Ben's Visit - Edinburgh

Friday, 19th June - Today's plan was to go to Edinburgh and hopefully see two castles and a palace, or at least two of the three. We got up relatively early, showered, made breakfast (scrambled eggs and toast) and headed to City Center again. I had checked the train times to Edinburgh from Queen St. Station and saw that trains left frequently and took under an hour to arrive, so we decided to stop in at Central Station to pick up our tickets for that evening/ the next morning's trip to London before walking to Queen St. While at Central station, we saw that there was a train to Edinburgh leaving very soon, so we bought tickets for that one. Oops. That was a mistake. Took about an hour and 40 minutes to get to Edinburgh with all the stops that train made... Really cut into our day, unfortunately. But nevermind, everything turned out alright and we had a wonderful time!!
From the moment I stepped off the train, I realized that Edinburgh is really the city that I should be working in. When people ask me "Are you loving Scotland" this is the city they're picturing. Its like if you think I'm staying in New York City, but really, I'm in Trenton... yeah. So anyway, the city of Edinburgh is very lovely. Clean, historic, the buildings have so much character, and so do the shops!! After about half a mile walk up through the city, we arrived at Edinburgh Castle. The castle is still in use - it's a military base, the governer's house is there and it houses several city administrative offices of some sort. This was unfortunate because I feel that it took away from the historic character of the castle. I know anyone who likes modern warfare, modern history, or doesn't mind that historical buildings are still in use, would have thoroughly enjoyed this castle, but for me, it took away from it as I enjoy ancient history.

When we were finished touring the castle, we walked down Royal Mile, stopped in a couple shops, grabbed Subway sandwiches as lunch (6inch subs are buy one get one free from 4-7pm!), and continued to Palace of Holyroodhouse. Now, this palace was beautiful! Several of the rooms inside have been restored to how they looked hundreds of years ago when Kings and Queens of Scotland used this as their main residence. And even today, when the Queen visits Scotland, this is where she stays! Since we took our time visiting the castle and palace, we didn't have time to go see the other castle, which is just ruins, or go in too many shops, but we did really enjoy our visit! We ended the day in Edinburgh with dinner at a pub where we finally indulged in local favorites - Bangers and Mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) and Fish and Chips (Fried Haddock with french fries) along with a pint of beer each!

Cheers!!

Ben's visit - Arrival and Stirling Castle

Thursday, 18th June - I woke at 6am threw on clothes, made the bed, brushed my teeth, and ran out of the house by 610am. The goal was to catch a 618 bus to City Center. Made it to the bus stop in plenty of time to tie my shoes and catch the bus (that arrived and left a minute early!). Got to city center, walked two blocks, and saw that I was 5 minutes late to catch the bus to the airport. The next one wouldn't be for another half hour. But - that bus was running late!! After only several minutes of waiting, my bus came and I was on my way to the airport to get Ben! 25 mins later found me in the waiting area for International Arrivals... Ben's plane had landed according to the board, but they were waiting on the other side of the wall for their luggage... To fast forward, when Ben came through the doors, we hugged, had a potty stop, caught 2 busses back to my place, introduced him to the family I'm living with, and then napped til 1130am. (It was almost 9am when we reached my flat.) The plan for the day was a short day trip to Stirling Castle, so after showers and breakfast, we got the train from Queen Street Station to Stirling Station. The train ride was about 45 minutes long, through scenic countryside and little villages and farms. Then we had to walk uphill through the town of Stirling to reach the castle. It was a cute town, very old, lots of brickwork, tons of little shops and stores and places to eat! The view of the countryside from Stirling Castle was great!

It's situated right at a bend in the river and you can see for miles around (on a clear day). (For a historically inaccurate portrayal of Stirling Castle, see the movie "Braveheart"). Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating 100% with our desire to see Stirling Castle and we had to battle with periodic rainy patches and cold, windy, spells... We had a guided tour that took us around the outside of the castle and through some of the rooms inside, and we learned about the history of the castle, the kings who lived there, battles fought over it and nearby. It was very interesting! (Too bad I don't remember all of the details to recount them here, but if you're curious, just go take the tour!) Then, after a lovely afternoon at Stirling Castle, we took the train back to Glasgow, walked down Buchanan Street a little ways, ate dinner at TGIFridays (you don't come to the UK for the food, right?!?), stopped to get some groceries, and then made our way home to get some sleep.

*Remember, to see all of the pictures from the trip, check out my photo site: mystykgrlsmoments.shutterfly.com

Happy Hour at the pub

Yesterday after work I went to the pub with some of my coworkers. It was a really cute area that used to be stables and has now been turned into a little alleyway of pubs and clubs. When I learned that they used to be stables, I was quickly reminded of all those books I've read where traveling long distances on horseback, or carriage, was common, and people would stop at inns and change horses. This must have been one of the places where people stopped back then! That's just so cool!! I took a couple of pictures of the area, so hopefully they turned out alright!

The pub we went to was a Swedish Pub that my coworkers go to for the mussels. I was hoping to get fish and chips or something local, but this place didn't offer anything like that and it was pretty expensive. So I ordered a cheeseburger with bacon. (How American, I know!) It came out without cheese or bacon, so I guess I got the diet burger, which, in retrospect, was probably a good thing. And it was extremely well done. Other than that, I had my first (UK) pint of Guinness. I still don't like it much, but figured I had to order one at least once. After that, I switched back to lagers.

Musings...

There are seagulls here and some kind of hawk, too.

I’ve heard both birds through my open window in the mornings. Most of you wouldn’t understand why I even notice that. Mom probably would. When I was in NJ for those couple of days before coming to Glasgow, mom and I were out shopping for some last minute things for my trip. We were in the Target parking lot and there was a swarm of seagulls and I remarked that there aren’t any seagulls in Nashville. And, its weird, because you don’t really notice that they’re not there, but when you’re in NJ and they’re everywhere, you realize that you haven’t been noticing them and so they must not be there. And then on the morning of my flight, mom and I were sitting on rocking chairs on her front porch and there were several hawks (or some type of small bird of prey) across the street causing quite a racket. Mom was telling me how there’s a bird’s nest above her bedroom window and one morning a hawk was trying to eat the eggs, so she shooed it away… hehe. Hmm, so yeah, lately, in the morning, when my window is cracked and the birds fly by, they make me think of mom. Which is a nice change; because they used to make me think of Mr. Quinty, and then I’d always feel quite guilty about not being able to properly identify the bird…

Speaking of guilt…

I once read this article (and by read, I mean that it was in a magazine lying open on the bathroom sink and I glanced at it) about how all of the new technology and new forms of communication available have given us all a new form of guilt, or maybe, more to feel guilty about. It used to be that you felt bad for not returning all of your messages right away, but now, on top of that, you have to check 4 email accounts, update your twitter and facebook status, respond to comments, and blog about your day.
This article reminded me of when I was younger and used to try to keep a diary. I’d almost never write in it and whenever I would open it, I would start every entry remarking on how long it had been since I had written and trying to catch the reader (myself?) up on everything that had happened since I’d last written. I felt guilty for not writing in my diary. Just as I feel guilty for not having yet blogged about my Scotland adventure. But I guess, in this case, I’m not just letting down my future self. Several people have asked me about the blogs, expressed interest in reading them and learning all about my trip. I’m letting them down by not posting details about my daily existence over here in the UK and really, although I could give you a thousand excuses as to why I haven’t yet written anything, quite frankly I haven’t got anything better to do and should really focus on catching my readers up to date. (I would like to note, and here seems a good as place as any, that my version of Word doesn’t recognize ‘blog’ as a word.)

And if you’re wondering why I’m blogging in word…

Well, that’s as good a place to start as any, I’d say. There’s no point in going about things in chronological order, I’ll just continue to throw them out there. In my third floor flat on the south west side of the bustling city of Glasgow, Scotland, I do not have internet access. While Glasgow is an old city, it has managed to transit into modern times relatively successfully. Judging by a Coca~Cola billboard I saw yesterday while on the bus, I’d say Glasgow has made it well into the 1980’s. Ok, I take that back, maybe mid-90s. When I turn on my laptop in my flat, it can detect several wireless signals (as I had hoped since there are several apartment buildings around me in close proximity to each other), but each and every one of them is security protected. And, I really can’t complain about that, my internet at home is security password protected, too. (As should yours be! Or people like me will come along and try to mooch free internet off of you!). There are 2 signals that I can occasionally pick up that aren’t password protected, but these are very-low and usually won’t stay connected for more than several minutes at a time. If I walk out to the main road, there are several cafés and internet cafés nearby. The cafes require that you purchase something in order for them to give you an access code for one hour of internet usage. I haven’t been to the internet cafes yet, as I’m trying to avoid paying for internet, obviously. The trouble with most of these places is that they close around 6pm so that their employees can go home to their families. 6pm in Glasgow is noon in Nashville… and I’m at work until 5pm. Hmm. The next option I investigated was to see about getting internet set up in my flat (much like I have at home). Sure, I’d have to pay for it, but at least I wouldn’t have to leave home to use it, and I could be sure that I would always have a strong signal. Thwarted again: internet companies in the UK require you to sign a 12 month contract in order to get internet access.
And so, here I sit. On my bed, typing in word. Tomorrow when I get to the lab, I’ll copy and paste this all into a blog (if you’re all good boys and girls) and post it online. Yes, I have internet access at work. I had to leave my laptop there for two days and let them install several programs on it and reconfigure the internet settings, but it works. Thankfully!!
And maybe you’re wondering “why the whole page about the problems with the internet? We want to hear about Glasgow?!” Well, because this is what is relevant to me in the here and now. I was counting on having the internet not only as a source of communication, but also as a source of entertainment. I was going to watch videos on netflix, tv shows on the web, update my twitter with entertaining comments, put photos up all the time, and, of course, be able to webcam with Ben and to see my cats daily. I have internet at work, but that’s not where I get bored! I have work to do there! It’s the evenings, when all the shops are closed and I’m sitting in my flat with nothing to do that get to me, and I’ve only been here a week! The tv gets 5 channels, and they’re all dull, I’ve already finished one book and started a new one, and I’ve achieved all new high scores on every game my computer has to offer!! I’m sure it’ll be fine though. I think it’s just been made a little worse because I’ve been sick and had no energy to do anything But lie around. Once I’m better, I’ll be able to go out and explore and find new things to keep me busy. In the meantime, I’m going to ask my new co-workers if they have any dvds I could borrow to occupy my evenings. And soon Ben will be here to visit. Right after he leaves, lacey will be here. So, maybe that’s enough bitching for right now.

Scotland!

For the next two months, I'm going to be living and working in Glasgow, Scotland. I'll try to blog (tons) more frequently than I have in the past in order to keep everyone updated on my adventure and also to keep a record of the trip for myself. I have a couple blogs already written that I'll post after this introductory blurb. They're not really written in any order, or actually about anything at all, but maybe someone out there will find them interesting to read. And if not, that's fine, too. I don't really care. I left Nashville on Wednesday, May 27. I remember my flight was scheduled to leave at 12:40pm, so I left my house at 10:45am. I had everything packed and said goodbye to my cats. While Ben was putting everything in the car, I started crying and got very upset about leaving them (if you knew them, you'd be upset about leaving them, too!), so I had to go back inside one more time to say goodbye. Ben and I got to the airport and he parked to walk in and help me with my bags. I got through check-in and security and then found out that the flight was delayed an hour - there was a gate hold due to a back-log of flights in Philly. Then, a storm passed through, so our incoming plane couldn't land in Nashville. It landed in Birmingham instead. More delays. In the end, I sat in the airport for 5.5 hours, finally boarding the plane at almost 4pm. The whole time thinking "Ben's 5 minutes away at work, my cats are 15 minutes away at home, I could be spending more time with them all, but no. I'm stuck sitting here..." Needless to say, that made me quite cranky. When I finally got to Philly, Leric picked me up at the airport and took me home to NJ. The next morning when I reached into my suitcase for clothes, I found another surprise: My clothes were soaked. Remember that storm that passed through Nashville while I was at the airport? I guess my bags were sitting outside during it... Anyway, Thursday and Friday were filled by shopping trips with mom to get last minute things, some new shoes, more jeans, etc. And way too much eating. I eat too much whenever I go back home. Its ok for now (while I'm just visiting) because the quality of the food in NJ is so much better than that in Nashville (or anywhere else I've ever eaten, really) that its best to stock up while I'm there. I'll have to cut back on several WaWa trips/ day once I move back to the area though.
On Saturday, Mom, Lisa, Leric, Kelly, and I went to Ocean City for a couple of hours. It was a great day for the beach! We laid on the beach for a little while and played catch by the ocean (ok - if you know me, it wasn't 'catch' on my end - it was "throw the ball near Laurie and let her chase it down and bring it back" maybe more like 'fetch' ?). But the sun was out and we all got a little burnt, and it was a great end of summer celebration (yes, on May 30). Then lunch was pizza on the boardwalk, of course. That night, I played Trivial Pursuit on Wii with Lacey and Joe for several hours, and even though I was the first person to have all the pieces of my pie, I could not roll the right number to land on the end-game square of the board!! I sat there crossing over it back and forth answering tons of questions for a long time, while Joe came from behind, filled his pie, landed on the end-game square, got the world's easiest question (asking what you are lacking if you have albinism!) and won the game. But, no, I'm not bitter. (haha, I only rememeber the winning question!!)
So, that about sums up my pre-trip excitement... on Sunday I went to the Philadelphia airport, exchanged money with the worst exchange rate ever, waited around for a couple of hours, and boarded the flight. It was uneventful. The flight was more comfortable than my previous trans-atlantic flight (maybe it was the butt-cushion I borrowed from mom?), although I think their overhead speaker could use a volume control (too loud!!). When we arrived in Glasgow at 645am, it was on a freakishly hot day - 80 degrees!! So that really helped to ease my transition. The following day was in the low 70s, and then after that it returned to normal Glasgow weather, which is, I'm learning, unpredictable and changes quickly. So, let's see. What else... I've been trying to post pictures on facebook, but it hasn't been cooperating. So, I put them on shutterfly. If you can go to shutterfly and look at other people's pictures, you're welcome to view mine... I don't know how all that works. Maybe I'll look into it after this. There's not a lot, because there hasn't been much to take pictures of yet. I got here, moved into my flat, found my way to work, and since then have only been between work and home. Why is this? Well, I've been sick. Day 2 in Scotland I woke up feeling like complete crap. Sore throat, running nose, and terrible cough. And that's the weird part, for me. I've had my share of colds in my life, and they never start with a cough. And that's been the primary symptom of this cold... this constant, deep, exhausting cough... kinda makes it difficult to do anything since breathing is hard, and talking... So exploring has been out of the question. And I've been trying to rest up to get my strength up and get better... So, keep that in mind, too, when you're reading the next blogs that I post. If they don't sound particularly cheerful or anything... I'm going to post them as I wrote them (in word) while I was lying in bed sick and bored to death because I didn't have anything else to do... (I brought several books along with me to read, but I could only read for so long, you know?)