Wow... another stunningly beautiful European city and goodbye England!

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The very week after we got back from London, after Chas had worked another incrediblely long and hard weekend, we went to Edinburgh!

Edinburgh... post Fringe

A very good friend who studied medicine with my mum in Peru, Apolos, and his wife Pillar, have been living in Edinburgh for a year whilst Apolos has been studying medical theology. So when they invited us to Edinburgh for a few days, we said yes! Unfortunately we missed the amazing Edinburgh Fringe Festival by about a week, but we shall just have to come back another time. We took the overnight bus from London, which was very cheap but not all that comfortable. And bus smelt of pee as from the time we stepped on to bus to the time we hopped off (we were told when we got on that the toilet was out of order, so I guess... someone just couldn't hold on!). Apolos kindly met us at the bus station and took us home to have a hot shower, gave us breakfast and provided us with a pack lunch to go out and explore the city. We were very lucky because for the three days we were there, it was sunny for most of the time!

The sunshine made our first impression of the city stunning. We caught a bus heading down from St. Andrew's square and when we hit Princes St and looked out over the garden in the valley up to the Royal Mile and the beautiful Edinburgh skyline culminating in the castle. Unbelievable. For Chas it was love at first site. So regretted missing the Fringe but at the same time, the week after the Festival meant that Edinburgh was taking a deep breath of recovery. It felt like we had the city to ourselves and could just walk around for three wonderful days at liberty.

So on our first day, we first went to the National Art Gallery where they had a William Blake and an impressionist exhibitions. It was in the Scottish exhibition that I found a painting that took my breath away. And no it wasn't a nude painting! It is called 'Wandering Shadows', and is a landscape painting of a Sottish mountainside with the sunshine streaming through the clouds. It looked like you were actually there standing on the mountain. Yay for free amazing museums. We then walked up into old town. Central Edinburgh is divided into old town and new town. New town is older than Australia. However after Zac's comment on a past blog I am too nervous to use the word 'irony'. On the Royal Mile is the beautiful St Gile's Cathedral, an amazing building which was all the better for the exhibit on modern day slavery in it. The photo expo was fascinating, and the stories incredibly devastating. England has about 5000 imported sex slaves at a conservative estimate, all held prisoner, without passports, without the language and without anywhere to go. Ana and I left both wanting to get involved with the cause.

The castle was too expensive and so we went home to get some sleep to prepare for the next day.

The next day was fantastic. We went first to an Andy Warhol exhibit. Chas always thought of Andy Warhol a bit of fraud whose work looked good but took very little work. He now, on the internet, gives everyone permission to slap him. Andy Warhol was a genius. Chas tells everyone to check out his painting: 'Are you different?' Seeing a lot of his work in the one place allowed you to see his messages lowd and clear and see the beauty in his mass produced art.

Then we wandered around the gardens before deciding to tackle Calton Hill. It towers over the rest of Edinburgh, topped with a beautiful lighthouse like tower and roman-like temple. Once scaled it gives amazing views of the harbour and the Royal Mile from Holyroodhouse Castle to Edinburgh Castle. It also showed us fine views of Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags. The sunshine and the lack of anything better to do made Ana decide we had to climb them.

This was a joy as Edinburgh was having its best day of the year (see photos of me in just a singlet). The climb was a bit fraught as there are a million paths leading to nowhere and we decided to not take the obviously wide main one to be adventurous. Oh the fools. The views were amazing though. We walked back down and hit a gorgeous cafe. The joy of this trip was, despite seeing the sites and museums, we just walked and saw the city from the street side. That is a bit of a lie; we fell in love with seeing bits of the city from the top of the double decker buses. Edinburgh has a great public transport system so there is very little traffic on the roads and the huge windows from the front of the second floor of the buses are amazing.

The plan for the day went on far longer however. We were going on one of Edinburgh's much touted ghost tours. But we had to find something to do in the meantime. Despite heading to Spain and Latin America within a few weeks, we decided to attend happy hour at a latin bar called el barrio. This was a mistake. Not because of the bar which had a lovely vibe and had mojitos and good service, but because of an Aussie drunk who started talking to us at the bar. This guy was the archtype guy you do not want to get into a conversation with. He was someone who had abandoned his wife and children to become an international male prostitute and now had a second wife and child. His first wife died and now he 'had' to go back to look after his kids. Oh and did I mention that he was 'a great fucker and incredibly horny'? Horrible. Thankfully we scabbed a few drinks before he left. It was so draining but a few drinks and chatting to the local latin popultion in Spanish restored energy and humour.

Chas here to describe the ghost tour. The ghost tour was fun. I went with complete skepticism, hoping to be knocked out by the Mackenzie poltergeist. I wanted something to happen, I wanted to experience something paranormal. It started well after dark outside the St Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile. Our tour guide, Rosie, with a thick Scottish brogue started describing the toture methods of witch hunting. She was very good at her job and the bloody history very interesting. We then walked to Greyfriars graveyard where we heard about some more poor Scottish people being tortured by the English. It was only at the end of a creepy '( minute walk that we entered into a crypt. It is in this crypt that

182 people have been knocked unconscious!

I deliberately stood in the most haunted corner. To be honest though, standing in a crypt in the middle of the night is a wonderfully terrifying experience. Apparently, before the ghost knocks someone out, your feet start to feel hot. This obviously has nothing to do with your blood pooling in your feet after a '( minute walk and 8 minutes standing still. The funny thing is though, I had a backpack on with a bottle of water in a pocket on the outside. I was getting a bit sore and so leant on the nearby wall. The bottle creaked and squeaked and everyone FREAKED! I mean screamed and made a run for the door. I nearly had a heart attack! When I realised that I was a poltergeist I almost wet myself laughing and it made for a suitable end to a nice tourist-y aspect to Edinburgh.

Our last day was limited to two items: catching a bus along the shore, past the harbour to a beach and cooking Apolos and Pilar dinner. Both were a lot of fun. The walk along the beach was bright and beautiful being able to see right across the harbour. We were making for an island that we could get to only at low tide. We made it at high tide. But the diversion lead us to a lovely cafe and a stunning walk back along country paths. (And the dinner was amazing too if Chas does not say so himself, that paragon of modesty).

Sherborne... not last nor least

Our last two weeks in Sherborne were great but obviously sad. It had been a home for us... a sometimes frustrating and unwelcome one but many old friends and new ones made it clear that they would miss us, just as we would miss them. These goodbyes included Ana and Chas letting down their country by going to a jazz gig and drinking too many cocktails too quickly. There are some sadly embarrassing photos of us sitting on steps of a bingo hall letting go of the dinner we had not eaten. Sally and Tink took good care of us while laughing themselves silly at us. Ana and I feel that we have developed a dangerous drinking habit in England due to the amount of hangovers we have had. We have committed ourselves to a week of detox but are having trouble deciding when to begin. We are thinking Paris.

We saw five movies (Chas' birthday, sigh) and played lots of card games with Ellie. Chas' birthday included watching Superbad at the movies before watching Scrubs and drinking at Sally's house. Followed up by watching Shoot 'Em Up at the cinema and cooking his family lasagna. What a day! Saying goodbye to Sally, Tink, Bob, Linzie and others at the Swan was harder than it could have been so hopefully there will be an invasion of Australia by English barmen in the coming years.

On the way out

I (Ana) abondoned Chas for a couple of days whilst he was working his last shifts at the pub to go and visit some old friends of my parents, called Alan and Liz Argent in West Wycombe. Liz and my dad got to know each other as they worked in a hospital many years ago here in the UK. It was so wonderful to go and stay with them as they took such good care of me (ie yummy yummy food!). Liz and Alan have one daughter living in Australia, but I did get the chance to meet their younger daughter Viv, and her daughter Kate, which was great as I had heard so much about them.

Our last few days in England involved catching up with Beth and Aiden in Norwich (we met them in Cochin) and seeing good family friends with their new child, the McKees and Patrick, in Eton before embarking the second half of our adventures. We arrived in Norwich and shamefully spent a whole day lounging around, watching Scrubs and writing this blog. Beth and Aiden were great fun; it was nice to get to know them better and play with their new kitten, Tiggly-Wiggly. I think we just needed a day with nothing in it. It is interesting to drop in and stay with people we had only met for a few hours in India. We got to cook them a nice dinner by way of thanks (as students I think a big meal had been hard to come by). We were a bit jealous of this couple (engaged) being able to make house together, something we have to be able to do despite living together for 3 years and now married for six months (yes readers, you have been following us for half a year!)

We made up for our slackness the next day by heading into Norwich and once again, tackling it by foot: we saw the Cathedral, the Castle and an interesting Medieval trading hall called the Dragon Hall. All in all, nice place for a visit but even better for having friends.

The next stop was Eton, as a good family friend, Peter McKee is a house master of this famous and prestigious school. Wandering around Eton makes you laugh at all the students with their tails and pin stripe pants but their facilities and achievements are breathe-taking. It made me (Chas) feel a bit bad at how money can buy you such advantages (that will make you laugh Luke) as I do not think that any school in Australia is so much better than any other.

As we had been there five years ago, we felt no compulsion to tour Eton or visit Windsor castle... We were there for Patrick. Peter married Emma almost four years ago and they had had real trouble having a child. This makes Patrick a miracle baby in many respects. We loved just talking to him and going on walks in the surrounding country side. Eton has recently built the rowing lake that will be used in the 2012 Olympics and it was stunning.

All in all, England is a beautiful country. Chas feels very much at home there and there is so much to see and do. We made many many friends. If only it had not been coloured by the weather and immigration problems, we would have had a far better time. But we are ready to get on the road again. Onto (take a deep breath) France, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Chile, New Zealand and finally Adelaide. See you there!

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Photos

View from the Money Musuem
Apparently we could see 1 billion pounds (it's the only reason we went in), but we never found it. Mystery...

Pretty pretty
The Monmouth monument

Another hill... the Salisbury crags
We we on top of Calton Hill, had a look across at this hill and went, 'Why not? Let's climb that hill too'

Little squirrel in a big city
Do you recognise this little guy Luke? It's one of our sourveniers from the Tour de France

Wow
This is me wearing just a singlet top in Scotland! It might be the only time ever.

Pub and museum
Isn't this the best building to drink and see old stuff in?

Island
We couldn't make it to the island. We did consider jumping from concrete post to another.

Tink
While drinking a very girly drink

Chas
Chas doesn't like cake, so we had chocloate moose instead

One legged swan
It probably has two but just wanted to impress us while it sleeps

Yay we made it
There was a a path that straight up to the top, but I managed to get Chas and I lost on the hill. How is that possible?

Mausoleum
This is the resting place of Mr Mackenzie. He apparently prowls Greyfriars cemetery

Puppy dog!
This little doggy waited on his master's grave until he died.

On the way to the beach!
How awesome are the views from the buses here?

Not quite like an Aussie beach but it's still pretty
Zac, are you surprised I didn't go swimming here?

Hey hey! Just like in Copenhagen
We found loads of these colourful cows walking around Copenhagen. This one must of migrated here.

Mooo...
I told you they were taking over the world.