Spattering of Scottish Shenanigans

Metal concert in Glasgow. The main act, Sabaton, is a band from Sweden.

21st Alloa Octoberfest. A great event full of many wonderful local brews. Befriended one of the bartenders and got much more beer than I paid for. I was pretty drunk by the time we left.

 Went to the Scotland v. New Zealand rugby match in Edinburgh. New Zealand won as expected but Scotland scored more than many other teams have against the All Blacks (NZ) this season.

Hiked up Arthur's Seat, a large hill in the middle of Edinburgh before going to the game. 

Went on a hike in Glen Shee. Seven hours up and down two munros. It was incredibly exhausting. I was so tired by the end I was walking like a drunkard. 

 

It was very white. When at higher elevations we couldn't even see the neighboring hills because we were in a cloud. It drove me crazy for a while. SO MUCH WHITE.  

Beautiful valley

A look back to where we were. Those snowy hills. 

October Break: Prague

After three full days in Ireland Tom and I got up bright and early on Tuesday morning to get to the airport for our flights. Tom's to go back to Scotland and mine to go to Prague. Our only problem was it was too early for the normal city buses, we had to catch one of the more expensive airport shuttles that start earlier. We had €12.85 between the two of us which at first looked like wasn't going to be enough. All the shuttles cost €7 per person. Perusing a list given to us by the hostel we found one shuttle that was €6 each. When going to pay the driver we gave her a pile of change. She didn't even bother to count it. When we got off the bus about half an hour later our pile was still sitting in the tray. 

That's what €12.85 looks like. The fiver and the pile on top of it is what we gave the driver. 

 I was a bit nervous about the Czech Republic. I hadn't done any research beyond a few chats with my friend Daniel, who I was going to visit in Prague, and Tom, who is Czech. Tom put together a small dictionary for me and I had directions to the hostel but that was it.  

I needn't have worried, I had a brilliant time! 

My first night there I met a fellow American travelling on his own. We got along splendidly and spent the next day going to various sites around the city. He was able to show me the ropes of how the public transportation system worked. Tips like the main lines to look for and the fact that tickets are rarely checked on the trams so they were free (as far as we were concerned). 

The Lennon Wall

A wall hidden down a few small streets dedicated to John Lennon. 

My new friend left the evening of our day together so I was friendless again but luckily the next day was my day with Daniel! He met me outside the hostel early Thursday morning and we were off to the zoo! 

Prague has a brilliant zoo. Animals were having babies all over the place so they are obviously doing something right. My favorite part was in the nocturnal area the bats can fly around! The bat exhibit doesn't have glass beyond the railing so the animals are free to roam the building. When standing still I could feel them pass, it was so cool! 

Animals kept looking at me. It was pretty cool.

Daniel was an amazing guide. He knows so much about Prague! All the while walking around the zoo he was giving me tidbits about the zoo and Prague history and such. Then when wandering the city later he could pick out many of the buildings and tell me stories, dates, and meanings to the Czech people. I would never have learned or saw half of what I did without him. He was also incredibly patient as I attempted to sound out Czech words and had him constantly reading and translating. There is a sound in Czech found in no other language that I find incredibly difficult. It is a cross between a rolling 'r' and a 'z'. I was told not to feel too bad about it though, even Czech children sometimes have to go to speech classes to learn how to do it. 

Incredibly unflattering picture of me touching the lucky statue on the Charles Bridge.

Daniel and I in front of my hostel. the Czech Inn. I didn't even realize it was a pun until Daniel pointed it out! 

Getting back to the hostel around 7 that evening I had a message from Tom that a few of his friends in Prague wanted to meet me! I went straight back out to find them. The two gentlemen and I had excellent discussions on politics of the US and the European Union as well as an abridged Czech history lesson. It was a lot of fun to meet them and I very much enjoyed my evening. A full day of hanging out with Prague natives I learned much more than I ever could have on my own.   

My last full day in Prague was just for me. A few of you may know my love of museums and being on my own I spent almost six hours in two buildings of the National Gallery in Prague - the Kinsky and Schwarzenberg Palaces. 

Schwarzenberg Palace was covered in designs like this

A the Kinsky Palace I was the first person to arrive in the morning. One of the gallery guards was a cute old man who didn't speak a word of English. We communicated with smiles and points as he showed me the right way to go around the floors. 2.5 hours later as I was leaving the last section of the museum I ran into him again. Smiling once again at each other he held open the door and gave me a toffee! I think he was pleased that a young foreigner was enjoying his museum so much. If we were able to speak to one another we would have gotten along splendidly. 

It's amazing what can be communicated without words. That was one of my favorite moments since arriving in Europe two and a half months ago. 

October Break: Dublin

One of the many surprises I had when first coming to Scotland and beginning university here was that there is a mid-semester break! A whole week off just because. Technically it is supposed to be used to prepare yourself for all the work that comes after but who really does that?

I decided to split my week off between Dublin, Ireland and Prague, Czech Republic. I arrived in Dublin early Saturday and left early Tuesday giving me three days.

I went to Dublin with my friend, hall mate and fellow study abroad student (though he is now transferring to Stirling) Tom.  Neither of us had prepared any sort of list or itinerary of things we wanted to see in Dublin so upon early arrival in the hostel around 9:45 we went to the notice boards to see what was going on.

He doesn't smile if he knows his picture is being taken. I gotta be sneaky... 

Hostels are great about connecting visitors with events going on in the area. Sometimes they are tourist focused events and sometimes community activities. One such listing was a daily free walking tour of Dublin beginning at 11. With no plans and plenty of time we walked downtown to find where the tour started.

I'm so glad we went! We knew absolutely nothing about this tour beyond where and when it began. While waiting around for the tour leaders to split us all up in to Spanish and English speakers and then assign us to our guides we ran into John, another guy from our floor who was in Dublin visiting a friend! The four of us stuck together and went on the same tour group.

The tour ended up being three hours long filled with history, anecdotes, jokes, and fun facts. The leader was a native Dublin-er with fantastic presentation abilities and an all around fun guy.

 

That is the Irish Parliament building to the right. There is an unspoken agreement between Parliament and media that when sitting or standing on the dais politicians are free to approach but not otherwise in the square

 

 One of the places with the most interesting stories was Trinity College, The Campanile at Trinity had some particularly interesting bits.  1) Students don't walk under it during semester because it means they'll fail exams 2) If someone is under it and the bell rings it means they're a virgin 3) If a student can climb to the top and yell "Trinity! Trinity! Trinity!" without being shot with a crossbow by the Provost then they become King of Trinity College and get all sorts of perks like being able to ride their horse into the testing theatre or something like that

The Campanile at Trinity College.

The tour gave us plenty of ideas about ways to spend our time the next two days while also dropping us off near the tourism office where we could get more ideas. 

Day one was finished with a pub crawl run by the same walking tour company. We started the evening with a Guinness (of course) and then had some great Irish beer at many of the places we went after. Tom and I dropped out of the crawl a tad early to stay at a bar we particularly liked with a great traditional band playing and excellent atmosphere. We left when we could hardly keep our eyes open anymore at midnight (we had been up since 5am).

We tried so hard to stay awake for them...

The next day was a bit slower. Tom and I wandered to various places we passed on the tour the day before but wanted to take a closer look at.  First was the tourism office to book a tour for the next day. Then to the Irish National Museum to peruse some of Ireland's historical and archeological artifacts. Here tom learned of my passion for museums. The only reason we really moved at all was because he would encourage me to move by leaving me behind. Or sometimes by suggesting we take a look at the next room. Much of the place remains unexplored but that leaves something to see next time!

Wandering further led us to St Patrick's Cathedral. Then dinner and a long conversation break since we ate far too much. Finally was a trek to Phoenix Park.

Phoenix is actually named fionn uisce in Gaelic which means 'clear water'. Nearly every place name in Ireland has an original Gaelic name and an anglicized name created by people from England once King Henry VIII proclaimed himself King of Ireland. Now there is even a statue of a phoenix in the middle just to confuse people into thinking it was the original name. 

Glen Coe

On Saturday the Mountaineering Club went on a trip to Glen Coe. In the Scottish highlands, Glen Coe is probably the most scenic place in Scotland. Most any picture you have seen of the Scottish hills covered in grass, rocks, and heather to are probably from Glen Coe.

Glen Coe is also famed for the 1692 Massacre of Glen Coe when the Campbells massacred the MacDonalds living in the hidden valley. Whenever I told a Scottish person what I was doing this weekend they were so excited for me to see the prettiest place in Scotland. But they also told me that the land remembers what happened and the massacre can still be felt.

There were three groups that went out. An easier hike, a harder hike, and a climbing group. I went on the harder hike along with eight others. We hiked two Munros before leaving through the Hidden Valley (or Lost Valley).

A Munro is any mountain in Scotland greater than 3000 feet. Named after Sir Hugh Munro who put together the list of such peaks in the late 1800s. There are 282 Munros. I have 280 still to go!

A few pictures from our long day:

On our way into the hills...

We spent much of the day being misted on while walking through clouds

In the Hidden Valley

At one end of Hidden Valley looking back the way we came

Happy Birthday Mom!

Before coming to Stirling I spent about a week and a half with my mom. First was eight days in Amsterdam and then two days in the Orkney Islands.

On our first day in Amsterdam in the Reijksmuseum..  

Day trip to Zaanse Schans an outdoor museum to see some of the few still running windmills. The first one visible behind Mom is used to cut lumber.

Another day trip but this one to Delft! We went on a tour of the Royal Delft, the premier delft porcelain maker of the area. this in in their shop where they make the pottery that is later painted on

Pretty plates!

While in Delft we went to see Johannes Vermeer's house which has been turned in to a museum all about his artwork. On one of the floors a studio was set up where if a picture was taken from where they said it could look like you were in a Vermeer! The above photo looks pretty good!

At the flower auction house in the Netherlands. A small city of flowers being sold and shipped around the world.

In Orkney. This is Maes Howe, a 5000 year old tomb built by the stone age people who lived on Orkney. Inside there is 1000 year old viking graffiti on it. Amusingly, it is much the same as we write now: "so and so was here" "so and so is the best rune carver in the whole world"

A hop skip and a jump away from Maes Howe is the Ring of Brodgar the third largest standing stone ring in Britain. 

Thank you for travelling with me Mom! I love you! Happy birthday!

Beautiful Ben Ledi

I'm not sure why yet but many of the hills in Scotland are named Ben Something. Last weekend I hiked Ben Cleuch with the University of Stirling Mountaineering Club but this weekend was Ben Ledi.

We got a pretty early start, leaving from the downtown Stirling bus station at 8AM (which involved a 7:20AM bus for those of us on campus). After a forty minute bus ride from Stirling we arrived in Callander which neighbors Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. This may be recognizable to you if you have heard the folk song.

 

 On the hike up

To begin we were all covered in many layers to avoid the chill morning air. As we hiked up and the sun shone brighter layers were stripped off. Once at the top all the layers came on again as we stopped for lunch with no protection from the breezes. The wind wasn't nearly as bad today as it was last week but it was still there. The weather though was great! Not often there are sunny days without rain around here.

That's a decent lunch view

Another view from the peak of Ben Ledi

It's a good day when a mountain is conquered before lunch

A quick look back 

(Ben Ledi is off to the left, not really visible)

Hiking Scotland

Stirling is beautiful! Scotland is beautiful!

Now that I have my bearings pretty well set the weekends are beginning to fill up with adventures. Some of those adventures are organized with the new friends I have made while others are with the groups I have become a part of.

During our first week here several of us on the floor put together a bucket list. This list had various places to visit or things to do in the UK and Europe while we are here. Only a few of those things have been accomplished thus far but many will be in the coming weeks. One that we have accomplished is "Climb a motherf***ing mountain".

Other accomplishments include: "Draw a dragon on the bucket list" and "swim in the loch"

There have been two hikes up Dumyat Hill (our residential "mountain") made by the residents of our floor. There was much rejoicing had by all when we reached the peak and all of Stirling lay before us.

Success! The peak of Dumyat marked by the stone on the right. Stirling spread out below on my left. 

Hiking being such a great way to get out and about, get some exercise, and have fun I have joined the University of Stirling Mountaineering Club! They are a great group of students who enjoy hiking and climbing around Scotland. There are hikes most weekends and climbing excursions most Wednesdays. The climbing is mostly indoors at this time of year.  

On Sunday we hiked Ben Cleuch. We took a bus to the town of Tillicoultry about 15 minutes out of town, wound our way through town and then just headed up. Starting at the valleys between the hills the temperature was good and there were trees and shrubs. When walking along the ridges the wind was enough to unbalance us on occasion and make every layer necessary to keep warm. 

In the valleys...

Along the ridges...

  

Windy at the peak!

On Saturday I am going on another hike with the club. This one will be all day and about 9 miles round trip. I debated signing up for the longer hike but I worried about whether or not I was prepared. I will know more of where I rank as far as hiking preparedness after this weekend. 

Paralympics 2012

During the three day orientation I had in London a few weeks ago for GlobaLinks, the program I came here with, we had the opportunity to go to the Paralympics!

Street flags with the London Olympics symbol were decorated like participating countries' flags

One night we went to Olympic Park to see some of the Athletics (aka Track and Field) events. 

Events were interspersed with awards ceremonies. Most everyone decided to leave after the biggest events were done. I stayed until the last event - women's discus, was finished up for the evening. 

Olympic Stadium!

Me with my ticket outside the stadium!

On my way back to the hotel I got into two separate conversations with Londoners amazed that I was here. They couldn't believe I had come all the way from Seattle. I think they thought I was here for just the Paralympics. While the Olympics was very international the Paralympics was viewed by many Londoners as the better event to go to as it was cheaper and easier to get into. But still! I was quite surprised by their surprise. 

The next day we had a day pass to the Olympic Park which allows access to any spare seats in the buildings in sections that aren't prepaid. We wanted to see wheelchair rugby but it was too full. We watched football (soccer) instead. Caught the last half of Ukraine v I Don't Remember and then saw the first half of United States v. Great Britain! 

Team USA on the left aka Team Waldo

The stadium was packed with Team GB fans. The six of us from GlobaLinks were a small pocket of American pride among the GB horde. We sang the national anthem when it came on but there was only so much we could do. Not many Americans were around so it sounded very quiet. The British folks filled the stadium with sound as they sang God Save the Queen.