Amsterdam

Well, 3 exams to study for and I still decided to go to Amsterdam for a couple of days. At least I studied on the plane ride there and back! We left on Wednesday night and arrived in enough time to wander around the town viewing the night life. Stayed in a hostel on the south edge of the center of town, so large amounts of walking were the order of the trip. The first night we found our way into the red-light district, where apparently I did not go on my 4 hr visit to Amsterdam during a flight layover 2 years ago. Legal prostitution and scantaly clad women in red lit windows as a bit of a shock to my poor mid-western sensibilities. The stretch was basically swarming with American and British tourists. Amsterdam is an easy place to visit for them as everyone speaks English. Thursday, we spent about 3 hours in the morning doing a self guided walking tour of the city. Impressive architecture from several different eras - the traditional tall, skinny houses; occassional double-wide mansions, the huge Dam square where the original dam once stood and there is now the old city council building and WW II monument. All the while you have to keep dodging trams and a plethora of bicycles. Took a nap in the afternoon, and spent the evening at a comedy show and then enjoying a glass of Heineken. The way the Dutch drink their beer would be absolutely illegal in England - it's served in a half-pint glass with about 2 inches of head on top. Pints are relatively unheard of there. Friday morning we stopped by the Rijksmuseum, which unfortunately is under pretty major construction, and the Van Gogh museum, also under construction, and decided that we couldnt afford 9 euros each to visit them. Where are the student rates afterall! We then went to the Heineken brewery for a self-guided tour which included 3 glasses of beer and a free glass at the end. Spent a good 3 hours there, highlights being of course the foosball table and the beer. In the bar at the end, ended up meeting several other Americans and chatting for sometime. The bar tender kept giving us girls free beer upon request, and, as our group apparently looked like drinkers, people leaving seemed to invariably leave their free beer coupons with us. So after we finally got moving, we stuck with the 3 American girls, Jen, Emily, and Helena from Montana and Missouri. Helenas parents both went to Purdue... small world. Making it even smaller, Les ran into some guys he recognized from his University right outside the Heineken place. The afternoon was spent chilling, enjoying an actual sunny day, and stopping by the Anne Frank house. A long trip back, thanks of course to the quality (or rather lack ther of) service of Easyjet. So I'm back in Bath, recovering from such a great quantity of walking and attempting to get excited about my exams.... 10 days left in England!

Wales pics

pictures of the hike in wales are now up:
Pembrokeshire Coastal Path

Overnight to London

Started out on Friday by turning in my huge chemistry coursework! huzzah. then caught the 10:22 train to London. Turns out Jim and Dawn (Americans) were on the same train but headed to Oxford for the day, and Les and his parents (more Americans) were on their way to London as well. So arriving in the city at noon I had a good 5 hours of wandering - went to the British museum for awhile. Overwhelming and full of treasures plundered from all sorts of countries - just the Egypt section was mindnumbing. After that walked around the westside - Leicester Square and Covent Garden. Then over to the houses of parliament and all those necessary tourist things. I met Maree at Piccadilly Circus where we headed over to the East side for a few drinks before the show. Got to meet quite a large group of aussies and kiwis there that are living in london and are friends with Daniel and Maree (kiwis from my scotland tour.) Around 8, we headed over to see the punk show going on that night - Phineas Gage, Four-square, and Ten Foot Pole. Quite a good show, although almost ridiculously loud. You know its bad when I admit that! But anyway, definitely fun to be there with friends, moshing around a bit, but relaxed atmosphere in a kind of small venue. So finished up and back to Maree and Daniels place where I got to take over their couch.

Saturday morning woke up 9ish, met their flatmates, had a huge cappachino. Then went with the boys to a pub in Fulham to watch a rugby final. Very interesting for my first rugby game - Crusaders vs. Brimbees or somesuch. Basically New Zealand vs. Australia. So the bar was full of aussies and kiwis and even got an early license to start selling alcohol at 11am! haha. what a country. At any rate, good game specially being with all the staunch supporters. So did some drinking. Maree and flatmate Lisa got there a bit later and the whole group changed pubs to watch the FA cup final in the afternoon. Also a good game - its basically a soccer match where the best team from the premier league (the best) plays the best team from the first league (2nd best) Almost comparable to the superbowl champions playing the arena football champions. So one always cheers for the underdog. Especially when the other team is Manchester Utd. dang pretty boys! Unfortunately they won as expected, and then I had to say goodbye to my new and somewhat older friends and hop the train back to Bath. Now it's time to get some revision done!

Chester Trip

well just got back from a very quick trip up to Chester - right on the border of Wales and N. England. After my full day of lectures (2 of them plus a workshop and making sure my bio practical got turned in on time) I hopped on a train headed north. After the incredibly typical yet still painful delays, ended up in the Chester train station. Managed to find Beth, who I originally met back in Greece where she was working as a scuba diving instructer on Rhodes. Since then she's been in NZ and out west in the US as a ski instructer. Went out with her and a kiwi friend of hers that happened to be in the vicinity. A few drinks and now I have a contact in Christchurch who even has a car... Turns out Beth is going to be down under soon too - working skiing in Oz. Maybe meet up again for some free lessons! Anyway, went back to Beth's home near Wrecsam, Wales, met her parents, and slept in today. More gorgeous weather though, so we finally go ourselves moving and into Chester. Walked around town, saw the walls, walked along the river and had an ice cream cone. Good times catching up and so much sun is still a shock. At any rate, trains and more delays but I'm back and obviously avoiding finishing my big chem project thats due on friday morning.... sigh.

concert review

alright, since attending this 'alternative ball' thing is the only even quasi-adventure that i've done in the past week, I thought I'd give ya all a review of the bands there. and if you're thinking "i dont care cause i will never see these random english bands" oh well. ;)

kingskin - described themselves as 'grunge funk = funge' and i would have a hard time putting it better. first couple songs were nirvana-ish but then they moved into more funky beat type songs. good show. lots of enthusiasm. and their bass player had fuzzy tiger pants. that was good stuff.

no comply - hard core ska. female lead singer, screaming added by boys playing horns and guitar. also good show - however i dont know where the hell in england they were from, but i couldn't understand a word the girl said - not in the songs, but when she was just talking. also they had some technical difficulties which was no fun. definitely got the mosh pit going though

million dead - headliners from london. i would describe as heavy rock. a bit of screaming but not enough to annoy me. singer sounds a bit like the at the drive in lead singer. apparently on their way to being big or something. a little on the heavy side for me, but i thoroughly enjoyed the set

so all in all, i figure it was 8 pounds well spent. lord knows i need to get out to things like this more often. i was impressed at the small yet very enthusiastic crowd. the concert was at 'the venue' which is up on campus. probably only 100 people there or so, but a way better audience then we usually manage at the union at purdue. sucked to not know anybody as usual. but such is life. ok. thats all.

more new photos

yep, do it - click on the link to the right. More photos up in the Scotland folder and a few of the adventures incurred with my flatmates.

NOTE: you can now leave comments about any of my posts! so do it up!

Hiking in Wales

Quick update for those of you still checking this out. Headed West to Wales on Thursday morning. Clay,, Les, and I took several trains to arrive at Fishguard Harbor. We got there in the afternoon so had plenty of time to hike up to the village, explore, and settle in at the backpackers hostel there. Quite a quaint little place. Steve, the hostel owner, was full of helpful hints for our planned 2 day hike of the Pembrokeshire coastal path. Next morning we were up early and caught a bus to Cardigan, about 40 min away. Our hike began from the bus stop there out past Poppit Sands where after about 2 miles the actual trail began. It followed entirely along the coast with some spectacular views of the cliffs, caves, and rolling hills that make up the area of Welsh countryside. We took our time and even enjoyed the presence of some curious cows and newly reintroduced welsh ponies along the way. Walking along the path was nearly deserted. Plenty of ups and downs to make it an invigorating 17-18 mile hike. Around 5pm made it to the beach of Newport. The tide was out far enough that we cut a bit of mileage off by hiking on the beach itself - with boots off our toes got a bit of a rest. To finally get up to the village we waded through thigh high (for me at least) very cold water in the slipway. The youth hostel in newport was quiet and nearly empty so we got a home cooked meal and our own room. The 12.5 mile hike planned for Saturday was vetoed due to a knee injury that Clay incured on one of the down slopes an hour or so away from Newport. My semi-sunburn and blistered heel approved of the decision. We slept in a bit before heading to Fishguard on to Haversfordwest where we caught 3 trains back to Bath Spa. A long couple of days but well spent, good company and beautiful scenery. Now back to the work that I have been putting off for weeks!

So not much new really. Random news is that I was running on Saturday while wearing a Purdue shirt of some sort, and two people on bikes came from behind me and yelled 'go purdue' at me. So of course I yelled something similar back, and they stopped to have a chat. Turns out they were a brother and sister from Ft. Wayne of all places and they'd been living in England for the past few years. All of their family has gone to Purdue so it was quite nice to hear a friendly accent.

Sunday I went on the residence halls trip to the Eden project in Cornwall. http://www.edenproject.com/ A VERY long bus ride - about 3.5 hours each way. But I managed to mostly finish my chemistry flash cards. It worked out perfectly since Sunday was the one day of sun in the past week! Spent a good 4-5 hours just wandering the impressive biodomes - one is the largest greenhouse in the world supposedly. The whole thing was worth it just to see what a pineapple plant looks like. Got a chance to work on my English tan while wandering the grounds. Quite a nice day trip, and back for a couple of parties on the floors below mine.

A bank holiday today meant no classes, and I've been attempting to cope with not doing very much. Class on Wednesday and hopefully to Wales on Thursday for some serious hiking.