Eaten en Drinken

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Today was fantastic. Fantastically COLD, that is... I spent a good portion of my day inside a café analyzing the Dutch language. Don't worry... we'll get to that in a little bit.

First... I swear I'm trying REALLY hard to get pictures posted but life is just not agreeing with me. I will have all the remaining from Scotland, London, Brussels and Amsterdam up as soon as humanly possible. I thought tonight would be the night, but alas, its not looking good.

I got up pretty early today almost feeling not sick. But again, after a few hours of being awake, everything started to get all clogged up again. I went to a bike rental shop and rented a cute little red bike (don't worry, I took a picture of it - oh, and thanks Sarah and Zaff for the recommendation on the bike riding!!!). I rode my bike ALL over town to the flower market - which is this road FULL of flowers for sale. Literally, there was a booth dedicated to tulips that had HUNDREDS of different kinds of bulbs and they were all for like €3/lb. After that I went down the canals (which I had no idea existed... Amsterdam is ALL water) and went to the Anne Frank House and then over into the old Jewish district. There were still a few places where there were high walls to divide the Jews from everyone else.

After this, I rode down to the Van Gogh Museum and the accompanying park (which was fun, but cold). I didn't stay long because of the temperature, but I did look and acknowledge that the museum exists and people do go there. At this point, I was really cold and decided to go home. I rode down past the Heineken Brewery (just to look at it) and then up through town and back to my lovely little hostel. On the way back (I had to stop quite frequently in order to re-charge myself and ensure that I was going the right way. I almost got hit by like 400 cars) I was looking over one of the bridges near Jordan (Jewish town) and saw these two duck things RUNNING on the water. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen. I took a picture of the duck, but he wouldn't run on the water when I asked him nicely.

I just ate some New York Style Pizza for dinner because I couldn't figure out what else to eat solo. I also picked up a Snickers and a Diet Coke. Good well rounded American meal. I just talked to my friends that I met on the train yesterday and I believe we are going to attempt to do Amsterdam after dark tonight. I'm sitting here waiting for a phone call but in the mean time I think I'll finish Eat, Pray, Love. Nat - it's been a good one, I appreciate you giving it to me!!

Oh, and now, of course... it's time for your Dutch lesson for the day. Ok... I'm going to give you some words in Dutch, and then you have to guess what they mean in English. Ready? (I promise.... its not hard, they're just funny) Ok, I'll even give you a practice round.

1. Eaten en Drinken = Food and Drinks... see EASY

These are the others I found entertaining

2. Kippensoep
3. Tortillachips met chilisaus en guacamole
4. Kipnuggets
5. Jonge en oude (pronounced 'yong en ode')
6. Sap (ex. appelsap, tomatensap, perinsap)
7. Chocomelk
8. Kerks

Ok... ready for the answers?

2. Kippensoep Chicken soup
3. Tortillachips met chilisaus en guacamole haha Tortilla chips, salsa & Guacamole
4. Kipnuggets Duh... chicken nuggets
5. Jonge en oude (pronounced 'yong en ode') Young and Old (get it?)
6. Sap (ex. appelsap, tomatensap, perinsap) Juice
7. Chocomelk Chocolate Milk
8. Kerks Churches

Another funny thing to note is that the churches in Amsterdam are all just named by where they are or how old they are... examples...

Noorderkerk (North Church)
Zuiderkerk (South Church)
Westerkerk (West Church)
Oudekerk (Old Church)
Nieuwekerk (New Church)

Not kidding... those are all real names of churches in Amsterdam. I looked for Easterkerk but I couldn't find it. Anyways, hope you enjoyed your lesson for the day. Talk to you tomorrow!!!

XOXO

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Let me take you down

Location: Brussels, Belgium

Brussels is, well... different. First off, no one is speaking English. Most people do SPEAK it, but no one does unless you talk to them first. Yesterday I spent most of the day in London. We woke up early to go on the Westminster Abbey tour. We went to Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and then we went to the Globe to go on the Globe tour. It was interesting, but its not the original Globe Theater so it lost a little bit of excitement for me. Among all of these authentically historical buildings, it stood out as the baby of the crowd. We had a quick snack by our hotel and then went to the train station where my parents caught the bus to Heathrow and I caught the train to Brussels.

The Eurostar is this incredibly fast train that only makes a couple of direct point to point trips between big cities. One of these trips is from London to Brussels. And it was a very quick trip - about 2 hours. We started across the British countryside which was very pretty and then all the sudden we went down, very fast. My ears popped a lot and it hurt even more than normal because I´ve been so sick. We stayed underground for about 30 minutes. Turns out we were going under the English Channel. So, you can imagine my fear when the train stopped... Underground... I´m not sure exactly what was wrong because the conductor was yelling things in French. Probably best that I didn´t know.

Once we came back up though, we were in France. We made a quick stop to let some people off and then headed to Brussels. Once there, I spent a good 30 minutes trying to figure out where I was. Everything was in French, Dutch, even German, but not English. I learned (by eavesdropping on someone else's conversation) that when growing up in Belgium, you are required to learn all four languages. You learn French and Dutch early, then German and English in high school. So although nothing was labeled in English, almost everyone spoke it perfectly. I took a cab to my hotel (Lesson #1 in Brussels... do not ask the cab driver if £15 will get you to your hotel... Guess how much your final fare will be? £15!!! I think it probably would have cost me about £10 anyways and I was just so happy to be where I was supposed to so I´ll pretend it was a good deal :) The hotel was extremely nice for what I paid and I got to watch Friends and the Grinch in French. I took a bath in this HUGE tub and then took some meds and went to sleep. I woke up this morning feeling almost better, then as soon as I sat up in bed, I was sick again.

I decided not to spend too much too much time in Brussels. I went to the Grand Place which was this huge square with these massive buildings on all sides and the coolest part was that they were all decorated for Christmas (Thanks for that suggestion Emily!!) The buildings were beautiful and absolutely HUGE!!! I got a Belgium Waffle Ice cream thing (Belgium Waffle with Belgium Chocolate Ice Cream on top. Quite a breakfast I know but, I had to do it). It was SOOO tasty. It was so sweet that it almost made me sick. After this I went to a park by the Cathedral and sat in this lawn chair looking thing and rested for a little bit. Every time the train would go underneath, the chairs would vibrate... it was so strange. I took the train from the central station out to Midi where I am now. I´m going to go get on a train to Antwerp right now and at least stop and see what´s going on there. For now though, I have to leave because this French keyboard is driving me INSANE!!! all of the letters are in the wrong place and it`s taking me an incredibly long time to type this out. Talk to you soon though!! Amsterdam tonight!!

XOXO

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The Bells were Ringing out on Christmas Day

Location: London, England, UK

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Ours has been a VERY relaxing one. We slept in this morning and started our day with a little Gone with the Wind and then a HUGE brunch at the Hilton complete with Mimosa's, every kind of meat imaginable, mince pie, bacon wrapped sausage, pralines, a truffle tree and raspberry cheesecake; not to mention all of the things I didn't get a chance to try. At each table, we had a little box present and a Christmas popper which contained balloons, a paper hat, confetti, those firework poppers and a little present. I got measuring cups :) Everyone in the restaurant was letting the poppers off, blowing up the balloons and then letting them go and fly and it was so loud and fun! Before the end of the meal, we were all covered in confetti and gifts. Santa also brought us some magic markers, but he made me and Andrea share because he said we were too old to be getting our own!!

After a quick rest, we jogged down to Kensington garden where we got some fantastic pictures of the sunset. There were these two swans swimming in the Spanish ponds that kept following us around and we got a lot of pictures of them as well. We walked in the dark to Prince Albert's Memorial which was huge and all lit up. We took a cab back to the hotel where we watched the end of the African Queen. Dinner tonight was at a very cute little Italian restaurant who had the most amazing tortellini. We're calling it another early night because we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. The family is heading back to Tulsa and I am off to mainland Europe. It's also Boxing Day here in the UK which is a holiday that was originally started as a holiday where gifts are given to the poor. The name originates from the fact that on Christmas, collection boxes are sent around churches and then the next day, the "boxes" are divided and passed out. Now, its basically a huge day when no one has to work and everyone shops, so we think it's going to be quite busy around town.

Anyways, Merry Christmas again!! I'll try to get pictures up as soon as possible. I know I'm a couple days behind.

XOXO

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With all our Tricks we're making Christmastime

Location: London, England, UK

After I last updated, we found a fantastic little corner pub right next to our hotel called the Sussex Arms Pub. We knew we were going to like it after the first Guinness that my dad bought had a four leaf clover drawn on the top of it in the foam. It was a really cute little local place and by the time we got there, most of the people were quite toasted. By the end of the night it was like a group karaoke session. We were singing songs like "That's Amore" and doing pub-wide cheers to Christmas!! It was really fun.

This morning we woke up early to start sight seeing, hoping that we would be able to do tours in the globe theater, tower of London and the Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, all three of them were closed. We went to the globe theater first which was Andrea's favorite part. She was really involved in drama in high school so I think she had a little more personal attachment than the rest of us. The theater was very cool to look at though. After that, we went to St. Paul's cathedral, which is the one that Princess Diana got married at. My dad says that this is the location of every Royal wedding and funeral and we could see why. The building was huge and looked more appropriate as a state capital building than a cathedral.

We took the tube to the tower of London, hoping that we would be able to walk around inside, but unfortunately they were closed for the day. We walked around the outside and down towards the Tower Bridge and took a lot of pictures. The water was beautiful and the weather was nearly perfect. The sun kept peeking out from behind the clouds but remained behind enough for us to get perfect lighting for our photos.

After this we took the tube to the Westminster Abbey which was... surprise... closed. We walked around the outside and down around parliament which was just as amazing as the first time I saw it about a week ago. We decided to start heading back to the hotel to get ready for Christmas. We went to Harrods to get a couple board games to play tonight and to grab some food. The store was HUGE. There was this wonderful Egyptian staircase that ran through the center of the entire store with carvings on the escalators and hieroglyphics on the walls. Our favorite area of the store (besides the jewelry department... duh) was the toy store. There was the amazing snow (that we made my mom buy) that was a powder that turned to real snow when you added water to it. Like real wet cold feeling snow. I have no idea how it works, but it was amazing. Don't worry, we're bringing some home :)

After Harrods, we tried to make it down to Buckingham palace but it was getting dark too early so we headed home to start decorating for Christmas (My parent's don't know we did this yet so don't tell :) We hung stockings and Christmas lights and tinsel in our room and put candy and stocking stuffers in the little stockings. It's nothing special but we wanted to make sure it at least felt somewhat homey in our little Abbey court hotel room.

I put a picture up of our little home away from home :) After that break, we went to eat at a corner pub and have been sitting there since then. We actually left the parents there to come here and check email and update the blog, so I probably should get back to them; who knows what kind of trouble they are getting into without us!!

Anyways, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas Eve!! We enjoy all of the wishes and blessings you guys have sent to us on the message board and I appreciate all of you following along!!

I hope everyone has a safe holiday and I love you all!!

XOXO

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Where you go, is where I want to be

Location: London, England, UK

Today was all train rides. We woke up relatively early to have breakfast and then get on the 10:30 train back to London. One thing I have realized is that travelling in groups over 2 people without reservations on a train is a BAD idea. It's just really hectic trying to find seats together and, expecially during the holiday season, its impossible to find someplace to put your luggage. I ended up tying my backpack to a luggage compartment and just letting it hang from the top because I couldn't find any other place to put it.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. We passed through almost all of England, through fog, rain, snow and ice. The only thing that was really noteworthy was when we passed through a town called Preston, England. See, I had a dream about 2 years ago, and the image from above was in my dream. I'm not sure if I had seen a picture previously, or if I was somehow pre-installed with this stock image, but I have seen this before; and as soon as I saw it, I knew exactly where that deja vous was stemming from.

Not sure if you signed up for tagging along for my philosophical divulgance into chicken before the egg, but unfortunately (or fortunately) for you, when you signed up to follow my physical journey, you also signed up to follow the emotional and spiritual development that I am sure to experience while I am over here. Consider yourself blessed to catch a glimpse at my inner workings ;)

All for now. We have arrived in London and checked into our hotel the Abbey Court in Hyde Park for the evening. We had some pizza and bruschetta at an Italian restaurant chain called "Ask" and now we are off to have a pre-bedtime brewsky at a local pub. Tomorrow will be busy, but at least it seems to be a little bit warmer here!!

XOXO

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Cold was invented here

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

After we arrived in Edinburgh, we spent a lot of time walking around and getting our bearings in the new town. We ended up at a cute little restaurant on Rose Street where we met a nice old man who showed us exactly where to go for some good authentic Lothian food. After having a nice meal (cranberry and brie stuffed bread... yum) we went to a local pub which had no name on the corner of York Place (which was the street our cute little hotel was on).

After a good nights sleep we went on a day full of running around. We started at Edinburgh castle which was so interesting. We did an audio tour so we could really learn about the history of the place. The things I remember the most about it were the dog cemitary (which was soooo cute) and the part about the Hanoverian horses. The castle itself was HUGE and we kept getting lost. We even got the chance to go into this really neat tower that was destroyed in some war in the 1500's but it has since been excavated and the rooms are still in tact. It's incredible to think that people actually lived here at some point. Of course, it was drizzling the whole time we were there, so it was a little chilly, but definitely a good experience.

After that we went to this all boys school called George Hariot's School. It's an active school so you can't actually go inside, but the buildings are incredible. After this, we walked back to little internet cafe called the Elephant Room which is the cafe where J K Rowling wrote the first edition of the first Harry Potter. It was a cute little cafe and they had great tea.

Afterward, we went to the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the accompanying park which was my favorite part. The Palace is the place where the Queen goes to stay whenever she is visiting Scotland. The front gate was so beautiful and the palace itself was lie something out of your imagination. There were also some cute old houses in the park that you know had been there forever. We took a cute old cab back to the train station (it looked like a PT cruiser but older and way cooler - and it had fold down seats; 5 people could sit in the back seat facing each other). From here, we took a train to Leuchars where St Andrew's golf course is (the course where the British Open Gold Tournament is and the place where golf was invented). It was beautiful. The golf course was SOOO cold but it was really cool. We found the place where Van Der Velde shot the ball into the water on the 18th and ended up climbing in to shoot it out and blew his shot at the British open championship title. It was really interesting. Strange though because we got to just walk right out on the course. There were no boundaries or fences, it was just a public course, right off the road.

After we got back to Edinburgh, which took about an hour, we went to a really neat little restaurant in Old Town called Doric. It was a really cool little pub right off the main street. You could see the Ferris wheel, Sir Walter Scott's monument and the ice skating rink in the Loch from the front door. The food was also fantastic. We had a conversation inside about how we had always heard that Scottish, and all British food for that matter, left something to be desired, but this food was amazing. We had fish and chips where the breading on the fish literally melted in your mouth. The fish fell apart on your fork as you were trying to pick it up. After dinner we had this amazing desert with poached pear, in a raspberry sauce with clementine and starfruit slices on a scoop of vanilla cinnamon ice cream from the local dairy. Needless to say, mom had to command me and Andrea to not lick the plate because it was so good, and believe me... we wanted to.

Afterward, we headed back to the corner pub for one last local brew before heading to bed. Tomorrow, the train takes us back to London. I guess I'll give it a second chance!

XOXO

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Neeps and Tatties

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Finally in Edinburgh. It is amazing here. The train ride was really eventful. We had a little book that told us things to look at while we were riding. Unfortunately, we missed every single one of them. I'm not realyl sure how because I felt like we were looking really hard but we just flew by them I guess. The country was beautiful. There were so many sheep and huge cottage farm houses. The land was so green and there were hedges that divided the pastures. IT made me understand why steeplechasing is an event. If you had been riding in this country, it would be extremely easy to jump over hedges, stone walls, gates and wells.

As we got further north, ice started to cover the ground. The cute little white sheet started to blend into the background except every once and a while, there'd be a black sheep. The black sheep were so cute Cheesy Grin. We finally got to Edinburgh after about 3.5 hours and checked into our hotel which is a really neat old house that hs been converted into a hotel. Our room is called a "family room" which is basically a huge old bedroom with 3 beds in it. The bathroom is VERY nice though. We walked down the main street in "New Town" to look at a couple little churches and statues and to be able to see the castle and the beautiful architecture of "old town." We met a really nice old man outside of the pub we ended up eating a late lunch at and he told us about the history of old town and new town. After talking to him, I think we're all really excited to be able to head to Old Town tomorrow. At the pub, me and mom split a wonderful brie and cranberry stuffed bread. Their "chips" were also very tasty.

I think the plan is to take it pretty easy tonight considering that we have been travelling all day and then do some SERIOUS exploring tomorrow. The castle looks amazing from accross the Loch, I can't imagine what it looks like up close!!

XOXO

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The Family is Here

Location: Liverpool, England, UK

I am freezing. Being back in Liverpool yesterday was a huge shock to my system. I've figured out how to convert temperatures. It was about 55F in Ireland and here's it goes from about 28 in the morning to no warmer than 34 in the afternoons. Plus there is this horrible wind that whips constantly. Brrrr!!!

Yesterday was very relaxing. I spent the morning walking around down on the docks. On the way, I visited two very different churches. The first, is the metropolitan church which (in the pictures I will post as soon as I can) is the one that kind of looks like a space ship. It was very unique. I'll just leave it at that. The second of the two was a medieval and beautiful dark stone church that was extremely gloomy. the fog was very thick and the church was so tall that you could barely see the top of it. There was very thick brush that ran all the way around it and then there was a moat (yes, an actual moat) that ran all the way around it. The moat was about a 100 foot drop from the road and then the church came up out of the ground there. It was beautiful.

At this point, I headed towards the river and visited Albert Dock which is the site of the Beatles museum as well as a historical focal point for liverpool. Aparently, back in the day, Liverpool was a huge slave trade port and there is a huge museum dedicated to it on this dock. This is also the site of most of the classic Liverpoolean worker images that come to mind (most notably, Accross the Universe... think the shipyards where Jude worked... Loved that movie Cheesy Grin) The docks are very well preserved and there are some fantastically old ships that still sit in the water nearby. It was extremely foggy yesterday which added to the mystery.

After all of this fun, I found the Pier Head (after much strife) and caught a ferry to the other side of the River Mersey. Mike met me here and his dad drove us back to their little house in Wallassey. It was exactly what you would expect. Cute little brick house with cute little rooms on a cute little road. I was instantly greeted by warm soup, hot tea and some mince pie. I met Lucy, Mike's sister, and her daughter Kira as well as Mike's mom. We sat and chatted for a long time and played with Amelia (Mike and Kimmie's daughter) and Kira. We went to dinner at a very cute little (of course) country pub where I had some sort of beef pie with mashed potatoes and gravy on top. It was very strange, but VERY delicious. After this we went to Lucy's house and sat around and played with Amelia and Kira for a little while longer before the Allens dropped me back off in Liverpool to meet up with my parents.

After I had completely exhausted Mom, Dad and Andrea's ear about Ireland, they ate some dinner and then we went to this brewery around the corner to have a couple more beers before bed. The place was very cute and very local. I'm so excited that they're in town, I've already taken Andrea on a crash course of Liverpool and I know it's going to be much more exciting to share all of the excitement with an actual human.

XOXO

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