i could use a vacation from my vacation!

<p>Jan 11: so the next morning I woke up bright and early. I got chatting to the lady in my room, she was having work done on her apt so she was staying in the hostel till it was done. She told me that last summer London was absolutely packed out with people. There was no accommodation left for tourists so the council opened up the underground stations and let them sleep in there! So I was sure glad to be visiting in January, god knows what its going to be like next summer when the olympics are there! So I went straight to the natural history museum. The first thing I saw was the wildlife photographer of the year exhibit, which consisted of all the same photos and captions in the book I bought Michael but the pics looks a lot better blown up and illuminated. The last section had a photo/video screen of what I assumed were some reject entries to the competition. They were pretty good as well. Then there were computers where you scan your ticket and choose which photos you wanted to view at home from the website. So I chose a bunch I liked (humpback whale in aussie, milky way in Switzerland, Aurora borealis etc) and they also had comments on the photos from the judges and the museum curator, as well as the public, so that was cool. I didn't leave a comment though. So after that I went to the marine reptile hall and saw lots of iythasaurs and pleisosaurs, some even pregnant. They had a vast collection, and mostly all excavated by one lady in the 1800s! Quite a feat esp without all the advanced technology the paleontologists use today. When I finished that I went to the dinosaurs exhibit, which was full of kids!! I had done a good job avoiding the school groups that went around the museum, but here it was very crowded, and lots of parents taking their children. And maybe this is just me being naive but a lot of their displays were casts! And half of them said original in the American museum of natural history!! Makes me wonder why I even bothered to go to the British one in the first place! But even so I enjoyed the exhibit. They had a life size animatronic t rex which scared some kids lol. So after the exhibit I saw a small recent discovery exhibit that a new sp of human ancestor was discovered in south Africa, by a 13 yr old boy! So that was exciting. But then it was time to leave the museum. I had tickets to the wizard of oz at the palladium theatre at 730 pm so I had 1 1/2 hours to wait so I sent to a sainsburys across from harrods and bought a few sandwiches and ate them then left at like 7. Just as I was about to enter the street, 2 police officers stop me cause I didn't have my headlight on. They said if you don't put it on, you can't ride! So I said I do have it, its just broken so I hold it in my hand. And he said to find a way to attach it to the handlebars, so I said i would use a rubber band. When they left I literally looked down onto the road and saw a rubber band! It was like a miracle! So I had that hold my light, which worked well. So The west end wasn't that far from there but I got a bit confused cause I wasn't similar with the street names yet. Google maps told me to turn down some small st called air st, so I did and that took me to regent st and I kinda wasn't paying attention as I was waiting for people to walk on by and I ended up hitting someone with lance! I said sorry and luckily he didn't even say anything, just kept walking. It wasnt like I was riding and ran him over anyway, so no damage was done. But I ended up going in the wrong direction so I ended up going from having plenty of time to spare, to having 5 minutes to spare. Which would have been plenty of time cause I was just around the corner from the theatre but there are too many freaking people in London!! So walking with lance thru the crowd was quite a difficult task! But I found the theater with a few minutes to spare and I found somewhere to park lance, and in my frustration I ripped the front light off and put it in my pocket, but lost the rubber band in the process. So I picked up my ticket and went to my seat just in time. I was in the balcony on the side, but the place was pretty empty so I moved to the first row in the middle. the wizard of oz was real good, the scarecrow was funny. Dorothy didn't have as great a voice as Judy garland, but not many people do. Uncle Henry did not pull off a southern US accent at all, but Dorothy did. And they had a real dog (a westie!) Playing toto! So that was cute, alto not something I approve of, but it was real well trained, barking and growling when it was supposed to, and chasing after the wicked witch. After the show I was tired so I rode back and went to sleep, after a quick chat with a Spanish lady in my room. Thursday Jan 12: so another early wake up, the room was more full now and I had a nice French lady on the bunk above me and from then on I didn't get as good a night sleep cause the beds creaked sooo much whenever she rolled over! So I got up and went to the box office for a ghost the musical ticket. Got a little lost in the west end, but at least I didn't get lost on my way there. I ended up getting a restricted view ticket for £25 but in the orchestra, so that was quite good. Then I went to the science museum and learnt all about the history of engineering in the UK! Fascinating stuff! And the kiddies bypassed that section so I didn't have to worry about them either :-) then I went to another section on old scientific instruments, that belonged to some king who collected them. That was real neat, saw gold decorated microscopes and old globes and other geeky stuff. But then it was time to go unfortunately, so I left, picked up another sandwich from sainsburys and ate outside it, then left (with my headlight on) to the palace theater. I picked up the ticket from will call and Hung around in picadilly circus till it was time for the show. Mylanta there were a lot of people there! And street performers trying to entertain the crowd, even at 7 pm at night. So then I went to the show, I was 4th row from the stage but all the way to the left so I did have some issues seeing some things, but it definitely didn't take away from the play. The American accents were real good, no new York twang though, but I don't think they have it in the movie either. The woman who played the psychic was real funny. The guy who played Sam had a killer body!! The guy who played the scumbag had a decent face but hairy body. And whenever someone died their body would be on the floor (a dummy) and they would be a ghost, but it was amazing how quick the stagehands got those dummies out in the middle of the stage, and I didn't see them once! So that was a real good show. I was once again exhausted after it but I wanted to shower so I did when I got back. The shower was a small cubicle that clogged. So the water built up very quickly and I was standing in my own filth and hair for the entire duration. And one minute more in that shower and I would have overflowed it onto the bathroom floor, and into the other showers. after the shower I went into the lounge to mingle but people were in their cliques and drinking and playing card games so I didn't end up talking to anyone so I went to bed soon after. Friday Jan 13!!: sorry to disappoint but I survived the evil day! I woke up early cause there was lots of movement in my room, and I went back to sleep but not fully. So in my half asleep state I overheard that lady who is getting work done on her place tell another girl in the room to check out portobello rd for antiques, its real famous for them. When I woke up completely I was debating whether that was actually a dream or not, cause the name portobello just sounded too weird, maybe subconsciously I was hungry for a veggie burger or something. But I looked it up and it really is the antique capital of London. But I didnt end up going there anyhow. So yeah that morning I went to Charles Dickens house which was a museum. It was in a diff part of town to me, although not far from the west end so I got lost through there but made it in the end, at exactly 10 am when it opened. The lady wasn't even fully ready to receive visitors yet so I had to wait in the cafe for a few minutes. Then I watched a short film on his life then explored the rooms, that had old paintings of people he knew, and his old desk and some posters such as advertizements  to his readings. The drawing room was closed cause they had decorated it for Christmas so they were in the process of removing the decorations, but I didn't want to go without seeing the drawing room since it would be the most extravagant in the house, so I tried the door and it was unlocked so I just walked in. Then other people started following me! I felt like I was leading a revolution!! Ok maybe not quite so dramatic. But a staff person said ok well everyone can have a quick look around but this room is temporarily closed. But I felt satisfied after that peek :-) so I had lunch in the garden area, then left the museum and went to the British museum which was close by. Talk about an intimidating building!! The place was a labyrinth with thousands of rooms full of crap!! And I mean that respectfully. I first saw a small section on the Olympic medals. The metal is excavated mostly from utah!! I guess theyve run out in England! And my god it was several thousand lbs worth. Made me feel guilty about going to the games. Here we are destroying the planet, breaking through the crust and extracting natural resources, and for what? So people can compete in some games that in no way dictates their survival? But such is the selfish human race. But regardless, the design for the Olympic medal was neat, the designer used the river Thames as the ribbon on the back. And the front is supposed to represent the Olympic park and modern buildings. The paralympic medal I didn't like the design of. It looks like just wavey lines but it actually is from the robe of the goddess....oh I forgot who.now. Will have to check my photos and fill that in. But after that section I went to a small exhibit that compared the life of a modern day brit with those of the Roman British era. I saw a one pound note! I didn't even know there was such a thing once upon a time! And well the exhibit talked about soldiers wages and compared them to the soldiers wages of today. Then I just had a mosey around. The exhibit I wanted to see was closed and the main temporary one you had to pay for so I just went to the ancient Egypt section. I saw the rosetta stone, with about 2632269 tourists next to me. There really was just not a quiet corner in that museum. Nevermind the school groups, there were just sooooooo many tourists, especially Japanese!! I'm scared to think what summer weekends are like in that place! So the Egypt section had some real amazing stuff but I left at 5ish to go to the VNA cause it closed at 10 on Fridays. The new exhibit must have just opened cause there was a reception and a long line for tickets. But I was more interested in the old Italian sculptures anyway. So I saw those and some church relics and then it was time to go (even tho it was 9:45!) So I went back to the hostel and went right to bed. The girls in my room were all in convo but I arrived just as they were finishing. What a pity! Ok so the continuation will be posted in a few days!

An intimate time with the blog

Wow I am really behind with my writing!! Ok so let's get into it: Jan 9 Pete woke up early for work and I left a few hours after him. I rode to the cathedral which was really beautiful. They had a leaflet for £1 which gave a self guided tour of the church, I took one although I didn't pay (I put it back though so no harm done!) And I saw everything but they had a small exhibit but I wanted to get going to the veralium (something like that..the Roman name for st albans) museum which opened at 10 so I left. I rode through both adjoining parks which were pretty. I asked a local how to get to the museum and he told me a bunch of directions and then said don't get lost! And I didn't!! I passed Ye olde fighting cocks which is supposedly the oldest pub in England and gets its name from the fact that it used to be a cockpit (its a rotunda building).oh and in the town center there is a pub called the cock! I know cock here means rooster, but come on its still funny when you see a public place called that!! So The park with the museum had a lake and some Roman ruins. I spent several hours in the museum, seeing all the Roman artifacts and coins. They had some awesome mosaics and wall paintings and human skeletons. Even one of an infant. Plenty of little kid school groups again but I mostly avoided them. They were actually really obedient when watching the short film at the beginning!! So by the time I left it was dark so no point to try and check out the ruins in the park. I then called Pete and asked if he wanted to go out to dinner and he said yes so I tried to make my way back to the cathedral for the exhibit first then I was planning on going back to his but I didn't recognize the park in the dark so I got very lost and rode in circles.  I eventually asked someone who pointed me in the right direction. So at the cathedral there was a service of some sort going on so I felt a bit awkward about being in there, so I left after a short while. I then decided to call Pete and have him meet me in the center cause he had some role playing thing he had to go to at 8, and it was like 530 by this point. So we went to O'neills and chatted. It was our first formal speaking! So I don't know if he was just annoyed with me from the day before, or tired from work or generally not interested in what I had to say, but I found it hard to just have a normal flow of convo. But what we did speak about was his job, he teaches middle school (whatever its called here) and hes not a big fan of it, even though he's only just started in October. I don't blame him, kids suck at that age, id go mad too! He is from the north island of new Zealand. he took the euro rail and went around Europe with it for a few weeks. He stayed 1 night in the main city in several countries (Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam etc) then hopped on the train the next day. To each their own but I don't really see the point in that. Why tire yourself out with all that traveling? Is it worth it to just spend 1 day in a whole country, and just 1 city at that? But hey if he thought it was worth it thats all that matters. So then we talked about this role playing thing he's into. Basically people in this club meet at a pub once a week and tell each other to act out a part in their fantasy story and it has a plot and a mystery that you have to solve. Sounds a bit strange to me. He invited me to that session that night but I said no, that is not my thing lol. So he went off to the pub for the meeting and I went back to his. I again went to bed right before he came back and then he left before I woke up the next morning so didn't get to say goodbye. We have since left each other positive feedback so all is well :-) Jan 10: I packed up the air mattress to the best of my ability (aka not well) and then set off. I had downloaded a self guided walking tour of the town so I did that for a few hours. It also included the veralium park so I got to see the Roman walls, hypocaust, and mosaic. and also there was a roman theatre excavated with a temple next to it, so that was real cool. i think it said that there was only one other one found in england (and i dont think it was referring to chester cause this was much more original that the chester one..and anyway this was a THEATRE, not amphitheatre, so no blood and gore!). In the town there were also some old buildings, including a clock tower and almshouse. When I finished I had lunch in a courtyard, then went to the st albans museum. They had a temporary exhibit about life in the town in the 60s, so I spent my whole time there. I was really enraptured by it! They had old childrens books and toys, and an old tv set playing the first episode of Dr who with an old chair to sit and watch it on, and a newspaper with the front page of the moon landing in 69! They had old pics of st albans, and old music playing. And I found out that the zombies were from st albans! And of course they had some 60s outfits, and the old British coins before the decimal conversion. So yeah I really liked that exhibit but I couldn't stay to see the rest of the museum cause I had to get going to London, left at 3:08 pm. Getting out of st albans was no problem, but it really isn't very bike friendly! But I guess that's cause the roads are so skinny, cars can hardly make it by on their own. So my ride to London was uneventful on the a5 ( I say that because I can't remember it) and it got dark when I was like halfway there. so im still going on the a5, then i see this insanely scary hill in front of me. i thought no way am i going to make it up that! but luckily i needed to turn at the roundabout right before it. but unfortunately i made a very bad boo boo and turned in the wrong direction and went for about a mile ot two until i realized i was going in the wrong direction. so i had to turn around and then i see the sign that says to central london and the distance marker (there actually were a lot of signs with distances to london on them! but for the rest of the country, it seems people dont need to know how much further to their destination!). so from then on i didnt get lost. I approached the London outer boroughs pretty quickly, so there was lots of traffic. I stopped off at lidl and bought more choc duo and bread and I was tempted to eat it in the parking lot again but I wanted to try and make the cirque show that night, so I kept going. I rode up a street called shoot up hill as I approached closer to the main London area (edgware). According to "the street names of London" book its named that because it "shoots up steeply." I somehow think it has a different history. i saw a dead animal in the middle of the a5, couldnt tell if it was a fox or somebodys dog. once I started getting into more central London and off the a5, that's when problems started to happen. I kept making the wrong turn, then over shooting my next turn and all this. i even found the other end (the top) of that scary hill i avoided, i wondered if i would have cut out all that time and distance if i had just rode up it. but i probably would have had a heartache half way up, so i think its better i took the long way! so anyway I stopped on the side of the road to check Google maps to see where I was, when another biker stopped and asked if I needed directions. So he told me how to get to south kensington, which was a longer but easier route than I had written out. when i got to the south kensington area i had to deal with some annoying hills. a real sexy cyclists bypassed me. i swear cyclists have the sexist bodies, skinny frames and shaved (sometimes) and muscular legs mmmm! so i tried to catch up to him to chat but he was no match for me, on a road bike with drop handlebars and me with my touring bags! So I went straight to the royal Albert theatre, was able to pick up a ticket to the show, called totem, for £25 restricted view, and then I went to the hostel and checked in. arrived around 7ish, did 28.02 mph, max 26, avg 8. The reception guy was super nice. Then I had about 45 min to get food so I went around the corner (on earls court rd possibly) and went to subway. I had a foot long but was still hungry! But I headed off for the hall again, and got there with 10 min to spare! The view was better than I thought, the guy in the box office told me I would be able to see about half the show, but cirque stages take up the entire floor space, so most of the action was in the middle, so I could see fine with the exception of a handrail blocking my view slightly. So the show was amazing as always. I think the most impressive act was a group of women on unicycles with really long saddle posts, and they were balancing bowls on their heads the whole time and they would line up and each put a bowl on their foot and then throw it up and catch it on their heads! It was amazing and they were so in sync with each other, even the rocking back and forth motion to keep their balance! Then one got in the middle and the others rode around her and as they passed she flicked bowls onto their heads with her foot, and she even flung it behind her, without looking, and it landed on their heads every time! Quite talented!! This was a show about nature, so they had men dressed as frogs, jumping on a trampoline. And they had apes and had an evolution of humans sequence. The modern human was a business man and the neanderthal and chimps ripped his suitcase apart and his clothes off (the best part) and started fighting him. I didn't really understand it actually, but you're not really supposed to lol. They had some sexxxy ass men as always!! Native Americans wearing only loinclothes, guys on the beach who later broke out into break dancing, and a human disco ball!!! He was an acrobat, so he would drop from the ceiling on a rope and then spin and the light shone on him and he lit up the room just like a disco ball. It was awesome!! There was another sequence with native Americans, a man and woman and they were figure skating on a very small circle of ice. I thought for sure someone is going to fall off!! But of course they didn't. There were more flying acrobatics, between a man and a woman, the guy was looking good in his tight pants and no shirt, but at the finale when all the acts came out on stage I saw he had a hairy chest so that's a no go. But all in all the show was great, the intermission was a half hour! So it didn't end till 1030, and I was pretty tired by that point. During the intermission though I wandered around the hallways. They have photos on every floor of previous performances. The bars were really fancy and no doubt expensive for drinks. There were even private boxes in the seating area (and I mean more like at a stadium, not the boxes you get in theatres) so this was quite the exquisite venue. After the show I went to the hostel and plopped right down in bed and went to sleep very shortly afterwards. When I walked in and put lance out in the backyard, I could hear lots of people chattering away in the common area. A part of me wanted to go mingle but I figured id do it another night since I was there for a week! Ok bed time now will have to cover more tomorrow!

Can't wait till I can just camp so I go by my rules!

Jan 7: I woke up and had breakfast with vinay but left shortly after so I could go to the museum for a bit before leaving for Milton keynes. The museum had the whole history of shoes which was more interesting than it sounds, plus a small section on the local sikh community. So I left northampton at 1:36pm and found the route 6 easily and followed it thru a local nature reserve out of the city and thru some villages and salcey forest, which I would have liked to have spent more time at but it was getting dark and I wasn't too close to Milton keynes yet. At one point I stopped along the road to put on sunblock and there seemed to be Bramble there cause it got stuck to my gloves but I didn't think anything of it. So I'm going along, following route 6 quite well. The villages were nice and the countryside was pretty and hardly any cars on the road. Not too hilly or windy either and it was sunny all day. Saw 2 badgers as road kill , within 1/2 a mile of each other :-( I then follow a path along a railway track for a short distance then I go thru ouse valley park and follow the river. It was starting to get real dark now but I wasn't too far away but I had a funny feeling my back tire was flat, and I was right! So I pumped it up and it was a slow leak at first, so I exited the park and took the roads to stoney stratford where I met my next host, mark, at the center. Luckily enough there was a bike shop at the junction so I bought another inner tube, but still rode on the flat. It got worse though as we rode to crownhill, the suburb he lived in, which was 3 mi south of where we met. So that was slow going. But we got to his place at 6:33 pm, I did 25.59 mi, max 27, avg 7. His gf calls and says she is doing a pub crawl and asks if we want to join. I said I wasn't up for it but he could go if he wanted and he said he didnt really want to go either. So him and I went out to a pub for dinner, I ate so much, and could have eaten more!! He was a real nice guy, he loves bicycle touring, he rode the entire length of route 66 for charity, for the world wildlife fund! And he also biked across Europe and Africa! he said he got a lot of respect on the road, especially in france, people wouldnt go around him until they had a very wide margin! and to my surprise, he didnt have any obnoxious drivers in the US. i guess they only exist in places like NY and Boston where everyone is an asshole behind the wheel. So that was real awesome hearing his stories, and how he survived Africa after everyone told him it was too dangerous (although the officials in one of the countries told him he shouldnt go to Nigeria alone so he diverted his route to some other country). his defence was that there is violence everywhere, even stabbings in Milton Keynes, so whats the difference if he goes to africa? and people were asking if he was afraid of his bike getting stolen while he is sleeping in his tent? and he said no because no one knows who is in that tent, and what they could be carrying! good point. But he made it to capetown in the end. and he didnt see much wildlife which i think is kind of pointless to be riding through africa, the least damaged by humans continent on the planet, and not try and take in the atmosphere, where instead you just ride all day long and do nothing else. I saw his pics from his trips, wow he brought lots of stuff! But he was camping and so had to bring a stove and water filter. He was lucky enough to quit his job and they offered it to him when he got back to England one year later. So that was a bit of inspiration for me. He's an electric engineer and he designed an AA battery charger in the saddle so he can charge his lights! Handy! And after we got back from the pub he fixed my flat for me, took him so much less time than what I would have done it in. And he picked the thorn out of my tire. Damn bramble!! Then he saw my cables were crossed so he started taking them apart and I got a bit worried cause he seemed to know what he was doing but I didnt want him messing with that. Luckily it was trickier than he thought so he left it alone and did up everything how it was and told me he will look up websites on how to fix it and email them to me. So I went to bed after that in his computer room on the floor but i didn't mind, at vinay all I had was a plain mattress and got a little bit cold in the night so this was a step up cause I got a sleeping bag and blanket lol. So the next morning Jan 8 I met his gf although she was a bit hung over. Mark told me he would show me Milton keynes and asked her if she wanted to come, cause they are planning a long distance bike ride thru Europe so he wants her to practice as much as she can, but she wasn't up for it. So mark and I set off, there wasn't much there to see and at 10 am on a Sunday, the place was a ghost town except for 2 cars. We went to escape where we watched some skiers and some air lift thing and that was it really, also some old entertainment center called the point which is practically shut down now since escape came to town, so then at 11 am he took me on the local bike routes to the grand union canal and we parted ways. I followed the canal until I got to a town called leyton buzzard and I had lunch there. Then I went along more country roads thru more villages and off road onto another old railway line. Saw kestrels, I'm pretty sure. Then I got to a town called dunstable and I stopped in the park for a bit. Route 6 continued past the park but was supposed to go on a bridge over a railway track, but there was some excavations going on there cause the bridge and track was gone, and the path boarded up. So I checked the map and saw I was only half way to st Albans, so another 14 miles to go and I told the guy Pete who I was staying at next that I would be there at 3:30 and it was 2:45! He was going to a gig in London and he said he wanted to leave around 5 so I wanted to get there with plenty of time for us to chat so he would feel comfortable leaving me alone in his house for several hours. So I got on the a5 and flew there! I was doing about 12 mph, something i didn't think I could do with all my stuff. Once I got into st Albans I had a steep hill climb and it nearly killed me. So I arrived at his place at 4:20pm and he gave me a quick tour and left! He didn't look very happy that I showed up late! So I felt bad but he told me once he got back that he didn't miss the beginning of the show so I felt better :-) but after he left I went wandering to find some food, and there was no local supermarket chain so I had a full breakfast at a cafe, and was still hungry again!! I went back to petes and ate lots of biscuits! And then went to bed. So ill end it there. Will continue tomorrow!

Tour de Europe v3.0!

I am on the road again, this time for a longer duration than the previous trips. My visa expires on Jan 21 so I am slowly making my way to harwich to catch the ferry to hook of Holland. I have yet to decide when I will come back to the uk but it will probably be in the spring so I can start camping. But before I go into anything more about my touring trip, I want to recap everything since I last wrote. I stayed in leicester after nottingham, mike and I did some more visits to the new walk museum, and to broxton nature reserve, knighton park, and a few other local areas, and decorated the Christmas tree. The few days leading up to Christmas I introduced mike to the classic American Christmas movies, he was hooked!! His brother came a few days before Christmas, and Elinor came Christmas eve. We picked her up from the station then went out to a pub with his mom, and hussein joined us. That night we each opened one gift (well mike and I did 2..shhh). Mike got me a strip mug where there is a guy in a thong and when the mug heats up the thong disappears. He also cut out a pic of himself and pasted it over the guys face lol. I gave him the 2012 American wildlife calendar I made my mom try and hunt down. Then I opened a gift from nick and Elinor, another mug, this one from the national history museum, and was of dinosaurs!! How awesome! So the next morning was Christmas day and we opened all the gifts. I got lots of chocolates (now long gone), binoculars from George, a dino tshirt from nick and Elinor, a pocket mirror, gloves and halfords gift card from Maria and hussein, and from mike a doggie necklace he made himself (I had said I wanted a dog for Christmas :-) ), and a new messenger bag!! I needed one badly! so that was all so great. For dinner we had polish food, beetroot soup, breosh(sp?) And mike made me some eggplant thing so I didn't have to eat the turkey or ham. Mike and I had made pumpkin pie and a gingerbread house a few days prior, so we had those for dessert and then played pictionary. My drawing skills amazed everyone. The next day was my first boxing day (new Zealand doesn't count cause I was traveling as normal) and we went to his moms house for more yummy food and Christmas crackers. The next day mike, his dad and his bro went on a walk around foxton locks but I had to go sort out lances front tire and pick up a few things for my trip. On the 28th it was good weather ( a bit windy later on in the day) but mike and I took the train to rutland water and rode the bike trails around the reservoir and the inner loop around the village on the peninsula. On the 29th we went to market harborough cause the museum was closed when we went the first time. So we went there and they had a small exhibit on Christmas customs around the world which was real cute. They also had some finds from a local dig. There were some leaflets about local walking trails so I took them for a later time. Then we went back to leicester, saw a few nicely decorated houses with xmas lights (something England is totally lacking) and took George out to dinner at that same Italian restaurant we took him the first time.On the morning of Dec 30 we woke up at 4 am for a cab to pick us up at 4:50 am and take us to coventry to catch the 6:15 am bus to Edinburgh so we could be there for hogmanay. The bus arrived late and didn't even have a bathroom (and it was an 8 1/2 hr ride) and I had to go already. Hours later we made a service stop so I was able to go. When we got to Glasgow we had to switch buses in the rain and this one had a bathroom but no working light. So the journey up was a bit of a pain. When we got to Edinburgh we got on the train to dumfermline cause that is where we were checked into for the night. We had to walk a bit to the travelodge and by this time it was 5:30 pm and the torchlight procession started at 6:30 back in Edinburgh so we were in a rush now, so we dropped our stuff and left (even though the room wasn't made up) and we ran back to the train station, and got on the train and arrived in edinburgh about 10 min late. The vikings who were leading the walk were passing where we came out onto princes st just as we got there so we ran up a head to get photos. The walk ended at the top of calton hill and there was a short ceremony with bagpipes playing, and fireworks which were very beautiful. There were so many people with torches and the wind was blowing, I thought this is an accident waiting to happen. I wonder how many women's hair caught on fire, or clothes were burnt that night. After the procession we took the train back to dumferline and switched rooms. On the 31 We got up early and checked out of the travelodge cause we were staying with a guy Stephen who had accepted our couch surfing request. So we walked around dumferline first, went to pittencrief park then hopped on the train and went to Edinburgh. We dropped our things in the lockers in the bus station, then went briefly to the royal mile and then to Arthurs seat. It was a bit muddy but mostly fine.  It was really windy at the top though!! Bye bye map of dumferline! So we didn't stay up there for too long. Plus we needed to get the luggage out of the lockers, as we had a 3 hr limit but we bypassed that by about 20 min and had to pay a £2 fee. So after we got the stuff we caught the bus to morningside which is where Stephen lives and we were going to meet him at a pub. However when we got there and tried to call him we couldn't get thru, but we just waited there and he showed up in the end. We went to another pub for food, then to his place to drop off our stuff. We left soon after to go to the street party on princes st. There were so many people there!! It would take 30 min to walk from one side to the other and it was only like 2 normal size blocks long. There were fireworks at every hour and several bands playing on different stages scattered around the streets. the best fireworks were at midnight, and they were shot off from the castle and calton hill. There was no countdown to midnight though so that was a shame, but we knew when it was when the fireworks went off. Then the crowd sang auld lang syne (except me cause I didn't know the words..and a few more people). Mike and I Hung around a bit after to watch the last band, friendly fires, then we took the night bus back to Stephens, which was free!! The next morning was the loony dook where people jump in the sea for charity. I wanted to do it or at least see it but we would have had to wake up way too early to catch a bus from st Andrews station to the dook and there weren't any buses running from the outskirts of the city on Jan 1, so we skipped that. We still woke up early enough, left Stephens and had to walk into the center cause we were staying at a travelodge not in the center but close by. So we walked through this nice park, stopped for lunch at the oldest golf club in the world turned pub then continued on to the travelodge. It was in a Georgian style building, similar to the brown stones in Brooklyn. We dropped our stuff and then headed to the center for the new years games. There were a few games going on in the grassmarket, museum of Scotland, the cathedral etc and you choose a team to represent and you win tokens for that team. We watched a few of the games but some had closed even though the booklet said they were closing at 4:30 and it was about 4 pm when we tried to go. So we went to the grassmarket for the main games which went on till 5:30pm. The game was called chain reaction and we had like 40 seconds to create a chain of people and the criteria changed each time. The hardest one was to form the colors of the rainbow, so I had a blue scarf and a green hat so I could have gone in as either. I think I used the green in the end. The final game was based on a traditional Scottish game about kicking a ball around or something, but instead we passed it to each other and we had to get it to different flags. So We participated in those, thinking we were the uppies the whole time(repping the north of where we came from) but we actually were the doonies! And its a good thing we were cause we won! Then we were allowed to collect the tokens at the end to have as a keepsake, so I took about 4 to keep one for myself and 3 to sell on eBay in 30 years time :-) then we went for dinner at a kurdish/Moroccan restaurant and went back to travelodge after that. On Jan 2 our bus back to coventry was in the afternoon so we did some shopping beforehand. We had brunch at baguette express then checked out a few whiskey stores for a 30 yr old bottle of whiskey for Nick since he turns 30 this year. We had some trouble cause the regular size bottles were wayy expensive and the medium bottles didn't seem to be that old, but we found one in the end. Then i wanted to buy a souvenir that said Edinburgh 2012 on it but all of the shops had the same stupid stuff so I didn't get anything. And I kept trying to persuade mike to buy a kilt but that didn't happen either :-( so we headed back to the station and got on the bus, which was on time but we had to switch at Glasgow again and that bus already had people on it so the only 2 people seats next to each other were in the last row, next to a cute boy wearing a red sox cap. This trip wasn't as nice cause it was dark practically the whole time. But we made it back and had the same cab Company come from leicester to pick us up. We were charged £15 more for that journey than the one going into coventry so I was a bit annoyed with that. I have since called them and complained and a £15 check will be coming my way soon :-) travelodge and megabus have also heard from me but nothing has been sorted yet. So to sum up the new years eve festivities: very hectic, lots of running around, with not as much sleep as I would have liked, but all worth it! You can never go wrong when you're in a country surrounded by men who wear skirts!! So that brings me to the few days before my trip. I had a few more things to organize before I set off so I spent a lot of time doing that. Mike and I went back to new walk, washbrook nature reserve, I went to the attenborough arboretum (mike had been getting ill so he stayed home), and we took down the Christmas tree :-( on Jan 6 I left, heading to northampton first via market harborough. Mike came with me some of the way, we went a different, less busy way to market harborough, instead of the a6. He left just on the outskirts of the town, so I took a canal towpath to the town center, then had lunch there. Then I walked around using the town trail leaflet I had picked up on the 29th. It was a bit out of date cause a lot of the landmarks they mentioned to help locate the historic buildings weren't there anymore, but I figured it out lol. Then I got on sustrans route 6 and followed that to northampton. I got lost in the beginning because a sign was posted in-between two trees so I couldn't see it, even without their leaves! I pity those trying to find the brampton valley way in the summer! But I found it, and that was straight forward cause it was a path along a disused railway line. I saw some sort of bird of prey soaring above me, don't think it was a kestrel though, was a bit bigger. I also kept scaring off a buzzard that I tried to take pics of cause it was in the trees right along the path, but it would fly off every time it saw me. I went thru two pitch black tunnels, over 400 m long so that was pretty cool. I burped in one and it echoed very loudly! I also saw a barn owl flying very openly in this grassland area, around 4 ish. I noticed it gets darker later here than in Edinburgh, so the sun sets at 4 and it gets completely dark by 5. So i still had decent light when I saw it. That was my first wild barn owl, and I think only my second wild owl ever :-) ( saw one in tassie when we bottomed out the car in the national park). The route wasn't too busy, I'm sure its way worse in the summer. And Thank god it was flat!! I saw a few cyclists coming from the opposite directions, mostly mountain bikers (one had mud all over his face like the ones I saw on the monsal trail). You can definitely tell the difference between the avid cyclists who do it cause they love the sport, and the commuters who do it just to get to and from work. The former always smile and you and say hello, the latter don't even acknowledge your existence. But either one is fine with me! So I exited the railway route just as it was starting to get too dark to see without lights. The path was flooded completely so I thought I would just ride through it. It was deeper than I thought and I knew lance wasn't going to make it so I tried to turn and head for the side but we fell in :-( not completely, but enough to get my feet and lower part of my jeans wet. So I walked him around the puddle and then soon came to another path. It was dark now so if there were route 6 signs I couldn't see them but Google maps told me I was close to vinays house, another host on couch surfing. So I took that path to the main road and changed into my waterproof socks. My right foot was feeling tingly and I was getting visions of a leech being on it, but there was nothing there. I followed the streets and soon came to vinays. He arrived from work just 5 min after I got there so that was great timing. So my left leicester time was 10:02 am and my arrival time in MH was 1pm, left time was 2:30ish and arrival time in northampton was 5:32 pm.35.5 mi, max 27 avg 7.3 for the whole journey. Vinay was so nice and accommodating, I felt so bad I got dirt all over the floor. From both my shoes and lance, he was filthy from that railway trail! Vinay is also a veggie so he made me some veggie Indian food. Then his old house mate, who is French stopped by, she said if I need somewhere to stay in Paris then to let her know. Horray for more free accommodation!! Then vinay went off to the gym. When he got back we went out to a bar up the street called picturedome which also has plays and shows movies. We only stayed like an hour cause I was getting pretty tired. We had some good convos though. he works for an NGO called provide for health and they go to various countries and provide transportation to those who need medical attention. He told me he went to some country in Africa and they gave a lift to a pregnant woman who would otherwise walk 15 km to the hospital for a bloodtest to check for HIV. And we think we have it so hard!! So I thought that was amazing and I will definitely be donating to them in the future. He's really into politics so we talked about that mainly. He told me he traveled a bit around the US and he was in nowheresville Arizona and one local asked his friend where he was from and he said India and he started talking to him about the commissioner of India (I forget exactly her title, her name is something Gandhi) and apparently she is one of the most powerful women in India, and shes Italian!! and she was even asked to be prime minister but she turned it down cause she thought it would stir up controversy, with a prime minister of India not being a native. So vinay was so shocked to hear that this redneck in west bumblefuck had heard of her! Cause most of the news from the US is only national, only really big international news will make it over there (Iraq war, royal wedding). And apparently that guy said to vinays friend, america needs more woman in politics, we need woman like her to kick some ass!! And then vinay went on to bash the US saying in 200 yrs, we have had only male presidents, when most countries in the world, even the conservative ones in the middle east have had female prime ministers. And I got to agree with him there, but I assured him that there are lots of woman in politics and that a female president of the US will happen in our lifetime. Let's just hope its not Sarah palin!! He went on to bash the US twice more, saying we hardly had any history, whereas India is as old as Greece, and he also said our money is ugly and boring. I agreed with him on both those statements as well! He then took out some rupee notes from his wallet and showed me the differences on the notes and the water marks and things. They are very pretty! He even gave me a 10 rupee note :-) yay!! So that was great.So we talked more about India, it really made me open my eyes and to become interested in worldly news, cause he mentioned some war or something that went on recently in the middle east and I knew nothing about it. He also told me a few Indian customs (he isn't religious but grew up in an orthodox house, hence being a veggie) and he said since there are so many gods/goddesses in Islam, lots of things are blessed and are sacred. For instance, there is a god of food, so its considered a "sin" to step on food (even if its a crumb on the floor). If you do by accident, you have to do their version of the sign of the cross as a way of asking for forgiveness. And he gave other examples where goddesses are worshipped and if they step on the whatever, they must do the "sign". He even said he accidently stepped on his friends foot when they were sitting across each other at a table, so he touched his friends arm and did the sign!! So after all this fascinating talk we left and I went right to sleep. Ok ill end it here and pick it up soon!!