Arrival
Hello, I'm Dr John Watson. Back where I came from, I used to keep a blog about the interesting things that happened to me, so I naturally thought I'd continue to do the same, here.
I arrived on the 9th with a group of others and was assigned a place to live and a job in Ravenmoore. First I was too busy situating myself to check the network, and then I broke my mobile on Saturday and needed to get a new one, so I'm finally updating.
Early Saturday evening, a dear friend of mine visited, Sherlock Holmes, who has been in Preya for the past six months. After a short discussion, we decided that I ought to share his flat and live together like we did before. It just makes sense. Afterward, Sherlock took me on a walkabout the neighborhood. We went to all these different places, showing me around. I missed the dinner celebration to welcome new arrivals, so I'm sorry I didn't get to meet everybody who was there, but maybe there will be other opportunities? Sherlock and I had a good time together. Everywhere we went were places that Sherlock solved a case, and I mention them here because I thought it was fascinating. In no particular order:
Briony Café — a small coffee/tea shop inside the first floor of an old townhouse. It's been renovated, so it's nice inside, though the atmosphere is kind of spooky, but with plenty of charm. If you ask for seating inside the main area, a fortune teller will come to your table and read your future from cards. About a month ago, all the fortune tellers were suspected of dealing drugs, but Sherlock proved it was the neighboring business doing it. The criminals were just breaking into the café in the middle of the night so as to throw suspicion off their activities and, hopefully, run the Briony Café out of business. They gave us our tea without charge, and my cards supposedly said that 'romance was on the way', which made me laugh, because all the fortune tellers were flirting with me (even the men).
The Copper Parks — an indoor public greenhouse owned and maintained by students at Abacus Institute. Sherlock was originally asked to investigate very expensive/rare plants that were stolen, but when he got there, the director of the student program had apparently died suddenly of a heart attack. This turned into a murder investigation, and he proved it had been one of the graduate students to do it. The director unknowingly ingested bits of a poisonous plant, given to him by the student, which resulted in heart failure). It was late when we came, and the place was about to close, so we didn't get to spend that much time here, but I'd like to return. I'm sure it's beautiful during the day. They have a room that's filled with butterflies that you can walk through.
Egria's Eagerporium — evidently the definitive destination to learn all about local folklore in Preya. Sort of reminded me of the Hunterian Museum, in London. It's a bit kitchy, but Sherlock told me he frequently visits in order to brush up on the history of this place and, in particular, to explain what locals believe. They also have a fun "Boneyard" below ground that boasts a ton of interesting, monstrous skeletons of creatures that supposedly used to live in Preya. An archaeologist went missing some time ago, and Sherlock tracked the man to that "Boneyard". He was half-starved and terrified, he was thankfully also alive. Egria, who runs the place, treads the line between super weird and weirdly normal, but was very friendly.
Saxe-Coburg Estate — a hotel owned by a wealthy family with a long history living in Preya. They reported that their precious china had been stolen after a break-in, but when Sherlock investigated, he found the china at the bottom of the lake on the grounds outside. He then pretended to continue searching for the mysterious culprits when in actuality, he started investigating the family. It turned out a close cousin was deeply jealous of the fact that he wouldn't inherit the business, so he attempted to sabotage their reputation by creating the false sense that the hotel wasn't safe for guests. This culminated in the man almost burning the entire hotel to the ground, though Sherlock managed to prevent that from happening. He put out the fire before it could destroy more than the library. Sherlock told me he's still really upset he couldn't save the books. The owners of the hotel were in, and greeted us, but were a bit snobby. They liked to think they would've figured out the case on their own, eventually. Nice desserts in the hotel restaurant, the kind of fancy stuff you don't see everywhere, and the architecture of the lobby is breathtaking.
The Half-Moon Walk - at least two streets full of a variety of food trucks. Lots of options. I was told it's usually crowded with people spilling out of local pubs on weekend nights looking for a quick bite to eat. Sherlock knows many of the owners personally and introduced me to them. Had a delicious taco at this Mexican-Korean fusion truck - it sounds like it would be a weird combination, but it worked.
St. Monica's — The last place we went. A quaint, romantic Italian restaurant with extremely good food. The owner is an older woman, whose personality reminded me of our former landlady, Mrs Hudson. Straight from Tuscany, she was invited to Preya after her husband passed away. It had been her life long dream to open a restaurant, which she was finally able to do in Preya.
Sunday was spent moving all my things from one flat to the other, and then started to unpack.
There's more I could write about, but I'll save that for a future entry.