Our last night in London ended with dinner in an expensive restaurant in Piccadilly circus, London's Time Square. After dinner we wandered around a bit, and as we were walking towards a store I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A neon sign, the kind that messages scroll by on seemed to say .GET. At first I thought I must have seen it wrong as I was not looking at the banner, but sure enough, the next time it scrolled by it say .GET (well ...GET but close enough =] )!!!

I spent about 10 minutes trying to get a picture of this, but the best one I could get was '..GET'. Good enough. =] Thats the one thing I don't like about digital cameras. You hit the shutter button but it takes .5-3 seconds to actually take the picture.

The flight back was not bad at all. We left on-time and got back into Boston early. The flight itself was nice as our seats were right in-between coach and business class so we had a lot of leg room. The only downside was my personal TV monitor had color problems, and the audio was a little messed up (mono/stereo problems.. loose plug).

After getting back to Boston and relaxing at Brett's for a few hours we headed out to The Outback for Brett's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRETT. We returned home after and I am still trying to get re-adjusted to EST. I fell asleep around 10pm that day (3am GMT) and am not fully adjusted back to EST yet.

Now the moment you've all been waiting for, PICTURES OF THE TRIP ARE HERE!! I split the pictures up into 4 sections, one for each stage of the trip. Enjoy. Oh, and if clicking on the pictures does not work for you, clear out your temp internet files and cookies.. tools, internet options, delete files and delete cookies.

Yesterday our flight back went well. No delays at all!

Ok, so someone REALLY needs to teach the british how to count. The street our hostel is on starts at 87 or something and our hostel is 71 so it sounds like it is really close by, but no. They count down to 80 or something then jump down low to 20 or something, go up a little, then down, then up, skipping all over the place.... Our place is about a 10 minute walk from the train station.

The hostel in ireland was much nicer and bigger then this place. We are on the 4th floor here which is really the 5th. That means a LOT of stairs in narrow stairways. The room itself is so tiny that there is no where to put our stuff really. It's fine though since this place is a LOT cheaper then a hotel in london. We even get a free breakfast.. that makes you puke. Warm milk in a box + buns. Woo. Anyway the rest of the day was good.

Yesterday we visited the outside of buckingham (I'll fix all my spelling when I get home) palace, the war chambers where the WWII was planned in london, Hayley's: the biggest toy store in the world, and we say a Shakespearian play, the Tempest.

Today after that great breakfast we took a tour of Westminster Abby, got my picture taken by Big Ben, rode the London Eye, visited a wax museum, visited Kings Cross (platform 9 3/4), and took a stroll through Hyde park.

We are in the hostel right now resting our feet but soon it'll we'll be out one more time for dinner on our last night in Europe.

Our flight on British Airways leaves tomorrow morning around 10:45 GMT so the next blog will be from the states. See you all soon!

Today we visited Dublinia, a museum of Dublin's history. We thought the place was supposed to be a medieval armor/weapon's museum so we were a little disappointed, but none the less, it was still interesting.

Later after lunch at subway (heh, it was cheap and quick and we needed it quick) we went on a bus tour\ of dublin and Malahide castle, home of the Talbots.

When we returned I checked out the art museum quickly before it closed (whole place in 10 mins) then walked more around the city.

Tomorrow morning we will be going on our last hop of the journey before returning home. We fly out of Dublin's airport at 11:45 (hopefully) for London via Ryanair. A quick check of the weather shows that we DO have the luck of the irish, no rain STILL!!!

Ok so I only have 7 minutes left on this computer, and the keyboard sucks so I'll make it quick. :)

For the past few days were were in Wales with Don and Kat. We had a great time in Swansea and Cardiff. We visited a castle in Cardiff on sunday, the first castle I've been to.

Today our plane was delayed 2 hours due to foggy conditions in ireland, but now that we are here it is really nice out. Brett is taking a nap upstairs in our hostel room while I write this, but soon (its almost 5pm here) we will be heading out to eat and maybe to see a play.

The most amazing thing is that it has been nice (no rain) EVERY day so far! This is a record for the UK I think. With luck it will stay like this.

Anyway, I hope everyone back home is doing ok. We fly back to London the day the war is supposed to start, so I hope we'll make it, and without any delays.

Ok times about to run up. Bye from Dublin Ireland!

The rest of today was really cool. After waiting a while for ryan, the person we are staying with in oxford to get back we went out for a walking tour of oxford. Among the many places we walked we visited the place of the filming of the Harry Potter films. The location where all the internal castle shots were shot was called the Christ Church College, or something like that. I have a picture to post when I get back of myself in the dining hall where all the Hogwarts students ate.

After that we visited a few other colleges in Oxford before returning home to Ryan's room in Trinity college. After hanging around talking for awhile we took off to begin the night life. Our first stop was the Eagle and Child (again.. something to that extent), a pub where Tolkien and CS Lewis used to hang out.

After the pub we headed off to a french restaurant that I can not remember the name of. The food was excellent, especially the desert.

We ended the day by going to two bar/clubs. The first was in the basement of Trinity college. This is the first place where I had more then one drink. The rest of the night was fun. We hung around with Stewart, Ryan, and a few of their friends the entire time before coming back to Ryan's around 12:45am.

Well now it is time for bed. I hope everyone from umass is having fun as it is now their spring break.

UPDATE: Here is one of the pictures from the harry potter castle

We left the hotel in Kensington this morning and took a train to Oxford. We are currently in Brett's friends room waiting while he meets with the Oxford University president to discuss end of trimester matters.

Last night Queen's We Will Rock You was really good. We did have seats in the very back, but even so we could so without much of a problem.

One other thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that we walked across the Millennium bridge.

Yesterday's flight went well. We left on-time even early and go to London right on time. the hotel we are at isn't quite four star, but none the less its still nice. Today we spent the day in London with two of Kat's friends. We went to the Tate Modern museum, and now are waiting for a musical to start, Queen's We will Rock You. Other then being windy and cloudy the weather over here has not been bad at all.

Chilling at Brett's for the night before the 8:15am flight tomorrow. Just checked british airways website and the flight is scheduled to leave on time, and since the weather report says sprinkles for boston I don't see any problems coming. The next blog post will be from overseas! (or at the airport while we wait for 2 hours).

Chilling at Brett's for the night before the 8:15am flight tomorrow. Just checked british airways website and the flight is scheduled to leave on time, and since the weather report says sprinkles for boston I don't see any problems coming. The next blog post will be from overseas! (or at the airport while we wait for 2 hours).

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away, naboo was under attack.... Thats how weird al starts a song, and thats good enough for a start to this post as well. :) [lets just hope the attack part doesn't interfere with my trip..]

Anyway, tomorrow evening (tuesday) my trip begins. I will be leaving UMass after classes and heading to Framingham to stay at Brett's for the night. Early in the morning (5:00?) his father is going to be driving us to Logan for our flight to London. For anyone who wants to track our flight it is #BA238 (British Airways).

That night (it will be about 8pm GMT (the local time) once we get there) we will be staying at the Thistle Kensington Palace, and probably will be meeting up with Kat's friend Jane. We'll stay at this hotel for the next night as well (visiting Kensington/London) and head to Oxford on Friday via train.

Brett has a friend going to Oxford so we will spend the day there and leave Saturday for Swansea Wales where Don and Kat have been studying. Since we won't get to Swansea until late we are not planing anything big, however the next day, Sunday, Don/Kat want to visit Cardiff, the capital of Wales, so we will be doing that.

Monday we will probably just check out Wales/Swansea as don/kat will be in class.

Tuesday we will be taking a flight (FR883) to Dublin Ireland. On Tuesday, and for the rest of our trip we will be staying in Youth Hostels.

Wednesday we will still be checking out Ireland.

Thursday we fly (FR114) back to London for the remainder of our stay.

On Saturday the 22nd of March in the morning we will be flying (BA213) back to Boston.

That is the rough outline of our trip. I will be bringing my digital camera so expect many pictures once I get back. =] Also, I will probably be posting to this page from overseas so keep coming back for updates!

Weather Reports:
Boston London Swansea Dublin

sitting outside of Dr. Maribeth A. Erb's office in Northampton and being online is fun. - Urgo

It says no parking (police take notice). Jay says the lights just turned on outside the office. Errh just mapping out our trip on the computer ocifer, what did windows connect to somebodies network? Aint windows the darndest. -Marfastic

"The other night I dreamt of knives, mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstien" - REM "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
----Scott