Really miss you guys and gals and wish you could come taste Europe with us for a few. Cause it'd be just so awesome we might esplode all over these people.

Love y'all!!!
James n Amanda

written by  Slade's Elucidation on June 30, 2008 from Edinburgh, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Edinburgh, Ireland and TrafficCones
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We’re in Scotland hanging out in Edinburgh; we leave Sunday for Belgium and probably Spain after that.

Randomness:

Scotland is way prettier then Ireland, which I didn’t expect since you seem to hear about Ireland more.

I’m a whore for Gothic architecture …cathedrals, castles, especially cemeteries.

I’ve learned to fall asleep to music again, hostels can be annoyingly noisy. Even more so when they’re in renovated churches like the one we’re staying in now. The bunks are in rooms built into the main chapel with no ceilings, just walls.

Stained glass windows depicting soldiers kneeling before saints make me want to stab my eye with something sharp and yell something about the church being full of idiots who don’t get god.

Consumerism makes James grouchy.

Hindu monks on street corners in Scotland inviting you to a gathering in the basement of St Johns (a large cathedral just below the castle) really make you appreciate the irony of life.

We live in a really really small world. Twice now we’ve bumped into people we’ve meet at previous hostels, one group in a different city, and the other in a different country…and this guy is even staying in the same hostel as us again.

Homeless guys with cute dogs make me wish I had a pallet of Alpo.

Seeing cute cats makes me tear up like a pansy ass. I miss my kitties :(

Pack more then 5 pairs of underwear when you take a long trip, you don’t want to do laundry that often.

Love ya’ll!

Bathroom Philosophy

and stopped by a neighbourhood pub for some refreshments.

We did the tourist thing a bit too, and went to see Edinburgh Castle. The location of the castle is more impressive to me then the actual buildings, I cant imagine the stone masons working on those cliffs. The castle had some pretty cool stuff to see, I know James's favourite was the firing of the gun.

Firing of the one o'clock gun

Kaboom

Last night we did one of the cheesy “Terror Tours” that took us around old town Edinburgh and into some vaults under the city. One of the vaults the tour group owns was rented out to a wiccan coven...I wanted to go in they're vault and play with all the pretty stuff but it was blocked off :( . One of the other ones we went into was a 'level 3' paranormal zone so we had to turn off all our electronics etc so the spirit in there wouldnt 'feed' off of them, Mhmmm. Interesting enough though my camera battery crapped out on me today on the way to the internet cafe...coincidence?

Tomorrow we head to Belgium for a few days, to pick up a ring James had commissioned awhile back and meet the girl who made it. After that we're heading to Spain where we've lined up another farm stay. It's an organic farm and the owners are also trying to restore some old buildings on thier property.

Side notes:

Thanks for the comments guys! I love to read little messages from you, makes me feel not so far away :P

To look at pictures that have been recently updated or from a particular leg of the Journey, click on photos option and then scroll to the bottom of the page and in the second section of tags click on the city name :)

Love yall!
~ Amanda

written by  Slade's Elucidation on July 5, 2008 from Edinburgh, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Edinburgh and Scotland
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Love you all!!!

James

written by  Slade's Elucidation on July 6, 2008 from Liege, Belgium
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Funny, Belgium and Liege
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Yesterday we spent walking around Liege, Belgium with the bestest tour guide evar. The whole reason we went to Liege was to pick up a ring Steph had made for James. He saw it online and sent her an e-mail asking about it...a few months and few thousand miles later he has a new ring and we have a new friend.

The coolest part about walking around with Steph yesterday was the conversation, talking about world politics, the history of the region, religion, you name it we covered it.

Though, i have to admit, I think there's a little sadist hiding inside her because she suggested we go up these stairs...and then we did.

I kid, we went up those stairs for this view :)

So James and I have been taking note of the graffiti we encountered on this trip and so far our analysis is this....

Ireland blows, Scotland had none to speak of, and Belgium takes the gold.

In Ireland the graffiti was just single line name scribbles, no talent whatsoever. Here, its just stunning. I have a love hate relationship with graffiti too, it makes me sick when people deface beautiful or historically significant buildings. Ugly blank city walls on the other hand..spray away.

So this counts more as a mural...but seems like a fitting testament to the caliber of street art here.

Art in general seems huge here. Walking in Liege and even today here in Brussels its just gallery after gallery, and world class stuff too. Everything from modern to ancient art is on display here. And oooh man the ancient art....Steph suggested we go into this 'antique' store. I think that word has a whole different connotation here then it does back home. If i had a i million dollars I'd still be walking out of there with a lot less then i wanted to.

Egyptian idols, fertility statues from god knows where, classic red and black roman vases, swords from the roman legion, old oil lamps, and masks to name of a minute part of this guys collection. I'd have brought some masks home for ya Neal but yeah I'm missing that aristocratic heir to some foreign throne in my family tree.

So next up for us is Spain. This wasn't a planned thing but we were blowing through money way to fast in Europe and honestly we don't feel like we were getting what we wanted outa of this trip hopping around tourist areas so much. It's time to dig in a bit and really get to experience a different culture. And start collecting recipes...I haven't done nearly enough of that yet on this trip but i think i need to compile a little cookbook when we get home of foods from around the world shrug

YAAAAAAY our luggage just found us....damn i have to lug that heavy pack around again.

Ok been babbling long enough...next update will be from Spain!!

Keep up the comments...we check for them often and giggle over them all missing you less with every word /cheeseoff

Love and hugs and kisses and all that fun stuff!

written by  Slade's Elucidation on July 8, 2008 from Brussels, Belgium
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged LostBags, Brussels, Belgium and Liege
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Big love to everyone,
James

written by  Slade's Elucidation on July 12, 2008 from Lugo, Spain
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
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We've been working on an organic farm owned by Anne and Simon who are an English couple who farmed in Ireland for years. The house were staying in is supposedly 500 years old and was apparently in shambles when they bought it; they have been renovating it while trying to get their garden established. It's still a bit rough around the edges but I can tell its going to be lovely when they get it finished...so much character.

Our main task while were here is going to be getting the maize field weeded, which for a couple of out of shape Americans is pretty tough work. None the less i can feel the long unused muscles starting to harden and its getting easier.

What I'm enjoying the most here though is the conversation with Anne and Simon who are both wells of information. They have lived an organic and eco-friendly lifestyle for years so have experience growing their own food, using alternate energy, building their own homes and much more. All stuff James and I wanted to pick up on while were travelling.

We're here for another week and a half to two weeks I think, and then we start making our way to our stay in Italy with a few pit stops on the way.

A few random things to note...

Spanish Red Wine is amazing, much much better then any red I've had in the states.

An ipod is essential to gardening, a playlist including Tool-Govinda-Marlin Manson- Typo Negative-Rob Zombie- and all five Anjuna Beats compilations is definitely a bonus.

While working yesterday the song Right In Two off Tool's 10,000 days album came on and it stuck a different note with me then it previously had. A lot of issues we've all talked about facing America in the next few years are by no means isolated to America. If anything our travels have shown us that the same things we've been seeing and talking about into the wee hours of the morning with heads full of glitter are prevalent throughout the world.

“Don't these talking monkeys know that
Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly monkeys,
Where there's one you're bound to divide it.
Right in two.

Angels on the sideline,
Baffled and confused.
Father blessed them all with reason.
And this is what they choose.
And this is what they choose...”

When things are cut in two where will you be?

Sorry if that's a bit cryptic for some of you ; )

On a side note though I found a book in a hostel in Edinburgh that I've been reading and am quite enjoying, Pronoia. I highly recommend it to anyone tired of feeling like the world is out to get you, and rather would like to be a master of Rowdy Blisfullness.

Peace yall,
Amanda

Ps Belgium pics updated and spain pics to come later today

written by  Slade's Elucidation on July 15, 2008 from Lugo, Spain
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged LugoSpain, Pronoia, Tool and SpanishWine
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Because instead I get to tell you all about my trip to the Spanish ER, how exciting!!

James and I were working on unburying some brush piles and trimming the field grasses so when harvest comes Anne and Simon can actually get to their fruit trees and maize. He had the weed trimmer, which has three metal blades that look somewhat similar to a boat propeller. We'll here this thing...

Brush trimmer... AKA hand chopper

I was working along the other side of the fence around the maize clearing some of the larger brush piles once they were trimmed. He hatched a diabolical plan to disembowel me and...just kidding...turned to toss some grasses out if the way. When he did the trimmer shifted and the blades came up catching me on the side of my left hand. I looked down at my hand to see fleshy bits and blood before coming to the conclusion if I didn't want to add vomit to the mix I shouldn't look, and made James do the looking. My glove was still on obstructing his view and there was a lot of blood so he was freaking out figuring he'd managed to lop off a few fingers or something. He shouted to Simon and we got in the car to go find medical help.

Now I've said before we're staying in Lugo, but were really a good 30 min drive outside Lugo. Think Liberty Hill or Leander to Austin but with a lot less people. We tried first in the small village closest to their house but being siesta time there was no one around. Next we stopped in Corgo which is another village on the way to Lugo thats big enough to have a 24 hr emergency clinic, which luckily stays open during siesta. Not so luckily the doctor wasn't in. The nurse on staff was awesome though and cleaned the wound off, which was a boat load of fun. I recommend having your shredded flesh scrubbed to everyone. She looked at it and thought it was best we go to the hospital in Lugo rather then waiting for the Doctor the come back. She wrapped my hand up and away we went. James bless his heart was trying to distract me from the pain this whole time by being his cute silly self (and trying not to eat himself alive for trying to turn my hand into ground meat), but I deal with pain differently though. Not by not thinking of it but by well meditating I guess...just control my breath and concentrate on nothing.

By the time we got to Lugo I was in better shape as the nurse in Corgo had apparently washed my hand with something that had a bit of topical pain reliever in it. We checked into the ER and the next hour was probably the most hassle free efficient medical service i've ever had. There was a few wait periods, to be checked out by the nurses initially, for the x-rays, and then to get stitched up but never did I wait more then 10 min. Heh getting stitches was interesting this being my first experience with them. I'm not sure there is any sensation quite like having thread pulled through your flesh.

Anyhow, there was definitely a method to the apparent madness of the ER. Now mind you during this whole process I didn't understand a damn thing anyone said to me. Simon was a great help in translating, but not being a native of Spain still has some trouble with the language. I think he totally passed his Spanish field test during this whole ordeal though hehe.

When I was stitched up one of the nurses brought some prescriptions in and gave Simon a sheet with some directions for me and sent us on our merry way. Never did they make me sign or pay anything, just took my travellers insurance info when first booking us and that was that. I didn't even have any Id on me, having left the house as fast as we did.

We stopped in the village by Anne and Simon's to get my prescriptions filled, and I was really confused when she told us the price of everything. 480...four hundred and eighty, forty eight and 0 change? No, 4.80....four euros and 80 cents. Pardon my language moms, but you've got to be fucking kidding me. An antibiotic and two pain relievers for 4 euros and 80 cents, and this was just the standard price. They didn't even ask for insurance information at the pharmacy. Now the meds I got were pretty basic, your standard stuff, but still without insurance I would have been paying at least a hundred dollars for that in the states. This just totally reaffirmed my suspicions that the medical lobby in America is disgustingly powerful and the drug makers are raping the American public to line their pockets.

Spain anyone? I hear there's a few 2000 year old villas in the area for sale for 2k, though I imagine they might need a little work ;p

wave*

My hand all wrapped up after the brush trimmer incident

Two more days with Anne and Simon, then we head to Santiago de Compostela for two days. Then were onto Rome for a week and our next farm stay in Tuscany.

We'll have to do a Lugo post mortum to give you all the details of our stay here that got left out due to the hand chopper incident.

written by  Slade's Elucidation on July 26, 2008 from Lugo, Spain
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
tagged Lugo and HandInjury
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