Scotland

"Land of the free, home of the brave."
"Scotland!"

In light of fact that today is Harry Potter's birthday I would like to post about a very personal experience.

Last week I went to The Elephant House. The coffee shop where J.K. Rowling did most of her writing of Harry Potter. You know, in the beginning, when she was a poor, single mother and hanging out in coffee shops.

Especially this coffee shop. That painting above the sign is a painting of her writing.


Now I would like this place even if it wasn't culturally and personally significant. You can get a full breakfast for like six pounds. Which means you basically just bought your entire day's worth of food for about six pounds. Then their hot chocolate is really good. Chocolate cream on top of hot chocolate.

Then it is open, there is plenty of seating for parties or solos. There are jungle like plants everywhere. And elephants. Everywhere. A book case of elephant books. A shelf of Elephant figurines. It was just great.

I  had my notebook, my new copy of Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone (Yes, the British version) an hot chocolate. It doesn't get much better than that.

Then, while I was reading about Diagon Alley a group of American tourists took a picture of me. I'm hoping I reminded them of their granddaughters or something. Otherwise the idea of an old guy candidly snapping pictures of me is just a little odd.


Did I say it didn't get better?

I went into the girls bathroom and this is what I found. 

Almost every surface is covered with notes from others who have made this pilgrimage. Plenty of references to the book "Weasley is our King." "The Chamber has been opened." Ect.

But there were a great deal to Rowling herself. I remember one girl had written a really long paragraph thanking Mrs. Rowling for making Hermione a strong female character. Complete with textual evidence. (I'm not saying it's hard to find textual evidence as to why Hermione is a strong character, I'm just impressed this girl cited it. Literary power!)
Some are down right touching "Mrs. Rowling, I think of you as a second mom."

It was like my generations' Juliet's Wall. I seriously got choked up.

Well, I'm sorry but I think I have to wrap this up. I have to read some Harry Potter. 

The other night I was getting ready for my big trip. Due to circumstances beyond my control I set out on my travels way later than I planned.

But I did manage to get a seat at the very front of the bus so I had a great view. Of course the driver also kept talking to me in broken English. "Where you from?" "What time you fly?"

I managed to get to Dublin around 11 pm. It was very dark and there were plenty of drunk people around.

Before you knock on the Irish for being drunks, these were drunk tourists, mostly young tourist doing the "Finding Myself in Europe" thing. Which is completely different from what I am doing thank you very much. Then there was a group of high schoolers in prom-like outfits totally smashed and screaming at each other.  Not in a mean way. Just in a "carrying out a conversation at different sides of the street" way.


So I left the bus and tried to follow my map-quest directions for my hostel.

Ok that's one time around the square, can't find Bachelor's St.

The over friendly Bus Driver saw me circling the station and was like "Where you going? You stay in city? Hey, where you going?"

I am sure he was just trying to be helpful, that I reminded him of his daughter and he wouldn't want her lost in Dublin at night.

But it still freaked me out. I watch too many murder mysteries. I have been told before.
 
Then I realized: if I couldn't find Bachelors St. I was not going to have much luck with the next 58 steps until the hostel.

Finding a hostel I have never been to before in a city I have only been to a handful of times in the daylight is not too big a deal.

At night Dublin can be a bit scary. At least if you don't know it very well and you are on your own.  And the way I follow directions involves getting lost and back tracking a lot.

Not something I wanted to do in Dublin at night. Lost foreign girl with nose in directions at almost midnight?

Yeah, great idea.

So Plan:

1. Find hostel -- Out  I wouldn't be able to do it.

 2.  Local hostel/hotel-- all co-ed dorms or 99 euros a night. OUT

3. Get a cab to take me to the hostel.  Yeah I've seen that movie. And expensive. Out.

4. Get a bus to the air port and sleep there. -- Well do you have any better ideas?


So I slept in the Dublin Airport and got to Edinburgh safely. I know it sounds like I was an idiot. But I was alone, in a strange city and freaked out. I like to think I managed the situation pretty well.

To Ginny

The only really hard adjustment about living in a foreign country is all the people you leave behind. For instance today I really miss my mom. I'd include a picture of my mom here but she hates pictures of herself.

I think the "I WANT MY MOM" phase that today has been started when I decided the best way not to forget the only necklace I was bringing to on my trip was to not take it off. As in sleep in it.

I have never slept in a necklace before. Why?

Because when I was a toddler my mom told me if I wore a necklace to sleep it would strangle me.

And my parents wonder why I think about death so much.

Anyway, a couple years ago my sister said she never took a certain necklace off. I was like "Oh my gosh it could choke you! You can't sleep in necklaces!"

Needless to say my sister looked at me like I was an idiot. She gives me this look a lot. In fact it would probably be more of an event if my sister was looking at me like I wasn't an idiot.

"Mom told me you can't sleep in necklaces or they strangle you in your sleep!" I insisted. My sister smirked.

"Madi, I probably told you that when you still wore huge, long toddler necklaces." My mom broke in. "The necklaces you and Sarah wear now are not going to choke you."


Shouldn't there be an expiration date on these Semi-lies they tell us so we don't believe them forever!



Like when I was old enough to say not wear necklaces like this:


And to start wearing necklaces like this:



My mom could have mentioned that simple silver chains probably wouldn't bring about my demise.

Yes, I realize if I thought about it I should have figured it out. But I was at the stage when I thought my mom knew all the details of the universe.


 Some other things I owe to my mom

1. I love a few John Denver songs because after he died my mom bought the whole collection and listened non-stop for about year until she realized she never really liked him. But now I think of his songs as the melodies of my child hood.

2. I can probably read because of her because she home-schooled me which made my learning disability not the issue it would have been had I not had one on one attention.

3.She bought me my first book on jewelry making when I was like 13 and I still love it.

4. She introduced me to Spooks. She probably regrets this.

5. She is usually the only person who can tell when I'm upset.

6. I can't watch Mamma Mia unless I am with her because it makes me cry if she is not right there with me.

7. She doesn't care that I return/exchange the gifts she gets me.

There you go, some of the details which make up our unorthodox  but wouldn't go right to dysfunctional relationship. 

Now I am going to sleep in my necklace. If I am found tomorrow, dead from being strangled by a silver chain that got tangled while I was sleeping let it be known that my mom said that wouldn't happen.

confusion and castles

I love my bed. I think its an introvert thing. This morning I did not want to get out of my bed. This is pretty common for me but I usually can talk myself into it eventually. But this morning I was like "Plan for the day, feed the pets. Go back to bed, sleep, if you feel really ambitious you can watch Netflix."

So I lay there in bliss until about 9:30 when I felt guilty and decided I needed to do something. Exploring sounded good. I have been focusing on making decisions lately. I have noticed I have a tendency to avoid decisions.

So I was like "Today I decide to go to Cork."

I proceeded to get ready and I went.

What proceeded was an incredibly long bus ride. I don't mind  this because you can stare out the window and see the Irish country side, I can read on my Nook, I can write in my note book or I can sleep-- though considering how much of that I did today I probably should have just stayed in bed. It would have been cheaper.

In any case we finally got to Limerick, the last stop before Cork.I was looking out the window thinking "Maybe I should just stay here. Due to the lateness of my start I will have very little time in Cork before I have to turn around and come back. Limerick looks like a nice alternative, I could actually have time to enjoy it." Yes, I was thinking in classical English because I'd been reading the Scarlet Pimpernel on the way over.

Then my realistic side was like "You paid -- a lot-- to go to Cork. Go to freaking Cork. Do Limerick on a day when you paid a fair to go to Limerick."

Once we parked at the station everyone got off the bus but me. The bus driver came up to me and said I might as well get out and get some fresh air because we would not be leaving for 25 mins.

So I went inside, went to the toilet, bought some food and came back out. Well, apparently I'd misheard him on the time because the bus was gone.

So, spontanious amandonment of plans and staying in Limerick was on.


Here is  cool clock I found there.

  

 

 Here is my attempt at being artistic with the cool clock.

 Go figure that after consulting the tourist map I decided the one thing I wanted to see was on the other side of town and I had little time. But, I made it and I didn't get lost. Enjoy the pictures of King John's Castle.

Views of Limerick from the castle walls.
 

Then I went back to the bus station. Found my bus stop and waited. And waited. And waited.

Well, the ride down here had been pretty long and I needed to be back in Galway in time to get the last bus to Loughrea. It was already like a half an hour past when the bus was supposed to have left by the sign.

So I went inside and asked to buy a train ticket to Galway. I haven't taken the train yet because they are way more expensive. But I had a diabetic dog to get home and feed. So I asked to purchase a train ticket. The woman said the next train didn't leave until 6:05, it was 4:30 at the time so I was in better luck waiting for a the bus just in case, I could always purchase the ticket later.

I saw the logic in her statement and went and sat out under Bus Stop 3 again.
While I was wondering which of the buses milling around would pull in and take me home a nice guard came up and asked if I was alright.

Well, I was stranded, and I was wearing my red leather jacket with my peach purse which in retrospect was a mistake this morning. But I assured him I was ok.

"Where are you going?" He pressed. I explained I was going to Galway, after all I was under the Cork, Limerick, Shannon, Galway pavilion. He smiled and pointed to spot number 2. "That is the Galway express."

So, maybe I did need his help.

In any case I got home and fed my diabetic dog.

Fish and the best 13 year old

Why are fist considered pets? Pets bring inspriation and life to a higher plane with their deep-brown eyes. Pets take up half your bed and refuse to be kicked out. Pets make you feel special because they love you no matter what a wreck you make of your life as long as you take care of them.

Can you cuddle a fish? No.

But Madison, you can't cuddle some cat's are they pets?

Can a fish have affection for you? No.

Can a fish make happy noises and dance when you walk into a room? No.

Still failing to see how a cat falls fit given the qualifications?

Cat's are fuzzy. Except for those weird bald ones. And they have expression filled eyes. Even if said expression is usually scorn.

I am house sitting/pet minding right now while my family is on holidays.


The fish tank has become a disaster.

The room was begining to smell like fish tank. Which it never has before. The tank was looking like... do I need to go into details? what do you think was floating in it?

I kept trying to clean it and when I did I found dead fish.

So whatever was wrong was making me avoid the dinning room like ground zero because of the general smell of rot.

And whatever was wrong was killing these poor fish! Why? I mean, fish live in dirty water naturally!

My attempts to fix the situation over the last few days had been unsuccessful. I texted my family, even though it was like 10:30 my time. I just couldn't leave it.

The dad called me back on the house phone, told me not to be upset as fish die. Once one speaker instructed me on how to what he thought the problem was.

I had to stop myself from being like "Grab what? The pump?!! That's SUBMERGED the gross water! There are fish in that water!! What if they touch my HAND!!" I very bravely, or at least silently did as instucted and set the pump right.


Then I hung up with the family and called my family via skype. So I could have support while I attempted to drain a third of the water from the tank.

They were very supportive. Unlike the cat who kept Meowing to me about how she thought I should feed her. Not unlike the journalists in the spy show I like who seem to think their opinion on freedom of the press is relevant to the crisis at hand.
Haha, it would have solved both problems.

I don't know if I'm relieved or disappointed that my job consists of cleaning fish tanks rather than averting nuclear disaster in the way it is presented in a fictionally BBC series.

Anyway, buckets and buckets of water later my little brother was still keeping me company. (In fairness my sister has an awful cold.)
Finally my little brother Eli said, "Madi, when you are done with that can you do me a favor?"

I said yes, thinking he wanted a sheep t-shirt or something next time I was in town.
He said "Take a bubble bath."

Isn't he the best?

Oh, and when I was  almost finished with the tank one little guppy came up to the surface, looked at me and started moving his mouth. I realize he was just eating all the junk I was stirring up. But it was cute to actually realize he was an animal instead of an innconvienece.

It felt like one of those James Herriots when they spend hours delivering a calf at three in the morning, in the field in Yorkshire. Then the calf comes out and James forgets how cold he is or how rude the farmer is because he is wittnessing the miracle that is life.

But not... because after all, this was just a fish.

Dublin

Here's what happened today. I made it to Dublin. (No Krista before you ask I did not meet a boy. Unless you count the guy on the bus trying to catch my eye.) This is a big deal because I have been trying to go forever. But I have been sleeping past the only bus that leaves early enough to get there within any reasonable amount of time to actually spend once there. (It takes 2 -3.5 hours to get there by bus. Train costs way more.)

 Anyway.
I didn't take pictures while I was there. I stole this one off the internet.

I went with virtually no idea where anything was. I did want to go to the Wax Museum, the National Gallery, shopping and a couple other things.

But I was really rushed this morning to actually make the bus. I stayed up late last night and into the morning finishing Eat Pray Love. Why did it take me so long to read this?


But I made this bus... the wrong one... but still I found right one pretty quickly once I had gone like thirty minutes in the wrong direction.


Then when I was in Dublin I figured I had made it there and if I didn't actually make it to things on my list I was still in the city and I could get lost and still find something awesome.

So I was started wandering. And praying that I would find something on my list. Then I realized how great it smelled. In fact a lot like the soap store I was looking for. A few blocks later I found it. Lush was in front of me. Say what you will, God led me to Lush with my nose.

Lush is an amazing hippy all natural store that I discovered in Orlando. I know it is lame to spend money on American things abroad. But I have never actually bought myself anything here. And I love, love this store.


Then I actually found the Wax Museum. Which was pretty lame. But I did it.


Then I saw a huge clump of tourists. I was like "What are they doing in the middle of the side walk?  We have to keep traffic moving people!!!

They were all paying homage to the sculpture of Molly Malone. This is one of those landmarks you "have" to see in Dublin. I have never seen it before. I was like "Cool, wondering where that was. Yeah I'll take my own picture in November or something. This is madness."So, be contended with another internet pic. Oh, I have no idea who Molly Malone actually was. I am trying to catch up on my Irish history but I'm not there yet.

Then I found the hostel The British Literary Pilgrimage had stayed at last time. I even went looking for the clothing store in the corner of the other store we had gone into last time, owned by an artist who kept finding articles for us in the middle of her packed shelves or under her counter or in her back "room (area)". But it was closed.

Then I was thinking of going home when guess what?! I found the other Lush store in Dublin. I went to two different branches of the same store. But I actually needed the supplies I bought both times for THE TRIP (foreshadowing in my blog, you have been warned).

Then I decided I had to get back.

I got lost. I had been lost most of the day. But this was lost.

Finally I found my way back. Again, lots of prayers.

Turned out I was somehow on the wrong side of the river heading in the opposite direction of where I was supposed to go. I'm dyslexic. It could have been way worse.


So there you go. Soap, sights, getting lost.

HOLIDAYS are here!!! In the states we call them "vacations". I am currently calling them holidays because that is what i have been calling them recently and it seems odd to switch back. I mean, I am in Ireland-- I can't speak Irish but I can adjust my English. 

Yesterday was the first day of my holidays. I had the first series of Ashes to Ashes on DVD. My family had bought me some Indian food. I had my mom on chat. It was a great start to the holidays.

Then my mom had to go and take a sister to a movie. I was sitting there on the emotional physco thrill ride that is the Ashes to Ashes plot. Then I realized.

I kind of felt icky.

My head hurt.


That brilliant spicy-curry substance I had been so excited about was in danger of coming back up my throat. I am never a fan of throwing up. But the idea of up-chucking Indian was a nightmare in my eyes.

I spent the rest of the night trying to keep the contents of my stomach in my stomach. I evntually went to bed at like nine, which felt drastically early at the time.

I woke up at three and still felt like someone had pelted my head with baseballs, taken my insides and squashed them under a steam roller and taken a cheese grater to the inside of my throat. Whoever that was really hates me.

I tried another shower and some Netflix. Eventually I fell back asleep around 5am. And slept in til 10 am.

Breakfast was a mixture of grapes, yogurt, smoothy, orange juice and Doritos and humus. There you go. Holiday up date. Needless to say I think the planned trip to Dublin for some shopping is out. Now I'm back in bed writing this, waiting for enough time to go by to make it a reasonable time in the states so I can call my mother and moan.

More pics.

More pictures

This last week and a half or so Galway has been the host of the Volvo Ocean Race. All I know is that a bunch of boats and tourtists came from all over. I didn't get to see any boats. I love the sea but it was so crowded and I was starving I decided I'd rather go get a hot cocoa, because that's filling.

Anyway pictures.

"Please dispose of you litter correctly." Very polite. 

Spanish Arch. 

Tourists here for Volvo Ocean Race. The race was over earlier this week, but the festivities are still going strong.
 

Galway's Long Walk

 Another view.

The fair is called "Global City" because people from all over are here. 

 
Medieval people

 Neat sculpture.

 

 The tapestries are pretty.

Live by the sea: Check.