![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
Traveling yet again!
Well this is it. It was the last day of our journey, and we had to go back home. We'd been mostly dreading this day since we arrived, since we loved it there so much, staying would have been absolutely no problem to either of us. Sure we missed our family, and friends, and things like Kool Aid. But really, it's been awesome, and we'd been having such a good time it was something we didn't really feel like leaving. Alana and Neil had been super awesome to hang out with, and I know that personally I can't thank them enough for not only their hospitality, but also helping us to get there in the first place and showing us a super wonderful time.
We woke up relatively early, as our flight was leaving at 8:55am. Neil was planning to take us, as his friend was driving us to the airport. Alana was going to stay home. We grabbed our stuff and waited til Neil's friend arrived. We said our goodbyes to Alana and headed back to Edinburgh for one last time. Neil waited with us at the airport for a bit, and we played around in the arcade for a few minutes. They had a Japanese UFO Catcher machine so we had to play with it. Course we didn't win anything but we tried! They also had one of those things where you drop in a coin and hopefully knock other coins into the slot. It was a 10p machine and we were trying to sort of get rid of our British money since obviously we weren't going to need it after today. Sadly enough... I ended up winning a good pound's worth of 10p coins. There went that idea. lol
We decided to start lining up to go through security, so Neil said his goodbyes and we got into line. We had no trouble getting through security, it was pretty fast except for Erin... She got stopped and had to have her bag searched. We're not sure what they were looking for, but she got through anyway and soon enough we were wandering about in the Edinburgh airport for the last time. We got a few things, a doll for our Grandma and a Highland Cow plush for myself, then headed to our gate. While waiting, we decided to take pictures in our fabulous Scottish outfits, as we both had on our leggings, the new scarves we had bought the day before, I had on a shirt I got here, and also Erin had her fedora on. Fabulous!
Hawt.
Finally we were able to board. I'm not sure I should have said "finally" as neither of us were entirely looking forward to leaving. We'd really grown attached to Scotland, and it just meant our stay there was over. However, we had to so we boarded and sat down. While waiting, I was pretty sleepy, and not at all excited to leave. I had a random thought, what would happen if you hit the landing gear retract button while the plane was parked? Would it just go... *PLUNK*? Would the pilot come over the intercom and be like *Shhhk* "Sorry folks, uhhhh, My bad!" *shhhhhk* I imagine they have safety set up so you can't do that but I wonder if it's ever happened lol.
I decided to film our take off, since it was the last time we'd see Scotland for a while.
Our next destination was London, but since we had to get up at about 6 in the morning, we desperately needed some tea. Thankfully we were still in the UK, so there was tea readily available!
I loved that they had milk in little tiny packages like they do sugar. When we tore into them though, they came out in a really thin stream that for some reason, likely sleep deprivation, amused us enough to film. I love the digital age, I can film things that are likely not film worthy, and I can either delete them or upload them to youtube! Guess which I chose! Muahaha!
Whee useful home movies!
Surprisingly, the skys above England were clear. And I mean clear. No clouds in the sky at all really, so we could get some pretty neat shots of some cities on the way there. I'm not sure what it was, but it was coastal and it was pretty cool looking from above!
Incidentally, the skies were also clear over London, so we got to see the city. I'd been there before obviously, but Erin hadn't seen how huge it was and this was a good chance to check it out.
When we arrived at London, we were hoping not to have any trouble. Last time was a bit messy, but this time thankfully we wouldn't be leaving security for any reason so we shouldn't have any trouble. When we got there, they didn't have our flight gate marked yet, we had to wait until about 11:50 is what the board said. So we had to kill some time. We discovered they had a Harrods!
I'd been to the big store in London but Erin hadn't. The first time I was in London, we went to the big Harrods. The iconic one. I had wanted to get something from there but everything was so pricey all I could do was steal a sugar packet from their cafeteria that said Harrods on it. And I did. Not ghetto at all! So this time I was determined to find something I could actually buy. This, however, was not it.
Sorry about the sideways video... I fail at camera.
We did end up finding jars of candy that we could afford, and the jars said Harrod's on it so we were happy!
We needed to find some London touristy things, as we were in London. It only made sense. We grabbed a couple keychains in a store called GLORIOUS BRITAIN. They had the usual as far as touristy stuff goes. Rubber ducks dressed as beefeaters, stickers, shirts etc. They also had a Marmite + Paddington Bear combo. For some reason.
Just in case you have that friend of yours who is not only a fan of Paddington Bear, but also loves Marmite more than he should, and you just could never find the perfect gift for them?
Outside the shop, they had a Beefeater statue we decided to molest.
We also found ourselves amused by another sign.
It's funny to us of course, because we call the actual toilets toilets, and the bathroom is a bathroom. So in my head I'm picturing someone sitting inside the toilet smoking. lol
When we finally found out our gate, we headed there and discovered something magical. They had like.. Chaiz lounge seats to veg in before the flight!
We had to get out of them though because we were starting to doze off. lol I think more airports should have those!
We got to board the plane and take off, and it was fairly uneventful. The flight movie was the new Wolverine movie, and I had seen it but Erin hadn't. We watched it and it was just as mediochre the second time as it was the first! I think Erin liked it but I'm not sure how much. It was OK. After that, we decided to try watching some Doctor Who. I'd been trying to get to the last 3 episodes of season 3, because Erin totally needed to see the episodes with The Master in it. I just love The Master. The last 3 episodes are the finale basically, and sadly enough the battery in my laptop started dying after the 2nd episode so we had to leave it at a heck of a cliffhanger.
When we were done there we were definitely over the ocean. And the strange thing was, the clouds were still pretty sparse. I think we were at about 37,000 feet, but we could actually see the Atlantic!
Neat! Can't see a lot, but it's definitely water! lol
We really didn't do a whole lot, just read some books mostly. Erin had found another book by an author she really enjoys, and I'd bought a Doctor Who novel in the London airport, so we just kicked back mostly. Later on we started to see land under us. Again with the sparse clouds! We asked, and the Flight Attendant told us we were over Nova Scotia. Now, that friend of mine I took pictures of her name in Edinburgh Castle named Shaylah lives there, so we decided to take pictures of us waving to her. Of course she wouldn't see it, but she'll see the picture and know we waved!
Hi Shaylah!!
Finally, we arrived in Philidelphia. It was a bit of an ordeal there as we had to go through customs and fill out forms and go back through security again. We weren't sure if we were going to make it to the next connecting flight, because by the time we got back through immigration and customs we had about 10 minutes to buy water, go to the bathroom, and head to the gate. On the way there, we mistakenly remarked that so far the trip had gone pretty well. Just as a reminder, NEVER say things like that. Things always go wrong to spite you. It's a law or something.
When we got there, I plugged in my laptop hoping to have enough charge to watch the final episode of Doctor Who, and we heard the news. Delay. Apparently in Minneapolis, they'd had horrible storms earlier that day. A tornado had gone through downtown and damaged a few buildings. Needless to say, the airport was behind and completely backed up. We were supposed to take off at about 6:05, and didn't end up taking off until about 7:40. I had to call my boss and tell her I was arriving much later than expected, and she was trying to get me to come in the next day anyway. Thankfully though, she got someone to cover me and when I find out tomorrow who it was I'll have to make sure to thank them and my boss profusely. Either way, we took off around 7:40.
While we were sitting on the plane before take off, they were pumping humidity into the plane. It was pretty hot outside, so it ended up actually showing up as visible. It looked sorta like they were gassing us, so we took some video. It amused us for a little while as we were sitting there bored!
The flight wasn't too much to talk about from Philly. It was pretty uneventful, and we made it to Minneapolis about 9:30pm CST. It was 3:30 am in Scotland when we got there. I was pretty tired. Mom & Grandma were meeting me at the baggage claim, and Erin was being met by her Fiance Dave. When we got to them of course there were greetings and exchanging of presents before we headed out to the cars. I was set up in a hotel Mom & my boss set up. I get a discount at Choice Hotels because I work at one, and my boss was awesome enough to set my mom up with my discount. Erin was heading back up to Duluth that night with Dave so we parted ways after a victory pose. Our trip was coming to an end and we'd made it safely back home so far! Victory!
Hooray!!We woke up relatively early, as our flight was leaving at 8:55am. Neil was planning to take us, as his friend was driving us to the airport. Alana was going to stay home. We grabbed our stuff and waited til Neil's friend arrived. We said our goodbyes to Alana and headed back to Edinburgh for one last time. Neil waited with us at the airport for a bit, and we played around in the arcade for a few minutes. They had a Japanese UFO Catcher machine so we had to play with it. Course we didn't win anything but we tried! They also had one of those things where you drop in a coin and hopefully knock other coins into the slot. It was a 10p machine and we were trying to sort of get rid of our British money since obviously we weren't going to need it after today. Sadly enough... I ended up winning a good pound's worth of 10p coins. There went that idea. lol
We decided to start lining up to go through security, so Neil said his goodbyes and we got into line. We had no trouble getting through security, it was pretty fast except for Erin... She got stopped and had to have her bag searched. We're not sure what they were looking for, but she got through anyway and soon enough we were wandering about in the Edinburgh airport for the last time. We got a few things, a doll for our Grandma and a Highland Cow plush for myself, then headed to our gate. While waiting, we decided to take pictures in our fabulous Scottish outfits, as we both had on our leggings, the new scarves we had bought the day before, I had on a shirt I got here, and also Erin had her fedora on. Fabulous!
Hawt.
Finally we were able to board. I'm not sure I should have said "finally" as neither of us were entirely looking forward to leaving. We'd really grown attached to Scotland, and it just meant our stay there was over. However, we had to so we boarded and sat down. While waiting, I was pretty sleepy, and not at all excited to leave. I had a random thought, what would happen if you hit the landing gear retract button while the plane was parked? Would it just go... *PLUNK*? Would the pilot come over the intercom and be like *Shhhk* "Sorry folks, uhhhh, My bad!" *shhhhhk* I imagine they have safety set up so you can't do that but I wonder if it's ever happened lol.
I decided to film our take off, since it was the last time we'd see Scotland for a while.
Our next destination was London, but since we had to get up at about 6 in the morning, we desperately needed some tea. Thankfully we were still in the UK, so there was tea readily available!
I loved that they had milk in little tiny packages like they do sugar. When we tore into them though, they came out in a really thin stream that for some reason, likely sleep deprivation, amused us enough to film. I love the digital age, I can film things that are likely not film worthy, and I can either delete them or upload them to youtube! Guess which I chose! Muahaha!
Whee useful home movies!
Surprisingly, the skys above England were clear. And I mean clear. No clouds in the sky at all really, so we could get some pretty neat shots of some cities on the way there. I'm not sure what it was, but it was coastal and it was pretty cool looking from above!
Incidentally, the skies were also clear over London, so we got to see the city. I'd been there before obviously, but Erin hadn't seen how huge it was and this was a good chance to check it out.
When we arrived at London, we were hoping not to have any trouble. Last time was a bit messy, but this time thankfully we wouldn't be leaving security for any reason so we shouldn't have any trouble. When we got there, they didn't have our flight gate marked yet, we had to wait until about 11:50 is what the board said. So we had to kill some time. We discovered they had a Harrods!
I'd been to the big store in London but Erin hadn't. The first time I was in London, we went to the big Harrods. The iconic one. I had wanted to get something from there but everything was so pricey all I could do was steal a sugar packet from their cafeteria that said Harrods on it. And I did. Not ghetto at all! So this time I was determined to find something I could actually buy. This, however, was not it.
Sorry about the sideways video... I fail at camera.
We did end up finding jars of candy that we could afford, and the jars said Harrod's on it so we were happy!
We needed to find some London touristy things, as we were in London. It only made sense. We grabbed a couple keychains in a store called GLORIOUS BRITAIN. They had the usual as far as touristy stuff goes. Rubber ducks dressed as beefeaters, stickers, shirts etc. They also had a Marmite + Paddington Bear combo. For some reason.
Just in case you have that friend of yours who is not only a fan of Paddington Bear, but also loves Marmite more than he should, and you just could never find the perfect gift for them?
Outside the shop, they had a Beefeater statue we decided to molest.
We also found ourselves amused by another sign.
It's funny to us of course, because we call the actual toilets toilets, and the bathroom is a bathroom. So in my head I'm picturing someone sitting inside the toilet smoking. lol
When we finally found out our gate, we headed there and discovered something magical. They had like.. Chaiz lounge seats to veg in before the flight!
We had to get out of them though because we were starting to doze off. lol I think more airports should have those!
We got to board the plane and take off, and it was fairly uneventful. The flight movie was the new Wolverine movie, and I had seen it but Erin hadn't. We watched it and it was just as mediochre the second time as it was the first! I think Erin liked it but I'm not sure how much. It was OK. After that, we decided to try watching some Doctor Who. I'd been trying to get to the last 3 episodes of season 3, because Erin totally needed to see the episodes with The Master in it. I just love The Master. The last 3 episodes are the finale basically, and sadly enough the battery in my laptop started dying after the 2nd episode so we had to leave it at a heck of a cliffhanger.
When we were done there we were definitely over the ocean. And the strange thing was, the clouds were still pretty sparse. I think we were at about 37,000 feet, but we could actually see the Atlantic!
Neat! Can't see a lot, but it's definitely water! lol
We really didn't do a whole lot, just read some books mostly. Erin had found another book by an author she really enjoys, and I'd bought a Doctor Who novel in the London airport, so we just kicked back mostly. Later on we started to see land under us. Again with the sparse clouds! We asked, and the Flight Attendant told us we were over Nova Scotia. Now, that friend of mine I took pictures of her name in Edinburgh Castle named Shaylah lives there, so we decided to take pictures of us waving to her. Of course she wouldn't see it, but she'll see the picture and know we waved!
Hi Shaylah!!
Finally, we arrived in Philidelphia. It was a bit of an ordeal there as we had to go through customs and fill out forms and go back through security again. We weren't sure if we were going to make it to the next connecting flight, because by the time we got back through immigration and customs we had about 10 minutes to buy water, go to the bathroom, and head to the gate. On the way there, we mistakenly remarked that so far the trip had gone pretty well. Just as a reminder, NEVER say things like that. Things always go wrong to spite you. It's a law or something.
When we got there, I plugged in my laptop hoping to have enough charge to watch the final episode of Doctor Who, and we heard the news. Delay. Apparently in Minneapolis, they'd had horrible storms earlier that day. A tornado had gone through downtown and damaged a few buildings. Needless to say, the airport was behind and completely backed up. We were supposed to take off at about 6:05, and didn't end up taking off until about 7:40. I had to call my boss and tell her I was arriving much later than expected, and she was trying to get me to come in the next day anyway. Thankfully though, she got someone to cover me and when I find out tomorrow who it was I'll have to make sure to thank them and my boss profusely. Either way, we took off around 7:40.
While we were sitting on the plane before take off, they were pumping humidity into the plane. It was pretty hot outside, so it ended up actually showing up as visible. It looked sorta like they were gassing us, so we took some video. It amused us for a little while as we were sitting there bored!
The flight wasn't too much to talk about from Philly. It was pretty uneventful, and we made it to Minneapolis about 9:30pm CST. It was 3:30 am in Scotland when we got there. I was pretty tired. Mom & Grandma were meeting me at the baggage claim, and Erin was being met by her Fiance Dave. When we got to them of course there were greetings and exchanging of presents before we headed out to the cars. I was set up in a hotel Mom & my boss set up. I get a discount at Choice Hotels because I work at one, and my boss was awesome enough to set my mom up with my discount. Erin was heading back up to Duluth that night with Dave so we parted ways after a victory pose. Our trip was coming to an end and we'd made it safely back home so far! Victory!
The trip came to an end partially, as we still had to get home, but we caught the shuttle to the hotel and got set up with no trouble. Erin however got stranded in Forest Lake with car trouble, so she and Dave got set up into a hotel for the night. The next day they had to get someone with a flatbed truck to trailer them and the car to Duluth, and they did make it safely.
We had a wonderful trip. It was way more than I would have ever expected. I didn't realize when we started this journal that people besides family would be reading it, but I've gotten several messages from people I've never met telling me how much of an enjoyable read this is. It's incredibly flattering, I had this set up simply to keep up with family as I was gone, and to keep my pictures and days straight as far as what we'd done for the trip. So I'd like to thank everyone that's been reading and those that have been sending messages. I'm glad to have entertained more people than I was expecting, it was an exciting trip and I'd definitely reccommend Scotland to anyone that wants to have an awesome time. Alana and Neil did more than they needed to to make us comfortable and entertained, and they were awesome in just about every way possible. Thank you guys so much! I will have to send them a care package or something!
While we were out there, we had sort of a quotes list set up for things that were said that amused us enough that we felt we should write them down. Since I'm back home now, I think I'll add them in at the end here.
Quotes from the trip:
"If you can't embrace the cock, just leave it out!!" - Alana, discussing the fact that Cockburn street is in fact pronounced "Co-burn", thus leaving the "cock" out of it.
"I can't believe I just paid money for a black man." - Me, after purchasing my first Jolly Golly.
"When I think about you I know I expose MY udder." Me, after looking at the cow bookmark on day 2.
"You poke it, and I stroke it!" - Erin, after we took pictures of us molesting the flying buttresses in Roslin Chapel.
"Did you see the dodgy bloke in the kilt?" - Neil, after seeing a guy in a kilt who was wearing sandles and a fannypack with it, instead of the traditional accessories.
"IT WAS PANTS!!" - Neil, discussing something that apparently sucked. I was not aware Pants was an adjective!
"Ohh if only we still had the banana hammock..." Alana, talking obviously about a banana hammock.
"Moist Groin Mucus". - All of us, after figuring out that visually it's the worst phrase ever.
"Are you enjoying the butt-snack, Elvis?" - Alana, talking to her poop-eating Guinea pig.
One last thing I think I'll toss in before I close off for the journey, things that we learned while we were in the UK. We learned a lot, mostly by observation.
Things we learned in the UK:
1. Yorkshire puddings, Indian food & Ginger Beer are a couple things I'll have to hope I can find in the states before I cry. Nomnomnom.
2. The Scots are Metal. As in, metal music. Anyone that would blow up an entire castle just so someone else couldn't have it, is metal. The majority of their history has been bloody, and that just plain makes them the cover of a Slayer album.
3. Leggings are the must-have accessory for the season.
4. Because of their love for stairs, the Scots must have the most epic calves ever.
5. Because of the lack of hygene, operations and dentistry before the end of the Victorian period, and lack of sewage disposal, Living in Edinburgh before the 20th century sucked. x.x
6. If you're going to have a car, better make sure it's a blue hatchback, or your friends will never speak to you again. (Seriously, do they ONLY come in blue??)
7. Scaffolding is the best decoration ever. I think if you are going to have a business in scotland, a scaffolding company is the way to go. Seriously that stuff was everywhere! Keep up the good work keeping those pretty old buildings looking pretty, guys!!
8. If you're going to have a tiny yard, make sure you landscape the crap out of it! Ficus trees and shrubs and flowers everywhere! Don't forget the water feature!!
9. Pants is an adjective.
10. Sporran is still Gaelic for Crotch-Purse.
11. In India, you can't make a movie without a choreographed dance scene. Ever.
12. In the UK, you can put ANYTHING in a can. And I mean anything. And any beverages are carbonated almost by default!
13. You can deep fry ANYTHING.
14. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!!!
So that's it really. The end. Our trip is finished. I'm sitting at home typing this on my own bed, with my kitty laying on my leg. I'm back in the states, and I go back to work tomorrow. It's the end of our vacation! I'm bittersweet about it though, I loved it over there, and I loved being on vacation. Who doesn't, right? That little down moment you get when you get off a great trip and you realize you have to go back to reality? Yeah that set in. I'm just sorta meh. But i'm really glad that I went, and I'd love to go again. Anyone looking to see a beautiful country with a rich history should definitely look at Scotland. I highly recommend it. I really can't say enough about the place. The food was of course probably bad for me, but it was pretty tasty. The scenery was to die for, the people were pleasant, and well... they have highland cows and Nessie. What more can you ask for?
Well that's it. I've run out of things to say. I'm sort of sad to end the journal, for now anyway. If I go on another trip soon, I might document it here as I'll likely have some more overhead bidniz to take care of. But as for now, the trip's over, and it was a wonderful time. But as they say, all good things must come to an end, and sadly that is now the case. Back to the real world and routine. Thank you to everyone reading, and especially to Neil and Alana for being awesome and making this happen. Erin and I had a wonderful time and it's something that we'll definitely remember for the rest of our lives.
And now, I believe I've officially taken care of my overhead bidniz.
contemplative
scared
full
cold
bouncy
