First leg: London, Scotland, Germany

I'm in Dusseldorf! Tomorrow night I leave for Thailand. It's a ten hour flight so I'm really happy that it will be my last flight for a while. I wanted to upload the photos I've taken so far, but I can't get to the USB port on this computer and since this hostel has free internet (!), I thought it was time for a blog.

The first day of my trip was in London. I arrived at seven in the morning, but didn't get to my hostel until around noon. It took me a while to find the hostel because it was above a bar and not marked well, plus it was rainy and cold and I had the wrong address. Luckily I had the right phone number and got better directions before it started hailing. Once I got settled in I headed out to do a little exploring. I was supposed to meet up with Geri, a couchsurfer from New York who is going to school in Paris and traveling for her spring break, but I couldn't get her phone number to work. I was about to walk into the tube station when I got a text from her. We decided to meet at Picadilly Circus and take in the National Gallery. After that, we explored a bit around St. James Park and Buckingham Palace. We ended up at a noodle house, which was nice because it was the first real meal I'd had since leaving Austin.

I felt I only needed to spend the one day in London because I've been there several times before, so the second day I got on a bus to Edinburgh to see my old camp buddy, Ian Holden. He and his girlfriend, Angela, were great hosts. Angela made us linguini and prawns with lemon and chilis for dinner that night. Yum. We had a few beers at the flat and started a game of Globetrotter Trivial Pursuit, which was entertaining, if only for the oddly worded questions. They bought it in India, and many of the questions either don't make sense at all, or they do not correlate at all with the region they are supposed to. A brilliant example was something to the effect of which Asian president spent twenty-seven years in prison? The answer? Nelson Mandela. Of course. Anyway, the game soon became dull so we went out to explore Edinburgh a bit. I got a couple of photos of the castle at night.

Saturday we got up early and hiked up to Arthur's Seat. This is the highest point in Edinburgh and was windy as hell. I can't remember the last time I felt like the wind might knock me off balance. I have a few pictures of myself at the top that are kind of hilarious because of what the wind is doing to my hair. It was crazy. The hike down was much steeper than the hike up, but we made it pretty easily and headed to the Blind Poet to watch the Manchester United game. The pub was packed and the game got pretty exciting in the second half, but ultimately Chelsea won. We decided that cheap curry would raise our spirits (or Ian's at least) so we went to the Mosque Kitchen. The rest of the day we just walked the city, stopping at Greyfriars Cemetary, the Writer's Museum, the Castle, and then hiking up Calton Hill, which bosts a replica of the Acropolis. We had dinner at a nice little Thai restaurant that night, then drinks at a semi-cheesy bar called Jekyl & Hyde's.

Sunday we slept in then went to Queensferry and saw the bridges. It was really crowded for some reason. We thought at first that it might be because the weather was unusually nice for Scotland (I really lucked out!), but then realized there was an absailing festival. I hadn't heard of absailing before, but I think it must be similar to rappelling because the festival was really just a bunch of people lowering themselves from the bridge by a rope.

I spent the night in Glasgow last night because I had to get and be at the bus station by 4:45 this morning to get to the airport on time. The hostel I stayed in was pretty awful. It was nine stories and had seven hundred beds, and although it was pretty cheap they made you pay for everything. The hostel here is much much nicer. Anyway, I wasn't too impressed by Glasgow. It has a much harder, colder feel than Edinburgh (which I loved), and seems like it's home to a lot of junkies and violence. I was thinking this as I was walking near the hostel, just before a fight broke out across the street. Later, I was talking to a girl in the hostel who told me that two people staying there were stabbed last week...

I actually like Dusseldorf quite a bit. I didn't really know what to expect, but it's pretty, easy to walk around, and seems to be really bike friendly, too. There's one street that has a canal running down the middle with huge trees stretching over it from either side.

That's all I've got for now. I'll try to post something else from Thailand!