Scotland in one shot...

Scotland has literally everything to offer an individual... provided that you are willing to withstand the chilly winters in Europe...
I started my Scottish trip out in Scotland's capital and definitely most charming city, Edinburgh. Edinburgh is such a gorgeous city with cobblestone walls and literally elderly buildings and of course the castle. Lottie and I did the tourist thing my first day here which was really wonderful. We took a tour of the castle and walked around The Meadows, etc. But the most exciting part of my first weekend here was celebrating Lottie's birthday. We went out with all her "mates" to a club called The Jam House. I was expecting a regular club with hip hop music and such which I am not usually the biggest fan of. But it was totally not like that. They had a live band that played loads of mainstream varieties from old 70's to current favs. We did LOADS of dancing and I really enjoyed myself! As you can see...





Next stop, GLASGOW. Glasgow is Scotland's most populated city, and could not be more different than Edinburgh. It's really busy and FULL of a much younger crowd. My friend Thom whom Emi and I met in Guatemala lives in Glasgow, so we met up with him for a beer which was a wonderful little treat. Although we all ended up having intense politically debates all evening... I guess the problems with drunks are the same worldwide. Thom ended the evening with a "wonderful to see you again, Krissie... see you again... never!?" UGH - why do boys have to be so realistic? BAH!



Loch Lomond was next on our Scotsdale trek! For those of you who don't know, Loch in Scottish means LAKE... and they get immensely offended when you use lake in its place.... ok!? Anyways, the LOCH Lomond is really tremendously gorgeous. Our hostel was little a castle - HUGE! AND sooooo pretty from the outside... inside... ariiiight... but outside incredible. In fact, the inside is quite a bit eery. We arrived around 11AM and there wasn't ANYONE in sight! SO strange! We wandered around the entire building which was huge, as you can imagine. NOBODY. Just birds chirping. So weird. We waited about 25 mins and eventually a guy came and let us in saying they weren't a 24 hour hostel and that they kick everyone out during the day. They actually make you do touristy things. I guess that doesn't entirely suck since the area is really terrific. Until you start chatting to some Dutch guys who don't know when to give in... other than that ;)




Lottie's family is remarkably wonderful. Her parents have been together since they were about our age and they have only just now decided to get married. It's really romantic, if you ask me. They are also quite hilarious together - bantering back and forth and teasing each other constantly. I really hope that I can find a shaving of that kind of relationship one of these days. Growing up Lottie and her fam annually took their 'holidays' up to Northern Scotland to a little wee island called Iona. It's literally like 3 square miles and totally adorable. Quite the trek to get out there too... bus, train, another bus, TWO ferries... WHEW! WORTH it though!!! The pictures say all! It was so quiet and gorgeous. And Lottie got to "recharge her battery", as she would say :) The hostel was incredibly gorgeous and probably the nicest one I have stayed in - HOWEVER, the people that it attracted were a very eccentric bunch. The island is a really religious place because it hads this amazing Abbey. So, you get quite a large number of devout Christians and some can be... well, INTERESTING! But I wouldn't change a bit. It was an wonderful experience and I am so, so, so, so grateful to Lottie for sharing it!

Amsterdam is all the rave

TWO AM California time, I landed safely and securely in Amsterdam for about a ten hour layover. Somehow I managed to secure a middle seat on my FOREVER long flight to the UK which was strategically placed in front on the most rude and inconsiderate people on the flight possible. So I was mighty tired when we landed but I was SET to see Amsterdam in the short period of time that I had. Luckily, my friend Alex whom I met in Nicaragua lives fairly close to Amsterdam so I had a GREAT tour guide for the day! Alex, his sister and his wonderful red headed friend Ruben met me at the train station and we set about the streets of Amsterdam. We had SUCH a blast!
First we stopped to get some famous Amsterdam "chips" which are normally loaded with mayonaise, but I got mine with ketchup which Alex thought was gross, of course. Then we stopped at a pub to get some beers and they were TINY! I ordered myself a large beer, but Alex and Jojo's we just itty bitty. The bartender said that's the "Dutch" way....small. OK? I want mine big anyways. :)
We took a MUST stroll through the red light district but it was more strange than anything else. There are women dancing in their underwear in every window. Some were actually quite attractive but most were not at all pleasing to the eye for various reasons. The coolest thing I found in the red light district was actually a vibrator that connects to your ipod and then actually moves to the beat of the music. It was called the NautiPod... NICE! They were quite expensive otherwise I may have brought one back to the U.S!
NEXT, on our way to the coffee shops that don't sell coffee at all, I was almost killed by a bicyclist. I was walking around aimlessly in the streets, totally not looking where I was going at all and a cyclist rode by me REALLY fast. This would have been just fine because he missed hitting me, except that his handle bars grasped my scarf which was double wrapped around my neck and it pulled so tight that I was really choking! Luckily the scarf was yarn and it eventually pulled through otherwise I am pretty sure I would have DIED!
Lastly with the little bits of time left, we did a boat tour because it had started to rain. The boat called "prinses Christina" took us all around Amsterdam, but honestly I didn't pay it TOO much attention because we had great Dutch beers and enjoyed each other's company much more!
I arrived at the Amsterdam airport which is HUGE and super confusing totally buzzed and VERY lost. It took a bit to figure out where I was going and to pick up some luggage that I had locked into a luggage locker but I figured it all out eventually. Amsterdam all done I set out for Scotland!!! HOOORRAY!

Poetry...

Happiness

It is simple
It is kind
It is wide and vast

It is loving, accepting
It is without blame
It never minds when you act yourself
Appreciates your mistakes

It makes room for your smile
Greets you with open arms
like a warm blanket on a cold day

It is simple in a complicated world
It is kind in a cruel atmosphere
It is wide and vast in a galaxy all its own

Guatemala Declares a State of Emergency

As of last Saturday, September 5th, Guatemala as a nation has declared a state of emergency due to the substantial downpoors the country has received over the previous few days and the mud slides that have resulted. These rains are the worst this country has seen since hurricane Agatha came through three months ago. The mudslides that have resulted have wiped out thousands of homes and killed what is rumored to be 38 victims and rescuers.
Luckily, the city of Antigua, where we have been staying, is a well constructed and designed city and is not at high risk of these disasters. Several of the surrounding cities, however are among some of the distruction. Jocotenango, which is just a 10-15 minute taxi ride from Antigua suffered a mud slide that wiped out the homes of nearly 200 people and killed one woman known well in the town. The people who have lost their homes are staying in the public school building nearby while they are also received food donations from an American run organization called Nuestros Ahijados, which is where I do my own volunteering here.
The lake nearest here, Lake Atitlan, where Emi and I spent several days, suffered a severe mud slide that took out an entire public chicken bus with local Guatemalans and a shuttle carrying several tourists. Many people who attempted to help during this accident were swept away with the mud slide as well.
There have been rumors that Guatemala City itself has also suffered mudslides, and that the roads from here to the city have all been closed for several days. Emi, who has a flight scheduled out of the city tomorrow morning has been really worried. Many flights have been canceled over the past few days because the flight's passengers simply cannot get to the actual airport to board any planes.
Luckily the rain has stopped for now, but the locals here anticipate a couple more months of downpoor before the dry season begins. There has been more rain this year than in the past few decades, if not the most ever.


Some friends of mine here and I took some motorcycles out of Antigua this weekend to a little beach town called Hawaii. without motorcycles, we never would have gotten there. A trip that was supposed to take 2 hours took nearly 5 because of all the flooded roads. Had we known the roads were going to be this bad, we would not have attempted it. But it made for some INTERESTING terrain to say the least. At one point the water was up to our butts on the motorcycles. We were so lucky that none of the bikes flooded. Many times we had to jump off and while us three girls hopped into a pickup truck to go across the stretch of water, the boys pushed the bikes through. Once we were there, though the beach was amazingly sunny and gorgeous. PICS below!

Sunday, bloody Sunday... on a Thursday

Last night in Roatan! So sad to be leaving, we went out for a big celebration! It was memorable to say the least. Emi and I got a late start because we cooked up a yummy dinner for two at our sweet hotel room which consisted of pasta for the third time this week... YUM! This time we cooked it alone though... no strange Douglass cook to intercede... don't ask. During dinner we vegged out on the couch and watched some much needed American television... HBO to be exact. It was a crazy White Trash movie with Charlize Theron and Patrick Swazey but amazing no less.
We started the evening's adventure at a bar called Nova. Really cool outside bar with black lights and dancing. Talked a bit to an Italian who lives in Roatan until Emi and I distinguished that the BO smell was absolutely coming from him... EW. Needless to say we scooted as subtlely as possible away from Martin and struck up a fun conversation with an American girl who was there with the Peace Corps... INTERESTING! Have always considered that opportunity... Back on track for a fun night! Our local friends, Carlos and Cuny showed up and we all decided to head down the street for some Reggae dancing - YAY!
Bars in Roatan strictly enforce a closing hour of midnight no matter who or where you are... LAME! So a group of us jet out of the Reggae club to head to an after party and lord knows whos casa. Well on our way out in true clumsy Krissie fashion, I missed a step and rolled my right ankle. Bending my left knee reflexsively, I caught myself hard and popped right back up. In seconds Cuny and Carlos were at my elbows ensuring that I was ok. I thought I was totally fine other than a scrape on the knee and a sore ankle that would subside in a moment or two. Gritting my teeth, I tried to explain this to them. Carlos wasn't buying it and he bent down to get a closer look at the "scrape" on my knee... I believe his exact words were "WHOA! That shit deep!"
Emi took me back to the hotel where we attempted to wash the gravel out on our own to no avail... that shit was in fact deep! Carlos drove us about twenty mins into town to the emergency 24 hour doctor. 1:30AM we woke the doc up but banging on the metal gate that covered the office entrance. Inside the doctor took a look at my knee and was like "wow!" I did, in fact, need stitches. NOW the tears came! OHHH man stitches in Honduras! OHHH no! The doc comes back with all the proper materials, cuts open the saline bag for cleaning, and hands it to Carlos! CARLOS! Carlos looks at us and goes... "oh, I doctor now." At the doctor's instruction he then pours the saline over my knee... YOUCH! No alcohol can mask the pain now... The doc gives me FIVE shots of anethesia in the wound. OH MAN! Each time Cuny said, "one more, just one more." FIVE TIMES one more! Once it was numb though, the cleaning was easy. FOUR (although I thought he SAID five) Honduran stitches later we hobble out of the office all patched up and head back to the hotel.
Rolled ankle and stitches in Honduras! Check out the pics!

Island Oasis!

TEARING ourselves away from Antigua, we set off toward Honduras. We made a stop in a city called Copan Ruinas which is a really small Honduran border town. IMMEDIATELY it is obvious that Honduran people are nothing like the rest of Central Americans. They are overall actually very rude and impatient. It was a a drastic change compared to what we have become accustomed to in the last three months. While the Mayan ruins in Copan Ruinas were amazing, it is hard to justify making a stop there. The atmosphere just isn't great. We met a Welsh guy who had been waiting for his shuttle to Guatemala for THREE days. Literally every morning he woke up at 5:30AM to catch a 6AM shuttle that never showed. Then he proceeded to spend the rest of his day waiting for another shuttle that he was told was on its way and which ALSO never came. We felt so bad for him! Poor Welshie.. he eventually caught a 12PM shuttle the day we headed to Roatan Bay Island.
Once in the Bay Islands, you do not feel like you're in Honduras anymore. In fact, most of the locals we met denied any association with Honduran people whatsoever. They called themselves "islanders" or "Roatoniana". NOT surprised though given my previous statement about the "Honduran attitude" The Bay Islands in Honduras are probably among the most magnificent and gorgeous places I have ever been. The water looks like it's out of a picture. There are lots of amazing activities to get involved in but mostly we just sunbathed and enjoyed the incredible surroundings. It was very different to other places that we have backpacked thus far. Firstly, it was WAY more pricey. We splurged though and got an apartment size hotel for three nights... backpacking is hard work! It was wonderous to have our own kitchen again. We never thought we would be so excited to do some simple grocery shopping... pasta every night (cheap) but GOOD. Plus, over five strands of malaria are found in the Bay Islands (go figure) and the AC tends to keep the mosquitos away. This was, of course, our justification for splurging on the AC but it helps us sleep at night with the comfort that we may have kept the disease at bay for now... not to mention the fact that although Emi is on Malaria medication I myself am not... so LOTS of AC and LOTS of bug spray! Our friends there called our hotel room "the cold climate" HA! A nice change from the 100 degree weather they have been experiencing if you ask me!
The last day, HOWEVER, we tried scuba diving! Most people actually go to the Bay Islands in order to get certified for diving both because it is a lot more affordable than the rest of the world, and because it is really incredible. Neither Emi nor I is scuba certified but you can take a "intro" dive for about $50. This entails you and an instructor about 25 meters below in which he controls all your settings and temperatures, etc. We figured that since we were in one of the diving capitals of the world that we should really try it out. SO glad we did! It was absolutely incredible. We went with a local named Lindi, who we had befriended earlier in the week. We saw a sea turtle, lionfish, schools of incredible fish, AND eels! The place we dove is called the Aquarium among locals because of the amount of fish that are there in the reef all the time. The colors were so brilliant. WOW! I can definitely understand why people make this hobby their life.

Happily "Stuck" in Antigua

After two and a half months of bouncing from place to place, Emi and I are finding it quite difficult to move on out of Antigua, Guatemala. The city is a beautiful colonial city that is just FULL of travelors, shops, and amazing food at every corner. We even found a legit spa!!! Our first day here, Emi and I booked a couple's massage, a mani/pedi, AND a hair style/deep conditioning for less than $100 each! SO amazing. Neither of us had ever had a couple's massage before. It was definitely an interesting and entertaining experience.
We have managed to befriend an incredibly benevolent and interesting guy from Texas, named Blake (also known as shot-glass chucker's buddy) - don't worry he knows shot glasses are made for drinking not throwing desbite his buddy's shenanigans. Blake has been a wonderful tour guide! He actually works for one of the travel agencies in town that is a more modern and up to date than many of the other agencies. They sell a lot of gear that you might find at REI like Northface bags, Nalgene water bottles, and CLIFF bars! These things are an incredibly rare find anywhere in Central America let alone Guatemala. A couple days ago he let us tag along on a rock climbing adventure! MAN was that an adventure indeed. We drove about an hour to a mountain that came to be from underground pressure that actually pushed the ground up. The rock that we climbed is all sedementary rock that goes straight up. However, one of the volcanoes (Pacaya) erupted last May 27th and sent mud toward this rock that actually allowed all of these plants to grow directly on top of rocks. It was really bizzare! We had to do some intense jungle tredding to get to the particular rocks that we were set to climb. I have never rock climbed outdoors - it was really exciting! We also went with two English boys who are two of the funniest people I think I have ever met. So, this made for a seriously entertaining rock climbing experience. To make things even more interesting though, I got stung by an asp caterpillar on my left hand! I reached my hand into my backpack to grab my waterbottle and then saw this tiny, itty bitty neon yellow caterpillar just chilling on the inside of my zipper. Directly after I saw the caterpillar, my hand began to tingle sharply as if it had fallen asleep. The sting rapdily turned into a burn, until it was on FIRE. Blake jumped into action and sprayed some kind of anesthetic on it right away while Sam (funny English bloke) worked on getting the caterpillar out of my bag. As it turns out, I had mashed the caterpillar into my zipper when I opened my bag and it attacked me defensively. As time went on my hand swelled up and looked like a little micky mouse hand - YOUCH! Blake was so wonderful though, he went and got me medicine from the pharmacy and checks it every chance he has to make sure I don't have to get it removed or anything. Now, two days later, the swelling is still existent, but has got down tremendously and it doesn't hurt at all anymore. Pesky little caterpillar!
Yesterday Emi and I rented bikes from Blake's agency and he took us riding all around the area. Antigua really is a gorgeous city. Every city in Antigua must have four things in order to be a city legally; a church, a cross, a water source, and a town square. Really interesting how you can relly find each of these things present in every city you go to. We also went to one of the biggest organic farms in the area. It was really awesome! We got to walk around and try several of the vegetables and herbs. We even ate edible flowers that taste like cucumbers - WOW! The best part though was that Alex, the owner of the farm, gave us a lime that is the size of a baby's head! REALLY, it was huge. We took it to a restaurant in town and they made lime-ades for us that were AWESOME! Way more refreshing and yummy than I thought they were going to be, I must admit.
Last night was ladies night at a local bar in town (every night is ladies night somewhere). But we got free tee shirts that are awesome! The best ladies night so far though, was Wednesday night at our hostel. We have met so many awesome Europeans and they were ALL together at this particular ladies night. Everyone who wore a dress received drinks for like $.75. So, the guys ALL wore dresses! LOL - it was really hilarious. The hostel has a big bag of dresses that you can just rifle through to find the most embarassing or beautiful. Darius though, definitely had the best attire. He is a tall German who looked amazing adorned in lingerie and feathers. HAHA - I heart Antigua!
HMMMM now Emi and I have been sucked into the tattoo parlor... EEK! What that means for me, I am not too sure. I may be able to keep my addiction in check for now, but you really never know. Emi, however, is pretty set on an addition to her existing tribute to her Grandparents. She has an appointment today to check out the artist's drawing. I predict she will love it. We are headed there AFTER our giant breakfast and tour at the macadamia nut farm.... have I mentioned that I heart Antigua yet???