Edinburgh Day 9

Today I went on a day tour through a company to Stirling Castle, Loch Lomond, and the Glengloye (I think that's the name) Distillery. It means valley of wild geese so you figure it out in Gaelic.

Stirling Castle was cool to see. It was where the battle of Stirling Bridge was fought (in case you could not determine that from the name) which was between the English and the Scots. The mighty William Wallace led the Scots and merely pushed the English off the bridge into the swamps and then killed them. Victory for the Scots even though they were outnumbered 1:5.

However, this is not the original castle from that time. Robert the Bruce had it torn down so that the English could not capture it and control the area again. His son later rebuilt it after he died.
This is about the extent of my amazing photography skills since I just used a timer to take pictures today.

We also stopped at the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond for lunch. Gorgeous. And of course, I sang the song. The last stop of the day was the whisky distillery. I wasn't planning on going in but if I didn't I would of had to stand around for an hour and a half and possibly talk to the "posh" bus driver. I don't even know what to think of that guy. Overly happy like lots of Scots are and maybe even on the gay side. I don't even know.

The distillery was... educational. I think I can still smell the whisky which is not a smell I find pleasant. However, I now know the general gist of how to make whisky and I must say, I do not have any more of an urge to drink any especially now that I know what it is. The group I was with and the tour guide at the distillery thought I was crazy for not drinking any. Pass. Icky

Edinburgh Day 8

Thursday was our daytrip to the Highlands, Fort William, and Loch Ness.

Me in the Highlands... One of the most beautiful places in the world.

This.......... is.................. Hamish. I luff him so much. He is a Heelan' Coo. Or as we Americans would say it, Highland Cow but that is boring. He's 16 and the coolest cow around.

We jumped in Loch Ness!! The bus driver says that the warmest the water gets is 4 or 5 degrees Celsius and that is in July/August. The initial splash in was kinda cold but I've been in about the same or worse.

See that boat in the back? Yeah that's why we had to get out. We wanted to go swimming more but they kicked us out of the water so the boat could pull up to the dock.

Flag of Scotland!

Angie and I with Nessie

This is my Hamish that I bought. I could not resist. I don't usually buy stuff like this but he is adorable. He was just as bored as me on the ride home and decided to listen to music. Now say his name with me. Hamish. As in, I eat hay and live in Michigan.

Well our dorm room has been smelling increasingly worse the past few days and Wednesday I determined that it smelled like cat pee which is no big deal to me because that's what my bedroom smells like at home when I don't change Alacrity's litter box. However, when we got home Thursday night, a wall of pee stench hit us when we opened the door. SO,... Angie and I went down to reception. I had a couple other questions but then I got to the point where I said, "And third, our room smells like cat pee." I'm sure that's not something they hear every day. We searched the room and could not find the source. My guess is that something died in the wall. I dunno though because this place is pretty nice. Anyways, we got a new room so now instead of being in 2047 we are in 2098 which is forever down the hall. It's quiet down here though. No drunk communication students screaming at 3am or Honors students yelling "We're Honors!" at 1am.

This was the lovely view from our last room. It's Salisbury Crags in case you were wondering. Now we have a view out on reception and a dining hall that looks like a castle. Very cool.

Edinburgh Day 7

Wednesday we got all of our school assignment pictures done. Chase ditched us though so he had to go get them on his own seperate. STupid boys.

Anyways, first stop was over at St. Giles's cathedral. This is the Heart of Mitholonian in the cobblestone by it. If you spit on it it's good luck. I am going to have so much good luck by the time I get home I won't know what to do with it all.

We decided the girl who took this photo has a lack of skills. It surprises me though because she was holding an expensive camera and spent 30 seconds getting the right angle for our picture. Obviously looks are decieving. BTW this the mercant cross. Not actually a cross. It used to mark the cross at the market.

After St. Giles's area we went over to Edinburgh Castle. It was pretty cool. We took a tour around the inside and then got some school pictures in a couple of the buildings. I got to see the STone of Scone which is what they place under the cornation chair when the king/queen of Great Britain is crowned and it symbolizes that the king/queen rules both England and Scotland. Edward 1 stole it from the monks. IT's a big ugly thing but I guess you can make whatever you want important.We also saw the room where Mary of Scots had James II. He is the baby that Rock-A-Bye baby is about. FAlling from trees- family trees.

This is in the doorway of St. Margaret's church which is in Edinburgh Castle. IT's a little thing and still is where some rich peoples get married even though it only holds about 20 people.

On the way home we walked by The Elephant House famous for............ the beginning of Harry Potter. YEs ladies and (not)gentlemen, this is where JK Rowling first began scratching out that little story known as Harry Potter on some napkins.

And of course we finished up the night with our new favorite food place. It's called the Crags and it's right by our dorms. This is my "smothered chicken." MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm

Some missed pictures.

Day 6 we went on a ghost tour ... remember? ya so here is a group picture while we were waiting.
This is our creepy pose. We think we look like sexy vampiresHeart of Mitholonian. Spit on it and you'll have good luck.

Dinner at the pub across the street. SO delicious

Hop on hop off bus tour. The random guy is John. He umm.... likes JAmi.

Edinburgh Day 6

We had our final Facinelli class in the morning. So glad that class ended. It was good but hello I am on a holiday!

After class we went hiking at the Sailisbury Crags right by our dorms.
By the trail we found the flower of Scotland. The thistle.

This is the very peak of that HUGE hill. I'm on top of the world!

There was about 1/4 of an old church left in the hills we hiked. We stopped and had some food by this church with a view of the lake and swans below.

A view of Edunburgh

After hiking we were icky hot so we went swimming at the Royal Commonwealth Pool right next to us and then went out to dinner at the pub right down the street. Dinners 2/5.95 pounds. Pretty dang good deal! And the food was delicious. Maybe even the best so far

After dinner we went on a ghost tour and ended up in these underground tunnels and rooms. Supposedly there hace been 3 ghosts spotted multiple times down there. There was a Wicken circle down there that was supposedly haunted in it and so the tour guide said we couldnt step in it until she left the room. Supposedly people have collapsed in it or found scratches on their back when they got home. As soon as she was gone people kind of stood around it with a freaked out look on their face and so I jumped in the circle and danced around and got my picture taken. Angie screamed a little bit when I first went in. Just a little though. I laugh. No scratches on my back. I check. Don't you worry.

Edinburgh Day 5

Monday morning we had class. Again no one really wanted to go out and do stuff so I went to the beach for a while and the information center downtown to get information for trips this weekend.

Edinburgh Day 4

Day 4 was a Sunday and the closest church as far as I could figure out was on the other side of the huge bay by Edinburgh which basically = 1+ hour of bus/train rides. So instead everyone was boring and wanted to stay home. I got Angie to go to Portobello beach with me and it was awesome. There was real sand which is not all that common here. It was nice and sunny and warm too.
Angie and I at the beach.

Edinburgh Day 3

DAy 3 we went on the hop on hop off bus tour of Edinburgh. It only had 6 stops on the bus we went to and we rode the entire route without getting out and then rode it again and got off on some of the stops.



Angie and I waiting for the bus ride to start. Double decker of course.



There were people playing bagpipes on the street. They're pretty good.


The first stop was the botanical garden(s??) It was pretty awesome. There weren't really hardly any flowers but it was a nice place to visit. We got to watch some really cool ducks.

And.... there was a door in the huge hedge.

Also. . . I got to feed some squirrels!!! Amazing. It licked my hand.

We also stopped and saw the Britannia which is the queen's royal yacht. We didn't pay to go inside but just looked out the window at it.

The last stop we went to was the Holyrood palace which is the queen's palace in Scotland. I think she might be here now.... we saw 4 helicopters heading in that direction and rumor has it that she was gonna be here this weekend.

Edinburgh Day 2

Well we started the day off late due to oversleeping people so instead of going on the hop on hop off tour bus like we planned we went shopping instead.

We found this really cool Indian store and I must admit I bought more at it then anywhere else in Europe but the stuff was awesome and cheap.

We climbed to the top of the Walter Scott Monument which has 286 steps (I think) and freakishly small spiral staircases at the top. Again, I no longer like spiral staircases. They're disorienting. They view was awesome though. It rained a bit once we got to the top but it wasn't too bad. Just really really windy.

After looking through some clothes stores we ended up at Tesco which is a grocery store and we picked up some food and laundry detergent. WE cant really make food here because the pantrys (kitchens) are a little bit understocked on dishes which basically means there is none.
When we got home we did some laundry since all of our clothes were dirty and then had I guess what you would call a slumber party minus the slumber. We ordered pizza and had some soda. Afterwards we put on mud facial masks and took pictures and freaked people out while they dried. THen we just talked for a while and went to bed.

Edinburgh Day 1

We basically did nothing the first day. WE spend 10 hours either on a plane or waiting at the airport or on a coach to get from Dublin to Edinburgh because we went all the way back to London and then to Edinburgh.
When we got to our awesome dorms I had nachos at the cafe downstairs and they were delicious especially because I haven't had Mexican food in 5 weeks and I missed it.

Dublin Day 7

Again, I promise I will fix these blogs when I get home but this is all I can do now.

We went to Kilmainham Gaol (jail) after class.
For dinner we went to Ireland's oldest pub-- the Brazen Head. It was pretty good.

For dessert we went to McDonalds. Actually I went to Burger King and got a strawberry cheesecake blizzard and then met them.

Dublin Day 6

Here a couple pictures for now.

Rapunzel's tower
High Loch of Glendalough

Jake with his Cuernavaca shirt and the bus driver serving and drinking some JAmeson whisky

Guiness lake

SEe the sand--- yeah it was imported from Florida

Dublin Day 6

DAy 6 was a day trip to Glendalough which was awesome and not even describable with words but I have so many pictures that I cannot even upload them all right now. It takes me forever because I can't download them on the computers so I will come back later and finish this post.

Dublin Day 5

Day 5. Well since it was Sunday and we were exhausted we decided to sleep in and not set any alarms. We woke up around noon which is kind of sad seeing as how I went to bed at midnight. Tired? Maybe. LazY? haha yes.

So since we slept in everybody was a little bit happier. At least for the 1st hour we woke up. I decided to even put some extra effort into my appearance. See that hair? Yes it is blowdryed. That shows some dedication.
We decided that we needed to go to the Ireland Museum since we were in Dublin and it did sound a little bit important. Unfortunately (except, false.) they did not let us take pictures there so instead I decided to show you what we found on the way there.

Yes..... this is a dead cat. At least that is what we decided it was. It was just laying there in someone's front yard. How you do not realize that there is a mummified cat in your front yard? I don't know. I'm surprised it looked this good seeing as how it rains in Dublin more than anywhere else in the entire world. Okay well that is stretching things but really... this thing was dry. I would just like to point out the object by it's mouth. Alcohol? Oh yes it is. I think you get the message as to what alcohol will do to you.

After the boring museum we went to the Botanical Gardens and the first thing we saw when we walked was what? A tropical flower? A native Ireland bush? Nope. A desert landscape. Imagine that. I still have not figured out how those cacti have not drowned.

That night we went to the Arlington Hotel for an expensive dinner (which we thought we had to buy in order to see the show) and some Irish singing and dancing. The appetizers looked like those plates you see in movies where there is a 10'' plate and a dab of food in the middle. The main course though was big so I was happy though.

We made online reservations before and when we got there guess what table we were at? Number 114. Lucky lucky.

There was a picture of this guy on the wall. It was kind of weird since it didn't really fit the atmosphere but nothing prepared me for what happened when I looked at him later. He pulled out an ipod and was listening to music. No joke this picture has an ipod and will teach you how to properly draft beer. I videotaped him but am uncapable at the moment of uploading that video. You will just have to trust me.

The 3 guys singing let you request songs so Jami and I requested Danny Boy because Jami's boyfriend is named Daniel and my missionary (??) is named Danny. As I hope you guys already know. It was a lovely song.

I guess this is typical but there were beer holders on their mic stands. So weird. So much drinking in Ireland.

Gotta go but I'm slowly catching up on blogs!