more travels?!?

i changed the sub header, and its true, travelling does equal amazing. or wonderful, fantastic, and i could keep on going. but onto the me travelling, it is spring break (or broik, if you are laura)! and this year i am going on an awesome road trip with some great people.

between the two cars we have(in alphabetical order): cade, danielle, eileen, evan, greg, liza, and molly. we will be driving all night tonight, then arriving in south carolina at 7am to go to our first campsite. then from there we'll go further south (spend a day in savannah) and then camp a few days in florida. we each have a backpack of stuff, and one HUGE tent for all of us.

i cannot wait to just watch the ocean, and get to know it better! oh, and the SUN!!!!!!!!!

i'll update with stories and pictures when i get back!

photojournal

check out my photojournal...
http://almostblair.livejournal.com/

replies to commentors...

jon m.- you commented first, but not any other time! and i did get lots of pictures- they will be up soon (I hope)

elana- thanks for all the comments throughout, and i will share as much of my knowledge as i can with you. though really learning for yourself is half the fun. see you soon i hope

cat- i am excited for YOU! even if things get tough, i know you can do it. and i can’t wait to hear about your travels. also you win the award for best poster. especially cause they were usually about how you loved me ☺

zoe- i am glad i got to see you, and cant wait to see your photos. don’t worry, photobucket is pretty easy. hope london is going well!

laura- ah! i'm glad you've gotten to hear the real deal from me. also you should feel lucky that i shared my precious candy bars with you, fellow chef!

steven- i didn't know you spoke italian (prego!). hope all is well, can i relive my break through you. must relax!

lisee- dave is my friend from camp, and is from ireland. and i’ll be putting the photos up on my actual photojournal. i'm glad you've gotten to read about my trip! hope all is well!

danny- abra said it all in the comment, and well i said it in my Florence post as well! but hopefully we can hang out this semester, i believe elana has something in the works

hila- hope everything is going well, if you had a blog i’d probably be reading and forgetting to comment as well. but that’s ok!

mom- you finally learned how to comment, but i talk to you in my posts and in e-mail more than anyone else already. i love and miss you though!

margaret- you WILL be here this weekend, so we will hang out! And florence is great! the day it was veryvery sunny i kept being so jealous of you in advance. also don’t pee yer pants in M&S, just buy me stuff, and yourself stuff and smile like a dope!

claudia! you posted like you said, and i visited you, like i said! woo-hoo. hope norwich is being extra cool for you.

joel- i am jealous of YOU now, since you get to the reap all the benefits of a meal plan and a blair. want me to cook you dinner tonight?

megan- when you are in scotland you have to try all the chocolate bars- mmmkay? and send me some, pretty pretty pretty please!

abra- thanks for all the comments- there are some new posts up that need your lovely responses! also, as soon as you are back in london i need directions to use the callingcard so i can chat away with you! i really really enjoyed our travels. and though i extended an invitation out to everyone i hope you want to travel with me again! :D

leaving london

getting back actually turned out to be a whole lot of work. i made the bus, thankfully. so i was sort of feeling good about everything. things were going well. the newstand by the coach station had all the snacks i could need. ribena, fry's peppermint, even a drifter! then i go to the underground, buy my single fare to heathrow and hop on the subway. then i get ready to change for the piccadilly line at south kensington, and its closed. and everyone who worked there was really nice about telling me what to do, and being nice friendly brits.
UNTIL i had to interact with the meanest man in london. i don't even want to think about it anymore. but he was so mean, and rude about a very simple transaction. he reduced me to tears. and i hate crying, but he just was awful. so i was sort of happy to leave london today!

so piccadilly was closed, so there was more trainriding, and i finally got to the airport. then some waiting, and some lines and more waiting. typical airportlike things. the flight was nice, i watched some movies (wedding crashers and mrs. henderson presents) and played the on-flight trivia game, backgammon and battleship. i even got some journalling in as well!
then customs... as i was going through they asked about food. i said, oh probably a candy bar... and was waved through. ofcourse by 1 candy bar, i meant atleast 10!! oh well. no harm, no foul.

though i guess my mom would mention that all these candy bars are harming myself. but just to let you know, mom, i only gained 2 pounds on my trip. and american candy no longer appeals to me. and i have always loved chocolate and candy a lot, as any of my friends will attest! also you knew that, remember how happy i was when you gave me a box of nerds for my birthday last year!?!

so all in all, i am glad to be home. but i am sad that my trip had to end, and i will be going to europe again as soon as i can! sign up now to travel with me- or if you want to see me a bit sooner than that, make other plans with me.

the 5 people you meet on the way to norwich

in my travels here, i happened upon quite a few characters. the first is the nameless/faceless woman who sat next to me at the front on the overnight bus. all i remember of her is that everytime i realized my leg had slipped a tad too close to her and thought to move it, she was already pushing my knee. weird.

then i was sitting at the victoria coach station waiting to store my bag for 24 hours. so i had to wait till almost 10, since i wouldn't be back till then. and the girl next to me started conversation- she was pretty funny, since she was australian, from sydney, and quite pretentious. she actually apologized for all other australians. and claimed everyone from melbourne was pretentious. but she got really excited when i told her that i loved belfast. and now she is applying to queens.

the next one was a 14 year old girl who was also heading to norwich. she originally was checking out my chucks, and telling her dad she wanted a pair. then we started sort of talking, she wanted to know why my bag said 'blair!' on it, so i explained that it was actually my name, rather than a reference to her prime minister. she asked to sit next to me on the bus, and it was definitely interesting. she was strangely mature, and then strangely immature. she asked me to explain the OC, and also taught me british slang. well british teen slang. so that was fun and mostly interesting.

then i got to the bus station and found two important people! cat and kate! woo-hoo! we wandered norwich then, they showed me all the cuteness. then came the confusingness, when nobody was serving food. so i settled for spending the last of my cash on candy. but eventually we found a place, pizza express. then we found the bus, after trying for the wrong one. then we found the campus, after getting off on the wrong stop.

eventually everything worked out. i got to see and hug maggie, claudia, bobby and rebecca. and then hang out at the union pubs. yes, there are two. but in the same building, and they even have the same bar and the same bathrooms. but half is non-smoking and half isn't. but now we're back, and i shall sleep on the floor for a few hours, before cat walks me to meet my cab. then all that (hopefully)stands between the plane and myself is a busride, a tuberide and some securtiy.

'blowing' through scotland

so yesterday we left the safety of smallcity dundee and headed for the big edinburgh! well actually besides the danger of getting lost(which we did), the most dangerous thing was the high winds that were forecasted. As we were driving there it was easy to hear the wind, and when we arrived it either pushed us forward, or held us back. it was pretty crazy! you can see in the picture all these benches that were blown over. at first i thought they were placed that way though. but no- WIND!

also while in edinburgh i came to a conclusion about scotland. as a country it likes to do the same things as everyone else, BUT call it something else! so first of all, the men wear skirts. but they can't just call them what they are, skirts. its got to be KILTS. then they decorate these kilts, and also everything else (but i'll get to THAT in a second) with plaid. plaid is everywhere. but it isn't just plaid, it must be called TARTAN. and then when they want to get drunk they have whiskey. but no, it isn't just whiskey, its SCOTCH. do you see that? i guess they just think they're so special.

i guess they are though, cause everyone calls their stuff what they want us to!

oh and the tartan...EVERYWHERE. at the museum the docent/guard/supervisor guys weren't just wearing black pants (like at everyother museum in the world), they were wearing tartan pants. the next morning we went to a coffeehouse, called the tartan coffeehouse, and there they had tartan paintings on the walls. even the bus seats were covered in tartan!

we mostly were blown through the city, but we got to check out plenty of cute stores, as well as touristy ones. and we went by the castle, and princess street and the royal mile, all the way down to the scottish parliament building- where i got a darkish view of arthur's seat, its in the mountains. once i read more about the myth related to it (it should be in my scottish fairy tale book) then i can report back! then we found dinner and headed home!



the next day we actually went to the tartan coffeehouse. and it was great. between scottish tea and delicious soup i was more than happy. but then we shared a piece of millionaire's shortcake! AMAZING! i will learn to make it and then die a happy blair. ofcourse my love for it, led craig to finally tell me about the 24 hour bakery that sells it which is essentially across the street from him. but its in a little shopping area, which is why i hadn't seen it. so we stopped by it, and guess what- it is called Clark's Bakery. i wish it was, by that i mean i wish it was AT clark!

ok- well moving on we then headed to St Andrews. where the famous golf course is and i guess prince william went to school there, so its a bit posh. we checked out the cathedral ruins, which were really cool. i learned about the saltire, and we paid too much money to climb a tower. but i was cool- so i'll stop complaining! 159 steps to the top. but then we could see the whole city, and the ocean and even though it was cloudy the view was nice. by the time we got back down it had gotten cloudier and was starting to drizzle. we stopped and got ice cream at this award winning place, i attempted to get the most scottish ice cream i could- since it was my last day. we tried the IRN BRU sherbet, and then scottish tablet and then caramel shortbread. i got a 1/2 scoop of s.t. and c.s. cause the girl was sooooo nice!

then we drove past the old course, and through the town twice (again with the getting lost- though mostly just turned around!). then we headed to craig's favorite beach. it was nice, and i found quite a few rocks, and even a piece of seaglass. i wish i had a favorite beach of my own. but i guess st louis isn't really the right location for that sort of thing. then we went to craig's house and had tea with his mom. it was all quite cute. then a fancy thai dinner, and packing. and now i have to go catch my bus! another sleeper bus... i think next i will do a comparision of overnight buses to sleeper trains. except wait. there is nothing good about the overnight bus.

scotland- part dundee

so it was mostly cloudy the whole time i was in scotland- but that didn't stop me from having nice, relaxing fun and taking pictures. well actually a few things tried to conspire to stop that. my camera broke. my big beautiful manual canon ae-1.

ok, i am exaggerating a wee bit, just one pane of glass involved broke, the part of a lens that screws off and so the curved ones underneath are fine. and hopefully someone will tell me how to go about replacing it, or something like that. also my memory devices were massively full. but craig allowed me to burn a disc (and leave copies- just incase!) on his laptop. and that worked-all 846 of them are on the harddrive!



scotland started off with me putting my stuff down, checking my mail, taking a shower and just generally catching my breath! craig and i also checked out all of maria's photos. if you know who i am talking about, and you got an e-mail titled "from russia with love" make sure you check out the san francisco photos...

anyways. so after some wonderful scottish tea and biscuits we started off. walked to craig's school, and the union and then on the way to the city centre we stopped by dundee's center for contemporary arts. and saw elizabeth ogilvie's bodies of water. which i must tell you was crazy. this woman is obsessed with water. and not in the somewhat endearing way that i am. she basically filled 3 gallery rooms with this obsession. in the first there were three screens projecting what was filmed at the same time- 1) this fmaous japanese percussionist playing music 2) liz reacting to his music by splashing water in a shallow pool and 3) the pool of water, being splashed by liz and vibrated by the music. yup a whole room of that. then in the 2nd room there were two huge pools of water, on the left it was perfectly still and above it was a screen where liz had videoed 3 of the main processes of water. and then in the other pool there were lights shining on it and mirrors placed within it so they reflected the surface on the walls. and then these 'secret' pipes went through cycles of rain. then there was a third room where the viewer could interact with the water for themselves.
but i guess that is part of the reason i love modern art- the insanity within every artist.

after that craig and i walked into the city centre, saw some sculpture of a cartoon named dan and some cathedrals then we stopped in marks and spencer- i LOVE it! they have yummy carmelized nut/seed bars, and smoooothies and candy. oh and also everything else, but i only care about the foodstuffs mentioned above. then we walked a bit, attempted another museum, but guess what- it doesn't open until 2008. how far away is that!?

then craig remembered that there is actually a used bookstore (i had requested that we go to one!). and it was pretty cool, small and clean- but with a nice selection. and a whole section of scottish books, and i got a cool one about highland faerie tales! but then a strange man poked my side, on purpose, as he walked by. so we paid for our books and left!

and that was basically my first day in scotland!

bus woes

so ofcourse the train wasn't an option by the time i got there. no 14£ ticket for me. so i tried to find the coach/bus station. that took awhile and i walked around the victoria train station twice. though i didn't find any babies in handbags (sorry i've just been reading the importance of being earnest. but i finally found the national express office, and even though i had to pay 30£ to get to dundee, i only had to pay 9 to leave. so it evens out a bit. and my tickets to and from norwich were only 5£ each, so that really works well.

but my bus didn't leave till 1030pm, and it was about 1030am- so i was able to have another full day of london. i checked my bags at the left luggage counter, met a guy who told me some good places to check out and set out on my shopping day. i got to go to herrod's and camden town and covent garden and found some presents for some people, and some things for myself. i stopped and had tea at a place right next door to a place i ate at last time i was in london- how odd is that, i can remember random london neighborhoods! and eventually i even had success on my search for pad thai- when i wandered into the chinatown!

i got back to the bus station, and then took the bus- which was somewhat wretched- really, just hard to sleep comfortably. then i arrived here, and going down the stairs i took the worst spill in recent memories. it seemed like a random act of clumsiness, sliding down the stairs on my butt. but really my ass is still sore, and it has an awful bruise on it, and is somewhat of a lump. so that is just great. and so far things seem like they will be pretty relaxed here- which is good, just what i need. its especially cause craig is actually ill- he is even on penicillin!

well we're about to go on a walking tour of dundee (the city of discovery!), so i will try and write more soon/later.

tube strikes and clarkies

once i had the internet it was much easier to contact and e-mail with the clarkies already in london. so i made vague plans to meet up with brian. it was to be after dinner with abra, and i was supposed to text beforehand. but i forgot to borrow abra's cellphone and i just hopped on the tube. after wandering a bit in the right direction i found brian's place. but ofcourse i did not know the flat #. so i rang them all. and eventually brian came down.
we chatted and i met the other kids on his program and in his flat. hila came over and then other clarkies dropped by and were a little shocked to see me, so that was fun.
then i heard about the underground strike which had started at 630. being utterly tired and having no idea if i'd be able to get back to abra's i decided to sleep there. and try and catch the tube back in the morning, in time to meet abra outside during her firedrill. ofcourse sleep didn't happen for awhile- we walked hila home and talked to her and zoe for awhile. everyone seems to be having a great time and i am really excited for them all!
the next morning things went mostly well,the tube strike was only a few stations and it didn't effect my journey. it is definitely a bit weird and 95% amazing to be wandering around a new(ish) city all by yourself. today i hit the Victoria and Albert Museum, it was freeee! and had basically everything i studied in 20th century design, so also amazing. and now abra and i are about to head out to lunch, the tate modern(also freeee) and then dinner with the clarkies!
then i leave for scotland- hopefully tickets and stuff will work out.

eurocrap and the bbb

well it was basically our only option to get back to london. and it was pretty much a bust. actually i guess you could say it just didn't live up to our expectations. cost a lot more than we thought it would. we didn't get a lounge and the seats were decorated very poorly.
but i guess it got us to london. even though that just led us to the barmy badgers backpackers. the worst hostel in europe. not only were they expensive, but the woman behind the desk made stupid jokes and wouldn't take pounds from northern ireland, she said they were worth less(racist!). then our room was gross, the beds were amazingly uncomfortable and the shower was smelly and disgusting.

but then we got to move into abra's dorm/flat/place. and it was pretty swank, and there was free internet and a patisserie around the corner where we embarrased ourselves. we were greeted from behind the counter in english, and immediately cheered, "hooray! no french!" and then the other guy and him started speaking in french together. so we ordered everything in french(we're good at bakery french). and then things were ok, he even 'opened' the door for us-- it was a sliding door, so it was sort of awkward.
but yeah, london things are looking up!

lyon redeems entire country of france!

well, mostly. ofcourse there is always the possibility that if abra and i had been there for over the 15 hours that we were there then things could have gone badly. but somehow i doubt it.

after arriving around 1230am because of delays leaving nice, and just the general distance and slowness we were a bit worried. not only had we been forced to enter lyon from the wrong station, but we also had no idea how to get to the correct one, or even where our hostel was. not to mention the name.
but the information lady was nice(practically a first in france)and directed us to the metro. which was in the process of closing. the gates were open so we got in for free and the guards helped tell us how to get there. ofcourse we missed the first stop, so they told us to go back one. we got off that train, and we could see across the tracks the other metro, but we had no idea how to get there. then the conductor told us, and held the train for us. we had to run across a street! and the conductor of this train came up to show us the right way down. then we got to the other station we needed and more guards helped us/held the train. when we finally got out at the right exit, more people helped us and gave us directions to the hostel. which they had all heard about. as we left the station we realized that it had even been on the station map and there were signs up for it along the way.
but along the way was up a huge hill. so we asked strangers, and THEY knew about it too. along with this older vaguely sketchy guy, who was going there too. and kept offering to help me with my bag. but i declined(it was too heavy for me, so i didn't want to burden him). then we finally got there. its called viex lyon for a reason- its so high up, you can see a lot.
oh and guess what, random guy worked at the hostel! he was all, "surprise i'm not just staying here, i work here, hahaha". and then it a)took credit cards b)was the cheapest hostel yet and c) included free breakfast.
also there was no one in our room so we got to plan more things, abra showered and i unpacked and repacked. the next morning there was even a free candy dish at reception, which i tasted after breakfast ofcourse. but then abra and i took a walk even further up the hill before heading to the train station.
on the way there i made abra wait outside while i got surprise chocolates for the train. 2 lyon special candies(which were weird, but sort of good) 2 praline filled ones(our favorites!!!) and a special pastry/cream/praline thing that the woman recommended. oh yea, and she was really nice too!
as we took the metro there we also realized how cool and clean and nice their trains are. (oh there was another high alert for emphysema, but this one was also half abra's size, and likely had scoliosis and osteoporosis). and then the people at the train station were nice as well, and we got TGV reservations for only 6 euro total.
so all in all lyon is probably the #1 place to return to, cause 15 hours wasn't enough!

cliche cliche cliche

yes, nice was nice.
there were palm trees and pretty buildings. also the regular hallmarks of frenchtrains failing us miserably. but we got some good eats, and some cheap legwarmers.
now would also be a good time to mention the wave of emphysema that is sweeping europe. ofcourse smoking contributes to it, but also anyone with a raspy voice and a flemmy hacking cough is immediately diagnosed by abra as having emphysema and if they are especially sickly(or if we're around them too long) sometimes they even have lung cancer.
we walked around a bit, and finally found the russian cathedral. the onion domes didn't dominate the sky line, but they were pretty. we had a late lunch at a vegan restaurant, the food was good, and the woman who ran the place was originally from california(english speaker- woooo!) but when i mentioned kate, who is vegan, but is drifting away while studying in spain, the woman said that it was more important for her to remain loyal to the animals...
the train delays exposed me even more to the awful sound effects of french trains, and also to a crazy man who kept yelling nonsense, and accosting people in the train station.
so it was about time to leave nice, yet we had to wait extra for our already later than we had hoped for train.
and france lost more points...

pros and cons of overnight trains

we took a sleeper train from venice to nice on the 5th of january...
pros-
>lots of sleep, essentially 10 hours!
>nice morning views
>bottom bunks
>traveling at night leaves the day time for actually being places(time is important!)
>conductor gave us free water!

cons-
>cost more money
>wasn't all that comfortable
>in the morning the light was blinding
>bunkmates not very friendly- also we dont even know how many we actually had throughout the night
>conductor was a bit weird

venice- italian dreams come true

we arrived in venice at night, and though it was a bit breezy i could still see the stars, so i hoped for clear skies. the free maps are quite vague(since the city is a mess of canals and alleys) but there are no cars, so we could meander through the streets. after arriving in our hostel (the strictest one yet- how can they expect abra and i to be quiet?) we ran into a guy we had met in florence. ofcourse by ran into i mean he was staying in the same room as us.
so after abra and i had dinners we went to a small irish pub around the corner. the bartender was from dublin, and i was able to deduce southern ireland nationality atleast thanks to accent lessons from dave! and we also met some crazy guys from liverpool and some canadians as well.
the next morning my prediction was right, and it was sunnysunnysunny. so ofcourse i climbed out onto our window ledge to get a picture, as well as weird looks from people below! but it was a good start to the day. since we had two days in venice and much less on the docket than any city up to this point we mainly wandered towards our goals. which led to many pictures, and lots of fun. we stopped in an amazing chocolate shop (ofcourse) and abra and i shared 3 expensive pieces. but the woman made them all herself and now it is my dream to be her apprentice someday. the cinnamon chocolate we had was phenomenal, but the one with absinthe liqueor (sp?) was pretty gross. then we went to the academy of arts, which was pretty boring. but still fun. we wandered more, and finally found lunch as well as peggy guggenheim's house.
which was a great museum, her collection was phenomenal, and we got a short tour on an italian collector's futurist collection. which just jogged my art history memory. also the tour guide gossiped with us later about peggy and max ernst and peggy's daughter. abra and i both plan on reading peggy's autobiography as soon as possible. we also started chatting with a kid who had taken the tour with us. his name was justiin and he was 18 and in venice with his guardians. he is from australia and goes to theater school in sydney, so he lives there with a couple as their ward, and they take him to europe and buy him theater tickets and audioguides. abra was very jealous and kept trying to get information on how to get a guardian of her own. i mostly liked talking to him about art and theater.
(also i must note that i picked up another rock in the sculpture garden, which gets my european rock collection up to 3, hmm not too impressive. atleast they all have cute names ;)
the next day we wandered as well (justin had recommended the dogue's palace as well as san marco). but we ended up finding the jewish quarter. abra and i got very excited and ended up poking around there most of the morning and having MATZO BALL SOUP for lunch. yumyumyum! then in the afternoon after more wandering we made it to st marks(san marco) and walked through there.
since it was my last day in italy i made it a point to have as much gelato as i could- 1 scoop at breakfast, 1 scoop after lunch, 1 scoop in the afternoon, 1 scoop after dinner. and since it was all at the same place i got to try a few other flavors and when i went there on the way to the train station i got 2 scoops- but they gave my a 3rd for free!
that night we went back to the pub, tried italian drinks(spritzes are gross, but crazy lemon foamy thing was good) and the bartender gave us guiness candles for free! then we grabbed our bags and headed to our overnight train!

screw you danny kahn, florence part two

we left rome in high spirits as we boarded a eurostar train- though headed to venice, we stopped in florence for the day! if my photos were working the way they should be you would see a shot of the glorious blue sky that greeted us.
but back to that speedy train, even with our eurail passes we are supposed to pay reservation fees on some trains, and actual supplements on others- namely the ones that actually work. but we just climbed aboard the train without any of those things, made our selves comfortable, and made friends with two londoners across the aisle. we told them some tricks we had learned during our journey. especially the one about sneaking on trains. when the conductor came around we played the dumb american card, and rather than pay 32 euros, we paid only 8. and got to florence quickly!
the sunny sky and warm weather was only the start of our semi-luck. we got amazing breakfast croissants, which we enjoyed while in line for the uffizzi. which was pretty boring, as danny informed us in an e-mail we got the next day! also the title of this blog is because every step of the way danny has given us information that would have been crucial a day earlier than he tells us!
but we saw the birth of venus, a painting with someone named abra in it, and a few other minorly relevant pieces. ones that my teacher may mention during stone age to our age next semester atleast! i also got to take many sunny pictures of florence. and i must say that i am very very jealous of margaret, getting to study abroad there! you will especially have to find this gelato place, it was called something that made me note "festival of gelato" but i cant quite recall the name. but find it! i had the best greenapple gelato EVER, it was amazing. i am still having dreams about it.
basically it was another rush thru of the city, but plus sunshine and more yummy treats!
ofcourse the train station is still the worst place in italy. our train was delayed, but we eventually got out of there!

when in rome...

be ridiculous? abra and i leave roma tomorrow, and even though we definitely did not get to see everything that the city had to offer we had an awesome time. but it all boiled down to ridiculous(though very few things in my life dont!).
i don't even know where to begin, all i knows is today we bought an all day metra pass and put it to use by the end when we rode random buses all over the city, searching for the pantheon and ending up in the 'burbs. oh well.
we just ended our night by having a hilarious tag-team of waiters fall over themselves to serve us, joke with us, cut millefori for us and snort a bit as well.
tomorrow is going to be jammed packed with sneaking on a eurostar train, running to the uffizi, hoping the florence train station works, and then arriving in venice! i'll post when i next get the chance.
oh and if everyone who has never commented could do that...i'm very curious as to who is actually reading. thanks/merci/danka/grazie!