Cheers Me Lover!

Goodbye Cornwall
Wade surfing at Praa Beach, and in front of beautiful sunset. These boys go as much as they can, when the surf is predicted to be good, though the water is absolutely freezing with an average surface temp of 9 degrees Celsius in the winter (like 45 degrees F?). They usually wear hoods and boots, and gloves. Talk about dedicated.

Me, the surfing photographer, taking advantage of Wade's really nice camera equipment.

Playing pool at Jacob's Ladder pub. Sarah, Wade, and Alex. This is a typical night out, with ciders and ales and crisps (chips).

Wade helping me with a shot.

Wade and I at the Eden Project, in front of the Biomes- one of the world's biggest greenhouses with rain forests inside! For a school field trip and workshops.


This is The Wee Man at the Eden Project, made from all recycled junk. He is maybe 30 feet tall.


My friend Drew climbing down the historic Jacob's Ladder, in Falmouth. Drew is also from Jackson, WY and just happened to be visiting England at the same as me, so it was a nice reunion for a few days.



So I've been bumming around Cornwall for about two weeks now. I've learned a few things during my stay. First of all, I wasn't sure what to expect my second time back to England. I enjoyed my visit last spring, but I didn't know if I actually liked England enough to spend more than one trip here. As it turns out, I really feel quite comfortable.
The weather shift from dry desert heat to extreme humidity was a bit difficult to adjust to. Everything is soggy and moldy and the cold chills you to the bone. Though I've learned that it only takes about two weeks to adapt to any climate. I'm no longer freezing all the time, and I don't need five layers on when I walk outside. So I'm happy about that.
I've also learned how to play the guitar (a song that is), how to beat box, how to play English pool (like American only smaller and different rules, and just red versus yellow balls), and that I'm pretty good at pool, that one could seriously wear the same clothes every day no problem, and I've also begun to learn French.
I've learned that I truly adore and respect my boyfriend Wade more than I even thought possible, he's helped me immensely thus far on my trip.
Most importantly I've learned that there's no need to feel intimidated by unknown cultures, because kids are kids no matter where you go. Instead of typically trying to "fit in" wherever I go, I've just been myself and come a long way from the safety of my shell. There's no need to censor who I am, and people around me appreciate that. And because of that, I have made some great friends and memories while here. I shall miss England.

Tomorrow I am back on the train to London for the weekend, and finally meet up with my other half Kim!! On Tuesday we will set off on the eurostar (luxury train beneath the channel) to Paris...

Until then,
Au revoir, les meilleurs voeux!!

Camille

London Calling. Press 1 to Accept the Charges.

And charges there will be.
London is a lovely, lively and oh so fun city, but it knows it, and refuses to under price.
It is a city at the center of the world, as it intentionally mapped itself, and expects to be treated as such. The pound seems to weigh much less here. So much so I swear the sterlings just float straight out of my pocket. Straight out of pocket to who knows where. I wish I did.
That's not to say I'm not enjoying myself because I've loved most every minute of it.
Not instantly charming like Scotland but it so much to offer.
And so much to offer up your quid for...

I arrived Tuesday on a bus from Edinburgh.
I took the bus instead of the train because it was half the price and I thought I might like to see the countryside a bit more. Wasn't so sure the scenic route was really worth the price though when we pulled into the station around 10pm, 3 hours later than we were supposed to, making the journey an epic 11 hours long. Especially since I attempeted to sleep through most of it and it was black out for the other part. By the time I disembarked the bus at Victoria Station I was wobbly kneed and feeling sick, so I was incredibly relieved to find that the London tube system had taken in account such travel weariness and has designed a route map navigable by children, elderly and the navigationally handicapped alike. I guess that's why it's gone down in design history and will forever be mimicked by new train stations around the world. If there is a fan club out there I am willing to join. I've been rendered just that dorky by my new found passion for subway riding. Routing trips is like playing a life-size board game or going on a grown up scavenger hunt. I love it!

Only minutes from the time the bus braked I was in King's Cross Station and strolling my way through blocks of Turkish shops to a nearby hostel called Clink. The hostel is located in a fully renovated old court house, so it was quite a nice place to come upon and be welcomed by as my first lodging in London. I was terribly cranky though from my unexpectantly long train ride and from having my first choice of places to stay fall through just hours before though, so I was not excited to see the throngs of young people lining the steps and still partying at the hostel's bar. I did however want to check out the scene since I wasn't expecting to stay for more than one night, so I went down to get a cheap drink before retiring.

I was surprised to find that hard alcohol was cheaper than beer and they sell it by the shot, not as a cocktail or well drink. Seeing that the menu had listed the option of adding coke or lemonade (what they call Sprite or 7-up) I asked for a whisky coke only to get a completly puzzled stare back at me from the bartender. "A what?" replied the heavily accented furry, surfer looking dude. "A shot of whisky with coke?" I replied. I had been bought that drink a few nights before at a bar so I thought I was making a safe choice. How different can British English be?
"Where you from?" he asks looking at me like I'm a zoo animal he's never seen.
"America?" I answered like I could be wrong, and finding it weird that I answered America.
"Oh, okay" he answered, straightening back up and resuming his bar duties, smiling again as if that was sufficiant enough answer. Turns out he was from Poland and was confused by my accent. It seemed that Americans were not very commonplace in this hostel. Didn't hear a single bland accent the whole time I was there. Come to think of it I haven't heard any sice I arrived in England. There were plenty in Scotland though. You could spot an American from a block away. No particular reason, you just could.

I've also found out since that there are a LOT of Polosh people in London these days. It's the new wave of immigration. And many English speak of them like some Americans do Mexican immigrants: they take the jobs, they don't peak English well enough, they're crowding the country, blah, blah blah. It's odd to hear, but I love it that there are so many Polish! That's not an ethnic group I've seen much of and since my great grandfather was Polish speaking, born of Prussian immigrants, it's a culture I want to know more about.

This also proves another point: my plain english is too plain to be comprehended. I cannot pronounce a street name or ale company properly for the life of me. There was a tube stop called Leicester and they pronounced it "lester". And worchestershire sauce is pronounced "worster" or something of the sort. British english is so confusing!

After checking my internet in their internet lounge located in the old courtroom, I headed off to bed feeling robbed but relieved to have a better place to stay the next night. It was £2/hour to use the web but at least my couch surfing request was confirmed. I could sleep soundly in my nice and clean yet crowded bunk surrounded by 8 others, knowing that tomorow I had a couch of my own (relatively) to stay in in it's own room in the house of a very lovely sounding french woman. I slept like a rock.

Kim's Eye View of Scotland : The Photo Tour

So here is the final collection of select Edinburgh photos to share. I think they and their commentary nicely sum up my stay. It was a wonderful two weeks and I'm sad to leave, but looking forward to what's to come. Made a bit of a home there with Ellen and Doug. We made dinner together every night. I strolled around with them quite a bit. We shared a lot of stories and laughs. Got into kind of a routine. It was almost sort of a Three's Company thing we had going on. Except for the almost constant flow of couch surfers (who were all lovely I might add). I'm going to miss them and Edinburgh but hopefully we won't be strangers. Will meet a lot of in-and-out of my life people in this trip so I'm preparing for such. Anyways here are some photos I took along the way, not including those I took in the last few days there:



These buildings in the above photo are Edinburgh to me. They look like that city feels, old, a little dingy, a bit bleak, but cute, charming and beautiful in their solidly historical, tottering bricks sort of way. Look how narrow these are! And the rich used to live in these. Or at least on the mid to upper floors. An interesting thing about historic Edinburgh is that many classes might inhabit the same building, the poor being on top and bottom and rich being in between. But even the rich spots are tiny with tight, rounding staircases. This is a view of a "close", which is their word for street or alley that goes through or in between building rows to get to the back sides which are usually the housing entrances. Or there might be other small housing spaces in the close. It's a bizarre stone fortress world there.


View of the bridge between old town and new town taken from a bridge going the same way. There are three of these bridges. The area underneath used to be a river but it was drained and the Princes Street Gardens as well as a train station were put in instead in the 19th century. there was an enormous revitalization of Edinburgh at the time which created new town, the Edinburgh expansion with many Georgian style buildings and shops. Princes Street, the one just beyond the pointy Sir. Walter Scott monument on the left, is FULL of shops. All new and flashy like H&M or T-Mobile, or super touristy selling kilts and red phone booth pencil sharpeners. The building with the clock is a government building. Just beyond it, in a similar architectural style is the Edinburgh Microsoft branch I was told. What with this and Starbucks' everywhere it's really like a medieval themed Seattle. Just to the right is the Old town which surrounds the castle.


And here is a better view of old town, which I thought was one massive building when I first arrived. Pretty much all the buildings are connected here, which is why the closes are needed. There are weird little stairs to get around as well. Very much like a fort.


St. Giles' Cathedral, the church of the Royals. There is a room inside that contains several wooden thrones that important church officials come sit in to make important church decisions. It's a creepy, very masonic looking room with lots of carved ornamentation of animals and crests. The stained glass is fantastically detailed. this is really just an amazing church. Surrounding it is the old Parliament building.

Closer look at the front entrance to St. Giles.


The street Ellen lives on that I stayed in. The door to it is just beyond the white store front.

A wonderful hat shop I found in the grassmarket area where all the hats were hand made and there were hundreds of styles! So wanted to buy one! So wish I had an extra £60 to throw around to do so.


Ellen at the Museum of Scotland in the kid's scientific discovery section, attempting to drive around the simulated race car track but only achieving some impressive wall crashes. A 3 year old little boy watching from behind is yelling the very helpful advice, "just drive straight!"


Building at the end of the castle walkway that I believe contains the Whisky Experience that allows tourist to see how whisky is made and get smashed doing it.

The castle on a rare beautiful Scottish day:











View from the castle top:




Look at the way the fireplaces are set up. So clever. They look like legos.


Arthur's seat from a distance.

Entering the Castle gates.


I'm collecting pictures of myself like this as if I were the Amelie/Travelocity gnome. Kim's head in front of Castle. Kim's head in front of beach...

View from Artur's seat, the highest peak in Edinburgh.


Mountain dwarfs man at Arthur's seat.




Ellen's perch /the best place to get wifi in the apartment. Her and Doug are often nestled here completly cocooned in duvees to protect against the drafty apartment chills. One on the wifi couch, the other on the comfy couch, symmetrical. This was actually a majority of the scenery I saw in Edinburgh :)

Ellen and Doug's beautiful fireplace that I uncovered from behind a large print of some dude that they used to block out the draft. How could one cover this? Only in Europe could this be a student apartment's fireplace. WTF guys! I said just stuff it with newspaper and let it shine. And so it was, just in time for Ellen's Shabbot dinner party, which was awesome. We hosted a diverse group of kids from all over the world that attend the University, or "Uni" as they call it and we had a great time eating traditional shabbot food, drinking wine and sharing stories. At the time a group of students were protesting the college's support of Isreal, or at least what they see as support for Isreal, because of the recent bombings in Palestine as well as Isreal's occupation of more territory in the area in the last 30 years, by (ironically) occupying the student library, so that's really a hot button issue with the students now. As a result I'm learning a lot about the subject and I'm grateful for it. It's more difficult than I knew really. So that was discussed for a bit but mostly we just had great fun. I really admire that Ellen has such a strong community and wish we all had such opportunity or outlet for meeting people you have something in common with so easily.

The door to the room I slept in that was decorated for my birthday. After a long day of walking around town I came home to these banners on the door, candles lit everywhere and a traditional Scottish dinner of Haggis with tatties and nips (mashed potatoes and roasted turnips). Delicious! That was a fabulous night spent with the two flat mates and Roxie, a recently befriended German student from Ellen's Shabbot dinner, eating well, laughing and drinking to sleepiness. Thanks again guys! I LOVED it.

The weird condiment packages I found at a cafe. I soon found out brown sauce is this Worcestershire sauce-like paste that is quite good but odd. Apparently they love it in the UK.
But how vague right? Brown sauce? Come on, get creative Brits.


Pretty red door with very Scottish ornamentation (or so it seems), which I love.

A building. Don't know which.

John Knox's house, lived in by the Presbyterain/Calvinist reformer long long ago.
Longest surving house in Edinburgh with pretty but bizarrly painted ceilings.

His fireplace.

Detail of wall ceiling painting. Creepy yeah?



Prayer room? or something of the sort.

View onto the Royal Mile (main street through old town) from Knox's window.
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Greyfriars cemetary. A vast and historically significant one that I was much entranced with


The grave of Greyfriar's Bobby, the beloved dog of folklore and apparently Disney movie semi-fame, in front of the church. Check out the sweet story at http://www.greyfriarsbobby.co.uk/.
The name says it all. Or maybe too much.


The Scottish seem to like to put gravestones in walls. I think it creates a beautiful affect. Here's one wall but there were many.




Edinburgh in the snow.



Doug winding up a fresh one to nail Ellen with.

Scenes from Edinburgh. Randam bits I thought were nice:



So that concludes the Edinburgh chapter. Now onto the London chapter. Just arrived yesterday night and so far it's chaotic but lovely. Have a big day ahead of me tommorow so off to bed. Will report back shortly. But will leave with these quotes to summarize:

“Who indeed that has once seen Edinburgh, but must see it again in dreams waking or sleeping?” Charlotte Bronte, letter 20 July 1850

"There are no stars so lovely as Edinburgh street-lamps"
Robert Louis Stevenson

“My dear Sir, do not think that I blaspheme when I tell you that your great London, as compared to Dun-Edin, 'mine own romantic town', is as prose compared to poetry, or as a great rumbling, rambling, heavy Epic compared to a Lyric, brief, bright, clear, and vital as a flash of lightning.” Charlotte Bronte, letter 1850