Summerhill Hotel & Suites Aberdeen

Okay, I know I've been boring. I'm sorry! Basically I've been trying to get used to the bits and pieces of university before embarking on significant journeys. Can't blame me for that :P There have been the odd trips to random castles etc but I have no interest in random small town castles, lived in the Isle of Man for WAY too long to be interested in them! Hoping for a trip down ...

... almost, my wonderful father is still covering the plane tickets but that's not me being a spoilt brat, that's me taking advantage of one of his few decent job benefits. Standby tickets for the win. *thumbs up*

But of course, why bother going to the other side of the world and just stay in one place? I have more vacation time than there is volunteering time, so I shall do an unfortunately speeded up tour of the south-east Australian ...

... not really a good time of year up in the Highlands to go aimlessly romping around :P

In December I'll be heading home quickly, nothing special - but then I have 2 big breaks coming up.. So many choices!

So no, I haven't died.. I'm just at university!

[also - having some problems with java because my university internet doesn't like me. sooo pics will come. eventually.]

Well I have finally begun my journey!!! It seemed like it would never actually happen, but as I boarded that plane reality began to sink in....As we all know, i have no idea when Ill be home, where ill go next, what Ill see or who Ill be spending time with....which makes it so much more exciting for me. Now i have only been here for half a day and have yet to settle, but once that ...

... in a 30 ltr something backpack. The photo here is what I've settled on so far plus the camera (minus the router of course). One really important item i realized i've forgotten till today is toilet paper.Thats in the red and white plastic bag so easy for me to find in case of emergency. The string if you're wondering is in case I need to wash my own clothes so at least I have something to hang the clothes from. Also a mini french dictionary for Syria ...

I made it back to Stonehaven today. Amazingly, the sun was out in full force, a complete contrast from yesterday. I walked along the North Sea for a bit, enjoying a Cornish pasty, and then made the roughly three-mile hike up to Dunnottar Castle, also overlooking the sea. The hike was amazing, but largely uneventful. The photos say more than I could hope to.

I leave for the U.S. tomorrow morning around 8:30 a.m ...

... will you? Unless I get lazy, or don't make it back. The time of each dummy entry is the time I get into a particular region. Each region might result in multiple entries, depending on how interesting it is, or how much time I have to play on the interwebs.

... had to divert to another airport which almost put a big fat line through the planned crew change. But it was only 'almost'. We ended up dressed a treat in our survival suits, but noone looked better than our very own spacecowboy. Squashed into our suits we chuckled away as one of the guys pulled his mexican cowboy boots on over the bottom of the suit, while we all sported the fashionable sneakers. An hour and some later, we arrived back on board the Topaz ...

... the young woman was worried not seeing her husband. She looked for him in the whole castle but couldn't find him. Desperate, she thought the wedding night had been disappointing for the young man and that he left her. Ashamed and very sad, she threw herself out of the window of the bedroom. The poor girl was wrong. Her husband hadn't left her, he had gone hunting when she was ...

... fell in love with her work, and bought one of her paintings there on the spot. After the passion of the moment had waned, though, we were suddenly left with a logistical nightmare. The exhibition wasn't over until the end of the month (after we'd long been gone) and would they ship to the US? No? Uh... They ended up taking my painting off the wall and handing it to me ...