Happy Monday everyone!
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Pauline
As some of you may know I'm studying English and French at the University of Antwerp, so of course I am intrigued by everything English related. This weekend was a big celebratory weekend for everyone who likes English literature and theatre since this weekend marked the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death. Shakespeare was born on the 23rd of April and died on that same day 52 years later in 1616. I had the opportunity to go to London and Stratford-upon-Avon this weekend to go and celebrate this with my mum, and of course I wanted to share with you what we were up to during our lovely trip to the UK. We left Antwerp by bus at 7am and took the ferry to go to Dover. At 2pm we finally arrived in London where we attended a spectacular play in Sam Wanamaker's Playhouse at the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre called The Winter's Tale. A somewhat less popular play by Shakespeare but nonetheless, amazing! The whole play was lit up by candles, no other lights involved, it was literally fantastic. Later that evening me and my mum and two other friends headed to Covent Garden and looked around the shops before heading to Fire & Stone, a great Italian restaurant where we had pizza. The next morning we headed to Stratford-upon-Avon where the celebrations started early. First there was a beautiful speech, then they let down flags from countries all around the world and then the parade started to go around town. As you can see by the pictures people were dressed up, the music was very cheerful and everybody sang along. Afterwards we visited Susanna's house, daughter of William Shakespeare, and there was a huge picnic going on in her garden. The sun was shining and everybody had a great time. After chilling for a while and having lunch, we visited William Shakespeare's school, his birthplace and his wife Anne Hathaway's cottage. The picture of the floor and my feet is super cool because this is the original kitchenfloor in Anne Hathaway's house where both Anne and her husband have spent lots of days together. Later that evening we were competely knackered so we freshened up a little in our hotel, then went for a quick bite and a drink in a pub in Warwick and ended up asleep in bed at 10pm sharp. On Sunday we went back to London to watch another play at the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, this time we watched Hamlet. This Royal Shakespeare Company travelled during two years to perform this play all around the world and Sunday was their last performance of those two years. So you can imagine how excited we were. For those who don't know how the Globe works; you can buy seating or standing tickets, we opted for the standing tickets because the seating tickets were all sold out but that meant standing for three hours unfortunately. The roof of the Globe Theatre is open so if it rains you'll be soaked in a few minutes! Luckily the sun peeped through the clouds sometimes so we didn't have to pull out our raincoats. The play wasn't as great as The Winter's Tale but nonetheless, we had an amazing and inspiring time in the UK celebrating William Shakespeare's legacy! Of course I couldn't leave without buying some souvenirs right?! So, I got a mug with all sorts of Shakespeare quotes (very nerdy, idc), some English earl grey tea, then I got me some Real Techniques brushes (finally) and stocked up on my favourite budget concealers which we don't have in Belgium unfortunately (Collection Lasting Perfection and Rimmel Wake Me Up). I also picked up a book: the Dictionary of Idioms and their Origins (English student you know) and then we also got some presents for our family and some random little snacks for our journey back to Belgium. As you can tell I had a very busy weekend, but I really enjoyed every moment of it! Now I'm going to sip some tea from my new Shakespeare mug and start working on some schoolstuff.
Happy Monday everyone! X Pauline
3 Comments
mom
4/26/2016 02:53:06 am
Very good summary of a wonderful Shakespeare weekend !
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Louise
4/30/2016 11:07:42 pm
Zag er super leuk uit, Pauline!! X
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Pauline
5/1/2016 08:53:43 am
Dankjewel xx
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AboutHi everyone, my name is Pauline. I'm a 21 year-old Applied Linguistics student based in Antwerp. Loving make-up - fashion - books - social media - tea - travelling. Archives
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