Our time here in Scotland is drawing to a close and we’ve been doing a lot of reflection over these past couple weeks. One of the things that we have discovered about ourselves during this experience is something that may come as a shock to everyone back home…we’re not bloggers! So we apologize for to those of you who were looking forward to a well maintained and often updated blog – we have done the best we can and we hope that you accept this quick update of the past couple months as our sincere peace offering!
So we last left off when Drew’s mom was still here visiting and we had just gotten back from London. The weekend following London Drew, his mom and CarlyFaith headed up to the highlands for a four day trip with the students from the program here. Unfortunately I was on duty over the weekend so I was unable to go with them. They packed a lot into four days: Culloden battlefield, Fort William, Duone Castle, Urquhart Castle, Eilan Donan Castle, Glencoe, Isle of Skye, Inverness, Dewars Distillery and much more! It was over 1000 miles on a bus…I think Drew was pretty impressed at how well CarlyFaith handled the distance, given that all the adults on the bus were getting pretty antsy towards the end of the trip.
A few short days after Carla and CarlyFaith left, Kyle and Erin came to visit. It was really great to see them again. About halfway through their stay they went to Paris for a few days which ended up being perfect timing because it was the end of the semester for the program here and I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. When Kyle and Erin returned from Paris things were a little more low key and we were able to spend more time with them. We hiked to the top of Arthur’s seat, toured Mary King’s Close and completed the Edinburgh Pub Crawl. Also during this time, Drew and I were visited by a friend/former supervisor of mine and her husband as they toured through Scotland. Unfortunately, they were only in the Edinburgh area for two days and, though they stayed at the house where we live, it was the last day of the program and we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together. Nonetheless we were able to go out for dinner in Edinburgh and catch up on all the River Falls gossip!!
After Kyle and Erin left Drew and I snagged some last minute, cheap flights to Krakow, Poland and flying back from Berlin and, once we were able to find some couchsurfers for our trip, we hit the road! We flew into Krakow late on a Thursday night, just in time to touch base with our couchsurfer, have him help us with our plans for the next day and then get to bed. We woke up bright and early on Friday and headed out to see the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. After getting off the bus too early and having to walk a couple miles to the camps (with an extremely overfilled bladder) we finally arrived at the camp. We went first to the Birkenau camp that is very hard to describe. You look out into a field and just see rows upon rows of brick chimneys. The chimneys are all that remains of the wooden barracks that once stood at the site. After Birkenau we went to the Auschwitz camp that, unlike Birkenau, was made mostly of brick barracks so many of the building are still standing. Most of the buildings are used for different types of exhibits. I think I was most blown away by one room that, as you walk in, you discover an entire wall is a glass case full of human hair that was used from prisoners to make different types of textiles. Drew and I left the camps at a loss for words. We were both really glad that we had gone to see the camps that we have read so much about but struggle very much with trying to get our minds around what exactly happened at those camps.
After the camps we caught a bus back into Krakow city centre and met up with Damian, the guy we were staying with. We were catching a train out of Krakow that evening so he gave us a quick tour of the city. He brought us out to eat at a traditional Polish restaurant and ordered perogis which incidentally (along with the bread plate they were served on) ended up feeding us for much of the remainder of our trip. Traveling around Krakow with Damian was like traveling with our own personal photographer. Damian has a girlfriend and told us he can’t stand when they travel together and don’t have any pictures of the two of them…he was determined that we didn’t find ourselves in the same predicament! He pretty much took my camera off me and, every few meters, would stop us to take another picture. So Drew and I have about as many pictures of us together in Krakow as we do on our wedding day (okay, might be a bit of an exaggeration…). I really enjoyed Krakow, I thought the city had a great atmosphere and a lot of personality. Drew wasn’t as impressed by it but, hey, we were only there a day and then we were on our way to Prague!
So…first things first, Drew and I definitely recommend that you Czech out Prague! Okay, now that I got that out of my system…Prague really was an amazing city and was pretty much the reason why we had planned this quick, fly by the seat of our pants, trip (I didn’t make it to Prague when I was here as a student before and was determined to make it there this time around). We arrived in Prague in the early morning and were able to spend some time soaking up the city before there were too many people around. A little later in the day we took a free walking tour of the city (we’re obsessed with this company, New Europe, and their free walking tours…If ever you are in Europe you must check them out!). We were really impressed with Prague’s history, specifically in terms of its resistance to Soviet occupation. After the tour we spent a good day and a half just taking our time exploring the city. Along the way we found some great statues to take some silly pictures with and a sports bar where the tap was right at your table and kept track of how much beer you were pouring…Drew was quite impressed!
After two days in Prague we continued on our way to Berlin. Our train to Berlin was like nothing I have ever experienced. We were crammed into every possible crevice of the train and the windows wouldn’t open so we were all dripping sweat and miserably hot…it was such a relief to finally arrive in Berlin. Our first day in Berlin we took a (you guessed it!) free walking tour of the city (Berlin is actually home to the original free walking tour). One of the highlights of our walking tour was at the very beginning when our guide pointed out Berlin’s most expensive hotel, the same hotel that Michael Jackson hung a baby out the window of! Berlin is an absolutely amazing city with incredible resilience. 90% of the city was destroyed after World War II so it is almost impossible to find an old building. Yet Drew and I were lucky enough to be able to stay in a beautiful apartment that dated back before World War I with an amazing couchsurfer, Gabi. Gabi was the first “older” (not really that old…she was like my parents age) couchsurfer that Drew and I stayed with and we really enjoyed the experience. On our second night in Berlin she took us to a movie premiere for a film titled ‘Whiskey and Vodka.’ The movie was entirely in German so it was quite an interesting experience. Drew was able to pick up on parts of it and I was able to follow along. The food that was served at the premiere was also quite the cultural experience…we had our choice of pickled fish sandwiches or ground (raw) hamburger sandwiches…Drew and I were daring (well, I was daring…Drew eats anything) and tried both and enjoyed them very much. On our last night in Berlin we cooked a nice dinner with Gabi and her boyfriend, Helmut. Overall, Gabi was a great host…she let us stay in her bed while she stayed at her boyfriends and let us use her bikes to get around the city. When not hanging out with Gabi Drew and I just relaxed in the city. It was really warm and sunny during our stay so we took some time to soak up some sun in the park.
When we returned from Berlin we met our friends, Jim and Lauren, at the airport. Jim, a descendant of Scotland’s MacGregor clan had always wanted to visit Scotland and Lauren had always wanted to see London so they were able to work in both of their dreams in one trip! They stayed with us for a few days during which time we were able to climb Arthur’s Seat, again and do the Edinburgh Pub Crawl, again (hmmm…maybe we need to get more original things to do with our guests!) Anyway, it was really great to see both of them and we had a lot of fun while they were here.
The day before Jim and Lauren departed the new students for the Wisconsin in Scotland summer program arrived. There are only eighteen students in the group (compared to fifty-nine in the spring group) so it is a completely different feeling around the house. They are a really great group of students and we’ve really enjoyed getting to know them and spend time with them.
A couple of weekends ago we headed up to Milngavie (just north of Glasgow) for some authentic Scottish Highland Games. The games had a highland dancing competition, pipe band competition, battle reenactments, bmx bike shows, heavy events (think stereotypical giant Scotsman wearing a kilt and throwing a giant log as far as he can) and, the best part, the Haggis Hurling World Championship. Haggis is a traditional Scottish food and the tradition of haggis hurling comes for the days when wives used to have to toss lunch out to their husbands at work. Anyone could compete in the competition and I am proud to announce that Drew won third place in his age bracket (16 and over males)…he is the 3rd best haggis hurler in the entire WORLD!!! And, not to be undone, I should also tell you that I threw my haggis right behind Michelle McManus. That’s right, you have no idea who that is but she was the official ‘host’ of the games and she’s a pretty big deal here…winner of Britain’s Pop Idol so, basically, I was within a couple feet of Britain’s Kelly Clarkson!!!
This past weekend Drew, myself and Naomi (the assistant director of catering that I’ve been working with in my time here) headed up north for a final farewell to the highlands. We took a bus to Inverness on Thursday night and then, early Friday morning, headed up to the Orkney Islands off the northernmost tip of Scotland for a day tour. While on Orkney we got to see: Skapa Flow where boats full of oil have been anchored for two months waiting for oil prices to go up, the 5,000 year old settlement of Skara Brae, two sets of ancient standing stone circles and the ‘Churchill Barriers’ which are bridges connecting the islands but surrounded on both sides by sunken ships that, when the tide is low, rise out of the sea.
On Saturday morning we took a bus from Inverness to Fort William and, from Fort William, headed out on a 14 mile hike to Kinlochleven. The path we were hiking was the West Highland Way that connects Milngavie to Fort William in a 95 mile path. The path was absolutely beautiful as it wound through the mountains and glens…there were no roads around, no planes flying overhead, only sheep and, occasionally, other hikers. We took it slow (especially since we were all carrying our backpacks) and stopped plenty of times to fill up our water bottles from the fresh Scottish springs. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I wish we could do it again. On Sunday we really just took it easy in Kinlochleven…we did one more small hike up to Grey Mare’s Waterfall in Kinlochleven and spent the rest of the day hanging out at the loch until we had to come back to Dalkeith and back to work!
When we’re not traveling, working or hosting guests Drew and I have really just been trying to make the most of the rest of our time here. The weather has been absolutely amazing and, just last night, we had a bonfire with some of the students and when we finally came in from the fire at about 12:30 a.m. it was still light outside…it has stopped getting dark here, once the light starts dimming at one side of the horizon it starts getting bright at the next!
We’re also looking forward to our next (and last) big trip that we leave for on Saturday. We’ll be flying into Bologna, Italy and taking some time to explore Ravenna and Venice. From there we’ll be heading to Athens where we are taking a cruise of Greece and Turkey. After the cruise we head back to Italy to explore Rome and Vatican City and then we’ll be going back to Scotland for our last couple of days and then back to the states.
See you all in less than a month!!
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
New Photo Website
New photo website http://picasaweb.google.com/kelseym1011/ we ran out of room at http://picasaweb.google.com/drewmclean2486/
Friday, 24 April 2009
London Calling
HELLO! SORRY ABOUT THE LACK OF BLOGS…THINGS HAVE BEEN PRETTY BUSY FOR DREW AND I BUT THEY ARE ALL DONE NOW! WE’VE POSTED THEM IN ORDER BUT THAT MEANS THAT YOU HAVE TO GO DOWN TO THE LAST BLOG POSTED BY DREW (ABOUT NEWCASTLE AND THE CRUISE) AND THEN READ UP TO GET THE CORRECT ORDER OF EVENTS. SORRY FOR ALL THE CONFUSION. OH YEAH, YOU MAY WANT TO GRAB A SNACK…THIS COULD TAKE A WHILE!
Drew’s mom and little sister came to visit us. They arrived on Wednesday…we took them out to eat on Wednesday night to celebrate Carla’s birthday. On Thursday Drew, Carla and CarlyFaith went into Edinburgh to see the castle and some other sites. On Friday morning we headed off to London for the weekend. On Friday night Drew and I went to the Wicked at the Apollo Victoria. We both really enjoyed the show so I was really glad that we went.
On Saturday we spent the entire day exploring all of London’s biggest sites. We saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Hamley’s (Britain’s largest toy store), the Marble Arch, and Hyde Park where we got to see the Peter Pan statue (Carla was very *happy* that Drew had made her walk around half the park to find the statue), and Princess Diana memorial fountain. At Buckingham Palace we watched the beginning of the changing of the guards. Being that it is not high season yet they are only doing the changing of the guards every other day so it was incredibly busy (as I’m sure it always is). We were up at the very front of the group against the gates and, unfortunately, the people in front of us were very inconsiderate and kept shoving us back. Not really a problem except that Carla is pregnant and, understandably, wasn’t very thrilled about having these rude women constantly running into her belly. We stuck it out for a while but then decided that we’d had enough so we went to leave but, there was a huge crowd, so making our way through the crowd with CarlyFaith and the baby buggy was quite difficult. So, being crafty, Drew decided that the best way to get out of the crowd was to hoist the buggy over it. We took CarlyFaith out and Drew lifted the buggy high in the air, over everyone’s heads. Amazingly, the crowd parted so Carla, myself and CarlyFaith were able to follow pretty easily in his wake. We got to the outskirts of the crowd and Drew put the buggy on the ground, kind of dropping it helter skelter. There was a huge gasp from the people there who didn’t realize that there wasn’t a baby in the stroller. It was really hilarious, but I guess you probably had to be there!
We toured Westminster Abbey which was really neat because Drew and I had not gone into the Abbey the last time we were there. It was amazing to see all the tombs that were in the Abbey…I had no idea they had so many and so many famous people. After a full day of walking and discovering that most of London’s underground is not handicap accessible so getting really good at carrying the stroller up and down the stairs we headed back to the hostel for a nice quiet night in to relax and recuperate. We got some pizza and then headed down to the hostel’s hot tub…it was a great way to end our Saturday.
On Sunday we took a walking tour of London where we were able to see Wellington’s Arch, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, the house where Prince Charles lives, St. James’ Palace and much more. It was fun to be able to hear a little more of the history behind some of London’s most famous sites and hear some entertaining stories such as the various break-ins to Buckingham Palace. Overall, we had a really good weekend. It rained a little on Friday night when we first arrived but, other than that, it was clear and sunny the entire time…pretty unusual and spectacular for London!
Drew’s mom and little sister came to visit us. They arrived on Wednesday…we took them out to eat on Wednesday night to celebrate Carla’s birthday. On Thursday Drew, Carla and CarlyFaith went into Edinburgh to see the castle and some other sites. On Friday morning we headed off to London for the weekend. On Friday night Drew and I went to the Wicked at the Apollo Victoria. We both really enjoyed the show so I was really glad that we went.
On Saturday we spent the entire day exploring all of London’s biggest sites. We saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Hamley’s (Britain’s largest toy store), the Marble Arch, and Hyde Park where we got to see the Peter Pan statue (Carla was very *happy* that Drew had made her walk around half the park to find the statue), and Princess Diana memorial fountain. At Buckingham Palace we watched the beginning of the changing of the guards. Being that it is not high season yet they are only doing the changing of the guards every other day so it was incredibly busy (as I’m sure it always is). We were up at the very front of the group against the gates and, unfortunately, the people in front of us were very inconsiderate and kept shoving us back. Not really a problem except that Carla is pregnant and, understandably, wasn’t very thrilled about having these rude women constantly running into her belly. We stuck it out for a while but then decided that we’d had enough so we went to leave but, there was a huge crowd, so making our way through the crowd with CarlyFaith and the baby buggy was quite difficult. So, being crafty, Drew decided that the best way to get out of the crowd was to hoist the buggy over it. We took CarlyFaith out and Drew lifted the buggy high in the air, over everyone’s heads. Amazingly, the crowd parted so Carla, myself and CarlyFaith were able to follow pretty easily in his wake. We got to the outskirts of the crowd and Drew put the buggy on the ground, kind of dropping it helter skelter. There was a huge gasp from the people there who didn’t realize that there wasn’t a baby in the stroller. It was really hilarious, but I guess you probably had to be there!
We toured Westminster Abbey which was really neat because Drew and I had not gone into the Abbey the last time we were there. It was amazing to see all the tombs that were in the Abbey…I had no idea they had so many and so many famous people. After a full day of walking and discovering that most of London’s underground is not handicap accessible so getting really good at carrying the stroller up and down the stairs we headed back to the hostel for a nice quiet night in to relax and recuperate. We got some pizza and then headed down to the hostel’s hot tub…it was a great way to end our Saturday.
On Sunday we took a walking tour of London where we were able to see Wellington’s Arch, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, the house where Prince Charles lives, St. James’ Palace and much more. It was fun to be able to hear a little more of the history behind some of London’s most famous sites and hear some entertaining stories such as the various break-ins to Buckingham Palace. Overall, we had a really good weekend. It rained a little on Friday night when we first arrived but, other than that, it was clear and sunny the entire time…pretty unusual and spectacular for London!
Alnwick Castle and Northumberland
The weekend following spring break was another busy weekend. On Thursday night we went to the local pub for quiz night. We had the help of a couple of Brits on our team so we were actually able to win! On Friday we went to the Musselburgh race course with a group of students from the house. Musselburgh is a coastal town not too far from Dalkeith and they have a horse racing track there. Having never been to a horse race before we weren’t really sure what to expect. A few of the students placed some bets and some were even successful. Eventually, though, the students just resigned to betting between themselves, using food as their currency! They were betting each other apples, digestive biscuits, and spaghetti-o’s and one student in particular was making out with quite a stash of food! Drew and I opted to just sit back and watch the races without betting which I guess takes some of the excitement out of it. It was definitely a new experience and I’m glad that we went.
The following day we headed to Northumberland in northern England to stay at Alnwick Castle. We took a group of 31 people with us…the group was composed of students, some of their family members who were visiting and some members of the staff. I had planning the trip for quite some time and was really looking forward to taking the students on a trip that I had put so much time into. Alnwick Castle has a study abroad program much like the one here at Dalkeith. Students from St. Cloud State University stay at the castle and take classes for the semester. Drew and I’s friend Niki actually studied with this program for a semester so we were excited to see where she had spent her time as well. Most of the students signed up for the trip because Alnwick Castle is actually used as Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft in the Harry Pottery movies. The castle has also been used in many other films and, apparently, there is a huge movie that is being filmed there this summer. In order to get to the castle we had to take a train from Edinburgh to a small station outside of Alnwick. Unfortunately, the stop for the Alnmouth station that we wanted to get off on was never announced on the train and by the time we realized our stop was approaching we didn’t have a lot of time to warn students to start gathering their belongings. The train pulled up to the station, stopped and Drew and I hopped off the train and pushed students to do the same. Unfortunately, a group of 31 people doesn’t always move too fast and only five students made it off the train before the doors shut. I yelled down the platform to the attendant that we had a group of 30+ people on the train and that the doors needed to be opened back up before the train could leave. He refused to let the group off the train and waved the train out of the station so I stood there on the platform and watched as the train sped off with all the students inside, looking out at me, wondering what had happened and what they were supposed to do. Thankfully the program provides students with mobile phones so I was able to communicate with those still on board the train and direct them as to what their next step should be. They got to ride the train all the way to Newcastle where they were able to get spots on a train back to Alnmouth free of charge because, apparently, this problem happens all the time. Eventually the remaining members of our group made it back to the station, got off the train successfully then caught the bus to Alnwick and enjoyed the rest of the day at the castle.
We were able to take a tour of the castle that had just opened for public tours a few days earlier. The Duke of Northumberland still lives at the castle so, as the tour guides remind you, it is still very much a family home. It is so hard to tour a building like that and think of it as a family home. To me, a family home is comfy…I think of my parent’s house where the walls have dings and scratches from years of carrying hockey bags up the stairs. Instead, this family home had silk wallpaper…no dings there, stuffed dogs and knick knacks that were so expensive I would be afraid to ever touch them. The only indications of a family living there are a few family pictures here and there. I really wish we were able to see the rooms that the family actually spend most their time in to see if you get more of a homey feel from them. Anyway, what we did see of the castle was pretty amazing and really neat to see. After exploring the castle and taking a tour of the grounds as well as a tour of the movie-making surrounding the castle. We then headed to the Alnwick Gardens on the property of the castle. The Gardens are very extensive and have one of the largest poison gardens in the whole world where the plants can actually kill you. There is also a huge fountain that does different water shows throughout the day. Drew and I had a lot of fun rediscovering our inner child in the bamboo maze. It was a pretty dense bamboo forest and Drew kept running away from me to hide. I would chase after him, giggling (it was really mature). I was pretty embarrassed when I turned a corner, in the middle of a giggling fit, and almost ran over a little thirteen year old boy. Then it just became hilarious as the little boy decided that he wanted to join in on our game and took off chasing Drew through the maze. I was laughing too hard and had to stop running but I think the boy eventually caught Drew and Drew and I decided we should stop creating such a ruckus in the bamboo maze.
The next morning we hit the road again and headed first to the small village of Seahouses on the coast in northern England and, from there, we took a cruise around the Farne Islands. On the cruise we were able to see tons of grey seals, puffins and lots of seabirds. We were also able to spend an hour on an island that is a protected seabird sanctuary. After our cruise we went to Holy Island/Lindisfarne Island. It is a tidal island so there is absolutely no access to it when the tide is in. We went right after the tide had gone out so it was pretty busy because everyone had been waiting to get to it. On the island we were able to visit the Lindisfarne Priory which is where St. Cuthbert served as priory and it has many ties to the introduction of Christianity to this part of the world. After our time on Lindisfarne we were on our way back to Dalkeith. For the students our return marked the beginning of a crazy couple of weeks with lots of schoolwork and final papers due. For me, our return marked the beginning of a crazy couple of weeks since my supervisor, Patty, was back in Minnesota on holiday for two weeks. Things around the house were very busy but the house was still standing when she got back so it all worked out!
The following day we headed to Northumberland in northern England to stay at Alnwick Castle. We took a group of 31 people with us…the group was composed of students, some of their family members who were visiting and some members of the staff. I had planning the trip for quite some time and was really looking forward to taking the students on a trip that I had put so much time into. Alnwick Castle has a study abroad program much like the one here at Dalkeith. Students from St. Cloud State University stay at the castle and take classes for the semester. Drew and I’s friend Niki actually studied with this program for a semester so we were excited to see where she had spent her time as well. Most of the students signed up for the trip because Alnwick Castle is actually used as Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft in the Harry Pottery movies. The castle has also been used in many other films and, apparently, there is a huge movie that is being filmed there this summer. In order to get to the castle we had to take a train from Edinburgh to a small station outside of Alnwick. Unfortunately, the stop for the Alnmouth station that we wanted to get off on was never announced on the train and by the time we realized our stop was approaching we didn’t have a lot of time to warn students to start gathering their belongings. The train pulled up to the station, stopped and Drew and I hopped off the train and pushed students to do the same. Unfortunately, a group of 31 people doesn’t always move too fast and only five students made it off the train before the doors shut. I yelled down the platform to the attendant that we had a group of 30+ people on the train and that the doors needed to be opened back up before the train could leave. He refused to let the group off the train and waved the train out of the station so I stood there on the platform and watched as the train sped off with all the students inside, looking out at me, wondering what had happened and what they were supposed to do. Thankfully the program provides students with mobile phones so I was able to communicate with those still on board the train and direct them as to what their next step should be. They got to ride the train all the way to Newcastle where they were able to get spots on a train back to Alnmouth free of charge because, apparently, this problem happens all the time. Eventually the remaining members of our group made it back to the station, got off the train successfully then caught the bus to Alnwick and enjoyed the rest of the day at the castle.
We were able to take a tour of the castle that had just opened for public tours a few days earlier. The Duke of Northumberland still lives at the castle so, as the tour guides remind you, it is still very much a family home. It is so hard to tour a building like that and think of it as a family home. To me, a family home is comfy…I think of my parent’s house where the walls have dings and scratches from years of carrying hockey bags up the stairs. Instead, this family home had silk wallpaper…no dings there, stuffed dogs and knick knacks that were so expensive I would be afraid to ever touch them. The only indications of a family living there are a few family pictures here and there. I really wish we were able to see the rooms that the family actually spend most their time in to see if you get more of a homey feel from them. Anyway, what we did see of the castle was pretty amazing and really neat to see. After exploring the castle and taking a tour of the grounds as well as a tour of the movie-making surrounding the castle. We then headed to the Alnwick Gardens on the property of the castle. The Gardens are very extensive and have one of the largest poison gardens in the whole world where the plants can actually kill you. There is also a huge fountain that does different water shows throughout the day. Drew and I had a lot of fun rediscovering our inner child in the bamboo maze. It was a pretty dense bamboo forest and Drew kept running away from me to hide. I would chase after him, giggling (it was really mature). I was pretty embarrassed when I turned a corner, in the middle of a giggling fit, and almost ran over a little thirteen year old boy. Then it just became hilarious as the little boy decided that he wanted to join in on our game and took off chasing Drew through the maze. I was laughing too hard and had to stop running but I think the boy eventually caught Drew and Drew and I decided we should stop creating such a ruckus in the bamboo maze.
The next morning we hit the road again and headed first to the small village of Seahouses on the coast in northern England and, from there, we took a cruise around the Farne Islands. On the cruise we were able to see tons of grey seals, puffins and lots of seabirds. We were also able to spend an hour on an island that is a protected seabird sanctuary. After our cruise we went to Holy Island/Lindisfarne Island. It is a tidal island so there is absolutely no access to it when the tide is in. We went right after the tide had gone out so it was pretty busy because everyone had been waiting to get to it. On the island we were able to visit the Lindisfarne Priory which is where St. Cuthbert served as priory and it has many ties to the introduction of Christianity to this part of the world. After our time on Lindisfarne we were on our way back to Dalkeith. For the students our return marked the beginning of a crazy couple of weeks with lots of schoolwork and final papers due. For me, our return marked the beginning of a crazy couple of weeks since my supervisor, Patty, was back in Minnesota on holiday for two weeks. Things around the house were very busy but the house was still standing when she got back so it all worked out!
Wales and the Lakes District
So we took the chunnel from Paris to London, pretty much just to say that we rode a train underneath the English Channel! We arrived in London at St Pancras station, walked a few blocks to Euston station in central London to pick up our rental car. After we finally found the car rental place (a tiny shack hidden in a corner on a random floor of the parking garage) we picked up our car. We had asked for the cheapest car we could get that came in an automatic. We were expecting a tiny Nissan Micra like we had in Ireland but they pulled up in a Mercedes…yikes! I told Drew that he was absolutely not able to get in any accidents with this rental because we definitely couldn’t afford the replacement fees on a Mercedes!! So we headed off on our grand adventure up to Scotland but first we had to make our way through rush hour traffic in London at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday! After two hours of driving and only getting lost twice we were finally out of London. We drove to Bath, found a place to park and walked around the city. It was late by the time we got there and everything was closed so we just admired it from the outside. We went to the Bath cathedral which was absolutely amazing from the outside and I’m sure just as beautiful inside. We also went to the Roman baths, the oldest and most intact baths in all of Britain. Our original plan was to spend the night in Bath, spend some time seeing the sties in the morning and then head on to Wales but we were feeling pretty tired from our week of non-stop traveling so we decided to shorten our journey a little by continuing on to Wales that same evening. We entered Wales, drove through the capital city of Cardiff and then, about a half hour outside of the city found a rest stop, parked and ‘slept’ for the evening. The car was freezing so it wasn’t the most comfortable night of sleep but it was better than nothing. At about 6:00 a.m. the next morning we got back on the road and continued on our way up through Wales. It was still about four hours until anything opened so we just enjoyed the scenery, driving up through a national park. Once businesses started opening we found a gas station, spent fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to open the gas tank and bought ourselves a UK roadmap. We drove through the rest of Wales, enjoying the northwest corner of the country where you drive out of Wales and into England, then back into Wales a few miles later, then back into England a few miles later, back to Wales, and then, finally, back in England for good.
Once we were in England we headed straight for the Lakes District. It was about midday at this point and was turning out to be a really nice day. Lots of people had really recommended that we go to the Lake District which is why we planned it as part of our trip. Thankfully it completely lived up to the hype and was the perfect end to our trip. We made plenty of stops to do some short hiking in the hills; we went to Beatrix Potter’s house and an ancient stone circle. The roads were extremely narrow and there were plenty of parts where we had to pull to the side of the road so another car could pass. After spending our entire afternoon in the Lakes District, soaking up the beautiful scenery, we continued on our way back up to Scotland. Just south of the Scottish border we stopped at Hadrian’s wall…the ancient northern border of the Roman empire. Even though the wall was very hard to find it was really cool when we finally made it there. It is neat to think about how long the wall has been standing there and to think about exactly what it represents.
We arrived back in Dalkeith late on Saturday night and went immediately to bed. After a good night’s rest in a real bed we took our Mercedes and drove to the coast in North Berwick. We spent some time climbing out on the rocks and just enjoying the sea. I never get tired of spending time on the coast and I think living in such close proximity to the coast will be one of the things I will miss the most about living here.
Once we were in England we headed straight for the Lakes District. It was about midday at this point and was turning out to be a really nice day. Lots of people had really recommended that we go to the Lake District which is why we planned it as part of our trip. Thankfully it completely lived up to the hype and was the perfect end to our trip. We made plenty of stops to do some short hiking in the hills; we went to Beatrix Potter’s house and an ancient stone circle. The roads were extremely narrow and there were plenty of parts where we had to pull to the side of the road so another car could pass. After spending our entire afternoon in the Lakes District, soaking up the beautiful scenery, we continued on our way back up to Scotland. Just south of the Scottish border we stopped at Hadrian’s wall…the ancient northern border of the Roman empire. Even though the wall was very hard to find it was really cool when we finally made it there. It is neat to think about how long the wall has been standing there and to think about exactly what it represents.
We arrived back in Dalkeith late on Saturday night and went immediately to bed. After a good night’s rest in a real bed we took our Mercedes and drove to the coast in North Berwick. We spent some time climbing out on the rocks and just enjoying the sea. I never get tired of spending time on the coast and I think living in such close proximity to the coast will be one of the things I will miss the most about living here.
Paris
After a short train ride we arrived in Paris, armed with directions to get to the station where our couchsurfing host would pick us up. Unfortunately, our host forgot to include the minor (actually major) detail that there are two trains with the same name as the one she told us to take…one of the trains goes to the station we needed and one (of course, the one we took) splits off to another track right before the station we needed. So, as we were riding the train, expecting our stop to be next we were terrified to arrive at a completely different station. We immediately realized what happened and hopped off the train to figure out our next move before heading any further in the wrong direction. We couldn’t figure out how to get back to the station that we needed and weren’t able to get in touch with our couchsurfing host. We tried to ask for some help with our minimal French but unfortunately were unable to find anyone who could speak any English to help us. Finally we were able to find a man who worked at the station who knew another man that worked there that spoke English. The man was able to get in touch with our host and explain our situation to her. At this point it was getting to be pretty late at night and Drew and I were feeling horrible that we were being such an inconvenience to our host. The man at the station helped explain to us how to get back on the train in the opposite direction to get back to the station we needed. We were about to get back on the train when we, thankfully, decided to try to get in touch with our host ourselves. We called and her boyfriend answered the phone as our host was driving on her way to pick us up at the station…we would have really felt awful if they had shown up at the station only to have us not be there! Isabelle (our host) and her boyfriend picked us up, brought us back to the house and introduced us to their roommates. Their roommates were incredibly friendly and wanted to hear all about our travels. We talked for a while and then, being late, we all headed off to bed.
The next day we woke up bright and early so we could get a full day of exploring Paris. We headed first to the Louvre where the lines weren’t nearly as long as we had expected. We saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo as well as many other amazing pieces of art. The museum is absolutely huge and you could easily spend an entire day exploring it. We spent our entire morning there and by the time we left we had probably only seen about a quarter of its collection. After the Louvre we headed to Notre Dame to try to find Quasimodo. Before we actually went into the cathedral we made some lunch outside on a park bench and spent some time people watching while enjoying our lunch. It was at this time that we came into contact with one of the most annoying aspects of Paris: its beggars. We were approached by a young woman who asked if we spoke English, upon answering yes she proceeded to open up a postcard she was holding. On the postcard it was written that she was a Kurdish refugee who was living in Paris with her mother and brother. Her brother had leukemia and she wanted some money. We told her no but she was extremely persistent and begged us for money. We finally got her to leave us alone and we looked around and realized there was a whole swarm of them. They were all dressed similarly (like stereotypical refugees) and all had postcards…amazingly they all spoke very good English as well! Every tourist attraction and train station that we went to following Notre Dame we would find a swarm of beggars with their postcards so we got pretty good at saying that we didn’t speak English and just avoiding them altogether! It was extremely frustrating to me as I can only imagine that there are plenty of people in Paris who are in genuine need of help…I have never seen such an organized, widespread begging operation in any other place I have ever visited! Anyway, back to Notre Dame…the cathedral was absolutely amazing inside. I think Drew finally understood why I enjoy churches so much…I am always in awe of how much work and beauty has gone into these older churches.
From the Notre Dame we headed off to Arc de Triomphe which was much larger than I could have ever imagined. Standing at the Arc, in the middle of a five lane roundabout I couldn’t help but laugh just thinking of National Lampoon’s European Vacation and just driving round and round…I don’t know how anyone can navigate that roundabout! After the Arc we headed off to Paris’ most famous tourist attraction…the Eiffel Tower! The one thing that Drew really wanted to do and always mentioned when we were planning this trip was to climb the Eiffel Tower so, being the windiest day ever we decided we’d give it a shot! You’re only allowed to climb to the second viewing platform (668 steps) and then, if you want to continue to the top, you have to take an elevator. As thrilling as the climb was I was definitely glad that you weren’t allowed to hike up past the second viewing platform because, being exposed to the open wind at any point higher than that probably would have blown us straight off! So we took the elevator all the way to the top and had some great views of the city. The viewing platform at the top is completely enclosed in an open cage thing so you can’t be blown off. Nonetheless it was scary walking around the top because there was one side completely blocked from the wind so it was completely still and calm but as you walked around to the other side you walked straight into a brick wall of wind…you literally had to lean forward with most of your body weight just to keep walking. We eventually made it back to the bottom and continued on our way! We’d had a pretty full day so we didn’t stay in the city centre much longer before heading back to our host’s house. Unfortunately Isabelle still hadn’t explained the two different trains to us so we took the wrong one again which made our journey back much longer than we had anticipated.
On our second day in Paris we spent the morning at Versailles Palace, considered to be one of the grandest palaces in the entire world. The detail inside of the palace was amazing and again, like the Louvre, you could easily spend an entire day there. Every single room that you went in was elaborately decorated…it never ceases to amaze me that people actually live in such grandeur. Drew and I’s favorite room was the hall of mirrors which is an incredibly long hall with mirrored walls and tons of crystal chandeliers. It is so incredibly regal and amazing. After Versailles we headed back into Paris to see some more of its sites. I really wanted to see Moulin Rouge (really just to get a picture) and we spent most of the afternoon looking for it. While trying to find it we stumbled upon an absolutely beautiful basilica and, on our way up to it, we were hounded by some of Paris’ wonderful street salesmen. Basically what these salesmen do is give you something (in this case they were giving out string bracelets) and then, once you take it, tell you have to pay for it. You find them in a lot of big cities so Drew and I knew what they were up to and just walked through the bunch of them, ignoring their offers of bracelets. However, being Paris where everyone seems to be an aggressive capitalist, one of them grabbed me by the hand and refused to let go. He told me that he really liked Americans and really wanted me to take the bracelet. I kept telling him no thanks, I really wasn’t interested, etc., etc. but he absolutely would not let go! Drew finally had to grab my other hand and begin pulling me in the opposite direction. I was yanked back and forth between the two until Drew succeeded in pulling me away. We made our way up to the basilica and were able to get a really great view of the city through the smog. We made our way back down the hill and finally found Moulin Rouge, got our pictures and continued on our way. We then headed to the Pantheon and then spent some time wandering around and waited for it to get dark so that we could see the Eiffel tower at night. We found the second, smaller, Statue of Liberty that France kept for itself after giving the larger one to the United States. Seeing the Eiffel tower at night was really neat. It is all lit up and looks really cool!
Our last day in Paris was really just a half day because we were leaving in the early afternoon. We headed to the train station we were leaving from first thing in the morning, dropped off our suitcases and tried to avoid drawing attention to ourselves because the station was full of guards carrying huge semi-automatic rifles. We did some more wandering around the city trying to find the entrance to the catacombs. Unfortunately, we were never able to find it so we weren’t able to see the catacombs. We headed back to the train station and, fortunately, got there early because it took us at least a half hour to get through customs. We had to sit off to the side and got questioned about exactly what we were doing in the United Kingdom and why we were there so long. The customs man had to call Patty, my supervisor at the program, to ensure that I was legit and, after she vouched for me, we were able to get through and board our train about five minutes before it left the station.
One of the most rewarding parts of our stay in Paris was our couchsurfing experience. In particular, two roommates of our hosts were so friendly and felt more like our hosts than our actual hosts. Drew and I have really enjoyed couchsurfing so far because it provides you with an extra insight into the culture you are experiencing. We were both greeted with kisses on the cheeks and, I have to admit, it really caught me off guard when we first met our hosts because it is so different from anything we would normally experience but by the end of our stay it was natural and comfortable and I enjoyed being able to experience these small mannerisms of French culture. It was also helpful to have people readily available to help us with our French pronunciations and explain things that we had seen throughout the day. It was also nice to be able to chat and learn more about French culture. These two particular roommates were both not from Paris (and actually the place we were staying was Ris Orangis…a half hour to hour train ride outside of Paris) and had pretty strong opinions concerning Parisians. After our first day out exploring they asked us if we had had any problems with the rude Parisians. We answered that we hadn’t and they were relieved because they felt that many Parisians are rude and think they are better than everyone else. I thought this was very interesting because it is, unfortunately, a stereotype that you often hear applied to the entire country of France. Our hosts (actually, the two roommates of the hosts) wanted to cook a traditional French dinner for us and take us out on Friday night to meet some of their friends and experience the Parisian nightlife…unfortunately, we were leaving Paris on Friday afternoon so we weren’t able to spend this extra time with them but they welcomed us back whenever we get the chance so we just might have to take them up on their offer!
The next day we woke up bright and early so we could get a full day of exploring Paris. We headed first to the Louvre where the lines weren’t nearly as long as we had expected. We saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo as well as many other amazing pieces of art. The museum is absolutely huge and you could easily spend an entire day exploring it. We spent our entire morning there and by the time we left we had probably only seen about a quarter of its collection. After the Louvre we headed to Notre Dame to try to find Quasimodo. Before we actually went into the cathedral we made some lunch outside on a park bench and spent some time people watching while enjoying our lunch. It was at this time that we came into contact with one of the most annoying aspects of Paris: its beggars. We were approached by a young woman who asked if we spoke English, upon answering yes she proceeded to open up a postcard she was holding. On the postcard it was written that she was a Kurdish refugee who was living in Paris with her mother and brother. Her brother had leukemia and she wanted some money. We told her no but she was extremely persistent and begged us for money. We finally got her to leave us alone and we looked around and realized there was a whole swarm of them. They were all dressed similarly (like stereotypical refugees) and all had postcards…amazingly they all spoke very good English as well! Every tourist attraction and train station that we went to following Notre Dame we would find a swarm of beggars with their postcards so we got pretty good at saying that we didn’t speak English and just avoiding them altogether! It was extremely frustrating to me as I can only imagine that there are plenty of people in Paris who are in genuine need of help…I have never seen such an organized, widespread begging operation in any other place I have ever visited! Anyway, back to Notre Dame…the cathedral was absolutely amazing inside. I think Drew finally understood why I enjoy churches so much…I am always in awe of how much work and beauty has gone into these older churches.
From the Notre Dame we headed off to Arc de Triomphe which was much larger than I could have ever imagined. Standing at the Arc, in the middle of a five lane roundabout I couldn’t help but laugh just thinking of National Lampoon’s European Vacation and just driving round and round…I don’t know how anyone can navigate that roundabout! After the Arc we headed off to Paris’ most famous tourist attraction…the Eiffel Tower! The one thing that Drew really wanted to do and always mentioned when we were planning this trip was to climb the Eiffel Tower so, being the windiest day ever we decided we’d give it a shot! You’re only allowed to climb to the second viewing platform (668 steps) and then, if you want to continue to the top, you have to take an elevator. As thrilling as the climb was I was definitely glad that you weren’t allowed to hike up past the second viewing platform because, being exposed to the open wind at any point higher than that probably would have blown us straight off! So we took the elevator all the way to the top and had some great views of the city. The viewing platform at the top is completely enclosed in an open cage thing so you can’t be blown off. Nonetheless it was scary walking around the top because there was one side completely blocked from the wind so it was completely still and calm but as you walked around to the other side you walked straight into a brick wall of wind…you literally had to lean forward with most of your body weight just to keep walking. We eventually made it back to the bottom and continued on our way! We’d had a pretty full day so we didn’t stay in the city centre much longer before heading back to our host’s house. Unfortunately Isabelle still hadn’t explained the two different trains to us so we took the wrong one again which made our journey back much longer than we had anticipated.
On our second day in Paris we spent the morning at Versailles Palace, considered to be one of the grandest palaces in the entire world. The detail inside of the palace was amazing and again, like the Louvre, you could easily spend an entire day there. Every single room that you went in was elaborately decorated…it never ceases to amaze me that people actually live in such grandeur. Drew and I’s favorite room was the hall of mirrors which is an incredibly long hall with mirrored walls and tons of crystal chandeliers. It is so incredibly regal and amazing. After Versailles we headed back into Paris to see some more of its sites. I really wanted to see Moulin Rouge (really just to get a picture) and we spent most of the afternoon looking for it. While trying to find it we stumbled upon an absolutely beautiful basilica and, on our way up to it, we were hounded by some of Paris’ wonderful street salesmen. Basically what these salesmen do is give you something (in this case they were giving out string bracelets) and then, once you take it, tell you have to pay for it. You find them in a lot of big cities so Drew and I knew what they were up to and just walked through the bunch of them, ignoring their offers of bracelets. However, being Paris where everyone seems to be an aggressive capitalist, one of them grabbed me by the hand and refused to let go. He told me that he really liked Americans and really wanted me to take the bracelet. I kept telling him no thanks, I really wasn’t interested, etc., etc. but he absolutely would not let go! Drew finally had to grab my other hand and begin pulling me in the opposite direction. I was yanked back and forth between the two until Drew succeeded in pulling me away. We made our way up to the basilica and were able to get a really great view of the city through the smog. We made our way back down the hill and finally found Moulin Rouge, got our pictures and continued on our way. We then headed to the Pantheon and then spent some time wandering around and waited for it to get dark so that we could see the Eiffel tower at night. We found the second, smaller, Statue of Liberty that France kept for itself after giving the larger one to the United States. Seeing the Eiffel tower at night was really neat. It is all lit up and looks really cool!
Our last day in Paris was really just a half day because we were leaving in the early afternoon. We headed to the train station we were leaving from first thing in the morning, dropped off our suitcases and tried to avoid drawing attention to ourselves because the station was full of guards carrying huge semi-automatic rifles. We did some more wandering around the city trying to find the entrance to the catacombs. Unfortunately, we were never able to find it so we weren’t able to see the catacombs. We headed back to the train station and, fortunately, got there early because it took us at least a half hour to get through customs. We had to sit off to the side and got questioned about exactly what we were doing in the United Kingdom and why we were there so long. The customs man had to call Patty, my supervisor at the program, to ensure that I was legit and, after she vouched for me, we were able to get through and board our train about five minutes before it left the station.
One of the most rewarding parts of our stay in Paris was our couchsurfing experience. In particular, two roommates of our hosts were so friendly and felt more like our hosts than our actual hosts. Drew and I have really enjoyed couchsurfing so far because it provides you with an extra insight into the culture you are experiencing. We were both greeted with kisses on the cheeks and, I have to admit, it really caught me off guard when we first met our hosts because it is so different from anything we would normally experience but by the end of our stay it was natural and comfortable and I enjoyed being able to experience these small mannerisms of French culture. It was also helpful to have people readily available to help us with our French pronunciations and explain things that we had seen throughout the day. It was also nice to be able to chat and learn more about French culture. These two particular roommates were both not from Paris (and actually the place we were staying was Ris Orangis…a half hour to hour train ride outside of Paris) and had pretty strong opinions concerning Parisians. After our first day out exploring they asked us if we had had any problems with the rude Parisians. We answered that we hadn’t and they were relieved because they felt that many Parisians are rude and think they are better than everyone else. I thought this was very interesting because it is, unfortunately, a stereotype that you often hear applied to the entire country of France. Our hosts (actually, the two roommates of the hosts) wanted to cook a traditional French dinner for us and take us out on Friday night to meet some of their friends and experience the Parisian nightlife…unfortunately, we were leaving Paris on Friday afternoon so we weren’t able to spend this extra time with them but they welcomed us back whenever we get the chance so we just might have to take them up on their offer!
Brussels
We arrived in Brussels and phoned our couchsurfing host, Ernest. He explained that he would meet us at the train station so we waited, a bit nervously, not knowing quite what to expect. Ernest showed up and walked us back to his flat (it was pouring rain outside), playing tour guide along the way and pointing out various sites along the way. We dropped our bags at the flat and, as the night was still young, Ernest insisted that we head to a local pub to pick up a drink. Ernest is actually from the Netherlands, but is currently doing an internship with Cargill in Brussels. He studied abroad at Michigan State so he is pretty familiar with the United States. We had an excellent chat at the pub and really enjoyed getting to know one another. After a drink at that pub, Ernest decided he wanted to take us to another. We got outside and it had stopped raining so Ernest was really great and took us on a short tour of the city. He brought us to the main square and explained the meaning of the statues on all the buildings (the statues are pointing at one another as to who is the father of the baby inside one of the female statue’s bulging belly). Then he took us to see the Manneken Pis, the most famous statue in Brussels. After Manneken Pis we headed into what is considered the tourist part of town. It is one long street of restaurants but every single restaurant is pretty much the same thing and they are very aggressive about getting you to eat in their restaurant. As we walked down the street every single restaurant’s workers called out to us to come eat in their restaurant…they would follow you as you walked down the street trying to convince you that you needed to eat there. Ernest just laughed and explained that we weren’t hungry but they were still persistent! We finally arrived at our destination, a pub known as Delirium that holds the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most beers available in a bar. You enter the bar and pick up a menu which is about an inch thick full of beers from all around the world. Ernest finally had to just pick a beer because Drew was so completely lost in what he referred to as ‘the Beer Bible’. Drew and I were extremely tired after our drink at the Delirium Bar so we headed back to the flat to catch some shut eye as we had to be up bright and early the next day.
The next morning we woke up and headed off to explore the beautiful city of Brussels. Ernest left us with a few suggestions of what to do with our day and, among them, was to visit Atomium. Atomium is a giant statue from the 1958 World’s Fair and it is located on the outskirts of Brussels. It was neat to see and very futuristic…it reminded me of something you would see at Disney’s Epcot. After Atomium we headed back into the city. We spent some more time in the central square just soaking in the amazing architecture, went back to the Manneken Pis who was dressed up in a cute little outfit to advertise Unicef, headed off to a park to enjoy some of the limited sunshine of the day and explored some of the various aspects of the European Parliament located in Brussels. Because the EU is headquartered in Brussels, the city has a very unique feel to it…most people who live in Brussels are not actually Belgian but are living there from elsewhere in Europe. We also found the Royal Palace in our wanderings around the city which was absolutely beautiful. An interesting note about the streets in Brussels…they’re set up on a circular pattern so when I say we were wandering the streets we were literally wandering the streets! We learned pretty quickly that we shouldn’t try to do anything in the city without first consulting our map! We also took some time in Brussels to take advantage of their delicacies…Belgian waffles, Belgian fries and, of course, Belgian chocolate!
Later in the day, after all of our exploring, we were once again back at the train station and on our way to Paris!
The next morning we woke up and headed off to explore the beautiful city of Brussels. Ernest left us with a few suggestions of what to do with our day and, among them, was to visit Atomium. Atomium is a giant statue from the 1958 World’s Fair and it is located on the outskirts of Brussels. It was neat to see and very futuristic…it reminded me of something you would see at Disney’s Epcot. After Atomium we headed back into the city. We spent some more time in the central square just soaking in the amazing architecture, went back to the Manneken Pis who was dressed up in a cute little outfit to advertise Unicef, headed off to a park to enjoy some of the limited sunshine of the day and explored some of the various aspects of the European Parliament located in Brussels. Because the EU is headquartered in Brussels, the city has a very unique feel to it…most people who live in Brussels are not actually Belgian but are living there from elsewhere in Europe. We also found the Royal Palace in our wanderings around the city which was absolutely beautiful. An interesting note about the streets in Brussels…they’re set up on a circular pattern so when I say we were wandering the streets we were literally wandering the streets! We learned pretty quickly that we shouldn’t try to do anything in the city without first consulting our map! We also took some time in Brussels to take advantage of their delicacies…Belgian waffles, Belgian fries and, of course, Belgian chocolate!
Later in the day, after all of our exploring, we were once again back at the train station and on our way to Paris!
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