Went to Stratford for a day trip with BISC..

Was supposed to go with Annette but i forgot to pay untill Monday and they sold me ticket to someone else! Annette got hers but she wasn't able to go in the end so she sold hers to me! and that's how i ended up going alone.. well, not really alone since i met some acquaintances.. =p

on the way.. look at the trees and the grass... it's Autumn!!

Gower Memorial

Lady Macbeth's statue...

River Avon in the morning... from left: Alifah, Jacqueline, me and Aishah! all from M'sia =)

talk about how small the world is! Alifah is Syed Nabil's(my ex f5 classmate) elder sister and she's from CHS too!

Clopton Bridge...

the swan... love this pic! nicely taken by Aishah! =)

800years memorial fountain..

Sheep street.. yeah, that's the name! haha..

picturesque River Avon...

Holy Trinity Church...
William Shakespeare's grave is on the left of the pic where Aishah is walking to but i didn't take a picture of it..

Hall's Croft - the elegant early 17th century family residence of Shakepeare's eldest daughter Susanna and her husband, the physician John Hall..

Elizabeth's (Susanna's only daughter) in Hall's Croft.. we weren't suppose to take any pics actually but this is the only one i took! the glass windows in this room is the only original windows from then..

the backyard of Hall's Croft.. the tree on the right is an ancient Mulberry tree and those on the left are herbs used by John Hall..

we had lunch in this Italian restaurant and it's really good! mine was Grilled Salmon spaghetti.. there's a name in italian which i can't rmb =p

High Street - the town area..

ancient poker cards..

Shakespeare's play translated to Korean in 1987..

the backyard of Nash's House..

Entrance of Nash's House - the house owned by Elizabeth Hall and her affluent husband Thomas Nash.

Adjoining this house on the right was a house(New Place) bought by Shakespeare in 1597 where he later retired and died.. It was the 2nd biggest house in Stratford then.. However, it was demolished in the 18th century as the owner got fed up with guests keep knocking on his door wanting to see the Shakepeare's house.. he demanded a tax reduction due to the inconvenienced caused but he didn't win the lawsuit so he got angry and demolish the house bcoz you don't need to pay any tax for an empty land.. now it's a garden which i didn't take any pics =p sorry!

Town Centre shopping square... Shopping in UK is really boring coz they have the same shops all around.. Body Shop, Dorothy Perkins, Barratts for shoes, Marks and Spencer, Neu Look, Next practically the whole Broadmead repeating again in Stratford..

the town centre round-about...

Town Centre.. I asked a 4 people for directions and it turned out that 3 aren't locals which means most ppl you see on the street now are from elsewhere just there for the weekend!

Public Library.. This is NOT a statue.. though it's written 'William Shakespeare' on the stone.. we were frightened when the man suddenly moved while we were taking pics..

Shakespeare's birthplace.. with all the extremely old furniture inside.. you can even feel that the floor isn't straight.. omg!

from the backyard...

(from far left) Shakespeare Centre - exhibition of his stuff and his life, Shakepeare's birthplace and SHakepeare's gift house! the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust bought over all these places/houses and turn it into a museum/tourist attraction! they also have Shakespeare's merchandise which i didn't buy any coz i'm not a big fan of him.. not even literature =p

Wanted to visit this Teddy Bear Museum but too bad, it's closed down! sighhzzz

River Avon in the evening...

nxt to River Avon...

Tea time before we head back at 5pm!

(from left) Echo(UWE town planning, M'sia - Batu Pahat), Adrian(UWE-masters, Penang but worked for Genting b4 he came over), goshhh i forgot her name! but she's Kadazan from Sabah, fang1qi2 from Ha1Er3Bin1 China, Fei1Long2 from Ji2Lin2 China...

Reached Bristol about and hour and 45minutes later...

Since I didn't pay any attention to literature, all I know about Shakespeare was when we HAVE to study Sonnet 18 for SPM! but now, i know much more about him! though i wouldn't say visiting historical places and museums is really interesting! hahaha... i still prefer theme parks and huge cities in any time! but this is a very educational trip indeed! 18pounds very well spent =)

Some facts about Shakespeare:

-born on 23 April 1564 in Stratford, son to John Shakespeare

- had 3 children, 3rd child of 8 siblings(but most died when they were young)

- married Anne Hathaway

- collected sonnets first published in 1609

- used 29,066 different words in his works and 884, 647 words altgt

- invented over 1700 of our common words today by changing nouns to verbs, changing verbs to adjectives, connecting words never used before together, adding prefixes and suffixes and devising words wholly original. e.g. birthplace(from 'Coriolanus'), Excitement(from 'Hamlet'), Luggage(from 'King Henry IV'), Bedroom(from 'A Mid SUmmer Night's Dream')

I guess Shakespeare would never have imagined that he would be that people can still rmb him after more than 400years...! but this is the best part of literature! it's original and any translated version cannot be compared to the original one =p

the sad thing is.. I'm still not motivated to read any of his works.. hahahahaha