i have 10 mins for this post...and we all know what a crappy typer i am so here goes.
after survivng the longest day of our lives...it is official that we have never felt so homeless. and we look it. lol.
but, we made all of our connections, and WE SAW STONEHENGE. took a freakish amount of photos to document it...as it turned out to be much smaller than what we thought, and somewhat anti climactic. but, we did see it. :)
we were also told today that our scarves (yes, we are still wearing them...as you will se as soon as we can upload phtots...hopefully paris.) make us look a bit classy. they dress up our mangey homeless look...so we're told by some random people from ventura that we met on the bus on our way out to stonehenge. it was nice to have some american comraderie again...becuase the native uk'ers, generallly speaking don't like hannah and i's loud american ways. we haven't made much of a splash. haha.
but, i must go get the grime off of me...i have never felt so disgusting in all of my life. i am relativel unshaven...due to the lack of shower space lately...(too much information?? yes, especially since i don't know who all is reading this...but i'm so over that. i've lost all sence of propriety...), the same clothes since leaving oundle on account of the fact that they are my warmest, and i can't be any colder, and quite possible the worst hair that the uk has ever seen. my 'ethnic hair' (good one krizz) is fully in the final stages of revolt right now. and honestly, i could care less about it...sort of.
so yeah, i'll update more in paris. :)
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
The much requested visual of the famous outfit.
OK, i seem to notice that the themes of the comments are requests for a visual on the scottish outfit choice. Well, you're going to have to hold yer horses becuase we can't upload any pictures while we're in edinburgh. Hopefully when we get into cantebury tomorrow night we will be able to do it. Can't promise anything though, the night after that we are having our first couchsurfing experience with a family in Beaveus, France. that's right, in two days hannah and i will be hitting the mainland with a bang!! (and a bang it is, i'll let you in on our itinerary for the next two days, simply because if we pull it off, we are at superhero status.) So, if we can't upload the photos in cantebury, it'll have to wait until we get into paris...we should be able t do it there somewhere. If not the hostel, then i'm sure we can find an internet cafe that we'll be able to do it from.
Anyways, so here's the plan for the next two days...
Wedensday:
walk down to the edinburgh train station from the hostel at 5:30 am so that we can get on the 6:00 train to salisbury. (a 7 hour train ride...only one train switch though which is very very nie. we don't like train switches. they involve locating our new station. hence the threee hour walk through the ghetto.)
once in salisbury, get a bus out to stnehenge. (20 minute ride) and be there for like half an hour...and then catch a bus back to salisbury.
find the train station, and head to cantebury. (4 hour ride...) arrive cantebury at 9-ish pm and get a cab to our hostel. hopefully upload pics and then crash.
Thursday:
cab to the train station at 6 am so we can get on the 6:30 train to dover, so we can get on the 8 am ferry over to calais.
arrive in callais at 10:30 and find the rail station so we can get on the last train of the day to beaveus at 12 pm. arrive in beavues sometime in the afternoon and find our way to this families house. most likely another cab ride to it. get there...crash, and get out of there early in the morning, becuase the woman leaves early for work, so we'll have to head right into paris at the crack of dawn....and pull what we are now calling 'a london'.
(definition of 'a london' : arriving in a city way, way early in the morning. locating our hostel. dumping our crap there...and heading right out and getting a jump on the sight seeing. coming back when we are able to check in and taking a power nap...getting up and heading out again.)
The reason for this madness?? we have to be out of the uk before our rail pass expires on the 31st....and we have to see stonehenge before we leave the uk. so there you have our crazy plans for the next 2 or 3 days. :) if we survive this...we are awesomeness. lol
so yeah, that's the update of the day. love you all!!
Anyways, so here's the plan for the next two days...
Wedensday:
walk down to the edinburgh train station from the hostel at 5:30 am so that we can get on the 6:00 train to salisbury. (a 7 hour train ride...only one train switch though which is very very nie. we don't like train switches. they involve locating our new station. hence the threee hour walk through the ghetto.)
once in salisbury, get a bus out to stnehenge. (20 minute ride) and be there for like half an hour...and then catch a bus back to salisbury.
find the train station, and head to cantebury. (4 hour ride...) arrive cantebury at 9-ish pm and get a cab to our hostel. hopefully upload pics and then crash.
Thursday:
cab to the train station at 6 am so we can get on the 6:30 train to dover, so we can get on the 8 am ferry over to calais.
arrive in callais at 10:30 and find the rail station so we can get on the last train of the day to beaveus at 12 pm. arrive in beavues sometime in the afternoon and find our way to this families house. most likely another cab ride to it. get there...crash, and get out of there early in the morning, becuase the woman leaves early for work, so we'll have to head right into paris at the crack of dawn....and pull what we are now calling 'a london'.
(definition of 'a london' : arriving in a city way, way early in the morning. locating our hostel. dumping our crap there...and heading right out and getting a jump on the sight seeing. coming back when we are able to check in and taking a power nap...getting up and heading out again.)
The reason for this madness?? we have to be out of the uk before our rail pass expires on the 31st....and we have to see stonehenge before we leave the uk. so there you have our crazy plans for the next 2 or 3 days. :) if we survive this...we are awesomeness. lol
so yeah, that's the update of the day. love you all!!
Monday, May 28, 2007
Can i get a witness up in here?
Moment to testify to the goodness of the Lord.
He is providing us everywhere we go with poeple who are willing to help us reach our destination. (Minus all of the londoners, who kept telling us where we needed to be was ' a ten minute walk'. yeah, elisabeth, that is what they say!!! i didn't make the connection until you said that! we were like 5 miles from where we needed to be, but kept getting told, we were 'about a ten minute walf off from it in that direction..' followd by a vague pointing in the direction opposite of the way we were going...) in two cases, we have actually been escorted to where we need to be. 1. the welsh bus driver, and 2. a woman on the bus after our long day in london who took us to the exact place we neede to be in the train station. It's been awesome to watch Him pave the way for us. we really are in His grasp.
So yeah, just needed to say that, becuase my last blog wasn't long enough right?? lol. i'm so long-winded.
Side note: the music playing here right now is some sort of mellow ska. apparently the ska movement never quite died the silent and un-appreciated death that it did in the states. Its making me happy to hear that generally unappreciated form of music. actually music at all, it's so wierd to not have music going all the time. all we've had is the bagpiper on the street corner yesterday and now this. i am drinking it up!!! (the first time i'm sure that anyone has been said to 'drink up ska')
He is providing us everywhere we go with poeple who are willing to help us reach our destination. (Minus all of the londoners, who kept telling us where we needed to be was ' a ten minute walk'. yeah, elisabeth, that is what they say!!! i didn't make the connection until you said that! we were like 5 miles from where we needed to be, but kept getting told, we were 'about a ten minute walf off from it in that direction..' followd by a vague pointing in the direction opposite of the way we were going...) in two cases, we have actually been escorted to where we need to be. 1. the welsh bus driver, and 2. a woman on the bus after our long day in london who took us to the exact place we neede to be in the train station. It's been awesome to watch Him pave the way for us. we really are in His grasp.
So yeah, just needed to say that, becuase my last blog wasn't long enough right?? lol. i'm so long-winded.
Side note: the music playing here right now is some sort of mellow ska. apparently the ska movement never quite died the silent and un-appreciated death that it did in the states. Its making me happy to hear that generally unappreciated form of music. actually music at all, it's so wierd to not have music going all the time. all we've had is the bagpiper on the street corner yesterday and now this. i am drinking it up!!! (the first time i'm sure that anyone has been said to 'drink up ska')
Welcome to Edinburgh. land of the freezing, home of the brave (heart)
Okay, okay, just excuse the total cheese-ball title of this blog, but it was the best i could do. Anyways, yes, we are here in Edinburgh for the next couple of days. We found this little totally funky student cafe on the uni campus here with free internet as long as you buy something. like i even need incentive to buy coffee. lol. anyways, it's nice to have here since we have to pay at the hostel we're at. (which, btw, overlooks the castle of edinburgh. very awesome.)
I think that Edinburgh is one of the coolest cities so far. Actaally, it's technically only the second large city we've been to. After leaving Oundle, we set off for Haworth. (still insure how to say it. considering the fact that the town of Keighly is pronounced keithly. lol.) Anyways, haworth was a wierd little village in western yorkshire, the home of the Bronte family. And let me tell you, they are proud of their bronte's there!! Everything is named after them. Bronte village, bronte market, bronte square. We stayed in the only hostel there, come to find out via our welsh bus driver who pretty much had to hand deliver us, as we had no real clue where we were going. lol. he was a nice chap though, and we did make it to our wierd lodging for the night. I'm not much for believing in haunted crap, but i swear our hostel was an old haunted mansion. It just felt creepy!! i was glad we were only there for one night!! although the town was completely awesome, it wasn't somewhere to hang out for extneded periods of time. haha...it was nice to get back into a big city again. Everywhere you go, you are surrounded by antiquity, but i have never before haworth felt so much like someone had dropped me into 1835 and left me there for a night. deffinately odd.
anyways, enough of haworth. We're now in edinburgh...and it is frigid here. frigid. i'm not exaggerating that one bit, for those of you who know my tendancy to over-react. it's like 40 degrees here, plus there is a bit of a windchill factor as well. and of course there is rain. After reflecting on the trek through london with the 40 lb. packs, me and hannah decided to unload some of our crap when we got to darby's, she said she would mail it back for us. (God bless her!!) So what did we unload?? PANTS! (side note: the word 'pants' in the uk refers to underwear. so all the many scotts who have been commenting on hannah and i's clothing choice of shorts and sandals have essentially been informed that we left all of our underwear in oundle. note to self...use the word 'trouser' when referring to pants. we were told this by the nice woman working at the shop that we stopped in to purchase a nice wool scarf. the cheapest and smallest item of wool that we can find around here to try and keep a bit warmer. ) This is what i look like right now: the longest shorts i have, my chacos, a tee shirt, my waffel hoody, my green raincoat, with both hoods up at all times, and a nice scottish plaid scarf wrapped around my face. No two people have ever screamed STUPID AMERICAN TOURIST! as much as we do right now. Also not an exaggeration. People walk past us and the word 'tourist...psh...' is uttered. Many of the locals feel the need to say: "Ay, you're a bit cold there are ye?" or "Well, you're all nice and bundled there aren't ya?" followed by a chuckle completely void of any sympathetic pity. If i had a pence for everytime i heard it, i'd be able to afford a night at the hilton, rather than the castle rock hostel. (side note number 2: i cannot stop the scootish accent from coming out!! everything i say is tinged. not good, since i deffinately don't look like a local with this get-up on, so i'm pretty sure it just comes off as a mockery to their bonny people. lol.)
A note on the wearing of the chaco sandal:
i do not believe that anyone in europe has seen them before. Seriously, i've never had my feet stared at so much in my entire life!!! The whole trip, ever since we landed in London, our feet have been the focal point of our body. Here it is even worse, as it is so cold, and you don't see another poor soul wondering around with their feet exposed. lol. nope, just me and hannah. :) The culmination of this sandal phenomenon, was last night when we were on the underground tour of Edinburgh, attention was drawn to our chosen footwear by the tour giude, and he termed them 'roman sandals'. all 44 people on the tour were waching, listening, and then laughing, including hannah and i. It was the perfect addition to the fact that our feet are already a spectacle. Can't wait till we get to Paris with these babies!!
Anyhoo...if you want to see a bit of what we are experiencing, look up the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, and you'll see what we are staying on. it really is incredible. an entire mile of cobblestone street surrounded by ancient stone buildings, though they are now all filled with cafe's and scottish souvinier shops. You can purchase a kilt or a traditional highland get up inside ever other door (something i would do if i wasn't so budgeted, just to stay warm!!!) and also, there are quite a few weapn shops, which is really hard for me to resist!! i really, really want a sword, so i can start doing william wallace re-inactments. (side note number 3: we had our photo taken with a wallace impersonator today. william wallace paraphanalia here is like elvis paraphanalia in vegas. funny.) So yeah, all in all, i'm a big fan of scotland. (kind of makes me wish i was scootish instead of irish...although, i am assured that two doors down from our cafe i can get my complete scootish family history, reguardless of my actual ancestry...lol.)
We went through a free edinburgh history museum today, and it was pretty interesting to see that industrial progress didn't really start hitting here until the 70's and 80's. Up until then, tenement buildings and 10 poeple in a one room flat was still the norm. Also, the scotts still don't really like the britts, judging from the random graffiti i see around town, (and this is the good part of town, can't imagine the bad...) stating things like 'not brittish', 'not our queen', and i can't remember the others. all along these lines though.
Well, i think that's a sufficient update from me.
elisabeth: do you remember that 'miffy by the sea' book we had when we were little?? apparently it's scottish...and the 50th anniversary of the miffy books right now.
kelley: i miss you!! why aren't you leaving comments!?!?!?
mom: i'm glad to hear that maestro misses me, i was worried that he was going to forget who i was...say hi to daddy for me.
erin: that's exciting that story got to come for a visit! how perfect that he gets to meet his nephew!! and i really like hearing the stories of what's going on at home. KEEP FILLING ME IN EVERYBODY!!!!!!
love you all, and i'll probably be back here to blog tomorrow because:
a. it's heated in here
b. i like capaccino's
c. it's free, and hannah and i have a policy on this trip, which goes as follows: "free?? ok...point me there." :)
I think that Edinburgh is one of the coolest cities so far. Actaally, it's technically only the second large city we've been to. After leaving Oundle, we set off for Haworth. (still insure how to say it. considering the fact that the town of Keighly is pronounced keithly. lol.) Anyways, haworth was a wierd little village in western yorkshire, the home of the Bronte family. And let me tell you, they are proud of their bronte's there!! Everything is named after them. Bronte village, bronte market, bronte square. We stayed in the only hostel there, come to find out via our welsh bus driver who pretty much had to hand deliver us, as we had no real clue where we were going. lol. he was a nice chap though, and we did make it to our wierd lodging for the night. I'm not much for believing in haunted crap, but i swear our hostel was an old haunted mansion. It just felt creepy!! i was glad we were only there for one night!! although the town was completely awesome, it wasn't somewhere to hang out for extneded periods of time. haha...it was nice to get back into a big city again. Everywhere you go, you are surrounded by antiquity, but i have never before haworth felt so much like someone had dropped me into 1835 and left me there for a night. deffinately odd.
anyways, enough of haworth. We're now in edinburgh...and it is frigid here. frigid. i'm not exaggerating that one bit, for those of you who know my tendancy to over-react. it's like 40 degrees here, plus there is a bit of a windchill factor as well. and of course there is rain. After reflecting on the trek through london with the 40 lb. packs, me and hannah decided to unload some of our crap when we got to darby's, she said she would mail it back for us. (God bless her!!) So what did we unload?? PANTS! (side note: the word 'pants' in the uk refers to underwear. so all the many scotts who have been commenting on hannah and i's clothing choice of shorts and sandals have essentially been informed that we left all of our underwear in oundle. note to self...use the word 'trouser' when referring to pants. we were told this by the nice woman working at the shop that we stopped in to purchase a nice wool scarf. the cheapest and smallest item of wool that we can find around here to try and keep a bit warmer. ) This is what i look like right now: the longest shorts i have, my chacos, a tee shirt, my waffel hoody, my green raincoat, with both hoods up at all times, and a nice scottish plaid scarf wrapped around my face. No two people have ever screamed STUPID AMERICAN TOURIST! as much as we do right now. Also not an exaggeration. People walk past us and the word 'tourist...psh...' is uttered. Many of the locals feel the need to say: "Ay, you're a bit cold there are ye?" or "Well, you're all nice and bundled there aren't ya?" followed by a chuckle completely void of any sympathetic pity. If i had a pence for everytime i heard it, i'd be able to afford a night at the hilton, rather than the castle rock hostel. (side note number 2: i cannot stop the scootish accent from coming out!! everything i say is tinged. not good, since i deffinately don't look like a local with this get-up on, so i'm pretty sure it just comes off as a mockery to their bonny people. lol.)
A note on the wearing of the chaco sandal:
i do not believe that anyone in europe has seen them before. Seriously, i've never had my feet stared at so much in my entire life!!! The whole trip, ever since we landed in London, our feet have been the focal point of our body. Here it is even worse, as it is so cold, and you don't see another poor soul wondering around with their feet exposed. lol. nope, just me and hannah. :) The culmination of this sandal phenomenon, was last night when we were on the underground tour of Edinburgh, attention was drawn to our chosen footwear by the tour giude, and he termed them 'roman sandals'. all 44 people on the tour were waching, listening, and then laughing, including hannah and i. It was the perfect addition to the fact that our feet are already a spectacle. Can't wait till we get to Paris with these babies!!
Anyhoo...if you want to see a bit of what we are experiencing, look up the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, and you'll see what we are staying on. it really is incredible. an entire mile of cobblestone street surrounded by ancient stone buildings, though they are now all filled with cafe's and scottish souvinier shops. You can purchase a kilt or a traditional highland get up inside ever other door (something i would do if i wasn't so budgeted, just to stay warm!!!) and also, there are quite a few weapn shops, which is really hard for me to resist!! i really, really want a sword, so i can start doing william wallace re-inactments. (side note number 3: we had our photo taken with a wallace impersonator today. william wallace paraphanalia here is like elvis paraphanalia in vegas. funny.) So yeah, all in all, i'm a big fan of scotland. (kind of makes me wish i was scootish instead of irish...although, i am assured that two doors down from our cafe i can get my complete scootish family history, reguardless of my actual ancestry...lol.)
We went through a free edinburgh history museum today, and it was pretty interesting to see that industrial progress didn't really start hitting here until the 70's and 80's. Up until then, tenement buildings and 10 poeple in a one room flat was still the norm. Also, the scotts still don't really like the britts, judging from the random graffiti i see around town, (and this is the good part of town, can't imagine the bad...) stating things like 'not brittish', 'not our queen', and i can't remember the others. all along these lines though.
Well, i think that's a sufficient update from me.
elisabeth: do you remember that 'miffy by the sea' book we had when we were little?? apparently it's scottish...and the 50th anniversary of the miffy books right now.
kelley: i miss you!! why aren't you leaving comments!?!?!?
mom: i'm glad to hear that maestro misses me, i was worried that he was going to forget who i was...say hi to daddy for me.
erin: that's exciting that story got to come for a visit! how perfect that he gets to meet his nephew!! and i really like hearing the stories of what's going on at home. KEEP FILLING ME IN EVERYBODY!!!!!!
love you all, and i'll probably be back here to blog tomorrow because:
a. it's heated in here
b. i like capaccino's
c. it's free, and hannah and i have a policy on this trip, which goes as follows: "free?? ok...point me there." :)
Friday, May 25, 2007
how to get lost in london...
1. do not consult the train, bus, or tube map before leaving hostel for a city you don't know the actual location of.
2.ignore the advice of steve, a dishy kiwi who has just moved to london and tells you the exact rail station to be at. say to yourself, 'i don't think steve really knows. we will go another way, because i, in my infinite knowledge must be better siuted to getting us there quicker.'
3. ask a tube empolyee where the nearest train station is. not the one that will take you to your destination...no, the nearest one. then proceed to take the tube that leads you there.
4. get out of the tube, knowing that you are in the wrong place. ask a random construction dude on the street where you can locate the correct tube station. DO NOT LISTEN when he tells you that you are most deffinately in the wrong area of town. now, this next step is crucial, DO NOT under any circumstances get back on the tube. CHOOSE TO GO BY FOOT!!!
5. ok, so now your well into having no clue where you are. you will start to notice a change in the atmosphere, a change for the worse. you start heading into the bad part of town. and i don't mean, 'don't use the bathroom here cause it's probably not clean' i mean 'keep an eye out becuase there's probably someone wating around the corner to jump you so they can harvest your organs and sell them on the black market'
6. now, just keep walking, thinking that you will eventually just magically figure out where you are. you start asking random public officials where your station is. they don't know, becuase they never take it. it's that far away. for extra fun you can have a 40 lb. pack on your back this whole time, plus a daypack and a huge water bottle clanging against your leg.
7.continue on your journey. do not take a bus, to not take a tube. just keep walking. keep walking until you have such a forlorn look on your face that a random woman on the street will stop you and ask you if you need help.
and that is the end. a pretty good, self tested method for getting lost in the middle of london. after that, we did start to find our way, so if you want to get more lost than that, you're going to have to find another research source.
2.ignore the advice of steve, a dishy kiwi who has just moved to london and tells you the exact rail station to be at. say to yourself, 'i don't think steve really knows. we will go another way, because i, in my infinite knowledge must be better siuted to getting us there quicker.'
3. ask a tube empolyee where the nearest train station is. not the one that will take you to your destination...no, the nearest one. then proceed to take the tube that leads you there.
4. get out of the tube, knowing that you are in the wrong place. ask a random construction dude on the street where you can locate the correct tube station. DO NOT LISTEN when he tells you that you are most deffinately in the wrong area of town. now, this next step is crucial, DO NOT under any circumstances get back on the tube. CHOOSE TO GO BY FOOT!!!
5. ok, so now your well into having no clue where you are. you will start to notice a change in the atmosphere, a change for the worse. you start heading into the bad part of town. and i don't mean, 'don't use the bathroom here cause it's probably not clean' i mean 'keep an eye out becuase there's probably someone wating around the corner to jump you so they can harvest your organs and sell them on the black market'
6. now, just keep walking, thinking that you will eventually just magically figure out where you are. you start asking random public officials where your station is. they don't know, becuase they never take it. it's that far away. for extra fun you can have a 40 lb. pack on your back this whole time, plus a daypack and a huge water bottle clanging against your leg.
7.continue on your journey. do not take a bus, to not take a tube. just keep walking. keep walking until you have such a forlorn look on your face that a random woman on the street will stop you and ask you if you need help.
and that is the end. a pretty good, self tested method for getting lost in the middle of london. after that, we did start to find our way, so if you want to get more lost than that, you're going to have to find another research source.
Special Attention:
kelley...why have i not heard one peep from you??
and also, hannah is much better about uploading photos, so continue to check her blog for more stuff. :)
hannah-europe.blogspot.com
and also, hannah is much better about uploading photos, so continue to check her blog for more stuff. :)
hannah-europe.blogspot.com
Oundle.
one of the viilage churces. no matter how small, they all have one.
a few of said chased sheep.
i suck at flipping these. but they have swans here!
the awesomeness of oundle. actually, this is some other random village. the awesomeness of some other random village.
sorry, i forgot to flip this one!! but the doors are so small here!! i guess we caucasians have really shot up over the centuries!!
the view from our bedroom window at the cate's.Pardon me, i just dropped a clanger! (translation: excuse me for just putting my foot in my mouth.)
Today me and hannah decided to educate ourselves on the world of brittish slang, as we are growing weary of looking at people as if staring them down will somehow magically interpret what they just said. Today we learned that when you say excuse me in england, it means that you deffinately either just belched or passed gas. It's sure a good thing that I have been quite loudly saying 'excuse me' every time i need to brush past someone, or even just walk past them briskly on the road. lol. The locals must think I have quite the digestive issue. I will now be saying 'pardon me' from now on.
For the past two days we have been staying in the village of Oundle (OW-ndle) in Northamptonshire. It's incredibe, I feel like I'm walking around in a Jane Austen novel. Hannah and I have been going through quite a bit of culture shock. Oundle is a tiny town surrounded by a lot of pasture land and other even tinier towns, so it's pretty much just locals around here and we stick out like a sore-thumb. It's been interesting. lol. However, today we turned a corner in our lives and have decided to embrace the status of being the untrusted outsider, and smile back at those who are leering at us. haha. We decided this as we were having dinner at the speckled hen this evening, and we are better women for it!!!
We are staying with a family that is friends with Hannah's aunt and uncle, and they have been such a blessing!! It's been a really nice oportunity to recouperate...GET SLEEP (10 hours last night...something i am 'chuffed to bit's about!' -very pleased-), and enjoy the english counrtyside. Now that we have gotten over and embraced the fact that we are total outsiders...lol. Oundle also houses a 450 year old boarding school, so there are high schoolers everywhere. it adds an interesting air to the village.
Anyways, tonight Darby was kind enough to take me and Hannah on a drive through the counrtyside, so that we could see some of the surrounding villages, and take some of the public foot paths. (side note: apparently england is full of these trails, they have been here since way back in the day, and no matter what development occurs around them, they are not able to be blocked, it's illegal. so now, these foot paths take you through pasturland, past rivers, and through gardens...) I feel quite jammy (lucky) to have been able to have a tour guide through all of this. :) As me and Hannah are finding out, it's quite difficult to just kind of meander around these little places. the locals don't seem to be big fans of tourists, so it's been great to have the Cate's here. ( a completely nice family, i'm really glad we got a chance to stay with them and meet them. Also, it's been nice to be around a family. I miss the feeling of community more than i thought i would.)
So, the remaining hours of daylight this evening were spent strolling through the rolling hills of Northhamptonshire and learning the fine art of chasing sheep from joel and jordan. (darby and dougs two younger sons...13 and 10?? i think??) Well, i think i have said enough, so i'll just upload some pictures now. :)
(and btw...i really like getting comments. if you read this, you better be commenting!!!!! mom and dad...i'm talking to you! and also, any and all urraco girls who are keeping silent...actually, anybody perusing this. lol)
For the past two days we have been staying in the village of Oundle (OW-ndle) in Northamptonshire. It's incredibe, I feel like I'm walking around in a Jane Austen novel. Hannah and I have been going through quite a bit of culture shock. Oundle is a tiny town surrounded by a lot of pasture land and other even tinier towns, so it's pretty much just locals around here and we stick out like a sore-thumb. It's been interesting. lol. However, today we turned a corner in our lives and have decided to embrace the status of being the untrusted outsider, and smile back at those who are leering at us. haha. We decided this as we were having dinner at the speckled hen this evening, and we are better women for it!!!
We are staying with a family that is friends with Hannah's aunt and uncle, and they have been such a blessing!! It's been a really nice oportunity to recouperate...GET SLEEP (10 hours last night...something i am 'chuffed to bit's about!' -very pleased-), and enjoy the english counrtyside. Now that we have gotten over and embraced the fact that we are total outsiders...lol. Oundle also houses a 450 year old boarding school, so there are high schoolers everywhere. it adds an interesting air to the village.
Anyways, tonight Darby was kind enough to take me and Hannah on a drive through the counrtyside, so that we could see some of the surrounding villages, and take some of the public foot paths. (side note: apparently england is full of these trails, they have been here since way back in the day, and no matter what development occurs around them, they are not able to be blocked, it's illegal. so now, these foot paths take you through pasturland, past rivers, and through gardens...) I feel quite jammy (lucky) to have been able to have a tour guide through all of this. :) As me and Hannah are finding out, it's quite difficult to just kind of meander around these little places. the locals don't seem to be big fans of tourists, so it's been great to have the Cate's here. ( a completely nice family, i'm really glad we got a chance to stay with them and meet them. Also, it's been nice to be around a family. I miss the feeling of community more than i thought i would.)
So, the remaining hours of daylight this evening were spent strolling through the rolling hills of Northhamptonshire and learning the fine art of chasing sheep from joel and jordan. (darby and dougs two younger sons...13 and 10?? i think??) Well, i think i have said enough, so i'll just upload some pictures now. :)
(and btw...i really like getting comments. if you read this, you better be commenting!!!!! mom and dad...i'm talking to you! and also, any and all urraco girls who are keeping silent...actually, anybody perusing this. lol)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
sleep...what's that again??
as i write, i'm starting to feel the effects of not having slept really in the last 72 hours. we just woke up from an afternoon nap, as right around the same time as yesterday, while we were out and about, me and hannah totally crashed. lol. so yeah, we tried to recharge a bit and then went and had some dinner at the same little cae that we ate at last night.
today has been a busy/good day. we got a pretty early start since we had been up since 4 am. haha. but it was nice to not be rushed and take a shower in an empty bathroom and have space. :)
we went to see...oh shoot...i can't remember the name of it...but it's the oldest medieval cathedral in england. it was amazing. the most awesom thing though is that you are allowed to purchase a photo permit for £2 and you can take all the pics you want. which was pretty much such an awesome oportunity...and the best four bucks i've spent so far. it was amazing...typical cathedral ceilings...catacombs...stained glass windows, all made honoring brittish authors...it was such a cool experience! and the ability to take photos (cause you usually can't in those places...). anyways, we pretty much just stumbled on that place. that's what amazes me about this city. you just stumble in 6,ooo year old buildings. they're just there in the middle of a regular old city. so yeah, after that, we went walking and crossed the river thames on the london bridge.
um....i'm almost out of time...so then we went to the tower of london which was completely surreal...i'll write more about that later, and then we did somethiing else that i can't remember...haha. anayways, i'm out of time, so i'll update you more later. hopefully someday soon i will get enough sleep so that i can actually start writing these things well, rather than just rattling off the data from the day. lol
anyways, cheers!!!
today has been a busy/good day. we got a pretty early start since we had been up since 4 am. haha. but it was nice to not be rushed and take a shower in an empty bathroom and have space. :)
we went to see...oh shoot...i can't remember the name of it...but it's the oldest medieval cathedral in england. it was amazing. the most awesom thing though is that you are allowed to purchase a photo permit for £2 and you can take all the pics you want. which was pretty much such an awesome oportunity...and the best four bucks i've spent so far. it was amazing...typical cathedral ceilings...catacombs...stained glass windows, all made honoring brittish authors...it was such a cool experience! and the ability to take photos (cause you usually can't in those places...). anyways, we pretty much just stumbled on that place. that's what amazes me about this city. you just stumble in 6,ooo year old buildings. they're just there in the middle of a regular old city. so yeah, after that, we went walking and crossed the river thames on the london bridge.
um....i'm almost out of time...so then we went to the tower of london which was completely surreal...i'll write more about that later, and then we did somethiing else that i can't remember...haha. anayways, i'm out of time, so i'll update you more later. hopefully someday soon i will get enough sleep so that i can actually start writing these things well, rather than just rattling off the data from the day. lol
anyways, cheers!!!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
some pics of our day yesterday...
here's some photos of our day yesterday. feel free to look at hannah's. she might have some different stuff up. hannah-europe.blogspot.com
also, i posted another blog earlier, but it might be on the next page so check it out. :)
buckingham
big ben.
with a guard at the mews ( i really wanted his sword, but i kept my hands to mysef...)
the stone stairwell at jewel tower.
in front of the river thames...and the eye of london.
at the tube baby! :)
after our flight...looking slightly stoned...
also, i posted another blog earlier, but it might be on the next page so check it out. :)
buckingham
big ben.
with a guard at the mews ( i really wanted his sword, but i kept my hands to mysef...)
the stone stairwell at jewel tower.
in front of the river thames...and the eye of london. 
at the tube baby! :)
after our flight...looking slightly stoned...God bless the queen.
Ok, I have been so confused about what time it actually is, or is supposed to be...or what time it's supposed to feel like. it's 4:30 am on a Wedensday?? You might be asking yourself what the heck i'm doing awake at this hour...so am I. Basically, about a half an hour ago...a girl tried to climb in the bed that me and hannah were in and peed in our bed. One guiness to many, i suppose. so levels of disgustng...i can't even say...luckily, she went on Hannah's side of the bed. haha...Hannah doesn't share my thoughts. Actually, we're both pretty chill about the whole thing...)we were given another bed...but somehow we're wide awake so we're using the computers...since last night some idiot german futbol player wouldn't get his butt out of the chair. it's official that i don't have any sort of appreciation for futbol players. lol. they are a volitile group. haha. anyways, the silver lining of this whole first night hostel experience?? the totally awesome night manager is going to put a picture of me and hannah up in the lobby and call us the 'peace patrol' becuase we were so nice about the whole thing. he pretty much loves us.
anyways, enough of the negativity!! i really am enjoying myself...just had to document that even for you all becuase it was deffinately a first for us.
I can't believe i've only been here for technically, 1 day. aside from a few couple hour naps we haven't slept since Sunday night at home. Somehow...i'm not feeling it too bad. (was going to have a good night's sleep tonight, but we saw how that went...and before the actual urination the group with little miss bladder control issues in it were having fights about cetain members feeling like third wheels. so we got maybe 3 hours of sleep tonight. basically, don't let high schoolers go to europe alone.)
So yeah, yesterday we landed at 6 am...so we made our way to the hostel right away so that we wouldn't have to carry our packs all day. i just want it to be known that we found our hostel with absolutely no getting lost. actually, we've seen tons of stuff and haven't gotten lost once! we're feeling pretty good about ourselves. :) The closest we have been to getting lost was the inability to locate buckingham palace. but i blame that on the fact that the westminster burrough of london is so full of larger than life, massive buildings, that it's easy to lose one. cathedrals, castles, and medival towers in westminster are like starbucks' in seattle. they are everywhere!!! but, the perfect thing about not finding it when we were looking for it, was that we stumbled on it right when the changing of the guard started. hannah got some pretty sweet video fotage. and we saw the queen herself out in her carriage. (side note: the english love their queen. i mean, they are really quite pround of their royals. it's enjoyable to hear. :) also...brittish people are so nice!!! they really are friendly, and so willing to steer you in the right direction, and share the awesomeness of their country with you.)
also...please excuse any large gramatical or spelling errors on here...as i have only had approximatly 7 hours of sleep in the past three days. but i'm loving every minute!! (ok...not the soiled bed part...but hannah and i will be famous in this hostel...and have therehore left our mark on london...and are therefore very, very cool.)
so yeah, a few of the sights we saw yesterday:
-jewel tower (totally awesome 16th century stone tower.)
-the queens gallery (containing an original sketch by leonardo davinci. one of the coolest things i've ever seen!! also, some of the paintings in there are bigger than my living room.)
-the rotal mews. (this is the royal stables and carriage house...we also saw some diplomats from thailand riding in of of the said carriages. they actually still use these elaborate carriages for transportation around the city. it's pretty amazing.)
-big ben, the river thames, westminster abby, (although we didn't go in...sadly our london card doesn't cover it...and it's too much £)
we finished off this tour in the royal mews, where me and hannah both kind of just crashed on a park bench inside, and could barely get up to walk home. i think that total we walked about 5 miles at least. not bad for two dead tired, jet lagged, time warped girls. (btw...we have decided to create our own time zone since we can't nab down which one we're in...lol)
so we made it back, took a 3-ish hour nap (also interrupted as the hostel staff chose that moment to start hammering on the lock box under our bed to fix it. pretty laughable. who takes a hammer to a bed that has two sleeping girls in it??) after our sad attempt at rest...we took a shower (finally!!!! i have never had a shower feel better in my life...except maybe after 4 days of 110 degree heat at creation.), and went off to find some dinner. we ended up at this dirt cheap (4£ each) totally european cafe. the food was awesome, and totally fresh..as in like all of the vegetables and friut had been bought that morning. anyways, it was really nice to know that we got a good healthy meal. :) i think that will be our cafe while we're here.
i feel like i have just scratched the surface of all i could be saying, but i think i'm going to end this blog so i can post some photos. :) love you all!!! hopefully i can update more later...if the german can keep himself away from his 'urgent' im conversation. haha...
anyways, enough of the negativity!! i really am enjoying myself...just had to document that even for you all becuase it was deffinately a first for us.
I can't believe i've only been here for technically, 1 day. aside from a few couple hour naps we haven't slept since Sunday night at home. Somehow...i'm not feeling it too bad. (was going to have a good night's sleep tonight, but we saw how that went...and before the actual urination the group with little miss bladder control issues in it were having fights about cetain members feeling like third wheels. so we got maybe 3 hours of sleep tonight. basically, don't let high schoolers go to europe alone.)
So yeah, yesterday we landed at 6 am...so we made our way to the hostel right away so that we wouldn't have to carry our packs all day. i just want it to be known that we found our hostel with absolutely no getting lost. actually, we've seen tons of stuff and haven't gotten lost once! we're feeling pretty good about ourselves. :) The closest we have been to getting lost was the inability to locate buckingham palace. but i blame that on the fact that the westminster burrough of london is so full of larger than life, massive buildings, that it's easy to lose one. cathedrals, castles, and medival towers in westminster are like starbucks' in seattle. they are everywhere!!! but, the perfect thing about not finding it when we were looking for it, was that we stumbled on it right when the changing of the guard started. hannah got some pretty sweet video fotage. and we saw the queen herself out in her carriage. (side note: the english love their queen. i mean, they are really quite pround of their royals. it's enjoyable to hear. :) also...brittish people are so nice!!! they really are friendly, and so willing to steer you in the right direction, and share the awesomeness of their country with you.)
also...please excuse any large gramatical or spelling errors on here...as i have only had approximatly 7 hours of sleep in the past three days. but i'm loving every minute!! (ok...not the soiled bed part...but hannah and i will be famous in this hostel...and have therehore left our mark on london...and are therefore very, very cool.)
so yeah, a few of the sights we saw yesterday:
-jewel tower (totally awesome 16th century stone tower.)
-the queens gallery (containing an original sketch by leonardo davinci. one of the coolest things i've ever seen!! also, some of the paintings in there are bigger than my living room.)
-the rotal mews. (this is the royal stables and carriage house...we also saw some diplomats from thailand riding in of of the said carriages. they actually still use these elaborate carriages for transportation around the city. it's pretty amazing.)
-big ben, the river thames, westminster abby, (although we didn't go in...sadly our london card doesn't cover it...and it's too much £)
we finished off this tour in the royal mews, where me and hannah both kind of just crashed on a park bench inside, and could barely get up to walk home. i think that total we walked about 5 miles at least. not bad for two dead tired, jet lagged, time warped girls. (btw...we have decided to create our own time zone since we can't nab down which one we're in...lol)
so we made it back, took a 3-ish hour nap (also interrupted as the hostel staff chose that moment to start hammering on the lock box under our bed to fix it. pretty laughable. who takes a hammer to a bed that has two sleeping girls in it??) after our sad attempt at rest...we took a shower (finally!!!! i have never had a shower feel better in my life...except maybe after 4 days of 110 degree heat at creation.), and went off to find some dinner. we ended up at this dirt cheap (4£ each) totally european cafe. the food was awesome, and totally fresh..as in like all of the vegetables and friut had been bought that morning. anyways, it was really nice to know that we got a good healthy meal. :) i think that will be our cafe while we're here.
i feel like i have just scratched the surface of all i could be saying, but i think i'm going to end this blog so i can post some photos. :) love you all!!! hopefully i can update more later...if the german can keep himself away from his 'urgent' im conversation. haha...
Sunday, May 20, 2007
...leaving, on a jet plane...
So, Sven and the daypack are officially packed.
somehow they weigh in at a grand total of 40 lbs.
i don't know how that happened to me...my trial pack i was at a respectable 25 lbs!!!
so now i'm just wondering what am i going to be dumping in the first week...because 40 lbs. is a freakin 4th grader.
honestly though...i don't know what i can get rid of in there...it all seems to be essentials. (ok, ok...i know that the hairspray and mousse are not really essentials, but come on!!! i have no blow drier or straightener for 6 weeks, and i have no idea what my showering facilities are going to be...can't a girl have one guilty pleasure!?!?!?) But seriously, i took out the lint roller and the unneccesary 5 extra shirts and the extra pants and the 2 hugely thick novels. Nothing left to dump!!!
anyways, i leave for the airport in exactly 8 hours and 25 minutes. i'm freaking out!!!
this has been an odd past four days, culminating in a film crisis...which i decided not to blog about, since the retelling of the saga was the length of a novella, and i didn't think that any of my readers are THAT dedicated. plus, half of you heard the live version...lol. so, yeah, a lot of feelings have been running through me in the last four days...leaving urraco, realizing all that this trip entails, realizing that i have no idea what i'm doing, said 'film crisis', an unhealthy amount of excitement, and the realization that i won't see any of you for 6 weeks. It's been wierd. but good wierd, most of the time.
Well, the next time i post on here...I will be somewhere in europe!!!!
I'll miss all of you, and love you tons and see you in july, with a lovely mediterranean tan. :)
somehow they weigh in at a grand total of 40 lbs.
i don't know how that happened to me...my trial pack i was at a respectable 25 lbs!!!
so now i'm just wondering what am i going to be dumping in the first week...because 40 lbs. is a freakin 4th grader.
honestly though...i don't know what i can get rid of in there...it all seems to be essentials. (ok, ok...i know that the hairspray and mousse are not really essentials, but come on!!! i have no blow drier or straightener for 6 weeks, and i have no idea what my showering facilities are going to be...can't a girl have one guilty pleasure!?!?!?) But seriously, i took out the lint roller and the unneccesary 5 extra shirts and the extra pants and the 2 hugely thick novels. Nothing left to dump!!!
anyways, i leave for the airport in exactly 8 hours and 25 minutes. i'm freaking out!!!
this has been an odd past four days, culminating in a film crisis...which i decided not to blog about, since the retelling of the saga was the length of a novella, and i didn't think that any of my readers are THAT dedicated. plus, half of you heard the live version...lol. so, yeah, a lot of feelings have been running through me in the last four days...leaving urraco, realizing all that this trip entails, realizing that i have no idea what i'm doing, said 'film crisis', an unhealthy amount of excitement, and the realization that i won't see any of you for 6 weeks. It's been wierd. but good wierd, most of the time.
Well, the next time i post on here...I will be somewhere in europe!!!!
I'll miss all of you, and love you tons and see you in july, with a lovely mediterranean tan. :)
Thursday, May 17, 2007
slight freak out.
i'm leaving in four days.
i'm leaving the country for six others in four days.
i can't even explain what i'm freaking out about...because i'm totally excited...but still, i'm diffinately experiencing a little freak out moment.
...
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK I'M DOING!!! i mean, duh, i'm taking a trip to europe for 6 weeks.
but on the other hand...I'M TAKING A TRIP TO EUROPE FOR 6 WEEKS!!!
i don't even have the first clue how to go about the following:
-make an international phone call
-what exactly goes on in this 'customs' everybody speaks of. (actually, no, i know what goes on...they unpack my precision packed pack and scatter it over a table. they take 2 hours going through all of my stuff...they leave me 10 minutes to somehow shove all of my crap back in the pack that it took me an hour to pack and get to my next flight...)
-find my way around simple, small towns
-take a bus or a taxi. (never really had the need...public transport is pretty much a complete mystery to me...good thing that i planned an entire trip full of it...)
-wear a money belt. (ok...yeah, i know how to wear a money belt...but my issue is, how do i wear it with style?? lol...it seems to me that i have a lot of 'important documents' that can't be floating around loose in a pack. so they are all shoved in a little fanny pack down my pants?? it's just an odd idea to me...)
this is just the tip of my ignorance iceberg. in all reality, i'm a complete travel idiot. hence the freak out.
don't get me wrong, this is one of the most happy freak out's i've ever had. i'm probably more excited right now than i've ever been in my life...but i'm still deffinately freaking out. lol
until now i've just had blinding excitement and anticipation.
but now...i'm no longer blinded by my excitement...i'm overwhelemd by it. lol
i feel pretty ok about it though...hannahs' freaking out too. i'm in good company...haha.
all i can say is i pity the poor fool that gets stuck by the two of us (two girls, friends since kindergarten...haven't seen each other in a year...taking a trip they've been planning since they were 14...and totally freaked out, in a good way, about the whole scenario) on the flight from toronto to london.
i pity the poor fool.
lol
i'm leaving the country for six others in four days.
i can't even explain what i'm freaking out about...because i'm totally excited...but still, i'm diffinately experiencing a little freak out moment.
...
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK I'M DOING!!! i mean, duh, i'm taking a trip to europe for 6 weeks.
but on the other hand...I'M TAKING A TRIP TO EUROPE FOR 6 WEEKS!!!
i don't even have the first clue how to go about the following:
-make an international phone call
-what exactly goes on in this 'customs' everybody speaks of. (actually, no, i know what goes on...they unpack my precision packed pack and scatter it over a table. they take 2 hours going through all of my stuff...they leave me 10 minutes to somehow shove all of my crap back in the pack that it took me an hour to pack and get to my next flight...)
-find my way around simple, small towns
-take a bus or a taxi. (never really had the need...public transport is pretty much a complete mystery to me...good thing that i planned an entire trip full of it...)
-wear a money belt. (ok...yeah, i know how to wear a money belt...but my issue is, how do i wear it with style?? lol...it seems to me that i have a lot of 'important documents' that can't be floating around loose in a pack. so they are all shoved in a little fanny pack down my pants?? it's just an odd idea to me...)
this is just the tip of my ignorance iceberg. in all reality, i'm a complete travel idiot. hence the freak out.
don't get me wrong, this is one of the most happy freak out's i've ever had. i'm probably more excited right now than i've ever been in my life...but i'm still deffinately freaking out. lol
until now i've just had blinding excitement and anticipation.
but now...i'm no longer blinded by my excitement...i'm overwhelemd by it. lol
i feel pretty ok about it though...hannahs' freaking out too. i'm in good company...haha.
all i can say is i pity the poor fool that gets stuck by the two of us (two girls, friends since kindergarten...haven't seen each other in a year...taking a trip they've been planning since they were 14...and totally freaked out, in a good way, about the whole scenario) on the flight from toronto to london.
i pity the poor fool.
lol
Sunday, May 6, 2007
-Pardon, je ne comprends pas!- -lo siento, yo no compredo!- -Entschultigung, ich verstehe nicht!-
This afternoon, I've been working on compiling some pages of phrases in the languages we'll be needing.
Confession of a language nerd:
-this is getting me more excited than the purchase of my plane ticket.
I'm pretty excited to get to try (and most likely fail miserably...but with a smile on my face...) speaking and comprehending all of these languages. I can't wait to be sitting in a cafe in france, hearing french swirling around me...attempting to order le cafe liegeois without butchering the language and being hated. lol
my plan for surviving the hatred of the french in regards to the american massacre of their language:
...if i don't know how to say it...i'm just going to throw a little espanol pronounciation in there...throw them off a bit. :) maybe they won't hate me as much if i mis-pronounce with a spanish slant than with a wretched american one. :)
So yeah, i'm pretty stoked to just have a foreign language of some type or another constantly surrounding me. my goal: to speak the rudiments of french, italian, and german while i'm there...use english as a total last resort. (note that i left out greek. i think i'll be lucky to recognize 'good day' and 'train station' by the time i leave...lol...) we shall see how well i do. Es demasiado malo que yo no va a espana...que puede ser que tenga exito alli!!! maybe. ;)
Bon soir, mon amis. :)
Confession of a language nerd:
-this is getting me more excited than the purchase of my plane ticket.
I'm pretty excited to get to try (and most likely fail miserably...but with a smile on my face...) speaking and comprehending all of these languages. I can't wait to be sitting in a cafe in france, hearing french swirling around me...attempting to order le cafe liegeois without butchering the language and being hated. lol
my plan for surviving the hatred of the french in regards to the american massacre of their language:
...if i don't know how to say it...i'm just going to throw a little espanol pronounciation in there...throw them off a bit. :) maybe they won't hate me as much if i mis-pronounce with a spanish slant than with a wretched american one. :)
So yeah, i'm pretty stoked to just have a foreign language of some type or another constantly surrounding me. my goal: to speak the rudiments of french, italian, and german while i'm there...use english as a total last resort. (note that i left out greek. i think i'll be lucky to recognize 'good day' and 'train station' by the time i leave...lol...) we shall see how well i do. Es demasiado malo que yo no va a espana...que puede ser que tenga exito alli!!! maybe. ;)
Bon soir, mon amis. :)
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
daily rant...
well...all i can say is, why was it neccessary to rename all of the worlds cities with an "english" sort of name?? now, when i look at maps that aren't all americany, i don't recognoze half of the places!!
ex. austria= Osterreich
so, this adds a new level of chaos to the idea of quickly perusing a map to figure out where to go. As if i'm not directionally challenged enough...let's give everything a new name, that'll be fun and exciting!! haha...if we ever make it where we're supposed to go it will be a total miracle. anyways, enough of that...
I booked up a few hostels in france today...whew!! exciting beyond measure.
AND we are being treated to one free night at the hilton of our choice by hannah's dad...(god bless the hilton frequent traveling system for buisenessmen...or whatever the heck it's called...probly something lame like "the diamond club." not that i'm complaining...it's giving us a free stay.) The hilton of our choice?? Venice. it's pretty much a rock your face off type of hotel, complete with curved rooms that view the canals. we will have one night of bliss...and then have to drag ourselves back to the crappy, noisy, cheap life of the dorm hostel. gotta love it. :)
so, yeah, i think that's all for today...i'm off to buy my paris pass...louvre here i come.
T minus 19 days and counting...
ex. austria= Osterreich
so, this adds a new level of chaos to the idea of quickly perusing a map to figure out where to go. As if i'm not directionally challenged enough...let's give everything a new name, that'll be fun and exciting!! haha...if we ever make it where we're supposed to go it will be a total miracle. anyways, enough of that...
I booked up a few hostels in france today...whew!! exciting beyond measure.
AND we are being treated to one free night at the hilton of our choice by hannah's dad...(god bless the hilton frequent traveling system for buisenessmen...or whatever the heck it's called...probly something lame like "the diamond club." not that i'm complaining...it's giving us a free stay.) The hilton of our choice?? Venice. it's pretty much a rock your face off type of hotel, complete with curved rooms that view the canals. we will have one night of bliss...and then have to drag ourselves back to the crappy, noisy, cheap life of the dorm hostel. gotta love it. :)
so, yeah, i think that's all for today...i'm off to buy my paris pass...louvre here i come.
T minus 19 days and counting...
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
here it is...
well...for all those who love me enough (or simply are bored enough...haha...) to follow my up and coming traips across the fine continent of Europe, here is my official blog of european happenings. i'll try and update as much as possible while i'm over there...possibly add some photos, and just generally let you know of the random and/or wierd things that seem to happen to me wherever i go. although...i'm sure that i'll be fine, with absolutely no foreboding scenarios to report, as i'm bringing a roll of duct tape, an emergency whistle, and a knife...which i hear amount to the three solvers of any type of problem i could possibly encounter. :) on top of which...i have hannah as a traveling companion, and i'm pretty sure that between the two of us we could take on the world. (err...at least one of it's more mild mannered continents...) not to mention, the burliest backpack (se nombre: sven) this side of the alps, loaded to the seems with a month and a half's worth of crap. :)
So, there you have it.
i'll probably be posting on here from now on, updates on my trip preparations, (as if anybody wants to read them...like i said, if you're bored or something...)
Today's trip happenings:
-purchase of my london city pass ( miserable pound to dollar exchange rate might be the death of me!!)
-purchase of 50 rolls of film in bulk off the internet. (never thought i'd spend $170 on B&W film rolls at once. but you can save your breath about the thriftyness of digital, becuase i will not cave.)
-the creation of this blog
-generally attempting to block out the massive wad of dough that this little jaunt has put me out. (budget travel my eye...)
-getting more and more excited my the minte....i leave in 20 days for the trip of a lifetime!!!!!
So, there you have it.
i'll probably be posting on here from now on, updates on my trip preparations, (as if anybody wants to read them...like i said, if you're bored or something...)
Today's trip happenings:
-purchase of my london city pass ( miserable pound to dollar exchange rate might be the death of me!!)
-purchase of 50 rolls of film in bulk off the internet. (never thought i'd spend $170 on B&W film rolls at once. but you can save your breath about the thriftyness of digital, becuase i will not cave.)
-the creation of this blog
-generally attempting to block out the massive wad of dough that this little jaunt has put me out. (budget travel my eye...)
-getting more and more excited my the minte....i leave in 20 days for the trip of a lifetime!!!!!
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