Here are the links to 4 albums of photos.
Lincoln and Lincolnshire - Photos while staying at Kate's and going into Lincoln. Most of them are of the Lincoln Cathedral
Edinburgh, Scotland - Photos while in Edinburgh. Photos along the train ride north or south, Edinburgh Castle, hostel, Royal Mile, Holyrood Palace, Deathly Hallows release night, and Elephant House
London, England - Photos while in London. Photos of the Tower of London, Natural History Museum, St James Park, Big Ben/Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, policemen (women) on horses, Orlando Bloom, Kings Cross, hostel, and some of a commercial being filmed
Horse Guards - Photos of the Horse Guards in London. Photos of the Dismount Ceremony and Changing of the Guard
I took over 780 pictures, but I weeded out the bad ones and took out some duplicates and all that. The Horse Guard album is actually a bit less than half the photos I took of the Dismount Ceremony and the Changing of the Guard. LoL So I definitely weeded those down since both ceremonies had a lot of standing around so I ended up taking a LOT of photos of both. Oddly enough, a lot of my photos don't have people I know in them. :P Lots of them are views and sites.
I seem to be stuck on UK time too. I fell asleep (more like passed out) yesterday in the evening 5 pm? I don't even know when. I thought I'd just take a nap, but then I woke up at 4:30 am! That was NOT a nap. LoL So I finished uploading my photos.
I sort of miss London and Edinburgh now. It's good to be home (SO nice not to think I have to move again), but London was fun and so was Edinburgh. I have made new friends, met some old ones, and made a lot of great memories. I'm broke now, but I had a lot of fun so it's worth it. :) If I go back, I'd spend more time in Scotland and go to Glasgow. I'd probably hit London, but maybe not stay as long as the other places and see a play and things like that. London grew on me my last day there so I don't miss Edinburgh as much as I did (it was like a homesick feeling) when I first arrived, but Edinburgh will still always be my favorite. It's just an amazing place and I had fun there with everyone. London had some amazing memories and new things to laugh at though. So they're both special now in their own ways. :)
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Orlando's Security Guards and The Worst Flight
Where'd I leave off? Oh, that's right, I was about to go to dinner.
Okay, so Thursday night I left the cafe and went to have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. I tell you, that has to be the most expensive dinner I've bought EVER! After the conversion, it was almost $30! It was a nice Rainforest Cafe, though. The top floor was the gift store (smaller than the others I've been in), the 2nd floor (downstairs) is the bar and seating (across a small bridge) and then there's another floor below that one. So it goes down 2 floors. I sat in the middle floor right next to an aquarium. It was nice.
After that I went back to the hostel to pick up the rest of my In Celebration flyers and my program for the other actors. I went back to the Internet Cafe to check my bank account to see how much money I had in it (it's quite empty - LoL) and then I went to go stand at the theatre.
Well...I got to the theater and there wasn't anyone there! So I stood behind a pillar/post thingy to wait a bit more and finally two girls showed up so I went to stand on their side, sitting down (not on the side I wanted). Eventually, 4 other girls showed up on the OTHER side I wanted and I went to stand over there, but it was too late so I went back to the other side so I could be in front at least. While standing in line I got to know the 2 girls that were there first and then 2 new girls that were Australian. Isobel and Natalie. We were standing there and Orlando came out FIRST! He's never done that before. I ended up stuck behind a security guard, but two more autographs from him. LoL Afterwards, the 4 girls and were all showing each other's pictures and saying we wanted to exchange and all that so we exchanged e-mails. Isobel and I were still stanidng there, though, because we really wanted the other actors in the play to sign the program. Well, one of them came out with Orlando when he came out the 2nd time to get into the car (the first time he came out, signed, and went back in). The one that came out with Orlando was the one I REALLY wanted! One of them ignored us and 2 others signed for me - Tim Healy and Ciaran McIntyre. They were very nice about it too. After that, Natalie started to talk with the security guards (very nice guys) and then Isobel and I went over and we started talking to them and they asked about a good bar and Isobel wanted a karaoke bar because it was her goal to do karaoke in every country she went to (she was on some tour, same with Natalie which is how they met because they're roomies for only Thursday night) because she was a musician. Anyway, it came out (not sure HOW it happened) that the guys were offered to come with us. They told us there's this theater club that a lot of the theater people go to and they have a piano there that someone can play and you can sign with. Anyway, we waited till they got the okay to go home and Paul and Kadir led us the way to it.
I at first wasn't going to go because it was getting late and I had to get up early to catch my flight, but Isobel and Natalie kept telling me I couldn't leave them and yaddy, yaddy. So I finally gave in. At the bar I didn't want anything to drink (Kadir was buying first rounds), but he asked if I was sure and not even a soft drink, so I eventually got a Coke. We found a couch next to the door and the 3 of us girls sat while the guys stood and we just talked. It was nice. We talked about their jobs, Isobel talked about a lot of various things and it was just nice. Eventually, we had this drunk guy come up to us and ask us girls something and we could not understand it. Kadir said he was going out for a smoke and Natalie sort of jumped up saying she'd go with him. Isobel and I didn't smoke and didn't necessarily want to go with him, but the drunk guy asked if he could sit in Natalie's seat so Isobel and I decided to go. It turned out to be fine. We just stood at the end of this, not alley, but walkway/arch and just talked some more. A couple of police officers in the round hats came by and Isobel wanted a picture with them so she got one and then Natalie. I was going to get one, but my camera batteries were dying. We started laughing because Isobel asked the security guys BEFORE they were off if she could have a picture with them and they said no. I was ribbing Kadir because the police officers weren't off duty, yet they were taking pictures. :P Kadir just rolled his eyes at me and said he gets paid more than they do and they could now that they're off duty. LoL
At 12:30am I decided I HAD to leave and so left. It was a nice lot and I have Isobel's email so I can look her up. I think she was going back on Friday night (with or without Natalie) to get more actor's autographs so I'm sure she saw the guys again. That was probably the last time I'll see any of them, though. It was a nice night to end staying in London, though.
Friday morning I woke up at 8:30am to make sure my packing was done and all that. I snoozed off and on till almost 9 am because I was SO tired. I had the coke late at night so I had some caffeine running through me, I was nervous about oversleeping and going home, and yaddy, yaddy so I didn't go to sleep till after 2 am and then slept badly the rest of the night. I finished my packing and was ready to go at check out time. I hopped onto the tube at 10am and took the our ride to Heathrow. I got to Heathrow and my terminal and was about to check in and the lady told me that my plan was delayed by THREE hours! It actually came up because I wanted to change my connecting flight from SFO to San Jose or Monterey. Anyway, she told me to run over to the ticket spot and ask if I could get onto the Chicago flight that was leaving at 2:30pm. I'd go via Chicago and land in San Fran around 9pm. I went over there and waited around for 30 minutes. Finally I got to a person and after our talking I realized two things - 1) what was the point? My mom DIDN'T want to go to San Fran that late and I wanted to change my connecting flight more than my arrival time and 2) it was going to cost me $200 for a STANDBY ticket. Yeah, wasn't worth it to me. So I went back and checked in to my 15:15 flight that was delayed by 3 hours. I found a place to sit next to a board because in Heathrow they don't tell you your gate till an hour before take off. I basically sat there for 6 hours waiting for the board to say which gate to go to. I did fall asleep for 30 minutes, but other than that, I was awake or restless. FINALLY they called our flight around 17:15. I went to my gate, sat in the waiting room for 30 minutes and then sat on the plane for a long time more. We didn't take off till 4 hours our initial departure time (19:15). The flight wasn't as long as I thought it was going to be - only 10 hours and 20 minutes. I slept along the way and got fed. The food definitely wasn't as good as Virgin Atlantic. They gave us for dinner chicken penna pasta in pesto sauce (actually wasn't bad), water, roll, butter, and this chocolate cake-type-thing (wasn't very good), and this really good cold vegetable salad thing (peppers, corn, dill?, and something else). The other meal was this pepper, mushroom, cheese thing in a roll, grapes, and a Walkers Shortbread cookie. The snack was Walkers shortbread cookies, which I actually brought home with me. Lol
Because the flight was delayed so long, I missed my connecting flight to SFO. We arrived in LAX around 10pm and by the time I went through immigration, got my luggage, went through customs, found terminal 4, it was 11pm or a bit after. Because the flight delay wasn't my fault or weather (the crew got in the night before 3 hours late and because they can't fly without a certain amount of rest, our flight was delayed) they changed my flight for free to San Jose instead of San Fran, put me up in a room for the night at the Sheraton in downtown LA (yes, downtown LA), food vouches ($10 for dinner (where was I going to get that?!), $5 for breakfast (I wasn't going to be there long enough!), and vouchers for the Super Shuttle to the Sheraton and back. By the time I got on the shuttle and arrived at the hotel, it was about midnight. I had gotten to know my fellow shuttlemates and we had split into two groups for scheduling the shuttle back. Cecil called for his friend John (flight for them both on Alaskan Airlines at 6:20 am) and myself on AA at 6am. Those guys at Super Shuttle wanted to know EVERYTHING about us to set up an appointment to be picked up! Our flight number, airline, where we were going, yaddy, yaddy, yaddy. I had originally said I wanted to be picked up at 3am to give me a buffer time since it took about 30-40 minutes on the shuttle to get to the hotel with stops along the way. I wasn't sure how busy LAX was going to be, but I wanted to pad it. Well, the shuttle guys said that the earliest they could do was 4:10am. That means, by the time I got to the airport, It'd be 4:40am at the earliest! My flight LEFT at 6am! We decided to go with it anyway. Stupid super shuttle people kept saying they'd get us there in time or they'd pay us back for our plane ticket and everything. That didn't make us feel better.
By the time I got to my room (10th floor), it was 1 am. It just wasn't worth staying there. LoL I should have stayed at the airport. I took a shower (felt SO nice) and fell asleep on the bed for 30 minutes. At 3:40am I get a call and it was Cecil saying he and John were going to take a taxi to the airport. It was going to be about $45, but splitting it 3 ways would make it about $15 each. It was worth it to me! We took the taxi at 3:50am and got there around 4:20am. I am SO glad we took the taxi. I don't think I'd have made my flight if I didn't do that. It took me an hour from the time I got my luggage tag to the time I dropped off my luggage at the screening spot. It took me a half hour to go through security, but only because (once I got INTO the building, security line was ridiculous) they asked if anyone had a 6am departure. I'm all "I DO!" They checked my boarding pass and let me bypass all these people. So I got through security, took the shuttle to my gate, and met up Kristi in about 35 minutes. I was SO thankful!
The funny thing about the flight was Kristi was coming back from Maui and she had her connecting flight to San Jose and when I missed mine the night before and rescheduled, we ended up the same plane home! So mom only had to make one trip to pick us up. Anyway, we got on the plane and took the hour flight home. Once there, though, I had a funny suspicion my luggage may not have gotten on that plane because I got it to security RIGHT at the 45 minute cut off time. Sure 'nough, Kristi's luggage arrived, but not mine. So I had to come back around 10 am (about 2 hours later - the next flight to San Jose from LAX). We went out to breakfast at Denny's and by the time we went back (a quarter till) my luggage had arrived!
Anyway, that was my eventful and dreadful trip home. The flight itself wasn't bad, but everything else was.
I'm about to upload my pictures and look at them, so I'll get those up as soon as I can. I do need to do some other things like unpack, do laundry, sleep, check Leaky (the site, not the Lounge - I'm too tired for the Lounge), and some other things, but I don't go back to work till Monday at 1pm so I have some time. I'm just really knackered right now. It shouldn't take someone 34 hours to get home (9am wake up in London on Friday to 11 am arrival at home on Saturday), but at least I'm home!
Okay, so Thursday night I left the cafe and went to have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. I tell you, that has to be the most expensive dinner I've bought EVER! After the conversion, it was almost $30! It was a nice Rainforest Cafe, though. The top floor was the gift store (smaller than the others I've been in), the 2nd floor (downstairs) is the bar and seating (across a small bridge) and then there's another floor below that one. So it goes down 2 floors. I sat in the middle floor right next to an aquarium. It was nice.
After that I went back to the hostel to pick up the rest of my In Celebration flyers and my program for the other actors. I went back to the Internet Cafe to check my bank account to see how much money I had in it (it's quite empty - LoL) and then I went to go stand at the theatre.
Well...I got to the theater and there wasn't anyone there! So I stood behind a pillar/post thingy to wait a bit more and finally two girls showed up so I went to stand on their side, sitting down (not on the side I wanted). Eventually, 4 other girls showed up on the OTHER side I wanted and I went to stand over there, but it was too late so I went back to the other side so I could be in front at least. While standing in line I got to know the 2 girls that were there first and then 2 new girls that were Australian. Isobel and Natalie. We were standing there and Orlando came out FIRST! He's never done that before. I ended up stuck behind a security guard, but two more autographs from him. LoL Afterwards, the 4 girls and were all showing each other's pictures and saying we wanted to exchange and all that so we exchanged e-mails. Isobel and I were still stanidng there, though, because we really wanted the other actors in the play to sign the program. Well, one of them came out with Orlando when he came out the 2nd time to get into the car (the first time he came out, signed, and went back in). The one that came out with Orlando was the one I REALLY wanted! One of them ignored us and 2 others signed for me - Tim Healy and Ciaran McIntyre. They were very nice about it too. After that, Natalie started to talk with the security guards (very nice guys) and then Isobel and I went over and we started talking to them and they asked about a good bar and Isobel wanted a karaoke bar because it was her goal to do karaoke in every country she went to (she was on some tour, same with Natalie which is how they met because they're roomies for only Thursday night) because she was a musician. Anyway, it came out (not sure HOW it happened) that the guys were offered to come with us. They told us there's this theater club that a lot of the theater people go to and they have a piano there that someone can play and you can sign with. Anyway, we waited till they got the okay to go home and Paul and Kadir led us the way to it.
I at first wasn't going to go because it was getting late and I had to get up early to catch my flight, but Isobel and Natalie kept telling me I couldn't leave them and yaddy, yaddy. So I finally gave in. At the bar I didn't want anything to drink (Kadir was buying first rounds), but he asked if I was sure and not even a soft drink, so I eventually got a Coke. We found a couch next to the door and the 3 of us girls sat while the guys stood and we just talked. It was nice. We talked about their jobs, Isobel talked about a lot of various things and it was just nice. Eventually, we had this drunk guy come up to us and ask us girls something and we could not understand it. Kadir said he was going out for a smoke and Natalie sort of jumped up saying she'd go with him. Isobel and I didn't smoke and didn't necessarily want to go with him, but the drunk guy asked if he could sit in Natalie's seat so Isobel and I decided to go. It turned out to be fine. We just stood at the end of this, not alley, but walkway/arch and just talked some more. A couple of police officers in the round hats came by and Isobel wanted a picture with them so she got one and then Natalie. I was going to get one, but my camera batteries were dying. We started laughing because Isobel asked the security guys BEFORE they were off if she could have a picture with them and they said no. I was ribbing Kadir because the police officers weren't off duty, yet they were taking pictures. :P Kadir just rolled his eyes at me and said he gets paid more than they do and they could now that they're off duty. LoL
At 12:30am I decided I HAD to leave and so left. It was a nice lot and I have Isobel's email so I can look her up. I think she was going back on Friday night (with or without Natalie) to get more actor's autographs so I'm sure she saw the guys again. That was probably the last time I'll see any of them, though. It was a nice night to end staying in London, though.
Friday morning I woke up at 8:30am to make sure my packing was done and all that. I snoozed off and on till almost 9 am because I was SO tired. I had the coke late at night so I had some caffeine running through me, I was nervous about oversleeping and going home, and yaddy, yaddy so I didn't go to sleep till after 2 am and then slept badly the rest of the night. I finished my packing and was ready to go at check out time. I hopped onto the tube at 10am and took the our ride to Heathrow. I got to Heathrow and my terminal and was about to check in and the lady told me that my plan was delayed by THREE hours! It actually came up because I wanted to change my connecting flight from SFO to San Jose or Monterey. Anyway, she told me to run over to the ticket spot and ask if I could get onto the Chicago flight that was leaving at 2:30pm. I'd go via Chicago and land in San Fran around 9pm. I went over there and waited around for 30 minutes. Finally I got to a person and after our talking I realized two things - 1) what was the point? My mom DIDN'T want to go to San Fran that late and I wanted to change my connecting flight more than my arrival time and 2) it was going to cost me $200 for a STANDBY ticket. Yeah, wasn't worth it to me. So I went back and checked in to my 15:15 flight that was delayed by 3 hours. I found a place to sit next to a board because in Heathrow they don't tell you your gate till an hour before take off. I basically sat there for 6 hours waiting for the board to say which gate to go to. I did fall asleep for 30 minutes, but other than that, I was awake or restless. FINALLY they called our flight around 17:15. I went to my gate, sat in the waiting room for 30 minutes and then sat on the plane for a long time more. We didn't take off till 4 hours our initial departure time (19:15). The flight wasn't as long as I thought it was going to be - only 10 hours and 20 minutes. I slept along the way and got fed. The food definitely wasn't as good as Virgin Atlantic. They gave us for dinner chicken penna pasta in pesto sauce (actually wasn't bad), water, roll, butter, and this chocolate cake-type-thing (wasn't very good), and this really good cold vegetable salad thing (peppers, corn, dill?, and something else). The other meal was this pepper, mushroom, cheese thing in a roll, grapes, and a Walkers Shortbread cookie. The snack was Walkers shortbread cookies, which I actually brought home with me. Lol
Because the flight was delayed so long, I missed my connecting flight to SFO. We arrived in LAX around 10pm and by the time I went through immigration, got my luggage, went through customs, found terminal 4, it was 11pm or a bit after. Because the flight delay wasn't my fault or weather (the crew got in the night before 3 hours late and because they can't fly without a certain amount of rest, our flight was delayed) they changed my flight for free to San Jose instead of San Fran, put me up in a room for the night at the Sheraton in downtown LA (yes, downtown LA), food vouches ($10 for dinner (where was I going to get that?!), $5 for breakfast (I wasn't going to be there long enough!), and vouchers for the Super Shuttle to the Sheraton and back. By the time I got on the shuttle and arrived at the hotel, it was about midnight. I had gotten to know my fellow shuttlemates and we had split into two groups for scheduling the shuttle back. Cecil called for his friend John (flight for them both on Alaskan Airlines at 6:20 am) and myself on AA at 6am. Those guys at Super Shuttle wanted to know EVERYTHING about us to set up an appointment to be picked up! Our flight number, airline, where we were going, yaddy, yaddy, yaddy. I had originally said I wanted to be picked up at 3am to give me a buffer time since it took about 30-40 minutes on the shuttle to get to the hotel with stops along the way. I wasn't sure how busy LAX was going to be, but I wanted to pad it. Well, the shuttle guys said that the earliest they could do was 4:10am. That means, by the time I got to the airport, It'd be 4:40am at the earliest! My flight LEFT at 6am! We decided to go with it anyway. Stupid super shuttle people kept saying they'd get us there in time or they'd pay us back for our plane ticket and everything. That didn't make us feel better.
By the time I got to my room (10th floor), it was 1 am. It just wasn't worth staying there. LoL I should have stayed at the airport. I took a shower (felt SO nice) and fell asleep on the bed for 30 minutes. At 3:40am I get a call and it was Cecil saying he and John were going to take a taxi to the airport. It was going to be about $45, but splitting it 3 ways would make it about $15 each. It was worth it to me! We took the taxi at 3:50am and got there around 4:20am. I am SO glad we took the taxi. I don't think I'd have made my flight if I didn't do that. It took me an hour from the time I got my luggage tag to the time I dropped off my luggage at the screening spot. It took me a half hour to go through security, but only because (once I got INTO the building, security line was ridiculous) they asked if anyone had a 6am departure. I'm all "I DO!" They checked my boarding pass and let me bypass all these people. So I got through security, took the shuttle to my gate, and met up Kristi in about 35 minutes. I was SO thankful!
The funny thing about the flight was Kristi was coming back from Maui and she had her connecting flight to San Jose and when I missed mine the night before and rescheduled, we ended up the same plane home! So mom only had to make one trip to pick us up. Anyway, we got on the plane and took the hour flight home. Once there, though, I had a funny suspicion my luggage may not have gotten on that plane because I got it to security RIGHT at the 45 minute cut off time. Sure 'nough, Kristi's luggage arrived, but not mine. So I had to come back around 10 am (about 2 hours later - the next flight to San Jose from LAX). We went out to breakfast at Denny's and by the time we went back (a quarter till) my luggage had arrived!
Anyway, that was my eventful and dreadful trip home. The flight itself wasn't bad, but everything else was.
I'm about to upload my pictures and look at them, so I'll get those up as soon as I can. I do need to do some other things like unpack, do laundry, sleep, check Leaky (the site, not the Lounge - I'm too tired for the Lounge), and some other things, but I don't go back to work till Monday at 1pm so I have some time. I'm just really knackered right now. It shouldn't take someone 34 hours to get home (9am wake up in London on Friday to 11 am arrival at home on Saturday), but at least I'm home!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Horse Guards
Today Mo and I slept in a bit (half hour) and walked to the Horse Guards to see their Guard Change ceremony (VERY close to our hostel, turns out). As I said before, we had no desire for the Royal Guard Change, but the horse guards, yes!
We got there about 45 minutes early and noticed the horses on the other side were out more and decided to take a picture together with the horse. The horse was so friendly! It nuzzled me and her. She has a picture of the horse's nose in her hand. It was so nice. The other one we just took pictures of. Then we went out and positioned ourselves in two different spots to get the maximum picture angles we could. It was pretty neat. A gray horse came out with a guy with a bugle and trotted out and towards the Palace. Then a few minutes later 6 horses came out and lined themselves up facing me!! It was a few more minutes and the guy on the gray horse came back and lined up with them. I took a ton of pictures of them facing me. A few minutes after that their leader came out and positioned himself facing me in front of them. Even a bit more, the horses from the palace barracks came (12 of them?) and came into the "arena" and lined up with their backs to me. It was pretty neat. Then the leader had 6 of them step out. The guy with the flag from the group that came from the palace switched flags to another horse in the group (right in front of me) and then those 6 horses left and went back into the stables that were there. The neat thing about looking at the guards from the palace and from where we were is their tops were different colors. The ones from the palace were black and the others were red. The two leaders of the groups went into the middle and were talking. I have a funny suspicion it was like "what'd you think of the rain yesterday?" "How's the family?" Stuff like that. They basically just stood there for at least a half hour and the 6 that went back into the stables came out in the red colored tops and then that new group (now 12 or 13 in red) walked off towards the palace. The ones that were left went back into the stables. I'm sure 2 went out front to stand "guard" and the others went back to the stables (horses that is). The people probably were still there.
Mo and I decided to follow behind the group that was heading towards the palace. I wanted a picture of them walking along, but closer up so I ended up running most of that road to catch up with them. It was ridiculous with my daypack on my back and in completely terrible shoes to run in. I did catch up with them, though! I got some pretty nice pictures. They went around the Queen Victoria Monument (went in front of the palace) and walked down the road to the barraks there.
I heard a band playing and Mo was at the front gates, so I went to see that they had a band going in the Royal Guard uniform. I took some "point-and-shoot" photos and went to the front gates where I ended up calling Mo and finding out she was at the monument next to a bay horse. I got waylaid, though, as the police horses were SO BEAUTIFUL! I had to stop and take pictures of this beautiful gray dapple (my fav). She took pictures of the horse she was near. Anyway, to say the least, Mo and I were loving the horses.
We eventually walked to Green Park station and caught the tube to Kings Cross St Pancras so I could take a picture at platform 9 3/4. We had a picture together and then we got back on the tube and headed back to the hostel where Mo offloaded her pictures onto her computer and I slept for a half hour while she read for about an hour.
It was 4pm and Mo got her stuff and we left the hostel. It was POURING when she left. We would have been soaked if it weren't for a few awnings and eventually I got my umbrella out to walk back. She left on the tube and I went back to the hostel and just hung out for about 45 minutes. I attempted to see how my packing situation for tomorrow was going to turn out. I think I can get home without two checked bags. My carry-on might be a bit stuffed (I'm coming home with 4 new books and all my other stuff) and I may have to wear my vest and sweatshirt home (or stuff the vest into the carry-on), but I'm pretty sure I can do it.
Right now I'm in the internet cafe again and it's actually very sunny outside. I was kind of surprised. It's blue skies and some puffy clouds (moving fast, though). So I hope it stays nice through tomorrow until I take off at least.
I plan to have dinner at the Rainforest cafe (my splurge and a way to get rid of the rest of my cash) and then either come back to the internet cafe or go back to the hostel or an hour and then head to the theater to see if I can get autographs of the other actors in the play. Somehow we missed Paul Hilton who plays (for all intents and purposes) the main character in the play. He did a fantastic job and I wouldn't mind having the other actors also. So we'll see if I can do that. I'm going to try and go earlier than yesterday so I can be in front. If I get Orlando's again, fine, but I don't need it. I think 2 on my program and 3 on the flyers is good enough. :P I'll probably take pics more than try for an autograph. I want a pic of his dog, which is absolutely cute - a chocolate, medium sized, short haired dog.
After that, I plan to come back and go to sleep. I have to get up at 9 am tomorrow so I can check out of the hostel by 10am and then I'm catching the tube down the road from my hostel (seriously, 3 minutes) and heading to Heathrow. I'm hoping they'll let me check in 4 hours early. It'll be so nice to be rid of my travel packback and just have my carry-on! I can re-read parts of Deathly Hallows, which is what I've been doing lately.
Well, I should go. I'll be home tomorrow late evening! I can't explain how nice it'll feel to be in my own bed (the beds haven't been bad here), my OWN bathroom (no sharing!), and not have to worry about all my stuff! I'm just glad I took Saturday off from work. There is no way I could have been at work on Saturday. LoL Also glad I don't have the aquarium on Sunday.
With that, I'm off.
We got there about 45 minutes early and noticed the horses on the other side were out more and decided to take a picture together with the horse. The horse was so friendly! It nuzzled me and her. She has a picture of the horse's nose in her hand. It was so nice. The other one we just took pictures of. Then we went out and positioned ourselves in two different spots to get the maximum picture angles we could. It was pretty neat. A gray horse came out with a guy with a bugle and trotted out and towards the Palace. Then a few minutes later 6 horses came out and lined themselves up facing me!! It was a few more minutes and the guy on the gray horse came back and lined up with them. I took a ton of pictures of them facing me. A few minutes after that their leader came out and positioned himself facing me in front of them. Even a bit more, the horses from the palace barracks came (12 of them?) and came into the "arena" and lined up with their backs to me. It was pretty neat. Then the leader had 6 of them step out. The guy with the flag from the group that came from the palace switched flags to another horse in the group (right in front of me) and then those 6 horses left and went back into the stables that were there. The neat thing about looking at the guards from the palace and from where we were is their tops were different colors. The ones from the palace were black and the others were red. The two leaders of the groups went into the middle and were talking. I have a funny suspicion it was like "what'd you think of the rain yesterday?" "How's the family?" Stuff like that. They basically just stood there for at least a half hour and the 6 that went back into the stables came out in the red colored tops and then that new group (now 12 or 13 in red) walked off towards the palace. The ones that were left went back into the stables. I'm sure 2 went out front to stand "guard" and the others went back to the stables (horses that is). The people probably were still there.
Mo and I decided to follow behind the group that was heading towards the palace. I wanted a picture of them walking along, but closer up so I ended up running most of that road to catch up with them. It was ridiculous with my daypack on my back and in completely terrible shoes to run in. I did catch up with them, though! I got some pretty nice pictures. They went around the Queen Victoria Monument (went in front of the palace) and walked down the road to the barraks there.
I heard a band playing and Mo was at the front gates, so I went to see that they had a band going in the Royal Guard uniform. I took some "point-and-shoot" photos and went to the front gates where I ended up calling Mo and finding out she was at the monument next to a bay horse. I got waylaid, though, as the police horses were SO BEAUTIFUL! I had to stop and take pictures of this beautiful gray dapple (my fav). She took pictures of the horse she was near. Anyway, to say the least, Mo and I were loving the horses.
We eventually walked to Green Park station and caught the tube to Kings Cross St Pancras so I could take a picture at platform 9 3/4. We had a picture together and then we got back on the tube and headed back to the hostel where Mo offloaded her pictures onto her computer and I slept for a half hour while she read for about an hour.
It was 4pm and Mo got her stuff and we left the hostel. It was POURING when she left. We would have been soaked if it weren't for a few awnings and eventually I got my umbrella out to walk back. She left on the tube and I went back to the hostel and just hung out for about 45 minutes. I attempted to see how my packing situation for tomorrow was going to turn out. I think I can get home without two checked bags. My carry-on might be a bit stuffed (I'm coming home with 4 new books and all my other stuff) and I may have to wear my vest and sweatshirt home (or stuff the vest into the carry-on), but I'm pretty sure I can do it.
Right now I'm in the internet cafe again and it's actually very sunny outside. I was kind of surprised. It's blue skies and some puffy clouds (moving fast, though). So I hope it stays nice through tomorrow until I take off at least.
I plan to have dinner at the Rainforest cafe (my splurge and a way to get rid of the rest of my cash) and then either come back to the internet cafe or go back to the hostel or an hour and then head to the theater to see if I can get autographs of the other actors in the play. Somehow we missed Paul Hilton who plays (for all intents and purposes) the main character in the play. He did a fantastic job and I wouldn't mind having the other actors also. So we'll see if I can do that. I'm going to try and go earlier than yesterday so I can be in front. If I get Orlando's again, fine, but I don't need it. I think 2 on my program and 3 on the flyers is good enough. :P I'll probably take pics more than try for an autograph. I want a pic of his dog, which is absolutely cute - a chocolate, medium sized, short haired dog.
After that, I plan to come back and go to sleep. I have to get up at 9 am tomorrow so I can check out of the hostel by 10am and then I'm catching the tube down the road from my hostel (seriously, 3 minutes) and heading to Heathrow. I'm hoping they'll let me check in 4 hours early. It'll be so nice to be rid of my travel packback and just have my carry-on! I can re-read parts of Deathly Hallows, which is what I've been doing lately.
Well, I should go. I'll be home tomorrow late evening! I can't explain how nice it'll feel to be in my own bed (the beds haven't been bad here), my OWN bathroom (no sharing!), and not have to worry about all my stuff! I'm just glad I took Saturday off from work. There is no way I could have been at work on Saturday. LoL Also glad I don't have the aquarium on Sunday.
With that, I'm off.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Speed Sight Seeing
Before I forget, because I will again, Laurie, I had a sip of alcohol for you! It was Maria's Reef in Edinburgh after Kate left, but it had alcohol in it!
Okay, onto the more pressing matters.
I left off last night saying that Moriah and I were going to go see Orlando again last night in the play. We got to the theater and we got in and we had GREAT seats row F right in the middle! Well, 10 minutes before the show was about to start these people come in and say we're in their seats! Turns out, the place we bought the tickets from had given us the 2:30 showing that they said was OUT! So we didn't even bother to look at our tickets (lesson learned). So we panicked and went to the box office and they gave us new seats - row N at the end of the row. They weren't the seats we had before, but the theater was incredibly small so it didn't really matter to be honest.
The play was interesting. Wasn't exactly what I expected. Maybe because Orlando was the only big name I thought he was going to be the main person, but he wasn't. The play is about 3 brothers who after many, many years had come to their parents house to celebrate their 40th anniversary and all that. Well, anyway, through this 24 hour period we learn about the family had a 4th and oldest brother who died at 7. The next brother was 5 (Andrew), then Colin (2), and Orlando (Steven) wasn't even born yet. Apparently the mother, after Jamie died shut herself away and wouldn't see Andrew for 6 weeks. He would cry at the back door wanting in, but the mother wouldn't bring him in. Then, apparently, she was going to kill herself, but remembered Steven so she didn't. Anyway, Andy, the oldest, had this perverse idea/sense about his mother and still resented his mother for locking him out and all this other stuff. Anyway, the acting was just amazing. It was really good.
At one point, Orlando hugs his father (after mayhem breaks loose) and it was very touching and a girl in the back audience (behind us) goes "awww..." and then people start to giggle. It broke the moment and I felt (and so did Mo) embarassed for Orlando. It made him not an actor working and doing his best at what he likes, but that pretty boy, heart throb for girls. I'm hoping he didn't hear it, but we think he may have. I just felt bad for him.
Anyway, afterwards Mo and I went to see if we could get ticket stubs since they took ours when they gave us new seats. We just wanted them to prove we were there or have for a scrapbook. The manager understood and was extremely nice about it. We went outside and stood around then. Orlando's car wasn't there like before, but a barrier. The guards were more laxed about where you could stand and such. To make a long story short, Mo and I got Orlando's autograph!! I was taking my program back after he signed it and he looked up at me! I said "Thanks Orlando" (totally lame), but I was trying to back out of all the people so someone else could take my spot. I felt like Orlando was really trying to get a look at everyone who he gave an autograph for. That and he would ask people if they saw the play tonight, if they liked it, how they were doing. Mo said at one point he said he couldn't see anything at all. LoL The guy had a million cameras and flashes going off. His assistant even had extra Sharpie pens ready for him to use. It was kind of amusing to see, but cool at the same time.
Mo and I are going back again tonight to see if he can sign some other stuff. We're going super early, though, as we want to be the first people there so we don't stand a row or two behind. It'd be nice to actually talk to him and tell him I thought he did a good job in the play. We also want to get the other actors autographs since they were really good in it too and we thought it'd be nice to get as many of theirs as possible. They always come out before Orlando and try to sneak off, but there's only one way out!
Okay, moving on from that...Mo and I went today to the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, walked past Big Ben, West Minster (I spelled that wrong...) Abbey, and Buckingham Palace and we saw the dismount of the Horse Guards all before 5pm. Not to mention found 3 post offices, went to Waterstones, and had breakfast.
Natural History Museum was neat, but the best thing was the mineral/rock place. Mo and I spent a long time in there for the first 10 rows, but then realized there was like 40 rows or something and it'd take us HOURS (not kidding you) if we kept going the way we were going. So we sped it up. The Science Museum was neat, but over crowded with kids. It was driving us nuts. I really think dad would have liked it. There were all kinds of neat things there. I was expecting more of a Tech Museum type place, but it really was more of a museum with old models and such. They had a telecommunications, computers, ships, marine engineering, energy, medicine, etc, etc, etc. It was pretty neat, but we sort of blazed through it, but it was neat.
We got back on the tube and went to the Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham palace. We walked past them taking pictures as neither of us had the desire to spend the money to go into them. We saw the Horse Guards on their horses. I took a TON of pictures of the dismount, which is really not a whole lot. LoL It's about 20 minutes of inspecting them and walking back in. We did see a guard change on and off the horses, though. They dismount where we can't see them, which is kind of interesting. We're going to try and see the guard change at 11am for the Horse Guard tomorrow. We don't have a desire to see the guard change at Buckingham Palace since it's supposed to be insane because of the amount of people, but the horses we do! Mo likes horses too. :)
Tomorrow we also plan to go to Kings Cross and have our pictures taken at the 9 3/4 platform thingy they have there for people to take pictures at. Should be fun. We're also going to go to the British Library too. It's almost right next door to Kings Cross. Mo leaves tomorrow (has to catch the tube around 4 pm) so I'll be alone in the evening. I may treat myself to the Rainforest Cafe that is almost right next to the hostel (expensive as usual) or go see Orlando again or hang out in the internet cafe or go to bed early. I have to check out by 10 am on Friday, so I need to get up and pack and all that. I guess I'll see what I do. I'll be at the airport early on Friday since my plane doesn't leave till 3:15pm and it's only an hour-ish tube ride from Piccadilly to Heathrow, but I can hang out and spend the rest of my money I have in cash. It's just not worth exchanging it to US dollars.
Oh on another note, I got Harry Potter stamps today! They didn't have any of the special set ones, but they did have the stamps at least. Mo and I got some. A "sheet" is just the 7 books as a stamp. They're pretty neat. Not sure what I'll do with them, but it's something you can only get in the UK and it's special! I haven't found a whole lot of HP product. I did find some random stickers (I think they are) at Borders today. I bought all the different ones not even knowing what the heck they are. LoL They say "album stickers" on them. I went and a manager who had helped me the other night recognized me. It was kind of funny. :P
It rained a bit earlier today, but it's stopped so far. That's nice. It might be insane again tonight at the theater (it was last night because it didn't rain), but we'll see. I'm hoping it's nice again tomorrow.
Well, I should be off. I can't think of anything else to write.
Okay, onto the more pressing matters.
I left off last night saying that Moriah and I were going to go see Orlando again last night in the play. We got to the theater and we got in and we had GREAT seats row F right in the middle! Well, 10 minutes before the show was about to start these people come in and say we're in their seats! Turns out, the place we bought the tickets from had given us the 2:30 showing that they said was OUT! So we didn't even bother to look at our tickets (lesson learned). So we panicked and went to the box office and they gave us new seats - row N at the end of the row. They weren't the seats we had before, but the theater was incredibly small so it didn't really matter to be honest.
The play was interesting. Wasn't exactly what I expected. Maybe because Orlando was the only big name I thought he was going to be the main person, but he wasn't. The play is about 3 brothers who after many, many years had come to their parents house to celebrate their 40th anniversary and all that. Well, anyway, through this 24 hour period we learn about the family had a 4th and oldest brother who died at 7. The next brother was 5 (Andrew), then Colin (2), and Orlando (Steven) wasn't even born yet. Apparently the mother, after Jamie died shut herself away and wouldn't see Andrew for 6 weeks. He would cry at the back door wanting in, but the mother wouldn't bring him in. Then, apparently, she was going to kill herself, but remembered Steven so she didn't. Anyway, Andy, the oldest, had this perverse idea/sense about his mother and still resented his mother for locking him out and all this other stuff. Anyway, the acting was just amazing. It was really good.
At one point, Orlando hugs his father (after mayhem breaks loose) and it was very touching and a girl in the back audience (behind us) goes "awww..." and then people start to giggle. It broke the moment and I felt (and so did Mo) embarassed for Orlando. It made him not an actor working and doing his best at what he likes, but that pretty boy, heart throb for girls. I'm hoping he didn't hear it, but we think he may have. I just felt bad for him.
Anyway, afterwards Mo and I went to see if we could get ticket stubs since they took ours when they gave us new seats. We just wanted them to prove we were there or have for a scrapbook. The manager understood and was extremely nice about it. We went outside and stood around then. Orlando's car wasn't there like before, but a barrier. The guards were more laxed about where you could stand and such. To make a long story short, Mo and I got Orlando's autograph!! I was taking my program back after he signed it and he looked up at me! I said "Thanks Orlando" (totally lame), but I was trying to back out of all the people so someone else could take my spot. I felt like Orlando was really trying to get a look at everyone who he gave an autograph for. That and he would ask people if they saw the play tonight, if they liked it, how they were doing. Mo said at one point he said he couldn't see anything at all. LoL The guy had a million cameras and flashes going off. His assistant even had extra Sharpie pens ready for him to use. It was kind of amusing to see, but cool at the same time.
Mo and I are going back again tonight to see if he can sign some other stuff. We're going super early, though, as we want to be the first people there so we don't stand a row or two behind. It'd be nice to actually talk to him and tell him I thought he did a good job in the play. We also want to get the other actors autographs since they were really good in it too and we thought it'd be nice to get as many of theirs as possible. They always come out before Orlando and try to sneak off, but there's only one way out!
Okay, moving on from that...Mo and I went today to the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, walked past Big Ben, West Minster (I spelled that wrong...) Abbey, and Buckingham Palace and we saw the dismount of the Horse Guards all before 5pm. Not to mention found 3 post offices, went to Waterstones, and had breakfast.
Natural History Museum was neat, but the best thing was the mineral/rock place. Mo and I spent a long time in there for the first 10 rows, but then realized there was like 40 rows or something and it'd take us HOURS (not kidding you) if we kept going the way we were going. So we sped it up. The Science Museum was neat, but over crowded with kids. It was driving us nuts. I really think dad would have liked it. There were all kinds of neat things there. I was expecting more of a Tech Museum type place, but it really was more of a museum with old models and such. They had a telecommunications, computers, ships, marine engineering, energy, medicine, etc, etc, etc. It was pretty neat, but we sort of blazed through it, but it was neat.
We got back on the tube and went to the Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham palace. We walked past them taking pictures as neither of us had the desire to spend the money to go into them. We saw the Horse Guards on their horses. I took a TON of pictures of the dismount, which is really not a whole lot. LoL It's about 20 minutes of inspecting them and walking back in. We did see a guard change on and off the horses, though. They dismount where we can't see them, which is kind of interesting. We're going to try and see the guard change at 11am for the Horse Guard tomorrow. We don't have a desire to see the guard change at Buckingham Palace since it's supposed to be insane because of the amount of people, but the horses we do! Mo likes horses too. :)
Tomorrow we also plan to go to Kings Cross and have our pictures taken at the 9 3/4 platform thingy they have there for people to take pictures at. Should be fun. We're also going to go to the British Library too. It's almost right next door to Kings Cross. Mo leaves tomorrow (has to catch the tube around 4 pm) so I'll be alone in the evening. I may treat myself to the Rainforest Cafe that is almost right next to the hostel (expensive as usual) or go see Orlando again or hang out in the internet cafe or go to bed early. I have to check out by 10 am on Friday, so I need to get up and pack and all that. I guess I'll see what I do. I'll be at the airport early on Friday since my plane doesn't leave till 3:15pm and it's only an hour-ish tube ride from Piccadilly to Heathrow, but I can hang out and spend the rest of my money I have in cash. It's just not worth exchanging it to US dollars.
Oh on another note, I got Harry Potter stamps today! They didn't have any of the special set ones, but they did have the stamps at least. Mo and I got some. A "sheet" is just the 7 books as a stamp. They're pretty neat. Not sure what I'll do with them, but it's something you can only get in the UK and it's special! I haven't found a whole lot of HP product. I did find some random stickers (I think they are) at Borders today. I bought all the different ones not even knowing what the heck they are. LoL They say "album stickers" on them. I went and a manager who had helped me the other night recognized me. It was kind of funny. :P
It rained a bit earlier today, but it's stopped so far. That's nice. It might be insane again tonight at the theater (it was last night because it didn't rain), but we'll see. I'm hoping it's nice again tomorrow.
Well, I should be off. I can't think of anything else to write.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
One more thing...
When Mo and I were getting our bag checked at the London Tower the guy stopped and gave her a very long and hard look. She was all, "what?" He kept looking at her and she was thinking what she had in her bag. So she said, "the book?" He said, "Yeah. I've seen about 10 in people's bags today." LoL
The book is EVERYWHERE! Laurie (Leaky person, not Laurie who was supposed to go with me) hasn't finished the book yet and she's, suprisingly, hasn't been spoiled yet in London. It's amazing! She'll be done by the time she gets home tonight, though.
The book is EVERYWHERE! Laurie (Leaky person, not Laurie who was supposed to go with me) hasn't finished the book yet and she's, suprisingly, hasn't been spoiled yet in London. It's amazing! She'll be done by the time she gets home tonight, though.
Trains and Leaky and Orlando - Oh my!
Okay...I'm in an internet cafe right now trying to deal with this weird keyboard. Who would have thunk that the keyboards are different in the UK than in the US! Some are the keys are in different places.
Anyway, I left Monday morning from Kate's to get to the Grantham train station to catch the train there to London Kings Cross. Well, I got there about 10 minutes before my train was supposed to leave, I got my tickets and walked out onto the platform. It said "cancelled" for my train! In fact, all the trains that were going to London Kings Cross and Doncaster were cancelled. As it turned out, some lines went down and the "light trains" or electric trains on that line couldn't run! So I panicked and called Kate who was about 10 minutes away after she dropped me off. Her and Nancy were going to go watch PotC: At World's End since they hadn't seen it yet. I went to the ticket office and asked and they said I could take the train from Peterborough to Stevenage to London Kings Cross. If it wasn't for the fact I had the hostel for that night and Mo in London, I may have just stayed at Kate's another day, but I had to go so I said it was okay. When Kate arrived I told her and we said bye again. I got onto the train, which was 30 minutes late (was supposed to leave at 11:40 or something) and it arrived around 12:15pm. I got on it and got off at Peterborough and then there was a mad dash to the platform for the one to get to Stevenage because the train to Peterborough was PACKED!! I was very thankful it was only a 20 minute ride because I had to stand. I got a seat on the train to Stevenage, which was a diesel train, and we stopped for a good 10 minutes just sitting there (not sure why, they told us but I couldn't understand). Well, while sitting on the train, I got to know the British guy sitting next to me. He was older and asked where I was from and I said California. He asked where, so I said Central. He said "Sacramento?" I said no, and told him a few hours south of San Francisco. So he says, "San Jose?" I was blown away. I was thinking if he knew about San Jose he had to know about Monterey so I said Monterey and he said, "Oh yeah. I know where that is. I've gone golfing quite a few times over there. Carmel is very nice." I couldn't believe it! What a small world! So he then he started to name off all these golf courses and such and we sort of talked about it. While on the wait, the conductor (or whoever he was) came on and told us that he has been given permission to take the train directly to Kings Cross! I was so excited! In fact, so was everyone on the train. We didn't have to get off.
Anyway, I arrived in Piccadilly 2 hours the time I was supposed to. I got off at Kings Cross, went to the ticket box to get an Oyster Card (knew the one I wanted and everything!), hopped onto the Tube and headed to Piccadilly Circus. I found the hostel with some guess work. I checked in and paid for the room and all. The room is SMALL. There's a double bunk bed. You know the type with the double bed on the bottom and the twin at the top. A small walkway, sink, small closet, window, and a type of shelf in it.
After dropping all my stuff off, I went and walked around Piccadilly just to walk around. I happened upon Leicster Square and walked to it about 4 different ways. Mo called me telling me they got out of seeing OotP and would meet me back at the hostel, which we did. Then we all went out to dinner.
After dinner, there was talk of seeing Wicked, but I had said I didn't want to spend more than £15 (~$30). In L Square the cheapest earlier in the day was £18.50. We decided to go from Laurie's hotel to see if there were any tickets left at the box office. The show was completely sold out. We ended up with 2 tickets for a total of £20, which we gave to Laurie and Kelly. Laura and Mo had talked about "stalking" Orlando Bloom. Turns out, he's doing a play here in London called The Celebration and some girls had stopped by at night and gotten his autograph. So Laura, Mo, and I decided we wanted to go do that! Why not? LoL
We stopped by Borders to get a LotR book for him to sign and I also picked up the new Jasper Fforde book First Among Sequels since it was out (came out a month before the US, though it's now out in the US) and they had signed copies in the bookstores in London since he's from Wales. Anyway, we walked to the theater around 9:30pm and waited till about 10:30pm. We were second guessing ourselves and all that, but a lady walked his dog out (how cute is that?) and put him in the car and the bodyguards told us to not surge Orlando and that he would only be signing programs and tickets for The Celebration. Well, we put our books away, got our cameras out, and got out the little card/flyer thingy we had picked up to see if he'd sign it.
He came! I have some pretty good pictures of him in the mayhem and he was signing the card/flyer thingy, butI had turned my attention away to check my camera and missed the moment to put the card in his face. LoL Then I walked away thinking he wasn't coming back in my direction and he did! Oh well. It was absolutely fun - total adrenaline rush. It wasn't one of those "OH MY GOSH, ORLANDO!!!!!" things. It was the same type of feeling of standing in line 6 hours before HP or PotC comes out at midnight. It was just fun. We also stood in line with a girl who was from the states and she took some video of him and got her program signed. The funny part about that was the fact she didn't realize it! Her friend told her she got hers signed and the girl next to me told me she didn't get hers signed. Her friend said, "I thought he did." So she checks her program and sure enough - he signed it! It was pretty neat to see and Orlando was just so nice. He would ask people how they were, did they like the play, etc. He just seemed like a really nice guy.
With that said, Mo and I bought tickets for the 7:30pm play tonight for £13.50 (discount ticket place). LoL We're going to try and have him sign the program tonight and if not, maybe tomorrow or I can try Thursday night since Mo leaves Thursday afternoon. LoL You never know!
Today we went and had breakfast, went to get our tickets for the show tonight, and went to see the London Tower. Mo and I think the London Tower was neat, but Edinburgh Castle was better. Plus, the tickets were cheaper at the Castle than the Tower. As we were walking back to the tube entrance, we ran across a clothing line - Next - filming for their fall/winter line of clothing. It was kind of neat! There were cameras and everything in this park and street. We took pictures of it.
We had lunch there and now we're back in Leicster Square. We'll go to the play tonight and then tomorrow we're going to head to the Natural Science Museum (where Jo was on Friday night) and walk around those museums there. I want to see an exhibit at the Natural Science Museum on Antarctica.
Overall, London is nice. I liked the area the London Tower was in more than Piccadilly. It's just TOO much of a city for me and absolutely crazy. There are people EVERYWHERE and you're constantly having to dodge them. The people friendliness can vary too. It's just so different from being at Kate's and Edinburgh. I absolutely loved Edinburgh. I would love to go back and tour around Scotland more (Glasgow for one). The people were so friendly and I loved the atmosphere. London is nice, but Piccadilly is just insane. I may like it more if I wasn't such in the center of London. Also, everywhere is so expensive here! The exchange rate is just killing me.
My cold is doing better. I don't feel as bad as I did before so I should be over it by the time I get home. The rain has cleared up too. It's the first nice day we've had since I've been here. Granted, it didn't rain Wednesday and Thursday, but it wasn't sunny weather. It's actually kind of bright today. Yesterday and Saturday in Edinburgh it just rained and rained. Saturday wasn't too bad, but yesterday wasn't all that fun.
Oh! I forgot to mention. While standing in line to buy our tickets today, a guy with his daughter asked me about my shirt which is my Monterey Bay Aquarium Student Oceanography Club shirt and he asked me if I was from there. I told him yes and he's from Watsonville! Who would have thought! He and his daughter are visiting friends (and family?) in Spain for a few weeks and made a 4 day stop in London on the way. It is just a SMALL world.
Last note before I go. Our hostel is on the 7th floor and the elevator can basically only hold 4 people (it's SO small). I must say, I am SO TIRED of stairs! Going through the Tower today had lots of those small, circular stairs and then the hostel which its 7 flights of stairs, stairs are just screwing with me now. I've been acting like I've felt like I've missed a step or seeing double of stairs more often of late. It's kind of scary, but also kind of funny because stairs are just NOT fun. So Mo and I sort of avoid going back to the hostel since we have to go up the stairs or go up the tiny elevator. :P
Okay, with that, I should be off.
Anyway, I left Monday morning from Kate's to get to the Grantham train station to catch the train there to London Kings Cross. Well, I got there about 10 minutes before my train was supposed to leave, I got my tickets and walked out onto the platform. It said "cancelled" for my train! In fact, all the trains that were going to London Kings Cross and Doncaster were cancelled. As it turned out, some lines went down and the "light trains" or electric trains on that line couldn't run! So I panicked and called Kate who was about 10 minutes away after she dropped me off. Her and Nancy were going to go watch PotC: At World's End since they hadn't seen it yet. I went to the ticket office and asked and they said I could take the train from Peterborough to Stevenage to London Kings Cross. If it wasn't for the fact I had the hostel for that night and Mo in London, I may have just stayed at Kate's another day, but I had to go so I said it was okay. When Kate arrived I told her and we said bye again. I got onto the train, which was 30 minutes late (was supposed to leave at 11:40 or something) and it arrived around 12:15pm. I got on it and got off at Peterborough and then there was a mad dash to the platform for the one to get to Stevenage because the train to Peterborough was PACKED!! I was very thankful it was only a 20 minute ride because I had to stand. I got a seat on the train to Stevenage, which was a diesel train, and we stopped for a good 10 minutes just sitting there (not sure why, they told us but I couldn't understand). Well, while sitting on the train, I got to know the British guy sitting next to me. He was older and asked where I was from and I said California. He asked where, so I said Central. He said "Sacramento?" I said no, and told him a few hours south of San Francisco. So he says, "San Jose?" I was blown away. I was thinking if he knew about San Jose he had to know about Monterey so I said Monterey and he said, "Oh yeah. I know where that is. I've gone golfing quite a few times over there. Carmel is very nice." I couldn't believe it! What a small world! So he then he started to name off all these golf courses and such and we sort of talked about it. While on the wait, the conductor (or whoever he was) came on and told us that he has been given permission to take the train directly to Kings Cross! I was so excited! In fact, so was everyone on the train. We didn't have to get off.
Anyway, I arrived in Piccadilly 2 hours the time I was supposed to. I got off at Kings Cross, went to the ticket box to get an Oyster Card (knew the one I wanted and everything!), hopped onto the Tube and headed to Piccadilly Circus. I found the hostel with some guess work. I checked in and paid for the room and all. The room is SMALL. There's a double bunk bed. You know the type with the double bed on the bottom and the twin at the top. A small walkway, sink, small closet, window, and a type of shelf in it.
After dropping all my stuff off, I went and walked around Piccadilly just to walk around. I happened upon Leicster Square and walked to it about 4 different ways. Mo called me telling me they got out of seeing OotP and would meet me back at the hostel, which we did. Then we all went out to dinner.
After dinner, there was talk of seeing Wicked, but I had said I didn't want to spend more than £15 (~$30). In L Square the cheapest earlier in the day was £18.50. We decided to go from Laurie's hotel to see if there were any tickets left at the box office. The show was completely sold out. We ended up with 2 tickets for a total of £20, which we gave to Laurie and Kelly. Laura and Mo had talked about "stalking" Orlando Bloom. Turns out, he's doing a play here in London called The Celebration and some girls had stopped by at night and gotten his autograph. So Laura, Mo, and I decided we wanted to go do that! Why not? LoL
We stopped by Borders to get a LotR book for him to sign and I also picked up the new Jasper Fforde book First Among Sequels since it was out (came out a month before the US, though it's now out in the US) and they had signed copies in the bookstores in London since he's from Wales. Anyway, we walked to the theater around 9:30pm and waited till about 10:30pm. We were second guessing ourselves and all that, but a lady walked his dog out (how cute is that?) and put him in the car and the bodyguards told us to not surge Orlando and that he would only be signing programs and tickets for The Celebration. Well, we put our books away, got our cameras out, and got out the little card/flyer thingy we had picked up to see if he'd sign it.
He came! I have some pretty good pictures of him in the mayhem and he was signing the card/flyer thingy, butI had turned my attention away to check my camera and missed the moment to put the card in his face. LoL Then I walked away thinking he wasn't coming back in my direction and he did! Oh well. It was absolutely fun - total adrenaline rush. It wasn't one of those "OH MY GOSH, ORLANDO!!!!!" things. It was the same type of feeling of standing in line 6 hours before HP or PotC comes out at midnight. It was just fun. We also stood in line with a girl who was from the states and she took some video of him and got her program signed. The funny part about that was the fact she didn't realize it! Her friend told her she got hers signed and the girl next to me told me she didn't get hers signed. Her friend said, "I thought he did." So she checks her program and sure enough - he signed it! It was pretty neat to see and Orlando was just so nice. He would ask people how they were, did they like the play, etc. He just seemed like a really nice guy.
With that said, Mo and I bought tickets for the 7:30pm play tonight for £13.50 (discount ticket place). LoL We're going to try and have him sign the program tonight and if not, maybe tomorrow or I can try Thursday night since Mo leaves Thursday afternoon. LoL You never know!
Today we went and had breakfast, went to get our tickets for the show tonight, and went to see the London Tower. Mo and I think the London Tower was neat, but Edinburgh Castle was better. Plus, the tickets were cheaper at the Castle than the Tower. As we were walking back to the tube entrance, we ran across a clothing line - Next - filming for their fall/winter line of clothing. It was kind of neat! There were cameras and everything in this park and street. We took pictures of it.
We had lunch there and now we're back in Leicster Square. We'll go to the play tonight and then tomorrow we're going to head to the Natural Science Museum (where Jo was on Friday night) and walk around those museums there. I want to see an exhibit at the Natural Science Museum on Antarctica.
Overall, London is nice. I liked the area the London Tower was in more than Piccadilly. It's just TOO much of a city for me and absolutely crazy. There are people EVERYWHERE and you're constantly having to dodge them. The people friendliness can vary too. It's just so different from being at Kate's and Edinburgh. I absolutely loved Edinburgh. I would love to go back and tour around Scotland more (Glasgow for one). The people were so friendly and I loved the atmosphere. London is nice, but Piccadilly is just insane. I may like it more if I wasn't such in the center of London. Also, everywhere is so expensive here! The exchange rate is just killing me.
My cold is doing better. I don't feel as bad as I did before so I should be over it by the time I get home. The rain has cleared up too. It's the first nice day we've had since I've been here. Granted, it didn't rain Wednesday and Thursday, but it wasn't sunny weather. It's actually kind of bright today. Yesterday and Saturday in Edinburgh it just rained and rained. Saturday wasn't too bad, but yesterday wasn't all that fun.
Oh! I forgot to mention. While standing in line to buy our tickets today, a guy with his daughter asked me about my shirt which is my Monterey Bay Aquarium Student Oceanography Club shirt and he asked me if I was from there. I told him yes and he's from Watsonville! Who would have thought! He and his daughter are visiting friends (and family?) in Spain for a few weeks and made a 4 day stop in London on the way. It is just a SMALL world.
Last note before I go. Our hostel is on the 7th floor and the elevator can basically only hold 4 people (it's SO small). I must say, I am SO TIRED of stairs! Going through the Tower today had lots of those small, circular stairs and then the hostel which its 7 flights of stairs, stairs are just screwing with me now. I've been acting like I've felt like I've missed a step or seeing double of stairs more often of late. It's kind of scary, but also kind of funny because stairs are just NOT fun. So Mo and I sort of avoid going back to the hostel since we have to go up the stairs or go up the tiny elevator. :P
Okay, with that, I should be off.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Money and Dates
Well...I found out my bank charges me a 10% "foreign transaction fee." Lovely. I guess they do have to do a conversion, but still! I also can't get an Oyster Card on-line. It says the starting date is on the 26th and I leave the 27th! So I'll have to spend a bit of time at Kings Cross and get one there (hopefully). If not, I'm buying a one-way ticket that costs £4 and I'll need another one for meeting up with everyone later too. So...I'll have to figure out something because I can't afford £4 for everytime I go onto the Tube! An Oyster card drops the charge quite a bit.
I'm hoping our hostel is fairly nice and we don't run into any problems. Apparently some of the other Leaky people had a LOT of troubles with the hostel they stayed at the last 3 nights in London. That is just a big bummer. So far we've had a really nice time of hostels. Castle Rock was really old (it would NOT pass any building code/inspections in the US, that's for sure), but it was cute and the location was fantastic. Piccadilly also has a great location, so I'm hoping it's also good!
Anyway, I must be off. We need to leave in a few for the train station! By golly, those train tickets cost a lot!
Oh, I've kept meaning to write this for a while now, I've got a dumb cold. So I'm hoping it goes away this week before I return home. Sleep seems to help it, but I get random amounts of that. :)
I'm hoping our hostel is fairly nice and we don't run into any problems. Apparently some of the other Leaky people had a LOT of troubles with the hostel they stayed at the last 3 nights in London. That is just a big bummer. So far we've had a really nice time of hostels. Castle Rock was really old (it would NOT pass any building code/inspections in the US, that's for sure), but it was cute and the location was fantastic. Piccadilly also has a great location, so I'm hoping it's also good!
Anyway, I must be off. We need to leave in a few for the train station! By golly, those train tickets cost a lot!
Oh, I've kept meaning to write this for a while now, I've got a dumb cold. So I'm hoping it goes away this week before I return home. Sleep seems to help it, but I get random amounts of that. :)
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Craziest Weekend Of Current Memory
You think I've written novels before, wait till you finish this post! Oh, on another note, there are NO BOOK SPOILERS. So it's safe for those reading the book to read this. :)
Okay, I last left off with the quickest post about Kate arriving, right? Let me get my head into the right day...Friday.
Okay, Friday Maria and I woke up and went to get Kate at the train station. After we got Kate, we went to the post office so I could post my 2 post cards and get additional postage for some more (I have yet to post those...) and so Kate could get some medicine at Boots. We went to our hostel and dropped off our stuff and went to the castle.
The castle was interesting. We didn't go on our tour and didn't get the audio headset (£3 extra) so it was basically all us. We didn't get a map too (they didn't give us one!). We saw the crown jewels - absolutely amazing - and some other things. Kate and Marie put a coin into a well that's 34 meters deep. I was taking a picture of the well and Kate threw her coin in and I got a picture of the coin falling! Anyway, it was overall pretty neat. The view was the best part. It's at the highest part of Edinburgh and you could see all the way to the ocean. It was just fantastic.
After our stint through the castle, we went back to our hostel and changed into our "I solemnly swear..." t-shirts and went to the 1630 (I think it was) showing of OotP with Kate (first time) and Marie. Well, first off, I had my first experience of standing in the middle of a busy street! I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it was definitely interesting! Anyway, we watched the movie. I actually fell asleep during the climax of the movie. LoL I almost fell asleep earlier than that, but I made myself stay awake through a certain scene.
After the movie, we went and got dinner at Deacons Tavern. Food wasn't too bad. Then we walked down to Waterstones. There was already a line! In fact, 2 girls had started to line up at 11am! We were standing in line and Kate and Maria were getting bored and Kate still wasn't feeling too hot. I didn't mind standing in line and neither did Marie so we stood in line for about 2 hours while Kate and Maria went to the Balmoral (where Jo finished writing the book) and got Cosmos (one for themselves and one for Laurie and called her). A bit after 12am (15 after?) is when the first person with the book walked out of the store!! Apparently, the first 100 people or so got each book in a fairly nice orange bag that said "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on it. We got our books close to 1am! I called home, work, and we walked Marie to her hotel. Then Kate, Maria, and I went back to our hostel and called Laurie. Kate (with the British accent) read Laurie the first chapter. After that, we were off to reading (about 1-1:30am)!
I read till 6am, slept for 2.5 hours, woke up and read till 12:15pm. I took a shower and we left for The Elephant House to meet Marie at 1pm. It was Marie, Maria, and my 2nd time at being at Elephant House and Kate's first time, but we all agreed we needed to read part of the book at the place Jo first started writing the book. Well, we 4 ended up finishing it AT the Elephant House, which meant I was done by 5:30pm, Marie done by 8pm, Kate done by 10:30pm, and Maria by 10:40pm. The place closes at 11pm. :P I almost went nuts sitting around waiting for someone to finish the book so I could dicuss it with someone. Actually, when I finished the book I just closed it and stared out of the window for a bit. Kate, Marie, Maria, and a random guy who was sitting with us all looked at me. It was just surreal finishing it. After 15 minutes of just sitting there, I got up and left for about 45 minutes. I couldn't sit around and just needed to mull in my thoughts since I couldn't talk with anyone. I came back after that, ordered dinner and waited for the rest to finish the book. I ended up buying an Elephant House t-shirt.
The best things about reading the book at Edinburgh were being in Jo's hometown, having a view of the castle out of our window and knowing it was right there, hearing the bag pipes in the distance playing, being with 2 equally crazy Harry Potter fans that would understand if I burst into tears, gasped, or whatnot, being able to just lay in bed till all hours of the night or past morning to read, and, lastly, finishing the book at the place Jo first started writing the books.
Anyway, after we finished the book, we went back to the hostel, talked about it, and I zonked out around 12:30am. I had been going on 2.5 hours of sleep for 39 hours. Did I mention the first night at the hostel I slept 11 hours?! It was the first really good night of sleep I've had in the UK and I'm hoping tonight has the same thing happen!
Anyway, this morning check out time was at 10am so we got up at 8am and packed up. After we put our stuff into the luggage storage room at Castle Rock we walked down the OTHER end (all the way to the other end, in fact) of the Royal Mile (actually called Lawnmarket) and went to the Holyrood Palace. THAT was neat! We had muffins/tea/OJ/scones for breakfast (different stuff for the 3 of us) and got our ticket to the palace. It was cheaper thant he castle and they handed out "free" headsets. Without the headsets, I must admit, it would have been really boring. The palace has some amazing history and just elaborate stuff in it. You only really saw the 2nd floor and Mary of Scotts chambers. Other than that, it was mostly closed off, which makes sense since the palace is still used for the Queen.
After that, I asked if we could go to the post office so I could post my cards, but when we got there we all remembered it's SUNDAY! So I couldn't. We were going to go find a post box somewhere, but had to run by the train station to change Kate's ticket. Well, we arrived 5 minutes before Kate's train was supposed to leave and she couldn't change it then and buying a whole new ticket was WAY too much. So we did a 1 minute panic where Kate asked if I could carry her bag home on the train (I was leaving at 1600), we quickly found her platform, she gave us hugs, and she left. Thank goodness we went when we did! If she missed her train, that would have been a BIG bummer.
After that, Maria and I went to lunch at Bobby's Something. It was named after that dog that was a police dog or something and when his owner died, the dog stayed by the grave till it died (14 years). I guess Disney did a movie loosely based off of that. Anyway, that's where we ate because a few Leaky people tried to take us there earlier in the week, but it closed at 8pm! The food was great (the best so far). Maria and I were sitting there and saw a jacket that looked like Marie's and I said wouldn't it be funny if we ran into her today? Well, we were finishing up our food and guess who walks in - Marie! So she ordered and since Maria and I had nothing to do we sat with her and talked about the book some more. A bit after 3 we went back to Castle Rock to get our stuff and we went to the train station where I caught my train and Maria was going up to the bridge to catch a bus to the airport to catch her plane (a couple hours early).
I caught the train, tried to snooze, got off at Doncaster, waited for 15 minutes and got back onto the train at the same platform as I had gotten off to go to Grantham. Kate met me there and I'm now at her house.
Tomorrow I leave for London on a train from Grantham to Kings Cross (I need to find someone to take my picture there...) and the tube from Kings Cross to Piccadilly Circus where I will walk the few minutes to my hostel, meet up with Moriah, and check-in! I'll be in London till I leave this Friday the 27th. I'll try to update while I'm in London, but we'll see since I won't have easy accessibility to a computer and have to buy time on the computers at the hostel. Now that I've said that, I'll probably do it for sure. LoL
I've got loads of pictures (I'm at almost 250 pictures, though at least 30 will be deleted since they're bad ones and I just didn't delete them and just retook them). :P
With that, I must buy my train ticket and tube Oyster card and go to bed since I'm started to feel dreadfully tired.
Laters!
Okay, I last left off with the quickest post about Kate arriving, right? Let me get my head into the right day...Friday.
Okay, Friday Maria and I woke up and went to get Kate at the train station. After we got Kate, we went to the post office so I could post my 2 post cards and get additional postage for some more (I have yet to post those...) and so Kate could get some medicine at Boots. We went to our hostel and dropped off our stuff and went to the castle.
The castle was interesting. We didn't go on our tour and didn't get the audio headset (£3 extra) so it was basically all us. We didn't get a map too (they didn't give us one!). We saw the crown jewels - absolutely amazing - and some other things. Kate and Marie put a coin into a well that's 34 meters deep. I was taking a picture of the well and Kate threw her coin in and I got a picture of the coin falling! Anyway, it was overall pretty neat. The view was the best part. It's at the highest part of Edinburgh and you could see all the way to the ocean. It was just fantastic.
After our stint through the castle, we went back to our hostel and changed into our "I solemnly swear..." t-shirts and went to the 1630 (I think it was) showing of OotP with Kate (first time) and Marie. Well, first off, I had my first experience of standing in the middle of a busy street! I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it was definitely interesting! Anyway, we watched the movie. I actually fell asleep during the climax of the movie. LoL I almost fell asleep earlier than that, but I made myself stay awake through a certain scene.
After the movie, we went and got dinner at Deacons Tavern. Food wasn't too bad. Then we walked down to Waterstones. There was already a line! In fact, 2 girls had started to line up at 11am! We were standing in line and Kate and Maria were getting bored and Kate still wasn't feeling too hot. I didn't mind standing in line and neither did Marie so we stood in line for about 2 hours while Kate and Maria went to the Balmoral (where Jo finished writing the book) and got Cosmos (one for themselves and one for Laurie and called her). A bit after 12am (15 after?) is when the first person with the book walked out of the store!! Apparently, the first 100 people or so got each book in a fairly nice orange bag that said "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on it. We got our books close to 1am! I called home, work, and we walked Marie to her hotel. Then Kate, Maria, and I went back to our hostel and called Laurie. Kate (with the British accent) read Laurie the first chapter. After that, we were off to reading (about 1-1:30am)!
I read till 6am, slept for 2.5 hours, woke up and read till 12:15pm. I took a shower and we left for The Elephant House to meet Marie at 1pm. It was Marie, Maria, and my 2nd time at being at Elephant House and Kate's first time, but we all agreed we needed to read part of the book at the place Jo first started writing the book. Well, we 4 ended up finishing it AT the Elephant House, which meant I was done by 5:30pm, Marie done by 8pm, Kate done by 10:30pm, and Maria by 10:40pm. The place closes at 11pm. :P I almost went nuts sitting around waiting for someone to finish the book so I could dicuss it with someone. Actually, when I finished the book I just closed it and stared out of the window for a bit. Kate, Marie, Maria, and a random guy who was sitting with us all looked at me. It was just surreal finishing it. After 15 minutes of just sitting there, I got up and left for about 45 minutes. I couldn't sit around and just needed to mull in my thoughts since I couldn't talk with anyone. I came back after that, ordered dinner and waited for the rest to finish the book. I ended up buying an Elephant House t-shirt.
The best things about reading the book at Edinburgh were being in Jo's hometown, having a view of the castle out of our window and knowing it was right there, hearing the bag pipes in the distance playing, being with 2 equally crazy Harry Potter fans that would understand if I burst into tears, gasped, or whatnot, being able to just lay in bed till all hours of the night or past morning to read, and, lastly, finishing the book at the place Jo first started writing the books.
Anyway, after we finished the book, we went back to the hostel, talked about it, and I zonked out around 12:30am. I had been going on 2.5 hours of sleep for 39 hours. Did I mention the first night at the hostel I slept 11 hours?! It was the first really good night of sleep I've had in the UK and I'm hoping tonight has the same thing happen!
Anyway, this morning check out time was at 10am so we got up at 8am and packed up. After we put our stuff into the luggage storage room at Castle Rock we walked down the OTHER end (all the way to the other end, in fact) of the Royal Mile (actually called Lawnmarket) and went to the Holyrood Palace. THAT was neat! We had muffins/tea/OJ/scones for breakfast (different stuff for the 3 of us) and got our ticket to the palace. It was cheaper thant he castle and they handed out "free" headsets. Without the headsets, I must admit, it would have been really boring. The palace has some amazing history and just elaborate stuff in it. You only really saw the 2nd floor and Mary of Scotts chambers. Other than that, it was mostly closed off, which makes sense since the palace is still used for the Queen.
After that, I asked if we could go to the post office so I could post my cards, but when we got there we all remembered it's SUNDAY! So I couldn't. We were going to go find a post box somewhere, but had to run by the train station to change Kate's ticket. Well, we arrived 5 minutes before Kate's train was supposed to leave and she couldn't change it then and buying a whole new ticket was WAY too much. So we did a 1 minute panic where Kate asked if I could carry her bag home on the train (I was leaving at 1600), we quickly found her platform, she gave us hugs, and she left. Thank goodness we went when we did! If she missed her train, that would have been a BIG bummer.
After that, Maria and I went to lunch at Bobby's Something. It was named after that dog that was a police dog or something and when his owner died, the dog stayed by the grave till it died (14 years). I guess Disney did a movie loosely based off of that. Anyway, that's where we ate because a few Leaky people tried to take us there earlier in the week, but it closed at 8pm! The food was great (the best so far). Maria and I were sitting there and saw a jacket that looked like Marie's and I said wouldn't it be funny if we ran into her today? Well, we were finishing up our food and guess who walks in - Marie! So she ordered and since Maria and I had nothing to do we sat with her and talked about the book some more. A bit after 3 we went back to Castle Rock to get our stuff and we went to the train station where I caught my train and Maria was going up to the bridge to catch a bus to the airport to catch her plane (a couple hours early).
I caught the train, tried to snooze, got off at Doncaster, waited for 15 minutes and got back onto the train at the same platform as I had gotten off to go to Grantham. Kate met me there and I'm now at her house.
Tomorrow I leave for London on a train from Grantham to Kings Cross (I need to find someone to take my picture there...) and the tube from Kings Cross to Piccadilly Circus where I will walk the few minutes to my hostel, meet up with Moriah, and check-in! I'll be in London till I leave this Friday the 27th. I'll try to update while I'm in London, but we'll see since I won't have easy accessibility to a computer and have to buy time on the computers at the hostel. Now that I've said that, I'll probably do it for sure. LoL
I've got loads of pictures (I'm at almost 250 pictures, though at least 30 will be deleted since they're bad ones and I just didn't delete them and just retook them). :P
With that, I must buy my train ticket and tube Oyster card and go to bed since I'm started to feel dreadfully tired.
Laters!
Friday, July 20, 2007
It's almost here!!
I've been instructed not to write a novel as we're about to go and line up for the book, but a QUICK update.
We picked Kate up at the train station, we went through the castle, we went and saw OotP in theater with Kate and Marie, and walked back and saw "rock climbing bunnies." They were so CUTE!
Anyway, must be off now. Everyone have a good Deathly Hallows release!
We picked Kate up at the train station, we went through the castle, we went and saw OotP in theater with Kate and Marie, and walked back and saw "rock climbing bunnies." They were so CUTE!
Anyway, must be off now. Everyone have a good Deathly Hallows release!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Dinner at the Elephant Room
Back from dinner (or for about an hour now) and we went to the Elephant Room, which is the place that JK Rowling wrote the first book!! It was small, cute, and the food not too bad. It is a cafe, so nothing elaborate. We were told the seat/table she sat in while there too. We didn't sit near it or anything.
This is completely random, but the beef here tastes different. It's a different texture and slightly different in taste. It seems to be the norm, also, to have salads with VERY little dressing or none at all. I find it intriguing (don't mind it either) since you're ALWAYS asked what kind of dressing you want on your salad in the US (unless it's a pre-determined dressing, of course). The bacon is different too. It reminds me more of ham than the bacon I'm used to. It's quite nice, to be honest.
Anyway, Maria and I walked around Old Town Edinburgh after we got settled in the hostel. We walked around for some hours. I think we know most of Old Town pretty well now. We're waiting to do the castle till tomorrow since Kate arrives then. We're also going to go see OotP tomorrow and know the theater. We're going to see it before we go and "queue" up for the book at Waterstones. Man, walking up that hill back to our hostel at night is not going to be fun, but oh well. We'll have the book!
Coming back from walking with 1.5 hours till we met up with the Leaky people for dinner, we went back to the hostel (looking in the shops on the way). I fell asleep! So did Maria! We were to meet them at 8:30 at Deacons and Maria wakes me up at 8:25! Lucky for us the Deacon is really close to our hostel. We got there a few minutes late, not too bad.
The funny thing when coming back is Maria and I found out the lighting in our room in the hostel is not good at all. It won't be good for reading. Lucky for me I brought a booklight, but Maria and Kate will have to fight for the light from the one in the room. :P
Anyway, Maria just asked me if I'm writing another novel and we haven't done much since, so I probably should go.
This is completely random, but the beef here tastes different. It's a different texture and slightly different in taste. It seems to be the norm, also, to have salads with VERY little dressing or none at all. I find it intriguing (don't mind it either) since you're ALWAYS asked what kind of dressing you want on your salad in the US (unless it's a pre-determined dressing, of course). The bacon is different too. It reminds me more of ham than the bacon I'm used to. It's quite nice, to be honest.
Anyway, Maria and I walked around Old Town Edinburgh after we got settled in the hostel. We walked around for some hours. I think we know most of Old Town pretty well now. We're waiting to do the castle till tomorrow since Kate arrives then. We're also going to go see OotP tomorrow and know the theater. We're going to see it before we go and "queue" up for the book at Waterstones. Man, walking up that hill back to our hostel at night is not going to be fun, but oh well. We'll have the book!
Coming back from walking with 1.5 hours till we met up with the Leaky people for dinner, we went back to the hostel (looking in the shops on the way). I fell asleep! So did Maria! We were to meet them at 8:30 at Deacons and Maria wakes me up at 8:25! Lucky for us the Deacon is really close to our hostel. We got there a few minutes late, not too bad.
The funny thing when coming back is Maria and I found out the lighting in our room in the hostel is not good at all. It won't be good for reading. Lucky for me I brought a booklight, but Maria and Kate will have to fight for the light from the one in the room. :P
Anyway, Maria just asked me if I'm writing another novel and we haven't done much since, so I probably should go.
Edinburgh!
Maria and I are here! We're actually sitting in the lounge right now on her laptop. We're going to go see OotP tomorrow in theaters with Kate and also another Leaky person, Marie. We need to find a theater and time.
Anywho, I'm still having troubles adjusting to the time difference. I fell asleep last night around 10:30pm, which was good because I needed to be up around 5 am this morning so Trevor could take me to the train station (2-3 minutes away from their house) on his way to work at 6am. Well, I woke up at 2 am! One reason because I had to use the restroom (I didn't give in to it - LoL) the other because I had slept 4 hours - a normal nap time for me. I was starting back to sleep and about a half hour-45 minutes later my cell phone goes off. I kind of ignore it and check after it stoped and it said "Borders." I was thinking that work knows I'm in the UK so they shouldn't be calling me then I thought of all this stuff that maybe was wrong. I decided to ignore it anyway and get it when I was more awake. Well an hour later (almost asleep again!), the phone rings AGAIN and it says "Borders" so I decided to pick it up since they called twice. Well...I get this recording from Jim Dale reminding me to pick up my book tomorrow and to press 1 for how to pick up my book. I was NOT thrilled. I ordered the special edition and the regular edition so they called me twice. I almost thought they'd call me again because I ordered the audiobook too, but they didn't. Anyway, I fell back to sleep for a bit, but ended up waking up on my own close to 5am again and just decided to get up then.
I got to the train station and waited about a half hour. I was glad there were other people getting on because I don't think I'd have known how to get on. LoL First off, Heckington's station is so small they don't have a real crossing gate. A guy comes and moves these "fences" into place to block the road off and moves them back to clear the road. Anyway, the train came (2 cars) and it looks like BART, but it's much nicer inside (more like an Amtrek type). The thing is, you have to push a button to open the door. They don't open automatically. I didn't know that. It's the same for when you get off too. I paid for the fare on the train and had issues with my lovely GBP. I couldn't find a 50p, so I gave him £1, but accidentally put one back and it was just one of those "dumb foreigner" moments. :P At Grantham (30 minute ride) I got my tickets from there to Edinburgh Waverley. They never checked tickets the entire time I was on it. The train was nice (much bigger) and it took you along the country (absolutely amazing, when I could see it (lots of trees along the track)) and even along the coastline when you got closer to Edinburgh. The coastline reminds me a lot of Monterey, except it's not as rocky. I didn't sleep on the train at all, so I'm a bit knackered at the moment, but fairing well. The ride ws pleasant and that's the important thing.
I got to Edinburgh around 11:15 am and saw signs for Waverley Bridge and Princes Street. I had put directions on my cell phone and thought I could use them from Princes Street since that's where we're getting our book from and all that. Turns out, I couldn't. Lucky enough there's the tourist information booth close to where I came out and I found another map along the way and figured it out. I got to the hostel without getting lost or having to turn around. I was amazed! Turns out, now knowing where I was supposed to go, I skipped over the Waverley Bridge and went to the next road (further away) to Mound. It meant I went a lot farther, but oh well. After checking my stuff into the hostel, I walked back to the train station since Maria was coming in soon. I walked around, went into Waterstones, went into the tourist place again, into a few shops, saw the Balmoral hotel (where Jo finished writing the books), and walked along North Bridge. I eventually made it my goal to find Waverley Bridge and when I did, I noticed the bus from the airport stopped there and after 5 minutes of waiting, Maria showed up! It was perfect timing. We walked back to the hostel (all up hill, did I mention that?). We dropped off her stuff and met Moriah and Marie (Leaky people) so we could meet up with some more Leaky people for lunch. We went to the At World End tavern. There was 8 of us in this small pub. It was kind of funny. The food was pretty good.
After lunch, we walked back to Castlerock so we could check in. We switched from a 4 bed to a 3 bed room, which saves us money and the lady said the room was much nicer anyway. Well...we like our little (it's little!) room! It's on the top floor (3rd floor) and it has a VERY nice view of the castle and a sky window that opens up and we can actually see over and out across the way from the hostel. It's nice. It's the "Matrix" room. I must admit, it's a wee bit scary walking up the stairs and hallway to the room. The floorboards aren't the straightest and creak and (I'm sure) one felt like it gave or shifted underneath my foot, but it's still a nice room and excellent location.
Well, I should go. We need to look up movie times, walk around, and then meet up for dinner at 8:30 with the Leaky peeps again. Most of them are taking an overnight train tonight for London.
Oh, I almost forgot, last night Kate's family and I went out for dinner at the Tally Ho pub. It's in the country (the countryside in the UK is AMAZING!) and it was fun. Nancy, Kate's oldest, drew me a picture of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. :) Ellie was a bit cranky, but Kate has two cute girls.
Last thing. The buildings in Edinburgh are really cool. You just don't see buildings like these in the States and it's a got a city feeling too. So it's just different. I'll probably end up taking loads of pictures and (yes, Kristi) I did take pictures of our little hostel room and the view from it! I should have taken pictures of Nancy's room (it's also cute). Maybe I'll do that Sunday when I go back to Kate's.
All for now.
Anywho, I'm still having troubles adjusting to the time difference. I fell asleep last night around 10:30pm, which was good because I needed to be up around 5 am this morning so Trevor could take me to the train station (2-3 minutes away from their house) on his way to work at 6am. Well, I woke up at 2 am! One reason because I had to use the restroom (I didn't give in to it - LoL) the other because I had slept 4 hours - a normal nap time for me. I was starting back to sleep and about a half hour-45 minutes later my cell phone goes off. I kind of ignore it and check after it stoped and it said "Borders." I was thinking that work knows I'm in the UK so they shouldn't be calling me then I thought of all this stuff that maybe was wrong. I decided to ignore it anyway and get it when I was more awake. Well an hour later (almost asleep again!), the phone rings AGAIN and it says "Borders" so I decided to pick it up since they called twice. Well...I get this recording from Jim Dale reminding me to pick up my book tomorrow and to press 1 for how to pick up my book. I was NOT thrilled. I ordered the special edition and the regular edition so they called me twice. I almost thought they'd call me again because I ordered the audiobook too, but they didn't. Anyway, I fell back to sleep for a bit, but ended up waking up on my own close to 5am again and just decided to get up then.
I got to the train station and waited about a half hour. I was glad there were other people getting on because I don't think I'd have known how to get on. LoL First off, Heckington's station is so small they don't have a real crossing gate. A guy comes and moves these "fences" into place to block the road off and moves them back to clear the road. Anyway, the train came (2 cars) and it looks like BART, but it's much nicer inside (more like an Amtrek type). The thing is, you have to push a button to open the door. They don't open automatically. I didn't know that. It's the same for when you get off too. I paid for the fare on the train and had issues with my lovely GBP. I couldn't find a 50p, so I gave him £1, but accidentally put one back and it was just one of those "dumb foreigner" moments. :P At Grantham (30 minute ride) I got my tickets from there to Edinburgh Waverley. They never checked tickets the entire time I was on it. The train was nice (much bigger) and it took you along the country (absolutely amazing, when I could see it (lots of trees along the track)) and even along the coastline when you got closer to Edinburgh. The coastline reminds me a lot of Monterey, except it's not as rocky. I didn't sleep on the train at all, so I'm a bit knackered at the moment, but fairing well. The ride ws pleasant and that's the important thing.
I got to Edinburgh around 11:15 am and saw signs for Waverley Bridge and Princes Street. I had put directions on my cell phone and thought I could use them from Princes Street since that's where we're getting our book from and all that. Turns out, I couldn't. Lucky enough there's the tourist information booth close to where I came out and I found another map along the way and figured it out. I got to the hostel without getting lost or having to turn around. I was amazed! Turns out, now knowing where I was supposed to go, I skipped over the Waverley Bridge and went to the next road (further away) to Mound. It meant I went a lot farther, but oh well. After checking my stuff into the hostel, I walked back to the train station since Maria was coming in soon. I walked around, went into Waterstones, went into the tourist place again, into a few shops, saw the Balmoral hotel (where Jo finished writing the books), and walked along North Bridge. I eventually made it my goal to find Waverley Bridge and when I did, I noticed the bus from the airport stopped there and after 5 minutes of waiting, Maria showed up! It was perfect timing. We walked back to the hostel (all up hill, did I mention that?). We dropped off her stuff and met Moriah and Marie (Leaky people) so we could meet up with some more Leaky people for lunch. We went to the At World End tavern. There was 8 of us in this small pub. It was kind of funny. The food was pretty good.
After lunch, we walked back to Castlerock so we could check in. We switched from a 4 bed to a 3 bed room, which saves us money and the lady said the room was much nicer anyway. Well...we like our little (it's little!) room! It's on the top floor (3rd floor) and it has a VERY nice view of the castle and a sky window that opens up and we can actually see over and out across the way from the hostel. It's nice. It's the "Matrix" room. I must admit, it's a wee bit scary walking up the stairs and hallway to the room. The floorboards aren't the straightest and creak and (I'm sure) one felt like it gave or shifted underneath my foot, but it's still a nice room and excellent location.
Well, I should go. We need to look up movie times, walk around, and then meet up for dinner at 8:30 with the Leaky peeps again. Most of them are taking an overnight train tonight for London.
Oh, I almost forgot, last night Kate's family and I went out for dinner at the Tally Ho pub. It's in the country (the countryside in the UK is AMAZING!) and it was fun. Nancy, Kate's oldest, drew me a picture of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. :) Ellie was a bit cranky, but Kate has two cute girls.
Last thing. The buildings in Edinburgh are really cool. You just don't see buildings like these in the States and it's a got a city feeling too. So it's just different. I'll probably end up taking loads of pictures and (yes, Kristi) I did take pictures of our little hostel room and the view from it! I should have taken pictures of Nancy's room (it's also cute). Maybe I'll do that Sunday when I go back to Kate's.
All for now.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Lincoln
My 2nd day here and I woke up at 6 am! That would be 10 pm in the US, which is probably why I woke up then. I just suddenly woke up after 6 hours of sleep. I'm a bit tired today and my bum still hurts, but I'm fairing pretty well.
Today Kate and I went to Lincoln to meet Trevor's mum, Margaret, there. Margaret is Kate's key to Harry Potter as she introduced her to the books and all. It's a cute town (or city since it has a cathedral, as Kate told me). I loved the buildings and the mix of architecture there since it's been around for so long. I took pictures of random places and buildings, but those won't get up till I get home. I forgot my cable to my camera.
We walked past Lincoln Cathedral and walked down "Steep Hill," which certainly lived up to its name when we walked back UP it. San Fran has some doozy of hills and such, but boy this hill was STEEP. We walked down and went into White Hart Hotel, where some of the cast and crew for the filming of Da Vinci Code stayed (i.e. Tom Hanks). We had tea/coffee there and biscuits. It was nice. The room Margaret informed he is the standard English looking room. After that we looked in a few shops and such as we walked down. We had lunch at this little cafe type place. Then when we walked back up we went through Lincoln Cathedral. It's really pretty. The sculpting is just amazing. I can't believe people made things like that before we had our modern day equipment and such. I picked up a postcard so I can send it to work in the hope it'll arrive before I get home (doubt it). I have to write on it and all that sometime today and get it mailed tomorrow.
I used/paid with my first BGP today too. I'm very thankful for the money Lindsay/Liz gave me and also making sure I had coins in every amount so I could familiarize myself with them a bit. I'm not too slow. :P
Tonight we're going out to dinner. Kate's stomach isn't happy with her today, so hopefully nothing too spicey or strong for her.
I bought my train tickets yesterday for Edinburgh and back. I almost wanted to kill the computer over it, but we got it worked out. It cost a bloomin' lot too. Well, more than I thought at least. I still have to get my ticket sorted for going to London on Monday. I should do that tonight so I can pick it up at Grantham since that's where I'm getting my ticket to/from Edinburgh. I know I'm also going to need to use the Underground to get from the train station to Piccadilly when I'm in London too. I also looked at the underground for which line I need to take to get to Heathrow. Lucky for me the line I need, Piccadilly, is near where I'm staying! So I'm thinking I'll check out of the hostel on Friday (at 11 or 10, I think it is) and just jump onto the underground at Piccadilly Circus and head to Heathrow. A travel book said it takes about 45 minutes to get to central London from Heathrow. I'll arrive really early, but it'll be fine. I have no clue where I'm going and I don't know about security, so I might as well pad it.
Anyway, with that I'm going to leave a link for the few pictures that Kate took and head off. Kate's pictures
ETA: I forgot! Tomorrow I leave for Edinburgh (EARLY - 6:30am train to Grantham from Heckington (practically walking distance from Kate's house). I arrive around 11:15am (stop/change in Grantham). Maria shows up about 30-45 minutes after I do, so it should be fun!
ETA2: We went into Waterstones today at Lincoln. They have a book I want! It's not out in the US yet (end of this month, I think). I like the cover and all that better than the US one (they also have ones signed by the author), but I can't pay full price for a book. LoL So I may hunt down the Borders in London and see if they have it. I brought a pay stub so I can get my 33% discount here. If they have it, I may buy it. I'm still trying to work out weight limitations as bringing home 3 Harry Potter books (mine, Laurie's, and my special edition) will weigh a LOT.
Today Kate and I went to Lincoln to meet Trevor's mum, Margaret, there. Margaret is Kate's key to Harry Potter as she introduced her to the books and all. It's a cute town (or city since it has a cathedral, as Kate told me). I loved the buildings and the mix of architecture there since it's been around for so long. I took pictures of random places and buildings, but those won't get up till I get home. I forgot my cable to my camera.
We walked past Lincoln Cathedral and walked down "Steep Hill," which certainly lived up to its name when we walked back UP it. San Fran has some doozy of hills and such, but boy this hill was STEEP. We walked down and went into White Hart Hotel, where some of the cast and crew for the filming of Da Vinci Code stayed (i.e. Tom Hanks). We had tea/coffee there and biscuits. It was nice. The room Margaret informed he is the standard English looking room. After that we looked in a few shops and such as we walked down. We had lunch at this little cafe type place. Then when we walked back up we went through Lincoln Cathedral. It's really pretty. The sculpting is just amazing. I can't believe people made things like that before we had our modern day equipment and such. I picked up a postcard so I can send it to work in the hope it'll arrive before I get home (doubt it). I have to write on it and all that sometime today and get it mailed tomorrow.
I used/paid with my first BGP today too. I'm very thankful for the money Lindsay/Liz gave me and also making sure I had coins in every amount so I could familiarize myself with them a bit. I'm not too slow. :P
Tonight we're going out to dinner. Kate's stomach isn't happy with her today, so hopefully nothing too spicey or strong for her.
I bought my train tickets yesterday for Edinburgh and back. I almost wanted to kill the computer over it, but we got it worked out. It cost a bloomin' lot too. Well, more than I thought at least. I still have to get my ticket sorted for going to London on Monday. I should do that tonight so I can pick it up at Grantham since that's where I'm getting my ticket to/from Edinburgh. I know I'm also going to need to use the Underground to get from the train station to Piccadilly when I'm in London too. I also looked at the underground for which line I need to take to get to Heathrow. Lucky for me the line I need, Piccadilly, is near where I'm staying! So I'm thinking I'll check out of the hostel on Friday (at 11 or 10, I think it is) and just jump onto the underground at Piccadilly Circus and head to Heathrow. A travel book said it takes about 45 minutes to get to central London from Heathrow. I'll arrive really early, but it'll be fine. I have no clue where I'm going and I don't know about security, so I might as well pad it.
Anyway, with that I'm going to leave a link for the few pictures that Kate took and head off. Kate's pictures
ETA: I forgot! Tomorrow I leave for Edinburgh (EARLY - 6:30am train to Grantham from Heckington (practically walking distance from Kate's house). I arrive around 11:15am (stop/change in Grantham). Maria shows up about 30-45 minutes after I do, so it should be fun!
ETA2: We went into Waterstones today at Lincoln. They have a book I want! It's not out in the US yet (end of this month, I think). I like the cover and all that better than the US one (they also have ones signed by the author), but I can't pay full price for a book. LoL So I may hunt down the Borders in London and see if they have it. I brought a pay stub so I can get my 33% discount here. If they have it, I may buy it. I'm still trying to work out weight limitations as bringing home 3 Harry Potter books (mine, Laurie's, and my special edition) will weigh a LOT.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
My butt will never recover
I MADE IT! 10 hours on an airplane (bit more than that) and I survived! My butt hurts really badly, my back and neck are cramped and sore, but I'm sitting in Kate's cute English house and have already gone through a thunderstorm, went to the post office, and picked her kid's up from school.
I'm severely sleeped deprived, so forgive me for any spelling and grammar mistakes (big ones). I have been up now for 24 hours and have had about 3 hours of sleep total between various short snoozes. I think my longest snooze was a bit more than hour on the plane.
Wait, I should start in order.
I got up around 8 am to call AT&T to activate my international calling plan. It took a bit, but I got it done. Then around 9 my mom and I left for my bank to deposit money and ask about about letting them know I'm going out of the country and not to close my account. Well, after spending about 15 minutes on a dumb phone tree TRYING to figure out how to talk to a real person, I finally did and they put a travel alert on my card so they wouldn't close it while I'm here (my primary source for money!). Mom and I drove to San Fran in seemingly record time and got food at BK and walked around this mall/shopping center. We went to the airport around 1 pm and I checked my luggage in and went to security. Went through security and found my gate fine. I sat on the 2nd floor watching my plane (Virgin Atlantic) arrive at the gate, get stocked, and all that. Then we boarded. I've never been on a 747 before and it was nice. The TV screens on the back of the seat, we had a little remote thingy so we could play games, watch various movies (LOTS of movies to choose from), and even some TV episodes. They also gave us "new" blankets, pillows, headphones, and little travel packs that had an eyemask, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, pen, and something else.
They originally filled Laurie's seat so I was going to be stuck in the middle between two guys, but the row in front (at an emergency exit) had only 1 person there so the guy in the window seat in my row moved to the row in front. So I moved to the window seat and the guy next to me (in the aisle) kept that seat and we used the middle seat as a holding all our junk or whatever seat. It worked out nice. He was very nice too, though we didn't talk much. He was going to London for business and thinks Harry will live!
The meals weren't bad. They started off with a drink and pretzels (replacing the peanuts). About an hour or 1.5 hours later they came around with the dinner meal. It was roast beef, chicken, or a pasta with rice and beans. The food was hot (I burned my tongue a bit), which was nice. I had the chicken with gravy, I think it was, and it was pretty good. They also gave you a small bottle of water, small glass for wine (if you wanted it for free - I turned it down), crackers and cheese, cup for tea or coffee, oreo cheesecake slice for dessert, a roll, a chocolate mint, a very nice paper napkin (it was really thick, which is why I noticed), and a salad with fetta, olives, a tomato (didn't eat that!) with Italian dressing on the side. Overall, the best meal I've had on a plane! I was hungry going on, but was full afterwards. For breakfast it was a hot cheese, egg, croissant thing (I had fallen asleep for a bit over an hour and couldn't bear to eat it, so I gave it to the guy sitting next to me who ate his breakfast in record time) with fresh fruit (really good), OJ, blueberry muffin, and cup for tea or coffee.
Because we had the screens in front of us to watch, I watched (or attempted to) The Prestige (Christian Bale, and some other very good actors), Catch and Release (I think that's what it's called, a romance movie with Jennifer Garner and some guy and the actress who plays Aunt Petunia is in it!), and I started to watch Casino Royale, which I've watched before. I started to watch an episode of CSI: NY, but we were about to land and lost out on that. I also listened to Kelly Clarkson's CD Breakaway about 10 times (to help me try to sleep and ignore all the noise behind me).
Overall, the plane flight was fine. I got up twice, endured two small children behind me, which one would scream/cry every once in a while and the other would kick my chair behind me a few times, and slept a bit. I mostly rested or rested in vain to try and sleep. It was funny because I had worked it out and thought if I could fall asleep at this one point, I could get about 6 hours of sleep. Well, of course, I didn't sleep through most of that (short snoozes). So then I started thinking I was going to fall asleep RIGHT before they serve breakfast and that's what happened. I jerked awake (for some reason) and they were just serving breakfast in my row. I couldn't go back to sleep after that. So it's 4:15pm here and I'm about to drop dead because I'm sleep deprived and my body is saying it's 8:15am back home.
Getting to/out of the airport was interesting. We had "traffic" so we circled for about 10 minutes and finally landed (not the most pleasant landing I've experienced, but not the worst either). Then it took us another 20 minutes to get OFF the plane (after taxi-ing around), then I had to go through customs (no problems there), which had a line, and then go to baggage claim which meant I stood waiting for my backpack to show up for about 25 minutes! It took FOREVER. Kate was there waiting at the end where you exit, though, so that was nice. It was a couple hour drive back to her home from the airport and I slept maybe another 30 minutes in the car.
We arrived at the house in a rain/thunderstorm which was fun for me! Kate didn't enjoy it so much, but she also lives here and I'm weather deprived coming from California and all that. :P The other neat thing about flying into London was I saw the most amazing clouds! They were so white and fluffy. I hadn't seen the likes of it before so it was fun to see.
We went to the girls' school to pick them up and went to the post office, so that was neat to see. She lives in the CUTEST village and there are some REALLY nice, cute houses around here. Driving on the other side of the road didn't bother me (just seemed backwards, but not "weird" (if that makes sense)) until we hit the 2-lane roads and the 2-lane roads with cars parked on either side. That's when it became weird. Though, I did try to get into the car on the wrong side when I first got to her car. LoL I even told myself a few minutes before hand not to do it and I did. I blame it on the lack of sleep! I haven't done it since!
With this long (as Kate puts it) "novel" I am going to go rest, I think. :)
I'm severely sleeped deprived, so forgive me for any spelling and grammar mistakes (big ones). I have been up now for 24 hours and have had about 3 hours of sleep total between various short snoozes. I think my longest snooze was a bit more than hour on the plane.
Wait, I should start in order.
I got up around 8 am to call AT&T to activate my international calling plan. It took a bit, but I got it done. Then around 9 my mom and I left for my bank to deposit money and ask about about letting them know I'm going out of the country and not to close my account. Well, after spending about 15 minutes on a dumb phone tree TRYING to figure out how to talk to a real person, I finally did and they put a travel alert on my card so they wouldn't close it while I'm here (my primary source for money!). Mom and I drove to San Fran in seemingly record time and got food at BK and walked around this mall/shopping center. We went to the airport around 1 pm and I checked my luggage in and went to security. Went through security and found my gate fine. I sat on the 2nd floor watching my plane (Virgin Atlantic) arrive at the gate, get stocked, and all that. Then we boarded. I've never been on a 747 before and it was nice. The TV screens on the back of the seat, we had a little remote thingy so we could play games, watch various movies (LOTS of movies to choose from), and even some TV episodes. They also gave us "new" blankets, pillows, headphones, and little travel packs that had an eyemask, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, pen, and something else.
They originally filled Laurie's seat so I was going to be stuck in the middle between two guys, but the row in front (at an emergency exit) had only 1 person there so the guy in the window seat in my row moved to the row in front. So I moved to the window seat and the guy next to me (in the aisle) kept that seat and we used the middle seat as a holding all our junk or whatever seat. It worked out nice. He was very nice too, though we didn't talk much. He was going to London for business and thinks Harry will live!
The meals weren't bad. They started off with a drink and pretzels (replacing the peanuts). About an hour or 1.5 hours later they came around with the dinner meal. It was roast beef, chicken, or a pasta with rice and beans. The food was hot (I burned my tongue a bit), which was nice. I had the chicken with gravy, I think it was, and it was pretty good. They also gave you a small bottle of water, small glass for wine (if you wanted it for free - I turned it down), crackers and cheese, cup for tea or coffee, oreo cheesecake slice for dessert, a roll, a chocolate mint, a very nice paper napkin (it was really thick, which is why I noticed), and a salad with fetta, olives, a tomato (didn't eat that!) with Italian dressing on the side. Overall, the best meal I've had on a plane! I was hungry going on, but was full afterwards. For breakfast it was a hot cheese, egg, croissant thing (I had fallen asleep for a bit over an hour and couldn't bear to eat it, so I gave it to the guy sitting next to me who ate his breakfast in record time) with fresh fruit (really good), OJ, blueberry muffin, and cup for tea or coffee.
Because we had the screens in front of us to watch, I watched (or attempted to) The Prestige (Christian Bale, and some other very good actors), Catch and Release (I think that's what it's called, a romance movie with Jennifer Garner and some guy and the actress who plays Aunt Petunia is in it!), and I started to watch Casino Royale, which I've watched before. I started to watch an episode of CSI: NY, but we were about to land and lost out on that. I also listened to Kelly Clarkson's CD Breakaway about 10 times (to help me try to sleep and ignore all the noise behind me).
Overall, the plane flight was fine. I got up twice, endured two small children behind me, which one would scream/cry every once in a while and the other would kick my chair behind me a few times, and slept a bit. I mostly rested or rested in vain to try and sleep. It was funny because I had worked it out and thought if I could fall asleep at this one point, I could get about 6 hours of sleep. Well, of course, I didn't sleep through most of that (short snoozes). So then I started thinking I was going to fall asleep RIGHT before they serve breakfast and that's what happened. I jerked awake (for some reason) and they were just serving breakfast in my row. I couldn't go back to sleep after that. So it's 4:15pm here and I'm about to drop dead because I'm sleep deprived and my body is saying it's 8:15am back home.
Getting to/out of the airport was interesting. We had "traffic" so we circled for about 10 minutes and finally landed (not the most pleasant landing I've experienced, but not the worst either). Then it took us another 20 minutes to get OFF the plane (after taxi-ing around), then I had to go through customs (no problems there), which had a line, and then go to baggage claim which meant I stood waiting for my backpack to show up for about 25 minutes! It took FOREVER. Kate was there waiting at the end where you exit, though, so that was nice. It was a couple hour drive back to her home from the airport and I slept maybe another 30 minutes in the car.
We arrived at the house in a rain/thunderstorm which was fun for me! Kate didn't enjoy it so much, but she also lives here and I'm weather deprived coming from California and all that. :P The other neat thing about flying into London was I saw the most amazing clouds! They were so white and fluffy. I hadn't seen the likes of it before so it was fun to see.
We went to the girls' school to pick them up and went to the post office, so that was neat to see. She lives in the CUTEST village and there are some REALLY nice, cute houses around here. Driving on the other side of the road didn't bother me (just seemed backwards, but not "weird" (if that makes sense)) until we hit the 2-lane roads and the 2-lane roads with cars parked on either side. That's when it became weird. Though, I did try to get into the car on the wrong side when I first got to her car. LoL I even told myself a few minutes before hand not to do it and I did. I blame it on the lack of sleep! I haven't done it since!
With this long (as Kate puts it) "novel" I am going to go rest, I think. :)
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Situations change...
It is 11:36 pm (PDT) and I will be getting up around 8am tomorrow to call AT&T to activate my international roaming then leaving at 9 am to head to my bank to deposit money and ask a few questions about using my card in the UK. Then, hopefully by 10 am, I will be off on the road to San Fran airport where I will be catching my flight - alone.
I've been holding out on saying this in the vain hope it wouldn't come true, but Laurie will not be able to go. It really devistated us all when we found out, not as much as her, but it really threw us all through a loop. Basically, Laurie's back is out of wack in such a way that she can't sit on a plane for 10 hours. I freaked out torn between worrying about her and myself. I think I've calmed down and have reworked some things and everything has worked out (thank God because some things fell into place almost perfectly), but I'm still really sad to know I can't travel with her and also a bit freaked I'm traveling out of country ON MY OWN for the first time. Just thinking about Laurie not being able to go brings tears to my eyes, but life will go on and we will do things in London/Edinburgh in her name! I may actually try a drink for her. :P
I finished packing tonight. I was able to get all my stuff into my travel backpack. I do have a carry on, but it's mostly empty (it will be holding all my souvenirs when I come home - LoL). Everything that is in it can fit into my backpack and the bag itself also, if I unzip the cover over the backpack straps. The backpack is HUGE on me (really tall). Wasn't my ideal as I'd rather have something wider than taller, but it was at a good price and had everything else I wanted so I went ahead with it. It weighs about 30 lbs (bit under). I think if I was staying longer I'd have packed a bit differently. In the way of doing laundry someplace, but I'm trying to avoid that since I'm only there 10 days. We'll see how that goes!
Looks like, also, instead of an overnight train back to London from Edinburgh I might be heading back on the train with Kate in Sunday the 22nd and stay at her house that night and head to London in the early morning (23rd). Taking an overnight train alone didn't sound terrific to me. :P
Anyway, with that, I must be off to do a few things before I can sleep, wake up, and head to the UK.
I've been holding out on saying this in the vain hope it wouldn't come true, but Laurie will not be able to go. It really devistated us all when we found out, not as much as her, but it really threw us all through a loop. Basically, Laurie's back is out of wack in such a way that she can't sit on a plane for 10 hours. I freaked out torn between worrying about her and myself. I think I've calmed down and have reworked some things and everything has worked out (thank God because some things fell into place almost perfectly), but I'm still really sad to know I can't travel with her and also a bit freaked I'm traveling out of country ON MY OWN for the first time. Just thinking about Laurie not being able to go brings tears to my eyes, but life will go on and we will do things in London/Edinburgh in her name! I may actually try a drink for her. :P
I finished packing tonight. I was able to get all my stuff into my travel backpack. I do have a carry on, but it's mostly empty (it will be holding all my souvenirs when I come home - LoL). Everything that is in it can fit into my backpack and the bag itself also, if I unzip the cover over the backpack straps. The backpack is HUGE on me (really tall). Wasn't my ideal as I'd rather have something wider than taller, but it was at a good price and had everything else I wanted so I went ahead with it. It weighs about 30 lbs (bit under). I think if I was staying longer I'd have packed a bit differently. In the way of doing laundry someplace, but I'm trying to avoid that since I'm only there 10 days. We'll see how that goes!
Looks like, also, instead of an overnight train back to London from Edinburgh I might be heading back on the train with Kate in Sunday the 22nd and stay at her house that night and head to London in the early morning (23rd). Taking an overnight train alone didn't sound terrific to me. :P
Anyway, with that, I must be off to do a few things before I can sleep, wake up, and head to the UK.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Final Preparations
Final itinerary
Monday, July 16th - Leave for the UK with flight out of SFO at 4:30
Tuesday - Arrive at 10:30 am. Kate meets us at the airport; stay at Kate's
Wednesday - Stay at Kate's
Thursday - EARLY train to Edinburgh; Maria arrives by plane a bit before noon; check into Castlerock; dinner with some Leaky staffers
Friday - Look around; Kate arrives; get in line for the BOOK
Saturday - Read, read, eat, read, read, look around, read, read, sleep
Sunday - Look around; leave for London on overnight train
Monday - Check into Piccadilly, look around London
Tuesday - Thursday - Look around London
Friday, July 27th - Leave for home on 3:15 pm flight out of Heathrow
I'm packing, trying to get things done. I have left a few things to the very last minute, though. Of course by accident, but definitely learning moments. I was going to sign up with AT&T's international roaming fee/charge/plan and I can't do that till Monday morning and I have to go to the bank on Monday morning to deposit money into my checking so I have money while I'm there. LoL I thought the international roaming thing was going to be automated, but it's not so I have to actually talk to someone and the office is closed. Bummer.
Anyway, I need to continue to pack and all that. I'm getting to the point of being ready to go. Course, I have to by Sunday night. LoL
Monday, July 16th - Leave for the UK with flight out of SFO at 4:30
Tuesday - Arrive at 10:30 am. Kate meets us at the airport; stay at Kate's
Wednesday - Stay at Kate's
Thursday - EARLY train to Edinburgh; Maria arrives by plane a bit before noon; check into Castlerock; dinner with some Leaky staffers
Friday - Look around; Kate arrives; get in line for the BOOK
Saturday - Read, read, eat, read, read, look around, read, read, sleep
Sunday - Look around; leave for London on overnight train
Monday - Check into Piccadilly, look around London
Tuesday - Thursday - Look around London
Friday, July 27th - Leave for home on 3:15 pm flight out of Heathrow
I'm packing, trying to get things done. I have left a few things to the very last minute, though. Of course by accident, but definitely learning moments. I was going to sign up with AT&T's international roaming fee/charge/plan and I can't do that till Monday morning and I have to go to the bank on Monday morning to deposit money into my checking so I have money while I'm there. LoL I thought the international roaming thing was going to be automated, but it's not so I have to actually talk to someone and the office is closed. Bummer.
Anyway, I need to continue to pack and all that. I'm getting to the point of being ready to go. Course, I have to by Sunday night. LoL
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Passport!
I got my passport on Saturday! YAY! Definitely not the greatest picture of me, but oh well. :)
That's one thing off the list. Now to figure out my packing situation (travel backpack or not?) and what to bring.
Laurie and I met for the first time on Friday in San Fran for the Live PotterCast. It was good to see her and meet her! The PotterCast was also fun.
2 weeks from this Monday (15 days) is when Laurie and I depart for Europe!
That's one thing off the list. Now to figure out my packing situation (travel backpack or not?) and what to bring.
Laurie and I met for the first time on Friday in San Fran for the Live PotterCast. It was good to see her and meet her! The PotterCast was also fun.
2 weeks from this Monday (15 days) is when Laurie and I depart for Europe!
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