Photos!

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. :)

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. :)

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.