Scotland!

Hello! I must apologize for the extensive hiatus this blog has experienced. I am currently back in the U.S., which is a big change considering the last time I posted I had just come back from Brighton.

Between my month long spring break, studying and taking my finals, packing up all of my belongings, and showing my mom around England for the last week of my stay, I had very little time. As you can tell, this left my blog on the sidelines. But I am determined to finish showing and telling you all of my adventures.

Onto the blog post!

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Unlike my school in the States, my host university has a month long spring break......This is a dramatic change to the mere seven days my peers and I receive at home. Now that I've experienced the two, I much prefer the month long break (although it was a little difficult school-wise, as I had to try to remember everything from before the break). But nothing beats a break where you can fully recharge and prepare for the last stretch of finals!

My first adventure in my spring break was a trip to the Scottish Highlands with my study abroad program. Alyssa, Gaby, and I all met at the train station, where we got Subway for dinner. I felt cheated out of a decent sized sandwich, as the norm over there is a six inch. To make it a foot long, it's two more pounds. In total, a foot long would be about $10!!! So to fill up my stomach, I got 3 chocolate chip cookies, which were very cheap. However, since we all still had a little bit of room in our stomachs, the McFlurrys we saw everyone carrying around were too tempting to resist. I decided on a Cadbury dairy milk McFlurry, which is basically vanilla ice cream with little Cadbury chocolate chunks. And I have to say, it was a very good decision, as the delicious little cups were only 99 pence!

Feeling quite satisfied, we headed over to board our train to Edinburgh. (The students attending the trip were all responsible for getting to Edinburgh, and then to the hostel the program coordinators had booked.) However, we all had a mini freakout, as Alyssa and Gaby thought we were missing our train. One of the conductors told a girl that the particular train we were looking at was going to Edinburgh, even though we were pretty sure it wasn't. I didn't notice until they told me because of the combination of fatigue and McFlurry coma I was experiencing. (Just typical Jennifer behavior). Thankfully, we were correct and our train came shortly after. I only hope that the girl was able to get to Edinburgh safely. Despite the slightly stressful boarding situation, the train ride went smoothly, although we were quite tired by the time we got off the train.

As a side note, there are so many people who leave their trash when they leave a train. I never got used to doing that while I was abroad, as I felt like I was littering. However, it seems that that was the norm, as the workers are expected to clean up the train at the end of the line.

After we got to Edinburgh, it was a short walk from the train station to the hostel. We all had different rooms from each other, but we were so tired we went to bed anyways. And this worked out, as our check out time was 8:10 am and we needed to eat breakfast beforehand.

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At 8:30 the next morning, all of us were loaded onto our designated tour buses (we had to have two buses due to the size of our group). Thankfully, Alyssa, Gaby, and I were all on the same bus! We also met up with Rose (who I knew from taking Kickboxing and Krav Maga classes together) and her friend Lilli.

Our first destination of our bus tour was to Blair Castle. But our first pit stop gave us a beautiful waterside view along with some bridges. With the addition of the fog, the place gave off a San Francisco vibe:

My view of the water and bridges

It was so foggy, although you can't tell too much from this picture

Me and Alyssa

From left to right: Gaby, Me, and Alyssa

Our tour bus!

After the quick stop, we traveled the rest of the way to Blair Castle. 

Although we couldn't take pictures inside, they allowed us to snap some shots in a grand dining hall:

This is just a small glimpse of the many antler and animal decorations throughout the house.

Very masculine interior design

They even had a big, roaring fire to heat up the room!

After touring the castle, we explored outside, getting a better view of the castle:

I wish we'd had a little more time at the castle, but we also had the Culloden Battlefield on our agenda. Before going out to the battlefield, we toured through the visitor center to learn the history behind it. Learning about the final battle between the Jacobites and the British government made me appreciate the battlefield more, and definitely added to the eerie quiet as we looked between the starting lines of the British government and Jacobite army.

It was a gruesome battle because the Jacobites were not used to combat on flat terrain. Rather, their tactic was to intimidate and surprise their opponents by charging them from the top of a hill. The British army was much more equipped to fighting on this type of terrain. Essentially, the battle was a slaughter and ended the Jacobite Rising to regain the British throne for the Stewart line.

The red flags symbolized the starting line of the British government

The blue flags, symbolizing the Jacobite starting line, were too far away for my camera to pick up properly.

A symbol of the many Jacobites who fell in 1746 during the Battle of Culloden.

A cannonball was found on the left side of this cottage from the Battle of Culloden.

Afterwards, we went to our next hostel. This is where things got really interesting. Our program leaders warned us that we would be trying some of the local cuisine at the hostel, and they didn't disappoint. First on the menu was a fish soup. Surprisingly, I didn't think it was too bad and ate it all, even if it looks a little unappetizing:

Next came the dreaded main course: Haggis. If you don't know what haggis is made of and want to try it in the future (especially if you're planning to visit Scotland), do yourself a favor and don't look it up. Especially if you can't try something if the thought of it grosses you out. Here's a little picture if you're interested in what it looks like:

Before (left) and after (right). The haggis is the brown pile, which always reminds me of wet cat food....

I was really proud of myself, because I ate quite a lot of the meal, despite being a picky eater. One thing I have studying abroad to thank is the fact that I am a lot more open to trying new dishes, and actually liking them (at the very least thinking they're not too bad). My friends had a little more trouble finishing their haggis, but I don't blame them. I really don't know how I ate that much looking at it now.

After dinner, we were entertained by a storyteller who told us a few stories from Scottish folklore. I wish I hadn't been so tired because I would have been able to pay more attention to his stories. But we were all so tired after our long day, and his voice kept making my eyes close! Unfortunately, that was also the night of Daylight Saving Time, so we lost an hour of much needed sleep!

But the next day was a fun-filled day. Our first stop was our Loch Ness boat tour. My tour guide made sure we knew how to properly say the word "loch," meaning "lake." Apparently, you need to add some phlegm  to the "ch" of the word. Needless to say, Alyssa and I were constantly practicing afterwards. :)

This is the closest we got to seeing Nessie that day.

Our boat for the Loch Ness tour

Loch Ness!

Alyssa and Gaby!

Lilli and Rose!

We saw some castle ruins on our tour

The boat ride was very cold, the type of cold that leaves you chilled to the bone, but the beautiful view made up for all of that. And unfortunately, Nessie didn't make an appearance for us that day. But maybe one day....

After the boat tour, our bus took us through Glen Coe. Here are some of the beautiful sights I captured on our pit stops:

I see snow!

There was a memorial statue for all of the Scottish men who were lost during WWII:

Despite the beauty, it was a little cold.....and windy:

However, we still took the opportunity to take some photos together:

Here are a couple of pictures from our second pit stop. I wish we could have hiked here!

After a couple of hours in Glen Coe, it was time to head back to Edinburgh and say goodbye to our tour guide. She was chock-full of Scottish history, more than I could ever remember. Tour guides definitely make or break a bus tour, and I was thankful that we had as great of a tour guide as we did.

We got into Edinburgh around dinnertime. But since we were staying an extra day in Edinburgh before heading back to Leeds, Alyssa and I stayed with Gaby and a few of her friends in their rented apartment, who were staying a few days longer. So, we had to find our way to the apartment. It was nice place to stay, and it even had a furnace designed to look like a fireplace!

With a good night's sleep, Alyssa and I branched off from the others so we could see the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where the Queen stays during the summertime. Before we arrived, I snapped a few photos as we walked down the street:

I finally got my red phone booth photo! (Although it is unorthodox to have it taken in Scotland....)

And then we arrived!

Sometimes, you just have to take the opportunity to photo-bomb your friend's shot....

In case you were wondering just how big the palace was.....

The details I always see in England, and now Scotland, continue to amaze me!

Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed inside the palace, but I took a picture of the courtyard (seen above) as well as an abbey outside of the palace:

I was a little sad we couldn't see the gardens. :(

It took us a couple hours to get through the whole palace, just because we were looking at everything so slowly and carefully. It was crazy trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a place like that and call it "home," let alone have it be one of the many places you call home as the Queen does. I wasn't very successful in imagining that, since that kind of lifestyle seem so high up in the clouds to me. I'm more of a down-to-earth type girl. :)

After that, we met up with the others for some lunch, and then we headed to our last stop, the Edinburgh Castle:

The fog was hanging over the castle, giving it a cool, yet eerie, feel.

We could see over all of the rooftops walking to the castle.

Our view walking up to the castle

Entrance to Edinburgh Castle

I would have liked a little more time to see the castle, and maybe go on a tour, but we were short on time (as we had to catch our train back to Leeds). Despite the lack of time, it was fun to look around, although I feel like it was a little overpriced for what was there.

The view

The cannons were a nice touch......

.....So I took a picture with them :)

This was a dog cemetery for regimental mascots and officers' dogs used since 1837.

Saint Margaret's Chapel

Inside of Saint Margaret's Chapel

After the castle, we stopped by a souvenir store to pick up some souvenirs before heading to the train station to go back home!

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And that's all, folks! Hope you enjoyed this long recap of my trip to Scotland. And again, sorry for such a delay in getting these blog posts up! Next up is my week-long adventure to Europe with Alyssa!