In Chester!

And now I'm in Chester, England, sitting across from the gorgeous, old cathedral. So pretty! Especially with the blackened stones and the morning light spilling across its towers. ^_^

I'm also only 2 miles from Wales! There's no town, but there is a sign that says "Welcome to Wales." Definitely worthy of a pic. ^_^ And so I'm off to find a bus that will take me there. If not, hey, 2 miles isn't that far to walk, ne?

Back in Belgium

And because this is just a cool shot and I had the time, here is a beautiful cathedral in Belgium, caught in the morning light. ^_^

(and no, I'm not back in Beligum)

The Highlands/Moors of Scottland

I just have to say, I utterly adored the rugged moors/highlands of Scotland. Beautiful country. Very rugged, stony, and I'm sure difficult to make a living, but awesome, breathtaking views of a land still in control by nature and nature alone. ^_^

Of course, it also helped that there was snow on the top, with a slight fog hugging the upper tops of the mountains.

(the pic is from a section of Rannoch Moor - my favorite area so far)

Loch Ness!

My new German camera can do panorama views so, without further ado:

Loch Ness

(plus a ruined castle. Always a plus!)

Neat, isn't it? Here are some closer shots of the same area (and yes, that is snow you're seeing. It's cold up here!)




And I just liked how this shot turned out, with the water framed by the trees with fall colors.



And sorry, but no Nessie. She/he didn't feel like coming up to pose. Sadness...

Scotland Update

Only got a minute, but I'm in Scotland now! Up near Loch Ness! Didn't see the monster though.

Sigh.

But still having a ton of fun! ^_^

Last Night in London

Sad to say, but it is true. Tomorrow, I head on up to Scotland. Yay!!

Stranded in Belgium!

Not currently and not for a very long time (only 4 hours) but since I hadn't planned to be stopped there, I'm counting it as being stranded. ^_^

Basically, I had arrived at 6am via the night train and was supposedly to get on the Eurostar that would zoom through the tunnel underneath the English Channel and plop me in the middle of London before 8am. Alas, I did not realize that this 'Chunnel' route (as it is referred to around here) is a bit busy in the morning and so there were no spots available for little old me. I'd have to wait until 10am before I could board the train. The guy said this most solemnly and I guess he thought I was going to be dissapointed, so that would probably explain why he was very surprised when I was like "Cool! Where can I get a map of Brussels then?"

^_^

And so, for the next four hours, I wandered about the town, enjoying myself immensely (loved the style of the architecture. And the main square? So cool-looking!). It was a bit scary since it was still dark outside (sun didn't wake up until around 8am) but still very fascinating and I was rather sad when I had to start heading back in order to catch my train.

But hey, now I can say I've visited Belgium as well. ^_^

Night Train from Berlin

So, backing up a bit, I took a night train from Berlin to Brussels (where I was to then board a train to London, but there were some complications - more on that later).

The night train was very...interesting. The only other night trains I've been on were in China, so I had thought I was prepared for pretty much anything. But apparently not!

They had 3 beds lined up on top of each other (see pic). 3 beds! On both sides. They were very narrow both width and height wise. But the pillows were nice and fluffy (very non-Germany I've noticed) and my other bunk mates were awesome!

Two were a just-married couple from Japan! Ah, I had so much fun chatting with them in their language (good thing too since they could speak very little English or German). The other bunk mate was from Poland and alas, he could only speak Poland or Russian, neither of any of us could speak. So he was left out of the conversation most of the time. Poor guy. I felt really bad and tried to include him, but there is only so much conversation you can cover with many hand motions and broken English/German.

All in all, the train trip was a blast. I didn't get much sleep (train kept stopping and I'd wake up - plus, my stop was at 6am anyway) but it was still an awesome experience. ^_^

The Girlyness of Grace Church Street

I was on Grace Church Street! Or in other words, Cheapside! Miss Bingley would be appalled. ^_^

Ironically, that street is now where a lot of international banks and fancy clubs reside. I find that rather funny since what used to be the 'cheap' area (because of all the merchants and trade -- people 'below' the proper status yet still having money for nice homes) is now a very high end area of town. ^_^

Miss Bingley would definitely be appalled. ^_^

In England!

And I'm now in London, chilling in a small McDonalds because of their free Wifi. ^_^

It's a cold and rainy day, but I'm excited. I'm in England! Hurray!! And I'm off to join a free walking tour that starts at the Hyde Park. Whee!

East Berlin

Today, I went on a free tour that took me all over the interesting sites in the East Berlin area. It was awesome! Lots of cool stuff to see. I intend to go to several of the sites tomorrow to explore them in more depth. ^_^

Something random that I realized today: the wall was built around West Berlin, not East. I always had the impression that the wall was a line that curved around East Berlin, but that is not the case at all. Since West Berlin was so far in Soviet land anyway, and since so many people kept escaping into West Berlin, they decided to build the wall all around the free West Berlin in order to keep everyone in Soviet land and not lose them to 'democracy'.

Also, most of the cool stuff to see is all in East Berlin. Weird, eh?

Berlin

And I'm now in Berlin. Took a four hour train from Frankfurt to get here, too. Germany has got some awesome scenery, btw. ^_^ I really like the grassy, rolling hills spotted with forests and small towns.

The Random Wanderer

I've now embarked on a random trip around all of Europe. It's gonna be so much fun!

Updates will be small and short (since I'll be using internet cafes most of the time), but at least they'll be frequent!

Whee!!

My Town

And here's a shot of the small town I live in, with an old catholic church that tolls out the time every fifteen minutes. How I love hearing those bells. ^_^ Missed them so much from Italy.

Oktoberfest!

I went to Oktoberfest at the end of September. And it was huge!!

There were thousands of people there (and I'm not exaggerating on that number) and all sorts of things to do. And it was nothing like I had imagined. Well, kind of. I had this idea that there would be rows and rows of tables/benches and there would be tons of people sitting, drinking, eating, singing, and doing lots of other whacky stuff - but mainly eating and drinking.

This was not the case. Well...at least outside the big tents.

The whole thing is like one giant carnival plus several folk festivals all rolled up into one gigantic chaotic mess. Rides everywhere, plus the odd shows (saw a flea circus tent - made me laugh so hard), and of course, tons of festival food (like huge pretzels (see pic), smoked fish on a stick (very good btw; just avoid the head) and ginger heart shaped cookies). Lots of people mingling about, both young and old, all in some level of soberness. Twas interesting how many 'wasted' individuals you'd see being dragged out by their friends, or on a stretcher with the medics, or bumping into them yourself as they stumble on out.

The best part for me, though, was when I was waiting in line to get into one of the big tents (where it's all that singing, eating and drinking stuff), and the area is just crammed full of people - and it so happened there were some Americans, some Italians, and of course, lots of Germans. So I got to chat away with all three groups, switching back and forth to help the others understand. So much fun!!