There's no place like home.

Well, now it's really back to reality... and I hate it.
I am sitting at my computer at home, wishing desperately to be back among the cows and the sloten, where there are achres of land between houses and windmills along the highways. It's hard to imagine that three weeks have come and gone. I feel like my whole person has expanded and become much bigger.. it's really hard to explain -- but I feel different. Nothing feels as satisfactory here, but yet there is still a Canadian pride that keeps me going... Everybody loves Canadians in Europe (but not Americans... Europeans usually asked for our forgiveness if they had assumed we were Americans tee hee) . It is also helps knowing that there are people here I love and dearly miss.. But without that...
Our last couple of days in Holland were pretty fun. On Monday we relaxed all morning, then mom, Trish, my aunt Pat and myself went to Utrecht on the train (just hadn't had enough train travel for one trip) to do some shopping. Shopping with my mother can get a little wearisome (as we found out in Amsterdam) but it was still fun none the less. Utrecht is a pretty nice city, full of narrow streets and shops. Trish and I didn't buy anything but it was still a fun cultural experience.
On Tuesday my family spent the day in Amsterdam. When we arrived (we went again by train) our first order of business was ... a coffee! Go figure. I had a hot chocolate and they gave me a whole bowl of whipped cream to go on top! Yummy yummy... We then took a boat tour on the canals. Amsterdam is a beautiful city. The streets are full of narrow houses all connected together. They are so tall and narrow that most of the houses have pulleys jutting out of the roofs so that when they are moving they can tie up their furniture and hoist it up to the appropriate room. It was rather fascinating. We then went to the Anne Frank huis (or house) which was exciting and depressing all at the same time. Being rather tired, I felt like crying most of the way through the house. I'm sure lots of you are familiar with Anne Frank and her diaries, but if not, Anne Frank was a dutch Jewish girl that went into hiding during WW2 and wrote diaries during that time which were later found and kept by friends. Her family was discovered and brought to a concentration camp. She died a month before the camp was liberated, thinking her whole family was dead, not knowing that her dad still lived. Her dad survived the war and made the diaries into a book. It was quite a moving "museum".. we went through the actual house and all the rooms and stuff. They had eight people crammed into this small little place.. sad sad sad. After that we toured around the city for the rest of the afternoon and tried to find T-shirts for my neice and nephew (which prooved to be quite a trial --- we had had quite enough of souvenir shops by the end of the day!) Our tour also included going through the red light district. I don't think I've seen anything so blatently and publically geared to sex in all my life. It was disgusting. The streets were full of sex shops and sex shows and obsene fountains (dad wanted to take a picture of one of the fountains but my mom wouldn't let him.. it was quite the masterpiece!). One man called out to us to come to some sex show, telling us that we could get family discounts! :) We had a good laugh over that one. In many of the doors and windows, women were just standing there, scantily clad, to try and entice men to come in. It was so sad. You just have to wonder what is going through these prostitute's heads.. And we were there at maybe 2:00 in the afternoon! I would hate to be walking there at night.
Yesterday was another relaxing day. We went to a big garage sale in an old village (I bought two shirts and a really cool guinness glass that ended up breaking.. I was rather bummed about that one), we saw a Dutch castle that was right by my aunt and uncle's house, and we went to my cousin's place where we got to go on a boat ride on one of the dikes.. The boat was about 40 years old though, so halfway through our ride we had to stop and bail... :) It was fun. Then last night was our last night with my dutch relatives. It was really sad to leave them because I hardly ever see them so who knows when the next time will be.
And today we left. We were at the airport by 7:00 in the morning .. meaning we were up at 6:00.. My mom's aunt and uncle surprised us by showing up to say good bye... and then my aunt/uncle/cousins etc all had a coffee with us and we said good bye. It was really sad to leave. Our plane left at about 9:30 and then we had a 8 and 1/2 hour plane ride. I was exhausted by the end of that one. But we had three in flight movies -- Raising Helen, 13 going on 30 and Love Actually. All chick flicks. But ah well, it kept the time going and it was something to watch. We arrived at about 12 our time here and now we have returned and am starting to unpack. My enegy is draining though because it's now getting to be 10:00 PM Holland time. Jetleg is such a wonderful thing.
I can't wait to catch up with everyone and get my pictures developed!
Hopefully I'll be back in Europe in my dreams.

Ready? Ha! I was born ready!

We have returned to Holland! Sadly our trip to Ire/England has ended, but it’s not too sad because we still have one more day here in Holland! It is Tuesday now, so it has been 4 days since I’ve written. So much has happened in those four days it’s hard to know where to start. The Saturday we spent in England was one of the best days of our trip. I wrote about 6 pages front and back about that day in my journal so I’ll have try to give the abridged version here. We got up at 5:30 to get on the 6:15 train to Stratford. Blech, not a big fan of waking up that early. But when we got there, the town was just beginning to wake up so it was really neat to see that. Of course our first matter of business was Shakespeare’s birthplace. We were not dissappointed! It was sooo cute and quaint! It was rather weird to think that the great Shakepeare himself was born there! Nuts. We then walked around the village, hit a big garage sale they were having and then made our way to Warwick to see the infamous Warwick castle. Warwick castle was the funnest castle that we went to. It was also the biggest I believe, and the most touristy (which kind of sucked but in this case it was a lot of fun too). There were people all around the grounds that were in costume of the medieval time period (such as a knight -- he was soooo cute! He was australian and reminded me of Russell Crowe.. I got a picture with him. Awww what a cutie -- a keeper of the dungeon – who was also not too shabby of a guy -- a duke and duchess, and a jester). These people gave little demonstrations or entertained or gave history on the castle and the time period in which it would have been used (the title of this blog is from one of the demonstrations). The rooms in the castle were also all decorated in the time period décor and in some they had wax figures doing the trade things they would have done back then. Across a little river they had tents set up in a little “village” and there were real people there doing such things as sewing, calligraphy, cooking, etc. all in period costumes again. A lot of the demonstrations in the castle were geared towards more children, but it was still tons of fun and was a great way to relax for the morning (you know me, a child at heart.) Once done there, we made our way to Oxford … the city “of dreaming spires”. That saying is not a lie. Oxford is a beautiful city! I only hope that I can return some day as a student… Of course, Oxford is also the place where J.R.R. Tolkien lived (the author of the Hobbit and the infamous the Lord of the Rings) so I had made a Tolkien tour for us to do. :) We saw five out of his six houses, his church, his college, and the Eagle and Child!!!! (his pub) We were going to have supper in the pub, in the very room where the Inklings would have sat and talked about their books and what not, but the pub’s kitchen was closed for the evening. So we contented ourselves with just going inside and walking around the place. It wasn’t very big. I also got a picture in front of the building which I hope to put on this page when I get back to Canada. While we were infront of the building a guy from Turkey tried to “pick us up”, so that was kind of fun. He was going to school in London and so he really wanted to know how much longer we were going to be there… but we said we were leaving the next day. Too bad for him! He was in the picture too, but to the side, watching me pose. Kind of creepy but he was really nice so it was okay. And he wasn’t old!! Yippee! We then walked around the city… and lo and behold… I met my philosophy prof from Redeemer walking down a little street in Oxford!!! Holywell St.— where one of Tolkien’s houses was.. It was the craziest thing ever!!!!! He recognized me and we chatted for a little bit. Had we been a little bit later or earlier, we would have missed each other completely… all away across the world. Man, the world is small. We went back to our hostel where both Trish and I managed to get hit on again by another guy. This one was definitely desperate because he tried to pick me up with the line “nice glasses, where did you get them from?” I think that has got to be the LAMEST pick up line ever!!! Where do guys get these things??? He also told me that fifteen minutes with me would be heaven, but he would take one minute if he could.. and when I left him he said he was going to kill himself. I mean really.Our last day in London was spent touring the rest of the city. We saw Buckingham palace and the British museum (I saw the Rosetta stone, which I’m sure I’ll be proud of some day) and then went back to the Theatreland museum to go to the costume workshop. That was soooo worth it because Trish and I were the only ones there, so we got to try on what ever we wanted! I tried on a dress worn by Carlotta in Phantom of the Opera, an Elizibethan dress, and the skirt worn by Sandy in Grease! It was a blast! But the cost of such a fun thing was that we were late for leaving for the airport. Our plane left at 4:10 and we didn’t leave the TheatreLand building till1:30. We then had to take the underground to our hostel, run in and get our bags, take the underground to Hyde Park, stop for two seconds at Speaker’s Corner, run through Hyde park (yeah, that park is big and it was hot – around 30 degrees – and we had our big backpacks on.. man were we sweating and red faced!!!) catch the subway and arrived at the airport at 3:00… an hour before our flight. Luckily we made the plane but then our plane was delayed for 1 ½ hours. Lovely. But we made it to Amsterdam and now we have been here for two days. Since this blog is already pretty big I won’t really elaborate on what we have done, but Monday we went to Uterecht for the afternoon (did some shopping) and yesterday Amsterdam. We also went through the Red Light district in Amsterdam.. wow what an eye opener!! A rather depressing and revolting area of the city. But this also means I have seen every capital of every country I visited in Europe.. Each is soo different but all are beautiful and unique in their own way. Today we are relaxing – going to a town which has many secondhand shops (yeah second hand stuff!) and seeing a castle – because we are leaving early tomorrow morning. :( Truly truly sad… Anyways this is pretty long so I will write more later.. I will be home in 2 days!

Your brother will die tomorow. Content yourself!

London oh London!
Once again, we join you from a little internet cafe.. I really like these things. Especially the cheep ones. I think I'm going to get a bunch of computers together and start one myself. Look at me -- a little entraprenaur. Too bad I can't really spell it. But I'll be a good one.. just you watch.
Anyways, we have made the transition from Ireland to England! I seriously felt like crying as the Ireland coast drifted from view. I love that country and it will always have a very special place in my heart (let me dry my eyes a second). I was also a little bit sad becasuse Trish and I had met two WONDERFUL and goodlooking young men that morning .. and had to leave them in Dublin. A Swede (that would be from Sweden) and a Brit (and that would mean Britain -- Liverpool to be exact) . That was definately crying worthy. Anyways, our ferry ride back was absolutely fabulous compared to the one there! There was a casino, three restaurants, a play area for kids (and no.. I didn't go in there -- tempting) a store, a bar.. you name it! It was just wonderful! And no one getting sick.. Once we hit British soil, it was train time! I think that day we spent about 8 hours on the train. Talk about fun. :) To liven things up a little bit, Trish and I stopped over in Shrewsbury -- which may be actually said shrowsbury but we're not exactly sure -- the birthplace of the infamous DARWIN. But that's not really why we went (we did see his statue though!). We toured around the little town and all it's little alley ways (Trish and I took a little walk through grope lane.. which surprisingly still lives up to its name -- yummy) and then stopped for supper in.... McDonalds! It definately lived up to all of my low opinions of that fast food chain. BLECH. But hey, we were hungry and it was cheap.
So we finally pulled into Paddington Station (which is where the bear is from.. how cute!) at 11:45. I needed sleep. We went to our hostel -- no swede there :( -- and went to beddy-by.
Today was our second last full day in England. :( This trip has gone by soo fast! London is definately alot bigger than Dublin. We took the underground (our new best friend) to all sorts places -- starting with the parliamentry buildings, Big Ben (oh yeah! In real life! And yes, it's big -- no false advertising there), and Westminster Abbey. All of which were exciting. Then it was Theatre time. Right up my alley. Trish and I first went to the TheatreLand Musem (free of cost) which was all about the WestEnd (which is the area of London where all the Theatres are), how it came to be, it's history etc etc. There was also exhibits on the Redgraves (a very famous British acting family -- where Natasha Richardson is from) and on staging stuff (such as lighting, different costumes, weird stages etc). It was really fascinating. We were also there in time to see a makeup workshop. A guy did the make up of the Restoration period (the white powder, small lips, big hair).. it was so great! We then headed to London Bridge (and it didn't fall) and went to Shakespeare's globe theatre to see Measure for Measure -- one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays but one that I particularily wanted to see because I had done a scene from it in theatre class. Trish and I stood in the "yard" (which is where all the commoners would have stood in Shakespeare's day) and we were right infront of the stage -- I actually leaned on the stage the whole time and almost got kicked by an actor and hit with a sword -- that's how close I was! It was sooo awesome! I have never felt that close to the actors on stage before. The play itself was really good. The actors were very fun to watch, even though they didn't do my scene as well as me and my partner Todd did. But how could they have?!?? It's just not possible.
Anyways, the rest of our day was spent looking at the Tower Bridge, the London Tower, and riding the underground. We looked all over for Dicken's house but could not find it, so we'll just have to content ourselves with having seen his neighbourhood.
So now we are planning to go back to the hostel, have showers (something everybody on the subway should have done too... I love eau de B.O. ) and then hit the hay... we have to be at Paddington station by 6:15 tomorow so it's going to be an early morning!
Hope everyone is doing well... I do miss Canada.. kind of... okay, I miss all the people -- yes, you guys do still mean something to me! (although that swede... brown piercing eyes, tall, curly shaggy hair -- and interested in me too! sigh. If only I had gotten a name.)
Well, I'm knackered. (that means tired)
Cheers.
ps. the title is a line from Measure for Measure

My Goodness My Guiness

Hello from the wonderful city of Dublin!
I am sitting in our hostel writing on a pretty darn old keyboard. We have now been 2 days in Dublin and I can definately say everything is fantastic since our problems of monday! Dublin is wonderful. It is nice to finally be situated in one place for a couple of days!
Well, let me try to sum up what we've been up to in the big capital of Ireland. We arrived on Monday night and in the morning (after eating a real breakfast! Hurah!) we set out to see the sights that Dublin had to offer. The first place we went was the Kilmainham goal or jail. This jail was used during the various rebellions in Dublin, the civil war and the famine. Having watched the movie 'Micheal Collins' in World Issues in highschool, it was like history (and movie) coming to life. It was sooooo cool! For those of you who haven't seen the movie.. watch it! It stars Liam Neeson.. very nice. Anyways, after that we just toured around the city. We saw various churches that were rather large, we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells (yeah about that... it was 6.50 Euro to go in and see this silly book -- so we weren't going to go... then when we were in the bookstore - where the entrance to the book was - Trish just walked in when the guy was gone (not on purpose mind you -- honest!) and saw the book for free! Yeah for being Dutch!), we had lamb kabobs (there's some Irish food for you) and went shopping down streets reserved only for pedestrians. It was such a wonderful day.
Today was reserved for a tour Trish and I decided to go on called the Celtic Experience. It was with a tour company but there were only allowed 14 people per tour so we knew it would be a more intimate tour. Our tour guide's name was Chris and he was great! He was a funny guy and loved talking to us about Canada and telling us interesting things about Ireland and his life. On the tour we went to a bunch of places... we started with Fourknocks which is a burial mound outside of Dublin... it had buried 65 people... it was very cool. Next was Mellifort abbey.. a ruins of what would have been a beautiful abbey.. we are soo proud of ourselves because we only took ONE picture here, despite the fact that we are SUCKERS for ruins. I just can't resist take pictures of crumbling buildings surrounded by green! It's just so appealing to the camera's eye. Anyways, from there we went to MainisterBoyne which was another abbey ruin... but this one's importance was the fact that it held the highest celtic cross in Ireland and the best preserved and best example of a celtic cross (that would be 2 different crosses). Next on the list was Slayne, where we stopped for lunch (we ate in a beer garden -- a dream for some of you, I know) and then we went to the hill of Slayne which held the abbey where St. Patrick first defied the King and lit the famous fire of Pashel. If you don't know anything about that.. then you should learn. The last leg of our tour was to the famed Hill of Tara which used to hold the powerseat of all of Ireland. The High King lived there in his big castle (no castle remains because it was built of dirt -- talk about fancy) and there is also the Lia Fail.. a big rock jutting out of the ground. This is also known as the stone of destiny. Once again... do your homework.
So yeah, once the tour was done, we bought some souvenirs, did some groceries (um, bread and chips.. or crisps as they call them here) and then got ready for a night on the town. Trish and I decided to go to Knightsbridge Pub in Dublin which had live music and dancing. And no, we're not talking clubbing dancing where you dress in scanky clothes and bop your head.. no no... this is dancing the Irish way A. K. A. --- RIVERDANCE! Wahoo! We spent 10 Euro there.. on dessert and a drink. Yep, and that would be splitting that dessert and drink. But the drink was alcoholic (GASP!) .. but it was NOT Guinness. I didn't think I'd like the stuff (sorry jody!) so we got a shandy instead. But the entertainment was totally worth it. Live Celtic dancing right infront of us! It was awesome.
So now it's off to bed because tomorow we leave for the wonderful but expensive England! We're staying at the Brown's Hostel.. tonight will be our third night. Our bedroom is being shared with 18 other beds (not all which hold people). The amount of people in our room changes each night. Last night was the most interesting because there was ourselves, one other female and about 9 males. Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Unfortunately I was already asleep when they all came in, but Trish informs me that they just strip down to their boxers and hop into bed! Man alive... why must I be so tired!??!?! But waking up to 9 guys around you is rather interesting. Let's just say I tried to make it to the bathroom as soon as possible, then once done, made my entrance. :) LOL . But don't worry, no attatchments as of yet.
WEll, I don't know how much time we have left so I better sign off.. these things always end up being soo long! Sorry but there's so much to tell!
Oh, by the way, some of you have been asking if I have pictures... I do, but they are currently in a tight little film canister. So you'll have to wait until we get back.. then I can scan them into a computer and put them up somewhere.
I hope everyone is ready for school!! (that is, if you're going...) tee hee, I won't be there for another week!
Love lots and lots -- thanks a million!