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Published: June 19th 2008
Well hello again.
In my last entry I talked about the Irish lady that sat next to me on the airplane to Ireland and how she sang the lovely song "My, my, my, Dublin is so greeeen." She obviously had never been to Scotland/Edinburgh ever because I assure you, it was beautiful. And green of course. (Just to let ya'll know, Aimee is to thank for the beginning pictures because my camera ran out of battery after one picture!)
For our trip this time, Aimee and I took a train. Our journey began at the Kings Cross Tube station where they have Platform 9 3/4 for those of you who are Harry Potter fans. Aimee and I will have to visit the Platform again to take pictures with the platform. The rumor is that there is a cart stuck in the platform...I will have to let you know. Anyway, Aimee and I had different train times and my train was an hour later than hers. The train ride was 6 hours long! I had to go the Grantham train station and take a bus to the Newgate North train station and from there it was smooth sailing to Edinburgh.
Edinburgh
The Royal Mile. If you look really close you can see the water way in the back. When I got off the train at Grantham, I had to get on the bus to the other station. Apparently everyone had to this and we were all waiting in this ridiculously long line to get on coach buses. There was a man next to me that was on the phone with someone and he described as this, "It looks like we are thousands of sheep waiting to go to a slaughterhouse." You could literally look back and see hundreds of people waiting to get on these coaches. Thank goodness I was able to get on one right away because the other train station was about 30 minutes away and I had to get on the connecting train in 45 minutes. I could sleep the whole time before Grantham because I was too afraid I would not wake up at the right station. For those of you who know how I sleep, you can understand why I didnt want to fall asleep. The same thing happened once I got on the train to Edinburgh because the train I was on was also going to Glasgow so I was afraid I would fall asleep and wake up at Edinburgh but in
Glasgow and then Aimee wouldnt know what happened to me and it would just be a terrible situation. So, I stayed awake for the whole 6 hour train ride. When I arrived, I was met by Aim ee and one our new teammates who actually lives in Manchester in England; she met us in Scotland because she has family there and wanted to meet some people before she actually came to school. When we got there we went to a Sports Bar across the street from the station to use the bathroom, or toilet as the people in the United Kingdom call it, because they charged you 30 pence (cents) to use the bathroom! Can you believe that? Anyway, in this "toilet" they had TV screens IN THE MIRRORS of the bathroom. It was awesome. They also had a hair straightener...1 pound for 90 seconds. Dont worry, it also allowed you to curl your hair you wanted to! Then we headed to our hostel and this hostel was WAY nicer than our last one. We felt like we were staying in the Hilton compared to our last one.
Aimee and I had not eaten all day because the food
baby
i tried to take a picture of the crying baby through the window... on the train was too expensive and there was no way we had to time to eat in between our train times, so needless to say, we were starving. Stacey (which is our new teammate) was able to guide us to places to eat and we ended up eating at Chinese Restaurant and it was delicious. Maybe it was because I was starving, but it was really good. At the Chinese place, they would dim the lights and play a Happy Birthday song. It was like being in a Chinese Restaurant in America. They played the strangest music as well. Well, not strange but strange for a Chinese place; it was all Hip-Hop and Techno music. I felt like I was in a dance club. It was tempting to get up and dance. After eating, we decided to go to a local pub and watch some more of the soccer games that were going for the Euro cup. We met some more Irish people and they were hilarious. Later, we went to a place where could do some dancing. We ended up having a "brilliant time" as Stacey would say. She taught us some new moves for when we return
to the States.
The next day, Aimee and I went on a 12 HOUR BUS TOUR of Scotland. We wanted to do something besides stay in Edinburgh because we wanted to see all of Scotland. The first half of the tour went by really fast, but the second half was filled with a crying baby. A family brought their baby on the tour and the second half of the tour had a lot of crying baby in it. Luckily, I had my iPod so I was able to block her out. We left Edinburgh at 8 in the morning and explored some of the most beautiful and dramatic areas of Scotland. After a morning coffee stop at Kilmahog (they had this animal known as Hamish..it looked like a longhorn with really long hair) we traveled through Rob Roy Country and arrive at the Weeping Glen of Glencoe, the infamous site of the 1692 Massacre, for a photo stop. They actually filmed some of the Braveheart movie in that area. After another short drive we arrive at Fort William for lunch. Fort William is in the shadow of Ben Nevis - Britain's highest mountain. We then continued to Spean Bridge
where we have another opportunity to view and photograph Ben Nevis. From here we follow the Caledonian Canal to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. Here we had ample time to view the 12th Century castle, visit the new Visitor's Center which offers an audio visual display along with other interesting objects and take a short cruise on the Loch. After that the coach picked us up and we started our homeward journey by way of the Grampian Mountains, passing Blair Castle in the distance famous for it's private army. We got back in Edinburgh at about 830 at Waverley Bridge. (I didnt write that whole section. I basically just copied it from the website and added some stuff to tell you what we did. I forgot all the stuff we saw.) But the mountains were beautiful and oh so green. There is a clock located in the center of Edinburgh and it has always been 3 minutes fast to make people think they were going to miss their train and ever since then, they have kept it 3 minutes fast. During the tour, there were a lot of moments of silence because the tour guide obviously didnt want to talk
aimee in the mountains
we are trying to be more artistic with our photos... for 12 hours, and for some reason I just fell asleep for some of the time. I was able to stay awake for the majority of it but then I would wake up and 30 minutes would have passed. Everything we saw was awesome though. At the castle there was actually a wedding that took place. We werent sure if it was a full-out wedding or if it was just a renewal of vows or something. They had the bag-pipes and everything (Beast...I'm sure you would appreciate the bagpipes because your neighbor plays them, or did play them, all the time!). And just an FYI, Aimee and I did not see any signs of the Loch ness Monster "Nessie." So as far as we know, its still a myth.
When we got home from the tour, we tried to find an internet cafe that had phone service to the states to wish our father's a Happy Father's Day, but we were out of luck. Everything closed at 9 and we were a little too late. Instead, we ate at a Pizza Hut in honor of our fathers in America. It was the fanciest Pizza Hut I have ever seen
me and aimee
aims is looking at HER camera during MY picture..haha. by the way. Then we walked to the The Palace of Holyroodhouse where the Queen of England stays when she comes to Scotland. It was obviously closed when we got there but we did take pictures from outside the gate. We also saw the Scottish Parliament and some beautiful cliffs. I think they have a name but I'm not sure what they are called. We walked on the "Royal Mile"/High Street to get back home. Our hostel was located really close to the castle in Scotland so we were able to see that as well. Our train left the next morning at 7, so we decided to call it a night and get some rest. The train ride home was not as long because we didnt have to take the bus to the other station which was nice. But Edinburgh/Scotland has been my favorite place so far Europe. I still have Paris to go so we will see how it compares!
Alright! Well thats all I really for now. Oh, a new guy in our program bet on one of the soccer games when he first arrived and ended up winning 200 pounds because he bet Turkey would win
us in the mountains
another one of those artistic things 2-1! How crazy is that?!
P.S. Dont be afraid to leave me messages or comments! I really love those...
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Lindsey
non-member comment
Tell the truth
Mal, please tell every one the truth. You told me that you saw the loch ness monster! Why are you so scared to speak the truth? :) Scotland looks so beautiful! Dad will be so proud that you visited the Braveheart site. So glad you're having such a wonderful time. I can't wait to see you... I miss you...