LONDON, BATH, EDINBOURGH

It's funny, Jeff told me before we left that he wasn't going to read our blog because he wanted to hear about everything first hand. At the time, I totally thought he had a solid point. I realize now that if I were to recount every detail here, I would be typing for a rediculous amount of time. In any case, we are keeping a pretty extensive travel journal to jog our memories when we are telling stories in a few months.

Currently we are in Edinbourgh. It is the most beautiful city I have ever been in, and small enough to explore on foot, which is quite a change after 4 days in London. We decided to stay in a hostel here, and found one last night when we got in to town. At ten pounds per night, this one fit the bill. I've learned that it doesn't matter how much effort I put in, I will always pronounce Edinbourgh incorrectly, as will all Americans.

Today we were major tourists. We walked to the top of Nelson Monument, saw the castle, did "The Scotch Whisky Experience", and I bought a plaid scarf (I was cold!). Tonight we are attending a literary pub crawl.

Yesterday we were in Bath, England. It's a quaint town in the countryside with ancient Roman baths. We couchsurfed with Charlie, who was probably the highlight of the quiet town. He introduced us to a "true" English cider- not the Strongbow or Cider Jack that we are accustomed to. We only spent one night there but it was relaxing.

Before that was London. To understand our time in London, I have to explain our CS host. Here in the UK, Queen Elizabeth is referred to as the "Queen Mother." Well if that is the case, Ewan must be the host father. When we arrived at his house, he showed us to our room, put pizzas in the oven (vegetarian for me), and told us to make ourselves at home. For our entire stay in London, he could not have been more hospitable. Each one of his couchsurfers was like his child. He kept an eye on us, made sure we looked in the proper direction before crossing the street, made sure we all stayed together, and when we finally did go out on our ow, there would be calls and texts to make sure we were all (8 of us at one point) okay. I have so many wonderful and hysterical stories about London, so many amazing people that we met, and we have Ewan to thank for it all.

Tomorrow we head to Dublin for a week in Ireland. I'm not sure what our situation with the internet will be, but we'll try to post again in a few days.