It’s just Lovely! 05/29/13 or here 29/05/13 @ 5:33 pm (11:33 am US time)
The train ride to Edinburgh was beautiful, we saw lots of beautiful scenery! We saw lots of greenery, sheep, cows, horses, the ocean! I met and made some new friends thanks to Ruth, which was amazing, such sweet people!
06/06/13 @ 2:45 pm (6:45 am USA time)
Sorry it has been a long time since I have been able to post a blog. We have been super busy and sometimes it is hard to access the internet. Yesterday at the airport I was trying to post a short new blog but I made a new friend (little boy about 3 years old) and he thought he should type in my blog and somehow deleted everything, sorry, he was fun and quite cute and entertaining though. He really liked fire trucks. His family were very sweet people as well.
Okay let’s back up a bit….
Edinburgh! It’s just lovely and brilliant as they would say there!
I am not quite sure how to describe Edinburgh, its amazing for sure. There are several very old buildings there, and a lot of history in Edinburgh. One thing I did learn in Edinburgh is that the percentage of Christians in Edinburgh is a lot less than the percentage of Christians in America. The people are still nice and all though. For example in America I am very blessed to be able to work with several Christian people throughout my work day, where as in Edinburgh there may only be one Christian at the job site.
Also, while in Edinburgh we got to tour the Edinburgh castle which was very amazing! It was very huge of course and due to time we did not get to see all of it. We were lucky though and saw a wedding going on there, well they were being photographed while we were there. We later found out that this is a very rare occasion and the only way anyone can get married in the castle is if they are in the military, which made sense because several of them were in military uniform. It was very beautiful of course. The women in Edinburgh, London, Northern Ireland, and Ireland all wear what they call fascinators (I think that is how you spell it) for special occasions. They are basically like a fancy hat or headband or pin in their hair. They are very beautiful and come in all different sizes, small to very large.
We also got to see a couple different high schools while we were there and they were huge and almost looked like a small castle themselves, large and very detailed design. Several of the buildings have a lot of detail all over the building, very lovely. We got to eat at the Elephant House, the birth place of Harry Potter, where the story all started. From here there was a very beautiful view of the Edinburgh Castle. Later in the evening my new friend, Ruth’s friend, Heather, took us to see the Fourth Bridge and another bridge which was very beautiful! Thank you Heather! It was quite cold at this time so we quickly viewed it and took some pictures. The bungalows (houses) in Edinburgh are very beautiful and unique as well.
We got to see a few more tourist attractions while we were there as well. We did get to see Scottish men and women playing the bagpipes, beautiful! We really enjoyed Edinburgh! Heather was so kind she left each of us a welcome sign on our door which was quite lovely and brilliant! They were made out of scrabble pieces. Mine said Ello Treena and Ruth’s said Welcome Ruth! So cool and welcoming!
Thank you so much to Heather and Adrian for taking care of us, giving us a place to stay, showing us around, and giving us some history of Edinburgh, everything was so greatly appreciated, I can’t thank you enough! May God Bless you!
Edinburgh to Belfast!
To get to Belfast we had to take a train, bus, train, bus, ferry, yes all of those in order! Whew, we were a wee bit scared of this but everything went well, thank you Jesus! Everything was nice and the ferry was basically a miniature cruise boat, very cool. There was a movie theater on board, an outside viewing deck, restaurants, arcades, shopping, etc…I was very happy because I felt as if I was on a cruise again which I love.
Belfast, Northern Ireland, Ireland!
Oh where do I begin……very very beautiful! When we arrived in Belfast Lindsey and Cris were there waiting for us, thankfully they were both able to be there because somewhere along the lines we had about a half hour delay. It was very nice to meet them. They had food with them and we went and ate at the Titanic Museum, which was a nice place. The outside of the Titanic museum is supposed to represent the actual size of the front of the Titanic Ship, very cool and huge of course. After leaving there we went on a beautiful walk along the Irish Sea beach! The weather was gorgeous! Here there was a playground with a very cool unique swing there that I absolutely loved! (Dad, Josh, please build me one? 😉 ) Swinging is very sincere to my heart because I have so many special memories with my mom swinging at the lake and now I got to swing in an awesome swing at the Irish Sea beach! After this we went back to the airport to pick up another friend of Ruth and Lindsey, now my friend too who got to be there with us the whole time we were visiting, very cool!
Thanks to Lindsey and Cris we got to see a lot of Northern Ireland and some of Ireland while we were there. Everything here is unbelievably beautiful as well! So very unique I don’t even know how to describe it. There are several different villages there. For Cris’s birthday we got to go to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Giant’s Causeway, a couple of castles, a beautiful garden, and much more! So amazing, I didn’t want to leave those places! We also had fish and chips which was good as well! While eating there were marching bands going by playing their instruments.
Lindsey is a very good chef and I am very thankful, the food was so good! Thank you Lindsey and Cris for everything, it was greatly appreciated, the experience would not have been near as good if it wasn’t for you two! May God bless you!
I am also thankful we got to meet and make new friends from all around the world through you guys while we were there!
One thing that they do in Northern Ireland that is very cool is that they have these charity shops were the workers are all volunteers and the money all goes to some sort of charity, whether it be for cancer or whatever. I thought this was cool!
I could talk a whole lot more about Northern Ireland and Ireland but I should stop for now and if you know me you can ask me later. 😉
There are also some interesting words that are used in Northern Ireland/Ireland as well, for example, Cheeky Monkey, means like cute, onry, kid. Since this trip I have also learned what a hot water bottle is and what it is used for as well in Edinburgh. What else have I learned? There are so many things.
More flights…..more delays…..you won’t believe this….
So we leave Dublin and fly to London no problems, go back to Steph’s house and rest some for our 17 hour layover, get up early (6 am), get ready real quick and head to airport to catch our 10:45 am flight, it is about 1 hour to 1.5 hours to the airport on the tube to get to airport, which is no problem. We arrive at the airport get through security, make sure our luggage transferred, and board the plane. While on the plane we were told we would have a short delay for some reason I can’t remember, well then later they made another announcement saying they were having problems with the fuel being to full or something and they had to check into it and make sure there wasn’t a problem with the plane, well about 1.5 hours later they announced, “Sorry, but we are going to have to ask everyone to leave the plane and take all personal belongings until we can get the fuel problem fixed, may take a couple hours.” They gave us 5 pound vouchers to get a snack in the meantime and did give us water. During this what was supposed to be a 2 hour delay, that turned into more like a 4 hour delay we did meet and make some new missionary friends. Around 4 we got back on the plane for departure and about 20 mins into it they made the announcement they were waiting for a passenger that had not boarded the plane again yet. About 30-45 mins into it they announced that passenger had not shown up and their luggage was on board so for security reasons they had to get the passenger’s luggage off the plane which was in the back of the luggage below the plane, and they were hoping to get it done in 20 mins. About 30 mins later, you are not going to believe this, they announced, “We are terribly sorry but we have to ask all passengers to exit the plane again and take all belongings with them. They at this time gave us a 10 pound voucher to eat dinner and said we could go to the next terminal over if we wanted to. They told us to keep an eye on the boards to see when we would depart, assuring us we would depart that evening just on a different plane. We then were supposed to leave at 8 pm, but low and behold, they announced, we are sorry but our flight crew has not arrived yet so we will not depart until 9 pm. Flight crew arrived, we shortly after boarded the plane and finally took off from the runway headed to Nairobi, and of course everyone on the plane cheered because we were moving on the runway and then again when we took off. We did finally arrive in Nairobi at a few mins after 7 am the next morning and when we landed everyone cheered again! Needless to say, our flight that was supposed to leave at 10:45 am and arrive at 9:20 pm, left about 9:20 pm and arrived at about 7:07 am, but thankfully we are here safe!
The positive side, the sunset in London was gorgeous, and the sunrise over the Sahara Desert was beautiful as well. I wish I could have taken a picture but I couldn’t because 1. I was in aisle seat and 2. I didn’t have my camera handy. 🙁 I am glad I got to see it though and can keep it in my mind as a memory.
Needless to say, we are safe in Kenya now! Now May God’s will be done and may he watch over and protect us!
For those of you reading, Cheers! (Thanks!) or Asante! (Thank you!)