Scotland 2014

Hi all! Keep checking this site for updates on my daily adventures, big trips, and some photos. Use the links below to see what you want, or scroll down the home page to see everything. If you want to send me a brief message, feel free to do so below, and I'll answer as a post on the blog! I'll try to post at least once a week!

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Travel Update: GERMANY! (& London... & Glasgow. But mostly Germany.)

HIYA I know it's been a while, and I know I promised I'd come back to finish telling the tale of our fateful Paris trip.

Buuuuut that's not why I'm here.

I'm here to give you the deets on my GERMANY TRIP this weekend!!

It alllll starts with a Celtic Woman concert:

•Thursday Nov. 27•  11AM - depart Ft. William for Oban via bus 2:30PM (I think) - meet friends in Oban, depart for Glasgow via train ~5:30PM - arrive in Glasgow, maybe get some food? 7:30PM - CELTIC WOMAN CONCERT!!! Overnight accomodation: Euro Hostel Glasgow.  About a 15-20min walk from the concert hall.  Rik and I passed it on our first visit to Glasgow.

•Friday Nov. 28• 6:35AM - depart Glasgow for London via bus 3:30PM - arrive in London at Victoria Coach Station ~~ Sightseeing: Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Big Ben, etc. ~~ 10:30/45PM - find Germany bus near Embankment Underground station (Rik and I also found this on our last visit to London. So convenient!) 11:00PM - Bus departs for Belgium! Travel through the night via buses and ferries...

•Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 29-30• Saturday will be Brussels, Sunday will be Cologne, I believe.  We're put up in a 4-star hotel on Saturday night, which sounds lovely.  I'll have to share with people, but that's hardly different than a hostel.  Not a huge deal.  I'll keep all my stuff safe, dooon't worry.

•Sunday night, Nov. 30• I believe we travel during Sunday evening/maybe through Sunday night. I have a bus at 1AM on Monday Morning (Dec. 1), soooo I'm hoping that's okay.  It looks like it will be, because on the UK Study Tours website, they say they try to have London students home for the last tube, which runs at around 12:15AM, if I've heard correctly.

•Monday Dec. 1• 1:00AM - bus departs London Victoria Coach Station for Glasgow 5:50AM - bus transfer at Leeds Bus Station in England 11:45AM - bus arrives in Glasgow ~~ Lunch, playing with stuff in the Apple Store (((: ~~ 3:00PM - bus departs Glasgow for Fort William 6:08PM (oddly specific time) - bus arrives in Fort William.  I'll probably ask Adi or Flo to pick me up!  I'm sure my ankles will once again be in extreme pain, and I won't wanna climb that darned hill. Yep!  Those are the plans!  I've emailed UK Study Tours just to confirm an arrival time in London on Sunday night/Monday morning. If we get back too late, I'll probably just be able to move to an hour later bus.  No big deal.  I doubt too many people are traveling by bus from London to Glasgow on a Monday morning at 1-2AM.  Oh!!! I've also contacted a former Alpha Xi from Monmouth who's currently studying in London, and she might meet up with me on Friday for some of my sightseeing. Fun! :D

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ACTUAL PARIS POST - PART 1

SORRY SORRRYYYYYYY

This time I'm gonna get the whole first day documented AND I'm not gonna accidentally delete it!  TAKE THAT, TUMBLR! -.- 

Alright.

So.

A bit more than three weeks ago, on a Tuesday evening, Rik and I grabbed our backpacks at 6:55PM went downstairs to catch a ride to the train station thanks to Adi, the kindest host dad we could hope for.  Our train was due to leave at 7:20, and at 7:00, we walked into the Fort William station to find that there was a tree down on the tracks three stops away, and no one knew yet if we'd be able to get on our train.  After about 15 minutes we were notified that we would be travelling by bus to Edinburgh instead of train, but we would still easily catch our sleeper train from Edinburgh to London.  Not too big a deal, as I had my bottle of ginger pills with me and had already taken some.  

Thus we boarded a bus to Edinburgh.  On the approximately four hour drive, Rik and I both did a good deal of sleeping, although I was up for a while with the desperate need to pee - luckily, we stopped at the same roadside bathroom as when I bussed it to Glasgow for the GRE.  After that, though the bus was cooooold as ice and I had to wrap my scarf around head, face, and shoulders, I slept for most of the drive.

We actually didn't get all the way to Edinburgh - we stopped in Stirling to wait for the sleeper train which we were originally going to catch in Glasgow.  We had to wait about 30 minutes, and did so in a small waiting room at Stirling train station which was as cold on the inside as it was outside -- pretty cold.  I had trouble feeling my fingers and toes after a while, but we had WiFi to occupy us, so I texted friends and family a bit to take my mind off the chill.  The train pulled in right on time at 11:20.  Rik and I had been upgraded to a sleeper cabin to make up for the inconvenience of the bus trip - actually turned out to be pretty convenient for an 8-hour train ride!!  This was my first time in a sleeper car, so I took a few pictures to document the occasion:

1. Distinctive architecture at the Stirling train station 2. Rik modeling our sleeper cabin 3. Wall hanger for the ladder to the top bunk 4. Sleeper car hallway 5. The view from the bottom bunk.

As you can see, the cabin was very small, but hey?  How much room do you need when all you're gonna do is sleep?! Rik took the top bunk, and I took the bottom.  We had a good laugh about the fact that the top bunk had the equivalent of seatbelts connecting the edge of the bed to the ceiling - just in case someone rolled a bit too far the wrong way on the ride.  Heh.  Rik took that risk.  There was also a mirror, a garbage bin, and a shelf for our stuff, as well as reading lights for each bunk, a nightlight for the cabin, and complimentary soap and towels for use in the bathrooms.  While we got settled in the cabin, a stewardess (is that what they're called on trains??!) came to check our tickets.  I had a bit of trouble finding which of the SIX PIECES OF PAPER were my actual tickets, but once it was sorted, she took our complimentary coffee and tea orders for the morning (gotta love the free upgrade) and let us be.  We decided we were both too lazy to dig out pajamas, so we slept in our clothes that night.  We'd been planning to do it anyway, right?  Why not!  

I read a little bit of the second Percy Jackson book on my Kindle before nodding off and hittin the hay, but Rik was out right away.  And rest assured, I was out pretty quick once my light was turned off.  I

GOSH

DARN IT

THE PAGE STOPPED WORKING AND DELETED MOST OF MY POST

I'm giving up for the night

I'll continue this narrative FOR THE THIRD TIME tomorrow.

Love you all.

I'm gonna go scream for a while.

[seeingscots]

Well, folks, I just had part of my first Paris post all typed up for you.... until I accidentally closed the tab.

That being said, I'll be back tomorrow night with my COMPLETE, POSTED first Paris post.

Sorry it's taking so long!  Immediately after we got back, I had several papers due and grad school research to get done.  But I swear, things are liiittle calmer right now.  You'll hear from me very soon.

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We stopped in the coffee shop I've been wanting to stop in since I got here

Cinnamon crunch latte = goodness

Caffeine makes me talkative

THERE'S SNOW ON BEN NEVIS AND I'M UNREASONABLY EXCITED.

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my walk around the cow hill circuit behind upper achintore - part 5

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my walk around the cow hill circuit behind upper achintore - part 4

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my walk around the cow hill circuit behind upper achintore - part 3 (click to enlarge)

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my walk around the cow hill circuit behind upper achintore - part 2 (click to enlarge)

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my walk around the cow hill circuit behind upper achintore - part 1

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Entering the Louvre, Paris, France

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In the Gardens of Versailles, France

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Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France

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The Palace of Versailles, France

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Paris, France

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Alright. So. Paris.

I have some notes saved on my iPod for the blog posts I will eventually write detailing the entire Paris trip.  For now, here's a brief summary:

So much travel time.

So many Subway/Underground/Metro rides.

SO MUCH WALKING. 

The Eiffel Tower!!! AT NIGHT!!!!!

D I S N E Y L A N D

The catacombs

The Palace of Versailles

The Louvre (holy crud)

So much pain in my feet and ankles and knees

So much walking

So little sleep

NOTRE DAME

Comic book store

So much more travel time.

Sleeping in a 24-hour Costa in Heathrow airport

So. much. travel. time.

Feet hurt so much

BLISTERS

Amazing trip. 10/10 would recommend.  Would do it again. No regrets whatsoever.

I edited a few of my favorite photos tonight while I had no internet, so I'll post those here in a sec.  My actual blog posts won't come until this weekend.  I have two papers due the day after tomorrow which I haven't started yet -- whooooops!  

[seeingscots]

Itinerary Update: Paris!

We have a hostel!  It's the closest to our test center that we could find, and it wasn't too expensive!  We're in an 8-person mixed dorm, but that's okay.  We can deal with it.  We're staying at 

St Christopher's Inn Canal, 159, rue de Crimee, Paris, France

For your reference! (: We check in on Wednesday night and out on Saturday.  Rik wants to go to the Eiffel Tower on Wednesday night, and I AM ALL FOR IT.  He says I have to see it at night, and I agreeee.  And he said that if we want, we can climb to the top: it only costs €10, and I'd say that's a small price to pay for the experience and the views!!

I'm really starting to get excited about this trip!  Disneyland is COMPLETELY set, and I dreamed about it last night!  .... I just have to read 3 research papers and write a 1500 word review on them before we leave tomorrow.  No problem.  I can continue studying for the PGRE on the train.  Sounds good.

[seeingscots]

Did you know? Scotland style!

This post will just be a few things that are a little different about life in Scotland.  A cultural lesson, if you will.

As you may or may not know, in the British Isles, people drive on the left side of the road instead of the right.  The steering wheel is on the right side of the car.  That's all well and good.  I've gotten pretty used to it, actually.

But there are a few other different things about the roads!  

Roundabouts are extremely common - I pass two on my 20 minute walk to the college from our house, and there's another two or three out on the way to the place we get kayaks and canoes from for class.  They're everywhere.  They're all two lanes, and kind of terrifying to someone who has probably only driven through three different roundabouts in her five years of driving experience.

The road signs are all completely different.  The 'yield' signs say 'give way' instead, which, for some reason, I find endearingly passive-aggressive.  The speed limit signs are circular, and - SURPRISE! - speed limits are posted in MPH!  Unexpected, right?  But useful!  I actually know how fast people are going!  And people know what I mean if I estimate something in miles!  It's great!

Most of the 'highway' connecting major towns is only two lanes.  Passing is allowed everywhere - if you're brave enough to pass, you're free to do so.  And it happens all the time.  There are some craaazy speed demons out there, guys.  It's common to see small stretches of side road just long enough and wide enough for a slow-moving car.  They pop up once every 50 or 60 yards or so, if someone behind you is impatient and you want to let them pass.

There are also many places in the countryside where the road narrows to only one lane: most of our travel on Skye was on such roads.  The side stretches are more frequent there, and when you meet a car going the opposite direction as you, one of you has to pull into the little outlet.  Sometimes you have to stop and reverse, sometimes you see the other car soon enough to slide right into an outlet ahead.  It's funny - it happens all  the time here, and I can only think that if America tried to employ this traffic control method, everyone would be far too impatient to use it.  They'd all just run each other off the roads instead.  Like a deathly game of chicken.

Early on, I gave you a list of vocabulary differences, and those are still alive and kicking.  I hear 'car park' more often than 'parking lot' nowadays, as the four I live with have started picking up the lingo whenever they talk to locals.

I guess that's all I can think of right now.  I don't know why it's all driving related... hm. 

Hope you enjoyed my cultural lesson of the day!