I’m sure there are other places that I could set off for on a March Monday in Europe. Places that are warm and exotic, places with beaches, places where I can get a tan. That may be convention, but I’m not a conventional tourist. Beaches and tans are nice and I do hope to go somewhere warm later on, but give me a mountain to climb in the cold, damp, rugged area of northwestern England known as the Lake District, and I’m there in a heartbeat. It has been at the top of my list of things to see in England since I made up my mind to come here, and the truth is, I couldn’t wait until Easter to get my first taste. So after handing in two essays on Wednesday, I felt significantly liberated from my (admittedly gentle) academic bonds, and decided to go.

My train leaves Oxford at the crack of dawn (6:36) and arrives in Windermere around 11:00, after transfers at Birmingham and Oxenholme. I will be staying at a youth hostel in Windermere, a stay that cost all of fifteen pounds (and that includes the breakfast on Tuesday). It really was a steal and since prices almost double during the Easter period and later in the summer I figured it was as good an excuse as any to go. As if I needed more convincing. I have yet to stay in a hostel, so that should be an adventure in itself, although I wonder how busy a hostel will be on a Monday in March? At any rate, I’ll find out, and report back accordingly.

I haven’t really decided where I want to walk around Windermere, but from the sounds of it, there are startlingly few ugly trails in the Lake District, so I should be able to manage. A couple of weeks ago, in one of my almost daily visits to Blackwell’s I purchased the Ordnance Survey map of the central Lake District. It seems that not a day goes by that I don’t flip it open and wistfully trace the webs of paths with my finger. Every time I look at it and look at pictures of the National Park online, I am gripped with a fierce desire to be there. The allure of those majestically rugged peaks, cascading waterfalls and woodland-fringed, crystal clear lakes is simply too much to ignore.