A kid after my own heart

The World Premiere of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe!!!

So we went to the Narnia premiere! It was sooooo amazing! We got autographs and pictures, and free Turkish Delight!

Of course if you are royal, you can show up at the premiere for free.

A Scottish Mr. Tumnus in a kilt. He gave me his autograph. He smiled at me and talked to us. He even picked a wedgie. He's my new favorite.

This is me.

Myself, Christy and Katie enjoying our Turkish Delight in our own little star-struck way.

These are the amazing posters we got from the premiere. Obviously they do not fit in a suitcase, and we thought we may have to cut them (*cries*)... but then Katie (second on the left) discovered that they peel off the evil backing! Score!

In no particular order, I give you Scotland!

Stirling - The William Wallace Monument

Window scene from the train ride to the airport

More amazing train scenery

That blue just over the horizon is the Atlanitc Ocean.

Then you can see some faint hills, and the clouds.

It was like a little bay or cape. But that is indeed the ocean. I have seen both sides.

Taken for my family, and may very well be my senior picture

(it will have to be black & white)

Maria's farmhouse from atop the Monument

My favorite mountain

New friends from the Willy Wallace hostel

Paul (background - Scotish), Jesse (hat - Colorado), Joel (pink cup - Norway)

And Maria and I. Ignore the guy on the side.

Climbing the side of the Monty Python castle (Doune Castle)

Have to get in my fix.

Maria and I atop the Monument

Heinz Ketchup

And there is a lot of it to do...

Two Wednesdays ago, Liz and I went to see The Phantom of the Opera, which was, as always, brilliant. This being my 4th time ever seeing it - first in London.
But I think the more I see it, the more I want to see it again - I love it more every time.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and the staff at the FMC made us a special Thanksgiving dinner of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots, and stuffing balls. There was even a small jar of cranberry sauce and some gravy. Those of us that hung around for dinner (there were seven total) had a great time talking and sharing what we were thankful for, and enjoying our holiday meal.
Then Maria and I high-tailed it to Stansted Airport to hop the plane to Scotland.
Of course we were 5 minutes late for check-in, so they wouldn't let us on. We sat there for an hour before they even started bording the passengers on to the plane. We should have been on time, but RyanAir is dumb. That is all I have to say (or at least the nicest bit of what I can say here).
We spent the night at the airport not sleeping, but it went relatively quickly. I listened to Christmas music and did Sudoku puzzles. Read a bit of my book. Walked around a bit. Fun times.
We got on the plane in the morning and fell asleep instantly. When we got to Glasgow, we discovered it was a hole in Scotland, and took a nap. We found some dinner and then sat Maria's bed at the hostel and read. I am not even going into the dump of a place we stayed in. But we got out of there first thing in the morning.
We moved on to Stirling, where we instantly fell in love with the town before we could even walk the 3 minutes to our hostel. The hostel was even better. We decided to not continue on to Edinburgh, but stay at Willy Wallace.
We spent our first 2 days in Stirling wandering about and meeting people, seeing the sights (we did one of those tour bus things), enjoying the scenery, and just loving it all. The third day we decided to go out to the country for a bit.
We went to Doune first, where we played in the Doune Castle, where Monty Python was filmed :o) Some pretty important royalty had lived there in the past as well.
After Doune, we went to Callander, where we shopped and walked about. It was beyond bitter cold, so as soon as it started getting dark (at about 3:30pm) we thought about going back to Stirling.
That night we hung out with some of the staff at the Willy Wallace hostel, who ultimately tried to convince us to stay in Stirling, offering us a job at the hostel for a free bed. Tempting!
Our whole time there it was just above freezing cold, with bitter winds, but it was sunny and amazing.
Everyone we encountered in Stirling was super nice. The town is small and the people are fantastic. I really would live there, no kidding. It's an option.
We regretfully headed back to London on Tuesday.
It has been grey and drizzley here, leading me to believe I belong in Stirling.

I love both Rome and Stirling, but for very different reasons. People keep asking which I liked more, but I can't decide. It is like comparing pasta and steak pie.

Pictures will come when Blogger stops being what it is being. Stupid.

Once there was a way to get back homeward

This has to be the coolest thing we've done in London thus far. And we've done some pretty cool things, but this takes the cake.

Leaving our legacies.

Maria

Emily

Karla

Artsy Fartsy

So you know me... there are bound to be a few artistic shots in there. I can't be 100% tourist and still claim to be a photographer. So here are a few with my digital camera, though there are plenty more on my 35mm.

Pieta

Roman Soldier

Sunset through ancient eyes

Angel in Darkness

Sistine Chapel

I am still in awe. Pictures weren't allowed in the Sistine Chapel, but everyone was taking them anyway. How could I not?!? I even got a video in. You know me.
I think this was my absolute favorite part of Rome. Or anywhere I've ever been, ever. I could spend weeks in there and not see enough. We actually saw it twice after we realized we had missed Rafael's Stanzas, and went back to find them, effectively running through the entire Vatican Museums and back through the Sistine Chapel. LOVE.

Colosseum

Even though I can't spell it right, the Colosseum was one of the most amazing places we went. These are just a small sample of the many many pictures I took. We went later in the afternoon, so the sun coming through the wall was absolutly gorgeous. I can't explain what it is like to sit on a wall that dates back to ancient Rome, and think of all the Ceasers and gladiators that passed through the very spot I was in. An added bonus were all the kitties everywhere! I loved them. It was warm there (compared to London, where it has been about 40 degrees), but I am also wearing a few shirts. So it wasn't quite tee-shirt warm, but nice enough. I'll take it.

Pictures for the parents

This is the cat I was going to bring home. He thinks he's a lion that fights gladiators. But really he's a lover, not a fighter. He loved me lots.

Bootleg Louie, right on the streets. No shame here.

Roasted chestnuts. They were amazing (like all Italian food is). I know daddy would have loved them, but there was no way I could have sent them home... so I ate them all.

Italy = food.

So the topic of gelato has been covered, though not nearly as much as it deserves. Let's talk about other great food.

Bre and I went out to dinner at this little place in a side alley full of shops and tables. It was so cute! And the food was awesome.
First dish:
Artichokes Italiano.

You know I was all over that.
And how easy is that to make? SO good.
Main dish:

Bre's (top) was penne, but mine were gnocci. And they were amazing. And I ate the entire plate - they weren't overly filling like they are at home... not as heavy? I was determined to not let a single one go to waste as well. And the wine was good as well. I have this thing for wine now... where I drink it and I like it. Weird, I know.

Dessert. Oh, dessert.


Bre's Irish coffee, my cappuccino, and my tiramisu. Mmmmmm.



Bre and I at our little table. The waiter who took the picture was pretty cute too, but that was just an added bonus. I was more interested in the food.
SO GOOD.

Where did we leave off?

Our journey left off at St. Peter's, but we are going to fast forward a bit.

Bre had her heart set on the Trevi Fountian, so there we went. See, we really didn't have a game plan, just a tour book we left in the hotel and a map. We thought we'd wing it, since everyone knows the obvious things to see, and then you find the rest on the way.

It's a little back-lit, but it is me. Legend has it, if you throw a coin over your shoulder and it goes in the fountain, you will return to Rome. If you throw a second and it gets in, you will fall in love in Roma. Third and you are going to marry an Italian, or someone from Italy.
I got all three coins in. Bre threw her first, then got distracted and forgot the other two. Samwise also got his in. Check out his journal for that story.

This is the Trevi at night... it is the only full picture I have, so we are a bit out of chronological order, but you still get to see the Trevi!

As I was saying about walking along and seeing things... this is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which we practically fell over the top of. We saw people walking up the stairs and thought "hey, that looks like it may be important. Let's go."
I kneeled on the ground to fish out my big camera and was scolded in Italian by a guard. No sitting here, folks.
This is the view from the top of the Tomb. Bre and I are walking down the street, and suddenly we see the Colosseum. And there it is, to the right in the picture. To the left are some bits of the ancient Roman city.

Roma, ti amo!

I am going to attempt a post about Italy, and hope that Blogger does not devour it once more.

Rome (Roma) is amazing. Possibly the most amazing place I ever have been and ever will be.

The people were great, the food was great, everything was cheap, and it was even clean (but when you've been to Dublin, you think all cities are clean...).

Our hotel was a bus ride from the Vatican City. But you have to understand Roma transport. It sucks. It was the one bad thing about the entire city. Five #881 busses would pull up together and you would miss them... then it would be 30 minutes until the next bus of any kind came along. People are so frantic to get on busses... I was body-checked by a nun, RIGHT outside the Vatican walls, and quite hard! They aren't messing around! This and the fact that my shin was rammed into a pole made some words come out of my mouth. They weren't nice, and unfortunately I forgot that I was in an Italian speaking country when I used my bad Italian word. Fortuantely it wasn't loud at all, so nobody really cared. And the nun was far away. And the Metro was worse.

But once we got off the bus, we encountered this:

Piazza di St. Peter's Basilica

(The plaza outside St. Peter's Basilica)

As all good Art students who pay attention in class know, this was designed by Bernini. And if you are in my art class, you know Nigel thinks it hides Michelangelo's dome in the background there, and takes away from it. I disagree, finding the entire thing quite amazing.

Bre and I decide we should go to the top of the dome. But not before...

...gelato.

This (lemon gelato) was the first of many many many gelatos consumed on this trip.

You don't understand how very very good it is. I would go back just for that if not anything else.

And now you will see why Michelangelo is not only my favorite Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtle (the orange one), but my favorite (non-photograpy) artist.

They will see us waving from such great heights...

This is the view from the top of St. Peter's... the dome Michelangelo constructed over Bernini's Piazza. I think they go well together.

They warn you about the stairs. There is a little sign at the beginning stating you should take the lift if you have heart issues or are older, because there are 312 stairs after the lift.

Bre and I are not old and we do not have heart issues. Nor were we going to spend 2 euro to use the lift. Up the stairs.

Here is what they don't tell you. See the platform with the statues in the above picture? That is where the lift plus 312 stairs gets you. Obviously, this picture was taken far above that. I didn't even try to count. Narrow, tilted, winding staircases. It got so narrow and so windey that the last staircase all the stairs were no larger than 5 inches wide at their widest point (it is spiraled, remember) and a rope down the center of the spiral served as a handrail. But when you got to the top, that quickly dissolved (along with anything you used to call leg muscle...) - the view was amazing anywhere you looked.
Regretfully we left the top of the dome.

However, the second best part of the Basilica waited inside.

Michelangelo's Pieta. We had a paper due the day we left for Rome, and I chose to do mine on Michelangelo. I am a smart one sometimes. It gave me the opportunity to scope out some of his best works, and where to find them in Roma. I do believe this is my favorite sculpture ever.

Michelangelo's Pieta

You used to be able to get closer to it, but in the 1970's a disgruntled Hungarian went after it with a hammer. Of course a hammer is not going to do too much to marble like that, but the Vatican became quite (understandably) upset. I believe they over-reacted a bit, but can see why they would want to protect this - it is amazing. So you can now view the Pieta from a railing 3 feet away from very thick plexi-glass, which the Pieta sits about 5 feet behind. Fortunately, my daddy gave me a really nice zoom lense, so I have some good pictures. The one above is actually my digital, which has a comprable zoom, but nothing beats 35mm. And I took 4 1/2 rolls of 35mm film in Roma. :o)

Well, that is just the beginning, but I can only upload 4 pictures an entry, so more after some schoolwork gets done.

I have to write a play. Suicide.