Edinburgh, Scotland

This past weekend I went to Edinburgh up in Scotland. When planning the places I wanted to go in Europe, Scotland didn't make the cut, but when Keele put together a trip for the international students I became a bit more interested. All I had to do is pay the ISS office and they organized the transportation and the hotel. Which was really nice now that I'm working on planning things for my trips in April. I seriously think I could be a travel agent by the end of this!

 

Anyhow, on to my trip. On Friday morning we all piled onto a bus around 8:00am and started heading north. Something interesting I have noticed about the UK is how nice their rest stops are. Each one has a restaurant or two, a grocery store, one of those magazine/sweets stores you see in airports, super nice bathrooms and lots of seating. I assuming it is because so many tours go up and down England, but it certainly is surprising!

 

We made it to Edinburgh around 3:30 and after putting our things in our hotel rooms, Amanda, Trista and I went exploring. We didn't have a plan, we just wandered around the streets. We found some cute shops and I bought a scarf because the wind ended up making the 50 degree weather feel much, much colder.

 

We weren't going to dinner until 7:30 so around 5 we found The Elephant House to warm up and have a snack.

 

Not only is The Elephant House an awesome cafe, it is also where JK Rowling spent her time writing the first Harry Potter book. How awesome is that? The bathrooms were covered in messages from fans (now including myself) to JK thanking her as well as quotes from the books.

 

This is one of my favorites. I agree, the world does need more magic.

 

If JK saved this person's life, imagine how many more she saved. Just because she had an idea in her head and wrote it down. The Harry Potter books were a huge part of my growing up and I still love them now. I really is mind blowing to think how big an impact one person can make on the world.

 

I got a coffee and an elephant shaped shortbread cookie. So cute and so yummy!

 

After The Elephant House we went back to the hotel and freshened up for dinner.

 

The hotel we stayed in had the most comfortable beds ever. I honestly have never slept better!

 

On Saturday morning we went of to tour Edinburgh Castle. We paid 16 pounds each to get in and it really wasn't that worth it. You win some and you lose some.

 

After the castle we looked at some street vendors then found ourselves back at The Elephant House for lunch. I love the atmosphere in there and I hope I can find a cozy little place like that on my future travels.

 

After lunch, I changed shoes and we went off to climb Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is the highest (251 meters) of a group of hills (that were once volcanoes)  next to the city.

 

Some neat buildings we passed on the way.

 

The view part of the way up.

 

We made it! It was SO windy at the top! I had never experienced anything like it before. We had to stay crouched down not to get blown over! Which is pretty scary when you are on the top of a very high hill.

 

The view was spectacular. It was free to climb up, but I would have paid 16 pounds to do this in a heart beat, which makes up having to pay for the castle I suppose. The hike was difficult at times, and I was exhausted by the end, but I am so glad I did!

 

After a nap we all went out to dinner. I had chicken breast stuffed with haggis. If you aren't sure what that is, I'm sure google can help you out:) I really enjoyed it!

 

 

 

On Sunday we wandered around some shops together, then we split up and I went to the National Galleries Scotland. I cannot tell you how nice it was to walk around an art museum on my own. It was pretty small, but they still had some great pieces. Degas is one of my favorites and there were about 5, which is quite a few for a museum their size.

 

 

After the museum it was time to head back to the hotel to get on the bus and head back to Keele. I walked through this park and the sun was shining and I could hear somebody playing bagpipes and I stopped and realized once again how lucky I am to be here. I worked hard all summer as well as over my Christmas break to save money for all of these trips. At times I was so tired and ready to go home, but I'm so glad I put the extra hours in. It really was worth it. And a wonderful reminder that I can do anything I put my mind to.

 

All in all, I loved Edinburgh and I hope that one day I'll be able to go back!

Playing Catch-up

So it has been a while since I wrote a generic what's been going on post, so I figure we have a lot to catch up on.

Okay, first things first, I love England and I never want to leave. Ever. My time here is going by way too quickly and I've been making great friends. I don't want to leave them behind. I definitely miss home, but it sucks that England is so far away.

Second, Erin and I have been planning trips for April and May. There are so many exciting things on the horizon! April 9th I'm flying to Northern Ireland to spend time with Erin. Then on April 18th we are flying to London to spend a few days there. We want to see a play or two, and just explore. We also have plans to go to Stonehenge and Harry Potter Studios where the movies were filmed! I'm super excited for that. On April 23 we are going to Italy!!! I am beyond excited. We will be there until May 2nd. We are arriving in Venice and leaving out of Rome. I am so blessed to have one of my best friends here with me to experience it all.

The past few weeks here at Keele have been wonderful for many different reasons. One of them being the fact that I haven't worn my rain boots since BEFORE I went to London! Yes, we have had rain here and there since then, but nothing so bad that it required rain boots. The past week has been sunny and warm. Today is a proper spring day and I love it.

The week after London I got a cold, but luckily it wasn't too bad and I had some medicine that really helped. Hopefully that was my first and last British cold.

Last Saturday, my friend, Ella and I went into Hanley to go shopping. We went to Primark and Topshop as well as TK Maxx. We ended up getting McDonalds for lunch because we were curious to see if American McDonalds tasted any different compared to British McDonalds. The fries (or chips as they say here!) tasted exactly the same, but my McChicken was different. Not bad, just different. Ok, now American McDonalds, listen up. If you buy a value meal and show your student card here, you get a free McFlurry! How awesome is that?!

On Shrove Tuesday I made American Pancakes for anybody in my building who wanted some. Having never made pancakes from scratch before, I was pretty happy when they were a success! Everybody really enjoyed them, but I was glad when I was done. After four batches you don't want to see pancakes again for a while! I could never work at IHOP!

I've been having some assignments due here and there now that the end of the semester is getting closer. We have 10 weeks before Easter break (which is April 4-May 5) and this is week 7. Why is time flying by so quickly?! All of my essays are due in the first few weeks of May, then I am free until I come home June 12. Erin and I have a few more trips in the works but nothing is set in stone yet.

Whew! That was a lot to talk about! Hopefully I'll do a better job at this in the upcoming weeks.

Have a great day! Feel free to ask me any questions.

London Day 3 with Pictures

This has taken me way too long to get to and I'm sorry guys! I need to pay more attention and actually post things! Maybe if you all nagged me a little bit I would get them written. Anyhow, on to day 3.

 

We started out the day checking out of the Hostel then we went to tour Kensington Palace.

 

 

 

It was a beautiful day so I sat down for a minute and Zoe snapped this picture.

 

Kensington was one of my favorite parts of London. It was so neat and see all the different rooms that the royals lived in. It was set up in such an artistic and creative manner - very unique compared to other tours. There was a part of the tour that looked at the fashion of the princesses and queens over the years and it ended at Princess Diana; they'll need to add Princess Kate soon!

 

After the gardens we walked through Kensington Gardens to the Prince Albert memorial. It was such a nice day and there were so many families and people with their dogs enjoying the sun!

 

Here's Prince Albert Memorial.

 

 

I love the architecture on these buildings!

 

We went to Liverpool Street to check out another market, but this bakery lured us in and we never actually found the market. This was our late Valentines day treats since we didn't find anything this nice actually on Valentines Day.

 

 

I haven't had cake that good in a long time. Next time I'm in London I know where I'm getting dessert!

 

Now that I'm finally caught up on London, I'm off to Edinburgh this weekend!