The rest of Europe...

Yeah, so it's been closer to two months than one since I got back to the WONDERFUL US of A, and I have yet to finish up posting what went down. Oops. And I'm too lazy to separate the rest of this, so...here's everything.

We had a few days to just chill at Catherine's on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Sunday we went to church. The church really is the same no matter where you go. Even the building was the same, except there were no drinking fountains, which did not please me. But it was nice to be at church and have everything be familiar and the same. It's always a testimony builder to know it's the same church everywhere. It did increase my homesickness, though. I'm not really sure why I'm such a big baby but I am and I've come to terms with it. After church we took a picnic out to a little park by Catherine's house. We didn't stay too long because it started to rain, but it was fun. I love being outside way more than being inside, especially in the summer.

Monday I FINALLY went for a run. It was heavenly. A crazy and/or drunk guy rode up on his bike while I was running and was talking to me. He said his name was Thestral and I just smiled, but then he said, “Might I have the pleasure of knowing yours?” I told him my real name, too. I should've faked something but I was really caught off guard and I couldn't think fast enough! Then he said, “Bless you, and bless your little knee! What have you done to it?” I panted, “It's from running a lot.” And he gasped and said, “You're American!” All I could think was crap, now he's going to kidnap me and hold me for ransom and I'll end up dead because the United States does not negotiate with terrorists. But it was too late to pretend to be anything else, and my fake accents are laughable at best, so I just nodded.
“You've seen the Anisazi cave drawings!”

Uh...huh? I shook my head no at this psycho and he kept saying yes. “You'll remember someday!” He said, and then he told me it was a pleasure to have met me and rode away. It was weird and I was slightly worried he was going to follow me for a little while. I did six miles and it was kind of hard because a. I didn't really know where I was going; b. the air is super muggy compared to what I'm used to; c. I hadn't run in two weeks before that; and d. I have a broken knee. Even with tape and my knee brace it's not great. But it wasn't really hurting enough to stop me while running. It just killed for the rest of the day. But I don't really care if it hurts later—as long as I can run I'm good.

We went into town and walked around the shops. We found some paint to make shirts for the Olympics. We went and saw Batman. Cherisse was all excited to see the “foreign” previews. Nope. They were exactly the same as the previews in America. I guess England isn't foreign enough to have weird previews. You probably have to go to a country where they don't speak English. Then we came back and just chilled and watched Friends. Not too shabby!

Tuesday was more of the same. We made our USA t-shirts; the back of mine says “God Bless America” and Cherisse put “Then conquer we must, when our cause, it is just, and this be our motto: ‘In God do we trust.’” from the 4th verse of the Star-Spangled Banner. Catherine put the Union Jack on the front and “God Bless America” on the back. We went to Cusworth Hall, which is a big old house. There’s a museum inside so we went in and looked around. It’s like Downton Abbey! We saw the back staircases for servants and the different dressing rooms and stuff. It was really cool. And then we ate at the tea room there. We had hot chocolate instead of tea, obviously, but we had little tea cakes and lunch. I had beans on toast because apparently that’s a normal thing to eat here. Okay. It was good. I mean, how can you go wrong with beans and toast?

Wednesday, August 8, 2012
We got up this morning and drove to Berwick, which is pronounced Barrack, so that we could go to Edinburgh tomorrow. Berwick is up north, right on the border with Scotland. We stopped in Alnwick on our way to see Alnwick castle, where they did a lot of the shooting for the Harry Potter movies. It was really cool to see the stuff from the movies in person! And they had broomstick “flying” lessons that we wanted to do. The tickets were all gone when we got there though. It was okay, because we stood over there when they were doing it and the lessons were really designed for 5-year-olds. Lots of overacting by the guys running it and stuff. We looked around the castle and got to climb up on the wall! That was cool. And we took pictures with our heads and arms in the stocks. I didn’t even put my head all the way in because I was worried I’d get stuck and how embarrassing would that be? Super embarrassing. The castle was gorgeous and the grounds were SO pretty. And apparently people still live there! We went in the library and I was DYING because it was huge and full of books. It had two levels of books and a balcony! Oh to have that.

Berwick is a really cool “little” town. In England, their idea of small town is not the same as my idea of small town. There were still a million shops and lots of people. But it was cool. We stayed in a super cute bed and breakfast run by this old grandmother type woman named Anna who only runs a B&B so she can keep paying her gardener. Her garden was amazing! There were tons of trees and berry bushes and statues and a cool gate that went to a back way to town. And the house was really nice. Wednesday night when we got there we tried to wander around to the shops but they were all closed! Just like Heppner. So we found one place still open to eat. The only thing on the menu I could eat was potato and leek soup. It was really good though so it’s okay. The whole vegan thing seems to mystify Europeans. No, it’s not the same as vegetarianism. I do not eat cheese. They just can’t grasp that part. “Oh, you’re vegan? Here, this doesn’t have meat in it. It’s smothered in cheese, but that’s okay. No meat!”

Thursday morning we got up and drove to Edinburgh. Anna made us breakfast before we went and it was so good! When we got down there, she was still making our actual breakfasts, but the table was set with fruit salad and cereal and toast for like a first course. I wanted to scream hallelujah when I saw the fruit. I was feeling a definite lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. So that made me very happy. And I had beans and tomatoes and fried mushrooms for breakfast. Kind of strange but it was good. The mushrooms were super good.

Edinburgh was sort of not my kind of place. It was SO crowded, mostly because it’s Edinburgh Festival right now. I don’t really know what the festival is for but apparently everyone and their dog wants to be there. There were people shoving flyers in our faces for shows and plays that night. We saw a lot of Harry Potter stuff. J.K. Rowling is from Edinburgh. We went to the diner place where she wrote the first book on a napkin. We went to the graveyard where she found the name Tom Riddle. We saw a school that inspired the castle for Hogwarts. And we ate cotton candy the size of our heads. Seriously, it was huge and sugary and delicious.

We went back to Berwick that night and stayed in the B&B again. We walked out to the seashore and collected shells and cool rocks. It was a lot of fun but it was freezing. Then we ate at an Indian place for dinner. I didn’t really eat anything, because it was 9:00 already. I got naan bread stuffed with vegetables. Naan is really good and it was HUGE! I wasn’t really that hungry and then I was totally stuffed. When we got back to the B&B, it was like 10:00 and Anna had locked the door! She thought we were in. That was kind of embarrassing to have to knock on the door and have her come out of her room. Luckily it didn’t seem like she was asleep.

On our way from Berwick to Doncaster, we stopped in Durham and met Mom's cousin, Paige. She looks just like a Tovey. She actually looks a lot like Mom. She was the same height as me, maybe a teeny bit taller, and she was dressed very stylishly and seemed to live a pretty glamorous life. Cherisse thought she was the coolest person ever. She showed us around Durham, which is a historical site in Britain. It was cool, but, to be honest, I'm getting a little disenchanted with the whole cathedral-castle-cobbled streets thing. They're pretty but dang, people, give me some nature and sky and air! I guess I'm just very much a country girl and we were in cities. But she told us a lot of the courtyard scenes in Harry Potter were shot in the courtyard of the cathedral, and we even recognized it, so that was cool. I definitely wasn't as excited as Cherisse. It's funny that even in a foreign country, you can still find Toveys pretty much anywhere you go.

We got back to Doncaster and stayed long enough to unpack, repack, and sit for a little bit. Then it was on to London. Traffic was pretty bad, so it took longer than usual to get there, so we didn't get there until like 8. Setting up the tent was an experience. I never considered that tents would be different in different countries, but their tents are different! You have an outer tent, which is the big part, that actually looks like a tent, and you put that up first with the poles and stakes and everything. But then you clip on another smaller compartment inside, so the tent ends up being separated into two spaces—a sleeping area and a sort of foyer type thing for your stuff. It was weird but kind of a nice idea because the double layer of walls kept dew out. Even with a rain fly you still get dewy. But the poles were ridiculously huge and heavy. You could definitely not take one of those tents backpacking. And Catherine said all their tents are like that, even their small tents. Weird. I'm sure they have light backpacking tents, too. It's funny what you don't think about until you see it.

We walked to the train station so we'd know how to get there in the morning and got some food and then went to bed. We turned on Harry Potter but I fell asleep before they even got to the troll at Halloween. We had planned to get up at 7 but, as with pretty much every place we've visited, we didn't get up on time. We got up at 7:45. It wasn't a huge deal, because we didn't have set plans, but it was a little annoying. Catherine's mom had to get up at 4:30 and go to work at the Olympics, because she was a volunteer, so we took down the tent and packed the car before we caught the train out. We didn't know what time we'd be back, so we didn't want to have to worry about it.

While we were on the train, Catherine's mom text her to tell her she got us free tickets to the men's pentathlon! I didn't have a clue what happened in the pentathlon, but who cares? I got to see the Olympics! So we met up with Catherine's mom and went over to the Olympic Park! It was so so cool. We had to go through security, which at first seemed strange but then I remembered there have been bombings and stuff at the Olympics. We had to dump out liquids and our stuff had to go through a scanner like we were flying or something. But just being IN the Olympic Park was amazing. I just kept thinking, “I could run into Jonathan Horton!!!” (Spoiler: I didn't.) The volunteers were all really fun and they'd see our USA shirts and say things like, “Team USA!” or “Oh, who are you rooting for? I can't tell.”

Our first stop was the Copper Box, where the first event of the pentathlon was—fencing. Yeah, so...fencing is not super exciting to me. It's like watching the beginning of a wrestling match where they're just tying up the whole time, and then as soon as someone lands a shot, it's over. Seriously, those are the rules—as soon as someone gets a point, the match is over. Snore. I'm sure it takes a lot of athleticism and focus and strategy and blah blah blah, but I was bored. There's a reason fencing isn't big in America, I guess.

After fencing, we went to the Olympics mega-store thing and bought T-shirts. There was not a size small to be found in the entire mega-store. Awesome. So, I went to my fail-safe: the kid's section. Size 11-12? Sounds good. (Later, I tried on the shirt, and it's even a little roomy. What the crap?? Europe continues to humiliate me with their sizing.) As we were walking through the Olympic park, Cherisse got interviewed for some Asian news station! They were asking her what she thought of the judges and how this Olympics compared to others in terms of venue, officials, and so on. She didn't really know what to say, because obviously we'd never been to the Olympics before, but maybe she'll become a big hit in Korea or something haha. We went to McDonald's to get lunch (sidenote: I always find it ridiculous that McDonald's is a sponsor of the Olympics. I mean, come on! Athletes do NOT eat there. Also, it was the only place to eat inside the Olympic park! There were little booths but they were super expensive.), and I ordered a veggie wrap. The patty was supposed to be made of beans. Instead, they gave me a chicken wrap. Thanks. Tip: usually when people order a veggie wrap, it's because they DON'T want chicken. Whatever. I picked the chicken strips out and gave them to Cherisse and ate salad in a tortilla. That's pretty much a staple in my diet anyway, and the spicy sauce stuff on it was good, so it wasn't a huge deal.

We headed over to the Aquatic Center for the swimming portion. That's right, I was in the Olympic Aquatic Center!! It was so cool. The whole day at the Olympics I just kept thinking things like, “Athletes have been here!” and then remembering, “Athletes ARE here!” It was definitely one of the coolest experiences I've had in my life. Swimming, thankfully, is more exciting than fencing, though the USA guy sure sucked it up. Turns out America is not a heavy-hitter in the men's modern pentathlon. Oh well. We still cheered really loud for him anyway.

After swimming, we had to catch a train over to Greenwich Park for the show jumping, running, and shooting events. I have to admit I was sort of doubting how exciting show jumping would be. I mean, seriously. I like horses and all, but I just thought it would be boring. WRONG! It was way exciting. And the poor tiny Korean athlete's horse reared up and fell backward on him! He could have been crushed and killed! Luckily he was fine, and I was absolutely amazed that he got back up and finished the course. I guess that's why he's an Olympian.

The running and shooting was combined, so they'd go off and run for a bit and then come back and have to shoot 5 targets and then go run some more and come back and shoot some more. Most of their running was done out of the stadium, so we were just sort of chilling there waiting, and the shooting was with lazers or something (what kind of space age do we live in??) so you couldn't even really see/hear/watch any of it, but it was still obvious the USA guy was not going to win. Sad day. We still cheered extra loud when he ran by us, though. It was designed so that whoever crossed the finish line of the run was the overall winner, and right at the end it looked like China was going to win. Now, if USA can't win, I don't care a whole super lot who does win (I was cheering for Ireland but he wasn't getting the job done, either, and the Great Britain guys were lagging, too), but there is one country that I always root against: China. I can't get over the gymnastics thing from 2008, and therefore I will cheer against them forever. Sorry, China. It's nothing against your people or your culture. Anyway, the Chinese athlete looked like he was going to win, and I'm serious when I say most of the stadium was against him. Tough crowd. But luckily the guy from the Czech Republic had a nice kick at the end and won. Sore throats from cheering for all!

The poor Korean athlete whose horse fell on him came in dead last. They staggered the starts, so that the person with the most points started first and every 400 points behind was a second later or something like that, and he was so far behind he started like 10 whole minutes after everyone else. It was pretty sad. I think almost everyone was already done when he finally came back in the stadium, running for the finish line. But of course everyone cheered for him. We were actually sitting behind a big section of Koreans and they were so proud and cheering so loud for him. It was nice. Then the USA guy passed us and Cherisse and I screamed "USA!!!" and he actually looked over and smiled! That's most likely the closest encounter I will ever have with an Olympian.

We drove back to Catherine's and went straight to bed. It was like midnight or later when we finally got back. We had so many late nights on this trip! Well, okay, late for me. For most people that's kind of normal. But hey, the late nights were worth it.

Sunday was our last day in England. We went to church in Catherine's ward and it was nice to have people remember us from the week before and say hi and ask if we enjoyed our stay and the Olympics and everything. I love the Church! And Catherine's ward was full of super nice people. After church we packed and tried to make sure we had everything. Catherine's ward was having a baptism, so we went to that and then Catherine's mom was so kind as to drive us to the hotel we were staying at right by the airport since our flight left at like...5 am? I don't remember. The baptism was nice. It's funny how I get choked up at baptisms even when I don't know the person. And DANG the spread of food was AWESOME! Those Brits know how to feed a crowd after a baptism, I tell you what. I ate SO MUCH. There were fruit skewers that I obviously went gaga over. There were these chocolate rice crispy things I couldn't get enough of. There was pasta and cupcakes and cookies and pie and lots of things I didn't eat because they were meaty or cheesy. But my very favorite were these tiny pieces of bread with butter on them. (I am not hard to please.) At one point I was asking Catherine to snag me some more bread and butter and I ended up chanting, "Bread. Bread. Bread and butter. Two please!" We laughed and laughed and repeated it forever.

Also, a creepy 8-year-old assaulted me at the drinks table. Cherisse was pouring him a drink and I was standing there waiting for a drink as well when I felt a hand on my behind! I looked down at him in shock and he gave me the creepiest smile in the world! I was quite scandalized. Cherisse and Catherine thought it was hilarious.

We drove to the Leeds hotel and said our goodbyes to Catherine and her mom. It was weird to be leaving Catherine when we'd been with her almost nonstop for almost three weeks! Cherisse knew she'd see her again in a few short weeks so it wasn't a long, tearful goodbye or anything. We got checked into the hotel and settled in to watch a bit of the closing ceremonies. The Spice Girls were set to preform and you know we were all over that.

We got up bright and early (actually it wasn't bright because the sun wasn't up yet) to catch a taxi to the airport. We had tooooooons of time on our hands after going through security and checking our luggage and everything, but we didn't want to buy any food when we knew they'd feed us on the plane. There isn't much to say about the plane ride--I slept some, watched some more movies, ate a lot, went to the bathroom a few times. I tried decaf coffee--sick. nasty. Seriously, so gross. Never trying that again. And when we touched down in the USA, I wanted to cry in happiness. I was listening to "Home" by Dierks Bentley and I said, out loud, "God bless America!" It was great. My overseas travel taught me that I'm of the United States. I'm all about the USA. But of course going to Europe would have to be one of the best experiences of my life. We were in pretty high spirits as we went through customs and picked up our luggage and walked aimlessly around the airport trying to find Mom. I felt like nothing bad could possibly happen. We were home! (Not home home but home in America.) And when we finally saw Mom at the top of the escalator I seriously was almost choking up. Remember how I'm a homesick baby? I just have a hard time when I can't be in immediate contact with the people I love! It felt sort of lonely. I don't know how Catherine does it, going to school in America, so far from home. I would die. Want to know something that's not a joke? JET LAG. For real. I fell asleep on the toilet at one point when we first got home.

All in all, Europe was awesome. We had so much fun and made so many irreplaceable, wonderful memories. We owe Catherine and her family and Luisa so so soooo much for letting us crash in their homes and helping us out so much! And we owe so many random strangers and bus drivers across Europe for their kindness and long-suffering patience for dumb American tourists! Moral of my trip: have fun adventures across the sea, but leave your heart in the USA.