Some Statistics

Countries Slept In: 4

Cities Slept In: 9

Planes Flown On: 8

Trains Taken: 15

Busses Ridden: 17

Tube Lines Ridden: 6

Taxi Rides: 4

Security Passed: 7

Beds Slept In: 11

WiFis Used: 10

Scissors Confiscated: 1

Crying Phone Calls Home: 2

Day 25

It is the last real day of the trip. We leave the hotel at 6am tomorrow. I keep thinking of a line from one of my favorite movies, Withnail and I. "We've gone on holiday by mistake..." We're not doing much today. Its 11am and we're still in the hotel. Hannah is writing post cards. I'm trying to be patient. My feet hurt too much to want to walk around any more, but I'm also restless with all of Rome waiting outside my doorstep.

My tablet has been weird about charging since we've been here. I realized today I think it was the outlet I was usuning. It seems to be a lot better since I've changed it. But that's partially why updates have been scarce and I'm so far behind in posting pictures.

So tomorrow is flying all day. It's something like a 3 hour flight to Amsterdam, a 9 hour flight to Minneapolis, and then a 3 hour flight to KC. I'm trying not to stress about it but travel days always worry me a bit. Catching things on time and all that. But I'm checking my bag tomorrow so that will make everything easier. And we have an hour and a half between each flight which should be enough time to make the change. I hope. I'm choosing to believe it will all go smoothly and i will be in my house with both my dogs well before bedtime tomorrow night.

When the girl finishes her post cards we are heading out. She's going to bottle a little bit if the water from Trevi fountain for a friend of hers and i think I'll get some for my mom. I don't even remember where else we were going to walk, but it seems like we had some ideas. We haven't visited any churches or museums here, but I think we've seen all the good stuff. I wish we were going back to the forum but it costs so i kind of doubt we are. But who knows. We'll see.

I wish I had some email from home, but there's been plenty little of that. I don't think home gets how hard it is to be away for so long or how much little messages help.

I'm going to go do some stuff to help Hannah along.
See you tomorrow.

Day 19

I am cranky today. I haven't had many cranky days on this trip but this was one of them. I started to list all the things that made me vranky but that is unhelpful, so i deleted them.

We are in the lobby of our hostel. Its crowded but surprisingly quiet. Which is nice. Also Hannah just did something really nice for me and that was nice too. I think were in for the night. Its really cold today. We weren't quite prepared for it. And we couldn't find a lot of stuff to do, at least not without spending a lot of money. Its 8:30. Whichbisnt really too early to be done for the day because we have to be all packed up and ready to go by like 8am tomorrow. We have our Mad Max tour to some henges and some lovely quaint towns and then a quick exit out of town and back to Susan's. We hope quick. We'll see I guess. I hope it's warmer tomorrow, and i especially hope less pouring rain. It really came down at several points today.

One week from now we'll be on a plane home. You know I want to see Rome but we are so ready. We are worn out. At least we won't be cold in Rome. We might be too hot and sweaty but it seems like a nice change.

Wow. A giant group of maybe 20 teen agers just showed up. I think that's my cue to go to my room!

I still haven't written about London, have I? I am way behind. I may never catch up, but I will try.

First I'll tell you I am in the kitchen at the YMCA hostel in Bath. Hannah and I got here after a long boring train ride from Chichester and a wee hike from the train station. I forgot to download my directions while at Susan's and was proud of myself for remembering the way here from last time. I was pleased to find it was a lot closer than I remembered. We had a lovely dinner of sammies, chips, fruit and soda provided by Susan and now were enjoying the free wifi while a bunch of Spanish girls char loudly. The wifi here is free, but not in the rooms. The hostel is pretty nice. Second best after the Caledonia Backpackers in Edinburgh.

The trip from Edinburgh to London was long and a little hectic. I wasn't exactly sure how to get from Heathrow to the city, and by the time we made it in it was late and crowded (Friday night). I
It was really warm out, especially after Scotland and it was practically a furnace in the subway (Tube). I was red faced and sweaty by the time we made it to the hostel, and then we had to climb a thousand steps to our teeny tiny room. I'll save the hostel review for a post later, but we did not love it. We rested up and made it back down to the lobby to pay a pound for 20 minutes of internet and then head out for dinner and a look about. We bought some groceries and ate them in some square before heading down for a look at the lights and the river from the Millennium Bridge. Then we went back and seriously crashed out.

Until the next morning when the bells woke me up. Eventually I got Hannah up and out towards the British museum. We spent 4 hours there and didn't even see half of it. It was fantastic. We didn't know what to do next for sure, and we didn't know exactly where we were, but lucky for us there were lots of maps about. We found a Marks & Spencer across the street from a tube stop and I bought a shirt to try to replace my lost shirt. We took the tube to see Parliament, heard Big Ben chime, ate some sammies at Cafe Nero (and found dome free wifi!), saw Westminster Abbey (but didn't go inside because it was closing), bought some cold medicine (day nurse) at Boots, walked down Whitehall to Trafalgar Square and then headed back to the hostel for a quick rest and change of clothes before we met the London Walks guide for a ghost tour of our area. We learned many creepy things, including that we were staying right down the road from the barber shop of Sweeny Todd himself. I enjoyed it but Hannah didn't find it ghosty enough I don't think.

The next day was Sunday so we headed off to Hyde Park for Speaker's Corner. It was insanely crowded on the tube, and maybe even more so in the park! There was some free concert and a 5k run, so Speaker's corner wasn't even happening. Big drag. We didn't even really enjoy the park. Bad choice all around. We were right on Oxford St so Hannah wanted to do some shopping. She bought a few things at H & M. We headed off to the tube stop for the Harry Potter walking tour and almost missed it because I had the wrong time in mind. We missed the first stop, which was Gringotts Bank, but rushed to catch up with them at the next stop. I didn't really love it. It was rushed and covered a huge area with tons of walking. There was too much about other movies, not enough HP talk, and the guide said Rowling wrong. It ended up in the middle of some Thames Fare going on along the river and I could not even bare how crowded it was. I thought I was about to have a freak out panic attack at a couple points but we finally made it back to the hostel where we hurriedly packed up, checked out, took a couple tubes trains to Waterloo station where we caught a train to Oxshott where my cousin Pam and her family lived.

They picked us up at the station, took us to their home and fed us some dinner. I had a marvelous shower. We slept great that night and decided to take the whole day off on Monday and rested up. Which was great and not great at the same time. We definitely needed the rest, but it turned out that there were so many things in London we didnt get to do that we really wished we would have had that extra day in the city.

Even though Hannah slept almost all day Monday, it was really hard to get her up and going Tuesday morning. It was almost 1 by the time we made it to the Tower of London. We stayed there til they closed, and then took the Jack the Ripper tour from the Tower Hill tube stop. We meant to take the London Walks tour but we weren't really on about the company after our other two walks, and then another guy showed up about 45 minutes earlier offering a different Jack the Ripper walk and we decided to go with him. We were really glad we did. H loved it, and even though I don't care about Jack the Ripper I found the tour very interesting. Because our guide was great. His name was Chris and he spent his days as a Beefeater at the Tower of London as the Raven keeper. It was super late by the time we made it back to Oxshott by Pam and Alex were so great they stayed up to give us a ride home from the train station.

And then it was our last day in London already! Instead of going into the city proper we took the train to Hampton Court. We loved it bunches. I think it was the best done of all the places we toured. We got there an hour after they opened and stayed almost till they kicked us out. We made it back to Oxshott just in time to walk across the field from the train station before it got dark, which was good because no one was around to pick us up that night. We had some dinner and packed up our suitcases. We enjoyed some internet and i called home for a bit. I tried to stay up til Pam got home but kept dozing off. But I woke up when she got there so we could say goodbye. They were up and out early the next morning and we were out hiking across the field with our luggage not much longer on the way to take the train to Susan's at Havant. Which you pronounce like 'haven't, not like huh-vant they way I'd think if it were American.

So that was London. Fast and furious, except the one day it wasn't.
I'm typed out for tonight. Maybe I can sum up our time around Chichester tomorrow when I wake up too early and can't get Hannah out of bed. Tomorrow is the Roman baths and a general looking around this beautiful ancient town.
Xox

One thing I forgot about Scotland - after lunch at the elephant house we stopped by the statue and graveyard of the little dog known as grayfriar's bobby. It started raining though so we didn't stay long.

Now we are my friend Jen's sister's house which I think is in Aldsworth. There are a million little towns and villages around here so I'm neverexactlysure where we are, but they're all around Chichesterbwhere Jen used to live.

Yesterday we took the train here from Pam's house outside London, so goodbye to London. We really didn't have nearly enough time there to do everything we wanted. Not even close really. We both half regret the day we took off and slacked about at Pam's but on the other hand we really needed a good rest. We will be back there for a few hours between Bath and Rome, but most of twill be sleeping and not really long enough to get anything seen.

So Susan met us at the airport yesterday, brought us back to her house for some lunch and then into Chichester to see Jennifer and have a bit of a walk around town. We saw the cathederal,  stopped in a couple shops (where I wanted to buy lots of stuff), had cake and coffee at Jen's favorite place, played at the park and walked along a bit of the Roman wall. Chichester started as a Roman town. I love that. Can't find any of those in Kansas.

Today we are waiting on the horse people to show up at the horse farm across the road. Hannah is hoping she'll be able to ride one. We hung out with the horses for a while last night and fed them lots of apples. After that I think we're visiting the castle at Arundel, visiting Jen's other sister Caroline, and later having a big dinner with a few of Jen's friends. Tomorrow we'll visit Jen's beloved open air museum before we take an evening train to Bath.

OK we're off. More later.

Catch up: all about Scotland

I'm far behind on telling you about what we've been up to. I have time today so I'm going to try to catch up. I hope I can keep it all straight!

We made it to Scotland and took the super efficient air link bus to our hostel. The Caledonia backpackers was the hostel I was most unsure about and it turned out to be the very most fantastic. It was big and beautiful. The desk people were helpful and friendly. There was strong wifi in our room and a million computers all around. We headed out to get some food and afterward ended up walking all around, along princess street and up the mound to the royal mile. Man that was a hike! But it was beautiful up there. We were in love with Scotland.

The next day we slept in a bit and then walked to the train station to hop aboard one of the many hop on hop off busses. We paid one price and were able to us any of the different tour busses throughout the day. First we took the full tour around the city, and then got off at the national museum. I think Hannah liked it more than I did, and I think we somehow managed to miss a binch of stuff. Afterward we wandered around looking for the cafe where jk Rowling sat to write harry potter. There was a kids bday party going on and it was way too crowded. We were starving and they were mostly out of food so we split something and moved on without getting the real effect. I can't even remember what we did next but I'm sure we got some real food at some point. We rode our way up to the castle but didn't go inside. I was cold and starting to feel sick. We had planned to go on an 8pm ghost tour but met up with a guy from mercat tours who had a ghost tour at 7 so we decided to take it as well. It was full of murder and torture stories. Hannah loved it. She wanted to do another one but it was late and we had an early morning the next day so When it was done we walked the long way home and went to bed.

The next day was our Hairy Coo tour to the highlands and around. We went to Stirling and climbed way too far up a steep mountain to the William Wallace monument. It wasn't really with it and made me kinda too worn out to otherbhikes later in the day that I might have liked. The view was nice, but you know, not worth it for me. We saw lots of fantastic scenery, lakes (or lochs) everywhere, moss, ferns and forests. We had a pup lunch in a charming little town and towards the end of the tour caught up with some hairy cows that ate bread from our hands and were fantasticly cute.

It was too late to tour the castle as we had planned when we got back so we decided to go on a tour of the underground Mary King's Close. Very historic and fascinating. In the olden days so many people were crammed into the 1 mile square that was Edinburgh at the time. Hard to imagine.

The next day was our last there. We were slow to get around and didn't do much but visit another pub for lunch before we headed back to the airport for our flight to London. I'm about out of battery now so I'm going to stop here for now and tell you about London later.

day 12

it's 10:30 and I am safely snuggled into the warm, quiet, big bed in a bedroom all of my own at my cousin Pam's house in Surrey. not even an hour away from the crazy city of London. I am grateful to my dad and her dad and being a part of a family that takes family seriously, and one that would happily offer up  warm meals and comfy beds and all the hospitality that comes with it, even at the last minute.

part of me wants to stay awake in the quiet and write about all the things we've done lately. but another, I think stronger part wants to lay back, cuddle up and get some much needed rest. Hannah and are taking the day off tomorrow. while our family goes to work and school we are going to lounge around their home. doing laundry, taking long showers and never walking further than from one room to the next. I'm thinking that will be a better day for writing of our adventures, and hopefully uploading pictures.

so goodnight for now. I'll see you tomorrow, relaxed, well rested and clean.

Day 11

We are in a pretty craptastic hostel at the moment. Its small, it's super hot for some reason and the only internet is for pay and only in the lobby. The window opens onto a busy street and there are also the bells of saint Paul's, just around the corner. The bells are lovely but they make it kind of impossible to sleep past 7. Even if I could the loading and unloading of the trucks starting at 8 wouldn't let us sleep much later. The one thing it does have going for it is location. As I mentioned, right around the corner from beautiful St Paul's. Close to two subway lines, although my favorite one is closed at the moment.

Luckily for us my dad's cousin lives just outside of London in Surrey (like Harry Potter) and has offered to let us stay with her. I'm not sure how we'll get back and forth to the city from there but we'll work something out. I don't think we can stay in this room for 5 more nights. Even though the thought of staying in the same place for 6 nights in a row does seem kind of fantastic.

Yesterday was a harsh travel day. We left for the airport at 2pm and didn't get to the hostel till a little before 10. That's just going from Edinburgh to London! We missed the train into town by seconds and had to wait half an hour for the next one. It seemed so hot here and I thought I might explode on the subway. I had a hard time buying our subway tickets and a bit of a panic when I found out the tube stop I'm familiar with is closed. But eventually we made it. After we checked in and cooled down we went out for just a bit. I got some food from the grocery store (fruit and a bagel, Hannah had burger king at the train station) and the view of St Paul's was stunning. We walked down to the millennium bridge to look at the river and the tower bridge, and then Hannah was chilly so we came back and talked awhile until we fell asleep late and then woke up bright and early this morning.

As soon as we get ourselves together we are venturing out. I'm nit sure where we're going but there's a tourist info right around the corner (the desk staff don't seem too friendly/helpful). We're thinking the British Museum or the Tower of London, both might be really crowded since it's a Saturday but that's when we're here. However first on the agenda is some breakfast. This is not a hostel that serves free breakfast so we'll have to find something along the way. Oh and maybe we'll go see the Parliament buildings and all that as well. Who knows. Oh and definitely a pharmacy somewhere along the way.

We miss Scotland but it seems like the weather might be much better here. We hope anyway. Scotland was cold and rainy, at least while we were there. We're dreaming of clean laundry, proper showers and the lovely sites of London.

Day 10

<p>&lt;p&gt;I wish it weren't 4am in America. I feel like calling home. I'm a little homsick this morning, and a little worried about how things will go in a couple days on 9/11. It will be hard to be away if anything happens, so I will just hope for the best.</p>
<p>In happier news, my cousin (technically my dad's cousin) has offered to have Hannah and I stay with us at her place outside London when we're in town and honestly the thought of a real house with non public bathrooms and actual family seems dreamy right now. I'm not sure how we'd get back and forth to the city but I'm sure we'll figure that all out. They have people staying with them through the weekend so we'll still head for the hostel first but then that will be a great get away.</p>
<p>We have to check out of here at noon, and then we'll wander the streets for a couple hours until we head for the airport where I hope it will go more smoothly than it did in Dublin. Its a short flight into London and then a train followed by a tube trip and a short walk to our hostel near St Paul's.
</p>

I don't know what we'll do tonight. Maybe walk along the river and see some sites. Tomorrow might be the tower of London. Or maybe the museum of London. It'll be the weekend so I'm guessing places will be crowded.

It will be sad to leave Edinburgh and Scotland behind. Its been great here. But I'll also be happy to move on to England and cities there. Of course then sunny Rome, and afterwards beloved home. We're a third of the way through the trip already. So far so good.

Day 7

<p>We have 30 minutes still till we can go to our gate. There's plenty of wifi but its all for pay. Drag. Its been a harsh morning. Our hostel room last night was about the size of a jail cell and neither of us wanted to get up this morning. I tried to rush h along still we missed our bus by about a minute. We waited about 20 minutes for the next one. We got here a little more than 3 hours til our flight which is what they say for an international flight, but when the flight itself if only an hour long it seems like a really long time to wait.

We had some trouble with security here. They unpacked Hannah's entire suitcase because we had a pair of scissors that were 1 cm too long. Seriously. And in the rush to repack the entire thing I thought I lost my precious tablet. Then it took me so long checking with the lost and found h kind of freaked as was really upset by the time I made it back to her. Of course I found the tablet in my bag right where it was supposed to be and felt like a nut job for freaking about it. Travel days are my least favorite for sure.

You know we packed really light. A carry on each. That meant I had two long slleved shirts for the 3 weeks of cold weather. And already I left one (my favorite of course) behind on the aran islands. Geez. I'm doubtful I'll find something else and don't really want to spend any time clothes shopping. It seems like were always rushing and out of time and not sleeping enough the way it is. Maybe when were in London and have a little more time. I wish there were better shops here at the airport where we have plenty of time to kill but there are only fancy shopd s for skinny posh girls. And Irish t-shirts of course.

So I wish I could post some pictures. Again maybe in London. I think were there for 6 days maybe. Edinburgh is only 4 days/3 nights. The western part of Ireland was so beautiful. We saw ancient ruins and tiny cottages and the sea. We went on a big climb to a 3000 year old Celtic fort on the edge of the cliffs that was incredible. We saw the cliffs of moher (aka the cliffs if insanity in the princess bride) and some 4000+ burial sites (maybe my favorite bit). And plenty of other fascinating bits as well. I hope I can type about them soon.

Ten minutes till the gates supposed to open. Yesterday was a super boring travel day and today is turning out to be the same. I hope Edinburgh is great and we love Scotland but you know I'm anxious to get to England and Rome. Hopefully I'll get to post this and maybe some photos from our hostel tonight. Wait and see I guess. You people are not texting me enough though. Or emailing or whatever. So get on that.

Xoxo.

Day 5. 9pm

Its dark out. We are in our beds, in our room at our B&B on the Irish island of Inis Mor. We got back here to our room around 5 I think and haven't found the will (or the warmth) to head back out, although our friend Gene headed back to town to find a warm dinner and some Irish speakers a few hours ago. When he left Hannah was fast asleep and I was still to damp and worn out to think about going anywhere.

As usual when its tome to update you, my thoughts feel too scattered and unorganized.

So day 2 must have been Thursday. That day Hannah and I took a day tripbtonthe mountains of Wicklow and the ancient monastic site at Glendalough. It was beautiful and our tour guide/bus driver Stephen was great. We had a pub lunch where Hannah had her first beer. She didn't really like it at all. No, it wasn't a Guiness. That night we went out to find a pub with some traditional music with zero luck which definitely bummed me out. We went to bed too late and too tired.

Morning of day 3 we had to wake up and pack our bags to check out of our hostel. We rented a locker and wandered a few blocks away to the Dublin Archaeology Museum where we saw some fascinating things found in the Irish bogs -- including the perfectly preserved bodies of 3 ancient men. Fascinating and creepy. We both felt kind of sick after looking at them. We decided to go back for our bags and head on over to the train station to grab lunch and wait for our train to Galway.

We had a train situation and had to get off in a town called At Henry (I think) and take a bus the rest of the way to Galway. It was raining pretty seriously when we got there and I was kinda freaking out over several things. Our friend Gene met us at the station and we took a cab to our b&B. At first I was a bit disappointed with it but it later grew on me. I wasn't digging life that night so Gene and his friends invited us out to dinner with them. It was still super rainy. We had a ki d of lovely posh dinner. I had a Risotto and h tried a pork belly she really loved. We got back way too late. Maybe around midnight. I had a bit if a brakedown and had to call home for a bit. Eventually we got to bed around 1am.

We were both much better in the morning. Day 4. Which was what? Yesterday? Wow seems so long ago but yes. Saturday. We had a full Irish breakfast (or Hannah did. I skipped the meat of course) and rode off to catch the coach for our full day trip to the burren and the cliffs of mother and many other fabulous places. It was a fantastic trip, even though our guide wasn't nearly as great as Stephen. We got back around dinner time and stopped by the grocery store on our walk home for a dinner of bread, cheese and candy bars. We packed all up and watched comedy central til we crashed out (which for me was at about 10pm).

Which leads to this morning. We had breakfast early and headed downtown to catch to the bus to Rosavel to catch the ferry to The A ran Islands. The weather was on and off all day but lovely when we got here. We met a wonderful man named Patrick who brought us to our B&B with hid horse Grace and his cart. Then he gave us a ride around the island, stopping at the ancient (1000 Bc) fort of Dun Aengus, which you should look up on Wikipedia because its fascinating, but I'm too tired to actually tell you all about it.

I wish we could have stayed up there a long time but Patrick and Grace were waiting for us so we had to head back. It just started to sprinkle when we were headed back. We had some lunch in a cafe. I had some delicious beef guiness stew. Very yum. Just when we were headed back to our ride it started poring rain with crazy winds. The rain was horizontal and even the locals were saying it was unusually bad. Eventually we headed back anyway, in the freezinf rain and wind. We got soaked. But it was with it. Beautiful and amazing. I only wish we would have had the energy to head back to the village tonight with Gene. In the morning Patrick will pick us up and take us back to town if we want but I kind of hope we head in earlier to check stuff out. We take the noon ferry back to the big island and then its a rush to catch the train back to Dublin where well finally do some laundry and get ready to fly to Scotland the next day!

So love you you all. Having a great time. Don't know when I'll be able to check back in but I promise I will when I can!

Xoxo

Day 2 unfinished

Tired again. Hannah is napping. I am meant to be as well but I can't seem to rest. I am thinking about what to do tomorrow, how to arrange it, and how/when to get to the train station for our train to Galway. It seems soon to be leaving Dublin tomorrow, but we will be back for almost 24 hours on Monday. I wish I could talk over plans with the girl but as I said she is fast asleep.

Today was a busy day. We were up and downstairs eating breakfast by 7am. We walked to the tourist info center, which is inside a lovely old church to meet our tour bus, but we were way too early. We walked around a bit and saw the outside of Trinity College as well as the statue of Molly Malone, aka the Tart with the Cart and many other names I can't remember right now. We walked up and down Grafton St which is a fancy shopping district closed off to traffic. It was interesting watching everyone hurt off to work. Hannah admired the many shoe stores. I noticed a Pizza Hut, Burger King and a very fancy McDonalds.