heading home

I spent nearly 20 hours in transit to get home, including a 2.5 hour bus ride to London Heathrow, where Heather and I said goodbye (she's now staying in England to study abroad for the next five months), waiting several hours for my flight, taking the 8 hour flight, getting caught at customs in the US because I’d spent time on a farm, meeting my parents, and driving to Newark and then home. Customs took forever because they had to take my shoes away for inspection upon reading my immigration card, which I was all too honest on-- not only did I declare that I had spent time on a farm, but I also admitted it was a dairy and beef farm. Something something mad cow something? I finally was released from the grand inquisition and found out the following upon seeing my parents:

1. They are now married.

2. They lost the photocopy of my passport in Newark.

This is hilarious because:

1. They got married over 24 years ago.

2. We were concerned I would have to forfeit my passport.

This was resolved by:

1. They did get married, and had the permit for their marriage license, but apparently had never gotten the license and didn’t notice the difference until recently. They picked it up on their way to the airport though. Better late than never.

2. We drove back to Newark and somehow, by luck and great surprise, we found the paper across the street from where my parents initially dropped it.

And now I’m home, and sucking at getting used to the time zone!

bath time

At this point in our whirlwind tour of Great Britain, we're getting a little tired, but we did manage to get out and see a lot of things today. Wenke took us out to see the Royal Crescent, the Circus, the Abbey, the River Avon, and walked past the Roman Baths but didn’t go in, rather, spent our money on a trip to Stonehenge! It was pretty cool. On the bus ride out to Stonehenge we stopped in a small town called Laycock, which is Britain's most scenic village and was actually used in at least one Harry Potter film... I wasn't listening to our crazy tourguide so much as just wandering about. He was a firm believer than Stonehenge is an alien landing pad and refused to even ponder other ideas...

oops x 9 hours

Due to a slight geographical error on my part (how embarrassing), Heather and I spent nine hours on a train (sadly not in first class this time) to Bath, England, where we were met by my German friend Wenke Binder. We are a bit worn out from travelling, but tomorrow will be a better day...

seaside St. Andrews with Sarsh

Not that we haven't been having a really great time on our vacation, but this is the first stop of the trip where Heather knew the person we were staying with ahead of time. Everyone else has been people I've worked with over the past few summers. Here in St. Andrews, we're staying with our friend Sarah, who we both went to summer camp with. It made for a pretty amusing time!

We walked around the city all day, checking out all kinds of things, including the gorgeous cathedral ruins, the pier, the castle ruins, the old golf course, and the beach. Heather bought some boots on sale in a shop, so we all had to dress up along with her to go to the student union. We made omelettes for dinner with gorgeous peppers like the ones I buy at home all the time, except they were a lot cheaper since Scotland is a little closer to Holland. We went out with some of Sarah’s friends again, and turned Never Have I Ever into a game that got us all a little silly by the end of the night. We stopped by a chip shop (French fries), where I mentioned to Heather that the very fit (good looking) boys behind us had bumped into me, which she turned into grabbed my butt, and started this whole, hilarious tirade about that and the fact that they wave two fingers instead of one, and called underwear “pants”. It was really, really, really, really funny!

wandering around Edinburgh

Today we toured around Edinburgh! We saw the castle, St. Giles’ Cathedral, the Parliament Building, a cemetery, and the acropolis (did you know Scotland had one of those? I did not!) overlooking the whole city and the Firth of Forth. We had a lovely dinner out before taking the local train to St. Andrews. It turns out, the train after ours derailed. Awesome timing. We got to St. Andrews and met the lovely Sarah Kniesler! We ended up out at a local pub with a few of her friends, where I tried some Tennet's, a Scottish brew, while everyone else had cocktails. Before we left, she asked the building warden for a camp bed (cot). When we got back, waiting by the door was a cot (crib). We got this straightened out.

last day in Northern Ireland

Andy had an interview with a Nobel Peace Prize winner in the morning, so Heather and I went and saw some of the area with Mrs. Brownlee, including their church and a local park. When we got back, Andy took us for a tour of the farm! We got to meet and play with some cows and cow babies, and took a stroll through the orchard after letting the chickens out. Andy and I tried to play football (soccer) in wellies (boots), too. It was excellent. He drove us back to George Best Belfast City Airport, where we flew to Edinburgh and met Irish Pete McIlwaine (but not without first having ourselves each a glass of Guinness... a bit heavy for me)! We met his flatmates and watched TV, this is when I was introduced to a ridiculous show called Green Wing. (Yes, Pete is Irish. But yes, we are in Scotland.)

northern Northern Ireland

Andy had to work, so his parents took Heather and me and his youngest sister, Lynn, to some touristy things in County Antrim in northern Northern Ireland. We went to the Bushmills Distillery, which is the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world, coming up on its 400^th anniversary next year. When buying tour tickets, they mistook me for under 18 (the legal drinking age there) and mistook Lynn for over 18… she is 13. Anyway, we learned the differences between Scottish and Irish whiskeys—Irish is spelled with an e, Scottish is not, and Irish is distilled 3 times whereas Scottish is only twice. After the tour, Heather volunteered to do a special taste testing and got to try six different whiskeys. I only tried one, and it turns out I still can’t stand spirits since my 21^st birthday… oh well! Afterwards, we went over to the Giant’s Causeway… it’s so beautiful there, photos will never do it justice, but you should check them out anyway.

day in the city, night on the farm

Andy wasn't really sure how to go about showing us around the city of Belfast, so we did a little wandering of our own after having breakfast and ended up getting on one of those big, red city tour buses that are in most major cities I've ever been to. We saw a lot of different kinds of buildings and learned a ton about The Troubles and the World Wars' affects on the city. Some of the things that stuck out in my mind were the blatant differences between very historic buildings and more modern ones that replaced ones that had been bombed, some very political murals, and crossing the Peace Line—a wall with barbed wire at the top that encloses the small Protestant population of west Belfast. Andy drove us up to the farm in County Armagh that night, and we met his family (four sisters and a brother). We went into the village of Armagh and took a walk around the mall (a lawn, not a shopping center), stopping, of course, to try and stick our heads in a cannon in the middle. We amuse ourselves.

off to that other isle

Back in London, I had to told Katie that I'd been unable to get in touch with Patrick all this time, so she offered to call him for us. As it turned out, he was visiting some family in New Castle (next to Sunderland!) and called Helen, so we met at the New Castle Metro Center for lunch. We gave him the fifth degree about not calling Helen before knowing I was coming, and not giving me means to get in touch with him… but what a nice surprise! Heather and I then took a local flight to George Best- Belfast City airport. We got to walk out on the runway and board the plane on a little ladder and everything, which we were pretty excited about but I guess the airport employee wasn't. Andy Brownlee was there and waiting for us! We walked around Belfast a little bit and are staying in his sister’s flat in the south of the city (a mixed Protestant- Catholic area) for the night.

New Years outside of the Eastern Time Zone

Heather and I slept in a little again because the time difference is still kicking our butts. We took the train from London King’s Cross station (yes, where Harry Potter boards his train on Platform 9 ¾) to Durham… in first class! That was most definitely an accident, but a welcomed one. Tea and biscuits, tea and biscuits, tea and biscuits, free wireless internet, big comfy seats, tea and biscuits (not to mention the free wireless internet). Helen Wilson picked us up! We went to hers in Sunderland, got dolled up and went out to dinner at a lovely Indian restaurant, where I learned that the British don’t use the word “frigid” to describe the temperature of a room, unless the temperature of the room is sexually withholding. Awkward. Anyway! We went to four or five different pubs, ringing in the New Year five hours earlier than usual by seeing people partying on TV in Trafalgar Square and trying to explain to everyone in our crazy American accents that the ball dropping in Times Square is really where it’s at. It totally is, but we had a great time in England, too!