Day 3: Sunday, March 22
We woke up, left Koblenz as soon as we were up and headed to St. Goar. St. Goar was pretty awesome. For being a Sunday, most stuff was surprisingly open. We headed up to the hostel, which was again up a hill, just not as bad, and this time it was actually open. Jake says I should tell you it was the Jugendherberge. We couldn't check in until 2, and we had a couple hours, so we walked up the rest of the hill to look at the castle, then walked back down to the village to get some lunch and look around. When it was 2 we went back up and got our room, dumped our stuff and went up to Schloss Rheinfels. Also, I'm going to apologize now for misspelling names of places or omiting them all together. I plan on going and buying the book that Adam had so that I actually know the names and how to spell them right, and then I might come back and fix everything. In the meantime, if you care a lot and want to look stuff up, Google is probably more right on the spelling than I am. Annnnyway. That castle was the coolest one we went to. It was falling apart, but was still together enough that there were some rooms and stuff to go through. The best part though, was that it NEVER ENDED. You'd go down one hallway, and there'd be 2-3 branches off it and you'd have to go back and explore them, and then they'd have tunnels, and the tunnels would have splits... Luckily I have a light on my keychain, otherwise we would have been totally blind. One tiny downside, is that I was having so much fun exploring and making sure we got to every corner and tunnel, that I didn't take as many pictures as I did of other places. But I would definately reccommend going there. There's also a statue on the other side of the river that's of a girl who crashes ships. We didn't go across, but my super awesome 18x zoom camera got pictures. :D There's two other castles on the other side too that we didn't go to- one is Castle Cat and the other is Castle Mouse. After we were done with the castle, we went back to town and had dinner, then back to the hostel to plot some more and then went to bed.
Day 4: Monday, March 23
We woke up, and got a train to Mainz, where we had orgininally planned on staying for the night, but we realized that there wasn't a whole lot there to see, and that we could move on to Heidelberg instead and spend more time there. So we got to Mainz, and went to see a couple of churches. On the way, we walked through some Altstadt (Old City) and got some pretzels. We found this other church on a side street that was pretty shiny inside, but no pictures there because it actually had people in it praying and we weren't sure if we were allowed to take pictures, so we just looked around then walked out. There's a big red church that was ok, kind of plain and boring inside, but they did stained glass windows for all their bishops (i think) and you could tell when heraldry became popular in german churches because of the windows. I thought that was kinda cool. Then we went to another church that was supposed to have kick-ass stained glass, but it didn't really. It was pretty and all blue.. but not what we were led to believe. Most of what we did/went to see was out of Adam's guide book. We found many errors in it during our travels. After that we went to check on when the next train to Heidelberg was, and we still had a while, so we walked over to the Rhine and stuck our fingers in it to be able to say we were in the Rhine. We also bought a lot of pretzels. Every day. They were very tasty.
And I will put up more later maybe. I think I'm prolly not gonna do more than two days at a time, just to limit the length of the entries.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Itinerary!
Since these take so long to type up and I want to try to not skip anything, I'm only going to do this a couple days at a time. It should also help to cut down on complaints about miles long entries with no spaces between stuff.
Little bit of background info to explain our reasoning:
Jake's friend Adam had his spring break the first week of ours and he wanted to go to Germany, so we did Germany first. He also wanted to go to Rome with us, so we had to make Rome fit on a weekend. Everything else just kinda fell into place.
Day 1: Friday, March 20
Yay first day of travel. We started off with just clothes, toothbrushes, camera, phones, laptop, external harddrive, mp3 players and all the powercords and batteries associated with those electronics. All of that fit into my backpack and Jake's duffel-bag, both of which we carried on. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We had to get a bus to the train station, then a train to the Manchester Airport (hour and a half or so), then a plane to Germany (2 and a halfish hours), then a tran from the Cologne airport to the main train station, where we walked to our hostel. Adam had gotten there earlier in the day, so we met him there. We stayed at the Station Hostel, only a couple of blocks from the train station. Picked it because it was close and would be easy to find at night, since we landed at 11:10 and didn't get to the hostel until after 12. All in all, it was pretty uneventful. Getting through passport control in Germany was ridiculously easy, they just took our passports and stamped them, didn't ask any questions at all.
Day 2: Saturday, March 21
We woke up, had showers, locked our stuff in the lockers in the basement of the hostel, and set off to explore Cologne. First thing was the Dom, giant church right next to the train station. It had really impressive stained glass. After that, we wandered to a sculpture park that was farther down the Rhine, and looked at stuff there for a while. After that, we went to see the Roman Tower, the city wall, and an old city gate. Along the way we walked past a park that had a really awesome slide, so we stopped and played there for a while. They also had a zipline that Jake jumped on as soon as the little kids stopped playing on it. Then we went back to the hostel, got our stuff, went to the train station, and got a train to Koblenz. We hadn't made reservations for anywhere other than that first night in Cologne, but we knew how to get to hostels because Adam had a book for backpackers that reccommended hostels and how to get to them. The one that we had picked was one in a castle/fort. You have to take a bus from the train station, and then walk down a street a while and up a large hill/small mountain. So we finally get to the top, and the sun is just setting, so we got a bunch of pictures of that. Then we had to try and figure out where this hostel was supposed to be. After wandering all over it and finding a parking lot, we finally asked someone if they knew, the lady had a map and turns out that it was right by the entrance and that we had walked past it. We went in the gift shop to get our own map (since we were standing right outside it), and then went bak to where the hostel was, only to find that IT WAS CLOSED FOR RENEVATIONS. By now it was like 8 or 9, and we were on the top of a mountain and needed someplace to stay. We didn't know of any other hostels, so we started walking back to the train station and stopping at all the hotels along the way to ask them how much it would be. Finally found a place across the street from the train station that ended up being 105 euros for 2 rooms, split three ways it was a bit more than we wanted to pay, but it was the cheapest that we had found so far, and we were all tired of carrying our stuff around. For some reason, German hotels wouldn't let you put three people in one room, which is why we ended up getting 2 rooms. It was weird. Anyway, after dropping our stuff off, we set off to find some dinner, and ended up eating at an Itallian restaurant we had passed while hotel hunting. Eating there was weird since Jake spoke German to the guy, Adam ordered in Itallian, I did it in English, and the guy was all happy that Adam spoke Itallian. The other people in the restaurant spoke Spanish and spent like 10 minutes trying to get the Itallian guy to understand what kind of coffee they wanted after dinner. It was strange. Then we went back to the hotel, and went to sleep. That was the only time that we were really in trouble trying to find someplace to stay, with the possible exception of Zermatt, but I'll get to that eventually.
That's enough for now I think. My goal is to try and have all the write-ups done by the time classes start next Monday. I think that's feasable. Pictures will hopefully start going up next... Tuesday? Not sure.
In other news!
Jake's mom will be coming to visit us, but we have no idea what we're doing while she's up.
Belinda is coming to visit too, but we have no idea when we're doing stuff with her since it depends on when finals are.
My family is coming, but don't know when.
Little bit of background info to explain our reasoning:
Jake's friend Adam had his spring break the first week of ours and he wanted to go to Germany, so we did Germany first. He also wanted to go to Rome with us, so we had to make Rome fit on a weekend. Everything else just kinda fell into place.
Day 1: Friday, March 20
Yay first day of travel. We started off with just clothes, toothbrushes, camera, phones, laptop, external harddrive, mp3 players and all the powercords and batteries associated with those electronics. All of that fit into my backpack and Jake's duffel-bag, both of which we carried on. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We had to get a bus to the train station, then a train to the Manchester Airport (hour and a half or so), then a plane to Germany (2 and a halfish hours), then a tran from the Cologne airport to the main train station, where we walked to our hostel. Adam had gotten there earlier in the day, so we met him there. We stayed at the Station Hostel, only a couple of blocks from the train station. Picked it because it was close and would be easy to find at night, since we landed at 11:10 and didn't get to the hostel until after 12. All in all, it was pretty uneventful. Getting through passport control in Germany was ridiculously easy, they just took our passports and stamped them, didn't ask any questions at all.
Day 2: Saturday, March 21
We woke up, had showers, locked our stuff in the lockers in the basement of the hostel, and set off to explore Cologne. First thing was the Dom, giant church right next to the train station. It had really impressive stained glass. After that, we wandered to a sculpture park that was farther down the Rhine, and looked at stuff there for a while. After that, we went to see the Roman Tower, the city wall, and an old city gate. Along the way we walked past a park that had a really awesome slide, so we stopped and played there for a while. They also had a zipline that Jake jumped on as soon as the little kids stopped playing on it. Then we went back to the hostel, got our stuff, went to the train station, and got a train to Koblenz. We hadn't made reservations for anywhere other than that first night in Cologne, but we knew how to get to hostels because Adam had a book for backpackers that reccommended hostels and how to get to them. The one that we had picked was one in a castle/fort. You have to take a bus from the train station, and then walk down a street a while and up a large hill/small mountain. So we finally get to the top, and the sun is just setting, so we got a bunch of pictures of that. Then we had to try and figure out where this hostel was supposed to be. After wandering all over it and finding a parking lot, we finally asked someone if they knew, the lady had a map and turns out that it was right by the entrance and that we had walked past it. We went in the gift shop to get our own map (since we were standing right outside it), and then went bak to where the hostel was, only to find that IT WAS CLOSED FOR RENEVATIONS. By now it was like 8 or 9, and we were on the top of a mountain and needed someplace to stay. We didn't know of any other hostels, so we started walking back to the train station and stopping at all the hotels along the way to ask them how much it would be. Finally found a place across the street from the train station that ended up being 105 euros for 2 rooms, split three ways it was a bit more than we wanted to pay, but it was the cheapest that we had found so far, and we were all tired of carrying our stuff around. For some reason, German hotels wouldn't let you put three people in one room, which is why we ended up getting 2 rooms. It was weird. Anyway, after dropping our stuff off, we set off to find some dinner, and ended up eating at an Itallian restaurant we had passed while hotel hunting. Eating there was weird since Jake spoke German to the guy, Adam ordered in Itallian, I did it in English, and the guy was all happy that Adam spoke Itallian. The other people in the restaurant spoke Spanish and spent like 10 minutes trying to get the Itallian guy to understand what kind of coffee they wanted after dinner. It was strange. Then we went back to the hotel, and went to sleep. That was the only time that we were really in trouble trying to find someplace to stay, with the possible exception of Zermatt, but I'll get to that eventually.
That's enough for now I think. My goal is to try and have all the write-ups done by the time classes start next Monday. I think that's feasable. Pictures will hopefully start going up next... Tuesday? Not sure.
In other news!
Jake's mom will be coming to visit us, but we have no idea what we're doing while she's up.
Belinda is coming to visit too, but we have no idea when we're doing stuff with her since it depends on when finals are.
My family is coming, but don't know when.
Monday, April 13, 2009
A possible start of themed posts about spring break.
Instead of talking about everything one day at a time, I might talk about themes instead. Like churches and castles and mountains. Maybe. I don't think that'd be very thorough though. But, there is one topic I would like to talk about now, and that is the delicious foods that were discovered.
For starters: Pretzels
Germany (Rhine Valley in particular) is crazy about pretzels. You can hardly go a block without running into a bakery. And at these bakeries they sell pretzels in like a million different shapes. There are your typical pretzel shaped pretzels, there are broetchens which are basically little rolls made out of pretzel bread, there are braids, there are sticks, there are knots.... and when you get into other countries they do different things. Switzerland had rings of pretzels made from six broetchens stuck together. Munich only really had pretzels cut in half with butter in the middle; I didn't try one of those however. One tiny problem too, is that every where uses a different recipie. I think the best pretzels came from the Rhine Valley, but the ones in Switzerland were much softer. So if you are ever in Germany, i definately reccommend that you stop by a baeckerei and get some sort of pretzel. Broetchens have more soft inside than the rest, with the one exception of the giant braids you can get in Freiburg at this one place about two blocks from the train station.
Next: Lasagna
I know you can get this in the US, and I know that you can get it at any Itallian restaurant you go to anywhere in the world. But that doesn't change the fact that it is still very very tasty. What's weird is that I had the worst lasagna ever at this place in Rome a couple blocks fom the Vatican. You'd think that in Italy they'd know how to make it. But I'm sure you've all had it before. It's tasty.
Alcohol: Limoncello / Limoncino / Limonce
Oh. My. God. Know how I had thought I found my alcohol? And that that alcohol was whisky? I was so, so wrong. I am definately one for the fruity stuff. I had heard of Limoncello before, and knew that they had it in Italy, but I didn't really actively search it out for the first couple days in Italy. Then Jake decided he wanted to try it, and I had a sip. It is TASTY. It's basically really good lemonade, but with that nice warming feeling at the end. Also, I just spent the last hour looking up how to make it, and soon as it's legal, I'm going to try. So we got a bottle and went through it while we were in Switzerland. So, so, tasty. And for those of you concerned about alcohol consumption, it's typically served as a doubleshot after dinner. Along with expresso, but I'm not huge on coffee, and alcohol at restaurants is expensive, so I only got it once at a restaurant.
Also, while we were in Innsbruck, there was a liquor store (looking at the golden roof, turn right, halfway down that block on the left) that would let you sample as many of their liquors as you wanted, they had probably 100 flavors in these funky glass.... bottle/keg things. I tried some peach stuff there and it was pretty tasty too. But the tasting of it and Lemoncello was too far apart for me to know which one I like best, and I haven't gotten into the bottle I bought of it yet to know. But it was tasty too. :)
Dessert: Gelato
Yeah, gelato is in the US and the rest of the world too, but it's tasty. And cheap. And tasty. Favorite was by far Peach Brandy at a place in Pisa. Stracciatella was good too, so were the chocolates and creams and caramel and mint and whatever other flavors I tried that I don't really remember right now.
And now you know what the best foods I had were. Also, since I'm probably not going to be talking about food when I do my huge writeup, I'll go on and let y'all know about some weird European food things.
For example, they will not give you tap water. Anywhere. Exept for one Itallian restaurant in Luzern. And that not-tap-water costs anywhere from 3 to 5 euros for anywhere from .5 liters to 1.5 liters. You also have to pay like 4-5 euros for a half liter of soda, and beer... well I don't like it so I never ordered it, but it was only a bit more expensive than soda. Also, most meals are in the range of 7-10 euros at the cheaper restaurants. If you're in Germany and if you are one of the three of us, then go to empty restaurants and they will be tasty. If you are one of the three of us and in Italy, don't go to the empty restaurants no matter how tired your feet are. They will not be tasty.
Also, Munich has fun dumpling type things. The potato ones are fun to play with. Hehe. Kartoffelknoedel. The word is even fun to play with.
And the Swiss are kinda sick. They sell horse meat in their grocery stores. No, we didn't try any.
I think that's about it for food generalizations. Might write more occasionally when I do the detailed writeups.
For starters: Pretzels
Germany (Rhine Valley in particular) is crazy about pretzels. You can hardly go a block without running into a bakery. And at these bakeries they sell pretzels in like a million different shapes. There are your typical pretzel shaped pretzels, there are broetchens which are basically little rolls made out of pretzel bread, there are braids, there are sticks, there are knots.... and when you get into other countries they do different things. Switzerland had rings of pretzels made from six broetchens stuck together. Munich only really had pretzels cut in half with butter in the middle; I didn't try one of those however. One tiny problem too, is that every where uses a different recipie. I think the best pretzels came from the Rhine Valley, but the ones in Switzerland were much softer. So if you are ever in Germany, i definately reccommend that you stop by a baeckerei and get some sort of pretzel. Broetchens have more soft inside than the rest, with the one exception of the giant braids you can get in Freiburg at this one place about two blocks from the train station.
Next: Lasagna
I know you can get this in the US, and I know that you can get it at any Itallian restaurant you go to anywhere in the world. But that doesn't change the fact that it is still very very tasty. What's weird is that I had the worst lasagna ever at this place in Rome a couple blocks fom the Vatican. You'd think that in Italy they'd know how to make it. But I'm sure you've all had it before. It's tasty.
Alcohol: Limoncello / Limoncino / Limonce
Oh. My. God. Know how I had thought I found my alcohol? And that that alcohol was whisky? I was so, so wrong. I am definately one for the fruity stuff. I had heard of Limoncello before, and knew that they had it in Italy, but I didn't really actively search it out for the first couple days in Italy. Then Jake decided he wanted to try it, and I had a sip. It is TASTY. It's basically really good lemonade, but with that nice warming feeling at the end. Also, I just spent the last hour looking up how to make it, and soon as it's legal, I'm going to try. So we got a bottle and went through it while we were in Switzerland. So, so, tasty. And for those of you concerned about alcohol consumption, it's typically served as a doubleshot after dinner. Along with expresso, but I'm not huge on coffee, and alcohol at restaurants is expensive, so I only got it once at a restaurant.
Also, while we were in Innsbruck, there was a liquor store (looking at the golden roof, turn right, halfway down that block on the left) that would let you sample as many of their liquors as you wanted, they had probably 100 flavors in these funky glass.... bottle/keg things. I tried some peach stuff there and it was pretty tasty too. But the tasting of it and Lemoncello was too far apart for me to know which one I like best, and I haven't gotten into the bottle I bought of it yet to know. But it was tasty too. :)
Dessert: Gelato
Yeah, gelato is in the US and the rest of the world too, but it's tasty. And cheap. And tasty. Favorite was by far Peach Brandy at a place in Pisa. Stracciatella was good too, so were the chocolates and creams and caramel and mint and whatever other flavors I tried that I don't really remember right now.
And now you know what the best foods I had were. Also, since I'm probably not going to be talking about food when I do my huge writeup, I'll go on and let y'all know about some weird European food things.
For example, they will not give you tap water. Anywhere. Exept for one Itallian restaurant in Luzern. And that not-tap-water costs anywhere from 3 to 5 euros for anywhere from .5 liters to 1.5 liters. You also have to pay like 4-5 euros for a half liter of soda, and beer... well I don't like it so I never ordered it, but it was only a bit more expensive than soda. Also, most meals are in the range of 7-10 euros at the cheaper restaurants. If you're in Germany and if you are one of the three of us, then go to empty restaurants and they will be tasty. If you are one of the three of us and in Italy, don't go to the empty restaurants no matter how tired your feet are. They will not be tasty.
Also, Munich has fun dumpling type things. The potato ones are fun to play with. Hehe. Kartoffelknoedel. The word is even fun to play with.
And the Swiss are kinda sick. They sell horse meat in their grocery stores. No, we didn't try any.
I think that's about it for food generalizations. Might write more occasionally when I do the detailed writeups.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Back from Europe and nothing (too) bad happened!
As you can tell from the title of this post, I am back from Europe. So is Jake. Adam is still there because he lives there.
Currently, I am laying in bed enjoying the feeling of having as much free (ok, not free, but I already paid for it, so it feels like it's free) internet as I want, and typing on a keyboard where I actually know how to make the @ sign and the z and y aren't switched. Europe has some pretty weird keyboards. And now, you are all like, WE WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING! And I'm all, no.
For starters, the paper that has where I went when is downstairs in my backpack somewhere and my brain doesn't want to think right now. And I'm sure you'd want an accurate recounting of the adventure instead of a half-awake Amanda re-telling. (Jake interjects that we went to the moon, which was made of cheese, where we hibernated. See what I'm talking about?) So, you will have to wait until I get ouf of bed again, or tomorrow or the next day. And now you're saying, ok, fine, no blog, we didn't want to read 30 pages of stories anyway, we really just want to see your pictures. Well, you can't have those either. Why? Because I haven't even had a chance to look at them yet myself, and there are well over 3000, probably over 4000, I really have no idea.
But I suppose I can give you a breif overview of the trip.
For a country that is supposed to be rainy 360 days a year, England has been surprisingly dry. We figured out why when we got to Germany. Germany is stealing the rain. I think that exceps for maybe two days, it rained every day we were in Germany. We were in Germany for 9 days. It's a good thing I decided to bring my raincoat to Europe instead of leaving it in England. It is super water repellant. My shoes however, were not. I changed socks 283984 times. Also, good thing I brought wool socks. They are drier than regular socks. Apart from the rain, Germany was cool. We went in a bunch of castles, almost slept in one, but the hostel there was closed for renevations. It would be our luck that it would be the one castle you have to walk up a mountain to get to. We stayed in a hotel that night... that's a fun story, I'll wait and tell it in more detail later. Germany was pretty cool though, really. They make tasty tasty pretzels, which we had for breakfast almost every day. Germany was also fairly cheap. A pretzel was like 50 euro cents, which is like maybe 75 US cents. I think the best part of Germany was probably the Black Forest. It was pretty and they had cuku/cookoo/i have no idea how to spell it in english clocks (kuckucksuhren). I bought one... on day 7 out of 23 days. Also bought a bunch of other stuff in Germany. Ended up needing to buy a suitcase to get everything back to England, which I was planning on doing anyway. But more on the suitcase later.
After Germany, Adam went back to Italy for classes, and Jake and I went to Austria for a couple of days. It finally stopped raining, and we got to go to the zoo and wander around and stuff. Then Italy, where it rained again.... And then, even though it was supposed to rain in Rome, it miracously didn't, and it was sunny and warm and perfect. Thanks pope! We got to see the pope church and pope museum and walked by the pope castle. Also went in a bunch of old places. I think Rome might have been my favorite part, not sure yet, I gotta think about it some more. Then up to Switzerland, which was expensive. Then back to Italy to fly back to England.
Worst thing that happened on the trip was that I fell asleep on one of the trains, and when I got woken up because the train was stopping, I wasn't awake enough to remember to hold on to my mp3 player, so it fell and the harddrive got cracked. Then a couple days later Jake lost his, unless it's somewhere burried in the luggage, but I'm pretty sure it isn't since I've unpacked an repacked everything a couple times since then. So we both pretty much need new mp3 players, although I'm going to try and see if there's any way I can get mine repaired, otherwise I might get a cheap flash one for now and then get an ipod this summer.... dunno. I think ipods are the only things with enough space for all my music... but I'll be doing some research on that.
Also, no one broke in and stole our laptops! Yay for that!
And I think I might finally get up so I can go find food somewhere. Yay for coming back on Easter when everythings going to be closed. >.<
Currently, I am laying in bed enjoying the feeling of having as much free (ok, not free, but I already paid for it, so it feels like it's free) internet as I want, and typing on a keyboard where I actually know how to make the @ sign and the z and y aren't switched. Europe has some pretty weird keyboards. And now, you are all like, WE WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING! And I'm all, no.
For starters, the paper that has where I went when is downstairs in my backpack somewhere and my brain doesn't want to think right now. And I'm sure you'd want an accurate recounting of the adventure instead of a half-awake Amanda re-telling. (Jake interjects that we went to the moon, which was made of cheese, where we hibernated. See what I'm talking about?) So, you will have to wait until I get ouf of bed again, or tomorrow or the next day. And now you're saying, ok, fine, no blog, we didn't want to read 30 pages of stories anyway, we really just want to see your pictures. Well, you can't have those either. Why? Because I haven't even had a chance to look at them yet myself, and there are well over 3000, probably over 4000, I really have no idea.
But I suppose I can give you a breif overview of the trip.
For a country that is supposed to be rainy 360 days a year, England has been surprisingly dry. We figured out why when we got to Germany. Germany is stealing the rain. I think that exceps for maybe two days, it rained every day we were in Germany. We were in Germany for 9 days. It's a good thing I decided to bring my raincoat to Europe instead of leaving it in England. It is super water repellant. My shoes however, were not. I changed socks 283984 times. Also, good thing I brought wool socks. They are drier than regular socks. Apart from the rain, Germany was cool. We went in a bunch of castles, almost slept in one, but the hostel there was closed for renevations. It would be our luck that it would be the one castle you have to walk up a mountain to get to. We stayed in a hotel that night... that's a fun story, I'll wait and tell it in more detail later. Germany was pretty cool though, really. They make tasty tasty pretzels, which we had for breakfast almost every day. Germany was also fairly cheap. A pretzel was like 50 euro cents, which is like maybe 75 US cents. I think the best part of Germany was probably the Black Forest. It was pretty and they had cuku/cookoo/i have no idea how to spell it in english clocks (kuckucksuhren). I bought one... on day 7 out of 23 days. Also bought a bunch of other stuff in Germany. Ended up needing to buy a suitcase to get everything back to England, which I was planning on doing anyway. But more on the suitcase later.
After Germany, Adam went back to Italy for classes, and Jake and I went to Austria for a couple of days. It finally stopped raining, and we got to go to the zoo and wander around and stuff. Then Italy, where it rained again.... And then, even though it was supposed to rain in Rome, it miracously didn't, and it was sunny and warm and perfect. Thanks pope! We got to see the pope church and pope museum and walked by the pope castle. Also went in a bunch of old places. I think Rome might have been my favorite part, not sure yet, I gotta think about it some more. Then up to Switzerland, which was expensive. Then back to Italy to fly back to England.
Worst thing that happened on the trip was that I fell asleep on one of the trains, and when I got woken up because the train was stopping, I wasn't awake enough to remember to hold on to my mp3 player, so it fell and the harddrive got cracked. Then a couple days later Jake lost his, unless it's somewhere burried in the luggage, but I'm pretty sure it isn't since I've unpacked an repacked everything a couple times since then. So we both pretty much need new mp3 players, although I'm going to try and see if there's any way I can get mine repaired, otherwise I might get a cheap flash one for now and then get an ipod this summer.... dunno. I think ipods are the only things with enough space for all my music... but I'll be doing some research on that.
Also, no one broke in and stole our laptops! Yay for that!
And I think I might finally get up so I can go find food somewhere. Yay for coming back on Easter when everythings going to be closed. >.<
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Quick update, but not as quick as the last one.
Just thought I'd let everyone know I'm still alive and having fun and blowing through slightly ridiculous amounts of cash, but hey, you only get to go through Europe once while you're in college, right? And that's what I saved it for anyway, so that makes it perfectly ok. :D
For all you stalkers out there, you aren't gonna find me if you go looking in Innsbruck or Triburg, I just want to let you know that. But hey, I could be in any of a million different cities, so why try and find me?
Heh, anyway....
We've seen a ton of stuff, and I would just like to let everyone know that my camera is AMAZING. You may have noticed this from the pictures it's taken before that I have already put on the internet from England places. I haven't even seen them all full size yet because I don't have a monitor big enough since I use Jake's mini-laptop to transfer them, but they will be absolutely amazing. At least, the ones taken when it wasn't raining will be. It has rained for the majority of this trip. It sucks. It's a damn good thing my rain coat is so waterproof and that I decided to bring it to Europe instead of leaving it in England. I just wish I had worn my rain boots instead of sneakers. (Yes, mom and dad, this is the part where you say I told you so. But I still wouldn't want to be wearing just hiking boots every single day, those are heavy.) Anyway, hopefully the next week will be nicer.
And this is all you guys get for now, because it's like midnight here and I'm getting up at 7 tomorrow morning.
For all you stalkers out there, you aren't gonna find me if you go looking in Innsbruck or Triburg, I just want to let you know that. But hey, I could be in any of a million different cities, so why try and find me?
Heh, anyway....
We've seen a ton of stuff, and I would just like to let everyone know that my camera is AMAZING. You may have noticed this from the pictures it's taken before that I have already put on the internet from England places. I haven't even seen them all full size yet because I don't have a monitor big enough since I use Jake's mini-laptop to transfer them, but they will be absolutely amazing. At least, the ones taken when it wasn't raining will be. It has rained for the majority of this trip. It sucks. It's a damn good thing my rain coat is so waterproof and that I decided to bring it to Europe instead of leaving it in England. I just wish I had worn my rain boots instead of sneakers. (Yes, mom and dad, this is the part where you say I told you so. But I still wouldn't want to be wearing just hiking boots every single day, those are heavy.) Anyway, hopefully the next week will be nicer.
And this is all you guys get for now, because it's like midnight here and I'm getting up at 7 tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Trip so far!
I'm still alive, so is Jake, so is Adam (Jake's friend), in case you were wondering. German keyboards are even weirder than English ones, so I think these sentences are all you're getting.
:)
:)
Friday, March 20, 2009
T-Minus 6 hours (ish)
So, we're almost ready to leave.
Plane leaves at 20:35ish from Manchester, we have to be there 2 hours ahead of that, and it takes 75 minutes to get there. We're going to try and catch the 16:55 train, which means we need to leave here in a little over an hour.
Hopefully we have everything we can possibly need for the next 3 weeks.....
Yeah....
That's it really, I don't have much else to say.
Actually, we should prolly go clean the kitchen so it isn't uber nasty when we get back.
Yup. So here's a completely useless entry!
Plane leaves at 20:35ish from Manchester, we have to be there 2 hours ahead of that, and it takes 75 minutes to get there. We're going to try and catch the 16:55 train, which means we need to leave here in a little over an hour.
Hopefully we have everything we can possibly need for the next 3 weeks.....
Yeah....
That's it really, I don't have much else to say.
Actually, we should prolly go clean the kitchen so it isn't uber nasty when we get back.
Yup. So here's a completely useless entry!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Schedule! Not for stalkers!
Alright, so we finally have a schedule of where we're going for the next *insert number here* days!
And you don't get to know what order we did things until afterwards! Woo!
So, here are the cities, in alphabetical order! (You can guess the country! That makes it harder to find me! Bwa-ha-ha!)
Cologne
Florence
Freiburg
Heidelburg
Innsbruck
Interlaken
Koblenz
Lorelei
Luzern
Mainz
Milan
Munich
Necharsteinach
Pisa
Rome
Venice
Zermatt
Yay!
I just realized every sentence so far ends in an exclamation point, and I do not want to ruin this trend! Ok, maybe I do.
So yeah. Internet will only happen when there is internet at hostels or on trains, unless we decide to bring a dongle and see if it works somewhere.
What does that mean for you oh faithful followers of this blog?
Basically, don't check it more than once a week. I'm bringing a notebook to write stuff down in, so I won't forget things, it's just that it won't necessarialy get typed up every night. And as for pictures, those will slowly trickle in over the course of the month and a half left after we get back. They'll go up whenever I have time/feel like it, and considering there's an essay due 3 weeks after we get back, there probably won't be a lot going up at first.
But, I promise you that I will have all the pictures up by the end of the summer!
And now I have to go purchase a return ticket so I'm not stuck on the continent for forever.
Might put up another entry before we leave, dunno.
And you don't get to know what order we did things until afterwards! Woo!
So, here are the cities, in alphabetical order! (You can guess the country! That makes it harder to find me! Bwa-ha-ha!)
Cologne
Florence
Freiburg
Heidelburg
Innsbruck
Interlaken
Koblenz
Lorelei
Luzern
Mainz
Milan
Munich
Necharsteinach
Pisa
Rome
Venice
Zermatt
Yay!
I just realized every sentence so far ends in an exclamation point, and I do not want to ruin this trend! Ok, maybe I do.
So yeah. Internet will only happen when there is internet at hostels or on trains, unless we decide to bring a dongle and see if it works somewhere.
What does that mean for you oh faithful followers of this blog?
Basically, don't check it more than once a week. I'm bringing a notebook to write stuff down in, so I won't forget things, it's just that it won't necessarialy get typed up every night. And as for pictures, those will slowly trickle in over the course of the month and a half left after we get back. They'll go up whenever I have time/feel like it, and considering there's an essay due 3 weeks after we get back, there probably won't be a lot going up at first.
But, I promise you that I will have all the pictures up by the end of the summer!
And now I have to go purchase a return ticket so I'm not stuck on the continent for forever.
Might put up another entry before we leave, dunno.
Edinburgh Pics
 |
| Edinburgh |
Annnnnd Edinburgh pictures are up.
Now for captions!
After all that I'll throw up another entry explaining how the next couple weeks are going to work.
EDIT: Captions are up.
Friday, March 13, 2009
This week.
So. What happened this week?
I wrote ANOTHER 2000 word essay. This one was for some reason easier to write, but that didn't change the fact that I was still up at 2am last night working on it. Although, that's partly due to the fact I forgot that I had statics homework and spent a couple hours working on it around midnight-ish before returning to my bibliography.
So quite honestly, my brain is fried. I have no idea how the people who major in history here do it. They all have like 3 essays due today. 3!!! That would require actually starting at least one of them more than a week ahead of time. Crazy. This is why I'm an Engineer. We just have to figure out what the forces in a truss are. Which, by the way, is incredibly tedious and there are computer programs that can do it for you. (That was a jab at my statics homework, if you missed it.)
Anyway... apart from working on the essay nothing happened this week really. We booked plane tickets and a hostel for next Friday, so that's all set. I have to start looking for hostels for the rest of the trip now. Soon as we've got that done, I'll put up what our iten..... (damn my lack of spelling ability) schedule is. The good news, is that we know what we want to do and when and where in Germany, and we know that there are trains that can get us from point A to point B. Bad news? Let me list it out for you:
We don't know how much said trains cost, or when they run.
We don't have reservations yet for the hostels.
We don't have Switzerland planned out yet.
We don't have Italy planned out.
We don't have a way home yet.
We can't get a way home until we plan out Switzerland and Italy.
Luckily, we should have a couple of those taken care of by the begining of next week, namely the hostels and the way home (which implies having Switzerland and Italy figured out).
But, we have a month in which to get home, so I don't think it matters too much that we figure it out now, it's just that it'd be a lot easier.
So the original plan was to continue on to France and Amsterdam after Italy, but after backpacking for just the weekend in Edinburgh, I realized that a whole month was absolutely ridiculous, and have restricted it to 2.5-3 weeks. Then that last week, I think we'll end up going up to Aberdeen, but we might go to Bath & Stonehenge instead. Not sure. So we need to figure that out so we can get train tickets. France and Amsterdam will get pushed to May when Belinda -hopefully- comes to visit. But I need to talk to her to figure that out.
Most of this entry is for me so that I don't forget what all I need to do and by when, so you can probably ignore most of it, unless you have an abnormally large interest in where I'll be. If that's the case, you had better be my parents, Jake's parents, or someone we will be travelling with or visiting (of which there are like... maybe 6 people?). Otherwise you're a stalker and that's just plain creepy.
Anyway.... I know I promised pictures sometime around today, after the essays were done and handed in, but I really don't feel like putting them up right now. Really. So I guess either Monday I'll stay later after classes and put them up, or I'll do it Tuesday while Jake is in class. You can live 4 more days, right? Good.
This weekend we're planning on going to either the Royal Armouries again to look through the second half of it, or to Kirkstall Abby, because it's broken and broken things are fun. So it could turn into 3 or 4 bunches of pictures. Even more exciting, right?
Anyway, I have to go to class now and turn in my statics homework and listen to the teacher talk to us and do examples and give the class a half hour to do it when it really only takes 5 minutes. *sigh*
I wrote ANOTHER 2000 word essay. This one was for some reason easier to write, but that didn't change the fact that I was still up at 2am last night working on it. Although, that's partly due to the fact I forgot that I had statics homework and spent a couple hours working on it around midnight-ish before returning to my bibliography.
So quite honestly, my brain is fried. I have no idea how the people who major in history here do it. They all have like 3 essays due today. 3!!! That would require actually starting at least one of them more than a week ahead of time. Crazy. This is why I'm an Engineer. We just have to figure out what the forces in a truss are. Which, by the way, is incredibly tedious and there are computer programs that can do it for you. (That was a jab at my statics homework, if you missed it.)
Anyway... apart from working on the essay nothing happened this week really. We booked plane tickets and a hostel for next Friday, so that's all set. I have to start looking for hostels for the rest of the trip now. Soon as we've got that done, I'll put up what our iten..... (damn my lack of spelling ability) schedule is. The good news, is that we know what we want to do and when and where in Germany, and we know that there are trains that can get us from point A to point B. Bad news? Let me list it out for you:
We don't know how much said trains cost, or when they run.
We don't have reservations yet for the hostels.
We don't have Switzerland planned out yet.
We don't have Italy planned out.
We don't have a way home yet.
We can't get a way home until we plan out Switzerland and Italy.
Luckily, we should have a couple of those taken care of by the begining of next week, namely the hostels and the way home (which implies having Switzerland and Italy figured out).
But, we have a month in which to get home, so I don't think it matters too much that we figure it out now, it's just that it'd be a lot easier.
So the original plan was to continue on to France and Amsterdam after Italy, but after backpacking for just the weekend in Edinburgh, I realized that a whole month was absolutely ridiculous, and have restricted it to 2.5-3 weeks. Then that last week, I think we'll end up going up to Aberdeen, but we might go to Bath & Stonehenge instead. Not sure. So we need to figure that out so we can get train tickets. France and Amsterdam will get pushed to May when Belinda -hopefully- comes to visit. But I need to talk to her to figure that out.
Most of this entry is for me so that I don't forget what all I need to do and by when, so you can probably ignore most of it, unless you have an abnormally large interest in where I'll be. If that's the case, you had better be my parents, Jake's parents, or someone we will be travelling with or visiting (of which there are like... maybe 6 people?). Otherwise you're a stalker and that's just plain creepy.
Anyway.... I know I promised pictures sometime around today, after the essays were done and handed in, but I really don't feel like putting them up right now. Really. So I guess either Monday I'll stay later after classes and put them up, or I'll do it Tuesday while Jake is in class. You can live 4 more days, right? Good.
This weekend we're planning on going to either the Royal Armouries again to look through the second half of it, or to Kirkstall Abby, because it's broken and broken things are fun. So it could turn into 3 or 4 bunches of pictures. Even more exciting, right?
Anyway, I have to go to class now and turn in my statics homework and listen to the teacher talk to us and do examples and give the class a half hour to do it when it really only takes 5 minutes. *sigh*
Monday, March 9, 2009
Edinburgh in slightly more detail and a magical surprise!
So, I have possibly figured out a way around the dongle taking control of the internet. I have yet to see if it works 100%, but currently I'm on the campus wireless, which is awesome. And I didn't have to uninstall the dongle. So this might actually work. We'll see. (That was the magical surprise.)
Now for Edinburgh.
So, train ride was relatively uneventful. We got in at like 6ish, and after being lost for about 5 minutes, we figured out where we were and managed to get to our hostel. Checked in, went up to the room and dropped our stuff off. We had a 4 person room to ourselves the first night, so yay for that. After dropping stuff off, we headed over to Adam's hostel. We would have all been at the same one, but we kept forgetting to book the hostel, and ended up at a different one. Ours was much nicer, just a bit farther away from things, but that was ok. So if you ever have a choice between Argyle Backpackers and Budget Backpackers, go for Argyle. In my opinion.
**six hours later**
So I just got my new video card thingie installed and it seems like it's working, seeing as how I haven't crashed in the hour I've been on, although it only crashed two or three times in the past two weeks and not the crazy way, so dunno.
Back to Edinburgh, that's what y'all really care about.
Anyway, after picking up Adam, we went and got dinner at a pub by his hostel. I had steak & ale pie, which was good, but was lacking in the ale flavoring. I've had better. Then we wandered around Edinburgh for a couple of hours, basically just getting a feel for where things are, and because there was nothing else to do, unless we wanted to get drunk and/or go clubbing, which we didn't want to do. If you all haven't noticed yet, Jake and I aren't big on the whole going out and getting drunk and dancing all night thing.
Around like 10, we started heading back to the hostels, since it was cold out.
The next morning, we met up at like 9:30, and found a place a couple doors down from the pub from Friday night, and had breakfast. When I put up pictures I'll caption the ones with the places we ate, I don't remember their names at the moment. That place had the whole English Breakfast thing, and Scottish breakfast, so if you want one of those, I'd say go there.
Following breakfast, we walked up to Edinburgh Castle and wandered around it. Now, it looks fantastic from the side/bottom. But I think I like broken down castles better than ones that can still be used. It had a bunch of smaller buildings in it and a couple museums, which was all great, but there's something to be said for ruins. Not that I'm saying don't go, you should, but if you have a choice between the castle and some of the other things I'm going to get around to mentioning, I'd almost say do them instead.
After the castle, we started walking down the Royal Mile toward the Palace. The Royal Mile is just another name for the street between the castle & palace, and it's full of stores catering to tourists. Many of them are staffed by Indian guys, which is a bit wierd. I'll come back to that in a bit. The original plan was to do the Palace, but since it was already 2:30 and it closed at 4:30, and since we weren't sure how long it'd take, we decided to climb Arthur's Seat instead, since it was next to the Palace. This ended up being a good decision, since the weather Sunday morning made it impossible to climb.
Arthur's Seat is an inactive volcano mountain thing. I'm not sure exactally what, but volcano was mentioned somewhere. It's a bit steep, but if you have a couple hours on your hand, I would definately reccomend climbing it. The view from the top is pretty awesome. The one downside was that the higher we got, the windier it got. At the top, there were a couple of times that it almost knocked us over. Then it started raining, so we headed down. On the way we found really comfy grass. It was comfy. After that, since it had started raining, we decided to get some food in the hopes that it would stop while we were eating. It sort of did. We went back to Adam's hostel to sort of plot out Germany, then decided to go to ours since I had a headache and wanted painkillers. We sat around for a while, then it started raining harder, and when it finally let up Adam went back to his hostel and we went to bed.
Sunday morning we had originally planned to go to the Palace with Adam before he had to go catch his plane, but he wanted to go look at some other stuff, so we went to Calton Hill and looked around up there. Then Adam had to go catch a bus to the airport and Jake and I went to Holyroodhouse Palace. Definately go to the palace. It's cool. Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside, so you can't see what it looks like unless you go. Also, if you go, get the audio tour (it's included in entrance fee, so no reason to not pick it up), it's very informative. After the palace we wandered down the Royal Mile, had lunch at World's End, and then went and got on a train home.
Back to the whole Indian guys running tourist shops- Jake wanted to get a dirk, but not from an Indian guy, so we found a store with a red-headed scottish lady, and he got it from her.
Also, I have no idea if they sell this in the states or not, but if you are 21, go try and find Bruadar. Best alcohol I've tasted so far. Hooray whiskey.
Yeah, that's it for now. I will try and put pictures up on Friday after classes and after I turn in my essay.
Now, back to working on said essay and away from blogging.
I've wasted enough time today.
Can you believe Apple wanted me to drop the laptop off for 3-5 days? The reason I didn't drop it off 2 weeks ago was because it'd take time and the guy said if I brought it back when the part was in they'd fix it when I brought it in. Instead, I get there, tell the guy why I'm there, and he's all, k, sign this paper saying you're leaving the laptop with us, I'm like, wait, how long is it going to take? Oh, just 3-5 days. Um, the guy before said you could do it while I waited. Hm.. well, let me go ask him. *comes back* well, if you can stick around till 6 (it's 3:15 now) we can fix it today. Ok. *signs paper* *wanders off to find somewhere to read a book on the Black Death for two hours until my eyes are tired of that at which time I go to H&M to try stuff on for fun*
So.. yeah.
Oh. Also, apparently Scotland has coos. Really awesome coos with hair in their eyes. There were pictures of them all over, but I didn't see any real ones. So Jake and I have decided that we would like to go back to Scotland some weekend, probably up to Aberdeen since all in all, Edinburgh really caters to tourists, and we'd rather see the real Scotland.
The end.
EDIT: I lied. One, I posted this and realized how bad it looked without spaces between paragraphs, so I put those in. Then I realized I didn't explain why it was good we did Arthur's Seat Saturday instead of Sunday. Sunday morning it snowed. Enough so all the mountains and cliffs and stuff were covered. That would not have worked out, especially since it had been pouring Saturday night. Would have been super muddy.
Now, THE END. For reals.
Now for Edinburgh.
So, train ride was relatively uneventful. We got in at like 6ish, and after being lost for about 5 minutes, we figured out where we were and managed to get to our hostel. Checked in, went up to the room and dropped our stuff off. We had a 4 person room to ourselves the first night, so yay for that. After dropping stuff off, we headed over to Adam's hostel. We would have all been at the same one, but we kept forgetting to book the hostel, and ended up at a different one. Ours was much nicer, just a bit farther away from things, but that was ok. So if you ever have a choice between Argyle Backpackers and Budget Backpackers, go for Argyle. In my opinion.
**six hours later**
So I just got my new video card thingie installed and it seems like it's working, seeing as how I haven't crashed in the hour I've been on, although it only crashed two or three times in the past two weeks and not the crazy way, so dunno.
Back to Edinburgh, that's what y'all really care about.
Anyway, after picking up Adam, we went and got dinner at a pub by his hostel. I had steak & ale pie, which was good, but was lacking in the ale flavoring. I've had better. Then we wandered around Edinburgh for a couple of hours, basically just getting a feel for where things are, and because there was nothing else to do, unless we wanted to get drunk and/or go clubbing, which we didn't want to do. If you all haven't noticed yet, Jake and I aren't big on the whole going out and getting drunk and dancing all night thing.
Around like 10, we started heading back to the hostels, since it was cold out.
The next morning, we met up at like 9:30, and found a place a couple doors down from the pub from Friday night, and had breakfast. When I put up pictures I'll caption the ones with the places we ate, I don't remember their names at the moment. That place had the whole English Breakfast thing, and Scottish breakfast, so if you want one of those, I'd say go there.
Following breakfast, we walked up to Edinburgh Castle and wandered around it. Now, it looks fantastic from the side/bottom. But I think I like broken down castles better than ones that can still be used. It had a bunch of smaller buildings in it and a couple museums, which was all great, but there's something to be said for ruins. Not that I'm saying don't go, you should, but if you have a choice between the castle and some of the other things I'm going to get around to mentioning, I'd almost say do them instead.
After the castle, we started walking down the Royal Mile toward the Palace. The Royal Mile is just another name for the street between the castle & palace, and it's full of stores catering to tourists. Many of them are staffed by Indian guys, which is a bit wierd. I'll come back to that in a bit. The original plan was to do the Palace, but since it was already 2:30 and it closed at 4:30, and since we weren't sure how long it'd take, we decided to climb Arthur's Seat instead, since it was next to the Palace. This ended up being a good decision, since the weather Sunday morning made it impossible to climb.
Arthur's Seat is an inactive volcano mountain thing. I'm not sure exactally what, but volcano was mentioned somewhere. It's a bit steep, but if you have a couple hours on your hand, I would definately reccomend climbing it. The view from the top is pretty awesome. The one downside was that the higher we got, the windier it got. At the top, there were a couple of times that it almost knocked us over. Then it started raining, so we headed down. On the way we found really comfy grass. It was comfy. After that, since it had started raining, we decided to get some food in the hopes that it would stop while we were eating. It sort of did. We went back to Adam's hostel to sort of plot out Germany, then decided to go to ours since I had a headache and wanted painkillers. We sat around for a while, then it started raining harder, and when it finally let up Adam went back to his hostel and we went to bed.
Sunday morning we had originally planned to go to the Palace with Adam before he had to go catch his plane, but he wanted to go look at some other stuff, so we went to Calton Hill and looked around up there. Then Adam had to go catch a bus to the airport and Jake and I went to Holyroodhouse Palace. Definately go to the palace. It's cool. Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside, so you can't see what it looks like unless you go. Also, if you go, get the audio tour (it's included in entrance fee, so no reason to not pick it up), it's very informative. After the palace we wandered down the Royal Mile, had lunch at World's End, and then went and got on a train home.
Back to the whole Indian guys running tourist shops- Jake wanted to get a dirk, but not from an Indian guy, so we found a store with a red-headed scottish lady, and he got it from her.
Also, I have no idea if they sell this in the states or not, but if you are 21, go try and find Bruadar. Best alcohol I've tasted so far. Hooray whiskey.
Yeah, that's it for now. I will try and put pictures up on Friday after classes and after I turn in my essay.
Now, back to working on said essay and away from blogging.
I've wasted enough time today.
Can you believe Apple wanted me to drop the laptop off for 3-5 days? The reason I didn't drop it off 2 weeks ago was because it'd take time and the guy said if I brought it back when the part was in they'd fix it when I brought it in. Instead, I get there, tell the guy why I'm there, and he's all, k, sign this paper saying you're leaving the laptop with us, I'm like, wait, how long is it going to take? Oh, just 3-5 days. Um, the guy before said you could do it while I waited. Hm.. well, let me go ask him. *comes back* well, if you can stick around till 6 (it's 3:15 now) we can fix it today. Ok. *signs paper* *wanders off to find somewhere to read a book on the Black Death for two hours until my eyes are tired of that at which time I go to H&M to try stuff on for fun*
So.. yeah.
Oh. Also, apparently Scotland has coos. Really awesome coos with hair in their eyes. There were pictures of them all over, but I didn't see any real ones. So Jake and I have decided that we would like to go back to Scotland some weekend, probably up to Aberdeen since all in all, Edinburgh really caters to tourists, and we'd rather see the real Scotland.
The end.
EDIT: I lied. One, I posted this and realized how bad it looked without spaces between paragraphs, so I put those in. Then I realized I didn't explain why it was good we did Arthur's Seat Saturday instead of Sunday. Sunday morning it snowed. Enough so all the mountains and cliffs and stuff were covered. That would not have worked out, especially since it had been pouring Saturday night. Would have been super muddy.
Now, THE END. For reals.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Edinburgh Day 1 (briefly)
So.. got in last night, found the hostel, Argyle Backpackers (I think.... It's Argyle something... Anyway, we got our key, dropped our bags off, and went to pick up Jake's friend Adam from his hostel. We got dinner at a pub down the street, and then wandered around Edinburgh for a couple of hours before going back to our respective hostels and sleeping.
Saturday morning, we woke up, went to a little place for breakfast, then went to the castle for a bunch of hours. Then we were going to go to the palace, but decided against it since it was getting close to when it closed, so instead we climbed up to Arthur's Seat, which had an awesome view. It was also uber windy. As in you could be 45 degrees from the ground without falling over, and there were a couple times it was strong enough to almost move us. Then it started raining so we went to an American restaurant we found. After that we went to a little store that had Scottish stuff, I got a flag and Jake got a stabbing implement. And now we're back at our hostel plotting out Europe.
I will put in details on Monday or Tuesday.
Oh, also, the castle had whiskey tasting, and we tasted it, and it was tasty. I think I may have found my alcohol. Heh. Annnnyway, more later when I have more time, just thought I'd put this up since I'm not terribly busy at the moment.
Saturday morning, we woke up, went to a little place for breakfast, then went to the castle for a bunch of hours. Then we were going to go to the palace, but decided against it since it was getting close to when it closed, so instead we climbed up to Arthur's Seat, which had an awesome view. It was also uber windy. As in you could be 45 degrees from the ground without falling over, and there were a couple times it was strong enough to almost move us. Then it started raining so we went to an American restaurant we found. After that we went to a little store that had Scottish stuff, I got a flag and Jake got a stabbing implement. And now we're back at our hostel plotting out Europe.
I will put in details on Monday or Tuesday.
Oh, also, the castle had whiskey tasting, and we tasted it, and it was tasty. I think I may have found my alcohol. Heh. Annnnyway, more later when I have more time, just thought I'd put this up since I'm not terribly busy at the moment.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Geese Solution
So according to the website Jake's dad found, people brought the geese over to hunt them.
(Basically.)
Then some escaped and decided it would be a good idea to block traffic.
For those of you wondering, this means that Jake's dad gets the postcard. And it will be a really cool postcard from Edinburgh too. EDINBURGH! That's Scotland!
This is why everyone should check this more often. I might do something like this again. And if you email me (or leave a comment since they get emailed to me, so technically that counts too), you could get a postcard you would otherwise not get.
Spread the word – tell a friend
Tell them the tale
Get a pic – do a blog
Heroes are over with.....
er... I mean.. let other people know about this blog. Don't keep it to yourself.
Also, if you get what that came from (NO CHEATING) I might, MIGHT, decide to send someone else a postcard.
So, it's worth a try.
Also, I now have 1000 words in my essay and an outline for it, so that's why you all are getting this and a picture of geese.
(Basically.)
Then some escaped and decided it would be a good idea to block traffic.
For those of you wondering, this means that Jake's dad gets the postcard. And it will be a really cool postcard from Edinburgh too. EDINBURGH! That's Scotland!
This is why everyone should check this more often. I might do something like this again. And if you email me (or leave a comment since they get emailed to me, so technically that counts too), you could get a postcard you would otherwise not get.
Spread the word – tell a friend
Tell them the tale
Get a pic – do a blog
Heroes are over with.....
er... I mean.. let other people know about this blog. Don't keep it to yourself.
Also, if you get what that came from (NO CHEATING) I might, MIGHT, decide to send someone else a postcard.
So, it's worth a try.
Also, I now have 1000 words in my essay and an outline for it, so that's why you all are getting this and a picture of geese.
Monday, March 2, 2009
York Trip!
The original plan was to try and be in York by 10, but we woke up a little late and didn't get there until closer to 11. The first thing we did was go to York Minster, because I figured that it would take the longest to get through. The church part itself was pretty cool, lots of heraldry all over the place, so it was definately worth the money to get in. The undercroft however, was useless. The York Minster is built on the site of a Norman cathedral that was built on top of a Roman fort, so you go down there and they show you the walls of the older two and how everything intersects, but it's rather confusing. They've also got some stuf they found down there (bowls, etc.) from when the Romans were there. Then you go into the Treasury, which is just lots of shiny shiny silver & pewter. After that is the crypt, which looks pretty much nothing like the picture on their website. So, my advice, is if you're going to visit the York Minster, skip the Undercroft portion of it, and just get the Minster & Tower ticket instead. The tower was a little annoying, in that they only let so many people up at once, and you have to wait for that whole group to come down before you can go up, due to the fact that the stairwell is only about two feet wide. But it is cool from the top. It's not quite as big as the super huge Anglican cathedral in Liverpool, but it's still cool going up to the top. You can see Leeds and Edinburgh (only not really). Also, you only get like 10 minutes up there before they make you go down, but if you like climbing stairs 275 at a time, definately go up.
After that we got some lunch at a little Italian place down the street(ish). By the time we got to the restaurant it was like 2:30, and the next place we wanted to go see, Clifford's Tower closed at 4, so we ate rather quickly (as quickly as you can when your pasta just came out of the oven and is really really hot), and then left. Clifford's Tower is at the other end of the city from the Minster, but York is pretty small so it only took like 10 minutes to get there. We got there at 3:40ish. Hooray for just making it!
Now, Clifford's Tower is pretty sweet. It's this cute little castle sitting on this huge hill, and a long time ago it used to have a moat. AWESOME. Also, it's kind of shaped like a four-leaf clover, which is cute too. Luckily it's small, so it doesn't take much more than the 20 minutes we had to look at everything. And, unlike the Undercroft, Clifford's Tower looks EXACTALLY like the picture on the website, which is adorable.
Now, someone is going to need to explain something to me. Canadian geese live in Canada, right? Yeah, that's what I thought too- Canada and the US (where they poop on anything they can get their butts over...ew). So then how did they end up in York? Seriously. I mean, is there some magic portal from York to New York? Is that how they do it? They fly down from Canada, and if they hit the exact right 500m by 500m chunk of sky they're miraculously in England? Because I doubt they could fly across the ocean. So someone needs to look that up and let me know, because there were geese all over York.
While we're on the topic of birds, they have these really awesome black and white ones here. I'll take a picture sometime, because they're really cool looking. There's also a ton of pigeons. What's my favorite game while I'm wandering around the city center, you ask? Chasing pidgeons. They won't fly away from you until you get a foot away. So you can stay 3 feet back and run them where ever you want, until they get frustrated that the piece of bread they were trying to eat is now 20 feet behind them, then they get up and fly away. But seriously, if you ever come to Leeds, chase the pidgeons. It's one of the easiest forms of entertainment here.
EDIT: Yeah, I'm totally against animal violence too, I don't hurt them, just give them some exercise, in case you were worried.
Anyway, back to York. Now, I'm sure that many of you know that York has a wall around it. For those of you who weren't aware of this fact- York has a wall around it. What is cool about this wall, is that you can walk on it, unlike the wall in Newcastle, which you can only walk next to, except for one tiny part that is a dead end that I don't think you're really supposed to go on. So we walked around like 2/3 of it, because by the time we finished the 2nd 3rd of it, it was starting to be 'dusk,' and the gates to the walking on the walls close at 'dusk.' So instead we wandered around the middle until it really did get dark, and then we headed back to the train station and came home.
I apologize for the super-long paragraphs and the two paragraphs about birds. I know no one cares about birds that much, but I really want to know how Canadian geese got here. If you don't believe me, wait till I put up the pictures.
Now, about those pictures. Unfortunately, I have this bad habit of procrastinating. This means that at the moment, I only have 500-something words out of 2000 done for Friday. I have another 2000 word essay due on next Friday, and this weekend, we're going to Edinburgh. All that adds up to one simple fact: Time is short this week. I realize that everyone lives for my pictures, seeing where I go in England is the highlight of your fortnight (woo! big word! also, it's true, since they tend to go up every two weeks... anyway), and that without a constant supply, you'll all have to go through withdrawal. While I feel your pain, really, I do, I don't think you'll be getting York pictures for a while.
But I'm writing this huge blog! I must have time to upload a few pictures! WRONG! I bet you didn't know this, but it takes at LEAST 2 hours for me to sort through the hundreds of pictures I take to get rid of the blurry ones, get rid of the ones with me or Jake with silly faces, get rid of the ones that are similar to others.... and then I have to upload and caption every single one of the hundreds of pictures I decide to upload. I just don't have that time right now. I'm thinking you'll have to wait until after next Friday, unless I manage to finish an essay earlier than Thursday night. Maybe if I have free time I'll put up a handfull of pictures, but I'd rather just put the all up at once instead of a few at a time.
And now, you're all wondering when you'll get your next fix. Well, you might have to wait another two weeks, but when you do get those pictures, it will be even better. Know why? Because there will be pictures from Edinburgh too! It's like two for one!
Yeah, I agree with you, why would I decide to go to Edinburgh when I have an essay due the next week. Well, I have no idea why it was decided that we'd go this week. But that's ok! Theres a 3 hour train ride to read books on. And I can read at the hostel. Yes, *gasp* a hostel. We're going in Friday afternoon, coming back Sunday sometime. I mean, it's a 6+hour round trip, you didn't expect us to do that all in one day, now did you?
Yeah, the only reason I'm writing this much is because Jake is looking for books for one of his essays, and I'm waiting for him to find them to leave, and writing this in the meantime.
Maybe I'll write another short entry later this week with a picture of something random, like those black and white birds, or the milk cartons here. Somthing surprising.
Ooh. Incentive: First person to email me at alottaocelot at gmail dot com with an explanation (backed up with evidence, a website will do) as to how Canadian geese got to York, will get a postcard.
Seriously, I'm that curious.
Anyway, Jake came back, so I have to leave now.
Bye!
After that we got some lunch at a little Italian place down the street(ish). By the time we got to the restaurant it was like 2:30, and the next place we wanted to go see, Clifford's Tower closed at 4, so we ate rather quickly (as quickly as you can when your pasta just came out of the oven and is really really hot), and then left. Clifford's Tower is at the other end of the city from the Minster, but York is pretty small so it only took like 10 minutes to get there. We got there at 3:40ish. Hooray for just making it!
Now, Clifford's Tower is pretty sweet. It's this cute little castle sitting on this huge hill, and a long time ago it used to have a moat. AWESOME. Also, it's kind of shaped like a four-leaf clover, which is cute too. Luckily it's small, so it doesn't take much more than the 20 minutes we had to look at everything. And, unlike the Undercroft, Clifford's Tower looks EXACTALLY like the picture on the website, which is adorable.
Now, someone is going to need to explain something to me. Canadian geese live in Canada, right? Yeah, that's what I thought too- Canada and the US (where they poop on anything they can get their butts over...ew). So then how did they end up in York? Seriously. I mean, is there some magic portal from York to New York? Is that how they do it? They fly down from Canada, and if they hit the exact right 500m by 500m chunk of sky they're miraculously in England? Because I doubt they could fly across the ocean. So someone needs to look that up and let me know, because there were geese all over York.
While we're on the topic of birds, they have these really awesome black and white ones here. I'll take a picture sometime, because they're really cool looking. There's also a ton of pigeons. What's my favorite game while I'm wandering around the city center, you ask? Chasing pidgeons. They won't fly away from you until you get a foot away. So you can stay 3 feet back and run them where ever you want, until they get frustrated that the piece of bread they were trying to eat is now 20 feet behind them, then they get up and fly away. But seriously, if you ever come to Leeds, chase the pidgeons. It's one of the easiest forms of entertainment here.
EDIT: Yeah, I'm totally against animal violence too, I don't hurt them, just give them some exercise, in case you were worried.
Anyway, back to York. Now, I'm sure that many of you know that York has a wall around it. For those of you who weren't aware of this fact- York has a wall around it. What is cool about this wall, is that you can walk on it, unlike the wall in Newcastle, which you can only walk next to, except for one tiny part that is a dead end that I don't think you're really supposed to go on. So we walked around like 2/3 of it, because by the time we finished the 2nd 3rd of it, it was starting to be 'dusk,' and the gates to the walking on the walls close at 'dusk.' So instead we wandered around the middle until it really did get dark, and then we headed back to the train station and came home.
I apologize for the super-long paragraphs and the two paragraphs about birds. I know no one cares about birds that much, but I really want to know how Canadian geese got here. If you don't believe me, wait till I put up the pictures.
Now, about those pictures. Unfortunately, I have this bad habit of procrastinating. This means that at the moment, I only have 500-something words out of 2000 done for Friday. I have another 2000 word essay due on next Friday, and this weekend, we're going to Edinburgh. All that adds up to one simple fact: Time is short this week. I realize that everyone lives for my pictures, seeing where I go in England is the highlight of your fortnight (woo! big word! also, it's true, since they tend to go up every two weeks... anyway), and that without a constant supply, you'll all have to go through withdrawal. While I feel your pain, really, I do, I don't think you'll be getting York pictures for a while.
But I'm writing this huge blog! I must have time to upload a few pictures! WRONG! I bet you didn't know this, but it takes at LEAST 2 hours for me to sort through the hundreds of pictures I take to get rid of the blurry ones, get rid of the ones with me or Jake with silly faces, get rid of the ones that are similar to others.... and then I have to upload and caption every single one of the hundreds of pictures I decide to upload. I just don't have that time right now. I'm thinking you'll have to wait until after next Friday, unless I manage to finish an essay earlier than Thursday night. Maybe if I have free time I'll put up a handfull of pictures, but I'd rather just put the all up at once instead of a few at a time.
And now, you're all wondering when you'll get your next fix. Well, you might have to wait another two weeks, but when you do get those pictures, it will be even better. Know why? Because there will be pictures from Edinburgh too! It's like two for one!
Yeah, I agree with you, why would I decide to go to Edinburgh when I have an essay due the next week. Well, I have no idea why it was decided that we'd go this week. But that's ok! Theres a 3 hour train ride to read books on. And I can read at the hostel. Yes, *gasp* a hostel. We're going in Friday afternoon, coming back Sunday sometime. I mean, it's a 6+hour round trip, you didn't expect us to do that all in one day, now did you?
Yeah, the only reason I'm writing this much is because Jake is looking for books for one of his essays, and I'm waiting for him to find them to leave, and writing this in the meantime.
Maybe I'll write another short entry later this week with a picture of something random, like those black and white birds, or the milk cartons here. Somthing surprising.
Ooh. Incentive: First person to email me at alottaocelot at gmail dot com with an explanation (backed up with evidence, a website will do) as to how Canadian geese got to York, will get a postcard.
Seriously, I'm that curious.
Anyway, Jake came back, so I have to leave now.
Bye!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Neglect.
So I feel like I've been neglecting all of you this week. No updates. Sorry about that.
Monday we went to Meadowhall (giant mall slightly outside of Sheffield) so I could take my laptop to the Apple store since it had been freezing and doing that weird screen freaking out thing again. First time I turned it on there, it (of course) didn't do it. Restarted it, and ta-daa! Crazy screen thing. The guy there figured that it was probably the video card, so he ordered me a new one, and is supposed to call when it gets in.
Now, the really weird thing, is that it hasn't done the weird screen thing since Monday, and it's only (hah, only...as if I've resigned myself to living with it freezing) froze once so far. It's like the video card is saying, no! Don't replace me! I'll be good!
But I'm going to go ahead and get it replaced. Shouldn't do any harm, and it'll probably keep it alive longer. And then if it freezes and does the weird thing again, I just go back and make them figure out what it is. Hooray 3 year extended warranty!!
Other that that, haven't gone anywhere exciting this week. We've mostly been working on homework/essays. I had 2 presentations today and chem hw due tomorrow. Then I've got an essay due next week and another the week after.
Saturday we're going to York for the day, people keep saying we should go there. Then it's back to essays. Meh.
That's it for now.
:)
Monday we went to Meadowhall (giant mall slightly outside of Sheffield) so I could take my laptop to the Apple store since it had been freezing and doing that weird screen freaking out thing again. First time I turned it on there, it (of course) didn't do it. Restarted it, and ta-daa! Crazy screen thing. The guy there figured that it was probably the video card, so he ordered me a new one, and is supposed to call when it gets in.
Now, the really weird thing, is that it hasn't done the weird screen thing since Monday, and it's only (hah, only...as if I've resigned myself to living with it freezing) froze once so far. It's like the video card is saying, no! Don't replace me! I'll be good!
But I'm going to go ahead and get it replaced. Shouldn't do any harm, and it'll probably keep it alive longer. And then if it freezes and does the weird thing again, I just go back and make them figure out what it is. Hooray 3 year extended warranty!!
Other that that, haven't gone anywhere exciting this week. We've mostly been working on homework/essays. I had 2 presentations today and chem hw due tomorrow. Then I've got an essay due next week and another the week after.
Saturday we're going to York for the day, people keep saying we should go there. Then it's back to essays. Meh.
That's it for now.
:)
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Castle Pictures!!
Castle pictures are up. They're pretty awesome. Go look!
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| Newcastle upon Tyne / Tynemouth |
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Newcastle upon Tyne / Tynemouth Trip
So we got back from the Newcastle trip about.... 6 hours ago. It was another trip done through the International Office.
At first, Jake and I didn't really think they had that much going for them, and then I found out that in Tynemouth, they have this awesome castle on a cliff with a beach next door. So we decided that we would definately go there, as it was a 30 minute train ride, for 3.80 pounds roundtrip. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We got dropped off in a spot that was different than where they had originally told us we'd be dropped off (they give us packets about the cities when we pay that tell us places we could go and where we'll be dropped off, etc.). So that changed the route we had planned on taking, but not by much.
We started off by going toward the wall. There's a wall that used to go around Newcastle as a defense. Part of it was still there, so we found it and walked along the length of it (it wasn't that big). Conveniently, the wall dead-ended at Chinatown. This Chinatown had an Imperial arch, just like the one in Liverpool, excepts this one was smaller. Then we turned around a bit to go to Blackfriars, which used to be a Friary full of Dominican monks (I think). They wore black robes and shoes. Crazy guys. Anyway, the wall had gotten built through their little village, and because their garden was on the other side of it, they got a key to be able to go through and take care of their vegetables. Of course, you can't build a wall around a garden. Psh.
Anyway, after that, we went in search of the Earl Grey monument. We got lost along the way, but then we found a handy dandy sign pointing behind us. The signs in Newcastle are awesome. Know how in movies/cartoons there'll be a stick with 384957893475 arrows pointing in different directions? That's what they had. It was awesome. Anyway, Earl Grey had some musicians down by the base of his pedestal. They were pretty awesome.
From there we got on the Metro, aka train to Tynemouth. It's pretty much exactally like MARTA in Atlanta, except the trains are probably older. Speaking of trains, the girl in charge of the bus we were on said that the first train was tested in Newcastle. Don't know if that's true or not. Anyway, we get to Tynemouth, get off the train, and realize we don't have a map (reoccuring theme I think). But- their train station is pretty cool- they have a local market there every weekend, and there was a guy playing an accordian. So we walk out of the trainstation, and they have a sign with arrows! One of which says, go this way to get to the castle. So we went that way, and ta-daa! Castle. It was AWESOME.
Seriously. AWESOME. In capitals. We probably spent like an hour wandering around it and taking pictures of it. It's mostly fallen down, but the little chapel was still together, so we could go in there, and then part of the main building (I guess...) was still together and you could go up two/three levels sort of. The kitchen was still in one piece! But yeah, it was cool.
Then we went to the beach that was right next door. Literally, it was just down a little hill. We wandered around and took pictures and almost got stranded on some rocks when the tide started coming in. Heh. But we escaped! Jake's toe got wet and I stuck a finger in the ocean. So we have been in the super North Atlantic. Yay for us. Then since it was Valentine's day, Jake found a stick and made a heart with Amanda + Jake in it. Awwww. Then we ran away from the ocean before it swallowed us whole and went back to the trainstation to go back to Newcastle.
Upon returning to Newcastle we went across the Millenium Bridge, and then across a red one, and then we got to a castle in Newcastle, which is all whole and in one piece (I assume). However, we got there at 4:45 and the last admission is at 4:15, so we didn't get to go in, just walked around. But we might go back to Newcastle at some point in the future. Then we just kind of worked our way back to where the bus dropped us off at.
Soo.. plans for the future:
We both have essays due soon, so we're going to use tomorrow (Sunday) and next weekend to work on those. Weekend after that we're going to York on our own to look around.
After that, there's a chance we might meet up with one of Jake's friends from high-school who is in Florence and go somewhere with him.
Other than that, we're currently working on plans for Easter/spring break, which is a month long.
Pictures will go up sometime this week, I'll try and make it before Friday, but Friday really is the easiest day for me to put them up. Maybe Tuesday. We'll see.
At first, Jake and I didn't really think they had that much going for them, and then I found out that in Tynemouth, they have this awesome castle on a cliff with a beach next door. So we decided that we would definately go there, as it was a 30 minute train ride, for 3.80 pounds roundtrip. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We got dropped off in a spot that was different than where they had originally told us we'd be dropped off (they give us packets about the cities when we pay that tell us places we could go and where we'll be dropped off, etc.). So that changed the route we had planned on taking, but not by much.
We started off by going toward the wall. There's a wall that used to go around Newcastle as a defense. Part of it was still there, so we found it and walked along the length of it (it wasn't that big). Conveniently, the wall dead-ended at Chinatown. This Chinatown had an Imperial arch, just like the one in Liverpool, excepts this one was smaller. Then we turned around a bit to go to Blackfriars, which used to be a Friary full of Dominican monks (I think). They wore black robes and shoes. Crazy guys. Anyway, the wall had gotten built through their little village, and because their garden was on the other side of it, they got a key to be able to go through and take care of their vegetables. Of course, you can't build a wall around a garden. Psh.
Anyway, after that, we went in search of the Earl Grey monument. We got lost along the way, but then we found a handy dandy sign pointing behind us. The signs in Newcastle are awesome. Know how in movies/cartoons there'll be a stick with 384957893475 arrows pointing in different directions? That's what they had. It was awesome. Anyway, Earl Grey had some musicians down by the base of his pedestal. They were pretty awesome.
From there we got on the Metro, aka train to Tynemouth. It's pretty much exactally like MARTA in Atlanta, except the trains are probably older. Speaking of trains, the girl in charge of the bus we were on said that the first train was tested in Newcastle. Don't know if that's true or not. Anyway, we get to Tynemouth, get off the train, and realize we don't have a map (reoccuring theme I think). But- their train station is pretty cool- they have a local market there every weekend, and there was a guy playing an accordian. So we walk out of the trainstation, and they have a sign with arrows! One of which says, go this way to get to the castle. So we went that way, and ta-daa! Castle. It was AWESOME.
Seriously. AWESOME. In capitals. We probably spent like an hour wandering around it and taking pictures of it. It's mostly fallen down, but the little chapel was still together, so we could go in there, and then part of the main building (I guess...) was still together and you could go up two/three levels sort of. The kitchen was still in one piece! But yeah, it was cool.
Then we went to the beach that was right next door. Literally, it was just down a little hill. We wandered around and took pictures and almost got stranded on some rocks when the tide started coming in. Heh. But we escaped! Jake's toe got wet and I stuck a finger in the ocean. So we have been in the super North Atlantic. Yay for us. Then since it was Valentine's day, Jake found a stick and made a heart with Amanda + Jake in it. Awwww. Then we ran away from the ocean before it swallowed us whole and went back to the trainstation to go back to Newcastle.
Upon returning to Newcastle we went across the Millenium Bridge, and then across a red one, and then we got to a castle in Newcastle, which is all whole and in one piece (I assume). However, we got there at 4:45 and the last admission is at 4:15, so we didn't get to go in, just walked around. But we might go back to Newcastle at some point in the future. Then we just kind of worked our way back to where the bus dropped us off at.
Soo.. plans for the future:
We both have essays due soon, so we're going to use tomorrow (Sunday) and next weekend to work on those. Weekend after that we're going to York on our own to look around.
After that, there's a chance we might meet up with one of Jake's friends from high-school who is in Florence and go somewhere with him.
Other than that, we're currently working on plans for Easter/spring break, which is a month long.
Pictures will go up sometime this week, I'll try and make it before Friday, but Friday really is the easiest day for me to put them up. Maybe Tuesday. We'll see.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Pictures!
Ok, due to complaints from parents about a lack of my and Jake's faces, I have gone back and added pictures to Liverpool that have us in them. Scroll down a bit to see the link to the Liverpool album, then just look through it real quick to find us if you want.
I have also added pictures from earlier this week- snowmen and the trip to the Royal Armouries.
I have also added pictures from earlier this week- snowmen and the trip to the Royal Armouries.
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| Snow in Leeds/ Royal Armouries Trip 1 |
Monday, February 9, 2009
What actually happened in Liverpool
Now, I'm sure that someone out there looked at the pictures of Liverpool, and was like, well sure, these captions are great, but what went on at these places?
Well, those people are in luck!
Why, you ask?
Because I am about to tell you about where we went and what those places are and why they're important and all that jazz! Well, maybe. I'll try.
The first picture or so is the countryside on the way to Liverpool. There were a lot of sheep. Sheep are pretty cool. There were also a bunch of old walls laying around which were pretty cool. It'd be fun to get out and wander around and hug the sheep and walk on the walls, but I don't think that'll be happening any time soon.
Anyway, upon our arrival in Liverpool, we were dropped of at Albert Docks. We got off the bus thinking that it'd be in the 40s, because that's what the internet told us it would be. The internet neglected to inform us of the wind, which made it like 20 degrees colder. Before we got there we had plotted out a vaguely circular route through the city with all the places we wanted to go in/past.
We started off by going to the big fancy buildings by the waterside: the Royal Liver Building, and the one next to it. After that, we went on a search for the Superlambanana. The Superlambanana repressents Liverpool's trading in sheep and bananas or something like that. Google it, the website tells you more about where it came from. But, I'd have to say, the Superlambanana is pretty damn awesome.
After the Superlambanana we were getting pretty cold, so we headed toward the museum and library. We had wanted to go past and look at the architecture anyway, but because of the cold and the free admission, we ended up going in anyway. The museum was actually pretty cool. Then we went in the art gallery/museum next door and looked around in there for a little bit. After that, we went back outside, and took some pictures of the statues across the street. Then around the corner to the big building that had Victoria and Albert on horses in front of it; the name escapes me at the moment.
Our next stop was going to be the Anglican Cathedral, but we got a little distracted and ended up going through the shopping district, and found some mini-Superlambananas. Eventually we got to Chinatown (nothing like Chinatown in NYC) and saw the arch. On the way there we had gone past the bombed out church that was closed due to the ridiculous winds. It's been sort of converted into a concert hall, and it was supposed to be open to walk around in.
After that we got to the Anglican Cathedral just in time to get to go up to the top.
Apparently I'm slightly afraid of heights, something I forget until I'm somewhere high and then I get a little shaky. Oops.
Anyway, it was pretty cool up there. You could see the whole city pretty much (go look at the pictures). It was also really really windy. More windy than it was on the ground. But, the most surprising thing was how big it was. It's really huge and on top of a hill, so you can't see it until you come around a corner because shorter buildings are blocking your line of sight. But once you come around the corner to the driveway, it's just like *jaw drop* woah. I was really not expecting it to be that big. The inside was shiny (for those of you who are not familiar with Firefly, shiny is a synonym for cool, awesome, neat, etc.). Again, see the pictures.
After that, it was just about time to get back on the bus, so we headed back to Albert Docks.
So, the week after the trip to Liverpool (31st) I had all those problems with my dongle, but my laptop seems to be ok now. So that's good. This week has been pretty uneventful, just classes, although on Tuesday we went to the Royal Armouries after class since we had the time. Then Sunday we made a snowman family since it snowed again.
Royal Armouries pictures will go up tomorrow along with snowman pictures.
This Saturday we're going to Newcastle upon Tyne, so that should be pretty cool.
Not sure where we're going to next weekend, because the weather is pretty crappy. Apparently the south has a ton of snow, and we'd kind of like to go somewhere warmish. So we'll probably figure that out soon, or might just stay in Leeds again and go to some places here we've been wanting to see. Or might work on essays and stuff since those are going to be due soon.
Anyway, that's it for now really.
I'll try and put up Newcastle pictures Monday or Tuesday, and then do an entry about where we went there.
If anyone has any questions about stuff, leave a comment.
Same goes for recommendations for places to go/ things to see.
Well, those people are in luck!
Why, you ask?
Because I am about to tell you about where we went and what those places are and why they're important and all that jazz! Well, maybe. I'll try.
The first picture or so is the countryside on the way to Liverpool. There were a lot of sheep. Sheep are pretty cool. There were also a bunch of old walls laying around which were pretty cool. It'd be fun to get out and wander around and hug the sheep and walk on the walls, but I don't think that'll be happening any time soon.
Anyway, upon our arrival in Liverpool, we were dropped of at Albert Docks. We got off the bus thinking that it'd be in the 40s, because that's what the internet told us it would be. The internet neglected to inform us of the wind, which made it like 20 degrees colder. Before we got there we had plotted out a vaguely circular route through the city with all the places we wanted to go in/past.
We started off by going to the big fancy buildings by the waterside: the Royal Liver Building, and the one next to it. After that, we went on a search for the Superlambanana. The Superlambanana repressents Liverpool's trading in sheep and bananas or something like that. Google it, the website tells you more about where it came from. But, I'd have to say, the Superlambanana is pretty damn awesome.
After the Superlambanana we were getting pretty cold, so we headed toward the museum and library. We had wanted to go past and look at the architecture anyway, but because of the cold and the free admission, we ended up going in anyway. The museum was actually pretty cool. Then we went in the art gallery/museum next door and looked around in there for a little bit. After that, we went back outside, and took some pictures of the statues across the street. Then around the corner to the big building that had Victoria and Albert on horses in front of it; the name escapes me at the moment.
Our next stop was going to be the Anglican Cathedral, but we got a little distracted and ended up going through the shopping district, and found some mini-Superlambananas. Eventually we got to Chinatown (nothing like Chinatown in NYC) and saw the arch. On the way there we had gone past the bombed out church that was closed due to the ridiculous winds. It's been sort of converted into a concert hall, and it was supposed to be open to walk around in.
After that we got to the Anglican Cathedral just in time to get to go up to the top.
Apparently I'm slightly afraid of heights, something I forget until I'm somewhere high and then I get a little shaky. Oops.
Anyway, it was pretty cool up there. You could see the whole city pretty much (go look at the pictures). It was also really really windy. More windy than it was on the ground. But, the most surprising thing was how big it was. It's really huge and on top of a hill, so you can't see it until you come around a corner because shorter buildings are blocking your line of sight. But once you come around the corner to the driveway, it's just like *jaw drop* woah. I was really not expecting it to be that big. The inside was shiny (for those of you who are not familiar with Firefly, shiny is a synonym for cool, awesome, neat, etc.). Again, see the pictures.
After that, it was just about time to get back on the bus, so we headed back to Albert Docks.
So, the week after the trip to Liverpool (31st) I had all those problems with my dongle, but my laptop seems to be ok now. So that's good. This week has been pretty uneventful, just classes, although on Tuesday we went to the Royal Armouries after class since we had the time. Then Sunday we made a snowman family since it snowed again.
Royal Armouries pictures will go up tomorrow along with snowman pictures.
This Saturday we're going to Newcastle upon Tyne, so that should be pretty cool.
Not sure where we're going to next weekend, because the weather is pretty crappy. Apparently the south has a ton of snow, and we'd kind of like to go somewhere warmish. So we'll probably figure that out soon, or might just stay in Leeds again and go to some places here we've been wanting to see. Or might work on essays and stuff since those are going to be due soon.
Anyway, that's it for now really.
I'll try and put up Newcastle pictures Monday or Tuesday, and then do an entry about where we went there.
If anyone has any questions about stuff, leave a comment.
Same goes for recommendations for places to go/ things to see.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Zombie Laptop FTW....hopefully.
Well Jake messed around with my laptop for a bit last night, he says he didn't do anything, but he somehow got it to start up without freezing, I moved the files that weren't backed up yet onto my external hard-drive... and it was still working.
As of right now, we've just traded dongles, and that seems to be working pretty good for both of us so far.
However, I am sick, and so I'm not going to bother going to campus today since I don't have any classes, so pictures will go up either tomorrow or Friday. Probably Friday.
And if my laptop dies again, we'll be taking a spontaneous trip to Sheffild this weekend. Otherwise we're going to the Royal Armouries again to actually spend time there and take pictures, and then probably going to this old church/castle thing that I found online that's a couple miles from where we live.
So that's what's going on.
As of right now, we've just traded dongles, and that seems to be working pretty good for both of us so far.
However, I am sick, and so I'm not going to bother going to campus today since I don't have any classes, so pictures will go up either tomorrow or Friday. Probably Friday.
And if my laptop dies again, we'll be taking a spontaneous trip to Sheffild this weekend. Otherwise we're going to the Royal Armouries again to actually spend time there and take pictures, and then probably going to this old church/castle thing that I found online that's a couple miles from where we live.
So that's what's going on.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Grr.
There will be pictures soon as I have a laptop again. Mine is dead, courtesy of 3 mobile broadband. Who, conveniently enough, deny that it's their fault, so tomorrow I'm going to Sheffield so that I can go to the Apple store and hopefully get it fixed.
Monday, February 2, 2009
I lied. Also, 3 sucks.
So I had this nice little entry explaining why I didn't have pictures up as promised, then my wonderful little 3 mobile broadband internet decided it wanted to crash the mac, and I had to restart.
Anyway, stuff happened after class, it was snowy and wet and slushy and ick outside, so we decided to just go home and have dinner and be bums and watch a movie. I will bring my laptop to campus tomorrow to upload pictures. I think y'all can wait a little longer, I doubt any of you are dying of antici.........pation to see the pictures of Liverpool. Anyone who knows what movie that's from gets a cookie. Figure out someway to let me know you know without letting everyone else know and the cookie is yours.
Oh, and for those of you who aren't aware, there's a handy dandy link at the bottom of each entry that lets you leave comments if you want. Anyone should be able to leave one, even if you don't have an account.
That's it.
Anyway, stuff happened after class, it was snowy and wet and slushy and ick outside, so we decided to just go home and have dinner and be bums and watch a movie. I will bring my laptop to campus tomorrow to upload pictures. I think y'all can wait a little longer, I doubt any of you are dying of antici.........pation to see the pictures of Liverpool. Anyone who knows what movie that's from gets a cookie. Figure out someway to let me know you know without letting everyone else know and the cookie is yours.
Oh, and for those of you who aren't aware, there's a handy dandy link at the bottom of each entry that lets you leave comments if you want. Anyone should be able to leave one, even if you don't have an account.
That's it.
3 mobile broadband = crap
As a note to anyone who may decide to come to Leeds/England/ the UK and then ends up in a situation where they need internet for some reason, do not get a 3 mobile broadband dongle. Especially if you have a Mac. Yes, I can use the internet, but every so often, for no apparent reason, the modem will cause my computer to crash. Also, occasionally you'll fall offline and it won't let you know, you'll have to go and disconnect then reconnect yourself.
And the latest development? It blocks all other forms of internet from working. Somehow. I have no idea how. I wanted to come to campus to upload pictures on the wifi here, so that they wouldn't eat up my internet.
I just spent the last half hour or so trying to figure out why I couldn't connect to the wifi. Somehow the 3 modem program that lets you run it managed to take control of the internet ports to the point where whenever I'd try and turn on wireless, it would immediately turn it off. I ended up uninstalling the 3 program, and ta-daa! I had wireless. Unfortunately, I think that all that messing with the internet connection means that I don't have time right now to put pictures up. But that's probably ok, I don't think anyone really checks this at 6:30 in the morning in the US... excepts for Jake's dad. So pictures will probably be up by the time y'all wake up or get home from work, whichever is the case for whoever you are.
And the latest development? It blocks all other forms of internet from working. Somehow. I have no idea how. I wanted to come to campus to upload pictures on the wifi here, so that they wouldn't eat up my internet.
I just spent the last half hour or so trying to figure out why I couldn't connect to the wifi. Somehow the 3 modem program that lets you run it managed to take control of the internet ports to the point where whenever I'd try and turn on wireless, it would immediately turn it off. I ended up uninstalling the 3 program, and ta-daa! I had wireless. Unfortunately, I think that all that messing with the internet connection means that I don't have time right now to put pictures up. But that's probably ok, I don't think anyone really checks this at 6:30 in the morning in the US... excepts for Jake's dad. So pictures will probably be up by the time y'all wake up or get home from work, whichever is the case for whoever you are.