Scotland

Amy, Sarah, and I went to Scotland for two days. We took a night bus there and back, meaning the bus left London at 11:00 PM (ish), drove the 9 hours to Scotland, and arrived at about 8 AM. This meant we could sleep on the bus the whole way and then wake up and magically be in Scotland. This would be great if I could have gotten good sleep on the bus. I drifted in and out and it was really annoying. Put me on a bus tour of something interesting during the day and I can't stay awake. Put me on a dark bus at night -- can't sleep. Fantastic. It wasn't too bad, I definitely slept, just wasn't feeling super perky the next day. I had to sit next to someone I didn't know (we all did, the bus was full), but she was really nice, a young woman living in Edinburgh, moving to London (she had just been there to look for a flat and now was heading back). She had studied in Edinburgh for four years and is originally from Sweden. She was very nice and interesting to talk to.

DAY ONE

EDINBURGH

J.K Rowling lives there. I did not see her. We started by finding our hostel right away which was quite a bit farther away than we thought. We were only staying there one night, so it didn't really matter. The hostel used to be a church which was kind of cool because that meant all the windows were stained glass. After dropping off our bags we went into the heart of the city. There are two parts to Edinburgh, new town and old town. We were pretty much only in old town because it is cooler. We went to Calton Hill, a park that overlooks the city. Edinburgh is a nice city that doesn't really feel like a city to me. It feels small and more personable. There are random people wearing kilts. We saw street performers that played these sweet huge drums and bagpipes. We stopped in a cemetary and saw where David Hume was buried. We went into some cathedral on the Royal Mile that was pretty and had a no photography policy which nobody followed. We ate a lunch/snack at a little cafe that really wasn't anything amazing on the Royal Mile. Then, we visited Edinburgh Castle. It was really cool, but not how you would picture an actual castle, more like a bunch of old buildings on top of a hill enclosed by a wall. We went on a guided tour and saw the Scottish crown jewels - not as impressive as the crown jewels in the Tower of London.

We wandered to the National Museum of Scotland. We only had an hour or so before it closed so we just hoofed it to Dolly the sheep (ha ha, I am SO funny). She is stuffed and rotates in a square glass case. Pretty sweet. In her room there are many interactive exhibits that are probably meant for children, and this is where we spent the hour we had. It was really fun, playing cloning games and such. After that, we went to the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter! (Probably just the first book, because after that everyone would just stalk her and I don't see how she'd get work done. In fact, she probably doesn't even go there anymore now that they've slapped 'The Birthplace of Harry Potter' all over themselves ... hope she didn't like it that much.) The food was pretty good, and I got a hot chocolate called 'Fleur's Fantasy', surprisingly, I believe it was the only Harry Potter named thing on the menu.
Afterwards, we went to Mary King's Close. I don't really know how to explain it well, so I will steal the description from their very own website: "The Real Mary King’s Close consists of a number of closes which were originally narrow streets with houses on either side, stretching up to seven storeys high. In 1753, the Burgh Council decided to develop a new building on this site, the Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers). The houses at the top of the closes were knocked down and part of the lower sections were kept and used as the foundations for the Royal Exchange. The remnants of the closes were left beneath the building, dark and ancient dwellings steeped in mystery." A close is just a narrow street/alleyway. It was really cool, we got to go down and see what the city used to be like. They are said to be haunted, and they keep a spooky mysterious mood, as they don't use very much lighting. We got to go in several old houses and it was definitely worth doing. The guides all dress up as a person that lived during that time and stay in character throughout the tour. (http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/).

Then we went and got a delicious deep fried Mars bar. It looked disgusting, but tasted good. It was getting late so we slowly wandered our way back to our hostel and went to sleep.

DAY 2

HIGHLANDS AND LOCH NESS

Our Highlands tour left from Edinburgh at 8:00 AM, so we had to wake up really early in order to be there on time. It was raining during our long walk. ew. We got on our bus, which was more like a 'mini coach', so like a coach bus, but is half the size and fits half the people. Amy and I both like to sit by the window, and Sarah likes the aisle, so we went to the back of the bus where there are 5 seats in a row, Amy and I both got a window that way. Another girl sat next to me, she was from Spain, but studying in Dublin. She said she really didn't like Dublin that much.

This tour was 12 hours long. (http://www.heartofscotlandtours.co.uk/lochness.php?prod=Tour-1) But it didn't feel like it at all. We stopped a lot, and it's really the only way to see the highlands unless you drive yourself. Our guide told us Scottish legends along the way and when she was talking she played us traditional Scottish music, it was really cool to be listening to music that is inspired by the countryside you are currently seeing. We stopped for a coffee break on the way, and got to see Hamish, a highland cow! He was sooooooo cute. Highland cows have hair in front of their eyes, like bangs (or fringe if you're British) to keep out the elements and also making them extremely adorable. The mid point of our trip was Loch Ness. We took a boat tour, and did, in fact, see Nessie (see photo). Loch Ness is huge. It is 23 miles long and extremely deep. The water is super dark because of the peat found all over Scotland, it has a dark oil to it, and seeps into the water, making it murky. If you took all of the water out of Loch Ness, you could not refill it with all of the water in all of the UK. It is that big. I can see how Nessie is hard to find. There's not much else to say about the highlands except that they are absolutely gorgeous. I can't really describe it, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We got back from the tour at about 8 PM and wandered around until our bus at 10 PM ish. We arrived in London at 7:30 AM, it was a fantastic trip! Here is a link to the facebook album of my pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108888&l=9c4c0&id=73405745

Ireland

Wow, it's been almost a month since I last posted. Oops. I've been busy. Lots of homework and stuff to finish for the semester. This post will be all about Ireland, and a little later you will get a post about every thing else, and after that, a different post about Scotland!! I've decided from here on out I'm only going to spend money on trips and musicals - it should be fantastic.

For Ireland we got a really good flight deal - 2p for round trip! But then they charge you to check-in at the airport (there is a free online check-in, but you have to be part of the EU) So my total round trip ticket cost 12 pounds - not bad at all! We stayed in the south/southwest area of Ireland, we didn't go to Dublin. I went with Amy and Brit, we are all from Wisconsin, so it was a 'Wisconsin takes on Ireland' trip.

We flew into Cork, and had an early morning flight, so when we landed we had the whole day pretty much ahead of us. We didn't stay in Cork the first day, we went right to Killarney and explored the small city. It is in County Kerry, and close to two western peninsulas. It was my favorite city, very small and cute, and felt quite Irish. We walked around, went into a church, and then walked through a national park to get to a castle. This castle was called Ross Castle, and it was very pretty. We took a tour of it, it was really small and only really had one tower. On our way back to our hostel we saw a bunch of deer in a field, they look different from our deer. There are mountains around this region as well. Later that night we went to a pub that had live Irish music, it was fantastic. I love Irish music.

There were two tours we could have gone on to see a peninsula (one for each peninsula), one was called the Ring of Kerry tour, and the other was for Dingle Peninsula. We had wanted to go on the Dingle one, because we heard that it was less touristy, more beautiful, plus, in one of the bays there is a resident dolphin. However, not enough people wanted to go on the Dingle tour (they only do it if there is a certain amount) so we went on the Ring of Kerry one. It was really pretty. Definitely a long time on a bus ( I don't even remember how long - 5 or 6 hours), but worth it. We saw lots of mountains and small towns and beautiful countryside. At one stop, there was a man there with three baby goats and a baby lamb which you could hold and take pictures with - SO cute! I love baby sheep. There are so many sheep there.

After the tour, we took the bus to Limerick, and then from Limerick to Lisdoonvarna. We had a hostel there and our only purpose for going was to see the Cliffs of Moher. We actually went to some smaller town first because that was the only place the bus went at the time of night we arrived, and we had to get a taxi to take us to the hostel. Also in our taxi were four elderly Irish women, they were going to Sheila's house and were quite friendly/giggly and seemed to know the taxi driver. We got a later start than we had wanted the next day, but booked it over to the cliffs. We actually didn't have much time on the cliffs because we had to catch a bus, but they were gorgeous. We then took the bus all the way to Cork. Looking back, it kinda feels like we wasted a day just on bus travel for only 20 minutes or so at the cliffs. But honestly, they were really cool and I'm glad I got to see them.

Upon arrival in Cork, we found our hostel right away (with a little bit of difficulty) and then set out to explore the city. I liked Cork, but there was nothing amazing about it and I liked Kilarney better for it's smallness. We found a pizza place to eat at for dinner which was decent. We met a French guy who we played cards with. The next day we went to nearby Blarney to see Blarney Castle (10 mins away from Cork). We walked all through the castle to get up to kiss the Blarney Stone. (http://www.blarneycastle.ie/) It is said that if you kiss the stone, you will get the gift of eloquence. Very famous people have kissed it, such as Winston Churchill. So yeah, I kissed a stone that Winston kissed. Be jealous. It was scary kissing the stone because you kind of have to flip upside down and some old Irish man holds on to you, while you hold on to these poles. you feel like you are going to tumble out of the castle, because it is quite high. After the stone kissing we were newly eloquent and walked around some gardens and stuff the castle had. We went into this cave where I bumped my head really hard. The garden area (called Rock Close) was really cool and had some neat rock formations, like a witches kitchen. There were also wishing steps, and if you closed your eyes and walked up and down the stairs (backwards one way), you will have your wish granted within a year. I'll let you all know if I got my wish next year. The rocks inspired us to take some jumping pictures with umbrellas and we had a lot of fun with it. We did some souvenir shopping before returning to Cork, and also ate at a place for lunch, I had mashed potatoes with beef.

Back in Cork, we walked around again and found this really neat church, but we could not go inside because there was a service. Later we found a diner and ate dinner at it, it was quite good, we weren't starving, so we just got some garlic cheese fries to share and milkshakes.

We had to wake up really early to catch our flight the next day. We had really good luck with all of our hostels, the people were always really nice and we had no problems. I loved going to Ireland. They have a really good bus system and the people, music, culture, and countryside is lovely.

It's also a strange feeling to have London feel so familiar and like home. Arriving back it's just a relief to know exactly what you're doing and how to get where you want to go.