Hello all,
It has been some time since I last posted, so I thought I'd give an update.
The past week I had a really bad virus that took me out for the whole week. We have no idea what the virus was, but after a trip to the ER, 2 trips to the doctor, multiple Skype calls home, a few calls to 'ask a nurse' (state side) and time, I can finally say that I am on the mend and able to celebrate Thanksgiving this evening with my flatmates and friends.
Today, was the first day that I tried to go to class in a week. I say tried because I showed up and so did 2 other people for the lecture and then I left. I figured if the prof can't be bothered to show up on time, I didn't need to stick around. But I have spent some time in the library attempting to catch up on reading. There really isn't much to catch up on, though. What I really need to start working on are my 3 essays that are due by December 5 and then I am off to Germany, Rome, and Paris!!!
I must give a shout out to my amazing flatmates who nursed me back to health and talked/harassed the nurses, doctors and who ever it was they kept calling (I think it was our version of 'ask a nurse' but I was in my own little world, so I'm not sure). Thank you so so so much for going to TESCO, and changing my rubbish bin, going to my doctor appointments and keeping me from going insane from being cooped up and sick for so long. I have the best flatmates in the world!!! :)
Well, I don't really have anything else to report.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Sheep's Kingdom
Last weekend, three of my flatmates and I rented a car and drove to the Isle of Skye. The scary thing about being here so long and now going on my second road trip is that I am starting to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road! It no longer uncanny that I sit in the driver's seat and don't drive.
Moving on.
Along the way we stopped at Eioleen Dunan Castle and it was a nice, beautiful evening unlike the last time we went on our 6 day road trip. But before we arrived at this castle, we stopped at a more magical site. A site where so many infamous scenes were filmed. The Glenfinnan Viaduct a.k.a the Harry Potter Bridge!!! We were able to walk right up to the bridge even. Try not to become too jealous, but we also ate our lunch within 15 yards of the viaduct!!
We made it to Portree that night and got up early the next morning to make the most of our limited daylight. The sun sets around 4:30 and is dark by 5. (This is the one familiar thing about home that I do NOT miss). We saw Kilt Rock which has a pretty neat waterfall and the highlight of the day, and I might say trip, was Old Man of Storr. There is nothing particularly special about this rock other than it's ginormous and stands apart from the other ginormous rocks, but the view was breath-taking! It took us a little over an hour to climb up and about a half an hour to get down. This was all on the east side of the isle. On the west was Neist Point which is where the oldest lighthouse on the Isle of Skye is located.
That night we spent in Kyleakin Backpackers. Even though it was 6 pm, we weren't hungry yet and the lounge/living room had a fireplace. We played a game or two of Jenga then 3 girls from Thailand and one from China (who also were studying in Scotland) asked me if I knew the rules for UNO. I said of course and we played 2 games with them. By this time it was 8, and we were ready to go eat, so we headed over to the towns only pub (I think) Saucy Mary's. When we walked, a guy who had poked his head into the lounge at the Backpackers said to try the haggis; it was the best that he'd had since being in Scotland. So I took his advice and tried it. I quite like it. It is slightly spicy but not hot spicy. It came with neets and tatties. Not sure what the neets are but tatties are potatoes. While we were sitting there, the same guy gestured to us asking if we wanted to join him and his friends. We had nothing else to do, so we joined and made some new friends: Bjorn from Germany and Pascal from Switzerland!!
I should maybe mention why I titled this post what I did. While we were driving around the isle, we had to constantly slow down for the sheep that were in the road. Sometimes a sheep would start walking down the road in the direction we wanted to go and we could nothing but follow slowly. After about the 20th time slowing down, and that is not an exaggeration, Anouk, our driver for the weekend, exlaimed, "Wow! This really is the sheep's kingdom."
So, on Sunday we headed to Loch Ness and Inverness. We visited a couple other towns, but nothing worth telling. They were just your typical fisherman's village. We had again another beautiful day for traveling and wandering around despite my getting car sick. But seeing as there was no sighting of Nessie, I will not bore you with how nice the loch looked. There is a castle, however, on this loch and we spent about an hour and a half exploring the ruin and taking pictures.
We then drove to Inverness where the most important thing we did was eat at Pizza Express. It was our first meal since breakfast and it was evening time. We headed home, and I didn't have to worry about any car sickness because it was like being on the Interstate back home. However, unlike at home, there is not a gas station every 20-30 miles nor are they put in convenient locations such as the first town off the interstate instead of the second. We were filling up with petrol when we looked over at the other car and one of the guys looked familiar. Then Bjorn and Pascal walked out of the store! What a crazy random happenstance!! (Only a couple will understand this reference, but it sums up the experience the best).
And that was our trip to Isle of Skye and the Highlands.
Moving on.
Along the way we stopped at Eioleen Dunan Castle and it was a nice, beautiful evening unlike the last time we went on our 6 day road trip. But before we arrived at this castle, we stopped at a more magical site. A site where so many infamous scenes were filmed. The Glenfinnan Viaduct a.k.a the Harry Potter Bridge!!! We were able to walk right up to the bridge even. Try not to become too jealous, but we also ate our lunch within 15 yards of the viaduct!!
 |
| From far away |
 |
| Eating lunch next to the viaduct! :) |
We made it to Portree that night and got up early the next morning to make the most of our limited daylight. The sun sets around 4:30 and is dark by 5. (This is the one familiar thing about home that I do NOT miss). We saw Kilt Rock which has a pretty neat waterfall and the highlight of the day, and I might say trip, was Old Man of Storr. There is nothing particularly special about this rock other than it's ginormous and stands apart from the other ginormous rocks, but the view was breath-taking! It took us a little over an hour to climb up and about a half an hour to get down. This was all on the east side of the isle. On the west was Neist Point which is where the oldest lighthouse on the Isle of Skye is located.
 |
| Waterfall at Kilt Rock |
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| View from Old Man of Storr |
 |
| Old Man of Storr is on the left |
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| The girls I traveled with :) |
That night we spent in Kyleakin Backpackers. Even though it was 6 pm, we weren't hungry yet and the lounge/living room had a fireplace. We played a game or two of Jenga then 3 girls from Thailand and one from China (who also were studying in Scotland) asked me if I knew the rules for UNO. I said of course and we played 2 games with them. By this time it was 8, and we were ready to go eat, so we headed over to the towns only pub (I think) Saucy Mary's. When we walked, a guy who had poked his head into the lounge at the Backpackers said to try the haggis; it was the best that he'd had since being in Scotland. So I took his advice and tried it. I quite like it. It is slightly spicy but not hot spicy. It came with neets and tatties. Not sure what the neets are but tatties are potatoes. While we were sitting there, the same guy gestured to us asking if we wanted to join him and his friends. We had nothing else to do, so we joined and made some new friends: Bjorn from Germany and Pascal from Switzerland!!
 |
| Haggis. Yum :) |
I should maybe mention why I titled this post what I did. While we were driving around the isle, we had to constantly slow down for the sheep that were in the road. Sometimes a sheep would start walking down the road in the direction we wanted to go and we could nothing but follow slowly. After about the 20th time slowing down, and that is not an exaggeration, Anouk, our driver for the weekend, exlaimed, "Wow! This really is the sheep's kingdom."
 |
| Sheep rule the road |
So, on Sunday we headed to Loch Ness and Inverness. We visited a couple other towns, but nothing worth telling. They were just your typical fisherman's village. We had again another beautiful day for traveling and wandering around despite my getting car sick. But seeing as there was no sighting of Nessie, I will not bore you with how nice the loch looked. There is a castle, however, on this loch and we spent about an hour and a half exploring the ruin and taking pictures.
 |
| Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness |
We then drove to Inverness where the most important thing we did was eat at Pizza Express. It was our first meal since breakfast and it was evening time. We headed home, and I didn't have to worry about any car sickness because it was like being on the Interstate back home. However, unlike at home, there is not a gas station every 20-30 miles nor are they put in convenient locations such as the first town off the interstate instead of the second. We were filling up with petrol when we looked over at the other car and one of the guys looked familiar. Then Bjorn and Pascal walked out of the store! What a crazy random happenstance!! (Only a couple will understand this reference, but it sums up the experience the best).
And that was our trip to Isle of Skye and the Highlands.
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| Highland Cows |
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Plan? What plan?
Alright. 600 pages read and 4,000 words written. Now I have a moment to write quick blog before I need to read my other book for tomorrows seminar.
The road trip went really well. Only once did the driver drive on the "wrong" side of the road. It is only in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand that they drive on the left side of the road. The rest of the world does it right. It rained the first day, but we were driving most of it, so it was okay. We made it to Ullapool and had some whiskey and seafood. It was a fun night.
We drove up the west coast the next day. We stopped whenever something seemed interesting. There were a lot of, I don't know if I would even call them towns, establishments maybe? Anyway, there were many clusters of houses and along the road there always seemed to be one, and I must emphasis one, red telephone. Occasionly, there would be a house by itself and it would have a red telephone booth on the other side of the road, and once, we saw a bus stop with a red telephone booth. It became the running joke in the car that it was the main phone line for the town. Then it came up that it would suck if your house was burning and you had to run all the way across town because there was only one telephone. While we were driving I think it was around Tongue or a little bit after, there was a house that had the fire place going. I said, "They must be sending a mass invite to the town letting everyone know the party is at their place tonight." Marc replied, "And what to bring for food. It was a long stream of smoke." Don't judge. It was a long drive.
We left for our trip Saturday morning and by Sunday evening we were on the ferry to the Isle of Orkney. It was extremely windy that day. I would say it was a sustained wind of 40mph with gusts up to 60. (Look at me, my weather class is paying off). We were surprised that we were able to drive around the island in 45 minutes. However, we took a little longer than that seeing as we made a few stops. We headed back to the mainland that night, and we were happy to escape the wind.
That night back on the mainland, we met Craig. (Obviously we found a place to sleep and ate some food, but why bore you with the mundane?) He invited us to join him for a drink, so we did. We had been wondering what people do around this area in terms of careers, so Anna asked. His response? "Being alcoholics." This was also the night that the Clone walked into the bar. I'll let you imagine the rest. I promise nothing bad happened.
We continued on our journey and as we went further east and south the weather became much nicer. The wind died down and the sun came out. We saw some more sites. We made it to the "end of Scotland," the northern most point of Scotland. There was no light.
We continued heading south. We passed Inverness and continued on to Elgin. However, in Elgin all the hostels and cheap places to stay were full. Luckily, one of the places gave us a few numbers for places in surrounding towns. This is how we ended up in Lossiemouth, and this I'll venture to say, was the highlight of the trip. We walked in and saw this.
I almost forgot. Between the Northern most point of Scotland and the triple rainbow, we were in the heart of whiskey land. We went to two distilleries. Macallan and Glenfiddich. Scotland makes good whiskey. And these distilleries were located in a beautiful landscape. I'll have to refer to Facebook for photos though, this post is getting long. And for anything else that I mentioned, but didn't post photos for on here (which is a lot of things). I tried to do a better job at explaining the photos on Facebook.
An amazing dinner of lamb and an hour and a half drive later, we were back in Stirling.
The road trip went really well. Only once did the driver drive on the "wrong" side of the road. It is only in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand that they drive on the left side of the road. The rest of the world does it right. It rained the first day, but we were driving most of it, so it was okay. We made it to Ullapool and had some whiskey and seafood. It was a fun night.
We drove up the west coast the next day. We stopped whenever something seemed interesting. There were a lot of, I don't know if I would even call them towns, establishments maybe? Anyway, there were many clusters of houses and along the road there always seemed to be one, and I must emphasis one, red telephone. Occasionly, there would be a house by itself and it would have a red telephone booth on the other side of the road, and once, we saw a bus stop with a red telephone booth. It became the running joke in the car that it was the main phone line for the town. Then it came up that it would suck if your house was burning and you had to run all the way across town because there was only one telephone. While we were driving I think it was around Tongue or a little bit after, there was a house that had the fire place going. I said, "They must be sending a mass invite to the town letting everyone know the party is at their place tonight." Marc replied, "And what to bring for food. It was a long stream of smoke." Don't judge. It was a long drive.
We left for our trip Saturday morning and by Sunday evening we were on the ferry to the Isle of Orkney. It was extremely windy that day. I would say it was a sustained wind of 40mph with gusts up to 60. (Look at me, my weather class is paying off). We were surprised that we were able to drive around the island in 45 minutes. However, we took a little longer than that seeing as we made a few stops. We headed back to the mainland that night, and we were happy to escape the wind.
That night back on the mainland, we met Craig. (Obviously we found a place to sleep and ate some food, but why bore you with the mundane?) He invited us to join him for a drink, so we did. We had been wondering what people do around this area in terms of careers, so Anna asked. His response? "Being alcoholics." This was also the night that the Clone walked into the bar. I'll let you imagine the rest. I promise nothing bad happened.
We continued on our journey and as we went further east and south the weather became much nicer. The wind died down and the sun came out. We saw some more sites. We made it to the "end of Scotland," the northern most point of Scotland. There was no light.
We continued heading south. We passed Inverness and continued on to Elgin. However, in Elgin all the hostels and cheap places to stay were full. Luckily, one of the places gave us a few numbers for places in surrounding towns. This is how we ended up in Lossiemouth, and this I'll venture to say, was the highlight of the trip. We walked in and saw this.
And the view out the front was was this.
We decided to stay for two nights.
Before we found this wonderful, though, we experienced our first sunset of the trip on top of a hill overlooking the sea and this small fishermen's town. It was gorgeous!!
While on our way to this heavenly sight, we saw a triple rainbow. But more importantly, we saw the beginning and end of the rainbow. I can now saw that I know what is at the end of the rainbow, and it's not a pot of gold. But an oil rig. Black gold.
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| Beginning |
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| End |
We arrived home Thursday night at 10:30. We stopped in Aberdeen for long enough to have a coffee and tea break and lunch, then we headed out because one of the boys wanted to take a picture of this castle which is a ruin but the most complete ruin (if that makes any sense whatsoever). This is was the amazing picture we were able to get of it.
An amazing dinner of lamb and an hour and a half drive later, we were back in Stirling.
All in all, it was a great trip despite the weather and all the driving. I'm sure there are some things that I forgot to mention, but if you go on my Facebook, you can see the journey through pictures; they're worth more than my words, or so I'm told. But it's time for me to read my book for class tomorrow. Until next time :)
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