So, the plane flights went alright, minus the slight weirdness at LAX in which I arrived so early they didn't have a gate listed by the time I got there and what's called "Terminal B" on my emailed itinerary doesn't exactly exist. It's the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT). Flight overseas was on Singapore, which is kinda awesome. Except that it's like I have a sign that says "Ingore Me," somewhere around, because I kept getting skipped over for service. It might have had something to do with the fact that I was sitting next to two Indian women who were getting served food ahead of time and whatnot (special meals), so they forgot about me over by the window. Except the lady running by with the customs forms who had no excuse, wtf. Essentially a "HIYEAHANYONENEEDFORMS?NO?GOOD."
Anyway, I got to Narita Airport and Okabayashi-sensei was waiting for me once I got through immigration and customs and picked up my bag. Full of booze, heh. The awesomeness of not having to take that home is... very awesome. I think my suitcase lost 40 pounds getting rid of the chocolate and the bottles of bourbon and wine. Okay probably not that much. Even so. Packing for going home will include a lot of condensing. I'm only taking one carry on going back, swear to god.
The weather in Japan is surprisingly cool. I still get rather hot from walking place to place, but just standing outside is usually pretty breezy and nice. Not like walking into the wall of heat it was like when I was here in summer during high school. Indoors isn't very air conditioned, but it isn't England either. They just don't have the AC cranked up to make everywhere nearly 32° F like they like to do in America. So it's kinda nice, actually. I don't require a coat indoors and a tank top outside kinda thing.
Do probably need to take an umbrella, though. It was pouring rain the first evening when I arrived.
Also, I got a 携帯電話 (cell phone). From a company called "SoftBank." What? Why is it a bank... and it's soft? I'm just not going to question this. Japanese cell phones, for the record, are like the complete opposite of the US phones. They're huge. Pretty flat, but huge. I like it. Easier to hold. Mine's just a cheapo model, more or less. Not that it was cheap. 7100¥ for the phone... But it is a pay-as-you-go type plan, so I just got 3000¥ on a card instead of buying a plan. Which is nice. I have until late in January for it to keep the phone number, too, so I figure mid-January, I can renew the minutes and then when I get back here, I won't have to buy another phone. Win.
But yes. Nihon University has wireless internet I can make use of, so I'll probably be around much more than originally thought. Though not as much as I am in America by any means, and also not likely on at decent hours for most of the US folk. Regardless, if you don't see me on IM, email's always an option.
And for the record, I suck at Japanese. I've noticed I forget the following things a lot: tense, because I do everything right now as opposed to having done anything =D; keigo, not that I ever knew it very well; polite vs. informal, because everyone else uses informal to me and I just use informal back indiscriminately... except when I initiate conversation, in which case it is sometimes polite and sometimes informal, based on which conjugation I remember at the time; vocabulary!, because I have none.
It's kind of goofy that five months (I started this entry in December) nearly a year after I've returned from my vacation, I'm still compiling the journal entries for it. Only one more to go after this one. Anyway, ahh Scotland. Mountains. <3
As usual, had a horrible flight-in experience. Can't remember exactly what happened on that flight, but I do know that after being dropped off by the bus at the bridge in the middle of Edinburgh, I tried to find the shuttle stop and could not find it for the life of me. I got directions from one of the tourist stops, and I stood waiting on the corner for at least an hour, I think longer, before the other party (Isaac & co. with the car) called me to say hello. The hilarious part was, I was across the street from the shuttle pickup, which I'd already begun to suspect, so I headed to the other side, but my friends picked me up from the stop to take me to the hostel personally, since we hadn't seen each other for a while and they were leaving Edinburgh the next morning so I wouldn't meet up with them at all there.
Getting there was also an adventure-- and finally making it to the glorious Globetrotter Inn, I found out they'd mis-filed my reservation and thought I'd not showed to the hostel the month previous. Um, okay. Finally they were like, "Yes, we can get you a room, but you're going to have to switch rooms twice." Tired, hungry, and whatnot, I just say sure, book me, and they do, and I say goodbye to the friends and hello to a random Michigan person we met in the lobby, put my stuff away and watched Lady Hawke with Ms. Michigan. The next day, I talk to a few of my roommates, who were actually leaving, about what is good to do in Edinburgh, and decided, screw the hostel, they were making me change rooms anyway, I'd just cancel for that night and take an overnight trip up to the highlands instead. Had horribly expensive lunch with said roommates, toured Edinburgh castle (freaking ONLY thing I used that Great Britain Heritage Pass for, kthnx, but I did get to bypass the line, so ha), which was more allowing of pictures than Kilkenny/having more place to tour but less huge than the Tower.
That night I had the brilliant experience of having all my previously female roommates be replaced by (mostly) males. Didn't actually meet any of them except the foreign by the window. Rest of them showed up while I was asleep, because I went to bed early, and just my luck, the one placed above me was apparently drunk or otherwise ill, because he threw up. Just barely missing the majority of my things on the side, but the smell was god-awful, and in trying to clean up my things, I woke up the foreign couple by the window who proceeded to whisper-yell at me that "people were sleeping" or some such, until I explained that the fellow above me ralphed on my things.
Anyhow, the next morning, I was whisked away by a personal pickup from the hostel by the tour van. We had... two tour guides in effect, though technically there was only one. His friend went along for the ride, however, and though he was apparently a policeman now, he'd been a tour guide before, so was also quite knowledgeable as well. They're the two in the middle of that picture on the right there. They traded off explaining areas to us and were overall very entertaining. We visited a cairn site, which was fantastic, had lunch at I think it was a soldier's barracks? Really nice view either way. Picture was us having lunch.
Stopped in Drumnadrochit for the evening, after passing through various places, none of which I remember the names to. Spent at least an hour in the Highland capital... Inverness, possibly? Seems right. Anyhow, I wandered a little mall-area there, that had this awesome antiques shop. I wish I had fortunes of money to have bought something there, the jewelry was gorgeous.
In Drumnadrochit, I got dinner at a small diner-ish place. Where I had some haggis (because how could I not) and toast, and a meat pie. And in Drumnadrochit there was this amazing replica of Urquhart castle out of flowers. I can't really express how awesome it was, just look at the picture. Went back to the hotel I'd gotten booked and was accosted by the tour guides, so sat with them in the restaurant at the restaurant for a bit, then we migrated to the local bar, where we joined up with a couple from Amsterdam and... someone else, I think. They all drank. I did not. I did, however, get hit on oddly by the tour-guide-turned-policeman, which was highly weird. No really. Did I mention his ex-wife was from Colorado?
In anycase, the next day we toured Loch Ness and I saw Urquhart castle from the loch. Never saw it up close, though. Did various other things that I don't entirely remember, though the day was slightly more awkward because of said experience the night before. I do remember that we passed by a shooting site for the Harry Potter movie and all piled out of the van to take pictures. That area where they placed Hagrid's hut in movie 3, I think. Like, that hill the kids had to walk down from the school to get to his pumpkin patch? They dropped us off again in Edinburgh by the castle, so I shuttled back to the Globetrotter to check in again for the last night. Which went wonderfully without a hitch. Shuttled out early the next morning, back to the airport and flew to London.
Anyway, had vague difficulty finding the entrance to the hostel, but once found, everything was fine except that dinner was a bag of chips and some fanta (vending machine), and there was a strange ordeal with the beds. Wherein these two ladies thought they had my bed. When in fact, this lady in the bed across the room from me, who had been sleeping since I got there, had gone into the wrong room and so was sleeping in the wrong bed. Wasn't even on the proper floor, that lady. The room there was miseratingly stuffy since there was only a small window on the other side from where I was at. I was right by the door.
My favorite thing about this hostel were the bathrooms. See, not only did they have silly things written on the walls, insides of the stalls, etc like the one to the right, but they were mislabeled everywhere. The one closest to our room (shared by 14 girls, by the way), was labeled so that it said the toilets were for guys and the showers were for girls. They weren't. The whole floor was girls bathrooms. The one around the way had the showers and toilets mixed up so they pointed opposite.
I managed to take pictures of most all the important things except the two most photographed sights... so instead I photographed the back of one of the buses that managed to have them both on it. Say hello to Oscar Wilde and Molly Malone.
Second day, I found out that one of the girls I'd talked to on the first night directly after checking in actually happened to be staying in my room. And together with another lady, we wandered over to Trinity College and I saw the Book of Kells. The library after the Book exhibit was gorgeous. If I could've taken pictures I so would've. We got lunch, talked, and saw the lady off, after which we stopped at an internet cafe and Stephanie (the girl) wanted a cider so we picked up some cider, sat in the hostel common room and chatted the rest of the evening. And had a great dinner at a pub-- mm, bangers and mash.
I had a video of him talking, I think. But I also don't believe it uploaded, so I probably lost it with the other Ireland things I lost when I overwrote files or some such. Like the picture of Stephanie. But yes, I got to talking with this girl (originally) from Canada, (currently) working in Switzerland who was on the tour with me. And had dinner with her at a different pub, in which I had stew
Got together with Stephanie afterwards and we went to the Celt which is... a very awesome pub. Live music is the win. Also I adore fiddling. And violins in general. There was this guy in the Celt, though, who was sort of hitting on me, which was weird. He had such a thick accent (from somewhere besides Dublin... I forget where) that I was having trouble understanding him already. Then coupled with me being distractedly trying to listen to the music instead of him, he started yelling in my ear to make sure I heard/understood him. Yelling in my ear about linguistics. In a bizarre, slightly flirty manner. While being older than me by enough that it was like, "Um, why?"
And that was Ireland. Mostly.
Amsterdam was nice and relaxing after London. I kinda slept in, wandered around, saw some sights, talked with some people, hung out with my cousins, doodled, and ... relaxed. I've lost nearly all momentum for writing entries on this and haven't a clue what I may have originally meant to say. Mostly I just want to get the best pictures pulled out.
This is the streetfront entrance to the Melkweg, which is the cafe my cousins own.
I nearly always sat at this corner bar seat, watching people come in and out and talking a bit with the staff and customers. Inside the Melkweg (which, for non-Dutch speaking readers translates as "Milky Way") there was a club, art gallery, the restaurant, and a few other things. Like I've forgotten what was upstairs. And they were building a cinema that would've been connected with it, as well. It's a pretty popular hangout.
Mary Jo and Erik (and the cats) were kind enough to let me sleep on their couch. She had a nice garden on the patio that I forgot to get a picture of.
I was a little intimidated by the bathroom. It all connects, so the sink is inside the shower area and the toilet is outside, but only separated by a curtain. This is the big difference from the Japanese apartments, where everything is still small but separated. Even the shower and the bathtub. Got used to everything but the hot water pipe... which burned me the first day and the following days I always managed to bump into it at least once. Though no subsequent burns.
Tiny car of doom awesome. They had them in Britain too, but they seemed a little different. These cars are apparently for the handicapped, though, because they're allowed to park on the sidewalk?
The buildings are always very tall and narrow on the street-facing side. (I didn't pay enough attention to the backs to say about that. Also at the top, I'm told, every house has a hook. The doors in Amsterdam are too small to fit furniture through, so instead, you'd hook up your furniture, hoist it using the hook and get it in through the windows. I've gone and forgotten what's important about the shutters, or if they were important. I think it might have been an era decorative thing. Took this shot while on the canal ride. Which if you ever go to Amsterdam, you should do.
Rembrandt and the Rijksmuseum rock. My photography skills, however, do not. This is the Night Watch painting, which is huge--it's life-size I think. Or very close to, at least. And the Rijksmuseum runs this kinda nifty light and sound show over it to tell the probable/potential story. This museum is teh awesome because they let you photograph everything. I also went to the Van Gogh museum, but it was a little less impressive. ...Partly because I'm not that impressed with Van Gogh. I found I really like Rembrandt, though. I've a picture of his house somewhere, since I went to see it, too, though I can't recall which it is at the moment.
So no. I didn't even step foot in a coffeeshop. Saw quite a few. Decided the bakeries were better choices, though. Also I love that fries with mayonaise is a thing there. If I hadn't been so "I'm not hungry enough" I would've had it more often. Or something.
So here it continues, like a month later. I'm slow.
The flight over there was fairly uneventful. Since we flew Delta, we stopped off in Georgia for our layover. Fun times. I was reminded of why I get annoyed when I'm in the South: no non-sweetened ice tea to be found in the entire geographical area. On the plane from Georgia to London, we mostly all were watching movies: Curious George and the Patriot (irony, no?). So by the time we arrived in London, the lot of us had all been pretty much awake a straight 24+ hours.
And it was still morning in London. First we couldn't get a straight answer for how much a train ticket to Victoria Station cost from Gatwick (some people kept telling us it was around 4 pounds, which is such a lie). From Victoria Station there was a "shuttle" bus to take us to our hostel. Problem lay in finding where to wait for the bus. It took quite a bit of wandering, during which we were all dead as hell, in this light drizzle which was absurdly soaking for not actually raining. But I couldn't stand the idea of wearing my rain jacket since I was really hot already and the rain was almost nice in that respect. Anyhow, we had miserable directions on how to get to the waiting point, which was at the restaurant in the picture. While we were waiting, we got attacked by a giant spider. I'm not the one with the pictures for that, though.
The hostel was ... dingyish. I think it was my worst hostel on the trip in terms of condition and it's also the only one that never got pictures taken of the inside, go me. The shower was on the inside of the rooms there, though the toilets were in a bathroom elsewhere, so it was entertaining taking turns with the showering and such. We also had a six-person room, so there were the five of us and one rotating roommate. First one we apparently scared away on accident.
Best part about the first hostel was the graveyard that was right behind it (and there were catacombs underneath somewhere, but we couldn't find the entrance). Our room had a view of it, though I wasn't near the window so I didn't really see much of it until we went out on my... last day there? I think it was the last day. Anyway, we went there in the morning and Devin took oodles of photos. I took less. I do have a souvenir piece of broken marble from one of the graves somewhere, though.
Other than that, I shan't really go into too much detail of what we did as it was mostly typical touristy stuff. We went to the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Tower, saw the outside of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, saw Hyde Park (which, since Britain is currently in a "drought" was nearly dead and brown everywhere--I have zero pictures of green England, though Ireland and Scotland had fared better), took lots of pictures of statues and architecture, St. Paul's Cathedral (funny story), and probably other things that I really didn't know what we were looking at. It was a lot of walking. And bad lunches (expandable plastic cheese, ftw). But it was fun. It just kinda made me die with the walking.
This is the only time during the trip it was cold. Or at least I was freezing and this old lady sitting in front of me apparently agreed. We were on the bus tour and for some reason I was just freezing. As you can see... it was blue skied and sunny, though. Isaac and I agreed that the sun was like, somehow less warming than it is in Colorado. Less air in between to block it ahah.
For whatever reason, there were a lot of these "Jesus Army" buses/shuttles/people around while we were there the first couple of days. I'm also not sure why, but the title kinda cracks me up. We had issues taking pictures of one of them, so when we finally caught one right beside our bus, Devin and I took a couple pictures each of it, though I've only uploaded one of mine.
Still a bit jetlagged here, I think we were. I just found it funny that they were sitting there and the three statues behind. There's a picture someone took where we (and I was in it) were actually posing like the statues, but apparently I don't have it. In the British Museum.
At least I think he was German. I can't really remember anymore. He kinda insisted I should have a picture with him too (Devin already got one), so there it is. It's also like, one of ... four actual photos of me during the entire trip, so there y'go. It was close by to the giant bell clock that disappointingly didn't ring. Though it did go through this whole thing with little wooden dolls that I have on video somewhere. I think it's uploaded, though it may not be.
Piggyback! ...Devin got on and they kinda all toppled over after about ten seconds. It was pretty hilarious, though I sadly didn't get my camera to take a shot of the after fast enough so alls there is is the before.
Can anyone tell me what the heck you use that thing for? This was in the B&B I stayed in for one night before taking off for Amsterdam and I was utterly puzzled why there seemed to be two toilets in the bathroom. Except y'know, this one was weird anyway. The room was huge--two twin beds, one queen-sized, and one twin pullout that was under one of the other ones was in the room, along with a TV set and this gigantoid bathroom. It was so nice after the hostel, even if they were utterly retarded in designing the bathtub.
Speaking of which, this was where my plans diverged from my friends and I set out on my own. My parents booked me this room last-minute at a B&B to spend my last night in London before hopping the flight to Amsterdam. They also gave me horrendous directions. In one sense it's understandable--you can't see street signs posted anywhere anyway, so it would be difficult to give someone directions using names. On the other hand, "Go straight past the huge roundabout to the smaller roundabout, keep going straight until you see another small roundabout" was kinda confusing since I felt like I passed more than I was supposed to have. It also took me nearly an hour to walk to the place from the station (I think this was... Crawley or something?), where nobody was working at to ask for directions, during the evening, after reading it was only supposed to be a couple minutes from the station. They forgot to mention it was a couple minutes away by car.
At the Tower, one of the displays let you try on the armor... picture number two of me, in which I lose at even fake-armwrestling. Because like noted. I have no arm strength whatsoever.
Have gone and forgotten what sort of moth this is, but it attacked us on the subway. Then in the graveyard, there was a plaque that explained what kinda moth it was, but I can't find that picture now so I can't tell you. One of the few things that seems to be... more colorful and animated about London than here. No offense to Londoners who may be reading this. :\
I just like how these came out.
First off, the trip was brilliant and I had a great time. I wasn't attacked at all or anything. Had one lewd comment made towards me and one guy who quite enjoyed yelling in my ear at a pub while I was trying to listen to the music. Oh Celt-descendent males. Way to show little respect for a large age gap.
Otherwise, mostly the things that were not as pleasing were my own planning faults. I didn't spend nearly enough time in Ireland or Scotland, placed my trip back to London a bit too soon, didn't leave enough room for improvisation, and bought a pass rather uselessly as I only used it once.
My favorite place, since people continue to ask this question, was probably the highlands of Scotland, with least favorite being in London. Heathrow airport especially.
The pictures I've taken, overall, are a bit strange, I tend to forget to take pictures of the "normal" things and end up taking lots of pictures on just random instances I found beautiful. But all of them are uploaded to this account currently. Or at least all of them that weren't blurred and bizarre. Specific commentary later.