sorry about the delay!

Hi everyone! We're in Belfast at the moment. Slight change of plans from Scotland. We decided last minute to go Dublin since the train was so damn expensive if you don't book early (Amber). So ya, we flew to Dublin the day after watching Newcastle lose by ONE POINT ARGH to Bristol. It was a great game. Absolutely packed, we could only stand! Very exciting. Then went back to Kate's place and chilled out. Very good to see her again and hopefully we'll meet up with her in London before we go back home. Vivian and Festus (Angie's sister's brother and sister in law) picked us up after a short hour flight (quite bumpy, my least enjoyable flight yet) and took us to their house. Festus took us into the city the next day and we checked it out. It was great weather for awhile but soon started raining, same with the next day. Not too exciting in the city. Went to an old jail and loved that, but other than that... meh. Yesterday, Thursday, we took a 3hr bus trip to Belfast. Not bad here.. it's a bit rougher. We went out last night to a movie after dark and were chased down the street by this mean asshole dog. I tried to run but Ang said no. I wanted to kick it. Saw an English movie that was quite good. Walking back was scary as well. Tomorrow we're going to fly to Edinburgh and figure out the buses so we can discover the highlands. Belfast is rude and dirty (Ang says) but I think if you got a bit more time to look around and live here then it'll be good. Amber I'll call when I can find a phone that works! love andie.

Allo!

Hallo from Jolly Ol' London! Flight here was alright, a bit uncomfortable and crappy sleep (only about 2 hours maybe) and then we got to London at 10:10 Local time, 3am Edmonton time. So we were kind of weirded out about the time. Especially cause it was Friday when we got here... not Thursday. I booked the hostel for Thurs, Fri, and Sat nights... I was worried that it would cancel out our reservation or something, but it didn't. We took the train from Heathrow to Paddington station, and then walked to The Lodge hostel. Only about 5 min away. It looks a bit nicer in the photos on their website, but it's okay. We've got a private room with a double bed and there is a sink and a fridge in it. And a tv but there's not much on. We went for a wonder and found some food stores. Not too expensive either. £11 for peanut butter and jam, bread, meat and cheese, a big ass thing of water, a cake thingy (says it serves 6 but we've had a chunk today and I'm sure we'll polish the rest off tonight) and a bit more. So it's not that bad. We went to sleep at 5pm cause I couldn't keep my eyes open whilst watching Resevoir Dogs, and slept until 2am. hmm... not a whole lot to do at 2 in the morning, so we looked out the window for awhile.. lots of people up on a Friday night. And then slept until... 10am. Tha'ts right. How many hours of sleep is that?? 17. I've never slept that much in my life!! But surprisingly enough I'm not over rested. So we didn't get the early start that I was anticipating but that's okay. We packed a crap load of stuff into one day. Bought a day pass for the buses for only £3.50 and then took it to central London. It's really neat seeing lots of old buildings with modern day stores in them. Walked to Buckingham Palace. Saw a couple guards. Walked all the way around St. James Park to Westminster Abbey and found that we could've walked about 12 steps to it. *sigh. Oh well. Then walked BACK around the park to see the London Eye. It's massive. Saw the Thames River that runs through London. It's really quite dirty. Even more so than the North Saskatchewan I must say. When we walked quite a ways to St. Paul's Cathedral. We were going to pay to go in so we lined up and everything, went through the doors, and realized we only had to pay to go further in. Well I saw all I wanted to really, so we just turned around and went out. hah. It was perfect. There are double decker buses everywhere!! We've taken a couple today. I love them. You can see a lot out of the top deck. Around 4 when we were coming here the streets were packed!! Like west edmonton mall during Christmas. And the buses are crazy too. They manouver around like they're little cars. It's quite scary walking around. We just run. We've been pretty close to getting hit a few times. But not to worry!! Tomorrow we're going to Bristol for the rugby game and to meet up with Kate. Should be fun! Legs are kind of tired from walking all over today so I think we'll go back to the hostel. Things close down around 5 or 6 so there isn't a whole lot to do at night. We were thinking about going to the cinema but maybe we'll just sleep. Because we need more. hah. No but I'll definitely shower!! Haven't had a chance to do that yet. Must do.. hah. Anyways, talk to you guys soon I hope. Hope all is well!! andie. ps. Weather here is TERRIFIC!! I wore a tshirt and a fleece long sleeve and was warm for most of the day. It's not terribly windy at all. Perfect. Extremely sunny. Lucked out I think!

Map of England, Ireland, and Scotland

So you have a general idea of the places we will speak about. Actually maybe I should have a look at these..

One sleep to go..

Alright well it's technically two sleeps to go because I haven't gone to bed yet, but still, it's Wednesday morning and it's close. Really close. I can smell the jet fuel. hm, I wonder if the heater is burning something in my room.. I digress. Last day of work tomorrow (today) and that's great. Also, tomorrow is when Ang finds out if her passport is ready. I really hope it is. No need for added stress. Packed my back this evening. Not too bad. Doesn't seem like I have very much stuff, how did I keep 5 months worth in there last time?? Seemed like I had a lot more little tid bitty things. I'm sure they will accumulate. They better! Pretty excited now.. Just having my bag on my back gets me raring to go. I remember when I first got back and how I couldn't wait to have clothes in closets and drawers again, but I'm really looking forward to having everything on my back. At the moment I'm downloading a podcast (my very first one), How To Speak Spanish. hah. Maybe I'll learn it on the plane when we're flying down to Spain. We'll see. I think they're kind of neat.. interesting little things. I'm also converting a few Heroes episodes to watch on my iPod as well. That's exciting. And I'm going to tape Ang's eyelids to her forehead and make her watch it because I rather enjoy it. Takes a long time to convert though, or I would do a few movies too. Anyways, I am quite tired. I think we'll try to stay up late tomorrow night so we can sleep on the plane. I have a problem doing that, I'm just too damn excited! We'll see. Maybe I'll have to pop one of Ang's Adavans, hah. andie.

16 Sleeps to Go..

Just over two weeks. That's crazy!! I'm really excited and slightly nervous. Not for anything in particular, just nervous to be travelling again. Mostly excited. Yesterday I booked our hostel in London for our first three nights. $48/night but it's a double bed, so that's alright. And it's right next to Paddington Station which is fantastic. On Sunday the 18th we'll head out west to Bristol for a rugby game (Bristol vs. Newcastle Falcons woo!!) and meet up with my friend Kate who I met in Fiji. She lives in Cheltenham (45 min south east of Bristol) where we'll go for a couple days and she'll show us around. Then head up north on a bus or train to Edinburgh. I'm really looking forward to Scotland. The more I read about the Highlands the more I want to go! If we can manage it I'd like to take a hop on hop off tour. It's not cheap but public transport is not very good way up north because it is so remote. I'm not sure how long we'll spend in Scotland but we'll head to Ireland after we're done exploring there. Hopefully go to Belfast, Dublin, and possibly fly out to Barcelona if we have the time. Ang would really like to go there, as would I, and it'd be nice to get a bit warmer. Then back to London and meet up with Amber, Nicole, and Owen for a bit I hope, and then leave for home on March 8. Sounds pretty cool. We'll see how it goes really, hah. andie.