The Home Stretch

We only have 1 more day left on our trip. I cant believe how fast this summer has gone by.
This weekend we went to this high ropes coarse. It was so much fun. Let me just say that if you are afraid of heights this is not for you. We were so high up in the air I was a little scared, and I dont mind heights at all. It started and ended with the two longest ziplines in the UK. It was crazy. Then we had one of the guys who worked there meet us at a pub and then he drove all 6 of us, in two different trips to the train station. It was a £40 cab ride on the way there so that was a relief. He was really nice.

Scotland is so pretty and green. The weather here has been amazing. It was a little cloudy yesterday and this morning, more foggy actually. But other than that it has only rained a couple times, and either way I never mind the rain, I love it.

Well its been a great trip and although I am sad that I have to leave I am excited to end up back in Seattle for the summer. After a short pitstop in Arizona, where it will be way to hot for me to stand, I will head home for a bit! I cant wait to see everyone!

Cheers
MalMil

Welcome to Edinburgh

We have been in Edinburgh, Scotland for a week already. The time is flying by. I cant believe I am going to be back in Arizona in less than a week, thats scary.

There is not a whole lot to do here, a lot of shopping and walking around. We went to the castle that is in town. its the queens summer home. It was amazing. This place is so beautiful and green. There are hills everywhere its amazing. The castle was really cool, we saw the crown jewels and everything.

Last night we also went on a literary pub crawl where 2 actors walked us around the city and talked about famous writers from Edinburgh. It was really fun. Not so much a "pub" crawl as it was a walking tour of the city, but it was still fun. We stopped at 2 pubs along the way. These two guys were really funny. They told great stories. We went to this amazing Italian restaurant after called Bella Italia. Its sooooo good I always finish every single thing on my plate, and everyone knows I love my Italian!! yummy!

Well as my trip is coming to an end I cant help but plan my next one!! I cant wait to travel more and more. There is so much to see and so much to do that I have missed this time around. Cant wait to show everyone pictures!!!

Peace
MalMil

8th wonder of the world

I finally got internet here in Scottland, so Im going to update everyone now!!

We left Ireland about 5 days ago but before we left we saw the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life.
We took a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher on the weekend. About 12 of us got on a big tour bus at 7am headed for the coast. We drove for a little over an hour and stopped at a truck stop to pick up some snacks and it was back on the road again for a while. It was the longest drive ever...I think, I fell asleep so I was not really watching the time. We stopped in this cute little town called Limerick. That would have been cool if our bus didnt break down there. So we walked around this little town for an hour. We saw a castle and that was about it. There was nothing open because it was a sunday so we wondered and took some pictures, then I bought a baguette and some blackberries that were amazing. We got back on a new bus and were on our way. We stopped at this really cool place right on the ocean called the Barren Land. It was all rock just right on the water with little patches of grass and all of these pretty little flowers growing right out of this rock. It was really cool. We stayed there for a little while before taking another ride to a little lunch spot where I had some seafood chowder, it was really good. We finally left to go to the most beautiful place in the world. We got to the cliffs and went over to look but there was this big wall and there was really not a lot to see. So we did what any good tourist would do...we went to the end of this "safety wall" and climbed right over it! There was a little sign telling us not to so we took a picture with the sign and walked along the edge of the cliffs. It was AMAZING, and so worth climbing over the wall because you could see everything. I took 100000 pictures but none of them really capture how beautiful it was up there. We all sat there and tried to take everything in. I cant even explain what I was looking at. We only had an hour to look around and an hour is not long enough. We ran back to the bus because we were late. We drove all the way back to Dublin and it took sooo long, I slept again. I think that was the most I have ever slept in a car in my life.

We also went to the Guiness factory and went on a tour. It was pretty cool but Heineken was a better tour. At the end we went into the gravity bar and you could see all of Dublin from up there. It was really cool. Im not the biggest fan of Guiness but I did try it in Dublin...and probably will not be drinking it again!

The Temple Bar area was really cool, the music was amazing, the food was not bad, the drinks were expensive, the senery was unbelievable and I LOVE DUBLIN!!!!!!

Peace
MalMil

Ireland...finally

I got to wake up at 4 in the morning today and drag my heavy suitcase bag and purse, into a tiny elevator then get them on a bus, off the bus, into the airport (my bag is still underweight, YES) out of the other airport, onto another bus, off of that bus, up a light of stairs and into my new room.  that only took about 6 hours!  Crazy! 

Now I know that I have said that I want to live everywhere I have been so far...and I have only been in Ireland for a few hours...but I want to live here so bad.  I am going to get a little flat that is covered in ivy with a lime green door and flower boxes under my windows and on my mini balcony.  It is so pretty here.  we have to take a 20 minute bus ride to get into downtown Dublin and the ride is really pretty.  I love the change in accent from British to Irish.  I just love accents in general.  

The ride from the airport to our place really reminded me of Seattle, more than anything else has so far.  It was nice and sunny when we arrived.  We went to dinner and stopped to look at a pub but didnt get anything to drink...we did get some free post cards from the nice bar tender who loved us because we were from America.  The people here are so friendly, I love it.  by the time we got downtown to eat it was raining, but it was the best rain ever.  Thick, heavy drops, but it was still raining slowly so it wasnt crazy, I loved it.  We had class in the grass today too when it was sunny.  It was great.  I am really looking forward to this week.  I am sad that we are only in Ireland for 7 days though.  Then its off to Edinburgh for 10 more days and its all over.  Its going by so fast, I cant believe it.  I dont want to leave yet.  I have so much to do still.  I am trying to devise a secret "how to miss the plane" plan for us so we can just stay here!  :) 

Peace 

MalMil

"You sound like your from London!!"

So we found our common room a couple days before we are leaving for Ireland...and it is soooo cool.  There is a flat screen TV with crazy cable and movie channels and everything.  Too bad we are leaving because for the past couple of nights there have been tons of people in there watching movies and studying for our midterms...yes midterms.  That means we are already half way done :( so sad.  I cant wait to come back here and finish my trip!  There is just so much to do here its crazy.

After my midterm in pop culture I went off by myself to explore for my last day in London.  Plus everyone else went shopping because they are running out of cloths...I just did laundry.  I went to the Movium (movie museum) and I love movies so it was really cool.  They had a Harry Potter exhibit and a Beatles exhibit and a pirates exhibit and and animation section!  All of my favorites.  It was really cool I loved it!  I got a lot of pretty good pictures.  But seeing the Harry Potter section made me really want to try and get to platform 9 and 3/4.  So I decided I could find it in an hour and a half before I had to meet the group for another museum.  So I took the tube to another tube and took that one to Kings Cross.  I got off and asked 3 different guys who worked there where I could find the platform.  They directed me there and it was so cool.  Since I was all by myself I asked some strangers (tourists) to take my picture for me.  But it turned out a little blurry.  Oh well.  It was worth it.  I was pushing my cart into the platform so I could get to the Hogwarts Express and go to school!!

After my Harry Potter adventure I had to get back to Kensington where we are staying to meet up with everyone because we had a tour at the Tate Modern Museum.  so I took the tube to meet them.  I got there 10 minutes early.  Perfect timing.  We went to the Tate and got a little tour but it was a little disappointing because the lady was showing us all of these painting that we have already learned about like Monet and Andy Warhol but I really wanted to see the ones that we not so famous.  So when it was over I walked through with a couple of girls, it was really cool.  Well guess who was in the museum at the same time as us with his kids (AND WE MISSED HIM) Jude Law!!  of corse.  Victoria and Amy were late to the tour and they saw him coming out when they got there.  WE MISSED JUDE LAW!  uhhhggg,  I just wanna see someone famous and cool!  that is my new goal! haha

Well it was our last day in London and we are leaving at 4 am (4 hours from now) to get on a bus then a plane then another bus.  But I am super excited to explore Dublin!

FINALLY DUBLIN!  I feel like Ive been waiting for this moment my whole life!!!!

Peace 

MalMil

and then there was war...

Today we had a lecture on war.  mostly WWII, and then the guy took us to the Imperial War Museum.  It was really interesting to go through all of the exhibits.  There was a lot in the museum about WWII, huge planes and trucks and stuff that were used in the wars and everything.  We went through a house were there were 2 different kinds of bomb shelters that were used, one for outside and one for inside.  

The tour guide took us through most of the museum and left us out side of another section that we could go into if we wanted but didnt have to because it was about the holocaust.  Duh I went through it. It was done really well.  There were a bunch of different videos throughout the exhibition of interviews from survivors. It was really cool how they put it all together, very intense and emotional but there was a lot of information about everything, even things that have been almost overlooked like all of the other communities and cultures and lifestyles that were attacked by Hitler and his army as well.  I loved everything about this museum it was really cool.

Peace 

MalMil

This is a long one...

So I have been too busy/tired to sit and update this so here it goes!

Starting with Billy Elliott.  So amazing.  This little boy was the best dancer ever. I kid you not...EVER.  He danced like a 25 year old professional.  His best friend was also really really good and the Grandma was my favorite!  It was all around amazing.  One of the best plays I've seen in a while.

Speaking of BEST plays EVER...I also saw Wicked FINALLY.  I have been trying to see this play since I was a senior at West Seattle...and 4 years later, I saw it in LONDON!  It was so good.  Great story line that overlapped with The Wizard of OZ, it was very clever.  I already knew all of the music so it was nice to see it performed.  

Since we are leaving on Wednesday for Ireland we have been running out of time here in London.  There is so much that I want to do still.  But we did do a few really cool things.  I got to go to Abbey Road!  This was the best day of my life I swear.  I was freaking out and everyone thought I was so funny.  I wrote on the wall and walked across the cross walk and everything.  then I went to this Beatles Coffee shop where they had all of this cool merchandise and I got my Beatles souvenirs.  

Also went to a museum that was basically a time machine.  you walk through and there are all kinds of products and ads in the cases.  When you start the stuff is all from the 20s and older, then its moves through time and you can see how everything changes.  There was also a huge Beatles case there, I got a lot of pictures of that!  It was really cool there, seeing what my parents and grandparents had and used, and talk about.  I took a bunch of pictures there.  the last little bit was all products through time together.  Like there were pepsi and coke cans from the 1st one until now all in a like.    candy, alcohol, a lots of food products, cleaning supplies...everything!  It was really cool.  After the Branding and Advertising museum we went into a bunch of really cool vintage shops by Notting Hill and had pizza for lunch.

We have also been looking up the "cool" clubs to go to here.  The techno places or "base and drum"  I cant tell the difference between the two though, its all crazy dance music.  We looked up places the stars and the princes go to also.  Well we havent really been to a lot of those places but we did go to a couple cool ones.  KU is a gay club that we went to that was pretty fun, it was in China Town.  Koko was my favorite.  it used to be an old theatre, they just took out all of the seats, there was live music when we got there and then a really good DJ and a screen playing some crazy stuff.  It was really pretty inside and you could go all the way up to the balconies and stuff, it was huge.  We also went to Ice Bar London.  There is a 40min maximum that you can stay in there.  The cups and chairs and walls and the bar, really EVERYTHING is ice.  They give you these coats with fur hoods and gloves, it was really fun but everyone was soooo cold.  

We went to the London Aquarium that was soooo cool.  It was HUGE and they had the biggest tanks everywhere.  It was the best aquarium I have been in.  We were too late to go to the movie museum after that so we will go this week before we leave. Today we went to the Science museum where they had a big wallace and gromit exibit that was all interactive for kids and it was the best part!  The rest of the museum got boring for me because it was all crazy math stuff and things that didnt make sense, but it was still interesting.  I just didnt know what I was looking at half of the time! haha.  Then we went to the Natural History Museum.  It was so big we didnt see it all.  The animals and the dinosaurs were my favorite part.  It was really cool.  Made me think of night at the museum.  There was a butterfly house there too that was cool because there were other animals in it too like this fat frog and spiders and lizards.  Other animals that live in the rainforest with the butterflies in there.

Wow!  OK  I think thats it for now...Im sure I forgot something and I will add it later!

Im having the best time!

Peace 

MalMil