stonehenge and bath

spending a day on a bus in order to see 2 attractions was pretty boring... but sleep got us all through it.

stonehenge was a good time, however staring at rocks got old very quickly. from stonehenge, we then took a longer bus ride to bath, england.

do you think the romans would be mad that greg and i pissed in the bath?

bath was a very cool little city. every single building looked exactly the same since most of them were designed by the same architect (or a member of his family). it was like walking around IU since all of the buildings there look the same as well (mostly limestone). after being guided around for about an hour on the bus, we were set free at bath abbey, which seemed to be the main cathedral in bath. when we were done with the tour, we were hungry so i decided that i was about due for a good turkey sandwich... mmm.

i still can't believe this girl (that looked 13 and had a kid) that yelled at marc and i in a bakery in bath... "EXCUSE ME!!!!" marc and i stood there in shock like why the hell did she just yell it like that. she followed it with... "MAYBE IF YOU WEREN'T STANDING IN THE DOORWAY I WOULDN'T HAVE TO SAY IT LIKE THAT!" she must have been having a bad day. i would hate for that to be my mom.

once again, check out my pictures on shutterfly.

eurotrip part deux

we're currently in the planning stage of our next eurotrip. this one will take place in amsterdam. right now we're trying to book a hostel that can fit all 7 of us into one room. so far no luck but we still have a bit of research ahead of us. the flight is only 116 USD from northwest airline's website (good work greg). can wait to go to club vondersex in the red light district (eurotrip the movie). definitely going to avoid places like that.

off to the liquor store we go... i'll holla later.

pictures

jameson distillery: certified whiskey taster this was a great time since me, scott, and shannon got selected to be the whiskey tasters at the end of the tour of the old jameson distillery. i think someone has a picture of all of our whiskey faces after we took shots.

aww it's little ben cherry, the irish boy at the park... this one's for you bob. we saw him during our taz and marc guided tour of dublin.

irish grafitti just has so much depth... so much meaning... this is just one of those pictures that has a thousand words to it. i mean what the hell is this? it was on the wall of one of the biggest parks in dublin and i still can figure out what it is... maybe mr. potato head?

see more pics on my weblog at http://dougieb.textamerica.com
or on shutterfly.

back in london

it was kind of weird leaving the country so soon but ireland was an overall good experience. when people have been asking me how the trip was, i either say it was a good time or it sucked... can't really make up my mind. i would say that all in all, it was a really fun time and i do recommend going to dublin (when it's not raining 24/7).

words of wisdom for traveling (when staying in hostels)...

• bring hostel sheets (i have the "sleepsack") so you don't have to touch the dirty sheets that have been on the beds for years
• bring a travel back pack (unlike scott and brittney) so you have enough clothes to change every once in a while
• bring a heavy rain coat
• we've learned that "independent" hostels (ones that aren't chains) are the best ones to stay in because all of the company's money is devoted to one establishment instead of being spread through europe
• if you use http://www.hostelworld.com, make sure you don't get influenced by what people say because the people writing the reviews could be prisoners

that's all i've got... i hope this helps in all your endeavors.

in the airport

we're sitting in the dublin airport right now while i pay to use the internet...

we had a great time in dublin eventhough it rained a lot and stayed in hostels. we ended up staying in a "6 star" hostel while the girls that we went with stayed in a piece of crap that was in the middle of the ghetto... i mean "what the shit." we knew that our hostel was going to be ok when we walked in the door and saw the hot girl sitting behind the reception desk.

here's a list of some of the things that we did and i'll fill in details when i'm not paying for internet:

• went to pubs every night
• went to the guiness factory and didn't do the tour because we didn't want to pay for it
• taz and marc guided our walking tour
• watched a guy get jacked in the face for bumping into another guy on the sidewalk
• went on a tour of the jameson whiskey factory and did a taste testing of different irish whiskey...
• taz went on a "five-finger discount" shopping spree and now has an entire kitchen set... we believe that the count stopped at 5 pilsner glasses (one of those being for me)
• we met english football fans at the AMERICAN hard rock cafe in dublin... they were big ali g fans so scott was giving them "chigh fives" and we watched the big skin-headed guy give bock a kiss on the cheek

if i think of anything more then i'll fill it in when i go back...
time to go get on the airplane.

peace out... i like... scuzzi

off to ireland

we're off to ireland with a group of 12 people. i'm not really sure how we decided to go to ireland (since that seems pretty random), but it should be a good time. according to our plans, it should be right around $200 for the whole trip. we'll be there from today until sunday so don't call me or it will cost me for the incoming call 80 cents per minute.

michelle told me that there were crazy winds there so we just looked at the weather and it says that there's 50 mph winds in dublin. so... i'll let you know how it goes.

much love...

class today was good... can't tell if it's going to be hard or not but maybe this is a hint... i'm in a class called pixel playground. today, we learned how to rotate images in photoshop (i slept for like 30 minutes). hooray! tommorrow we dont have class until 6:30 in the PM.

we booked at trip to dublin, ireland from thursday until sunday. $107 for the flight and $14 per night in the hostel. WHAT A DEAL! i'm out...

peace

last night was pretty cool at equinox. we continued drinking past the time when the tube closed so we had to take the bus home. as acting president of the london group, marc decided to tell us all which bus to take home... since marc and taz live a ways away from us, he decided that it'd be best if we took different bus routes home. we got home on the N9 bus shortly thereafter. marc, who took the N13 bus, didn't realize that there were 2 streets called glouster and went in the complete opposite direction of his apartment and called me in a panic saying he had to take the taxi home (which ended up accumulating to around 30 US dollars). sucks to be him.


kensington palace and my beautiful photography.

today we took a long walk (2.5 hours) around kensington palace and hyde park which is nearby. we walked down billionaires row and saw all of the mansions across from the palace.

peace

this is from when we were on the big red bus tour and we were all crowding around this guard... eventually he started smiling after 20 people took pictures with him. i think i got him to laugh when i was taking one picture and said... "alright... everybody look at me..." and he looked.

alrighty, i'm back after a few days because the firewall and security stuff that the university is using doesn't allow me to post to my indiana account for some reason. however, i think that blogger will serve as a good substitute.

over the past couple of days, we've gone on a bunch of tours including: an open top bus tour, jack the ripper tour, and a pub walk. the pub walk was definitely the worst of them since we didn't stop at ANY pubs or even learn about them in the duration of the tour. we were all confused and began assuming that by "pub walk" they meant PUBLIC walk.

two nights ago, we went to an american bar called the Sports Cafe. it's a bar where all they do is play american sports and have american flags in the windows. it was a good time since it was CHEAP. (always a good thing when the exchange rate is close to 2 (yep, we pay double for everything).

the best meals that i've had so far have been at american restaurants. don't worry, we're eating at other places but we're always in a rush so only have time for fast food. i'll be come cultured and will be eating fish and chips before you know it.

tonight, we're going to a school sponsored field-trip to a club... i wish indiana did that. it should be a good time. i'll let you know how it goes.

almost in london... woke up to a woman saying... "here's your breakfast sir" followed by her hitting taz with her drink cart. and i think it was a rumor that you get a free alcoholic beverage while in "international territory" because i'm still sober (that was for you mom). okbyebye.

well... we're sitting on the plane right now. taz is macking on the girls, marcs doing calculations in his head, lee's helping me write, and greg's resting his eyes. here's our current status....

• estimated arrival : 10:48
• altitude : 37,000
• ground speed : 615 miles/hr
• outside air : -53 degrees c

we're almost at the atlantic ocean... how do i know all of this? we've got screens on the seat in front of us that have GPS on them. we're going to go watch 24 season 3 now... more when we land...

-doug and lee

so... it's kinda crazy that tommorrow at this same time i'll be on the plane to london. where am i living? how am i getting there? clearly i know very little about what's to come but i'm sure it'll be amazing. here's what i do know...

• marc, taz, and i are flying out of the lou to chicago and meeting greg and bock (lee) at the airport there.
• then, we're flying from there to london.

that's all i've got for now but check back cuz you'll be hearing from me again when i arrive in the UK.

welcome to my abroad blog. i will periodically update the site to stay connected with america.
if you want to add content, let me know.