Scotland

Jessica and I took a trip to Scotland, just the two of us, and it was really great. We left on Wednesday morning after taking a major Humanities test, so we were glad to get out of there. We took a train from Oxford to Inverness, which took a total of about 10 hours. It was very long, but not AS bad as I was expecting because we changed trains twice. We arrived in Inverness late Wednesday night.
The next day we woke up and went to the tourist center right away to book our Loch Ness Tour. We had the morning to explore before our tour so we set out by the river to the Ness Islands. It was so peaceful and beautiful. There were bridges connecting the little islands together and nature paths went along them. Jessica and I took our time exploring. It was really cool. We noticed right away that people in Scotland are very friendly. Almost everyone we passed, smiled brightly at us and said, "Good morning!!" After the trails, we spend some time going in shops and got some lunch before our tour.

This was taken back along the nature trails of the Ness Islands

You can't see the whole thing here, but there was a huge tree trunk that had been carved to look like the Loch Ness Monster

The tour started out with an hour and a half boat ride. It went along the Caledonian Canal and out into Loch Ness. I was worried that it was going to be very cold, but we got blessed with the weather because the sun was out. We started out sitting inside but moved outside because we wanted the real "experience." They had Scottish music playing in the background on the boat and periodically a recording would talk about historical facts and landmarks. It was a beautiful boat ride and I really enjoyed it. I find the Loch Ness monster stories very interesting. The little town of Inverness knows that Nessie has put them on the map, and they seem so proud of the stories. One man has moved out here from the states and is living in a van, and is making his living by creating Nessie figurines, just hoping to catch a glimpse of the monster. There have been historical accounts of sightings as far back as 560 AD. I'm not saying that I really believe that that Loch Ness Monster exists, I'm just saying that I find in very interesting.

Jessica and I on the boat

Loch Ness.....can you see Nessie??? I managed to capture TWO Nessies ;)

The tour then took us to the Urquhart Castle(above) where we got off the boat and had an hour to explore the Castle. The Castle was in such a remote location, in the middle of Loch Ness. It was really neat and Jessica and I enjoyed exploring it. We even stuck our hands in the freezing cold water just to say that we touched Loch Ness.

This was somebody's room....

The next morning we took the train to Edinburgh. The train ride was beautiful. I even got to see snow, although it was only from the train, I was not actually "in" snow.

After arriving in Edinburgh, we went right to our hostel to drop off our stuff. Our hostel was located 15 min. outside of the city, but they offered a bus transport. The reason we were persuaded to stay here is because of this picture below....it was on the beach. Even though it was quite cold, we went exploring for a little bit in the "back yard" of our hostel. We went back into Edinburgh later that night, went exploring some more and got dinner.

Edinburgh Castle

The next morning, we got up early and went to climb Arthur's Seat. It is an extinct volcano up on a hill, that is said to be somehow connected to King Arthur. I was not feeling that up to climbing it...but Jessica persuaded me, and I am glad that I ended up doing it. We saw the whole city below us. I have also never felt the wind so strongly in my life, and it was scary at some points, as I thought I might be blown from the mountain. The picture below shows just a small taste of the wind, as we were genuinely just trying to smile normal.
We did not stay that much longer in Edinburgh. We did walk around a little bit more and ran into this guy playing the bagpipes. I am surprised about how many guys I actually saw wearing kilts. Either they are wearing them to draw tourists into buying them, or they are just darn serious about being Scottish. Either way it was quite amusing.
We took a 6 hour train back to Oxford, and here I am. I have the whole week in Oxford, which will be nice because I have been gone so often. Then on Saturday we are going as a group to Paris. I am very excited about this trip, especially because everyone gets to go together.
I hope to get caught up on all my schoolwork this week.
I really feel disconnected from my "other world" back in the states sometimes. I have gotten into such a routine of things here that I am fearful of post culture shock upon returning. I know that there is nothing I can do to change it, and that there is no use worrying about it now. I just did not expect to feel this great of an attachment to Oxford and just Europe in general. God has truly blessed me, and I hope there is not a day that goes by that I don't forget it.

Parents come to Oxford, and off to Italy we go.

I just got back from Genoa and Cinque Terre, Italy last night. It was beautiful and a lot of fun.My parents arrived in Oxford last Sunday. On Monday after my morning class, we went into London. We went through the National Gallery and saw Les Miserables. It was really good. I showed them around Oxford on Tuesday. It was really fun to show them what I've been experiencing all semester. I think they liked being able to picture "my world" here too.

My mom and I in Trafalgar Square in London

Outside the Theatre

Dad outside of one of the pubs that we ate at. JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis used to meet there to discuss their writing.

We left VERY early Wednesday morning for a bus to Stansted Airport. It was a long day of traveling but it was worth it once we got there. Genoa was a lot bigger than we had expected it to be. It was the birthplace of Christopher Columbus and one of Italy's most important harbour cities. It had the world's second largest aquarirum that we went to. It was cool, but as my mom said, we are spoiled by SeaWorld being so near to us in Florida. We also went to a lot of the Palaces and saw lots of paintings. It was neat trying to imagine people living in these huge, grand rooms with ceilings of gold and unbelievable architecture.

Dad and I on top of one of the palaces

There were boats everywhere

We got gelato quite frequently while we were in Italy. Dad barely made the picture.

We spent 2 nights in Genoa, and we had our own little apartment in our hotel-thanks to mom ;).On Friday morning we took a train to Cinque Terre, which took a little more than an hour. We were a bit confused as to what we were doing because everything was in Italian. In fact the whole time that we were in Genoa, we did not run into anyone else who spoke English as their first language. We were using my dad's newly bought Italian phrase book alot. Anyways, people were so kind to us. It was quite obvious that we needed helping because we looked confused a lot. One particular man on the train went out of his way to make sure that we knew how to get to where we needed to go. He kept talking and talking in Italian and I think he thought we could understand him more than we actually could.
We spent our time in Cinque Terre exploring the 5 towns(Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarolla, and Riomaggiore) and walking around, eating, and relaxing. When we showed up, our hotel was not re-confirmed so the lady told us that we had no place to stay. God really took care of us because the lady then went on to help us find a different apartment for each night which were owned by friends of hers. They were both nice, but the last night we were there we stayed in an apartment owned by an English lady who was very kind. It was way up on the hill and we were a funny sight dragging our suitcases up the mountain. It had a view of the ocean and it was very cozy.

Monterosso

tiny village of Manarolla

Manarolla

a bridge on one of the hikes in between Manarolla and Corniglia

On the mountain there were figures lit up for Easter. We had a perfect view of them from our apartment and it was really cool that it was up for display for the whole town to see.

I really enjoyed this trip and I know my parents did too. Now I have to work really hard on school work until I leave again on Wednesday for Scotland. HaHa. I am crazy.
Time is going by so fast and I really dreading saying goodbye to Europe.
I miss everyone so much and I hope that all is well. Love you.

Ireland!

Ireland was amazing! We left on Wednesday afternoon and took a coach bus out to stansted airport. That is a long bus ride, 3 and 1/2 hours, and once you get there you feel like all of your traveling should already be over. Upon arriving in Cork Ireland, we needed to take a bus to get to our hostel. We managed to miss THREE buses in a row by being inside or outside at the wrong time. We finally ended up taking a van taxi to our hostel. It was kind of weird because its been a long time since we have been in a car.
We woke up the next morning and decided to go explore Cork and walk around.
Apparently it was Daffodil Day in Cork. However the next day in Killarney it was Daffodil Day too, so we were kinda confused and thought it was funny.
After walking around Cork for awhile, we just were itching to go see the countryside or scenery of Ireland opposed to the city, which Cork had to offer. So we took a train out to Cobh, a harbor city about 20 minutes away. This was the last place that Titanic stopped before it wrecked. I thought that was really neat.

I wanted to reenact Titanic and Molly helped me out.

After Cobh. We got on the train again and stopped off at Foto which has a famous wildlife park. When we got there we decided we did not want to pay 13 Euros to get into the park. There was a trail/road that led down alongside the park, so we decided to take it. It was strange because there was electric fences all along a deserted grassy path and we felt like we were in Jurassic Park and that dinosaurs would pop out any moment. Everyone started telling spooky stories and I must admit I got a little, teeny, tiny creeped out. We also came to a Garden that was SOO green, and really pretty! We figured out that Ireland is probably so green because it rains and sprinkles ALOT.

The next morning we headed out to Killarney, by taking a 2 hour coach ride. I was planning on sleeping, but I could not shut my eyes for fear of missing the scenery. It was BEAUTIFUL! The picture below is what I took out of my window on the way there.

When we got to Killarney and we found the tourist office and the lady told us how to get to the Ireland National Park. We walked about 10 miles this day and we were VERY tired by the end of it, but we got to see the Ireland that we were all thinking of.

Yes, we hiked to a waterfall!






The next day we went to Blarney to see the castle. It was really cool.

While we were there, we HAD to kiss the famous Blarney stone. They have you lie on your back and you hold onto bars while guy helps you flip over and kiss the rock. Thousands of people have kissed this rock including Winston Churchill and American Presidents.

This was me on my way up from kissing the stone.






We then walked around the premises of the castles and the gardens for awhile and took a lot of pictures with my camera using the color feature on it.

Here's our group! Karissa, Sondra, Jill, Molly and I

All in All, Ireland was a great experience. It really is as green and beautiful as everyone says it is.

I am so enjoying my time over here. I have quite adjusted and I am actually feeling sad at thinking of my departure. I know that when I come back to the states that little things will be different. Instead of saying, "Wow, look how long that line is." In my mind I say, "Wow, the queue is really long."I really have been able to realize how important it is to have knowledge and understanding of other cultures. I feel that we Americans tend to have an egotistical attitude sometimes, that we sometimes forget there's a whole big world out there. I have caught the traveling bug and I hope that throughout my lifetime I am able to travel more and experience as many cultures as I can.

Until I depart back to the states, I will soak up every moment of this AMAZING opportunity.

AND.....my parents come in one week!!!!!

Blenheim Palace

Today we went to Blenheim Palace. It was really fun and it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It was only about a 15 min. bus ride from the house, not bad at all. It would have been perfect if it had been about 70 degrees, because it was still a little cold and windy, but it was still sunny and beautiful. We did not pay to go into the actual palace, but there were plenty of gardens and other things to explore.
We saw a tree at one point and it looked really fun to climb. It was too tall to get up there on our own, so Katie being the shortest decided to boot me up,( I was the shortest) and I was trying to grab onto to something, but there was nothing to grab. So, I lost my balance and the girls tried to catch me but I fell on my back from the tree onto the ground pretty hard. I am fine though, my back just has some scratches on it and it will probably bruise. It sounds worse than it was, it makes a great story and it got a good laugh out of everyone.
There was a cool maze that we went through, and a butterfly room. We did not stay that long and came back to the house. In fact, as I am writing this, I am in the common room watching Sound of Music. I need to get some more homework done, because I leave for IRELAND on Wednesday.

Cheers!

the backside of the palace
weird statue
i want to live there
so many daffadils

the amazing maze
this maze helped inspire the Harry Potter maze in the 4th movie
i STILL get excited when i see my last name!