Katie R
College undergraduate studying abroad in Stirling, Scotland. I will be traveling around the country as much as humanly possible (and as much as my budget permits!), taking pictures and generally being a tourist. :)silverdragongirl
Travel Blog Posts
November 16th 2007
Yes, yes, I know...it's been two weeks since I was there. There's no excuse, but hey! At least I'm updating now, right? Because our flight left at the ungodly hour of 6:45am, and trains don't run that early, we had to get to the airport the night before and basically sleep there. Not so much fun, but since we staked out the most comfortable chairs in the place it wasn't bad. So I was feeling a big cranky when we left, a feeling exacerbated by my first ever experience of flying through another plane's wake. For those of you who haven't, it's a split-second where you feel like you're free-falling. Literally everyone on the plane gasped at the same moment, because we all thought, you know, we were going to die. But the captain came on ... read more
"Wait...I think we're going the wrong way...where is North on this map?"
Published: November 2nd 2007Europe » Belgium » Brussels-Capital Region » BrusselsNovember 2nd 2007
I must admit that my first impressions of Belgium were not particularly favorable. I blame that on the fact that I had to get up at 3:00 am to get there. Our plane left at 6:40 (an ungodly enough hour, if you ask me). Fine, but you always want to arrive at least an hour and a half ahead of time, right? All right...so we wanted to get to London Stanstead airport around 5:00-5:15am, if possible. Sounds simple enough, but oh, wait, Stanstead is a good hour and a half bus ride outside of London proper. Meaning we want to catch the...oh, right, 4:00 bus from Victoria station to Stanstead. And what's that? Our hostel was quite a distance from Victoria and the Tube doesn't run that early? Ick. Add all this up, and what do ... read more
October 29th 2007
Our second day in London began triumphantly. There was an international sports program on the TV in the breakfast room of the hostel, and I happened to see that the Chiefs were leading the AFC West! Not that that says a whole lot, but still! I gave a yell, and everybody else in the room gave me a look. :) The first stop of the day was the British Museum, which was literally across the street from the hostel. And when I say across the street, I mean the view from the window next to my bed was a view of the side of the museum. It was a beautiful day, crisp but not at all cold, sunny, no wind. There was a man selling roasted chestnuts from a cart out in front of the museum, ... read more
Planes, no trains, and an automobile: Fall Break off to a rocky start
Published: October 27th 2007Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London
October 27th 2007
To say that my fall break was interesting would be an extreme understatement. To say that it started off in an uncomfortably interesting manner, however, would be nothing but accurate. The plan had been to simply catch a train from Stirling to Edinburgh, and hop on the overnight bus to London from there. Since trains typically run about twice an hour along that route, we left the flat about 6:00, thinking that would give us plenty of time to arrange a 45-minute train ride and catch the bus at 9:30. Unfortunately for us, the train drivers chose that night to stage some kind of strike, and there were no trains. Buses were running as replacement transportation, but we'd just missed the last one and they didn't know when the next would arrive. They estimated shortly after ... read more
West Coast Scotland Tour
Published: October 15th 2007Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Argyll » Oban
October 15th 2007
I'm becoming very fond of bus tours, and I'm not sure why. You'd think that, as someone who suffers from motion sickness and acute bouts of boredom, I would hate the thought of being cooped up on a bus all day, driving along winding roads, up and down hills, getting out for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time just long enough to hike up hills in the rain or stand on lochshores in the rain. But I don't. Then again, maybe I've just gotten lucky with really good tour guides and tour groups so far. We started out from Stirling University on a Haggis tour bus (the driver was a Haggis tour guide, and a very funny one at that). From there we drove through Bridge of Allan to Callander (again, someday I'll have to ... read more
Harry Potter Spy Pictures!
Published: October 11th 2007Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Inverness-shire » Fort William
October 11th 2007
The following is copied and pasted from my journal, written as soon as I got back from Glenfinnan last week: Wednesday October 3, 2007 10:48pm I’m jotting this down quickly before I forget. Left Tuesday 4:50pm for Glasgow. Switched trains (had an hour and a half layover) and got up to Ft. William about 10:00 Tuesday night. Checked into MacBackpackers hostel (bought t-shirt!), went to Grog and Gruel pub, came back to sleep. Got up early, caught 8:30 train to Glenfinnan. Middle of nowhere, but walked down to monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie and Viaduct to take pics. (train on the way there went by Hogwarts Castle sign-bearing red steam train!!! Alas, no pic of this) Saw small camera crew and small security crew on banks of Loch Schiell, assumed documentary was being filmed. Asked. Found ... read more
October 1st 2007
All right. Well. This entry's going to be short, and not very interesting because on this bus trip from Stirling I pretty much had no idea where we were for the entire day. Our guide was the nice guy who runs the Univorn travel agency on campus, but his accent and voice are such that I tended to tune out everything he said. I took many pictures, though, which I shall upload and try to caption appropriately, but who knows how accurate my memory will be? We started off at Doune Castle, I remember that much. That was one of the places they filmed Monty Python and the Holy Grail at, incidentely. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go in, but I took many pictures of the outside! After that my mind is kind of a ... read more
September 27th 2007
Aaah, Edinburgh! Castles, palaces, gothic architecture, tacky tourist shops. What more could you want in a day trip? We left Stirling via train at 9:30, after the "rush hour." It's not quite an hour long trip to Waverly station, and it goes quite fast. Our first stop was Holyrood Palace, about a twenty minute walk from the station, past the Robert Burns memorial and Scottish Parliament. Seeing the palace was actually quite exciting for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I took a class on Queen Elizabeth I last semester at KU and ended up writing my final paper on Mary Queen of Scots and her tumultuous relationship with her second husband, Lord Darnley. Holyroodpalace was Mary's primary residence while she was queen (I believe), and the scene of the violent murder of her secretary, ... read more
Skye Tour day 2
Published: September 25th 2007Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Inverness-shire » Isle of Skye
September 25th 2007
Well! Day 2 commenced at 9:00. I'd slept well the night before at the hostel (no one snoring in the room this time!) so I was ready to go. It was a little chilly, but then it's usually a little chilly up here, so I didn't think anything of it. The bus stopped to gas up, and then we were off. Our first stop was at the river Sligachan. The story goes that if you dunk your face under the water, you'll become eternally beautiful and youthful...until you have a drink of whisky. We all dipped our faces under, even me. Surprisingly, it wasn't that cold! Of course, our bus full of beautiful people was undermined that afternoon by the bottle of punch passed around, but still. It was nice while it lasted. ;) We stopped ... read more
September 24th 2007
I've just returned from my three day bus tour of the highlands and the Isle of Skye! It was amazing, and we saw so much that I've actually only gotten an entry ready for the first day. I'll get subsequent ones up as soon as possible, but it all depends on how long my laptop battery lasts, since there's nowhere to plug it in at the moment. We took a train from Stirling to Edinburgh on Thursday night (myself and two American friends). It was my first experience riding a train that wasn't a crappy Amtrak one, and I was actually kind of impressed. Anyway, we arrived in Edinburgh and found the Castle Rock Hostel with no problems, got ourselves checked in, and decided to wander around Edinburgh for awhile. It was lovely, but since it ... read more
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