Did anyone else see the circus come into town?

Sorry for the delay in getting a post up here in a few days, but like i am sure you can imagine, there is little time to fit in computer time when trying to see as much as possible! alright enough complaining, now on to the stories!

Since i last wrote, we finishied up our stay in Brugge one more day doing very similar activities than we did the previous couple days there. This time, we had to dodge the rain drops, more or a stupid constant mist that just would not go away. good thing for me, i brought an umbrella and was not forced to buy one like all the other monkey tourists that did not plan ahead! We went up to the top of the Belfry...damn near 600 stairs and got some amazing views of the city. We also went to the Chocolate History museum and spent more time hanging out in many of the various squares straight people watching! for lunch, we had the taste of Belgium...a VAT FULL OF MUSSLES and chips (fries). My mussles were in a beer broth (as if you had to guess what i would have chosen...OBVI - AJ, that was for you!), Josh had the garlic and kate went cream sauce which were all amazing! that was the one thing that i wanted to make sure that i had when i was there and therefore just like our fealess leader George W says "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"!

Becuase we had an early flight in the AM, we opted to hang out at the hostel earlier in the evening, had some dinner, couple beers, watched a match and called it a night!

AND THEN IT HAPPENED! the next acounts are all fact, they happened to us and they CAN NOT BE DISPUTED!

Alarm was set for 5:45 AM so we could shower, finish up packing and then get to the bus stop for 6:30. 5:45 came, alarm went off, we woke up and BAM...power was out in the hostel...OK, not so bad, to shower in the dark you say...i know...Danny, stop bitching! the only issue was that we should have known that this was going to be the beginning of the end! Got to the bus stop on time, was able to take an earlier train that we had orginally planned back to brussles airport (an hour ride all in). Got to the brussles airport in PLENTY of time to check in. would have been great if WE COULD CHECK IN! the airline that we had flights booked to Glasgow, Scotland (Ryan Air) simply does not fly out of the main brussles airport which a nice ticket agent for another airline told us and therefore better get your arse in a cab to the other airport. now in my head, the other airport was damn near right down the street...oh think again monfraire! equivilant to San jose and SFO airports we hopped into a cab, only to have the cab driver laugh at us for being morons and not reading our flight itinerary which BTW, tells us which airport to go to! 130.00ish Euros later, we were at the correct airport...AGAIN with plenty of time! we checked in, had some coffee i used up my last euros on MORE BELGIUM CHOCOLATE because...well...IT IS FRIGGIN GOOD! sat down in the terminal and 5-10 minutes later, we heard over the intercom that a flight to italy was cancelled due to fog at our airport! FOG...are you kidding me, am in san francisco toto...no? how about kansas toto...no? right folks, brussles other airport gets for too...who knew? well, i know now and so do you all!

Needless to say, no more than 20 minutes after our scheduled flight was to take off (10:55AM) our flight too was cancelled! no worries right, there will be another one right...TOMORROW and who is to say that one would not be fogged in too??? now this would not be so bad if we were not meeting up with another friend Erin in edinborough later in the day which we were supposed to pick her up at the airport from since we were theoretically getting in much earlier than she was! well, standing in the ticket line for an hour got us nowhere. we picked up a complaint form to...you guessed it...complain about the fact that the flight had to be cancelled due to weather! are you thinking what i am thinking...this complaint will go to the TOP OF THEIR LIST!

Luckily they offer a bus back into the center of brussles (brussles midi train station) which only costs 10.50 euros (remember the 130 that we paid for the cab right...now continue the calculations and stay with me here!). back in town, we had to get to the internet to get erins phone number so we could leave her a message on her cell phone and let her know that she was ON HER OWN (she brought an internations phone if that confused you all). a little over an hour later, we were on the Eurostar bound for london through the chunnel then through the tube then back on another train bound for Edinborough. for all you geography majors out there, this was a friggin journey which should have taken 1.5 hours by air. well, if you were wondering, we woke up at 5:45 and finally got to our hostel in Edinborough at 11:30ish in the PM. 2+ hours on the eurostar and 5+ hours on the train from london. oh and BTW, that fantastic journey (a la coolio) cost an 230.00+ euros more...maybe Ryan Air will reimburse us for that one...know any good lawyers out there that will take this case?

Erin was asleep in the room when we got there, and we were pretty pooped (OBVI) so once we hit the pillow it was sleep city!

this puits us at yesterday in Edinborough. We hit the streets, took some self guided tours or the castle and the royal mile! along the mile, we stopped in a pub (yes, they have those here!) for a pint and to watch a match. Kate, Erin and Josh then left off to a tour of the underground haunted city thingy of scotland. I read in a local paper of a band (Carus And the True Believers) that was playing nearby. They have toured with Jack Johnson so i opted for that route! the concert was awesome and had i wanted to party like a rockstar i certainly could have with one of the opening acts. His name is Nick Baker and i highly recommend him. Carus was fantastic and all 75 or so people at the place seemed like they had a good time too! i know that i did!

Anywhoo, enough rambling, the others are off on a hike, while i wondered off on my own and ended up WAY OFF THE BEATEN TRACK! it is nice to ask someone a question here and NOT have them give the blank stair of WTF are you asking me??? back on track, i stumbled upon this internet cafe and here i am now, rambling on (zeplin style).

more sight seeing to come for the rest of the day. will write more in a couple days and fill you in. hope you are enjoying these as i love recounting the trial and tribulations of this journey and circus all at the same time! miss you all and can not wait to show you this pics that we have taken. Be sure to check out Josh's blog which is linked on the side of this one since he is more dedicated than i and has pics attached to his blog.

alright all, talk to you all soon! KIT, STAY SWEET and DON'T EVER CHANGE!

DH