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.
Myself, Christy and Katie enjoying our Turkish Delight in our own little star-struck way.
Taken for my family, and may very well be my senior picture
Maria's farmhouse from atop the Monument
My favorite mountain
New friends from the Willy Wallace hostel
Climbing the side of the Monty Python castle (Doune Castle)