Last Few Days in Scotland July 8 - July 11

Well, lets just say that had my parents been able to come, they would have gotten full use out of their waterproof gear. 

Scotland weather was bi-polar the past few days--we would wake up to blue skys, go running, come back to the apartment, clean up, eat something, get really to go out, look out the window.... and it would be down pouring.  That happened on Friday, July 8.  So we ended up hanging out in the apartment for quite a while, soaking up the last of our free British TV.  Eventually we did venture out and buy a few last minute souvenirs but as soon as it started pouring again, I went back to the apartment.

Saturday July 9, 2011:  Same situation as above.  We had a beautiful morning.  We woke up, got ready, went to the farmers market for lunch and ate under the sun in the terrace.  We ventured down the Royal Mile, entered the Parliament building for the last time, and then hiked to the point of Arther's Seat--turns out that our past hikes were only to Salisbury Crag (? I can't remember the name).  We got to the very base of the last little hill and FLASH LIGHTENING BOOM THUNDER.  Greeaaatt.  We were at one of the highest points in the city during a horrible thunderstorm BUT by some miracle, it blew away from us and we didn't get the rain... yet.  We could see it all around us though, which was really cool.  Eventually, we walked back up the royal mile and went back to our apartment.  That's when it started pouring and it didn't stop until about 9pm.  Daniel and I watched a movie and then went to bed.

 The real Arthur's Seat (the point behind me)

 The ruins in Holyrood Park

 The storm / rain behind Daniel

Sunday July 10, 2011:  We went to church.  It was another couple in the wards last week so there was a "munch and mingle" afterwords, and then we went home and began to pack.  It really didn't take us that long but it was slightly depressing so we took lots of breaks.  For instance,  I watched Twister much to Daniel's torture-- apparently it's one of the worst movies ever made.  Whatever.  I was entertained.  Around 7pm we were headed to go visit some of our friends for the last time, but then we remembered a ton of stuff that we had to do and by the time we got ready to walk over.... it started pouring.  I didn't want to pack wet clothes.  So Daniel talked to his family on skype for awhile and I talked to Nate, April and Edison after that. I love that family.  Then Alyson and Alan Adam (our friends we were going to go visit) came to our house and visited us.  It was really nice of them and I'm so glad they did.  We just talked and laughed.  It was a good time though.  When they left,  we finished packing, cleaned up and spent our last night in Scotland.

Monday July 11, 2011:  We woke up early (as in 4am) and Daniel ran to drop our key off at the landlords before heading to the airport.  For some reason, we both couldn't remember where the Landlord's office was and by the time we did, we had to call a taxi to get us to the airport in time.  Lame.  Then when we got there, 18pounds later (instead of the 7pounds the bus costs us), the lady at the desk made us pay 140 pounds to check in a third bag which we already paid for.  I won't even go into those details because I'm still livid about it.  Lets just say that I've already written a complaint, demanded my money back, and am in the process of drafting a letter to the CEO of the company.  For the record... the 140pounds they made us pay for a small US carry-on size bag cost, us more than our tickets to London.  


It's currently July 18th, 2011.  I'm way behind on my blog (coming home will do that to you), but I'm determined to finish my summer in Europe.  I'll update Daniel and my London adventures later.  :-)

UPDATES

Daniel and I were able to work directly with the airlines and get a flight change for less than $5,000.00!!! The reason all the flights were so expensive is because all the flights from Edinburgh to London were booked and they couldn't find us a connection anywhere else (which I still am not sure I believe). However, Daniel and I are already going to be in London from the 11th to the 14th (a trip we had booked to do with my parents), so instead of flying back home to Edinburgh at the end of that trip, we are going to go straight from London back to the states.  I'm really excited to go home to Utah, but now the sad feelings for leaving Edinburgh are surfacing. I guess in my situation, I can't win, but I can't really lose either. 

It'll be good to be home.

Oh, and just for the record, we're still getting ripped off with how much we are paying to change our flight.  I hate Airlines. 


 

July 4th - July 7th, 2011

This week has been pretty frustrating. 

1. Jani and Jesse's baby is having heart surgery today and I have had to get all my information from either a 14 year old boy over facebook or Jesse's sister's blog.  I haven't been able to talk to anybody directly and I always get the information hours/1 day after everybody else.

2. Because of the above situation, my parents have cancelled their trip to Europe to visit me and Daniel and although I completely understand and agree with their decision, I'm still sad.  That's another minus 10 days that I get to spend with my parents before I move to North Carolina for at least the next two years.  

3.  I want to go home.  I have loved my time in Scotland, but with everything going on back home, I'd much rather be there.  Our original fly back date was the 26th of July, but with my parents not coming, that leaves me and Daniel with 3 weeks in Scotland with no family and no job.  To some it may sound great, but I'm not really in the mood to travel around right now-- we can't afford it and I want to be able to have some communication with my family.  

We tried to change our flights home to July 15th and the travel agency said that we couldn't fly home until the 18th AND they wanted more than $5500.00 to change our flight with only a slight chance that we'd get reimbursed even though we bought travel insurance and have a reasonable claim.  It would be cheaper to just buy new flights home!  Which we can't really afford either. 

So I'm stuck here.

I'm so frustrated, livid, upset, and annoyed that I can't even breathe sometimes.   

The past few days have not been that great for me.

I just want to go hooommmeee.

**If you want some updates on baby Abigail, go to this blog:
http://journeywithjohnsons.blogspot.com/2011/07/invitation-in-fasting-united-in-one.html

Jesse's sister is doing such a good job and I'm so grateful for it. 

Palma de Mallorca, SPAIN

Last Wednesday, Daniel and I got on a plane and headed to Palma de Mallorca-- an island off the coast of Spain-- in the Mediterranean sea.
Beautiful.  I really wanted to go somewhere warm.  I love Scotland, but the cold at the end of June was beginning to wear on me.  Naturally, the day we left for Palma, the weather was gorgeous in Scotland and it apparently stayed that way the entire time we were gone.  I'm not complaining.  I got plenty of sun at the beach.

Here is my recap:  We stayed in Arenal, Palma de Mallorca

Wednesday June 29, 2011 - Daniel and I landed in Palma around noon.  We were going to just take a taxi to our hotel, but adventure and cheapness got the better of us and we headed for the bus.  Thank goodness we did.  It would have cost us about 20 euros to take a taxi and it only cost us about 2 euros to take the bus.

First Impressions:
-Sunny, warm, blue sky's, even bluer water.  BEAUTIFUL
-Tan people in bikini's everywhere.  I definitely don't fit in. haha
-SPANISH! Luckily, I know enough that Daniel and I were able to get around no problem.
-Germans?  Yupp.  As much Spanish as there was, so many German people occupy the Island that everything is first in Spanish, then German, then English.

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel (which didn't have a receptionist... we had to walk to a different hotel to get our key.  Luckily, the man at the restaurant next to the hotel knew to tell us that--otherwise that could have been difficult).  We put on our suits, smothered our white skin in SPF 30 and headed to the beach.  It was beautiful.  We just played in the water for a short while and then layed on the beach to enjoy the sun.  I must have fallen asleep for about 30 mins and when I woke up, I was fried.  DESPITE all the lotion I put on.  It was only the front of my body though-- cute.  After that, we decided to call our day at the beach done.  It was about 6pm anyways.  We headed back to the hotel, showered, and got ready to go out for the night.

Oh, stuff they say about European beaches... all true. haha  It was pretty... gross.  I saw so many.... boobies... and.... butt cheeks (thongs, if you will). It was unreal. However,  it is really just a cultural thing for the women:  ages 0-3: completely naked, 4-100 topless with a few butt cheeks.  I don't know.  I just stopped looking and truth be told, a few of those women inspired me.  I get embarrassed just wearing my little tankini and yet there were women WAY bigger than me just chillin topless.  If they can have the confidence to do that, than so can I.  Well, not the confidence to go topless haha but at least feel comfortable in my own skin. So yeah.  Daniel liked to play the game who can spot.... okay this is a total lie and I don't want people to think I married a perv. haha But it would have been funny and if this wasn't an Internet journal, I would have totally finished that sentence haha.

So yeah, we after we were all sand free, we headed back to the beach, got a donor kebab (which was good, but it makes me sick now to think about the fact that I ate it.  It is so unsanitary and my life's supply of fat intake in one meal).  We watched the sunset, and hit up all the little tourist shops along the cost.  It was fun.  The the workers in the shops (for the most part) all speak German, English, and Spanish and that impressed me. 

We were ready to call it a night by 11pm, but that's about the time everybody else was just going out.  It was a very interesting culture change from Scotland when everything closes at 5, but I liked it. 

Oh, and baby Claire was born! I went to the Internet cafe everyday to get updates and pictures of the little beauty.  I'm very excited to meet her.

Thursday June 30, 2011: Although our hotel wasn't the best,  we did get a really nice breakfast (at the other hotel where we picked up our key) every morning:  Scrambled eggs, bacon, mini sausages, toast, cereal, juice, boiled eggs, tomatoes, ham, cheese, yogurt, fresh fruit, granola, croissants, etc etc.  Cool. Every morning we started our day with that, and also slipped a few extra things in our bag for lunch (oranges, rolls, etc) haha. 

This day, we headed to a tourist booth and decided to rent a kayak for about 3 hours.  It wasn't too expensive and although I don't love that stuff, I knew that Daniel would so I was equally enthused.  A bus came and picked us up and took us to a different beach and off we went.

We found a little island, but there were so many crabs on it, that I didn't want to get out.  We also found a cave!  The whole time, the water was very calm and to be quite honest, a little boring.  We didn't really have a destination and although the water was beautiful, I wanted to be going somewhere.  So Daniel and I found a little beach, parked the kayak, and enjoyed a swim. When we decided to get back into the kayak, the waves really picked up.  It was kind of scary to be honest. haha I didn't want to flip--not because I can't swim (I had a life jacket on) but because we had our backpack with us will all our money, documents, books, camera etc.  I wanted to leave it behind, but Daniel was afraid that something would happen to it if we did.  I wanted to get to safety asap.  We met up with the man who rented us the kayak, he took us back to Arenal, and we headed back to the hotel. If I remember correctly,  we took a 2 hour nap, played cards, Yahtzee, and Fargo. Then we headed out to the streets to enjoy a little night life.

Friday, July 1, 2011:  Two days in the sun--the first of which my skin was burned.  Daniel and I decided to take a break.  We wanted to tour the Island a little bit so we hopped on a tour bus headed for the Caves of the Dragon, otherwise known as Cuevas del Drach.  Awesome.

Something cool, but annoying:  Our tour guide translated everything he said in Spanish, German, English, Polish, Swedish, and French. Cool  After awhile, you just lost track of when he was speaking your language and I missed a lot, which is too bad.  I'm assuming he said some pretty cool stuff. Annoying.

Our first stop was at a gift shop.  Lame.
Our second stop was at a gift shop.  Lame.
Our third stop: CUEVAS DEL DRACH.  Really cool.
Our fourth stop: Lunch.  Lame
Our fifth stop:  Beach. Kind of lame
Our sixth stop:  glass blowing factory/ gift shop.   Kind of lame.

Stop One:  Apparently, we could taste all of the alcohol native to Palma.  YAY!!.... boo.  But it was just in barrels, on the wall, at a gift shop.

Stop Two:  Palma is known for its pearls.  There was a 2 min exhibition that showed how the pearls were made.  I was so disappointed.  They basically just melt a piece of glass, make it a ball, put some lines in it to make it look natural, and then paint it, put it on a string, and sell it for a lot more than its worth.  As I said earlier,  lame.   This exhibition, like stop one, was also in a gift shop, so Daniel and I left and went to the shop next door,  an olive wood exhibition.  There were a few neat things in there, but once again it was just a shop BUT outside the shop, there were random dinosaurs everywhere.  That was kind of cool I guess.

Stop Three: Finally something awesome.  Cuevos del Drach.  Apparently, the caves are around 4 million years old and made up of limestone/calcium.  It was discovered by a man named Martel and there is a lake named after him inside the cave.  Daniel and I walked slow and really enjoyed it. We weren't allowed to take pictures but we did; however, unlike other stupid tourists, we turned off the flash and didn't get in trouble.  I was simply in awe at how beautiful it was.  Some of the pillars in the cave looked like ancient Roman and Greek columns.  I felt like it was Heavenly Father saying,  "Look, I made them first... with no hands!" haha Our earth is truly amazing and very patient. 

When we got to the lake, there was a 12 minute classical music show.  Three lighted boats came around the corner and there was an organ, cello, and two violinists playing music.  They dimmed the lights. I personally thought it was a really cool experience.  At the end of the show, Daniel and I got to ride the boat for a short while before working our way back out of the cave.  Apparently, a lot of people were disappointed with everything, but I thought it was wonderful and really loved it.  I'm glad Daniel made me slow down to actually appreciate it instead of rushing to the end.

Stop Four: Lunch. I wish we would have packed something but we didn't have time.  We stopped at a restaurant that the tour company must have a deal with and we had to eat there or not eat (so we thought).  Daniel and I ordered a dish to share, but the waiter brought out two dishes anyways by mistake.  It was good, but a little overpriced.  Fortunately, we got a buy one get one free deal so it wasn't too bad (they only made us pay for one dish :-) )

Stop Five:  We went to one of the most popular beaches on the island.  It was beautiful, but seeing as Daniel and I didn't want to be too exposed to the sun, we didn't go in the water... we didn't even bring our suits!  I was a little disappointed because they didn't even tell us we'd be doing that.  I don't think anybody wore their swim suits. So I just napped in the shade and Daniel walked around and got ice cream.

Stop Six: We went to a glass blowing factory.  Watched men make some glass figurines and lamps.  I don't know how they do it.  It's already a million degrees outside and they are in a room with an open kiln.  I would die. 

We eventually headed back home.  We ate a slice of pizza for dinner, played paddle ball on the beach, watched the sun set, and played card games.  Overall, it was a good day.  I wish we would have just gone to see the caves, it probably would have saved us a bit of money, but oh well.  It is what it is and we enjoyed ourselves non the less.

Saturday, July 2, 2011:  We decided to travel to a different beach.  We hopped on a bus and headed towards Mondrago National Park.  Two hours later (luckily, it was a nice coach bus), we finally got there.  It was totally worth it.  Daniel said that everything reminded him of a state park, but instead of a brown, mucky lake, there was a beautiful blue beach!  The pictures don't even do it justice.

We played paddle ball for a while (we never got to Z in the alphabet game... we're not very good haha), went swimming, and went exploring.

Here, Daniel tasted some natural sea salt.

There were less topless women here :-)

And although the bus to leave was late (The bus driver was taking a nap inside the bus. We left 15 mins late... almost making us miss our connecting bus back to Arenal.  Daniel and I were very annoyed),  the whole day turned out to be a success.  That night we went to a "nicer" dinner, and watched a show on the beach-- a bunch of men and women in traditional Spanish dress doing their dances.  When they were done, there was a traditional Spanish band as well, but Daniel and I headed back to our hotel and passed out.  It had been a long day.

Sunday, July 3 2011:   Last day in Palma,  we decided to keep the Sabbath Day as holy as possibly and stay out of the water.  We decided to go visit the city.  Our flight to Edinburgh didn't leave until 9pm, so we still had all day.  We got into the city at 1pm and then learned that not only did everything close from 1 to 3 for siesta...  but almost everything was closed on Sundays.  Total BUST.  We got to see the outside of a few impressive buildings: Cathedral, Abbeys, etc.  and then we did get to go into the Arab Baths from the 10th century or something like that.   But the rest of the time, we just wandered around.  We did get lost, but it was beautiful none the less.

We got to the airport early and played a few games of Yahtzee. 

The flight home was absolutely miserable.  It might just be me, but I feel like European men spell like body odor (okay that's not just me... they really do) and the women spell like bad ham (this one might just be me).  Daniel said he didn't smell it, but I smelled it all the time and it was awful. In fact, a lot of the scents in Palma were really gross haha but anyway, back to the flight.  The woman behind us took off her shoes and put them on our arm rest.  Her feet smelled so bad that I almost barfed.  Daniel finally flipped the arm rest up so that her foot got pushed off, but I still had to wear my sweater over my nose for quite some time.  Then we had somebody passing very rotten gas.  It was just awful.   Oh and the little boy in front of me kept burping.   Yuck.

We finally got home and I got to talk to Jani!  She was in the hospital ready to have a baby.  Crazy. 

Baby Abigail Elizabeth was born (after we got off skype).  I think she was 7lbs 2 oz and 20 in long.   I'm not too sure.  I got all my data from a 15 year old boy (Joey).

She's having trouble breathing by herself and her little heart is on the wrong side so she may need surgery. I'll keep you updated on the baby girl.

Well, that was my trip.  Daniel and I enjoyed our little second (maybe even third) honeymoon ---third, if you also count the fact that we are living in Scotland.