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 honesty was reason enough for me to go check it out hahaha Caught the bus from downtown Stirling - rickety old thing and filled with old people. I was the only person on the bus ... read more

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 as many Covenanters as possible - and after his tomb was desecrated 9 years ago he apparently started haunting the place. While in the Covenanter's bit I didn't feel anything - no presence at all ... read more

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 and have some water. It got quite steep and the air is a bit thin for my Canadian lungs I think. Plus it was hot - probably around 28C. By the time I got to ... read more

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 5 they gave our room away and were completely booked for the night. *inner Jenn = freaking out* Because it was getting dark we were both a bit frantic about finding a place to sleep. ... read more

Hello Everyone! Sorry I didn't leave an entry for yesterday. Things got a bit hectic and I didn't have time to write. A nice mother daughter duo from Texas shared me room the other night. They were backpacking around the UK on a little vacation together. The mom actually reminded me of Granny a bit - same mannerisms and the EXACT same laugh! I couldn't believe it! I ended up spending most of yesterday in the archives which was pretty boring but I found some really great pieces to use for my MRP so I'm pretty excited about that. The weather here has been BEAUTIFUL! The last three days have been sunny and warm - actually hot would be a better way to put it. Katie and I were sweating when we went shopping *whew!* During ... read more