My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean....?

So Kari and I are almost done with Edinburgh, tear. Today we took another free tour (!) and it was fact-filled and fun. Our tour guide, Helene, was a lively South African who came to visit last year and stayed indefinitely. We walked down Royal Mile, which is this long road that connects Holywood Palace to Edinburgh Castle. We went to a ton of very historical sites, like St. Giles Cathedral, Merca Cross, Grass Market and Grey Friar's Church, which were all very stoney and old. More importantly, though, we were able to see the school that inspired Hogwarts! It is now called the George and Harriet School, but was once a hospital/school for orphaned boys. We also saw the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the books. Ah, I love me some Harry Potter trivia, and thank you to Kari for bearing with me while I squirmed with glee... Another interesting story was that of the real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a man named Deacon Brodie. He was basically this rich, respectable Scot who had a double life of partying that put him into serious debt. In order to make up for this he began robbing his friends. One thing led to another and he ended up being hung by the same gallos that he had originally funded. Actually, now that I think of it, most of the stories ended with a death by hanging. Good times! After our tour we climbed to Calton Hill (which is where we are in the picture below with the great view), then we came back and made dinner, well I made dinner and Kari did an excellent job of eating it. Tomorrow morning we are taking a 7:30am flight to Prague so we are spending the night watching movies at our charming hostel. So far, so good!

(Also, it is true that drunken Scots sing "My Bonnie." My parents definitely used to sing this to me, so I was prepared! Thanks Mom and Dad for prepping me for this trip 20 years ago)

Pictures to show off.

I will leave everything exciting about our day to Kati later because she wanted to post something. I just wanted to put up some pictures, because I am having so much fun using my new camera. You're going to see a lot of Kati since she is my most often photographed subject.

Oh and also I wanted to share something funny I forgot to mention from London: Dirty Dancing, Lord of the Rings, and Gone With the Wind are all now musicals on the London stage. Interesting choices...can you imagine?

Well we made it to a new city, Edinburgh, but first let's go through the rest of London. Another side note that may cause disappointment: I forgot to mention that neither Kekik nor Yellow Cafe are still in existence. Sad. Anyways, we went on a free walking tour on Wednesday which covered three different palaces and a bunch of Royal stuff. Did you know: Buckingham Palace was originally just a house for the Duke of Buckingham but was sold to the Royal family in the 1700s for 28,000 pounds? The previous mayor of London gave pigeons birth control in Trafalgar Square to control their population? Captain Nelson (the guy in Trafalgar Square) died abroad and when his body was being shipped back to the UK, it was stored in a barrell of brandy; but the sailors got thirsty and drank it (hence the term "a stiff drink"). I won't bore you with anymore history lessons, but both of us actually wrote things down since it would otherwise be forgotten by now. We got some fish & chips for dinner and went to a pub called The Crown where we were hostily kicked out at 11pm (more like 11:20, hence the angry pub owner).



Today we took a train to Edinburgh, after being ripped off by the London tube (4 pounds for one way? Ridiculous, I am still bitter). We are staying in a nice little hostel in the New City called Bus Station Backpackers; it only has 18 beds and is very homey and cozy. We had lunch at Sainsbury (this is the smart thing to do: go to Tesco or Sainsbury and buy the sandwiches for 1.20 pounds and eat a 4 course meal for under $5). Our experience after lunch tested our strength and will power, because we, the laziest and most unathletic people, went on a hike. Yes. It is true. We hiked up this huge crag (think GUTS) to Arthur's Chair (only we didn't actually make it all the way to the top. We stopped and sat, which then killed our drive). But it was a very nice hike, because the weather is actually nice (shocking). Edinburgh is a very small city and very old. It's exciting because neither of us have been here, so we have things to explore. Tomorrow we will do another free tour (we are cheap) and tonight we are going on a pub crawl. Until sometime...adios.

And we're here!

After a sleepless night of packing Kari and Kati have arrived in London. Our first stop after checking into our hostel, which is rather lovely, was naturally Pizza Hut. The cheese was unlike that of the American kind and the crust melted in our mouths. Ok, maybe that's not entirely truthful but we were overtired, overhungry (?) and feeling cheap=plain medium deep dish. Problem solved.
But of course you don't want to hear about our fast-food dining experience! After 9 glorious hours of sleep, we woke up, ate breakfast and started our adventure. We went to the British Museum, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Big Ben, walked down the Thames, the Tate (blah), and rounded it up with a tour of where Kari used to live, complete with the Horseshoe, a Snakebite and Rosebury Kabob. *Warning: this next comment may upset many readers: PRINTWORKS NO LONGER SERVES LONG ISLAND PITCHERS. Gaaasssspppp. We were very disappointed. So tired, alone and cold, we dragged ourselves back to the hostel. Well, only the first is true because we are LOVING it here. Tomorrow we are going on a tour of the Royal crap, no big thing, we love history facts. Hope you all are missing us sufficiently because we are certainly thinking of you.

And we're OFF!

Well, we are out in 7 hours. It is currently midnight and we are in the midst of a packing frenzy (my worst nightmare). It seems very surreal that we are leaving, and is slightly unnerving, because it is just going to be us alone in foreign countries! Fortunately, the next week of weather looks good for the places we will be...sun in London is always a plus. Very exciting! I think we have everything taken care of, all security precautions and clothing for a multitude of climates.

This past week was graduation, so for those of you that don't know, it took place at Yankee Stadium on a gorgeous 75 degree sunny day. Michael Strahan and Michael J. Fox were present and Kati has a good picture.

Don't forget to send us comments and questions. We want to hear from the motherland!

One Week and COUNTING!

Phew. I just finished my last exam (of the semester, not of my life. Thanks Kari) and I am starting to get pumped for Europe! Not that I haven't been excited, but it's very hard to acknowledge that you are taking the trip of a lifetime when you are spending days in front of a computer trying to think of synonyms for 'film' and 'program' and 'therefore.' Needless to say, Kari and I are both very much done and are moving into the next phase, the Europa phase. I still need everything for the trip, ie. backpack, ATM card, plug adapter, clothes, etc, etc, but this will work itself out over the next seven days. For now, we are concentrating on securing jobs, moving, graduation and all that good stuff.  Attention friends and family: is there anything that we should bring that isn't obvious? Anything that we shouldn't bring? What books should we read? Anywhere that we should go in particular? And more importantly, any place we should eat?

Let us know! 

Kati

Kati and I are hopping the pond, prepping for a four-week Eurotrip '08. Currently, both of us are suffering from school-related stress and have no time to be social creatures, but that will end when I graduate and end school forever (sorry, Kati). Anyway, keep track of our journeys here. We will try to be diligent bloggers and hopefully Kati will mention something other than the bad pop culture that is "infiltrating her mind." Shoot us some love, comments, questions, suggestions, sarcasm, memories of America, whatever you fancy to keep our trip interesting.

Love fest begins in 16 (+ some) days.

Also, if the domestic is more your cup of tea, read about Colin's biking journey across America.