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Welcome to my 2024 sabbatical travels blog

Hello and welcome!

Every five years at my day job, we get a 3-month, fully paid sabbatical. I'm extremely blessed by this benefit, and spent years leading up to it considering what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to travel, and I settled on (and saved up for) a trip all over the UK and Ireland. I'd never been, and was very keen to visit some of the countries my ancestors hailed from. I spent two of my three months' sabbatical just traveling around, and it was awesome.

Here's where I went, with links to the accompanying blog posts for each destination:

June 17-26: London (Part 1, Part 2)

June 26-29: Stratford-Upon-Avon

June 29-July 1: Nottingham/Long Eaton

July 1-4: Manchester (Part 1)

July 4-6: York

July 7: Sheffield

July 8-11: Manchester (Part 2)

July 11-19: Ireland (staying in Kilarney) (Part 1, Part 2)

July 19-26: Cardiff

July 26-28: Angelsey Island

July 28-29: Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, Wales

July 29-Aug. 4: Glastonbury (Goddess Conference)

Aug. 4-14: Glasgow

I set myself a couple ground rules before I went. I knew I wanted - and desperately needed - time to unplug and disconnect. I've been deep into social media, personally and professionally, since 2007, and I was way overdue for a break. So I stepped back from all my social accounts for the duration of the sabbatical (not counting creating this blog after I returned from my travels but before I returned to work). I didn't post a thing while I traveled and didn't check my accounts.

I also wanted to give myself every opportunity to be fully present for all I was experiencing, so I set myself a limit of only keeping 5 photos per day. I could take as many as I liked, but at the end of each day, I had to whittle it down to 5. This kept me focused on experiencing more than capturing the trip, something I haven't been very good about in the past.

I spent part of every evening journaling about what I did that day in an app, and every Sunday I hand-wrote a summary of the week's highlights, things I learned, and what I read that week.

A softer goal with no specific number attached was that I wanted to read as many books as I could during my sabbatical, particularly novels. I never seem to have enough time or space to read as much as I'd like in my day-to-day life.

And a fun goal was to try as many of the foods as possible from The Great British Bake-Off that I'd never tried before. (I only succeeded at a few.)

I learned a lot during this trip, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy reading my recap.

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Trip top 5

My top five experiences this trip were (click the link to jump to the related post):

Getting engaged (!!!)

Cardiff Castle

"Much Ado About Nothing" at the Globe

ABBA Voyage

Personal tour around Angelsey Island

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London, Part 1: June 17-22, 2024

It's been a long time since I traveled alone without having work or family or a con or something to guide my agenda. I landed in London with tickets to a couple of shows, but otherwise just open-ended days I could spend as I like. This is my favorite way to travel, whether alone, with my partner, or with a friend. I love being able to sleep as late as I like and do whatever the mood strikes each day.

The day I arrived, I took it easy. I took a shower and a nap, then found a place with fantastic steak & ale pie for dinner and wandered to a local park that had a beautiful Japanese garden. I was surprised to find the sun rose at 5 a.m. and set around 10 p.m. each day - earlier and later than I'm accustomed to, even in the height of summer in Maryland.

Another happy surprise were the intersex-inclusive pride flags prominently displayed when I entered my hotel, the Premier Inn (London Kensington - Olympia).

Side note on Premier Inn: I stayed at several of them during my travels. They're a budget hotel chain in the UK that's very queer-friendly, clean, secure, comfortable, quiet, and I had very good experiences at every location.

Once I had a good night's rest, I asked myself: "What do I want to do today?" And the answer to that question was "Go shopping." I was keen to check out Camden Market, a sprawling collection of small, quirky shops and restaurants in London. One of my favorite clothing stores, Psylo, is there, and I wanted to buy myself a cool outfit. Which I did!

I also got an artsy photo taken of my eyeball to gift to my partner.

I had lunch at The Cheese Bar. It was fantastic.

There were some truly wild shops in Camden Market that were visually impressive:

I had a ball exploring the shops and little eateries (I even got a Pasteis de Nata, a kind of custard tart I fell in love with in Portugal a few years back), and I could've spent an entire day there, but I was restless and eager to see more stuff, so I ended up wandering to the nearby London Zoo. It was a pretty sweet zoo with lots of different animals and habitats represented. There was a free-roaming tamarind inside the rainforest building, which was cool to see up close. (I have a video, but Tumblr limits you to uploading only one video per post, boo.)

I wandered through Queen Mary's Rose Garden after that, and stopped by the gorgeous Daunt Books, which specializes in travel books.

London definitely has an amazing bookshop scene. The next day, I visited 10 more of them, focusing on occult bookshops. I found my books in stock at a few of them (squee!) and chatted with the owners as I signed them.

I was also delighted to see Pamela Colman Smith's fireplace at Treadwell's:

And Gerald Gardner's original meeting place at the Atlantis Bookshop:

I loved visiting these bookshops, especially if they carried my friends' books. It warmed my heart to see their books in another country.

I also teared up a bit visiting Gay's The Word, the UK's oldest LGBTQ+ bookshop, which was featured in the movie Pride (2014). I was thrilled to see they carried my friend Tamsin's book.

I also checked out the Vagina Museum. I'd followed them on social media for years, so it was really nice to visit and support them in person. It's small, and in kind of a rough location, but it's worth a visit.

That day, I had the best fish and chips of my entire life at The Crown & Anchor, which I mistakenly thought was the pub in Ted Lasso when I found it on Google Maps (turns out they renamed a different pub with that name for the show). Holy crap, I want to eat that specific fish and chips the rest of my life. Every other time I had fish and chips on the trip, it failed to live up to this one. I got spoiled early. It was so buttery and crisp and utterly perfect.

The next big trip highlight was seeing a production of Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. It's a reconstruction of the Globe from the Elizabethan era. I sprung for a seat with a cushion(!) on the second level, and I had a great view of the fantastic production. I'm so glad I got to see this specific play, because it's my favorite. The cast was amazing, and seeing it in that theatre was a deeply moving experience, like stepping back in time.

They also had one of the rare original folios of Shakespeare's plays on display:

As if that experience didn't give my brain enough happy chemicals, afterwards I went to Dopamine Land. Dopamine Land is a temporary exhibit/experience available all over the world, where you wander through about 10 different rooms that stimulate and soothe your senses in different ways, including a giant, adult-sized ball pit. I really liked the first room, which was all mirrors and color-changing dangling lights.

The next day, I visited Tate Britain with my friend Beckett, who has been an online friend for the past decade, and is both a fantastic musician in her own right and also a big supporter of my band, the Misbehavin' Maidens. She and her wife met me at the museum and we got to do one of the LGBTQIA+ tours. It was a super interesting tour focusing on a handful of pieces by queer artists, with queer themes expressed in the pieces. Apparently, each of the LGBTQIA+ tours is different, so I'd definitely go back and do it again.

Another highlight of Tate Britain was seeing The Lady of Shallott painting by John William Waterhouse, which I think was on the cover of one of my English Lit textbooks in college.

After the museum, we went to a pub and I had my first Sticky Toffee Pudding! It was delicious - served with salted caramel ice cream. (I developed a preference over the course of the trip, though, to have it served with custard.)

My first Tube ride made me giggle, incidentally:

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London, Part 2: June 23-26, 2024

My friends, have you heard about our Lord and Savior, ABBA Voyage?

My friends Molly and Josh encouraged me to check it out. I like several ABBA songs, so I decided one of my big splurges for the trip would be a dance booth ticket for a matinée.

I was expecting a high-tech concert experience. I was not expecting to sob for the first 20 minutes.

But let me back up. What the heck is ABBA Voyage? It's a concert featuring holograms of the band ABBA in their heyday. Their prerecorded vocals and instruments are backed up by a live band that's shrouded in shadow for much of the show, but is occasionally brought out and featured. The venue is an arena specifically built for this show, in London's outskirts.

Walking into the arena, my first impression was "This is Pride for women in their 60s and 70s." The sheer joy from that demographic, with many of them wearing colorful, spangled jumpsuits, brought joy to my heart. (I didn't get a photo of any of the bejumpsuited people., but trust me, there were a lot of them. A fair number of them under 30, too!)

The dance booth ticket, while one of the priciest ticket tiers, was worth it. The dance booth is an area for 12 people that includes a cushioned bench for seating, plus a lower level open area for dancing, and you get a private bar and table service, too. I had two delicious passionfruit cocktails waiting for the show to begin.

When the show started, I got emotionally overwhelmed in a way I absolutely did not expect.

Feeling 1: This is the biggest arena show I've been to since well before the pandemic. There's something beautiful about so many people gathered to enjoy music together.

Feeling 2: I'm both excited and terrified for the implications this event has on the future of musical performance. On the one hand, it could make it much easier to see acts more places and after people have passed on. On the other hand, we lose the authenticity of live performance. Not a hair was out of place, no flubbed lyrics, no sweaty sheen on the performers' faces. They lampshaded the concept a little by doing a bit about a costume change gone wrong, but it kind of made me cringe. The show is, and will always be, perfect. In removing the precious ephemeral nature of live musical performance, what else are we losing?

Feeling 3: This is the closest I have ever come to a true time machine experience, and wow was it moving to "see" ABBA in their prime, something I could only do on video before.

Feeling 4: Traveling is Just So Much. I needed a release after everything from the first week.

So I cried for the first 20 minutes, huddled in a corner of the dance booth bench. I don't cry very often, so it really took me by surprise. Once I was done, I got up and danced a whole bunch.

Some interesting pieces of the show were having three femme vocalists from the live band perform "Does Your Mother Know"; an animated two-part short; some fun banter from ABBA; clips from their 1974 Eurovision entry; and at the end, there are holograms that come out for a curtain call that look like the band members do today, which I think was a nice touch.

Honestly, the whole thing was a religious experience. I was deeply moved and it made me think about the world in a different way. I will forgive them not playing my favorite ABBA song, "Take a Chance on Me," because the whole thing was just so amazing.

After the show, I had my first of many Adventures in Doing Laundry on the trip. I found a few coin-op laundry places near my hotel, but based on reviews they only took coins, specifically £1 coins, which is complicated because most businesses in London are contactless or card payment only, so I didn't get a lot of change. I asked at my hotel if I could buy some £1 coins, but all they had were £2 coins, which I took, and hoped for the best. Some of the online reviews mentioned that staff at the coin-ops could make change.

Unfortunately, this was a Sunday afternoon, and no staff were present. The first laundromat I visited only took £1 coins and there was no way to make change. Fortunately, the second laundromat I checked did take £2 coins, and I got to enjoy the sticker shock that it cost £20 to do a single load of laundry (about USD$25). While I sat there, I had a nice chat with a couple from Brisbane, where I used to live, and made friends with an older woman named Sharon, who I ended up meeting up with for dinner by chance after I brought my laundry back to my hotel. She was really fun to chat with, and gave me some tips for places to eat in the area.

The next day, I visited Kew Gardens Royal Botanical Gardens, which is enormous and I sadly didn't have time to wander the whole thing, or even most of it. I did get to enjoy the treetop walk, though, which was a really neat way to see the big old trees in the park from a different perspective. They had some neat sculptures, too.

Next up, I visited some Richmond locations from Ted Lasso, including his pub (renamed on the show to the Crown & Anchor), the door to his flat, and a really tacky souvenir shop that wanted a shocking £65 for a shirt. I had some fish and chips at the pub, and honestly, I wouldn't recommend the food. I don't think they've changed their fry oil in the past decade. They were also slammed with Ted Lasso fans and the staff did not seem to be happy about that fact.

After that, I decided to go see Big Ben, just to check if off the list, since it's such an iconic site. Dear gods, never again. Up until this point, the obnoxious-tourist quotient of my trip had been pretty manageable, but when you exit the Tube near Big Ben, the sidewalk is completely slammed with tourists and con artists who have no sense of personal space.

I got a quick pic and booked it out of there, seeing the exteriors of Westminster Abbey and Parliament House quickly, and decided to return to Tate Britain, because I enjoyed it so much and it was fairly close by. I finally got a pic of my favorite piece there, a sculpture by Henry Moore called Reclining Figure:

I started my last full day in London visiting the Mithraeum, the ruins of an old temple to the Roman god Mithras, which was recommended by my friend Ron. It was super cool. There's a whole immersive light-and-sound experience with the ruins, to make you feel like you're in the temple when it was active. There's Latin chanting and everything.

Then I went to the British Museum. And if I thought the tourists outside Big Ben were obnoxious, well. There were a lot more of them at the British Museum. I mean, obviously I myself am a tourist, so I can extend some grace, but what annoys me is people who clearly don't have experience being in large crowds in cities having no spatial awareness and failing to notice that there are people trying to move around them, so they stop suddenly, that kind of thing.

The British Museum was crowded and only nominally air-conditioned in some places, so I was hot and uncomfortable the entire time. I only lasted about 90 minutes before I had to call it, which was a shame, because there is some cool stuff to see there. I think my favorite thing was the Rosetta Stone, but I didn't get a photo of that. Instead, you get to see this statue of Hermes:

After the museum, I had booked myself for high tea at a fancy place called The Wolseley, but the reservation wasn't for another hour, so I decided to check another popular destination off the list and go see Buckingham Palace.

Tea was absolutely wonderful. The warm currant scones scones were soft and moist, and the clotted cream and jam with them were absolutely scrumptious. The finger sandwiches (cucumber, salmon, chutney, curry chicken salad, and egg salad) were all very tasty, and the desserts were fantastic patisserie. I had an hibiscus herbal tea with it, and really my only complaint was that I didn't have a companion to enjoy the experience with. It was absolutely phenomenal and made me a quick convert to the joys of high tea. (And spoiled me for all future high teas on the trip, unfortunately!)

On my way back to my hotel, I spotted something a friend told me about, that I'd walked past every single day and hadn't noticed: There's a fucking TARDIS right by my Tube stop.

I guess the chameleon circuit still works okay.

This made me laugh:

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Stratford-Upon-Avon: June 26-29, 2024

As an English major and theater nerd, I pretty much had to visit Stratford-Upon-Avon, the hometown of William Shakespeare. Surprisingly, though, the highlights of this part of the trip for me weren't actually Shakespeare-related, though the Shakespeare tourism was really cool.

My first day there, I wandered around near my hotel and found a Ferris wheel to ride. I bought a ticket and got the whole ride to myself.

(Above: View from said Ferris wheel.)

After riding the Ferris wheel, I heard a four-piece band of preteens out busking in the plaza and absolutely slaying "Killing In the Name" by Rage Against the Machine.

I stayed to listen to their entire set, a set which seemed to be curated specifically to part Boomers through Millennials from their money. I wrote down all the songs I could remember at the end of the day:

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana

"Zombie" by The Cranberries

"Glory Box" by Portishead (?!?!?!)

"7 Nation Army" by the White Stripes

"These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" by Nancy Sinatra

"Sweet Home Alabama" by Leonard Skynyrd

I can't overstate how incredibly talented these kids were. I feel so blessed to have been able to catch their show. I tipped them £5 and asked them to promise never to stop making music.

Also: Look at the geese by the Ferris wheel and River Avon! (Fun fact: Avon means "river," so it's the "River River.") (Another fun fact: "Stratford-Upon-Avon" means "The Street Where You Cross the River.")

Another non-Shakespeare highlight was my visit was the MAD Museum, full of mechanical art, automata, and Rube Goldberg-style devices. It's fairly small, but I had an absolute blast wandering around and admiring everything.

But, of course, I also did Shakespeare things. My first full day in town, I bought a ticket for one of those open-top, hop-on/hop-off bus tours, which was recommended in the Rick Steves guide as being the best way to get out to see Anne Hathaway's (Shakespeare's wife's) childhood home, which is just a bit outside of town.

It was well worth the money and the trip. Her cottage is beautiful, and was in her family for several generations. You can see some sections that are fairly authentic to when she would've grown up there, and then there's an enormous garden, which includes a lot of really neat sculptures.

I also visited Shakespeare's grave, inside Holy Trinity Church. At the time Shakespeare lived, it was common practice to dig up people's graves about 20 years after they were buried, to make room for new bodies. Shakespeare was appalled by this, and not only arranged to be buried inside the church, he also wrote a curse to be placed on his resting place:

"Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones."

While I was in town, I was hoping to see a performance of something by Shakespeare, but apparently I visited when there were no Shakespeare performances to be had. Instead, I visited the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and saw a production of Kyoto, a gripping political thriller based on a true story about the UN Climate Talks.

The protagonist(?) in the play is an American lawyer who served under Reagan, who after Reagan's second term was hired by OPEC to sabotage the UN Climate Talks. I never thought someone could make UN parliamentary procedure gripping, but I was wrong. I was on the edge of my seat for this play. If you ever get a chance to see it, do.

The theatre itself was beautiful, and almost completely in-the-round. I had a fantastic seat on the second level, only slightly off-center from the midpoint of the stage.

I don't have photos of them, but I also visited Shakespeare's New Place (which is mostly just a fabulous garden) and saw the exhibit for Shakespeare's Birthplace (the latter had a super long, slow line to get into the birthplace itself, and a lot of people in line were coughing, so I opted not to go in).

The most important Shakespeare-related thing I did during my visit, however, was having high tea at the Shakespaw Cat Cafe.

All the cats there are named after Shakespeare characters. Above, Horatio is trying to steal Hamlet's treats, and I'm holding Raven, an adorable kitten who blessed me by crawling into my lap and snoozing for a bit. 10/10, would drink tea and pet kitties again.

Things that made me giggle during this part of the trip:

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Nottingham/Long Eaton: June 29-July 1, 2024

My day job has Slack channels for various geographical regions, and when I asked the UK-based folks months prior to the trip for recommendations for places to stay, my colleague David kindly offered the guest room in his home, and I happily accepted the offer!

David lives in the Nottingham metro area, in a town called Long Eaton, with his wife, teen daughter, and an extremely dapper and sweet kitty named Charlie.

David and his wife Jennie extended fantastic hospitality, picking me up at the train station and making me a traditional Sunday roast dinner my first night there. And then we all got to visit Nottingham Castle together!

As tourist attractions go, Nottingham Castle surprised me in its modernity. Most of the Robin Hood exhibits were interactive video-driven, many of them straight-up video games. You start your tour walking through a cave and emerge into this cavernous area with multiple video screens and pillars showing characters on more video screens who tell you the complex historical roots of the Robin Hood legend. And then you can branch off into vestibules with a life-sized archery video game, a life-sized quarterstaff battle game, a costume area, and other interactive entertainment options, mostly aimed at kids.

But your admission fee (which, by the way, gets you entrance to the castle for a full year!) gets you more than just the Robin Hood exhibit. You also get access to other historical Nottingham exhibits, including the history of the lace industry in Nottingham and the Luddites, and an entire art museum.

I was particularly moved by a series of murals in a stairwell that transitions you from the Robin Hood area to the Rebellion Gallery. The models are all people who live in Nottingham.

I also have to note that when we were in the gift shop purchasing tickets, one of the people working there admired my Desert Bus for Hope t-shirt and turned out to also be a Loading Ready Run fan. So that was a fun moment!

We also enjoyed some shopping in downtown Nottingham. I was sorely tempted by the huge selection of beautiful hardcover Discworld books at Waterstones, but managed to slap my hand away, since I knew they'd be heavy in my luggage. But, in the course of our conversations, David, Jennie and I discovered we're all fans of tabletop games, so I convinced David to pick up a copy of one of my favorites, Ganz Schön Clever (That's Pretty Clever), a roll & write dice game. It was really fun teaching them how to play it.

This week's Adventures in Doing Laundry were graciously provided by David, who let me use their machine. Line-drying proved to be a challenge, though, with shifting weather patterns and some of my clothes' fabric just being very stubborn and slow to air-dry. A few of my things were very slightly damp when I departed, but thankfully the place I stayed next had a heated towel bar that took care of that.

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Manchester, Part 1: July 1-4, 2024

I love Manchester for its stunning architecture and its prominent queer and alternative scene. The town seems to have a good sense of humor, and there's some fantastic shopping available, including a whole multistory shopping center of queer, artsy, and alternative shops. I was pleased to see a lot of folks wandering around wearing office attire while sporting brightly-colored hair, tattoos, and piercings.

But the architecture. It's so pretty!

When I got off the train at Piccadilly Station, there was a big sign saying, "Welcome to Manchester: Home of the Bee Network!" and lots and lots of other signs for the Bee Network. None of them said what the Bee Network was, though. I had to Google it. (Tl;dr: it's their revitalized public transit system.)

I stayed at a Motel One, which is a newish German budget hotel chain, and dang was it swanky. Entering a Motel One is like walking into a chill lounge. There's a bar, lots of comfortable space to sit, chill music playing, and disco balls hanging from the ceiling. My room was well-appointed and felt like something I'd have at a much more expensive hotel.

My one big complaint about Motel One, and why I ultimately changed my reservation for Glasgow from a Motel One to a Premier Inn, is that their beds are awfully firm, which my curvy hips really don't like. I woke up in pain most of the nights I stayed at one.

At this point of the trip I was pretty firmly into a routine: Rest the first day I arrive at a new place and buy a few groceries for breakfasts, then find every bookstore and queer shop in walking distance, then look for any tourist sites or shopping that interest me generally.

So, my first full day in Manchester, I sought out the Gay Village (noted on Google Maps as such). It was pretty easy to spot.

And they even have an Alan Turing Memorial:

A short walk from the Gayborhood, there's a giant coffee shop/queer bookshop that I was super pleased carried a copy of my book. (I signed it discreetly. I usually ask a shop's proprietor if they mind if I sign it, but they were all busy.)

I also bought some new threads, thanks to the recommendation from my friend Molly to check out Lucy & Yak, which was extremely my shit in terms of style and comfort:

My final evening in Manchester, I took in a fantastic local production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Royal Exchange Theatre, which is one of the coolest theatres I've been in. The building is this giant Art Deco-ish affair, but built in the middle of this huge domed atrium there's this industrial cylinder made of yellow pipes, and that is where the actual stage and seats are located.

It's theatre-in-the-round style, and the set was gorgeous:

I was really impressed with the acting as well. It was such a fun experience, and cemented my belief that I need to make more time and space for live theatre back home, in my day-to-day life. It really feeds my soul.

Giggles from this part of the trip:

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Interlude: Train travel in the UK

This seems like a good point in the blog to talk about my train experiences getting around the UK. I used the train a lot, and thanks to my Britrail pass, it was relatively easy and inexpensive. I was impressed with how many trains run per day to various locations, and though I experienced a couple minor delays on my travels, I only had one incident where I got completely screwed over by the train system, and that was an aborted attempt at a day trip to Liverpool, when I basically spent 2 and a half hours traveling in a circle and never made it to my destination due to a switching problem between Manchester and Liverpool.

Trains > planes because you can show up 10 minutes before the train leaves, there's no security theater, you can keep your bags close to you, and you get to see lovely scenery. And honestly, unless you're traveling hundreds of miles, the time difference for flying vs. taking the train is negligible when you add in the advance time you have to arrive at the airport, time to wait for baggage, etc.

The one thing that really surprised and frustrated me was how variable the trains in the UK were in terms of luggage storage space. I had a pretty big suitcase, and about half the trains I took simply had no space for it except to put it in a seat next to me (which, thankfully, wasn't really an issue most of the time). Even the overhead storage space was extremely limited on some of the train lines and couldn't fit my backpack because the racks were so small and at such a tight angle to the wall.

I also heard that a lot of cuts were made in national train service, and that showed in some of the extremely crowded trains I took, where people were crammed into the aisles and next to the bathrooms, sometimes for hours-long train journeys. In particular, the train from Edinburgh to Glasgow was just jam-packed and uncomfortable.

For the second half of my trip, I splurged to get a first class Britrail pass, which wasn't that much more expensive, but only got me a couple of actual first class experiences, because a lot of the trains don't have a first class car. But for the times when I did have first class, it was well worth it. There was a trolley that brought around free beverages and surprisingly good packaged cookies, it was quieter, I had more leg room, and it was just overall nicer.

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York: July 4-6, 2024

I fucking love York.

Of all the places I visited, York felt most like home and made my heart sing in a way I can't quite explain. It may be because most of my English ancestors lived in Yorkshire, but I think it has more to do with the overall vibe of the town, and the fact that there are city walls you can run around on.

The City Wall Trail is so fun. There's something really exciting about walking around these old stone walls to get from place to place, above the traffic and the noise and the tourists. Especially as an American, too, the fact that there aren't guardrails on one side makes me feel especially rebellious in a delicious way to walk upon them.

I visited York not just because I have ancestry in the region, but because my colleague and dear friend Tal lives there. In fact, she grew up there. And worked as a tour guide there. And I was incredibly fortunate that she rode her ebike an hour and a half from the exurbs into the city to hang out with me and show me around. We met on Dame Judi Dench Walk:

We ran around the walls, and my other favorite area, the Shambles:

The Shambles made me feel like I'd stepped into a Renaissance Festival, or a fantasy novel. The architecture that sort of leans into the middle of the narrow cobbled roads, the fun little shops...it feels like stepping out of time.

Tal taught me some of York's history, including a horrible antisemitic massacre in one of the castle towers in 1190, and the fact that Constantine was crowned emperor near the cathedral there in 306 AD.

The cathedral, incidentally, is stunning:

We also stumbled upon this plaque, and this was my chance to teach Tal something of the local history, because she hadn't heard of Anne Lister. My partner Niall and I had watched the show Gentleman Jack, which is based on Anne Lister's life.

(I'm a little salty that this plaque's language was changed to remove "gender non-conforming" and, curiously "entrepreneur," due to some TERF uproar, though.)

We also visited some of the local pubs. While we were walking around, I remembered one of my goals for the trip had been to drink in at least one of the Grand Pubs of Yorkshire from the song of that name I used to sing in my old band. We found one of those pubs still exists in York proper: Ye Olde Starre Inn ("The Star" in the song).

We went there, I ordered a shot of Jameson, and I drank a toast to my departed bandmate Stringalong Jim, who used to sing the lead on that song.

(Side note: As an American, I was constantly in awe of experiences like drinking in a pub that's been around since 1644.)

Another pub we visited had a sign that made me very, very sad as a Misbehavin' Maiden:

(That's literally all we do!)

Tal and I had Yorkshire pudding with roast beef for lunch, but our dinner was truly spectacular. She took me to Delrio's, an Italian place where she used to work. They still had up some of the signs she had lettered many years ago! The fiocchi formaggio e pere, described on the menu as "Parcels of pasta filled with cheese and pear served in a creamy basil sauce," was toe-curlingly delicious. The food was so good, in fact, I returned the next night to eat there a second time, where I had the tagliatelle al tartufo: "Tagliatelle with wild mushrooms, truffle and cream."

One of my other food loves discovered around this point in the trip are these amazing custard cream cookies, which are stupid cheap at Marks & Spencer (under £1 for an entire pack). I brought two packages home with me, that's how good they are.

Finally, here are a couple business names that made me giggle in York:

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Sheffield: July 7, 2024

I hopped a train from York to Sheffield just for one afternoon and evening, because my friend Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq. (famed for the viral internet sensation "I've No More Fucks To Give") was performing a show, and seeing him perform live has been on my bucket list for several years.

(Also, fun fact Tom shared with me: Sheffield is where the movie The Full Monty takes place. After I returned home, I rewatched the movie with my partner, and a lot of it holds up really well!)

Sometimes when you meet Internet friends, the vibe doesn't match, and you walk away disappointed. Thankfully the absolute opposite was true of this meeting: Tom was such an incredible gentleman, phenomenal performer, and sweetheart. We arranged to meet at the show location a little early to have some beer and chat about our comedy-music-performing experiences. And as an added bonus, his opening act, Chris Taverner, joined us, and was equally charming and great to hang out with! (And put on a hell of a show. I immediately bought his full collection on Bandcamp and joined his Patreon. So funny and talented...and extremely cute!)

Their show was both hilarious and impressive, from a performance standpoint. Both are extremely funny, polished, and great at engaging the crowd.

After the show, we had some shockingly good Mexican food at The Street Food Chef (the churros were particularly excellent).

I really enjoyed talking to both of them, and I was so sad we had to part ways so soon. Hopefully our paths will cross again and we'll get to hang out some more in the future.

[enfyswanders]

Manchester, Part 2: July 8-11, 2024

This week of the trip was supposed to be Liverpool, but when I went to book it, I found hotels to be very expensive for some reason (I'm guessing some big event was happening).

I did a little bit more sightseeing in Manchester, in particular their cathedral and "Shambles" area:

I love the little painted bee by the cathedral!

But the highlights of this week were seeing some of my favorite colleagues from my day job, and taking in another Chris Tavener show at Manchester Fringe!

Josh and his fiancé took me for a beautiful walk through a nature preserve and to a fabulous dinner in suburban Manchester at The Lead Station, where I tried a Pimm's Cup for the first time (it's tasty!).

The next day, I got to meet up with several local colleagues, including Josh, at a lovely coffee shop called The Feel Good Club...

...followed by a tasty Japanese dinner with my colleague Simon afterwards.

Much like my visits with David and Tal earlier in the trip, I was surprised how easy it was to be around colleagues while I was on sabbatical. I wasn't stressed out hearing about how things were at work, and I really had fun connecting with everyone. I think that speaks really well to both how much I like my job and how much I like my colleagues, while also affirming my good mental boundaries around my sabbatical in refusing to let any current work issue distract me overmuch.

Later that evening, I went to see Chris Taverner debut his planned Edinburgh Fringe show at Manchester Fringe. Though the song set was almost entirely the same as the set he performed at the Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq. show earlier in the week, the structure was different, and he had a local crowd consisting of a lot of friends and fans, so that was cool to see. He's such a talented performer and I'm so glad we met.

This week's Adventures in Doing Laundry necessitated me using an expensive service/app called LaundryHeap, because there was no coin-op laundry place anywhere downtown. They did a nice job and picked up my clothes from the hotel reception and dropped them back off at reception the next day.

Another food highlight from Manchester is these delectable crème brulée Japanese soufflé pancakes from Fluffy Fluffy:

And the giggle of this part of the trip is brought to you by this shop name:

The last thing I want to say about Manchester is that Terminal 2 of their airport is an absolute nightmare for neurodivergent people like myself.

First of all, despite the traditional advice to arrive 3 hours before an international flight, the Aer Lingus desk for check-in didn't open until 2 hours prior to my flight, around 12:30 p.m. There were no chairs, so I sat on the floor for an hour until it opened up.

Once I checked in and figured out how to get to security - which was a task because the signage in the check-in area is terrible - the security staff there were particularly thorough and persnickety, making for a high-anxiety experience even for a seasoned traveler like myself. After that fun, I had to walk through the sensory-overload-endless-mall-of-duty-free for several minutes, and then when I finally got beyond that, I found a big central waiting area with some restaurants and more duty free shops, and they announce the gates only about 10-15 minutes before boarding closes, so passengers have to really hustle. My flight showed up on the board promising to announce the gate at a certain time, and that promise never changed despite it not being announced for 15+ minutes after said promised time, right around when the flight doors were supposed to close, according to my ticket. My anxiety could not have been higher at this point.

(If you open that photo up and zoom in a bit, you'll see that almost every flight simply says "relax" where the gate should be. I can't relax, Manchester Airport. You are making it almost impossible for me to do so with the way you run these shenanigans.)

When I finally got to the gate area (which, for all passengers, is a 5-15 minute walk from that central cattle-call area, depending on the gate), there were almost no chairs, and I had to stand in a crowded narrow hallway for an indeterminate amount of time until they decided to start boarding.

It's honestly the worst terminal I've ever been in. Ugh. Do not recommend.

[enfyswanders]

Ireland, Part 1: July 11-15, 2024

I was super excited for the Ireland portion of my trip, because that's when my partner of nine years, Niall, would finally be joining me for a week! We'd been apart for a month, and I missed him terribly.

Unfortunately, his journey to the Emerald Isle was rife with misadventure. He'd booked his flights on British Airways, and a week prior had gotten an email from Aer Lingus saying one of his flights was going to be canceled due to their pilots strike. At first we thought this was spam, because Niall's flights were on British Airways, but after a couple of days we looked again and realized one of his flights - his connection from London Heathrow to Dublin - was operated by Aer Lingus, and its planned cancellation was confirmed on the Aer Lingus website. I spent 4 hours on the phone over a few days with Capital One Travel trying to rebook him, but unfortunately British Airways insisted the flight was still happening and refused to rebook us. There was a possibility British Airways would put in one of their planes instead, and we had little choice, so Niall took his flights as planned. Once Niall landed in London, though, he found out - stunner, who could've predicted - that his connecting flight to Dublin was canceled. When he called to rebook, the soonest he could get to Dublin was the following day. And on top of that, when he did finally fly to Dublin, his luggage didn't make it, and he ended up being without his luggage for four whole days. (And now British Airways is being a real pain and not reimbursing him for the clothes he had to buy. Arrrrgh.)

Meanwhile, I arrived in Dublin a day before him, because when I booked our flights I forgot that he was taking an overnight flight, putting him in Ireland on the 12th, whereas my flight from Manchester, while leaving on the same day as his flight, would arrive on the 11th. So I spent some time chilling at the Premier Inn by the airport, and then got to spend another night there once I found out Niall would be delayed.

What that meant was that I had to pick up our rental car by myself, though, which honestly terrified me. I was extremely anxious about learning to drive on the left side of the road in a country with different road rules, and prepared for the experience as best I could, including buying a magnet that said "New Driver - Please Be Patient" for the rental car, but I was gripped by more absolute terror than I can remember feeling in a very long time as I slid behind the wheel of our blue rental Dacia, even though I only had to drive a couple of miles back to the hotel.

It's nice that our rental company understands a lot of foreigners rent their cars and might need a little extra reminder:

I arrived at the hotel parking lot without incident, but promptly treated myself to a shot of Jameson, which turned out to be the only alcohol I had the entire time I was in Ireland, since despite my deep anxiety, we decided it would be best if I did the driving, because I had a chance to get used to it on the four-hour drive from the airport to our B&B. Unfortunately, my body at this stage in my life has decided that even a small amount of alcohol will mess up my sleep, and I didn't want to risk being groggy on the roads.

Driving in Ireland was, as a predicted, often terrifying, but driving on the left side of the road was the least of my worries, as it turned out. The highways are fine, but the non-highway roads tend to be very narrow, and it's pretty common for a two-way road to not have enough room for two cars to pass each other, very few roads have shoulders, and the more windy country roads have tall bushes or stone walls on each side which means every bend is a completely blind corner, yet somehow those roads are rated for 80kph. Apologies to everyone who got stuck behind me on those roads, because I went very slowly and gently honked every time I got near one of those blind corners.

What really surprised me about driving in Ireland, though, was that a lot of folks on the highways traveled well below the speed limit, but on those scary-ass country roads, people were flying by well over the limit. A complete flip of what I experience in the States.

Despite all that, I did manage to keep us safe on the roads. No accidents. Whew.

Niall and I did finally reunite in Dublin airport, and I drove us the four hours to our B&B in Kilarney. We stayed at Killeen House, a gorgeous, quaint, but sizeable B&B with absolutely divine breakfasts. Their oatmeal porridge with Irish Mist-infused honey just tasted like love, I don't know how else to describe it. And Niall loved their Full Irish Breakfast, too. Our room was huge, too - they upgraded us to a triple, so we had tons of space, huge windows on two walls, and an enormous bathroom with a separate tub and generously-sized shower. The room was immaculate and the staff was super helpful and friendly.

Our first evening we spent ordering room service, relaxing, and planning what we wanted to see, and then the next day we set out to see a couple of sites. First on the list was St. Gobnait's Well, a recommendation from my high priestess, but our attempt to visit was thwarted by traffic for an upcoming outdoor mass there. No matter, we thought, onward to Drombeg Stone Circle. But after we punched in the location on Google Maps, we had one of those moments where Google tells you to go one direction, then abruptly says "No, wait! I meant the other way!" before recalibrating. Unfortunately, we learned quickly we should've taken the initial way, because the recalibrated way took us on the most horrifying and tense drive of the entire trip, through deep country, lots of windy roads with tall brush on either side, and what Google said would take us 45 minutes ultimately took more like 90 minutes to arrive, after which I was a bit of a shaken mess. We learned a valuable lesson: When driving in Ireland, as much as possible, keep your route to the M and N roads, because the R and L roads are often very rural and difficult for American drivers.

Niall was very impressed with my courage, though. He said I had "nerves of steel" and I said no, I have nerves of Jell-O but I don't let them stand in my way of going where I want to go. He said that was the same thing, in his mind.

And Drombeg Stone Circle was pretty rad! It overlooked the sea and it was a gorgeous day.

The next day, we decided to stay closer to our B&B and explore Kilarney. Ross Castle was one of the attractions my high priestess had recommended, and she noted from there you can take a boat to an island with the ruins of an old abbey, which sounded fun.

The Ross Castle tour was a lot of fun. Our guide was a fantastic storyteller with a great sense of humor, and unlike a lot of guided tours I've taken in my life, I was riveted the entire time he was speaking.

After the tour, we paid a local boatman to take us to the island my high priestess had mentioned: Innesfallen Island. There's nothing on the island except wildlife, trees, and ruins, so the boat will take you there, wait 45 minutes, then take you back to Ross Castle. Our boatman was a nice local architect who does this as a side hustle. He gave us some tips on what to see and do and places to eat in Kilarney, and he highly recommended hiking the nearby Copper Mine Trail in Kilarney National Park (where Ross Castle is).

We docked at the island, and our boatman pointed out a giant old yew tree right in front of the ruins, near the dock:

Niall and I made a beeline for the tree, which was huge and gorgeous. We stood under it for a few minutes, and in those few minutes...Niall proposed. And I accepted!

And then I showed him the video I'd created to propose to him. He beat me to the punch! Niall says (and wants me to include this), "I proposed first; you [Enfys] proposed best." (It's not a competition, my love.)

Afterwards, we giddily explored the island, which is beautiful and has a nice, easy hiking trail through the trees surrounding the abbey ruins. I decided to lift my 5-photos-a-day rule for the remainder of Ireland, in light of the exciting new development.

And then we got back in the boat and told the boatman our good news. He offered to take a photo of us with the island in the background before we departed.

Back at Ross Castle, we decided to take our boatman's advice and hike the Copper Mine Trail after getting a scone from the cafe (which he also recommended - they were pear and almond flavored and were delicious!). It was a gorgeous, easy trail with lots of beautiful and unique trees and some lovely lake views.

Afterwards, we visited the beautiful nearby Torc Waterfall:

We capped off our sightseeing for the day with lunch at The Shire Cafe and Bar, which bills itself as the only Lord of the Rings-themed restaurant. It turned out to be one of our favorite conversational topics for the week, because I've never seen a theme restaurant that commits less to the bit than this one. Aside from a couple decor options, there is nothing remotely Lord of the Rings-ish about this cafe. And there's so much potential there. We giggled about ways we could make it more on-theme, from themed menu items like Golden Eagle Wings or Aragorn's Corn Bread, to costumed waitstaff despondently muttering things like "Welcome to the Shire, where the beer comes in pints. What can I get for you today?" Just think of the possibilities.

[enfyswanders]

Ireland, Part 2: July 16-19, 2024

After the initial panic of driving on the narrow roadways and the thrill of getting engaged, the rest of the trip was spent mostly enjoying each other's company and driving to various places in the southwestern part of the country.

On the 16th, we went on a tour of the Dingle Peninsula by bus, partly because I wanted a break from driving, but also because the Dingle Peninsula looked like it might be especially terrifying to drive around (and, based on my experience as a passenger on the bus, I was correct). Our guide and driver was an affable elderly gentleman who grew up on the Dingle Peninsula so long ago he remembered not having a telephone in the house, and when the first person in town got a television. The scenery throughout the tour was epic. We saw where the initial Rey/Luke scenes from The Last Jedi were filmed (the scene with the porgs!). We also saw lots of high cliffs and beautiful views of islands off the coast. And of course, we took lots of happily-engaged-schmoopy selfies.

During our stop in Dingle, we did a bit of frantic ring shopping (didn't find anything, but we did get my ring size and on the bus ride back I found a ring I liked on Etsy, so Niall was able to order it). We also saw this very confusing establishment that's simultaneously a bar, bike shop, and hardware store.

Dingle is also noted for being the home of Murphy's Ice Cream, which had a store in Kilarney we visited several times during our stay. Their ice cream was phenomenal, especially the raspberry sorbet, which was easily the best either of us had ever tasted. The website notes the ice cream is "handmade in Dingle" which gave us a lot of giggles about eating "handmade Dingle cream."

The latest Adventure in Doing Laundry was probably the simplest - we visited Speed Queen, a laundromat built into a gas station. Being a fan of the song of the same name by Thunderpussy, I had to get a selfie with the sign.

One of our remaining days was spent road tripping to the Limerick metro area, where we visited Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, where they had thatched-roof houses, elaborate faerie gardens, and some pretty fantastic shopping. We also had some delicious scones with clotted cream while chickens and a turkey wandered around our feet, which was whimsical AF. I highly recommend it as a tourist stop, especially if you have kids with you. It's easy to spend hours there.

On the way home, we visited Grange Stone Circle, which is the largest stone circle in the EU. We had to wait for the landowner to move his cattle before we could get in, and one of the cows was curious about us and kept trying to nuzzle me over the fence, so that was cute.

We spent our last full day in Ireland hiking around Kilarney National Forest again, and this time we saw at least a dozen deer; running errands; packing; resting; and then celebrating our engagement with an astonishingly delicious dinner at Rozzers Restaurant, which is part of our B&B. I had local mackerel as a first course, some incredibly buttery and tender lamb for my main course, and a trio of sorbets (blackcurrant, whiet peach, and pineapple) for dessert, which was followed by petits fours. There was an absolutely gorgeous sunset that evening, too.

Our drive back to the airport, while long, was a lot less fraught than our initial drive to the B&B, since I was more experienced with the roadways and the vast majority of the trip was highways.

We managed to fly on the day of the big Crowdstrike/Microsoft incident, though, which made for a long wait in the queue to check in (the self-check-in machines were all down) and some slight delays in our flights. The nice thing was that because we waited in line and spoke to an agent, she was able to put us on an earlier flight to London, which gave us both more time to make our connections from there and a shorter wait in the Dublin airport. During our short stay in the airport, though, I finally tried some Butler's Chocolate - both in hot chocolate form and an individual chocolate candy - and yep, it lives up to the hype.

It was bittersweet to say goodbye, knowing we had such an amazing week together, that I had more adventures ahead, but that we'd be apart for another month before we were reunited. But we're so grateful we had the time together in Ireland and that it was such an unforgettable week.

[enfyswanders]

Cardiff, Wales: July 19-26, 2024

"I have no idea what I'm going to do in Cardiff" was a regular refrain as I fretted while planning my trip, and apart from pre-booking a Doctor Who tour, I decided to simply wing it when I got there, and that worked out really well.

I flew from Dublin to London Heathrow, then took the Tube to Paddington Station for the train to Cardiff, where I took this crappy through-the-train-window pic of the Paddington Bear bench, mainly so I could show my mom, since we read those books together when I was a kid and my grandma made me a Paddington Bear plushie.

I got settled at my hotel in Cardiff and took it easy the rest of the day, and the next day I decided to do some easy walks for sightseeing and visited Cardiff Market, a fabulous, two-story indoor market full of shops and food stalls. I bought a couple of Welsh Cakes almost immediately and that was a very, very good decision.

For the uninitiated, a Welsh Cake is basically a flattened scone cooked on a griddle and dusted with granulated sugar. At this shop, they sold them warm off the griddle, with the option to be served sandwiched with filling like lemon curd, Biscoff cookie spread, Nutella, or jam. I was instantly hooked and ended up getting Welsh Cakes for breakfast most of the mornings I was in Cardiff. It helped that they were less than a pound apiece, so it made for a very cheap breakfast (it only took two before I felt full).

Also, this shop in Cardiff Market is run by an American and I giggled at the name:

Another find on my first day was the Queer Emporium, a shop/coffee bar/cocktail bar where I felt right at home. I made it a point to stop there every day to buy a drink and fill up my "Gay Card." And one evening when I was wandering around, I stumbled upon a queer crafting night there and joined in to chat and do some cross-stitch with a small group of fellow neurodivergent queers, and that was a welcome bit of socialization during a trip that was sometimes a bit lonely.

I really enjoyed shopping downtown and bought probably more stuff than I should have. There are tons of arcades (covered but open-air alleyways full of quirky and interesting shops and cafes), a beautiful library, and some cool-looking museums (most of which I failed to visit due to not feeling well my last day in town).

The day after my downtown exploration, I decided to visit Cardiff Bay, which includes Roald Dahl Plass, named for the author, a Ferris wheel (and yes, reader, I took a ride on it), a building that looks a lot like the Smithsonian Castle in DC, an historic Norwegian church-turned-cafe-and-craft-boutique, a phenomenal ice cream shop with some serious innuendo in its signage, and a very peaceful wetlands reserve with a wide bike and walking path and lots of birds.

For my nerdy readers (probably most of you?), Cardiff Bay is also home to Torchwood Tower (so small - and surrounded by a family fun faire - I missed it my first visit and had to go back to see it again after my Doctor Who tour guide pointed it out) and Ianto's Shrine, which is still being curated ten years after "Torchwood" was canceled.

As I mentioned, I also did the Doctor Who tour, which was fun, and we had a really great and indulgent guide who showed us dozens of shooting locations from all the modern seasons of Doctor Who, right up through the Ncuti Gatwa episodes. Since most of the stuff we saw wasn't exactly scenic (mostly alleys and fronts of office buildings and shops), I didn't really take any photos, apart from one in St. John the Baptist Church, where keen observers will find a tiny Cyberman has replaced one of the knights up above the rear chapel altar.

While in Cardiff I had another Adventure In Trying To Do Laundry, and in this episode, I took a bus to a not-great part of town where the laundromat was very good and the person running it was very kind and I met a nice couple from Seattle but most importantly, it had the most bonkers vending machine of hot-water-based potables I've ever seen.

And while I was there, the vending machine was not operational because the electricity costs were too high at the time. (Many places in the UK have different electricity rates for different times of day and days of the week.) Not that I was tempted by the possibility of herbal tea that may have tasted like tomato soup.

The true highlight of Cardiff, however, was the Cardiff Castle tour, specifically the residence, but honestly the whole thing was an absolute delight, and it was my favorite castle to explore of all the castles I visited during my trip.

I didn't take a ton of photos, both to adhere to my five-photos-a-day rule and because I knew my photography equipment - er, phone - and skill were not up to the task of capturing some of the more magnificent sights (which is why I bought a book in the gift shop instead).

But. Let me tell you about this place. It is WILD. There's been a castle on that site for 2000 years, since the Roman occupation of Britain, so it has a really rich history and some absolutely bananas decor.

First off, when you buy your admission, there's a military history museum, which is actually pretty darned interesting even if you have no interest in military history. For one thing, there's a person demonstrating various swords and other edged weaponry from various historical periods. For another, there's this absolutely jaw-dropping, enormous sculpture? Relief? Mural? Thing? depicting the Roman rule era. It runs the entire length of a super-long hallway, and arcs around a corner as well. Absolutely astonishing. It was created in the 1980s, so it's not exactly historic in and of itself, but it's still an incredible sight to behold.

But the military history museum has nothing on the residence tour, which costs a few extra pounds but is well worth the expense. Our guide was a fabulous nonbinary person who I vibed with instantly and turned out to be a fan of my band, The Misbehavin' Maidens, which is rad enough to make the tour worth it, but holy shit this house. This HOUSE.

It was built in the Victorian era by the Scottish Marquis who owned it at the time, and he was incredibly wealthy thanks to the coal industry, so practically every surface in this mansion is covered in 22-karat gold. Here's the one photo I took that turned out decently, of the zodiac ceiling in the winter smoking room:

And that's not even the most opulent room in the place. Check out the Arab Room if you want to see something truly astonishing.

The funniest part of the tour was seeing the Marquis' bedroom and learning that he converted to Catholicism at age 21 to marry his wife, and kinda turned being Catholic into his whole personality, to the point where his bedroom has a wardrobe designed to look like a confession booth, and there are angel faces looking down at you from the ceiling, positioned so that no matter where you are in the room, at least one of them is staring at you at all times.

Every room had gorgeous art on the walls and ceiling, including a very detailed mural in the nursery featuring tons of storybook characters and storytellers.

As if that weren't enough to make for a fantastic day, then I got to run around in and among the ramparts, and as we know from my time spent in York, I love running around castle walls. It may be a new obsession of mine.

Another fun place in Cardiff Castle was inside the walls, where they created a bomb shelter in WWII and have up period-appropriate signs and play bits of radio from the time interspersed with the sounds of bombs dropping and air raid sirens. It's haunting and intense. I do question the choice of playing the song "We'll Meet Again," though. Someone on staff loves Doctor Strangelove!

I did break my five-photos-a-day rule the day before I left Cardiff to capture the Animal Wall of Cardiff Castle, though, and I have no regrets. Here are my faves, but you can see them all here.

Overall, Cardiff was definitely a highlight of my trip and I had no trouble filling my time there with activities, even though I didn't have much of a plan before I went.

Though I kinda wish I'd stopped to have a drink at this place (fonts matter, people!):

[enfyswanders]

Angelsey Island, Wales: July 26-28, 2024

After an initial misadventure getting to my hotel, I had an absolute blast in Angelsey, thanks to my fantastic friend and fellow Llewellyn author Kristoffer Hughes and his darling husband Ian, who coordinated a phenomenal experience.

What happened trying to get to the hotel, you ask? Well, here's the thing. The hotel website said it was "close to Holyhead Station." I checked the map and it said it was .9 miles away. Not too bad. Walkable if necessary, right? But I have heavy luggage and would really rather get a ride, so I planned to get a cab from the station.

Except...Holyhead is an Uber dead zone, as I discovered, with no cabs waiting at the station because it's so small, and the cab company a station employee told me to call had no availability to pick me up when I arrived. So I had to hoof it. And the walk took me about 45 minutes, because though it's .9 miles to drive, walking is a bit more circuitous.

And all that would've been okay, except that I discovered very early in the journey that my 45 pound suitcase wasn't rolling quite right. A quick inspection revealed why:

So, fuck. And another one of the wheels wasn't working well, either.

I tried flipping the suitcase around and dragging it on the better wheels, which was do-able but very awkward. I did eventually make it to the hotel, though, where I checked in, showered, then promptly went back out to walk 15 minutes back the direction I came from to buy another suitcase from a very weird department store that was just a bunch of kiosks in front of a warehouse. Wild.

After that adventure, I was picked up by Kristoffer and Ian, who took me out to dinner at the Sea Shanty Cafe with fellow Llewellyn authors Tiffany Lazic and Jhenah Telyndru and Tiffany's husband George. Both Tiffany and Jhenah were slated to present at the Goddess Conference, where I also presented the following week, so I got some good intel on the conference during dinner. The conversation flowed easily and I had some delicious seafood tagliatelle with steamed vegetables, and lemon crunch ice cream for dessert.

After dinner, Kristoffer and Ian took me to a 5500 year old stone burial mound across the street from my hotel. Neat! (Sorry, I did not get a photo.)

The next day was absolutely bombastic. Kristoffer and Ian picked me up again, and we did a grand tour of various holy ruins around Angelsey Island with fellow authors Mhara Starling, Moss Matthey, Brett Angelsey, and Lyndon and Clint, the hosts of the magickal postcast Shove It Up Your Awen.

The tour began at this unassuming pond across from an Air Force base, which has an interesting history you can read about on the signs below.

Another highlight was this amazing religious site, where the Angelsey Druid Order conducts rituals.

And, as a bonus, we visited Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the longest town name in Europe.

Our final site visited was this life-size D&D map village ruin with lots of fun places to explore.

We went to a fish & chip shop for dinner, where I found out they were appropriating Minnesota culture, how DARE.

I came away from the experience grateful for new and deepened friendships with these fine folks, as well as a deep envy of the Angelsey Druid Order for getting to practice their tradition at so many phenomenal ancient holy spaces.

[enfyswanders]

Gladstone's Library, Wales: July 28-29, 2024

For one precious night (it was supposed to be two, but I had a miscommunication regarding my arrival time with the conference to follow), I stayed at a B&B that is also a library. Er, a library that is also a B&B? I suppose it depends on your perspective. Either way, meet Gladstones Library in Hawarden, Wales.

Gladstones is a private library composed mostly of theological and history books, the vast majority of which are out of print.

The bedrooms are spartan and do not have televisions, but each one does come with its own Roberts Radio.

I didn't get a ton of time to explore and only spent about 2 hours in the library, mostly poring over old books on Kabbalah, but the real highlight of my brief stay was eavesdropping on a small group of retired British theology professors in the restaurant. It was like listening to dueling David Attenboroughs and it was absolutely delightful.

What I didn't love was being awoken at 5:30 a.m. by the linens delivery, which involved rolling very loud carts along the cobblestones right outside my window every few minutes for upwards of half an hour. Argh.

Other than that, though, it was a great experience.

Also of note: While waiting for the train at the station near Gladstones when I departed, I made a lovely older friend named Jane who loves to crochet and gifted a crochet toy she made to a screaming toddler on the train, which helped soothe the poor kid. Jane is my new hero.

[enfyswanders]

Glastonbury, England: July 29-August 4, 2024

Up until Glastonbury, the trip was overall simply delightful, apart from the travel difficulties to/in Ireland. But in Glastonbury, it got a lot more challenging.

I will admit that, in hindsight, my choice to attend and present at the Goddess Conference may have been ill-conceived, given that my personal spiritual practice is not goddess-centric and that I consider myself a gender-liminal person who experiences dysphoria when referred to as a "woman," "sister," or "daughter," etc. Even separating the fact that this conference clearly wasn't for me from everything else I experienced, though, suffice to say I experienced an awful lot of anxiety, discomfort, and frustration that week, in part due to my gender, neurotype, and the heat wave and lack of any air conditioning anywhere that played hell with my perimenopause. I am pleased with how my workshop session went, though, and made some fantastic friends at the conference who were extremely kind to me and helped me get through a fairly hellacious week, in particular my housemates Andrea, Tobia, Demi, and Roberta (who I sadly didn't get a photo of).

Aside from the new friends, there were some other highlights of the week, including a ritual that involved a full-body immersion into a healing spring they only open to the public a couple times a year, shopping in Glastonbury (which is basically an entire downtown area of metaphysical shops and hippie clothing), high tea at the Abbey Tea Rooms, exploring Glastonbury Abbey, hiking up to the Glastonbury Tor, and visiting Dion Fortune's grave.

I also giggled at this shop name:

There was also a bomb-ass fireworks display the final night of the conference, which made up for my lack of July 4th fireworks this year.