While being in Scotland for the past couple of weeks I've noticed a few things... First, you are always on CCTV (close caption television). Ever read 1984 with the whole Big Brother scenario? Well it's very real here. It's actually kind of creepy to see signs literally everywhere that say "Smile you're on CCTV!" This next observation I noticed more out of inconvenience than anything else. For every ten signs around that say "Gents Toilets This Way" there is probably ONE Ladies Toilet sign (sometimes there's none at all...). If you happen to be in a shopping mall, the toilet will [View Full Entry]

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Woke up this morning with every intention of heading to Stirling Castle or the Wallace Monument but ended up not having time for either. Milled about Stirling instead which is an incredibly boring city. I wouldn't recommend going there for anything beyond a brief day trip to see the castle and the monument (maybe two if you want to see Doune as well). Bought a train ticket to Manchester - was a ridiculous 60 pounds - and hopped on the train on track 3 just like the lady at the ticket desk told me to. Within two stops they finally did [View Full Entry]

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Ever seen the movie "Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail"? Well some of the scenes from the movie were shot at Doune Castle which is located just outside of Stirling. Since the fine ladies at Stirling University move at a snail's pace when it comes to getting chapbooks for me to use, I decided to take a morning and head on over to Doune to check things out. My Scottish tour guide had told me that they give out free coconuts for you to bang (if you've seen the film you should understand the reference) which in all [View Full Entry]

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Has been another interesting couple of days. Weather has continued to be absolutely beautiful - sunny, warm and NO RAIN! YESSS! Yesterday I had grand plans to see Edinburgh Castle and Camera Obscura amongst other sites. Instead stayed in, marked essays and after a bit went to the Meadows to check out the music festival going on with Carlo, the janitor at the hostel (he was from Naples) and Dominik (a 50 year old South African dude). It was really fun and some of the bands were fantastic! So after sun bathing for a while headed back to the hostel and [View Full Entry]

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Been a busy couple of days that's for sure! Went out with my roommate the other night to ghost tour number two called "City of the Dead". It was quite good actually and gave us a good scare. The guide took us into a locked section of the Greyfriar's graveyard where the "Covenanter's Prison" is located (real place - first concentration camp in history) and put us into a mausoleum type cell. Apparently people have been attacked by the Mackenzie Poltergeist. Mackenzie was the leader of the opposition - went on a blood thirsty rampage using his political clout to kill [View Full Entry]

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Hello Hello (or 'Cheers' as they say here in Scotland)! Another beautiful day in Edinburgh though a bit colder than yesterday - definitely jacket weather despite it being June already. No rain though so I can hardly complain :) Decided to do a bit of shopping before heading into the archives today. Got quite a bit done - finished off most of my souveneir shopping and picked up some lovely items for myself including a hot new pair of heels. Then headed on over to the archives to do research and work on my paper. Slow going on both accounts. Decided [View Full Entry]

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Hello Everyone Back Home! Today was a beautiful fantastic day. Woke up around 9:00 to a warm day and sunshine - in Scotland no less! It was a fair bit better than yesterday which was a bit drizzly for most of the day and cool. I was feeling pretty industrious so I decided to climb to the peak of Arthur's Seat which is an escarpment/old volcano at the end of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. It took me a good hour to get to the top and I had to stop more than once along the way to catch my breath [View Full Entry]

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Hullo Family! I figured I'd do an entry just for the Louvre since I took so many pictures there. I'm in Edinburgh now, staying at the Argyle Backpacker's Hotel. It's a very homey place - more like a bed and breakfast than a hostel but uber cheap so I'm happy. The people are really nice as well. I'm rooming with a Chinese mother and daughter and a Hungarian woman from Dublin. Dad you would've liked her she reminded me of someone but I can't remember who now. Well anyway, she recommended I head on over to a tour of the highlands [View Full Entry]

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Ola Everyone! Well Paris has been one heck of a whirlwind adventure. Now that I'm on a normal computer I can write a decent entry. French keyboards are just ridiculous to type on - nothing is where it's supposed to be and since when was it ever cool to have to use the shift button to write a period? Anyhoo...So Katie and I arrived in Paris to gray rainy skies around 8 pm. It took us about an hour to get to our hostel at 9 or so only to find out that because we weren't there on the dot of [View Full Entry]

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This has to be short because I4m on the borrowed hotel computer but Katie and I made it to Paris in one piece. The hostel gave our room away so we had to find another (which we did) thankfully. I've run into many nice French men along the way and I've already lost count of the number of ti,es I've been stared down and propositioned. Ahhh... Glad to know Paris hasn't changed a bit in 6 years. Katie and I have q big day of sight seeing planned for tomorrow so it should be lots of fun. I'll give a complete [View Full Entry]

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