Scotland: Day 2 - Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Highlands

My camera was fully charged for our day trip, so when I got up at 6:30 AM there was nothing to stand in the way of having a great day.  This also means that I took a ton of photos and it will be hard to choose what I include.

One of many whisky distilleries in Scotland.

We set off on our day trip around 8 AM but fell into some unexpected traffic delays, and as a result we only had a half hour at our first stop.  It was a little seaside town that Queen Victoria used to holiday.  Form there we went straight to Loch Ness (Loch is the Celtic word for Lake).  On our way we passed several beautiful Lochs, but finally we arrived in Fort Augustus on the edge of Loch Ness.

There was an option boat trip out into the middle of Loch Ness for ten extra pounds, so of course we decided to do it.  It was Nessie hunting time.  The Loch is beautiful.  Mountains surrounded every edge and the water glimmered from the overcast skies.  Loch Ness is huge and we only skimmed a very small part of it in the hour that we were on the water.  Unfortunately we were unable to locate the Loch Ness Monster but that wasn’t for lack of effort.

Me on Loch Ness.

We found Nessie!!!... Sort of.

Our next stop was the Commando Memorial.  The location couldn’t be more picturesque.  The memorial was located in lowland amongst numerous mountains.  One of these surrounding peaks is Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK.

The Commando Memorial with Ben Nevis in the background.

As we were so close to the mountains, the next obvious stop was at Glencoe.  Glencoe is a valley cutting through mountains and it’s quite beautiful.  Then in contrast to the mountains we traveled through burren area.  The whole trip was indescribably amazing to see and to experience.  As we traveled our guide told us of some cross-country walking paths along the highlands.  One in particular is called the West Highland Way.  It’s a 150KM (95 miles) walk from Glasgow to Ben Nevis.  It sounds so amazing that I have added it to my bucket list.

Glencoe

The Burren Area

Our final stop was highly enjoyable for completely different reason.  Our final stop was to Hamish, a highland bull and the most photographed animal in the UK.  Our tour guide was so excited when we stopped to see Hamish and he was standing.  We all piled out of the bus and fed Hamish apples.  It was great moment of lightheartedness.

Hamish!!!

We arrived back in Edinburgh around 7:30 PM, but that didn’t give us much time.  The day before, our tour guide Andy told us about a pub-crawl and convinced us that we should participate.  The only problem is that this pub-crawl was to start at 8 leaving us just under a half an hour to change and beautify.  We arrived at the first pub just in time.  We were to stay 40 min and enjoy our free drink with admission.  After we got our drinks I volunteered to take back unnecessary items back to the hostel.  Sadly for me, while I was gone, Andy arrived to see who was there from his tour.  The day before he told us he would be on the pub-crawl but when he arrived at the pub he was only there to say that he couldn’t make it.  Bailey and Chelsea joked that he only decided not to come when he found out I was coming back, but I know he only came to see me. Ha.

The rest of the night went wonderfully.  We met some cool people and went to fun pubs.  It was, however, a late night, which made for an interesting early morning.  We woke up, indulged in a McDonald’s breakfast before getting our 10-hour coach ride back to London.

You can't really see it, but at the end of the stream is the castle used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the coconut scene.

I have to say that Edinburgh and Scotland have been my favorite destination so far.  I loved the history and grandeur of the city.  I loved how small it was but that it was still incredibly immense in culture and spirit.  I loved the seclusion from the greater world, but the connection with the natural world.  I call Scotland the land of Mountains and Lochs, and the juxtaposition of the two makes for some breathtaking scenery.  I will definitely be going back to Scotland before I die.

That’s all for now.  My next update will be about the previous week and our trip to Brighton, the pebble beach destination in Britain.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Edinburgh: Day 1

Late Thursday night my journey to Scotland began.  I boarded a coach with Bailey and Chelsea at 11PM and we started off for Edinburgh.  For some reason I thought that taking an overnight coach would be a good idea.  The truth is that I sleep extremely poorly on a coach and then I have to face the rest of the day when I arrive at my destination.

Part of the Castle

We called it Mini Big Ben.

Just before 8 AM we arrived at our final destination.  We walked to our hostel, Castle Rock, to drop off our bags before hitting the town.  We stopped into a little café for breakfast and to plan out our day. 

I found out right away that my camera battery was five photos away from dying.  This was a huge blow.  Edinburgh is a beautiful city with a very distinct feel.  There’s the city center at old Edinburgh, full of Victorian style buildings, and new Edinburgh, which is more modern and suburban.  I was shocked to discover that Edinburgh is about the same size as Des Moines.  It felt to regal to be comparable in anyway to my humble home.

We first walked down the Royal mile from Edinburgh castle towards Holyrood Palace, which is the official residence of her Majesty the Queen in Scotland.  The palace is probably the smallest that I have seen so far, and it is situated across the road from the new Scottish Parliament building, which is rather ugly if you ask me.

The Mound we climbed.

Next to the palace there is Holyrood park and a huge mound. Having nothing better to do, we decided to climb it for some exercise and a view of the city.  It was a steep and difficult climb but it felt good to make it to the top.  We got an excellent view of the city from there.  My picture camera was dead, but I did get some panoramic video shots that I will try and share.

View of the city.  The castle is on the left, raised above everything else.

From the mound we walked back to have lunch and embark on a free walking tour of the city.  It had been overcast all day, but for the first time it had begun to rain.  Not heavily, but just enough to make the cold stick.  Luckily we had a very attractive tour guide named Andy to entertain us in the dreadful weather.  We learned a lot about the city.  We saw the place where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter, the inspiration for Hogwarts and heard the story of the Stone of Destiny.  Though probably the best part of the tour came while we were in Greyfriar’s Kirk.  We explored the cemetery and came to the most famous grave where we heard the story of Greyfriar’s Bobby.  Bobby was a little dog who came and lay by his master’s grave everyday for 14 years after his death.  To this day people come and leave gifts for the world’s most loyal dog.  As Andy told us this story a black dog came up, sniffed the grave, picked up a goofy doll and began to play.  A few moments later the dog’s master appeared and became very angry at his pup and yelled, “You don’t take Bobby’s teddy bear!”  He was so serious it was just so ridiculous that we all had to laugh.

Here's Andy, even though his name tag says Russell.  Gorgeous right?

The middle window is where JK Rowling sat as she began writing Harry Potter.

After the tour we checked into our hostel.  It is apparently ranked as the number fifth best hostel in the whole world.  That was comforting.  After getting settled in we went for a tradition Scottish meal.  I got Haggis, tatties and neeps; or in American English we would say Haggis, mash potatoes and mashed turnips.  For those of you who don’t know anything about haggis, I will tell you.  To make the original dish you take the unused meat of lamb (heart, brain, intestine, etc.), mincing it, adding spices, stuffing it into a sheep’s stomach and boiling it.  Now it is not quite so crudely made and used good cuts of meat.  I quite enjoyed it.  It wasn’t incredibly flavorful, but salt helps that.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel and made an early night.  We had a big day tour the next day and we wanted to be ready for it.

My next post will be of our day trip through Scotland.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Internship: Week 10 - Earth Day and a Visitor!

Last week was such a drag.  I’m not sure why, but I was perpetually tired and my body refused to wake up.  I’m really mad at myself for that because I am only here for a short period of time.  At the start of the week I only had 30 days left in this amazing place.  It might be a sign for something.

Monday kicked off tdg’s Earth Week promotion.  I was to find, organize and tweet out 40 articles about sustainable packaging, topped off with the publication of a tdg thought piece.  It was a very successful week because we gained over 20 followers.  We usually only get about 10 a week.  I spent most of the day reviewing articles and finding ones that would be relevant.

Tuesday was very, very similar to Monday starting out.  I was reading a lot of articles and finishing up the planning for the rest of the week.  For lunch I experienced Pret a Manger for the very first time.  It’s a really good, cheap food option.  I can’t believe it took me this long to try it.

I left work about an hour early because my friend Katy was in town.  She is still on break from school and was spending a layover in London before heading out to Germany to visit another friend.  Sadly for Katy, there was Iceland Volcano that erupted whose ash disrupted the whole World.  Travel was suspended for days in and out of the UK.  She had already missed a trip to Poland because of it, and would later learn that she was going to miss Germany as well.  Major bummer.

I met Katy at St. Paul’s Cathedral and became her tour guide.  I showed her the Millennium Bridge, the Monument, Leicester Square (where we were going to see The Last Song movie premiere that was cancelled due to the volcanic ash), Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross and ended at Brick Lane.  We had a traditional Indian Dinner, but not until after we were hassled by every restaurant on the street.  Men ran from across the street to try and sell us on their restaurant.  It was exhausting, so finally we just picked a place and sat down.  It was really good to spend some time with her.

"To a Summer's Day"  (1980) by Bridget Riley.

It's a lot more colorful and fun to look at in person.

Wednesday was class as usual.  We watched a video in Advertising.  Hopefully we take a field trip this week.  Art was in the Tate Modern and I had to do a real quick presentation on a piece of art.  That night we celebrated relays one more time with a case race.  My team got second.  It made for a very entertaining evening, but a not so fun Thursday morning of class.  Thursday’s topic of discussion was Broken Britain.  It’s rather depressing to tear apart a country that I hold in such high esteem.

After class and our weekly burrito stop at Tortilla, I headed to Holborn to walk around.  There were some really interesting sites there.  One was the Templar Church which was featured in the DaVinci code.  There were a few museums that I checked out as well.  Holborn was hit pretty badly during the blitz and there is evidence of that everywhere you look.  Quite a sad reminder when you think about it.

From Holborn I went to the Imperial War Museum.  There was a lot of interesting stuff in there.  They had a mock trench set up so you could get a glimpse inside of trench warfare.  Talk about an emotional museum.  At the very end there is a tribute video to the Holocaust and if that doesn't make you at least want to cry, then nothing will.  I wouldn't mind going back.

Thursday night we left for Edinburgh (pronounced ed-in-bur-ah), Scotland on an overnight coach.  Stories from day one in Edinburgh are next.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Canterbury

The whole of Vandon House was up early last Saturday because we had a scheduled day trip to Canterbury.  It was about a 3-hour bus ride there.  Canterbury is known for it’s cathedral because the Archbishop of Canterbury is the leader of the Church of England under the ruling monarch.  People have made pilgrimages to the Cathedral to pay their respects.

We were fortunate enough to get a guided tour of the Cathedral, and were able to see everything, from the crypt to the choir.  I learned a lot and the stained glass windows made you want to cry.  There is so much history, and a lot of it tragic.

This is a newer window, and it reminds me of a Disney movie.

After the cathedral, bailey and I started walking around town.  The city centre is not very big at all and is surrounded by a roman wall.  You could walk from end to end in about eight minutes.  So we decided to take a riverboat tour.  It lasted about 20 minutes but it was fun to see the city from a different perspective.  The ducks were too cute.  There was an older gentleman on our boat who was, for lack of a better word, rambunctious.  He had a comment for everything, and made quite a few jabs at his ex wife.  The poor tour guide didn’t quite know what to do with him.

Canterbury was pretty busy.  There were a lot of French students on break visiting.  We didn’t have much time after our boat tour so we used what little time we had to shop.  Canterbury has a really good shopping scene.  I got myself a new skirt and I can’t wait to wear it. 

We were back in London before 6 but the day was far from over.  The Friday before had kicked off the Drake Relays back in the states so all the Drake students decided that we wouldn’t miss out the celebrations just because we were in London.  The Drake kids and a few others got together and had a night on the town using relays as our excuse.  It was a great time.  We may have missed street painting back in Iowa, but as far as I’m concerned, we painted London Town that night.

My next update will be about the week leading up to my weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland.  I’ve got some great pictures to share to be ready.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Internship: Week 9

This was my first week back from break.  I won't lie, it was rather difficult to go from a week of total relaxation and siestas to having to working eight hours a day and waking up before 9:30 AM.  Luckily I love my internship and the people there, making the transition much easier.

I was in the office alone until about 11 AM reading design articles and finding material for our twitter page.  We're over 100 followers and last I checked it was 130.  My goal is to reach 200 before I go or at the very least be the #1 followed UK design firm tweeter.  Completely doable.  After Patrick came into the office and go settle, we went to lunch out at Exmouth Market.  It's a really unique place.  All the restaurants on the street set up tents and sell quick to go lunches for around 5 quid (pounds, the equivalent to the US phrase "bucks").  I hope to take my mom there when she comes.  Apparently Thursday through Friday, it's really popular and all the best restaurants set up, but since it was a Monday there was only about seven.  We got some risotto and it was delicious.

I learned a lot about Patrick on Monday.  It turns out he is an American with dual citizenship in the UK.  I never would have guessed just given the fact that he has a British accent and went to college in the UK.  We talked a lot about British culture.  I learned that in London, people do celebrate the fourth of July.  Who would have thunk it?!  I never would have guessed.  He was interested to know what I was studying in my Contemporary British Culture class.  Needless to say, Monday was eye opening.  We ended the day with a brainstorm about Earth Day (April 22nd) and what sort of social media/PR campaign we could pull off for tdg.  I got really excited because I get to use my video editing skills a bit.

On Tuesday, Patrick and I started the day at a DBA (Design Business Association) meeting about how to make you website useful from a new business perspective.  It was interesting, but not really earth shattering in its content.  As we walked back to our office I had to ask Patrick his opinion on a dilemma I was having.  I remember how he once told me that Paris and Rome were his favorite cities, and my Mom was interested in visiting one of those cities while she was over in London.  He had me describe her interests, and said that without a doubt, Paris is where we should go.  When we got back to the office, I set my sights on finding suitable content for our Earth Day campaign.  That took me the better part of the rest of the day.  At 5 Suni, Patrick and I went over to the Clerkenwell Kitchen and shared a bottle of Campaign to celebrate my new position, Suni's safe return from a wedding in Italy, and Patrick's new flat purchase.  It was all fun and the perfect way to end my work week.

I didn't want to get up on Wednesday.  Starting back at my internship had been easy enough, but my mood was not so welcoming towards class.  In advertising we were given our final assignments; a 3500 word essay describing how I would conduct an advertising campaign.  May I stress how freaking long a 3500 word essay is?!  That's about 15 pages.  I have never written an academic paper over 10 pages before in my life.  This is going to be a struggle, I can tell.  I wore my glasses that day because my contacts were irritating that morning, and my teacher made a funny comment.  He said I shouldn't wear glasses because they make me look too serious, whatever that means.

During the second half of the class we watched a short film about how to navigate a multicultural team.  There was a character form the US, Italy, England, Germany, India, Japan and Egypt.  It was hysterical in how stereotypical all the characters were portrayed.  The American in particular was hard to watch.  It sort of brought more light to the idea that the rest of the world isn't as fond of us as we would like to think.  There was one part I thought was a little weird when the British guy made fun of Americans for saying "Have a nice day".  I'm not sure why that is phrase to be made fun of.  Art class was held in the National Gallery again.  This time we looked at more impressionist works.  I saw some really famous Monet, Renoir, and Manet paintings.  It was really cool.

In todays Contemporary British Culture class we talked about religion in the UK.  I found our seminar group had a very interesting discussion.  It's funny to see how much more religious the US is over the UK.  Stats say it all.  Only 25% of the UK associate with a religion and 60% of the US does.  Food for thought.

Tomorrow we go to Canterbury to see the famous cathedral and walk around for a bit.  I'll take a lot of pictures and hopefully get some video to share.  That's all for now.  You are all caught up.  Take care.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Update: DBS President

While on Spring Break I had an interview for the position of President of the Drake Broadcasting System.  I just wanted to give you a quick update on how it all worked out.  I GOT THE POSITION!  So that means that next year I will be in Drake's Meredith building all the time fulfilling my role as President.  I'm very excited to help further the organization.  Now all I need is an internship or job for this summer.  Wish me luck!  Thanks to everyone for their support.

Check out the DBS website and listen live to our radio station 94-1 The Dog.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Spring Break Recap

I know, I know, I have not blogged in FOREVER, and I am really sorry.  There's a few good explanations for it: 1) The week before Spring Break was not very interesting 2) internet access was limited during Spring Break and 3) being out of the habit made it hard to jump back in, but here I am ready to get back into the swing of things for my last month here in London.  Can you believe it?  I only have one month left.  I feel like I have accomplished a ton and yet only scratched the service at the same time.  But I'll cover that in a different post.  This post is dedicated to Spring Break and showing you my sweet pictures.

Our vacation started on Thursday, April 1st when classes ended.  Some people left within a few hours for their Spring Breaks.  The Vandon House was slowly loosing its occupants to their travels.  For the past few weeks our dining area had been under construction, but it opened up, newly renovated, just in time to see everyone leave.  It was nice to have all that space.

On Friday, Benji and myself opted to get lost in London.  We set off walking, and chose our path as we went.  We walked south towards the river and then further east.  I saw a lot of London that I had never seen before.  One of the highlights of our walk was when we discovered the high fashion street.  It wasn't Bond Street, but one even more posh featuring stores like Prada, D & G, and any high fashion brand you can think of.  I felt as though I couldn't even walk on a street that had probably millions of pounds of merchandise just sitting there mocking anyone who's bank account weeped at their prices.  It was a lot of fun though.  I feel more posh for having been there.  A lot of the people at Vandon hung out on Friday night.  I learned a new card game that I can't wait to share with my friends and family back home.

Saturday was a relaxation day followed by a crazy night.  Once again, everyone who was left in Vandon came together and hung out.  We played a lot of card games and chatted about any and everything.  It was a real bonding moment for us, and probably one of my favorite Vandon moments.  We went out and got back entirely too late.

Easter was on Sunday, and I devoted the majority of my day to packing.  Bailey, Benji and I didn't sleep that night because we had to be at Victoria station at 3:30 to catch a train to the Gatwick Airport.  Our EasyJet flight took off at 7 and we were in Barcelona by 10 AM (they are an hour ahead of us).  Sadly, I noticed everyone was wearing jackets.  It was colder than we would have liked with high temperatures in the lower 60s everyday, but when the wind didn't blow, the sun blasted you.  I got a little bit of color despite the cold temperature.

We stayed in a resort called H*Top Calella Palace 300m from the Mediterranean coast and just a few km from the mountains behind us.  It was advertised as a 4 Star all-inclusive, but we found out quickly that Europe does not have the same star system that the US does.  Stars are relative to the amenities offered, and have really nothing to do with facilities, upkeep, or service.  That being said, Calella Palace would probably be a 2 or 3 star in the US.  The food was decent, but not amazing.  The all-inclusive did include drinks, so we took advantage of that.  Because of the cold weather, we just took in our five days there from a relaxation point of view, taking a lot of naps, leisurely walks, and talking in our awesome scenery.

Now for the pictures!

Me and Bailey playing around

Some European architecture.  See the mountains in the background?

Our beach with a lighthouse on the right.

The lighthouse from a closer angle

We went hiking!  Check out that view

You can see our hotel in the lower left hand side.  It's red.

We found ruins or turrets.

A view from a window in the ruins.

I'm awesome.  End of story. : )

We got back late Saturday night and used Sunday as a recovery day, and Monday was back to the routine.  I'll blog about that next.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

The Interview

Tonight is my last night here in Spain and for the past 10 minutes I have been in a skype interview.

The world is changing people.  You no longer need to be in the same room, country, or even continent anymore to interview for a position.  What is the position you ask?  The President of the Drake Broadcasting System.  That's the TV, radio, and relays broadcast that my school holds.  It was a tough interview but I think I handled myself well.  It would have been wonderful but some kids ran around behind me screaming and that was a little annoying.  Overall I think it was a solid interview.  I will let you know how it all pans out.

Stay classy everyone!

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Easter & Spring Break

Hey everyone!  I hope everyone had an amazing Easter weekend.  I know I did.

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while, and that this won't be much of a post, but the week leading up this weekend just wasn't very interesting.  I'm on Spring Break right now in Costa Brava, Spain with my roommate Bailey and our friend Benji.  The weather hasn't been terrific so we have adopted the Spanish siesta.  Don't know what a siesta is?  It is a glorified nap, but that doesn't make it any less awesome.  Don't worry we are going out and doing things as well.  Today we went on a hike and saw some ruins and the amazing mediterranean coast.  Who knows what tomorrow holds.

I will give a full update about my spring break when I get back on Sunday.  Take care!

Pip Pip Cheerio!