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 :)