We are the Foreigners

The Eurostar to Paris was rather a relaxed and unproductive train ride for us; other than the us getting to Paris, obviously. When we arrived Ashley’s dad, Morley (of blog post ’Snow and Cheese’ fame), and his wife, Cheryl, were patiently waiting at the Gare du Nord for us. After a loving greeting we took a cab to the hotel, put our faces on and went for a stroll to find some dinner. We crashed after that since the next day we had a scooter tour around the countryside and Versaille. We woke up at a respectable hour and had breakfast at the hotel then waited in the lobby. A little while after the guide was to meet us, Cheryl joked that there were enough red scooters outside that we could just take a few. It ... read more

We woke up at a ridiculous 3:30 in the AM. Due to good planning we were on our way to catching the 4 AM airport shuttle in time for our 6 AM flight; until Dan realized he had forgotten his passport. We were only on Victoria street; (and thankfully only halfway up at that) so had time to rush back to the hostel and grab it. We were still able to make the 4:15 bus. We zipped through check-in and security at the airport and only had to wait about half an hour for boarding. Ashley quickly passed out as soon as we took off, while Dan read most of the flight (except for a 15 minute nap while he tried to listen to a podcast). Landing in Italy was a little bumpy, but there was ... read more

London (Ashley's holiday) Time in London was a whirlwind as usual. The highlight of the first night was tea at Fortnum & Mason's and a guided tour of Buckingham Palace where we saw Kate's wedding dress. It was stunning to say the least. But during our time in the big city, we also went to a jazz concert in the crypt of St Martin in the Field (now, that was a neat setting for a concert), the stage version of Legally Blonde (which was really, not surprisingly, corny) and The 39 Steps (which was a hilarious story of murder and intrigue set in the 1920s or 30s). I highly recommend it. We also went rowing on the Serpentine in Hyde Park and had breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien which is a delicious Belgian bakery/cafe. Ireland... read more

The month of August turned Edinburgh into a mad-house. Despite the, generally acknowledged, poorer than average weather this relatively small European city is certainly a pumping party town for a surprisingly large part of the year. I always thought that it was all the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that really kicked things off, but there are things happening year round: The International Film Festival (We saw a couple movies; Angel's Crest stuck out the most as a heart-wrentcher that really makes you think about perspectives) The Jazz Festival Art Festivals International Festival Book Festival Story Telling Fest Military Tattoo And the Fringe Festival We'll focus on the last two here since they were the main reason we decided to leave our luxurious highland home for the big city. The Tattoo Dan started to not... read more

Well, we've been in Inverness for a long time and figured we've posted about a lot of our trips out, but very little about the time we've actually spent in and around our temporary home. Here's a wee shout out to this town, and the wonderful people we've met while here (unfortunately not all of them, just some who left the biggest impressions). We arrived here September 4th, 2010 with no plans other than 'find work' and 'find somewhere to live'. We were exhausted after our 2 months of traveling and wound up lazing around most of the time. While slothing around the hostel we got to know the lads that worked there a little; there was managing Aussie Jeremy, Welsh Hywel (pronounced 'howl' from what we could tell), and another Aussie Lachie. There were also ... read more