London and Edinburgh

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After a long flight from New York via Iceland, we made it to London. We were lucky enough to be picked up by uncle Rex who we stayed with in Chelsea for the week while we were there. His place was right next door to the Chelsea football club so the following night we all went to watch them play against a Russian team which was an awesome experience. The 40,000 strong crowd with chants the whole game was far more vocal than any All Blacks match that you would get back home.

On the first day we bought a 7 day oyster express card for $30 quid which allowed us to catch any land train, subway or bus as many times as we liked as long as they were within zone 1 & 2. We then took the Subway down to Oxford st for Laura to do some window shopping while it snowed!

We managed to squeeze a lot of things in during our week stay in London such as the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the Change of Guards, Tower of London, Tower bridge, St Paul's cathedral, the National gallery, a boat cruise up Thames river, grenich the Emirates cable car, and of course eat the traditional pie, eel and mash and a Sunday roast.

We also caught up with a few of friends who are now living in and working in london. We had a week in london which was a good amount of time and was great to spend somtime with Rex and other friends and family. Our next stop was Edinburgh, we ha prebooked a bus ticket overnight to ensure we got cheap rates. So off we set again.

We arrived at Edinburgh at 2 am and Tuesday ,lauras friend has walked down from her flat to meet us. Luckily we could stay at her flat for the next 4 nights before we flew to Ireland. We both set up camp in her lounge on the two couches and fell straight asleep. Tuedays flat was a great location to explore this city from, right in the middle if town. So the next day that is exactly what we did - explore.

Edinburgh was different to what we expected. The city is very medievil and gloomy but still beautiful and very interesting. The feel you had as walking amoung the streets hearing the traditional bag pipes play by street vendors was remember and oh so scottish. We wished we had more time to venture out into the highlands but had to divide our time between Ireland and scotland.

Edinburgh is set around a hugh castle that overlooks the entire city. Anywhere u go you can just about look up and see the castle. We were luckily enough to get a day trip to st andrews a country side townset on the ocean and a exclusive golf course. Also home to many university students who attend one of the top universites in the UK. Famous due to kate middleton and prince william meeting there. Dave, tuesdays bf who drove down from glasgow had a car and offered to drive us. St Andrews is located about an hour and half from Edinburgh. We had traditional fish and chips for lunch followed by hot sticky toffee pudding with icecream who was the best we had ever had!

While in Edinburgh we again meet friends for lunch, explored the national museum and did lots of walking and viewing and eating at many scottish pubs. A visit was not complete without some hagas and we had decent ammount on our final night and to our surprise really enjoyed it!

Next stop Ireland - Dublin.

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