home sweet home...

just for you nikki...oh how i missed you through europe! but i saw where i could have found you! hahahaha LOVE AND MISS YOU BOO!!!


well after a very long day of flying and airports and chaos and more in flight safety instruction in case we forget how to buckle or unfasten our seatbelts...i am home. everything went smoothly getting home...from london back to brussels to london to boston and to baltimore. alls well.

daniel powter...FRONT row and it was fantastic. he was quite good. of course i will share a pic or two from that...london was fun in general.

im exhausted now so im going to try and sleep before final surgery appt. tom. morning and then headed to myrtle beach to talk about the whole trip im sure. SO MUCH to say...im still trying to figure out how to answer that question..."so tell me about your trip!" or "so how was it?" where in the world does one start? seriously?

well, thank everyone who has been reading this for keeping up with the excitement of trotting around the world. i will surely post a few more stories as i know my posting has been scattered and incomplete...sometimes its just overwhelming to try and sit to write everything thats going on...and trying to summerize it can be even more of a challenge.

london calling...

''...Now get this
London calling, yes, I was there,
An' you know what they said? Well, some of it was true!
London calling at the top of the dial
And after all this, won't you give me a smile?
London Calling...''

so we are now back in brussels and just checked back into 2g04 (our hostel) and we will be back up at the crack of dawn to catch our early train out to london. we will spend an amazing day in london doing everything we can and then sit in the most clutch seats EVER to listen and watch daniel powter go to town on his piano and just sing the night away. 'jimmy ya knowww...everybody hates when your living off rock n' roll...'

saturday we will resume our rushed visit to london and do as much as we can before we catch our train BACK to brussels...yes i know...brussels loves us! we will then camp out in the lovely airport and check in for our flight to LONDON ahahahahaha at 6 a.m. back to london for a brief lay over and then hoooooooooooooome sweet home. i know i know...your thinking to yourselves...WHY is she coming home now? she's been gone for nearly 6 weeks...its been quiet...well...LOOOOOK OUT. bringin on the noise...and of course after a long flight..ill bring on the funk.

see you all soon!

until then...london's callin! off to bed now...TOP BUNK AGAIN!

omsterdom...

so i had to write it out how its said...for effect of course. i try to make you all experience what i am as much as possible. soooo amsterdam...nederlands...its crazy here! just insane. if you can imagine what you might see while you're here...take that a 987,605 steps further and you might still be a ways away from what its really like. hahaha...red light district was fun and loud to stay in...after i found my drop kicked jaw somewhere at the end of wareousmstraat, we just observed the life of the red light district and walked ALLLLLL over the city...all over. my lord did we do some walking yesterday. today it is raining...our first rainy day since we left the u.s...minus that first day in singapore for 15 min...that doesnt count. anyway...its raining and the anne frank house has a line now thats wrapped around the corner and on down another building...kinda crazy. we might wait for that to disappear before trying to go do that. i think its going to be very neat to see and be inside...but i can already tell its going to be extremely weird. i dunno...we'll see. well, like i said earlier...we survived our shit hoooolllleeee of a room with no air circulation and red lights shining and reflecting off walls and into our window...the noises...the endless coffeehouses where sain people walk in and leave not knowing where they are. yeah...its all here. i wish i could video tape some of the areas but its not allowed...as ive been told, they will throw me and my camera into the river. im not up for a swim today so ill leave the camera off and in its case. thanks. but i can tell you ALL about it once im home. trust.

so home...its wednesday early evening now and we will depart amsterdam by early thursday afternoon to head back to brussels and spend the night, repack, and get ready to head HOME. BUT, first, we will go to london via the tube and channel EARLY friday morning for the night. DANIEL POWTER CONCERT...UM ITS A SMALL INTIMATE VENUE...THAT IS THE HOTNESS FOR REAL! im now jealous of myself...not even gonna lie. sorry...where was i...oh, we will be back in brussels saturday evening to spend the night in the airport...write a few books about airports...maybe make a video about brussels airport specifically...ya know...we will have a lil time im sure.

so thats the plan for now...this could change at any momemt. the only thing that is definate is our return home...sunday evening. be ready. megs coming home.

:)

miss you all and will see you soon!

all you asian trip folks...KEEP IN TOUCH!!! glad to hear you're all getting home safely...and slowly.

sveden...

ok i have to start this blog off with where i actually am to write it...im sitting in the internet cafe of the nicest 7-11 ill ever see in my lifetime. sweden knows how to do 7-11!!! wow. people are definately sitting in here with coffee and pastries like they would a regular cafe. um, if you ever saw people do that in the states, well, you would be in radford. hahahahahaha...but standing in the parking lot.

ANYWAY...we are now in stockholm, sweden and i absolutely LOVE this city!! LOVE LOVE LOVE it. i especially love the smells as you walk through it. it smells of fresh waffle cones and ice cream. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....so good! while its extremely expensive (not buying anything!), its equally as lovely.

we got a 24 hour on-off boat pass and took a boat ride around and through the whole city. its such a beautiful day out and was perfect for a boat ride. we are actually staying on a boat...thats our hostel. a boat. last night i went to bed singing the gilligans island theme song...john is gilligan...i guess im mary-ann because i cant very well be the skipper...or can i? im making an executive decision and making myself the skipper...the female version. :) wow...sorry, sidetracked. we have also decided that ryan air does not take you right to your destination...it gets you ´close´ and tells you to figure out the rest upon arrival. hahaha...stories to come later with that.

what else...there was a lot i wanted to write today but now i cant think. hmmm...well we leave here tom. afternoon to head back to brussels and then we will take the train to amsterdam from there.

i will write again soon...

:)

going back to show you ireland...my bad

is this a cow or a horse? who knows...so irish

woo hoo! what a walk...




here are some ireland photos...my bad for not putting all these blogs in order...getting kinda crazy keeping up with things...including myself! bear with me...

bend it like beckham baby! world cup has begun!

now THATS a poland fan...one of many

all the flags were out and up...

let the games begin...three sisters pub had all the action tonight

a few more pics...

after our insane hike to arthurs seat this morning...we deserved to sit in it after that hike...

stuck in a phone booth...the cool english ones ya know...

edinburgh...

oops...we jinxed ourselves...

ok so talking about the beautiful weather and luck we've had with regards to that...screwed us...for lack of a better word. its COOOOLLLLDDDD and cloudy...blah. where did the summer go?!

today john and i got up and hiked to the tip top of edinburgh...hell, to the top of the U.K. for that matter. we joked that our plane was going to be by any minute to pick us up...hahaha...the cloud cover, however, kept us from seeing the view of the city that we hiked up for but we still got to sit in arthurs seat. thats right...arthurs seat.

world cup games kick off tonight for stage 1 matches!!! we get to see it LIVE...well LIVE from plasma tv's but still...being in europe where the games are actually being played allow us an advantage over those in the states and other parts of the world. we are going LIVE with the world cup baby!!!!

this is also our last night in scotland as we will journey over to sweden tom. evening. i hate the economy here. just a little sidenote. our money is worth squat, which simply means that we get more exercise because really the only thing we do is provide ourselves with the best self-guided tours ever. its fantastic. we learn a lot from ourselves.

well thats all for now folks...until sweden, this is meg signing off...

and more pictures will be added soon...

ohhhh where to start...

ok so this whole blogging thing wasnt working out for me the last few attempts...stupid site. BUT ...i am now in edinburgh and LOVING it...its such an awesome city! its WAY bigger than i ever imagined it being and the architecture here is just out of this world. splendid. hehe. SO...shall i try to back up now and tell the tale of getting from asia to europe? well i shall try.

belgium...first steps in europe...well vienna, austria was if you want to be technical...which we should have been. its in the technicalities that allow things to make sense sometimes and relieve one from the 'oh shit' moments in life. however, the 'oh shit' moments can be quite adventurous and exciting...especially for you reading this now. SO the story begins like this...we landed in belgium, deplaned, twisted and turned through this extremely large but well marked airport, made our way to luggage, GOT our luggage and suddenly were seeing signs showing us to the door...to belgium. um...hello...noone saw our passports, we didnt go through customs, border control..nothing. a lil tiny red flag happened to go up for me because im used to going into every country and having to do this...so i leave john to ask an airport official how we made it through all of that and out the door without being checked. his response was not so encouraging...he says, 'oh no...thats not good at all? how did that happen?' i say...um yes sir thats what i would like to know and also what do we do now? he says, 'wait here and let me ask...' he comes back and sends us to the police station saying that its our best bet to resolve the situation. hahaha sweet. so we are buzzed into the police station at the airport off in some private wing that noone wants to visit...he says...oh no..thats not good...so your best bet is to go to border control at the departure area and hope that they can send someone up from arrivals to stamp your passport. super...so we go to border control and get in a line far shorter than departures that happens to say 'arrivals' and im like...score...this might work. so i ask a man standing in line what the line is for and its not what i need. so i explain to him our situation and he, at first, was like shit...how does that happen? i was like, i dont know. and then i tell him i have nothing to claim and he's like OH...THEN YOUR GOOD. im like, do what? apparently...and we had to go elsewhere to have this verified...but apparently, once we left bangkok and set foot in austria...we were done with the passport and customs crap because of the E.U. blah blah blah. wow...should have read up on that cuz i didnt recall any of it. oops...so belgium was good! hahahah but that was our welcome...we thought we were so done for. it was funny. in a scary kind of way.

moving on to ireland...BEAUTIFUL...fun...loud...amazing. the people there were absolutely awesome! i wish i had my video camera recording every cab ride we took. each driver had some sort of story, a piece of history about ireland...and all of them were hilarious to talk to. many irish use the phrase, 'ah jesus christ now!' and many more actually to accompany that...but its always a good time. so in ireland we saw cork, ballycotton, shannon, limerick, galway, and everything in between. the weather this ENTIRE trip, from asia to europe has been unbelievable. how could we get so lucky? especially in europe...as most know, its the land of mist and clouds most of the time...we have had nothing but full sun, warm weather...every single day. unreal. love it.

we arrived today in edinburgh, scotland and im loving this city like no other. its absolutely gorgeous! so we are here until saturday night as we will make our way back over to glasgow to fly to stockholm, sweden for a few days. from there we will fly back to brussels and then take the train north to amsterdam and then to london for the daniel powter concert (SO EXCITED) and then back to belgium to fly home. home. will be nice to not have to lug the bags around for a while. hahaha...they are gettin kinda heavy...

ok...OH...Kennan if you read this, i just want you to know that the restrauant directly across from john and i's hostel in belgium (the first place we were in after asia) was called...(REAL BIG MIND YOU) BANGKOK THAILAND...no kidding. it was even neon. yup...true story. i had to take a pic and was going to post it for you but i will do that later. thought you might find that as funny as we did. we looked at one another and had to question where we were again.

about those pics...

so the first picture there was a naked man that im sure you could barely see...however, sadly, i cannot say the same for john and i as we were walking along the coast and got the whole show. he was just bathing...la la la la la dont mind us...or me taking the chance for a photo op. i couldnt help it. funny. by the way...this was the southern most tip of ireland...ballycotton.

the next pic i didnt mean to put on there twice but now its stuck but its in brugge...loved brugge. beautiful place.

lastly, this was a bar near our hostel in bangkok...just a funny sign. thought id share...

more to come...blogger site has been up and down so its been hard to write.

a few pics...

you cant see it well, but there is definately a naked man down there bathing...dont mind us...we're just walking along...la la la la la

brugge...