Bradford, England * City Park

4th July 2012
* Holyhead, Wales to Bradford, England *

Sleeping on the bus, Sir Thomas Leaf had intriguing dreams of prophecies about Ragnarok. It was only a couple of years ago that Sir Leaf was introduced to the concept of “Ragnarok” while visiting the Dublinia Viking Museum. He was a bit disturbed by the twisted imagery of darkness and doom in his dreamtime when all he was doing was riding a bus. That and dreams of “secret elf business” haunted his mind. “Why these dreams” he pondered. Half asleep, he watched the bus trek through Manchester and on to Leeds. Fun sleep deprived memories of “Manchester” when he and Lady Moe went there earlier this year to audition for “Dragon’s Den”. As the carriage approached Bradford, a sense of “full circle” completion was felt by Sir Leaf. It was a full circle for many of Sir Thomas Leaf’s quests. Bradford was the site from which Sir Thomas Leaf’s adventures began and the blog tales unfolded beginning with the Tales of LotR: Lady of the Rhine. It was from that adventure in 2005 that Sir Leaf has travelled to Europe every year, without missing a single year, and with Europe becoming his second home. As Sir Leaf was dropped off at the Bradford Exchange, he stumbled off the bus with luggage in tow, at 6:30 am, into the then just brightening streets in search of a good chai and finding somewhere to get some British pounds. As he is on this journey very much a penniless bard, he only had a few Euros to change over, making him even more penniless once the currency exchange got through with him. But good blessings that he had some credit on his Starbucks card. He asked the guy at the nearest news stand where a Starbucks was located, with the guy stating he didn’t know, but that there was a Costa coffee atop the hill (there happened to be a Starbucks just behind his news stand). With dragging luggage behind, Sir Leaf trekked up the hill to only find out that this particular “Costa” did not have free wifi, but they directed him to the Starbucks back down the hill. “Ridiculous” Sir Thomas Leaf felt. Even more ridiculous he found was that the Starbucks in the square wasn’t open until 7:30 am. Luckily though, the rain clouds were at bay, stone benches out in the park in front, and the free wifi signal accessible outside the front. So onto wifi Sir Leaf travelled catching up with friends and family on Facebook. Oddly though he saw that his brother the mad Docteur Mangor had posted an exquisite tale about Ragnarok (oddly syncronistic with his dreams last night) that drew him deeper into the Viking myths of the wars between the Gods ….

As soon as the Starbucks opened its doors, Sir Thomas Leaf was in through the doors with a Chai Creme Frappacino (his favorite drink) on his mind. But a standup advertisement for the “Mocha Cookie Crumble” caught his attention and he decided to wander outside his comfort zone for a change in flavor sensations. “Yummy” he thought to himself. With a Frappacino and wifi, he was pretty much in ecstasy as one could be at 7:30 am with little sleep, getting blogs and job applications done until Sir Rob Wildwood arrived in his vardo. Sir Rob arrived an hour earlier than expected, so the duet of explorers were off on their journey sooner than originally planned, onwards towards the ferry terminal at Harwich. During the drive, Sir Leaf practiced sketching out Viking symbols and runes for body painting experiments at the festival. They pit stopped for a quick breakfast along the way at the “Little Chef” and then another stop-off for an ice cream from a petrol station. As they pulled into Harwich, on to a Morrison’s grocery store to grab provision for the journey, as food was much more affordable in Britain then Denmark and Norway.

With very little to no extra budget for food, Sir Thomas Leaf quickly raided the reduced/clearance section of the store scoring enough savings that he could muster out a 3 litre bottle of Cider atop a bunch of food for the festival.
From the shoppe, they made their way to the ferry terminal to board the Sirena. Check in was swift … but the line up took its time. The delvers took the Sirena’s Harwich to Esbjerg route. Onwards to their cabin, carrying the gear and supplies they’d need for the next 18 hours of passage across the sea, they unwound and relaxed in their bunks. Sir Leaf had takeaway duck egg rolls with salmon/cream cheese on muffins for dinner. He wandered atop the ship for a breathe of fresh sea air. Wandering down into the Columbus lounge he quickly discovered the ship had free wifi. Hard at work then, he went to finish his blogs about Oisin’s grave and the Tiveragh Fairy Hill. Sir Thomas Leaf was really fatigued without much sleep on the bus/ferry to Bradford, so he headed down into the cabin early and watched the most recent shows of True Blood and Teen Wolf. He began passing out to them, and Sir Rob caught his snoring. Just before bed, Sir Leaf investigated this new “anti-snoring” horrible tasting throat foam that was supposed to cut the edge of snoring, which Sir Leaf suffers from when drinking, coming off sleep deprivation, or having allergies. As this was the first time that Sir Leaf and Sir Rob would be sharing sleeping quarters, Sir Leaf was mindful to attempt to prevent any snoring from happening … unfortunately it failed. A good rest was still had by both.