1000 Miles of Happiness!

We just got back from a trip to the Highlands. Our Scottish Professor, Gerry Mooney, was our personal tour guide. We had about 55 of us from the House go on the trip. It was an amazing time for many reasons. One being that the Highlands are gorgeous and a second being that we got to spend one of our last weekends all together. Its definitely different counting down the other way now! 23 days and I'll be back home. Some of the best moments that I think I'm just going to briefly mention would be the 21 girls in one hostel room! Climbing a mountain just before dark! Baiting Nessie, Hiking in Glencoe, a Chinese Buffet in Inverness, and just sitting in the backseat of the coach bus with best friends. We put about 1000 miles on the bus on the trip around the Highlands! Or as Gerry said, "1000 miles of happiness".

A Trip to London

On April 14th I took an 8-hour night bus ride, destination: London. Because I hadn’t missed any classes yet for the semester, it was planned that we could get to London on Wednesday and enjoy an extra day. A large group of WIS students were going to be coming down the following day, but John and I left Edinburgh at 11pm and arrived in London around 8am on Wednesday. Well let’s just say that the night bus was not my favorite part. When we got there we dropped our stuff off at our hostel in Victoria, but couldn’t check in until 2pm. So, we set off exploring London. It had rained a bit and now was kinda foggy (something that was definitely a reoccurring weather pattern in London we learned). We got our city map from London Victoria Station and soon found Westminster Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben. Then we found Trifalger Square, visited the National Gallery, and said ‘Hi’ to the Queen at Buckingham Palace (okay…she wasn’t actually in that day). The sun was finally coming through and we found a park (the first of many in this trip), where people were relaxing in fold-up lounge chairs. We took two of them and it came to our attention that people were actually renting these chairs for an hour and a half at a time. Well, this is when ‘chair surfing’ was invented and we just relocated to another chair when we saw the rent-collector coming our direction. After this little break, we went back to our hostel to move into our room and take a much needed siesta. That evening we went to the Hard Rock Café. We got to the door and were handed a buzzer for the wait that was going to be an hour and fifteen minutes! But that was okay since we used the time to walk to the Marble Arch and through Hyde Park. Dinner was pretty good but Hard Rock Cafés are kind of expensive, good thing we brought along the PB&J supplies again! When we got back to the hostel I worked on… homework! Agh! I had to finish up my research for the paper we had due on Monday for our Scottish Globalisation class.
On Thursday we took a day trip out of the city. We had a train ticket for Salisbury and plans to see the famous Stonehenge. I used my ‘Lets Go Europe’ book again on this trip... it is amazing. Once we made it to Salisbury we jumped on a tour bus that would take us out to Stonehenge and to Old Sarum. Since it was just about to leave we kinda just jumped on, but it turned out to be a good deal that gave us transportation, guided tours, and admission into everything. Stonehenge is still a bunch of big rocks situated in the middle of nowhere surrounded by sheep. But it was actually really cool to hear all the speculation and the mystery of them. We also got to see Old Sarum which was a castle and community of King John. It had turned out to be a beautiful day and we got to eat our PBJs in the sunshine. From there we walked back into Salisbury. Salisbury is a very old town and claims fame to the tallest Medieval Spire that is on the Salisbury Cathedral. The River Avon runs through the town and we followed the River Walk for awhile as well. When we got back to London we found that our hostel had filled up with familiar faces and we just hung out for the rest of the night.
Friday we went on a walking tour of London. There is a company, NewEurope Tours, which offers free walking tours in many cities. London is the first one of these I went on though. It was nice to have an expert with us as we visited some of the same places again and some new ones. She told us lots of history and pointed out things we would have never known otherwise. My favorite stories were about the break-ins of Buckingham Palace. Like the one where a group of German tourists camped out in the yard thinking they were at Hyde Park and the next morning asked a guard how to get out. Needless to say, he showed them out very quickly! We got a day pass for the Underground and used a Tube Map to navigate the city for the rest of the day. Since the London Eye (HUGE ferris wheel in middle of city) was 17 pounds to ride on, we took an alternative that was stated in the ‘Lets Go’ book. It lead us to Hampstead Heath, a beautiful wooded park with many trails in a quiet setting. Very different part of London than what we had seen so far. For some reason we thought it was going to be a hill that would also offer great views of the city, but it actually wasn’t. However, the swans on the pond were a pretty good alternative anyway. It started to lightly rain and we jumped back on the tube. Next we discovered Kings Cross Station… the one mentioned in Harry Potter. We found Platform 9 ¾ which was utilised for the characters to get on the Hogwarts Express. Then we jumped on the tube again for a trip to London Bridge. By now everyone had their umbrellas out in London and we got some pictures of the Tower Bridge in the London rain. We got back to the hostel just in time to change and get to the Apollo Theater for… Wicked! I was so excited to finally see it. I have had the soundtrack on my iPod for a long time and listened to it on the way down to London and on the train! It was a wonderful performance and definitely met all my expectations and more.
Saturday was a day planned out by Professor Parkinson. We got tours of the Globe Theater and the Tower of London. It was finally a clear day starting that morning! We got our Underground passes again but they had lots of the lines closed for work that day making it a little bit more of a challenge to get around the city. The Globe Theater, though not the original, was interesting. We got to see a little bit of a rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet going on. The show was going to open in a few days. We got into the Tower of London that afternoon. Here we met the Beefeaters. These are the guides that now chauffeur people through the Tower, but were once very important to the running of the Tower. A lot of history happened in the Tower and also many executions. It was a really neat place to visit and the Beefeaters were definitely my favorite guides. We took lots of pictures in London. Some of my favorites are from Saturday when we took our ‘London Phone Booth’ pictures. These things smell horrible though! I’m fairly certain that my theory is correct- no one actually uses phone booths anymore because everyone has mobiles, but the booths are now used as urinals and by silly tourists! Really they are that bad! We also got some awesome shots that evening by Big Ben as the sun was going down and the sky was so pretty. Then we went to get pictures of the Tower Bridge at night all lit up and of Piccadilly, the square that is similar to Times Square with the lights and screens. Then we got back on a night bus for Edinburgh again!
That Sunday was spent stressing over our essays. I have pictures of this as well. I got to my 2000 words by Monday at 1pm though, so it all turned out. :)

A Catch-up Blog Covering the Past Weeks…

Ireland- Paddywagon Tour

March 12-15

Well I guess I have been keeping busy since I haven’t written a decent blog since before spring break! So I’ll start the weekend before break, which was March 12-15 when I made a trip to Ireland. We signed up for a Paddywagon Tour of Southern Ireland. It was very nice because we got to see a lot, had a guide and driver, and never had to worry about accommodations. We started by flying into Dublin and the tour started from there the next day (the 13th). We boarded a big green bus and headed out. Eight of us had come for this trip- Jenny, Brittney, Solomon, Ben, John, Kelly, Steve, and me. The next nights were spent in Galway and then Killarney. We saw everything from peat moss pits, the North Atlantic, hundreds of baby lambs, thatched roofs, miles of stone walls, and cattle roaming by the rocky shores in Burren. We made visits to the ruins of Clonmacnoise and saw lots of Celtic Crosses and the ruins of a castle and church. We went to the Cliffs of Moher, which were breathtaking and of course we ventured past the sign that stated, “Please Do Not Go Beyond This Point”, but hundreds of other people were on the worn path that way too. Every evening before dropping us off at our hostels our guide would tell us about the town we were staying in. He mentioned good places to eat and the pubs with the best deals and bands. We really enjoyed the live Irish bands that we encountered on this trip. In Killarney our guide even had arranged a good deal on drinks for us… 3 jag bombs or car bombs for 10 euros... the latter being a specialty to the area. Car bombs are a half pint of Guinness with a shot of Baileys and Jameson dropped in. On the last day I started out with a horse and carriage ride through Killarney National Park where we saw the lakes, mountains, and a huge herd of deer. Then we loaded up and headed to Blarney Castle. It took about an hour to get up to the top and kiss the famous stone. It was cool that we were there the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day and even ran into a few celebrations as we travelled through the country. We decided that we were going to be economical on this trip and bought loaves of bread and jars of jelly and peanut butter. We ate these for lunch everyday so that we could save for dinner and going out. It was a good idea but I don’t know if I will eat another PB&J once I get back to the States! I have had soo many! It is also an easy option to make when we are in Dalkeith too! On the actual St. Patrick’s Day some of us went to Biddy Mulligan’s in Edinburgh. This Irish Pub was packed! But I had my Guinness and got my free t-shirt so it was a good night!

Spring Break 09!
10 days of backpacking in France and Italy!

Spring Break was amazing! I absolutely loved it and had a great time! So… in the early morning of Friday, March 20th we grabbed our backpacks (mine being the experienced bag from Aunt Krissy) and boarded our plane at EDI. On this adventure was Kelly, Kristin, John, Ben, Jenny, Steve, Nicole, Jonelle, and me. A big group but we split down and met up many times throughout the trip. We landed in Nice, France that afternoon and met Jonelle’s good friends from high school that are studying in the neighboring town, Antibes. Her friends, Joe and Lindsey, were able to put us up in their apartments for the first two nights and the last night. They were so nice and showed us around Nice the next day. In Nice we explored the city centre, checked out one of the beaches, and found a park on top of a hill that overlooked the city. All of the French people seemed so relaxed and enjoying their sunny day at the beach and at the park. There was a small instrumental band playing in the park, kids playing football (soccer), people laying out on the beach (with and without bathing suits), and in the evening a group of drums playing in the city centre. One of the funny parts about the city centre were these high pedestals with naked guys sitting on them. I thought they were hilarious especially at night when they lit up and changed colors!
On Sunday the 22nd, we caught a train for La Spezia, Italy. Our next destination was Cinque Terre- five small fishing villages on the Ligurian coast of Italy that are actually linked together by small paths that many people hike on. The towns are quite small but very friendly and colorful. From La Spiezia we took a train to Riomaggiore, one of the Cinque Terre towns that we were staying at. The first thing we bought were two margherita (cheese) pizzas, they were amazing. We then got into our hostel rooms that were actually really nice as we had our own bathrooms and kitchens! That evening we took one of the trails to the town of Manarola. To get there we had to pass through the tunnel of love, which is painted with lots of graffiti pictures.
The next day (23rd) was a BIG day for me as I finished up Cinque Terre, did Pisa, and landed in Roma! We took a train to Monterosso the farthest of the Cinque Terre towns. We had lunch, explored the town, and even ventured onto the hiking trails between it and Vernazza. Its funny how the ‘Lets Go’ book makes even more sense when you read it after being in the area for awhile. I say this because John and I ended up on the hardest path towards Vernazza. It started out with really nice scenery… lemon trees and vineyards with the coast insight, but also a bunch of steps. The steps however had no end! We did probably 20 minutes of steep steps going up and hardly leveling! The funny thing was the people we passed on the path though. Being a narrow path we had to stand aside to pass each other. There were a number of older couples that cheerily said, “Bojourno!” to us- Italian for “Hello!” However it was obvious that they weren’t Italian as one lady was wearing an Alaska sweatshirt! I have a ton of respect for those cute old ladies though cuz I got winded doing that trail! We asked how far it was to the next town and heard it was about an hour and fifteen minutes, but we wanted to make the next train and had to get our stuff from the hostel before heading to Pisa. So, we turned around for Monterosso again.
On our way to Pisa we had a layover in La Spiezia, which we used for a gelato break! We made it to Pisa at about 5pm. It was perfect timing for a walk across town (with our backpacks) to see the Leaning Tower before the sun started going down. We got our pictures with the tower and I snapped one of Flat Addie and the tower as well! We almost got dinner at this cute diner that had seating right in view of the tower, but didn’t have quite enough time for that since our train to Rome left at 7pm. So we grabbed pizza and jumped on the train. This was one of my favorite train rides because we got a compartment with the curtains and light switch so that I could lay out on the three seats for the 4 hours to Roma. Once we got to the Rome Termini Station, John and I, met up with two other guys from our program, Tom and Jeremy, who had also gotten in that day. We dropped our stuff at the hotel and ventured out to see Rome in the evening. I was very surprised that it was so quiet, but it was a Monday night. For hearing that Rome was the ‘Pick-pocket Capital of the World’, I was a little bit nervous about arriving at night, but it was actually really quiet and fine that first night. We were also staying near the Vatican so that could also attribute to that. As ‘Lets Go’ said under the accommodations that is what you could expect in an area with such a high nun-to-tourist ratio!
Tuesday morning we set out for the Vatican City to see the Saint Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Museums, and the Sistine Chapel. Didn’t get a glimpse of the Pope, but did see a lot that day. The museums are quite extensive. You go through all of those before you can see Michelangelo’s ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. For lunch we went to a supermarket and found some pasta and sauce and made that in the kitchen of the hotel. It was pretty good and we even tuned the radio that was in there to some Italian music to set the mood… for a short while that is. We bought Roma Passes that gave us a pass to two sights and discounts on more after that and a pass for the public transportation, busses and metro, for three days. That evening we were going to go on a Pub Crawl a bunch of us that were in Rome… however the misinformation that we had turned into seeing the city at night. For dinner we literally ducked into a restaurant right off of the Colosseum during a rainshower… good thing I had my umbrella! I had a pretty good sandwich thing, but more hilarious was the pizza that John ordered. It was called ‘Napoli’ in the menu and I looked at it after he had already ordered and noticed that there were anchovies on it… something he overlooked or only read the Italian part of the menu. It was pretty funny because it was bad even after you picked all the little fish off of it! But it was made better by ordering… gelato desserts! On our walk around that night we found the Trevi Fountain, which I thought was prettier to see at night than day as we also went to it another time. I threw my penny in and made a wish, but also saw a guy with a stick up his sleeve that he would pull out and use to pick out the biggest change that he could reach with it from the fountain! I guess it’s more productive than begging???
The next morning didn’t start out quite as planned. We thought we had booked our room for three nights, but got caught as we were walking out that morning with the question if we were checking out today. No, we thought, but actually we did have it wrong, so we had to do a quick booking and relocating. We luckily found a place and got moved in. After that minor ordeal, we found ourselves at a scooter rental place. I had mentioned that it would be awesome to cruise around Rome on a motorbike… so, when in Rome… right? John did a test drive around the block with the guy from the shop to see how it would go, since neither of us had ever really driven a moped around. I was super nervous about it actually, but agreed to take it for four hours. We got our helmets and set off to conquer Rome! It was crazy and the coolest thing ever! We drove without any direction, then we’d check the map. There are lots of one way streets so it was difficult to get where we wanted sometimes, but we made it to a really cool piazza (or plaza) that overlooked the city, then to the Vatican, and then past the Colosseum. I even took a turn driving past the Colosseum! I’m actually still surprised we returned it without a scratch and in one piece! Mopeds don’t have to stay in their own lanes much… basically wherever you can scoot, you can go! It is definitely one of my favorite memories that I will take from being in Rome, no matter how much I may have been praying on the back of that moped!!! When we finally returned it after filling it back up with gas that is, we did our tour of the Colosseum. Our Roma Passes would get us in but there are many people outside the Colosseum offering tours of it. Somehow I got us a tour of the Colosseum for 6 euros which even offered us a tour for the next day of Palatine hill and the Roman Forum. I’d say it was a good deal! The tours were very interesting and lots of information I wouldn’t have known otherwise. That evening we made it back in time for the pasta dinner being served at our hostel, and then met up with the group for the actual pub crawl.
On Thursday (26th) we went to the Pantheon, a big marble temple. It was a very nice and sunny day. Then we did our tour that we had gotten with the Colosseum deal of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We ran across some street fairs and I found a really cool painting that I liked of the Castel d’St Angelo, the Tiber River, and the Vatican in the distance. The man wanted 60 euro, but went to 50 then 40. I then walked away and thought about it. I decided I really liked it and would ask about 30 euro and possibly go 35. I went back over there and got it for 35! It was really fun getting that deal and I found out he was even the artist as I thanked him, “Grazie”. We then rounded up our stuff and caught a train to Firenze, or Florence.
We spent Friday in Florence, a beautiful and historical city. We got into the Duomo a huge church with lots of well-known paintings in it. The whole group was together in Florence and then we re-grouped for the day. Our group decided we wanted to see David. So we got into that museum, saw David, and may have sniped a picture of him. Florence has many street vendors offering a great variety of goods and deals. I found lots of souvenirs that day and had fun bargaining again. Somehow I also ended up with a pair of ridiculous big white-rimmed sunglasses for only 4 euro… he started at 25… what were we to do! ;) We caught the sunset as it went down at the gardens and over the city. Then went back to the town for dinner at a place we had passed during the day and had been offered a seat. We kept the card the lady gave us and had said we’ll be back later. It was a pretty good meal of lasagna, salad, beans, and hard bread soaked in herbs and olive oil and rounded off with the glass of Italian wine.
Saturday we spent a lot of time on trains. Well, we had a lot of trains involved in the whole spring break travelling trip, but the one back to Nice took 8 hours. It did however take a break in Genova where we had lunch and got a picture of the Christopher Columbus monument (he was Genoese). That evening we spent with Joe and Lindsey again in Antibes. I enjoyed a really big messy nutella and banana crepe at dinner. We hung out at Lindsey’s and then went out to a club. I learned that I will never go out to a club that has a cover again! We had thought the girls got in for free and just the guys were gonna have to pay… but apparently that wasn’t the case for the night. It was 20 euros, but because we had already walked there and it was raining we went in. The only cool thing was that it was called ‘Le Milk’. So being the Wisconsin girl that I am, that was kinda cool. But even with paying 20 to get in, they charged a euro for the toilets, played techno, we couldn’t get into the VIP section, and you only got one bad drink with cover. So it was an interesting night that ended up being really late since we also had to factor in a time change. We are finally on summer time here in Europe now!
On Sunday (29th) I had a really good panini for lunch before taking yet another train back to Nice and then the airlink bus to the airport. Not too interesting except for the majorly embarrassing fall I took on the bus. We had our backpacks (aka small child) on our laps in the backseat, then Kristin and I thought we’d move up to a group of four seats where we’d have more room and be able to get off easier. So we do that and she is in front of me and kind of trips. Meanwhile I realize I’m going to end up doing the same thing as I get caught up on someone’s backpack/a step down/or combination of the two, plus I hear a car honking at our bus that is now braking… and before I know it I’ve landed in front of my backpack that I had been carrying in front of me! So I realize that I’m okay… not too bruised… just my pride type of thing, but I’m up and laughing at in anyways (I however do still have a slight scrape today even!). The rest of the journey back was pretty good and we were glad to be home at the Dalkeith Palace. I also realized at this point in the semester that we are going on trips and things but without actually coming home home. I think I will be very happy to land in Minneapolis and be home in a couple of weeks! So that was my Spring Break ’09! I have tons of pictures with lots of them available for viewing on Facebook! ;)


And now the most recent weekend… April 3rd- 5th in Scotland!

The first thing I did when I got back from Spring Break was laundry! The next thing I had to do was my essay outline for Globalisation that was due the next day! But I finished recovering from Break and made it through the week for a nice weekend just in Scotland. After classes on Thursday, my roommate Angie and I made appointments in town to get our haircut! I really needed one as I had tried before break to trim it myself… so this was good to get it fixed at least. The ladies were really nice and I have a new do! Its not too much shorter but I got some layers again and it thinned out a lot and feels so much better. And I got bangs! Sydney already said, “Bangs? I thought we ditched those in 8th grade?” But, yes I did and I think they are okay. Angie had really long blonde hair and now she got bangs too and her hair is even shorter than mine! But she looks really good too. On Friday we had a house trip planned for Musselburgh to see the horse races. It was really a fair day when we left the Dalkeith House and I thought I was going to be just fine in my long-sleeved t-shirt, but by the time we got off the bus at Musselburgh which is on the sea it was cooler and foggy. The fog lifted enough for us to see the track luckily but it was a bit chilly all day. I really liked the races though. It was the only real horse race I’ve ever been to I think. We watched the horses come into the parade ring before the races to choose which one we thought was going to be the winner. Then we made bets… real ones and ones with each other. I lost 2 pounds on a real bet with one of the betting agencies out there that day, but did win a little cherry pie with Elizabeth when we started making food bets with one another!
Saturday was a rainy day that I spent figuring out my schedule for next year since we have Fall Registration coming up this week! So we just hung out around here… watched some tv in willies and learned a new card game with Aleisha (can’t wait to try it at the fair or something later!). Sunday I went to the flight museum in North Berwick. Sunday was a really nice day to go out and enjoy. We went on The Concorde Experience tour and I learned all I ever wanted to know and more about this big passenger plane that carried the rich and famous across the Atlantic in 3 hours and could travel at 2 Mach (Mach=speed of sound). They had a couple other hangars to check out too. It is located in an actual WWII airfield so was actually a ways out of town. So we had to call our cab again and drive back into North Berwick. The driver was really nice though and told us about the landscape we were passing and places in town. There is a big rock with a bird sanctuary called Bass Rock that we saw when we went out on the shore. He had also pointed out a big piece of land someone gave to the town that is now a park. There were soo many daffodils in bloom there! It was so pretty. So I took some good pictures of those and some other flowers in the garden.
I can’t believe next weekend is Easter weekend! I think there are some of us staying at the House and we’ll see what we can come up with to celebrate it. But I heard the Egg Hunt might end up being over Memorial Weekend so at least I’m not missing that! Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter whether you are in Florida or Wisconsin! I think I’m gonna have to go out and buy myself some Easter candy though!