Euro Trip! The Update so far...

So here is the first big update since school ended and Erin arrived in Europe. It has been crazy busy, and we have fit in a lot of partying and sightseeing, which is always a healthy combination. The semester ended well. No tears were shed or anything like that, but I had D and Leah with me for a couple more days. When Erin and I left for the Highlands trip it was the first major separation since we met, so that was different. Leah left on the 9th, and we saw D again after the trip for a little bit. She flew out the 13th. Leah called me when I was in London, which was nice because I am so used to seeing her that it is weird not talking everyday. Now that I am done sounding like a creeper, we will get on with it.

Leah, D and I spent the last couple days hanging out around Dalkeith. On Wednesday the 3rd, we went out to dinner with one of our friends from town, Lisa. It was nice, and then we did a farewell pub crawl across Dalkeith High Street. It was a lot of fun.

Erin arrived safely on the 4th, although her plane was a few hours late. I met her on Waverly bridge, and we made it back for the going away "toga" party. This was totally lame. No one was hardly in togas, and it was just really not very fun. They did give out "awards." Leah got "Most Spunky," D got "Most Gangster" and I got .... (big surprise) "Biggest Partier." Not that I party all that much...

We went to Mayson's for a farewell pint, and then hit the hay pretty early. We left right around noon on the 5th, and were (all 4 of us) crammed into a tiny taxi. We stayed at St. Christopher's hostel for the first four nights. We did end up going out, with John and Peter, one of the guys from the program. It was kind of an off night for me, but it was still fun.

Bright and early Saturday (6th) Erin and I went on the Edinburgh free walking tour. I did this in London, and it was great. Our tour guide did a great job, and I saw a lot of Edinburgh that I hadn't before. After that we did a bit of shopping, then we went back to the hostel to meet Leah and D and got ready to go out.

Saturday was an epic night out. We met up with a stag party that we had met the night before, and had a great time. Leah, D and I have been attracting stag parties the last couple times out, and they are always good fun to hang around with. We closed down Espionage, the dance club, at three am, then grabbed some kebabs from Yum Yum, a chippy by our hostel. They were fine, but no Kebab Mahal.

Leah, Erin and I shopped on Sunday. D was feeling a bit under the weather, so she was out of commission for our last few outings. We went to Ocean Terminal, which is where the Royal Yacht Britannia is docked and it has a huge mall attatched, so that was fun. I bought a second suitcase that I will need going home. I got it for a really good deal. Sunday night, we went to Winter Wonderland. It is right off Princes Street in Edinburgh, and they basically have a little carnival and christmas markets set up. John met us there, and the 5 of us took a spin on the ferris wheel.

Monday the 8th was when Erin and I left for the highlands. It was a really fun trip, and we met some good people. We sat next to Mattius, a german guy on the bus. He was pretty nice and kinda funny. We also met some Aussie girls that were fun but crazy. Overall it was a really good trip. Our tour guide, Matt, was really good.

We got back from the trip on Wednesday. We had a low key night of going to bed early. On Thursday, we got up and went to Glasgow. There is not much to do there but shop, so we did that for a while. We also had lunch at Wagamama, a really good noodle restaurant. That night, we came back and saw D for the last time, then went to the cinema to see Zach and Miri Make a Porno. It was funny. It is by the same guys who do Superbad and Knocked Up, so it was a way good time. After the movie we just crashed.

Friday we kind of went our separate ways for a bit. Erin toured Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace while I spent the day with John. We met back at the hostel around 6 (I was late) and started to get ready for the evening. We had a really fun night, and actually ran into a bunch of people from the Highlands tour. We also met some nice Irish blokes, and one other guy called "Herb the Serb." One of the guys lives in Dublin, so we are hopefully going to meet up again and party on their turf.

On Saturday the 13th, Erin's B-Day, we hopped on a train to London. The ride was nice and had free Wi-Fi, so that was good. It was about 5 hours. When we arrived in London, we basically dropped our stuff, had some cold pasta and hopped on the pub crawl. It was really fun, and we met some people from Madison who know one of my friends from high school, so that was ironic. It was a decent pub crawl, until the end of the night when we got to a really packed club and just wanted to escape. I had checked my coat, and when I got it back the belt was missing. Luckily we made friends with the head bouncer outside, who saw its safe return. We also did a lot of roaming around trying to get home. Luckily, we eventually succeeded.

Sunday, we slept in kind of late, then woke up and went to museums. First was the British Museum. I was there last time, but did not get to explore as much as I wanted to. This time we saw most of it and it was still sweet. From there we went to the National Gallery. I went there last time too, but this time we did an audio tour, so that was really good. It was really interesting to have the paintings explained, and I think we hit up all the Ninja Turtle greats. That night we went to the hostel pub and met a nice crowd of Americans, and hung out with them for awhile.

Monday was a big day. First we did the free tour in the morning, which was not nearly as good as last time I did it. That showed us all the major sites, and after that we got lunch at Wagamama in London. Still good. From here we decided we should see a musical, so we quickly shopped then got back and got ready. We saw Wicked, which was really good and we had pretty dec seats for it. Overall great show, I'm really glad we did that. After the show, Erin had some homework to do, so I wondered to the hostel bar. We met some of the same people as before, so I had a few farewell pints of John Smiths, an English beer. Erin joined us before long, and pretty soon we were having a great time, but then looked at the clock and realised we had to leave for Amsterdam in like an hour. We waited until bar close, called a cab (which was a terrible experience) and went to the airport, without sleeping.

We arrived in Amsterdam 9:00 local time, and pretty much found our hostel and went to bed. We woke up around 5 and walked around a bit. After enjoying some of the sights and scenery, we went back to bed. Overall, it was a pretty low key day.

This morning, we woke up early and had a really eventful day. We went to the Anne Frank house first, which really was amazing. The layout and how they tell her story is really moving. It literally is the "Secret Annex" house where they were in hiding. I am really happy we made it there. From there, we went to the Van Gogh museum. It was epic (I speak for myself here because I am the Van Gogh nut between the two of us. Erin enjoyed it, but in a slightly less OCD way). We did audio tours, and they really do give good insight of the different periods of his ten year career, but stealthily slide over all the absinth use and hookers. It was really great, though. After that, we went to a market, which was not nearly as good as some in Barcelona and other places I have been. It was fine, but neither of us bought anything. After that, we came back to the hostel and started blogging. Whoo hoo! Now for the pictures...

Leah D and I with locals we met at ShipWreck, a Dalkeith pub.
Another local. As Erin puts it, "He literally looks like a troll."
Here is a nice picture showcasing my new haircut (very posh) and the "flag" I made commemerating our stay in Dalkeith House. I asked for pieces of cloth that people then signed and I sewed together. It will be hung in the dining hall. I was pretty proud of it, I worked on it for like three days during finals (after studying of course!). I'm already to make some stuff on a legit machine, Mom!
PS, I checked all my grades, and I should have a 4.0 semester! So all of you who think that I should have eased up on the bottle and focused more on my studies, take that!
D, me and Erin on the ferris wheel at Winter Wonderland in Edinburgh. Super cold.
Erin in front of The Elephant House Cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. Pretty neat.
Erin, Leah and I with the stag party. From left: Ian 2, Erin, me, Ian 1, Leah and Chris. They were really fun guys, and made for a great night out!
Here is the stag. His name is Danny (we think).
Erin and Leah on the way home. We call this her "creeper face."
Me dancing with a sweet street band
Me and Greyfriar's Bobby. That story makes me so sad.
Erin at An Lethallt. This was one of the most beautiful places we visited in the Highlands. It is on the Isle of Skye.
Hamish, the hairy coo. He is the one used for most postcards and stuff.
Us with our Aussie friends, Kiera and Jenny.
Sooo... We got pretty wasted our first night in the hostel. Kiera whipped out this bottle of Absinth, which is apparently illegal. We now know why that is. There were no hallucinations, I don't think we had enough for that, but there was enough cider, whisky and vodka consumed at the same time for us to feel at least some ill effects the next day. But yes. This is me with the bottle of illegal absinth we drank in the Highlands.
Here is Erin and I at An Lethallt.
More An Lethallt. This one is cool because if you look closely, you can see mainland Scotland in the background.
Erin and I beside the "make me pretty" river. Celtic legend says that if you dip your face in the water here, it will make you beautiful. We didn
This is me using my "America" tissues. I found them in a gift shop and thought they were hilarious. I also bought tissues with a frog wearing a santa hat on them.
Our sweet Wellies. I gave Erin her pair to her as a birthday present.
Erin and I in front of Loch Lomond. It was like a mirror, it was so pretty.
Erin in a stone pile used for ancient Pictish burial ceremonies. It is like stonehenge, but different.
Here I am standing in a small stream that was flowing into Loch Lomond. Good thing I had the Wellies!
Here are my glorious tissues in the pack. Miss you, America. Love you.
Loch Lomond again!
This is from Friday night once we got back to Edinburgh. They have these delicious drinks called Red Square, and they are soo good! Here Erin is trying the combination of Blue (Blue Raspberry) and Green (green apple). Yum-O!
Here I am enjoying the slightly more delicious combo of Blue and Red (cherry... Just like a jolly rancher!)
Here is a bit from the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace in London. It was basically a parade. Not all that interesting.
Here Erin and I mess with a guard in front of Clarence House, where Prince Charles lives.
Erin and I inside the theater to see Wicked.
Erin in front of a hilarious sight. Apparently, 1024 people injured themselves on the escalators last year. How are people this dumb? Note the "walk, don't run" notice.
Erin and I in our hostel in London. It was another St. Christophers.
Trafalger Square, the center of London, at night.
Erin with Hercules (or Herc) at the British Museum.
This is so cool. The UK released new money, and when they are put together they make a sweet shield. Sweet! I'm trying to get all of the new coins. I have like 2.
Erin and I in front of the Apollo Victoria theater. Epic!
Us on the pub crawl/Erin's birthday.
Friendly guys outside Hamley's. Of couse I was going to go there again! I do have to say, it was better the first time, but still really neat.
Here is Amsterdam. They have canals like this all over.
Here is Erin in front of the Van Gogh museum. This is a blowup of Almond Blossom.
More canals with boats.
Here I am, again in front of Van Gogh Museum, with Self Portrait. Again, this was so sweet!!

So that is the Eurotrip so far. I hope everyone is doing well. I will be home on the 24th, so I will see most of you Christmas day. I plan on doing my final blog entry on the way home, unless I have time before then. I wish I could say I am glad to be coming home, but I really hate to leave. I am already planning my return trip after graduation! So thanks to everyone for reading, and I will see you soon!