We arrived in London on my 29th Birthday (10/10) and by the time we got to our hostel it was late. By the time we all freshened up, it was later so in the end we ate a late dinner at this restaurant Punjabi @ Covent Garden. The food was excellent though and the bottle of white wine cheaper than an appetizer . How adult of us no? No crazy birthday antics though and no conversations with taxi drivers about Jupiter and all that. Pretty low key and I think everyone was tired anyway.

The next morning Cece & Carly were flying back home. After spending a week with those girls (and I mean almost every waking minute with eachother!) it was sad to see them go. Carly teared up and I did too..sigh. If all goes well I’ll be back in the US again next year “The seas parted ways and left em’ to be!” (Seas = C&C and EM’ = M&M) ha ha I know I’m so special. So yeah it was just Marie and I for the rest of the day. We were waiting for Aash to call me back so he could give us directions on how to get to his apt for us to store our shit for the rest of the day. In the meantime though we made friends with the tube guy at the Royal Oak station. I dunno what we talked about but he liked us enough to offer his office for us to leave our luggage in while we got breakfast and all. In return though we got him some breakfast and he gave us a surprise big bear hug as we made our way to Aldgate East/White Chappel to meet up with Aash.

Aash lives off Selby Street @ White Chappel. His living room view is a cemetary where people died of Bubonic Plague (refer to past reference of Bubonic Plague). White Chappel is also where the Jack the Ripper murders took place. Lots of awesome history if you ask me! We didn’t have time to have a personal tour of the area but he did take us to the only ‘farm’ in London town aka Spitalfields City Farm. Well, we actually just walked by it cause we were answering the call of hunger… LUNCHERS @ Casa Blue on Brick Lane. Casa Blue is a nice cozy… cafe (?) There aren’t really any proper tables to eat on. Lots of beat up couches and places to lounge. It’s a place to snack and drink basically. Food was good though! I think we ordered their special platter and this special cocktail mixed with energy drinks and other stuff…it was called thai something or other (not the actual name but it had the word ‘thai’ in it). It was really good and before you know it, a bunch of people I’ve met in various stages of my life grouped together drinking from a fishbowl, in harmony. Aww….  Eventually we moved from Casa Blue to the Vibe Bar (hazy recollection of events!) and then finally to this bar/club that was in a warehouse – right behind the RootMaster ‘bustaurant’. Finally about 10 p.m. or so I had to make my way to the airport to catch my flight back ‘home’ – beligerent, sad and a tad confused. It’s a good thing the airport officials a) allowed me to sneak in an extra 5KG for my check-in luggage b) allowed my overweight carry on luggage on board. All good in the hood. Stansted airport officials aren’t assholes after all…well when it’s close to midnight that is! (A reverse Mogwai!?)

So that concludes uSUK Tour 2009… “tour” because it was like going on tour. I was constantly with people and I imagine being in a band ur always around people and at times they get on ur nerves and also it’s hard to get some “alone” time etc..etc.. It was also very tiring but all worth it. It certainly did not SUK (as in uSUK – blah baadd wordplay sorry). Now that I’ve been “home” for nearly 2 weeks, I’m enjoying some time alone doing absolutely nothing. At the same time, I’m doing a lot of thinking which I did little of when travelling. Soooo.. you know how that goes.

Now for some pictures to accompany this post:

Cheers! And it’s back to ‘mai’ random ramblings whenever I feel like it!

….. continued from sCAUGHTland pt.1

Early the next morning we drove out from Edinburgh and made our way to and through the Scottish highlands via Inverness with a final stop at Lochness. Driving there was fun! Lots of nice scenery to take in, fun music and of course good company! Once we got to the actual ‘highlands’ there were stops where we could pull the car over to take photos and stuff. It was insanely cold though!

(L-R) Maya, Carly, Marie, Cece

Some castle we spotted while driving up in the highlands

View of the road whilst driving in the highlands

We saw lots of sheep, horses, cows and HIGHLAND COWS!~ They are sooo cute! Marie thinks they look like a young Kurt Cobain.

** images of Highland Cows taken from here

We had the opportunity a few times to pull over on the side of the road and take photos with the farm life but were kinda racing against time and could only probably afford one actual stop

The drive to finally reach the Inverness information centre (which is 30 minutes away from the Lochness tour place) took about 3 ½ hours from Edinburgh.. While at the Inverness Information Centre (the one in the south cause apparently there are more than one Information Centres in Inverness) we got our selves together..stretched a bit, went to use the loo and guess what we saw?!

I guess no one will understand this as it was an ongoing joke throughout the whole trip. Something to do with some guy who coughed on the tube in London and some lady going totally ape shit on him accusing him of spreading the Bubonic plague!

Anyway, when we finally arrived to the Loch Ness Tourist Trap Centre and waited a bit before jumping on board a bus that would drive 5 minutes down the road to the dock where we road the NESSIE HUNTER with our skipper Howie. It was an uneventful ride on the water. No signs of Nessie, cept some ripples the waters created which could have passed off as something. The water was really dark, black even. I learned a thing or two as to why the water is so dark. For one, the water is full of tiny floating pieces of brown coal. Also the hills (and trees?) surrounding Lochness may have something to do with its colour. Whatever the reason, I would hate to ‘accidentally’ fall in and not be able to see underwater. I have a super phobia with dark waters… I even get into a bit of a panic attack when I go snorkeling in clear blue water and I can suddenly see a big drop down there and no sight of an ocean bed (I also felt kind of claustraphobic during Finding Nemo when Dory hit her head somewhere and sunk down into abyss like waters…..ack) Right, anyway – during out boat tour we all got to stir the boat once. Marie made a full donut even!

We headed down south again about 5 ish or so. It was starting to get dark and our hellish drive to Glasgow begins! No street lights about 90% of the time. Lots of one lane roads with oncoming traffic in the opposite lane and no divider in between. Also, once it got completely dark, we couldn’t even seen the beautiful highlands and it was kinda like driving into an abyss (in relation to my phobia for things dark and not being able to really see anything) – also lots of signs for sheep & cow crossings) Not to mention I was completely knackered by the end of the day so Carly volunteered to drive for a bit. Bless her little heart hehe

Driving back took longer than getting there. We had to make a couple stops plus a dinner & gas stop in some town (crap the name of the town escapes me but we stole a Christmas menu from there so I’ll have to correct myself later). When we’re not totally pressed for time it’s kinda awesome “getting lost” and discovering new things – like this town. Not a non-white person in town! They musta thought I was an alien! But if there’s one thing I’ve noticed is that I’m pretty sure most pubs/restaurants in most cities and towns in Scotland have a pact with www.naughtyvend.com – “Naughty toys for girls and boys” !

Restaurant/Pub we ate at in the town of which the name escapes me!

We finally arrived in Glasgow at around 10 something and compared to where we’ve been sleeping since our trip, our Bed & Breakfast was like a 5 star hotel! McLays we LOVE you! J And since it was going to be my birthday, the gals gave me the double bed!  Albeit kinda late, I still wanted to check out what Glasgow nightlife had to offer. We were a stone’s throw away from Sauchiehall Street - one of the main shopping/business streets in Glasgow. By the time everyone “settled down” it was close to midnight. Cece and I walked about but all the pubs were closed and we felt we were dressy enough to attempt entering any clubs. There was this one indie club we wanted to check out (it was all lime green and dimly lit) but they were closing too! Lots of ladies were walking about barefoot holding their 6 inch stilettos. People were in alleys puking. Lots of people hanging outside of kebab and pizza places eating their post-clubbing food…. It was a sight to take all in although weren’t fortunate enough to actually participate in any of the debauchery. Glasgow def. has more “charm” than Edinburgh. I guess any place that’s kinda dodgy has ‘charm’. Take for example Baltimore – aka CHARM CITY! Dodgy as hell but charming all the same!

Crappy mobile phone shot outside of some club in Glasgow

The next morning after a good night getting McLay’d we all woke up in time to have breakfast. It was good but I was hoping to try some HAGGIS. No dice! Maybe I had to ask, or maybe they ran out since we were kinda late …..  We had a couple hours to kill before dropping the rental car off so we took a map of one those drop on/off bus tours and followed the route – just to get some sights and scenery. I’d love to go back to Glasgow – well Scotland in general! Two days there is like watching a trailer for say Lord of the Rings or something (the trailer looks good but the movie is EPIC!) …

Back to London town, my first official day as a 29 year old (gasp)… And for record purposes, it was Carly and I that got stopped by airport security this time. They randomly asked us to fit our bags into the bag sizer thingie and well, it couldn’t fit so we had to pay 30 friggin pounds! Happy Birthday to me! We celebrated on the plane later with rum straight up and a pear cider…. Hello again London…

Last uSUK Tour 2009 post is next….

4:20 in the morning as I write this and I’m obviously going through some kind of lag that has to do with jet setting. It kind of sucks cause I usually wake up for work in about 3 hours or so, so yeah it fucking blows.
On the  up hand I’m all caught up with Dexter. That last episode was a jaw dropper. Trinity Killer obviously had something to do with Lundy’s shooting cause he “stole” his wallet and watch while Deb. still had her bag on her. John Lithgow is the Trinity Killer and I can’t seem to disassociate his character from 3rd Rock from the Sun. To me he’ll always be the Dick Soloman, the High Commander for that group of aliens… kinda how Joseph Gordon Levitt is Dick’s son but in actuality is older than him but for the sake of blending in as earthlings is stuck in a teenagers body.. oh blehhhh why does this even matter. What I really should be concentrating on is sleep and getting my sleep pattern right if I want some sanity in my life right now.

We left London on Thursday. This was also the first and only day we saw the Sun thus far into our trip and we didn’t even enjoy it as we spent half the day either traveling on buses or planes and were too busy to bask under the glory of our shy yellow friend! Anyway, our flight was in the early afternoon sometime. Airport security @ Stansted Airport is a bitch. I’ve been given grief at this airport more than any other airport I’ve been to. It wasn’t too bad for me outbound but Cece and Marie got held up and most of their make-up and toiletries (amongst other things) confiscated. When we arrived at Glasgow Prestwick airport (about 30 mins away from Glasgow city) everything changed and people were noticeably friendlier and the vibe a whole lot positive.

We picked our rental car from the Arnold Clark car rental company – a black Nissan Tiida – and made our way to Edinburgh. We got stuck in a bit of a jam once we hit Glasgow city, I think it was rush hour, but made a few ‘friends’ on the highway while rockin out to some tunes on my USB Mp3 car modulator. About an hour and half later we found ourselves in Edinburgh – somewhere, everywhere, but where we wanted to be – our hostel. Getting lost in the city does have its upside – we get to see parts of the city we wouldn’t normally see. The city has lots of churches and castles. Awesome architecture and ‘cleaner’ than Glasgow (which we’ll delve into later). Finally an hour later than expected we find our hostel (Belford Backpackers) and are greeted by Francisco, our ’sassy’ reception dude from Chile! Boy was he sassy with us! But hey I guess he was helpful. The “rooms” at our hostel was…interesting. Basically everyone shares a ceiling (and a view of the church’s stained glass ‘decor’) and you’re essentially sleeping in cubicles. You can hear everyone come and go, snore, chatter etc… For people like me who can sleep through an earthquake it shouldn’t be a problem plus do you really want to sleep while in Edinburgh?

The higher the bunk the closer to god

Perhaps it was cause it was a Thursday night but the so-called ‘happening’ spots we were recommended to go to by ‘Sassy’ weren’t as happening as we hoped. We ended on Haymarket and had dinner at this place whose name escapes me. After hanging out with the gals and having a few drinks we went to the pub next door and had a few drinks there too. We ended up staying there the rest of the night. There was a live band, a ‘naughty vending machine’ and Cece & I doing the “crossing guard dance” . We met some interesting people here and there, one of whom told me I should get ‘off the internet’ and do some recreational things like scuba diving. How we got talking about my ridiculous amount of time spent on the internet boggles me but I think it had to do with him hearing one of us say “OH EM GEE” (OMG). Forward to the cab ride back the hostel and the classic conversation had between me and the taxi driver about Jupiter, petri dishes, joobs, the joobicial system and being a Jupiterian. I think it all started with how he thought I was from Hawaii….

Belford Backpackers Hostel in the morning

PART 2 of SCOTLAND COMING UP….

Farewell to America (I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again soon – as in next year!) and hello again to the UK!

Met with C&C and M at Heathrow Terminal 4 on a fine rainy London afternoon (Airport no 6 or 7 on my trip). After several coffees later we decided to make our way to the hostel where we’d spend 3 wet days together.

Our hostel (Torquay) wasn’t too far from the Royal Oak tube station on the Hammersmith and City line. Our room faced the highway and a popular (and famous!) skate park  – Meanwhile 2 -  in central London. It was a quad room with a bathroom ensuite – cozy at first but not so cozy after several showers later and the room became a swamp. (semi) beggars can’t be choosers cause we paid only GBP11 / night which is pretty much a steal in central London. Personally, I like the noise of the highway (and the view of the skatepark), it’s quite soothing at night but I guess it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

We wanted to take it low key the first evening there so we went to eat some Fish & Chips (the quintessentially British food – next to curry?!) The lady at the hostel (also named Maya) told us to go to Mr. Fish on Porchester Road so we did. It was good but it still wasn’t what I hoped it to be (served in newspaper and the works – but apparently it’s become a health hazard now to serve them that way!). We walked around a bit in that area but I think we went in the wrong direction because it was all residential-ish / business like buildings. Finally after not finding much to do (and the priority task to STAY AWAKE to cure our jet lag) we headed out to Camden town and hit a few pubs there (The Oxford Arms, Spread Eagle, Dublin Castle) and hopped on the tube back “home” before closing time – but not before a couple photo ops of course!
Of the 3 times I’ve been to London never did I go on one of those “bus tours” but the 2nd day we did just that and you know what, being a tourist is kinda awesome! I guess I got caught up trying to “blend in” so much in the past but whatever, fuck it. You cover A LOT of London on those tours and it gives you an audio guide as well. It’s London on speed…basically. We already started the day kinda late (4 girls, one bathroom, low water pressure etc..etc..) so we just stayed on the bus till it came full circle and hopped off somewhere in Bayswater where we ate pub grub and drank some ciders (and some of us swooned over the fellas sitting next to us..hoho).

We had big plans to go on the Bath – Windsor – Stonehenge tour the next morning. We booked the tickets through the Big Bus Tour lady (the same tour company we did the sight seeing tour the day before with). She was very helpful but unfortunately the actual service was crap and the tour wasn’t booked so we ended up looking like fools at 8 a.m. when they kicked us off the bus. M in all her pissed off glory went to complain at the main office (she was about to stab a bitch – no joke). I stayed with CC to look up other options online. M ran into two American dudes (Jay & Scott from Philly) who were also looking to go for the same tour (Stonehenge) so we got booked on one that was leaving at 1 p.m. – enough time for us to hang out at Victoria Station, have lunch, sleep etc…etc… Just when we thought shit couldn’t get any worse, it starts POURING all the way to Stonehenge! It was freezing cold, windy and to make matters worse the stupid tour bus driver told us to take everything with us off the bus! Basically anything we bought earlier got drenched. We didn’t even get to listen to the walking audio cause we were too busy a) holding on to our shit b) holding an umbrella c)both. It made for a funny experience though and I’m surprised (and happy) no one got seriously ill cause we were all going to SCOTLAND the next day.

TO BE CONTINUED……