Fire Brigade

Marhaba. We're in London, headed for Belgium on an overnight coach (not entirely sure what that involves but that's part of the adventure right?). We've had some excellent times so far! one of the things that we are doing to mark each country so to speak is visiting all the Fire Stations/ Fire Brigades. So far we've been able to go to the Dublin and London ones which we're pretty cool. Spens is collecting his shirts...
Wales was basically awesome... went for a swim in the Irish Sea-- I did. he put his feet in. went out to a light house. went castle hunting. excellence. We had a straight up crazy stay at a B&B in Holyhead. If you havent been to Holyhead and find yourself there you should def. check it out. probably only enough to do for a day or two but its worth it.

London is chill. went to westminster abby, trafalger (sp?) square, houses of parliament, big ben, buckingham palace (no guards though :(). got lost a few times... Spenser had an amazing ham and cheese sandwhich in the trainstation... actually he had two, because the "cheese was so heavy" interesting...
we hate the £. end of discussion.
went to an AMAZING bakery with AMAZING DOUGHNUTS. and next door for cappucinnos.

at Barrys, till around 6 ish.

Dublin

Hola folks.

in Dublin.
glorious.
amazingggggg time w Patrick and Liang.
Liang was an excellent host... and tour guide.

went to the Guinness Factory... oh goodness my guinness! a free pint in the Gravity Bar (a 360* view of london).
went to the Jameson Distillery... similar to GF but finished with a glass of Jameson whiskey, while Spens and Liang had theirs with coke I chose dublin style- with cranberry juice and lime.
hit up Trinity College after that. GLORIOUS> saw Book of Kells. and the Long Room which had an amazing amazing library.

walked about 20 km today but we had a bus tour which was nice.

Pub for dinner. the local fav of the old PM- Berty.

well, headed to bed. just finished the most amazing bubble path in an olympic sized swimming tub. I almost got lost haha!

Ashleen

Alas...Without a Map.

Hola friends...family... people who have stumbled across this by mistake.

So... tis the season for blogging apparently, and because I am traveling frequently this year (oft with sketchy cellular service) and at the insistance of Liz, I have chosen to start this blog. The first two posts are small snipits on my trips to Dallas and SLC.


Anyone who knows me, knows that I get lost ridiculously easy, but alas am never in possession of a map. I can read a map, I can plot a map, but I do not actually own a map (please reserve judgment).

So... in a little less than 48 hours I board a British Airways flight for Dublin-*-*- where Spenser and I begin 7 weeks of insanity. We'll be couch surfing, hosteling, hoping for a nice bench should no other alternative present itself. And in about seven weeks, when many of you will be in Montana at the Sheldon Family Reunion (including that madra of mine who will hopefully reserve a shuttle for me from the airport), we'll leave from Athens and head back.

We're hoping to make it to: Dublin, Holyhead *Wales,* London, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Morocco, Italy, Greece and Turkey... wish us luck :)

Here is a glimpse of our packing list:

3 shirts
1 pair of pants
1 pair of shorts
1 pair sleep pants
swim suit
towel
socks/underwear
tennis shoes
sandles
sheets and fleece blanket
rainproof jacket
water bottle/ money pouch/ tickets

Spenser and I in 2007.


The plan so far is simple: experience as much as possible on as little money as possible without dying, or being arrested (I don't think I could handle 12 years of hard labor).

The Universe is 20 square miles

Salt Lake City... 20.00 dollars for Gas... 20.00 for food... smuggling wine at a strict Mormon wedding... priceless.

So Matt>>pictured next to our transportation (the Jelly Bean) and I drove to Salt Lake City Utah to see a good friend and former intern, Mike, get married to another girl we know, Meg.

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So alas, after entirely too long in the car we arrived in Salt Lake City...

and... then next day ventured to the Great Salt Lake. which is just about as thrilling as it sounds. and it smells like death. and salt. and it was a ridiculous adventure during which our feet sunk deep in death-mud and we were surrounded by dead birds that we labeled as evidence (who wouldn't do the same thing... really?)

But! our adventure did bring us to ask some serious questions... Why?!? Why did Brigham Young choose SLC? alas... after asking Elder Santog at the church, we realized that no one really really knows the answer to this life question.

The wedding was spectacular.

Dallas... January 2009

So in January I went to visit Uncle Bill and Aunt Cheryl, both of whom I had not seen for 5 years and it had been... almost 10 years since I had been in Texas. . . craziness, yes I know. Here are some photos for folks... we had a great time: Navy Retirement ceremony, JFK museum, quality garage time... and I had a most interesting return trip... boatman.