I am not the same...

20 July 2007

in scotland

D -- inverness, scotland

i hardly know where to begin. scotland is enchanting! after a VERY uncomfortable all night bus ride, a mile walk in the rain to find that the hostel was on the OTHER side of the castle, and a broken flip-flop -- we took yesterday easy. thankfully, the hostel let us relax there and take showers. we only left to find yummy sandwiches and a bit of fresh air. we will be in edinburgh for a couple days next week, so it was so nice to relax. there is a HUGE-UNGOUS FANTABULOUS castle in the middle of town. our hostel last night was right there. gorgeous! we also got to call home for the first time in a while, it was good to talk to mom and dad. anyway, we are in inverness. WOW! to hear the history and see the beauty of the area. we are off to the highland games tomorrow!!!!! i am so stoked!!! well. jaeda needs some time online, so i will go. sorry, nothing too interesting. soon, we will add pics and tell you about harry potter! SWEET!

17 July 2007

J-Hostel 63-London

okay, so here we are back in London, staying at a hostel that is slightly better than the hotel room we were in last time. Up until a second ago, this room that I am in was full of little kids all speaking French. It was so cool! I wish C had been down here, (and I do mean DOWN, we are on the top floor of a tall building. The room I am in right now is the basement) however the slug-a-bed is still... abed. Yeah, so is D. They decided that they didn't want to wake up early today but to just wake whenever they woke. Which means as usual, I was up at 730 and they are still asleep. But I do get the computer, which is nice. So I still dont have the camera, which stinks. I do, however, have something new to write about.
D'S DRIVING! SCARY!
Okay, not really. I wasn't overly concerned, as she did really well at first. But she did seem to have a problem staying in the lines. She didn't, however, drift to the other side of the road as you would expect from an American. No, she drifted to the sidewalk. Which was a little scary for me, the front seat passenger. But we only had one incident. Well, two, but the other wasn't D.
We got lost a lot, which was fun. We were lost on the way to church on Sunday, and we went down a side road to turn around. D was a lot too close to the curb, and there was a truck parked on it. 'YOU'RE A LITTLE CL---' oops... but it just hit the side mirror and knocked it in. Luckily, those things are hinged. :) No worries, no damage.
The other was kind of funny. D was having trouble parking, and asked Pat's husband Mick to park the car. He backed into the car behind us. A tiny little scratch. Nothing to worry about, we got insurance on the rental. Yay. Anyway, we got to the rental company the next morning with no other mishaps and gladly left the car behind for the next uncomfortable bus ride. Better to be on a bus with the person ahead of you practically in your lap and crushing your kneecaps than having an American driving in London, though, right?
Well, we are going on a tour today, and we may get to go see Harry Potter (IN LONDON:>) this afternoon. Spendy, though. $14-$16 for a matinee. No, ta. Well, I may head off to wake the kids up now. Enjoy the post, and if you haven't check out the other posts and pics and COMMENT! I know you have, but I would rather hear the same thing over and over than not hear anything. I miss home people! I want a freaking comment!
>:( >:( >:( >:(
calming, calming
<:) <:) <:) <:)
Later! J

16 July 2007

Bath

D: london, whiteley's mall internet sight

we had such a lovely day in bath on saturday (14 july). will (one of the wonderful people on our journey...jaeda's favorite, he's hilarious!) (have you ever seen sense and sensibility? mr. palmer as played by hugh laurie? totally him!) was kind enough to drive us into bath. we hired a car (someone else will fill you in on THAT fun stuff). the car wasn't there yet, so we walked to a bakery for brunch. bacon is one of those things that i never think to eat. i don't ever buy it, but WOW it is so good. we had some bacon at johnathan & eileen's on mann, it is so thick and delicious. this bakery had a bacon and cheese baguette, i figured i must have one, it was as delicious as i thought it would be. they serve ketchup and brown sauce with everything. the brown sauce is kinda like a steak sauce. i think i might be getting hungry, since i have written so much about the food. don't worry, i'll tell you all about lunch as well. anyway, we picked up the car and drove straight to the park & ride. i think i did very well, if i do say so myself -- the drive was only 2 minutes. i think it helped that we spent a week in ireland so i could get used to seeing the way the roadways worked.

anyway, once downtown, we headed to bath abbey. GORGEOUS! the original building is from the 8th century, but the building as it is now was finished in 1499. they had a sign out front announcing their evensong service at 5, so we decided to go back for that. there are so many little streets with charming shops. we found a shop called sharps and flats (a music store) we wanted to buy everything in there, but didn't. we went into all the bookshops, jaeda was DYING for a new book to read. i found a great book for my friend's collection, and a different store had paperbacks for £2 each. we bought jane austen's 'persuasion' (seeing as we were in jane austen territory)-- it was a must.

the afternoon train carried with it my friend pat (we were roommates on my thailand adventure last year) and we found our way to the jane austen center tea rooms, where we enjoyed a spot of tea. i had lady catherine's proper cream tea. i really hoped that it would make me proper, but it didn't work... i got jam all over the tablecloth and my fingers were sticky for an hour afterward. in my defense -- the scones were warm and crumbly while the clotted cream was cold and firm. HAVE YOU EVER TRIED CLOTTED CREAM??????? i think it sounds disgusting, but it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a currant scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam. delish! pat had the same as i while casey had mrs. bennet's lemon drizzle cake and jaeda had cousin collin's crumpets. HA! i really wanted tea with mr. darcy, but that was only the name of the tea, mr. darcy didn't actually come out and join you. i have to say that is a bit disappointing to this fragile heart. a moment please... ok enough about that.

we planned on staying for the entire evensong service, but about 20 minutes into it, casey asked if we could leave. she was falling asleep. i was sad to go. the music was beautiful and resounded through the abbey so sweetly. worship music such as we heard is fortifying to the soul.

the evening took j to a bench in front of the roman baths to enjoy her book, as she no longer enjoyed walking. c, pat and i went to see the royal crescent (see pics below). the largest open area in bath is a park in front of the crescent, the grass was the perfect length and color. so green, not too short, nor too long, it was perfect. we lie on our backs looking for shapes in the clouds, but the clouds were one giant mass and not puffy cotton candy animal shaped clouds. it was nice to rest a while. there were some beautiful gardens close by, really, there were beautiful gardens all over town. WOW!

sightseeing on the isle of man

C here talkin about the IOM...so, the Isle of Mann..sightseeing...so we went to castletown and saw a cute old school building where they taught writing. we also went to craigneesh (sp?), which is an olden day kind of town. they have no electricity and all the houses have thatched rooves and it is really cool, so we go there and the first house is just a regular house only everything is from way back when. the best part was that Jacob and Benji started asking where the food is...and they didn't stop! after a while she finally gave in a started making bread. Jacob then proceeded to ask why she didn't go to TESCO (the only grocery store here) and she asked what it was he told her...blah blah blah for like five minutes and finally it ended with him bragging that he had a TESCO...it was funny and cute. the next house (and last house that we went to) was the spinning house. this lady took wool and she showed us how to make it all fine and then how to spin it...it was really neat, and she made the boys wool chains that we turned into necklaces, it was cool.
the next day we ventured ALL the way across the island (all ten minutes) and we first went to the isle of man museum which was cool but not as cool as our next stop, which was the house of Manannan! it was really cool, it brought you through the whole history of the Isle of Man, starting with the vikings and through the celts and the christians and the fishers and everyone, it looked really cool and was really amazing. After the house of manannan we went to this castle, i forget what it was called but it was just the ruins of an old castle and you could go into the grounds and hike all over the place inside through all of the buildings that were falling apart and on the wall surrounding it. it was AMAZING!!! we even saw a basking shark right off the coast and also some seals :)
After the castle we took off and went to get some REALLY REALLY GOOD icecream...really good. oh yeah...we went to see the house off the movie Waking Ned Divine...it was so cool, we saw the house and it was on the beach where there were a lot of rocks and shells, each of us got enough shells to fill all our pockets...i went further that the rest and climbed onto this HUGE rock island thingy, but while i was on there the tide came in and filled the river area that i had to cross to get back with water...i could have just taken off my shoes and walked through it (cause it wasn't THAT deep) but it was also full of jellyfish!!! no joke! ...but thanks to Michael i got across by jumping from rock to rock holding his arm (cause seriously the rocks weren't stable and barely above the water, for a minute i thought i wasn't going to be able to get across) but i survived with only the bottom of my pant legs wet :) whew! after that not much happened...we went home and had a late late dinner of chicken cordon bleu, mashed potato's, green beans, and cheesecake...yum yum

Myths, Legends and.. Rat-birds?

I always seem to fill out a blog on the days that we can't hook up the camera. Too bad, too, cause we have some awesome pics right now. So, my task is to tell you a bit about the history of the Isle of Man (or I Love Mann, as I call it), and to talk about the new bane of my existence... PIGEONS :( So, I'll start with the fun stuff.

I LOVE MANN!!!
The isle of Man is so beautiful! It is one of my new favorite places on earth. When we got there, I was so seasick and tired that I couldn't really appreciate it. We took the ferry over on Monday morning. It was a beautiful ferry ride, which we slept most of the way through. After seeing Cathy and Eileen (her sister) we went to church for a bit, met some people, used to toilets, then went to our three day home. It was lovely! There was a family there, ad that made it one of the best places we could be. The kids were excited to meet us, and came in and talked to us, which made me feel right at home. We talked about movies and books, two of my favorite subjects. And there were bookshelves in the room. I had been literarily (not really a word is it?) starving, and it was like a feast! I looked through and found an old copy of a book of fairy tales from Mann, YAY! I read the first one, and it was the mythological history of the Isle of Man, or Mann for short. It spoke of a magician who looked after the land and it's inhabitants. His name was Manannan mac Lir. He liked looking after the Manx because they weren't too bright and worshipped him. Whenever explorers or invaders would get to close to the Isle, Manannan would draw mist around the island, called Manannan's Veil, so thick they couldn't see. If that didn't work, he would set a villager up on the mountainside, and use his sorcery to make him look like a hundred soldiers prepared for battle. If that, too, failed, Manannan would then form himself into a fiery boomerang, fashioned of three armoured legs, and hurl himself at the intruders. Needless to say, they lived in peace for many years. Until St. Patrick came, bringing with him knowledge such as the villagers had never before had, and a new and strange religion called Christianity. The villagers were slow to release their hold on the ancient ways, but eventually forgot Manannan as they used St. Patrick's gift of knowledge to till fields and fashion clothing. Manannan would have none of it. He couldn't very well draw his cloak, as it was too late to hide the isle from St. Patrick. And the monk knew the villagers each by name, so setting false ones to scare him off would not work. Manannan used his final weapon. Fashioning the boomerang, he threw himself down the mountainside at St. Patrick. But St Patrick, too, had a weapon. Though to call it such is to name it wrong. It was half prayer, half song. It was called St. Patrick's breastplate, and as he and his monks chanted the prayer, it drew the protection across the group, and deflected Manannan and his powers. Angry and defeated, Manannan exiled himself to a place far from the village, and if he is not dead he lives there still. The boomerang that Manannan formed became the symbol for Mann, and also inspired the islands motto: Quocunque Jeceris Stabit (Latin)
Whithersoever you throw it, it will stand.

I found the tale fascinating, and slowly learned more and more about Mann and it's history. The island was founded by Celts, and it is even said that Finn MacCool, the greatest of the mystical Fianna warriors, created it by tearing the soil from Ireland and throwing it at the giant he was fighting. The Celts lived there then and now, but have fought to keep their land as it was overtaken by Vikings, Scottish and finally Britain. It is counted as part of Britain, however keeps apart from England and stands as it's own country.

* * *

Now onto the completely unrelated topic of pigeons.
I never thought I would find a bird I didn't like. That was before Liverpool and it's pigeons. We landed in Liverpool on Thursday, and walked towards the coach station to catch our ride to London (not a good ride as it turned out. Six hours on a stuffy coach, no ta). We stopped in a lovely little park to rest, and Casey and I went to one of my new favorite places, the Liverpool Library (so many books!) When we came back, there was a group of school kids feeding pigeons to draw them near and then chasing them off. The kids chased them directly into mine and C's faces. I inhaled a mouthful of feather dust and dirt. I have been sick ever since. Not my favorite birds, pigeons. They now make me think of dirt and sickness and all manner of disease. Eeeeeeeewwwwwwww! I will be glad to get back to a time when they don't for I know the little rats populate the Earth just as much as seagulls do. They just scare me more.

Anyway, we are in London for the next few days, and then off to Edinburgh for our last real leg of the trip. I can't believe we have been out for 19 days and change. This is so great!