so frustrating!

i just want to put a note here that if you are ever planning on blogging anything, USE ANYTHING BUT BLOGGER.

it's terrible!  it has been the source of too many headaches, has even caused me to dread blogging sometimes...

i am completely unable to put a simple list of pictures without spending an hour trying to get it to list them in the right order.  nope, i can't just enter down and paste another one.  not that easy, of course!

gonna try something else, hopefully will have some of worth up here soon.

LONG overdue...

i finally got ahold of a charger for my camera... YESTERDAY.  after i'm already back in the states.  don't trust everybody on eBay!  heh.

so, basically, i'm gonna try for one massive photodump here!  i'll make posts by location...

note my camera died on the first day in paris, and never came alive again.  so i will be missing lots of pictures from paris and venice, but i will be getting them from kelsey soon, so don't fret!

sigh

i still have never gotten my camera battery charger.  have been waiting and waiting and nothing.  only a few days left until i come back and i never got to update my blog with anything.  as soon as i get it i will put up all kinds of blogs, promise, but who knows when that will be.  really frustrated with it, frustrated with things in general.  my school is not letting me register for my classes so i am not able to speak with my job about getting some kind of work when i get back because i don't know what my schedule will be.

other than that things have been going swell.  i went to wales for 3 days and it was incredible.  so beautiful and the city of cardiff was great.  took all my pictures with a disposable camera, which actually was pretty fun.  i went by myself and i actually really enjoyed that, it was an adventure.  saw some guy fawkes day fireworks... they don't celebrate the fourth of july (of course) but on november 5th is guy fawkes day, guy fawkes was a traitor that tried to blow up the protestant parliament in order to install a catholic government, they celebrate his getting caught and executed.

tomorrow i think i am going to roslin chapel, if you've seen the da vinci code, it's that nuts church with all the weird stuff in it.  i think it's in the beginning.  i've never seen it but i've heard people talk about it.

anyways, will be home soon.  off to start packing.

craigmillar castle

the sad thing about living in a castle is, eventually, castles in general just aren't that impressive anymore.  for example, we went to doune castle of monty python fame, and the general consensus of the group was, "eh, my house is bigger than that."  it's terrible, i know.  like saying diamonds aren't shiny enough or something.

but craigmillar was one of the first castles i ever visited, and one of the most beautiful & historic in scotland.  it is 3 miles outside of edinburgh and offers gorgeous views of the scottish countryside as well as the city from afar.

famously, mary queen of scots lived there for a while in the 1500s, and it was there & then that a conspiracy was hatched to kill her husband lord darnley - called the craigmillar bond.  another condensed history lesson for ya.

anyways, now to the interesting part :)

you had to walk up a giant hill to get to this field across from the castle, then you had to walk all the way around the back to actually get to it.  totally worth it though.

i totally nabbed that pic from wikipedia because, i have a picture exactly like it but with loads of people in front.  anyways, it's right when you walk in the outer wall of the castle.

oooh one of many spooky staircases... it was definitely a very eerie place...

this is a baby pigeon i found at the top of one of such staircases. :) it was very cute but i quickly vacated in fear that mama pigeon might return.

at the bottom of another spooky staircase i found the prison... oooOooOOOoooh...

courtyard of the castle... going up that staircase takes you to the top and to a stunning view of the surrounding country...

the big hill is arthur's seat, which i still plan to climb at some point.  edinburgh proper is to the left of it, with the towns of portobello & leith to the right.

edinburgh

camera is back in action!  well, sort of.  it would seem the battery charger i just bought died after one charge.  but i did manage to get some pictures off of it.

now i would like to show you the beautiful city of edinburgh. :) my camera died towards the beginning of this day, as usual, but i still have some gorgeous pictures & it is definitely a place that you could point your camera with your eyes closed & end up with beautiful pictures.

my first view of edinburgh, from the top of a double-decker bus.  the glass roofs on the right are waverly train station, which is huge.

a square on princes' street, which is the main shopping area of edinburgh, & divides the old town from the new town.

this is saint andrew's square - interesting thing is, that's not saint andrew up on the pole.  some guy named melville.

there are statues of people everywhere.  like every intersection.  it really makes you realize how "new" america is compared to europe with its thousand years of history.

interesting story of that visit by george iv actually, before that kilts were outlawed in scotland because they were a symbol of the highlanders & they were the current scapegoat at the time, but george iv showed up wearing a pink kilt & ever since then kilts have been THE scottish attire.  that was a very condensed version of the story but yeah.

me & my "clan" in front of the scott monument.  as in, sir walter scott, who was a very famous scottish writer, historian, collector, etc. you may have heard of him, maybe.  but he was a real big deal to scotland, he's on their money & stuff.

we then proceeded to climb the scott monument.  you can go all the way to the top.  it gets so narrow that my head & both shoulders were touching the walls/ceiling.  i'm not claustrophobic and even i got a bit tense.

view from the about halfway up, back down to where the previous picture was taken.

this is about 3/4 the way up, as my camera died right when i got to the top, of course.  a view looking toward edinburgh's new town, which of course is still about 300 years old.

the only picture i managed to take from the top, of edinburgh castle, with the art museum in the foreground.  however, i did later get to tour the castle...

panorama from the top of that very same castle, which was actually built inside a volcanic crater.  you can see the scott monument sticking up on the right side.

one small part of the giant castle.  so beautiful!

and... a cemetary for soldiers' dead dogs.  aye, scotland.

and finally, a view from the front.  pishing doon rain of course.  the thing that sucks about these beautiful ancient buildings is that there's always renovations going on so your view is often obstructed by cranes & construction work.  that happened at probably at least half of the great monuments i've been to, unfortunately.  but that doesn't change the experience. :)

but yeah!  there is the great city of edinburgh for ya.  it is beautiful just like the rest of scotland :) i had never thought much of scotland before this trip but it's a completely incredible country unlike any other.  the history & culture are incredible and they are everywhere.  i have totally fallen in love with this country & i would recommend to anybody that you come see it at some point in your life because it's truely unbelievable.

it just hit me yesterday that i have less than a month here.  it has gone by even faster than i knew it would.  there is so much i miss about home & so much i can't wait to get back to, but it will be so hard to leave this amazing place and these awesome, crazy people.  but i definitely can't wait to see my crazy awesome americans either :)

in paris

well, technically, outside of paris at the moment.


staying at my... 2nd cousin, i believe?  steve & kim's.  they have a beautiful home in the suburbs of paris.
we just got into paris yesterday and did some looking around.  went to the big sights, the louvre, arch de triumph, eiffel tower, but didn't go into any yet.  will probably do that today.  the big fancy old buildings and whatnot are absolutely gorgeous, but i'm a little less than impressed with the rest of the buildings.  with all that people go on about paris being a beautiful "visual city" and whatnot, i expected a little more from in terms of... maintenence and cleanliness, we'll say.
but it is still incredible.  the atmosphere is amazing.  today we've got to eat at a sidewalk cafe.


amsterdam was amazing!  so beautiful and the dutch people are awesome.  goofy as hell.  they love their bikes.  3:30am and the bikes still outnumber the cars on the roads.  it is hard to get used to the fact that there is steady bike traffic right next to the sidewalks though; i almost got annihilated by cyclists a couple times.  amsterdam was actually more like america than scotland.  in fact, short of the language, and the bikes, it is just like america.  drive on the right and all that.
i definitely plan to go back to amsterdam at some point in my life.  it was great.  so not sketchy like everyone makes it out to be, just so friendly and laid-back.  i went to the heart of the red-light district at like midnight and never felt scared or anything.  that might be because we had two scottish rugby players with us, but still... i loved it.


but i know what you are looking for is the pictures, and i'm sorry to say, i don't have any yet. :( the camera cord and charger did not come by the time we left for the trip.  i managed to take pictures up until, maybe halfway through the day yesterday, before my camera died. (don't worry, i will get the rest from kelsey) but i won't be able to put any up until i get back.


but rest assured i am having a wonderful time.  we are in paris until... friday, i believe?  then heading down to venice, italy.  we were planning on going up into germany but the trip has gotten much costlier than we expected so we are just going to enjoy italy instead. :)


will try to write again soon.
until next time, ciao!

:(

so,

i bought a camera cord at the store, and i brought it home, and i went to plug it in, and...

it didn't fit.

so i bit the bullet and ordered one off ebay.  it is coming from hong kong.  hopefully it should be here soon... hopefully...

i also ordered a battery charger as i managed to blow the current one in a blue shower of sparks.  the power adapters you buy here are different than the ones in the states: here they have fuses, in the US they don't.  it turns out the fuse part is very important.

so, i am not really sure what to write here.  the weather the last couple days has been beautiful, it's only rained maybe one little shower a day.  it was pretty amazing how much warmer it was between here and london.  i got on the train wearing a coat & hoodie and by the time we made it to the hostel i only had my t-shirt on.

hmm...

remember charlie?  the peacock?  he has two friends now! :) somebody let loose two more male peacocks so now you will sometimes see an avian rainbow out the window.

i'm still not used to the wrong-sided cars.  just yesterday i went to the right side of the car & waited for a bit til i realized there was a steering wheel there.  sometimes i freak out for a minute when the bus starts down the left side of the road, and i feel very comfortable in the right lane on one-way streets.  is it true that the rest of europe drives like we do?  i've been told that only the UK & a couple other nations drive on the left, & everyone else drives on the right like us.  anybody know?  i suppose i will soon find out.  all my travelling so far has been within great britain.

have i mentioned anything about food yet?  well, i have had haggis, and it's... fine.  it... coats the mouth.  in a weird way.  but it's kinda like corn beef.

it is true that all their traditional food is based off meat & potatoes.  mince pie is a very popular dish here.  they eat beans with everything, especially breakfast.  AND, and and AND, they looked at me funny when i wanted pancakes for breakfast!  around here nobody eats pancakes for breakfast.  ever.  they're more of a dessert item.  same with waffles.  belgium is like... right there.(ish) and yet they don't know how to eat waffles.

prawn cocktail is wildly popular here.  yes, prawn cocktail.  little shrimpies.  you can get it on your sub at subway, you can put it on a pizza, you can get prawn cocktail-flavored potato chips... (which are CRISPS not CHIPS, chips are fries, fat wedgey homefries)

prawn cocktail crisps are actually downright amazing, the greatest flavor ever for a 'tato chip, and before i come back to america i am buying them wholesale & bringing an entire suitcase-full back with me.  they are seriously worth an extra baggage fee.

they are also very huge into take-out here.  there are all kinds of chip shops, chinese, indian food, all kinds of restaurants with nowhere to sit down, just take-out.  it kinda sucks sometimes because restaurant choices become either expensive, take-out, or mcdonald's. (yeah, there's still mcd's here... but no taco bell)

one more thing on food, i mentioned indian earlier: everywhere you'd see a mexican place in america, there is indian food instead.  because england colonized india, there are a huge amount of indian people and, by proxy, a huge amount of indian restaurants.  it is the exact reverse of america: mexican restaurants are fairly hard to come by & when you do, often overpriced; indian food is everywhere in every form.

sooooooo yeah.  can't wait till i get my camera cord and then i will be interesting again! :) yay.

until next time!...

it's been a while

alright, picture me saying this with my head down and a very apologetic look on my face...
i have been so neglectful and i'm sorry!  i have been travelling all kinds of places and doing lots of work for my classes.  i just got back from london on tuesday! (it was... an experience.  it'll have its own blog)


i kinda, sorta, totally lost my camera cord. :( somewhere in the 5 square feet around my bed.  yeah, completely typical of me, i know.  so i've been avoiding looking for it & avoiding blogging cause i know the pictures are the fun part...


but things are going great!  i just finished my speech class last week & started a business writing class on wednesday.  it's a breeze and basically what i've done at my job for the last year but i am learning new things as well.  this weekend is the first in, oh, 3 weeks that i haven't had travel plans and i'm actually looking forward to that.


i am looking at planning my 2-week break that's coming up!  so far the plan is to spend a few days in amsterdam, then head to paris, down to florence, italy, and back up to munich, germany from there.  i will be going with my friend kelsey & we are so excited!  booked tickets to the netherlands already & just looking at how to get around europe.  totally cannot wait! :)


i will be buying a new camera cord within the next day or two here and i promise to get some pictures up as soon as i do.  i wish you were all here with me so i could just show you everything firsthand! :) but i totally swear to be more diligent on this blog thing.  i must admit it is hard to motivate myself to get onto the computer when there is so much to be doing out and about.


have a good day! :) i miss you all!

dalkers

so, the castle is located right in/next to the village of dalkeith. (which locals sometimes refer to as dalkers) once again, it is really like you see in the movies.  everything is so cute & all the architecture is beautiful.  the people, well, that's a different story. :)

yay wisconsin in scotland! :) the palace is in this gorgeous park which i haven't even fully explored yet.  the estate goes for miles and has stables, an orangery (which is apparently something rich people used to have, it's kinda like a greenhouse) miles of trails, and the mascots of the house - hairy coos!

st. mary's church located right at the gates of our park.  this is what everything looks like around here.  going back to america is gonna be eye-numbing.

this is a typical house around here, "nothing special."  yeah, i am jealous too!

dalkeith's masonic lodge.  as in, the freemasons.  i thought they were supposed to be all secretive?  but if they want to build such an impressive landmark, i'm certainly not complaining.  also: apparently it is totally cool to park whichever way you want on the street.  the lane markers are really just guidelines, and it's not a sunday drive if you haven't whipped five U-turns in the middle of a busy road.  driving here is a free-for-all, every man for himself.  and, there is a roundabout every mile or so.  i am so happy i have a bus pass. :)

speaking of buses, this is one of the first double-deckers i saw.  now i ride them many times a day, but it was pretty weird at first.  they are not squeamish about getting mere inches from traffic and pedestrians.  sitting up in that top front windshield part is not for the faint of heart.

why can't america look like this? :(

i couldn't get the signs to fit on the same line, but - they are epic either way. :)

as you can see this place is crazy!  all in a good way, of course.  i never thought i could ever be this busy in my life.  i am not a busy person, i like my free time, so it's pretty exhausting, but totally worth it.  i wish i had more time to update this blog - i did not expect time would move so quickly here!  all of the sudden the day is over and it feels like it's been only a few hours.  i am pretty convinced there is a time warp in this part of the world.  it feels like i've been here a week, maybe.  but it's been, what, almost a month already?  three weeks?  crazy!

started my class this week - it is a speech class.  there are two other people in my class.  we all come in pajamas.  our professor's name is tim - not mr. mcraith or anything.  going back to regular school will be awful :( heh.

charlie

no, we do not have dragons living in our castle. (if only, if only... )

however, this is a strange place.  you never know who or what might be creepin... maybe you're just watching TV... and

CHARLIE!  what are you doing over there?!

no dragons, but we do have a pet peacock named charlie.  you are forgiven for not knowing peacocks existed in the wild; nobody here knew that either, including myself.
he comes around every single day, & has been for the last few years.
just yesterday i was walking down the driveway back towards the palace & i hear tap-tap-tap next to me.  there's charlie just walking along beside me.  he walked the whole way back to the house with me.  i thought maybe he wanted to be my friend but i think he just wanted the peanuts we keep inside the front door for him.

yeah, i live in a castle and have a pet peacock.  pretty unreal.
off to the rugby game! :)