Oh The Places We’ll Go

This is probably just going to be a quick update since we haven’t really done a whole lot since I last posted about our adventures.  Last night in London we ended up meeting some really cool people and stayed up talking with them until 2 in the morning.  We met a really nice girl from Holland who was telling us all about foreigners and Amsterdam, where to go in Holland and how exciting California seems.  We also met a guy from Australia who just got into London after bussing around the entire US for 4 months.  He did it on the GREYHOUND BUS, and I told him I’m surprised he’s still alive after that.  Haha.  Could you imagine going through the whole US on a GREYHOUND?  Sounds insanely scary and sketchy.  Don’t know if I would recommend that one, but he told us California was cool and he liked SF, so it was all good.  We also met a nice guy from Vancouver (yes, another west coaster!), whom I dazzled with my Canadian TV knowledge and my hockey knowledge.  Pretty cool.

Our day today was pretty much entirely spent on a bus.  We got to the Victoria Coach Station (they call them coaches here, not busses) and it was CHAOS because there were so many people and not enough spaces on one bus to Manchester, so they got 2 busses going.  Thomas and I sat in front and behind of each other, which was fine.  What was not fine, however, was the African man sitting next to us who was playing his radio/cellphone REALLY LOUD so the whole bus could hear it, talking on his cell phone the entire bus trip.  We both wanted to kill him by halfway through the trip.  Plus, the bus was stuffy and smelled weird, but it got us to where we needed to go so I guess it all works out in the end.  It took probably 5 hours for us to get to Manchester from London, which isn’t too bad, and after getting in we found our hostel really easily and settled in.  So far we are the lone occupants of our room so we’re crossing our fingers it stays that way!

Other than that, it’s a little gloomy and rainy outside, but everyone has been telling me I had better get used to it because that’s what Scotland is like all the time.  If I had waterproof shoes I think I’d be more excited about the rain because I don’t mind not having the sun out all the time, but since my Pumas are cloth instead of leather… they aren’t too much fun to walk around in when it’s wet outside.

The plan for tomorrow is to go to Old Trafford at 12:30 because I have our tour reservations (yes, I made sure I made reservations, haha), and we’re going to tour the stadium so Thomas’s life will be complete and he can finally get some new Manchester United gear.  I, on the other hand, will try to refrain because I will be a convert to the green and white (Celtic FC) and I need to save myself for their gear so I can wear it when Manchester United plays Celtic in October!  I can’t wait.  There isn’t much else to do in Manchester so I think we may hit up the movie theaters tomorrow to see something, and other than that just sleep in and relax.  London was a lot of walking and not much resting so it’ll be nice to sit back and enjoy the ride for the first time in a while.

Other than that, we’re just waiting to get to Scotland and see Glasgow so I can get myself situated and ready for the arrival of my friends from school and get going with orientations and everything!  Can’t wait.  Will let everyone know how Old Trafford goes.

Catherine

So Thomas and I are posting again from an internet cafe in Rome.  It’s our last day here, since we’re going to Florence and Pisa tomorrow to explore until we move onto Venice in a couple of days.  Since we posted last, we made it back to the Colusseum to take a couple of pictures as well as have dinner at a little cafe near the Colusseum.  The food hasn’t been much of a transition for either of us.  A lot of pizza, a lot of spaghetti, bread, etc.  Not much of a stretch for people who eat pizza and spaghetti on a frequent basis, although the quality (especially of the spaghetti) is way better than in America.

Yesterday was probably our most social day here since we met our two dormmates in our hostel, Sophie and Nancy, with whom we spent well over 2 hours discussing American stereotypes, British stereotypes, having a good laugh along the way.  It was pretty funny, they were both REALLY interested in how high school is in America since it’s pretty different in England.  They are both on their gap year, which is basically a break in between graduating from school and going to university.  Nancy introduced herself to us and goes ‘Nancy, that’s a pretty American name, right?’ and Thomas and I just look at each other and go ‘Umm… I guess?  Not really’.  Haha. 

We got to talking about, among other things, football, where to go in England, what Scottish people are like (dirty and rugged, sound funny apparently), and what people in America are like.  I guess being from California makes us really cool, especially since we are both from different parts of the state (Santa Barbara and near San Francisco).  We explained baseball and basketball to them, learned about rounders (?) and netball, and got to hear their best American accent impressions. 

We made our reservations on the train to Florence today, so we leave tomorrow at 10:30 to Florence and after checking into our hostel we are going to try and make the day trip out to Pisa to see the leaning tower. 

So far today we’ve seen the Trevi Fountain, the four rivers fountain, and the Pantheon.  The Trevi Fountan is absolutely gorgeous.  Huge, amazing, a spectacular sight.  We both threw coins over our backs and made a wish before moving on to the Pantheon.  The dome inside the Pantheon is what makes it the most impressive.  The four rivers fountain is in the middle of being restored, which kind of sucks, but it is still beautiful.

We’re off to see more sights in Rome before we leave so we’ll update more when we get our bearings in Florence.

Ciao!