Where's Abby (+ Dylan and dogs)

                       Last Wednesday, Sune and I  went to an awesome open mic at Drop In for him to meet a girl he might sing with. There were so many great bands and it was awesome seeing him play... He's so good! And so cute. And I'm not biased at all! ;)  Some guy kept telling me how hott and amazing Sune was. I obviously agreed.                        Lisa, the girl Sune was meeting to play with, was a really cool character. She was so nice and just very unique. We both said how she was "just an interesting human." A good singer too. She has a cool, blues style, with lots of attitude during her song. She had a pretty interesting story too... She's from Vermont/New York, lived in China for 9 months and then moved here with her Danish boyfriend.                      I got to meet Sys Bjerre ...

(I've been on a roll with all these alliterations) Here is a collection of the new experiences, foods, events, etc I tried while in Europe  (With ratings) (Click away on the links... You never know what you're gonna get!)  Hitchhiking **** Couch surfing ***** Traveling solo *** Milking a cow ***** Risengrød * Risalamande ** Danish folk dancing ***** Haggis    * English breakfast *** Black pudding * Sticky toffee pudding ***** Tablet *** Caramel toffee shortcake deliciousness ***** Meat pie *** Céilidh  *****

   Why Biking is  Awesome ... It's so good for you physically. Even when you've been partaking in some drinking, biking to and from the bars (nearly) makes it ok.  It's  free .  Well besides bike repairs. I'll take that over insane train, bus, taxi, or car prices.  It's fun! It's a good social thing too. Biking with people can be so nice The whole "good for the environment" bit It can clear your mind  You see more while biking You  are getting yourself where you need to be. No relying on outside transportation/drivers/etc. Knowing you are capable of getting yourself from point A to point B is empowering in a way.  Also... It can bring fun mother-daughter memories... (I can't take credit for all the following pictures.) It makes for cute couple pictures like these... It could make you hip like this guy... Or this girl! Or this ...

Some of the wonderful, strange, and effective words learned from my travels... Shattered: extremely tired Knackered: Ditto Rubbish: crappy; trash. Ex. Beastie Boys are so rubbish. (Or) My iPhones always wind up being such rubbish.  Wee:  little (of course) I'm just a wee bit excited about coming home.  Ace: really cool. Ex. Copenhagen is really ace.  Proper: appropriate; authentic; legit; really. Ex. That was a proper Danish dance. (Or) I'm proper shattered.  Jobby: poop! Ex? Not sure how it'd be used...  Knob: a crappy dude. Ex. Thomas Barrow is no longer a knob.

                     During my time in Copenhagen, traveling Europe, meeting new people, trying new things, and growing as a person, there's such a huge collection of things I've learned, whether big or small, and here they are. And, of course, there will be more to come.  I do get homesick I guess America is pretty cool. I think it will always be home ...  Voting is important.  How to milk a cow Irishmen  don't  say "top of the morning to ya"  Lots about songs' histories (Jimi's song about his girlfriend drinking Jagger's blood) Nothing immediately bad happens if you take communion from a Catholic church Scotland is awesome. Much better than London. (Success, David!) Traveling alone for 14 hours in a city can be difficult  I need sun I need to go to Thailand I should never order beyond "mild" at an Indian restaurant  Biking everywhere is awesome.  London is overrated.   I work best with appreciative, encouraging people   Getting out of your ...

                  Making my way back home after three great days in Scotland. On Thursday, David and I did a tour of Edinburgh which was really nice. We met up with two of his friends for lunch there, and I had cullen skink, a traditional Scotish dish... a potato soup with fish basically. Was really good. This was our super touristy day, doing a bus tour where we learned about the "horrible histories" of Edinburgh which mostly consisted of executions, then we toured The Real Mary King's Close . This is an underground street that resulted from the building of the "new town." When they built the new town, they just built it right on top of the old one. They often kept plague victims down there. Edinburgh was a really unique city, with the castle right in the middle of the city.                    That night, we headed back to Glasgow to meet a lot of his friends out for a couple dri...

 I'm out of London!  My opinion of this city didn't end great.  To get the negatives over with...  It was rainy  I was lonely  My leg was killing me (likely cause for a lot of my sour view of London)  Lines were long People weren't that friendly  My phone was STOLEN. Right after my visit to Stonehenge so all those pictures were lost.  The bus ride from London to Glasgow sucked . Not only did I have to wait like 7 hours to leave when I was really ready to leave by like 4, but the strangers in front of me felt the need to share their entire life stories at 12am on a 9 hour bus ride, the guy next to me blasted his "Call Me Maybe" and futuristic style music on his earphones, and it was soo uncomfortable with me leg.  One bad thing about traveling alone is it can be difficult to wander a city from 8am-10pm. Sometimes I just want a nap. There's only so much cafe and restaurant sitting, church exploring, museum seeing, a...

                           I a rrived in London Saturday and met up with Kelli.We went out to meet some of her friends at Urban Bar... But not before taking a slight (two hour) detour to a slightly ghetto area. But we made it to the bar and all was well. I got quite tired and was nearly ready to go home before some entertaining people reeled me in with their awesome dance moves. So the jacket was taken back off and my second wind arrived. I'm so glad it did too because it was one interesting night.         I got to witness the owner "lighting his crotch on fire," like I'd hear about, was handed an umbrella proceeded by "Raining Men" coming on the bar getting sprayed with water. Then T here was an old lady with some crazy dance moves (mostly on a table) that took me back to Janice days (the token old lady frequenting the Jax Beach bars).  'Twas  soon time to go home at around 2am ...

UK, here I come!  Heading off on my next adventure to England and Scotland tomorrow! It's been too long since the last and  I cannot wait.  Not only will I get to spend a week in these amazing countries, but I'll get to explore them with two friends! I'm staying with Kelli, the daughter of my mom's best friend, in London for four days, then taking a night bus to Glasgow and staying with David, a guy I met while he was visiting Jacksonville!  Crazy the connections you can make in life! Meet a guy visiting Florida for a week for a football tournament, then visit him in his country a year later.  It sounds like they have some fun stuff planned already too... Some special pub, restaurant, and rugby with Kelli, then castles and a Céilidh, a Scottish dance with David.  Stoked .  In other news, life's going pretty well. The job is becoming less of a favorite but other parts of life are making up for it.  A lot of that making up is du...