Bath time & Windsor Castle

The last few days of the trip were nice. On Saturday we visited Bath, where the Roman Baths are. The town itself is adorable. Everyone we talked to was suuuuuper friendly and wanted to recommend stuff for us to check out. We decided to spend the money and actually go into the building, but I'm still not sure if it was worth it.

I took a lot of pictures and such, but the difference between how Italy and England handle ruins is funny. In Rome, you can just romp about on their ruins. Even in like the Colosseum there is little regulation other than certain areas that are too dangerous for people to be. At the Roman Baths in Bath you are walking on like raised platforms and can't touch much. Its annoying.

We also tasted the famed healing waters and they taste like ass. Its all warm and minerally. Ew. We did, however, enjoy a delicious traditional afternoon tea at the Pump Rooms afterwards. It was really fun and yummy!

We also briefly checked out the Jane Austen Centre, but decided to forego taking the tour. After Bath we headed back and met our new German roommates. They were all rowers from Bavaria and highly amusing. After chatting with them for a while and having a drink in the room we all went our separate ways for the evening. Emily and I ended up exploring Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus and Chinatown before eventually finding our way to a tube station and returning home for the night. What I assume was Leicester Square was really fun! It was kinda like the Times Square of England. There were so many people walking around and lots of bright lights on the buildings.

We also wandered into the gay area and we had to pretend to be lesbians by holding hands so that this creepy guy would leave her alone. It was actually really funny.

The next day we visited Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park cause Emily was really interested in going. I was less than enthused. There were only three people talking, but it was like shit I coulda heard on the bus at 1am from some crazy person. Boring.

Then we went to Windsor to check out the castle. It was so cool! First of all, its huge. And all of the rooms inside are beautiful. Emily thought it looked worn down, but I thought it was awesome sauce. My favorite room was entirely green and soooooo gorgeous. It was fun times. I also took unauthorized pictures of the doll house, which was amazing. What made it even more cool was the fact that the Queen was in residence that day. Yay!

After that we pretty much just got all our shit together for our Monday departure. It was pretty lowkey and simple leaving the UK and now we are returned. I'm glad I'll be able to see you all again, but sad that my European Adventure has come to an end.

I might do another update in a few just to recap it all. We'll see!

Bye bye bye!

Eurail=Eurpieceofshit

Biggest rip off of the trip is our Eurail pass. We finally used them to catch a train from Barcelona to Montpellier (to connect to Paris) and the ticket collector on the train said we had to pay for the distance between Barcelona and France since ours are Italy-France. EVEN THOUGH THE PEOPLE WE BOUGHT IT FROM SAID WE COULD USE IT FOR TRAINS BETWEEN SPAIN AND FRANCE. Thats the whole reason we didnt buy the third country.

Luckily he didnt have time to get back to us before the crew switched at the Border. Woot woot! Free ride.

Then the next train to Paris that our passes were valid for wasn't for another two hours which threw off our plans to be in London by the evening completely. There was still a possibility of making the last Eurostar to London, but our Eurail only get us a discount and they didn't have any more of those tickets until Saturday. So we ended up in Gare du Nord train station with nowhere to stay. We called everyone we knew who might have internet access and eventually my cousin Danielle helped us out by finding phone numbers for a few places.

After wasting about two hours and spending all of our change on payphones we FINALLY reached a place that had beds available for a reasonable price.

This place is awesome. In fact, if I stay in Paris again, I'm staying here. Its really lively, people are friendly, and its super clean and comfy. Definitely we lucked out.

Hopefully this positive trend continues as we complete our European adventure.

Tomorrow: Bath, Stratford (?), Stonehenge (?), and some London nightlife.

Bon nuit!

deeerunk!!!!

srprisingly my first drunk blog!

I'm in barcelona and we went out with our new roomates from korea and holland.

we were supposed to see a flamenco show but got distracted with tapas and sangria.

best sangria EVER! so delicious, we had two pitchers (i pretty much drank one by myself)

funsies!

i also hit my face wih my laptop. now i have a welt. boo-urns.

love you!

Ciao Italia!

So when we booked our ferry tickets the other day we discovered that we needed to get to Civitavecchia first, since that is Rome's main port. Since there were tons of trains going there daily it was no problem to just hop on one in the afternoon.

It was about 15 minutes into the journey that we realized, we have no freaking clue how to get from the train station to the ferry check-in. And none of our travel guides cover anything outside the city center. So, hoping that it was like Stranraer (where we took the ferry to Belfast), where the entrance is right when you exit the train, we followed the signs towards the exit once we got there.

Civitavecchia is NOT like Stranraer. All we saw was a harbour like area, but no signs that we could really read. So we started following the ones that we thought said port...and ran into a funeral procession. It was really random. This town is so small that they were walking through the streets. And I´m fairly certain that everyone knew the person who had died. It was cool though because I think it was a military funeral too.

So as we unintentionally followed the funeral procession we also tried to figure out where the crap we were supposed to go. Eventually we kind of just stopped and looked at all the ships along the harbour. I spotted one with a giant G on the side and figured since ours was Grimaldi lines this might be it. So we haphazardly just headed towards the G.

I don´t know how we did it, but somehow we managed to find the tiny little hut of a terminal where we check in. After successfully checking in we waited for awhile before catching the bus that takes us to the ship.

For the rest of the day we marveled at how we made it to the ship. This tiny hut was NOWHERE near the train station. It was pure luck.

Anyway the ship was ginormous. Its all fancy sauce with like 4 bars, two restaurants, a casino, arcade, etc. It was an interesting journey, but everything on the ship was uber expensive. Lunch in the cafeteria ended up costing us 20 euro EACH! Lame sauce.

We also had purchased the cheapy tickets that give us sleeper chairs. Needless to say, even though the upgrade to cabin beds was 100 euros, we both were about ready to do it.

We´ve been in Barcelona for almost a whole day now and have enjoyed some of the sights including the Sagrada Familia church which, if I´m still alive upon completion, I am going to see again. We also visited the Casa Mila, where Gaudi lived and its really cool looking. Tonight we hope to catch a Flamenco show and maybe hit up an absinthe bar. Who knows, though, since we're both rapidly running out of funds and we still have 3 days in Europe.

Oh my god, 3 days. Thats it?

Lame.

Although, to be honest, we both can't wait to get home and eat American food again and be able to understand what people are saying to us.

That is all for now.

Bye bye bye!

Roma

Day two in Rome we got up waaaaaay super late and headed straight for the Vatican so we could see this infamous Sistine Chapel. We made a quick stop at the post office so that I could send off some postcards to various people. That done we skirted the giant wall around the Vatican (damn Mongowians!<--south park reference) and entered the Vatican Museum.

Plan of attack: skip everything and head for Sistine Chapel because it is aaaaall the way at the other end. So we took off at a brisk pace that was immediately hindered by the sheer number of people in front of us. MASSIVE crowds, and on a Monday! I overheard some lady saying that this was the most visited museum in Europe (even more than the Louvre).

Anyway our intentions were to rush through it all, but its just not possible. Whereas at the Louvre, you can simply bypass several paintings and such, every inch of this place is a work of art. All the walls are simply HUGE paintings. Its amazing. There are really no words to describe it. When you see the pictures, they won't even do it justice. Needless to say (ha!), there was no rushing through this place. I took sooooo many pictures and that was before we even made it to the Sistine.

Speaking of the Sistine: if you'll recall the Louvre taunted you with tiny pictures & arrows leading you to the Mona Lisa. The Vatican is worse. You just get signs printed done up on Word that Capella Sistina and an arrow in every room. I can't explain why, but these signs lead you to believe that its simply in the next room. It never is! Its almost always a set of really tall stairs which is hardly compensation for fact that you are still not at the Sistine Chapel. Then for about ten minutes before you actually get there they have signs telling you that you can't talk or take video & pictures. So then each time you enter a room you're already prepared and find yourself in a place that you actually can take pictures and you have to whip out your camera again. Highly vexing.

To tell the truth, when we actually entered the Sistine I didn't think we were there. My thoughts: is this it? Its not overly large and there is no artificial lighting so its kind of dreary. Plus everyone was talking and blatantly taking pictures. None of the workers were doing anything to try to control this clear disregard for previous signage. So...I took advantage.

I took A LOT of pictures (for you Wifey!) and some video. We had about a good 15 minutes before they started getting Nazi about it all, which was fine, because by then I had gotten what I came for. It was pretty amazing looking at the paintings. Even the draperies on the walls were paintings, not actual draperies.

After the Sistine went to have a bite at the cafeteria and had what I can hands down say was the worst pizza I've ever eaten. I'm definitely gonna yelp that shit. It was like swallowing a cup of salt. Ech! And it gave me a headache.

We decided to leave the Vatican pretty much after that and made our way to the Colosseum. After walking around the entire thing twice we still hadn't found the entrance so I went to the exit and asked what time it closed. Apparently at 4:30 and it was already 5. Damn it! Sorry, wifey, but that guide you gave me is highly innaccurate when it comes to prices and apparently times. Lame.

The Forum was similarly closed so we just kind of wandered around for a bit and then headed towards the mouth of truth (or whatever its called). Also, closed. This was not turning into a very productive day. We found some little townish type thing in the middle of the river and hung out there until the sun set. It was cute. They're river is kind of like a bigger version of the L.A. river, except with marble along the sides and not concrete.

After that we went back to the hotel and then off to find a laundromat. Found one in the neighborhood and had our first total rip off. 30 effing euros for them to wash & dry 2 loads of laundry. There was no self service option and we didn't know of any other place to do it. Since we were both in our last outfits we had to suck it up and pay, but I did demand two free 30 minute internet sessions in return. We went to dinner while the laundry was being done and came back to find out that we have to bag our own laundry in tiny grocery store bags. 30 fucking euros my ass.

I pretty much just took a shower and passed out after that, but Em stayed up to hang out with the guy at reception.

Our last day in Rome we went to the Colosseum which was huge! We also checked out Palatine Hill, which was like the Beverly Hills of ancient rome. It was really cool seeing all the old houses and such. There was a sort of bittersweet moment when both Emily and I wish Pappaw was still alive and there to enjoy it with us. It was weird how we both thought the same thing in this place that we have no connection to with him. In fact, I don't think I recall him ever talking of Rome. Strange.

Anyway after that we ended up hopping on the train to Civitavecchia, which will start my next update cause its a bit of an adventure.

When in Rome

So the train ride was a gas. Definitely having our own cabin made it an excellent mode of transportation. It was nice to be able to just leave our stuff around and hop onto the top beds. Downside of overnight trains is that all day today I've felt off balance.

We got into Rome around 12:15 and thus missed the Papal blessing of the crowds. Oh well. It was surprisingly easy to find a place to stay for a reasonable price. After getting settled in the hotel/hostel we headed to the Vatican to attend one of the afternoon masses (as per the request of one of our aunts). Huuuuuuge line to get into the Basilica, but surprisingly not many people attended the actual mass.

It was interesting. I think if I wasn't an atheist it would've been even more awesome, but I enjoyed the novelty of it nonetheless. The Basilica is gorgeous and huge. I wanted to take a picture of every single inch of it. Literally. Since they don't let people take pictures of the altar area I had to pull a KTP and be sneaky sauce about it. Its sooooo gorgeous! Emily tried to rush me through, though, which was slightly annoying, but I still got my pictures.

Since the Sistine Chapel isn't open on Sundays we decided to visit again on Monday. So after the Vatican we headed to the Spanish Steps to see the Keats & Shelley Memorial House. It was closed at that time unfortunately, but I took pictures of the plaque and such (YOU NEED TO WATCH BRIGHT STAR!!). We then decided to walk to the Trevi Fountain.

After walking for a while we found a fountain in the middle of a roundabout and hopped on over. We took some pictures and were just about to toss in our coins when I commented on how it seemed to lack all the pomp and circumstance I had expected. We both kind of staired at this pretty but simple fountain then whipped out the travel guide. Yeah. This is was so not Trevi.

So once we got our bearings we headed in the correct direction. The Trevi definitely has more pomp than the Tritione fountain. We spent a good while just looking at its prettiness before heading for the Pantheon.

Pantheon=not terribly exciting. Since it was closed for the day we only saw the outside. On approach from the side it was impressive, but with one half under renovation and no illumination on the building it was just this big building tucked away.

On our way to the Trevi we had seen some awesome looking building down this one street and decided to investigate. Even though Emily's feet were killing her she was game for checking it out. We eventually made it there and assume that its the Capitol Hill. So awesome sauce!

The closest metro from there was the Colosseum stop and the walk gave us the opportunity to see the Forum & Colosseum lit up at night. Pretty!

After we got back to the hotel we had a glass of wine with the receptionist, picked out a nice little restaurant for dinner and enjoyed some excellent pasta. It was a lovely day in Rome and I can hardly wait for tomorrow's adventures.

Ciao!

P.S. I'm starting to feel like Doogie Howser wrapping up the episode with his diary entries. But its funsies.

The French Fiasco

The plan was that we check out at 11, store our luggage for the day, go to Gare du Nord to get train tickets for Venice, hit up Notre Dame, the Bastille, Sacre Coeur & the Moulins, then pick up the luggage and head to the train station for our 8pm overnight train.

EPIC FAIL!!

The Eurail passes we bought specified that our reservations had to be made at the specific station we would be leaving from so we planned to check it out when we got in on Thursday. Except we were so confused about how to get to the hostel that we forgot. Then Friday we spent the whole day out and about and again forgot. So Saturday first thing we did was check out then stored the luggage and headed to Gare du Nord.

Gare du Nord is huge. Plus 98% of the signs are in French. So we followed the ones that seemed like they were for the high speed trains that go outside of the city. Except when we got to the ticketing place none of the train company names were the company our train was on.

So I asked Emily “Are you sure this is the station we need?”

.

Turns out, no. We needed Gare de Lyon.

It had already taken forever to navigate through Gare du Nord and now we had to figure out how to get to Gare de Lyon, a station that only 3 of the 20 lines go to. This was also when we discovered that the metro ticket in Paris is a magical ticket. We literally went from the hostel to Gare du Nord, to some other station, to Gare de Lyon, and back to the hostel on one ticket. SWEET!

Back to the train situation.

We arrived at Gare de Lyon and after much confusion found a ticket place for international trains and figured we’d check it out. So we get to the booth and ask about using our Eurail passes for the overnight to Venice.

Its booked.

WTF?!

These passes are supposedly for hopping on any train we feel like. This is how it worked in Britain with the uber easy to use Britrail pass. Eurail blows. She tells us that they have a limited number of tickets they can sell for Eurail holders so we’d have to pay normal price for the train tickets. LAME SAUCE!!! In fact there are no open seats until WEDNESDAY!

We decide to step out of line and try to figure out an alternative because we already have hotel reservations in Venice for Sunday night and Friday was the last day to cancel without penalty. After frantically consulting our Eurail timetable we try to figure out if we can even get close to Venice and then take local transportation. What we really needed at that moment was the internet. So we head back to the hostel (where my computer is in my bag) to go online and get our luggage.

On the metro rides back to the hostel we discuss our various options which range from canceling the rest of our continental trip all together and retreating back to Dublin or Edinburgh to going to Rome or something instead.

Once at the hostel we checked out prices on flights to Venice and they were just too outrageous because it was same day. Nixing that plan we then consulted the online train schedules to see times, prices, etc. for Italy.

I don’t even remember whose idea it was or how it entirely happened, but somehow we ended up with tickets to Rome and our emergency contact in Rome (thanks to my aunt and uncle!) looking for a place for us to stay.

So, we’re heading to Rome!

After booking the train tickets we left the hostel and made our way to the Bercy train station in Paris. We checked in and waited about 2 hours for our train only to find out about 15 minutes before the departure time that it was delayed about an hour.

What is going on today?! Its like Glasgow 2.0

The train did eventually arrive and we quickly found our couchette. It’s a little cabin that seats/sleeps 6 people and is TINY! There was five of us in there (well 6 technically since there was also a little girl with her mom and grandma) when these two guys came in and asked if we would switch cabins with some students since they somehow ended up 6 cars down from the rest of the group.

We all agreed but then there was some confusion as to the number of people that could switch and somehow Emily and I ended up with our very own cabin!

Awesome sauce!

Its been very fun so far. The top bunk is up high and I feel like a queen looking down on my poorly upholstered kingdom. Good times.

I’ve been trying to read up on Rome to keep myself occupied, but my mind is filled with thoughts of a thousand unknowns since this trip is now all off course, which is both exciting and frightening.

It truly is Emily and Bonnie’s European Adventure now.

Wish me luck!

P.S. If I die, Kellie you get control of my assets with my trust that you’ll distribute them appropriately. Of course anything worth $$$ needs to go to my parents (probably not much, maybe some jewelry/electronics).

Ciao!

Paris: Part Deux

On Friday we met up in the lobby around 10:30am and hit the metro heading for the Louvre. We had originally scheduled in about 2 hours for it cause we really only wanted to hit the necessities like Mona Lisa.

Yeah, it took us like 40 minutes just to find the ticket machines. Huge does not even begin to describe this place. It is massive.

Hehehe, thats what she said.

So we wandered for a long time because it took us friggin forever to find the Mona Lisa. They just taunt you with small pictures of it with arrows beneath until you finally get like two rooms away and then they leave you to figure out which one leads to the room its in. I peaked in one, saw a glass wall and knew we had found it.

Everyone has said "Oh, its soooo small when you see it in real life" and such. Guys, have you ever seen a normal sized portrait? Cause thats about the right size. It wasn't tiny, but I guess compared to the cinema screen sized painting across from it, it would seem tiny.

Anyhoo, we took some pictures of it and in front of it (sorry, no little people because it was packed and I felt rude standing there for too long). That done, we left the room and got about twenty feet before Emily realized that while she took a bunch of pictures of the Mona Lisa she didn't actually look at it. So we jammed on back and really looked at it, as a painting.

It's good. Far better than I would ever be able to produce, but...its just a painting. I don't know. I respect the skill and all that it took to create this lovely painting, but it didn't really move me. Although to be fair, paintings don't seem to do that to me anyway. I'm much more of a sculpture and architecture girl. I guess I get that from my grandfather.

The museum does, we discovered quite by accident, have an enormous sculpture collection. This is pretty much where I wasted most of my camera battery and memory. So awesome sauce!

Kellie, you might appreciate this: I was strolling through the room of busts (hehe) and there are all these old school greco-roman looking ones and then BAM! I see this one behind gladd and am like " Why, hello George Washington". Yes, I am proud to say that I can totally recognize the first president of our country. Also it was pretty cool that there was a bust of him with all of that other history. America! ____ ____! I was quite proud of myself ::dusts shoulders off:: when I peaked at the info plate and found myself correct. There was also an intersting sculpture of Voltaire that Emily said reminded her of Gollum. So...yeah.

After we made a quick visit to the Code of Hammurabi, we decided we'd had our fill of the Louvre and explored the outside grounds instead. All in all we spent a little over 3 hours. Its a beautiful building, I'd say a more elaborate Library of Congress, which is a freaking amazing piece of architecture. Go see it!

After that we walked along the park thing to the Obelisk, which was...very phallic. Well, it was!

From there we continued on towards the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. We stopped along the way to people watch and rest our feet though cause we'd been doing a lot of walking. Also we consumed two crepes between the Louvre and the Arc. The Arc de Triomphe is ginormous. You don't even realize until you're standing beneath it. Even from across the street it doesn't look as big as it really is.

Huh...just realized that Paris is filled with "that's what she said" pieces of architecture...

We decided to pay the admission (which was only 5.50 euros cause we're under 26 huzzah!) and check out the view.

ATTENTION PEOPLE! NEW WINNER!!

1. Arc de Triomphe
2. Prime Meridian
3. Walk to hostel in Wales
4. Victoria Street in Edinburgh
5. Llangsteffan Castle

I think that's all of them...

284 steps later...
we arrive at the viewing deck. Gorgeous views of the whole city. We tried to take pictures of us with the Eiffel Tower in the background but it was silly how tiny it looked so we just took pictures of us eating it and squishing it between our fingers instead.

After heading back down the Arc, we decided to check out what the dealio was with a possible dinner cruise on the Seine. We ended up doing that and enjoyed pasta and wine and a guided tour of the river's sights.

After the cruise we headed back to the hostel to figure out our evening and get a new camera battery since ours had died somewhere around the Arc. We were going to check out the Moulins and Sacre Coeur but totally ended up picking up some wine, cheese and baguettes for a lovely evening in instead.

It sounds a little lame, but it was actually quite nice to not be running around and just enjoy a glass of wine.

It was a nice night, but who knew the next day would be such a fiasco...

Paris, je t'aime!

We left Dublin relatively early, first stopping by the post office and spending an ungodly amount of money to ship stuff home in the feeble attempt to lighten our luggage. Fail.

Thursday was also the first day where we encountered rain, but it doesn't count because we spent the whole time either in a bus, airport or plane.

We flew out of Belfast International Airport, which I'm pretty sure is smaller than the church my parents go to. Tiny! Also, Belfast in general smells like a petting zoo, so that's nice.

They actually do have a zoo, but our cab driver told us its more like a prison for animals. So I guess Beflast smells like a prison for animals. Hmm...

It took about an hour and half to get to Paris. Never fly Easyjet. You can only have a purse on the plane and checked luggage is 18 euros!! Outrageous.

We landed and then attempted to figure out how to get to the hostel. We got to Gare du Nord and then spent about an hour and a half failing at life before we flagged down a taxi who drove like 3 minutes and voila!

So we checked in and discovered that because of some computer glitch we ended up with two separate rooms. Whatever, at least we have somewhere to sleep.

After we dropped our stuff off we headed out. Walked about two blocks and then had our first crepe in Paris. Awesome! We also had this absolutely amazing hot dog that is an entire baguette with two hot dogs and mounds of cheese melted on top. Mmmmm....so good.

We decided to catch the Metro to the Eiffel Tower and see it at night. As we rounded a corner in the train there it was! One of the most amazing moments of the trip by far. It is so friggin beautiful all lit up at night! And they make it sparkle! The only thing I can compare it to is christmastime at Disneyland when it starts to get dark and they have the castle lighting moment. Except this is like 1000 times more awesome.

We ended up walking along the river where we accidentally picked up some French guy. He was fairly vexing. Not attractive at all, cause I know that was your next question. We told him like a million times that we didn't want to sleep with him, but he was probably too drunk to understand. So, instead we used him to lead us to the Metro and then ditched him at the gate.

That was our first night in Paris.

Bon nuit!

"THE BIG DAY"

Hokay. I am in Paris at the moment, but we'll get to that later. I'm gonna get St. Paddy's taken care of in this post and then immediately write one for Paris. K? K.

So St. Patrick's day, otherwise known as St. Paddy's, or if you're in Dublin "The Big Day".

We got up a little later than planned and headed towards the post office. Closed. Unsurprising considering the importance of this day. So after that we went to find a spot for the parade. It was scheduled to start at 12 and we found a spot around 11am. This hour wait would've been fine if we hadn't been at the end of the parade route. Essentially the parade got to us at 1 and then ended.

After the parade, which was fun, but had an unnecessary number of tribal and eastern displays, we decided to check out the Guinness Storehouse and take the tour and all that. So, consulting our handy dandy map of Dublin, we figured out that we just needed to walk along the river and then it would be on our left. According the some website that I had checked out it was about a 20 minute walk from Trinity. LIES!!!!!

After 40 minutes of lugging around the crap we needed to ship we FINALLY made it. Except, we didn't. Its like a friggin labyrinth to get to the entrance. I swear we made a full circle at some point. Anyhoo, we pay our fee and waltz on into the storehouse.

It was fun. Since it was "the big day" they had like four bands playing (each on a different level) and everyone was, of course, all decked out in their green. The tour (which is self-guided) was interesting. They definitely have a lovely layout and the process is fairly easy to grasp by reading the signs and such. Only, having been on the intimate tour of Boulder Brewing Co., it seemed kind of boring. Part of the fun of brewery tours is the guide.

We wandered for a while and then made our way up to the Gravity Bar, which is a 360 view of Dublin. Going up in the elevator is fun and kind of like Charlie in the glass elevator at the end of Willy Wonka. We had already had our little tasting glass of Guinness on the third floor and decided to forego the free pint because...well, guinness tastes bad. Just saying, not a big fan.

The view was interesting. I think maybe, it would be cooler at night, cause the city is...well...dirty. It just looks like a dirty city from above. Not pretty at all. I'm thinking in the cover of darkness with only dots lighting the city it would look cool. Who knows?

So after that we grabbed a cab back to the hostel with the intention of resting up for a couple of hours. We met our Canadian roommates Europa and some girl whose name I don't recall and they were kinda cool. They seemed nice, but Europa is a center of attention kind of girl, whose apparent claim to fame is about 3 degrees from the stars of Degrassi. So they leave to go drink and I head down to the lounge to pop on the net for a few before squeezing in a nap. Emily comes to join me about 20 minutes later with the news that the other three have returned and deliberately woke her up from her nap to ask if they could have some peanut butter. Europa's reaction to finding out she woke her up "Oh, well shorter naps are better for you anyway". Yeah *shakes head*.

So we decide to head out about 7pm and don't even get to a bar before we hear "Are you from America?"

HOW CAN THEY TELL?????????

We were wearing various shades of green like everyone else!

So we ended up taking to 3 guys (Colin, Kevin, and Flick, who is also a Kevin) for awhile about various American television shows they we watch. It was just simple fun. Oh, and Em and I were sipping out of a bottle that had Malibu and Pineapple juice in it.

The boys were hilarious and we were having a great time, but we wanted to get drunk so we all headed to the shop to buy some beer. During our time with them we learned that in Ireland they call alcohol "drink", because really, what else are they drinking?

So after buying some drink, we set off to find some place where the police wouldn't see us drinking in public, because as much as it feels like it, Dublin is not Vegas. No drinking in public places :(

One thing I forgot to mention about our new friends. Only one of them is legally allowed to drink. That's right, we spent St. Paddy's with 17 yr. olds. I know what you're thinking: that's retarded/lame. But it wasn't. It was actually really fucking fun. Firstly, 95% of the time they don't act like annoying teenagers. Secondly, they were super ridiculously entertaining. Thirdly, we all wanted to get drunk so who cares?!

Anyhoodles, since they were underage the only bar that they could easily get into is a gay bar. Yes, a gay bar. So we head on over and we all get in except Colin, who was so sure they'd get in. Ha! So I go out to try to get him in and we eventually succeed after he takes his hat off. Weird.

This bar was so gay. The decor wasn't, it looked like a regular club, but the music. OMG. The only way it could've been more gay is if it was remixed showtunes.

We made our way upstairs and hung out (finishing my can of beer that I accidentally snuck in) and then decided to go downstairs. I bought us all a round of drinks and there was much dancing, laughing, drinking for the next while.

Oh, yeah. Btw I totally slid down the last 4-5 steps when we came downstairs. Totally didn't feel it until yesterday. Ouch. And yes, I was drunk.

Moving on. We were there for a good amount of time. I have no idea how long since I was drunk. Suffice to say the younguns missed the last bus and had to take a taxi.

Kel...Ireland was represented, but the competitor was a little...shall we say green?...and the lack of spark kinda made it more like a lesson. Yes, it was a cougar moment (which thoroughly amuses me). But, in Ireland's defense, with a little more experience they can be definite winners. So far, Scotland still in first. I'm pretty sure France isn't gonna happen, because my general reaction to them is "ew".

K, enough of that. After we sent the boys off to their homes, we headed out to do some drinking. We swung by Temple Bar but it was waaaaaaaay too packed so we hopped next door. Had a cider and danced some more before heading back to the hostel.

Then my alarm went of at 7am and I woke up not knowing where I was, what was making that noise, and why the room was spinning.

Good times.

That was my big day, how was yours?

Dublin

So we have arrived. The bus ride over from Belfast was very uneventful. Once we checked into the hostel we were completely sidetracked by our need to feed and COMPLETELY FORGOT TO GO TO THE GUINNESS TOUR!!!

I know.

How did that happen?

I seriously spent the whole bus ride over planning out our afternoon, beginning with that and it wasn't until 5pm while we were in Marks & Spencer looking for something green for Em to wear that we realized we had skipped it <----long ass sentence. Side note: Marks & Spencer is amazing. I super wish we had one in L.A. because these clothes are all so cute. And by all, I mean ALL. I don't think I saw one ugly thing. Its like a better version of the GAP. Mucho expensive, but its British so yeah. Nadia & Wifey, I think you guys would enjoy this place.

Anyhoodle, we hit up the pre-St. Paddy's festival and watched some Irish stepdancing and then began walking around Dublin. We saw Trinity College (SO PRETTY!) but were stupid and completely forgot to see the oldest bible exhibit thingy. We also walked down O'Connell street and bought some souvenirs, including the necessary gaudy bouncy clover headband for tomorrow. We then hit up O'Daid's pub (yes I took a picture Wifey) for our first pint of Guinness in Dublin (since we missed the last tour and felt a little guilty). I followed my pint with a pint of Bulmer's cider (my new addiction) and Emily followed her's up with 2 glasses of Jameson & 7Up. Needless to say we were a bit loosie goosie when we left.

After that we decided getting some sort of food in our stomach was probably a good idea since it had been awhile since our last full meal. We ended up eating Italian and pretending we weren't tipsy in a nice little establishment called Pacino's (no obvious association with Al). Then we walked around some more and headed back to the hostel to drop off our bags and head out.

My guidebook mentioned a place called Whelan's where bands like Arctic Monkeys are want to perform so we dolled up (a little) and headed out. That place was packed. There was also no obvious signs of live music once inside, which was weird because I could hear it outside. Hmm. We decided to leave because it was just too hot with all the people and once outside discovered that the live music was UPSTAIRS. Who knew there was an upstairs? All we saw upon entry was people.

We waited for a little while to see if the band was worth the fight through the sea of people and decided to chance it again. As we were walking in Emily saw a sign for the band playing and it turns out she knows them from Myspace or something, so we head on up. Except as we approach we find out that it costs 17.50 euros to see them. BULL SHIT! I totally didn't want to pay that much to see a band I've never even heard of so we bounced.

If it had been 8-10 euros then maybe, but 18?!?! Thats like $25. Its not even Roxy status, guys. Whatevs. We decided since both our feet hurt to head back here to the hostel and get some business out of the way so we can face tomorrow head on.

Tentative Plan for St. Paddy's

7:30/8am: Breakfast (must drink milk since it is apparently delicious in Ireland)

8:30ish: Post Office (we need to get some of the stuff out of our bags, I can now barely close mine. yikes! Also, I have a few postcards to send--->check your mail boxes!)

9:30am: Guinness Tour (since we failed yesterday)

11am: St. Paddy's Day Parade

2pm(ish): Lunch & Nap (food is obviously necessary and we will likely need at least an hour nap as well. This may sound weenie to you, but we've been going non-stop for 7 days. I am also full prepared with my 5-hour energy shot.)

5pm(ish)-????: DRINKING!!!!! (until I am Irish)

Sometime after the drinking, but whilst still drunk: Composing postcards.

Hopefully all goes as planned.

Sorry, that's NORTHERN Ireland

I'm just gonna add the last part to our Belfast stay. Not that you noticed, since its fraking early in the U.S.

So we ended up lounging around in our adorable B&B for a while. Totally got caught up watching Sex in the City the Movie. I KNOW! Anyway, we didn't head out for dinner until a quarter to ten. In my defense, I kept Emily aware of the time every half hour starting at 7pm because I knew it was a weeknight and likely most places closed earlyish.

We ended up calling a taxi and this guy was awesome sauce. We totally got an impromptu tour of the city since he drove us around to a bunch of good eateries he knew so we could see if they were open. They weren't.

We also got some history of what they call "The Troubles" a.k.a. people bombing the shit out of each other. It was interesting. He was really entertaining though, and we ended up at some Turkish Kebab place for takeaway. We befriended the Turkish guys there and after hearing of our haphazard travel plans they offered us a job if we needed it. Funny sauce!

It seemed, though, that no matter who we talked to everyone told us that Belfast was "a shithole". Seems they can agree upon something.

That was pretty much it for Belfast. We had a lovely breakfast this morning and then collected our clothes from the laundrette we dropped them at yesterday. Now we are waiting for our bus to Dublin.

Hopefully we can get into the Guinness tour today and tomorrow, well, we all know what that is.

WOOT WOOT!

Bye bye bye!

Ireland

I only have a few moments so I'm gonna type really really fast to get this to you.

Yesterday we had to go from Glasgow to a town called Stanraer to catch the ferry to Belfast. So the night before we were exhausted and decided to just stay in and get some rest. We were lame, didn't see the city at all and ended up with Dominos in our room (illegally! since we technically weren't allowed to have food in there). There are no words to describe our exhaustion. I had looked at the train information from Glasgow to Stranraer earlier and, while it was a cursory glance, it seemed that we had several options for times we could leave.

As I was falling asleep I kept thinking I should just pull out the schedule and figure it out that night instead of in the morning, but we were getting up early to go to the laundrette anyway so I figured it was fine. BAD. IDEA.

You know what they saw when you assume, right?

So my alarm went off at 7am, but typical me, I turned it off and rolled over. And didn't wake up until 9:20. Oops! So much for the laundrette idea, since we wanted to go before check out at 10am. I woke Emily up to get dressed and she asked what time the train and ferry were at. I checked the ferry and we had reservations for the 2:30pm one. That's fine, we just had to check in by 2 and we'd be good. Next I checked the trains to see which ones get to the station before 14:00. The answer: one...one train gets in before 14:00. What time does this train leave? 9:30am.

Bollocks!

From that moment on it was a race. We decided to check out and head to the train station and see if there was anything else we could take to get there or close enough that we could taxi it the rest of the way. We found out that there was another train but it gets into the station at 13:54. We'd have 6 minutes to get off the train, dodge other travellers, queue up and check in.

We weren't so sure we could pull this off so we asked where the closest bus depot was and hiked it for 10 minutes.

Imagine our relief when we found out that there was a bus headed straight to Stranraer and it was leaving in only a half hour! Awesome sauce! So we hopped in line and asked for two when we got to the window. ALL. BOOKED.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

So, now, we had to go all the way back to the train station and reassess the situation. We decided to call the ferry people and see what they suggested. My research had failed to turn up a later ferry time, but apparently they have one that leaves at 7:55pm as well. Brilliant! The lady suggested we try to make it on the train that gets in at 13:54 and if we know the train is delayed to call and change our reservation.

With our new plan we hop on the train and soon enough are on our way to Stranraer. Everything is good, seems to be working out. The train is on time to every station, Stranraer is the next stop, we're prepared to run to the check-in, all is well.

Then, in the middle of BFE, our train stops. Just stops. No overhead announcement, no sight of a station, nothing. You know what else wasn't there, cell phone reception. So here we are, so damn close and we can't even call the ferry place to change our reservation. Ten minutes later the driver comes through and tells us that a truck has hit one of the bridges we're to cross and we're holding here until it gets inspected.

WE WERE SO CLOSE!!!!

Having resigned ourselves to the later time, we call the ferry place when we start moving again and change our reservation. We also call the B&B in Belfast to let them know we'll be in late. But as we approach Stranraer we notice several people who are going to try to make the ferry. Should we follow?

Yes.

So we run with the pack and VICTORY! make it onto the original ferry we had booked.

It was awesome. We spent the rest of the time watching Ireland come into view and eating knock-off McDonald's. Good times.

We got to the B&B, which is unbelievably adorable.

I'll tell you the rest later (not much) as I am out of time.

Bye bye bye!

So far, we're regretting leaving Edinburgh. Glasgow=America. Or at least, what I imagine America looked like early on it the 20th century. Since its on a grid system in the center it really feels like home. Blah! Not what we wanted. Plus we're super tired and are not even sure if we want to go find this excellent pub crawl we've heard about. Also, its a Sunday so we have doubts about its excellence.

The train ride over was awesome sauce. We got on and grabbed a four seater with a table so we could spread out a bit. Some guy holding a huge silver trophy asks if the seat next to me is taken. I invite him to take a seat and after about 2 minutes cannot resist asking what the trophy is for. Apparently he's a runner and came in 2nd at some huge marathon type thing that day. We were impressed and had him explain about his running for awhile. We were even more impressed when he said that the person who came in 1st place was the number 1 male runner in Scotland. Which, I guess, now makes him the 2nd best male runner (if that's not impressive enough he's also studying for his PhD in nuclear physics. Wtf?! )He had stowed the trophy by his feet and I told him that if it was me I would set it on the table and be like "check this shit out, I rock". He laughed and turned to me and said "Yeah, can you move, I need these seats for me and my ego". He was super nice and the train ride flew by as we all talked about places we've been to and places we want to go. He had some suggestions for places we're going and we all geeked out about wanting to go to New Zealand because of Lord of the Rings. Good times.

When we go to the station Em and I hailed a taxi and here we are at the hostel. We ventured forth to the laundrette but that was a fail cause it was closed. I'm simultaneously typing this and googling someplace to go tonight. Definitely not gonna get dolled up and it'll probably be an early night for us.

Tomorrow is Belfast and after all the horror stories we've been told since we got to the UK I'm slightly nervous about going now. If someone asks me what religion I follow, I'm just gonna pretend I can't understand the question. Well, that or buy them a pint and send them on their way. I feel like the second option is better because at least they'll leave with a favorable impression of me. :)

Night out on the town

So, just after I signed off that last post I headed back up to the room to see what the evening plan was. Up to that point our only roommates were two Irishmen in town for the rugby match. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the door and there are two Scottish girls chatting away with my sister. I saw the high heels lined up and the outfits spread across every available surface and knew it was gonna be a fun night. Karen and Vikki are two awesome and hilarious girls. Karen is not very girly, but she totally reminded me of Starbuck (aka Kellie's girlcrush Katee Sackhoff) in that she's very naturally pretty and just acts like a tomboy. She also was a lot like my cousin Julie, which was weird, but fun. Anyhoo, they decided to show us what Edinburgh nightlife has to offer and take us out. By mutual decision the two of them headed out to get us some supplies for pre-gaming and somehow they ended up bringing back some guy named Russell.

Russell was...ridiculous. He was already so smashed when he walked in. We all kind of just tolerated his presence because he was at least a good natured drunk. Now we had heard several types of Scottish accents at this point, but when he first started talking all I could say back was "what?". Out of Russell's mouth came Sean Connery's voice (but a younger, less deep version). It was highly amusing. In fact, Emily started mimicking his accent which sent him into fits of giggles. We also bullied him into saying "Junior" and he didn't realize until after that it was because of Indian Jones. Of course, once he realized, he refused to say "We named the dog Indiana" or "I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne". *sigh* oh well.

To stress how ridiculous he was, he kept calling himself "Russell the love muscle". He did get a little annoying after a while, but he knew that we were going out for a girls night and accepted when it was time for him to leave. It was good times, though, the two hours while we were drinking and getting all tarted up for the evening. Just so you know, Wifey, I wore my top that has the magenta silk at the top with black sort of cotton (?) around my abdomen. I wore it for Valentine's last year. I also had on my new tight dark jeans and the shoes I wore on our night out in SD for your birthday--->Take note of my shoes! Generally, I looked cute.

So we finally leave the hostel sometime after midnight and catch a cab to this club that Vikki is on the list for. We paid for entry and checked our coats then started boozing it up. They have this thing they have called a "kitty" where you pool some money in a bag and then whenever you want to get a drink you grab it and go. We all put 10 pounds in and Vikki and I made the first round and came back to join the other two by the entry area. Its really weird going to clubs out here because all we hear is American music. I really forgot I was in Edinburgh for a while cause they were playing all my jams. We made our way to a super tiny, but extremely packed dance floor and got our groove on. Eventually we needed another drink and Emily and I waited while Vikki hit the bar again. (Sorry, this is not good story telling, but literally this is what happened, not very exciting)

While we were standing there we discussed the abundance of tall and attractive men in the building. I also mentioned, though, that they all seemed to just hang with each other. I'm pretty sure at least 60% of them were gay (especially judging by the makeout sessions I witnessed later on). Anyway, we hit the dance floor again after we finished the drinks Vikki brought us and ditched after it got a little too claustrophobic. Vikki and Karen went out to grab more drinks and we just danced while we waited. It was that sort of trying-to-stay-out-of-the-way-of-foot-traffic-but-still-have-a-good-time dancing. It sorta a worked out cause...

Then this guy named Billy started talking to me and we ended up chatting and such for a good while. Next thing I knew it was about 3am and the club was closing so Em and I went searching for the other two girls. When we found them Karen informed us that they were going to head over to a friend's house and would meet us back at the room in the morning for breakfast. Having agreed to this plan we went in search of a taxi.

Fail.

There were no empty taxis to be found! We ended up walking all the way back. Just to give you a little geography of the city, our hostel is on Grassmarket just below Edinburgh Castle, the club is on Frederick St. in the posh area of town North of the castle. It basically goes Frederick St., Georges St., GIANT HILL, Australia, Timbuktu, Royal Mile, and then the Grassmarket. Yeah, it blew. We finally found a cab after walking for a good half hour only to be told by the driver that we were a two minutes walk from the hostel. Arrrrgh!!! It was so glorious to see the hostel finally.

Emily detoured to the showers on the way up, but I went straight to the room. Imagine my surprise when I see the other girls in the room! And they had no clue what I was talking about when I asked why they weren't at their friend's house. Ah well. The Irish boys came back as well and I didn't go to bed until after 5am. I am thus, sooooo tired.

Well, that was our exciting night out on the town in Edinburgh. Kellie, as per our last conversation: Billy represented Scotland pretty damn well. Although he lives in London, so I really think it should be a two-fer.

Today we got up and had breakfast with the girls and then parted ways. Em and I hit up Edinburgh Castle and tried our best to get our 12 pounds worth (not sure if we succeeded). Crown jewels were pretty, I want the necklace, and I took a lot of pictures of castle. The War Memorial is amazingly moving. It is so simply beautiful yet gives off this very stoic and strong feeling. I guess it epitomizes bravery. Well done, Scotland.

We then went back to Deacon Brodie's for a last haggis before we depart. Now, we're off to Glasgow. I shall fill you in on that adventure later.

Bye bye bye! (<---Karen totally did this on the phone last night btw and it made me laugh)

Following the infantryman with yellow flag

Just realized I never properly explained the Wales situation that prevented updating. While the place that we stayed in was comfy and very homey, it also wasn't the most high-tech of establishments. Hence, no internet access. The "check-in" process involved us following the family dog upstairs where the wife was watching tv with the little boy. Then after we introduced ourselves, it was kinda "well, we don't have a credit card machine, so...you owe twenty quid".

Anyhoo, on to today!

Today we arrived at the meeting point for our Loch Ness tour at 7:30am, our tour guide Kevin (actually its spelled the Gaelic way but I can't remember what that is) at 7:45 and the other 5 people in our group a little after. At 8am we hopped on the bus and began our tour.

Now, while I'd love to go on in detail about this tour, there was just soooooo much that we learned that my brain is a little frightened at the prospect of relaying it. So, simply put, this tour was amazing. We didn't get back to the Royal Mile until 7:30pm.

Kevin was so awesome, telling us the history of everything we were passing and including in his own life stories and a lot of jokes. If he didn't know the answer to something he just jokingly made up something about Jesus or the Bible. Funsies!

We saw a bunch of castles and lochs, stopped at a couple of them. We stopped in a village called Callander and had some hot cocoa and haggis roll for breakfast. Also visited Hamish the cow whilst there. I took a lot of lovely nature pictures. Scotland is gorgeous. The Highlands are amazing, and it isn't even Spring yet.

We stopped in at Loch Ness for a good hour and a half, but sadly no sign of Nessie. After romping about we popped into the local pub for a burger and a pint. Delicious. We continued on from there and wandered around to Fife, which has a lot of history to it. Of the Scottish history he relayed, I super enjoyed the real stories of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce and also the origins of the word blackmail.

Our guide was actually in the film about Robert the Bruce, he played Infantryman with yellow flag. That's his claim to fame.

We stopped one last time for a bit of Scottish whiskey and some conversation in Pichtol (???). It was really fun getting to know more about everyone in the group. Two were from Holland (the guy looked like the human version of Beaker from Muppets), one from Wisconsin (studying abroad for a year), and the other two from Ireland & Scotland.

It was just really really fun. Everyone was really into the tour and Kevin just made it a blast. He kind of reminds me of Craig Ferguson, but younger and with less of a schnoz going on.

I did take loads of photos so you'll get to see them when I get back.

Oh, and there was like a million rainbows, because it is constantly misty up there. SO PRETTY!!!

Tonight we're gonna hit up another pub and hang with the locals I guess.

Tomorrow is Edinburgh castle, maybe St. Andrews and then on to Glasgow. 'Night!

CASTLES!!!

My goal is to update as often as possible, but situations like yesterday, which will be explained, prevent me from getting it done daily. Bear with me.

First item of business: I wanted to correct a misspelling I had made in my last post. Hookah is known as shishaw, not shimshaw. Too many foreign words.

So anyhizzle, we left London around 8am and began our trek to Wales. It was a nice train ride and we arrived around 1pm. We took a taxi to the hostel and met Ken and his wife, who are super awesome people. After telling us about the local sights (which pretty much consist of castle and beach) Ken kindly offered to give us a lift to the beach, which we accepted. That was when we got our first glimpse of CASTLE!!

It was totally awesome. There was a pretty laborious hike up there, but it was so worth it. It isn't the biggest castle and its only ruins, but we spent at least 2 hours romping about. And it was soooooooooo awesome. The grass was really green and you could climb up all these little alcoves and look out onto the coast. Words can't describe. Needless to say I have about a hundred pictures of this castle. Oh, its Llangsteffan castle, btw. After we walked into the village which is pocket-sized and super cozy. We chatted a bit with the local shopkeeper (yes, one village shop that is a post-office, grocery, restaurant, and gift shop) and then headed to the beach. After stopping at the cafe for a cheese and tomahto sandwich I strolled on the beach for a few and we headed back to wait for the bus.

The bus came about 20 minutes later and dropped us off at the lane below the hostel. Yeah, if we thought the castle hike was bad, this was ridiculous. It just went on and on and on. There was a sign for the hostel like every 50 feet so we kept thinking we were almost there. LIES! Anyway we made it back and made our nutritious dinner of frozen pizza and nuggets. Of course, being the geniuses we are, we totally forgot to get any sort of dipping sauce and thus had to settle for the "American Mustard" in the cabinet.

I really like the place we stayed at. The people were so nice, I kind of felt like I was staying over at a relatives. We ended up watching a British soap with them and their kids and chatting about traveling and such. I even got to hold their super adorable 5 month old boy (so cute!). We had issues using our phone to call a cab in the morning so Ken totally just called around for us. He's awesome.

We left Wales around 8am and it took a good 8 hours to get to Edinburgh. We stopped in a place called Crewe for a layover, if you will, and the guy doing the announcements had the most awesomest voice ever. It kinda reminded me of the caterpillar from O.G. Alice in Wonderland, but also of someone else. Really nasally and hilarious. We giggled everytime he made an announcement. The train from Crewe to Edinburgh was SUUUUUPER packed. It was ridiculous. My luggage was in the aisle for a good hour and a half. It was nice to see the countryside, but I wish I was here when it was green. Kel, you would love it, LOTS of sheep and horsies with t-shirts. Also, you would like Wales, cause they have lots of sheep and cats.

So we arrived in Edinburgh and after a little confusion found the hostel and immediately went to see about catching the Paranormal tour. We found the place and booked instead the GHOST HUNTING TOUR!!!!! We didn't even know this existed, but as soon as she mentioned it I put my credit card on the counter. Since it was only 6pm and the tour wasn't until 9:45, we began our search for food. I got caught up in taking pictures of the buildings and somehow we ended up chatting with this old Scotsman for a good 15 minutes or so. He was funny and posed for a picture.

We finally settled on a place called Deacon Brodies and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We tried Haggis for the first time and it was AHHMAZING. So good. It was gone in like .2 seconds. We also tried varying forms of Scottish beef: I had the rump steak, Emily had the steak pie. Really delicious. All of this was topped off with an apple and rhubarb crumble with ice cream. The whole thing was super delicious.

We wandered a bit after that, somehow were recognized as Americans on sight because some guys approached us on that assumption. They also assumed that given our nationality we would know where to get some marijuana. Strangely enough, by the end of the evening we totally did. Who knew?

We went to the tour rendezvous point and conversed with this young couple from Manchester while we waited. Then began our tour. Sophie, the tour guide, was super awesome and totally got into character for telling us these scary stories. I loved getting all this history of the place and being creeped out at the same time. She eventually took us down into the underground area which was funsies. I wish the tour had lasted longer, but what can you do?

So, now I am back at the hostel filling you all in.

Oh, and when I get back, my legs are gonna be freaking amazing. Europe so far seems to be all hills. We've ranked them according to their hellishness. So far: 1)Prime Meridian, 2)Wales Hostel, 3)Victoria Street (the small street we took in Edinburgh to get to Royal Mile, 4)Llangsteffan Castle. More to come I'm sure.

Tomorrow (or Today I guess since its almost 2am) we're off to find Nessie! Cheers!

The Quest for Mid-week London Nightlife

Just realized that I used the word "much" 8.5 million times in the last post. I shall try to avoid doing so in my update.

Our search for midweek London nightlife turned into an invite from our German roommates to join them and a couple of guys they met earlier in the day for hookah, which is called shimshaw here and apparently everywhere else in the world. who knew?

Anyhoo, after making the poor boys wait for 45 minutes whilst we got ready for our night out we finally met up with them at Oxford Circle. Nadia, I think there are like 5 million TopShops in London alone. After we were introduced to Saif and Amit (?), who, I was sad to learn, were not the nice British boys I had been expecting, we headed off to the Hookah/Shimshaw bar that Saif knew. I think we walked the whole of London before we finally made him stop at one we saw on the way. His other two friends Anis and some fellow, whose name none of us caught, joined us a little later and we had fun trying to understand each other since Tina and Juliane speak German, the guys speak Arabic and we speak English. I could sort of speak with Anis because I knew some French, but luckily the guys knew a little English.

It was highly amusing watching us get "paired up" even though all of us girls weren't interested in them romantically. It was good fun, though, hanging out and learning about new people. Iwas particularly impressed with Saif and his no-name friend who left their home countries (Tunisia and Morocco) on a whim to carve a life for themselves in some foreign place. Saif"s philosophy is "if I think I might like a place, I go".

After we left the boys at Edgewater station, we headed back to the hostel for a few drinks in the bar on sight. I had a cider and we basically did a little people watching. And now here I am updating my travels for you so that you may feel involved. I shall try to post some pictures up here soon, or at least upload them to photobucket or something and give you a link.

Either way, I'm signing off for the night/morning since we need to catch an early train to Wales.

Ta ta for now!

Landed in London

'Ello!

We have made it to London. Actually, we got in yesterday afternoon, but we dropped of our luggage and started exploring pronto. Hence, why I'm slightly delayed in posting.

We flew Virgin Atlantic out of LAX and I must say that Virgin America is a much improved version. Since I flew Virgin America on my return trip from New York in November, my expectations were much higher. Although, I do concede that it was a smaller plane that I took back then. The seats were much too close together, but they did have an extensive movie/tv/entertainment selection free of charge and along with 2 meals gave us free bags with socks, toothpaste, a toothbrush, pen and eyemask for the overnight flight. Very nifty.

Once arrived, we made our way to the Heathrow Express and then onto the Tube at Paddington station. When we got off at Russel Square to go to our hostel we promptly got lost and ended up wandering for a good half hour before we realized that had we gone the opposite direction when exiting the Tube station it was a quick two blocks up. Oh well.

After checking in we met our two German roommates and then headed out for some evening exploring. This took us to Buckingham Palace, which is HUGE and beautiful. Unfortunately we missed the changing of the guard, but are going to try to catch it when we return at the end of our trip. We did get to see it light up for the evening and it looks so very British. From there we walked down to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. They are both very lovely buildings and of course we took plenty of pictures. Then we got very lost looking for somewhere to go to the bathroom. Ended up at MacDonald's (very swanky).

From there our plan was to find a cool pub where we could rest and get a pint. After consulting the travel book Kaitlin gave me for Christmas (thanks Wifey!) we decided on The Court pub. Of course, we got lost. It was packed! Being foreigners, we hadn't realized it was a game night. So we ended up watching a football (translate: soccer) match between Manchester and Portugal. Manchester won, it was very exciting, especially when the whole place cheers together. Awesome! Since we were tired, we left after the match to go to the hostel. This time we made sure we had our bearings before heading off, but that didn't really make much of a difference anyway, since we still got lost. Apparently the street our hostel is on changes at the curvy part but our map didn't feel like telling us that. Good news was that we didn't get as lost as we had before. Good times!

This morning we woke up a bit late around 10am (that's 2 am for you in Cali) and headed out around 11. First stop was Waterloo Pier for the first leg of our Hop-on Hop-off River Cruise on the Thames. We got off at Greenwich and explored the University and Maritime Museum before trekking up to the Osbervatory which house the Prime Meridian Center. It was awesome sauce. We totally stood at the center of everything. Woot woot! The hike up there was hell though.

From there we hopped back on the cruise and hopped off at the Tower. It was funsies taking pictures and traipsing about. We missed the boat we intended to take back so we had to wait another half hour for the next one. It must've been fate because this one didn't have the pre-recorded guide telling you what was what. We just had a crew member with classic British dry humor pointing out the sights. I made sure to video it cause he was cracking us up. Unfortunately we were the only people who spoke English on the upper deck so he didn't get quite as many laughs as he deserved. After that we hopped back on the Tube (I'm fast becoming an expert) and are now back at the hostel. Tonight's agenda is to find some sort of mid-week nightlife in London if it kills us. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers!