London visit number 3!

Okay, so i now realise that i am not talking to myself and that you are keeping up with me, it's just that you actually have lives and they don't revolve around me! That is fair enough (laughing out loud!)

Well, i've been back a read a bit of what i have written and i apologise for my terrible spelling, it's unbelievable. i didn't understand half of what i was writing, so i thank you for persisting with it!

Okay, i need to finish my tour of Ireland, but i might leave that til later, so i'll start with the day after my birthday:

Rachael, Caitlin and i shopped around for a while in the morning, Edinburgh is just such a pretty place, you can walk aimlessly around the old town and alwasy find something to look at. As the weather was so nice as well - you didn't have to worry about keeping warm and dry, so very strange. I do have to say that it is the first time that i have ever had the opportunity to wear shorts and a t-shirt on my birthday, so that is another tick in the box!

My Contiki buddy Anna arrived in the afternoon and we picked her up from the train station and took her back up the 20'000 stairs it takes to get to our hostel. (As the royal mile was built on this massive rock shelf caused by a volcano a brazillian years ago, either side of it slopes down dramatically and you have to climb these lanes of stairs, called closes to get anywhere...)

The Hostel was great, everyone was very friendly and it was the first hostel i had been to, where the beds are actually named! Anna and i were in the opposites room, Anna had Drunk and Sober, i had Up and Down! Caitlin and Rachael were in the room next door, titled "Dwarves that failed the screen test..." So caitlin was in spanky and Rach was in Burpy. It may not seem funny to you, but if you knew the girls, you would think the beds had been picked out suitably!

Anyway, as i may hav ementioned, when Kim, Holly, Rach and i were in Dublin, we went shopping for some new outfits for my party. We were thinking maybe a fake hen's night, seeing as there are SO MANY of them over here, but once we had seen the never ending variety of Fluro clothing, it was a mission to find the most ridiculous outfits to dress the other girls who didn't get to come shopping - so well done Anna and Caitlin for stepping up to it and wearing the hideous clothes out than night!

So Friday night, we went out for tea, then back to the hostel, got glammed up and headed out on the town! What a night we had! Brilliant - i think because we looked so special, we attracted people who were interested in having a laugh, so we met a lot of local people and visited a few pubs and basically just really enjoyed everything!


Obviously the next day, was deemed a recovery day, so we slept in for a while before meeting up Travis, who had just finished his Haggis tour. Travis was on our Contiki tour as well, so it was great that we kept meeting up with each other. We then met up with Kim and Holly who were staying out of town to say Goodbye :(

Kim and Holly have hired a camper and are spending the next 40 days touring England, Scotland and Wales in it, so they headed off to the highlands that afternoon. I have to say, a lot of the reason i have had such a wonderful time over here, is because i met such wonderful people and together we have become the best of friends. I love them dearly and wish them well on their travels, i know we will catch up sometime soon and stay in touch always.

Rach, Caitlin, Anna, Travis and I went back to Frankenstiens for dinner again, then we said goodbye to Travis, who had to head back to London and after that, we hit the pub again and you can probably see where this is going...

After a not so late night, we headed back to the hostel and just sat around chatting, it seems that is the most fun sometimes!

The next morning, we headed to the t-shirt printing shop and had black t-shirts made up for us all. On the front they say: Edinburgh Spoonage Festival 2009 and on the back, it's Unden Schliben! Which is a phrase that will eventually make it into the oxford dictionary, thanks to the imagination of Rachael!

Anna had to leave Sunday lunch time, so after putting her on the train back to Stardust, Burmingham (lol) Rach and i packed our bags and after walking around some more, we waited for our bus to head back to London.

Rachael and I had ooked our bus tickets at the same web site, only a few hours apart, but when we arrived at the station, we were on 2 seperate buses, so that was disappointing. However, it was an overnight trip, so sleep was high on both our lists of things to do, so it didn't make a difference.

After an uneventful night on the bus, we were back in London. I headed back to Cherann's place with my bags, then had a shower and headed back to Picadilly Circus to - you guessed it, meet up with Rachael and Travis! We also got to catch up with Saffa Catherine! Cat was also on our Contiki tour, but she and her sister Annie, left in Athens - so it was lovely to see her again. WE shopped around for a while, doing some time wating activities then went our seperate ways. I walked down to Ahrrods and shopped, or should i say wandered around with eyes like saucers at all of the amazing stuff they have! WOW - (they also have Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, so i did stop and have myself a snack!

I then headed to Baden-Powell House, checked that out and took some photos! I headed home and Cherann cooked my a lovely dinner and we wanderd around the streets of West Hampstead, ah, what a lovely day!

The following day, i slept in and then met Rachael at the scence museum for a look around and we decided to go and see Avenue Q the following day. After some more wandering and checking out London, we parted and i headed off an the train to my new friends Pat and Ted, who took me under their wings, from the Melbourne airport on the way over. I have kept in touch with them all the time, so it was lovely to be invited out for a delicious home cooked meal. I also met their Son Richard and 2 pet tortise. I had the most lovely night and once again, it is great to have met these wonderful people, who i know i will see again! (Just for your information we had an English Roast of Chicken, Potatoes, Broccoli, Peas, Sweet potato, Carrots and gravy, followed by apple crumble and cream and custard, oh and fruit salad - so i had the most enjoyable night!)

This morning, i got up and headed off to the Museum of Natural History, met up with Rach and walked amongst the dinosaurs, and stuffed animals of every variety. Was really good to see actually, even if the koala's were a light smokey, white colour and the Tassie devil was light brown - they obviously fade over time!It was quite enjoyable!

Afterwards, Rach took me to the Walkabout, which is an chain of Aussie like pubs around the city, we had lunch, brought our tickets to Avenue Q and walked around trafalgar square where every canadian in London was celebrating Canada Day. Interesting....

This evening, in our shorts and tee's (it was 33 degrees again today) we headed off to the Theatre and enjyed a rather interesting production which involves adult puppets interacting with humans and participating in all sorts of extra-curicular activities. A great night really!

Well, here i now sit, it's 2 am and i'm still writing the blog - i have not written about the last half of Dublin or the First half of Edinburgh, but i will eventually get to it.

As for me, i'm going to sign off and get some well earned sleep!

Sheri xoxo