Glasgow!

Today we went on a little adventure to Holytown and Glasgow!

We left at 5:30am to catch the train to Holytown (a town on the way to Glasgow). What's in Holytown? A newspaper printer. Pete managed to take us on a 3 mile walk to find the place (we got some-what lost). We finally managed to get to the place called News Printers. They have -huge- facilities. They were also extremely nice and we were welcomed with hot tea/coffee and biscuits. We broke out into groups and took tours around the place. Very impressive. They were also really nice to give us a ride back to the train station because they were very surprised we walked all the way there.

When we reached Glasgow we pretty much did whatever we want. A larger group of us first walked to find food. We stopped at the Willow Tea Room. It was a bit fancy but not expensive. I got a Brie and Grape sandwich and honey almond tea. Very tasty :)

Next we walked through Princes Court which is a small shopping center. Talk about fancy!

We then walked to George Square and saw the City Chambers. It was so beautiful inside! We couldn't go up to the second floor for photos but the first floor had a lot to offer.

We then went to the Glasgow Cathedral. It was also very beautiful :)

Most of the people in my group wanted to see this modern art exhibit. Katie and I went to the Kelvin Grove Museum because we were told it was one of the best things to do in Glasgow. Holy cow there was soooooo much to see there! Everything from stuffed animals to science to artwork. We sped through the museum though so we could see everything since we got there a bit close to closing.

After that we took a bus back to the city center and walked along the river and under the bridges. There are a lot of bridges in Glasgow.

We went to the grocery to grab some dinner. They had a special on Strawberry Tarts so we got those. Very tasty :)

Then we ventured to the Drum and Monkey pub to have a drink before we left. It wasn't a crazy young-person pub so we got a chance to sit and relax. I got a half-pint of Strongbow Cider with black currant juice. (Try it if you get the opportunity!)

We passed a casino on our way to the train station so we stopped in quick. I only spent about 50 pence. It was amusing :P

On the way back on the train we were looking for white horses (see my previous Highlands blog entry) and listening to the Peatbog Faeries.

While searching for white horses the sky was beautiful so Katie wanted to go watch the sunset at Calton Hill. It was very windy and chilly and the sunset wasn't that great but at least I got to see a sunset in Scotland :)

Caught up on Blog posts now...

So now I'm all caught up on blog posts... Please re-read my Hiking through the Highlands post because I updated it with more accurate info on where we were! I have not done Ireland yet...

Today was a rather interesting day... The morning was a free day then we went to the Scotsman newspaper building.

For my free morning I attempted to do a walking tour that was in my Lonely Planet book. I got too frustrated because of the rain and having only two arms to hold open a book, an umbrella and try to take photos. I also got lost a bit and missed a lot of the streets it told me to go down. I ended up doing some shopping and getting some wedding gifts for my friends getting married on Saturday. I also went alone in the morning on this day.

I met up with the rest of the class at the Scotsman. We were given a short tour of the photo section. The guides spoke incredibly quietly so I honestly didn't catch anything they said, which was a bummer. The building was really nice though and the process they used to look at photos between people seemed rather efficient.

We broke off and got lunch at a Chinese buffet. Afterwards they wanted to do more shopping. I mostly just looked though.

We got back to the palace and pretty much I've been updating this blog and talked to a really good friend of mine. We played old tunes in our room too which was fun :)

Alright. I've -got- to get to bed. We're leaving for Glasgow at 5:30am!!! ahhhhh!!!!

I'll try to update my Ireland trip hopefully Thursday or Friday as well as add Glasgow. We're getting back late tomorrow night so I don't see it happening then.

Bye all!

A small tour day

We got up early today to see the Bowhill Estate, the Melrose Abbey and Scott's View.

Bowhill Estate is the main palace that the Dalkeith family owns. Once again we were faced with the dreaded fact we couldn't take photos (and we really couldn't this time) because the place was overloading with treasures from the past hundreds of years. I really wish I couldn't taken photos because the place was so beautiful. Some rooms had chanel(?) carpets, silk wallpaper, old Maison china, tapestries, paintings and beautiful silver pieces. We did get to take photos of the kitchen though. It was really neat to see all the old pots and utensils. The grounds were huge, and included a small lake. There were also sheep and cows in the fields.

The next place we went to was Melrose Abbey. Most of it was gone but it was really neat. They even had fragments of the old floor there. When the last monk died the place was just left to waste away. Robert the Bruce's heart is buried there, there's a stone marking where it is. We've never had this much time to see places (we're used to getting 15 min to go somewhere and hopping on the bus) but we had almost 2 hours here. We decided to look for 4-leaf clovers. I ruined the game because right after we decided this I looked down and found one in like 2 seconds :P I never get that lucky! We walked around in town and I got an ice cream cone. It was delicious, vanilla and honeycomb. Pete bought a Dandelion and Burdock soda. He wasn't too fond of it and somehow I liked it so the rest was given to me.

Last on the trip we saw Scott's View. Apparently the famous author Sir Walter Scott would go to this spot a lot to look at the view. When he died the funeral procession went through this spot. His horses stopped right where they always would at their master's favorite point of view.

The night was spent watching another movie, having a bit of class time and editing some photos. During class we watched this documentary on 9/11 that was focused on the photographers.

Rosslyn Chapel and pizza

Today we got up early to go to a church service in the Rosslyn Chapel. Yes, the one and the same used in the DaVinci Code and the film was actually filmed there too.

The place was under renovation unfortunately. I bought a postcard of the exterior and the ceiling of the chapel. Another unfortunate event was that they banned photo taking because a year or two ago the church got sued because a person taking a photo tripped and toppled over an old lady. The old lady sued the church, so they banned photography.

The priest did let us take photos those but we had like 15 min to do so. The interior is just -so- beautiful. The marble carvings and the woodwork was to die for.

This was also the first church service that I've been to in like 10 years... it felt odd but familiar...

We also took a look at the grounds around the chapel and also the castle down the hill. There wasn't too much left but it was still interesting to see.

Later that day we all ordered pizzas and watched The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and Braveheart. It was a lovely lazy day that we all really needed after running around and being busy all the time.

Free Day and Ceilidh!

So today was our promised free day. For my free day I visited the Princes Gardens, the Edinburgh Zoo and got caught up in a protest. I went this day alone because I needed some "me time" after being over-crowded last night.

Firstly, the weather was HOT. Holy cow was it hot! I just drank water all day and had an ice lolly at the zoo. It rained right after I got back to the palace so that was lucky!!!

The gardens are huge and -gorgeous-! There was so many different types of flowers there! I managed to get some "self-photos" which I hope turned out well.

I decided to go to the Edinburgh Zoo because I love going to zoos. It was -huge- and there was a good variety of animals. But it was -very- unfriendly for photographers. Instead of normals glass or bars there were metal grids up everywhere which made taking photos a nightmare. There were once in a while glass panes but they were rare. I did get some good shots of the penguins jumping in and out of the water and got some young zebras play-fighting. It was not all lost :)

On my way back I was going to do some shopping on the Royal Mile. I asked the bus driver to make sure I was on the right bus but he said "Normally yes, but I don't think so today... get on and I'll explain later..."

So I got on and he stopped at this one street and said "If you want to get to Princes Street this is the farthest I can go." So we all got off and started walking, wondering what was going on.

It wasn't until I finally hit Princes Street (at least a 15-20 min walk) that I saw police barricades all over and people walking down the street yelling and holding up banners and signs. It was a protest to free Palestine and boycott Israel. I overheard someone saying that this happens often.

I also talked to the police and asked if I could take photos for my class or would my camera be taken away. They said it was perfectly legal and that the protestors probably wanted photos taken anyway. I snapped a few shots near policemen just in case and left to try to get to a bus so I wouldn't be late in getting back to the palace.

Later that night we went to a Ceilidh, a traditional Scottish dance party. I had a blast. We got to learn traditional folk dances, meet new people and just have fun. I got to dance in 3 of the dances. I remember how to do 2 of them so if anyone's interested... *wink wink nudge nudge*

Pub Crawls and Palace Grounds

I updated my Highlands blog post so READ IT!!!!!

Anyway, I'm going to post separate entries for different days, unlike Highlands and Ireland (which I should've done....)

Anywho, Friday we spent touring the grounds around the palace we're staying out. They're huge and beautiful. There's even and "Orangarium" where they used to grow oranges. It was the only place in Scotland where you could find orange trees. Currently they're logging part of the grounds to try and restore it to what it used to look like since the trees cover up the palace a lot from certain view points. There's also a bridge on the grounds that was given to the daughter as a wedding gift.

Later that night we went out on a Pub Crawl. We wen to 5 pubs and a club. I had a lot of fun until we went to the night club. A little too crowded and claustrophobic for my liking... But I got to dress up and be all pretty again :)

Back from Ireland!

Man, this whole last week has just been a blur! We did so much so fast!

So for this trip we did a 3 night 4 day tour of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We had a new bus driver named Michael (he was also Scottish. Not quite as crazy as Ewan though). We had a much smaller bus and there were 2 other people from out Highland tour on it. The bus actually came to pick us up in Dalkeith which was really nice.

First we departed for Northern Ireland via a ferry. It was rather nice. It was a 2 hour trip to get there. It was clear out that day so I went to the observation deck. Couldn't see much from there though. On the way we saw "Patrick's Mile Stone" which is said to be a large stone thrown at St. Patrick when he was on his way to Ireland to bring Christianity (or something like that).

The weather in Ireland was -gorgeous-! It was sunny and beautiful everyday! I was also surprised at the tropical plants that could be found.

One of our first stops was to see Carrick-a-rede, Rope Bridge. The view was beautiful! We couldn't believe how blue and clear the water was! You had to pay to go on the actual bridge so none of us did (since we got an excellent view even without going on the bridge).

Next was seeing Giants Causeway. That place is amazing! All the rock there is formed from lava hitting the freshwater lakes that were there and creating giant rock pillars. The legend of the Causeway goes something like this:

There was a giant that yelled across the ocean saying how much bigger and better he was then all the giants out there. A giant across the sea got angry from hearing him yell all day and yelled he was coming over to settle this once and for all. The giant hid in the bushes and saw the other giant and thought "wow this guy is huge!" He went to his wife and she said she had a plan. She dressed him up as a baby and put him in a buggy. The other giant made a causeway across the ocean and was looking for the yelling giant. He saw the wife and the "baby" and said "where's the giant?" She told him he was gone for a while. The giant looked at the baby and thought "wow, if that's how big the baby is the father must be huge!" but he stayed around so the wife invited him in for some bread. While she was making the bread she put rocks in one loaf and left the other one plain. She gave the plain loaf to her husband and the rock-filled on to the other giant. When he saw the baby eating the bread he thought "wow if a baby can eat this tough bread his father must be really tough!" So he left, never to be seen again.

After that area we left for Port Stewart. On the way we stopped quickly to see Dunlua Castle. Port Stewart is a really nice port town. There were a lot of places to walk and see the ocean. We saw some really cute ducklings :) We stopped at a pub for dinner and had a good meal. Later that evening a group of us watched the 6th Harry Potter Movie.

I'm off to get ready for a pub crawl so I'll finish this post later :)

Hiking through the Highlands!

Well not really, we were mostly on the bus :P But it was quite the adventure! And I can't stop thinking in a Scottish accent thanks to our awesome bus driver Ewen (we never did find out the spelling, but it sounds like you-in).

Where to start...We started out by heading to the hostel that was doing this trip. It's through MacBackers. Our tour guide was fantastic and hilarious. He was extremely knowledgeable about seriously -everything-. He talked a lot and told us funny stories and old legends.

I'll be updating later with photos and way better descriptions and names of places we went. There was too much for me to remember!

So the gist is: we went on a guided tour with a tourguide named Ewin. We stayed in a small town on the Isle of Skye. We stayed in Hostel for 2 nights. There were Bluebells -everywhere- on the hills. We had a great time.

On the first day we saw the Wallace Monument. That was quite the trek up the hill it was on! But it was a great view and there were bluebells all over the hill.

Next we saw the famous "hairy coo" (hairy cow) Hamish! He's 17 years old and one of the oldest male Highland cattle living. Usually the males are turned into tasty meat around the age of 3 (I guess that's when they taste best). Hamish somehow got lucky. His girlfriend was also there too! I was able to get better photos of her because everyone was crowding Hamish.

We also saw -many- different lakes (lochs) including Loch Lochy and Loch Garry which is shaped like Scotland.

We also drove through Glen Coe which is where I believe a giant massacre happened that gave the Campbell clan their bad name.

We also saw the Commando Memorial. It was dedicated to those I think in current and previous wars.

We arrived at Skye going over the Skye Bridge (of course). The town we stayed at was called Kyleakin. It was a cute town with two Pubs and a great view of the water. The hostel was rather nice and even had free breakfast!

That night we played a drinking card game called Presidents and A**holes. I didn't drink but it was still fun. After so many rounds of being the President you get to make up a rule. The President gave us all nick-names. Katie was GPS because she has a bad sense of direction, Ashley was Misplaced because she loses things then finds them later or finds something else, Jill was Lumber Jack Jill because of an inside joke I wasn't there for, Kelly was Squeakers because her camera bag and flip flops squeaked all the time and I was Bear Bait and that's a funny story. We were walking to the bus stop after seeing Craig Millar Castle. I told Kelly to not worry about the bears, because of me being the slowest one I'll distract them so they can all run to safety. So that was the joke of the night. We went out to the bars later. One of them was having a special so I got one drink and then left for the hostel.

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We went to the Sligachan River to dip our faces into it to bring us luck, beauty and fortune. I did dip my face in I have photos to prove it :P

We stopped at Bridal's Veil waterfall and got photos. It was super pretty and we were able to get close to our first sheep!

We then stopped at a little town called Portree. I got a Peatbog Faeries CD and something for my mom :)

We stopped at Duntulm Castle sometime after that. There were sheep on the hill nearby so we were all happy to get pictures of a couple of lambs. One had a hurt leg so we named him "Gimpy".

Kilt Rock was another destination. It was really cool to see the rock sediment from Prehistoric times. Apparently the smallest dinosaur ever was found in the area. The rocks are meant to look like pleats on a kilt.

We had a random stop to this place Ewen randomly found when camping years ago called Macurdie's Barn of laughs. You went in and it had random fishermen jokes and play on words and phrases. We also walked down to the beach nearby. That was a tricky climb.

We stopped in the town of Uig for a bathroom break. The harbor view was beautiful. They have a distillery there as well.

Last part of the day we stopped at Faerie Glen. It was a magical feeling place. I left a pebble and made a wish for the faeries. I thought a mama sheep was going to charge me because I was taking photos of her with her baby and she just kept staring at me. That's another thing, there are sheep -everywhere-. The world is their pasture!

That night we played more drinking games and headed to the pub. Ewen danced with me a bit and that was fun. I had a great time hanging out with the girls. I didn't stay out for nearly as long though :P

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Third day we packed up and left Skye. We first stopped at Loch Ness! I went in! Or at least my hand did!! :D We looked around the town a bit as well. Then went to a castle on the Loch called Urquhart Castle. I was hoping to see Nessie but that didn't happen :(

We also stopped at Ruthven Barracks where I was nearly charged by a Highland bull. That got the adrenaline going! I'm ok so no worries! Just another story to add to my list :P

We stopped at the Battlefield of Culloden Moor. I don't quite remember the whole history behind it so linked is the Wiki page! Have fun!

We also went to The Hermitage, a park where there was a beautiful waterfall. Then we pretty much headed home and said our last goodbyes.

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Some fun legends that I remember:

Kelpies: Or Water Horses. Chestnut mares that wait on the banks of a sea loch, waiting for unsuspecting victims. They're beautiful and charm you over to them by shaking their heads an showing off their flowing manes. If you happen to get on the mare her eyes will burn a fiery red and she'll take you into the loch, never to be seen again.

Selkies(sp?): The Seal people. These seals emerge onto the shore and take off their skins, revealing beautiful people that love to dance in the moonlight. Legend has it that a fishman was walking home and saw these beautiful people. He stole one of their skins and went home and stashed it. The next day he saw a beautiful nude woman curled up on a rock crying. He put his jacket around her and invited her into his home. The two grew to fall in love. They got married and had two children. Years later while the fisherman was at work the children found an old chest in the attic and found the seal skin in it. They showed to their mother who was furious. She took her two children down to the shore, dawned her seal skin and swam away with her kids. The fishman was devastated, but not nearly as much as her having found out he was the man that stole her life from him.

If you see 30 white Highland horses in one place at the same time, the next person you see will be your true love. Our other tour guide said that if you counted 30 total during your time in the Celtic countries that it counted. I don't know which to believe :P

That's all I have for now. I'm off to Ireland in the morning! Tata!

Some-what free day

Today was a rather interesting day. We sat around for like 3 hours in class, people gave Pete our photos and then he displayed them on the screen. We all felt a little jipped of our time. We got up early for the purpose of getting done with class early so we could get to Edinburgh to actually see things before they closed. The hours are driving us all nuts. Most places seem to open somewhat late-ish and close insanely early. It's even worse then Menomonie!

Anyway, we were going to see this photo gallery. Someone ended up not feeling well so Pete stayed behind with him for a while and told us where to get off. We ended up getting off and sent on a wild goose chase trying to find the place. We all ended up giving up and splitting into groups and going separate ways.

My group started out by going to the birthplace of Harry Potter: The Elephant House. They have really tasty food. I had trouble with the service because we all ordered together, but my food came out 15 min late. My friends were practically done by the time I got my food! In Scotland, you can't complain about the service and get free stuff in America, you just deal with it and they tell you "oh sorry about that". I got a really tasty sandwich though: Brie with Apple slices and Redcurrant Jelly. It was really good! I'll have to use Brie more when I get home.

We then headed towards Calton Hill. On the way we passed through Princes Street and I finally got my Swatch!!! So happy!!!

Calton hill is the 3rd volcanic hill in Scotland. The other two are Arthur's Seit and Edinburgh Castle. So I've been on 3 volcanoes. The view was gorgeous and there were some ruins on the top of it.

Lastly we went to the Grey Friar Kirk (?) Graveyard. That was an interesting place. We were surprised how well the tombstones have held up of the hundreds of years they've been there.

After that we left for home. On the way it started raining and hailing! Luckily we were only about a block from the bus stop.

We got back and chilled a bit and then headed out for supper at the Blacksmith. We saw a rainbow on the way!

Again I somehow managed to have terrible service. Pete and the other student happened to be there. The other student and Pete ordered the special about 10 min before we got there. Right as we sat down the student got his meal, Pete did not. We all went to order our food, me first. The other 3 got their meals and the waitress told one of them that it was unavailable. Pete still got no food. Then the 3 I was with got their meals, not me and Pete. Then they were done and we -finally- got our meals. It took them an -hour- to get us our food! It was outrageous! I ended up getting the Fish and Chips special (came with a glass of tea). We then set out for home. On the way back we heard a couple rolls of thunder, which I guess is very very rare to hear in Scotland :)

The majority of the students ended up watching a movie called "Snatch". I didn't watch the entire thing because I wanted to pack up a bit. It was rather interesting, I'll have to catch the rest later.

Tomorrow I'm heading into the Highlands!!! So excited! We're leaving bright and early. Also I probably won't have internet access so this will be the last you hear from me until Sunday!

Have a great weekend!

Castles Galore!

Today was an interesting day. Started out early with going to class. We chatted more and watched two more still-photo documentary/photojournalism "movies" called 9th FloorandBloodline. 9th Floor is about these Heroine addicts living together on the 9th floor of an apartment in New York City. Bloodline is about how AIDS is affecting people in Africa. Both very emotional. We also discussed out research papers and who was going to edit what.

We headed into Edinburgh to see Craigmillar Castle. That was a really cool place. Pete said it's one of the most intact castle in Scotland. It was rather big, lots of places to explore. My hip was really hurting me so getting up and down the stairs was a bit of a challenge, but I did see most of the place. the view was great too! Pete also got us these neat passes that are good for 3 days and we can see any castle we want for the most part. We also get special stamps for visiting the places :)

We then headed to Edinburgh Castle after that. That place is huge and very tourist heavy. We actually got to see the change of the guard! I got a video of that I'll have to upload. I later got a picture with one of them :) But back to the Castle, it was big but I felt like Craigmillar had more to look at. I did get to see the Crown Jewels which was really cool. You're not allowed to take pictures so I can't show you the real deal :( Lots of buildings to look in. Me and another girl went into the History Museum on the grounds. The most notable thing for me was seeing an old war uniform when they still wore kilts! Pretty sweet.

We headed out of the castle and headed down the Royal Mile to the bus. We stopped at a church on the way back called St. Giles Cathedral. It was cool on the inside. We had to pay to take photos (they charged 2 pounds for all 4 of us which was nice). We also got to see the Thistle Chapel. Such beautiful woodwork in there!

After that we headed back into Dalkeith, got some supper and headed back to the palace to work on photos.

I'll add photos and whatnot later :)

Cya!

First Real Day

Today was rather interesting. Me and my roommates headed into town for breakfast. We stopped at a little bakery that actually had a special where you got a meat-filled pastie, a doughnut and a drink for 1.85 pounds. Then we headed back for class.

Class we talked about the differences between Photojournalism, Photography and Journalism. It was a really interesting discussion. We also watched a still shot movie made about a family in MN where the little girl suffered from AIDS, then the mother and then the father. It was really emotional and sad.

We headed out for lunch after class. The four of us went to a cafe because none of us were that hungry and got beverages and small food. I had a coke and a bagel.

We then headed into Edinburgh where we walked down the Royal Mile a little bit (I have to return to the Queen's Gallery shop, they looked like they had a bunch of Corgi stuff!). We saw the Palace of Holyrood (just the outside) and also the Parliament building. Next was the big part of our trip.

We climbed Arthur's Seit. Holy god I thought I was gonna die! It was steep, and tall and rocky. But I made it! And that's the main thing!!! I now have a sore hip and sore feet but it was worth it!

Close to the beginning of the hill.

This is the Gorse flower. It grows in bushes, it's pretty and has thousands of 1.5 inch long thorns.

Almost at the top!!!! The end is near!

At the top!!!

On our way down the hill towards Sheep Heid.

This is the last photo I took behind the hill.

After we climbed down the mountain/hill we stopped at the Sheep Heid which is the oldest pub in Scotland. Established in 1360! I got a Shepard's Pie and Strongbow hard apple cider. Delicious!

Me with my Shepard's Pie and Strongbow Hard Cider!

Interior shot of the Sheep Heid (and the cute barkeep *teehee*)

Old George: If you touch him he'll butt you back!

We then trekked back into town. The majority of the group went off to this Ghost Tour which is essentially a haunted house in the underground. I went back to the Palace with my prof and two others. My prof later told us that he went on it last trip and it was rather hokey and wasn't that great for the price (about $25 American dollars). So I don't feel too bad that I missed out on it.

Now I'm sitting back in my room typing this :) I'll edit some photos and post them! I think I took some great shots today ^_^ but because they're shot on my nice Nikon D90 and shot in RAW format I can't just upload them onto here.

Laters!

I'm a Zombie...

After lots of flying and spending time in airports I have finally reached my Scottish destination!

Started out with leaving from Minneapolis to Paris. The Paris Airport is gorgeous! They had some really neat architecture! Then we went from Paris to Edinburgh.

The city is so cool! Old buildings and stuff everywhere! All the houses were really well kept and clean.

We sat around Princes Street to wait for the others to join us then headed off on a bus to Dalkeith. It's a really nice town and we're actually staying at Dalkeith Palace. Only people that are allowed to stay there are allowed on the grounds, so it's really safe. I had my first Scottish meal of a seafood platter and it was rather good. I had Brown Sauce for the first time. It's rather tangy and sightly sweet.

Since most of us are in a zombie-state we called it early for the day.

Take Care!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

So I leave for Scotland today! So excited but nervous! I leave in just a few hours and will be gone for 3 weeks. I'm taking a Photojournalism class for my minor. There's about 10 of us I think going. We'll be spending most of our time in Scotland and a couple days in Ireland. I'm getting back on the day of my best-friends' wedding so that'll be crazy!!! Cya on the flip side!

Getting ready to go!

So I went through and packed -everything- I had currently and it amazingly fits into my carry-on-sized suitcase and backpack! I'm really packing light! I'm really looking forward to going. I still have to write some research papers on the places I'm going. I'm going out shopping tomorrow to get more batteries for my camera. I'm also going to my friends' grad party since he doesn't live too far away :) Also, I've lost a bit of weight so I'm rather happy ^_^

First entry!

So I'm not quite done with classes yet and I still have a lot to do before I go to Scotland and Ireland :P But please keep checking back! I'll make updates when I can! I leave on the 23rd and come back on the 12th of June (the day of my best friends' wedding!).