Edin-BRRRR!!!

Disclaimer: This blog post contains the use of one single profane word. Sorry in advance to all the innocent ears and eyes that read this. It's basically a quote.

So, we woke up at 4am this morning to take the shuttle to the airport. We were way early, but it was the best way because the shuttle picked us up at the hostel and the guy even loaded our backpacks onto the bus for us. We came dangerously close to not being able to get our bags checked because of the weight restrictions and the fact that we didn't have the sweet lady from the Dublin airport there to disregard the fact that Katie's bag was nearly 8 pounds overweight. So, after some serious magic and Jedi mind tricks, we finally got everything distributed in a way that would allow us to get our bags on the plane. We had a close call at the gate with the size restrictions for carry-ons, but after switching Rex (if you don't know him, you should) from Katie's carry-on to tucking him in her jacket, where he was much happier.

The flight was only 40 minutes long and uneventful, which is good. When we got into Edinburgh, there was snow on the ground and it was really beautiful. Our hostel is called the Castle Rock Inn and it is seriously cool. There are tons of pieces of art work and tapestries lining the walls. We got to the hostel around 9am but we couldn't check in until 2pm so we dropped our bags off in the luggage room and set out to see what was close by. Oh, look! A castle! The hostel offered a free walking tour of Edinburgh at 10:30 so we went back there, grabbed some breakfast, and set out just in time for the rain to start pouring down. So, we basically froze our toesies off. Despite the chilly temperature, it was still a really awesome tour. Our guide, Kate, was really entertaining and the rain stopped about an hour into it so we weren't too terribly miserable. We learned a good conversation starter if you're ever strapped for something to say:

Way back in the day, before indoor plumbing, people used to potty in chamber pots. Whenever their chamber pots got full, they'd just open their windows, yell "Garda-loo!" (which is garbled French for "guarda l'eau" meaning "watch out for the water") and throw them out the window. The waste would then flow down the street into Norloch (or North Lake) where the city's sewage system led as well as where they got their drinking water (yuck). Well, all of the waste would produce methane gas which is A) very flammable, and B) when ingested, will make you hallucinate. So, the councilmen of the town decided one day that maybe people were throwing their chamber pots out too often, so they decreed that chamber pots should be emptied into the streets only twice a day, once at 10am and once at 10pm. At 10am, it worked out fine. Chamber pot emptiers would yell "Garda-loo!" and anyone on the street below would step against the building and out would come the poo and all was good. At the 10pm emptying time, however, it was a different story. Around 10pm, the pubs and streets would be hoppin' and folks who had been in those pubs would be heading home after drinking the methane-gas-water and weaving all over the place. One's mental faculties were never quite as sharp at that point as they should be, so when somebody opens a window and yells "Garda-loo" in garbled French, those in that state of mind rarely remember to step against the building, out of harm's way, and would often look up to find the source of all the yelling, and subsequently a face full of the emptied chamber pot. Thus, the meaning of the term "shit-faced". Now you know everything!

After our tour ended in Princes Street Gardens, which is very green since the area was formerly Norloch (free fertilizer!), we continued adventuring around town and found the National Museum of Scotland and went in to check out the cool art work and thaw out a little bit. After we'd seen about all there was to see there, we went out to a find really cool view of the Scott Monument and Waverly Bridge. We took the opportunity for some experimental photography. We could make millions!

We were getting a little grumbly in our tumblies so we went in search of food. We found a place called 99 Hanover Street that looked promising. It was a great choice! We had a really good meal for not a lot of money and the servers there were so nice and willing to offer tips on things to see while we're in the city. After our meal, we doodled around some more shops but everything was closing early because it's Sunday. So we just caught a cab back to the hostel. This place is hoppin'! There are lots of people staying here and they're showing the US vs. Canada Olympic Men's Hockey finals in the movie room tonight so everyone is getting hyped up.

We got to see a whole lot today and we really wanted to try our luck at finding the Loch Ness monster, so we booked a day-long excursion for tomorrow to the highlands of Scotland. We're so excited! We will report back tomorrow (hopefully) with news of our day.

Quote of the day:

Rachael: When's the last time we took a shower?

Katie: I don't know. What day is it?

Rachael: Monday? I don't know!

Katie: Oh, London! I took a shower in London. When was that?

Rachael: We should really change our socks.

And now, for some fun pics!

The Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street Gardens

A popular statue of an old faithful watchdog

This is the restaurant where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter. From that window, she could see a very expensive private school which she used to as her inspiration for Hogwarts. After the books were published, she became richer than the Queen of England (not an exaggeration) and she sent her kids there.

Seems like the hockey game is over! We should go see what all of the singing is about and see who won. Until next time....

XOXO K&R

Shenanigans!

Before we begin, we'll share a few photos from the end of our time in London:

Clowning around in the British Museum:

WHA?????

Jazz Hands!

Gotta have the red telephone booth:

Turns out, we do have stuff to report from Dublin after all. Today was fun! We left London pretty early. We literally had to take 4 trains to get to the airport this morning and made it in time to buy a couple of souvenirs before catching our plane. Apparently we made friends with the lady that we were checking in with because she made no comment when Katie’s bag was 3ish kilos overweight (about 7.5 pounds). She looked at our passports and said, “Oh, I could tell you were from the South!” We like her. We would have had to pay roughly 10 pounds per kilo that the bag was overweight if she hadn’t overlooked it.

When we got to the plane, it turns out yet another reason Ryanair is cheap but weird is that they don’t have assigned seats. Luckily, we were warned by the lovely Dot Dannenberg Williams that we should stay out of the way of the snotty old ladies and let them have the window seats because they’d fight you for them and they fight dirty! About an hour and a half later, we arrived in Dublin to un-rainy skies which was a nice change from London. Unfortunately, by the time we made it through customs and got our bags it was raining again. Bah. We had to get help from a chaplain to figure out where the heck we were supposed to catch the bus to the hostel. He helped alright. We got on the wrong bus! The bus driver was very nice, and took us to the next stop free of charge and told us the correct bus to take. Well after that, we didn’t have correct change because we had just changed our money over and only had bills. So, when we finally found the right bus, the driver wouldn’t let us on because we only had a 5-Euro bill. Inserting quote of the day here: Upon asking what we were to do with no change, the bus driver said, “Walk back to the airport to get some.” Rachael and Katie reply in open-mouthed stunned unison,

“WALK???” So we were stuck in the middle of a yucky construction zone

a whole bus stop away from the airport with no way of getting back to the airport safely. We got really lucky when a bus driver came by to swap shifts with another driver. He took out his change drawer and made change for us so that we could take our bus. So, after waiting another half hour or so, our correct bus finally came around again and we were able to get on. Well, getting on the bus was half of it. Once we got on, we really had no idea where to get off. We were asking a girl on the bus which stop we should get off at and all we really learned from her was that we had really bad directions. So, we got off at a spot that looked good and asked for directions. We don’t know what it is about Ireland, but either they’re really bad at giving directions or we’re really bad at following them, but we got lost, got found, and got lost about 3 times before finally consulting iPhone and GPS. Thank you, technology! When we finally got to the hostel, we found it to be really amazing. It’s way nicer than the hotel we stayed in last night in London!

We took a little time to put our things down and make a couple of phone calls and get our act together before heading out to spend what little time we have here. Well, once again, we don’t know what it is about this place, but these folks either can’t give directions or we can’t follow them! We got lost again! Oh well, that problem was solved by hopping into a cab and asking him to take us to the Temple pub. When he asked which one, we found out that Temple Bar is

actually an area, not one bar. So onward to Temple Bar! We decided we just had to eat at an Irish sounding place. What we did not expect upon arriving in Dublin today was the Ireland vs. England rugby match. Ireland won so everyone and their mother was out! We wandered around for awhile searching for somewhere that wasn’t packed up like a can of sardines and eventually found a place called Oliver St. James Gogarty. Pretty Irish-sounding! We both had a really good meal there. After dinner, we wandered around a bit more and found a pub down the street where we just had to get some good ol’ Irish beer. We drank O’Hara’s Irish Red and met a really nice couple from Dublin who had kids our age and had come into town for the evening to celebrate Ireland’s big win. We really enjoyed talking to them and told them about our blog. After leaving the pub, we went window shopping around Temple Bar and eventually caught a cab ride back to our hostel. As we write this blog, there is a nice group of (we guess) high-school-aged Germans jamming with a guitar in the hostel lobby. Of course, we had to come on by and join in on the jam session! They were speaking rapid German but every once in a while, we recognized some song titles as everyone threw out song suggestions. Some of our favorites from this evening were Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,“ “Hot Stuff” and Bon Jovi’s “It’s my Life” (a crowd favorite).

We’re checking in early tonight because the best method of transportation (so we can avoid running into the shenanigans we ran into earlier) to get to the airport in time for our 7:50am flight is to catch a shuttle from our hostel at 4:45am (yikes!) So goodnight to you all! See you next time!

XOXO K&R

Change of plans #1

Okay, so we named this post "Change of plans #1" because it's the first but we're pretty positive it's not the last. Rachael took a turn for the worse last night so we decided it might be a good idea to stay in London another night instead of travelling on a plane and risk being sick the whole time. We asked if we could stay in the hostel another night, but they only had one bed available so, oh darn, we had to book a hotel room. When we woke up this morning, Rachael was feeling loads better. We decided she had the "Welcome to London diet!" 24 hours to the brand new you! We got our things packed up this morning and checked out of the hostel at 10am. We couldn't check into our hotel until 2pm so we left our gigantic backpacks in the hostel's luggage room and wandered around the neighborhood for awhile. We had what we called a very London-y day. We went to a couple of local shops and a lucky chosen few will be receiving postcards from us in the next couple of days. We saw blue skies for the first time since leaving Georgia but it was super windy and COLD! After that, we made our way by bus to Notting Hill, where our hotel is located. We both had nice warm showers and left our junk lying around instead of locked up in tiny lockers and loved it. We took the opportunity to do a little laundry. Hopefully our things will be dry by the time we leave tomorrow....

After that, we wandered around in search of some internet so that we could book another flight to Dublin since we missed ours this morning. The airline we're using, Ryanair, is super-cheap but super-weird. You can only check one bag under 15 kilos (around 30 lbs.) and carry on one bag under 10 kilos. You can check in online and print out your boarding pass anywhere from 15 days to 4 hours ahead of time. We went ahead and checked into all of our flights (London-Dublin, Dublin-Edinburgh, and Edinburgh-Brussels) because we could print for free at the hostel. We learned the hard way that once you check in to a flight, you can't change it or anything. SO, we lost our money for the flight this morning. Oh well, it wasn't that much and it's a lot more important that we stay well so we can keep these entertaining posts comin'!

So, after we did laundry, we both put on a clean set of clothes for the first time since leaving Georgia. (notice we're wearing the same thing in all of the photos you've seen so far). Since we were able to spread out a little, we took the opportunity to do a little inventory of all the JUNK we brought and decide what we really needed because those bags are HEAVY. So, Mom and Dad, the boxes are coming! We went to get some dinner at a really neat Thai restaurant called Tawana Thai. Our servers were really nice and told us they expect to see us the next time we come to London. We did a little research and found out that if we don't check in online ahead of time and print our boarding passes, we will be charged 40 pounds for them to print one off for us. That's reason #37 that Ryanair is freaking weird. But cheap! So, we're writing this from an internet cafe where we have made frenemies with the guy running the place. (says Katie, why's he lookin at me so weird?!) We probably won't have anything to report from Dublin since we arrive there at 1:30 on Saturday and leave at 7:30am Sunday for Edinburgh. We love you all!

XOXO K&R

Our favorite quotes so far:

Katie: Hey, do you know where they get the fur for the king's robe and crown?
Rach: (without hesitation) Dalmations. And babies.

A little background for this one:
Joy, in her wonderfulness, had a European hairdryer for Katie to take along so that she wouldn't have to worry about converters and all that biz. Unfortunately, Katie didn't know that that type of plug didn't work in the UK but only in the rest of Europe, so she had to go without blowdrying the luscious locks for a day (which turned into three because you don't have to shower every day with curls!). So, the curls were good, but they wouldn't stay out of her face. Rach kept having to hear about how badly Katie needed a bobby pin for the Renegade Curl. The setting: sidewalk in front of the British Museum. The weather: cold, and pouring rain.

Katie: Look! There's a bobby pin in that puddle!
Rach: It's not worth it!!!

Follow up: After perusing the British Museum for awhile, Katie couldn't get the thought of that poor lonely bobby pin out of her mind, so she set off to track it down! Found it, sanitized it, wore it. And wore it. And is still wearing it. Score!!

Some more of London

So, we've had a fun 24 hours. We slept late on Wednesday so that we could adjust to the time change. As evidence to show how much time we've spent blogging, we didn't get going until about 2:00 yesterday from the internet cafe.

First stop was the Tower of London. There we got to see the crown jewels (which Katie loved! Surprised anybody? We didn’t think so). We also got to see some big ol’ ravens and some medieval armor. That was fun. We also got to see some of the rooms that were used as prison cells way back in the day. On the walls were etchings, carvings and notes some prisoners left almost 900 years ago. Cool huh? Well maybe not for the prisoners… but we thought it was cool. Just outside the Tower of London is a great view of the London Bridge.

Meet Philippe, our stowaway!

After checking out those sites, we then went to Westminster Abbey. As soon as we exited the Tube, we looked up and there was Big Ben! No joke, like we almost ran into it…alright a little exaggeration but it was really close!

We walked from there to Westminster Abbey. We really wanted to get there by 5:30 because we heard that you could get in for free at 5:30 and hear the choir perform the Evensong. Turns out, we got there on the wrong day and had to pay. It was well worth it. We got to see a lot of dead people and some sweet gothic architecture.

After leaving Westminster Abbey, we saw the London Eye in the distance. We walked across the river to check it out. Before we boarded the pod, we watched a 4 minutes 4-D video about the London Eye. Turns out the 4th dimension consisted of bubbles, snow, and water…all on us. Good times. We then boarded our pod for our “30 minute flight.” There were some sweet views of the whole city from there. Unfortunately we didn’t really know what we were looking at but it was still really cool. We took some pics on Rachael’s iPhone and stitched them together using an app known as Autostitch. You should go download it! It’s pretty cool. Here’s a panorama we created using the app (I think if you click on it, you can see it bigger)):

After that we went to grab some dinner at an Italian restaurant called Azzurro. It was really tasty. After that we started walking to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre along the river Thames. While on our way we stumbled upon the Royal National Theatre and just had to go inside and see if they were accepting resumes. They update their job posting website every Friday so we’ll definitely check that out tomorrow. All of the shows for the evening had already started but they did have a cool exhibit on Alison Chitty. She has designed numerous sets, costumes and props for several shows around Europe.

We then continued our walk and eventually found the Globe! We snapped some photos and decided it was then time to head back to the hostel.

Our taxi cab driver was really nice and was really curious about our take on Tiger Woods. We said that scandals like that don’t really surprise us anymore but he’s still one hell of a golfer.

We got back to our hostel and met our new roommates for the evening including an Irishman we refer to as Muscles McGee (because we never learned his name) and some fellow Americans who are on break from studying in Germany. We went to bed but didn’t get much sleep. We’ll the gory details but suffice it to say, Rachael did not have a good night. We’ll leave you with this heartwarming photo of the two of us below.

We went to a walk-in clinic near SoHo square and decided to consult the pharmacist instead of paying the 50 pounds to see the doc. He laughed at us when we said it might be the water that we‘re drinking and recommended the pink goop. So far, Katie seems to be okay, but we’re being wary and trying not to push it today because tomorrow we go to Dublin!

All in all morale is still high even though there were some low moments last night. It can only get better from here!

XOXO K&R

Our review of "We Will Rock You"

Imagine if you will the following all mixed together: Queen+The Rocky Horror Picture Show+Star Wars+Matrix. Confused? Yeah, so were we. The story took place in the year 2347 (or something like that) in a land far far away on planet Maa (formerly known as Earth). In this world, something has gone terribly wrong! Rock has died. Music is only produced in a cookie cutter boy band style with sole purpose of making moolah. A rebel known as Galileo Figaro hears music and lyrics from classic rock songs in his head but doesn't know what any of it means because no single person produces music anymore. There are also no instruments left in the world, they have all been destroyed by the Killer Queen (who seems to be the equivalent to Frank N. Furter from Rocky Horror)and a guy that looks like Agent Smith from The Matrix. Galileo meets a new friend, his new bad ass chick and names her Scaramouch. They are arrested for being rebels who do not want to be a part of the Gagas (the cookie cutter boy band clone people that populate the rest of the world). They escape and find the Bohemians, hippies living in a Tube tunnel they call the Heartbreak Hotel. There, they meet Britney Spears, a guy who looks like a cross between Jackie Chan and Don Cheadle. Britney Spears tells Galileo that he is THE ONE aka the dreamer and can save the Bohemians from persecution and the Gagas and bring rock n' roll back to its former glory. The music Galileo has been hearing in his head are the words from the holy scripture known as Bohemian Rhapsody. Long story short, they bring back rock. Woohoo!

Bizarre plot right? Yeah it was really hard to follow and the musical numbers popped up out of nowhere, sometimes in places where they didn't really fit. For the most part we were okay with that because the music and arrangements were awesome. The singing was great, the acting... not so much. The set consisted of large truss columns along the wings and a platform in the shape of a T that came out of the stage and revolved around. Upstage, there were large screens where they projected a mixture of images reminiscent of 1985 such as neon zebra skin print. When the Gagas were present, the screens were full of SIM-like characters doing the same dance as the Gagas. Most of the choreography looked like something Rachael could create at Grits n' Gravy night at I-Bar (super cheesy interpretive dancing). The content was a little raunchy by American standards, so this show probably isn't for children (in Katie's opinion). The lighting for the most part was okay, a lot of flash n' trash for the musical numbers and simple enough for moments with dialogue. When the Agent Smith guy came in to arrest people, a green laser cage covered the captured which created a cool effect. After the bows, and the stage went dark, we realized we had not yet heard the mother of all rock songs, the sacred song itself, Bohemian Rhapsody. A screen projection popped up asking if we wanted to hear Bohemian Rhapsody. Well of course! So it answered, "Oh, alright then..." And the actors came back on stage to perform. This was probably the best part of the show. The lighting, choreography and arrangement was great. Plus it was pretty cool to sit in a whole house of people banging their heads to this "holy piece of scripture." All in all, music: two thumbs up (three, if ya got 'em!) but the plot was super-cheesy and the rest of the show was just whatev. Not bad for a show we basically walked into off of the street.

More pictures later! XOXO K&R

London bridge is falling down!

So, first things first. A very special shout out for the newlyweds, Mr. and Mrs. Dot and Jake Williams. Congratulations and we wish you the best!

Now, the the less important biz. We left Atlanta last night at 11pm. The Atlanta airport was a breeze and we had plenty of time to exchange money, etc, before boarding the plane.

Bye, Mommies!

We even had time to look up a bird's butt! Meet Kevin:

Neither of us got as much sleep as we wished, but more than we thought we'd get, so I guess we're good there.

We made it to London alive! We landed around 12:30 today and it took awhile to get through customs. After we got our massive backpacks situated, we headed to the Tube (remembering to "mind the gap" of course). We got these nifty cards called Oyster cards that are like reusable metro cards.

Turns out, England has some crazies too. We encountered the most charming gentleman rapping and dancing on the train from the airport to our stop near the hostel. It's amazing how dignified people sound with a British accent, no matter what they're talking (or rapping) about. We have video to prove it and we'll upload it later when we have more time!

It's a rainy, cold day in London but the weather was about as bad as it could be and we survived so we think it'll all be uphill from here, knock on wood. We checked into our hostel and it's... a hostel. Nothing really special but it'll do! It's right across the street from the British Museum, so that's pretty cool. Here are a couple of pictures of our lovely abode:

After checking in and unloading our very heavy backpacks (moms and dads, be expecting a box of our unneeded belongings soon) we set out to grab some grub. We were walking along trying to figure out where to have dinner when we happened upon a restaurant named Munchkinz. The sign said that they accept American dollars and Euros as well as pounds, so we figured it was a winner. We dined on traditional British fare (Rachael got the fish and chips and Katie got the shepherd's pie). We drank our Diet Coke and water without ice and did NOT get free refills. Ah, how we miss the comforts of home. After dinner, we were mapping out a game plan for the evening because most of the things we wanted to see were closing shortly and we were both about to fall asleep. Our plan was to walk a few blocks to the Tube and take it to Charing Cross (wherever the heck that is) and ended up being sidetracked by bright sparkly lights. Hello, West End! The source of our distraction was a large sign that said "We Will Rock You". Turns out, this was the theatre playing a musical all with music by QUEEN and Ben Elton. So what do we do? Go to Charing Cross or rock out to some Queen? I think we all know the answer to that one. So, the show starts in half an hour and we're right around the corner at Starbuck's sipping our lattes and writing our entertaining blog posts. All in all, a good first day. Unless the musical sucks. But how could it? It's QUEEN!

Today's the day!

After all of Rachael's planning and Katie's agreeing with everything she planned, it's finally time! We leave tonight, sleeping pills in hand, and arrive in London at noon tomorrow completely relaxed and fully rested (ha!).

This is what the packing process looks like:

This is Katie with her pack, much happier now that it has been adjusted:

And cute Rachael with her pack!

The excitement around here is tangible. Check back often for more pictures and updates!

Home, sweet hostel!

In order to have a little structure to our trip, we've already booked a few hostels. Email us at woodmeregang@gmail.com for links to see information, photos and reviews of our first few hostels. BTW, Happy Valentine's Day! SMOOCH!

London February 23-25

Dublin February 26-27

Edinburgh February 28-March 1

Brussels March 2-4

Amsterdam March 6-8

Another itinerary update

Click to enlarge:

Update to Itinerary

Hello world!

15 days to go!!

Just thought we should share that we have made an update to our itinerary and have added Essen, Germany to our list. After Amsterdam, we will be going to visit the oh so wonderfully talented Sidonie Smith! A recent grad from UCF, Sidonie has been in Germany performing in the rock n' roll musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. We can't wait to visit and see her perform!!

Thank you all for the emails we've been getting and for your helpful "don't miss this!" and travel tips. We certainly hope to see it all!

Also... if you haven't already done so, become a follower! See, it's that little box to the right of this post. You should become a follower because that makes us happy and feel loved! :)

Alrighty, that's all for now folks. See you later!

K&R