Raglan Castle and Tintern Abbey

Last week, members of GAO (Graduate Archaeology at Oxford) went to Wales. It felt so good to get out of Oxford. Even though Oxford is a city, after a while it starts to be just like a small town. Besides, I don't have a lot of time to get out of the Sackler Library to see the sunlight as often as I would like (there isn't that much sunlight anyway). We were very lucky because it was warm and sunny, and we got to see some of the oldest forests in the UK blooming with blue, purple, and white flowers (especially around the Wye). This is a beautiful time of year!

Raglan Castle

I won't say too much about the history of this fifteenth-century castle, because you can read it here, but I will say that I was impressed. First, it was my first time actually visiting a castle in Wales (ya...), and second its history makes me feel all historical inside. This castle is highly defensible, but was built at a time when there was no more need for defenses. So it became a retreat for the wealthy aristocrats to come have tea at 5pm and walk around the moat. Unfortunately, much of its splendor was looted during the Civil Wars in the 17th century. That is sad, considering that there were incredible manuscripts inside and cool Roman busts, now all gone. The best part is that Raglan feels a little like Disneyland: you can climb everywhere, and there are plastic medieval props to make everything look more real (see picture number 4? That was a candle + spyglass + mirror device used to keep the food warm! WOO).

 

Tintern Abbey

Now this was something completely different. Imagine a HUGE cathedral disposed of its roof, sheathing, floor, basically everything but the stone skeleton that kept it up. YE, that is Tintern Abbey. Again, this abbey is HUGE. You can learn more about its history here, but I must say that for one of the first times in my life, I dint't look at the plan of the structure upon visiting its archaeological site. There is an ghostly, intoxicating echo in the nave and aisles of the main building; I didn't even leave my bench in the sun to see the grounds around the abbey. Besides, there are white doves nesting in here, so that the only things you hear are the sound of birds, and the wind resonating on the walls. It was a spiritual experience, and sublime. 

Audio Books, Turning Point

I have been posting on this blog for more than 10 years. On and off, with more enthusiasm or less, but somehow Blogspot has not shut this thing down (unlike all my photography accounts on .be's). I was talking to Ana the other day, who recently started a blog herself, and apparently I have been missing out on something. Or as she put it, "I should write a blog." Indeed, with the life I lead and the things I witness it is criminal not to share some of my experiences with those who want to listen. 

So here we go. 

I will start with something that has changed my life in the past few years and that I spent most of the day yesterday doing: listening to books. So, audiobooks are not everybody's favorite thing. Julia, a friend from Oxford who is studying Literature, falls asleep as soon as she presses play (well, Julia is a healthy person who has no problems sleeping, unlike some of us). I, on the other hand, cannot sleep until I press stop. So why audiobooks?

1. Saves time. Listening to audiobooks is much faster than actually reading them, at least for me. I am a very slow reader, but even my brother, who reads at the speed of light, can only read the book a few hours faster than the actor. But the main point is that, unlike a normal book, I can listen to audiobooks while I am doing pretty much anything else: cleaning, exercising, cooking, walking, travelling, etc. And THAT feels good, and safe, and it doesn't feel like I am wasting time.
2. It is easy. Lets get real. I am a student. I spend so much time with my head stuck in books that when I go home the last thing I want to do is to open another one. In fact, my eyes get so tired sometimes that I have to wear my sunglasses inside.
3. It sooths those of us who grew up listening to parents reading to us before going to sleep. It is calming. Naturally, audiobooks sometimes are the opposite of calming (soooo many intense scenes...), but most times it feels good to be read to. 
4. Free. Free. Free. So many places. Free. Youtube has pretty much everything. If not, Audible.com lets you have two audiobooks for free when you sign up.
   
5. They can, and often do, add dynamic; or in linguistic terms, alliteration screams out. I have discovered that reading a book out loud brings a completely different universe to the story. This is hard to explain, but suddenly the sentences gain an incredible swing, and the sounds of each syllable become much more evident. The unintended rhymes, or the swing of a pragraph, there is inertia, and every word is as heavy and as tasty as honey. Of course to achieve this the book has to be good, and the narrator a genius. But they are out there people! Roy Dotrice and George R.R. Martin, for example. Listen to this, and then we can all die happy:

 

So far, I have pretty much  stuck with the very "teenagery" books because I wanted to re-read some of my favorite growing-up-stories (especially those set in Oxford and England). Harry Potter (go with Stephen Fry for all saints' sake... Jim Dale is a terrible Voldemort), His Dark Materias (amazing, they have a full cast at Listening Library, and OH MY ARE THEY AMAZING!!! And it is all on Youtube); Lord of the Rings (I must admit that listening to the audio books actually got me through the books, which I had not done before); The Night Circus (with Jim Dale, but oh well...); and then Game of Thrones, which are not from my teenage years, but are basically what got me into audiobooks in the first place. That, and a few short stories, like this one read by Mike Bennett (another genius):

The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

"I know one thing for certain; it's much harder to tell whether you ARE lost than whether you WERE lost, for, on many occasions, where you're going is exactly where you are. On the other hand, you often find that where you've been is not at all where you should have gone, and, since it's much more difficult to find your way back from someplace you've never left, I suggest you go there immediately and then decide."

The fattest thin man in the world