Avebury, Stone Henge and Salisbury Cathedral

on saturday (march 29th) we had our first outing for the trip. our first stop was avebury which is simular to stone henge but many of the stones have been taken down, but the great outter dirt circles still remain. the weather was less than hospitable and we had to fight the elements the entire day, but lucky the walk about avebury it stayed away until the end walk back to the coach. Avebury was massive. is was about a 1/4 mile wide and a mile around (if you could walk all the way around but for conservation of the sigh they had parts closed down) . avebury village was tiny compared to oxford and the whole village was contained mostly in the prehisotric circle. the mystery of avebury, along with the people who made stone henge, was who made it and why they made it. people can make guesses all they want, but there is no factual evidence to back up one hypothesis or another. they made it by dragging huge stones (like the ones at stone henge but not all that big) across the land probably in winter cause it would be easiest to slide them at that time. and dub the trench with elk or bison shoulder blades. it was made like stone henge sometime between 2600bc and 3000bc and was in use for over a 1000 years! it was nice to see but what i liked that best was the drive there, mostly cause we where inside out of the elements-rain and wind!! the wind was terrible and cut right through you like the wind in edinburgh!-the drive was through quniessential english countryside. like again you see in photos and movies and tv. but this time it didnt have the blue sky in the back ground but gray and foreboting clouds, reminding us of the terrible english whether. after avebury we had lunch on the bus of brown bag lunches that the Wycliffe chefs made us. we were excited because we didnt think that they could mess that up.....yep they could. my lunch was nasty! it had a nasty mayo and onion mix along with A piece of choped beef. yuck! well stone henge. chapman (our main professor and leader of the outtings) told us in lecture on friday that stone henge is rather a disappointment. i however thought that is was really cool. we couldnt go right up to the stones like you can in avebury but you can cirle them at a distance, which is why he probably said it was a disappintment. but its there. its one of those places that you see on tv and movies and so forth and always wonder about. and there i was standing in its presence. well we didnt stick around and soak it all as much as we could of becuase it was COLD AND RAINING AND WINDY. a bad combination for an outside attraction. we did the photo walking tour around it though got photos and marveled at its engineering feat. Chapman told us that one of the speculoations of who made the structure was the Druids, but he dispelled these thoughts during lecture pointing out historical inacuracies. we dont know who made it and why anyone made it at all and your guess is about as good as the next persons. he did tell us a unique tale about when he was filiming in 2001 a film about the stones on June 21st, which is hte summer equinox and a special time for the druids and when the stones line up perfectly with the sun if you look at it just right. we said that while he was there the plains of the valley where it was located was covered for miles around by basically hippie styling themselves druids. he also said that he got to meet the chap who claims to be king of the druids. although he is from east-end london, although is nothing like a true druid. chapman said that it is just a good time for all the nut cases of england to get together and do drugs. (he probably is right!) anyway after our demeaning tour of stone henge we headed for a in door local Salisbury Cathedral. this is one of the oldest and most grandest cathedrals of all europe (according to chapman but he is of course english). it has a 400 foot spire that you can see for MILES around. funny story i guess in the 1600s after the monarch was restored a man was so excited he climbed to the top of the spire and did a head stand on the corss at hte very very top! all i have to say is some nerve that man had i could never do that i get ten feet off the ground at the rock wall and am ready to give up. the structure it astoundingly large. but again it was a cathedral. the interesting part was that the church was built within 38 years which is strange for a cathedral at this time, where most took hundreds of years to build because of the lack of funds. well we looked around and it was a church....a choir was singing, we saw the first working clock, a copy of the magna carta, silver cups and other treasure....so and so forth...we still had an hour so we at in the caffiteria, where Tim found a friend in a 9 month old. ok so carissa tells me i have to hurry and there isnt really much else to say i guess about this day so i will finish with that thought. bye ( i will write about london adventure soon!)

Punting!

so back in oxford england. our nice days are few and far between so when we had a nice day last thrusday we took it and went with it! punting is boating basically. it is a popular past time especaily here in oxford. you take this board kinda like a gondola (but is flater on the ends) and use a long rod to push your self along. well we had our nice day and a group of 10 of us decied that we wanted to try this whole punting business out. well everything here has something else involved...can you guess what that is....yep drinking. we stoppped by the store first picked up a few bottles of wine and beer and headed towards the river. now you wouldnt think that drinking and water craft are a good combination...you are right but we didnt care (besides the deepest part of the river is only 6 feet so it wouldnt be that bad...except for the nastiness of the river!) the boats can only hold 5 people each so we split up into 2 groups. carissa, anna, kaite, tim and i in one boat then hope, sam, brian, john and ashely in another. after a 30 second tutorial we jump on take our seats and punt our way down the river. Tim was our guy. he rocked that boat out! after mere seconds he had that beast figured out! we were enjoying the river and the surroundings....and the wine. sadly anna's bottle we couldnt get open becuase it needed a cork screw while the others were rahter classy ones that just had a twist top. tim wanted to take a seat and have a beer so i ballsed up and took the pole. yeah not very well and as we were trying to make a trun around a corner to head back to the docks i couldnt get it to go in the direction i wanted and started to send us down the Thames towards London. no big deal right...um no bid deal. well carissa having drank half a bottle of really gross wine thought that she was invincible thought she could do. well i hadnt had anything to drink so i had no excuse but she did as about as good as i did in just making us go in circles over and over again getting us no where. Tim, not able to get his beer open becuase again needing a opener gave up on his beer after all of our efforsts to bang, hit and pry his top open. all we where able to do is break the seal and spill some bubbling beer out but not get the lid off. so to failed openings later, Tim took control of the pole nad got us going in the right direction. well we got caught in this little current and after some rude biker going down the path told us that tim was on the wrong end of the boat we streeed her to the river bank where tim preceded to jump for the river bank......yeah tim didnt quite make it and his whole left leg landed in the river...sucky i know but lucky not the whole body right?... we laughed and laughed and just couldnt get over the whole situation. my make up was running..the whole works. well we finally composed ourselves, although giggles were coming us every now again about the whole thing. so we are getting back to the dock area. Tim has done a brillant job of staying on (for the most part which the leap was purposeful), well not for long. we are gliding under the last bridge and are about to dock when Tim gets the punting pole stuck in the mud and instead of letting it go he holds on. so there is tim holding on to the pole with is arms while his legs continue to float away with the boat.....i think you know where i am going with this right? yeah tim tries to regain balance...he's on and it seemed like he got it when SPLASH! there time goes into the nasty dirty filthy river thames! we explode into laughter! i was beyond words. i was crying i was laughing so hard! tim immdeatly hopped back on, but was dripping wet. and how i was explaining the nastiness of the river i forgot to talk about how cold it was and is. yeah it is march and it is enland and the water is COLD! so there he was standing on the punting boart dripping wet and freezing....but somehow we couldnt stop laughing! the whole slight was somethimg to behold. and the fact that he didnt do it in just front of us 4 oh know he did in by the docks which meant that the 3 helpers were there plus the other group who had past us sometime before and where waiting. we got to shore and one guy handed him a towel and her preceded to dry off with us laughing and replaying the whole incident again and again. we settled the bill with the punters and headed off to a pub to buy tim a couple pints for beig such a trouper. he was fabulous on the punt until the end when he fell off! well he had his couple then ran back to Wycliffe ot change and shoer cause he was soo cold. we had a few more then followed him home for, getting back in time for dinner where we told everyone our story! we plan on going punting again soon, when the day is nice enough but this time i think tim has gotten falling out of his system and will stay on the entire time!

random dublin

we arrived in dublin late, well not as late as we had been staying up but late enough. carissa and i were both rather exhuasted so we caught a airlink bus to o'connell street and hoofed it to our hostel the abraham house. we got in the hostel and it was less than impressive. it did not have the same aura that castle rock had and we were rather diappointed. of course we did not expect a castle out our window but it was really battered and worn. we did get free towels, internet and breakfast in the morning. so we got our keys and started off to find our room. we walked the maze, and when i say maze i really mean maze of passage ways to our bunks. up, down, left, right, up, down and left, right. we could not find our room number. well our room really wasnt a number it said G1 and we had not found anything anywhere with letters indicating a room. so we ask. and it turns out that we haveto do another left, right, up, down then left again. we get to the room and there are two doors and totally blackness. i found a light and flip the switch but nothing happened so i opened door number one and was the right guess and there were probably 11 bunk beds scattered all around the bed room, then the lights went out. the room was full of people sleeping and someone woke up and greatly disturbed by our presents in the rom turned the lights off and we were lefted in utter darkness. we found two empty bunks, changed and went to the loo and hit the sack. in the morning we wiped our eyes, showered and found our way back through the maze to the breakfast room. after eating, we packed up once again and were readdy to get out of the very shady place. i did not feel comfortable there at all. i slept with my camera and my zune under my pillow, along with my passport. i dont know what it was about the place but it just didnt feel right. we crossed o'connell square and headed towards the liffy, which is the river that runs through central dublin. we were lucky enough to get a hostel just a few streets down from temple bar, which is the central bar and music hang out of the area. we found the place easly and checked in. ok. so we knew that there were four other groups of our travelers hanging out in dublin so when we checked out of abraham house we tried to see if some had checked in there yet (knowing that htey were staying there), but they hadnt. so the four courts (our second hostel) we knew another group was staying and checked to see if they were still in. no luck. but we did find a very interesing note. apparently chris and jason (the guys we knew that were staying there) had a very good night previously and two girls that they met had left them a little note. it just told them that they had a good time and wished them luck on their trip. but it was very funny nonethelesss. well it turns out when we got back to oxford they had checked out early in order ot save money cuase it was getting to expensive for them in dublin. we cursed them the whole time because we were expecting them to meet up with us and hang out at night for alex's birthday. but we couldnt find anyone, and without cell phones you cant really organize anyhting. so we tried facebook but who knew when they were going to check it. we ll we couldnt get our rooms yet at the four courts so we decied to strike out and conqure dublin on our own. we wondered around saw the front of the old castle which was nothing compared to the edinburgh castle and only the one tower was still standing becuase of a fire. it has been rebuilt but in the victorian style becuase it was rebuilt in the 1800s. we got euros out of hte bank, becuase we left the uk and had left the terrible pound behind. thank god too cause we get a soo much better exchange with the euro than the pound. as we were walking we heard music down by the river, so being the avid music fans we followed our ears. it turns out that we had caught a rowing race between trinity college and UCD (university college dublin). it was an old rivrally between the two colleges and UCD had a better winning record against trinity (17-11). they had two double decker buses that took fans of the two teams along the river, following the rowing teams up the river to the end, carissa made an executive decision and jumped on the trinity supported bus. we cheered and shouted and routed for trinity college along with real fans. it was such an awesome experience. however our team lost and driving back, carissa says "hey that looks like zemple and karl". well two people from our school was on the other team bus! when we got back to the start of the race for the second round we hopped off our bus and joined the two boys. second round was more exciting. it was the UCD and trinity college boy team. UCD was behind for the first few legs then towards the end they started to close the gap and then pulled ahead, winning it in just hte last hundred meters. we jumped off at the finish line. we chated it up with karl and zemple and after a brief chat we decied to tour the guinness storehouse together. the line for the storehouse was crazy!!! it wrapped all the way around the building and down the street. we were hungry and not wanting to stand in the line headed over to a pub for lunch and to pregame the guinness. after lunch the line was smaller but not by much. we waited in line for probably an hour total before being able to enter the storehouse. i didnt think that i would really enjoy it at first, cuase i really dont like guinness so why would i like the tour of the factory and history of it, however i thought it was cool. guinness is such an institution in ireland you cnat not go there. it has had such an impact on the economy and history it turns out of ireland. there are 5 (or 7 shoot it dont remember off hand sorry) levels and each level was a lesson on how the ale was made and who made it and how it is shipped and why it was so popular. the best part of the tour (well for the boys, i gave them my ticket) was the free pint (not really free cause you have to buy a ticket to do the tour) and the view from the top of the bar. it is called the gravity bar and is completely worth the money if you are on the edge of wanting to go or not to go. it gave us a 360 view of the whole of dublin. goregous. the mix of green and urban was...just no words. i think that overall we spent 4 hours at the storehouse, yeah who knew beer was that interesting. we left karl and zemple with intentions to meet up with them at temple bar for drinks at 8. we hoofed it back to our hostel to clean up for a night on the town. Temple Bar. it is a bar/pub but it is also a district that was tons of food and pubs. the best area for night life in the city. it is really touristy but it was amazing to see how many ages and nationality groups there were. young, old, black, white, asian everyone just came down for a good time. music. carissa and i knew what we wanted. music. we headed first to try and find our friends at temple bar, but the place was packed. you could not move at all. you could hardly push your way to the bar so many people had packed in to listen to the traditional irish music. it was AMAZING! we gave up again on trying to find anyone in the crowd after roaming and pushing our way through the several rooms of the pub. finally we surcome to the music and found a place to stand and listen to the band. awesome! the music is like you always hear and see and just wante to listen to when you go to ireland. the band finished after a bit and pop music started to play in the speakers overhead and we pushed for a table that was being vacated by a group of italiens. not being the only ones looking for a spot to rest, another group joined us at the table. one irish man(allen) who was entertaining his frinds from danemark (mia, another girl who i completly lost her name but wanted to add me as her facebook friend, red shirt boy-again cant remember his name it was danish and hard to remember especailly after a few pints, amiel-who was mia's brother, and another guy who never spoke becuase he didnt know any english) they were the best. we talked for a few hours at the pub drinking and discussing everything from ireland, music, politics, weather, danmark, USA and movies. we danced a little, but then allen suggested that we go to another bar across the street which had a live band and we were all for that and headed out. on the way over we run into toni, tim, and alex the group that we were looking for the whole tim. we had wanted to meet for dinner for alex's birthday but never could get a hold of them. we introduced them to our new friends and they followed us to the next pub. there we danced to a knew band who was freaking fantastic and played a sorts of rock, tradtional, and pop songs. i danced with amiel and he bought me a drink. and he was really funny cause he asked if he could have a kiss (and lets face it i was a drunk) so i said yes then he ased for another and another. so he got four little pecks out of the deal. so yeah me! i really had to go pee after a bit so i pushed my way to the loo and on my way i lost my watch! i had just bought a new battery for it and everything! damn it! i really loved that watch too! i got it for x-mas from my aunt shirley and i was (and still am) sad! well the night finally came to an end when at midnight carissa suggested (well told me cause i wanted to stay longer) that we should head back cause we were going to meet up with toni, tim and alex for church the following morning (easter!!). we said good by to our lovly new friends, who said that we were wimps for leaving so early in the night. we told them that we were going to church and they said so were they after they finished their drink so wait. carissa and i looked at each other and i asked (rather stupidly) "are you going to midnight mass" they said that the church was a church that had been turned into a night club. sadly we had to decline the offer to go to church with them and headed back to four courts. back at the hostel i kept asking carissa if we could go back and she was seriouly debating going back but i the end momma said no and we slept. the next morning we got up like good little girls and went to mass at Christ Church just up the road. i cant believe that we went there! it was amazing! it was a very tradtional service-very different from the services that we have back home- but the church that we went to! i cant believe that people can go there! it is goregous! i dont know how they keep people's attention cause i was listeing but mostly my eyes were wondering around the vast space! the choir was perfect and the organ was just...wow! after the service we caught upp with toni, tim and alex and a friend that they brought. her name was margie and what a chararcter and a half. she was great! she was in dublin for the weekend from a village not far away. she was from california and was renting a cottage in ireland for 5 weeks and ended up bunking with the three in at the hostel by chance. she is short, black brown hair, and as bubbly as could be. man did was have some stories and was she ever witty! she hung out with us the whole day as we went to lunch, got a pint, and toured the dublin castle. like i said earlier the castle wasnt as grand and impressive as edinburgh but the history was still interesing. it had to be a guided tour cuase they still used the space for governmental use. they had the table where the good friday agreement was signed and we got to visit the room where the irish president was ingaugrated. then was visited the founations of the orignial castle below and saw the underground river. after all the history we had to have a pint so we stopped in at O'Neils. Margie bought us all a round and we drank and watch a football (soccer) match. it was chelsea vs arsenal (know ideal really about any of the teams but we found our selves taking sides and cheering for the footballers anyway!) our drinks were gone and margie wanted to still drink so she bought us all another round! we drank and chated and drank. margie had a few and was begining to get a really strong irish accent. she said it was from drinking and haning with the locals so much in the village she was staying at. she also said that is was so much easier to talk wit the accent when you were drunk too becasue everything was basically slurred and you didnt have to open your mouth very wide. well........after a bit i started catching whatever she had and was going around speaking with a REALLY think irish accent as well.....and let me tell you it is easier to speak that way when you are drunk!! i dare you try it sometime it is great fun! (oh also i had never swore so much in my entire life omg! the curse words were flying out like tickle me elmo on black fridaty!) we started to get hunry so we headed to the other side of the bar where you could get some real food. there was a hot and cold line. well us being hunry and intoxicated we chose the hot line where the food was like mom's home cooking. strips of lamb or beef with three potatoes, carrorts, broccoli, stuffing and bread. take all that and put gravy on top. yeah that was the best meal ever!! all for only 12 euro! best deal ever! we ate and drank then got restless for music and new atmosphere. as we were leaving we ran into some people from NY and Boston. they made fun of us for being from MN so i spout back (remember i had a few pints) in the thickest MN accent i could muster "oh now you have to come over now you hear for some hotdish! dont you know!" i think that i scared them slightly.......lol. we wondered a bit after that not knowing really where we wanted to go, but somehome we ended up back at Fitzsimons (the second place that we had hit up the night before) for some music. we didnt really stay very long cause we all got tired and headed out after the first set was over. we wished margie a good night and hoped to see her in London. (she was saying how she wanted to go over there to see a boy that she had hooked up with the night before thus also her being so tired!) we got to bed and the next morning headed to the train station to go in to the countryside of ireland. we talked it up with tim the night before and he suggested going to this town that they had gone to the day before. it was along the coast and form the pics that we saw goregous!! well being slighly drunk and not really paying complete attention we got two tickets for Bray, which was the town we thought that he suggest but turned out was a town in the completly opposite direction. well it turned out it was a different town, but our folly was also our enjoyment. we got there and Bray was specatular. i just dont know what to say about it. i will but pics up but even those didnt capture 1/8 of the beauty. it was a sea coast town that reminded you of like cape cod or some place in the northeast. then it had this awesome hill/cliff that you climbed to get an even better view. carissa and i being adventrous and young we hit the rough trails and end up climbing a verticle hill to the top. well carissa got tired and didnt want to climb the rest of the way so she started down and on her instance i climbed the rest of the way, planning to meet her at the bottom. the top. 360 of the coast and hte pastoral countryside that is ireland. it was like we see in movie and tv. it was perfect. green and perfect. i started my trecherous way down and when i got the the bottom i couldnt see carissa, thinking that i could have beat her (the way i took down was much easier than we had gone up so i thougt was was taking her jolly good time since we had been stopping ever few feet for new photos up i thought she was doing the say on the way down). i am waiting and strolling the walk way but no carissa. i began to worry i like do and senerios keep going through my head, like she has dying on the hill or broke her leg or someone took her so on and so on. well i decied that if i couldnt find her in a half hour i was going to get help. finally a women walks by and stops and stares at me...."you looking for friend?" she asks in broken english. "yes" i replied "she over there looking for you" i jump up and run to carissa. apprently she was running the same senarios in her head and was asking everyone she saw if they had seen me at the top! by this time we were hunry and headed down to a pizza place. let me first tell you this place could never make it in Bemidji...ready....it was called Apache Pizza...and guess what their slogan was......"feed the tribe!" lol! we both got a personal pizza and ran for the 3 o'clock train. we got slightly turned around but finally found it (we have this habit of not paying attention to where we are and what streeets are called and becuase of this took us a few tries to find the train station in dublin as well). in dublin we stopped in at a gift store where we got the must-haves (postcards and such) i got a couple post cards, backpackers badge to go with my england and scotland one and a claddagh ring. it is a traditional irish ring that is quite popular. i has two hands as the band and are holding a heart and a crown on top. the hands are friendship, heart love, and crown loyalty. you where the ring with the heart pointing out if your heart is for the taking and the heart pointing you if you are taken. mine is silver and has a green stone as the heart. after that is was rather uneventful. we gathered our stuff together and went to the bus stop to make it back to the airport. our plane was fine and we had quite a wait before we could get on the plane because we didnt not want anytthing to go wrong. so we waited and waited and flew back to gatwick hopped on a bus to oxford and fell completly into our beds.

the holiday was a success. it was a rough start (a very rough start) but we learned things. we exhausted but i would do it again. i loved it. i dont know and i dont think i will ever know what my favoite part was because it was such a rush (although i can tell you which i didnt like...like the airport screw up). i am soo happy that we did all that we could and took advantage of the time complety. i know that we spent a lot of money, but i am never going to have this chance right now again and i wanted to take the reins and so all that i could! i LOVED ireland. i really want to go back the people were awesome! friendly, lively and overall just so relaxed and wanting to have a good time!

scotland

ok so where was i? oh yeah, we fell into our beds with a decisive thump and never again did our heads lift until the sun came through the windows the following morning. i was the first one up (not in the room though, that we shared with 6 others they had all come and gone while we slept the morning away.) i get up wondering slightly where i was at and then it hit me. remembering that our hotel was right out side my window i crept over and took at glance. On the web it had this wonderful view out hte window and i wanted to see if it was all up to par. let me tell you! it was amazing! it was better than the pics on the web cause it was in person. i dont know how to discribe the overwhelming feelings that i had while viewing this massive castle. looking up at it you wondered how in the world could anyone do that. the shear will and determination had to be incredible. i cleaned up and then buggered carissa to get up as well. we finally get down to breakfast and these college aged hippies are all around. well they are all the hippy backpacking kind really friendly and the place is filled with newspaper clippings and very funny snipbits on the walls. we have breakfast and journey out into the big city. our first steps out were not that bad and scary as we had thought the night previous. it was actually rather nice. except for the rather nasty wind that whipped us about. fighting against the tidal wave upon wave of ferocious wind we get down to prince's street where to arrived only 12 hours ealier. we found our way to the tourist information center. online we were looking about and found that edinburgh has this pass to get into the attrations for free (well after a slight fee upfront of $70) we thought at the tie this would be the best idea to get into the thingsthat we wantedto see and do while we were in edinburgh. it has tons of sights and bus passes and other discounts in the passs. however as we found out it didnt have the three places that we really wanted to see the royal palace and the castle and may king's close. well we had already paid for it and got it so why not use it right? so we booked a couple of tours that were included and hoppd about the city. we walked back up to t old town with a few hoursto spare till our first tour. old town is where the city first started and where the castle is. it all is mostly on what it called the royal mile, which connects the castle at the top with the palace at the bottom of the hill ( the distance between you guessed it a MILE). we walked about and went in a few shops. ok well before we did this we took a our jolly ol' time up and walked about the prince's gardens that surround one side of the castle and is between old town and new town. it was gorgous. i will b using this and others like it casue they have not invented words enough in our language to explain the beauty of the gardens and city scape. the hill was practicaly verticel andthe wind was not our friends, but we made it to the top of the mont nottheless. looking over the castle walls and into the city. wow! you have to see it. before our tour i wanted to jump into the camera obsura which is this museum on weird eye tricks, and things but what i really wanted to see was this camera which is a mirror what is at the top of the tour and gives you a 360 view of the whole city. the guys showing us the camera was a witty scotsman and was very interesing. it was in colour and gave a marvlous view of the whole city and he explaing the various towers and sights of the city. we moozed our way down the meeting point for our first tour with Mercat (old scot for market) Tours of the Vaults. we had a little time to spare and we both need the Loo (toliet) so we hoped into one of our free museums in our little pass. so guess what it was?.......got it?..... on old nessy! yes we sat and watched a 3D video on nessy. it was hilarious!! by the end we just got out in time to make our tour that we had to skip using the loo! but we made it on time and met our nice tour guide named Roger; who howed us around the vaults. the vaults are old cellors underground that people of old edinburgh worked and kept wine. we heard ghost stories and tales of body snatchers and all sorts of mischeif that went on underground the feet of old edinburgh. it was niceto be underground cuase the wind was eating us alive! it was terrible! we thought that we were hardy minnesotans but this wind we were not use to at all! we were hungry by this time and carissa saw a nice curry place so we dieced to eat there. it was a little pricy but we decied to splurg. we got in and we were the only ones. it smelt a little strange but we had stepped in and not wanting to be rue stayed. the curry was ok not overlly impressed but good and tasted wonderful at the time becuase we had not eaten anything but the breakfast all day. we get the check and holy cow!! 30 pounds! they had added extra 6 pounds for rice! omg! well we ate so we could not pay. so we paid our bill and left. let me tell you that was the last grand meal that we got out of our whole vaction and stuck to fish and chip shops. after dinner we had a reservation to check out mary king's close (here is the web site if you would like to find out more http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/ it has been featured on tons of travel shows and also ghost hunters!) since edinburgh was so populated people live and worked in what they call closes. they are narrow passage ways or allies and sometimes you could hardly see the sky cause the buildings ran so tall up to 15 stories a huge feat in thos times. mary king is the most popular and widely know becuase of how well preserved it is. it was buried over to make a govt building and found in later days and now people can tour it and see what it was like to live and work in old edinburgh. one thing about old edinburgh is that there was no sewage system and that people just threw out the "nasties" into the street. but it was regualted dont worry. you could only through it out at 8pm and had to shout gardy-loo. out your window. if you were below you better run for it cuase it probably is already coming for you. there was lots of disease and plague was prevelant in the city and during one break out about 1/3 of the city was lost to the plague. there is this one part of hte close that is said to be haunted by a little girl and so people bring her dolls and other toys to play with. it was very nice and very interesing. but after along day of trudgeing around the city we were exhausted! instead of going out like we were planning to the first day we grabed our journals and post cards wrote for a while then it the bed again, not waking until morning. the next morning we ate breakfast took showers and walked down the royal mile to Holyrood palace. this is the place where the queen stays while in scotland. sadly since it was closed since it was good friday. i wanted to go see the national monument of scotland which is this half finished replica of the pathenon in athens but since the scots are stingy and was costing too much they stoppped. the wind was terrible! we got to the top and were being blown about so much we could hardly move in anyone direction. we took pics and then headed for shelter, which was hte lord nelson momument that is a telescope and you can go to the top and havethe highest and best view of the city. since we got it for free we dediced to make the perilous trip up the stairs. we got the the top thought and were utterly terrified to go out. i was scared that we were so high offf the ground and the wind i was goingto be blown off so i took pics from the door way. we finally found our way offf the hill and wondered back down to prince's streeet. carissa saw an old cememtary and we walked about nd guess who we saw there. Lincoln! i guess they had momument for all the scots that fought in the america civil war there. strange i know! we still had time to kill before we had to leave for the airport so we went where else shopping!! we then rushed to our nxt destination and tour called secrets of hte royal mile. it was another mercat tour and a nice scotsmen gave us a tour of the royal mile and tlaked aobut the various history of the road and explained certain markers and what they ment. for instace there is this really random heart in the side walk and poeple spat on it...well it was the sight of the old prinson and gallows and peopel use to spit there in order to show their resentment of it. (people fact still spit on this heart but dont worry it is cleaned off every morning at 9am) it was sooo cold and windy that we couldnt take it anylonger so we left the tour with a few minutes left and headed back to our hostel. we rested a while before getting our packs and heading out. we walked up to the castle on last time and said good bye. we didnt go in cuase it costed $20 and we really didnt have the time and didnt want to spend that kind of money right then since we were feeling pinched becuase of our airport incedient. we walked down to our bus stop and gues what it started doing!!!!! SNOW! yes SNOW! i though i had left MN!! come on! our only hope was that dublin was going to be warmer than edinburgh! we got on the bus and both of us nervous thinking that we were going to be at the wrong airport but were assured by many people there was only one airport andthat we were in fact on the right bus oging to that airport. airport was fine and got through alright and one short plane ride later we were in IRELAND! but that is for another day cause i have to return the computer to its owner! <3 write more when i can!

upcoming blog about
1. dublin
2. punting
3. stone henge

Holiday! Scotland and Ireland

i am finally back from my holiday, which i dont know why people call them holidays becasue really they arent all that relaxing. we have had a bit of a rough start to our holiday is why that i say that. carissa and i started on our journey a little bit of a rush. Chapman, who is ususally is as promt as anyone ever could be ran late on his lecture and we had to run to the bus station to make the bus, which be did. we got on the bus to gatwick (remember this it is important) we settle in for the long bus rideto gatwick, which is a half hour south of london and takes about 2 1/2 hours to get to. we have our music on and are already for everything. we disembark at the terminal and head to our check in line. we look around and dont see it yet and we still had an hour till it opened so we sat down and ate a pb sandwich and girl scout thin mint cookies. we are all relaxed and ready to enjoy the wait in the queue (line). we get a little worried though because our flight was still not showing up, so carissa and i go up to the line and ask about it. it turns out that we are in the WRONG airport. yes in fact we went to gatwick when we were to be in STANSTED. oh god. we were going to miss our flight and our whole trip. we ask if we can change to a flight leaving out of there and they saids they were all full so our only hope was toget to standsted and make one of theirs. we have to run to the bus depot, which was on the other end and then find the bus. £54 pounds later and very lucky the bus was running late we got on and made our way to stansted. the drive was very nice and we chated with him for a bit along with another passenger who was from a small island off thewest coast of africa. the driver teasingly told us that if he was 20 years younger and not married that he would have joined us. we had our first stop at hethrow and sadly our two friends left us and a new driver got on . our old one wished us luck and was on his way then so were we! ....sort of...heres the funny thing it was rush our and rush our in london is hell. you really dont get to move at all. the ride to stansted took over 3 hours and we cried a little inside as we saw that oxford was closer than stansted at one point and for mere moments thought of going back and cancelling everyting and just break down crying in our rooms in wycliffe. however, we sallied forth and made it to stansted and booked a flight.....right after the bus driver forgot his turn and drove us 20 minutes out of the way and wasting more precisous minutes that we had to book the flight and make it to our plane, which was goingto leave in 40 minutes. we got there though safe and sound ready to battle whatever we had to to make it to edinburgh (oh yeah that was our first destination and i my dream place...well along with a dozen other places...). i should also mention that carissa and i had been praying the whole bus ride to god asking him to let there be 2 seats availble and waiting for us. cuase here was another thing we went there out of blind hopfullness because everywhere else was booked. we get to the ticket counter and a fine young english boy helped us by transfering our tickets to the flight in 20 mintues (well afterthe£35) fee. we get in line for our tickets and guesswhat we have to check our baggage.....one carry on only and our purses counted as that one thing. so another £20 later we check the luggage cause guess what easyjet makes you pay for checked luggage. we literally have to run to our gate in full home alone style and make it there for the final call. we get on the crowded packed and a little smelly plane and take our seats. we dont getto sit by each other of course and i end up seated next to this spanish man who tried to talk to me in spanish but i had to reply with my terrble spanish no comprenda. (i dont think that i even spelled it right). the captian comes on and i melt...full blown scottish accent and on top of that his name is stewie! the flight lasted a little over an hour and land safely in edinburgh scotland. now the bus, well that was rather easy we asked and found the airlink bus that dropped us off right in front of the main street that would lead us to our hostel. the bus ride, plane and second bus ride we were not in a good mood. we had just spent each about another 150 dollars that neither of us could really afford, but needed to in orderto make this trip work and not lose even more $. we get let off on Prince's street which ishte main streeet in new town. we look up and everything is gone. the worry, the stress and it all falls away as well gaze up at this fantastic sight: the castle.right there inthe heart of thecity glowing like a beacon. it was amazing. a true sight tobehold. we walked along the street reading the crude map that we got from the bus and looked on in amazment. all worth it. just that view was worth it. we wonder along and carissa gettting a little scared of where we were, and i sallying ahead trying to get us there. she was strong atthe airport taking charge of the flight stuff as i am aboutto break down, and only wanting to call my mom and cry, so i felt that ihad to takethe reins and not let her down. we asked 2 people for directions and they gave us 2 different ways.....but we knew we had to climb up the giant hill leading to the castle. i guess this would be a good time to discribe the castle and edinburgh. the city is focused around this giant castle and fortification that had been there since 1000 ad. (or so) it sits on a cliff side almost on a plateau. steep drop off all around excpet forhte entrance side. a formidable sight to behold. i would have hatedto besige that castel. we walk up the side of hte cliff and walk some more until we see the front gates of the castle. not knowing where our street is that we are looking for of course we ask again for directions finding out our road is right on the other side ofhte block. walking around and this huge church (which is now an events gathering place after it was abandonded) and at the end ofthe street was our hostel: castel rock hostel. and right in front was the castel. perfect name and a perfect view. you couldnt have asked for a better spot to stay. it was right at the heart of everything that we would want to do and see while we were there. we walk in to our hostel, a little worried that we may not have a place to stay since we were late and may have given up our spots. but we check in and everything is all right! let me tell you about this hostel. it was amazing. it was like living in a dorm but more like a home then dorms. everything was so relaxed and fun and very whimsical. it did not take itself too seriously at all. knights guard the stairs up to our rooms and paintings surround you in the halls all very modern and edgy. each room had its own theme and ours was plant biology. i got the bunk called root and carissa nice pear. other rooms were called underware, virgin, scottish bands and so things like that. we open our door and find that people are already sleeping so we tip toe around to find our beds and the first thing we do is hit the bed. we dont stay like that for long wanting to get out on the town mostly to find food and a drink to relax us even more. we start walking down the street and wonder around a bit more wondering if anything is open (it being after 1130) we see a group of people down the street and decied to follow them and then we hear music! so we naturally go furhter. it was coming outside of a pub called Flannery's Funneral. a good irish pub. ok were in scotland but a drink is a drink. we shared a pint (neither one us had much money on us and all we had enough for was that pint) it tasted amazing though. we sat and listened to the music and wondered around looking at all the stuff on the walls. we finished the pint and left (not having $ for another and second being too tiredto want a second one). we moozed our way back and tore thourgh my pack to find our saviour: peanut butter. we ate the rest of our bread and pb and cookies and chated it up with another girl staying at the hostel. her name was sophie and she had been there a month already and wasnt sure when she was going to leave. we offred her some pb and she ate it up. we washed out knife and headedfor bed......i grabed my clothes changed in bed and hit the pillow without washing up at all. i am feeling similarly tired so i think that i am going to head off to bed and write the rest of the tale tomorrow! later!

here is a link to my photos that i have up so far.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/alyssa.gunstrom/EnglandScotlandIreland

Day 4: St. Patrick's Day

'ello everyone! i am writing you from Wycillfe Hall, Oxford! i have been very busy checking out my hometown here. so far i have checked out about 6 pubs and one being The Eagle and Child (which you lit fans will recoginze as the home of the 'inklings' which Tolkien and Lewis) and as i walked by i do believe that i took in alittle bit of tolkien and lewis! last night carissa jason hope sam topher and i all went out to a pub and had dinner. i had a steak and guniess pie which was the best thing that i have had since i have been here. (and a pint of cider....well alcoholic which iste first one that i have had by myself, cause i dont drink and most i havent really liked but this one i really liked and was able t actually finish! when i go out i just either share with carissa or try a sip of the guys' which i9 havent been too terribly impressed with but they have loved!) cause let me tell you! this english food is a little bland and not very impressive espacially coming from a cafeteria is about or worse than Wally's! the one thing that i did like was their stew and dumplings.
the sights of Oxford are amazing! everything here is about 200 years old or older. our school is the baby of the colleges at 140 years. there about 20 some different colleges in oxford, but the one that we think as oxford is usually Christ Church, which i got to visit saturday! and it was aamzing! the garden is what inspired 'Alice in wonderland' and the staircase is where harry potter first walked into hogwarts. but the beauty of hte school is not just in fanticay. it is a ll goregous and awe inspireing. i cant believe that people go to school there! i would just be in awe everytiime i went ot class to think of all the peopel who graced those halls and shaped thinking within english history. i digress.
we started classes bright and early on saturday getting up and in class at 10. Chapman is amazing. he is really a genius. his lectures are so animated and captivating that you wonder where the hour has goen. we have 2 main a day with him and then 2 other classes that we choose. but those arent everyday. Chapman does all this lectures by memory and no notes what si ever and likes to draw for us on the white board dates, people and maps and such. he knows soo much i just ooze! i think everything is soo facinating! i have known some of what we have discussed but he puts faces and situations to things that make histry and dates/events so much easier to follow.
today after class carissa and i took the blue sky and followed it because it had been grey and cold and raining. well what do we expect we are after all in england. but i thought that it rained in seattle and it never rained while i was there so i was hoping it was the same situation, however it has been a big no. but really i havent paid much attention to the rain and it doesnt bother me. i may have developed webbed feet like the british, cuase everyone else seems to be bothered but me i dont care and keep going on. but that is what you have to do. so today when the sky and sun popped up we deiced to claim it as our own and walk about. we walked about forever, well carissa took her nose ring out cause it was yucky so trying to put it back in after cleaning she couldnt so we serached oxford for a tattoo place to get it in. we found one after asking a bunch of people and running around a shoppping center. we walked by the oxford castle and around a bunch of bends for an hour and got happly lost. we ended up along a canal and walked along that with house boats on either side with ducks. carissa said it best when she said that it seemed like we were finally discovering oxford cause we seemed isolated to the downtown area where hte pubs and colleges are. finally we got off the beaten track and discovered more. we walked further and found a huge meadow which had ponies running free and a lack in the background. we couldnt believe it. it was a park where the horses ran free with you as you walked! it was soo weird. we finally made our way back and here i am talking with youfine folk! i pressed something on this weird key board and got italics sorry i dont know how to change it! the key board is basically like ours but a little different and those little differences really make it very hard to type! anyway talk you all later!

made it safe and sound!

i made it here! all in one piece and i have stories to tell but right now the shower is beckoning me! right you all later!

the day after tomorrow: packing it all in

i cant believe that it is tuesday night already! so i just started packing and i dont have any idea what i am going to do. i was talking to carissa and she said pack as though you are only going to be gone for 2 weeks, however i pack too much for even 2 weeks! i need to consolidate my items. i dont know how....ok so here is the thing i really cant decide on what tops to bring. i know the guys wont really understand but this is EUROPE we are going to. EUROPE. not the movies. not the mall but EUROPE. so i am thinking that i am going to have to get some space bags so that i can fit more in my bag! lol! ugh! only another day in two hours....ahh! i got to get this all figured out!

T-minus 6 days

good news! my camera seems to be all better! yay! my zune however is still weird but all that matters is that it works cause otherwise my life would be over!

i just want to thank everyone again for a wonderful night! The green mill was perfect and i cant think of anyone else that i would want to be with than you lovely ladies and gentlemen tonight. it still really hasnt hit me that i will not be seeing you all for another 2 months. i keep thinking no big deal but you know what it really is. you all are my family. you all are my life up here and i am greatful everyday for all the wonderful people i am surrounded by. you all are so unique, loving and kind, and i ask myself what have i dont to deserve you all? thank you so much. Abby and Sara you could not be more happier with the gifts you got me and carissa. it means so much to me that you did that. it was like your acceptance of us leaving and i know how hard that is for you. i know that it will hard for you guys with us being gone because of the close relationshipe that we have all had the last two years (sara a year but you have taken to us and just fit right in with out rag tag team! thank you for taking a chance on bemidji! and ps iowa really isnt all that bad) but i digress.

i am going to miss you all so much! love you all tons!

Time minus 7- Que Sera Sera

So you all might be wondering why i say 7 days when i leave next thursday; that is because today has already started and i dont ever count the day it is. (makes it seem closer than it is!)

My quotes for life now are Mais oui and Que sera sera....anything that will happen will happen to me... and of course right before a crucial trip or event....so yesterday i was in the union just minding my own business, had lunch and ready to go to class. i had left over water so i stuck it in my side pocket of my backpack, but as i was walking i took it out, now i dont remember if i took a drink or it is just that i hate bulky things in that pocket or whatever, long story short i put it in my purse. i go up to my advisor's office to drop off a scholarship. turns out that i was lacking a transcript to put with it and a pen to fill out the cover letter of the scholarship, so i go to my purse and guess what......drum roll please........my water bottle was not shut all the way and it emptied most of its contents into my purse, soaking my CAMERA, ZUNE, PHONE, LIT REVIEW, and other misc. things that are in my purse. so i empty my purse of everything and pour the pool of water out of my purse. i place everyhting in my backpack and turn my bag inside out. i dry off my things and check them to see if they are ok...everything SEEMS fine. but now my lit review is wet. for those of you who dont know what this is...this is my life the last two weeks consuming every little bit of my life, and it is wet and now i am late to the class that i was to hand it in. my adviser comes back in, tells me to sit at his computer and print a new one off after i had really given in to the fact that i was going to turn in a wet lit review. so i print off my lit review, and rush to class. i come in to class, by this time it was 15 after and late, they had already begun discussion time and i fumble around looking for my books and trying to spread my soaking papers on the desk behind me. During the class all but a folder dry out, although they are all wrinkled and weird, you all have seen paper that had been wet dry yeah that is what it looked like.

the day goes by things happen nothing worth telling really.
as i am going to bed, as i always do i grab my zune and head to bed, however my screen is acting up. it is really dark and when it goes to screen saver it isnt black it usually is just faded black. i figure it will work itself out. well this morning no luck. so i went on to zune.net mub no one really has had that problem yet. after i had a hard time with the zune i tried my camera, well it turned on and it seems ok, however i noticed a water mark on the screen. i was worried that it mad effect the pictures , i take a photo and download it on my computer, and the photo seems ok but the camera still has the water mark and i hope that nothing but that water mark is wrong. please oh please! so pray that it all works out!

T-Minus 8

Everyone has been asking me "are you excited?!" And honestly i have not even thought about it yet. i have two classes and projects to finish before i leave.

if you are just tuning in i am soon leaving on a grand adventure of Europe. it is a travel program through my school and i will be studying for 5 weeks in Oxford and then another 3 weeks touring Europe, taking in the countrysides of France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

these last few weeks have just flown by, and i have had little time to actually sit down, breathe and let it all catch up with me. i think that it will finally hit me once i land in Heathrow and step out and see all the things that i have only viewed in books.

the purpose of this blog is to keep all of you informed on my whereabouts and happenings as i go through this amazing journey. And since i cant fit you all in my suitcase, this will have to do. I will do my best to update the blog and add pictures, but be patient it takes me a while to get use to new tech things.

See you soon,
Remember BE A TRAVELER!
Aly :)