Last European Blog!

Hello one and all that still check this! This shall be my last official European Blog. It has been grand, I loved absolutely every minute of it, yes, even the ones that I've had this stupid cold! I think I will still have many stories to tell that weren't on the blog, but I admit I'll probably repeat some of them. Plenty of great memories to bring back with me. Still, this trip did do one interesting thing, it confirmed just how much I love living in Canada!! Europe is old and beautiful and and everything I could have hoped it to be, and I'll defnitely be travelling more in the future. Good to know that home is good old BC though. Can't wait to be back!!

Thanks so much to everyone who read this and posted some comments, it made it so much easier for me not to get homesick having never been so far away, or away for so long before. See you all very soon I hope, tomorrow I fly home!

Love and miss you all!!!
Hugs, Melissa

Interesting Info

Well, I thought I'd write out some of the quirky things I've learned on my travels before I forget them. The amount of Aussie slang is in itself formiddable.

Aussie = Canadian

a singlet = a tank top
Howya gawin'? = How ya doin'?
Do ya reckon? = Ya think?
a beanie = a toque
thongs = sandals
I'm over it = whatever
sunnies = sunglasses
muffin tops = beer bellies
mate = friend/pal
skull it!!! = chug it!!!
winger (prounounced like "ginger") = bitcher/complainer


and the list goes on...more than I can remember

A phrase that I will never be able to forget because I've heard it hundreds of times on the tube (underground train): "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform."

Different ways of saying "cheers" like "Salut" in Italian, "Prost!!" in German (which the boys on the bus would call out endlessly when they were out drinking, and would usually follow the "cheers" with a hearty gulp of something)

Did I ever mention that our tour manager, Jenni, named our bus? Apparently she names all the coaches she gives tours on, and this one she christened Charlotte. We all got pretty defensive of our Charlotte.

Top 10 list of some of the most crazy things that happened on tour:
1) Geoff partying in tights and a tutu (later streaking, which most people missed)
2) Tom stripping down to his undies on the top of Jungfrau Mountain (Switzerland) and rolling around in the snow, he even made a snow angel.
3) First night out in Amsterdam one of the Aussie girls got arressted for wandering around the streets drunk and stoned at like 3:30 in the morning.
4) Some of our group getting into jealous "lovers spats" (almost everyone on tour "hooked up" with someone at some point) and causing some damage to the cabins we were staying in (over 500 Euros charged to them for repairs)
5) Several incidents of peeing on mattresses, once due to the pure drunkenness of someone who had passed out on their own bed, and at least twice the guys got drunk enough to think it'd be funny to pee on their mates that were already asleep. All incidents costing upwards of 100 Euros to replace the mattresses.
6) Several incidents of members of our group getting up on tables and dancing.
7) One guy threw up on the bus, he had tried to make it to the bathroom on the bus, but didn't quite make it. He ended up making a mess of one of the stairwells on the bus (bottom of which was the bathroom), walls, steps, etc.
8) Everyone cheering when our two South African guys made it through the first boarder check and almost getting them arressted for it.
9) The self-cleaning gas station toilette somewhere in Germany. It was the most sanitary bathroom anyone had been in. All motion sensored so you wouldn't have to touch anything, and when you were done the toilette flushed itself and then the seat rotated of its own accord underneath a sanitary spray and wipe. Insanity I tell you!!
10) The Aussies themselves...what an insane lot of people.

Okay, I think that's enough for now. I don't really have a lot going on now, so that's the best I can do. Hope you all found it entertaining!!

Love and hugs, Mel
PS-anyone want to share what they've been up to? what's going on at home? I'd love to not be completely in the dark when I get back, be a little more up with the current affairs ya know!

Laundry Day

Yup, today is definitely laundry day. I figure if I wash everything today, it will last me until I get home again and can do laundry for free there :) Le sigh...nothing much going on over here except for laundry today. I met up with my friend Belinda again, she's still here. She spent two weeks in Berlin so we had some good stuff to share about that place. Tonight we're going to buy some stuff to make minestrone soup!! Yay!! She's kinda looking after me and my sickness a bit. We shall cook together and have healing soup tonight! That shall be very good I think. The good news is that I don't seem to have an infection of any kind, no bright yellow stuff coming out of my nose or lungs, so that's a plus as well. I'm sure most of you didnt' neet to hear that last part, but I know that my parents and Dez are worried about just how sick I am - the answer, not so sick I can't get up and meander about my day. So yeah, I thought I'd include a few more details about the last few days of my contiki tour again.

France was beautiful. Did you know that the city of Paris is completely planned and designed to be beautiful?? After it was flattened between the two world wars, a designer was hired to design the city from scratch to be beautiful and pleasing to the eye. That's why everything is so lovely there. It didn't happen by accident like Prague (still the most beautiful city I've been to). Anyways, not the most important detail, but an interesting one nonetheless. Our last night in France we all went out to a Parisian dinner and a Cabaret. That's right, a Cabaret. I have never been to one of those but it was fantastic. What I failed to mention before was the significance of the weather that night. I don't think I mentioned the weather on my trip really at all. I must say, our weather was very nearly perfect the entire time. We had beautiful cloudless days, days with puffy white clouds and nice breezes, days that were grey but you were thankful for a break from the heat, perfect perfect weather...that is until the last night in Paris. We had to walk from the place we dined at to the Cabaret, and as soon as we stepped outside it began to drizzle a little bit. The girls all started to worry about their hair and makeup and such (we got a little dolled up for our last night in Paris), and apparently that slow drizzle is the kind of rain Aussies are used to. I said to Ray (a fellow Canadian from Vancouver) that the drizzle was nothing, it wasn't truly raining out until you spent 2 min outside and got completely soaked. Well, I really shouldn't have said anything apparently. It started to pour rain!! I mean pour!!! We were all soaked to the skin by the time we made it to the Cabaret!! The girls were all screaming and demanding the boys start removing coats and shirts to protect their precious hair!! It was hilarious!! I couldn't stop laughing as we ran down the street, with no possible way to stay out of the rain with the girls are screaming and trying to run fast in heels on cobblestone streets. Mean of me I know, but I really couldnt' stop laughing. It's a good thing I'm not a girly girl and could care less if I got rained on and it "ruined my hair" Couldn't complain really. In 18 days it was the first ugly weather we'd had, we all went through it together, and really, they all needed to just let it go and laugh at themselves. I sure did!! Come to think of it, some of them probably didn't like me too much will all my laughing at them. There were a few other times when I laughed at their expense. Like when one of my fellow Canadians asked where I got moose meat from as she had never seen it in the supermarket, to which I quite bluntly replied that my dad "shot it and we ate it". Stupid questions get stupid answers and a good laugh. Or like when one of the "group of 8" as we called them (a group of friends that were on tour together who were pretty anti-social to the 42 other people on the bus), asked a very stupid question. We were down in a valley, looking up at the Swiss alps on a beautiful cloudless morning. Looking up at the snowcaps, you could see gusts of snow being blown from the sides of the mountain. It was gorgeous. Until one of the group of eight asks, "is it snowing up there!?" to which I turned and asked "Do you see any clouds?" I burst out laughing...wow we had some great blond moments on tour. Anyways, I think that's about all for now. I have to get doing the laundry anyways. More to come later as I have not much to do with my time except play on the internet. Love and miss you all, will be home quite soon.

Hugs, Mel
PS-anyone wishing to meet and greet at my house when I get back are more than welcome to. We should get back from the airport around 9 or 9:30pm on June 28 (that's a thursday), so if you want to come say hi and have some appetizers, feel free. But please do call my mom to let her know if you're coming, cuz she's making the appies and would appreciate a head count before she starts getting ready. For those who have forgotten my home number as I haven't been there to call for 2 months it's 564-7330. Hope some of you can make it!!

Lazy day

Okay, I'm back in London, and as cash is short, I won't be up to much for the next week. I thought I'd fill you in on current events and also recap some of the stuff I didn't have time to talk about before. So with almost no money, today will be spent on the internet, doing laundry and buying groceries. Hopefully that takes up most of the day, and whatever is left will be spend reading some books I suppose. Here at my hostel I am on the fourth floor, which here really means the fifth!!! It's like they don't count the first one or something. LOTS of stairs!! Just when I thought I had escaped so many stairs on my travels. Being on the top floor means that the hallways are weird, really weird. They wind, there are little sections that involve going up and down more stiars, there are random windows like skylights everywhere, and the bathrooms are in the most abstract places ever and the doors aren't labelled as such. Crazy Londoners and their "make absolutely no sense" designs. I think I got close to 10 hours of sleep last night, which is good considering I was averaging about five or less a night with Contiki. Lots more sleep for me tonight too.

I don't think I told you all enough about Florence, it was one of my favourite places and we were only there for a day. Even though I didn't get to go into the Duomo, I got to see it and take pics and climb the bell tower (the line was too long to climb the dome). The view from the top was more than worth the more than 400 steps I had to climb. Anyone else watch the movie Silence of the Lambs?? You know the drawing in his cell that Clarice comments on, wondering how he drew it all from memory and he replies that memory is all he has. The drawing is of the Duomo as seen from some Palaza or other, and I got a very similar view. It was so cool!! Anyways, before we got free time to do stuff like climb the bell tower and shop, we went on a small guided tour of the city. Our Florentine guide was very funny. He kept making jokes about the dangerous nature of Florentine women. They want money and gifts and are never satisfied and the like. There's this whole elabortate 1km long hallway going over one part of the city that was made entirely on the whim of one of the Medici family women who was above travelling such a distance in view of the common folk. Craziness! Apparently, when Florence was in a bad time, people starving and the like, the Florentine women used to lure men back to their homes and then proceeded to murder and eat them!! Our tour guide was seriously worried about the women there. He said that now, if men pick up Florentine women, they first take them out to a big dinner to make sure they are full, and even then remain wary. Lol, it was so great. With the tour we got to see an exact replica of the Statue of David (the real one had been moved and kept in a safer, more preserving place) in the place where it originally stood. Ever wondered why David's hands and head were so out of proportion with the rest of his body? It is because Michelangelo wanted to represent the strengh of the Florentines, which came from their abilities with thier hands and their abilities to use to their heads. David was made to look mature and capable to reflect the highest values of the people. Traditionaly, David was a child. So cool!! I never knew all that. I also got pics of the statues of Da Vinci, Rafael and Galileo (they are like portraits, so neat). There was much rivalry between Da Vinci and Rafael, Da Vinci lived to be 89 at a time when most people didn't live past their forties, and Rafael died in his 30's. The funny explanation for this is that Da Vinci didn't have any girlfriends and Rafael had too many! Our tour guide was really digging on the women in his tour, but it was funny.

Okay, more to come soon, but I'd better get out and buy some food and get change to do laundry. Miss you all, see you very soon!

Hugs, Mel
PS-the craziness of contiki has finally cought up to me. I'm a little sick. I have a cough as a result of my chest being so congested...pretty icky actually. Here's hoping I can rest up and be better before I come home.

Back in London!

Hey everyone!! I'm back in the land of cheap, 24 hour access to internet, a language I can speak, and luandry facilities at the ready! I love London!! Lol. Mostly I'm just pretty freaking exhausted from the Contiki tour. Lets just say that as much as I wish I were on my way home now instead of spending another week here, I just may need the week to recoup and be ready for home and work again. It's literally been quite a whirl of a trip, they don't joke in the title (I was on the European Whirl Tour by Contiki). Also for the record, carting over 70 pounds worth of baggage across London = not fun. Ah well, only have to make a journey like that one more time. It also looks like I got back here just in time, almost out of money. I should have just enough to be able to afford food this week, and that's about it. Can't complain though, I have a suitcase full of good stuff and hundreds (that's right, hundreds) of pictures.

We drove from Switzerland to France a couple of days ago, went strait to the camp after 12 hours on the road. Spent the entire next day in Paris, went to the top of the Eiffel tower, the Louvre was closed so no go, saw the Arc de Triumph, the Champs d'Elises, the Notre Dame Cathedral (although only in passing on the bus, not inside and no chance for a pic, so got a postcard instead), and much much more. It was all very lovely. I even caved and bought some French perfume (which incidently is the reason I'm short on cash for this last week). Today was another ridiculously long day on the bus to get back to London, but it's all good. I'm freaking exhausted, but happy. Got to see almost everything I wanted on this tour, excepting the Spanish Steps in Rome, the leaning Tower of Pisa, inside the Louvre and inside Notre Dame. Just not enough time on this whirl. However...last night in Paris went out for dinner and a Cabaret show!! At dinner I had duck with orange sauce (so good) and the Cabaret was amazing!! Such cool dancing and music and comedic entertainment and acrobatics!! I'll have to describe it better when I get home. It was all great though.

I really have to get to bed now. It's past eleven here in London and I've been up since 6am...sleep shall be wonderful!!

Miss you all, sorry for the lack of posts recently, but European computers are so touchy (not to mention expensive). Hope you're all doing great!!

Hugs, Mel
PS-for anyone who will be as excited about this as I was...I GOT TO SEE THE VIMY RIDGE MEMORIAL TODAY!!!

Sorry Everyone. Europe hates Blogger

Hey there!! The computers over here have not really been liking me much. I've been able to check my email, but blogger was being fidgety. So sorry for the lack of posts. I shall try to sum up the last few days as best I can. Venice was beautiful, I'm sure I mentioned. That night at midnight (which turned it to the 13) a bunch of guys from my bus bought me some shots...six (that's right brandon, six) and I did them all in about a minute and a half. My friend Steph has photographic proof. I was a little tipsy for the first time in my life, but it was lots of fun, lots of dancing, and I was not sick or hungover, so no real harm done. Then we went on to Rome, which was amazing!! I only wish I had more time there. I got to go into the Colleseum!! The only thing I didn't get to see was the Spanish Steps, but after the long RIDICULOUSLY HOT day, I couldn't get the energy to go that far. It was good all around. Florence was also beautiful, great food. I climbed to the top of the bell tower at the Duomo (not to the top of the dome cuz the lines were too long), the view was absolutely spectacular. Got lots of pics. But after over 400 steps, I was freaking exhausted!! Great time though, great food. Bought myself a ring that is also a puzzle, very cool, as well as some itallian sued gloves for driving my car in winter (they're green!!!) Now I am in Switzerland and this has been my first real chance to post in a long while. They're not kidding when they call this tour a whirl!!! I spent today on top of the Swiss Alps!! Now I know I'm from Canada and I've seen the rockies, but being up in them among the snow and the peaks is just mindblowingly cool and so beautiful! I walked out on the mountainside and it was like being in a dream. It was warm out, proabbly above zero, soft snow underfoot, and so much cloud aroudn that u couldn't see 20 feet in any direction, but not wet. Standing still it was almost completely silent up there. Truly it was like being in a dream. Fantastic experience!! And I got to walk through tunnels through the mountain and through an ice palace!! How neat is that!? Okay, I really have to cut this off because it's costing me a fortune, but I love and miss u all and will be filling u in on more details when I get back to cheap internet in london. Hugs all around, Cheers from Switzerland (only France left to go!!)
Love u all lots, Mel
PS-HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!! LOVE YOU-bub

Past Austria, now in Venice

Hello one and all!! That's right, I'm now in Venice. Austria was amazing. We arrived there a few days ago, and basically dropped off our stuff at the contiki camp and went off up into the mountains on a bike ride!! It was so beautiful!! It was like I was home again!! There were mountains!! Of course, their mountains are older and less peaky, and there are fields all over them for the cows, but still gorgeous. There was one part of the ride where we went through an evergreen forest and it was like I was back in BC!! So very happy, been missing Canada outdoors. We got to the top of one of the hills and had a barbecue lunch, some ice cream, then biked back down the hill. I rode into the tiny village we were by and took some pics, then went over to the trout fishing spot hoping to fish and have a good time. Never got to fishing though. Our bus driver and two of the guys from my bus were sitting there having some drinks, so I stopped to chat before fishing (if I had gone fishing, with a piece of wood and some line, and had caught anything, they would have cooked it right there for me, so very cool) and ended up chinwagging, sharing stories and stuff. It was so cool. And the one guy from my bus, Geoff, started buying us shots of shnapps. Now, shnapps in Austria is not like schnapps at home...it's basically moonshine distilled from random fruits and stuff. So we had some from apples, pears, apricots and...get this...pine cones!!! I must say, the pine cone was the best. Strange I know, but it was. After FOUR shots (this for a girl who doesn't drink at home) me and the two boys from the bus had to get back on our bikes (the ones we rode up the mountain we got to keep for the day to get around the town and to the trout farm or pool if we wanted, tres cool) and ride across the village to the contiki camp. I did really well, think my balance was better on the bike than when I was standing after the shots. Anyways, that night we had a beach party theme at the bar downstairs, everyone danced and had a good time. My buddy Geoff who was buying the shots got into a pink tutu and tights for the dance....icky....but funny as hell. I actually got to see stars last night too!! In the cities we're in you don't really get the chance to see a lot of stars or anything, so I got my stargazing fix last night. Yesterday morning we went white water rafting, it was amazing!! The Aussies were complaining about the water being cold, but they're just pansies...the water wasn't actually much colder than green lake!! lol!! I loved every minute of it. Then we drove here to Venice and camped out for the night. Lots of people got drunk again, but me Steph and Lynn had a quiet night knowing that tonight there are four contiki buses staying at the camp...it's going to be a karioke night, and it will probably go pretty late. I can't drink like the Aussie's, they are all pretty crazy when it comes to the alcohol. But I do have a social drink with them and then just enjoy the evenings and the dancing and singing and stuff. Very fun...think tomorrow (my birthday) they are going to try and get me drunk. They have yet to succeed in that. For a person who doesn't usually drink, I apparently have a surprisingly high tolerance for alcohol. Anyways, I know this has been kind of a long ranting blog, so I'll cut it off. Tomorrow we leave for Rome, that will be beautiful too. Plus, it's my birthday!! Yay!! Love and miss you all!!!

xox Mel
PS-Mom, I finally found something souvenir-like for you!! Whoo hooo!!
PPS-Loved the post from Mindy!! Of course I will throw the ball for her when I get back!! Miss my dog a lot...there are so many dogs here in Venice, it's cute!!

Later in Prague

Hey there! I'm posting again because I'm having a night in and enjoying the time to myself. It's pretty crazy hectic on this tour, and I took a chance at some alone time tonight. By the time everyone was getting ready to head back into the city, it was past nine and I didn't want to start the night then, knowing we'd have to share a cab to come back, and no one would want to come back until the wee hours of the morning. Wasn't up to it tonight, would rather have some sleep, read some Charles Dickens, have the bathroom to myself without having to accomodate other girls that need hair dryers and straiteners and stuff...Plus, I get the chance to say one more quick hello. I'm so excited for Munich tomorrow, then it's off to Austria (tyrolean alps), and there we're going white water rafting and mountain biking, so exciting!! I'm keeping some of my change from Prague just cuz it's pretty cool, I also swindled an Australian coin from one of my roommates and will definitely have some Euros and pence to bring back. I love the money, it's different. Anyways, this is really kind of a pointless post unless you all want to hear the random smaller details of the trip, but those I think will save for stories when I get home. Cannot wait to do the rafting and biking!!! I know I already said that, but we spend a lot of time on buses, sitting, eating, some walking (today was over three hours strait...probably more like five or six), but not a lot of stuff outside of cities and crowds, so a couple of outdoors-y activities are very welcome!! Plus, it's five days till my birthday!! 21 in Rome! Whoo hooo!! There's another girl having a birthday, she turns 26 on June 16, so that's going to be fun too!! I think they're going to try and get me drunk on my b-day, but I don't think it's likely they'll succeed. I'll definitely have a shot on them (expensive buggers over here, like 10 Canadian dollars for a shot!!), but much more than that won't be happening. Okay, enough of this rather nothing post. Miss all you guys, can't wait to get home and share pics and presents (don't worry, I haven't gone overboard. I definitely have way more stuff for myself than for anyone else)

xox Mel
PS-HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!! LOVE YOU!!!

Prague (or Praha in Czec)

Hello everyone!! That's right, I'm in Prague. Except here all the signs and souvenirs and stuff say Praha in stead. This is by far the most beautiful city I've been in so far. I have so many pictures. We're not out doing as much stuff here, not going to specific places other than the castel because this whole place is so amazing and old. It was a Communist country up until I think the 90's...or something like that. They were totally within the Commy regime, and now they are free, and it's so cool!! The economy is booming and all that, but because they were so cut off before with the politics of the place, it is still all very old, very much stepping into the past. Again, I have so very many pics. The castle is amazing...it's in the old Gothic style of architecture. I don't know if many of you have seen real Gothic architecture before, but it's the really spiky kind, with gargoyles and peaks and stained glass everywhere!!! OMG!!! So happy!! The streets here are all windy and cobblestoned, there are big streets that have horse drawn carriages and cars on them, and then tiny little streets no wider than a bike path but that are lined with shops and stuff. I so love it here. I bought myself my one expensive take home item here. I knew I wanted to get a piece of jewelry from my travels and I thought I'd get it in Italy, but Prague is just so unique and different and not a place that everyone goes to. I got a ring with garnets set in silver, which was totally made in Prague using materials found in the surrounding area. So cool. I love it! Going to have to get it resized though, I wanted it for my thumb, but they didn't have different sizes in the tiny shop we were in. Ah well.

Last night I actually got to play cards with Steph, Lynn and Geoff. Steph and Geoff are both from Australia, Steph's been my buddy since day one and Geoff is the most polite guy on the whole tour, Lynn is one of my fellow Canadians, she's from Ottawa. So yaeh. Great bunch and we played a game that Geoff taught us and I showed Steph and him how to play 9, 5, 2, whoo hooo!! I got people to play with!! It was wonderful. I confused the hell out of the bartender at the small pub in the downstairs of our hostel last night. They don't really do mixed drinks here. There's beer and wine and strait booze...I don't really care for beer or wine or strait stuff, so I wanted to order juice and a shot of vodka and put them together (yes yes everyone, I have had drinks on this trip, no I haven't gotten drunk, but I've managed to find some nice things when we've been out so that I can be social with the rest). The bartender had no idea what I was on about. I finally had to basically point to stuff in the fridge and be like "a glass of that and a shot of that" and just mixed it myself at the table. Sigh...so complicated apparently. Everyone was giving me a hard time for being so picky lol. Tonight we're apparently all going out to this club near the river that's...get this...FIVE STORIES!!! That's right, five stories of a single club, with different kinds of music and ambiance on each floor. Should be interesting. I think people are going to be hurting on the bus to Munich tomorrow. Actually, people have been hurting most nights...they just don't seem to be able to take a night off of getting smashed. Crazy Aussie's! I can't do what they do, so I just tag along, have one drink (occasionally two) and have fun. They've spent so much money on alcohol I don't know how they do it!! Anyways, I'm going to leave off this post for now because it's a million degrees here in Prague.

Love and miss you all!!
Mom-hope inventory is going well!!
Dad-no floods, just say NO!!
Dez-hope that pie was good, but it doesn't compare to the desserts I've been having!! Chocolate covered things and crepes of all descriptions and pastries and gelato...you'll never catch up m'dear!
Eric-(he might not read this, but Margaret, I'm sure you'll let him know) I finally found the perfect little souvenir for you!! Nothing too crazy, but it was too cool to resist.
Okay...really, that's all!!

Berlin

First- Happy Birthday Dad!! Love you lots!! Enjoy your present and I hope you win on your scratches!!

Hello one and all!! Well, yesterday was an extremely long day on a bus...but we are now here in Berlin and spent this morning going on a walking tour. It was very interesting, very neat to get more into the immediate history of the area, it was more intimate than a history lesson, especiallz walking by the Berlin Wall and stuff. Ah me, history bliss. I was a little miffed at our tour manage`s condensed version of the world wars and Germany's history, but I guess u can't expect a lot in a short time, still, i cringed a bit at the things she was leaving out or slightly messing up.

Last night though, I slep in the most comfortable bed since I left home...oh my goodness...it was a beautiful thing. I cannot wait to go back to sleep tonight. Tonight wè're also doing a pub crawl, that is the whole group is going, and it's like all the historic, old pubs in Berlin still standing after the war. Should be quite cool. Oh, I almost forgot to mention...we already lost two girls on the trip. The bus doesn't wait, if u r late, that's too bad...little scary, but it induces most of us to be early instead of right on time. The two roudiest girls from Australia went out the second night in Amsterdam and one of them didn't come back. They were friends, so the one named Mel had to wait around at the hotel to see if Leah (I think that's her name) would come back. Apparently, we found out late yesterday after leaving amsterdam and calling back to check on the one, that the other had been picked up by the police the night before, wandering around drunk and stoned on the streets...so yeah, little scary but at least she's okay...they will have to find their own way to catch up to the tour. The bus driver was encouraging on one fact...aparently the best place to get arrested in Europe is Amsterdam, there the police will look after you, try and figure out where u r staying, and apparently maybe even give u a joint in your cell. Strange things here in Europe.

Tomorrow we go to Prague, and I'm very excited about that. Going to get a good night sleep here and be chipper for the tour. Oh, Jen, forgot to tell u. Despite it being a little off-putting, u have to go to the red light district. Just go towards evening, not full on night, because it's something very interesting to see. I guess it's one of those - u can't not go - sort of places. It's really not that bad, just check it out to say u have. If nothing else, the canals are beautiful.

Okay, sorry there aren't more interesting details in this one, but I'm a bit tired, and this German keyboard is driving me insane!! Stuff isn't where it is supposed to be!! Gah!! Will post again ASAP,

Love u all!!
Mel

Amsterdam!

Hey there everyone!! That's right, I'm in Amsterdam. Between last night and today, I have witnessed the two extremes of life in the Netherlands. Last night we arrived and almost the entire bus went back out into the city to witness the Red Light District. With the whole group it was kind of cool and exciting, and not so worrysome that you were out there by yourself. It was an experience to say the least. Never been that exposed to sex and all that stuff. Been to fantasia parties, they're nothing compared to here. There are literally windows upon windows of almost naked women in them, from the most horrifyinly ugly girls you've ever seen, to ones that look like they could be making a living in the super model agency. Very strange. You're not allowed to take pics of them, they'll smash your cameras. However, if you want to visit any of them, you just tap on the glass. They have the right to refuse any client, and barter on the price depending on what you want. Interesting, interesting. There were some rooms with multiple girls in them. The girls in my contiki group asked where the windows with the men were, but apparently the sex stuff here doesn't cater to women, just men. My comment, most men are slutty enough already, you'd just have to ask them, wouldn't have to pay. Got my laugh out of the group for the day. On the bus we all had to introduce ourself, where we were from, what we did, our favourite food, what we were looking foreward to and an embarrassing moment or a joke. I told them a joke, that my fav food is moose steak (trying to be as Canadian as possible), hobbies are camping and snowmobiling and theatre and movies and too many more to mention, and I told the joke about the refrigerator (dez, i hope you remember it). Got a laugh from that too, and now everyone remembers that I'm from Canada and that I'm a total carnivor!! It's great!!

Anyways, today we drove out into the country. We stopped at the Cheese and Clog place, tried some cheese, tried on some clogs. It was pretty cool. Saw how they made both cheese and clogs too!! Almost bought some, but not really worth the money and carting the s tuff around for the rest of the day. Then we went on to Edam village (where the cheese comes from) and rode granny-bicycles around (you know, the ones that are all curved handle bars, you sit up strait, ring bells and stuff). It was so cute. All the old houses were decorated with flags and windmills and stuff in red and green and yellow. Gorgeous!! Can I live in Edam?? It was so peaceful, so pretty with all the canals and little boats and stuff. Eveyrone was so friendly too. Dutch isn't that hard of a language is it??

Okay, must run, all the people I'm walking with today are already finished on the comps, so I must leave and keep up with the group. Miss everyone, keep up the comments, I love em!!

Giant hugs from Amsterdam (no, I didn't smoke any pot to all those burning to ask)
xox Melissa!!

Last night in London (until the 20th)

Hey there everyone! Just giving one last farewell before I leave on my tour.

Mom and Dad-don't worry, I'll be with a group for the next 20 days, so even if you don't hear from me every day I'll be in good hands. Love ya lots!!

Rob-I'm so happy Phrank is full, it's just not fair that I didn't get to partake of the ribs and rice! I say hi to all your kidlets and Trae too!! Can't wait to go camping with you all!!

Dez-Any particular things you'd like a pic of from my journey ahead? I'm going to Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, the Tyrolean Alps, Venice, Rome, Florence, Swiss Alps, and Paris. Let me know if there's anything you'd really like to see!!

Becca-I keep meaning to look up who played Elphaba in Wicked to let you know if it was the original woman, but I keep forgetting, and now it's packed in my stored luggage so I won't be able to tell you until I get back to London!

To one and all-this is my last day here in London and there isn't a cloud in the sky!! What's up with that? Every time you go on vacation you have some miserable days that are just wet and cold, and then when you're about to leave the weather is gorgeous! Ah well, I'm on to even hotter places next :) Keep an eye out for more posts, they'll just be more infrequent!

Love and miss you all!! I'll be home before you know it!!

Hugs, Mel

Yay for musicals!

First off, Jen, I don't think you can go wrong between Wicked and the Lion King, especially since you've seen Phantom already. Those three are my top picks by far! So whatever you choose, I garuntee it will be worth your money. You're best off to go to the half price ticket booths in Trafalgar or Leicester Square and book a couple of days in advance for the best seats you can get, and for the Globe, go a day or two early as well (to the Globe box office that's in the building), and get the standing seats (if that makes sense...I mean get tickets for the area around the stage that you stand and watch, they're the best and the cheapest tickets!!) and then just make sure you're at the Globe a half hour before the performance starts to get a good spot (preferably close enough to the stage that you can lean on it during the performance.) Oh yeah, and the easiest way to get to the Globe by underground (my fav tool for getting around the city) is to ride the tube on either the Circle or District lines (yellow or green in colour) to either the Mansion House or Cannon Street stations, then just walk across Southwark Bridge (from which you can see the Globe just off to the right hand side on the opposite bank) and take the stairs down at the other side and walk the 500 feet along the river Thames to the theatre. It's the quickest and easiest way to get there by tube. Hope that's helpful and will save you the time I took in discovering the way there. Okay, now on to a little bit of theatre...

Phantom, no need to really say it, was absolutely phenomenal!!! The sets OMG, the singing OMG, the music I had never heard before OMG (there's apparently more than what is usually on the soundtrack and the movie, so very happy!!). You just have to feel attatched to Phantom, it's so incredibly powerful and magical!! Ah me...for all you theatre geeks, lets just say that they went all out on the set. It had so many complicated aspects to it it would take me all day to relate them to you. Lets just say the scenes of them paddling over the underground lake were mindblowingly cool, and that the proscenium arch (that lovely outer part that boxes in the stage for all you non-theatre people) had been constructed specially for the show, separate from the usual build of the theatre. There were these huge golden statues of angels and demons and stuff, was amazing to look at, and for the musical number "That's all I ask of You", the Phantom was watching them from up on the central statue piece, and when Rhal and Christine left the stage, that statue piece detached from the procenium arch and descended so the audience could see the phantom there!!!! SO COOL!!! There was even a spiffy moment in the first number Christine does ("Think of Me") when they play with curtains and stuff and give the audience the impression of watching from backstage and viewing another audience and orchestra conductor on the other side!! Tee hee, it was so wonderful. And the music!!! Ah the music!! They singers were so good that you actually got carried into the emotions of the pieces, you felt the joys and the anguish and the passion and the struggle!! SO GOOD!!! I got the fancy programs and stuff for everyone to see later...I actually think that all my programs, pics and brochures from places I've gone to are the heaviest pieces of my luggage now, so it's a good thing I'm sending some stuff home today in an effort to balance out some of the weight...sheeesh...I got one of my roommates to take a pic of me in my blue dress holding the program for Phantom, so that's pretty cool too! Tomorrow I join up with the Contiki group and so will be more out of contact than I have been. Sorry, but the blogs will probably cease to occure on a daily basis...I shall do my best to find an internet cafe every couple of days, but I'm gonna be pretty much on the move from June 3 to June 20, so if you aren't hearing from me here or on the phone for those of you I call to check in with, it's because I just won't have the convenience of this computer lab (which is just downstairs in my hostel from my room). Anyways, today is laundry day. I'm writing this as I wait for the dryer to finish...it takes FOREVER!! Then I'm taking the laundry and getting everything re-packed in preparation for my Contiki tour, then I'm going to the post office to send all items no longer needed home, as well as some light knick-knacks that I've picked up. I think I've decided against going back to Scotland, sorry to say. The train costs and stuff are just ridiculous, would be more expensive than if I just came back here, and there's still plenty of museums and stuff for me to see, as well as a couple more tour days I wouldn't mind going on, and then I could see the other Shakespeare play the Merchant of Venice!! So yeah, that's as far as my plans go so far. I'm a bit sad that I'm not going back to Scotland, but at least I got to see it, and I shall definitely be coming back in the future, so no biggie. Okay, back to luandry and stuff, love and miss you all, shall do my best to keep you updated on my Euro travels!!

Hugs, Mel

Preparations

Tonight I get to see Phantom of the Opera and I am so ridiculously excited it's not funny!! I'm gonna start getting ready at like 5 or 5:30 so that I can leave here by 6 or 6:30 and the show starts at 7:30!! Whoo hoo!! Tomorrow is my last full day in London before my trip, I shall spend it doing laundry and packing and going to the post office to send home all the stuff I won't need for the rest of my trip and the lighter souvenirs that I've picked up. I may even catch a movie or something. Then on the 2nd I leave here and go to the hotel the rest of the Contiki group is meeting at, drop off my luggage and wander around until the group meeting at like 6 or 7 that night (have to be out of the hostel by 10am). I leave for the continent at 6:45am on the 3rd of June.

Last night was fun, went out with Belinda and Henrique (learned how to spell his name properly today) and had dinner at my fav restaurant that I've found so far. It was lovely, right across from the Globe Theatre, on the Thames. We just had great food and great conversation and didn't end up back at the hostel until about 12:15. Got some amazing pics of St. Paul's Cathedral all lit up at night. Very cool!

My day today will be quite low key until the play. Still trying not to overspend, so I'll just be going out and having a meal around 4ish or something, as well as getting my money and stuff together for the continent (going to be changing over my pounds to Euro's). Oh yeah, and I'll have to make some definite decisions on what I'm doing with my last week. I'm sorry to say Dave, that the place with the Oblivion roller coaster is not at Wimbledon, it's in the middle of the country and will cost me over 30£ to get in, plus whatever it would cost me to get there by bus...so no roller coaster for me :( I'm very sad about this. Okay, truly off to get things organized for the end of my vacation. Miss you all,

hugs, Mel

Theatre Bliss

As you can probably tell from the title, the Lion King was absolutely amazing!! And guess where my seat was??? FRONT ROW!! I didn't know that until I got to the theatre...it was so very cool!! I could almost touch the amazing costumes, especially when they leaned out over the audience. It was very much the coolest performance I've ever seen. They had lots of moments when the cast (who play the animals) were amongst the audience, parading past, flying birds over our heads, it was so very cool!! And the woman who played Rafiki (the baboon for all of you who have only seen the Disney and aren't big enough fans to know all their names) was phenomenal!!! OMG!! I loved it, loved every moment of it. The music was great, it has more songs than the disney movie, Timon and Pumba are fantastic, the song and scene for "can you feel the love tonight" is sort of abstract and cool in order to work around the fact that they are playing animals and their headdresses are too big to mimic our traditional stage impressions of love. It was just - wow - I may have to come back and stay in London for a few days after my tour to see the Lion King and Wicked one more time each, and just spend three days in Scotland instead of 6. Those two performances have been some of the highlights of my whole trip. And for the record, the Lyceum theatre where the Lion King was staged has to be one of the most beautiful interiors I have ever seen. It's really every cherished idea of an old school theatre or opera house. There's nothing plain about the interior - it's all murals and crown mouldings and pillars and rich curtains and reds and golds and balconys and the ceiling is so elaborate, it was just...sigh...you get the idea I hope. It was such a good show I didn't even notice the time passing. Usually in full theatres in which the seats are close together (which is every show I've been to so far) at some point you feel the pain in the ass of sitting still so long, or the people next to you distract you somehow, but I was completely oblivious to all that during the whole thing. I was grinning almost the entire time, except of course when Scar was being evil or the stampede scene. Oh!! The stampede!! Let me just tell you about that cuz it was one of the things I was curious as to how they would stage it. So they have the large pieces of scenery on runners and stuff, and they had the red cliff walls pulled out in successions so that closest to the audience was the largest, and it went back and had smaller and smaller parts until at the back, there was a projection scren between the cliffs faces that showed the wildabeasts grazing on the field at the top of the cliff. When Simba roared and they started the stampeded, the screen changed and you could see the tiny wildabeasts running down the cliff face like in the movie, then in each part starting from the back there were mechanized rows of wildabeast that looked like they were running towards you. Each row had several wildabeast and they worked on a circular system so it looked like they were bounding towards you. Each layer closer, the mechanized beasts were larger in size, so it looked like they were getting closer and closer. At the level Simba was on, he began running in place and other actors in costume as wildabeasts ran up beside him and then another group with the largest costumes of all filled in the front so that it looked like they were overtaking Simba!!! IT WAS SO COOL!!! I really hope you can get some sort of mental picture from that, it was just amazing. Anyways, I got two items from the show, a program outlining who was in it and the scenes and numbers and stuff, and another one with lots of pics from the cast performances and stuff, so you can get a better look later.

The last few days at the hostel have been pretty nice. I really like the roommates I have now. Mostly Auzzies, three at the moment actually. The girl from Alabama left this morning, as did our guy roommate from Brazil named (spelled phonetically for how you pronounce his name) hen-hee-kay. The Spanish equivalent would be Enrique, but the Portuguese pronounciation is apparently different. Anyways, the Auzzie's are great. Belinda's been here for a few days already and is very friendly, has been travelling the world, been to Tailand, is a personal trainer and just very interesting to talk to. The guy who just arrived yesterday is named Lee. He's lived most of his life on the ocean, is a boom operator in comercials (as only Jeff will be likely to know what that means, I shall explain. He's the guy that holds the pole with the fluffy black mic on the end of it), and is travelling the globe. He's been all over and has a month left before he goes home. Very nice guy, in head over heals in love with a girl who organizes travel excursions in Egypt, but hasn't seen her since he left home 7 months ago. Between Belinda, Enrique, Lee and I, we've spent the better part of the last two days in conversation about almost every topic imaginable. Surfing, of course, the world politics, what it's like in our countries having both previously been British Colonies, relationships, quantum physics, tourist stuff (where we've been, where we're going), tattoos (have had a handful of people wanting to know about mine, which is cool), everything. It's been pretty cool. One of those true, touring around, meeting new people and sharing different experiences kind of times. We seem to be all leaving London around the same time, we'll all be gone by this weekend. So it's cool to have good roommates until I'm done here. I still have nice time to myself though, cuz they all like to go out and party, so it gives me a chance to read Sherlock Holmes or Charles Dickens :D

Okay, that's been a ridiculously long post, so I think I'll leave it for now. Today I shall be looking up my options for my last week after my tour, checking on costs and stuff, so it shall be a long computer day. Ah well, got nothing but time this afternoon anyways. My only venturing out shall be to dinner later, in an effort to under spend in my last few days.

Love and miss you all!! Thanks so much for all the comments, no joke, they make my day!!
xox Mel

Wow, I didn't think I had this much left to do!!

So today was crazy busy!! Wait, first, must say how happy I am that there are so many of you reading and posting on my blog!! It truly makes my day to read your comments, feels like little touches of home. Auntie, tell Ali to quote Shakespeare at Armon next and say tis "better to be a witty fool than a foolish wit" and then repeat the teamwork thing ;) Hope the boys are both doing equally well with all their ventures (sports and school). I have many many many more pics than I ever intended on taking, but most of them are so beautiful I wouldn't delete them. Jen, may I suggest that you pack your own soap and toilet paper, both those things seem to be lacking here in Europe. Dez, it's over half way, and you know it's all downhill from there...and I'm sorry to tell you that you almost got a present today, but I couldn't justify spending the money. They had this amazing bookmark at the British Museum, it was a really beautiful metal with turquoise markings Auk (you know, the Egyptian symbol you want the tattoo of, which I'm sure I misspelled), but for the tiny thing they wanted 10 pounds!! Eesh, it's the thought that counts right? And, in the absence of Eggos, why not just eggs? Hey Norma, so good to hear from you! I was sure I sent you my blog address when I started it, but I may have typed your address wrong...Okay, to one and all, let me also say that I am finally starting to coquer my cold!! Way less blowing of the nose today, no more sinus headache, and no more cough! Whoopee!!



Alrighty then, on to my crazy busy day. Sarah (Alabama girl) and I went out on the town together (that is to say, we did touristy stuff together). First we went back to the Parliament buildings, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, got more pics, picked up some postcards etc. Then we walked over to Covent Garden and did the most wonderful thing, we shopped for tea!! That's right, tea!! I only spent 10 pounds, you should be so proud!! And all the kinds of tea I got were: moroccan mint, peach (for you Grandma!!), english breakfast, scottish breakfast, white, and green (for you Dad!!) and two containers for all the loose leaf tea leaves I have. Not too shabby, eh? Then we had some lunch at Subway to save the £'s, walked lots more, and ended up at the British museum. Saw lots of amazing Egyptian, Myaan, Japanese and Chinese stuff before we left, and one gorgeuos Michelangelo drawing! Then we got some more post cards from there, and I bought a "little book of treasures" that highlights and explains their best items at the museum...oh yeah, and for all you history majors that care...I GOT TO SEE THE REAL ROSETTA STONE!! THAT'S RIGHT!! OH YEAH!! For those of you who don't know, it's an ancient stone that has Hiroglyphics, Demotic, and Coptic Greek written on it - it is basically our only source to understanding hiroglyphics because each of the sections on the stone repeat the same words, so from the greek and the demotic we were able to begin decoding the hiroglyphs...there are no words for how amazingly fantastically momentously important this one stone was to all of human history and understanding. Ah, history bliss...Anyways, we also stopped for a nice cup of tea as it was so very extremely cold out, and raining real big raindrops and being windy!! Oh my goodness we were wet and cold. An umbrella was useless because the wind blew them inside out all the time...yeah...ewy...Oh!! And we sidetracked ourselves and randomly went to the Charles Dickens museum!! It was so cool, cool like the Sherlock Holmes museum. Only there were copies upon copies of his works dating back to when he first published them till now, including orginal handwritten documents that you could buy!!! So, be very proud, I refrained from whipping out my visa and going nuts on the authentic 19th century editions, and instead only bought a single book: Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories ( not a Christmas Carol) published in 1907 for 15£...so happy, wonderful old book!! Eventually we made out way back to the hostel, stopping to buy a waffle for our evening snack/meal. I am finally warm again sitting in the overly warm computer lab, so that's good. It's going to be a semi-early night for me again, and tomorrow is the Lion King!! Whoo hoo!! I really plan on sending home a box of stuff on like the 1st of June, so hopefully it will be back home by the time I am, and it will have most of the stuff I've picked up in London so I won't have to pack it in my luggage. It's not as much as you'd think, a good box full though. Oh my...this has been a much longer post than I originally intended, ah well, you enjoyed it right?? I think I'll cut it off for now and let you all get on with your days!!



Love and miss you all lots and lots,

Mel xox ("we can't all travel by bubble" one of my fav lines from "Wicked")

Hello one and all!

Hey everyone! Mom, what was your prize for being a good flier?? Do you think Mindy misses me? You will have to let me know how the open house goes, and as for having to eat out, I'm more than looking foreward to a home cooked meal when I get back...that is, if home will still be there when I get back...I guess my first home cooked meal when I get back could be in my new home..weird...anyways!! Sounds like you had a blast in Ottawa, very happy to hear it. Today I didn't do much. Had a shower, it's always good to be clean. Last night I didn't end up going for tea or out to take pics. I was pretty tired, and I'm still sick with this ruddy cold, so I opted out, especially when they started talking about wanting to go out for Indian food first. Not that I have anything against Indian food, but I'm trying to spend under my budget for the rest of the time I'm here to make up for over-spending my budget while Brandon was here. So yeah, spending money on more food when I wasn't even hungry was not an appealing idea. So I opted out of the evening. Turns out it was a good thing not only for the money reasons...they didn't get back until about 2 or 3 this morning cuz the photographer girl was so unorganized it took forever to get set up and take the pics at the 2 places they were going to take them!! GAH!! I would have snapped. Plus, I had gone out with her earlier in the day and if she had walked any slower I would have snapped on her!! Eesh...but yeah. Instead I had a nice quiet evening in, read some stuff, and had lots of sleep in an effort to conquer my cold. Tonight, Sarah and I are definitely going out for tea, so that shall be good. And I have decided to go out to the British Museum, the Tate, and maybe even the Tate Modern tomorrow. Those are some of the few places I still wanted to go to, and tomorrow is as good a day as any. On the 29 I see the Lion King, and on the 31 I see Phantom!! Woo hoo!! Then it's off to Europe, so my time is really flying by over here. I'll be home before ya know it!! Side note, Pirates 3 is awesome!! Oh, and it's really cool that Becca gave you my blog, David. I'm hoping to help you out for the Guys and Dolls performances. Okay, that's really all for now.

Love and miss you all lots and lots!

PS-really really, let me know how the open house goes!! love you guys the most!

Rainy Day

Several things: one, when it rains here it doesn't rain like it does at home...it sort of, drizzly mists, so after an hour of walking in the "rain" I'm about as damp as I'd be after spending a good amount of time in a sauna, but way way colder! I did laundry today, talked to a South African girl and an Aussie, the South African is here working for a few years but can go work other places too cuz she has an EU visa. The Aussie has been here two years, staying at this hostel with her partner and working. I can't believe she's been here that long!! Crazy!! Finished laundry, made plans to have tea with the two Alabama girls later tonight (at least one of them is named Sarah, the one I walked with today I couldn't tell you here name, but she's a photographer and has carted way too much stuff with her for her 7 week vacation). After tea tonight we're going to take pics of some stuff at night, mostly for our photographer friend's benefit. Tomorrow I am definitely going to see Pirates, after laundry and our other plans I ran out of time for today. Ah, right...another weird thing here. The bathrooms in the hostel are messed up. Most are missing essential parts. Some just have toilets and sinks, some have toilets and showers but no sink, lots don't have mirrors, , all but one don't have soap, and the taps are set up so that there is hot water on one side and cold on the other, but they don't connect at all so you can't have just a mix of them for WARM water to wash with, you must choose one or the other, AND there are no plug-ins anywhere near mirrors in the whole building!!! It's bizzare!! My roommates and I were ranting about it last night and I don't think I had posted to tell you guys about it yet. It's a darn good thing I brought my own soap with me over here!! Weird, crazy Europeans...anyways...yeah...what else is weird here...oh, there are signs everywhere in the underground walkways saying "keep left" so that people don't walk against the flow, there are signs painted on the ground at intersections informing those who wish to cross which direction to look for oncoming traffic, left or right (very handy, I expect many tourists' lives have been saved this way!). I can't really think of any other weird things here, but thought I'd update you all on the strange every day occurances of my trip here. I shall soon be sending a care package home, but you won't be allowed to open it until I get back because nothing is wrapped or anything and most of it will be gifts for all you guys and you won't know what's for who!! So nyah! OH!! Cole!!! Guess what I saw today??? Three Asian guys on the underground next to me in Naruto hidden Leaf Village garb, including the head bands, and they all had bokens so they had been somewhere practicing their swordplay like ninjas in the Naruto stuff!! Was so cool!! Okay...that really is about it for today! Miss everyone, thanks so much for telling some of what you've been up to :D

Love and hugs, Mel
xox

Bards and Battles!

Well, today was another fun filled day of touring. I got to go to Stratford, see where Shakespeare was born and buried and all that, the Costwolds (very cute, green, villagy areas in Britain), Warwick Castle, and a bunch of other stuff!! More and more pics for everyone to see when I get back. Must say, Warwick castle was awesome!! It's very possibly the most intact, still standing, medieval castle on the planet!! It's really super cool. I got to climb all over the battlements and see in the rooms and.........................WATCH A TREBUCHET GET LAUNCHED!! It was so very extraordinarily cool!! They shot a flaming projectile like 250 metres!! Very spiffy, caught the whole thing on tape!! I got quite a few more knick-knacks today, but mostly post cards and stuff. Found another thing perfect for Dad that will make Dave equally as jealous as the last thing I got Dad, even found something for Daniel as recompense for rubbing in all the plays I'm gettting to see (if he's not reading the blog, could you tell him he gets a consolation prize please Cole?) Luckily my cold was ever so slightly better today. I was still pretty tired, but at least I didn't have to blow my nose ALL THE TIME!! The tour guy was fantastic today, if I started trying to tell you all the cool facts he told me, there just wouldn't be enough internet time. It made the history loving part of my brain very happy!!

So, for the next few days I'm gonna lay pretty low. Got laundry to do, some more pics to print off, finally gonna put together a care package to send home so I won't have to pack it all around, probably going to go and see Pirates 3, read some more Sherlock Holmes, maybe even some Paradaise Lost (bought that at the British Library over a week ago), and just relax and recouperate so that I'm not still sick when I go to Europe. My next play is on the 29, Lion King, and Phantom on the 31...wow, that's coming up fast...:D cool though

Anyways, I'm going to end this blog with a request, could all you posters (besides mom and dad who already do this most of the time) throw in some more details about what you've all been up to? I miss you guys!!! Okay, that's all for now, tonight shall be an evening of rest!

Love and hugs, Mel

Just say "no", right?

Well, I'm trying desperately to do what my Dad always tells me to do, "just say 'no'!" to getting sick...however, the cold is giving me a run (literally from my nose) for my money. Yesterday would have been perfect if not for this confounded cold!! (I really like that word, 'confounded' and Watson uses it in Sherlock Holmes!). So, fist let me say that I enjoyed the second performance, In Extremis, that I saw at the Globe much more than Othello and I love Shakespeare!!! It was a fantastic performance, witty, thought provoking, all those great things!! I loved it enough to go and buy a written copy of the play from the gift shop! Actually, I've been buying a lot of stuff for myself lately, must stop and save some money. I bought some fridge magnets, one from the Globe with the quote "Love is but a madness" and one with Stonehenge on it. I bought some jewelry stuff, not that I needed more jewelry, but I got a hematite ring that is just a plain band but it matches the ring mom and dad got me from Alaska, as well as a pendant from the Chalice Well at Glastonbury Abbey.

So my tour yesterday was wonderful (but imagine this whole story with me having to stop at every possible point to blow my nose and restock on tissues because I just couldn't hold enough in my purse :S) It was not the Bards day tour, but instead I had to go early on the Magical Day tour as all my other possible days were already booked up...So, I got up at 6:30 and was gone by close to 8 as the bus was a bit late. The tour driver and guide were both great, funny and very informative! It was one of the most perfect gorgeous days yesterday!! Blue, with fluffy white clouds!! Our first stop was Stonehenge, which was everything I hoped it would be except that the closest we got was about 10 feet away. Still, it was amazing!! Bought the magnet and some chocolate to keep me going until lunch (no time for breakfast that morning as I was waiting for the bus). Then we went on to Glastonbury and did something I have dreamed of doing since I first read The Mists of Avalon, we climed the Tor. It was breathtaking, you could almost see the processions of priestesses walking the slopes! I was in a very happy place! For all those who don't know, Glastonbury is one of the biggest spiritual centers on the planet, with one of the largest amalgamations of faiths journeying there. For centuries it was an island, until the people drained the water in order to farm. The Tor itself is a very tall, steep hill, with a large bell-tower like thing at the top. Then we journeyed down into the Chalice Well Gardens. These were beautiful as well, and another pilgrimage point. The Chalice Well is a natrual spring that predates Arthur, it has never been known to run dry, and people believe both that it is the resting place of Arthur and Excalibur and that it has healing properties. Very cool, stunningly beautiful spot. Don't worry, I have lots of pics of yesterday. From there we toured around the Abbey, more pics. Then we all went for lunch (only about 9 of us on the bus in total, including the guides). Then we journeyed to Averbury, another stone monument sight, about 10 times the size of Stonehenge (just smaller stones) Stonehenge could fit inside just one of this sights innner circles. It was very spiffy. The town of Averbury was built inside the Henge.

After all the wonderful day, I still had to make it back home before 7 if I were to have any chance at making Les Mis on time....lemme just say that I walked into the room with all the seats to find mine Row K Seat 4 just as an announcement came over the speakers saying "Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your seats, the performance will begin in 1 minute's time"...so yeah, had to run a lot to get there on time from Gloucester Underground, five stops to Picadilly Circus, then running down the street to collect my tickets and go through the door...whew!! Les Mis was also fantastic!! I loved it!!

But now I'm just finishing this as fast as I can so I can go out and meet my next bus to go on my Bards and Battles Day tour today...when I get back I'm just going to do my laundry and go straight to bed...I'm exhausted (but very happy) and just want to beat back this cold!! Miss you all!! Love and Giant Hugs,

Mel xox

Okie dokie

So clearly I was very tired last night as I don't remember posting that blog that I pretty much reiterated today...ah well, sleeping in today was good too! So Becca, I shall definitely try and find Postman's Park for you today. I've got nothing else to do until In Extremis at the Globe tonight, so I shall do my best to find it. Tomorrow I get to see Les Miserables!! Whoo hooo!! Annnnnddddd...tomorrow is the opening of Pirates 3!! Guess what I'll be doing? Lol, can't believe I'm spending this much of my travel time at the movie theatre, but movies are so much a part of my life I can't help it, and I feel justified as I missed the last 3 episodes of Survivor!! I really hope that mom and dad taped it for me!! So yeah, In Extremis tonight, Les Mis tomorrow, Bards and Battles Day tour on Friday, and possibly another tour on sat or sun, but I'll have to phone and book the place first. Dunno what I'll do on the 28 yet, perhaps go and see St. Paul's Cathedral, or go back to the British library and take out an ancient copy of Shakespeare or something :D Then the 29 is the Lion King, I'll be packing on the 30, seeing Phantom on the 31, getting everything organized for my tour on the 1st, and heading over to join up with the rest of the group on the 2. Almost every day has something for me to do! But I think I'm going to run away now as it is about a bajillion degrees in this computer lab, and other blue blazer day here in London!! I even put on sun screen :) Love and miss you all, ta ta for now

Mel xox
PS-mom, dad, no i haven't heard from the phantom...

Shakespeare

This is just a quick post to say that as my English Professor Dr. Dickson would say, "Shakespeare...is a GOD!!" Seeing Othello performed at the Globe theatre was amazing! I was in a very happy place! The longest performance I had ever been to by far, just over three hours. So by the time the play was out it was 11 o'clock, and the play house is a bit of a walk from any underground and the underground stops running at midnight and I'm on the other side of London from my hostel!! But don't worry, clearly I made it through the streets of southbank, over one of the bridges to the nearest underground and home safe and sound. London is a very different place at night than during the day, and I like both ways pretty well. Oh, and in other news, I have a new roommate from Alabama. She's very nice, and is going to be here about a week, so that's cool. I may have someone to meander with whenever she's not doing her tourist stuff. Oh, that's the other thing. Besides my tour days, I've pretty much seen everything in London I wanted to see, so my time now is full of relaxation and books and stuff, YAY!! 10 Days until I leave for Europe!!

Most interesting of days

Well, today many things happened. I got up, had breakfast at the hostel, checked emails and such, went to my room to read some Sherlock Holmes and fell asleep again!! I was so very tired, had not had a real chance to catch up on sleep and rest since I left, and as I'm developing a bit of a cold, I thought it couldn't hurt to lay around a little extra. However, my laying around went too long, so that I couldn't make the 2 o'clock performance at the Globe!! No biggie though, I just thought I'd pass the time away until the 7:30 show. So as it was a fantabulously gorgeous day here (i'm talking, blue skies with not a cloud in sight) I decided to take my Sherlock Holmes, some water and a snack to Hyde Park so that I could bask in the sun and read. I wasn't there long before I had the most interesting encounter. An elderly East Indian man came by and started chatting to me (it seems quite common for viable strangers to stop for brief chats here in London), he was incredibly nice, a Buddhist actually. However, the common brief chat went way over time. I think he stayed talking to me for over an hour and a half. It was extremely interesting. He seemed to think that I was a particularly neat person, said my aura was very friendly, healing, and apparently purple in colour. I admit I was a bit dismayed by that, would have preferred green or something, but stil, at least it wasn't pink right? After some time I said I should get going, and he insisted on walking with me all the way out of the part, and I only managed to shake him off when I said I was staying in an opposite direction. He did manage to get me to exchange emails with him, doubt I'll keep in touch, but yeah. It was weird, and kinda nice. Just this really friendly guy stopping to talk about life and spirituality in the park, without pushing any of his philosophy on me or trying to convert me in any way. When I got back to the hostel I had a new roommate from Alabama, she's very nice and came with me to Southbank to book tickets for the Globe. She left though, cuz her tickets are for tomorrow, and I stayed to watch Othello which was fantastic¬!! I've never seen Shakespeare done professionaly before and it was so great!! Definitely going back for more. Anyways, just about out of time here, so goodnight all!! Love and Giant hugs!!!
Mel

Sightseeing

Ya know, seeing actors naked on stage is quite a sight! Yes yes, all you obsessed David Radcliffe people (*cough*tabatha), I saw him naked on stage last night. First, let me say that the play was pretty good. It really starts to mess with your head a bit in the end, not so much with what happens with the boy, his messed up psyche gets explained, but with the whole process of psychiatric analysis and what it potentially harms rather than fixes. It was pretty spiffy, I didn't expect to be made to think that much afterwords, so I deem it a good play. For the record, he spends most of the play in a tee-shirt and jeans, or just jeans. It isn't until his finaly breakdown in the psychiatrists office that he gets naked. And he's not really "in" the psychiatrists office, what happened to get him committed into the pyschiatrists care is being re-enacted for the audiance like a dream sequence. So he meanders over the stage (they are supposed to be in a barn), him and a girl get naked, almost has sex onstage with the girl, but is unable to do it because the horses (which he worships as gods) are watching, so he snaps, tells the girl to leave and never tell anyone about what had happened up to that point, and proceeded to burn out the eyes of the 6 horses who were in the stables at the time. It's messed up, and sad, and strange. The sexual aspect of it is all twisted around, because for the boy, it should have all been directed at the horses, but with a naked girl in front of him, he seems to get torn between the only thing he ever worshipped, and a new possible object of worship. Very strange, very powerful theatre. And seriously all you who want the details of Daniel Radcliffe naked, it truly isn't that spectacular or special a thing to see. He looks just like any other naked guy. I'll grant him this though, for a 17 year old, he is very nicely toned. There, hopefully that satisfies everyone on that note.

Today I'm going to the Globe, which I think is much more exciting than Equus!! It's even a nice sunshiney day for me to go! Whoo hoo!! Oh, and on another happy note, I managed to spend UNDER my budget yesterday!! Am hoping to do the same today, tomorrow and the next day, but then I know I'm gonna overspend cuz i'm doing a Bards and Battles Day tour that will take me to Stratford and a bunch of other places, and the tour's gonna cost over 60£ to begin with. Ah well, wouldn't miss it for the world!! My next day trip shall be to Stonehenge, and then to Canterbury/White Cliffs of Dover!! Miss you all, love and hugs,
Mel :D:):D

First alone day

Hey there everyone. It's approx 2:15 in the afternoon here, and I have finally bothered to get myself ready for my day. I refused to get up early today, except to rise and say goodbye to Brandon and give him a hug. Then I went strait back to bed. After a while I was irrefutably awake, so I got sort of up, grabbed my complete collection of Sherlock Holmes, and read an entire story! Very happy about that, it was a good story. Then decided I should probably get ready for my day. For the first time since I left, I took my sweet time getting ready. I had breakfast of orange, tea crackers (which are like digestive cookies and very yummy), raisins and water, very good for me (protein will have to wait for my evening meal all you worry worts over my eating habits). Then I brushed my teeth, my hair has finally decided to cooperate in the humidity (YAY), put my face on (aka putting on some make-up for all those not into the jargon used in the Parks' household), put on something semi-nice as I'm going to a play later, and headed down here to check the blogs and post my own. It's been a very nice lazy day so far. I'll prob make my way over to the theatre district so that I won't have to travel far for the play, and just hang out there, maybe catch a movie before going to the play. It seems I could afford to go to a movie and a play everyday plus the cost of one good meal, and that sounds lovely to me. So for now, I shall finish with the computer stuff and begin my single wanderings around London. It's kinda wierd and kinda cool to be on my own for the first time since I left home. Sadly, it is an ugly London day, very gray and rainy, but I shall make the best of it.

PS-fogot to mention on an earlier post...the day we went to the London Dungeon and there was all the fun of the actors including me in the show and threatening to shoot me in the face and such, well we had a similar day when we went to the Edinburgh dungeon, only they picked on Brandon. The judge managed to get him to admit that his name is in fact Shirley, and that he's also in fact, a little-girlie!!! It was so funny!! Never gonna let him live that one down, and of course he'll never admit to it ever happening!!

Love and miss you all,
Mel xox

Brandon's Last Day

Well, today has been a pretty lazy day. Brandon said he wanted to relax for the most part, and relax we have. We didn't head out till around noon, then we just went to Embankment station to go to North Gate park, where we both sat and drank coffee stuffs from Starbucks and he smoked one of his cigars. It was nice, a lovely day to sit out in the parks. Eventually we decided we should watch a movie, went and saw Shooter, which was much better than we had any hopes of it being, so that was good. Then we had to come back to Bayswater to get our pics from the 24 hour photo place. I now have over 500 pics to bring home, and I've only been gone like 3 weeks...If i keep this up I'm gonna need like 6 photo albums to fit them all. The good news is that I've kept them all pretty organized so far, so I may even be able to tell you all where they all came from when showing them. Never expected me to take that may pics. And I even go through them all at the end of the days and delete all the bad and repeat pics so that there won't be as many...what can I say? I love my camera!! It takes fantastic pics and I don't have to do any of the work.

So yeah, after that we both went back to our rooms for a little rest. He got everything he hadn't already organized together so that he won't be rushed in the morning. I went through my pics and pretty much finished getting the care package I'm mailing home ready to go. It just needs packing foam, a lot of tape, and an address and stamps. Then Brandon came by and we went back to Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park and played with the novelty flying disk (aka frisbee) and drank Coke from glass bottles!! And not the dinky little glass bottles, but full sized Coke bottles that were glass. So old school, so very enjoyable. Then we came back into Bayswater, had some dinner, and now here I am. Filling you in on a rather uneventful day in as many words as possible. :D:D:D

My usual roommates are all gone now, the girls from Alberta left this morning. I'm stuck now with this big guy named Ash...who's kinda weird and mumbles a lot so I have to keep asking 'what?' I'm hoping for newer better roommates soon. Anyways, I should probably go and keep Brandon company as he's leaving me tomorrow. It's been such a great time having him here with me. Don't know what I would have done without him for these first 12 days, he's really helped me out. Gonna miss that guy :)

Okie dokie, that should be enough for now, I'll let you all go and tell you more after I go to Equus and possibly some performances at the Globe!! Love ya,

Mel

"No Dancing"

"No dancing", that was the phrase I heard the most yesterday. What can I say, I was in a danc-y mood and Brandon would have none of it. But yeah...yesterday was an adventure and a half, lemme tell you:

First, alarm clocks suck ass and never work when you need them to. Nevertheless, we managed to be just on time for the train rather than the 15 min early we planned on. It was a pretty long train ride to Scotland, full of sleep, and eventually a whole car full of girls going out for a "hen party" which is the English equivalent of a Bachelorette party. I was stuck in a car with almost literal barbie dolls. They were almost all blond, and the one across from that talked to me was even wearing giant pink accessories!! A belt, a bracelet, hoop earings, and she was constantly applying perfume and lip gloss. Oh my GOD!!! It was okay overall though, she was very nice and talked to me about travelling and such. Anyways...on to the big event!

Scotland we weren't in the country 10 min and I can safely say that I am absolutely one hundred percent, totally and completely in LOVE with Scotland!! I am most definitely going back there for my last week overseas, Ireland will have to wait. It was so beautiful, so green, so everything I ever dreamed it should be like over here. The entrie center part of the city of Edinburgh, which is dominated by the castle which is up on a hill, is old style brick buildings, cobblestone streets, green parks and walkways, bridges and the like. In London the new and the old have started to mix together everywhere, but Edinburgh is mostly the old, with some new appliances and stuff on the ground floors. I think I took over 100 pics just in Scotland. We went for lunch at this little pub, which was awesome (for the record, when you order lemonade over here, they give you sprite with lemon in it) then we did some shopping. I finally got something for Dad!! Can ya guess what it was given where I was??? Huh??? Lets just say I found to coolest little "variety pack" that will put him in the lead over Dave for their "collection", if not for what kind it is, but at least for where it came from!! Mom, I got some traditional Scottish cookbooks, they look very spiffy. I got myself a pocket map book so that I can figure out where I'm going when I go back there later. I even found something there for Cole!! Be excited Cole, not everyone is getting touristy items, and this was just totally perfect for you!!

So we toured around Edinburgh for the day, and everything was wonderful. We saw the castle, drove all around the city, took lots of pics, toured the dungeons (which were similar to the ones in England, but with some of their own unique torture methods and such), and saw the best name for a store ever!! I hav e a pic, will show it to you all when I get home...plus I can't remember the name right now...am still exhausted from yesterday. When I go back, I am so touring the children's toy museum!! I wanted to when we were there, but we didn't arrive until just before noon and had to be at the train station by just after 5.

Onwards!! The train ride home...at first I thought it was going to be the longest trip ever, and it was!! But not at all the way I expected it to be. At first our train car was full of all these rowdy Scotsmen who were kinda rude to a group of special needs adults who had been on tour in Edinburgh. There was confusion in the seating in the train, and a bunch of people had been double booked in the same seats, while a bunch of other seats had no bookings. It eventually got worked out, but the Scots didn't want to move from their comfy table seats, though they had been reserved for the special needs group. Anyways, that whole thing made me a bit grumpy, plus I was tired from the very very long day. So the Scots continued to be rowdy for the trip. For all of you who have seen Robin Williams' Live on Broadway, he was definitley NOT exaggerating in the least in his impersonation of a drunk Scot telling a story. I shall choose not to repeat most of the language they were using, and the swear words were generally the only ones you could pick out. However, about an hour, maybe and hour and a half into our journey our train stopped. Apparently there was a problem with the brakes...THEY WERE STUCK ON!! And get this, no one on our train knew how to fix the problem!! We were stuck there for like 2 and a half hours wiaiting for a guy to arrive from another train to come and fix the problem. Hell and a half....but thennnnnnnnnnnnnnn.............................................................The Scots picked up the mood in the train. They started...get this...singing!!! A train load of drunk Scots singing the most ludicrous songs, it was like our own personal radio station. They sang everything like "I would walk 1000 miles" "American Pie" "Yellow Submarine" "My Ding-a-ling" and countless others. It was so hilarious!! I got some of it on video camera and Brandon had threatened to put it on YouTube when we get back. After all the singing, some of the guys started talking to us and one of the Scots had been to Prince George!! Of all the random places in all the world, he got sent to PG to fix ATM machines!! He knew where I lived!! So weird, and cool. Then a younger guy started talking to us and filled us in on some Scottish slang...new favourite inappropriate thing to shout out at a bar "Get your tits out!!" Imagine that with a Scottish accent!! Could not stop laughing. They were all great, and they encouraged everyone to sing and be merry, so they more than made up for their earlier rudeness. Apparenlty this group of guys (there were like 12 or 14 of them) go on a guys weekend at least once or twice a year, and this weekend they're going to Newcastle. By the time they got off the train we all felt like pals. Several of them shook hands while they left, and the one guy who knew good old PG shook my hand and gave me a kiss on the cheek! Such a cute old guy, he was so excited over that random coincidence.

Wow, this has been a long post...sorry guys...but Scotland was by far one of the best days I've had so far! I am definitely going back!! So the phrases of the day were "No dancing" and "Get your tits out" - oh my...weird. The rest of my day today will be spent organizing what's left of my time in London. Booking my little tour days, seeing what days I'll go to the Globe, and I may even mail a bunch of stuff home so that I'll have room to repack my stuff when I come back. Love and miss you all, thanks so much for your comments, they make my day every day!!

Hugs from Scotland's #1 fan!!
xox Mel

Interesting Day

Well, so far today I have been threaten to get shot in the face...twice...been told I smell like I bathed in my own urine, and been hit on by a French guy attempting an English accent "Cheers, Baby"...very much fun overall!! Of course, the getting shot in the face and urine bits were addressed at me while touring the London Dungeon, and I was picked on by the actors at several stops throughout the tour. It was pretty cool, one of the only things that has been close to worth the amount of money you pay to see. It was a good hour and a half tour through the dungeons, with little ride bits and actor tour guides. It was very spiffy, no pics of the inside though, just the outside entrance. The French guy just so happened to be walking down the street in the opposite direction of Brandon and I as we walked home from dinner tonight.

In other news, we went to see London Tower as well today. That was very awesome. It was sort of like stepping back in time. I got lots of pics of the keep, and some cool ones of weapons and stuff. King Henry VIII's walking staff is a pretty wicked looking stick, spikes all coming out of the end of it. It was a very neat touristy thing for us to do today, and not uberly expensive. I've been getting into places a bit cheaper than Brandon cuz I'm a student, so that's cool. Although I do make up the price difference by purchasing guide books and stuff while entering and Brandon doesn't usually do that. We've almost done everything I wanted to do here in London, but there's still the Globe and most of South Bank and the City, so I won't be bored when Brandon's gone.

We leave for Scotland at 6:30 tomorrow morning on the train!! So excited!!! We won't get back until pretty late, but still. Going to see Edinburgh castle and some other sights. Then when we get back we may go to Wimbledon to go on the #1 scary roller coaster!!! Dave, you jealous?? So yeah, got lots of pics, gonna have to unload them again before I got to Europe, I can tell. Miss you all, love and hugs,

Mel xox

Fun Fun Fun!!

So the last couple of days have been pretty full of fun and just getting all the sights in possible. Brandon and I went to the museums yesterday, which was exhausting, but quite cool. The natrual history museum was kinda smaller than we thought it was, but free admission so no worries. We got to see Dinosaurs!! Yeah!! It was pretty spiffy. We also went to the Victoria Albert Museum, which is basically an 'art in many of its forms' museum. We got to see a lot of cool metal, glass and woodworks. There were so many iron gates and old fashioned locks and stuff. I was in a heavenly past. I wish we would have taken more pics, but we were worried that it wouldn't be allowed in the museum, so we only took a few. I think everyone I know would have enjoyed something in that place. It was very cool. Mark, I wish I could have taken some pics of the acheivements in carpentry and carving. There was one room you could go into that used to be an anti-room in some nobleman's house. It was entirely wooden. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, and every surface was more than just one form of wood laid down and carved or shaped fancy. Every panel on the walls was of the same kind of wood, but each one had a different pattern or picture inlaid into it in another kind of wood! It was absolutely stunning, and I couldn't get over how much time it must have taken for that one room to be completed...oh my...anyways, the one really cool exciting thing about that museum yesterday...I got to see and get a picture of the Statue of David!!! I was so surprised!! Apparently an Italian collection of marble carvings is on tour, and so I got to see the REAL satatue of David in some random room in the museum where it was just being held until one of the wings was prepared for the tour exhibit!!! IT WAS SO COOL!! Who knew?? I was expecting to see it in Italy, if we hadn't of gone to that one museum, I never would have gotten the chance. I can't imagine how many people are in Italy pissed that the statue is on tour. Ah well, lucky me.

Today has been very busy too. We went to Madame Toussades Wax museum and I got a lot of cool pics! I don't know if it was worth the 25£ entry fee, but it was still really cool! Dad, I so got a picture of the Duke for you. Mom, one of John Travolta. There were so many really cool ones there! Robin Williams, Sean Connery, Spider Man, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, Steven Speilberg, a bunch of the Royal family, existing and from the past, William Shakespeare...oh so very cool. We also went to the Sherlock Holmes museum!! I got some cool pics there, including one of me and an actor playing Watson in Sherlock's study!! And just for fun, I bought a complete works of Sherlock Holmes, cuz it was 12£ and to buy them separately would have cost anywhere from 30-45£. I'm excited to read them, I've only ever read part of one of his stories for a children's lit class. It was an extremely well put together little museum there at 221 Baker Street (real address!!), and only 6£, best deal we've found yet!!

Tonight we went to see Wicked!!! Let me just say for the record, it is a fantabulous, awesome, totally WICKED play!! I absolutely loved it!! I want to buy the soundtrack, it was fantastic!! I was in a very happy place! Got a nice souvenir program for it, so that's cool. I wish I could go again, but once will have to do. There was a very nice Scottish lady sitting to one side of me, and she highly recommended that if we got the chance we should make it up to Edinburgh for the day. We were sort of planning on it anyways, just checking out the prices and such. It sounds like it's going to be a bit pricy to make any kind of one or two day trip up there, but she was very helpful by explaining just how worth it it would be. Of course, she was very bias, but in the same way that I'm bias towards BC, so I think it will be great!! She also said that we could see enough to be satisfied in a day or two, as Edinburgh and the surrounding countryside isn't nearly as big as London. So yeah, sounds like we're gonna make that trip happen for sometime near this weekend.

We finally made it to the Parlaiment buildings at night, got some beautiful pics of that, and now I'm back 'home' and it's past midnight. Time for little Melissa's to go to bed, got laundry to do tomorrow if I want to wear anything clean for the rest of the week. Miss everyone back home, can't wait to share the pics and things with you all!

Love and Hugs, Mel
PS-can someone remind me what day in June is Father's Day??

Quicky

Hey there! This is just a quick post to say that STOMP is absolutely amazing!!! I printed off over 200 pics already and burned the rest onto a disk so I can take more pics!! Pure juice is saving my life since water is scarce that isn't carbonated! Tomorrow I get to see some museums and maybe even the British Library!! And by thursday or friday Brandon and I will be in Scotland!! Other than that, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM!!! LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

xoxoxox Mel

London Calling

Well, today shall be another fun filled day. First, we got woken up by the fire alarm, don't worry, there was no fire, probably just burnt toast in the kitchen. However, they didn't seem to be too knowledgeable on how to shut it off properly, it kept being off for a min or two or five or ten, then would go off for a few more seconds. Extremely annoying at about 7 or 8 in the morning when everyone was up partying until about 2 or later last night. Eeesh...ah well, Brandon and I need a semi-early start so we can go and see the changing of the guard this morning. It's gonna be really cool. Yesterday we went to Hyde Park and Kensington Palace and pretty well had a lazy day. It was nice though, I absoluetly loved the park, got lots of pictures. It was beautiful, perfect in every cherished dream of an English park. I'm definitly going back for a quiet reading day in the shade of one of the giant trees. Also today we're going ot the Aquarium and Stomp, so that should be good. I'm kind of excited right now cuz I figured out three day tours I want to do that pretty well cover everything in this one brochure I found except for Bath, Windsor Castle (which Brandon and I will go visit anyways one day) and Brighton. I'm pretty happy. One of the tours will take me all around stuff to do with Shakespeare and Stratford and everything, one to Canterbury Cathedral and the White Cliffs of Dover, and one, very exciting, that will take me to Stone Henge, Glastonbury Tor, Arthur's Avalon, his burial site, and many other 'magical' places!!! Plus, they're all day tours, so It'll take up some of my time once Brandon leaves me. Tomorrow I think Brandon and I will do a museum tour, that should be relaxing, then Tuesday we see Wicked, and I think wed-thurs at least we'll be heading up to Scotland!! Then we'll need friday to recouperate, find stuff to do sat sun mon, then he leaves tues and I go to see Equus!! Busy busy busy!!! Then I have the tours I want to do after he leaves, plays to see on the 24 27 and 29, and then I join the Contiki Tour on the 2nd!! Still have no idea what I'm gonna do with my last week. Think I'll wait to see if anyone I meet on the Contiki Tour will be hanging around after, maybe join up with them, or if not, I still might want to go to Ireland for four days or something.

Oh, the reason most people here were up until past 2 last night was because they were having a Traffic Light party down in the bar (there is a bar downstairs). Now, I had no idea what one of these parties were until one of my roommates described it to me. Apparently everyone at the party has to wear a different coloured badge that indicates their relationship status. Red-means you're taken or in love or whatever, yellow-means you're not necessarily free, but looking anyways or at least interested in finding something new. At this point I just had to ask "so, does green mean that you're easy??" Sam (roommate) just laughed and was like "Uh-huh!!" Wow, she's something else...crazy albertans (sorry all family from alberta, but so true in this case)

Anyways, I'm off to have some sort of breakfast, and the best orange juice of my life!! Mmmmmm, so good, get to watch them squeeze the oranges right in front of you...yay!! Reason for my joy in regards to this juice...it seems that in London, they feel it is necessary to sweeten almost any fruit beverage with sweetner, which has aspertame, which gives me a wonderful headache while it slowly kills me...anyways, infinitely happy to have found pure wonderful juice!!
Oh, and as a side note, went to a Moraccan place for dinner one night or two ago, which was basically a hole in the ground, but very cozy on the inside. It was there I had some of the best tea of my life, Mint, with honey to sweeten, served from a sterling silver tea pot in thick, decorated glass-very very cool, and the best tasting tea i've had in a while!! Okay, really going to have food now...

Miss you all, Love you!!
Melissa

London Baby

Hey everyone!! This has been my second full day in Lodon, and it has been great so far! Already saw my first play, Chicago, and it was fantastic! Dez, you would have loved it, it was the old school version! Brandon and I are already masters of the tube station. We hardly even look up at the signs already. I'm gonna go tomorrow and buy a week long pass instead of paying for a day at a time like we've been doing, it's cheaper that way by about one or two pounds a day. So yeah. We're hanging out with two of my dorm mates, Sam andMegan, both girls, both from Grand Prairie. They're pretty cool, Megan plays crib, and they both know card games. They'll be here about as long as Brandon, so that'll be fun. We're going with them out to Stone Henge and to the Lodon Dungeon in the next couple of days. Oh!! And Brandon and I did get tickets to go see STOMP, that's on sunday. Gonna be a blast. Got some great pics from the London Eye, and just been wandering around the city a lot. Gonna have to send Brandon something when I get home, he keeps buying me food and stuff, won't let me pay, so I'll have to get him a big thank you of some kind. I already got touristy items for some people, Dez and possibly Grandma. Oh, and the only other dorm mate I've met is a guy named Wade from New Zealand. He seems pretty cool too. He originally came here to work for the summer, but now his plans have changed and he'll be travelling around Europe with a bus pass. The two French speaking dorm mates i haven't met, but heard them talking when they came in last night. Other than that, not much to tell so far. It's just nice, got all the time in the world to get around and do stuff. On the tour to Stone Henge I'm gonna get to see the place where Harry Potter 1 and Pride and Prejudice were filmed!! Woo hooo!!

Anyways, love and miss you all, but it's off to bed for me!

Last Canadian Post

Hey there! This shall be my last travel blog from Canada. I leave for London later today, and leave NFL at 2. It's been lots of fun here, got to meet some really cool people, and it sounds like they will all be reading my blog in future to keep up with my London doings.

Went to Spider Man 3 last night, and it was very entertaining! Probably the cheesiest one they've done so far, but that's fine with me because I remember the comics and cartoons as being very cheesey, so it's about time the movies matched them. Other than that, the only bit of excitement was that I put on my jeans yesterday and they ripped!! So I now have a hole in the leg of my ONLY pair of pants!! Went for a quick shopping trip last night after the movie, got some new jeans, and am picking them up from the sewing place on the way to the airport. Yeah, they have no Warehouse One here, or apparently any stores that sell petits, so the pants were about a foot too long. They're being hemmed and should be ready by 11 today, so we're getting them on the way to the airport. What an adventure. Who knew that pants would cause my first problem on this trip??

Anyways, talk to you all again from London!! Miss ya lots!!

Love Melissa