Monday, February 23, 2009

Mini Holiday

Around here we just enjoyed a four day weekend this past weekend (Yes it was actually this last weekend and not three weeks ago. That is how timely I am in posting this. Thank you very much). This was a mini holiday marking the halfway point for this very long Easter term.
Esther and I made plans for just the two of us to spend a girls weekend in London!! We took the Megabus Thursday evening from the Perth round-a-bout and drove something like 11 hours to London. Not the ideal method of traveling but.....it works. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed a relaxing stay in London and then drove back via Megabus Sunday evening.

Esther and I in front of our hostel. Very nice.
On our first day we visited Picadilly Circus, and walked around Covent Gardens, doing a bit of shopping and just enjoying London. The London Underground.

Covent Garden's market full of crafts, food, clothes, jewelry......pretty much everything.
Some very entertaining street musicians. They were great and they had a good spot for the acoustics. While we were shopping on Friday we managed to buy two tickets for that night to see Les Miserables!! Tickets were only 30 pounds and the seats were pretty good. Not first row, center of the balcony good, but still good. Also not the 5th Ave but..... :)

Saturday we drove out to Notting Hill, Portabello Road, where there were loads and loads of shops and stalls of people selling their crafts and foods etc. It was really nice and it was such a beautiful day to be out walking. Esther and I actually only made it halfway through the market before we were so exhausted and decided to move on.Stopping along Portabello Rd. for a lunch break.
More buskers on the street. We saw these guys a couple of places actually. They were really fun. Britta, if you are reading this, I took this photo especially with you in mind. :)

The one and only Buckingham Palace. Pretty exciting I know. One of those, I'm in London so I can't not see it visits. We pretty much walked by, took a photo and moved on. Actually, most of the "sights" that we saw were visited in much the same fashion. We weren't really interested in doing the whole sight seeing, touristy stuff.
Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately we didn't get to go inside. I was a little disappointed.
Soaking up the sunshine at St. James Park.Saturday evening we found a very lively Brazilian bar in Camden Town and enjoyed a traditional Brazilian drink, caipirinha.

On Sunday St. Paul's Cathedral was our first stop. From here we walked across the London bridge with a view of the Tower bridge down the river. We then walked along the Thames where we saw The Globe Theatre and then visited the Tate Museum and ate lunch. Trafalgar square. This was sort of the finale of our London trip. From here we briefly visited the Camden market, sat in a cafe talking for quite some time, ate supper in a very nice Thai restaurant, organized ourselves at the hostel and then went to the bus station.

Our bus ride back was unfortuately not as comfortable and restfull as the ride to London. The guys sitting in front of us seemed to find it very restfull however. So restfull that he was snorring quite loudly the whole way. The drive just seemed to take forever. Every time I checked my watch only an hour had passed. Somehow we eventually made it back to Perth. All is well that ends well I suppose.

Friday, February 13, 2009

My Beautiful Family

Soren, Nils, Katie, Henrik, Kaija, Catherine, Emma, Kelvin
This is our Christmas portrait taken in front of our foot tall tree in Portnockie. My Dad recently sent this one and I just had to share it because I think it is a great pic of all of us together.

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I just want to send my love home to all my family. I love you all and I miss you very, very much.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Family Holiday, Week 2: Edinburgh

Here are a few more pics from the Dalhgren family visit to Scotland.
Week two with the fam. was spent in Edinburgh. We rented a funny little flat located right in the middle of everything. We visited Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, shopped a bit, took the train to Stirling for a day to see Stirling Castle, and of course, celebrated New Years Eve (known as Homanay 'round these parts).

Princes Street decorated for the holiday festivities.The view from the castle, Princes Street and the gardens with the stage set up for Hogmanay concerts.
Edinburgh Castle.Edinburgh at night.
The Palace of Holyroodhouse, still used by the Queen in the summer months.

Look behind the couple walking across the street. Yep, its Batman in a kilt. He was wandering around the ridiculously long line for Hogmanay tickets.

So I have discovered that New Years Eve is HUGE in Scotland. They call it Hogmanay and it is a big deal, with Edinburgh hosting what is basically a city wide party. Honestly, people came from everywhere to Edinburgh for Hogmanay. Soren and I didn't really decide to buy tickets until just a couple days before, when I found out that Paulo Nutini (or as Soren called him Paulo Nutella Martini) was going to be there. The morning of New Years Eve found Soren and I standing in line in St. Andrew's Square to see if we could buy tickets to the show. There was only one line for picking up pre-ordered tix and for buying, although it seemed that most everyone was there just to pick up tix. After only an hour Soren and I were moved out of the line and taken straight up to the ticket counter to buy tickets!! Sweet! At that point the line was like two and a half city blocks long.
Opening a can of Haggis, our newest addition to New Years Even supper. :)
The great production that was New Years Eve supper.

One of my favorite pics. Even though I know there really wasn't anything left in there. Grandma and I were celebrating a bit before Dad sat down with us. :)