Hello avid blog readers! I am JOLLY tired while I write this, so I warn you it will probably make about as much sense as a pig in a jam jar, but you don't mind do you?
We are in Yosemite National Park! We're staying in a hostel called Yosemite Bug, and they're not kidding. About the bugs, I mean. It's dark now, so every time we go in and out of our room to the bathroom we have to be superlightningfast so as not to let in the swarm of daddy longlegses that are hovering about outside the door. I hate them so much! I have thrice been engaged in mortal combat with one of their kind this evening and although I have a significant height advantage (not to mention the flip-flop weapon) they can put up a pretty good fight. It's mainly because they dive-bomb. Onto my head! Bleuurgh yukyukyuk.
So, it turns out I'm not really an 'outdoorsey' person. But Yosemite is absolutely amazing and I'm sure I will be converted to outdoorsism after we do the big 6-mile hike Adam has planned for tomorrow, because it's supposed to have some of the most spectacular views in the world. We did a scenic drive today (much more up my street!) and it was absolutely incredible - my brain just couldn't process some of the views as being real life and not a photo or painting or movie or something. It was awesome.
And it's hot! The car told us it got up to 101F today, which is madness. This afternoon we went to a 'swimming hole' near the hostel, which was freezing but absolutely perfect - it's a natural pool in the rocks with a waterfall running into it. We had to hike there from the hostel (only for about ten minutes, but still) and it made it all the more satisfying.
We have spent a great few days in Oregon, enjoying it's uncalifornianess (in particular the absence of sales tax - woohoo!) and it's English-countrylike scenery. We spent two days in Bandon; a small town on the coast, where we stayed in a lovely family-run motel with views of the sea. Importantly, it had a TV so we managed to watch the season finale of Lost, and we spent a whole day without driving anywhere which was marvellous! We had planned to go to Crater Lake on Thursday, but we found that the roads were still closed because of snow, so we skipped that and drove inland (for the first time!) to a very interesting little town called Ashland.
We liked Ashland a lot because it reminded us of home, and there is a very good reason for that. It holds the Oregon Shakespeare Festival every year from February to October, and the whole town is modeled on Stratford, so it's a very bizarre English-feeling place. It's also absolutely full of hippies because the water from the river flowing through the town is supposed to have incredible healing qualities (and also because it's full of actors and all about the art, maaaan), so it seems like a very relaxed place. It was absolutely packed with school trips, of course, which took us back.
We didn't actually see any Shakespeare plays (because they were sold out), but we did get to see a new American play called Equivocation, in which Shakespeare was the main character, having to write a play for King James about the gunpowder plot. It was... interesting. I have never seen Shakespeare portrayed with an American accent before! That was a new one. And I'm fairly sure they didn't say 'goddammit!' and 'you got me wearin this goddam diaper!' in Shakespeare's day, but I could be wrong. And hey, I shouldn't be too harsh - the acting was fantastic and it was great to go to see a live show, but unfortunately the play itself was an extremely thinly veiled comment on American society, dressed up as a historical drama... some of the comments about torture and unnecessary wars were completely transparent. Funny though!
I'm going to brave the walk to the bathroom now... wish me luck!
-Scarlett
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