Brideshead Revisited

I am back in Edinburgh, back home, after being down in England for a couple of weeks. Went down to Derby to go to Download Music Festival. My first one ever, ‘cause to be fair, Victoria does not really do music festivals; Vancouver doesn’t really do music festivals. Donnington does music festivals! Download is a 3 day event of non stop music with great bands headlining and other great bands playing on the smaller stages. Everything about it was all part of the experience. From the torrential down pour of rain on the Friday, to the mud that formed on the Saturday and then stayed for the rest of Sunday. Part,too,was looking at the people that accumulate for such an event and the outfits they wear to it and hearing songs I love performed live. All of it was amazing and made me wish the West Coast had something that even came to close to it! (Sorry Squamish, that is not you)

I’m also was so happy that I can say I have seen Muse live now four times, and that one of those times was while I was traveling around Europe. This has also given me a taste for music festivals and I want some more!

From there, Dian and I travelled down to York. Which seemed to be the exact opposite of what Download offered. Here is the comparison in a nut shell. Download = Everyone wears all black. Fields with mud so thick it would take off your shoes. And enough Moshpits going around they could be used as a new energy source if they found a way to harness it. York = Paved streets. Little shops and bistros and places to grab coffee. It was as amazing as Download. Dian and I felt like we entered a storybook village. We spent a day being taken to the museums and around the streets, and walking along the canal that ran through the city. We also went further out to  the Moors and the town of Whitby, two of the most great Gothic settings in English literature.

Just over a year ago now, I watched and read Brideshead Revisited and wrote a post about how much I loved that story. When it was decided Dian and I would be going to Europe I looked up where the show was filmed and saw that it was at Castle Howard, and hoped at the time we would be able to make our way  there and see such a beautiful place. The opportunity came last week, while staying with a good friend that we had made in Edinburgh, who originally came from York. Castle Howard was only an hour away by bus, and when it was that close in our grasp Dian and I hardly had to think twice about whether or not we would make the trip out there.

It was everything I had hoped for. The immense grounds, picnic lunching next to the Atlas Fountain and exploring the rooms where the characters of Charles and Sebastian roamed. Spending the entire day wishing I had a copy of the novel on me to read while   looked around. Or when sitting by one of the lakes drinking coffee. It was a perfect day.

Now back in Scotland, looking for work once again, so more trips like that can become possible in the upcoming months and maybe more places I have dreamed about seeing can be checked off the list.