So sleepy...

Pictures at the top and in the reverse order I uploaded them, because this keyboard and computer suck. More on that in the post....

From left to right: Mel, Dave, Alex, Me. Maybe the camera was drunk too?

My friend the hungry gargoyle

My friend the bored gargoyle

Part of the Ossuary in the Paris Catacombs.

The Eiffel Tower at night.

Me and the Arc de Triomphe. I think that expression means my feet were already hating me.

Me and the Eiffel Tower. I'm not sure what that expression means.

Napleon's Tomb!

Me out front of the Louvre.

Also, German keyboards are even wierder than the ones back in the UK... the Y and Z switched places, they've got extra keys for ö, ä, and ü, and a lot of the punctuation is shifted around, which means I probably won't be able to type nearly as much as I'd hoped.

Anyways, I survived Paris. My first day there I got in about 16:00, and spent the rest of the evening getting settled in and drinking with some of the folks from the room, mostly Aussies and Canadians. Next morning I got up for a free walking tour of the city that went by/through most of the major sites without actually going into any of them. There were quite a few that I really didn't care about, but we ended up seeing Notre Dame, the Louvre, Champs-Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe, a few of the old palaces, and the Opera Garnier, which I believe is where Phantom of the Opera was originally set. We finished up near Les Invalides, home to the French Veteran's Hospital, Military Museum, and Napoleon's Tomb, which is the only reason I paid (€9) to go in. The tomb was fairly impressive, but I decided to wander the museum for awhile to get my money's worth. From there I walked over to the Eiffel Tower to get some pictures, but didn't feel like waiting in line to go up. After that I went up to the Arc de Triomphe for some closer shots... I was actually going to cross over and get right under it, but they wanted €9 for that as well, so I decided to pass. I suppose I could have tried running over, but that would have been like Frogger on crack: it's a 10-lane roundabout, and the only place in Paris where your car insurance doesn't apply. I had another metro ticket on me, but I decided to be cheap and walk back to the hostel. Unfortunately I can be very stubborn, because it wasn't long before I was regretting that decision. It ended up taking me almost two hours to walk back, which meant that I spent about nine hours on my feet that day. On the bright side, Paris, unlike all the cities I visited in the UK, actually figured out how street signs work, and put them on almost every corner; the walk back was easy at least, if not quick.

When I got back I chugged some water, then got a fruit smoothie (for vitamins), a baguette (for cheap/good filler) and a good strong beer (to try numbing my feet) for dinner. I had just finished when a couple of the Canadian guys from the room and a Coloradan from another room decided that we needed to drink, so we went on a beer run (or three) and spent the rest of the night down in the common room with the Canadian and English girls from the room, and some random Aussies we met down there. I finally gave up a bit after 3:00, but found out the next day that the rest of the group kept going until 5:30... crazy people.

Next morning we got up a bit late, for obvious reasons. My original plan was to walk down to Notre Dame to thoroughly explore that before going to stand in line for the Eiffel Tower, but mz feet disagreed with me. Dave & Asher (the Canadian guys) were going to the Catacombs, so I joined them for that instead. It was fairly cool--especially the ossuary where all the old bones are stacked up in the wall--but not a fun place to be with a cold: it was fairly stuffy, and there were places that the ceiling was dripping and leaving puddles on the floor. After that and lunch we split up; they went to visit the Jewish Quarter, and I went to Notre Dame. The church itself is free to enter, so it's well worth your time if you ever find yourself in Paris. The stained glass and architecture are both very impressive, and of course you've got the gargoyles all along the outside. The line wasn't too long so I paid €8 to climb 400+ steps up the west end towers (although it's free for EU citizens under 26). The views from the top are great, and you can get a close up on a lot of the gargoyles as well.

That took long enough that I decided to skip the Eiffel Tower... I can always go up that some other time. I still need to actually see the Louvre and Moulin Rouge, so maybe I'll tack a couple days there onto some future trip. I was originally planning on going to bed early but got talked into playing a drinking game with Dave and the Canadian girls (Mel & Alex) from the room. Good times were had, probably because I didn't play past midnight. This morning I had to get up at about 5:30 to catch my train to Munich, where I am now. I'll be going to bed early tonight and getting up for the free walking tour here tomorrow, then meeting Dave to get some beer in me. Oktöberfest FTW!

Pictures! Just a few stuck down at the bottom, since this compy doesn't have Picasa either. Stupid computers. Stupid keyboards. It's a wonder they can get anything done over here.

PS: By "bottom" I obviously mean "top," but I'm leaving that sentence there to show that I tried.

Still alive

Busy day though, and getting up early for my train to Munich tomorrow,
so thre may not be a full post from Paris.

Better, but not good

As my Facebook status indicated, I went through a pretty decent quantity of Jameson last night with some Spanish guys and a German dude; even though that meant getting to bed later than planned (and slightly wobbly), it was the best night's sleep I've had so far in Dublin, and I woke up feeling improved, though still not 100%.

Yesterday I decided I'd had enough sitting around feeling like crap, and decided to walk around feeling like crap instead. I walked down to Trinity College first to see the Book of Kells and get some pictures of the campus... Taryn, one of the waitresses from the Wok About, actually went to school there for a couple years. It was a bit after 11:00 when I got done there, and I decided I was functional enough to walk up to the Jameson Distillery for the tour there. I got picked as one of the volunteers to do a taste comparison between Irish Whiskey (Jameson), Scotch Whisky (Johnny Walker Black) and American Bourbon (Jack Daniels) at the end. Despite being the only one to choose the Scotch as my favorite, I ended up with a personalized diploma declaring me to be a Certified Irish Whiskey Taster. The distillery isn't active like Oban was (all of their production is now done down in Cork), but it was still a fairly interesting tour.

Today I walked by Christ Church Cathedral (kind of cool), and actually went in to St. Patrick's Cathedral. That's actually the burial place of Jonathan Swift (who was Dean there for a couple decades), which was cool since I'm currently reading Gulliver's Travels. The timing there was great too, because just as I was getting ready to leave they said a prayer for travelers (me!) and sick people (also me!). From there I wandered down to the main stop of the day: the Guinness Storehouse. The tour was self-guided, which meant you had to pay a bit more attention but could do the whole thing at your own pace. Part way through I ran into Salim, who was in Dublin on business and staying at the same hostel, and we finished the tour up together. The view from the top is great, but it was way too crowded to get any good pictures.

And speaking of pictures... the computers here at the hostel don't have the Picasa software on them, and I don't want to install it, so I'm just going to throw a few in down at the bottom of the post and get more up when I'm in Paris, hopefully. I'm a bit disappointed that I wasn't well enough to spend more quality time in Dublin, but Ireland is definitely a place I want to come back to.

RIP, good sir.

Original lease signed by Sir Arthur Guinness. He was apparently a very optimistic man, because it's for a term of 9000 years.

Me in the main square at Trinity College. It was crowded with "freshers" who were finishing up with registration and signing up for the various clubs/societies/etc.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Jameson Irish Whiskey. Our guide pronounced it as a weird sort of combination of "Jay-messon" and "Jamm-esson" that it was impossible for me to replicate.

That's all for now. Next you hear from me I'll either be at the airport, or in Paris!

Character building, or something like that

You have no idea how close I was to giving up yesterday. I felt like crap because of my cold, it was dumping rain when I got off the bus in Dublin, and like all the other cities I've been to here in Europe, there is a distinct lack of street signs, so I managed to walk several blocks past my hostel before I found a map on a wall somewhere. I was amazingly tempted to head back to the airport, buy a ticket home, and just try and get refunds for as much of the trip as I could. As nice as it is to be here on my own, getting to pick my own schedule, it's hard not having somebody around to provide a morale boost when things aren't going well. For now though, I'm going to stick it out, until I really don't think I can continue any more. I think that will all depend on how Dublin turns out.

Oban was fun, although I do kind of wish I had just jumped straight to Dublin from Edinburgh. I think I'd be better rested, and if nothing else it means I could have avoided Glasgow completely. First day there I wandered around a bit then took a walk up Battleship Hill with some folks from the hostel, to watch the sunset over the Isle of Mull. That probably would have worked better if we could have seen the sun through all the clouds, but the view was nice anyways. Next day I attempted to sleep in a bit (most of the rest of the folks in my room must've been going on a tour or something, because they all got up at the same time, turned on the lights, and carried on conversations while I was trying to sleep); even without that, I decided I had the energy to climb up to McCaig's Tower, out to Dunollie Castle, and then have lunch before going on the distillery tour in the afternoon. We had kind of a weird group, but our guide was good, and we got to try some of the 10-year cask-strength (I think around 63% ABV) Oban... you could still taste the same flavor, but most of it was quickly covered up by the burning of the alcohol. We also got to keep our tasting glasses this time, so I've got that and an actual drinking glass I picked up as my only souvenirs so far.

The only real bright spot in yesterday, oddly enough, was going through customs in Ireland. I had to be at the station in Oban by 8:00 to catch my train, ride that down to Glasgow, then catch a combination of busses and trains from there to the airport. I was also stuck with all my luggage for quite awhile there... I got in about five hours before my flight left, and they don't even post the location you're supposed to check in at until about two hours before. The flight itself was uneventful, even if I did feel like a zombie for most of the day. So, customs. After getting the third degree when landing at Heathrow, Dublin was a nice change.

Me: Hello.
Customs: How long are you here for?
Me: Four nights.
Customs: Holiday?
Me: Yup.
Customs: *Stamp.* Enjoy your stay.

Getting through security in Glasgow was amazingly quick too, although I guess that city is terrible enough that nobody would bother doing anything bad to it. I think the only time I even had to show my passport was when I checked my bag, other than that it was just a quick glance at my boarding pass and me getting waved through.

As I mentioned in the last post, today will hopefully be a recovery day, and the next couple days I'll be able to get out and get some pictures. I do have USB access but getting on the computers here is pricey (€2 for 45 minutes), so I'll probably just throw up a few on the last day.

For now I'm going to try walking off some of this excess heat in the cool air outside, then grab another cuppa tea and either read for awhile or attempt a nap.

I blame Glasgow

For those of you who aren't Facebook stalking me too, the only times I
ever remember getting sick while traveling, Glasgow has been involved.
The first time we actually stayed there a few days; this time all it
took was a short stopover there on my way from Edinburgh out to Oban.
Today is a recovery day... I just hope I get well soon enough to
actually get out and enjoy Dublin. Bigger post to follow later.

And then....

Last full day in Edinburgh today. I turned my alarm back on and got at up the much more recent hour of 9:15... would've been earlier, but Edinburgh on the weekends is really loud. Walked down to Princes Street Gardens for some more of the Archery World Cup finals--today was the recurve bow and the team events. Stuck around there til about 12:00, then headed over to the Frankenstein Pub for a Franky Burger (6oz patty, lettuce, carmelized onion, bacon, mayo & bbq sauce) and a pint of Guinness, which filled me up quite well and gave me some energy for my ascent of Arthur's Seat. I didn't take the quick/hard way up, but I did manage to pick one of the harder routes anyways... go figure. Today was also the first time it really rained in Edinburgh, which made the footing a bit interesting, but the view from the top was well worth it. That took up several hours, so from there it was back to the hostel for a shower and some rest, then down to the train station to pick up my tickets for Oban so I wouldn't have to worry about that tomorrow. I think I'll spend the rest of tonight getting everything together and making sure I'm packed & ready, then get in some reading before bed; just finished The Jungle Books, and started on The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Also, a few more pictures went up. Enjoy!

The schedule

Assuming I remembered it correctly, here's my full schedule:
London: 13-16 September
Edinburgh: 16-20 September
Oban: 20-22 September
Dublin: 22-26 September
Paris: 26-29 September
Munich: 29-31 September
Rome: 01-05 October
Venice: 05-07 October
Athens: 07-11 October
Rhodes: 11-14 October

After that, if I have any money left I'll attempt to see Istanbul,
Berlin, and Amstedam, in that order of priority.

Maybe later....

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting some pictures up. These computers are hellas slow though... it took close to 5 minutes just to upload the first set of five, so for now I'll probably just go with my favorites, viewable here. You'll have to wade through the pictures from London first, but since I've only seen a few comments on those, I don't feel bad for you at all.

Somehow during the course of the day yesterday, I managed to turn my alarm off. When I finally got tired of tossing and turning this morning, I looked at my watch and saw that it was 11:30, which meant that Stirling Castle was definitely out of the picture. Bummer! So I ended up wandering around the town instead. Went through the Princes Street Gardens, caught part of an archery tournament (which turned out to be the finals in the Archery World Cup, for recurve & compound bows) and saw history made, albeit in an unfortunate fashion; the American finished second, making his Italian competitor the first guy ever to repeat as world champion. I think tomorrow is either the team events or whatever bow they weren't shooting today, and I hope to catch some of that as well. When they finished up I climbed to the top of the Sir Walter Scott Monument, which was pretty crazy. It had less steps than the Fire Monument in London, as well as multiple levels that you could stop off on, but the stairs were much more narrow as well... I actually barely fit through the door on the top level. Great views from the top, though. After that it was up to Calton Hill, home of the Nelson Monument, the old observatory, and the Scottish National Monument, which for some reason looks Greek. Paid a brief visit to the Old Calton Cemetery to see David Hume, then made my way back to the hostel to rest up. I think tonight I may just grab dinner from a grocery store, and save the Frankenstein Pub for tomorrow, after more archery and before Arthur's Seat.

I may post again tomorrow, but don't expect anything until Oban or Dublin.

Post, but no pictures... yet.

Finally made it into the "internet lounge" here at the hostel, but unfortunately it was mostly full and I ended up with a ghetto computer that has no available USB ports; hence, no way to upload pictures. I'll try again tomorrow though, and make sure I get one of the better ones.

Yesterday was a really, really long day. I set my alarm for 06:30 and got up slightly after that to shower. After making sure I had everything packed, I was checked out and on my way shortly after 07:00, in case one of the tube stations on the way wasn't up and running. They all were though, and I made it to Victoria Station without any hitches, and more than an hour before I actually had to be there. Unfortunately, when my ticket said that my bus would depart from Victoria Station (which is home to both buses, trains, and the tube), it actually meant the other part of the station, more than two blocks away. The signs on the way weren't overly helpful either, so all the sitting around I did to make sure I wasn't horribly early actually worked against me... I finally found where I needed to be right as boarding started, so it all worked out in the end.

After spending about nine hours on the bus we pulled into Edinburgh. The time it took kind of makes me wish I had taken the train, but since the ticket was only £14 it was hard to pass up. After getting turned around (my directions were based on coming into the train station for some reason, which is on the other side of one of the major streets they referenced) a bit I made it to the hostel shortly after 19:00. That gave me just enough time to check checked in, settled in, and remember how to use my legs before the hostel's pub crawl started. I wasn't originally planning on going, but since I skipped a pub crawl in London to get up early for Edinburgh, I had to give it a go. For the most part, it wasn't really worth it... I only liked two of the bars we went to, and the few folk that I met and actually got along with left for Glasgow this afternoon. After stopping for fish & chips we made it back to the hostel about 03:00; that wouldn't have been so bad on it's own, but a good chunk of the guys in my room decided it would be a good idea to get up at 08:00 and make a bunch of noise before they took off.

Running out of time here, but since I'm basically just wasting time until my laundry is done, no big deal. I should be posting again tomorrow, and pictures will be included... again, likely by link to my Picasa albums. Let me know if the first one didn't work for you.

On the bright side, a cannibal probably wouldn't like them either.

I hate my legs right now. I hate them so much that I'm actually almost looking forward to spending most of tomorrow on a bus up to Edinburgh. I started my walk at about 09:00 this morning, completely forgetting how big London is. If the link works, this is a rough (and much more efficient) map of my route from today. I didn't actually start at the British Museum, but my hostel is literally right around the corner from it... I can look out my window and see one of the wings right across the street. So, in order: St. Paul's, Millennium Bridge, London Bridge, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge again, the Fire Monument, then back past the hostel to the British Library at about 17:30. I'm a bit disappointed that I forgot my pedometer at home (although it's fairly uncomfortable, so I guess it's not all bad), but Google Maps estimated the total distance at 11.9 miles. I'm thinking I should have gotten in a little more practice before I came... my 4 mile walks around the outside of Waterville just aren't cutting it.

And now we're on to the part where I use bullet points, because I still have to eat and make sure I'm packed up, since I'm leaving pretty early tomorrow.

British Library Sightings

• first draft of Handel's "Messiah"
• Mozart's wedding contract
• Beethoven's tuning fork
• Photo of Scott's Antarctic expedition team, as well as his journal
• Charles Dodgson's (aka Lewis Carroll) diaries
• notes on architecture by da Vinci
• a Gutenburg Bible
• the Dering Roll (c. 1270), which contains 324 English coats of arms.
• the Magna Carta (turns out there are actually 4 original copies; two at the museum, and the others at different locations in England)

That's not all, but I left out most of the stuff that I recognized from last time. And yes, I did say hello to Austen's desk and manuscript for you, Alyssa.

Also, pictures! I'm too tired/sore to try cramming them into a blog post, so head on over here to see them in all their glory. Once again, you may have to change the .co.uk to .com... I'm really not sure how that'll work. I'll attempt to post at least a few from each stop, but most of them probably won't go up until I get home.

Various and sundry things.

1) I did indeed make it through customs okay. The lady at the counter looked at me a little funny when she saw my immigration card (even though I'm not technically immigrating) said "none" for occupation, but once I showed her my ticket receipts that showed I was indeed getting the heck out of Dodge at some point she stamped my passport and waved me through. And oddly enough, Iceland was a bit tricky to get through as well. We had to go through the same sort of security screening as our initial flight out of Seattle (even those of us who were just hopping another flight out, and at US airports would never have left the secure area), and my passport ended up getting stamped twice (and the folks I was next to on the plane said theirs were checked/stamped thrice).

2) I had a whole post ready to go on the nook, then somehow managed to scroll to a part of the screen that didn't cover any of the buttons, so I lost it. I think as much as possible now, I'll be posting from hostel computers/internet cafes. I'm still really glad I got the nook, but using the wifi on it drains the battery really quick, and the adapters I've got (made in China!) are useless so far. I'm thinking about picking another one up today, but I may just charge it here on the computer and wait till Edinburgh to see what the outlets are like there.

3) I was going to apologize for the typos caused by the fact that I can't see the whole screen at once while typing on the nook, but lost that comment too. I'm not sure how much better it'll be on the computer, though... the shift and enter keys are different sizes than I'm used to, and a lot of the keyboard symbols are in different places. As usual, I'll just have to do my best and hope I don't confuse anybody too bad.

4) Most of the first round of postcards are done, and ready to be mailed. Not sure how to go about getting postage for them yet, but since I still need to find some for a couple people, that can wait for another day.

5) The computers here do have card readers, so I may try and post a few pictures. There will be a few on the blog, but most of them will probably be linked to my Picasa account, where you can see some pictures from a few of my other trips. If the links for those act funny, try replacing the .co.uk with a plain old .com. Wait till tomorrow night (or I guess afternoon, for most of you) to look for those.

6) So far I've wandered through the National Gallery (short stop since art isn't really my thing, but it's hard to justify not visiting free major museums like that), got a few good shots of Parliament/Big Ben and Westminster (which I'm also tempted to visit the inside of, but I've seen it before, and not sure if I feel like paying the £18 or so to go back in), and then spent a good four hours or so wandering the British Museum today. That was actually better than I remembered it, although a lot of it is still fairly repetitive. As cool as it is that we still have pottery from thousands of years ago, there's only so much of that you can look at without going crazy. I think my favorite this time was the Egyptian section, especially since I'd been re-watching Stargate: SG-1 with one of the bros. I think I'm going to head down to Buckingham Palace later today for some pictures (even though I slept too long to make it to the changing of the guard), and save the British Library and the Tower of London for tomorrow, when I should be more awake.

That's all for now... think I'm going to try catching up on some blogs/comics/news/etc. while I wait for the nook to charge a bit more.

On the way

Through security and waiting at my gate now. Got freaked out for a
minute when I was checking in; the UK is apparently paranoid about
people going there to be bums, and won't let you fly into London
without documentation showing that you're leaving. I don't have a
return ticket yet since I'm not sure when it will be time to head
home, but I printed out all the info on my hostels/flights/etc., and
the folks at the ticket counter said that should be good. I guess
we'll find out in about 12 hours, eh?

A Note on Pictures

I know that's what a lot of you are looking forward to, but my nook won't let me post them. I do have a USB adapter for my camera's SD cards though, so if I find a friendly internet cafe I'll be sure to put up as many as I can.

Too bad I'm not Catholic

Huh. Turns out the Pope is arriving in Edinburgh at the same time I am. However, he'll also be giving a service in Glasgow; and while the city could certainly use it, the fact that he's going there on purpose might mean that he's a bit crazy.

I'm sorry, I have to do it

It's the final countdown....

Greece!

I was worried I'd be short on money before I was able to make it there, but after going over my finances it looks like I'll be able to pull it off. I'll be spending four nights in Athens and then heading out to Rhodes for three more nights. I think this is going to be one of my favorite stops of the trip; in college I did a research paper on the Ottoman siege of the island in 1522, and actually got to give a guest lecture on it back at Whitworth a few years later.

I'm also hoping to make it to Turkey to see Istanbul, but I'm not going to plan that part out... if it happens, it happens. As decent as the money situation looked, I have to keep in mind that the Euro is still around $1.30, so my money won't be worth quite as much.

For those of you interested, I'm using Hostelworld to plan out my stays in the various cities I'm visiting. It's a nice service, and the user reviews are (for the most part) really helpful in choosing a hostel to stay at.