There is little discernible difference between the DMV and the American embassy

            Our flight to South Africa took us through London again, not that this is a bad thing, we quite like London. Unfortunately, our stay in London was mostly a visit to the American embassy. In the 2 months that we had been travelling we had been doing our laundry by hand, it was cheap and efficient and it met our budget. We found a launderette in Stratford upon Avon next to our hotel and thought before we leave for Africa, it was time to have a good wash, and wash we did. However, in all the excitement of rounding up every last article of clothing available, I foolishly left my passport in my trousers. There were minor damages to the passport but major concerns about whether it would work to get me to South Africa. Rather than risk being turned away at the border we went and inquired at the embassy. 24 hours, a substantial sum of money, and a lot a patience later they gave me a cute little emergency passport, that we are praying will get us to where we need to go. After that fiasco we did some other fun stuff too, let the pictures tell that story.

-Rusty

The Rosetta stone in the British Museum in London. Kind of lame that the Britons stole everything from Egypt, but kind of awesome that  we got to enjoy it for free.

Giant fist from some super giant statue in Egypt.

Chelsea's favorite, one of the Cyclidian statues from the Parthenon. 

Buddha, we like him.

More Buddah, Chelsea is the Scholar on this type of art, this apparently is one of the first Buddah statues ever.

James bonds car, life changing.

Tired of pies, chips, and kebabs. We ventured into a Chinese restaurant where they made homemade noodles. It really warmed us straight to the soul. And it was nice to have our noses start to run from the spiciness. 

We got a new, amazing, lens for our camera, it was on sale in London for a small fortune. But we trade off carrying the camera to look cool, and we do look pretty cool.

After our fun we flew to Tel Aviv, with a plane full of Jewish summer camp kids. Which, believe it or not, was quite loud and stinky. We are starting to loath teenagers, all over the world, they seem to lower the quality of life. Nonetheless, we got to Tel Aviv and found a comfortable spot to lay down for a few hours until our flight connected.

On our way to ZA

A Midsummer Night's Dream......

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Maybe because this was Shakespeare’s old stomping grounds that makes me so fascinated with this place. This old English town is incredible, it’s no wonder he wrote so beautifully. His surroundings must have given him inspiration. I absolutely loved this town, I know that I say for just about every place we have seen, but Stratford has a special place in my heart. The small town feel, with its old thatched roof houses took me back to the 1500s. The cobble stone streets made me feel like I wanted to pull out my fiddle and dance around. When I think about this place I smile, it was both beautiful and relaxing, and our pictures don’t give it justice. Enjoy.

-Chelsea

7am at the Luton-London Airport=me very tired 

This was the day that we arrived back in the UK a few days before we headed to Africa

                          Shakespeare's Home

The main Street

The River

The Church Shakespeare is buried in

These are carved in the seats where the monks/priests stand- it depicts a woman beating a man- showing that women are trouble

One of the First Printed King James Bibles

Shakespeare's Grave

Alive and Well, thank you...

For all those who follow us,

We are having a ball in South Africa, although we have not had the best luck (and sometimes interest) with internet access. We will post some pictures soonish, just know we are still truckin' and having the time of our lives.

Thanks,

Chelsea and Rusty

The Tower of London

Being tourists, we follow the tourist route, it is easy and there are interesting things to see. The pinnacle of London tourism and I dare say England tourism is the tower of London. A gigantic fortress on the river Thames that was super heavily fortified and ironically never attacked. However, it is seemingly the quintessential "castle" and a delight to visit.

In Reference to the Black Lung

Unbeknownst to us prior to our arrival in London, we quickly learned that the air quality of the city is still horrible. As we walked about our allergies began to flair, our lungs began to burn, and we could actually see the particulate matter floating in the air. I think we may have lost several years of our lives while staying there.

Dear London, Thank you for giving us the black lung, may your tubes run forever!

Why do we love Edinburgh? Besides its medieval grandeur and its majestic skyline, and certainly not to discount its almost rustic Scotch appeal, there is a certain magic about being able to walk to the bus station at 10:30 at night with the sun gleaming on your skin. Notwithstanding our love for Edinburgh after three days we decided that we would head down to London.





We arrived in London at 7:30am after a magical 10 hour bus ride. We headed straight for St. James park to take a nap. After almost getting run over by a lawnmower we decided to go to wait for some friends at our apartment. A few hours later we all got together and hit the Portabello Rd. market.




I will try and keep these posts more frequent so that we can put more pictures up. It takes so long to upload the pictures. Sorry for the wait.

Scotland, or, we have a unicorn on our family crest, may our name live on

Perhaps we belong in the UK, maybe it was meant to be, because we really have no problem that all the food is smothered in gravy. Delicious salty gravy.

Leave it to me to be impressed with the thing that everyone else pokes fun at. Let me just say that it is best that we don't live in the UK because I would eat this every day, it is cheap, abundant, and is highly in nutritious if you need to add more sodium, starch, and fat to your diet.

Besides the all too delicious fare, we have had a lovely time in Edinburgh. Truly a city that anyone could enjoy. The city is so majestically old and the skyline is incredible. The traditional cold, damp weather was trumped by a hot and humid air that made us smell as fresh as potato cellars.

I have been trying to upload these picture intermittently from free wireless hot-spot to free wireless hot-spot and have no idea what this blog is going to look like (my apologies).