Trips, trips, and trips

   Hello to all again.  It has been a little while since I have again blogged, but here I will do my best to catch you up with the going on’s in my life (once again).  I will be here in Cardiff for five more days before I head to Africa.  This is met with mixed feelings, I am incredibly excited and nervous- I just keep reminding myself that I am doing this because I want to do it.  I can not wait to get hands on experience with animals that I have only before seen through thick zoo glass.  Today I bought my bus ticket back to London Heathrow, so whether I like it or not, I’m off!

         Okay-back to the blog, I plan to put pictures up of our trip to Brecken Beacon National Park, St. Faagen’s (an old welsh town), and Glastonbury.  Plus the one’s of the Roman Bath’s- I have not forgotten, do not worry!  In the National Park, we mostly drove around and looked at the scenery.  In the old welsh town we walked around and looked at the old welsh buildings.  BUT Glastonbury was much more exciting, which is why I shall elaborate on it.

         This town deserved much more time spent in it than we gave it- much to both of our disappointment.  We got into town, walked up to the top of the Tor, ate at a café, and left- all within about 5 hours.  We didn’t know much about Glastonbury except that it was a short distance away and had some interesting sights.  The first thing we noticed when we got there was a lot of people dressed in a rags/gypsy fashion with long hair, braids, and pendant necklaces and most of the stores had to do with psychic healings, crystals, or meditation.  It was thee most hippie town I had ever been to and I wanted to go inside and explore every single store!  It really was quite fantastic.  Unfortunately, we did not go in any but made our way up to the top of the Tor (http://glastonburytor.org.uk/).  This link explains the Tor.  Supposedly people make their way up to the top of the hill and when they come down they have a renewed sense of peace and well-being.  It is said to be a spiritual place of healing.  I was up for some healing, but I admit when I came back down all I felt was hungry!  We ended up eating at a small café that was full of mystic paintings and the such.  They had wonderful food- John and I were just afraid that we were going to get put under some sort of spell… J.  It was a great experience and I would have loved to have more time to explore the town and all it offers.              Okay on to our Scotland trip.  This was very much an enjoyable experience.  The countryside is absolutely gorgeous and pleasing to the eyes.  Rolling, green hills with sheep, cows, and horses as far as the eye can see.  We were fortunate to get to experience all different types of Scottish weather- sunny, fog, rain, windy, cloudy, chilly, and warm.  We started our journey Saturday morning and made it as far as the town of Moffat where we slept in the car.  Yes we planned to do this and both of us were actually quite excited about it.  We stuffed three quilts and seven pillows into the trunk of our car!  Needless to say the idea was much more enjoyable than the actual experience.  We put down the back seats so we were laying half in the trunk and half on the back seat, but neither of us could straighten our legs all the way unless we smushed together at an angle with our feet at the right of the trunk and our heads on top of the laid down front seat on the left.  I think we may have gotten 5 hours of sleep between us both.  Oh well- it was an experience we wanted and we got it!

       Sunday we headed for Edinburgh and to find our hostel which was located on what is called the Royal Mile, right in the heart of the city.  Here I am going to type out John’s account.  Monday morning he wrote down what we did on Sunday and I am going to type it out word for word.  This way you can experience it through his eyes- it may be refreshing for those who tire of my ways!! Anything written in italics will be my thoughts- perhaps to help clarify or further enlighten you on the topic.       

• Arrive in Edinburgh @ 12:45 (1st car park)
• checked in to Brodie’s @ 1pm       our hostel
• ate breakfast outside            * (favorite kind of breakfast) w/ latte, but forgot about Americano, didn’t understand John’s ‘cistern’ reference
• settled into dorm-moved car to more secure car park (17 pounds)           

          *John’s anxiety rises with manual transmission and hilly terrain            

           many kills of the car which never ceased to bring forth swearing

• walk down to one end of “Royal Mile”            

           *Parliament building (no paddling)  

             there were small ponds in front where apparently you could not go paddling- they                      were perhaps 6 inches deep           

          *Contemplate walking the precipice but No- tomorrow  (also starbucks)

• start our ascent of “Royal Mile”
• stop at Indian shop….gaze at seashell bras and some jewelry
• continue to enjoy street vendors, doorways, bagpipers, Scottish Terriers, hippie cows
• arrive at Edinburgh Castle (no tour today, but maybe tomorrow) enjoy view
• walk down steps, Tiff bathroom, John spills coffee while setting up picture
• John loves the ‘manfrotto’ unipod from Wynette, Tiff loves the name ‘manfrotto’
• blue doors, red doors (proof by pics)
• nice couple takes our pic, we oblige their request also
• go into sword shop, clerk gives us advice
• enjoy street painter-decide to research the Caves/Dungeons, John overrules on money and weather…Tiff complains but still anticipates the dungeons        we never saw them
• walk along side of waverly train station and modern Edinburgh, go back to old town
• enjoy photo making at steps         took three pics and combined them into one
• peruse a few ‘girlie’ stores
• go up fun alley way (dark, thin, pretty)
• to “The Mitre” bar..John: 2 guiness, Tiff: rose wine, and shared bread.  John’s philosophy on ‘life is highschool’
• back to Brodies….sign up for two pound dinner (the cost, not the quantity)
• John buys hackysack, clerk pokes fun at John and compliments his lady
• go to tattoo parlor..Cornhusker painting from Nebraska…Clerk lived in US for 13 years and husband from Lincoln, NB.     It was odd- small world
• finally to last shop….buy cheap books: “The Life and Death of Planet Earth”  “Eastern Philosophy” and “Why God is Not Great”…plus a ring
• to Brodies…wait for dinner           

         *quiz each other            

         *’share’ john magazine        

                I shoved myself close and was annoying as I tried to read with him             

         *dinner late           

         *save wieners for last           pork sausage type things, very good!

• to dorm for bed: read, shower, read, kiss, goodnight in separate but nearby top bunks
• John snores, but sleeps well.  As annoyingly chipper this morning. 

Side notes that are scribbled at the end:

• “Favorites in life”   Tiff = 5   John = 0    apparently I say ‘this is my favorite’ A LOT
• most look like dog/owner                    the dogs and their owners looked alike here
• dogs look smaller
• Mitre waiter gets Tiff’s attention multiple times      he was rather cute, what can I say!
• Good intention with leather-bound books 
  

       That was John’s version of our Sunday- I hoped you enjoyed it! Now for Monday we went and actually toured the grand Edinburgh Castle.  It was beautiful and we have many the pictures to join.  We then spent the afternoon traveling up north and stopped off at a small town right on the coast.  A few hours were spent walking along the water picking up random rocks/shells and talking.   We then headed back to the hostel and relaxed til bedtime.  John didn’t snore this night- made me happy because I got sleep!        

       We headed back the next day- stopped at roadside stands for food.  John got a double cheeseburger (which was wonderfully yummy) and I got soup (thinking I would be healthy)- my soup ended up being powdered with hot water added to it.  Grrr.  After 7 or so hours in the car we made it back to our apartment.  It was a great trip with lots of historic architecture, luscious scenery, and manual driving- which provided amusement for me and anxiety for John.          

       I think that is all I shall write for now.  I’m not sure if I will get another blog in before I leave- I don’t imagine I will be doing anything of great significance.  Most likely we will be lying low and trying to enjoy our last days together before a four-month hiatus.  As I have no idea when I will get access to internet in Africa- I ask you all to be patient! I plan to blog often and post whenever I am able.   I thank everyone again who reads my thoughts and hope that you look forward to hearing about Africa because here it comes!!!        

Familar Faces

Here is the picture you wanted mom! We got to meet up with the Okoboji folks this morning around 10am. We took a quick picture before they toured the Castle and soon Kevin and I will be leaving for the opera. Tonight will be my fourth time watching it, and I'm excited to get to share it with so many other people. Sorry this is going to be short, but I wanted to get this picture up because John and I are planning to rent a car and head for Scotland tomorrow for a short vacation and I didn't want to forget, so Enjoy!!!!!!

I'm still here!

       Hello to all! I am sorry that it has been way too long since I have last blogged.  If anyone is actually following them- I must say it has probably been pretty boring. I did, however put up new pictures of when my friend Sarah came and visited.  This is the same Sarah I met in Chicago waiting for our plane.  And I believe I said in my blog that she was going to Bristol, but that is wrong- she is studying in Brighton.  I knew that- therefore I’m not sure why I said Bristol- alas Sorry Sarah!! J 

        I have not blogged nor emailed much because I really have not had any time to myself.  Here, I will try and relay the last week for you all.  Last Friday was the opening show of Barber of Seville.  It went great as far as I am concerned.  The audience, according to the cast members, was a little dry.  The space of the performance is quite large and by the time our laughs reached the stage the actor has moved on to the next line.  I did enjoy it, however, and John got both good and bad reviews from it.  Everyone from Milford who is coming to the show will enjoy it very much I believe! It is very comical and will have you laughing throughout the entire show.

       Saturday and Sunday were spent with Sarah.  It was SUCH a joy to have her here.  We went around the main shopping centre on Saturday.  They were having a massive cheese festival with over 400 different kinds of cheeses to sample, but we decided it would be best for our bodies if we didn’t partake.  It would have been tasty though!  We walked through the grounds of Cardiff Castle and enjoyed the beautiful day.  Since she was up and on the train by 6 am that morning, we didn’t make it a late night. 

       Sunday was spent taking the bus to Caerphilly Castle- again we had pretty good weather.  I hope you enjoy all the fun pictures we took! We ended the day there by finding a pub called The Picadilly and enjoying a bottle of wine and possibly thee best fish & chips I have ever had.  They were doing karaoke; we wanted to be brave enough to do a song- hence buying the bottle of wine- but as soon as we got done with our food and headed over to that part of the resturant they were done.  We figured they saw us coming and thought they should pack up to save us the embarrassment.  So anyways, we left the pub full of good food and wine and went to wait at the bus stop in order to go back to Cardiff.  We passed the time sitting on that bench and singing anyways.  We went through our repertoire of Disney songs (Jenna I thought of you!) and entertained two teenage girls who probably thought we were crazy.  Well, we sat there for about 15 minutes, saw our bus come, got really excited because it was starting to get cold and windy, and then saw our bus go flying past.  We ended up breaking down and asking those girls if this is where we were supposed to be and they informed us we were, in fact, wrong.  One was nice enough to take us up the hill to the bus station where we ended up having to wait an hour and 15 minutes for our bus to come back.  We were a tad bit frustrated but passed the time talking and watching some other teenage girls who also missed their bus.  They said they really liked our accents- we were both surprised and flattered.  We ended up getting back to the apt about 10 hours after we left.  It was a good day!

        Sarah left early Monday morning by 8:30 and John and I just bummed around.  We bought train tickets to travel to Bath on Tuesday.  We were planning on staying overnight in a hostel or B&B, but of course our planning isn’t always the best so we decided to just go there and get some place to stay at night.  It was about an hour train ride away and when we stepped out of the station we were met with wind and rain.  Of course neither of us had an umbrella and so we spent a good 20 minutes walking around this beautiful town looking for a place that would sell us an umbrella for under 20 quid.  The purpose of us traveling to Bath, for those of you who are wondering, is because this town holds one of the biggest Roman Bath Temple that has been uncovered.  We had also heard that for about 20 quid we were able to go to the spa here and sit in the real mineral hot water baths.

       I was bummed to be in town on this rainy day because the weather did not make us want to go wandering around outside and look at the scenery.  I’m not even sure we took any pictures outside of the Roman Baths, but this town reminded me of what Italy looks like.  Granted I have never been to Italy, but everything was made of stone and had curved arches, large pillars, and that general Roman feel.  The streets were all made of uneven bricks and twisted this way and that throughout the city.  We finally figured we were walking in a big circle after having passed by Abbey Church three times from different directions. 

        We decided to check out the spa first (The Thermae Spa website- www.thermaebathspa.com).  Once we finally found it, we decided our best option was to do the Twilight Package.  This included three hours of spa time, a meal at the café, and one glass of wine (how generous) for 35 pounds per person.  This didn’t start until 4pm and was called the Twilight because you were supposed to get to enjoy the spectacular sunset from their open rooftop pool.  We decided to do this even though we wouldn’t be enjoying the view because the entire sky was overcast and consisted of nothing but gray clouds. 

        It was about 1:15 at this point and we had until 4pm to get back to the spa.  I was giddy with excitement because even though I did pretty well with layering on clothes for the day, I was pretty chilled and nothing sounded better than three hours spent relaxing in natural hot mineral waters.  We headed down to the Roman Baths (website- www.romanbaths.co.uk) and paid the 10.50 to get in.  This place was absolutely HUGE and after walking around it for two hours, I still don’t think I got the full idea of its grandeur.  We had individual, handheld, audio tour guides, which looked like 1990 cell phones and there were numbers posted throughout the temple, which you pushed when you wanted to hear about what you were looking at.  This was nice because you could go through it at your own pace.  John took many pictures at the Roman Baths and therefore I will let those do most of the talking.  This was a wonderful experience; I posted the website because it will go into much better detail than I can.  Check it out!  

Alright, I know this is a long read- it's almost over! The last thing I have to write about is our spa experience.  We got there, and bought our package which only cost 70 pounds total, but when I checked my visa yesterday, it was $126.56.  So lets just say that the american dollar is pretty useless here.  Anyways, we grabbed our free robes and towels, and changed as fast as we possibly could (since we only had a certain amount of time in the spa).  We had to wear these plastic bracelets that basically tracked us wherever we went and timed us so that if we stayed in the pools longer than our 2 hours, we would get charged.  So we changed and headed up a level to the regular mineral water pool.  We were expecting something very hot and pale green (like the mineral water in the roman baths) but all we got was a luke warm, chlorine smelling type pool.  It was a very soothing atmosphere, I will give it that, but it wasn't quite what we were thinking. 

Alas, we spent about 15 minutes in that pool and then headed for warmer waters.  We went up to the third floor where the steam baths were- found them quite inviting, but decided to save them for last.  We ended up on the fourth floor, rooftop pool.  Now I imagine the view was absolutely spectacular, but it was so cold and windy and still raining, that we scrambled out of our robes, threw them and our towels onto the shelf, and practically ran into the steaming water.  It felt wonderful!!  We stayed in this pool enjoying the odd smell and soothingness for about 45 minutes.  It was still spitting rain at this time and it was a great sensation to have your face hit with stinging cold but then get to dive under into perfectly hot bliss whenever you wanted to.  I can't really explain the water- it almost felt like silk.  We realized later that we never even looked over the edge to see what the view was.  It was simply too cold!

We left the rooftop pool and headed for the steam room.  Here was my favorite part of the spa experience, in fact the entire day.  The room was dimly lit- all metal and stone and looked sort of like a posh New York apartment.  There were four circular glass rooms in each corner.  Each room was a different scent and a different temperate and completely filled with steam.  In the center was an open shower surrounded by different colored lights.  The water fell directly from the ceiling in a circular pattern onto the ground.  It fell with different pressures and was quite hot.  It felt so good to stand underneath it and let it fall upon your face.  The steam rooms were amazing.  It was such a contrast in temperature that when I stepped in a room I got shivers every time.  The scent ranged from Lavender to Peppermint and just invaded your senses.  Inside the rooms was a stone bench that ran along the edge.  This is where we lounged out, let our pores open and cleanse out.  It felt wonderful! I hope everyone gets to experience something this luxurious at some point in their life.  

After being in the steam rooms for 40 minutes we decide to change and go get our free meal in the cafe.  We showered and changed, but when we got into the cafe, we found ourselves surrounded by everyone still wet and in  their robes.  I wish we had known to come here in our robes, I would have found it fun to eat in this fancy place with wet hair and nothing on but an oversized fluffy robe.  Oh well...next time we find ourselves in a spa- we'll know. (Hah, that is probably not likely to happen, but I can wish!)

I could probably write more,  but I think I will leave you at that.  Congratulations if you made it through reading all of that without taking a break!  Hopefully pictures will accompany soon- that will give you a better prospective.  Cioa for now, Cheers!