By luck and perseverance (mostly of my quasi-twin) I've finally made it to Ireland just yesterday night. Ohhh yeah, it's an interesting story, but too traumatic and long to get into now. So the blog will be put on hold until I reach London and then look forward to mostly stories and little pictures of Ireland. (Ah, buy a travel book if it bothers you that much!)
;)
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Merry Christmas!!
I'm in Edinburgh now, got into town yesterday and went out for drinks with my friend John whom I met in Russia. He took me to a lunch place that had gooood fajitas! I was very excited for that fact. Then I wandered around the Christmas market here and bought some more presents. After watching ice skaters for a while, I met back up with John and we did a pub crawl for a while. Today I walked literally the entire east side of town with a Korean girl, Sophie, who is the only other person in my hostel room. It was fun, but walking for five hours straight in the cold and wind.. not so fun. Now I'm warming up in the hostel and I think some Aussies are going to cook Christmas dinner for the orphans here in the hostel. For now though I'm going to work on reading and recoperating.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Bumming around Town
Hello all! Just a quick note, since it appears all internet access is expenive here, to let you know that my second day in Glasgow is going so far as well as my first. Actually all I've been doing recently is shopping. They have a huge long stretch of pedestrian street that is filled to the brim with shops. And now all the Christmas sales are on, so I've finally been stocking up on winter clothes. I did manage to tour the city via bus this morning and plan to hit a few more tourist traps for photo ops before I go the the Christmas Choir concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert hall tonight at seven. Have to run now, I'll write more soon and expect wonderful blogs once I return to London and have my own internet to putz around on. 'Till then!
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Welcome to Glasgow
Just a quick note to let you all know I arrived in Glasgow this morning and have got to my hostel. Can't check in quite yet as it is still early, so I'm going to hit the town for a while, find a cafe and read over my travel guide and plan the next few days. More to come once I find a cheaper internet cafe (the one at the hostel is £1 per 15 minutes, a ridiculous rate!).
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
And a Happy New Year!
Notice the stocking? I crocheted that myself. And our friend 'Dave the Wireman' has transformed into words for the season.
Merry Christmas!
Our little Christmas tree, which I dragged (carried really) all the way back from the greenhouse down the street.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
UPDATE!!!
NEW AND IMPROVED!!
No, I'm not trying to sell you a car or the newest version of the Swiffer, but for a good time call... 555 --- I mean read the latest, actually correctly detailed, version of the Wales trip. Enjoy!
No, I'm not trying to sell you a car or the newest version of the Swiffer, but for a good time call... 555 --- I mean read the latest, actually correctly detailed, version of the Wales trip. Enjoy!
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Leeds castle and Rochester - Under Construction!
Last, but not least in the recounting of days gone by is the Sunday trip to Leeds castle and Rochester that I went on two weekends ago. There's not much to say in regards to this but that on a lovely Sunday morning I again made my way to ISH and boarded the coach with 90-some other travelers and headed to the south east, first to visit Leeds castle (which is not in Leeds city by the way) and then to the city of Dickens, Rochester. Leeds was beautiful, an amazing example of English countryside. The late eccentric benefactor fixed up the castle and left it to a foundation to take care of. She also left behind an aviary, Victorian hedge maze and a grotto. The slogan of Leeds castle is "The Loveliest Castle in the World", not too much to live up to, eh? Well I will say it is quite a lovely castle, completely restored according to the various periods of architectural style. In one of the wings there was a spiral staircase made entirely of one gigantic tree trunk, carved with an entwining snake ending at the top with the head of the snake and a wizard crowning the exemplary work. That was truly amazing. Also interesting was the size of the castle, it was in fact a bit smaller than one would expect for the loveliest castle in the world. Not that size matters really. This point was picked up by another Bunacer, a girl from Alabama or Georgia or some other quintessential Southern Belle state, who upon entering the grounds and seeing the castle exclaimed in her discernible accent "It's so small!" The gate keepers laughed awkwardly, and said "Sorry" as if they needed to apologize for the let down of British culture and heritage. I walked around the grounds with the extremely chatting Aussie bloke, Scott, who was good company for the most part though I was inclined to run away or stay behind at certain points in order to gain the much needed composure to listen to him ramble on again. Finally we had to go back to the bus so that we could make it to Rochester in time to see the city and lantern parade.
We at last arrive in Rochester and are separated into groups for our tours around the small city. It came to be known later that my tour guide was quite good and told us many an interesting fact and anecdote whereas other tour guides left their groups with little more information than they came with. My group on the other hand learned that though Charles Dickens never actually lived in Rochester he often made the ancient city the setting for many of his novels. Also one of the boasting points of Rochester is that Dickens wished to be buried in the city, however our guide let us in on the fact that good ol' Chuck also asked to be buried in about half a dozen other cities. The matter was easily solved with the Queen said he would be buried in Poet's Corner in
Westminster Abbey. We also learned that Henry the VIII met one of his wives, Anne of Cleaves in the abbey of Rochester, she was lucky in that she was later only divorced rather than killed but was unlucky enough to be known as the ugliest wife he had. Last but not least of the interesting anecdotes was that the castle was only attacked once by the King of England himself (James that is, a most unloved king). But more on that later, if you really care to know the details.
Anyways, fter the quick tour around the city (quick because Rochester is really exceedingly small, at least the old city/interesting part) we were let loose to wander up and down the high street which took all of an hour and then we had to wait a little bit before the lantern parade started. Again I wound up hanging out with the Aussie fellow, he and I had a little cheap lunch at what looked like a soup kitchen but really was a Church trying to get a few pounds by providing hot lunches to the tourists. We were then joined by another girl who I'd seen before on Bunac trips but hadn't really talked with much. We had a good time fighting through the crowd and popping into shops and having some mulled wine. Finally the parade started. We three found ourselves at the end of the parade where there was a stand and microphone. We were treated to carols sung by the choirs of local churches and some comedy routine by the village funny man. All the townsfolk were dressed in typical Dickensian costume as they walked through the main street holding old school lanterns. We then made our way through the crowd and back to the bus where we boarded and headed back for home. Amazingly we didn't hit traffic and made it back to London about 8pm. And so ends another adventure. Stay tuned to hear about Scotland and Ireland!
We at last arrive in Rochester and are separated into groups for our tours around the small city. It came to be known later that my tour guide was quite good and told us many an interesting fact and anecdote whereas other tour guides left their groups with little more information than they came with. My group on the other hand learned that though Charles Dickens never actually lived in Rochester he often made the ancient city the setting for many of his novels. Also one of the boasting points of Rochester is that Dickens wished to be buried in the city, however our guide let us in on the fact that good ol' Chuck also asked to be buried in about half a dozen other cities. The matter was easily solved with the Queen said he would be buried in Poet's Corner in
Westminster Abbey. We also learned that Henry the VIII met one of his wives, Anne of Cleaves in the abbey of Rochester, she was lucky in that she was later only divorced rather than killed but was unlucky enough to be known as the ugliest wife he had. Last but not least of the interesting anecdotes was that the castle was only attacked once by the King of England himself (James that is, a most unloved king). But more on that later, if you really care to know the details.
Anyways, fter the quick tour around the city (quick because Rochester is really exceedingly small, at least the old city/interesting part) we were let loose to wander up and down the high street which took all of an hour and then we had to wait a little bit before the lantern parade started. Again I wound up hanging out with the Aussie fellow, he and I had a little cheap lunch at what looked like a soup kitchen but really was a Church trying to get a few pounds by providing hot lunches to the tourists. We were then joined by another girl who I'd seen before on Bunac trips but hadn't really talked with much. We had a good time fighting through the crowd and popping into shops and having some mulled wine. Finally the parade started. We three found ourselves at the end of the parade where there was a stand and microphone. We were treated to carols sung by the choirs of local churches and some comedy routine by the village funny man. All the townsfolk were dressed in typical Dickensian costume as they walked through the main street holding old school lanterns. We then made our way through the crowd and back to the bus where we boarded and headed back for home. Amazingly we didn't hit traffic and made it back to London about 8pm. And so ends another adventure. Stay tuned to hear about Scotland and Ireland!
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Monday, December 13, 2004
Happy Thanksgiving!! .... belatedly
Yeah, yeah I know... it's the second week of December and I'm just now getting around to writing about my English Thanksgiving. I get it.. I'm a little behind on the times but I'm making every effort (or almost) to catch up. So let's begin -
The Monday after Mary and I had our little shopping trip we went out to have a goodbye dinner thing for her. We found this cool pub that's on a moored ship on the Thames. They have pretty good food at not disastrous prices plus the cool atmosphere of the rocking ship. Mary then left on Wednesday to return home in time for the holidays. I spent the rest of the week working - no time off here for such crazy pilgrim holidays celebrating the successful migration away from the Motherland.
Anyways, the planned celebration of a few American ex-pats (aka my friends) was to take place on Saturday, beginning by playing American football in Regent's park then moving to where Ryan, Richard, Whitney and Autumn live (each pair share a flat in the same building) to have dinner. My only duty was to bring cranberry sauce, wine and possibly a dessert. So I take my time, enjoying a relaxing Saturday morning. Go to the upscale grocery store (which they seem to have a lot of here) and buy the sauce, a nice apple pastry tort/pie and two bottles of wine, a red and a white. I then make my way to the tube station where I board the train with my goods and proceed to meet up with everyone at the park. By this time I'm actually running a little late, having taken my own sweet time picking out my fare and am rushing. I have to transfer twice to get to where I need to be and along the way have the terrible misfortune of breaking the wine on the platform!! While attempting to readjust my grip on the bags I drop the bag that contained both bottles. They smashed together and starting spouting out of the bag! A kind British gentleman behind me felt inclined to inform of the wine pouring from the pores of the plastic sack, as if I hadn't seen, heard or felt the bottles breaking at my feet. After informing a tube attendant of the spillage I hopped on the first train, luckily it was not far off, and escaped the shame and anguish of wasting good wine. When I finally arrived at the park I got a text message that they had given up on football (that's how late I was) and was told to meet up at their place. So I get back on the tube and happen to get on the same carriage as they were on. We all make our way to their flats and beginning the painful process of heating up several dishes with only the aid of two Yorkshire terrier sized microwaves that produced less heat than if we tried rubbing two twigs together to create fire.. of course I exaggerate.. it produced about the same amount of heat as two twigs rubbed together. Finally the meal was cooked/warmed/at least brought to room temperature or thereabouts and we dig in (for more particulars on the feast and fun had see my picture gallery on ofoto.com). I had to leave early to go to an all night Lord of the Rings session at the Imax in the city.
So at about 6pm, after only an hour of dining, I head off to watch all three Lord of the Rings films in a row on a gigantic Imax screen. Call me Ishmael, call me a dork, geek.. FREAK, alls I got to say is it was Good Times!! The Fellowship of the Ring started at 8pm, we had a half hour intermission between films and tea, coffee and concessions throughout the night. The amazing times ended at 7am.. yes, that's right 7am.. the next morning. I then hopped on the tube, the very first one of the morning and headed home where I proceeded to sleep through the day. Woke up about 4pm, made some dinner and putzed around until bedtime again and then went to work the next morning. All in all it was a wonderful weekend, not to be forgotten.
The Monday after Mary and I had our little shopping trip we went out to have a goodbye dinner thing for her. We found this cool pub that's on a moored ship on the Thames. They have pretty good food at not disastrous prices plus the cool atmosphere of the rocking ship. Mary then left on Wednesday to return home in time for the holidays. I spent the rest of the week working - no time off here for such crazy pilgrim holidays celebrating the successful migration away from the Motherland.
Anyways, the planned celebration of a few American ex-pats (aka my friends) was to take place on Saturday, beginning by playing American football in Regent's park then moving to where Ryan, Richard, Whitney and Autumn live (each pair share a flat in the same building) to have dinner. My only duty was to bring cranberry sauce, wine and possibly a dessert. So I take my time, enjoying a relaxing Saturday morning. Go to the upscale grocery store (which they seem to have a lot of here) and buy the sauce, a nice apple pastry tort/pie and two bottles of wine, a red and a white. I then make my way to the tube station where I board the train with my goods and proceed to meet up with everyone at the park. By this time I'm actually running a little late, having taken my own sweet time picking out my fare and am rushing. I have to transfer twice to get to where I need to be and along the way have the terrible misfortune of breaking the wine on the platform!! While attempting to readjust my grip on the bags I drop the bag that contained both bottles. They smashed together and starting spouting out of the bag! A kind British gentleman behind me felt inclined to inform of the wine pouring from the pores of the plastic sack, as if I hadn't seen, heard or felt the bottles breaking at my feet. After informing a tube attendant of the spillage I hopped on the first train, luckily it was not far off, and escaped the shame and anguish of wasting good wine. When I finally arrived at the park I got a text message that they had given up on football (that's how late I was) and was told to meet up at their place. So I get back on the tube and happen to get on the same carriage as they were on. We all make our way to their flats and beginning the painful process of heating up several dishes with only the aid of two Yorkshire terrier sized microwaves that produced less heat than if we tried rubbing two twigs together to create fire.. of course I exaggerate.. it produced about the same amount of heat as two twigs rubbed together. Finally the meal was cooked/warmed/at least brought to room temperature or thereabouts and we dig in (for more particulars on the feast and fun had see my picture gallery on ofoto.com). I had to leave early to go to an all night Lord of the Rings session at the Imax in the city.
So at about 6pm, after only an hour of dining, I head off to watch all three Lord of the Rings films in a row on a gigantic Imax screen. Call me Ishmael, call me a dork, geek.. FREAK, alls I got to say is it was Good Times!! The Fellowship of the Ring started at 8pm, we had a half hour intermission between films and tea, coffee and concessions throughout the night. The amazing times ended at 7am.. yes, that's right 7am.. the next morning. I then hopped on the tube, the very first one of the morning and headed home where I proceeded to sleep through the day. Woke up about 4pm, made some dinner and putzed around until bedtime again and then went to work the next morning. All in all it was a wonderful weekend, not to be forgotten.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Goodbye to one friend
The weekend after Wales trip was spent with my friend Mary who was leaving the next week to head back to Nebraska for the holidays. Hopefully she'll return after the new year to finish her adventures in England. Friday night we went out to dinner at a pub in Leciester Square (pronounced "lester"). Well, really we went out for dessert but we also had dinner as well. Note: If ever you get to Leciester Square, The Brewmaster pub has the best homemade apple crumble I've ever tasted. Saturday morning we met up early (a little before noon) and went to the Borough Market - the biggest, most amazing market place I've seen so far. It has everything you could ever possibly wish for in terms of food items. From Mexican hot chocolate and salsa to every kind of cheese and chutney (a jam-sauce like item, very popular here) to freshly killed birds, rabbits, and dears.. oh my! (So fresh they were hanging upside down, still a bit bloodied with their heads, or rather where the head would be in plastic bags. All this right across from a wine kiosk, it was all very surreal indeed!)
After going all over the market, we had some amazing pizza in the courtyard of Southwark Cathedral, where Mary worked. Then we went about doing some last minute shopping for items she needed before she went home. She showed me a Lithuanian shop that I was happy to note had quite a few Russian items that I missed. Then we went to Covent Gardens and saw the giant Christmas tree they were putting up there and had some mulled wine and mince pies (the epitome of traditional English Christmas food.) We managed to get all the items Mary was needing, including a second carry-on bag for all the things she had bought and all this in a massive downpour. Let me tell you how not fun it is to try and walk around and shop in a torrential rainstorm. I have yet to buy an umbrella here (since I couldn't take the one given to me by the International Office at DU as it was too big to fit in the suitcase and too weapon-like to take on the plane.) We then went back to my place and watched Hitchcock's Rear Window and had Indian take away. We then went to bed thoroughly satisfied with the day and rearing to start again on the morrow.
Sunday, Mary joined me during my Russian language sessions (I've been taking private lessons with a cool guy named Igor from Kaliningrad.) After that we walked around St. Paul's Cathedral, got a bit lost, found our way back and then met up with my flatmate and saw The Incredibles. It was the first Pixar film I've seen, I think, and I quite enjoyed it. After that we said goodbye to Mary and Alastair and I headed home. Then it was back to the working week for he and I and the end of another blog for now.
P.S. For those of you whom I didn't get a chance to email, you can check out all the pictures I've taken so far by going to ofoto.com, you may have to join up as a member (entirely free) to view and/or purchase pictures. If that doesn't work let me know and I'll send you the ofoto invite to view my albums. Happy viewing!
After going all over the market, we had some amazing pizza in the courtyard of Southwark Cathedral, where Mary worked. Then we went about doing some last minute shopping for items she needed before she went home. She showed me a Lithuanian shop that I was happy to note had quite a few Russian items that I missed. Then we went to Covent Gardens and saw the giant Christmas tree they were putting up there and had some mulled wine and mince pies (the epitome of traditional English Christmas food.) We managed to get all the items Mary was needing, including a second carry-on bag for all the things she had bought and all this in a massive downpour. Let me tell you how not fun it is to try and walk around and shop in a torrential rainstorm. I have yet to buy an umbrella here (since I couldn't take the one given to me by the International Office at DU as it was too big to fit in the suitcase and too weapon-like to take on the plane.) We then went back to my place and watched Hitchcock's Rear Window and had Indian take away. We then went to bed thoroughly satisfied with the day and rearing to start again on the morrow.
Sunday, Mary joined me during my Russian language sessions (I've been taking private lessons with a cool guy named Igor from Kaliningrad.) After that we walked around St. Paul's Cathedral, got a bit lost, found our way back and then met up with my flatmate and saw The Incredibles. It was the first Pixar film I've seen, I think, and I quite enjoyed it. After that we said goodbye to Mary and Alastair and I headed home. Then it was back to the working week for he and I and the end of another blog for now.
P.S. For those of you whom I didn't get a chance to email, you can check out all the pictures I've taken so far by going to ofoto.com, you may have to join up as a member (entirely free) to view and/or purchase pictures. If that doesn't work let me know and I'll send you the ofoto invite to view my albums. Happy viewing!
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