volume two.

Ok. Arrival into London was a success, no lost baggage or lost Jordan, although clearing immigration was a much longer and more nerve-wracking experience to what I'm used to. I guess the naive innocence which usually ensures the friendliness of scary officials wasn't working properly. Perhaps caused by lack of sleep. But I made it to London and subsequently to Edinburgh, at which point I was quite delirious with tiredness and the grandma within me was waving her stick and demanding a nap. Though of course I didn't yield to her- I only had 2 nights in Ed and they certainly weren't going to be spent going to bed at a reasonable hour. Fate intervened and I happened to be put in a dorm with a group of Aussies who, as it turned out, live right around the corner from me (relatively speaking...it is actually about 45 minutes away). This was something to celebrate, as I'm sure any South Australian who has travelled knows, if you ever meet anyone who knows Adelaide is real you need to befriend them.

So after we excitedly chatted about life in the homestate we went out and spent the Saturday night in Edinburgh as it should be spent...drinking, drinking and dancing.

Sunday saw the sun rising at 4am as we covered our heads with our pillows and inwardly groaned about which idiot didn't close the curtain the night before. Fast forward a few hours and, fortified by a hearty youth hostel breakfast, we are preparing to take a walking tour to learn some of the darkly comedic stories about Edinburgh's past. And there are many...here are just a couple.

***When the witch burning craze swept Europe back in the 17th century Scotland thought it should get involved as well, and after setting some obvious criteria with which to discover witches (red hair, 3rd nipple, that sort of thing), they began to scourge the city of Edinburgh of the ungodly. After many triumphant captures and burnings a slight problem became apparent. The city had used its entire supply of wood, which was needed to burn in order to produce the coal from which walls and buildings were made, burning witches and they were left with nothing to build with. It's ok though, some quick thinking saved the day. The coal that remained from the witch burnings was gathered and used instead, and to this day you can visit Scotland and lean against a wall made from dead Scottish witches.***

The second tale is a little less macabre and a little more gross.

***Back in the day, Edinburgh was a maze of narrow, cobble-stoned alleyways surrounded on both sides by tall tenement buildings. It was also a city lacking a sophisticated sewage system. I say 'sophisticated' because there was a system in place, however basic. It was, more or less, 'throw your waste out the window and into the street whenever is necessary'. This worked for a while, but when the councilmen decided something needed to be done about hygiene in the city they declared there was to be 2 daily times allotted for sewage disposal. 7am or 10pm. Since nobody (one would hope) has a full bucket of sewage at 7 in the morning, 10pm became the norm. Special time, 10pm. It was also when all the pubs closed and the loyal patrons had to stumble back to their homes and lives.

So it is dark. The inebriated crowds are filling the narrow streets eager for bed. Those at home are emptying their buckets of sewage before also going to bed. As a common courtesy, a warning was shouted before any bucket was dumped but, in this situation, it is easy to understand why there was an unfortunate few who did not make it to safety in time. A little bit of imagination here...and this is how the term 'shitfaced' was born. Thankyou Scotland.***

Ed also has a story about a lady who was hanged and came back to life, a dog who was given the keys to the city and a local carpenter/criminal who was the basis of the story Jekyll and Hyde.
But. This entry is more than long enough so I would suggest you hop on a plane and discover this city's stories for yourself or, perhaps a little more realistically, jump onto Google and search away.

Edinburgh Castle.

volume one.

Dear blog. I am sorry for the neglect. And also sorry to anyone who might drop by from time to time. I have been too busy enjoying my travels to sit down and write about them but I now have a 6 hour layover in the (slightly dull) Scottish town of Inverness, so get ready for my longest post yet. Which is so long in fact, that I am dividing it into two different ones. So here is part one. Enjoy.

I have to go back in time, to about 3 weeks ago, when I was up in the hills of Costa Rica exploring the rainforests of Monteverde. Much to Isabelle's disgust we decided a night time forest tour would be a rather interesting experience, so as the sun was setting we found ourselves wandering around a forest lit with glowing beetles, face to face with two-toed sloths, enormous tarantulas and some breed of Costa Rican raccoon. Perhaps Isabelle has been traumatised by this adventure, but I thought it was a little bit fun.

After this our journey, along with an airconditioned mini-bus, took us somewhere we could all enjoy. Which we did. I cant speculate on what life is like for the locals of Manuel Antonio but for the tourists I would say it is the epitome of relaxed laziness set among palm fringed beaches. A typical day involved an after breakfast swim in the pool, followed by a swim in the ocean, perhaps a short walk, back in the pool, lunchtime, some reading, a sunset walk along the beach and then dinner and happy hour at one of the restaurants lining the road parallel to the beach.

I'm not positive, but I don't really think life could be anymore relaxing than that.

After this indulgence in the human love of not doing anything, it was back to New York for a final two days with the lovely family before I was once more on my own in the world. There was a bit more shopping, a lot more walking around and I upped my street cred by getting a piece of metal through my nose. It immediately went right back down to its regular level of 'not cool' though, when I almost fainted after the event. Oh well.

Then the ladies and I parted ways with an awkward embrace on the subway and continued onto our respective airports and lives.

So ends part one. Get a cup of tea, perhaps some cake, and come back. Or just turn off the computer for a while and return later for part two of this enormous post.

in the jungle..the mighty jungle...

Indeed. The Jungle. I realise I have been a bit neglectful of late (since I met up with my family in fact) so since New York is long gone and we are in a completely different country, I am just going to move right on to that.

So Costa Rica! Where everyone is friendly and the weather likes to 'monsoon' for at least an hour everyday. Right at this very moment I am sitting in my hotel room doorway (the only place the WIFI works) listening to the sounds of the volcano jungle which is quite a harmony once the sun falls, though we have yet to see a toucan or a monkey or even a tarantula- not that I am complaining about that one.
We are staying at the Arenal volcano, literally right at it...here is the view from our hotel room...

This is an active volcano; apparently back in the day there were tours which allowed people to walk right around the crater, but there were too many deaths at the hand of volcanic ash and eruptions so this is no longer offered. Damn. We have seen smoke but no fire, but a couple of other brand new experiences I have had here more than make up for it.

Yesterday I went swinging through the jungle canopy on cables, ranging from about 50-100 metres high and 130-900 metres in length. Swinging through a forest canopy for nearly a kilometre while trying to keep your hand from flying off the cable is not as easy as it looks, and I ended up having to be rescued on this one. But I can proudly say I conquered (almost) all the other lines with my sheer charm and good looks. And the explicit instructions from the guides.

After this quite full on adventure we spent today pool hopping in the natural hot springs at the base of the volcano. Very relaxing....

Which we followed with a lovely buffet style dinner, a la Australian country pub...Oh Costa Rica, we love you.