Heavy Doors and Haggis Smores

Ok, not really Smores made out of Haggis, but it just rhymed. I'm in Scotland now - Edinburgh. It seems that pictures tell the story a lot better than me rambling. But I do enjoy rambling - and I am on a laptop now and new friends house, so I could. But were all playing a game right now, and it's after midnight. Hey, it's my birthday! Hahaa, yesss!

But first the last part of Liverpool- I got to go on a tour inside Paul McCartney's and John Lennon's childhood homes. I stood in John's enclosed porch and sang a song where he and Paul would write songs (somebody told me it was the bathroom, but apparently John's Aunt would banish him to play the guitar to keep the noise down.)

Here's me right next to that very porch:




After Liverpool I hopped a train at night and headed off to Edinburgh. This was by far the most expensive train trip I've taken so far. (I got a doosy later on the way to Madrid.) I met up with Phillip - a doctor here in Edinburgh who's given me my own room, plus access to his washer and dryer. Cool! He lives in old doctor housing, and there are doors separating each room that are so heavy and close even when you put a chair in front to hold them open. I guess it's a fire prevention thing or something. But these are some heavy doors. And they're in many apartments here.

Here's a GREAT store I passed by:




Then I went to a pub and ate Haggis. It was actually really good - tastes a lot like liver.



On the way up to Edinburgh castle, I ran into William Wallace! I wish the videos worked on this computer - after this picture was taken, this guy proceded to tell me how he had been to LA in '88 to see the band Slayer "rock out", and then did the two-fingered rock and roll thing.




Last night I went out with Phillip to a pub wear I met loads of people, including these two chicks: Lexie (red hair, from San Jose) and Clair (tongue out, from Melbourne).




Lexie and Clair told me they were planning on taking a day trip the next day to Stirling Castle - the place that William Wallace made famous. So that's what we did! And on the spur of the moment, we decided to hitchhike about 8 miles away to see the castle in Doune where they filmed the scenes in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We had super generous, talkative Scottish people who gave us rides. On the way back we had a middle-aged couple who could not talk anything but praises for America. "This country owes the States an unforgettable debt- the Nazi's never attacked America, and yet you came over and fought on our shores. So thank you."

Some great photos from our day trip:

This is our album cover.



It became uncomfortable when we discovered neither of these guys worked there.



She did the thumbing, and then I did the axe-murdering.



I got them to do a jumping picture! Always a good idea.



Tomorrow I'm going to see another castle (they're all free this weekend) and then Lexie (the redhead) is making me a cake for my birthday! Edinburgh has been great.

All You Need Is Love- And A Red Scarf

Liverpool! Home of the Beatles. I'm typing right now on a German PC laptop. On the keyboard, some of the keys are in differnt places, but the software has been set up to USA configuration. So basically I have to type by knowledge, not by sight. Good thing I'm a pro at capital letters. Although it's good- Ive learned a bit of German now. If I run into a cute girl in Berlin, I can always show here "My Computer".

Here's the outside of the Spekeland Pub. It's now an apartment building. One big one. 6 people live here. Each pays 90 dollars a week. Unreal.

Here's a pic of the ground floor of the place I stay in. To my right is a poster of famus composers. When they got their cat, they named him Berlioz, after one night holding him up to the poster and deciding who he looked the most like. It wasn't unamimous.

But I didn't sign on to talk about German PCs, fasicnating as they are. It's been almost two glorious days of Beatles Beatles Beatles. Today I took the Magical Mystery Tour and heard all kinds of awesome facts and stories about them growing up in Liverpool. Visited Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, etc.

I thought I'd save you another picture of me standing next to something, so here is Strawberry Fields as John Lennon would have seen it:

Tomorrow I'm getting a small private-ish tour inside John and Pauls houses! They're still preserved as if they still lived in there when they were young. The Liverpool government promptly bought them up to charge tourists 15 pounds (30 bucks) to see where John and Paul wrote over 100 songs together in the bathroom. (Apparently it had the best acoustics in the house.)

Yesterday was a HUGE football (soccer) match between Liverpool and Arsenal. I spent the game inside a massive pub filled to the brim with die-hard Liverpool fans. Red scarfs everywhere- much like Pittsburghs Terrible Towels. Every Europe football team has their own colors and scarfs (my kind of people, right Phillip?) Liverpool won 4-2, and the celebration was unbelievable. I was told it was a good thing they won..........

The pub where it was CRAZY

Here's a video when Liverpool scored the goal to put them ahead. One guy got elbowed in the face on accident by his friend but here didn't care because he was so happy.

After the game, some new friends I made took me across the street to an open mic. They bought me pints and shoved a guitar into my hands so that "Hollywood" (my nickname) could play a few. With rabid Liverpool girls around to hear what the chap from Sunny, CA sounded like, I sang/played Lenny Kravitz' "Get Away", Green Day's "When I Come Around", and I Forgot's "Breakfast At Tiffany's". I think I kind of felt what it was like to be a Beatle for about 10 seconds there.

On a more personal, non-touristy note, today was the day that solitude set in. Well, today and yesterday. Yesterday I kinda had a little breakdown as I was trying to figure out the public transit system. It's been 10 days straight of planes, trains, automobiles, and buses. In America, most of the cities are in blocks. Not Europe. I literally could not follow directions of "go here, turn left". The nicest lady ever put on her coat and walked me a block and pointed into a bus and said "Get on this".

Today as I picniced by a theatre (where I later saw Romeo and Juilet tonight, awesome), I felt very alone. Everyone is so nice here - really nice. But I sample them and move on. It's like sample day at Costco. But I don't get to build and establish relationships. I just move on to the next city. So I felt that today. But also just solitude. Not necessarily lonliness- I think that suggests a longing. I dont really long for any thing or one in particular. Theres just an absence there. A silence that usually is filled with a sounding board in the form of a roommate, friend, fellow actor- or just someone who knows me. But to be alone with my own thoughts is, well, I'm not really sure how to describe it. If I think of a joke or a comment, no one there to tell it to. I do meet and hang with people a lot, but it's all "on your best behaviour/meeting a new roommate for the first time" time of behaviour. Not the good old stay up till 4am talking about life and nothing. Although, that has already happened once here, so I eat my words.

But today I spent a lot of time just talking with God. I guess it's cliche, but he really is my travel partner here. When I think on Him, I don't feel so alone. Even if it's just a blue sky.

Cat on a Cold Wood Roof

Just got into Liverpool. I'm staying at the most amazing place ever. It's a 4 story pub that's been converted into a house basically. I knocked on a red door and this total hippy greeted me at the door with wild hair and a purple robe semi covering a very hairy chest. His name is Christian- couldn't be a nicer guy. Put a cup of hot tea in my hand as he showed me where the bar used to be. In the kitchen there's fridge poetry and an ashtray that says "I love Fags". Haha, Enlgish for cigarettes. Just imagine the coolest place ever, and that's where I am

Im on his laptop now- a MacBook Pro of course (awesome) - next to me is a huge musical keyboard set up, and to my right is a cat that simply loves to hang out on the windowsill, no questions asked. This place could totally exist in San Francisco in the 1960's. Looks a lot like the apartment from Across the Universe.

Speaking of Beatles (nice segway, thank you) I'm headed out today to check out all that Liverpool has to offer about my fav English band. Cheers!

Bath or Shower

Bath is this great little city that I don't think a huge amount of people know about.  Well, they do get loads of tourists.  But there's only about 90,000 people who live here.  However, they have one of the coolest things I've ever seen:  The Roman Baths.  The Romans were here over 2,000 years ago and discovered a natural hot spring that they thought would bring healing powers.  So they built this huge temple and bath surrounding it, which was discovered  underground about 200 years ago.  Now you can go down and see it - and even taste some!  I did, and it's not that great.  But you have to do it.  You know, when in Rome, or Bath, drink 10,000 year old water.

It has rained and snowed several times while I'm here.  Apparently an anomaly.  I was out for a comedy tour last night around town, and it started snowing on me.  I never got the memo- Iw as the only person without a hat or hood.  Today I went to the thermal spa here.  Spent 2hrs just relaxing.  

Again, the picture upload is down.  Bugger.  Oh well.  Just imagine a beautiful town made out ofLimestone.

London was 2 days ago but I'm still gonna post this

I spent three nights in three different places.  All in London.  That's backpacking!  But that's where the real interactions happen.  Spent the night on the spur of the moment at my friend Christian's girlfriends house in London.  Stayed up and chatted with "uni" (college) students about like in the UK.  I just really like these accents.  I talk like them and I don't even try.

As per the title of my last post, I sat in a lot of traffic on the Hop On/Off bus tour.  Forgot to put sunblock on that day.

Later on I went on Beatles walking tour.  How great!  We went by the old Apple studios where they sang on the rooftop for their last ever performance.  Then after it was over, my tour guide, whom I had created a bit of a bond with, took me back to Trident Studios where the Beatles recorded songs like Hey Jude.  Other artists who recorded there:

Elton John- Crocodile Rock, Rocket Man, Candle in the Wind

James Taylor- Carolina on my Mind

Rolling Stones- Sticky Fingers

My guide told the engineer that I was a huge fan, so he let me into the studio to have a look around.  I actually cried.  Here I am sitting where the Beatles recorded Hey Jude:

This on the river Thames.  This ferris wheel, called the London Eye, is freakin high.  You can see the whole city.  I'll go on it in July.  The line wasn't long enough for me on this trip.

Then I went to Notting Hill and saw the HUGE Portobello Market.  People selling all kinds of things- from baguettes to old WWII binoculars that Allied Forces captured from Nazi U-boats.  Can you believe it?

Then I went to Abbey Road.  I took off my shoes and took many pictures and videos of my walking through the crosswalk.  Pics and vids which I would upload if this website wasnt being dumb.  So just picture it.  There, now you got it.

Caught a late train to Bath - waited in the bus station for about two hours with a 40lb backpack.  I actually had a pretty good time just people watching.  Ok, on to Bath now....

London Skies or Traffic, Sweet Home

Back online after a short hiatus.  Not sure how often I'll get online during this trip.  I could fork over for an internet cafe, which I'm positive will happen, but not quite yet.  Arrived in Bath last night after an adventurous bus trip from London to Bath which was 3 hours delayed.  Apparently some major train was delayed, so loads of people were all trying to fly off to places like Manchester and Oxford in coaches (long distance buses).  The result was bascially what the holidays look like at Disneyland.  Over a 100 people were in line for 3 ticket agents.  Shouts rang out from the crowd when an pleasant English voice announced that certain coaches were full:  "Noht good enuf!", "Get the bloody manager"!  Apparently the bloody manager was at window number 3.  (I just noticed that there is no "number" or "pound" symbol on a UK computer pad.  And I'm on a MacBook!)  But here I am in Bath.

I should finish London first.  I spend three full days in London, mostly seeing tourist stuff, I have to admit.  But I have 5 days in July to sip tea with the Queen.  Speaking of the Queen:

The Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace:

What London blog would be complete without this gem:  (Do I always make that face?)

This is Picadilly Circus.  All of the Beatles films premiered at the cinema in this Circle:

Here's me at some building doing my favorite thing - leaning into pictures:

This was just my first day here.  For all of your who may have never been here, I've been making a little video blog too:

It's 2am and I have to hit the sack.  Gonna bateh in 2,000 year old Roman Spa tomorrow here in Bath.  I'm a little behind on blogs, so hopefully next time I can finish England and blog about Bath.  I got snowed on today!