home

a tube journey, two flights, and a car ride later, i'm home. back at 318. arrived safe and sound, and mostly sane yesterday evening. it was a pretty uneventful journey, with only minor inconveniences and minor delays.
all of last week i found myself thinking unexpectedly and frequently about the feeling of home, pulling into the driveway, the tires against the asphalt, the noise and feel as you slam the door, set your bag down and you can finally breathe out.
i think that travelling is fundamentally stressful, human beings throughout the ages have undergone tremendous stress as they pack up and move, venture into the unknown, leave the safety and comfort of their homes. for a month i've been constantly on the move. and i can check into a hostel and set my bag down, but it doesn't feel like home, i can't really relax. it's stressful carting all your gear around, worrying about catching the next bus, train, plane; making the connection, constantly holding your breath.
that being said, i can't wait to travel again, i can't wait for the next adventure (whatever that may be), i can't wait to see what's next, what's beyond that bend in the road just ahead. until then...
over and out :)

i'm sittin in a railway station, got a ticket for my destination

so this is it, this is the end of my six-month u.k. adventure. i leave tomorrow morning; heathrow to jfk, then on to rochester. i'm finding it hard to find a way to succinctly sum up half a year of my life, one of the most amazing, and most difficult experiences i've ever been through. i remember being in the living room back in september, frantically trying to pack all of my stuff into one rucksack, thinking i must be crazy to move to a country i'd never been to, not knowing anyone, not having a job lined up, or a place to live. and the song "she's leaving home" came on the radio; i broke down. if i'd have known then what an amazing, amazing experience i was going to have, i wouldn't have been so worried. but you never know what the future holds, do you? enough waxing poetic, i have a bag to pack, and an early wake-up call tomorrow.

some more london tidbits

so a few things to report on from my last two days in london... it's been really warm the last two days, and quite sunny, it's so nice to see everyone out in the parks enjoying the weather. let's hope this springtime stuff sticks around when i go back to new york (foolish to assume, i'm sure). yesterday i checked out the victoria & albert museum, the largest "decorative arts" museum in the world. basically, a lot of "pretty" stuff: paintings, statues, textiles, fashion, sculptures; i enjoyed it. by far my favorite part of the museum was the cast court, a crazy collection of life-size plaster casts arranged in a haphazard menagerie style. basically an entire room full of plaster casts from different time periods and styles from all over europe: altar pieces, tombs, celtic crosses, statues, retables, and an enormous trajan's column. i also did the touristy visit to harrod's, the famous department store. to sum it up: lots of really shiny, really expensive stuff i'd never be able to afford, but probably wouldn't want to buy anyway. mother-of-pearl caviar spoon, anyone?
and today, my last day in london, i went to the british library, home to a staggering collection of valuable books and documents. they have not one, but two copies of the magna carta (only four exist), as well as a gutenberg bible, lots of really old world maps (i love maps!), some hand-written beatles lyrics, illuminated manuscripts and religious texts from all over the world, and a bunch of other really cool old books as well. this afternoon i checked out ye olde cheshire cheese, an old pub (1667) in a little alley just off fleet street. basically, the epitome of what you would expect an old, traditional british pub to look like. there was a cozy fire, darkened wood paneling and ceilings, and it is most famous for some of its regulars: mark twain, alfred tennyson, arthur conan doyle, and charles dickens. a nice way to end my time here in london.

stonehenge & bath

so yesterday morning i got up bright and early (with very little sleep after a night of noisy co-hostellers and 'losing' an hour due to daylight saving time - it's a few weeks later over here) to catch a tour to stonehenge and bath. consequently, i lazily dozed through some lovely rolling, english countryside. we got to stonehenge and spent about an hour there. to sum it up: i came. i saw. i took pictures. it was pretty cool to be so close to such a famous, iconic sight. the stones were just standing there, in the middle of a field, amid grass and sheep and a busy motorway (highway) racing past nearby. despite the initial 'wow' factor, the novelty wore off, as they don't let you get very close, and afterall, they're just stones. no laser light shows or dancing water fountain displays. the whole experience was a little surreal; there were ravens flying all around the stones, and the clouds were dramatic, threatening to rain. but perhaps the most peculiar thing was the horde of tourists with their audio guides held tight to their ears. it made it seem as though dozens and dozens of people were silently contemplating stonehenge while engaged in a very serious conversation on their cell phone. weird.
after that we headed to bath, about an hour away, where lots of lovely georgian row-houses lined the hills of the town like tiers on a cake. bath is most famous for its geothermal springs and the roman bath houses built there (hence the name). we stopped at the roman bath museum (which provided more annoying audio guides rather than well-labelled, detailed signs at exhibits) to see the spring (still flowing), the outdoor bath, various roman artefacts found at the site, original mosaic floors, and lots of carved stone bits of former temples, etc. i really enjoyed the outdoor terrace area (see picture), but some of the inner parts of the bath smelled a bit damp, kind of like a basement, multiplied by 2000 years! since the weather was so unusually beautiful, i spent the afternoon wandering around the town, walking along the river avon, and enjoying a little nap in the park. overall, a wonderful daytrip, and now i'm in london for two more days - time to explore!

london calling

so i love that i'd been in london less than 48 hours, and i was already able to give correct directions when asked on the street :) so in case you couldn't tell, i'm blogging from jolly old london right now. it's a great city, and i'm having a wonderful time. i've been pounding the pavement quite a bit (they call the sidewalk 'the pavement' over here, more british terminology for you), and getting a feel for different areas of the city. you get to see so much more by not just taking the tube (the underground) everywhere. some general impressions... the book i'm reading right now described london as a place where "the famous streets carelessly shrugged off their own importance," and i definitely agree. as chock-full of tourist attractions and famous sights as london is, it's still a regular city, with people (about 7.5 million) from all walks of life just going about their daily business. i feel equally at home hiking the rural hills of south-west england as i do exploring the streets of the largest city in the united kingdom. but i certainly breathe easier in the country; i've noticed some definite air pollution here. i was walking around soho eating an apple yesterday and noticed a bunch of black grit had blown and stuck to the exposed fleshy part - gross!
anyway, i've been doing a lot of exploring on my own, but have also taken two free walking tours. it's nice to hear some history, some facts, and get a sense of the background. some london highlights i've at least seen (if not paid the exorbitant fees to actually gain entrance to) include: buckingham palace, the london eye, millennium bridge, westminster abbey, big ben, st. paul's cathedral, shakespeare's globe theatre, the tower of london, and LOTS of museums - they're free, and it rains a lot here...
some of my favorite london experiences so far:
-going to king's cross station to see platform 9 and 3/4 (another harry potter thing), where they have a sign and a cut-off half-trolley stuck to the wall
-the british museum, a ridiculously huge collection of stuff including the rosetta stone, a bunch of mummies, and some "rescued" (read: stolen) statues from the parthenon
-camden market, wandering around the stalls, seeing cuisine from all over the world, finding hidden little gems among the typical market crap
-watching the sunset with a great panoramic view of london, from primrose hill
-walking along the south bank of the river thames enjoying the sunshine and the street performers, eating a nutella crepe and browsing in a book market
well then... only 3.5 days left in the u.k., will of course let you know what i get up to. tomorrow i'm taking a tour of stonehenge and bath, should be fun...

exploring in oxford

so here i am in oxford, home to the famous university, and i've had a very nice visit. with all its beautiful, old stone buildings, it still manages to feel very lively, very modern, very much like a university-town. it boasts lots of famous people as alums too! one of the highlights of my visit was going to christ church, one of the colleges that make up the university of oxford. it was here that several scenes from the harry potter movies have been filmed, including the large dining hall. it didn't look much like the great hall in hogwarts though, as much computer 'magic' took place. in particular, the ceiling was quite normal, and not enchanted to show the weather outside... :) despite the chill in the air, i really enjoyed strolling around some of the gardens and quads in the different colleges at oxford. and another highlight was getting coffee in a pub called the eagle and child. it was here that c.s. lewis and j.r.r. tolkien met with their group, the inklings, to discuss their work every week. i got to sit in the very corner that they met in, and see a framed piece of paper bearing their signatures. unfortunately i didn't get any sudden burst of creative inspiration, however. and in the afternoon, i headed to the ashmolean museum, (britain's first public museum) with all sorts of stuff, including a pretty interesting collection of ancient egyptian artefacts. i had a good time exploring oxford, and later today i head to london!

these boots were made for walkin'...

so last thursday it took me 3 trains, 1 bus, and quite a hike through the rain to get from cardiff, wales, to osmington bay, in the south of england where my friend kathleen works. it's all good though. i met up with kat and got to help her celebrate a belated birthday with her and her coworkers at a "wellies" party, where everyone had to wear wellingtons, (tall, rubber boots that keep your feet dry). then for the next three days, we hiked along the south west coast path, britain's longest national trail, although we only did about 30 miles. to say the scenery was gorgeous would be an understatement. pictures to come soon, i promise.

day 1 - osmington bay to lulworth cove:
we had a bit of late start, and set out at a leisurely pace, to ease ourselves into the hike. we stopped for lunch at a very quaint pub called 'the smugglers inn' (this part of the coast, with its many coves and inlets, was big for smuggling in earlier centuries), knowing that it would be the last 'real' food we would enjoy for awhile. as we hiked along the path, hugging the coastline of the english channel, rounding corners of coves and bays, hiking up and down (and up and down, and then up and down again) many hills, the views were just spectacular. i think 'wow' was definitely the most overused word of the weekend. we scrambled across a rocky beach (my ankle held up surprisingly well throughout the trip) to see the remains of a wooden shipwreck from the 1800's, exposed at lowtide. another highlight was the personalized geology lesson. kat works as an outdoor educator, and was able to tell me all about the white cliffs, and how coves and stacks form, and the different types and ages of layers of rock. the coast is nicknamed the 'jurassic coast,' which was evident with the numerous fossils, like real fossils, just lying all over the place. perhaps the only downside of the day was slipping in some mud, reaching out to steady myself, and getting a handful of stinging nettles - my hand tingled for the next two days! one of my favorite parts of the first day's hike was climbing to the edge of bat's head, basically a peninsula-like cliff, with a narrow strip of land (maybe 8 feet across) and a sheer drop on 3 sides straight down to the sea, many feet below. it was one of those moments that that makes all the hassle worth it - all the trains and buses and miles and hiking up and down (and up and down) - it all seems worth it just for that. we ended the day watching a beautiful sunset over lulworth cove, hiking through some sheep-filled fields, and finding the hostel, very hungry and very tired just as it was getting pretty dark.

day 2 - lulworth cove to swanage:
we had a much earlier start on day #2, as we had many more miles to cover in our itinerary. the area we covered featured some pretty insanely steep slopes, with staircases carved into the cliff faces that seemed to go on and on. we passed through a fossilized forest, which was actually a lot less interesting than it sounds - the fossilized tree trunks just sort of looked like big, round rocks. the weather on saturday made the going a bit more difficult as well; the wind was pretty steady at 40-50 mph all day, with gusts up to 70 mph. hiking along a ridge the whole time, the ever-present wind seemed to drive all other thoughts from my mind, definitely leaving me ruddy-cheeked and runny-nosed. part of the path on day #2's hike passed through a military practice range, with a large sign at the entrance (and many signs along the length of the path) warning us not to touch any military debris we came across, as it could explode and kill us. yikes! between the crazy wind, the numerous cliff-erosion warning signs, the steep slopes, the army tanks, the burnt grass and scrap metal, the narrow path, and the amazing views, i felt really alive. but after over five hours of trudging up and down hills, dealing with the wind, and even seeing some hail, we decided to quit a bit early, hitching to kimmeridge and catching a taxi to swanage, our destination for the night. the afternoon was spent resting in a café, taking a well-deserved break.

day 3 - swanage to poole:
refreshed and well-rested, we hit the path relatively early on our last day of the hike. despite the rain and the cold (and an absolutely ridiculous-looking poncho), it was a great hike. there were far fewer hills; it was a nice, even hike, and we weren't too out of breath to carry on a conversation. we were able to see some pretty cool world war II stuff along our hike - large cement tank traps on the beach, pill boxes (concrete machine-gun lookout posts on clifftops), and an interesting exhibit at fort henry about how the beaches near poole were used as practice grounds before the D-day invasion. the weather cleared up by the afternoon, and the last leg of our hike was a leisurely stroll along studland beach, with its sand dunes and seagulls, and even a lovely catnap in the sun. we reached the end of the south west coast path (pretty anticlimactic really) and caught a ferry from south haven to poole, where we spent the night. overall, an amazing hike, and a very memorable experience. here's a link to my friend kat's blog post about our hike.

day 4 - poole to oxford:
well, if you want to get technical, it was actually poole to weymouth, to osmington bay, (to pick up my gear), back to weymouth, to bristol parkway, to didcot parkway, to oxford. basically, today has just been a travel day, nothing too much to report. but i'm safe and sound in oxford, very much looking forward to exploring what this university town has to offer.

cofion o gymru (greetings from wales)

the title says it all: greetings from wales, everyone! i'm in cardiff right now, the capital of wales. wales has two official languages, welsh and english. all the signs everywhere are in both, with welsh being before/above english 98% of the time; that sort of says a lot about the welsh frame of mind. it's also really interesting to hear welsh being spoken, (less so in the cosmopolitan capital of cardiff, but quite prevalent in the rural northern part of the country, where i was earlier this week); it's unlike anything i've ever heard, with the exception of perhaps elvish, in lord of the rings.

but to back up and bring things up-to-date, sunday i spent most of the day in chester, england. i took a free walking tour of the city where i learned more about chester's roman past. interesting etymological trivia nugget: our word "arena" comes from the latin word for sand, referring to the sand that they brought in to their colosseums and amphitheatres and threw on the ground to soak up the gladiator's blood. another highlight of the tour: our guide took us into a chain baked potato fast food store, and in the basement there was a remarkably intact roman bath building! i'm pretty sure you wouldn't find that in the basement of a wendy's back home... i spent the afternoon exploring the river and parks of chester, before catching a bus to caernarfon in northern wales. the bus ride was really beautiful, watching the sun set across the water. i got to caernarfon by 7:30, and had a bit of an adventure navigating an unknown town, with all of my luggage, with no map, no directions on how to reach the hostel, almost no street signs, (i've complained before about the lack of street signage in europe...), no sign on the hostel identifying it, and very few people to ask for directions. it was a deserted sunday night, and the only people hanging around (lurking outside pubs) were the kind of people you probably wouldn't want to tell that you were lost. but despite all that, i wasn't ever really concerned, and i found the hostel in less than 10 minutes. take that, lewis and clark!

monday was a bright and sunny day, breezy but barely a cloud in the sky. i spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon exploring caernarfon castle. built in 1283 by edward the first in an attempt to subdue the rebellious welsh, it now stands as a great example of a defensive castle. there was no tour guide (it's the off-season), so i enjoyed exploring the castle on my own, climbing towers and ramparts, traversing hallways and passages, going up and down spiral staircases. i'm starting to think one of the defenses of the castle was to confuse the intruders; several times i found myself wondering whether i'd already climbed that spiral staircase. i couldn't tell; i was all turned around! (insert canned laughter here). the castle also had a few interesting exhibits; one on the origin of the title "prince of wales" and prince charles's investiture as such at the castle in 1969. and a military museum on the royal welch fusiliers regiment - all pretty typical military stuff, except for the large stuffed goat, which, to this day, is not a mascot, but an actual member of the regiment. those crazy welsh! the afternoon was spent wandering the town, and in the evening i climbed to twt hill, a hill overlooking the town and the bay where ancient celts apparently settled. the only remains i found though, were beer cans and junk food wrappers. again, to reach the hill, i didn't have any map or directions or idea how to get there, but i didn't let that get in the way. i walked through a ditch to find the entrance to a VERY overgrown 'path,' got my pants caught on prickers and thorns, and scaled a fence. it was worth it to watch the sunset over the castle and the bay, and to see the mountains of wales' snowdonia national park in the distance. as i left the hill though, i noticed a nice, evenly graded, gravel path leading down other side. typical, silly me.

tuesday i caught a bus to bangor, and a train all the way down to cardiff - a four hour journey, but through beautiful countryside. now i'm in cardiff, and enjoying exploring this city as well. i've seen millenium stadium (where the welsh national rugby team plays - they just won the six nations tournament, so rugby fever is running pretty high here.) i've also visited the national gallery and museum of wales, cardiff bay, and spent quite a bit of time ambling through bute park. it's been beautiful and sunny these last few days, and i've decided to take full advantage of that. this morning i visited cardiff castle, which had the typical, old, empty castle keep building (nice views), but also the most eccentric conglomeration of buildings with ridiculously ornate decoration. the story was that the marquess of bute (fabulously rich; owned the castle before he donated it to the city of cardiff), was very interested in showing off his cosmopolitan tastes. he had several rooms/buildings built and decorated in the most ostentatious manner available in the 1800's. there's a zodiac room, an arabic mosque room, a bathhouse on the roof, painted tiles everywhere. it was definitely something else. and to add to what already felt very much like a tour of "lifestyles of the rich and famous, 19th century edition," the tour guide sounded exactly like robin leech, exactly. i've enjoyed my time in cardiff, and tomorrow i make my way down to weymouth in dorset. while there, i'll hike the southwest coastal path for a few days, so might not have access to internet for a while.

spring has sprung...

everywhere i go in scotland, england, and wales, i notice the tell-tale signs of spring. particularly in wales, where wordsworth was inspired, and where the daffodil is the national flower, i'm reminded of spring when i see "a host of golden daffodils" on every hillside. the trees are starting to flower and grow buds, many different flowers, including hyacinths are in bloom.

and as the train rolls through fields where cows and sheep graze freely, i get to see lots of adorable, little baby lambies frolicking around or sticking close by their mothers. it makes me smile.

another obvious symptom of spring-like behavior: people strolling through the park buying ice cream... i may or may not have to include myself in that group... but perhaps the nicest thing about spring is that the sun is getting noticeably stronger. and you still have to wear a jacket, because it's cold in the shade and there's often a breeze. but when you sit in the full-on sun, it warms you right to your very core. so wonderful!

so to all of you still suffering and caught in the icy cold grip of the western ny winter, i have two words: ha, ha.

wish ewe were here....

iona, scotland

liverpool and chester.... liverchest?

safe and sound in the quaint, little town of chester, england. or at least it should be quaint, the buildings are gorgeous, but they're full of nothing but chain stores, and the streets are crowded with materialist shoppers, and the weather is really rainy. well, you can't have it all...

yesterday morning i caught the train from york to liverpool, passing through the visually arresting, post-industrial landscape of leeds, manchester, and several other towns along the way. granted, the areas that trains and trainyards generally pass through aren't necessarily the best parts of town, but i was surprised at how many junk yards, warehouses, and decaying buildings i saw, with rubbish strewn everywhere. other train journeys usually pass through beautiful, scenic countryside, with the occasional town or city popping up. but because this area of england is so densely populated (much more than the rest of the u.k., certainly much more than scotland), there isn't the same isolated, bucolic grandeur. enough analysis of the effects of the industrial revolution; i'll stop boring you.

i got into liverpool around noon, checked into my hostel, and set out immediately to explore the city, named the european capital of culture for 2008. despite the industrialization of the area, i found liverpool to be surprisingly vibrant, with lots of going on. my first expedition was an adventure in public transport, taking a local bus to the neighborhood of liverpool in which the beatles grew up. didn't spot paul or ringo, but i did see penny lane - it's a real street! (pretty average looking, too.) after that i went to albert dock, a sort of urban rejuvenation project on the port with shops, galleries, restaurants, museums, etc. good stuff. i went to the liverpool branch of the tate, a gallery focusing on modern art. saw some good stuff, picasso, pollock, warhol. also saw some ridiculous stuff: an entire exhibit of (i kid you not) "white monochrome." new life plan: become a modern artist.... i also went to the merseyside maritime museum, which detailed liverpool's important sea trade connection as a port. interesting exhibits on a lot of different topics: the slave trade, the titanic, and gay life at sea. this morning it was foggy and a bit cold, so that means more museum time! i checked out the world museum, aimed mainly at children, but housing some pretty interesting things nonetheless (an aquarium, dinosaur bones, and lots of artefacts from "world cultures" - egypt, aztec, inuit, polynesian, african...)

this afternoon i left liverpool and caught a train to chester, about 45 minutes to the south, arriving at around 2:00. my first priority whenever i arrive in a new city, is to make a beeline for the hostel i'm staying at, to drop off my ridiculously oversized luggage. what made me think i could carry 60 lbs of stuff around with me for 3 and a half weeks?! anyway, after dropping off my bag, i set out to explore the town. despite the rain, i really enjoyed wandering the streets and taking pictures. chester is famous for its roman heritage and exposed-beam shop facades. despite housing nothing but chain stores, the shops are lovely, and a unique feature: there are multiple levels of shops, with terraces reachable by the occasional staircase. so all the main streets have a ground level, and a covered balcony of shops just above. i'll be here til tomorrow afternoon (when i leave for wales), so i'll keep you posted about the rest of my sojourn...

i'm in york, but not the 'new' one...

greetings from york! i'm enjoying exploring the beautiful city in the middle-ish part of england. lots of winding, cobble-stoned, quaint, medieval streets with overhanging shopfronts and black-and-white tudor beams. the only thing that would make it even more postcard-perfect: if 95% of the stores weren't huge british, american, or multinational chain stores... but i'm still in awe whenever i round another corner and see another cute building. i left oban yesterday morning at 7:45, and not too much to report on. it was all pretty uneventful, just a travel day. oban to glasgow to edinburgh to york, 9 hours total. today i set out exploring the city, first wandering by the river, then seeing the abbey ruins in the public gardens, then taking a free walking tour of the city, learning all about the roman and viking settlements and the architecture and construction of the city walls, which surprisingly are, for the most part, very much in tact. then it was a pretty typical travel day for me: lots of time wandering around, taking whatever side street seems appealing; lots of buying little snacks and chocolates and sitting in parks just people-watching; lots of pretending to be a world-class artsy-fartsy travel photographer. i went to york minster, a big, fancy cathedral. but i decided not to pay the entrance fee and go inside; i feel a bit jaded, but once you've seen the inside of (approximate but not exaggerated guess) 28 gothic cathedrals, they all start to look pretty much exactly the same. the highlight of my afternoon however, and one that i would definitely recommend to anyone visiting york, was the york castle museum. they have an enormous collection of everyday objects (clothing, tools, laundry detergent, vacuum cleaners, candy) from the 1600's to present, with particular emphasis on the victorian age. i enjoyed the life-size recreation of a shopping street from the 1800's, and found the clothing-through-the-ages display pretty interesting too. and tomorrow morning, it's off to liverpool. until next time...

with 10 miles behind me, and 10,000 more to go...

greetings from oban! i'm on day 2 of my backpacking trip, and things are going well. i left edinburgh yesterday morning (carrying 60 lbs of luggage - i weighed it!) and caught the bus to glasgow, and then another bus to oban. i really enjoyed the bus ride from glasgow to oban, as we passed through loch lomond and the trossachs national park. the views were gorgeous, and there was quite a bit of snow on the ground up in the mountains. the couple ahead of me on the bus spent almost the entire three hours continuously taking photos through the window; i'm not exaggerating. i wanted to shake them by the shoulders and tell them to look at the whole panorama with their own eyes, not just stare through the camera's viewfinder the whole time. plus, pictures from moving vehicles (taken through dirty, splattered glass) never turn out that great...
i got to oban around 3:00, it's a medium-sized town, a main port for the isles off the western coast. i enjoyed exploring the harbor and sampling some irn bru flavored ice cream before hiking about 25 minutes outside town to climb a cliff with the ruins of dunollie castle on it. originally built in the 700's, it was an important fortress for the dal riata kingdom, and offered great views of oban bay and the inner hebrides (that's what the chain of western isles is called). the ruins themselves weren't much, but they were covered in ivy, which offered a certain charm/creepiness.

this morning i rose bright and early (6:30 is early when you're on holiday!), but as i walked along the harbor towards the ferry terminal, i was amazed at how beautiful the light and clouds were on oban bay. (don't worry, i took a gazillion pictures, and will post them when i get the chance). i caught the 8:00 ferry from oban to craignure, on the isle of mull, and very much enjoyed having the top observation deck all to myself. since there was no one else up there to hear my beautiful (ha!) alto, i watched the waves and sang some travelling songs to myself. from craignure, i caught the bus to fionnphort on the south-west tip of mull. the bus ride (a little over an hour) was gorgeous; the sun was shining, there were waterfalls, and forests, and coves, and lots of wildlife: sheep, hairy coos, small, strange deer that looked like they belonged in africa, and lots of birds, that may or may not have been cranes, herons, hawks, or eagles. i really should learn more about avian identification.... the whole island is also covered in what i like to call "fuzzy mountains," hills and mountain-sides that aren't rocky, but are covered in long grass, moss, bracken, and dried heather, making them, well, fuzzy. i caught the 10:15 ferry from fionnphort to the small isle of iona. the ride was only 10 minutes, and the water was quite choppy, but i enjoyed it. i'm one of those weirdos that like turbulence on planes; it's like a rollercoaster... where you're not strapped in.... and could actually die...

anyway, iona was absolutely gorgeous! i first went to the abbey, where st. columba first came in 563 a.d. from ireland to bring christianity to scotland. an abbey from the 1200's stands on the site of the one built in the 500's. i enjoyed the celtic stone crosses and the amazing views of the ocean. from there, i walked to the northern shores of the island, cut through some fields, made friends with some sheep (not really, they all looked at me funny when i tried to take their picture), and explored the beaches. the water was almost caribbean-blue, very beautiful. i saw the storm coming from a long way off, the clouds were one shade lighter than pitch black, but silly me decided it wouldn't be a big deal, no hurry or anything.... i got completely soaked. lesson learned. i spent the rest of the afternoon trying to warm up with cups of hot coffee in between waiting for the return journey (ferry, bus, ferry) back to oban. when you're travelling, for as many moments that take your breath away, i'd forgotten how much there is of the opposite: sitting around waiting for the bus, train, plane, ferry, pack camel, you name it... one of the great things about travelling here though is the public transportation infrastructure. it's a bit inconvenient at times, sure, but you simply would not be able to get to locations as remote as this back home if you didn't have a car. anywho, this update should be lengthy enough for you. it's up early again tomorrow to head from oban to glasgow to edinburgh to york. i'll keep you posted...

my last day in edinburgh

no matter how many times i do it, saying goodbye never gets any easier. both to the friends that i've made here, and to the city that i've called home for more than five months. i had a very nice time at my going-away party on friday, and managed not to be a complete waterworks when it was time to say goodbye. (although i keep telling myself, it's not 'goodbye,' it's 'see you later.')
saturday i met up with a friend to watch two of the matches in the six nations rugby tournament. i went to a pub in tollcross, and caught the second half of ireland v. wales match, and all of the scotland v. england match. for not being that big of a sports fan, i was surprised at how much i genuinely enjoyed watching them. they were both really well-played games. and the atmosphere of the fans watching in the (quite crowded) pub added to the entertainment. there was a large contingent of welsh fans in town for some reason, but as soon as the scotland match came on, they immediately switched their allegiance to scotland, standing and singing the scottish anthem as loudly as anyone else. i guess they follow the saying (i've seen printed on shirts) "i support scotland, and anyone who plays england." there's nothing like subjugated camaraderie among nations. the match itself was great; the scottish defence was spot-on, and despite losing every single match in the tournament up to this point, scotland managed to beat england! it was a beautiful thing to see how loudly the crowd cheered and how happy they were to beat the english. a nice finish to my time here.
and today, my last day in edinburgh, i did a lot of packing, and trip-planning. but i also wanted to end my time here like i started it. when i arrived in edinburgh back in the beginning of october, the first thing i did after checking into the hostel was to climb salisbury crags in holyrood park. so i thought hiking arthur's seat (also in holyrood park) would be a fitting end. i met up with my friend, erika, and the weather cooperated (although storm clouds threatened), and it was a nice way to say goodbye. i'm having a difficult time finding the words to describe how sad i am to leave, but i know that there are more adventures just up ahead, beyond that bend in the road, as charles kuralt would say. so tomorrow i set out on a 3.5 week backpacking adventure extravaganza, to see what awaits...

last day at "the works"

so after five months, today is my last day of work. i have the weekend off and then on monday i'll start my backpacking trip. my job has been such an integral part of my scottish experience, working full-time and all, that it will be really weird to leave it. i've become such good friends with some of my coworkers, and shared i-don't-know-how-many-thousands-of laughs with them (mostly about idiot customers). i know it will be hard to find a work environment like this again. but tonight after work we're all going out for drinks at the pear tree; it would've felt so wrong to have my leaving do anywhere else.
and then this weekend it's going to be packing, packing, and more packing; getting all my i's dotted and t's crossed in preparation to leave. the "plan" for my trip, (all plans current at time of blog publication, author holds no responsibility for unforeseen changes to said plan), is to leave edinburgh monday and head to oban via glasgow and spend the afternoon there exploring the port and spend the night. tuesday i'll head to the isle of mull and the isle of iona (using two ferries and a bus, each way) then back to oban for the night. wednesday will be a travel day, which always feel so much longer than they are: oban to glasgow to edinburgh to york. then spend probably two nights in york. from there the plans get a little hazier, with far fewer specifics, but basically i'm hoping to see liverpool, chester, north wales (bangor, caernarfon, snowdon, etc.) then down to south wales. from cardiff i head to weymouth to meet up with a friend and hike the south west coastal path in dorset, then on to oxford, then london, with a possible trip to windsor castle, the roman baths at bath, and stonehenge. then back to good old adams basin, smallest postal district in new york state, on wednesday, april 2nd. (god, so i just tried to find a link to adams basin, to include as a hyperlink, which i'm so fond of doing, and there's nothing, nothing on google, nothing on wikipedia. christ! why am i going back there?)