Day Three ~ Sunday, April 28

What a day! Got up for breakfast about 8 a.m. Matt and I woke up fairly late. You know, a casual 7:55 a.m. (for a roll call time of 8). The morning was pretty relaxed. We gathered our stuff for an 11 a.m. departure from the Hotel to catch a 1138 bus. The bus took us over to Glenridding (pronounced Glen – rid – ing). Hollis had a pleasant chat with several elderly ladies about our trip and stuff to do in this neck of England. At some point he started to take on a Scottish accent!
The bus was about 20-30 minutes (I would guess – I didn’t actually check). We drove by a lake, for we were in the Lakes District after all, and into some (small) mountains. The scenery was just beautiful.
We ran into our first rain today. It was drizzling almost imperceptibly at the bus stop. And then as we began our hike up to the Youth Hostel, it began to rain heavily enough that our rain jackets came in handy. And that climb was hard! It has me slightly concerned for the Alps…
I’m sure it’ll be fine…
Anyway, we made it up, got in but learned we couldn’t check in until 5 p.m. We arrived at 1 p.m. Hollis let people loose to explore the town and have lunch. All of us who went to town went to the Traveller’s Rest, a pub-like little place. Everyone ordered a hamburger, but I wasn’t hungry so I just got dessert: a “hot sticky toffee pudding” (another slice of heaven).
Then we wandered town for a while. Sean J. and I visited a couple cafés, and an Outdoor Shop. It was cool, but very expensive. Like REI. Then we met up with the others and started walking back. It was another long walk uphill and in the rain.
Once back, we got our rooms, I made my bed and passed out for about a half-hour. It was wonderful. Eventually I woke up for dinner, which was excellent – just a lot of food. I had sausage and peas (or “beans” here) and fries. We (at table 3, as dubbed by Hollis) had the opportunity to chat with an Australian lady. She is in this specific area because she hasn’t been here for 30 years. She’s in England because her daughter is graduating with her Ph.D. It was delightful talking with her. After dinner we had evening meeting, which we talked a lot about serious things – what we want from this trip, expectations we have for the group, etc. We talked more about the prayer flags. After that, we designed them. I really like mine.
And this is where we are now: in the lobby, writing and playing cards, reading and drawing prayer flags.

-Joseph Bruner