Edinburgh Part Two (The Art)

Some of the wordly travellers, looking really good and awake at about 5 AM in Gatwick Airport. From left to right, Ruth, Gabrielle, myself and Laura

Wahoo we made it to Edinburgh!

Some fancy looking old building as we walk from the bus stop to the hostel.

We stop in a close (short for enclosure) to take a picture. Gabrielle, Karly, Amanda, Laura and Ruth.

We make it to the hostel and are amazed at the lovely view from our front door. Hello Castle!

The Mercat Cross. A place where important announcements were made. As well as where public punishment and humiliation took place. The two go hand in hand.

The back of St. Giles' Cathedral with the crappy statue of the crappy king, Charles. The Scottish apparently didn't like him much because they didn't really make this statue of him look fancy.

Yes! Bagpipes!

Wandering around through another one of the closes.

Trip step, aka really old burgular alarm. If someone was trying to rob your house and they were coming up those staircases they would most likely misstep on the third step up since it's so small and make a lot of noise and therefore not be able to rob you.

A trip to Scotland would not be complete without a Mel Gibson/Braveheart impersonator.

Skull and crossbones at the cemetary at Greyfriar's Kirk.

Same cemetary with a great view of the castle in the back. Rumor has it that there is a headstone with the name "Voldemort" on it, that Rowling go inspiration from. But since I'm sure some rabid Potter fan would have found it by now, I kind of doubt that it's true.

Speaking of Harry Potter- the cafe where she sat and wrote the first book.

Yay Harry Potter!....Now selling draught beers?

Outline of the castle from the little park at the base of it.

A less dark version of the same picture.

The view of the castle from our room in the hostel.

Hello, Dolly! Like I said, it was kind of creepy.

The Haggis Experience begins.

Gaby and I about to take our first bite.

We survived! And we liked it!

Wooo castle!

Entering the gates

St. Margaret's Chapel

Back of the War Memorial

Preparing to fire the cannon!

Protecting the castle with my massive fire arms.

More of the massive castle.

One of the many scenic views from the castle walls.

Requisite shot of Ellen in front of some monument/location/castle/etc.

Me with Hogwarts in the background (or the inspiration for Hogwarts)

Hogwarts-esque.

The 11 Scottish travellers in front of the castle. Jon, Gabrielle, Maia, Ross, Amanda, Laura, Ruth, David, me, Karly and Adam

So....who wants to go climb a mountain? (Actually kind of deceptive because that's only about half way up)

Me, Jon and Laura about halfway up.

View from almost the top! You can see the sea in the distance.

We made it to the top of Arthur's Seat!

The mighty climbers in a variety of poses.

Sitting on the top because it's too windy to stand. Me with Laura and Ross.

Laura and I enjoying the view.

On the way back down.

That which we conquered...looking beautiful in the setting sun.

Edinburgh!

Another weekend, another grand adventure, this time up north in the green hills of Scotland.

So the adventure really starts on Friday night. Our flight to Edinburgh was departing on Saturday at 7:00 AM, so we decide to take taxis to the airport at 4 AM (with the amount of people we had, taxi's were comparably priced and at that hour would be more time efficient than a train or bus). I had stayed up to watch a movie that didn't end until about 1 AM, so I just decided to stay up the whole night instead of going to sleep. Not the best idea ever but it wasn't too terrible either. Anyway, so we get to Gatwick at about 4:45 AM and we check in, go through security (which is a lot less organized than we're used to) and wait for our flight. The European airports have this annoying habit of not telling you what gate you are going to until the plane is actually in that gate and you are boarding so that meant a lot of time waiting in front of the monitors to see what gate we were getting on. Eventually we got on the plane, were delayed about 30 minutes and then a short nap and 90 minutes later we were in Edinburgh!

We quickly got off the plane (travelling without checked luggage is amazing!), got on a bus to the city centre, and then spent about 10 minutes walking to our hostel. Edinburgh was wonderful in that everything that we wanted to see was in pretty easy walking distance so we didn't have to pay for public transportation all weekend. Our hostel was fantastic as well. It was called the Castle Rock Hostel and was literally situated at the very base of Edinburgh Castle. You couldn't ask for a better location or view, and for only 9 pounds a night, it was very cheap. There were 11 of us on the trip and 9 of us were in the same room (the other 2 had booked later and hadn't been able to get in the same room), which was fun...kind of like a big slumber party. There was this one random Australian guy in our room with us, but other than that it was just the Sussex kids. We couldn't check in until 2 pm, so we just dropped off our luggage and headed up the Royal Mile to catch a free walking tour at 11:30. After my experience in London and the one in Edinburgh, I must say that I LOVE walking tours. You get to hear all the local lore and history and really get quickly acquainted with the city and you know where to find all the major sites. It lasted until about 2:30, including a short break to grab something to eat and was really fun.

After the tour we went back to the hostel to properly check in and put all of our bags up in our room. That included a lot of steps, but the beds were comfortable and it was nice to sit down for a little while. We then wanted to check out one of the museums we had passed on the tour so we decided to go to the National Scotland Museum (yay for free museums!), unfortunately, we got there around 4 and the musuem was closing at 5 so we didn't have a whole lot of time to wander around, but that was ok. We did manage to locate Dolly (the cloned sheep, who is now dead and stuffed) and looked at her for a little while. In all honesty, the stuffed sheep was kind of creepy. I have some pictures of her and I'll post them later. After the musuem closed we decided to head out for dinner, after stopping for a moment to wander through St. Giles' Cathedral (really pretty, especially the Thistle Chapel). For dinner we tried a couple of places that our tour guide had suggested but unfortunately most of them definitely did not have the room for 11 people, so we ended up splitting off into 3 different groups. I went and found food with Gabrielle and Ruth mostly because Gaby and I had been talking about getting haggis all day and were determined to find some good stuff (which isn't hard considering that it's everywher). We ended up at this placed called Deacon Brodie's Tavern and decided to split a haggis as well has get something else (I had soup) just in case we couldn't bear to eat the haggis. But surprisingly enough it was really good! We really enjoyed eating in and basically finished the whole thing. It honestly just tasted like spicy meat and was delicious. So yay for haggis.

After dinner we met up again at the hostel to go on a pub crawl with the same guide that we had had earlier in the day on the walking tour. Basically a pub crawl is spending a little bit of time in a bunch of pubs to get a feel for the nightlife in an area. I was suprised that we all lasted through the 4 pubs, but after that a large chuck of us declined to head out to the club as well since we were dead on our feet. So we wandered back to the hostel and collapsed on our beds; instantly asleep.

Day 2 started at 9 AM when we hit up the castle. It is this incredible, huge fortress with all these different rooms and exhibits. There was St. Margaret's chapel which is one of the (if not the) oldest buildings in Edinburgh, built in the 12oos (I think). There was also a prisoner of wars exhibit for when the castle held POWs from various wars, the National War Museum of Scotland (a lot of military history) and an exhibit on the crown jewels that included a pretty thorough history of the monarchy in Scotland and how they were coronated and things like that. The crown jewels were nice, but somehow I would bet that the ones in the Tower of London would be more impressive. There was also this thing called the Stone of Destiny that kings would get coronated on, which was....you guessed it, just a big rock. No adornments at all. Not quite what I expected for this grand stone with all this history behind it.

After spending about 3 hours in the castle, we headed out for lunch, hitting up The Elephant House simply because it was the cafe that JK Rowling sat in penning the first Harry Potter. So we had lunch in the birthplace of HP. Fantastic! Also from various points in Scotland you can see the Harriett (sp?) School which is this exclusive prep school that supposedly was the inspiration for JK Rowling for Hogwarts. We enjoyed our Harry Potter filled Scottish experience.

After lunch we kind of split off again...I really wanted to hike up to Arthur's Seat which is this 250 m mountain thing that is at the end of the Royal Mile in which you get an awesome view of the city (I had been recommended by several people to check this out). The whole group started out on the mountain but not everyone finished...some people went back down to check out more museums. We hiked for about an hour (I think we took the long way) until we finally got to the top (my legs were aching...lots of stone stairs and hills). It was terrifyingly windy but the view was SPECTACULAR. Once again, I have a ton of pictures so I'll post those eventually. But we felt really accomplished getting all the way up there and it really was worth it all the sweat and pain. Haha, it was probably the first time during the whole trip that I had been properly warm...just from all the hiking. In case you weren't aware, Scotland is cold. And windy. But really pretty.

After we climbed back down from Arthur's Seat, this girl Laura and I headed back to the Royal Mile to do some souvenier shopping and then went back to the hostel, had some tea to warm up and waited for the rest of the group to come back so we could go to dinner. While we were drinking our tea, we actually found this menu that the hostel had posted for a restaurant just down the street from us that had really cheap food, so once we reconvened with everyone, we went down there. The really cheap food was specially for hostelers so it was delicious and inexpensive. I actually wasn't that adventurous and just had had soup and salad because I had been craving something warm and something fresh. But then Laura and I split a dessert called cranachan which is some traditional scottish dessert. It was double cream, oatmeal, honey, whisky, and berries served in a wine glass and it was very yummy as well (I'm all about the Scottish and their traditional food). It seemed really easy to make, so maybe I'll try to whip that out at some point in the future.

After dinner the guys went out to pubs/clubs but really all of the girls were exhausted so we all just crashed at like 11. We woke up at 5, caught the 6 AM bus to the airport and after another 30 minute delay, we got on the plane at about 9 and after planes and trains, made it back to Sussex at about noon.

Edinburgh was lovely and a beautiful, interesting and historical city and I really hope that at some point I can go back and spend more time there. I didn't really have the opportunity to go through a lot of the museums and never even made it over to New Town (we spent all of our time in Old Town). I enjoyed the traditional food, the accents (definitely had to ask people to repeat themselves a lot) and the atmostphere. I could have done without the really cold weather, though.

Hooray for European travel!

Shopping

Well today I didn't have class (surprise surprise) so I decided to spend a large chunk of time wandering around Brighton and shopping. The chunk of time was not as long as I had originally planned but I should have remembered that whether in the US or the UK, I have a low tolerance for shopping and can only do it for so long.

Anyway, there were three main shopping areas I had wanted to explore; Churchill Square, the Lanes and North Laine. I started off in Churchill Square where there is a mall among other bigger chain stores. I briefly went into the mall but decided I had no desire to be in a mall so I quickly left. However in the same area there was H&M, Topshop and Primark. H&M was pretty much the same as home, just more expensive (simply because of the exchange rate). I had heard a lot about Topshop, but it didn't amaze me as I expected it to. The store was pretty small; perhaps the large store on Oxford Street in London would be more wonderful. Primark, however, was pretty great. From it's website, I've gleaned that it's a subsidiary of JC Penney's but it's the same sort of thing as H&M and Topshop. Of course because it's January there are all these massive sales going on, which is great. I had originally been looking for clothes to wear out at night (since I had not sacrificed that valuable real estate in my luggage), but unfortunately I couldn't find any that suited my fancy. However, I did finally find replacement leggings for the ones that have that currently have huge holes in them (suprisingly difficult to locate back home...not so much in England) and this cute zip up hoodie that is dark blue with all these different colored stars on it. Of course it took me a while to figure out the actual size that I needed since I hadn't thought to check the conversion from sizes I'm used to, but after a couple trips to the changing room, I succeeded.

I then went over to The Lanes and North Laine, although I didn't end up buying anything there. The Lanes and North Laine are both really cute, small areas with cobblestone streets crisscrossing through each other with all these different kinds of stores. I would say that The Lanes is more on the higher-end side; a lot of antique stores and expensive clothing boutiques. North Laine is much funkier; a lot of secondhand stores (I wandered around this huge one for a long time, it had anything you could possibly want in it), little coffee shops, incense and candle stores, etc. It even has a store called "Vegetarian Shoes". It kind of reminded me of a British version of the Haight-Ashbury or Telegraph Avenue. The same sort of people and stores but in a much cuter location.

After wandering around the shopping areas for about 3.5 hours, I decided I was done and headed off to Sainsbury's to do some grocery shopping- always fun. I got most of the same sort of basic food necessities but I also got some scones which I am excited about and these things called tea cakes which are like a soft cookie with gooey marshmallow on top encased in a chocolate shell. Very delicious and since I was shopping while hungry, I couldn't resist. I also was excited to purchase wine and cider from the grocery store, but I didn't even get carded which took some of the fun away! There are all these signs saying "if you look under 21, don't be offended if we card you" blah blah, and a lot of people that I've talked to here get carded when they buy alcohol, but I suppose I look like an old person. How sad.

So yeah, that was my adventure for the day. I'm probably going to do some reading for class right now and then who knows what else.

Oh also, I figured out how to change the settings on this silly thing so that it accepts anonymous comments instead of needing a google account to do so.

One more thing. I've noticed Britishisms and semi-British accents creeping into my day to day vocabularly. Quid, saying 5 pounds 50 instead of 5 pound 50 pence, queue, mate, other things like those that I hear on a day to day basis from my school mates are coming out of my mouth. And I've found it hard to say "cheers" or "sorry" without sounding somewhat British since that's what I hear ALL THE TIME. You just can't say those things with an American accent. Impossible.

As Promised

Starting off the weekend right by having a cup of tea, sitting in the rocking chair by the fireplace in our quaint little hotel room.

There is just no way to capture the enormity of the British Museum. Like I said, we walked by it a couple times every day and it was just astounding every time. We never got over the size of the building.

Statue outside of the British Library

The Old Vic theatre where we enjoyed a fantastic show of Cinderella

Sunday begins, as do they requisite, uber-touristy, photos. Little Ellen. Big Ben.

Two girls on my program, Nikki and Laura, with Big Ben and Parliament from the other side of the building.

Westminster Abbey. It is definitely on my list to go into this building sometime soon. Once again, like so many buildings in London, just incredible to look at.

Why hello Gordon Brown, would you like to come out and play? Number 10 Downing Street. Heavily guarded by some pretty serious looking police.

The back of the Cavalry building where the Queen has a lot of military exhibitions and displays (like for her birthday)

Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards. The old guards come in. Sadly, it's winter so they are in their winter grey coats instead of the well known red ones. Oh well.

After a mad dash down the road, we grab a place on the other end of the street to see the new guard come in. Led by this guy with a envious gold suit. Real gold, of course. Why have a gold suit if it's faux?

New guards go marching by.

One of the many statues of Queen Victoria hanging around London. Apparently this statue had her nose broken off at one point, and so they had to replace it. But it doesn't particularly blend well with the rest of the statue and as they day goes on, her nose gets whiter while the rest of her stays the same.

Buckingham Palace. Pretty nice digs.

A much more slender Victoria, outside of Kensington Palace.

The Orangery at Kensington Palace. Very delicious tea, and it was in this beautiful long hallway. Beautiful palace, really (although, have you ever seen an ugly palace?).

Laura and I outside, what we decided, would be our new home. Feel free, QEII, to give us accomodation here.

Peek-a-boo! Hello St. Paul's!

One of my million and a half pictures of St. Paul's. This is another thing on my list to go back to the next time I'm in London.

The Millenium Bridge and St. Paul's from across the Thames.

Ah! St. Paul's look out you are about to be attacked by a giant spider! Giant spider outside of the Tate Modern.

Giant crack inside the Tate Modern.

Eh. The Globe. Like I said, not very impressive or exciting.

After crossing Tower Bridge. Part of the bridge and part of the Tower. As you can tell, the sun has since set and we're still walking around. That is dedication.

The three of us who stuck out the entire 9 hours, without coming or going. Laura, myself and Jamie (WashU at SOAS). Angie's loyal followers as we called ourselves.

The Tower! (Another thing on the list)

The Australia House where they filmed Gringott's Bank. Jamie, Laura and I decided that our new life goal was to have our own personal Harry Potter tour company that led tours on a big bus that we would call the Knight Bus. And no, it's not snowing, the light from my flash is just reflecting off the rain.

Around Christmas the Somerset House has this massive, really cool outdoor skating rink and it's still up. It has all these tourches lighting the boundary and was really fantastic looking. It'll probably only be up for another week or so, so I won't get to experience it, but I wish I could.

The End!