SCOTLAND and more...

I'm so sorry guys!! This has taken me WAY too long to do! I have been keeping track of the days and the things we did on my ipod notes, so I'll just do it by days..Hopefully it makes sense.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

We took a 5 hour train ride to Scotland. We passed the beach on our way into Edinburgh and this made us all WAY excited for some reason. Scotland is BEAUTIFUL. I can't even describe how beautiful it is. Edinburgh seems small with its intimate streets and cobblestone roads.

After we checked into the hostel, we went straight to Edinburgh castle. It had the perfect view of the city..stunning.

We took lots of pictures, walked through a few of the exhibits, and headed out down the main street, The Royal Mile. We found a mill that showed you how they make kilts and blankets out of wool. I bought WAY too much on this trip to Scotland but I AM a Campbell, so I just had to! The Campbell clan is one of the biggest clans in Scotland and I am proud of it! ;) We have the best plaid in Scotland, in my opinion. After shopping for a while, we went to dinner at a pub named "Mitre". I got the yummiest chicken sandwich thing and I am just glad I didn't get the classic Scottish dish, Haggis. In Sharon's opinion, it looks like gravel sausage. Yum. I was too afraid to try it and I'm kind of glad I didn't. It was a great night!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Today was so much fun here in Scotland! We had the whole day to ourselves to do whatever we wanted! We woke up, got ready, ate breakfast, and were on our way to Edinburgh. We first started by walking down the Royal Mile (the main street here) to the Palace of Holyroodhouse - the official house of the Queen in Scotland. We didn't go inside but took pictures of the outside.

The sun was out today so I only wore a hoodie and it felt so good! After the palace we walked over to hike to Arthur's Seat. We started to walk up it when a few of the girls decided to stop because they weren't wearing very good shoes. Some of the other girls we were with decided to hike all of Arthur's Seat but Kinsey, Ramzi, and I decided to just hike the side of the grassy plateau so we could get the view from the top. It was SO WORTH IT!! The view was breathtaking. We could see the castle and all the way out to the ocean. It was amazing! I fell on the way down a few times but it was fun and hilarious. We had a blast.

We walked around for a little bit after that, shopped around, and then decided to get some lunch. We were so lucky that we saw a couple other people from our group because they told us they just got back from eating at Elephant House...the cafe J.K. Rowling began writing Harry Potter!!!! So of course we went there and ate. It was so cool! She wrote in the corner by a window that overlooks Edinburg castle (inspiration for Hogwarts???)!! We went into the bathroom after eating and found the COOLEST Harry Potter toilet! And then on one of the door frames someone had started "Dumbledore's Army" and I, of course, couldn't pass that one up! So I got on my hands and knees in this tiny bathroom and wrote my name on the list! I'm number 124. SO COOL!! **Sorry Mary, I tried so hard to buy you a t-shirt but they were all out! :(

We shopped around for alittle while after that, went into a kilt shope and made a Scottish friend named Stephanie, and then decided to split up. Most of the other peeps went to "Annie" because it was playing. Ashley, Kinsey, Ramzi, and I did our own thing. This is where the fun of the day really began. We were craving Mexican (I've been craving Cafe Rio since I got to London) so we found a little restaurant named "Pancho Villas". All I got was a quesadilla and some rice, but it was so good and definitely satisfied my craving. Now we were craving dessert. Namely chocolate. So we went "Chocolate Soup". Yep, that's what it's called. We all got our own brownie sandwich with ice cream in the middle and a chocolate shot on the side. It was the BEST chocolate dessert I have EVER had. We loved it so much we just had to document it somehow. So we took our chocolate shots and rubbed it all over our faces...Everyone in the place, including the workers, were laughing at us. (Note: People in Scotland are ten times more friendly than they are in London.) It was messy and hilarious and insanely delicious. I felt extremely sick afterwards but it was definitely worth it!!

After we washed our faces we went back to the hostel for a bit to get some warmer clothes on for our Ghost Tour. This Ghost Tour started at 9:45 and lasted until 11:15. The first 45 minutes are spent outside in the city and the other 45 are spent underground in the caverns. During the black plague, Edinburgh was hit. To contain the disease, they built the city you see today on top of the old city and left the rats (who were spreading the disease) and the sick to die underground. In the 1980's they began giving historical tours until people started having experiences with spirits. The first 45 minutes were interesting. We learned about how torture and execution went down the heard a couple of stories with that. The second 45 min, were terrifying. Good thing we had Ramzi there to keep the three of us girls sane! All our tour guide to guide us was a candle and so when he blew it out half way through the tour, I had a cow.

After the tour we wanted to end our night happy by taking pics by the heart we found in the cobblestone street! Ramzi didn't want in these pictures, so he was our designated photographer. These 4 Scottish boys come up and want to take one with Ramzi in it. Ramzi's a smooth guy..All he says is, "No you guys should get in." Then he says, "Hey you should kiss their cheeks while I take the picture." So they did and yeah. I got kissed on the cheek by 2 Scottish men. ;)

Friday, February 11, 2011

We woke up and left Edinburgh to drive to Sterling. On the way, we made a stop in New Lanark to go on a tour of the cotton mill there. The rooms we went into had creepy wax people to help us envision what it was like to live and work at the mill in those days. It was pretty interesting but, I'm not gonna lie, it got boring fast. I mean we went on a ten minute ride about cotton! It was Haunted Mansion-like (if that helps you envision it a little) except 1 mph. Elise and I were dying of laughter.

After the cotton ride, we got soup in the little cafe there. Then we walked outside up to a waterfall nearby. New Lanark was an interesting little Scottish town hidden deep in the mountains and it was fun to see PINE TREES again! It made me miss my dad and hiking with him. Next we headed to Sterling. We dropped our bags off at the hostel and went up to Sterling castle. It wasn't nearly as cool as the Edinburgh castle but it did have some cool exhibitions. We took "royalty" pictures in the church there. It had a fantastic view of the city and the Highlands and also of the Wallace monument.

Sterling is a pretty small city so we decided we needed to have a relaxing night. We went and got tickets to see "Gnomeo & Juliet" (I miss movies!). Our movie didn't start for a while so we went and got dinner at a place named "Frankie & Benny's" -- This was NOT my idea, but I still thought it was hilarious! Why do I see Ben stuff EVERYWHERE?! Now that you all think I am on the hunt for Ben stuff I'm really going to do it now. I had someone take a pic of me in front of just "Benny". Hahaha. We headed back to the movie theater, got popcorn (I miss that too!), and watched the movie. It was adorable! There was so much British humor in it. I loved it. That was pretty much our day and night though. It was fun!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

We finished up our time in Sterling by going to the William Wallace monument. For all you "Braveheart" fans, this is a monument for the guy Mel Gibson played. Created and led the Scottish army. He fought for freedom against the English, was successful in most of them, and then killed because of it. It was neat to see his sword and climb the 246 stairs to the top of his tower/monument. I couldn't help but should "FREEDOM!" at the top. ;)

All in all, I absolutely LOVED Scotland and its greenness, kilts, bagpipes, and castles. I would seriously recommend it to anyone planning a trip to the U.K.

LONDON:

Monday, February 14, 2011 - HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Today was such a great day! Ashley and I woke up and ran around the park, I got a letter from Ben, and we went to see "Swan Lake"!! It was the best Valentine's Day activity and definitely made me miss dancing. Oh well, my fault. I think all of us girls were feeling a little boy-deprived today, but we stuck through it! The end of the day was awesome too because I got to Skype my wonderful Logan roomies! I miss them so much and laughing with them was a blast!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - TODAY

Our class was swapped to the 9:15 time so a couple of us went to a museum for our Fine Arts class right after it. Then we went to Southall! It's also known as "Little India" if that gives you an idea of what it was like. We went to a Hindu temple there and enjoyed wandering around a different part of London. The change in culture was definitely noticed and I enjoyed it a lot. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant, of course, named "Giftos". I had never had REAL Indian before and I actually really liked it! It was spicy but delicious! After that we went and got Henna tattoos! I got a picture of it, but it's on my friend's camera so I'll post it another time.

Well, I finally got it all caught up! Sorry it took so dang loooong!

Love from London,

Liz