Parting is such sweet sorrow

Ok, so finally back at the yha tv lounge. Same old ladies in the corner, and dilf with his wife and baby on the couch next to me. Actually, he's not as hot as I thought. I think initially I mistook him for a German cause there were so many here that night, so that glorified his looks a bit. And now that I take a better look at him, he's a bit chunky. Don't know how I missed it before, I think because his double chin blends into his neck, so he looked fit, rather than fat. But ok a few things I wanted to mention in the first post that I forgot: 1. The avg age of the hostel guests dropped about 60 years overnight. When I left at 8 am there were young children who were lining up to eat in the kitchen. And god were they loud! Even at that age, I never had that much energy at that time of morning. I felt bad for them though, getting up that early on a Saturday! I never went on any overnight trips with my elementary school, I was a bit jealous actually! 2. There were sooooooo many more people in stratford this afternoon, being a Saturday. God I can only imagine what summer weekends are like!! 3. It was nice and sunny all day, with blue skies in the afternoon, but colder this morning than yesterday, so its definitely time to start whipping out the gloves and other winter gear. 4. When I was walking around the shops I saw a pheasant that was adamant about wanting to get into a law firm. I heard a loud thud, so either it was already inside for whatever reason and was thrown out by the lady behind the glass door, or it ran into the glass and banged its head. But it looked real lost and kept slipping when it tried to run on the pavement. I felt terrible for it, but I didn't know what to do, this was rather peculiar! But it eventually flew away so me and the mass of Japanese tourists next to me were relieved. And 5. when I arrived at Mary ardens farm, there was an elderly couple on a tandem bicycle parked next to me. They had a pannier nearly as big as mine (although not as bulky!) And a gps unit mounted to the handlebars, the real deal! I thought they were so cool, I could never have envisioned my grandparents doing that, how would they be able to argue the whole way with the wind carrying their words far and beyond their ears? But ok so let me now finish where I left off: so yes, the towpath. I thought oh let me take the scenic route back instead of that annoying and busy A road. So I hop on the towpath, and it was quite serene. The countryside views were nice too. So I see a map that says stratford 1mi in the direction I was heading, or so I thought. I go one mile and I still don't see the town, so I go for a bit longer and then I see a sign that says stratford 7 miles, and pointed in the opp direction! I thought, what the nilly? So I ask a couple where I was and Yup, not in stratford! So I then realized that I just went onto the towpath assuming that it stopped at Mary ardens, so there was only one direction. But the canal continued so why wouldn't the towpath!? I thought my map reading skills and internal compass was improving as I went along on this trip. Clearly not . So I then got off the towpath and went onto the street, but I was in the middle of nowhere, but near a horse sanctuary, so I asked a lady walking a horse which way was stratford, so she pointed me to the direction of the  main road, and I found my way. So when I got back I went to a pub called the black swan aka dirty duck for dinner. I passed a store that was called "old guys rule" and I thought, only in stratford. So after dins I waited for my ghost tour to start. When the guide arrived he had a list of our names and I said michele, and he said what's your surname cause that's not on the list. So colomba was. And then I asked if they did a student price. No go. Oh and there was a celebrity in the audience! Yes folks you heard right, jabba the hut was there in the flesh! I guess he retired from his gangster days on tatooine and chose the tranquil town (except Saturday afternoons!) Of stratford upon avon to settle in. So on the tour, we walked around, the guide told us stories of the ghosts that haunt some pubs, restaurants, halls croft, hotels on top of pubs (I didn't even know they were hotels! There were no signs indicating they were! Maybe this is a norm in the UK? Pubs doing accommodation?), but none about shakeys and Anne, thank god. I am all shaked out! I was real cold the whole time. And now that he knew my first name he kept using me as like someone to talk to, and even used me as a stand in when he was talking about a torture device (Edinburgh deja vu kicking in). At some point early on a little girl on her daddys shoulders said "daddy I'm scared!" And then started crying, so they left the tour. I mean who thinks its a good idea to bring an infant on a ghost tour!? Although there was another little girl about her age with her pops and she didn't flinch at all throughout the whole tour, even when the guide was deliberately trying to scare her. I guess we all know who's going to grow up to be the punk and who is going to get their lunch money stolen and get swirlies in the school toilet! So the tour was real good, at the end the guide came up to me personally and shook my hand and said goodnight michele, enjoy your studies. And didn't do that to anyone else. I found that creepier than the stories themselves! So I rode back to the yha, realized I left my room key in the room the whole day, good thing I arrived back while reception was still open so they could give me a new key! So I went back to my room, spoke to a girl who was about my age, when what do you know!? two elderly women moved in, and they are traveling together. I have started a trend! So my total mileage over the last 2 days is 25.72 with an avg of 9.2 mph. Id say about 20 of those miles if not more were from today, and obviously low avg mph cause the towpath was unpaved. And now tomorrow I have a big day riding to Birmingham, so I best get some shut eye.