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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Turn her down the Rocky Road

Location: Killiney, Republic of Ireland

Ireland is literally my favorite place on earth. The cafe I'm in right now doesn't allow USB access so I can't upload my pictures, but when I do, you'll see what I mean.

Dublin is such a great city. There was so much character and so much to see. I went to a couple different churches, my favorite being St. Patrick's Cathedral. Even though it was under construction, it was absolutely breathtaking. It had this great little park behind the church with some great fountains and a wall devoted to famous Irish literaries. I sat there for quite a while and managed to get some great pictures of the fountain with the sunrise in the background as well as the cathedral which was very medieval. After this, I walked to the Guinness brewery which I didn't have time to go into, but I did down a Guinness real quick and move on. I went to another great church in the middle of nowhere called St. Augustine & St. John's. It was a Catholic church and it was HUGE. Right in the middle of this little residential neighborhood.

After that, I went by the Jamison Whiskey distillery (thanks fo rthat newspaper article about that dad) and then to what I thought was the Dublin Castle. I'm not exactly sure what it was but, it wasn't the Dublin Castle. It was still beautiful though and had a nice park as well that a bunch of people were sitting in reading the newspaper and what not.

After this, I went down to Mary Street where the main shopping area is. It's kind of like a 6th street of shopping. They have the street blocked off for most of the day so people can walk accross it while they're shopping. There are vendors in the streets with their little booths selling fruits and sweaters and blankets and homemade toys. Anything you can think of. All I bought was a sandwich (a sweet corn, chicken and cheddar cheese toastie :) cute name... I thought it sounded interesting so I tried it, it was wonderful!!) Right in the middle of the center is this HUGE spear thing. It looks like a 50 story flag pole. I can't even begin to guess how tall it is, but it is literally the tallest thing in the entire city. I believe it's called the Spire. The base of it is about as big as a car and it just gets smaller and smaller until it goes to a point at the top. Not really sure what the purpose is, but it sure does look cool!! :)

After this, as advice from the the hostel owner. I got on a train to go to Bray. It's this small coastal town south of dublin and I really wanted to get out of the city and see some country side. He had told me it was about a 30 minute train ride, and I had mapped out my timing based on this so when I had been on the train for 40 minutes, I started to get worried. Suddenly, we rounded a corner and there was the beautiful beach. I didn't know where I was, but I just got off. Turns out I was in this tiny little town called Killiney. I went through the town a little and then went down to the beach. The weather was fantastic (it was 10 degrees C which I'm not sure exactly what that translates to, but I do know that it was -3 in Liverpool yesterday, so this feels like summertime). The beach was all polished pebbles and the sun was setting over the mountains. I sat there for a good 30 minutes watching the locals walking down the beach and playing with a couple of dogs that were running with their owners.

After this, I went back to Dublin, visited Trinity college and then picked up my bag at the hostel and headed to the airport. My plane was delayed slightly, but I got in just in time to run into Kimmie and Mike heading to my hostel to meet me. I dropped off my bag and then we went and had a beer and watched the first half of the Liverpool vs. Chelsea football game which was really fun. It felt so good to have some meaningful conversation. Afterwards we went to this cute little Chinese restaurant that Mike really loved from when he was a kid and it was so much different from what I was used to. We had fried duck which was AMAZING. They were so great to take me out and I was so glad to see them.

After that we just walked home (since all the bars were closed at 11... so interesting... and people were okay with it?). The hostel I stayed at last night was wonderful. The rooms were much smaller, I just shared with three other girls and we had our own bathroom. The girls were all asleep by the time I got home and had left when I woke up so I never got to chat with them. But I'm not sure either, that they spoke any English. They were all from China (atleast that's what the cute guy at the front desk told me :)

Alright, it's off for another day in Liverpool. The family comes in tonight!! I'm so excited and I'm sure I'll have much to update about tonight.

XOXO

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Now playing: Michael Bublé - How Sweet It Is
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Sweet Emerald Isle that I love so well

Location: Dublin, Republic of Ireland

The flight to Dublin was lovely. I flew on this airline called RyanAir (the ticket cost me $35 round trip from Liverpool to Dublin). If you had taken a plane out of the 1970's and replaced the one I rode on today (crew and all), I may have not noticed. The plane was neon yellow inside with bright blue plastic seats. There were no tray tables, no reclining seats, no seat back pockets... they were just chairs bolted into a plane. The flight attendants had on these lime green jumper things. There were also advertisements all over everything. Vodka ads on the overhead bins, hertz ads on the backs of every seat. It was a really interesting experience.

The flight itself was great. Ireland is literally, the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The countryside is this color of green that I would have claimed was fake if I had not seen it myself. The hills rolled forever, it seemed and every once and a while, we'd fly over a farm with a HUGE cottage house and dairy cows or sheep dotting the pasture. Amazing. Once I got into town, it was almost dark. The traffic was out of control (trying to navigate downtown Dublin in 5 o'clock traffic was not fun). I'm going to just call it a night for now. Take a much needed shower (I've never wanted one so bad) and get up early to go look at the stuff around here. We're literally within 100 yards of the Dublin Castle, some huge church and the Guinness museum and brew house. Yum :)

XOXO

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