With everything! With catching up on the blog (although it'll start getting behind tomorrow again), with finals, with classes here, with the semester basically!
I had a pretty good day today. I woke up and the first email I got was from the AMNH internship...'cause they want me! Someone actually wants me! So I'll be there two days a week this summer and at the W.W. Norton internship three days a week. Sounds like I need to get cracking on housing...
I couldn't concentrate here, so I left to drop off some letters and postcards, get some money out of the ATM, and then sit on a bench while studying. The test went okay, I think, although I feel like my answers were awfully short. Too late now though. Hakuna matata. C'est la vie. Mazel tov?
Clearly it's bedtime. I have to get up early to catch my bus to Wexford, but even if I weren't here typing, the group of drunk people downstairs yelling and screaming and slamming doors would keep me up. It's obvious that's Jackie's back home. I just keep telling myself "one more week, then peace!"
Hmm...what else. I ended up not going to the carnival. Well, I did. But no one was there. So I got cranky because I'm tired of being blown off, so I came back here and watched Meet the Robinsons and packed and broke off my fingers from typing so much on here. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing your eyes will hurt just as much?
All righty...I think I really should go sleep. Good night, finally!
Apr 23, 2010
Monday 4/19
Day ten of being stuck in the U.K.
We finally caught our bus to Glasgow, where we had to sit in the bus station for seven more hours. I'm sure you can imagine our extreme boredom and craziness by this point. We did yet more word searches, I started reading this book where they killed the main character in the first chapter, and we had lunch. Great times.
After that was a bus to the ferry, where we sat and waited for another hour. At least there they had free Wifi, so we went online for a bit.
Once we got on to the ferry, we logged back into the internet while eating supper and just played card games and Snood until it was time to get out in Belfast. While we were on the ferry, the sun set. It was very pretty.
We caught the bus to get to Belfast itself, then transferred to the one which would take us to Dublin Airport. At this point we were all exhausted, so we almost missed the stop, but thankfully woke up in time to argue about whether we were in the right place. And then guess what we did? Waited! For four hours! I felt bad, though, because all of the chairs upstairs were filled with people waiting to fly home, people who couldn't just find a ferry. We found some squishy chairs and I slept for a while, then we got up to get on the 5:30 morning bus to Galway.
After finally getting back, we just had to walk back to our apartments. I never actually napped Tuesday, but just showered and did mad laundry and studied.
I've got to say that we had three saviors on this trip: the deck of cards, Snood, and the word search. They didn't keep us sane, but at least they kept us entertained.
Welcome to the U.K.
We finally caught our bus to Glasgow, where we had to sit in the bus station for seven more hours. I'm sure you can imagine our extreme boredom and craziness by this point. We did yet more word searches, I started reading this book where they killed the main character in the first chapter, and we had lunch. Great times.
After that was a bus to the ferry, where we sat and waited for another hour. At least there they had free Wifi, so we went online for a bit.
Once we got on to the ferry, we logged back into the internet while eating supper and just played card games and Snood until it was time to get out in Belfast. While we were on the ferry, the sun set. It was very pretty.
We caught the bus to get to Belfast itself, then transferred to the one which would take us to Dublin Airport. At this point we were all exhausted, so we almost missed the stop, but thankfully woke up in time to argue about whether we were in the right place. And then guess what we did? Waited! For four hours! I felt bad, though, because all of the chairs upstairs were filled with people waiting to fly home, people who couldn't just find a ferry. We found some squishy chairs and I slept for a while, then we got up to get on the 5:30 morning bus to Galway.After finally getting back, we just had to walk back to our apartments. I never actually napped Tuesday, but just showered and did mad laundry and studied.
I've got to say that we had three saviors on this trip: the deck of cards, Snood, and the word search. They didn't keep us sane, but at least they kept us entertained.
Welcome to the U.K.
Sunday 4/18
Day nine.
The nice part about Sunday was that our roommates left early, so we got to get up and be noisy and take our time. Since our first bus didn't leave until Monday morning, we spent the day going around the city and writing down the hours of various businesses--and watching remote-controlled car races in the mall. Just as random as it sounds. Our plan, since we didn't have enough money for the hostel for one more night, was to hop around places until as late as possible, then wait at the bus station for the 6:35 departure.
The hostel owner was really nice and let us hang out there until 5 p.m. that night, then we started our adventure. Our first stop was Starbucks, where Courtney got a hot cocoa and a cookie so we wouldn't get kicked out until it closed at 7. We sat there and worked on word searches that Alice had brought until we went crazy, then we just talked and made a video.
Our next stop was KFC, where we all bought supper and sat around talking and studying and doing nothing until it closed at 10.
Then McDonald's for dessert until 12, where we wrote a bunch of crazy letters and played MASH.
After that, we ran out of places to go, so we went and sat in the bus station. Since it's connected to the mall, we thought we were going to get lucky and be able to sit inside where it was warm the whole night. The security had other ideas, however, and by 12:30 we and several other older men who were there were kicked outside. The guards outside weren't supposed to let us stay there either, but I guess they didn't really care. We huddled up on a bench and used Courtney's towel (the only dry one) and Alice's extra sweatshirt as blankets. We took turns being in the middle to share warmth, but it was still quite chilly. We talked to the guys for a bit; one was a grandpa who had been hiking in the highlands and was bringing presents home to his nieces, another had had his ID stolen so was living outside the bus station, and a third man just sneaked onto the buses to sleep. To keep ourselves awake, we talked about random stuff and sang songs.
Technically this is going into Monday, but around 4 a.m. the police came by and stopped to check our IDs. They were looking for a missing girl from Manchester and had seen us on the cameras, so came by to check if one of us was her. After we assured them that that was not true, they offered to drive us back to the police station so we could sit in the warmth before catching our bus. One of the men at the hostel had suggested doing that in the first place, so we definitely should have listened to him. Anyway, we said yes please and sat there until 6, when we walked back to the station to start our endless day of travel.
Almost there!
The nice part about Sunday was that our roommates left early, so we got to get up and be noisy and take our time. Since our first bus didn't leave until Monday morning, we spent the day going around the city and writing down the hours of various businesses--and watching remote-controlled car races in the mall. Just as random as it sounds. Our plan, since we didn't have enough money for the hostel for one more night, was to hop around places until as late as possible, then wait at the bus station for the 6:35 departure.
The hostel owner was really nice and let us hang out there until 5 p.m. that night, then we started our adventure. Our first stop was Starbucks, where Courtney got a hot cocoa and a cookie so we wouldn't get kicked out until it closed at 7. We sat there and worked on word searches that Alice had brought until we went crazy, then we just talked and made a video.
Our next stop was KFC, where we all bought supper and sat around talking and studying and doing nothing until it closed at 10.
Then McDonald's for dessert until 12, where we wrote a bunch of crazy letters and played MASH.
After that, we ran out of places to go, so we went and sat in the bus station. Since it's connected to the mall, we thought we were going to get lucky and be able to sit inside where it was warm the whole night. The security had other ideas, however, and by 12:30 we and several other older men who were there were kicked outside. The guards outside weren't supposed to let us stay there either, but I guess they didn't really care. We huddled up on a bench and used Courtney's towel (the only dry one) and Alice's extra sweatshirt as blankets. We took turns being in the middle to share warmth, but it was still quite chilly. We talked to the guys for a bit; one was a grandpa who had been hiking in the highlands and was bringing presents home to his nieces, another had had his ID stolen so was living outside the bus station, and a third man just sneaked onto the buses to sleep. To keep ourselves awake, we talked about random stuff and sang songs.Technically this is going into Monday, but around 4 a.m. the police came by and stopped to check our IDs. They were looking for a missing girl from Manchester and had seen us on the cameras, so came by to check if one of us was her. After we assured them that that was not true, they offered to drive us back to the police station so we could sit in the warmth before catching our bus. One of the men at the hostel had suggested doing that in the first place, so we definitely should have listened to him. Anyway, we said yes please and sat there until 6, when we walked back to the station to start our endless day of travel.
Almost there!
Saturday 4/17
Day eight of our U.K. adventure.
So we were stuck in Aberdeen for a few days. It's apparently the third biggest city in Scotland, but we couldn't find much to do for free (and it had to be free since we'd spent all our money on the the extra nights at the hostel). Saturday was another lazy day of sleeping in and then taking a long shower before going on a walk to find Victoria Park. We all brought our books, so we read there for a while and watched a lot of dogs and young children run around. Nothing as crazy as that Garden of Eden in Glasgow, but still.
Afterward, we grabbed some sandwiches for lunch then found a bookcase full of games in the hostel. We started out with Uno Rummy, so we each made our own money to use to gamble. This is mine...
Courtney's...
And Alice's.
But it turns out that half of the pieces were missing so we couldn't play anyway.
And since none of us know that much about Scotland, we couldn't place this.
So we ended up with Trivial Pursuit. And didn't do so well. I ended up winning, but only because they started giving me massive hints at the end so we could finally stop.
We also played cards with the girl at the front desk, who was the same one who helped us find rooms the night before. It ended up being doubly good that we made friends with her since she ended up giving us an hour of free internet later that night when we were trying to schedule ferry tickets.
Oh, a funny sign from our walk.
After supper, we watched the news and saw that airlines still wouldn't be open on Sunday, so Alice called Finn, our API program director, and asked for help. We were not the only ones stuck abroad, but she managed to find time to help us find a bus and ferry deal online to get us back to Ireland. It was so stressful, and I think that's the point when the seriousness of our situation really hit. We seriously started to hate the trip and went to bed grumpy. Like I might tonight if all those drunk people downstairs don't shut up...
So close to being done!
So we were stuck in Aberdeen for a few days. It's apparently the third biggest city in Scotland, but we couldn't find much to do for free (and it had to be free since we'd spent all our money on the the extra nights at the hostel). Saturday was another lazy day of sleeping in and then taking a long shower before going on a walk to find Victoria Park. We all brought our books, so we read there for a while and watched a lot of dogs and young children run around. Nothing as crazy as that Garden of Eden in Glasgow, but still.
Afterward, we grabbed some sandwiches for lunch then found a bookcase full of games in the hostel. We started out with Uno Rummy, so we each made our own money to use to gamble. This is mine...
Courtney's...
And Alice's.
But it turns out that half of the pieces were missing so we couldn't play anyway.
And since none of us know that much about Scotland, we couldn't place this.
So we ended up with Trivial Pursuit. And didn't do so well. I ended up winning, but only because they started giving me massive hints at the end so we could finally stop.
We also played cards with the girl at the front desk, who was the same one who helped us find rooms the night before. It ended up being doubly good that we made friends with her since she ended up giving us an hour of free internet later that night when we were trying to schedule ferry tickets.Oh, a funny sign from our walk.
After supper, we watched the news and saw that airlines still wouldn't be open on Sunday, so Alice called Finn, our API program director, and asked for help. We were not the only ones stuck abroad, but she managed to find time to help us find a bus and ferry deal online to get us back to Ireland. It was so stressful, and I think that's the point when the seriousness of our situation really hit. We seriously started to hate the trip and went to bed grumpy. Like I might tonight if all those drunk people downstairs don't shut up...So close to being done!
Friday 4/16
Day seven of the U.K. trip:
We got up nice and early--4:30--to be on time for our taxi. A nice taxi. That cost a lot of money. And was pointless, because when we got to the airport we were told that nothing would be flying for at least a couple days. They let us sit inside for 10 hours after we told them that we had nowhere to go. After we had someone reschedule our flights for Sunday that afternoon, though, we found out that they were shutting down the airport, so we'd have to leave. Seems like normally they keep airports open for people like us who have nowhere to go, so that was a shock and disappointment.
Before we found that out, though, we prepared for a long day of waiting. We got interviewed for the Scottish news channel, watched a lot of people come in and out, read a bunch of books that we bought in the store there, and had very ketchup-y sandwiches for lunch as consolation for our bad luck.
It was a long day. Oh, and Alice is planning on crossing out that heart on her sweatshirt since Scotland was the place of our exile.
After we finally gave up on waiting in the airport, we caught a bus back to the hostel, where we pleaded with them to let us stay for two more nights until our Sunday flight. They had open rooms Friday night, but ultimately opened a room under construction for us on Saturday night since every other bed was taken by this tour group. It's a really good thing that we made friends with them the first night, or we'd have had nowhere to go.
The rest of the day we just spent buying and cooking supper (more sausage rolls for me--I don't want to see anymore for a year), going on the internet, and just hanging out down in the living room. Still hopeful.
We got up nice and early--4:30--to be on time for our taxi. A nice taxi. That cost a lot of money. And was pointless, because when we got to the airport we were told that nothing would be flying for at least a couple days. They let us sit inside for 10 hours after we told them that we had nowhere to go. After we had someone reschedule our flights for Sunday that afternoon, though, we found out that they were shutting down the airport, so we'd have to leave. Seems like normally they keep airports open for people like us who have nowhere to go, so that was a shock and disappointment.
Before we found that out, though, we prepared for a long day of waiting. We got interviewed for the Scottish news channel, watched a lot of people come in and out, read a bunch of books that we bought in the store there, and had very ketchup-y sandwiches for lunch as consolation for our bad luck.
It was a long day. Oh, and Alice is planning on crossing out that heart on her sweatshirt since Scotland was the place of our exile.
After we finally gave up on waiting in the airport, we caught a bus back to the hostel, where we pleaded with them to let us stay for two more nights until our Sunday flight. They had open rooms Friday night, but ultimately opened a room under construction for us on Saturday night since every other bed was taken by this tour group. It's a really good thing that we made friends with them the first night, or we'd have had nowhere to go.The rest of the day we just spent buying and cooking supper (more sausage rolls for me--I don't want to see anymore for a year), going on the internet, and just hanging out down in the living room. Still hopeful.
Thursday 4/15
So...tired...must...keep...typing...
Day six, kiddos.
So like I said, it's hard to leave quietly if the entire hostel can hear you moving around. Regardless, I woke Alice and Courtney up for showers and then we did our best to not crinkle a million plastic bags. Yeah, that didn't work so well, but hey, we tried.
After breakfast downstairs, we set off to see as much as we could before our noon bus to Aberdeen. We put our bags in a locker in the bus station, an action for which my shoulders thanked me all day, and then sat in this big daffodil garden for a while while staring blankly into space. I guess you could say it was another lazy day.
But then--WE WENT TO THE ELEPHANT HOUSE!!!!! Aaahhhhh! I was so so so excited, and seriously still am just because I GOT TO SIT THERE! Oh my goodness it was awesome amazing wonderful.
I got some carrot cake and an elephant cookie for a snack--isn't he cute?
We just happened to sit at the one table that has drawers all around it...and since J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter on napkins, customers leave notes on napkins or other random pieces of paper. We read a bunch; some were really funny stories from tourists, some were in different languages, some were weird, but they all mentioned something about Rowling. We didn't leave one, but it was a lot of fun to look at them.
The view out of the window by my seat. I can see why Rowling came here to write. I wonder if the castle, which you can see, was any inspiration for Hogwarts? Apparently a lot of the street names in the city are also the names of characters, like McGonagle.
And look--she's even affected the menu!
That was obviously the highlight of my entire trip. Yay. :)
After that lightened my mood, we fought for space on the bus (which drove by some lovely daffodil fields--do they grow them to sell the bulbs?), then had another grueling hike to the hostel in Aberdeen. Unfortunately, our luck ran out and we never did end up getting a nice map of Aberdeen. Some guy on the side of the road saw how lost we were and gave us directions.
We checked in and then headed to a grocery store, buying out the clearanced microvable meals and biscuits, then watched TV with some really random people. Since we ended up staying there for three nights ultimately, we got to know them a bit. That night, however, we made plans for calling a taxi and talked about what we were going to do when we got home after our flight left in the morning. Our first clue that all wasn't well had been that morning, when the girl manning reception in Edinburgh said that the airlines were getting shut, and watching the news that night sure didn't sound any better. The more we watched, the more serious the volcanic ash problem seemed to become.
But we'll find out about that soon enough.
Day six, kiddos.
So like I said, it's hard to leave quietly if the entire hostel can hear you moving around. Regardless, I woke Alice and Courtney up for showers and then we did our best to not crinkle a million plastic bags. Yeah, that didn't work so well, but hey, we tried.
After breakfast downstairs, we set off to see as much as we could before our noon bus to Aberdeen. We put our bags in a locker in the bus station, an action for which my shoulders thanked me all day, and then sat in this big daffodil garden for a while while staring blankly into space. I guess you could say it was another lazy day.
But then--WE WENT TO THE ELEPHANT HOUSE!!!!! Aaahhhhh! I was so so so excited, and seriously still am just because I GOT TO SIT THERE! Oh my goodness it was awesome amazing wonderful.
I got some carrot cake and an elephant cookie for a snack--isn't he cute?
We just happened to sit at the one table that has drawers all around it...and since J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter on napkins, customers leave notes on napkins or other random pieces of paper. We read a bunch; some were really funny stories from tourists, some were in different languages, some were weird, but they all mentioned something about Rowling. We didn't leave one, but it was a lot of fun to look at them.
The view out of the window by my seat. I can see why Rowling came here to write. I wonder if the castle, which you can see, was any inspiration for Hogwarts? Apparently a lot of the street names in the city are also the names of characters, like McGonagle.
And look--she's even affected the menu!
That was obviously the highlight of my entire trip. Yay. :)After that lightened my mood, we fought for space on the bus (which drove by some lovely daffodil fields--do they grow them to sell the bulbs?), then had another grueling hike to the hostel in Aberdeen. Unfortunately, our luck ran out and we never did end up getting a nice map of Aberdeen. Some guy on the side of the road saw how lost we were and gave us directions.
We checked in and then headed to a grocery store, buying out the clearanced microvable meals and biscuits, then watched TV with some really random people. Since we ended up staying there for three nights ultimately, we got to know them a bit. That night, however, we made plans for calling a taxi and talked about what we were going to do when we got home after our flight left in the morning. Our first clue that all wasn't well had been that morning, when the girl manning reception in Edinburgh said that the airlines were getting shut, and watching the news that night sure didn't sound any better. The more we watched, the more serious the volcanic ash problem seemed to become.
But we'll find out about that soon enough.
Wednesday 4/14
What am I up to--day five now? Halfway there guys!
We had an early start on Wednesday morning because we had to check out, but there wasn't too much to do before getting on the bus to Edinburgh. We ate breakfast with a bunch of other people staying at the hostel, then fought for space on the bus. I wasn't expecting it to be so crowded. A lot of people were left behind. The Buchanan Bus Station in Glasgow, by the way, is huge. There are so many buses going in and out all the time. I can't believe we didn't get lost.
Anyway, while on the bus, we unknowingly drove by our hostel on the way in, so we had to hike back to it from the bus station in Edinburgh. At least that helped us find our way around a bit though.
The hostel itself was mad cool because it's a converted church. The kitchen and dining room area downstairs was so big, with these really high ceilings. The upstairs sleeping area was like that too; however, it wasn't so cool there, since all of the rooms were only separated by wall partitions, meaning that one loud person somewhere wakes up the entire hostel. But hey, it still looked cool.
We chatted up the South African woman at the reception desk, who let me use her internet for free to check on my housing for next year, then she gave us some maps to find our way around. We were hoping to make it to this free tour, but missed it by five minutes. I was planning on going on it in May, as well as seeing a bunch of other stuff there, but since I canceled the other Scotland trip, it will all have to wait until I get back there again someday.
Instead of the tour, we ended up going to some souvenir shops to look at the kilts and numerous Scottish-themed trinkets. Alice and I got sweatshirts since they were on sale if you got 2, but otherwise I was a miser. Whenever we walked down the main street, we caught a glimpse of Edinburgh Castle, built high up on this amazing crag. Again, another place I would have loved to have seen more.
Instead, we visited a bunch of museums, including the Museum of Childhood...
and the National Museum of Scotland. Honestly, I loved this one. The British Museum was really great, but I loved the setup and displays in this one. I went down to the basement by myself and got lost in the early history of Scotland displays. Soo cool.
We stopped at a cafe for supper, then, even though we were stuffed, we got a scoop of ice cream at the restaurant next door. THEN we walked one more place down the street and found The Elephant House. Aaahhh--clearly the world hates me! That's the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the first few Harry Potter books--and we missed it because we were two doors down instead! I couldn't stop talking about it the rest of the night, much to the annoyance of Alice and Courtney, I'm sure.
Oh, some kilts that I mentioned.
More random pics.
The most we got to see of the castle.
A hill nearby called Arthur's Seat, which I was going to climb in May. Oh well. We talked about it in my King Arthur class.
After all that, we bought tickets to go on a ghost tour late that night, so while waiting we went to Starbucks to warm up. This family photo went horribly wrong...
You can see how we started to lose our minds already-and it was only Wednesday.
The castle at night.
So the ghost tour--well, the two cloaked tour guides took us down some alleys (called "closes") to tell us about murders and then down into the most haunted place in Britain, the rooms beneath Bridge Road. When the city was built, it was actually a bridge, but the planners decided to fill in both sides with buildings. However, after a couple of years they realized that not having waterproofed them and having no real ventilation made them hard to live in, so they were deserted. Next they tried having a market down there, but the same problems brought it to a halt after a decade. In its next stage it became an ideal spot for criminals and murderers to hang out and kill people. What it is today is just a museum of sorts, although there are no exhibits. There are supposedly many, many ghosts, not all nice ones, down there, so tours go through, lit only by candlelight. I was thoroughly freaked out even though I don't believe in ghosts, just because there were so many nooks and crannies for people to be waiting in to jump out at me. After we got out, a man and woman were talking about how they did see a ghost while we were there. Great.
Some of the ghosts that are there supposedly include Jack, a 10 year old boy who probably got lost one day and died, who likes to play with little kids who visit his room. There is also a certain corner where a ghost woman stands who was pregnant but her baby died. That corner freaks out people normally, but apparently this one time a pregnant woman was standing there and felt something scratch her--like I said, not all ghosts are nice, and some are jealous. There was also this one girl once who heard a voice breathing in her ear and then saying "get out...GET OUT." Whatever you believe, it was mad creepy.
After that lovely hour, we managed to find our way back to the hostel in the dark and buy some bus tickets to Aberdeen online. I also found out that my friends at URI signed us up for the housing that we wanted for next year, so my night ended well. Pity that volcano started talking.
Carrying on...
We had an early start on Wednesday morning because we had to check out, but there wasn't too much to do before getting on the bus to Edinburgh. We ate breakfast with a bunch of other people staying at the hostel, then fought for space on the bus. I wasn't expecting it to be so crowded. A lot of people were left behind. The Buchanan Bus Station in Glasgow, by the way, is huge. There are so many buses going in and out all the time. I can't believe we didn't get lost.
Anyway, while on the bus, we unknowingly drove by our hostel on the way in, so we had to hike back to it from the bus station in Edinburgh. At least that helped us find our way around a bit though.
The hostel itself was mad cool because it's a converted church. The kitchen and dining room area downstairs was so big, with these really high ceilings. The upstairs sleeping area was like that too; however, it wasn't so cool there, since all of the rooms were only separated by wall partitions, meaning that one loud person somewhere wakes up the entire hostel. But hey, it still looked cool.
We chatted up the South African woman at the reception desk, who let me use her internet for free to check on my housing for next year, then she gave us some maps to find our way around. We were hoping to make it to this free tour, but missed it by five minutes. I was planning on going on it in May, as well as seeing a bunch of other stuff there, but since I canceled the other Scotland trip, it will all have to wait until I get back there again someday.Instead of the tour, we ended up going to some souvenir shops to look at the kilts and numerous Scottish-themed trinkets. Alice and I got sweatshirts since they were on sale if you got 2, but otherwise I was a miser. Whenever we walked down the main street, we caught a glimpse of Edinburgh Castle, built high up on this amazing crag. Again, another place I would have loved to have seen more.
Instead, we visited a bunch of museums, including the Museum of Childhood...
and the National Museum of Scotland. Honestly, I loved this one. The British Museum was really great, but I loved the setup and displays in this one. I went down to the basement by myself and got lost in the early history of Scotland displays. Soo cool.
We stopped at a cafe for supper, then, even though we were stuffed, we got a scoop of ice cream at the restaurant next door. THEN we walked one more place down the street and found The Elephant House. Aaahhh--clearly the world hates me! That's the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the first few Harry Potter books--and we missed it because we were two doors down instead! I couldn't stop talking about it the rest of the night, much to the annoyance of Alice and Courtney, I'm sure.
Oh, some kilts that I mentioned.
More random pics.
The most we got to see of the castle. 
A hill nearby called Arthur's Seat, which I was going to climb in May. Oh well. We talked about it in my King Arthur class.
After all that, we bought tickets to go on a ghost tour late that night, so while waiting we went to Starbucks to warm up. This family photo went horribly wrong...
You can see how we started to lose our minds already-and it was only Wednesday.
The castle at night.
So the ghost tour--well, the two cloaked tour guides took us down some alleys (called "closes") to tell us about murders and then down into the most haunted place in Britain, the rooms beneath Bridge Road. When the city was built, it was actually a bridge, but the planners decided to fill in both sides with buildings. However, after a couple of years they realized that not having waterproofed them and having no real ventilation made them hard to live in, so they were deserted. Next they tried having a market down there, but the same problems brought it to a halt after a decade. In its next stage it became an ideal spot for criminals and murderers to hang out and kill people. What it is today is just a museum of sorts, although there are no exhibits. There are supposedly many, many ghosts, not all nice ones, down there, so tours go through, lit only by candlelight. I was thoroughly freaked out even though I don't believe in ghosts, just because there were so many nooks and crannies for people to be waiting in to jump out at me. After we got out, a man and woman were talking about how they did see a ghost while we were there. Great.Some of the ghosts that are there supposedly include Jack, a 10 year old boy who probably got lost one day and died, who likes to play with little kids who visit his room. There is also a certain corner where a ghost woman stands who was pregnant but her baby died. That corner freaks out people normally, but apparently this one time a pregnant woman was standing there and felt something scratch her--like I said, not all ghosts are nice, and some are jealous. There was also this one girl once who heard a voice breathing in her ear and then saying "get out...GET OUT." Whatever you believe, it was mad creepy.
After that lovely hour, we managed to find our way back to the hostel in the dark and buy some bus tickets to Aberdeen online. I also found out that my friends at URI signed us up for the housing that we wanted for next year, so my night ended well. Pity that volcano started talking.
Carrying on...
Tuesday 4/13
All right, I know your eyes are about to fall out, but day four won't take that long to talk about. After arriving in Glasgow, we walked for about an hour through the city center to the west end to find our hostel, then crashed downstairs in the kitchen. While we were window shopping in T.K. Maxx, I took advantage of the changing rooms and switched into some clean clothes. We were all completely scuzzy at this point since the showers in the London hostel were see through and we didn't feel like dealing with that. Once we got to the hostel we showered and ate lunch, then just sat for a bit. Alice and Courtney took naps while I wrote postcards, and we all exploited the free internet to catch up on emails. After the crazy, hectic race through London, we decided to use our day in Glasgow to relax and let our blisters heal a little. There wasn't too much to do there anyway, so that was okay.
Once we woke up a bit, we went for a walk through the west end and found the Botanical Gardens. They were really beautiful and quite nice to walk through, so we sat inside for a while and watched all the babies going by, then sat outside some more and watched the antics of horny teenage Scottish kids. I can't even describe it. Two boys were trying to impress this girl with cartwheels and flips, but some girl on the other side of the field decided to flirt back with somersaults. Then the group in the middle got a couple of girls to kiss, which made another group freak out, then a fifth group got into the mix...let's just say I'm glad I didn't have to go to high school in hormonal Glasgow.
Anyway...wanna see some plants?
Like I said, Tuesday was the easy day. We stopped at a Spar for supper, so I got some sausage rolls. After eating, we used my computer for games and also a deck of cards that I had to keep ourselves entertained. Some other residents were teaching each other how to solve a Rubik's cube, so we weren't the only bored ones. We gave up after a bit and just went to bed early.
Yay Glasgow.
Once we woke up a bit, we went for a walk through the west end and found the Botanical Gardens. They were really beautiful and quite nice to walk through, so we sat inside for a while and watched all the babies going by, then sat outside some more and watched the antics of horny teenage Scottish kids. I can't even describe it. Two boys were trying to impress this girl with cartwheels and flips, but some girl on the other side of the field decided to flirt back with somersaults. Then the group in the middle got a couple of girls to kiss, which made another group freak out, then a fifth group got into the mix...let's just say I'm glad I didn't have to go to high school in hormonal Glasgow.
Anyway...wanna see some plants?
Like I said, Tuesday was the easy day. We stopped at a Spar for supper, so I got some sausage rolls. After eating, we used my computer for games and also a deck of cards that I had to keep ourselves entertained. Some other residents were teaching each other how to solve a Rubik's cube, so we weren't the only bored ones. We gave up after a bit and just went to bed early.Yay Glasgow.
Monday 4/12
Day three of the U.K. trip:
Since our tickets for the hop on, hop off bus tour were still good until 11 a.m. Monday, we went back to Trafalgar Square again to go on the final walking tour that showed us the changing of the guard. Of course, this was after we'd checked out and hiked through Hyde Park with our bags, so we weren't in the best of moods. The tour sure helped with that, though. Since it is crazy crowded in front of the palace for the changing of the guards, our guide took us around the side to see the building where all of the guards and the band leave from instead, which was just as interesting. First, though, we saw some other important royal stuff.
Here, for instance, are the statues of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Albert, the two most-loved monarchs of England according to our guide. We heard the story about how Albert's older brother left the throne to marry a divorcee, and even though he didn't want the position Elizabeth convinced him to take it and take speaking lessons.
Then we started to see mounted police riding by...
And the first group of guards too.
But here's where the action started. The guards lined up to get ready to march down to do the longer ceremony of changing spots.
But the band got to go first! Heh, awesome. I recorded them, so watch the video!
Buckingham Palace is down at the end there. I never got to stand in front of it, so don't have any really good pictures.
We were told to be thankful for the sun a million times, so here's my tribute.
At another spot in the city, two more guards sit out front all day. Talk about patient horses. And a sore butt.
Not sure what this is, but it sounds creepy.
Can I go in here?!
Some famous bookstore according to our guide.
The British Museum! We were such scoundrels getting here...like I said before, our tickets to use the tour buses expired at 11. Well, we managed to use them until 6 ish and not get caught, basically meaning that we didn't have to walk all the way to the museum and back. We were lucky in not getting checked, but at the first stop the guy asked if he could marry my "mom," Courtney, and at the second one we must have looked so frantic that they took pity on us. With my heavy bag, I was very grateful.
'Nuff about that. The museum was AWESOME!! I wish we could have spent more time in it.
Okay, let me just say that Alice and Courtney made me, and I have no reason for putting it up here except that it's so so so random. Walking through a room full of these naked dishes reminded me of my naked man shirt that I bought after a trip to museums in New York City, the one that I didn't realize was anatomically correct until I got home. I can count on my fingers how many times I've worn it since then...such an awkward way to start conversations.
The real version of what is at the Johnson Art Museum.
I took pictures of all the different types of writing I could find in the museum. This is Assyrian.
Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Can't really see it, which is probably why I forgot which it was.
I miss my kittens!
The Rosetta Stone! I completely forgot that it was here, so running into it was a nice surprise. It's so much bigger than I expected.
I want to live in this room!
I can't imagine the size of the rest of the statue for this ginormous foot.
More writing.
By the time we had walked around for a couple of hours, we looked like this guy. It wasn't pretty.
The only thing I didn't like about the museum was the huge hallway filled with mummies. I hate mummies. They give me a stomachache. I stayed near the walls and didn't stop to look. Ugh.
After the museum, we took the bus to Trafalgar Square then walked to Victoria Station to catch our overnight bus to Glasgow. We had a bit of a scare again when we found out that Courtney had decided not to print her ticket, but it ended up okay after some frantic phone calls. The bus was uber crowded and it was hard to get comfortable to sleep, but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures...so I slept anyway. Every time I woke up someone was laughing at me or poking me. Jerks.
Let the tour continue!
Since our tickets for the hop on, hop off bus tour were still good until 11 a.m. Monday, we went back to Trafalgar Square again to go on the final walking tour that showed us the changing of the guard. Of course, this was after we'd checked out and hiked through Hyde Park with our bags, so we weren't in the best of moods. The tour sure helped with that, though. Since it is crazy crowded in front of the palace for the changing of the guards, our guide took us around the side to see the building where all of the guards and the band leave from instead, which was just as interesting. First, though, we saw some other important royal stuff.
Here, for instance, are the statues of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Albert, the two most-loved monarchs of England according to our guide. We heard the story about how Albert's older brother left the throne to marry a divorcee, and even though he didn't want the position Elizabeth convinced him to take it and take speaking lessons.
Then we started to see mounted police riding by...
And the first group of guards too.
But here's where the action started. The guards lined up to get ready to march down to do the longer ceremony of changing spots.
But the band got to go first! Heh, awesome. I recorded them, so watch the video!
Buckingham Palace is down at the end there. I never got to stand in front of it, so don't have any really good pictures.
We were told to be thankful for the sun a million times, so here's my tribute.
At another spot in the city, two more guards sit out front all day. Talk about patient horses. And a sore butt.
Not sure what this is, but it sounds creepy.
Can I go in here?!
Some famous bookstore according to our guide.
The British Museum! We were such scoundrels getting here...like I said before, our tickets to use the tour buses expired at 11. Well, we managed to use them until 6 ish and not get caught, basically meaning that we didn't have to walk all the way to the museum and back. We were lucky in not getting checked, but at the first stop the guy asked if he could marry my "mom," Courtney, and at the second one we must have looked so frantic that they took pity on us. With my heavy bag, I was very grateful.'Nuff about that. The museum was AWESOME!! I wish we could have spent more time in it.
Okay, let me just say that Alice and Courtney made me, and I have no reason for putting it up here except that it's so so so random. Walking through a room full of these naked dishes reminded me of my naked man shirt that I bought after a trip to museums in New York City, the one that I didn't realize was anatomically correct until I got home. I can count on my fingers how many times I've worn it since then...such an awkward way to start conversations.
The real version of what is at the Johnson Art Museum.
I took pictures of all the different types of writing I could find in the museum. This is Assyrian.
Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Can't really see it, which is probably why I forgot which it was.
I miss my kittens!
The Rosetta Stone! I completely forgot that it was here, so running into it was a nice surprise. It's so much bigger than I expected.
I want to live in this room!
I can't imagine the size of the rest of the statue for this ginormous foot.
More writing.
By the time we had walked around for a couple of hours, we looked like this guy. It wasn't pretty.
The only thing I didn't like about the museum was the huge hallway filled with mummies. I hate mummies. They give me a stomachache. I stayed near the walls and didn't stop to look. Ugh.After the museum, we took the bus to Trafalgar Square then walked to Victoria Station to catch our overnight bus to Glasgow. We had a bit of a scare again when we found out that Courtney had decided not to print her ticket, but it ended up okay after some frantic phone calls. The bus was uber crowded and it was hard to get comfortable to sleep, but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures...so I slept anyway. Every time I woke up someone was laughing at me or poking me. Jerks.
Let the tour continue!
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