Well, since leaving scotland, i have done lots and lots of exciting and interesting things.
our first destination from leaving scotland was the lakes disctrict. well, not the lakes disctrict its self, but not far from it. we were staying at daniels' mums' cousins house. Elizabeth was kind enought to put us up for around a week and show us the sights. What we didnt anticipate was that she would vacate her house for us, stay at her parents house and then pretty much pay for everything we did, no matter how much we wanted to pay.
our fist day there was pretty uneventful- all we did was arrive, get taken to Elizabeths' house and eat dinner. Elizabeth lives in a place called Cleator Moor, which is a little town that doesnt have much happen there. The next town over has a reputation for being inbred, much like tasmania. Although, here you can see proof of this because some peoples faces look a little flatter and like theyre actualy inbred. Too many people who dont know who their mother or father is in a small town. (this is what ive been told, i cant actually say for myself.)
on the second day there, we intended to find beatrix potters' house. This was all good, but we didnt actually know where this place was. We ended up spending most of the day driving around the lakes district looking for 'Hill Top' but in the end we found out it was closed. So, with that little adventure thwarted, we went to the local pub in a town called Hawkshead and tried some traditional english ale.
On the ale topic: im not really a fan. its a bit of a culture shock for me drinking something thats almost flat and almost room temperature. Althought, it can taste quite good. My conclusion is that im a larger man. After our ale, we went back home and got chinese take away started on the 16 tinnies of beer dans granmum bought us, then went to bed.
On day three we decided to go on a trip on a nearby narrow gauge railway that used to serve the mines. The locals affectionatly called this the La'al ratty. The actual train trip is about 40 minutes long, and it took us through...well i dont know where it took is ut, but it was a lovely trip. at the other end of the railway line, we went and had lunch at the local pub (which is in the middle of nowere!) and caught the train back. that was prety much our day. we had chinese for dinner again that night.
Day four found us make it to Beatrix Potters' house and then off to William Wordsworth house. Talk about a day for dropping in on the locals! Beatrixs' house was really quite interesting, despite the fact i cant remember reading any of her book...well none aside from the peter rabbit story i read in the souvineer store before we were due to go in the actual house. Alot of the illistrations in her books are taken directly from places in her house and garden. They even had the books open at the pages where she had done this.
Wordsworth's house was something i could appreciate even more, since i had studied his good mate S.T Coleridge in high school. It was interesting to see all the rooms he compsed his poems in and how they actually lived. The room i found most interesting was the room the children slept in. All over the walls were newspapers (not originals). Mrs Wordsworth did this to try and keep the room warm at night. One particular article that interested me was the summary for the budget for the British Defence Forces from around the 1800's (i cant remember the actual date, but i did get a god piccie of it)
Day five was a rest day for us. we did our washing and drank beer. In the evening we saw some relatives of daniel. In fact, every night, we would go to another relatives house for daniel to meet.
Day six we went on to london, and stayd at the hostel called the generator. We drank cheap (relitavly speaking for london) beer and played pool. that was about it.
day seven after leaving Edinburgh, we dropped our bags off at the airport and then spent a day in london. We took a walk through soho and saw some pretty interesting stuff along the way. We spend alot of timne in a vintage magazine store that was jam packed with cool stuff. It was amazing to see mags as vintage as from the late 40's. after our walk through soho we went back to the airport, had dinner and then flew to prauge.
On the 8th of may, we alnded at prague and went straight to our hostel for some sleep. even though it was only 11pm by our body clocks, it was past 1am local time.
On the 9th we wandered around prague. We visited the summer palace, situated right near the castle. This place was amazing, we picked the right time for going to prague. The summer palace is a massive park that the royalty used to enjoy. The Royal Summer Palace, also called Queen Anne's Summer Palace, was built to the order of Ferdinand I from 1538 to 1560 on the eastern edge of the royal garden. it is a place where pixies could possibly live, its that good.
We also went to this massive mentronome on top of a hill about a Km away from the summer palace. The actual purpose for this working machine was unclear as there were no plaques or signs explaining it in any language. around the metronome were lots of youths skate boarding, grafiti'd walls and lots of empty aclohol cans everywhere. It had the feeling of something symbolic that had been pretty much forgotten.
apon some research of the metronome, i have found out that it was erected in 1991 to replace europes largest monument to Stalin that was ripped down in the 60's it sits atop nuclear bumnkers intended to shelter the countries elite should anything happen.
that day, we also just wandered around the city center. That night we drank in the hostel bar and had cheap cheap beer. The night peaked when we had a shot of genuine absynth. We did the shot properly by putting sugar in a teaspoon,soaking it in some absynth and lighting it. once the sugar had caramelised, we mixed it into the shot, lit the shot to take more of the edge off, then sipped away. The feeling of the absynth going down my throat was amazing, it started out as if it was a cool liquid, then over the space of about 10 seconds, it got warmer and warmer until it felt like it was burning, then the sensation died away.
On the 9th, we set off to the meeting point for our trip through eastern europe. We caught a cab to the meeting point and had to pay with a 10 pound note because we didnt have enough Czeck crowns, and our hostel receptionist wouldnt change any money because he was cashing out.
The meeting point was the prague plaus hostel, a massive hostel with a hotel like feel thats away from the city center. I aksed the receptionist if he could change pounds, but he couldnt, and then i asked him where the bus about tour leaves from. this guy had no idea what i was talking about and seemed to know of now tours leaving from the hostel...great.
with no information on where the tour was leaving from, we waited out the front for the bus. there was no sign of it at quater to 8, still no sign of the hour. then at about 10 past 8, a random busabout guy poked his head out and asked "your not busabout passangers are you?"
"yeah we are, wheres the bus leaving from"
"oh shit, the bus is out the back, we were almost about to leave without you."
with that little thought in mind, we went to the bus, stowed our baggage and got on the road. We did end up leaving two people behind, not knowing where they were.
Hooray! we were on the roud to our first stop in Olomouc (pronounced OO- loo-moost) However, it wasnt all smooth sailing, i had a hangover from the night before and was sitting up the back of the bus. The bus also had very soft, rolly suspension and we were on borderline third world country roads. I got motion sick pretty quick, and it didnt go away untill our first stop. If this wasnt bad enough, our tour guide Carlos had us do a speed dating trype activity so we all got to know each other. By the end of it i couldnt speak to any one i was so drained.
our first stop was a cemetery in a small village. Normally this would not be of any note, but this cemetary was decorated with the bones of several thousand people. I have fotos of all these that i will upload to facebook at some point. The reason why this church has so many bones in it is because when the plague was doing the rounds, so many people were being buried in the graveyard that room was running out. So they decided to decorate the inside of the church thus. The masterpiece was the shandelier hanging from the middle of the roof. Not only was it impressive to look at even in this particular church, but it also contained ecery bone that is found in the human body. In all, the experience was a little sickening. Im not one to enjoy peoples remains for art, or what ever symbolism the people at the time hand in mind.
We then drove to oloumoc and stayed in a hotel there. We had dinner at a local Italian eatery and edned up at a bar that was in a converted plane in a dark and scary amusment park.
theres more to come folks, but i havre to leave you with this for now...
