Scotland! The land of bagpipes and Haggis. We all finished up our classes on Friday and were released for a week of wild adventures on Saturday. Though we were kicked out of our hostel Saturday morning, Andrew and I did not leave until Sunday. This was because it would have been less expensive to pay for another hostel and buy our airplane ticket for Sunday than it would have been to buy a ticket for Saturday. Fortunately, Ms. Florence Kelley Orr was able to hook us up in Munich to stay at her cousin’s loft so we didn’t have to get a hostel! Saturday morning Jeff, Tanner, Andrew, Kelley, and I headed off to Munich with a pit stop at the airport to bid Tanner and Jeff a farewell. We met Katharina downtown and she took us to her loft. We spent some time in a beer garden where I first tried obatzda, GOD’S GIFT TO MAN! It is a Bavarian Cheese dip comprised of many different soft cheeses, garlic, and other ingredients to which are unknown to myself. The Brazilian with a magnificent smile, Aurelio, joined us and we went to kill some time downtown. Aurelio, Andrew, and I were planning on attending Katharina’s concert that night in a small town outside of Munich. We went to the train station where Aurelio got our tickets and we made it just in the nick of time! It was classical music which I loved and they were fantastic! On the way back to Munich, they ticket checker people came to see our tickets, informed us we were on the wrong ring (whatever that means), and then started the process of fining us 40 Euros. No way jose! Aurelio and the checkers were conversing in German and me, knowing 0 German, just stared blankly at the woman’s face. I knew what was going on but was going to wait to say anything until she addressed me. She asked me for my passport and I gave her my license, then I said…. Well how are we suppose to do this cause we are leaving tomorrow? (which was Sunday) I then whipped out my charm and persuasive manner and got off the train with no fine. Thank-you Nicole. We were all famished so decided on a little Italian restaurant which was divine. We all stayed up talking and decided that Aurelio was going to call his other friend from Brazil and that we would go to the Deutsche Museum the next afternoon. We all went to beddy-by and at about 2:30 a.m. I slightly thought of day light savings, but fell asleep before that thought was fully completed. Enough to say we were an hour late because I forgot to set my watch an hour forward. Oopsie daisy. We met up with his friend and spent the day at the museum. I had lost the guys and started wandering the museum on my own. I already had not been to stoked about this whole museum business because quite frankly, I am museum-ed out. Plus the fact that all of the signs were in German did not add to my interest. While strolling I spotted a bench that was calling my name. I obliged and fell asleep on the bench for an hour and a half. I guess I was a little tired.

Edinburgh Castle

. Andrew and I then made out way to the airport to begin our journey to Edinburgh, Scotland. That night, I was in one of my moods which was quite entertaining for Andrew and the people around me. While on the plane Andrew and I whipped out my iPod and began singing Lady GaGa, the lady sitting next to us was starting at me and giggling. I chuckled. We didn’t touch down into Scotland until 11:10 p.m. and still had to go through customs. We were the last ones in line and had to fill out paperwork. It was getting late and the guard/officer was very jolly and said we didn’t have to fill them out and stamped our passports. Man! I already loved Scotland. Best customs I have ever gone through! We had one obstacle, we knew we had to take a bus to downtown, we just didn’t know where it was and it was so late that information was closed. But we found it and it took us to Waverly Bridge. Catriona, the girl who we were staying with, gave us directions from this bridge and so we started on the first step. We accidentally missed a street and ended up at Edinburgh Castle. Great! Sigh. By now it was probably 12:30 or 1 in the morning and I felt horrible because she was waiting up for us! We eventually found our way but morning was coming fast so we just took a cab the rest of the way. We talked for a bit, ate some pizza, and then went to bed. The next morning Catriona took us on the Royal Mile and on top of Calton Hill for the day. We then went to a pub and met up with our new friend Richard and ate some dinner. She took us to a grocery store called Tesco which is where I purchased bagels and peanut butter because I had access to a toaster!! I also had COLD milk, which German hostels apparently have not discovered yet.

Calton Hill
"Athens of the North"

Normally, one would see a heart and think "oh how cute." If you thought this you were wrong. Every Scotsman who walks by this heart spits on it. It represents the tax booth that once stood. Once, a man thought that it was a romantic spot and he proposed to his soon to be fiance. Of course he was kneeling.... but what he did not know was he was kneeling on spit. Mmmmm!


The next morning, we woke up and it was SNOWING! We brought it from Germany!!!! It was freezing and there was no way we were going outside. Because of this, Tuesday consisted of lots of sleep, working on papers, The Office, and movies! We did venture outside once to get some Chinese food and couldn’t get back in the building because the locks are messed up. My fingers almost froze off from frostbite, but luckily Trina let us in. That night I was freezing my buns off in the loft. At our hostel in Regensburg, Courtney always uses the hair dryer to warm up her bed… which I thought was brilliant. So I plugged in the hair dryer right next to bed and used that as my heater. Worked like a charm. Wednesday we took a walking tour of Edinburgh which was awesome! Our tour guide was awesome and I had never realized how much history was in Edinburgh. From volcanoes, wars, witches, authors, philosophy, and of course HARRY POTTER! I was able to visit the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, I felt enlightened. At train stations Courtney an I always look for platform 9 ¾ but are never successful. Hogwarts doesn’t want me. But maybe after this they will be able to recognize my appreciation and I will be expecting to receive an owl in the mail with my letter of acceptance to Hogwarts. I also learned the history of many phrases such as “Saved by the bell.” Back in the day, grave robbing was quite common but it was not illegal. If someone in the family had died, a relative would sleep on top of his grave for 7-10 days so no one would take his body. They constructed cages that surrounded the casket of wealthy men and women in the ground that went fairly deep on inhibit these robbers from stealing the cadavers. When the grave robbers were successful, many empty caskets had surfaced in which they observed that 1 in 4 caskets had fingernail scratches on the inside cover, which meant 25% of the people were buried alive! Can you imagine being buried alive! They figured that many people would slip into a coma and doctors would misdiagnose the come for death. Some inventor came up with the idea of having a bell on top of the grave and a string going down into the casket, so if a man would wake up and he was in his casket, he could just tug the string and then bell would ring above ground, indicating that they had to dig up a grave to save the man. Saved by the bell! This was a good idea but there is quite a lot of wind which caused most of the bells to ring, so they mostly ignored the bells… but I am sure that it saved a couple of people! On this tour we were recommended to try deep fried Mars Bars and a soda called Iron Brew. We had seen deep fried Mars Bars advertised and there was no way I was going to eat that! But our tour guide coxed us into trying it and talk about feeling your arteries close up when eat them! But surprisingly enough, they were better than I had expected. I had never even eaten a Mars Bar before so this was an experience. Matt, our guide, also convinced us of trying Haggis, neeps, and tatties which we did later on. Once again I was pleasantly surprised.. haggis is quite tasty. We were expecting it to be served in the stomach and having to slit it open with all the juices and meat bursting out, but luckily enough it was presented normally on a plate. Haggis is basically the scraps of the scraps left from the cuttings of animal meet mixed with spices, oatmeal, and other things. Neeps and tatties are potatoes and turnips. Had I mentioned that it was raining the entire time we took our tour?? Even though it was rain, I was thankful that it was not snow!!

Fried Mars Bar Iro-Bru

J.K. Rowling sat in the middle Where Rowling wrote Harry Potter

Cage around grave

Hogwarts!

Grey Friar's Bobby

View of Castle from Princes Street Gardens

After the tour we returned to the loft to work on our paper that was due and then we went out for a night of fun at some pubs and clubs. We made some Australian friends who were really nice who are studying in Florence… we are now honorary Australians! Yah!!! There was also karaoke which was very entertaining. Andrew and Charlotte sang a song from Greece and I was so disappointed that my battery died for my camera so I couldn’t record it. We had some fun for the rest of the night and went to bed quite late. The next day we met up with 2 of our Aussie friends, Charlotte and David, and joined them in the tour of the Edinburgh Castle. . We were able to see the Stone of Destiny and the crowned jewels of Scotland. After the tour we met up with Cara and ate an early dinner. This was when we tried our Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties which tasted like a pasty or a mince meat pie. They wanted us to go out with them that night but we had to finish our papers because they were due at midnight. We had planned on renting a car for the week but it had been raining and snowing so much that places were flooding and it would not have been worth it. Because of this, we decided to go on a Highland Tour which was awesome!

Australians!

View from Castle: Scots Monument, Calton Hill, Arthur's Seat, Hollyrood Palace

Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties

Our departure time was at 8:00 so we had to leave our loft at 7:20. I was planning on waking up at 6:20 in order to have time to get ready and grab a Starbucks. I woke up without my alarm, looked at my watch and it was 7:12!! Blasted! We had 8 minutes to get ready!! Thankfully, we were quite speedy and made it to the travel agency on time. On this tour we passed through Glencoe, Dunkeid, Fort Augustus, and of course Loch Ness!!! Our tour guide the epitome of an awesome Scottish man. His primary language was Gaelic and he didn’t learn English until he left the island at 18! He had a hilarious sense of humor and was also very knowledgeable in the subject areas of our stops and the history behind them. The best part of the entire tour was being able to stop at Loch Ness and look for Nessie! Tanner had requested that I leave her some oreos in hope that she would come out and eat the filling. I wrote her a note and left them there for her. On one of our stops, we were able to see a Highland Cow! These things are massive and adorable. Their hair hangs over their eyes and I cannot understand how they are able to see! The rest of our weekend in Scotland was dedicated to walking around the Royal Mile and Princes Gardens with stops at Hollyrood Palace, Scott Monument, Parliament, Arthur’s Seat, and many other attractions.

Highland Cow Bagpipes!

The Highlands

Since this was technically a “reading week” we had quite a few books to read before class began. I spent many hours in Starbucks but became quite distracted with people watching outside the window. Throughout all of our travels, I was the most diligent on this trip. I usually don’t read anything while traveling and just don’t go to bed during the actual school days to catch up on my reading. But somewhere in the depths of my soul, I found some sort of fragment of motivation to actually read the material beforehand. It also helped that this was a literature class and I did not have to read any more history books. Do not get me wrong, I love history. But I can only take so much reading about the Reformation. I am all Luther-ed and Calvin-ed out. When we were on our highland tour, Andrew had ordered a tuna melt and I had been craving it ever since. I did not want to eat at some stupid fast food place or Subway and so I was searching throughout Edinburgh for a small little café that served tuna melts! FAILED ATTEMPT! I had only found one café but they had celery in their tuna melt which is unacceptable. I walked around for 2-3 hours on this quest and came up short! When ever you don’t want something you see it everywhere, but when you actually are in search for a single specific thing, you can never find it! I ended up at the mall where I was faced with the temptation of shopping but I was able to pull myself away by hearing my stomach growl at me. I ended up eating at Subway, big surprise, I know. BUT when I do go to subway I usually get white bread, turkey, and a LOT of lettuce. No sauces, no cheese, no other vegetables. I am proud to say I am broadening my horizons and I can now order a Tuna Sub. My father would be so proud. Since our flight did not leave until Sunday morning, we were able to sleep in which was nice. On our plane there were many guys who were attending some snowboarding festival in Austria and we just so happened to be sitting next to one. I was not in the mood for conversation with strangers and was thankful that I was sitting by the window. Poor Andrew was in the middle and I ditched him and fell asleep for the majority of our flight. Haha, sucker! When we landed in Munich, Andrew turned to me and asked if I got the address of our hostel. Pshh. I turned and stated… “Who do you think I am?” Not only did I have the address, but I looked up directions! We made it to the correct subway station and we were examining a map when I could hear these lone footsteps which at first creeped me out. I turned around and this creep turned out to be Jerry! Yah!! He pointed us in the direction of our hostel where we got our rooms and settled in. And I almost forgot that Sunday was Easter! It was somewhat depressing because I have never EVER missed a holiday. Andrew and I were sitting there and thinking of the food that we could potentially be feasting on, especially strawberry pretzel salad! All in all, Scotland was gorgeous and I am definitely planning a return trip when it is late spring/early summer. I hear that the farther north you travel, it becomes even more magnificent.