oh, give me a home...

well, frequenters of my little corner of cyberspace, here i am, finally, communicating to you from a secure undisclosed location deep in the heart of Cardiff, Wales! sorry you haven't heard from me like i promised. but time being the insanely precious commodity it is here, blogging is normally the last thing on my mind (at least, the last thing next to ''clean clothes would be nice''). so in the interests of said precious commodity, i'll just share some observations and thoughts about the trip so far.

so far we've been in seven airports and two foreign countries (four countries if you still think Scotland and Wales are real countries). we've talked with people from all over the globe...canada, australia, russia, the middle east, france, norway, chicago, germany, and of course the bonny scots, irish, british and welsh.

i kind of like living out of my little backpack. i didn't take one of those insanely large ones because even though it'd be nice to be able to sleep in it like a snail, i like to be able to travel standing up and not lying on my back with my arms and legs wiggling around like a centipede. anyways, i like it because i never have to be without anything. if i need it, it's right there. No 'i left it at home' or 'it's still in my car.' it's total, utter self-reliance. which is tiring. also, we have been to spontaneous and beyond...which is also exhausting unless you plan it right. :)

some impressions of where we've been so far...

ireland in general: let's just say we don't blame our ancestors for LEAVING ireland. (no really, i know there's good stuff to see, we just missed it...ALL...and managed to spend plenty of money in the process.) people=not friendly, and not customer oriented at ALL. (are they communists?!?)
dublin: a fun city, lots of night life and loud people from all over the globe...very energetic but full of the super-commercialized irish culture. which doesn't feel like real culture at all.
airports: no fun to sleep in, even with a nice sheet set. especially if someone already took those nice cushy cafe booths or that nice dark corner under the stairs. i still hate airports.
edinburgh: so full of history and stuff to learn, you don't know where to start. it's overwhelming, and you have bagpipe guys and William Wallace wandering around raising money for cancer research. a beautiful city, with a lot of different layers of history within it and the inspiration for a lot of famous literature.
scotland in general: very, very friendly and helpful. i could listen to them talk forever. they are not too fond of the english for obvious reasons, and their country pride seemed a lot more genuine and less garish than that of the irish. the tour we took of the Highlands was awesome...with giant green mountains, clear lochs, and fog-shrouded castles perched on the mountainsides.
the mostly deserted ghetto bus station in Scotland where we spent an hour and a half in the rain waiting for our connecting train that we didn't even have tickets for and we hoped they'd let us on anyways, while trying not to stare at a couple making out: i don't want to talk about it.
hostels: no bad experiences so far, except for sharing a queen bed between the three of us.
airplanes: kind of fun, really, especially when you sit next to a cool british woman who gives you her phone number in case you run into trouble in London. and the food was even good.
wales: the people here are very friendly and very beautiful....the kids especially, with their fair skin and clear features, are quite lovely. the country itself is pretty but not so remarkable so far, with most of it reminding me of midwestern US.

well friends, foes and countrymen, thanks for reading. the weird computer i'm on doesn't have a USB, so pictures will have to wait. i should be back on the precious banks of the mother country in six short (but oh so long) days. in between now and then: London sometime, maybe oxford sometime. who knows. :) your prayers for our safety and wisdom are very much appreciated!
cheers
ME