Mellifluous Mondays: Oh, Shakespeare

12 Shakespeare geeks made the trek to the Stratford Theatre Festival this weekend in order to see top-of-the-line performances of Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew. We stayed at a cheap but clean hostel, visited several lovely little shops (books! tea! quirky hats!), ate delicious food, and got a lot of walking in. Stratford is a beautiful town and the October leaves made it even more so.

Stratford swans. The walk from the hostel to the theatre took us along the river.

After Taming of the Shrew on Saturday, we walked back and went to dinner at Cafe Ten, where we feasted on scrumptious curried sweet potato soup, penne Italian salad, and Bailey's cheesecake.

It rained on Sunday, so between lunch and Hamlet we pranced about the "Shakespearean Gardens" with umbrellas and cameras brandished.

My dear friend Jessica, with the roses in the garden.

Stratford has so many lovely buildings! It's an architect's dreamland.

Now for today's poetry: a few lines from Laertes, one of my favorite characters in Hamlet. He loves his father and sister, and he's got the guts to prove it.

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And so have I a noble father lost;
A sister driven into desperate terms,
Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections: but my revenge will come.

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