Regents Park

Today Jill and I were going to watch the changing of the guard. It turns out they weren't changing on today. They only do it every other day. So, we made plans to go to the zoo. We walked to the tube and it took an hour to get there. With walking to the zoo, we didn't have enough time to actually see everything at the zoo. So instead we went to Regents Park. We walked around for a bit and then headed to class. Class was nice and pretty uneventful. Our class for the evening was cancelled so Jill and I went to the library to do some work. We worked for a bit and then headed back toward Metrogate. On our way back we stopped at Byron Burger for food. It was one of the best burgers I have ever eaten in my entire life. I finished all of my homework and I'm headed right to bed.

JessLynn

My Last 9 Posts Have All Stated With "S"

This one starts with "T" instead. Today was.....interesting. This morning I had Politics and this afternoon I had Theatre. Both were good, same as usual. Then this evening, Brian our Theatre professor, invited us to his class before we went and saw the sow for that evening. It was his last meeting with another one of his classes so they were watching Macbeth and just hanging out. We were offered a glass of wine (Jill and I learned we do not like wine) and had a good time. Then when his class was over we only had a little bit of time to make our way to the theatre for our show. We walked very quickly to the Underground station and just made our train. We had to switch trains and the 9 of us ran through the stations so we wouldn't miss our chance. It was absolutely hilarious and we all jumped on laughing and out of breathe. Once we were on the rain we realized it was delayed and we wouldn't be leaving for another 5 minutes but it was an adventure anyway. We quickly walked to the theatre and made it there with plenty of time. The show we saw was one of the most peculiar things I have ever seen. It was a drag show about the conflict in Israel. Yes, you read that correctly. The trailer is HERE in case anyone is interested. After the show we caught the bus and headed home. Driving through the city at the top of a double decker bus is so cool. I still can't get over how beautiful this place is.


JessLynn

Scotland: Flying home

This morning we got on the shuttle to the airport and headed back to London. I have had such an amazing time in Scotland. I will never forget it. I absolutely loved every minute of it.

The view from our seat on the shuttle.

This weekend is pretty boring for me because I have mid terms due on Monday that I need to start. So, I won't be blogging until Monday evening.

Scotland: Arthur's Seat, the National Museum and Pub Food

Today I did something I have never done before. I climbed a volcano. That's right. A volcano. It was amazing. We woke up a little early and started off to conquer the day. On our way I had to stop and take a picture of the Adam Smith monument in the middle of Parliament Square. Adam Smith was a very famous economist, otherwise known as the "father of capitalism." I'm not his biggest fan but, what kind of Econ major would I be if I didn't stop.

Adam Smith with a very aggressive look on his face.

After a little bit of walking, we found Arthur's Seat. It's absolutely massive and there are tons of paths to walk. Unfortunately, it had rained our entire trip so the ground was a little soft and muddy. We started up one path but quickly realize we were gong the wrong way. We cut across a small field and started working our way up. Mitch had climbed the day before and he told us it was a little bit of a hike but it wasn't bad. He lied. It was very difficult. The path wasn't really well kept so it was muddy and not well defined. We took very frequent breaks for pictures and so we could take a moment to regroup. It wasn't too bad. It was still a really good time. After a lot of walking we found "stairs" made out of rocks that made climbing much easier. At the top of these stairs we turned and found something incredibly disheartening. We had been climbing up the wrong side. In front of us now was a long, somewhat paved path that fed up to the very top. From that point down it was a very easy walk. Where we were standing is where the easy path got somewhat difficult on the way up. The rest of the way to the top was the same difficulty we had faced the entire time. So we continued. 

The lower part of Arthur's Seat.

The view once we found the right path.

The view from the top was incredible. We could see the entire city. We sat on the peak for a few minutes before we decided to head back down. The only problem was, the wind was incredibly strong. I couldn't stand up from where I was sitting so Jill and I sat there laughing for a minute until the wind died down. 

I looked up a little information on Arthur's Seat and found that it is one of the suspected spots for Camelot. WE WENT TO (maybe) CAMELOT! That's one of the coolest realizations I've ever had.

Panorama from my seat at the very top.
It's a little shaky because the wind complicated things.

Me at the top!

Our way back down was even more interesting. We started climbing down and stepped on the first grassy area we could. Unfortunately, it wasn't just grass. There was tons of mud under the thin layer of grass and my converse shoes are not the best when it comes to traction. After many many close calls on our trip up the volcano, I hadn't actually fallen. As soon as we started to walk down, I slipped and was covered in mud. Jill and I laughed the entire walk down and back to our hostel. It was absolutely hilarious. On our walk back, I bought a hand made wool scarf with sheep on it. It's adorable. And I saw a man in a kilt (which wasn't really that surprising but the scenery made for an amazing picture)

The most Scottish picture ever taken.

After we got back to our hostel and I changed into dry clothes, we took a much needed nap. We slept for quite a while before we got up and went back to the National Museum. We walked around a bit before getting tired and hungry.  One of the really cool things we found was a skeleton of a Megasloth, which I didn't know even existed. It was awesome.

The Megasloth!!

On our way back to our hostel again we stopped in The Elephant House which is the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter (allegedly). We just stopped in but it was really cool to be there.We relaxed for a bit and then headed down the road to a pub for dinner. We ate some of the best food I have ever eaten. Looking back, the food wasn't that great but we were still really tired and starving so it felt like heaven. Lastly, we headed back and went straight to bed because we had to get up early for our flight the next morning.

The view of the Castle at night.

JessLynn

Scotland: Highland Bus Tour

Today, Jill and I took a bus tour. A 12 hour long bus tour. It was one of the most incredible days of my entire life. I don't really know what I expected the landscape to be like but it was just filled with mountains. Being from the great plains of Illinois, mountains aren't really a thing I'm used to seeing. We stopped at a few places through the Highlands and it was just breathtakingly beautiful. Below is the map on the website for the tour company. We didn't necessarily stop at all of the places marked but we did learn a bit about them. We started in Edinburgh and headed North West to Glen Coe first.

Our first stop was for coffee. It was a quick stop but it was the first place where we could really get out and see everything. This is the view from the parking lot of the coffee/gift shop. This was also supposed to be the first place where we saw the infamous Highland Coos. Hammish, the resident coo was not there unfortunately but according to his little sign he was only a few months older than Jill and I and that made us laugh.

View on our first stop.

These are Highland Coos. This is what they would have looked like if there were any there.

After that we got back on the bus and drove for a little bit longer. Because we got up so early a few people had fallen asleep. I just remember thinking "You paid 40 pounds for this tour. How could you be sleeping during it?!" I then accidentally fell asleep for 10 minutes and woke up when we were stopping again. We only stopped for a couple minute before getting on our way.

We stopped for lunch and had a little bit longer to relax and eat. Jill and I sat outside (even though it was kinda cold) and ate our junk food that we bough the day before. Then we browsed the gift shop and got back on the bus.

A rainbow over a Loch.

A railroad bridge on a mountain side.

Our next big stop was Glencoe. On our way there we learned all about the significance of the area. So a quick summary is this: Glencoe was the home of the Macdonald clan. In 1692, a bunch of soldiers led by Robert Campbell came and stayed with them. They were sent there by the king. They lived with them for about 2 weeks. In the night on February 12th, the troops destroyed the village and killed 38 people (with about 40 others dying of exposure). This was all ordered by the King. There is still feud between Cambells and Macdonalds today. Our guide/driver then played a song written about the massacre. I have put that below. It tells the story a little more eloquently than I can.

Mountains in Glencoe

We returned to the bus and headed off. We stopped very quickly at a Scottish War Memorial and then kept going.

View from the Memorial.

The next stop was Loch Ness! First we stopped at Urquhart Castle. A few people got off the bus to tour the castle and take a boat ride on the Loch. Jill and I decided that we didn't want to do this so we just took a couple pictures. While they were looking at the castle, the rest of us got back on the bus and drove up the side of the Loch. We stopped at a little gift shop and hotel and stayed there for a while. We were able to go by the water and walk a wooded trail while others toured the loch looking for Nessie. We stayed there for quite a while and eventually got back on the bus. We continued up the side of the Loch before hitting Inverness and heading south.

Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness.

A beautiful hillside on our way to our Loch Ness stop.

Nessie statue outside of the gift shop/cafe.

An adorable mural painted in the tunnel to the water.

Loch Ness!!

There weren't a lot of chances to take pictures on our way back because it got dark but we were able to see some cool stuff and learn a lot more. I had such an amazing time and I absolutely loved the Highlands.

After we got back to our hostel we met up with Mitch, who had gotten there the night before. He was only in Edinburgh for a short while but coincidentally booked the same hostel as us. We sat and talked for a while before going to bed and sleeping for a very long while.

JessLynn

Scotland: Walking Tour and National Museum

Today we went on a walking tour of the city. We kept a pretty tight circle of the city an didn't cover too much ground but we did learn a ton more stuff about the city. Unfortunately I didn't take too many pictures but I did take a few. The tour took about 3 hours and it was freezing and raining. Despite that, it was still really amazing to see the city. This is also where we discovered our knack for tour guides with odd spellings of their names. The castle tour guide's name was Graeme (Graham) and this tour guide's name was Kiel (Kyle). He was also Australian, which didn't make a ton of sense. (This is tour 3 by the way). 

View of the castle from the Grassmarket square.

After our tour we went to explore the National Museum. We didn't have a lot of time before they closed but we were able to see a whole floor. It was really amazing to see all of the old Scottish artifacts and how people lived hundreds of years ago. I also learned that I am absolutely in love with Celtic symbols and drawing. I think it's so beautiful. 

A bit of graffiti near our hostel.

When we were finished at the museum we went to a grocery store to get dinner and food for our tour the next day. We bought mainly junk food because we had no way of storing real food. (We also bought apples to balance ourselves out). We headed back to our hostel and ate dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening because we were exhausted from our tour earlier in the day.

View of the train station.

A model of the city made so people who are blind can experience the beauty of Edinburgh.

View of the city from the bottom of the hill.

JessLynn

Scotland: Edinburgh Castle and Vaults

I'm about to set off on the great feat of trying to remember and explain what we did in Scotland over the past week. Depending on the length, I think I will be posting the days separately and just changing the upload dates to when they actually happened. Just so you know!

So we woke up this morning and decided to go to Edinburgh Castle. We walked down the High Street (main street) and got some breakfast. We sat in Parlaiment Square and ate and looked for the meeting place for ghost tour we were taking this afternoon. Then we walked up to the Castle. It was aboslutely breathtaking. The city is surrounded by two dormant volcanoes and the castle is at the top of one of them. This meant that we could see the entire city from inside the castle walls. We took a tour and explored all of the small museums inside. It really helped to give us a basic history lesson of Edinburgh and Scotland in general. I now have so many facts about Scottish history saved in my head.

The castle has been used for many things. It has been a residence for the royal family, an army prison, and an army barracks. Part of the grounds are still used as army barracks.

The view of Edinburgh Castle from right outside the door of our hostel.

View of the city from the castle. Our hostel is the building on the other side of the street on the left.

Edinburgh Castle

North view of Edinburgh. With Fife across the water (Firth of Forth).

Lion outside of a church in the castle.

Cemetery for soldiers' dogs.

Looking northeast.

View from a higher part of the grounds.

What the army prison barracks would have looked like.

After the castle we went on a ghost tour with Anna. (This is the second tour of our trip, make sure you're keeping count). We had a very....interesting guide. She was a bit too much for my taste but she did a good job of teaching us about all of the history of the dark side of Edinburgh. The city is known as the "Jekyll and Hyde City" because of it's very dark side and the fact that the book was written and based there. That was really cool for Jill and I because we just read that book for class so were were pretty well versed in the story. On our tour we first learned about different punishments that would be publicly shown in the center of the city. Then, we moved down in to the Edinburgh vaults. I didn't know that they even existed. The vaults were built under the city a very long time ago. They were originally used as storage but quickly turned into a sort of slum. There was a lot of disease and a lot of crime. We also learned about some ghosts that had been seen down there. It was creepy and cool and I liked it. After we got back, Alex Raffini commented on one of my Facebook posts reminding me of a Ghost Adventures episode that was filmed in the vaults. Now, for those of you who don't know, I love Ghost Adventures. I think the show is absolutely ridiculous but for some reason I watch it every single time it's on. So, if anyone is interested I found the entire episode on YouTube HERE or you can watch a recap of the episode below. They go through all of the rooms we went through and talk about all of the ghosts we learned about. It's cool to rewatch the episode and recognize all of the places they are in.

After our tour Jill and I ran to Boots to get a few things and took a few more pictures of the city. I still can't get over how beautiful it is.

JessLynn