Keeping Up With the Jones'
...even straight roads meander...
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(Source: justformeandyou)
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Oh Crazy people… and our last day in London…
We took a bus to Scotland and back to London because it was cheap and it let us avoid the airports. The ride there was not so bad… I slept most of it and watched the gorgeous scenery passing my window… but the ride back… well, thats a whole different story… but let me back up and tell you a little more about Scotland…
We were going to couchsurf but found the hostel that we had booked for the first night enchanting and cheap so decided to just stay there for the 4 nights. It was an old church converted into a hostel, full of stained glass windows and spiral staircases… adorable.
We spent most of our days just wandering the city of Edinburgh, a small town packed full of mystifying old churches, green hills, old cemeteries, whiskey, pubs, food, and a castle. Everywhere we walked we were intrigued and awed by what we saw.. I even got to see a highland cow, which I for some reason find to be so freaking cute as far as cows go… lol…
We went to the Whiskey Experience one day which was pretty awesome. You get inside this whiskey barrel ride car and ride through the “whiskey distillery” while a ghost tells you all about the process of making whiskey… then you walk through a room with some more interesting information before heading to a room where our tour guide met up with us… he showed us a movie about the different regions in Scotland and the different flavors that the whiskeys get from each one, (a very hypnotizing speech if you love the accent as much as I do, and it didnt hurt that our guide was quite a looker) and then you get to taste… yumm… we were also taken to a room(s) that housed the largest collection of whiskey in the world… whew… there were so many bottles everywhere… even the rarest whiskeys that only had less than 300 bottles released were there… amazing. Well worth the 9 pounds…
It was a great 4 days filled with more just enjoying our surroundings then really doing much… perfect :)
Now for the ride back into London… we board our bus at 9am and are on our way back when we stop and pick a few more people in another town which is fine… except this strange older man who sits across the aisle from me… I had a wierd feeling about him as soon as he sat down but just turned my head out the window and kept my earphones in…. well he kept trying to get my attention so I finally took one out to hear what he had to say… he just wanted to ask me where i was going, where i was from, where to next… etc etc… the same old questions… Well I told him we were staying with a friend in London and didnt know where we were going next, I just didnt really want to tell this man where we were going…. so he goes on telling me about how he hates his hometown of Newcastle and hes been travelling for 40 years, hustling on the streets of Amsterdam and such.. he shows me his scars from being shot and stabbed… very strange man… but generally being nice… then we stop for lunch at another town where we go inside to eat… when T and I are finished and getting ready to head back to the bus we hear this man screaming, well more of like a crazy moaning cry where you can not even understand what he is saying… and he literally starts crying…. apparently his card got stuck in the atm and he is freaking out on everyone who works in this little bus stop station…. our bus unfortunately has to wait for him to get back on the bus before we can leave, so we are delayed about 20 minutes waiting for him to get things settled… except no one has access to the atm so they can not help him… crap… he gets back on the bus still throwing this fit, crying and screaming about how ridiculous this all is to anyone who will listen… I curled up in my seat with my headphones on and my eyes closed luckily so I am avoided… for now… He finally lays down and takes a nap but he decided to lay down in the seats right behind me which makes me a bit nervous… when he wakes up he starts ranting… saying things like how he they should just drop a nuclear bomb on this country and blow the whole thing up… and about slitting peoples throats ear to ear… all sorts of crazy psychopath type things… then the waving starts again… he is trying to get my attention and while I think about ignoring him, I really dont feel like making this crazy guy any more pissed off than he is… so I spend the next three hours!! listening to how he robbed banks, held hostages, shot a guys leg off, dealt meth, and how he has been told he doesnt need a gun, his eyes are scary enough to make people do what ever he wants… oh yeah and about how he kept breaking out of solitary in prison… and his super human strength that allows him to lift a car in a moment of need… oh yeah and how he is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the least amount of blood in the body and surviving… which apparently happened after he got into a crazy fight… wow…
When the bus finally stops I am so thankful and we head on our way to our third couch surfing hosts home… What a great place by the way… they were so friendly and welcoming and made us dinner when we got there, showed us to our private room and gave us plenty of advice to spend our last day… the next morning they even offered to make us breakfast… they were very nice gentleman and we had a good stay with them…
Our last day in London lead us a visit to Harrods, the largets department store ever… it was like a mall!! It even had its own food court… insane, and expensive… then we wandered around to the British Museum which was pretty neat… they had mummies from Egypt and tons of Greek pieces… so after a few hours wandering there we decided to see if we could get student tickets to a show that night… we ended up with Mamma Mia tickets, front row of the balcony which really were the best seats in the house… and had a lovely time.. lol… It was a bit different from an american musical because they convert it to their humor and language and of course they are from London instead of America like the original… lol… but it was funny and fantastic… the guy who played Sky (the guy marrying the girl in the movie) was gorgeous and the whole cast did such a great job… very entertaining and a great end to our stay in London..
Now we have landed in Spain and are having a marvelous time…
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SCOTLAND!! One of the 2 most beautiful countries in the world…
Some pics from the last couple days in Scotland… Unfortunately my camera does not like taking pics at night so they may not be that great but I really wish you could all see it the way we have… its so breathtaking here..
and finally…. my future wedding dress… so pretty :)
Hope you enjoyed what we had so far… We are off to London again for two more days then on to Madrid Spain!! Whoo Hoo!!!
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Pictures, pictures and more pictures :)
London!!….
National Portrait Gallery…. beautiful
Trafalgar Square…
Wellington Arch
Duke of Wellington
World War I and II Memorial
One of so many clock towers around London…
Buckingham Palace….
Horse Carriage Park…. where the 2012 womens beach volleyball will be held…
And here are a few from the bus trip to Scotland…
Sunset over Newcastle… :)
:) Scotland pics soon….
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Oh so behind….
So… I have not updated in awhile so I am going to sum up the last few days in a couple posts for you… one filled with all the ramblings of things that have been going on, then I will fill one with pics :) so here go the ramblings…
Well, we decided to finally make it to the free London Tour which was actually pretty cool despite the rain and the 3 1/2 hours of walking… our adorable Irish tour guide made the time go by quite well though and filled our heads with many stories of London…. I could listen to his accent all day…. :)
Anyway, on this tour we met a couple Australian girls who were also visiting London and we went and wandered through the National Art Gallery to get out of the cold rain for a bit, until we were kicked out at closing… but it turned out that it was Australia day and they were actually places celebrating it in London so of course, off we went to a bar filled past fire code with drunk Aussies having the time of their life drinking Snakebites (which are actually pretty good) and eating Sausage Sizzles (which we didnt get to try unfortunately because they ran out)
On another day we tried to go to the history museum but ended up walking all over the Chelsea area because we got hungry and then side tracked by how pretty it all was… lol…
London truly is an awesome place. Full of everything New York has and then some… plus history that is amazingly interesting.
We also tried our hand at couch surfing which was actually pretty nice. Our first host was a nice guy but not much in to the “touristy” things of London so we didnt really end up spending much time with him out side of a few hours at his house. Our second host though unfortunately we were only with for a night but it was a good one. We had good conversation for hours, filled up on cider and brownies and ended the long night watching a british comedy… good times… :)
Lets see… clearly we havent done too much… mostly just walking around and taking the sites in I guess so there is not too much to ramble about. But I will mention the food… yumm…. We have had Tapas (twice) which were fantastic, some delicious pub burgers, chocolate orange cheesecake, vanilla cheesecake with sangria compote, croissants, and more… :) delicious….
So now we jumped on a bus to Edinburgh (pronounced Ehd-in-burr) and are soaking in the true magnificence of Scotland… all I can say for now is WOW…
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The real first day… :)
So after a night in an… ok hostel… it wasnt totally horrible but I am glad it was only for a night, we woke up and started heading towards the other one. The website was a little sketch in that it didnt offer you directions. It said to call them and they would pick you up… well we dont have working phones in Europe so we decided to plot out the way to the address it listed. Bad Idea. We lug our bags around for what seems like forever, we went to the address which was not the hostel and then kept walking around this whole area trying to figure it out. We asked a ton of people if they knew where it was and a very nice lady at the metro station told us that she had had to call them before for other travelers looking for them and that they were a bit weird. So now we are getting nervous about this place and why would they not give out their address and directions? Well, we finally found a place we could look up the number and borrow a phone and they came to pick us up… they were 5 doors down from where we were! Crazy. And Not at all near the address they listed! But despite all that, the hostel is Beautiful. Its cozy and roomy and so nice. We are in a female only room too which is even more nice.
Ok so now we are settled in and we go take hot showers and get dressed before heading out to have a look around. We got on the tube towards Central London and had a look around Thames River and the London Eye. We could see Big Ben across the river and it was quite beautiful all lit up. Well we see this arcade place that kind of reminded me of Gameworks in Vegas. They have pool tables and bowling and of course a bar. So we go in to have a drink and look around and its pretty nice. But after one beer we move on and start to head back towards the hostel because we are sore and everywhere down here has heaps of stairs and we are just too exhausted to huff it out tonight in the cold.
While walking down the street from the tube station towards the hostel, T sees a sign for karaoke at an Irish pub so we go in to have a look. We sit down and have a beer and within a few minutes there are random older gentleman walking up to us and asking if we are going to sing, where we are from… etc etc.. they are all super nice and friendly and a bit funny… :) We start talking to the two older gentleman sitting next to us as well and it turns out that one is a chef at a very fancy place in London and the other works for the Savoy hotel which he claims is better than the super fabulous London Ritz Carlton. (we still have to go see for ourselves) The conversation is good, they are very friendly and apparently some of the few Londoners who still LOVE Americans.. lol… So as we are sitting here having great conversation and learning more about the city we notice that our drinks just keep getting refilled, before we are even finished with the one in front of us! lol…
Needless to say it was quite a night… T sang some karaoke and we laughed at a few of the English guys having a go at the karaoke… lol… good times.
And of course… some pics for you… Some are a bit crappy though.. sorry… better ones will be taken during the day…
…….Big Ben from across the River………
……….. The London Eye which you cant see too well but its pretty cool, its like a giant ferris wheel except you go in these bubble things so you can look out over London…….
……… These two are from the neighborhood that our hostel is in …………
And now Our Hostel….
………. Our little cozy reading area ……
…….. Some of the beds… and one of the fridges……
……. Sink area in our bathroom ………..
…. The “common area” where the game of pool is quite a bit different from American pool… lol
……… The fabulous shared kitchen ………….
Well thats all for today…. :) Tomorrow we have our first couch surfing so wish us luck :)
S. Jones
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Where to next ? :)
(Source: gridlockinparadise)
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and dont give up… :)
(Source: tonsofphotographyxox)
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Can this even be considered day 1?
Well, lets start from the beginning shall we…
Tuesday night we are double checking our luggage and making sure we have everything we are supposed to have, and its all ready to go. Due to nerves we ended up doing this the entire night practically. At 3 am K shows up to pick us up and we head to the airport, with no sleep.
The first flight, Las Vegas to Detroit was good. I tried to sleep a little but kept waking up, T slept most of the way. Then in Detroit, we got stuck over an hour after our time of departure because of a flight indicator light that they triggered on during the de-icing. Talk about being nervous… we only had a two hour layover to begin with between Detroit and New York, and they were two seperate flights… meaning we had to claim our luggage, find the USAirways terminal, check back in for an international flight and back through security… ugh….
We ended up getting there at 5pm and ran so fast over to the other terminal, less than an hour to go, where luckily there was no line. Just a lady who didnt want to let us on the flight because she could get fined if we didnt leave London in time. Well, I should have known better I suppose, but so many sights said that we didnt HAVE to have an onward flight before hand. But this lady would not let us anywhere without one. So I pulled out my phone and booked a flight right there leaving London in 2 weeks to the cheapest destination… Madrid. So much for Paris being second on the trip… but oh well. We get to see Madrid now… can we please get on the flight?
Finally making it there just in time we see that we are boarding the smallest plane I have ever been on. Express Jets have nothing on these little planes… Dad sorry I dont know what it was called… but it had 9 rows of seats, two on each side and it looked like the one from Tail Spin… lol… awesome… in Philadelphia we relaxed a bit, both so exhausted now, even bought a little souvenier. Our giant plane that took us to London was actually a good trip too. We watched movies on the headrest in front of us, getting to pick one rather than just deal with what they put on… and we ate a pretty good pasta dinner with carrot cake for dessert.
When we finally landed in London 7 hours later we take the longest walk ever through the airport to immigration/customs. Well here we both get hassled a little because they dont really like our reason for being here.. tourists usually come in the summer and all the other people our age are here for school. Why arent we in school. lol… whatever…
We buy our Oyster card for the metro and get some advice from a very nice guy working at the travel desk and are on our way. luckily the hostel is only a few minutes walk from the station we end up at since we are beyond exhausted… i just want to sleep.
When we get there its still a bit early so we have to wait for our beds… so we pull out the computer and try to use the crappy internet for a bit and look around…
After napping most of the day away we really just hung out at the hostel a bit and met some felow travelers… we walked around a little though to see the area….
…an interesting restaurant we passed…
S. Jones
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we made it!
After losing a whole day of our lives to airplanes and airports we finally made it to London. First off, the subways here are WAY easier to navigate than New York. Secondly, this time difference is kicking our butts. Sara and I are so tired we really didn’t do any sight seeing today. And finally, everything is really old…but in a good way. There’s old churches and old building everywhere. I love it. It’s also really diverse. I expected that I guess but it’s cool that it’s really like that. I can’t wait to explore : )
-T. Jones
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Up, Up and Away…..
Well, we have are packs all packed up and loaded and now we must try to nap before we head to the airport at 4am… Its going to be a very long day tomorrow, full of airports and planes. Oh yay. But every second will be worth it when we land in London at 930 Thursday morning and begin our adventure :)
I am so lucky and happy to be doing something I have dreamed of doing for so long.. something so many people talk about doing but never get the chance.
My only problem now is figuring out what the heck I am going to do when its time to come home… :/ Good time there is plenty of time before I really have to think about it though.. :)
Now, its off to the adventure of a lifetime…
S. Jones
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Lets go create :)
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places we will travel…
Two Jones' setting out on the adventure of a lifetime looking to share all their stories and pictures with everyone in one simple way.. blogging..
