Huh

And then, a dozen pages beyond anything else I had written, I found the following:

I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time? I really have no idea where it came from, or why I decided to stick it in my journal.

Author's Notes/Other Thoughts, 04-06 June 2004

04 June 2004 (04 April 2008)

• Ran into Luke again today, at the post office. We made some small talk, then went our separate ways.
• Alyssa tried on her Audrey Hepburn hat at the station, and pulled it off fairly well.
• Considering the fact that I didn't end up turning in some of my homework until October, I kind of wished I had gone on the sleeper train. Oh well.
• One of my drinks was made with Smirnoff, and the other used house vodka, and it was not hard at all to tell the difference.

05 June 2004 (04 April 2008)

• I actually had two days left on my rail pass at this point. If I had had any money left (which I didn't), and if my plane ticket hadn't been for the next day (it was), it would have been nice to get some side trips in.
• Trains have more legroom than planes, but only if there isn't anybody sitting across from you.
• I am very glad that I don't get plane/train/carsick by reading on the go... even if your seat is comfortable, eight hours is a long time to be stuck in a vehicle.

06 June 2004 (07 April 2008)

• Turns out the other folk on my flight would have been willing to take the lighters for me. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that was an option, and wasn't sure where they were during my "interrogation" anyways. Oh well. I think I gave the last one to one of my younger brothers as a souvenir.
• Hmmm... "souvenir" looks like a French word. I wonder what it actually translates as? [ed: according to Babelfish, it means "to remember"]
• Gotta love traveling with the sun. I flew for 10 hours, and landed two hours after I left.
• Jet lag sucks going this way too. It was only about 16:30 local time when I landed, but that was after midnight London time, so I feel asleep for most of the ride home. I managed to sleep a good 13 hours or so that night, but had trouble sleeping through the night for a few months after that.
• It was kind of odd having to fill out an immigration form to get back into my own country. Luckily, it was a much quicker process than actual immigrants have to go through.
• As much as I loved the trip, it's a good thing I came home when I did... I had right about $4.00 left in my bank account.

Author's Notes/Other Thoughts, 01-03 June 2004

01 June 2004 (04 April 2008)

• Kilt day was a great idea. But since I didn't have a sporran yet, it was really annoying not having pockets.
• I must have looked much more authentic than I felt in my kilt & hat. At one point Emily and I walked past a little girl & her mother, and we heard her say "Look mummy, a real Scotsman!" I had a hard time not cracking up, but I kept my mouth shut. I'm guessing they weren't from Scotland either, though the accent was British.
• Some of the water at the western beach & Columba's Bay actually looked tropical, which was very surprising.
• I've still got all the rocks I picked up in a bag somewhere in my room... I'll have to pull those out again one of these days.
• On the way back, we used some rocks to spell out "pudding" & took a picture of it for one of Emily's friends back home.
• Looks like I had a few complaints about Barb, so I should note that I don't have anything against her. She's actually a pretty cool lady, it's just that art isn't really my cup of tea.
• Corliss also mentioned that of all the study tours she had been on, we were one of the best in terms of how little drinking we did. While we certainly weren't wandering around plastered, that kind of surprised me.

02 June 2004 (04 April 2008)

• Yup, I did already mention how bad the roads were.
• I've still got a coupon from the distillery for £3 off a 70cl bottle of Oban Scotch. It's probably expired now, though.
• The only times I've seen Oban back in the US, it was going for $70+ a bottle, so I'm guessing it's highly regarded.

03 June 2004 (04 April 2008)

• I finally gave up on my travel wallet and bought a real/regular one (genuine leather) (also, made in Germany) at Ft. William. It's held up pretty well... I'm still using it today.
• Urquhart had a few stone troughs that started inside the castle and led to the outside. We figured they were either for toilets or pouring something on people trying to scale the wall, but never found out for sure.
• I was in a bad mood for the boat ride & most of the rest of the day, though I don't remember why.
• Rob downed an entire pitcher of Blue Lagoon that night, and somehow woke up without a hangover. So much for the whole "not a lot of drinking" thing.

Author's Notes/Other Thoughts, 30-31 May 2004

30 May 2004 (04 April 2008)

• We were greeted at the train station in Glasgow by a fairly disturbing sight: a girl in a short skirt, fishnet stockings & a thong (yes, you could tell) leaning over a railing. I've got nothing against short skirts, but fishnet stockings are pretty much always unattractive, thongs just don't look like they'd be comfortable, and those three things in combination should never be seen in public.
• The dancing girl at McTavish's kept flashing us when her kilt flew up from all the spinning she was doing. In her defense though, she was either wearing decent underwear or whatever it is that cheerleaders where under their skirts.
• We found out later that the tower outside of town actually had a name. I can't remember it at the moment, but I'll put it in here when I do. [ed: Dunollie Castle]

31 May 2004 (04 April 2008)

• There were all sorts of little jellyfish floating around in the water by the ferry.
• We had some porpoises following alongside the ferry for awhile, but they were gone by the time I got my camera warmed up.
• Random thought: one of the pastors from my church took a sabbatical on the Isle of Mull. I didn't see much of it--just what was along the road--but I don't think I'd have any problems with spending a few months there.
• This must have been one of the times I journaled in close proximity to the actual time of the events, because it doesn't look like I left much out.

Author's Notes/Other Thoughts, 27-29 May 2004

27 May 2004 (02 April 2008)

• I think the reason I liked the Scottish Royal Museum so well is that it felt like a big version of a small, local museum
• Also, it had one of the coolest pictures I have ever seen: a Scottish bagpiper in full regalia, with a penguin next to him, staring up at him.
• Because of the beef in the Frankenstein burger, I wasn't allowed to donate blood in the US for two years after eating it. But since I like my blood right where it is and never donate it anyways, it was no big deal.
• Arthur's Seat was named for a local legend, though we never found anyone who could tell us the story behind it. I got Matt a rock from here too.

28 May 2004 (04 April 2008)

• I still tell everybody that I talk to about the trip to avoid Glasgow if possible. [ed: Still saying that; got sick again passing through there on my latest trip]
• I've got nothing against smoking or smokers, I just don't like having the entire hotel smelling like cigarettes
• I think the "murder capital of the world" thing was either a misunderstanding or an exaggeration, but Glasgow does have a crime rate higher than the Scottish average in nearly every category. Also, part of the group witnessed an attempted mugging.
• When we went to see Kill Bill 2, the theater originally started playing Scooby Doo 2. Somebody complained, and they fixed it.

29 May 2004 (04 April 2008)

• The park we walked through was called Kelvingrove Park. If it hand't been raining, it would have been nice to spend some time there and get some more pictures.
• I completely left out our visit to St. Mungo's Cathedral. Who names their kid Mungo? It wasn't as impressive as some of the others we had visited, but it was pretty nice. It also featured the coat of arms of the Blackadder family; being a fan of Rowan Atkinson's work (especially his role as Lord Blackadder), I found that fairly entertaining.
• I also seem to have left out the Glasgow necropolis, which I got a few good pictures of. Found out later that I sat on John Knox's grave without even knowing it. As a student at a Presbyterian college, I probably should have been more excited than I was.

Author's Notes/Other Thoughts, 25-26 May 2004

25 May 2004 (01 April 2008)

• Pretty sure it was a blood sausage that was served with breakfast. I've got nothing against blood, I just don't think of it as food. I'll leave that to vampires and mosquitoes.
• Durham Castle is actually used as a college dormitory now; the group that did the semester long trip got to stay there.
• I've never really understood the whole veneration of the saints thing. Yeah, they were people who did great things for God. But if you can pray directly to God via the Holy Spirit, why add an extra middle man? On the bright side, all of the saints means lots of bake sales at the Catholic Church in Waterville, and those ladies make some darn good bread.
• This actually applies to every day of the tour: I need to go back with a better camera. My photography skills have improved a bit, and I've got a much better camera now, which should make for less blurry/messed up pictures.
• Picked up a couple tubes of Cadbury eggs for mom; she really likes them, and they're only available around Easter in our area.
• Sadly, I don't remember how Emily gimped her knee in the first place.
• I still have paint on my backpack from a railing at the train station in Durham. [ed: It's still there, and the backpack itself is in better shape than the much newer one I took on my last trip]
• Another advantage of my new camera: it runs on AA batteries, so replacements will be much easier to come by.
• I've started to develop a taste for wine since then, but haven't been able to find any mead around Waterville.
• I also forgot what Alyssa and Geanna knighted me for... I'll have to ask. [Asked tonight; current guesses are getting in the stone coffin at Yorkminster, and walking Geanna back to our B&B one of the nights there, so she didn't have to walk it alone]

26 May 2004 (02 April 2008)

• Our place in Edinburgh actually ended up being my favorite B&B/hostel/hotel of the trip. It was located somewhere along Dalkeith Road (I think)... near a swimming pool, but not near any of the historical sights that I was after.
• Edinburgh is also where I finally found a replacement battery for my camera. The old one wasn't completely dead, but it wouldn't keep the camera running for more than a few pictures before it needed a rest.
• The only original building remaining in the castle is St. Margaret's Chapel, constructed sometime in the 1200s.
• The castle also contains the Scottish Crown Jewels. While not as sparkley as their English counterparts, they were much older, since Cromwell never got a hold of them.
• The kilt I ended up buying was in the colors of the MacKenzie clan. To the best of my knowledge I have no connection to them (being of German & Irish heritage), but I liked the colors. At some point I may go with a Blackwatch (military) kilt, and avoid the clan thing altogether. [ed: or possibly a utilikilt]
• Along with securing a projector for our dorm room, Dave had managed to get a hold of the first seven seasons of Stargate SG-1, which was enough to get me hooked; I now own all 10 seasons of it.
• I never confirmed this, but I heard later that the reason Cuban cigars aren't what they used to be is because all the good cigar makers moved to Nicaragua to get around the trade embargo. Or maybe they've always sucked, and that was just an excuse.

Author's Notes/Other Thoughts, 22-24 May 2004

22 May 2004 (28 March 2008)

• It's not just the cabbies who are insane; pretty much everybody there is a crazy driver. I recommend looking both ways at least 15 times [ed: more like 50 if you're in Rome] before attempting to cross the street.
• Our B&B was outside of the city walls, but it was just off a street that took us straight to the Minster, which made navigation very easy. It was especially great for me, since I tend to lose track of direction when I leave the area around my home.
• According to Emily [ed: paraphrasing, of course], the folks who set up the Jorvik area of the city attempted to recreate the smell as well as the look of the old Viking city. I don't think I missed much by skipping it.
• Still a fan of vodka, but now I prefer it with grapefruit juice.
• Also, don't drink lots of alcohol before going on a long walk. Chelsea was actually tempted to pay the cover fee to a club just to get in & use the bathroom there.
• At some point in life, Corliss developed an allergy to most meats [ed: not sure if that's actually possible, may have been some other health issue], forcing her into vegetarianism. Which is why she was delayed at lunch... finding a vegetarian restaurant was apparently none too easy in York.

23 May 2004 (31 March 2008)

• Awesome! I put the bit about Corliss' vegetarianism under the wrong day. Don't you love correcting corrections?
• Also, it turned out that Corliss finished the wall walk on her own as well.
• The ruins were from St. Mary's Abbey: Founded by William II in 1088, walls built around 1266, and "decommissioned" under Henry VIII in 1539 (Thanks Emily!)

24 May 2004 (31 March 2008)

• The character was Silk/Kheldar, from David Eddings' "Belgariad" & "Mallorean" series.
• Timo Little was the guide's full name, if I remember correctly. And he actually had a degree in medieval history, which explained his interest in and knowledge of the period. If you ever end up taking a tour of the Minster, look for him.
• The people from York occasionally make fun of the people from London, since Yorkminster is also a cathedral (from "cathedra," the name for the bishop's chair) while Westminster isn't.
• Screw etiquette. If I had been holding my silverware the way I was used to instead of the way I was "supposed to," I never would have knocked my food on the floor.
• Backing up slightly, the crossing tower at Yorkminster had a wire "cage" over the top of it, apparently to keep people from jumping off. Must be a British thing [ed: the top level of Tower Bridge was closed while we were there for the same reason]... I'm much more likely to spit from a high place than jump from it.
• Backing up even further, many of the cool things in the undercroft were discovered when they were doing excavations to shore up the pillars that supported the crossing tower. I don't remember the exact weight, but Timo said that each of the four main pillars was supporting the weight of ten Boeing 747s.
• Still not sure how the whole haunted sink thing came up... I'm guessing there was alcohol involved. But haunted or not, their sink did turn itself on for a few seconds, and then turned itself off again.

Author's Notes/Other Thoughts, 20-21 May 2004

20 May 2004 (26 March 2008)

• Considering the fact that the tour we took was by bus rather than on foot, I would have expected more time at each location. Timing was apparently against us, however... whoever set it up is worse at scheduling things than I am. We started at Westminster Abbey, and had a great guide there. He was a retired stage actor with a pretty good grasp of history, which made him both informational & entertaining. Unfortunately we had to leave there much sooner than I would have liked, so that we could get to Buckingham in time for the changing of the guard. We were able to see all of that, but then had to hurry to catch the boat that took us along the Thames to the Tower of London. We didn't get nearly as much time as I would have liked there either, though I don't remember why.
• Damn you Cromwell! The Coronation Chair at Westminster had all sorts of stuff carved into it by his soldiers after Charles I was beheaded.
• On a semi-related note, the Coronation Chair was also missing the (I think) Coronation Stone [ed: aka The Stone of Scone, aka The Stone of Destiny], which fit into the chair just below the seat. It had been returned to Scotland at some point in the past, and only comes back for actual coronations.

(27 March 2008)

• Damn you again Cromwell! All of the original crown jewels were melted down when he took power, so none of them now are any older than Charles II. Apparently that whole "Lord Protector" thing didn't involve protecting pieces of history. About the only thing he was good for was a quote I really like: "Trust in God, but keep your powder dry."
• Also at the gift shop, I purchased a Tower of London shot glass. It wasn't used for the mead, though. In fact, it's only been used twice that I remember. It's Burns Crystal, so I save it for special occasions [ed: ditto for the Westminster Abbey shot glass].

21 May 2004 (28 March 2008)

• I actually still have a scar on my finger from when I cut myself opening Alyssa's Smirnoff. I kept it wrapped in a Kleenex until the bleeding stopped. That night I found out that I actually had some band-aids with me... I had just looked in the wrong pocket of my backpack.
• Still not a fan of Jack Daniel's, but I'll drink it if someone else is paying [ed: but not unless it's mixed with something that makes it taste completely unlike Jack Daniels, and/or if I really need to get drunk].

Author's Notes/Other Thoughts, intro/first day

25 March 2008

When I started reading back over this, I noticed some things that just weren't quite right: details missing, names misspelled (sorry Geanna!)... heck, I even left out the entire first day of the trip. The following pages are an attempt to right the wrongs, fill in the gaps, and give me another chance to relive the memories.

18/19 May 2004 (25 March 2008)

Man, today was a long day. Since my flight left SeaTac at 6:00pm (whoops, there goes that whole military time things... that should have been 18:00) and they recommended showing up two hours early for international flights, we decided to leave the house about 11:00. Which got us to the airport shortly after 14:00. But since I had never flown before, it was probably a good thing. I got my luggage checked, then sat down to read for awhile until they started the boarding process.

In the departure room, I actually ran into Erin & Rachel, a couple of the other students on the study tour. Erin had done the semester-long version awhile back, and was a huge help through the traveling process. She was in line quite a ways ahead of me, [but] we found out that we had ended up with seats right next to each other. What are the odds of that?

If you ever have to fly internationally, British Airways is the way to go. Coach class is never pleasant, but they came quite close to it. It was a 10-hour straight flight from SeaTac to Heathrow, but it had the following benefits:

• A "care package" of sorts, with a light blanket, some of those eye-cover things, and a travel toothbrush with a really small tube of toothpaste [also some socks and cheap headphones]
• Two full meals--a breakfast & a dinner (not in that order), with several choices for each
• Free drinks; this included alcohol if you were 19+, but I didn't take advantage of that
• Free in-flight movies (apparently some airlines charge for them? [as of 2010, Air Canada does]). There was a little screen in the back of each seat, and you had a choice between several movie channels, a shopping channel, and one that showed the progress of the flight: location over the earth, distance traveled/remaining, elevation, flight speed, and an up to date (maybe updated would be a better word) ETA.

The flight landed in London right about 12:00 local time. I thought SeaTac was big, but Heathrow was massive; we actually had to take a mini subway/train thing back to the main building so we could go through customs and immigration. I was fairly nervous, but it wasn't too bad. They checked/stamped my passport, and asked a few questions: where are you from, what are you here for, what do your parents do for a living, do you have a source of funds if you run out, etc. I think they were trying to make sure I wasn't going to stick around and become a welfare bum or something... but if that had been my intent I could have just lied, and they never would have known.

After that, Rachel, Erin & I got back together and hopped on the subway (Tube, Underground... whatever you want to call it) to the Russel Square station, which was the closest to the hotel we were staying at. We actually took a shortcut across the University of London campus, where I'm sure we must've made an interesting sight.

At the hotel, we found most of the rest of the group, who had come across on earlier flights. Rob (the only other male on the trip) and I ended up in a room on the second floor; which, since they start things out on the ground floor, was actually three stories up. Once everything was settled in, we had a short meeting in the rose garden out back and went out for a walk in the city. We went down through Trafalgar Square to the Thames, along the river for awhile, then along Drury Lane (no sign of the Muffin Man, though) to The White Hart, the oldest licensed pub in London. Dinner was Bangers & Mash (aka sausage & mashed potatoes) with a red onion gravy; a very good and very filling meal. On the way back to the hotel we saw one of the dragons of London. London proper is apparently only one square mile [ed: I think maybe I was actually referring to Westminster here?] ... all the places I would think of as districts (Gloucester, etc.) actually started out as individual cities/towns that were eventually absorbed into London. So anyways, on one major road heading into the city from each direction--north, south, east & west--there's a statue of a dragon set on a short column, originally intended to ward off evil spirits.

I spent the rest of the evening unpacking, chatting in the lounge, and hopping on the internet so I could email home & let them know I was still alive. Bedtime, for me at least, was 10:30, at which point I had been up for roughly 30 hours--not a record by any means, but a very long day nonetheless. That's probably the only reason I slept as well as I did. The only cover on the beds were thick comforters, so we had to keep the window open--which let all of the street noise in--to keep things cool enough to sleep.

For the rest of these, I'll probably just use bullet points under each day. They aren't as pretty as paragraphs, but given the variety of things I'll be correcting/adding, an actual narrative would be very difficult if not impossible.

Update!

That was the end of the original journal. The rest, which I hope to have up within the next week or so, was a series of corrections/additions that I made after reading through the journal again in 2008. They'll be broken into chunks--sometimes multiple days in one post, sometimes just one--depending on length. Dates in parentheses represent the date I actually wrote the corrections/additions. Enjoy!

6 June 2004

Got up reasonably early, so I'd have time to shower & eat some breakfast before checking out. Ran into Erin & Rachel at breakfast; turns out they had chosen the same hotel, and were actually on the same flight out as well. As soon as we had finished up and checked out, we hiked to the Russel Square Underground Station and hopped on the tube (minding the gap while we were at it) for the ride to Heathrow. It was actually a fairly long trip; close to 45 minutes, I think.

While waiting in line to check our luggage, I got picked for one of the random searches. I'm guessing I must have been "lucky" number whatever, because I'm pretty sure I didn't look much like a terrorist. It was annoying (mainly because it separated me from my group), but not that bad. They took me to a room behind the counter, went through my suitcase, and asked a few questions. They also took two of the lighters I had purchased in Glasgow. Apparently you can carry one with you on the plane (where you can't smoke, and might use it to set off a bomb hidden in your shoe), but can't have any in your luggage (where it might explode/start a fire because of some sort of static charge).

While I was "occupied," everyone else hit up the duty free shop. Which would have been nice, since there were some great deals on alcohol. But even though it was perfectly legal for me to purchase & consume it in the UK, I've still got a bit over a year left before I hit 21. We sat around for a bit waiting for our flight, and 10 very long hours later we landed at SeaTac International Airport, back in the good old US of A. Home, sweet home.

5 June 2004

Yeah, so mornings still suck. We were up and out before the landlady was even awake; we just dropped our keys off at the front desk (we paid the night before) and took off. The train ride back down to London was incredibly long--about 8 hours, if I remember correctly--but that left time for homework and a bit of napping. It also gave Emily a chance to staple her thumb, and gave me a chance to eat a roast beef sandwich that may have contained small bones, and did contain 3% Rocket [ed: I eventually learned that it's a type of lettuce... weird name, though]. I'm still not sure what to think about that.

We did eventually make it to London, though, and I did actually finish my homework. Most of it, at least. We checked back into the Arran House Hotel (the "dormitory" section this time, since it was cheapest), dropped off our stuff, and wandered around London for awhile. We stopped by a bookstore, then headed down to the Thames. Emily wanted to get a closer look at The Globe Theater, and I still needed to get Matt a rock from the river. It looked nice enough, but I've heard that it's a very dirty river.

Before heading off for dinner, we stopped to see a guy who called himself the Budgie Man performing near the river. It was actually fairly impressive... he had trained a bunch of budgies (basically parakeets) to do various tricks. Emily actually got picked out of the crowd to hold something for them to hop around on.

Dinner was a brown bag event; we stopped by a grocery store for a couple of sandwiches, some Pringles & some juice, then sat down at a bench in a park along the river. I know I've mentioned it before, but the pigeons here are ridiculously brave. They were crowded around close enough that it would have been quite easy to kick one of them, and it was hard resisting the temptation to do so. After dinner it started cooling off, so we headed back to the hostel. The rest of the night was spent in the rose garden out back finishing off the rest of Emily's vodka (just enough for a nice buzz), getting all my homework ready to turn in to Barb, and getting everything crammed back into my backpack and suitcase for the trip home tomorrow.

4 June 2004

Wandered around Inverness today. Saw plenty of campaign signs... I was tempted to steal one, but they were fairly high up and attached well, so I decided against it. We visited the castle, and were given a fairly interesting tour. The guide was dressed as an 18th century soldier, and we were "recruited" into the army; most likely Bonnie Prince Charlie's, but I don't actually remember. I became a foot soldier, and Emily became "baggage," one of the many camp followers who kept the soldiers entertained and distracted them from much actual soldiering.

Today was actually the last (semi) organized day of the tour, so most of the group decided to take the sleeper train back to London so they could spend all of their free day there. Alyssa & Geanna (I'd been spelling it wrong up to this point) were heading to Wales, Chelsea was meeting her mom for a trip to Rome, and Barb was meeting her husband to head to the Czech Republic to visit relatives. Corliss stayed behind; her husband showed up for the last day of the tour, and they were headed up to the Orkney Isles afterwards. Normally I would have gone for the night train, but I still had quite a bit of homework to finish up. I figured I wouldn't get much done if I was sleeping, and wouldn't really enjoy London if I had to sit around finishing it up. Emily stayed behind as well. We went out for a few drinks, then hit the sack early that night. We had to be ready at some un-Godly hour (around 08:00, I think) if we wanted to catch a train that would get us back to London at a decent time.

3 June 2004

The trip is starting to wind down now, but our luck is holding; days still start way too early. Up at 08:15 to be ready to meet at 09:00 for a bus that wasn't due to arrive until 09:30, and didn't show up till about 15 minutes after that. And, of course, it was raining.

Bused to Ft. William and some other random town (can't remember which order we did those in), stopped for lunch & wandering shopping. Had a very interesting lunch... a mini-Lunchable and a Smirnoff Black Ice, which is more citrus-y than the regular Ice. After that, it was time for more busing, this time to Urquhart Castle--what was left of it, at least--about half way along Loch Ness. Unfortunately, I don't remember any of the important facts about it, but it was a really cool place. And they had built a replica of a trebuchet there, which was also cool. After the castle, it was off to Inverness, at the end of the loch.

Luckily, we got a break from the bus, and were able to take a boat up to the city. Much more fun than the bus, but not actually as cool as it might sound. The boat was incredibly slow, and the water didn't really look that great; it was really dark, and the waves the boat kicked up were definitely brown. Along for the boat ride was Luke, some random guy who kept trying to get pity points with all the girls. They were polite, but more or less pitiless.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) there were no Nessie sightings. We made it to Inverness in one piece, hopped on a bus, and got dropped off at a series of 3 adjacent B&Bs. Rob and I were on the top floor of ours (again...) and the girls were split up between the other two.

It was evening by the time we got there, so we didn't do too much wandering that night. Grabbed some dinner, then headed back to the B&B; Emily and I sat around playing cards (either war or gin rummy, or maybe both... there are only so many two player games out there) with my recently purchased Kings & Queens of England deck, and everybody else went out to get drunk.

2 June 2004

Woke up about 08:30 this morning, and discovered that our two Spanish guys had been replaced by two college age girls, something I'm not used to waking up in the same room as. The old lady was still there, though; yay for constancy.

As far as Rob and I knew, we were leaving on the 10:45 ferry, so we decided to take off from the hostel @ 9:45 to give ourselves plenty of time. About 2/3 of the way to the dock, an old couple pulled over and asked if they could carry our luggage for us. We said "thank you very much," loaded our stuff into their truck, and, seeing that we still had over half an hour till our ferry left, took the rest of the way at a leisurely pace.

When we got down to the docks, we saw everybody else frantically waving and yelling for us to get on the ferry. Not knowing what was going on, we grabbed our bags and got on board. Turns out that Chelsea, through the reading of a sign & questioning of some random person, got the impression that the bus across the Isle of Mull was leaving at 10:30. She freaked out and freaked everybody else out, so there we were. We made it to Mull in plenty of time for me to entertain myself by watching the 10:45 ferry make its way across the narrow channel, some 45 minutes before the bus left. While I enjoyed being right, we would've had to sit around and wait at one point or another anyways, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

I can't remember whether I already complained about one lane roads, so I'll do it here. One lane roads are a bad idea, especially for a 45 minute drive. Oh sure, there are little pull-out areas where people can get around each other, but that's not really enough. And with the speed our bus & all the other vehicles were going, it's a miracle there were no accidents.

Back in Oban, we had time to settle into the hostel again and head over to the distillery for a tour. Unless you're faculty at Whitworth, in which case we never even realized that Oban produced whiskey. The tour was informative if a bit smelly, and the whiskey itself wasn't half bad. I'm not really a whiskey expert though, so it's entirely possible that it wasn't half good either [ed: it has since become my favorite whiskey].

Dinner at some little cafe that probably hates Americans now; we got in about 10 minutes before closing. Bwahahahaha! True, having to work past closing time sucks, but they were still on the clock, which means more money, which is usually a good thing. Had some sort of sandwich and some chicken & rice soup, and then we were off. A large part of the group decided to go see the new Harry Potter movie, but out of principle, I decided not to. Wandered around for awhile, found a cool garden [ed: at McCaig's Tower] up near the top of the town, but then it started to rain, so it was back to the hostel. Worked on some of Barb's assignments till about 22:30, when it was time for bed.

1 June 2004 (Kilt Day - self proclaimed)

Why must mornings be so early? On the bright side, we didn't have to meet until 10, so this one came less early than most. Got up around 09:00, and discovered that we had been sharing the room with two Spanish guys and an old woman.

On another bright side, Rob and I decided it was Kilt Day, and wore the kilts we had bought back in Edinburgh. On the dark side of the bright side, it decided to rain. But not until about 10 minutes after we left the hostel, so I really didn't want to turn around for the umbrella I had removed from my backpack before I left. Oh well. Luckily, I had decided to wear my Gortex [Gore-Tex] jacket, so I didn't get too soaked.

As usual, half the group--including Barb [ed: who was in charge of setting the meeting times]--showed up late. Which really didn't matter this time, because she just wanted to tell everybody about the pilgrimage group that left about 5 minutes ago, that lasted about 6 hours. Needless to say, nobody went. Crystal & Nicole headed for St. Columba's Bay right off; Emily and I decided to wait till it got nicer, and I'm not sure what everyone else did.

When the sun finally decided to show itself, we set off. Unfortunately, we missed the turn to the bay, and wound up over on the west side of the island. We enjoyed the sights (but not the smells) for awhile, then decided to head back in and look for a map. On the way, we ran into Nicole and Crystal, who gave us directions; but we needed to drop stuff off and get some water anyways. This was accomplished in short order, and we were off again.

The trip to Columba's Bay is a pretty decent hike; it's a good workout, but it doesn't leave you sore. To be perfectly honest, though, it isn't much different from a Pacific Northwest beach, except for the part where it's about 5000 miles away and in Scotland. It did have some really cool rocks there, though. Some were just speckled weird, some were agates, and some were scraps from a nearby marble quarry. I'll have to give Matt one of those and the one I picked up on Arthur's Seat; maybe that'll make up for not getting him one from the Thames.

We found Erin, Rachel, Rob & Chelsea already there; Alyssa & Jeanna stayed behind to do homework. We chilled for awhile, looked for cool rocks, threw some not-so-cool rocks in the water, then headed back. While collecting a wine bottle they left behind, Erin tripped & broke the bottle, cutting her finger up pretty good. It bled quite a bit, but fingers have a tendency to do that, and she was fine.

Dinner at Martyr's Bay again; once again, a waste of £17. We almost got to use a real menu, because Corliss was allergic to pretty much everything on the "value" menu, but that didn't pan out. She got to keep the real menu (understandably), but the girls decided they wanted dessert, which came with the "value" menu. I felt that with a good meal dessert isn't really necessary, but oh well. I ended up with gammon (ham) steak, which probably had enough salt in it to re-salinate the Pacific Ocean, if it somehow became fresh. It definitely wasn't my favorite meal, but two shots of vodka later I didn't care quite so much. Amazing how that works.

After dinner we had a little while to chill, then it was time for a service at the abbey. Maybe it was just really different from what I'm used to back home, but it seemed pretty dead to me. We "prayed"--read off people's names in monotone--and asked for healing or whatever. Then there was the laying on of hands, and the same little chant for each person. To me, this just seemed like going through the motions. I'm used to people being excited to be in God's presence; these people just seemed to be "there," if that makes any sense.

Picked up my stuff from Emily & Rachel's place, then started the long walk back to the hostel. Ran into Corliss by the old nunnery and talked to her for awhile. Got really bummed that she wasn't leading the tour, 'cause heres sounded much more interesting; probably because hers was focused on history instead of art. She also said that she'd rather see us in a pub or out experiencing something than stuck inside doing Barbara's worksheets, and I agreed wholeheartedly. Once again, oh well. Rob joined in about halfway through the conversation, and then we left for the hostel a little after 23:00. Other than it being dark and us finding a frog, it was the same long, boring walk as before.

31 May 2004 (Nat'l Lifeboat Day)

Bleh. If possible, I'm starting to like mornings even less than usual. Ferry wasn't leaving until almost noon, but for some reason we decided that we need to meet at the ferry dock at about 10:00 or so. Maybe earlier, even; things are starting to get a bit fuzzy. We didn't have breakfast at the hostel that morning, so we were given £5 each and set loose. Emily and I found a grocery store, and managed to spend a grand total of £2.81 between us. Went back to the waiting room and ate while some of the others went out shopping. Ferry finally showed up at 11:50, and we were off.

The ferry ride wasn't too bad; about 45 minutes to the Island of Mull, then a really crazy bus ride on a more or less one lane road (there were some very close encounters, several of which fall into the "holy crap, we're all going to die!" category), and then a short ferry ride across to Iona.

On Iona, I learned that Barb measures distance differently than most people do. When we landed at about 15:00, we were given our housing instructions. Rob, Alyssa, Jeanna and I would be up to the north: the girls' B&B was "just beyond" and abbey, and our hostel was "just beyond" that. Nothing had signs, which didn't help. The only help we really got was a small sign near the abbey that said "Hostel 1/2 mile. Turn left at end of road." 30 minutes and somewhat more than half a mile later, we finally found our hostel... where we got to wait for another 15 minutes, because it was closed between 14:00 & 16:00. Yargh. We also got instructions [directions] to the girls' B&B there: "It's the one with the little leprechaun by the front door."

Dinner at 18:30, at Martyr's Bay. Not the best food ever, and it cost us £17. Yay for the only restaurant on the island. The starter was good--seasoned potato wedges--but I don't even remember my main course, and the cheesecake for dessert was decent at best. While at dinner, I informed Barbara that my earlier joke about our hostel probably being on the other side of the island was, in fact, a fairly accurate statement. Turned out we were only about 100 yards, 200 at most, from the northern coast of the island.

After dinner we wandered back to our respective sleeping accommodations, and then Emily and I met up again and headed to the north shore. We found a patch of grass that was relatively free of sheep dung, sat down, and watched as much of the sunset as we could through the clouds.

About 22:30 I decided it was time for bed, but while walking Emily back to her B&B, we got distracted by the ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) going on at the community hall. It was a sort of community dance/entertainment thing--not that hard to pull off when the population is only about 70 (before adjusting for the constant flow of tourists of course). Much of our group decided to join in the dancing, but I passed. I did have fun laughing at them, though. At some point, it was decided that one of the Americans should perform; Emily got "elected," and ended up singing "Summertime," some old jazz song. She actually has a great singing voice, so it sounded really good. It's just unfortunate that there was no jazz music to back her up.

After she sang, I actually went back to the hostel and went to bed. Even though it was about 23:30, nobody else was in bed yet. Oh well. End of day one in Iona.

30 May 2004

w00t. The last day in Glasgow, and not a day too soon. I hope that I never have to be in this miserable city again. If you can't tell by the "mood" of my writing, I'm still sick, which really isn't raising my opinion of this place.

My memory must be slipping, because I really can't remember what time I got up this morning, just that it was way too early. We took some taxis to the station around 09:30, and found out that our original train had been canceled, and we wouldn't actually be leaving till 12:30. Needless to say, I was fairly irked.

It did, however, give Emily and I another chance to wander around. It was more or less aimless, but much better than sitting around at the station. Found another park, not as nice as the first, but pretty cool nonetheless. Followed the river for awhile, then wandered back to the station for a quick bite to eat before our train left. Stole Alyssa's seat (an empty newspaper slot thing) to eat my sandwich in, bought some more drugs for my cold, and then we were off.

The ride was, as usual, quite boring. Got some journaling done, basically kicked Alyssa out of her seat again, and slept for awhile. Somewhere along the way, I manged to lose about £40. That really sucked, but I learned an important lesson: always secure the pocket with your money in it. Also, for future trips, I plan on using a wallet. I really don't care if it sets me off as an American, it's much more convenient than a neck wallet thing, and many of the pockets on my pants zip, snap, or velcro shut, making it fairly secure.

It was a decently long hike to our hostel from the station, but it was all along the waterfront, so it wasn't too bad. And the hostel itself was pretty decent as well. The things I didn't like: 1) having to rent a towel for 50p; 2) not knowing what in the world was going on with my sleeping sack; 3) not having any cups in the room.

Dinner at McTavish's; not bad, but nothing spectacular. And the "live Scottish performance" wasn't really that exciting either. True, the bagpiper knew more songs than Steve Badke [the medic in my dorm freshman year] does, and the music was fairly cool, but I just kind of zoned out the singer, and the girl who was dancing really didn't look too happy to be there.

After dinner, Emily and I took a walk out to an old ruined tower. All we've been able to find out so far--other than that its falling apart--is that it belongs/belonged to the MacDougall clan. And even though it was more or less "ruined," it was still fairly cool. We were able to take the stairs up to the second floor, and see where two more wooden floors would have been, but the ceiling was long gone. The view was really good, and the sunset was great. Back to the hostel, and off to bed; leaving fairly early for Iona tomorrow.

29 May 2004

Got to sleep fairly early, but woke up several times during the night. Feeling more and more sick, had to drug up & blow my nose frequently. Then sometime around 05:00, a group of cats decided it would be fun to throw a party outside our window. Din't have much to do till tea @ 15:30, but breakfast was only served from 07:00-09:00, so I still had to get up fairly early. After breakfast, Emily and I decided to go look for the weapons museum. Traveled through a really nice park to get there--in my opinion, one of the few redeeming factors for the city. Unfortunately, when we got there we discovered that it was closed for renovations.

So, back through the park--taking a different path this time--and downtown to a place marked on the map as "Scottish Claymores." We figured it would be big swords, which are always cool. But when we got there, we found out that the Scottish Claymores were actually a European football (not soccer) team. Feeling rather dejected, we wandered through the rain (another thing I didn't like about Glasgow) till around 14:00, when we went back to the hotel to get some work done before tea.

Tea... well, tea was just kind of there. The Willow Tea Room wasn't all that exciting. The tables were crammed really close together, the chairs were uncomfortable, and we didn't actually get to order anything. I was really looking forward to cream tea, but all they brought us was tea, scones (without cream), some dessert-type things, and a bunch of weird little sandwiches that all had butter on them. I must say, I definitely preferred Betty's.

Once again, I'm drawing blanks. I remember that we were looking for a pub, but really only found clubs, and eventually gave up. Got to bed sometime around 23:00.

28 May 2004

Last day in Edinburgh... up bright and early (07:30 or so, I think) to finish packing and meet the taxis that were taking us to the station. I'm gonna miss our hotel--it's definitely the nicest we've had so far.

Glasgow. Is there really anything worth saying about the city? To be honest, not much. It's definitely my new least favorite city. We stayed at McLay's guest house (which is my new least favorite hotel), which officially loses. Barbara had been doing such a great job picking places to stay up to that point, too. This places allowed smoking inside--always a negative--the rooms were small, and the stairs up to the girls' rooms were leaning off to the side, and had a visible crack running along the bottom.

The town itself really wasn't that nice either. There was graffiti everywhere, and we found out later that it also happens to be the murder capital of the world.

I have to say that I was not overly impressed with the Glasgow School of Art. It was a pretty cool building, but it had really become a tourist trap. Several areas had been repainted in totally different colors, and much of the supposedly "utilitarian" art was not actually usable anymore. The chairs, for example, were not for sitting in, because they might break. To me, this seems to signify that they could never stand the test of time, which means that they could never truly be considered masterpieces. In the school's defense, however, this was the day my cold/fever started, so I wasn't in the best of moods.

Wandered the city for awhile, bought myself a cool lighter, then wandered some more. Sadly enough, I can't remember what we did for dinner [ed: it was another Indian restaurant], but that night Emily, Erin, Rob, Chelsea, Crystal and I walked to the theater to see Kill Bill Vol. 2. I definitely liked it; it'll be awesome to watch them back to back when it comes out on DVD.

27 May 2004

Order seems to be breaking down. Up at 07:15 again, only to find out that there was no actual plan for the day. The Scottish National Gallery was optional (thank goodness), so Alyssa & Jeanna did a morning walk/jog to Arthur's Seat, Emily & I went to the Royal Museum, and as far as I know, everybody else ended up at the gallery.

We found the museum, and our luck held: it didn't open for another 40 minutes. We decided to wander for awhile, and actually ended up finding a really cool place to eat, the Frankenstein Pub. Stopped by a few of the shops that were actually open (darn those early mornings!), but nothing really looked appealing, so as soon as the museum opened, we made our way to it.

I actually liked it better than the British Museum. There wasn't as much cool stuff, but it was less intimidating than the British Museum, and far less crowded. My favorite thing there, apart from a few old weapons, would have to be the skeleton of a blue whale. Its skull was big enough to serve as a small boat, and all of its feeding bristle things were still in the mouth.

After the museum, it was time for lunch, so back to the Frankenstein we went. We got there just in time for the show, which was quite surprising. All of a sudden, we heard a loud boom, and the lights went down. We were both pretty startled--Emily must've jumped a foot or so. The movie started playing on the big screens behind the bar, and an animatronic monster lowered from the ceiling, sat up, looked around, then lay back down and returned to his "home" in the ceiling.

We both ordered Frankenstein burgers, which were, I must say, quite good. They used a standard beef-burger for the base, then added bacon, caramelized onions, and mozzarella and cheddar cheeses [and BBQ sauce]. It was excellent.

After lunch, more wandering for a bit, then back to the B&B to journal for awhile before dinner. We headed out about 17:00, looking for a grocery store or something. Ran into Alyssa & Jeanna, who recommended a place called Peckhams, so we went there. Got a ham & focaccia sandwich, orange juice, and a Smirnoff Ice (good stuff), then went back and joined Alyssa & Jeanna.

After dinner, it was time for the hike up to Arthur's Seat. Unfortunately, it had absolutely nothing to do with King Arthur, and we were unable to find out where the name came from. The hike up verged on "arduous," but it was well worth the walk. The view was incredible. Most of it was just of Edinburgh, but the landscape around the city was amazing. Between us all, we took somewhere around 100 million pictures, then started heading back down. Unfortunately, we managed to pick the worst possible route, all loose rocks & spiky bushes. About half way down, the girls decided to turn back & find another way down; I saw some nice footholds in the cliff and decided to take that way up. It was a pretty beastly workout, but I never felt like I was in any danger. The girls, on the other hand, were convinced that I was going to fall down and break something, and that I was just doing it to be macho. When I got to the top and met them along the other side, they told me that I had lost my important-decision-making privileges ; and so, without even making an attempt on the nearby crags, we returned to the hotel.

26 May 2004

07:15, got up and showered. It was really nice having our own bathroom; no wait, and it's only about a five foot walk from my bed. Breakfast was pretty good: Frosties (a.k.a. Frosted Flakes), bacon, a potato scone, and a croissant. The only problem I have with this B&B is that it doesn't really seem to be located next to anything. The rooms are great, it's got a pretty nice restaurant/bar/common area, and the management (whose names I've already forgotten) are great people, very nice, doing their best to serve us.

Today was Edinburgh Castle; awesome place, though not as awesome as it could have been. Though there has been a castle on the site for centuries--at least since the 1200s--most of the castle is newer than that. When our good friend Robert the Bruce took it from the English in the early 1300s, he decided that he didn't have the men or resources to hold it, and destroyed most of the original. I understand the reasoning behind that, but at the same time... why the hell did he have to do it? When you get a castle as defensible as Edinburgh, you make enough men to hold it. If that means taking men out of your field army, so be it. The English archers will rock you in the field anyways, so you may as well hole up in the castle and take away their advantage.

After the castle, Emily and I wandered up & down the Royal Mile, as well as a few other streets, not really accomplishing a whole lot. We found the Edinburgh City Museum, that had some pretty cool stuff. The building itself was really old too: it still had a fireplace dating back to the 1500s. They still had the key to the old city, as well as some of the original plumbing, formed from hollowed out tree trunks. Unfortunately, they also had a lot of stuff from the Victorian era... darn those Victorians.

After that, we pretty much just wandered around. We stopped by the Edinburgh Dungeon, but didn't end up going in, since it cost £8. Found an advertisement for the "Gardens of Tuscany," and went looking for that. When we finally found the address, it turned out to the be City Art Centre. "Well, maybe it's on the roof," we thought. Wrong! Idiots. We got up to the third floor, only to find that there was still another floor above us. Apart from a few bushes, the "Gardens of Tuscany" consisted of pictures of gardens in Tuscany. They were nice pictures, but I was really hoping for some actual gardens.

Assuming I'm not on crack or experiencing some sort of memory loss, at this point we wandered back to the Royal Mile for dinner at Deacon Brody's Tavern. We ran in to Jeanna, and decided to check out a few nearby shops while we waited for everybody else to show up. Mostly it was fun to look, but I did end up picking out the kilt that I wanted to buy. It really made me wish that I was Scottish and had more money to spend, because it would be awesome to have the full outfit (side note: we found one the next day for £549).

Dinner was good, but not outstanding. Pretty much standard pub fare, it seems. Stopped by an internet cafe on the way back to the B&B and checked out what was going on in the real world. Not much, it turned out. Gabe & Tycho are still funny, junk mail still sucks, and Dave is still working on being 1337--this time, he managed to snag an LCD projector for our room, which is very cool indeed.

When we got back, Jeanna and I took our Cuban cigars outside, and Rob brought his pipe along. Our hostess proved her coolness once again by propping the door open for us and getting a picture of us all on Jeanna's camera. To be perfectly honest though, the Cuban was not the best cigar I've ever had. In fact, it really wasn't all that great. Maybe it was just the kind I bought (Romeo y Julietta), or maybe they're only good when they're illegal. Whatever the reason, I submit that Cuban cigars are overrated. Ate a mint, used mouthwash, brushed my teeth, then went to bed.

25 May 2004 (Feast of St. Bede)

Having defended it several times now, henceforth I will record all times in the military/twenty-four hour format. As usual, morning, starting at 07:00 today, came way too early. Had a continental breakfast, so I didn't feel too bad about wasting the egg, "sausage," and beans. Finished packing, then crammed everything in a couple of taxis (I didn't have to ride this time) and set off for the train station. Yay for leg room.

Durham seemed like an interesting town; I really wish we had more time to wander around. I also wish the castle had been open, though the cathedral was not half bad. MUch less touristy than York Minster: they didn't actually charge to get in, though there was a suggest £4 donation. It was also much less crowded than the minster, which was very nice. Barb actually managed to talk the people at the desk, as well as the tour guide and an entire tour group, into letting us join them. It started out nice enough; we were learning about the cathedral, there just happened to be some people we didn't know there. But then it got weird.

The group we got in with turned out to be a bunch of pilgrims, there to see the shrines of the saints Bede and Cuthbert. They drew us into their chanting/praying/hymn singing at Bede's tomb, and Corliss kinda gave up on the whole guided tour thing. Can't really say I blame her. Our next stop, which kind of ignored everything in the middle of the cathedral, was the shrine of St. Cuthbert. I was thinking "Ooh neat, another famous dead guy." But then they started their chanting again, and I gave up. While they were doing their thing, I decided to admire some of the stonework and stained glass windows. When they finished, Emily and I told Barb that we were done with the tour, and set off on our own. We found our way to the nearly automatic restrooms (with--in my case, at least--urinals that flushed in unison) and steeled ourselves for the 325 step climb that is the Durham Cathedral crossing tower. Since we were students, the guy at the base let us up for the children's rate, which was nice.

The climb started out with nice wide steps, but about a third of the way up, they got nice and narrow, just like the minster. A few stops and several switchbacks later, we made the top. As usual from high places, the view was incredible. The stone "rails" were fairly high, but they weren't as paranoid as York Minster... the top remained wire-free. The countryside around Durham was amazing, and I was able to get a few good shots of the castle keep. We also did a sort of "picture exchange" with a couple up there; we swapped cameras, and the we took their picture & they took ours. The walk down was much easier, but still slow. Emily's knee was still gimpy, and she wanted to make sure she didn't fall. 325 steps is a long ways.

Wandered a bit more, had a burger for lunch. Still looking for camera batteries, and still without luck. Back on the train for two sleepy hours, and now we're in Edinburgh. Looks like a pretty cool place so far. At some point we're visiting the castle, which I will love.

Mead tonight: pretty good stuff. A little strong at first, and still a bit wine-y for my tastes, but it had a very good honey taste to it as well. Hopefully a Cuban cigar as well, but judging by the time (22:15), I'd say that'll probably be happening tomorrow evening. That is all for now. This is Sir Daniel Bareither (having been knighted by Saints Alyssa and Jeanna [Geanna]) signing off.

24 May 2004 (Empire Day)

So who came up with mornings, anyways? A character in a book I once read suggested that the only reason mornings exist is to keep night from bumping into the afternoon, and I tend to agree. Believe it or not, 7:30 came way too early again. And tomorrow we're off to Durham and then Edinburgh, which means its up even earlier at 7:00.

Today was the Minster tour, and it was amazing. We had a really cool guide, and he actually knew what he was talking about, which is always nice. But apparently, we got really lucky; I later saw several guides simply reading off of sheets, while Timo (our guide) was spouting everything off the top of his head.

The Undercroft was my favorite part. We got to see where the foundations of the old Norman minster (from Anglo-Saxon, a missionary post) were, as well as the remains of a Roman basilica that cut through the grounds. I got to touch walls over 1900 years old... that's not something that happens every day. I also had the opportunity to lay in a really old (14th century?) limestone coffin that fit me surprisingly well. Fortunately, I wasn't there long enough for my decomposed organs to slide out the conveniently located goo

-hole in the bottom, but it was still a very cool, very unique experience. Though I'm sure I'll be in a coffin again some day, it probably won't be hundreds of years old, and I won't really be able to enjoy it.

The tour was unfortunately short, even at two hours long. Timo had plenty to say and then some, but he had another tour scheduled at noon that he had to leave for. Chilled around the minster for awhile, then Rachel, Erin, Chelsea, Crystal and I ascended the 275 steps to the top of the crossing tower. It cost £2.50, and the climb was a pretty good workout, but it was well worth it. The view was incredible, and I got a few more good pictures, of various parts of the minster and the town.

After that, it was back to sketching stuff until 2, when we all met up again for tea at Little Betty's. It was good, but though I tried my best, I was totally unprepared for the etiquette involved in taking tea. Luckily, Nicole was sitting next to me, and was able to cover my more obvious blunders.

We finished up around 3:30, and really had nothing else to do till dinner at 5:30. Emily, Rob and I wandered around the world (d'oh... stupid subliminal suggestions from BBC) town, stopping by some antique stores & some other miscellaneous shops. I was tempted to buy either an Iron Cross for myself or an old Army Air Corps medal for a friend who's going to be an Army pilot, but decided against it because of the horrible exchange rate. Emily ended up buying some Roman coins from the mid-late 4th century, which were pretty cool. Rob eventually got bored and wandered off. Emily and I dropped our stuff off at the B&B and then meandered our way back to the old Roman Bath, where we were eating that night. Along the way, we had a fairly entertaining political discussion, mainly involving me trying to point out John Kerry's many flaws, and Emily worrying about me becoming another Napoleon.

After dinner, it was back to journaling, sketching, and getting distracted by the TV: in this case, Lethal Weapon 3 and some odd British commercials. And then Rob & I ended up switching rooms with Crystal, Nicole & Rachel, who thought there was a ghost in their room. They were afraid their sink was haunted, and were fearful of seeing a ghost in the steam of the shower, so they decided they needed to bathe/shave/etc. in our sink. That's it.

23 May 2004

7:30 came way too early this morning. We didn't get back from our ghost hunt until after midnight, and it was actually cold enough outside that I woke up and had to throw the big blanket back on.

Free day today, but everybody decided to do the wall walk. On the way, we saw the remains of an abbey--not much more than a few walls left--that Henry VIII destroyed in the change from Catholicism to Anglicanism.

The wall walk was pretty cool, but very slow. We finished up the first half around 11:30, then took a break till one for lunch. I wasn't paying attention, and accidentally supported the French economy by eating at Pret a Manger. That's something I'll be more careful about in the future.

Unfortunately, only five of us decided to finish the walk--Alyssa, Emily, Erin, Rob and I--and when Corliss failed to show up (we later discovered that sh

e'd been delayed at lunch), morale plummeted, and I was the only one who finished the wall walk. It was fairly interesting; nice scenery, got a few good pictures, but pretty much more of the same. Really, i finished the wall out of principle. Only doing half of the wall walk would be like only going halfway up the Empire State Building, or setting out to swim the English Channel and quitting half way across. You can't say you've done the wall walk after only going half way.

Ok, enough ranting. Dinner at ASK, an Italian restaurant. Good spaghetti, and good (but way too expensive) garlic bread. It was set up in an old council hall, so there were columns all over; it set up a great atmosphere. After dinner, it was back to the B&B, journaling, and then time for bed.

22 May 2004

Slept better than the first night, but still pretty crappy. Had to get up about 7 for breakfast, then pack everything for the trip to York. Being one of only two males on the trip, I got the task of riding ahead in a cab with all the luggage. I swear the driver was crazy, but he definitely knew what he was doing. We got to the station fairly quick, and he helped me unload everything. His parting words were something along the lines of "You'd better keep your fuckin' eyes on this lot, or somebody will mick it around here." Not exactly encouraging. But everybody showed up sooner than I was expecting, and we were able to get on the train fine. The trip was only about two hours long, but, like on the plane, there was a negative amount of leg room.

It was a pretty long hike from the station to the B&B (all the way to "The Avenue"), but there were some amazing sights along the way. The first was the city wall; no longer complete, but still awesome. In some places, you can still see the Roman foundations, built sometime around AD 71, when the city was founded as Eboracum. There are also places where the Vikings added on, when they invaded and changed the name to Jorvik. Most of the wall you can see today was finished around the 14th century. But the most impressive sight of all is York Minster, the second largest Gothic cathedral in Europe. Like Westminster, it is ridiculously large; also like Westminster, it is constantly being repaired. We'll be visiting that tomorrow, so expect an update then.

At eight, we (except Alyssa) went on one of the city's many ghost-walks. This was one of the traditional ones: no actors or people in masks trying to scare you, just stories. We visited several "haunted" (I really don't believe in ghosts) locations, including, but not limited to, King's Manor, York Minster, the tax office, the Shambles, and a few others area I can't remember the names of. We didn't see any ghosts, but we did encounter one very drunk Englishman, who apparently celebrated a little too hard after a wedding that afternoon. We also learned of several interesting, if outdated, bylaws that are still in affect: 1) If any woman is drunk in public, you can have them publicly flogged at Whip-ma-whop-ma Gate; and 2) If you were born in York, you can shoot any Scottish person inside the city walls, as long as you use a bow and arrow. I thought those were cool. Whether or not there actually were ghosts at any of the locations, the man was an excellent story teller, and the walk was well worth the £2 [each] that Barb ended up paying for us to do it.

We decided to do a ghost hunt of our own; but, since it still wasn't dark yet, we decided to hit up a pub. On a suggestion, I tried a double-vodka with lemonade: very good stuff. Maybe a little too good. When it became apparent that we would still be there for awhile, I ordered another. It was also good. It also taught me that I should never order more than the equivalent of four shots. I was still in full control of myself, but I was definitely a bit tipsy. Chelsea, Crystal, Emily, Rob & I headed out to hunt ghosts--everybody else headed back to the B&B. We didn't see any ghosts, we did have a good time, and we got pictures of some haunted locations, so we'll see what happens.

21 May 2004

Today was also cool. I think I actually got a full 8 hours of sleep, though it was still way too hot. Went to the National Gallery about 9:30. It was pretty cool, but art really isn't my thing. Luckily, there was an Albrecht Durer exhibit going on. They didn't have much of his stuff, but it was enough to keep me occupied. It was also neat to see some original da Vincis and Raphaels. Barb was expecting us to be there till about 12 or 1, but I was definitely done before that. Wanted to ride the London Eye--huge ferris wheel, 408 feet tall, I think--but everybody doing that was going to the Tate afterwards, and I had definitely already seen enough art. Alyssa told me she was going to the British Museum, and that sounded much more entertaining to me. If you ever plan on visiting, make sure to take a whole day; there is a ridiculous amount of stuff there. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as cool as I thought it would be. Half of the things in the Greek & Roman collections were urns or some other type of pot, which really aren't that exciting. Next time I'm here, though, I'll be sure to do it justice and explore the whole thing.

A little after noon, we decided to give up on the Museum and go find some lunch. We wandered around to a few different shops, then went to Russel Square Park to eat. Managed to cut my finger opening Alyssa's Smirnoff with a set of keys, but other than that it was pretty good. On a side note, pigeons are way too brave here.

After lunch, we walked by the B&B to drop our stuff off before heading to the British Library. On the way back, I stopped by a small shop and bought a Cuban cigar. Who knew there were so many different kinds? Five minutes and about five hundred questions later, we finally settled on the one that was right for me: a Romeo y Julietta, a medium strength/flavor cigar that cost about £6. All things considered (like the £17 cigar right below it), I'd say that wasn't too bad. Except for the part where I felt like an idiot for not knowing anything about Cuban cigars. In my defense, though, it was much easier to order my first coffee at Starbucks; cigar buying is, apparently, an art.

After dropping our bags off at the B&B (Arran House Hotel, 77 Gower Road), it was off to the British Library. I wasn't holding out too much hope, but it actually ended up being the best stop of the day. The King's Collection was amazing: some 65,000 books, donated by our good friend George III. Unfortunately, we were stuck on the outside looking in: the collection was only open to staff, "scholars and researchers." After getting lost and wondering why the heck there was a restaurant in the Library, we found the section that was open to the public. And it was amazing. Displays ranged from old Bibles to the Beatles, and from the second or third to the twentieth century. Some of the things were just kind of cool; some were awesome pieces of history. The following page [paragraph] contains a list of my favorites.

Cool things @ the British Library:

• Part of a 3rd century copy of the Book of Revelation, written in Greek
• The Lindisfarne Gospels
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
• one of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson's log books
• Captain Cook's journal
• Jane Austen's writing desk
• an Indulgence letter
• a 7th/8th century copy of the Qu'ran
• Guttenburg Bible
• Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Books" [first edition]
• Notebooks by Galileo, Newton, and Darwin
• the Passover Haggadah (this copy was only a few hundred years old)
• a book by The Venerable Bede

Dinner at an Indian restaurant on Endell Street; very expensive, but very good. I had Chicken Tikka Punjabi, which was excellently spiced: good flavor, but not too strong, and very tender. Also tried some Jack Daniel's; I would recommend against it. It's incredibly strong, and it really doesn't taste that great. Something I will definitely not waste money on again.

After dinner, we went back to the B&B to look for Nicole, who had managed to get herself lost in the gay section of London. We headed down to Oxford Street to go shopping, but the girls took too long getting ready, so pretty much everything was closed by the time we got there. We decided to head back & just stop by a pub on the way, but, being Friday night, they were all pretty much full. We finally gave up, and went into a grocery store to pick up some McVittys--cookie type things that are, in my opinion, no more than glorified graham crackers.

Journaling for awhile, bed at 11.

20 May 2004

Bad news first: jet-lag officially sucks. I really didn't think it would be that bad; stay up to a decently late time, sleep through the night, and wake up refreshed the next morning. It was going great until I woke up at 1:15. For some odd reason, I was wide awake, but unfortunately there really isn't much to do at that time. I tried reading myself back to sleep on several occasions, but only succeeded in finishing my book (Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"). Finally got back to sleep some time after 5; not sure exactly when , but I was dead tired when my alarm went off at 6:45.

Luckily, however, the good news outweighs the bad. London rocks. If given the choice, I could easily spend the entire tour here, exploring the city and getting to know it. The group tour we took, though more crowded than I would have liked, was pretty good. Sadly, in my incredibly zombie-like state of mind, I actually can't recall everything we did. I do, though, remember the key points.

We got to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham, which was fairly impressive. And it's entirely ceremonial, which, if possible, makes it even more cool. Westminster Abbey was simply amazing. For starters, it was immense; no church I've been to has been nearly that huge. It's also an incredible piece of history. We got to see the Coronation Chair, the meeting place of the Most Noble Order of the Bath, and the tombs/tombstones of Edward I, Elizabeth I, and Geoffrey Chaucer, among others. Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are buried there as well. We weren't given nearly enough time there, though. We breezed past a lot of things, and barely got to see any of the side chapels.

At lunch, I had my first Guinness--not bad, but not all its cracked up to be. Which could be a good thing, I guess. I wouldn't want to get into the habit of drinking it, and then have to wait another year to start drinking it back home.

After lunch, we took a cruise on the Thames to the Tower of London. We were given a brief overview tour, then set loose for about an hour and a half. A group of us went to see the Crown Jewels--very sparkley--and then Emily and I headed over to the White Tower, the original keep built by William I. The architecture was amazing--yay for 11th century toilets. Unfortunately, they had closed off several sections of it, and turned the rest into a sort of museum (Corliss called it a Victorian theme park). Some of the exhibits were really cool to see, like Henry VIII's armor, some ceremonial swords (that were really huge... must've been at least 7 or 8 feet long), and a bunch of other miscellaneous weapons, but I really would have liked to explore the whole tower. We stopped by the gift shop on the way out, and Emily & I split the cost for a bottle of mead (basically fermented honey; one of those things I keep reading about & wanting to try). After that, we caught up with the group and headed off to dinner.

Chelsea, Crystal, Emily, Erin, Nicol, Rachel, Rob & I headed over to Picadilly Circus and found a pub for dinner. Food wasn't bad, and the Strongbow (hard cider) was good. We wandered around the circus, the girls shopping, Rob & I tagging along, trying not to look stupid.