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." :)
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5 comments:
LOL
You Darlings are in our prayers and making us laugh
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.
Lost yer pants there did ye? LOL hilarious. btw...I say Pirates 3! It's pretty dark, but the story and what you find out is pretty cool. It's also VERY funny. Barbossa is pretty funny in it, and Jack...well, he's Jack...aka funny!We went to the 1025 showing on opening night, got there 20 min early and couldn't get seats aside from the front row...personally, I would like to keep my eyesight for a bit longer...so we opted to switch to the 1050 show for which the line was already out the door, but we took a quick gander and estimated that we could still get in the top section if we got in the line right then. Anyway, it was CRAZY people were dressed like Jack, and in random pirate outfits everywhere...it was like a pirate version of opening night of Star Wars! lol! pretty hilarious. I happened to go see another movie the next day, and there were still lines out all the doors for Pirates! craziness! Anyway, Scottland sounds AMAZING, and I say GO GET YER SCOTTISH HERITAGE LASSY!!! I am of the mind that we probably have SOME scottish in us simply because of our other origins...hard to have what we have totally separate from any Scottish. I'm actually doing some research on family history and heritage right now...I'm hoping to find Scotish. Anyway, I have to go but I will comment later...oh, and I will put money for a sword into your acct tomorrow when the banks open. I love you and miss you so much!!!!
this is the funniest this that i have ever read in my life!! i love the details of your outfit! shorts and a scarf! ahhh. i laughed out loud! that sounds like so much fun. when you get home i'll have to have your chaco's autograph something for me. they sound a wee bit popular. sorry about the fake accent and i think it was irish and not scottish. nevermind. have fun. keep safe. bundle up! and take more pictures why don't you??!! i love the updates! :)
How about a visual on the outfits?
Amy
wow, so much happens to you when you're in a different country. But i shouldn't be surprised. you're always finding yourself in awkward situations :) haha well, i have a story to tell you that happened today at the shop. Me and sue are working and this lady and her two teenage girls (both with really long hair and equally long skirts) come in. I can just sense the awkwardness right as their walking in the door. So they come up to order and these girls are super shy and do you know the look of sheltered girls? like they just want to jump out of their body and experience something, anything! they had that look. So they two girls order hot chocolate(actually their mom orders it for them) and we ask what size and the girls wanted 16 oz and the mom says "you bring them out in public and they just want everything!" Insanity! The gluttony of a 16 oz hot chocolate!!! and then she goes on to order some fancy smancy espresso drink, talk about wanting everything. :) All this to say, Beatrice is back. I did not remember her but Sue quickly reminded me. I miss you and i want to see pictures of your outfit! I think you'll have so many stories to tell us we'll have a sideache from laughter the rest of the summer :)
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