Hiking to the Sunrise (Day 5)

Incredibly early this morning, me and 12 other crazy members from my group decided to climb Arthur's Seat outside of town to watch the sunrise.  Needless to say, I think it's been my highlight of the trip so far and it was well worth being tired later in the day. (It's about dinner time right now and I'm ready to go to bed.) Anyway, the view was spectacular -- even though most of us are completely out of shape the hike was a great way to get our blood pumping, regardless of how hard we were panting by the time we reached the top. Some parts of the hill were so steep that we had to use our hands to help us on the way up. When we reached the top we all sat down and the sun literally started to rise about a minute later, which was amazing timing. It was absolutely breathtaking! Below are 17 pictures that I posted, some of them with captions. Enjoy! I definitely did.

P.S. The rest of the day was nothing too special. We had some good class time and then went to a museum and took a tour, which one of our professors apologized for after the fact because it was so boring and far too long. Wandering around the museum after the tour was much more fun and I spent most of my time with Stephanie, one of the girls from our group, at an interactive exhibit where you tried to match 12 different animals with their different sounds. The best we got was 8/12 before we got kicked out of the museum since it was closing.

More tomorrow -- we will be moving on to Glasgow! 

As you can see, we were on the go before 6 o'clock. Crazy.

Me & Brooks

The marker for Arthur's Seat

Liz & Madeline

Alec

Most of the group...

Wild purple heather -- one of my favorite parts of the hike. 

Arthur's seat is at the top of that hill.  I took this photo during the descent.

Walking back to town.

All the Pretty Churches (Day 4)

Today we had our first class time, which ended up being really great.  After working an office job all summer and sitting at a desk 8-hours a day I can proudly say having time class for four hours was like a walk through the park on a sunny day.  Some of my peers mentioned how long it was during our break and I simply said, “I could listen to this all day!” We had a guest speaker from Britain talk to us about the differences in theology between Islam and Christianity, which was fascinating and she brought up some amazing points that I didn’t know about before. 

Then we had a lecture from the English professor, Dr. Chaney, who is very eccentric and entertaining.  She taught us a brief overview of the bloody history (I’m not cussing, I’m actually talking about violence) between Scotland, Ireland, and England and used different voices all the way through to represent the different people she was talking about! The class was laughing at many parts of that even though the things she was talking about were very serious.

The afternoon consisted of tours of two churches… one of which I had already walked through a few days prior.  But we had a wonderful tour guide take us through – he was an older Scottish gentleman and he enjoyed telling us how various people in Scotland's history had, well, died.  And we got to see the room where all of the knights of Scotland meet every year! That was probably my highlight of the day, it was different from anything I’ve ever seen.

I’ve been getting closer to everyone on the trip, which has been a lot of fun.  All of the people here are great and everyone has such different personalities.  Some of us are getting up at 5 o’clock tomorrow (me included) to climb Arthur’s Seat, a hill outside of town, so that we can watch the sunrise. I can’t wait to take pictures of that! Goodnight!

Palaces & Castles (Day 3)

Our group was up and out of the hotel by 9 this morning, actually probably a little latter since everyone was lagging a bit.  Today we toured a cemetery with a statue of Abraham Lincoln (the first statue of an American president in Europe and the only statue of an American president in Scotland - pretty cool! The statue can be seen out of focus in the first photo below). Then we walked up to the Firth of Fourth, where a whole view of the city could be seen.  After that we walked through the Palace of the Holyroodhouse, where the Queen of England still takes some of her summer holidays.  Elizabeth II has accepted the key to the house at least 20 years in a row now - it's part of a ceremony - and then she always hands it back, which is also part of the ceremony. 

We also toured the Edinburgh castle after lunch and a World War I memorial within it, which made me very sad since there were books full of the names of Scottish soldiers that had died.  Some of my peers spent more than an hour in that part of the castle alone since the memorial had so many details and things to look at. By the time we had finished touring all of those places it was 4 in the afternoon and some of us headed back to the hotel to rest for about an hour. Then we went to a coffee house to study and straight to dinner afterward. I enjoyed a glass of Rose that went straight to my head... sometimes it's a genuine pain not being able to act normal after drinking one glass of wine. However, the trip has been fun so far and tomorrow we have to be up and out by 8:30. Goodnight!

Dear Will, this picture is just for you as it is stained-glass of William Wallace fighting in battle!

Meeting the Group (Day 2)

Today I got to meet the rest of the group from SPU that I'm traveling with! The day was full of walking, exploring, dinner, and cider (which I tried for the first time). We also got the see "the elephant house" which is where J.K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter - I got pretty excited, not gonna lie. I'm excited for tomorrow as we will be touring Edinburgh as a whole group. Goodnight!

My 30-Hour Day (Day 1)

Let me start by saying I can't believe it's already September - except I can because in Edinburgh it's freezing compared to Denver.  Going from 90 degree weather to 60s and below is a little bit of a transition, so thank goodness I packed warm clothes.  Yesterday I spent my time walking around Edinburg and familiarizing myself with the city.  By the end of the day my West had once again become a West instead of a North or East (directions in a new city are always challenging). And I eventually figured out that street names are put on the corners of buildings, not on signs, which is why for a while in the morning I had absolutely no idea where I was.

After I checked into my room in my hotel and cleaned up from my plane rides I met up with my friend Alec. We went to a Halberian football match, which ended up being a draw.  I don't think I've hear more f-words ever said in my life. Europeans in general are extremely passionate about their football, and Alec and I experienced it first hand.  If one of their players made a bad move it was f-word worthy, if one of the other players tripped one of their players it was f-word combined with other words worthy, and god forbid if the ref make a bad call... every Scottish man would be on his feet swearing in a combination of f-words and everything else he could dream up. Me? I think I just watched and laughed at the whole spectacle, while I tried not to fall asleep at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

We walked back into town after the match and found a pub called "The World's End" for dinner.  I had Scottish Black Pudding... after Alec told me what's in it I nearly didn't order it (the main ingredient is actually blood). But I decided to try it anyway and it was delicious! I also ordered a half pint of beer... and I'm glad I only ordered that much because any more would not have been a good combination with the jet-lagged state. By that time it was almost 8 o'clock and I had been awake for 30 hours. The turbulence on the plane had been so bad I probably slept less than two hours of it, so my day in general had been way too long.  I now understand why people go crazy after they don't sleep for days because I was starting to feel it after only one.

I went back to my hotel and slept for about 11 hours straight, woke up at 9 and checked out by 10. And now I'm sitting in Starbucks (because wifi is always available) and in an hour I'll be meeting up with the rest of my group. That's all for now! I've posted photos of beautiful Edinburgh below - more will be coming soon!

  

Good Morning, Scotland!

My Scottish brunch, a brie and salami panini accompanied by a cup of coffee - I drank the coffee a bit too rapidly, causing much dizziness and discomfort but drinking water made me feel a bit better, although I'm still a tad shaky! Point is, I landed safely and I'm very excited to be here (besides the fact that I'm jet lagged like non other).

Ready or Not

While I was sleeping last night I was thinking. So I guess it would be fair to say I wasn’t sleeping much at all.  I was almost half conscious and my mind was checking to make sure I had packed everything, while simultaneously making a “to do” list for the next morning.  And in the midst of all of this I suddenly realized I wasn’t ready to leave. 

It was as if I was a four year old clinging to my mother’s leg a birthday party and screaming, “I don’t want to go!! I want to stay here!”  Except I was sleeping when all of this was happening, and my mind was running circles in panic.  I only had one day to be at home, run some final errands, and pack my bags (and I am now realizing I probably packed too much for overseas due to the fact that I was trying to shove things in bags to go to Seattle all at the same time).

But when I woke up it just made sense that everything was changing, shifting, and I was turning a new leaf.  When I go back to school I won’t be going back to the dorms, but I will be going back to friends and familiar faces, which I can deal with.  I won’t be eating in the cafeteria anymore, which means I’ll have to cook for myself, but I’ll find the time and means to do it. There will be new things and new challenges waiting for me on the other side of this trip, which I think is what my mind was having such a hard time accepting in my sleep. I can’t wait to go on my three week journey -- I think I’m just freaked out by everything that will be happening after. 

Now that I’m on my way overseas my heart is starting to calm down and I can hear it telling me you can do this. Change isn’t going to kill you, it’s going to shape you and make you grow. 

So, Ireland & Scotland (and Seattle afterwards) the countdown has ended and it’s time for me to say: Ready or Not, Here I Come!