The Loch

I am back from Scotland and have a very eventful weekend to update with!

On Thursday, I took the train to Oxford and went to see a play with Hiroki that his friend was in. There was this old guy who was in the play and had a coughing fit during a song and it was the most hysterical thing I've ever seen. I was silently laughing through my scarf and I could feel my body shaking profusely from the laughter. Then I got a nice elbow from Hiroki as he turned to me and said, "he looks like he's about to die", and I completely lost it and put my whole face in the scarf for the rest of the act.

Friday we took the train to Scotland. It was long but I slept a lot so it didn't really matter. I swear I can sleep anywhere now. It's like I'm epileptic or something. Anyway, we got to Edinburgh (pronounced, Edinborough) and got this walking tour from a man with a kilt. He told us a bunch of Scottish history and took us around the town. It was nice but it was raining so it was slightly miserable; but since I live in Wales I bring an umbrella everywhere so I was ready for action! (Speaking of which, I need to get another umbrella...)

After going lots of places in the city and hearing crazy stories, (like once story about this building that had rusty nails in the wall because people used to get their ears nailed to it and they had to rip them off), we were on our own for dinner. We went to this place called Frankenstein's and it was this cool restaruant and of course, I had a burger. It was delish. We also visited the cafe where J.K. Rowling began writing Harry Potter. After this, we ended up going to see some local music, (this guy played cool cover songs and he covered the Killers, the Kinks, and some other songs), we hit up the hostel and went to bed. The hostel was really quaint and we had beds that were named after Happy Days and I was in the Richie bed. Brianne was in the Fonzie bed. That was Friday.

Saturday we were off to basically the whole Scottish countryside. We travelled via bus and saw canyons, valleys (which are called Glens in Scotland), and castles. For lunch we ventured to Loch Ness and my friend Monica ended up feeding swans that ended up walking after her. We all put our feet in the Loch and it was super cold. Loch means Lake in Gaelic but Lake doesn't mean Loch. It's weird. Our tour guide said Loch over 50 times that day. And the day before, he said Edinburgh (he said it like, EdinBRA!) a gazillion times and it made me chuckle.

Ending up in the quaint city of Oban, on the western Scotland coast, we had dinner and stayed overnight. We saw some local music but other than that it was a small town with virtually not much to do.

Sunday we saw some more Castles, St. Conan's Kirk, The Ivernary Castle, and some more stuff that I can't remember. I fell asleep on the bus everytime we got on and off. We also went to Stirling and saw the William Wallace monument. It took awhile to walk up to it but it was nice and you got to see the whole town of Stirling which was really nice.

After Stirling it was time to go home. We headed on the train and someone I got walked in on by two guys in the bathroom because even though the door was locked it still was able to be opened. I was so embarassed because both times I had no pants OR underwear on so basically I flashed these two people. My face was so red and the worst part was one of them was sitting directly in front of me on the whole 5 hour train ride. Sigh.

I also ended up navigating this old Asian man at the train station because he had no idea what was going on because he didn't know ANY English. Somehow I got stuck with an Asian invasion and it was hilarious.

That was Scotland. Here are some pictures.

I'm only sleeping

For some reason I am ridiculously tired. Tomorrow afternoon I leave for London and I'm staying overnight in London with some friends for on Friday morning I will be going to Scotland! Here's the Scotland Agenda in case anyone is interested:

Friday:
7.30 Meet Arcadia Staff at King’s Cross Station
8.00 Depart via train for Edinburgh
12.30 Arrive Edinburgh
Check in at hostel, lunch, and city walking tour.
Evening is free.

Saturday:
08:00 Depart Edinburgh
09:30-10:00 Dunkeld, beautiful Highland town and Cathedral on the river Tay.
Through the pass of Killiecrankie, the Grampian and Monadhliath mountains past stunning lochs.
12:30-13:30 Lunch at Fort Augustus on the banks of Loch Ness.
14:30 -15:30 Ben Nevis Distillery: whisky tasting and tour in the Great Glen underneath the highest mountain in the British Isles.
16:30-17:00 Glencoe, scene of tragic Massacre.
18:00 Arrive in the beautiful harbour town of Oban with spectacular views of the Isle of Mull.

Sunday:
08:30 Depart Oban
09:00 - 09:45 Loch Awe, St Conan's Kirk -120 year old church built by one man, and Kilchurn Castle.
10:15 – 11:00 Inverary – Castle and beautiful town on Loch Fyne, famous for Oysters.
11:45– 12:10 Loch Lomond's Bonnie banks
13:00 -14:00 Lunch at Callander
14:30 – 15:15 Stirling: Wallace monument.
16:15 Arrive in Edinburgh
17.00 Depart Edinburgh via train for London
21.56 Arrive into London King’s Cross Station



Other than this I am just trying to get schoolwork done, get ready for ANG TO COME ON WEDNESDAY!, and getting ready for Spring Break.

One of Julia's friends passed away yesterday, so I'd appreciate it if you'd keep her and her friend in your thoughts.


Miss you all and I'll update next week!

Mas Photos!

Here are some more pictures taken from facebook that my friends took of us in Amsterdam, but also in misc. places. The wild ones are from nights out, and 80s night. Today was a nonproductive day, just went to class and did schoolwork. Well I supposed that is semi-productive.

I'm really into this idea that I keep thinking I see people I know when they aren't people I know. Anyone know what this is called?

Hm let's see, the pictures are in order (maybe can I get this right?)..
1.The Boys and me, Tyler, Jared, and Nick in Amsterdam

2. 80s Night

3. Part of the I Amsterdam Letters
4. Canal ride in Amsterdam with Maureen, Katie, and Jeph

5. Girl's Secret Valentine's Day in Amsterdam

6. Me with a Guard at Windsor Castle

7. More 80s in Swansea

8. Election Day In Swansea

9 The rest of the letters in Amsterdam

IAmsterdam: Day Two

Day two was extremely productive. I went to the Rijks museum (dutch art and stuff), the Van Gogh museum (I saw Starry Night, the real one!!), some Merchant's house, a Richard Avedon exhibit (he's some American photographer), and on a Canal ride through the beautiful canals of Amsterdam. You know, there are no guard rails or anything and I'm surprised that I didn't fall into the canal. I wouldn't want to swim in that water anyway. Otherwise, I went to dinner and some of the girls had this cute Valentine's day thing where we exchanged gives like a Secret Santa.

I went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, of course, and then rode the tram through the city because it was free with the pass I bought. The tram was so crazy, like I got carsick on it and I don't really ever get carsick. Here are some pictures from day two!

The night picture is the ferry ride home to England from France on the France side. The rest are from Amsterdam. Most of the museums don't allow photograhpy so I really couldn't take pictures of many of the things that I saw.

More Pictures from Day One

These consist of the Heineken place, the inside and outside of our hostel, some outside shots, and inside the Van Gogh museum.

I AMsterdam: Day One

I got back from Amsterdam late last night. It was nice there, but way more touristy than I had expected. I didn't hear much Dutch, and the Red Light District was way less scandalous than I had anticipated (not to say it wasn't scandalous). Anyway, in order to get there and back, we drove through France and Belgium and stopped in both so that was nice. I ate Belgian chocolate and waffles in Belgium and really don't see the need to go back, for the cities from the highway didn't look that great. Plus I don't actually have money to go back.

Back to Amsterdam, we got there around 9 am on Friday morning and went to breakfast. I had this great pancake. It was so gigantic and had whipped cream on it. Afterwards, we went to the Anne Frank house which was a very comprehensive and I thought well designed museum. It was neat because I've always had an interest in WWII. This undoubtedly put a bit of a damper on the day, but I'm still glad I went. Oh yeah, it ended up snowing the first morning we were there! After this, we went to the Heineken tour and this was really cool. It was like 15 Euro to get in but I thought it was worth it because it was cool (I'll post pictures of all of this by the way).

We ate at some Indonesian restaurant for dinner and then went to the Red Light District. It was okay, silly and funny, but I was expecting this crazy place where people were madly having sex everywhere and it wasn't like that. It was sketchy but I mean if you're going to get a prostitute, that seems the place to do it. Afterwards we went walked home and walked to this place where I got a dutch donut which was good. It was kind of like a carnival.

One of the weird things about Amsterdam is that the tram (train, metro, whatever you want to call it) runs straight through the road with like no sidewalk. You could easily get run over by it if you don't know what your doing. Oh, Also, EVERYONE and their mom rides bicycles. EVERYONE. So between the cars, bikes, and trams, you are dodging traffic every minute.

And that was day one. Hopefully day two will come later today!

I also have this idea where I keep thinking I see people I know. EVERYWHERE. I am going to look into this because there has to be some sociological/pyschological explanation for this.

Pre-Amsterdam

Today consisted of much Spring Break planning, some library schoolwork, trying to get my citation sorted out, and getting ready for Amsterdam. I'm leaving tomorrow at 1 (American time), and will be back around 9 or 10 American time on Sunday evening. So, I will not be posting probably until Tuesday or Wednesday. If I can find an internet cafe sometime before I come back then I will probably do that. So, until then, I am off! Here are some pictures from the beach at sunset today :)