Spring Break in London & Scotland

Where have I left off? Not quite sure but I'll do my best! Before easter holiday Abby and I went to see Rocky Horror Picture show, which was an ABSOLUTE BLAST! We laughed, sang and danced the time warp! We didn't have time to dress up but it was still good craic! :D Besides this I have recently returned from easter holiday travels to London and Scotland. Last weekend me and Erin traveled to London near Camden town where are hostel was located for the weekend. We hung out in the area the first night and on Saturday we ventured around the Camden Market, traveled inward more towards the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Globe Theatre, National Gallery, and Trifalgar square area. It was a jam packed day! On Sunday we celebrated Easter by walking down by Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and houses of Parliament area. It was a gorgeous day! Abby met up with Erin and I for a family easter brunch at a local Italian restaurant and then we ventured out to Abbey Road for some Beatles action. Besides almost getting run over by cars, we had time to jam out to "Hey Jude" right outside the Abbey Road Studios.

Sunday night Erin and I traveled to Edinburgh for the evening. The next morning we left on our 5 day Highland mountains bus trip with MacBackPackers. There were 30 of us from a wide range of places around the world including South Africa, Canada, Sweden, Germany, France, Australia, Tasmania, Czech Republic, China, and of course America! Monday we went to an old barracks site, the Tomatin Whiskey distillery where we got a free shot, and then that afternoon we all took a dip in Lochness with Nessie. It was freezin but totally worth it for that free t-shirt! :D That night we stayed at a hostel in Inverness. We went to a local pub where they had scottish punk music upstairs, and then traditional Scottish music downstairs. It was great! Then on the way back to the hostel we realized that we forgot our orange cards to show the people at the hostel that we were staying there. We ended up having to dance for them instead of having to pay but then ended up talking with Tyler and Dan who are both from America just working at the Hostel in Inverness. Crazy!

Tuesday we traveled to Isle of Skye, which is on the western part of Scotland. We went to the Culloden Battlefield, walked through Raven's Craig, Eilean Donan Castle and some old stone grave sites that may be older than stonehenge! Then that evening we settled in to our hostel which was in Kyleakin. We got fish and chips and drinks at the only pub in town called Saucy Mary's. There was a futbol game going on so we watched that and then later enjoyed some traditional local scottish music. By the end of the night Erin was showing me all of her scottish dance moves that she learned when she was a WEE child and everyone joined in with us. It was great!

Wednesday we started the morning off by dipping our face in this stream for 7 seconds for eternal beauty! It has to do with an old scottish legend with the woman warrior Scathach... I believe! It was quite refreshing and quite beautiful! Afterwords we stopped in a little town in Portree for lunch and then traveled to a Fairyglen, and then to another mountain overlook where we hiked for an hour. It was quite a trek and when we got to the top it was really windy but felt so nice after the sweaty hike! That night we went over to a different restaurant in Kyleakin which had just reopened for the season, and then traveled back to Saucy Mary's with the rest of our bus crew.

Thursday came too quickly!!! We packed up our things and left Kyleakin for we were moving onward to bigger and better things! ;) Our tour guide had been making tree sap beer (or something) so while we were passing through his hometown we stopped at a monument so that he could run into his family and get the tree sap beer! haha. We then went to the Hogwarts Express Bridge, stopped for some fish and chips, then went to the Ben Nevis whiskey distillery where part of Braveheart was filmed. That evening we stopped at the grocery store before heading to our hostel in Oban because we were all making a big dinner for the last evening. It was quite the procedure with 30 people on the bus, everyone helped out and it all turned out great. We got cheap wine, tried the tree sap beer, and had lots of pasta, potatoes, and veggies! Later on we traveled just down the road to the Skipinnish Ceilidh House which was quite the scottish music experience! (according to my ticket!) We did traditional irish dancing, hung out with other people on our bus tour, and had quite an interesting night there after. It was a great way to end the week with everyone and we all had fun reliving the moments the next morning! :D

Friday morning was funny! We started the day off with a Harry coo (Highland Cow) safari! We got off to take pictures of them and the sheep that were near by them, and we see that one of the sheep was laying on it's back. We all thought that it was playing dead but then soon discovered that it had a broken foot and looked like it was dying! Oh no! :( As we were leaving one of the cows went over to it and started licking it though. We then continued on to a church where Robert the Bruce has part of his shin bone buried...or something. We meet Hamish the king of Harry COO's, saw Doune castle where Monty Python and the Holy grail was filmed and then we ended the tour with the William Wallace (Mel Gibson-Braveheart) monument in Stirling, Scotland. Our tour guide Greham dropped us off back in Edinburgh and we all thanked and said good bye to him and everyone else who wasn't staying in Edinburgh for the weekend. Everyone else who was staying met up for dinner and drinks one last time before everyone went their separate ways. It was really the most fun I've had so far on the trip and was a nice break from the intense rigor of the program.

Saturday Erin and I went to the Edinburgh Castle which was literally right outside our hostel, and then journeyed out to Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslyn Chapel is most famous for it's conspiracies of having the holy grail, Mary Magdalen, Jesus' head, (and many more) buried there. It is such a gorgeous church and there is so much detail with the architecture in and outside the church. The history and the stories that go with it are just as interesting. Saturday night Erin and I just laid low, reminisced about the past 5 days and packed up for Belfast for Sunday's travels.

It was an amazing break and it'll be hard jumping back into the routine that I was in before, especially since there are really only 4 or 5 weeks left of the program. It has all gone by soooo fast and probably the coming weeks will go by just as quick! We have lots of papers, group projects, and presentations to be working on and all we want to do is explore the city and talk about the issues, but I suppose something needs to be shown for it all! Two more weekends in Belfast, a week in Dublin and then 2 weeks back in Portrush/Coleraine area. Until next time...