Quickie Post

This weekend I went to Amsterdam!

I would write more about how pretty the canals were, or how weirdspice is was to stay in (literally) the middle of the red-light district but…..

Brent’s coming tomorrow!!!! 

To be continued,
after spending some good quality time with The Boyfriend :)

Scotland is amazeballs

This past weekend I made my first trip out of England to bonny Scotland!

I’m not sure what expectations I had of Scotland, but the trip definitely surpassed them. We started off taking a train to Edinburgh on Thursday night to explore, and because our tour left early the next morning.
We stayed in the Old Town which was so cool looking.  Went to a pub for dinner, walked around the town a little after.
We stayed in the Castle Rock Hostel…which let me tell you, was pretty skeezy.
It had good ratings on HostelWorld.com, but it turned out to be a little…questionable.

Thank you, Mark, for looking directly at the camera.

The place was filled with some…interesting people. The one redeeming quality was nice, hot showers, which we learned to not take for granted.

We were pretty beat from a 4 hour train ride so we went to bed early. I kind of regret this now, since I totally forgot Edinburgh has a hidden underground city you can take a ghost tour through. Guess I’ll have to go back!
Saw Castle Rock while in Edinburgh, which is built on top of huge rocks.

Friday morning we met at the tour group place to start our Wild & Sexy tour of the Scottish Highlands!
We had a for real Scottish tour guide who made us say “aye” instead of “yes.” I felt a little like a pirate.
The tour was set up to stop at a bunch of little places on the way to bigger places. Our tour route:

At one place we saw some pretty old burial tombs made of stones. Also, got our very first view of Loch Ness!
No monster, though.
We eventually made it to our hostel, which was wayyy better than the one the night before (this one was set up by the tour).
The room housed 6 people—we actually roomed with two girls from Australia who had been backpacking around Europe for the past couple months. Everything was clean and the hostel was cool…except since about 50 people would come back around the same time each day, the showers were FREEEEEEEZING. Some people lucked out and got a semi-lukewarm shower. I didn’t have such luck. Not cool.
Being adventurous, a bunch of us signed up to do a £10 whisky tasting. And not the blended whisky stuff they have in the states and elsewhere….this is the fo rizzle single-malt whisky made in Scotland.
Even though the guy only gave us a “wee dram,” it was possibly the worst thing I have ever drank. We first went through the proper preparation steps, like smelling it, swirling it, etc. From the smell, I thought maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. I was wrong. Whisky is a very strong-tasting drink. Especially when straight. Although we were able to dilute it with water….ughhh. Didn’t help much. Still, it was an experience!
The next morning we were able to go back to Loch Ness to see it in the daylight.
We also stopped at Scotland Loch, which actually resembles the shape of Scotland.
I learned that there are a LOT of lochs in Scotland, especially in the Highlands.  We were constantly driving along them.
We stopped at the famous Eilean Donan Castle, on the shores of Loch Duich. The castle is featured on many a postcard.
The Scottish love their legends about wee people, fairies, stuff like that. One of the rivers we stopped at supposedly has magical powers.
According to legend, one time a lady had a disfigured face and wanted to marry a guy but he wouldn’t because of her face, etc etc, and a fairy told her that if she put her face into this river for 7 seconds, she would have eternal youth. And she did.
And now I will too.
Tour guide Scottish Stevie took us on a wee hike where we got to see some prettty cool views from the Isle of Skye.

Took some rockin pics as well.
We wrapped up the day with another legend: if you took a drink from a particular waterfall, then took another gulp in your mouth, ran down the hill, touched a certain stone, made a wish, and swallowed the water, your wish would come true.
I got the drink and had the other gulp in my mouth, however I couldn’t stop laughing on the way down the hill from the sounds Mark made with his mouth full…and I choked and had to swallow it. No wish for me.   I was just going to wish for eternal youth anyways, and I already got that covered.
That night at the hostel we went to a Scottish Highlander show, which this creepy guy in a kilt held in his creepy house and was pretty creepy when dressing up people in Scottish wear. All in all, pretty creepy. But when we went back, a fiddle and accordion player (both girls in their 20’s) played at the hostel and they were awesome.  They taught some Scottish dances, which Emily and I kicked butt in.
Hands down, highlight of our last day on the tour…
HAIRY COOS!!
Tour guide took a little detour when we heard there were some Highland cows out on the road. They were possibly the cutest animals ever.

Baby coo!!
We ended the tour with an awesome drive back through the Scottish highlands to Edinburgh, while listening to traditional Scottish music.  Pretty awesome.
Scotland has most def been my favorite trip so far while across the pond. It was so cool to travel around see a place I’d never been to before.
This coming weekend I leave for Amsterdam/Bruges! I’m actually going by myself on this trip, although it is through a tour company.  I’m looking forward to it, as I’ve heard Amsterdam is beautiful.
For the comments: Where is one place you hope to go in your lifetime?

Parents and karaoke are fun but Barcelona tennis teams are lamespice.

Chello. I’m using this post to put off doing homework. Hurray!
My parents were here this week, so I was tres busy showing them around, travelling with them, etc, but we had a fun time. We went to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and saw the fuzzy hats.

I also took them to Hastings; it wasn’t quite as nice of weather as the first time I was there, but oh well.

We toured the Tower Bridge, which was pretty neat because it had lots of info about the bridge and about London as well.

We also went to the British Museum which is huuuuuuge and we saw some mummies, including Cleopatra. Let me tell you, mummies are creepy.as.ish.

Even though the rents were here, I couldn’t miss out on Karaoke Night.

Here’s an awesome half-group pic from the tube.

Although I’m not entirely sure where Laura’s other leg is.

Awesome group shot from inside Karaoke.

Ummmz, can we please notice Sarah creepin’ in the corner?

Kthnx.

Before the rents left, they took me out shopping to buy me boots for Christmas.  After about 3 hrs of not even finding one pair I wanted to try on, I found these.

Yayy! Now I won’t be cold and wet when it rains. And they rock because they look great with jeans or leggings.

Update time. Way back when, I wrote a post about my goals for London, and one of them was to attend the London New Moon premiere.  Well lo and behold, Summit has decided to not have a premiere for the movie in London, but just to have a fan event with Rob, Kristen, Taylor, and Chris Weitz in attendance. The date for the event is November 11….as in 2 days away. The only way to get tickets is to enter contests.
I have entered 3 contests so far. I best be winning one of them. I will keep you updated.

Story time. In the same post as above I mentioned one of my goals was to see Muse in concert (and then proceeded to post a picture of Coldplay….???). Welllll Muse was going to be playing in Spain while Brent was visiting, so we bought tickets! We booked our plane, hostel, everything. We even spent a little extra money to change the flight because it was going to be cutting it too close to the concert.
Well. Yesterday I log into my Twitter and see a tweet from Muse stating that the Barcelona date had to be changed due to a tennis team needing to use the space. We can’t go anymore. I am tres bummed.

On a lighter note, this weekend we’re making our first big trip out of  England to visit Scotland for 4 days!

We’re taking a train there Thursday then a guided bus tour Friday-Sunday. I’m preeeeeety excited.

Questions for the comments: Where is Laura’s leg? What do you think Sarah is thinking in the background of the picture? What do you think are my chances of making it to a premiere…slim to none, or just none?

Twenty-One in London Town

It’s Wednesday, and I finally have time to post. School work is picking up (booo) and my parents are here, and they make me go places with them and show them around and they run me down.
Kidding. Except for the run me down part. They are doing that.
One awesome thing that happened this week is that there are some new, sweet movie promo posters in the Underground…like…
Shazam! There are New Moon posters allllll over, and it is awesome. Also found one on a bus.
Ohhhh yeah. And yes, I fan girl squeal every time I see a poster. Every time.
Let’s break down the week, shall we?

1. Camden Market
We found a cool market in Camden. Some parts were a little skeezy, where the vendors come up and hassle you and ask you to try on stuff, but then we found a cooler part.
Tonnnns of places to eat for cheap, and a lot of small, cool shops. Bought a scarf for £2.50, and also a cute overpriced dress.
Yes, I am taking this picture in the bathroom mirror by standing on a chair because we don’t have a full-length mirror in the flat. So what.
You can’t tell too well from the pic, but the dress has some sheep-sheep and hearts and a house on it. So cute!
2. Of course…Karaoke
Another Thursday, another night of rocking karaoke at ISH bar. We had originally signed up for “It’s Raining Men,” but dang it someone took it, so we signed up for “Since You’ve Been Gone.”
By the middle of the first verse, Rachel was hatin on us and had no confidence in our singing ability.
And she was probably right. We did suck. But it was good times!
3. Parents are here!
On Saturday my parents got here! They’re here for a week and staying in a flat.  I’m having a fun time showing them around the city to my favorite places and showing them my flat, etc. We’ve gone on a couple day trips out of the city, one to Windsor Castle,
and to Dover, where we saw the Dover Castle and the white cliffs. It was a hiiiiike to get to the Dover Castle. Here are the rents on the steps.
Had a great view of the English Channel and could even see a little of France.
And of course…
The White Cliffs of Dover.
4. Halloween in London
Since we’re all cheap-o, and also didn’t think ahead, none of us had Halloween costumes….so we improvised! Rachel and I were twins (and I think we managed to convince at least 3 people of the fact).
 Emily was Audrey Hepburn.
And Mark started out as a Fashion Statement, but ended the night just Gay.
He wore two vests, two of Emily’s fashion rings, three of my scarves, and my two Twilight bracelets, one of which says “I like boys so sparkle.”
We went to this place called The World’s End in Camden, which was packed and pretty fun.
We learned that in the UK, people don’t dress up as famous people or characters, they mostly dress up as clowns and bloody monks.
Don’t know this guy.
And of course…
5. 21st Bday!
On Monday I turned 21!! Woke up in the morning with flowers from the roomie, some texts and facebook wall posts from home friends and new London friends, and an email from the bf, which all made me feel shpecial.  Mom and Dad took me out to dinner at a really cute Italian restaurant, and then my friends took me out on the town to celebrate.

Unfortunately, my bday fell on a Monday night, so two of the places we tried to go were empty, but then we went to Zoo Bar in Leicester Square, and I got in fo free, yo.
Ps. I do not know those guys in the background. Props to them for creepin.
According to all my pics, I made this face all night.

This pic is a particular fav.

And so ends another week in London town. Questions for the comments: What were you for Halloween? What song should we sing for karaoke this week? It has to be the best song ever. No lie. Thoughts on the new dress? What color tights would look best with it?