So classes have ended and I now have a three week vacation. :)
Today I am heading out to Stockholm, Sweden, then going to Berlin, Germany, then to Prague, Czech Republic, and then to Amsterdam, Netherlands. I then travel back to the UK to visit Sara at the University of Sussex before coming back to Edinburgh in time to do some laundry. I then head to the Isle of Skye for my last weekend before the exam period.
It's going to be a pretty exhausting three weeks, but also hopefully fantastic.
:)
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
So the first trip that Butler (my program) organised was a trip to Loch Lomond back a couple of weekends ago. We took a bus to the hostel, which was a renovated castle and absolutely beautiful. They treated us to a nice dinner and then showed Braveheart. During the course of the evening, we also signed up for activities for the next day.
I ended up signing up to do Gorge Walking in the morning, with a High Ropes Course in the afternoon.
Nobody explained what Gorge Walking was before we got there. Once we met with our instructor, he handed us full waterproof suits and helmets.
To show you our super sexy waterproof gear. We quickly learned that Gorge Walking did not actually involve walking. At all. In fact, gorge walking was entirely climbing and scaling walls.
It was a much more hardcore experience than anyone anticipated, but it was a tremendous amount of fun.
You see where that waterfull goes through the rocks? That's called the Key Hole. Instead of climbing up the log, like one might assume, we each had to go under the rock and climb through the small hole instead.
Our instructor convinced us to slide down the rocks -- kinda like a slide. Seems kinda stupid in retrospect. We fully understand why they made us sign the wavers at the start of the trip after this activity, but it was a tremendously good time.
This is a picture of the whole group after our gorge walk, feeling highly accomplished.
The afternoon involved a high ropes course.
It was a tremendous amount of fun. Of course, I've been wanting to do a high ropes course for pretty much my entire life and I missed my one previous opportunity due to a sprained ankle, so I had a really enjoyable time.
After our enjoyable day, we had a nice dinner.
On Sunday, they took us to a wool center so that we could buy souvenirs and see a sheep dog display. After treating us to lunch, they took us home.
Overall it was a pretty enjoyable weekend. :)
I ended up signing up to do Gorge Walking in the morning, with a High Ropes Course in the afternoon.
Nobody explained what Gorge Walking was before we got there. Once we met with our instructor, he handed us full waterproof suits and helmets.
To show you our super sexy waterproof gear. We quickly learned that Gorge Walking did not actually involve walking. At all. In fact, gorge walking was entirely climbing and scaling walls. 
It was a much more hardcore experience than anyone anticipated, but it was a tremendous amount of fun.
You see where that waterfull goes through the rocks? That's called the Key Hole. Instead of climbing up the log, like one might assume, we each had to go under the rock and climb through the small hole instead. 
Our instructor convinced us to slide down the rocks -- kinda like a slide. Seems kinda stupid in retrospect. We fully understand why they made us sign the wavers at the start of the trip after this activity, but it was a tremendously good time.
This is a picture of the whole group after our gorge walk, feeling highly accomplished.The afternoon involved a high ropes course.
It was a tremendous amount of fun. Of course, I've been wanting to do a high ropes course for pretty much my entire life and I missed my one previous opportunity due to a sprained ankle, so I had a really enjoyable time.
After our enjoyable day, we had a nice dinner.
On Sunday, they took us to a wool center so that we could buy souvenirs and see a sheep dog display. After treating us to lunch, they took us home.
Overall it was a pretty enjoyable weekend. :)
Friday, March 13, 2009
Grr...
There are a set of construction workers outside my window listening to really poppy awful music.
Grr.
Very soon I will post about my weekend at Loch Lomond and the gorge walking that did not, in fact, involve walking.
Grr.
Very soon I will post about my weekend at Loch Lomond and the gorge walking that did not, in fact, involve walking.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Madrid!!
So this past thursday, I skipped a couple of classes and headed off to Madrid instead! I flew out on a 9:45am flight, getting into Madrid by around 3. After checking into my hostel, I headed off to the Prado while Fiona finished off an essay she had to write.
That's the Prado. It was pretty exciting. I got to see a lot of really awesome famous art, including all sorts of pieces that I'd been studying in past classes, so it was really good.
After the Prado we mostly just walked around. Fiona took me to where they do the bull fights, so I could see the outside of the building. It was pretty impressive, although I apologize for the dark picture. It was after dark.
So, like a lot of cities around the world, Madrid was doing that whole 'let local artists decorate the themed object' thing. (Places have had cows, guitars, globes, etc etc.) Madrid was doing cows, so I took a picture next to the lego cow! It was good that I did this because when I walked past the next day, the cow was knocked over and broken. :( Anyway, I then headed off to the hostel to get some sleep because I was pretty tired.
So Friday was a beautiful day. Bright, sunny, and probably around 70 degrees. Absolutely wonderful. We decided to spend a lot of the day going to various parks because they were pretty and the weather was so nice. There were even some flowers!!
We even headed out to see the Palace in Madrid. We didn't go in because there was a line and I was more in the mood to go see more parks, but we got to see the outside of the Palace.
This is a park. That's the palace in the background. This is the park that doesn't allow you to walk on the grass and has all sorts of birds walking around including copious numbers of peacocks!!
Yes, that's a peacock in a tree. We got to see lots of peacocks which was just very very exciting. :)
We then walked up to see the Egyptian temple that was given to Madrid. I don't really remember why though. :(
There were some nice views from the Temple though because we were way up on a hill. It was nice to get a bigger view of the city. That night we met up with a couple other people and did some drinking outside with every intention of hitting up a discotecca. We never got to the discotecca sadly, but it was fun anyway.
On Saturday, we went out and I finally got a picture of the bear eating the strawberry tree, which is the symbol of Madrid. It was right near my hostel. :) We then headed out to the Thyssen-Bornemisza to see more exciting art and then to the Reina Sofia to see Guernica. (Picasso) After that, Fiona and I had a cup of coffee.
We then went to look inside the train station. It practically has a jungle in the middle of it. It's really pretty. We then walked around some more, sat around talking for a while, had a couple of guys ask us where to buy marijuana (why he decided to ask the two very not spanish american girls speaking english pretty loudly instead of any of the other groups of slightly sketchy looking men smoking their cigarettes is beyond me), and then got churros with chocolate. Then I headed to sleep for a few hours before heading back to Edinburgh on my 7:30 am flight.
Overall it was a really nice time and I'm glad I went.
That's the Prado. It was pretty exciting. I got to see a lot of really awesome famous art, including all sorts of pieces that I'd been studying in past classes, so it was really good.
After the Prado we mostly just walked around. Fiona took me to where they do the bull fights, so I could see the outside of the building. It was pretty impressive, although I apologize for the dark picture. It was after dark.
So, like a lot of cities around the world, Madrid was doing that whole 'let local artists decorate the themed object' thing. (Places have had cows, guitars, globes, etc etc.) Madrid was doing cows, so I took a picture next to the lego cow! It was good that I did this because when I walked past the next day, the cow was knocked over and broken. :( Anyway, I then headed off to the hostel to get some sleep because I was pretty tired.
So Friday was a beautiful day. Bright, sunny, and probably around 70 degrees. Absolutely wonderful. We decided to spend a lot of the day going to various parks because they were pretty and the weather was so nice. There were even some flowers!!
We even headed out to see the Palace in Madrid. We didn't go in because there was a line and I was more in the mood to go see more parks, but we got to see the outside of the Palace.
This is a park. That's the palace in the background. This is the park that doesn't allow you to walk on the grass and has all sorts of birds walking around including copious numbers of peacocks!!
Yes, that's a peacock in a tree. We got to see lots of peacocks which was just very very exciting. :)
We then walked up to see the Egyptian temple that was given to Madrid. I don't really remember why though. :(
There were some nice views from the Temple though because we were way up on a hill. It was nice to get a bigger view of the city. That night we met up with a couple other people and did some drinking outside with every intention of hitting up a discotecca. We never got to the discotecca sadly, but it was fun anyway.
On Saturday, we went out and I finally got a picture of the bear eating the strawberry tree, which is the symbol of Madrid. It was right near my hostel. :) We then headed out to the Thyssen-Bornemisza to see more exciting art and then to the Reina Sofia to see Guernica. (Picasso) After that, Fiona and I had a cup of coffee.
We then went to look inside the train station. It practically has a jungle in the middle of it. It's really pretty. We then walked around some more, sat around talking for a while, had a couple of guys ask us where to buy marijuana (why he decided to ask the two very not spanish american girls speaking english pretty loudly instead of any of the other groups of slightly sketchy looking men smoking their cigarettes is beyond me), and then got churros with chocolate. Then I headed to sleep for a few hours before heading back to Edinburgh on my 7:30 am flight. Overall it was a really nice time and I'm glad I went.
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