Boarders Trip

House with its gate

Priest Hidden Stair Case 

Today I went on another Arcadia Sponsored trip, to the scottish boarders. We started the trek nice and early with the Tranquair house, this is to date the oldest inhabited house in Scotland. This was a cool house, but quite honestly it reminded me of the "stars hallow history museum" in Gilmore Girls for the other fans out there. In other words it was very "we think this might be a letter written from the dukes cousin to his farming brother about the estate" and did really have all that much significant things. Although it did have a hidden stair case for the priest to run down if anyone anti-catholic invaded the house.

TOTALLY TUBULAR MELROSE ABBY

Then we went to the Melrose Abby, this was sick! I wish I could upload all of the pictures i have of it, but you would kill me! but for those of you lucky enough to see my pictures when i get home you can kill me then! Not going to lie that has probably been my favorite stop to date. It was soo cool! ahhh But all good things must come to an end, and we crammed into the bus and were shipped of to Smailholm tower. There we wondered INSIDE a cow grazing area (and yes for the record they are afraid of people) and made the climb up the tower. The defensive walls in this tower were 7 feet thick! (dad you have a lot of work to do on our stone walls if you want them to even look cool next to this bad boy!)

The walls from the top of the tower looking down

Dryburgh Abby

Then we went to Dryburgh Abby. This last abby reminded me a lot about the cathedral that the master builder was making in Pillars of the Earth. Finally we went to the Scotts view which is a BEAUTIFUL view of the lowlands of scotland. Then we hit the dusty trail and made the journey back to good ol' Edinburgh. To prepare for an EPIC night out, we went to the students center (potter row) and they have this event every saturday that is called the big Cheese, where they play all sorts of my generation oldies. Think spice girls, backstreet boys, s-club 7 ect. you get the drift. What a blast, if you randomly show up to Edinburgh on a saturday night, you now know where to find me!!

Scotts View

Look out I am about to BLOG ROCK YOUUUUUU! (aka lots coming soon)

SHEEPS HEID INNNN

This ones for you ZMBF!

Ca$h Money$

Thank you to the lovely Benowitz-Fredricks for recommending a trip to the oldest pub in Edinburgh! We started the TRECK at about 11:30 around the hollyrood park to the little town that the Sheeps Heid resides. When we walked in, ready for a meal of mac'an cheese, only to find out they were renovating the entire in starting the next day. So we grabbed a pint (on an empty stomach mind you) and sat at one of the cute little tables. Then I saw in the corner of my eye, MONOPOLY (edinburgh edition!) so obviously we played that for a few hours. (CHAMPION!!!) woohoooo Great little gem, can wait until it is renovated and go back and play again!

Look forward to muchoo more about this weekend, it was a doozy (in a great way)!

Stockholm

Let me first tell you that if you would like to see a city, you should bring a friend that gets her bag stolen, then you are forced to hoof it all around the city. Although if you want to have any fun, i would pick a different method to tour!

YUMMMMM

NASTY

FRIDAY
So getting to stockholm was completely uneventful, and we got to the tourist center with out any hiccups, then when we got there we had a massive one. One of the girls i was with had a sore back (poor girl) and put her backpack down, and then some lucky guy took it off her hands. Of course just losing the backpack wasn't enough, it also had her passport in it. so after a freak-out like stockholm has never seen before we calmed her down enough to walk 45 minutes to the US embassy, only to find out that it was closed all weekend and on monday (thank you columbus for finding america) so freak-out #2 she was going to have to stay another day. Also, she lost her visa (also in the passport) so we had to go to the british embassy. Then we walked back to the lovely tourist place and continued an additional 30 minutes to go to the police station to file a report. But we made it to our hotel in time to check in, and realized it was a 4 start hotel... DOPE! And the police called saying they recovered the bag (minus iphone and rain jacket), and we quickly slept off the memory of a great day!
SATURDAY
The good thing about a 4 star hotel is the rockin' buffet! Full of food we headed out to the Globe which is the worlds biggest spherical building, and we went up on the sky-view and checked out the Swedish landscape. Then we stopped at a candy store to try out some delicious swedish candy, only to find out quickly that there chocolate is great but their infamous salted candies are TERRIBLE (Hayssen family don't worry i bought some so you can experience the treat!)

Fresh blue cheese with homemade bread and jam!

From there we went on the tunnelbanna (the only swedish word i can actually pronounce correctly ton-oh-ban-ah) to the island of Djurgarden (with a circle on top of the a) to the Nordiska Musett (the swedish culture museum). Then we went to Rosendals garden and had lunch at the cafe there. That was cool cause everything and i mean EVERYTHING we ate was grown cooked, molded (cheese) on the farm (how earth crunchy of them). Then we went to Skansen which is equivalent of the swedish Sturbridge village, we saw a pharmacy where they hand concocted pills until surprisingly recently. Then we made a quick stop at the Aquaria (aquarium) where we took a stroll through the rainforest and the nordic sea. Then we went to my favorite museum, Vasa Musett. This was an old Swedish military ship that sunk in the harbor. Then they dragged it out and preserved it, then built the museum around it. It is the world's largest preservation project to date. After an extremely busy day we wanted to have a nice drink, only to realize that Stockholm's government regulates all alcohol sales, and you can only buy it in one store (unless you want something less then 3.5%) Not to mention the store is only open for about four hours a day. So we went out for a little bit but were too tired to even stay awake on the train ride!

The vasa

SUNDAY

Changing of the guards

Up and at 'em and off to the city yet again. We went to the Royal Palace and walked around the really small and not very decorated guest chambers (sarcastic on a blog is a hard thing to achieve.) They were INCREDIBLE. Then we got to watch the changing of the guards, this is something that happens every Tuesday Saturday and Sunday (i think) and it is when one group of Swedish Military gives over the task of guarding the palace to another branch of the Military. And man was it elaborate! They had a marching band and drum line and flag waving. It was so cool! Then we went to the treasury and saw some of the crowns and jewels of the swedish government. (i bet Obama is pretty bummed our tax dollars are going to funding his trips and not sick crowns). Then we made the treck to a new hotel (the new world hotel), we found it and found out that we were staying in china (legit had lomein for breakfast) in stockholm, how cultural of us! Then we sauna-ed and took an epic nap. We then headed out or an epic night on the town. We went to a famous live music bar, but the band ended early, so we decided to get a drink, but little did we know they price drinks by the cl, and there are 3.7 cls in the average drink. So we asked the bar tender how much their "well vodka" (worst vodka) was, and we were stunned to hear that it was 7 pounds. So we savored that drink and wondered around the town for a bit then headed back to the new world.
MONDAY
All of the museums and attractions are closed on monday so we just wondered around town more, we went into the Stockholm art college and looked at some of the student work until hoping on the bus to the airport and back to Edinburgh.. WHAT A WEEKEND

Hi-Lands

18 years in these to make the finest drank EVER

The demonstration

Sheering the sheep

Another weekend of epic proportions, I went on the Arcadia’s (my host program) trip to the highlands. We started in Edinburg where I found out that the field I play shinty on was a mass burial grave for all of the people who died from the plague. So that is creepy. When we crossed into the highlands there was an almost immediate change of agriculture. The soil in the highlands is very acidic so there are all pine trees or just short grasses and shrubs. We stopped first at Pitlochry which is a town known for its healing waters and flowers. Our next stop was the Dalwhinnie Distillery. It was so cool, but I wasn’t able to get any pictures in it because you have to turn off all electronics because the air had too much alcohol in it and there was a risk of cameras and phones producing an electrical spark and blowing up the whole distillery (WICKED). We had lunch in another small town (Kingussie) and then went to watch a sheep demonstration. And I got to sheer a sheep! Then we went to the Culloden Battlefield where the last Jacobite Rebellion was held. And this quelled the anti British sentiment in the highlands (for the most part). Then we went to Inverness to our hostel.

The Castle

                   This morning we started with a short cruse in Loch Ness to the Urqyhart Castle. I didn’t spot nessie but I had high hopes. We found out that the loch ness is not only the largest and deepest lake in Scotland, but it is also peat lake so it is very opaque (so if there was one lake to make up creature spottings this was well chosen St. Columbos!) Then we toured around the castle for a bit. We then saw the fort Augustus locks. We weren’t luck enough to see a boat go through them, but it was still cool. We then headed off to the commando memorials and fort William for lunch. I had the BEST lunch ever, a bowl of mac and cheese made from a mixture of brie and cheddar and a cream and jelly filled scone. Then we hopped on the bus and headed for our last stop, Glenco. It was BEAUTIFUL! 

Glenco

Cream and Jelly Scone, YES PLEASE