(not really) ENGLAND {part 3: Scotland}

does anyone even read this anymore? or am I just updating this blog so I can look back on it later? who knows. wow. finals, AP testing, work, tennis.... I am a busy girl. my grandparents visited from Arizona last week and told me they check my blog every Sunday and were asking where the rest of the pictures were. Well, finally, I have time. so....here's Edinburgh, Scotland!
we woke up at 4:30 AM to drive from Whitby to York to board our train to Edinburgh. Holy crap. we were all tired. we slept the whole train ride, pretty much. when we finally got there, we were pretty tired and confused. it was colder than England was, and Justin and I were both really pissed (literally, pissed) that you had to pay to use the bathrooms at the train station. but once we got past that, we were good. we walked outside the train station, and the first thing we saw was a man in a kilt, playing the bagpipes. That's exactly how I pictured Scotland: bagpipers in kilts. so really, it's just how you imagine it. except it's cold.
We took a double decker bus to the Royal Britannia, the royal yacht that the royal family enjoyed sailing on. When we lived in Japan, we took similar tours on docked boats in Yokohama, and we really enjoyed it. so, we were doing the same thing, except we were not on a warship. we were on a royal boat in Scotland!

 as you can tell from my outfit, it was cold here!

 Wes really enjoyed his audio tour guide

there are probably a bajillion more pictures on this boat, but I'm just picking a few of my favs. after we finished our lovely tour, we were all hungry. I guess Dad was missing Japan, because he picked out this ramen place. a real Japanese ramen place, not just Top Ramen. that is probably one of the things I miss most about Japan. I love real Japanese ramen, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland, of all places.

next, the Castle clan made their way to Edinburgh Castle! This place was awesome. It was on a hill, away from the rest of the city. we got to see where Prisoners of War were kept inside,

 J firing the cannon

 J in Jail

 Wes is mentally stable, I promise you. He is excited to see these hammocks. a bit too excited.

if we hadn't seen enough castles already, we went to Holy Roodhouse, Queen Elizabeth's summer palace. we took a tour of the inside, and got more swag audio guides. I love touring these places so much and learning about the historical significance. I also love seeing everything, instead of just looking at pictures or reading about it.

 

after a fun day of touring boats and castles, it was time to head back to England! we ate dinner at Subway, and boarded a 5 hour long train to Kings Cross! We didn't get reserved seats, so it was a struggle to find any close together! Wes and I sat by a gentleman from Doncaster. after the first stop, Justin managed to find a seat across from us, and Mom and Dad sat behind us. the boys and I probably really annoyed the guy from Doncaster by playing several games of Uno to pass the time. J won everytime, except I won once. I felt pretty good about myself. Wesley felt like we were ganging up on him. finally, we got tired of Uno and fell asleep. or at least tried to.
we finally got to London at 11:30 PM. and boy, were we tired! there was an announcement at Kings Cross saying "there is an emergency, please leave the station immediately. well, the fastest way to get out of there was to get on the subway! so that's what we did. there were so many drunk people on there. it was....interesting. we got off the subway at Earls Court and waited for Dad to get the key to our other apartment we were staying at, right by the Chelsea stadium. we watched many drunk people throw things at each other, yell crazy things, and puke on the platforms. sometimes, late at night, my ADD kicks in strong and I get real hyperactive. Wesley was happy to join me. Justin was half awake. Mom got impatient. Finally, Dad returns with a key, so we think we're just going to get on the train, and voila, be at our apartment. NOT THAT SIMPLE! the subway line branched. we had to make sure we were on the train heading towards Wimbledon instead of the other place. well, 3 trains and 30 minutes later, we find a train to Wimbledon. we didn't go all the way there, to my dismay. I plan on returning to London someday to watch Wimbledon. unfortunately, none of my family has that passion about tennis and they would get sick of watching it. I love watching tennis almost as much as I love playing it, which is a lot. anyways, we got off right by the Chelsea stadium, walked to our apartment, and by then, it was 1 in the morning. after unpacking and finding the free wifi, we crashed and went to bed, and slept really late.
part 4: London (again) will be coming soon! and by soon, I mean soon. school is almost done! so I will have time! dang. blogging about this trip makes me think of how much I miss it. those were good times.
this summer, to look forward to on the blog:

• youth conference in Salt Lake
• Philadelphia
• New York
• Another Girls Camp
• Summer Tennis
• Tournaments, tournaments, and more tournaments
• Bear Lake

but I gotta finish England first.
until next time,

ENGLAND {part 2: york and whitby}

well. it's almost been like...1 month since we went to England. and boy have I been slacking. I've been so busy with homework, school, work, piano, and friends. Dad finally let me start driving his car to school and I have been taking my friends everywhere. it is soooo fun, and I have been waiting my whole life to be able to do that, and we have had a blast everytime! once a week, my reallllly good friend Kate (who I saw at the airport in the last post ) and I have our special lunch dates, and they are really my favorite part of the week. Today, my saint of a mother left Einstein Bagels and some cookies at my house, and pretty much everything was gone after we went back to school! anywayssssss.... back to England.

Day 3, we woke up at 5:30 in London to get ready for our next stage of the trip: York and Whitby. Most people haven't heard of either of those places, but let me tell you, they are the prettiest places I have ever gone. you know in the movie Pride and Prejudice, the beautiful green English countryside? it almost looks unreal, doesn't it? well, that's actually what England looks like. It is gorgeous. We were to meet our Castle cousins in York, and then go to their house in Whitby and spend 2 days there. Uncle Chris is in the Air Force, and what a lovely (windy) little (cold) place to be assigned!
We boarded our train at Kings Cross Station early that morning so we could board the train to Hogwarts!

(we wish.)

we somehow ended up in York instead. and it was super cold and rainy. but we were excited to see our cousins who we hadn't seen for about 3 years. and boy, have they grown up! Alyssa is 2 years younger than me, Alec is in between Wesley and Justin, and Hayden is a year younger than J. We went to the York Castle Museum (hahahahahahahahahahahaha get it, the Castles went to the Castle museum. I'm going to use that stupid little joke a lot in these posts, so be prepared). afterwards, we went to some viking museum and Wes chose a silly little Viking flute as his souvenir. he entertained and annoyed everyone around him by playing the same 7 notes every chance he could. Me, J, our cousins, their parents, and our parents were probably really close to breaking that thing!

 Alyssa and I. I'm 2 years older and much shorter.

 Hayden, Wes, J, and Alec

 We climbed a lot of stairs at this tower.

 we tried. we really tried.

 the Castle "women": me, Mom, Alyssa, and Rochelle

sometime in the middle of the day, the sun came out. then, we went to the York Minister and BAM it started pouring again. afterward, we got tortured and went to the York Dungeon and watched some really scary shows about the Plague, King Henry VIII, and Mom got put on trial for "dancing naked" (the actual dancing didn't occur, but the trial did. it's hard to explain.) finally, we were on our way to Whitby and stay with our cousins. the boys immediately ran to the backyard to play some soccer, and Alyssa let me take her comfy bed while she slept on the beanbag. what a saint.

next morning I woke up with some pretty nasty allergies. my lips were chapped and swollen, I was coughing up a storm, and my eyes dried up so bad I could barely see. this day was the boys favorite, and one of my hardest. we went to the Captain Cook museum in Whitby and walked by the harbor. we ran into some missionaries there, too! it was so exciting to see our missionaries in the teeny town of Whitby, England!

next, we went to Castle Howard. This was everyone's favorite thing because it had a super cool playground. and I had a really cool experience there. (too bad Rochelle took all the pictures and we don't have them.) so, there was a beautiful grand piano in one of the rooms there, and the lady who works there saw me eyeing it, and asked if I knew how to play. I said "yes" and she gave me permission to play! so, I played a grand piano in Castle Howard in England, and a lot of tourists that I didn't even know were watching. one old man asked me if it was the First Arabesque by Debussy, and indeed it was. I was so proud that I played it well enough for someone to recognize it! for the rest of the trip, I was not feeling very well at all and I had to just live through it. on our way back to Chris and Rochelle's, we stopped at one of the train stations that was featured in Harry Potter!

day 5 in England (day 3 of this post), we just chilled in Whitby again. Mom's camera died, so we didn't get a lot of pictures, and I really wasn't feeling good that day. but I was determined to have a good time on the last day with my cousins. we went to Whitby Abbey (where the boys played Fugitive together) and took a walk around town. we went to the beach and all the boys jumped into the North Sea with their clothes on. I didn't even get close. then, we had Fish and Chips for dinner. It was not exactly what I expected. They gave me a whole fish that I couldn't even finish. It wasn't my favorite thing, but we were in England, and what's a trip to England without fish n' chips?
we went to bed way early that night to prepare ourselves for getting up at 4:40 to drive to york, and catch the train to Edinburgh, Scotland! which, deserves a separate post. so, stay tuned for part 3. could come tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year. we'll see.

ENGLAND { part 1: London }

ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of going to England. I had read about it in several books, and had seen it in movies. One of my really good friends in my neighborhood was from England, and I was fascinated. This year, I am in AP World History, which is my favorite class. I love history so much, and find it very interesting and fascinating. We are in our European unit right now, and we had just covered British history. I loved it and I wanted to go even more.
Last year, my dad brought up the possibility of going to England. He often does that about vacations, and we never go on them. I still haven't gone to San Francisco yet, and about 4 years ago, he asked, "how does San Francisco sound?" so I thought he might be joking. but around Christmastime, he was totally serious. He bought a British guide book and announced that we would go during spring break. Words cannot describe how excited I was. I counted down the days until we could leave.

ok this is not actually an England picture. but I just so happened to run into Kate, one of my very best friends, at the airport. Unfortunately, they were not going to London with us (although it would've been fun!) They went to New York instead, which is where we will go in the summer! but still, I had no idea we would run into each other, and it was really exciting. and I know, I didn't look very good. Wesley tried to sneak a picture and I guess Kate got the memo and I did not.

2 flights and 14 hours later, we were in London. We were all very tired, but since we arrived in the afternoon, Dad wouldn't let us sleep. we rested for a few minutes, and got right down to business. 1st destination was Kensington Palace. Prince William and Princess Kate live there with Baby George. Queen Victoria used to live there, and so did a few other people. I don't remember who. I was so tired during this part, that I thought I would just fall over and drop dead.

 

onto Queen Elizabeth's house, Buckingham Palace. this was the closest we could get. we couldn't actually go inside, but at least we got to see it, and it was amazing. we also missed the Changing of the Guards, but..who cares. at least we got to see it! and I would love to live there myself.

 

my favorite movie is Zoolander, and Wesley is trying to copy the "blue steel" look here. he is going through a phase where he won't cooperate and make a simple smile.

Justin got really grumpy because of jet lag, and he wanted us to get out of here FAST. we had to take the subway back to our apartment as quickly as we could before he killed us all. luckily, we had a Nando's right by our apartment and ate there. Nando's is not in the US, which is pretty depressing. it serves Portuguese style chicken, with this amazing spicy sauce called "peri-peri." they marinade their chicken in lime, mango, or lemon and herb, and it is sooooooo good. we loved it so much, we came back on our last day as well! now, if only we could bring Nando's back to America. or at least the peri-peri sauce. 

onto Day 2

 

Day 2 was the Tower of London, where King Henry VIII imprisoned basically anyone who disagreed with the Church of England and had his wives beheaded. I just learned about this in AP World History, so it was really neat to actually see what I had just learned about. Mom has a new obsession with King Henry VIII and watches every TV special about him, and has read pretty much every book about the subject as well. She took about a million pictures of everything, but I had to be selective in what I chose to post. we had a really funny tour guide named Bob, who told us all the history. Justin got bored pretty fast. Mom and I were really interested in everything he had to say. After the tour, we got to go inside and see torture chambers, armor, the crown jewels, and fancy golden dishes used at coronation ceremonies. It was raining in the morning, but in the afternoon, it cleared up. It was still very cloudy. It is rarely sunny in London, actually. as you probably know, I get depressed when I am without sunlight for too long, so I don't know if I could handle living there! although it is an amazing city, and I would love to visit as much as I possibly can.

 

this bridge is Tower Bridge. People mistake it for London Bridge, when actually, this one is more famous. London Bridge is just plain and blah, and is actually in Lake Havasu, Arizona. Us Americans were duped into buying the wrong bridge. we thought we were getting Tower Bridge, but we actually got the boring lame one, and London kept the exciting one. we got to walk across the bridge and along the Thames River, and finished our day off at the Museum of London. It covered many years of London's history, which again, Mom and I found fascinating. we could've stayed in there all night, if it weren't for Justin getting hungry again! Both Justin and Wesley are hitting their growth spurts, and all they do is eat. Justin gets really whiny and cranky without food, and he was practically crying because he wanted to leave so bad. finally, he dragged us out of there and into some bakery, where we had yummy British sandwiches. we then went back to our apartment and ate some more and played a few rounds of Uno before we had to go to bed. We had to wake up at around 5 in order to catch the train to York, which will come in the next post!

PS. If you are already bored, just skip this whole England trip altogether. there are tons more pictures to come! it could take up possibly 3 more posts. who knows. but that's all for tonight.