This has quite possibly been the most hectic week of my life!

Hi guys,
I'm currently sitting in my hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland! I don't have a very strong internet connection, so I may not be able to post many pictures, but I'll try...

So, we got into Paris, France on December 26th pretty early, and we were staying in a hostel in the Montmarte region, and it was super cute. The hostel was about two blocks from the Moulin Rouge, and right outside our door was a french bakery so I had some of the most delicious quiche I've ever tasted! Their eclairs were also quite good.

We spent one day walking all over and seeing all of the sights. Of course we made it to the Eiffel Tower (but didn't go up. the line was really long and it's quite expensive. plus, it's been cold.), the Arch de Triomphe, etc. I really liked Paris a lot. I guess I'd heard a lot of really bad things about it, that the people were rude, that the city was dirty, etc. and that wasn't my experience at all. Of course, some people seemed slightly frustrated that I couldn't speak French, but nobody was really mean or anything. And the city seemed really clean. It smelled a little funky at first, but you got used to it. All of the buildings were really cute and well kept. The crummiest building that I saw was actually a McDonalds.


After a few days, we flew here to Edinburgh. The first thing that we saw when walking out of the train station was thousands of people marching down the streets with torch swords. Seriously, I don't know how they didn't set the entire town on fire. Little kids were swinging them about and such. There were also bagpipes playing. The crowd all marched up a hill and set a giant lion statue on fire. I'm really not sure what they were doing... it was some sort of celebration and definitely an interesting way to enter the country.

The town itself is alright... this week it has been very touristy because they host Hogmanay, a new year's celebration, and people come from all over Europe. The architecture is really neat, but other than that it seems like there's mostly just pubs and tourist shops. It's definitely a relief to be in an English speaking country again. Also, I saw the coffee-shop where JK Rowling wrote the first three Harry Potter books.

I've been really upset about a mix up with communication and such, but Mom rescued me (thank you so much!) and for a couple days, I thought I was not going to be able to get from Edinburgh to Brussels... and then I thought that I wouldn't have a place to stay and what-not, but the situation is under control!

New Year's was pretty neat. We went to this giant street party. There were seriously 100,000 people there, and everyone was crammed onto the streets and there were djs and laser light shows, and then at midnight there was a big countdown on giant screens and fireworks over the castle.

I'm just hanging out here in Edinburgh for the next two days, then it's off to Brussels for me! I'll post pictures when I get a better internet connection (good connections are much harder to find in Europe than they were in the US). I want to know what everyone is up to! I miss you all, keep in touch.