry that we too, were doomed to suffer the same scamming problem. I turned and went back to our room and told K the bad news.

He being an Eagle Scout and me growing up in the country with four brothers, we decided that we could rough it; however, there were some things we would need to do in order to make this room a bit more comfortable. We began walking into Nottingham's town center and found a store with cheap cleaning supplies. We bought air fresheners, wet wipes, and antibacterial spray and then went back to our hostel. When we arrived, I jacked open the windows, pulled back the blinds, and began cleaning. We sprayed the carpet with the antibacterial spray and lots of Febreeze, opened the airfreshners, and I wiped off the wall. Within five minutes, it was much more tolerable. In fact, we decided that at this point, we would deal with the hostel and tough it out for the rest of our booked stay. We were paying almost nothing for this hostel, so we figured that if you are going to save money, sometimes you have to be uncomfortable. At least we had a roof over our heads and a lock on the door:-)

Our hostel is located in a rather iffy area, but it is on a busy road so the constant traffic is somewhat of a comfort. Only a couple of blocks over and you are near the town center. As each day has passed, we have grown to like Nottingham more and more. A majority of the city is very clean with lots of old buildings and historical sites to see. My favorite site so far has been Nottingham Castle with the underground tunnels and caves underneath it. Surrounding the castle are the most beautiful gardens and a terrace with a view for miles and miles.

Nottingham Castel Gatehouse

Look, a rare sighting of Robin Hood!

The view from the terrace surrounding Nottingham Castle

A separate tour takes you down into the castle hill through the dungeons and tunnels that have been used for centuries. King David of Scotland was once imprisoned there. To actually set foot upon ground with so much history is very humbling and fascinating. When you come out at the bottom of the tunnels, you are led to the oldest pub in England, "Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem". It was called as such because of the crusades, which King Richard the Lionheart embarked on long ago. When you walk into the pub, several staircases and tunnels lead you back into the cliff tunnels and each room is in a different cubby hole-it reminded me of Bilbo Baggins' home in Lord of the Rings and it was very cozy.

Coming out from the medieval tunnels at the bottom of the hill.

Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem, a tavern built in the 1100s. It is the oldest in England and has served several members of the monarchy throughout the ages.

The tavern is built into the hill, with many of the rooms winding back into tunnels and nooks.

Apart from site-seeing, K and I try to run for 3 miles every day to every other day, and enjoy wandering around the city, ducking in and out of various shops, and my architectural nerdiness is soaking in all of the old buildings. On Sunday, we attended Holy Communion service at an Anglican church called St. Mary's. It is a beautiful old church that was built in the 1300s. Afterwards we were invited by the locals to join them for their after-service coffee and biscuits.

St. Mary's

A particular treat close to St. Mary's is The Pitcher and Piano-a bar and cafe built inside of a very old church. We went there several times to laze around, surf the internet, drink a Cappucino, catch up on thankyou letters, read, journal, etc. I have loved these afternoons so much! After this past whirlwind of a summer with Graduate school, intense training, searching for a job, etc, having the time to just be has been such a gift from God.

Pitcher and Piano, a cafe/bar built inside of an old church.

What an incredible journey and adventure this is turning out to be-so many surprises at every twist and turn-I am simply overwhelmed and bursting at the seams with joy and thankfulness for so many blessings this past month. Wow!

This afternoon, we arrived at our hostel in the Western part of London, near Hyde Park. It's a beautiful area with lots of nice walkways through the park, neat little shops, and thank goodness, LOTS of Starbucks tucked into many little corners. We are sitting in one right now, resting our legs from the whirlwind of travel. I'll try to squeeze in another post before heading home.

Before I leave you, I just want to remind you all that although we are now just relaxing after the swim, Crossing for a Cure is not over, yet. We still have a $25,000 goal to reach for our cancer research fund. If you have not yet donated, there is still plenty of time! Simply go to our donate page and click on the "Donate to Holden" link. We are also currently in the middle of a mini-competition called, "Bond's Challenge", which was started by a dear friend of mine who lost all of her grandparents to cancer. The highest donor from the the beginning of the contest through this Wednesday, August 24th, will receive a handmade scarf and hat set made by Bond herself! Simply go to "Bonds Challenge" in the News and Events section of our website to find out more details and to register your donation for the contest!

I hope you are all well back home!

Cheers!