Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Edinburgh Videos

Braving the Scottish Wind



Walking around the Scott Monument



A View from the Castle



Jess being Jess at the Castle

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Edinburgh, Day Three and Glasgow For a Day

Day Three was definitely day of walking.

Carmen and I started our day by climbing the Scott Monument, which was made in 1840 by a man named George Meikle Kemp. It's 200 feet high, and has four observation levels. We climbed 287 steps, and got a certificate at the end!



It was a really beautiful view, and we met a lot of tourists (some from Canada! Others from US, Ireland). The steps were spiral, narrow, and only sometimes had a railing so we found ourselves clutching the walls climbing up and down (whimpering a little, I might add). Each floor had something new to offer. Some other pocket of Edinburgh to see. You could see a hill and water in every direction, and it was just so serene.


After that climb, we had a short ice cream break. Then Joyce took us over to Edinburgh Castle, so Carmen and I could explore that. (Had to walk up the steepest incline ever to get there!) It was much more costly than the Monument, but pretty worth it. We got to walk all around, look out on each side, people watch, and go into some rooms of the castle like the prisons of war, sword room, a great hall, a chapel, a monument for dead soldiers, etc. We were acting pretty goofy (probably because we were so tired at this point) and had a few funny times.



Once, I was sitting on a horse statue, and a worker came up to me yelling "please get down! this is a monument to the dead and you're being very disrespectful of the dead by sitting on it!" Woooops. *collar tug*


We also stopped some traffic being silly with jumping pictures, doors with eye windows in them, and laughing about audio tours.



By the time we got to the top, it was even more amazing than the monument. We just stood there and stared at the view for ages.



After that, we did some tourist shops for a bit, walked around, and found our way back to the Elephant House to meet Joyce. Then we went out for Chinese food at a place named Chop Chop.


The next day we went to Glasgow. We went for breakfast at the famous Willow Tea Rooms, then did some shopping (I got new ipod speakers for only 3 pounds!), and just walked around. My feet hurt too much from the day before.


Then Carmen and I hopped on a bus to Glasgow Aiport. We got there, realized we were way too early, and hung around looking at magazines. It wasn't until we asked someone where to check in that he said "oh, RyanAir doesn't fly out of here... that's Glasgow Prestwick Airport!" He laughed and said it happens all the time. Our stomachs fell. We rushed outside and caught a cab, and luckily we got the nicest driver ever who sped us there and let us pay what we had. But the best part was him, driving off into the fog, swirving enough for me to fall over in my seat and saying "BUCKLE UP, AND HOLD ON TO YOUR HOLLYHOGS!" We got there in time, thanks to the nice people of Scotland.

Edinburgh, Day Two

After resting up some from a very, very long day, Joyce, Carmen, and I geared up for another one.

We started off the day by walking through a food market set right under Edinburgh Castle. Where they sold all sorts of food like ostrich, boar, porridge, hogs, and much more. I ended up eating a cupcake. Joyce ate an ostrich burger and said it tasted like plastic.



Then we were on to go see the water! I still don't really know what body of water it was, but I think it was the Firth of Forth. Anyways, it was SO windy, like, ridiculous. But it ended up being hilarious, and worth many giggles. It was beautiful out there, the sky was so blue (not the water though), and we walked along on the rocks.



From there, we went to see one of Joyce's school's campuses. One of the buildings was some inspiration to the movie version of Hogwarts, and also a former insane asylum. Since we were there on a weekend, it was abandoned, and thus creepy. Carmen got pretty spooked, and I did at one point, but other than that it was cool. There's a great view from there because it's on a hill, but I don't really see why the building would be much inspiration to Hogwarts.


Then we went to her other campus, because Joyce and Carmen were booking their Euro trip on the computers there.

After that we went to go see Marley and Me, which I bawled through half of because it hit so close to home with my dog, Chips. (Warning family: don't go see!) So I was pretty out of it for the rest of the night, sigh.

Came back to Joyce's apartment and realized we were all to be squished in her room for the rest of the trip due to certain circumstances. Turned out to be a good thing.

Edinburgh, Day One

I'm taking Vanessa's approach to blogging and doing it day by day.

So, this past weekend I took a trip with Carmen, my fellow Ryerson Journalism Buddy On Exchange In London, to see Joyce, another RJBOE but in Edinburgh. Get that?

We got up really early (5AM) and trained, planed, and bussed our way to Scotland. Turns out, we booked all the wrong bus tickets, but we still found our way.

We found a different bus to get us from Glasgow Prestwick Airport to the Glasgow city centre. I swear, this bus must have been a shuttle for an old folks home, because it felt like walking slow-mo through a movie with all of them looking at us like 'why are you on our bus' type of thing. And even later, we passed a crossing sign for elderly people (an example of such sign here) and I thought to myself 'isn't this where they have to get off?' But they didn't. Oh, and another thing, Scotland has a LOT of sheep. On this bus ride I saw approximately 998723847 of them, a few hairy cows, 2 horses, and 1 ba ba black sheep.

We got to the Glasgow Buchanan station and somehow got on another bus to Edinburgh. It wasn't until we arrived at Edinburgh Station that we realized we missed our stop at Haymarket, but the bus driver took us there anyway, the nice man.

Carmen: "is this where we get off?"
Bus Driver: "Aye, laksjdfkahsdf"
Carmen: ".... is this where we get off?"
Bus Driver: "AYE."

I love it. AYE.

Anyways, we finally found Corey and he took us to his apartment with Joyce. Carmen and I were tired but really hungry, so Joyce, Carmen, and I went to TGIFs for a big dinner, then walked around Edinburgh some, and ended up at the Elephant House, thus making me drool. A lot.

(not a fake!)
The Elephant House is where J.K. Rowling used to go to write her early Harry Potter novels, she would look out the window at Edinburgh Castle. Sigh, so magical that I was in its presence! It's covered in Elephant things, and not much of HP stuff, which is interesting that it didn't cash in on it. But it's packed! It has a really nice warm atmosphere, and all the elephant toys look so friendly. I wish I could have gotten into the back room, but it was completely full.

(i sat in that cute chair!)