Day 8- Traveling in Foreign Lands

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How I could see with cataracts

Bon Jour! Ça va? Today is the 8th day in the series of 31 Days of Vision Blog challenge. Yesterday I reminisced about a few trips when I was young, for the next few days, I'll revisit some of the journeys from the past few years.   As I have grown older, the challenges of traveling have multiplied, but I enjoy it as much as I did when I was young. I still dream of distant lands and enjoy learning about history so much that I will take whatever  inconvenience comes just to be able to visit those far off dreams.
After my husband passed away, I had a rapid loss of vision. The doctor found that the tiny speck of a cataract  that was miniscule before...had suddenly grown, possibly from the stress both physical and mental that I was going through...
My vision is so dependent on the light that enters my eye...even a small obstruction was going to impair my vision more than a normal person. My vision in daytime was impaired some by the cataract, but the night vision had dropped to nothing.

window in cottage

We ended up deciding the best course was to have cataract surgery. I  hoped that the doctor was right when he said he could take  a small incision further around my eye to relieve some of the nearsightedness. With this extra bit of surgery, he had hoped the vision would go to "Plano"  which is the level area of your vision where you have no correction needed...  The procedure is called  LASIK (stands for Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis and is a procedure that permanently changes the shape of the cornea)
I didn't really expect that my eyes would be dramatically better, after all I had read about both types of surgery, I figured it would be a matter of still wearing glasses. I wasn't worried about it, I don't mind  glasses at this point of my life,  if they were less heavy, that would be magnificent!
After the surgery, I had so many problems with my eyes. both were changed so dramatically that I had problems with the muscles and with trying to focus. I went from being very, very nearsighted... to being nearly as much farsighted. What a mess!  It took me years to get it to even out to a place I could be comfortable with, without muscle spasms and a bit of pain... so I could have some normality. Not great vision, but not blind either.
My son and I had the opportunity to go to the Dallas to visit the King Tutankhamun exhibit. The exhibit traveled the country just as I was still recovering from the last eye surgery, I was able to see, but I was nervous about traveling, wondering if I could find my way around or have to be led everywhere... but I was so excited to my son to see it. I had been privileged to go with my Latin class twenty years before when Tut had been through the US. My daughter got to visit the King Ramses exhibit when she was around 10... so I figured that we would do it!

Corby Castle,Cumbria, England

My daughter and her son and my best friend came along. It is an opportunity you just can't pass up.I know it was wonderful as a learning experience for the kids. But  I couldn't even read the cards telling what the exhibit was, every item labeled had to be read to my son and to me. What I saw was fuzzy and blurred, and I am sure that I was nearly running to the finish line instead of really taking time to soak up each of the exhibits.
These are the times that I have cursed not having good vision. Visiting museums, Art exhibits, Historic Monuments, when my babies were born. and when I wanted to read to my kids. .

Museum Silloth, England

Yes, I have been able to read all my life, but it has always been very tiring. It takes all of my energy to focus and concentrate on the words. I tried several things when I was in school... I took the speed reading course.  I would read voraciously, sometimes several books at a time, always wanting more and more... Usually history and English Literature. I would bring home books from the library in tall stacks...  I have a library now, that is somewhat large. I  love books.  and to read to your child is something that is so sweet... and now, I can't do it at all.
The trip to King Tut was frustrating, but... I decided to make the best of it, my son loved it,  and it got me to thinking, what have we intended to do that we haven't? What would I like for my son to remember when he is older? Is there someplace special that I really want him to visit that would stay with him all his life... and could be a learning trip?

Lane near the cottage

We decided to go to the United Kingdom. I don't know.... It seemed like the thing to do.  We needed to be away. My husbands estate was in a mess, we were in the midst of struggle with his business... So we just up and went....
 I decided I wanted to stay, just live there forever more...

We didn't live there forever more, or you would be reading daily posts of how beautiful everything is or how extraordinary all the neighbors are... alas, 
We did have to eventually come back...

        

Bristol, England

When we got to the airport, it was not too bad, there were storms that delayed us, but we got a chance to get a bearing, find the right gate at a leisurely pace and to not panic. The whole series of flights took us about 11 hours, not including the layovers... The experience was different to say the least,  to take a taxi to the airport, buses, airplanes, is all so different to me. We don't ride buses at home, we don't take taxis, and I surely don't fly much anymore. The same old problems I had in High School were still there, reading schedules, finding terminals, finding bathrooms! ... but they were now compounded more from the recent eye problems, but I was able to get close enough to signs to be able to read at the airport and I started teaching my son how to read the boards...and we made all our connections. Never once did we miss a plane, though in Philadelphia once we nearly did, but that was due to weather and not me being blind!  Matter of fact, it nearly was because of me being blind... I am so stubborn that I hate to ask for help... We were struggling with luggage and trying to get across the vast maze to the correct terminal... I finally told someone that worked there that we needed help, they got us a shuttle and whizzed us to the gate, lickety split!!

Clifton Observatory and camera obscura

The bus depot was harder... Victoria Station in London is vast and busy, and you have to be able to understand English... with any number of accents to be able to find your way around. The schedules are not too complicated, but finding the right areas is... I broke down and asked several times... and I did not seem to have more problems there but the terminal in Bristol was odd, and if you weren't watching closely, you could end up in France instead of Scotland. The buses weren't really well marked, and if you don't know the right markings for your bus... well... just saying, if you don't ask you might get on the wrong bus. Seems the drivers aren't watching that close to catch the wrong tickets... sigh...
All in all, that part of the trip was wonderful. My son got a good lesson in bus schedules, in figuring tips and in general, how to be polite but not be pushed around. His eyes were wide with wonder, or shut with exhaustion every day!
The United Kingdom is so beautiful and so steeped in tradition and romance, and just... well, so exciting and mysterious! To walk the same roads as people like Shakespeare or  Mary, Queen of Scots, Robert the Bruce.... well, there is something so deeply moving about that... I just can't put it into words.

Coos near the cottage

My son was enthralled by the jaunts we took that he didn't mind being away from everything that he knew. The time we spent in the cottage were filled with riding a borrowed bicycle, building blocks and Legos, reading books traipsing around with the coos and horses... and CBBC with it's Horrible Histories and the boy actually learned something!!! We spent time giggling at the silly calves that were mixed with wonder at us and fear... at the sheep that seemed to eat everything in their path when they were being moved... at the bunnies that hopped around behind the cottage... at the endless beauty all around us.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

Me? I tried to read on the off days of traveling around, it was still too hard for me to read much more than a few pages at a time... I baked fresh bread, made jelly out of currents that we purchased at the car boot sale, and of brambles we scavenged.
 I rummaged in the charity shop in town... bought furniture and linens and made the cottage a little more homey. bought flowers for the garden, and we had tea on the patio when it was sunny. Sketching kept me busy a lot, and my son played 'fort' with limbs and old wood and used our friend's bb gun for target practice.
 Town was an adventure, the local bookshop was filled to the brim with ancient (to me) books, some older than the United States herself.  I bought books, I bought a sewing machine, I bought material for curtains, pillows, and kept myself busy. We walked. We walked and walked and walked. We walked to shops, we walked to festivals, we walked around the Piping Festival, we walked on beaches and on Hadrian's Wall, we walked through countless cemeteries... We walked to visit monuments and farms,  to just wander,  we traipsed all around the countryside, peering into badger holes, peering into old barns, seashells, and hedgerows. We found beautiful rocks, shells, tree roots, and flowers and a multitude of snails, butterflies and leaves. Berries were plentiful as were people th

Caerlaverock Castle, Scotland

at were actually interested where we were from.
When we were traveling,  I tried to soak up every part of the adventure as I could.  The castles were amazing, the seaside was amazing,ruins, walls, monoliths, Priory, Abbey, Cathedral, Coffee Shops, Pubs, Museums, Historical places all were extremely awe inspiring... but to get around to them all... is hard. The roads are narrow, and winding, and

Moat at Caerlaverock Castle

people drive on the wrong side of the street! It rains abundantly, and the sun either goes down early and up late... or the other season... it comes up early, and never sets... OK, it sets, but not really ever gets dark.  We would travel at night, thinking it was just dusk, and it ended up being midnight...
I felt really nervous the first real castle we went to. Caerlaverock in Southern Scotland, on the Solway Firth. It had winding stairs and seemed to be so narrow, as do all the castles it seems...
My son seemed to never tire of running up and down the sloped of the embankments around the castle... or anywhere we ended up, he loved running to the top, rolling down... and doing it all over again!

Over the next few days I'll show you more places we traveled and some of the ways we got around,

If you would like to read blogs in the
31 day  writing challenge, please visit the page and choose from the categories listed.
There are many to choose from,
all of them are great blogs!