Saturday, July 09, 2005

Scotland Update

Saw Loch Ness yesterday. Had a good hard look for Nessie. May have encountered her, but am not at liberty to say.

Seven days to Harry Potter book 6, for those who are counting. Or, really, for those who aren't--if you are, you already know! I'm going to the midnight release with my 8-year-old sister, what about you?

Friday, July 08, 2005

Safe But Concerned

For anyone who hasn't been keeping quite exact track of my whereabouts and was worried, I was nowhere near London yesterday morning. I was on a ferry from the Isle of Skye to Harris when we heard the news about the bombings, and are a bit concerned about our departure through the city on Monday, but otherwise ok. Also, of course, we're concerned for those who have been affected, and hope you will join us in praying for them and for the saftey of the city and the world over the next few days.

Turning aside for a moment from the mad things people can somehow manage to do to one another, we have been having a fantastic time in Scotland. We have noticed police in significant force in some places, especially Edinburgh, where a park was bordered with ranks in riot gear, and we heard stories of people being boxed into alleys to keep them contained, and riotting in Stirling disrupted our travel plans a bit by cancelling the busses we were trying to take. But so far our itinerary has continued relatively unimpeded, and has included such events as a ride along the West Highland Railway, as seen in the Harry Potter movies, and I even got my picture taken on the Hogwarts Express. Fun! Yesterday we went out to the Callanish standing stone circle, the largest in Scotland and very awesome, and also nearby two smaller circles which I got to appreciate in quiet and delighted solitude, as the wind swept over the foggy moors. We've met many wonderful people, and are excited for our last few days before our hopefully uneventful return to the States.

Last night we were excited by the presence, in our strangely deserted hostel, of a tv and a stack of videos, as we've been craving some cinematic escapism for quite some time now. We went to the video store across the street, bought several British chocolate bars, some takeaway Thai food, and rented Ocean's Twelve and Wayne's World, and changed into our pajamas, only to discover that the VCR had been broken. So we were reduced to watched bad British TV (the Bill, a cheesy cop show). Alas...

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Harry Potter Experiences

Waiting to check out of our Edinburgh hostel, and just wanted to pass along a few HP-relate experiences I've had, fr any of you joining me in counting down the days until book 6 (11!):

Took a double-decker overnight coach full of British folk of all ages, back to London. Knight Bus, anyone? They even served us hot chocolate and lemonade!

Was unable to make it through the ticket barrier to catch my train to school, and watched it pull away. (Ticket wasn't usable before 9:30, so the barrier wouldn't open for us...) Did NOT take a flying car there, instead.

Last night, sat in The Elephant House, the cafe where J. K. Rowling wrote the first book.

So fun!!!

Monday, July 04, 2005

Bonnie Scotland

Back in e-mail contact after a week at a monastery in Taize, France, which was absolutely fabulous! A couple thousand people from all over the world meeting to pray and sing together and study the Bible. I got to say goodbye to all my dearly beloved Meeting House friends, and dd a lot of thinking, learning, and growing. Spent the last weekend staying in specil quarters with a few other girls spendng the weekend in silence, which was quite cool.

Now the Fox and I are in Edinburgh, about to begin our whirlwind tour of Scotland--our last country before returning home in a week! There's a bit of hullabulloo over here because of the G8 summit, but we should get out of its way tomorrow as we head off to emoter locations. Free iternet access here again, so exciting, but there's a bit of a queue so I'd best be off. Much love, and see those of you in San Diego soon!!!