July the eighteenth

Today is another busy day of moving and finding a new place to stay. I do have a place but I can't go there until after 6pm. I will be seeing my friend Kat soon and we will spend the day trying to find something to do. I'm back in England now and it's been a pretty slow week. Just preparing to go to France on Sunday. It should be fun. We are going to try and get to a place called La Rochelle. How cool would that be? OTher than that we plan to visit Paris and Bordeaux. I went swimming this week and played tennis and went on the internet for a few minutes (hence the blog update) and am just so excited to go to France. Well until then toodle loo.

Days long since past

Well it's been a while but my internet time here is limited and quite expensive. I have however been having a wonderful time in Edinburgh. I spent my 24th birthday here and it was pretty fun. I woke up the morning of the 9th and I went swimming it was a nice long relaxing swim. I just love to swim. I used to do it all the time when I was a kid and it just feels like you're floating over the world on a cloud or something. So I did that then I went to a book store and bought myself a present. They were having a book sale and so I got 2 for 3. I came back to the hostel and I had a nap and was awoken by a new roomate from Spain. We ended up spending the evening together and when he found out it was my birthday he took me for supper. IT was nice we had nachos. Then later in the evening we entered into the pub quiz, much like the one that was on The Office. It was such a fun event. I now see why people love them so much. I was in a group with 6 people. Me and one other Canadian guy, my spanish friend, one girl from Australia and 2 Scottish girls. There was 5 categories with 10 questions in each and whoever gets the most right by the end wins. One of the rounds was Dance so they had a bonus round of Limbo. I went in for my team and won the limbo competition. It was great. So by the end of the game we were tied with one other team at 30 points. They asked us a bonus question and we both failed. Next question and we lost but there were two prizes of equal value so we both won it was just to determine which prize you got. We won a bottle of Vodka. ha ha.
Also this week I went to see the Camera Obscura. It's like a camera in a dark room at the top of this tower and you can spy on the whole city which was really cool. Then you work your way down the tower through all these rooms with optical illusions cooler than most I've seen. It was a laugh. I went and toured around the botanical gardens here and that was just the most amazing and beautiful garden I've ever seen. There were the garden grounds outside then inside was a greenhouse which was so cool. Or literally hot like a tropical rain forrest. :-) I also went to a few other the national art galleries and museums they have here which was pretty cool however a lot of them push evolution which I don't believe in of course. But still pretty cool to see. In one of the art galleries there was a whole floor dedicated to Christianity which was beautiful. There were paintings of John the Baptist and Jesus and many others from like a thousand years ago that were all cracked. There were martyrs and so on. I loved that bit. It's really amazing to see how God has survived through the ages and yet people still deny it. Yesterday I walked the Royal Mile which is a Scottish mile (1 1/8 mile) and at the top is the Edinburgh Castle and at the bottom is the Holyrood Palace. I didn't go into either because it was so expensive. like $50.00 CAD. But walked up the side of a mountain beside the palace and took lots of pics. Ha ah I've had a great time in Scotland. It's so beautiful here I would definately come back again. Well I will write more soon. I am off to France this week so hopefully there will be many more adventures and such.

Batten down the Kilts.

Well I've finally have enough of the old England and Wales and am now in Scotland. I really really really like it here. It is so beautiful. I am in the centre of Edinburgh and overlooking a beautiful castle. I have taken a ton of pictures already and hope to share them all soon. Yesterday I went to the Scotsman Hotel and Spa and spent the evening getting the royal treatment. I got a back massage and went into the steamroom hot tub and pool. It was this cool stainless steel pool and it was so dark and relaxing in there. I felt like so relaxed and after my back rub I sat in a relaxation room and drank tea. Oh it was beautiful. Today I went to the botanical gardens and I just marvelled at all the beautiful plants and flowers. I felt like I was in a dream world lost in the amazon forrest. The smell was so sweet. There were lemon and orange trees growing and tea trees as far as the eye could see. I walked and walked for about 3 hours all around that place and it seemed there was no end. It was great. I can't wait to tour the castles and different parliment buildings that are around as well. I am staying very central so everything is within walking distance which is great because I hate wasting so much money on transport here. It's like £2/bus ride here which is like $4.00 that is way too much. Well more adventures soon to come.
Cheers.