Safely Back in London

Sunday July 11, 2010

Yesterday we woke up early and had to be downstairs at the hostel for a very slim selection of breakfast before we packed up and headed out. Our options were some sort of oat cereal, burnt toast, or warm yogurt so needless to say breakfast was skipped by most of us. We loaded onto our bus and went to the battlefield of Culloden. It was where the Jacobites took their last stand in attempt to gain control over the country for Britain. They were defeated and the clan system in the Highlands began its decline. To put it in perspective it was kind of like the Confederates last stand against the Union. Our tour guide is very patriotic about the Highlands of Scotland so I think we stopped because it meant a lot to him.

Did I mention that our tour guide told us that we had no itinerary given so we were making it up as we went along? Mike (our tour guide) and the bus driver (Keith) were discussing on where to take us next and told us to bear with them as they experimented to see if we could get some narrow country roads. We ended up crossing a bridge that warned “weak bridge” which made everyone on our coach very uneasy. Our next stop were some burial cairns that are apparently older than Stonehenge? They were interesting but it started raining so we were excited when we were finally allowed back on the bus.
We then drove to the Dalwhinnie Whisky Distillery (the Americans apparently spell whisky wrong whisk(e)y, which is incorrect according the Scottish). We had a tour of the distillery which was interesting and each had a drink afterwards. For the record, I despise whisky but I bought a bottle nonetheless as a souvenir.

After the Distillery we loaded back onto our coach and headed to Blair Castle where we viewed the burial grounds of a famous soldier that our tour guide considers his hero. We did a tour of the castle and ate lunch finally. After lunch we got back on the bus and headed back South out of the Highlands back into Edinburgh.
We stopped in a town because Keith, our driver, thought it was important that we get pictures of two famous bridges that were built. Apparently the Forth Bridge (in the pictures it’s on the right) when building it a man fell from the scaffolding. Since all his bones were broken and they realized they couldn’t rescue him they lowered him a sandwich with poison in it to kill him and then poured cement on top of him so until this day he is in the bridge. The Forth Bridge carries the trains across the water while the Forth Road Bridge (on the left) is for cars.

After the bridge pictures we headed back into Edinburgh and checked into the Edinburgh Central Hostel. Never thought I’d be glad to get back to a hostel but after the one we stayed at in Inverness I was excited to be there. We got settled in our room and I went out to dinner with the girls to an authentic Italian restaurant where we were the only customers so we got full service from 2 older Italian gentlemen. On our first night in Edinburgh we found a place that makes home-made Gelato. It was amazing the first time so we decided to go back and get more. It is quite possibly my new favorite food… I always got strawberry and it is delicioussss. Some of the other girls went to see a movie but myself and another girl who is from North Carolina went to a pub to watch the World Cup game. Afterwards we just went back to the hostel to get showers and try to get to sleep pretty early.

As a side note:
Our tour guide for the entire trip (Mike) was a very unfriendly guy. He is very patriotic about his country and the Highlands but because of it he became offended when we were tired. It was expected that when we spend the entire day hopping on and off the tour bus to see different things we were tired. Mike would get on the microphone and begin fussing at his and told us if we didn’t wake up he would “come down the aisle and slap us in the face with a wet fish.” He made a lot of rude comments to some of the students and it was frustrating having him along on the trip. We were excited to find out that we had a new one for today. According to our tour guide, Scotland is responsible for everything great and amazing in the world.


July 12, 2010

This morning we went up really early and had breakfast again at 8. Our new tour guide was fantastic and generally in a much better mood than our old one. He walked us into the Old Town section of Edinburgh and took us to the Edinburgh castle. We did a tour of it and then headed back into town for some lunch and shopping before we had to board our train. I managed to get some cool offwork at a display from a local artist before I left and a cashmere scarf since cashmere is one of Scotland's main industries.

I was able to get some souvenirs of the trip and some lunch before headed back to the hostel to get our stuff out of the luggage room. We had to walk like 8 blocks to the train station, which was tiring. It would have been nice for us to have a bus to take us and all of our luggage there but our bus driver was relieved of his duty after he got us back to the hostel last night. Once we got into Kings Cross Station in London we hopped on a few underground lines to Waterloo and then took a train from Waterloo to Surbiton, which is where we are staying. It’s been a long day of traveling and the trip itself was a bit stressful. Our tour company never gave us much of an itinerary, and our hotel ended up being a hostel. The weather in the Highlands was very cold and rainy and since we didn’t know that we were going there many people didn’t pack for the weather. The tour guide company was very disorganized and had all of our reservations at the hostels booked wrong so the Paris trip should be interesting since it is booked through the same company. This time I know to prepare for a hostel and to pack accordingly.
I’ve got 2 papers to write this week that I need to start tonight even though I’m really tired from the Scotland trip.

It feels so great to finally be back at our flat and in my room where my Internet works and I have my own bed and bathroom. Tomorrow I have class all day to prepare for a play we are seeing Thursday night at the Globe Theater. Wednesday we are heading to Oxford for a daytrip. Also Mom, Dad, Leslie, and Mike are flying in on Wednesday, which is exciting. I have requested that they bring a couple boxes of instant cheese grits. Many of the people in my flat are from the North and have never even heard of grits so they are excited to try them. I’ve got a 1000 word paper due on Thursday that I’ve got to get started on as well as reading another Shakespeare play for a performance we are going to see on Thursday so I’ve got to get busy on schoolwork. It’s not all play here!


Pictures from Scotland are uploaded!!!

Love April