The Final Entry

Well this is it. I'm officially leaving Bangor today. I'm going to Manchester Piccadilly to stay in a hostel tonight with Mel and early tomorrow morning we are going down to Cardiff to cheer on Wales against South Africa in the rugby match. Then on Sunday morning at 9:55 our flight leaves for Chicago!! I arrive in the States at 12:30 on Sunday. I am so excited to be coming home!!! I am really going to miss this place though. It has been so great here. I have learned so much and have had some awesome experiences. I want to thank you for supporting me and reading this. It's fun to write about my adventures. Goodbye Bangor!!!

Walking through Waterfalls, Swimming through Icebergs, and Spotting the Whales = Iceland

This was my last and final trip before coming home. Teresa, Ashley, and I were pretty nervous that we wouldn't be able to go when the volcano erupted but as the month went on, only steam appeared to be coming out so we were going to be fine. We bought our train tickets to London Heathrow the day of though just in case something happened. We left in the afternoon on Tuesday to London Euston and took the underground (which lasted about 30-45 minutes) to the airport. It is always a pain to fly out of a London airport because none of them are actually in London. You have to take a train to London Euston and then the tube or another train to the airport. It is not fun. Anyway, we arrived in the evening at Heathrow, checked in, and went through security. We had heard from several people that it takes a very long time to get through security but actually, it didn't take us very long at all leaving and coming back. Once we were through, we ate some dinner there and then headed on over to our gate. We flew on Icelandair (of course) and I got a window seat on the way over. The airplane was incredibly nice! We each had our own screens to watch movies, tv, and listen to music. I watched Avatar on the way over, which took about 2 1/2 hours total. While we were flying, we kept on following the sun so it felt like we weren't going anywhere. We got into Iceland around 11:30 that night and it was still daylight out! We took a taxi to our hotel which was right in the middle of town center. Iceland's money is krono and when you convert it, it is about 168 krono to one pound. So when I took money out, I got 20,000 krono in 1,000 and 5,000 bills. It was really weird. It cost about 12,000 kronos for the taxi ride but we made it. The hotel was extremely nice, we got our own rooms! I had twin bed, a tv, a nice bathroom, and even a balcony from my bathroom! Although the balcony looked into a ceramic shop, it was still nice. We were pretty pooped so we went right to sleep.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and we realized that all of us had woken up several times during the night because of the light that was coming through the curtains. When we all opened up our curtains in the morning, we realized that there was a thicker curtain underneath that we didn't see. Oh well. Here in Iceland, they have about 22 hours of sunlight and in July its about 24 hours. When it gets towards winter they only have about 1 or 2 hours of sunlight. I'm glad we didn't go in the winter but having the sun all the time was really weird. We spent the morning souvenir shopping before going back to the hotel and changing into our swimsuits for . . . . . the Blue Lagoon!!! We were picked up from the company we bought our trip through to take us to the blue lagoon. For those of you who do not know what the blue lagoon is, it is a geothermal seawater spa that people just wade in and is good for the skin. There are steam baths, saunas, and massages. While you wade around, there are containers with silica creme to smear on your faces to exfoliate your skin. And of course we did that! We actually did it twice. We looked like idiots but so did everyone else so it didn't matter. There were some older bald men who caked the stuff on their heads as well. It was so funny! We were there for about 3 hours or so. Once we were finished, we headed back to the hotel and then out to dinner at the Basil and Lime, an Italian restaurant. We went down to the water after dinner to take pictures at the scenic point. It was pretty chilly there so we headed back to the hotel to get some rest because it was going to be another early morning and a long day.

On Wednesday, we got picked up again and taken to another part in the city to get on another bus for our excursion. This was going to be a 14 hour excursion to the southern part of Ireland and back but it was most definitely worth it. We started off with our first stop at the Skogafoss waterfall. It was so big and cool! Throughout the entire ground was ash from the volcano that had erupted not that long ago. Everytime you stepped, a little poof of ash would appear. My tennis shoes are originally black but after walking around, they had turned gray. The volcano is no longer spiting ash into the air, now it is only steam. And we actually saw the steam! We didn't stay too long at the waterfall because we had a long drive ahead of us. We stopped at the Island Hotel for some lunch in the middle of a lava field! We had traditional Icelandic soup which consists of lamb, carrots, potatoes, and some other things. It wasn't too bad. After lunch we went outside and took some pictures of the place. The lava rocks were covered in this really weird moss that was springy when you walked on it. It was slightly odd. After the lunch, we took an extremely long ride through lava fields, sand deserts, and rock deserts to our turning around point, the Glacier Lagoon! This is the coolest thing ever! We got in a vehicle that drove on land and in water into the lagoon with icebergs floating everywhere! Right outside of the lagoon is the biggest glacier in Iceland! The water was about 5 degrees Celsius with the wind blowing, it was cold! We were there for a while just cruising on the water and our tour guide told us a little more about it and the ice. About 90% of the iceberg is underwater and every so often the ice flips over in the water which gives off a blueish color. It was so neat. We got to eat 1,000 year old ice too. Just to let you know, it tasted like regular ice. Once we were done, we went back on land and went into the shop to get some hot chocolate to warm up. Once we had seen our share (but believe me, I could have stayed there longer) we took the long ride back to the capital, Reykjavik (pronounced rake-ee-a-vik). We made a stop at the town of Vik to have some dinner at a cafe (cheeseburger and chips for 995 kronos) and one more stop at another waterfall before we were done. But the last stop at the waterfall was probably one of my favorite places because we could walk behind it! It was the coolest thing ever! We were very tired that day and got back to our hotel around 10:30 that evening and just walked around the town. We went all the way down to the harbour and took pictures of the place. Our bodies were very confused the amount of sunlight. It was getting to be 1 o'clock in the morning and it was still light out. It was just so weird! But don't worry, I pulled the thicker curtain across the window this time so I could actually sleep. I did have a tv in my room but all of the channels were in Icelandic so that didn't help me too much. Everyone in Iceland speaks Icelandic and for the most part, everyone speaks English. That was very helpful. Believe me, it is difficult to get around a place when you can't speak their language.

Friday was our last day in Iceland and what did we do? Whale watching!!! It was another early morning and we checked out of the hotel before we left but they kept our bags for us. We got on a boat and our guide suggested that we put on the overalls provided because it was going to get cold. And did we? Of course! They look so silly but oh boy did they keep you warm! They were amazing! We actually looked like we were going to go snowboarding or something but we were just whale watching. We went to an island that had puffins on it but I couldn't get very good pictures of them because there weren't very many. We headed out into the bay and our first sight was a porpoise but not long after that was minke whales! They were popping up everywhere! We were about to be done that morning when one of the crew members had spotted something much bigger than a minke whale. We went on over to it and much to everyone surprise, there were two humpback whales!!! They had not been seen for 2 months and it was actually 2 days before they were going to migrate down south for the summer to give birth to their babies! It was awesome! And we were really close too! It was the coolest thing ever. We got an extra half n' hour on the boat because of the humpback whales. Once we landed, we hurried to get some lunch and finish our souvenir shopping and then back to the hotel to grab our stuff and catch the bus to the airport. Our plane left at 4 and we got into London Heathrow around 8. We got through customs just fine and quick too. The lady had just gotten on duty and was in a good mood so that helped. Once we were through, we headed to the underground to take to London Euston. We were going to sleep in the airport that night but decided against it so we booked a room at the hostel Teresa, Mel, and I stayed at when we visited London. In the morning we took an early train back to Bangor. After an awesome trip, it was good to be back.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair to meet Robin Hood's merrymen?

Cassie and I met at 8:30 in the morning and walked down to the train station together. We boarded on the train to London and from there we took the underground from London Euston to St. Pancras, St. Pancras to Ashford, and finally Ashford to Dover Priory. When we arrived in Dover, we went straight to our bed and breakfast that was right across the street from the train station and dropped off our backpacks. We went over to the castle and paid admission to go in. This castle was HUGE!!! It is the biggest one I have ever seen. We went into the medieval tunnels and then into the great tower. As we kept going up the staircase, they had rooms off to the side that showed what they would have been like in the medieval times and such. It was pretty neat. Once we got through that we walked down to the one thing I really wanted to see and they were the secret war time tunnels! We didn't know that we had to have reservations but we just went with one group and the lady just let us join since she had room. These tunnels were built during the time of Napoleon but were then occupied during World War II. They built another set of tunnels above the other ones to be used as a hospital for quick operations to stabilize the wounded soldiers before they were sent to another hospital for better care. The lower level was where the planning and administration went on. There was a telephone room, the coast guard room, the gun planning type room, and so many more! We passed so many rooms that were closed off and I wanted to explore them so bad! The tunnels went everywhere! We saw the room where Operation Dynamo was planned out and executed. Operation Dynamo was the time when the English evacuated 300,000 men from Dunik during WWII. The tour took about an hour and unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside the tunnels but there might be some pictures online. Anyway, after the tunnels, Cassie and I went to the Admiralty's Point where we got a good view of the cliffs of Dover. We went back down and bought muffins at the grocery store Somerfield for breakfast in the morning and ate dinner at Subway. Once we got back to the B&B we crashed and watched some tv. I know! There was actually tv!! It was pretty exciting for us.

The next morning we woke up fairly early and checked out of our B&B. We took a super duper long walk but it was worth it because we made it to the cliffs of Dover! That was the main thing I wanted to see on this trip and they were spectacular. We walked along the cliffs for a little while and after a bit we turned back around so we could grab some lunch before our train left. The cliffs were just amazing. I loved them so much. We took the trail back to the road but decided to take another trail. We thought that it was going to be a shorter way until we got to a dead end and realized we were totally wrong. So we turned around and went back and went up the right trail this time. We got onto our train in plenty of time. Don't worry. We got to London St. Pancras and then had to walk to King's Cross Station which is right across the street to catch our next train. Unfortunately we didn't leave from platform 9 (like in Harry Potter), it was from platform 4. After London, we had to change trains at York to get to Scarborough. Once we reached Scarborough, we walked on down to the beach only to find the street by the beach to be like a carnival or a fair! There were casinos, loud music, hot dog stands, ice cream stands, and at the end if the street there were amusement park rides! The entire time I was in the town I had the song Are you going to Scarborough Fair? by Simon and Garfunkel running through my head. We walked along the place for a bit and went to go find a place for supper. And what did we find? Italian, of course. I seem to never get away from it. It was a place called Triscoli and I had pizza sofia, a pizza with with barbecue sauce, bacon, chicken, and pepperoni. It was pretty good. The inside of the restaurant was decorated really nice, probably not like in an Italian home I suspect. Anyway, once supper was finished, Cassie and I made the long haul to our youth hostel which was about 2 miles from the town center. It was a very long walk but in the end it wasn't bad. We made it just fine and the hostel was very nice.

We left around 7 the next morning and walked all the way back to the train station in the town center. But we didn't take a train, we took the bus to Robin Hood's Bay. Now Robin Hood's Bay has nothing to do with Robin Hood but I really wanted to go to it anyway. It was in the North York Moors National Park on the coast. We arrived fairly early so nobody was open for business. So we strolled on down to the beach, took our shoes off, and walked along the sand and put our feet in the water. As we walked we picked up sea shells along the way. After about an hour we headed back up and explored the town for a little bit. There really wasn't much to do in the town but we did eat lunch at an adorable little cafe called Candy's. All I got was a toasted ham and cheese sandwich but it was so good. We did however find a door that said Merrymen on it. It was awesome! Other than that, the town is mainly a fisherman's village. We left the good ole town of Robin Hood's Bay and took the bus to Whitby where our train was going to depart from. When we arrived, there were people everywhere! The bus was so full to get to Whitby that we had to stand the entire time. It wasn't that bad but there were a lot of people! We found a grassy spot on a high ledge and laid there for about 2 hours. And of course the sun was shining and of course, I didn't put sunscreen on. So naturally I got burnt. Really bad on my arms. But it really didn't hurt that bad, it just left me looking tanner than I had been. Even Tecwyn noticed I was tanner, which was weird in my opinion. We got some lunchables at a grocery store and then some ice cream as a treat before getting on the train back to Bangor. All things were going well with the train from Whitby to Middlesbrough and then switched at Middlesbrough to Manchester Picadilly. It was when we were going to Manchester Picadilly that we made a stop at York where the problems came in. The train had stopped for a long time until finally they announced that our train had been terminated. So Cassie and I ran over to the booths and asked what we should do and were told to take the train to Liverpool that stopped at Manchester Picadilly at 19:38. So we waited and waited and waited along with all of the other people on the other train. The train arrived very late and everyone piled onboard. After we waited for a while, it was announced that we were waiting for a driver to come but if we wanted to take the 20:10 train to Manchester Picadilly, it was on platform 9 (on the other side of the station) which was leaving in 5 minutes. Everyone grabbed their stuff and ran over to the next train, Cassie and I along with them. We made it just in time for the train and got to the train station. We had missed our train to Chester but luckily we were able to take another one. But when we arrived at Chester, we had to sprint to our next train to take us to Bangor. We made it about 30 seconds before the doors closed and the train started moving. We got to Bangor around midnight so we were pretty awake after all of the train fiasco. I have never had something like that happen to me before. I guess there is a first for everything. But overall, the Dover trip with Cassie was awesome. I loved every minute of it.

Climbing to the top of Snowdon

That's right. My friends and I climbed to the top of Snowdon, the tallest mountain in Wales and England! It really wasn't all that difficult. Kaylee, Teresa, Ashley, and I took a bus to the town of Llanberis to get to our footpath to climb the mountain. The path wasn't too difficult to climb until we started getting towards the top of the mountain. It started to get incredibly steep and harder to climb. It took us about 2 hours to climb to the top and boy was it cold! It was freezing! There was only a little bit of snow on the top but it was cold enough for it to snow, I swear. We could have taken a train up to the top but we wanted to climb it. So we watched about three trains go up and down during the time we walked up to the top. Once we reached the top, there was a building we could go inside that offered hot drinks, food, and bathrooms. Before we went to the top we stopped into the building to warm up a bit. Once we could feel our fingers and toes, we went on up to the top. And of course, the entire mountain was covered by a cloud so all we could see was whiteness. But when we reached the top, there was a cylinder that had the names of towns and arrows pointed in the direction where they are located. We stayed up there for only a little bit and then decided on it being time to climb on down. Once again, it took us about 2 hours to climb down the same way we came up but just in time for the bus to take us back to Bangor. When we were in the town of Llanberis, we went into a shop and bought buttons that say I've climbed Snowdon Summit 1085 metres. It's a pretty classy button, I must say. When we arrived back to Bangor, we all got together and made supper. We had cheeseburger macaroni, mashed potatoes, green beans with Velveeta cheese, banana creme pie, and we then made chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. I was incredibly full after that. I feel so much better that I was able to climb Snowdon before coming back home.

The next day I was very sore, mostly in my hips and legs but after working on my essay, everyone (that means Mel, Allison, Cassie, Kaylee, Ashley, Teresa, and I) went up to the Roman Camp and had a grill out. We bought disposable grills and grilled hamburgers. We also had my cheese dip and chips, the rest of the banana creme pie, and we built a fire afterwards and made smores that Aunt Linda had sent me earlier in the year. During this time we listened to Disney, Michael Buble, Michael Jackson, and Keith Urban music on Kaylee's ipod and even did a few cartwheels! It was such an enjoyable evening.

Shopping on Penny Lane

Well I had my Developmental Psychology Final on Wednesday and I thought it didn't go too bad. The atmosphere was pretty stressful though. You could not have any coats or backpacks when going into the room. Once you entered the room all the desks were in straight rows with three pieces of paper on it; the test, the bubble sheet, and the blue book to write your essays in. There was a big clock at the front of the room and as soon as the clock struck 2, the professor said begin. So for an hour and a half I had to stay in the room and take the test while several helpers walked around making sure no one cheated. It was just so weird! Well the test is over with and it didn't go too badly. At least I hope so. The rest of the week I worked like mad on my What is Welshness essay for Tecwyn.

On Saturday, we took a fieldtrip to Liverpool, the birth place of the Beatles. The first thing that we did was go through the Beatles tour. It had everything, from the personal lives of the Beatles, to the start of their fame, and ending at their break up. There was a model of the Cavern that they used to play at, Abbey Road, a model of the plane they rode over on when they came to the USA, a grave for Eleanor Rigby, and a huge yellow submarine that you could go into with fish swimming in the port holes. It was so cool. We had audio guides to listen to plus information to read on the walls, plus music playing in the background. It was a little overwhelming. I know Dad would have thoroughly enjoyed it. He would have spent hours in there. Once we got through the tour, there was a Beatles store at the end and I bought a Beatles t-shirt. Im really excited to wear it when I get back home. We stepped into the glorious day to do what? Shopping! That was another main reason why I wanted to go to Liverpool. We went around the main square and mall with massive amounts of people everywhere! I am not a crowd kind of person so this was not very much fun for me. But it was a Saturday afternoon and there were even more people because several groups of dancers were doing some sort of weird dances with bells on their feet and some with painted faces. They were all doing it for charity work. It was actually really neat. After we watched those people for a while, we kept on going shopping and went into the store called Primark. Kaylee had told me earlier that when this store opens each morning, it is like Black Friday, only every single day because the prices are so low. They were incredibly low but there were so many people! I sure didn't enjoy that but I did however get a sweat for 5 pounds that I can wear during the winter. I really like it too. So after the craziness of Primark we moved on to just walking around the city until it was time to go.

This was going to be my last time seeing Tecwyn so I got a picture with him and Kaylee. I did go see him a few days later but this was the only chance I was going to get a picture with him. He has been an awesome program director.

Rocks in a Circle, Conwy Castle, Colwyn Bay Zoo, and Penrhyn Castle

My Dad and I woke up really early the next morning to catch the 6 o'clock train on Friday. We went to NewPort and then switched train to go to Salisbury. Now Stonehenge is not in Salisbury but it is the closest town to it. We bought tickets for a tour of Stonehenge and then took a bus to get out there. Stonehenge is in the most weirdest spot ever. It is out in the middle of nowhere with two lanes of traffic on both sides. Before you go into the area to see Stonehenge, you have to pass through a tunnel underground (to make sure people pay to see the attraction and not just walk right in) and come out on the other side right by it. You can no longer get very near the rocks but there is a section where you can get fairly close to it. We both got audio tour guides but somehow mine was not in English, I think it was in Russian. It didn't really matter. Dad was the one who really wanted to see it so I let him listen to all of the information on his English speaking audio guide. We walked around the whole thing twice and I took so many pictures of it. I really didn't need to but I wanted to try different angles. I look at them now and they all look the same. Oh well. We stayed there for a little while and then caught the bus back to Salisbury but not without taking a detour at the Old Sarum. This was a place where a castle used to be but there wasn't much left except for a few ruins so we didn't stay too long at the place. Our train left for Bangor in the afternoon and didn't get back until later in the evening. On the train ride back up I studied for my psychology final that was going to be next week.

The next day, Saturday, was a fieldtrip to Conwy Castle and the Colwyn Bay Zoo. But this time I was able to take along Dad! It was so great! We arrived at Conwy and walked on top of the medieval town walls that surround the town center. After 800 years, we are still able to walk ontop of them! I found that to be pretty cool. Dad loved the castle and I found it to be interesting but to tell you the truth, it was another castle. I was getting a little tired of castles and they were all starting to look the same to me. After exploring the castle, Dad an I went shopping for some gifts Dad was going to buy for the family. We ate our sandwiches for lunch and then headed on over to the Colwyn Bay Zoo. We had to take a very winding road to get to the place up in the mountain and it was a miracle the bus even made it through the narrow passages. The zoo is a very small place because of the little funding they have but I hadn't been to a zoo in a while so it was still fun. They put several animals together which made it rather interesting. For example, ponies and deer, wallabies and goats, and parrots and ginnie pigs. Weird, I know. We didn't stay too long at the zoo. We got back and then I had to hurry and get ready because my choir concert was that night. We were singing Verdi's Requiem and it lasted way too long in my opinion. But we had 4 soloists and the Bangor University Symphonic Orchestra with us as well. It went very well and I enjoyed it so much. What made it even better was my Dad was able to see it. I would have never thought that Dad would ever come see my choir concert while I was abroad. It certainly made my night. I was in the second row on the left hand side among the many sopranos. Annie Wignall, a senior from Central, did choir with me. I had so much fun with her this year. I got to get to know her better and have someone I actually knew during choir. After about 2 and a half hours the concert was over. After a whole semester of practicing, I thought we sounded fairly good.

The next day was my last fieldtrip and my last day with Dad. We visited Penrhyn Castle that is located right outside of Bangor. It was originally owned by the Pennent family as a house and is still furnished the way that it used to be. It was huge and very richly decorated. We had an audio guide that took us around the place (mine was in English, don't worry) and explained several items. In one bedroom, there was a one ton slate bed that Queen Victoria slept on during her visit in 1859. They also had walled gardens that made it actually look like it was from the Secret Garden! Inside the gardens were gorgeous with flowers blooming everwhere. After our time in the gardens, it was time to head on back to the bus and get back to Bangor. Dad and I ordered pepperoni pizza from the Pizza House and helped him pack everything up. His train left at 5:14 in the morning and his flight left at 9:30.

The next morning I got up at 4 with Dad to make sure he had everything packed and to say goodbye. He didn't want me walking him to the train station because then I would have to walk back alone. So I had to say goodbye to him in my room. It was incredibly hard for me. I spent every single minute (except for a few days) the last 2 weeks with him. I will confess that I did tear up a little bit but I made myself not cry. But as soon as he left my room, I crawled back into my own bed and cried. I eventually fell asleep and woke up the next morning to an empty room. My emotions were very confused the next few days because it felt like my room was back in order because no one was there but then it felt really weird not having Dad there. I eventually got over it and things kinda went back to normal. I just had to keep telling myself that I was going to see my Dad and everyone else in about a month.

Another Castle and Sea Level Traversing

We slept in the next day because of our late night but we didn't do much that day. I took Dad out to the Tap & Spile out by the pier for lunch where we had baked cod, chips, and peas. It was very good.

The next day I took Dad to Island of Anglesey to the Beumaris Castle. We spent a few hours there (Dad just loved it!) and then bought some things at a local bakery to eat back in my room. We went down to Tecwyn's office to talk with him for a while and then headed on down to the restaurant Yates where we ate bangers and mash (sausages with mash potatoes and peas). We came back to the room, ate our sweets from the bakery, and watched Kevin Costner's Robin Hood. You know we had to because we just saw a scene where it was filmed.

Thursday was my last outdoor pursuits day. Normally I would bring a lunch for myself but all I brought were rice krispie treats and a water bottle because the entire group was doing a grill out. Sally picked us up for the last time and finally told us what our plan of action was for the day. Actually, she had us vote between rock climbing or sea level traversing but then decided to sea level traverse because that was the best place to have the barbecue. We were supposed to go sailing but that didn't happen because there was hardly any wind on the Menai Stait. We grabbed our gear at the Conway Center and headed on out to the same place where we went sea level traversing last time, Penwyn Mawr. This time, we took a completely different route. We started with abseiling down the Atlantic Slants (a steep rock face) and unhooked down at the bottom. We proceeded with traversing along the edge of the cliff until we got to an opening into the cliffs. And you know what that means, a cave! But in order to go into the cave, we had to jump into the water and swim into it! It was fantastic!! It was called the super dragon and it went pretty far back. You could see your breath in the cave and it was extremely dark. The cave ended with a rocky beach at the end and we just sat there for a while. Elliot had gone in before any of us and decided to scare the other girls. Luckily, I saw him before we jumped out. I don't like being caught off guard. Anyway, when it was time to come out of the cave, the waves had picked up or we just didn't notice them on the way in and we all floated on our backs and let the waves carry us. It was amazing! It was almost like a roller coaster! The waves would push further into the cave and then sweep us fairly fast towards the opening. It was awesome! We had to stop after a while because the water was freezing and our hands were so cold. We traversed some more until we got to the beach where we put our stuff earlier. We started the disposable grills (they have those over here!) and slapped on the hamburgers. Mom had me bring lawry's salt over here. I told her I really didn't need it but she insisted. And I am sure glad that she did. That stuff has made my food taste so much better. I brought it along to put on the hamburgers and what's funny is that everybody recognized it! And they were so happy that I brought it! It made me feel pretty special. Ha ha. We had hamburgers with ketchup and mustard. And then some people brought other food to eat such as pasta salad, pringles, Teresa brought pickle wraps, peanut butter m&m's, cookies, Sally's husband Steve made rocky road for us (it was the most delicious thing ever!), and I brought rice krispie treats that Aunt Linda sent to me. It was so much fun. We spent the rest of the afternoon doing our own thing like swimming or skipping rocks. It was a lot of fun. When it was time to go, we packed up our stuff and headed back to the center for the last time.

It was the last time we saw Sally however. The entire group went out to the bar Varsity to have one last time together. We just sat around and talked and had a lot of fun. The first picture on the left is all the girls and Sally. The next picture on the right is the entire Thursday outdoor pursuits class (we only had one boy, Elliot). It was sad to leave Sally that night because we were never going to see her again. And we were never going to have outdoor pursuits again. But I most definitely had the best times of my life and some awesome experiences with outdoor pursuits.

Is There No Sun in this Cursed Country?

Dad and I met up with Ashley, Melissa, and Teresa and walked down to the train station that morning. The train took 5 hours to get up to Edinburgh, Scotland (it was a very long train ride) and when we arrived, we parted with Dad while he went to go find his hostel while we found ours. It was a little jaunt to get to ours but when we arrived it was very nice. We walked around for a little while after we dropped off our stuff and then we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe! I have never ate there before so this was my first time ever in a Hard Rock Cafe. And in Scotland too! It was extremely small but that's okay, it was very good. We went back to the hostel and rested and then went out to get some snacks and ate them while watching a movie. The next morning we met Dad at the Edinburgh Castle and went through it. The entire inside of the castle was massive. It contained so many different buildings. There were museums, a war memorial, and the crown jewels. After the seeing the castle for a while and eating lunch at Pizza Hut (classy, I know), we left Dad who went to the museum, Mel who went to the Palace of Mary Queen of Scots, and Teresa, Ashley, and I went shopping. We ate dinner at Burger King (classy again, I know) and then met up with Mel and Dad and we climbed the Salisbury Crags, a huge mountain type thing that gives a great view of Edinburgh. It was gorgeous but boy was it freezing! We were all so very, very cold. We didn't stay up there too long so we said goodnight and met up the next morning.

Now this is the day we took our Scotland Highland Tour of Loch Lomond. We were supposed to get a nice blue bus for the tour but when our tourguide took us over to our wheel of transportation, this is what we got. A bright yellow bus that said WILD AND SEXY!!! Apparently they didn't have enough of the blue buses so they had to use this nice bright one from another one of their tours. Oh well, we got plenty of looks when we went through the towns. Our first stop was at Doune Castle. Dad and I were pretty excited about this because this is the castle that was used in the Monty Python and the Holy Grail film. We got to take a tour of it inside which was pretty neat and had an audio guide to listen to where one of the actors from the movie was the tour guide. It was funny to listen to. The next stop was to see the most popular celebrity in the whole of Scotland. Hamish the highland cow!! He wasn't very active that day and the tour guide didn't know what was wrong with him. He usually gets up a lot when the people were there but he just sat there that day. Hopefully he isn't sick. Loch Katrine was the next stop and we only stayed there for a little while. It was cold and it was raining, typical Scottish weather. We walked around for a little bit and learned about Robert Roy MacGregor. Did you know that the Mac before a name means 'the son of'? Just a little tid bit of information there for ya. The tour guide had a very thick Scottish accent and it was awesome. I loved listening to it when she talked. During the drives she would tell us the history and stories of Scotland but in a fun way. She would then repeat what a person would say in this funny Scottish accent. When we were back at home I tried imitating it and actually it was close to what she sounded like! Hopefully I can still do it when I go home and I can let you hear close to what it sounded like. We arrived at Loch Lomond and took a short little 'cruise" around the lake. The word loch means a narrow inlet of the sea that is landlocked in Scotland. There are over 31,000 lochs in Scotland and only one lake called the Lake of Menteith. That is another story for another time however. I'm dragging this day long enough as it is. The cruise around the loch was very cold and rainy so we were not able to see much of the highlands. The clouds did part for a short while and we got to see a little glimpse of them. We got back in the bus and drove over to Stirling and along the way the tourguide played some celtic music. I love celtic music, I find it absolutely beautiful sounding. However, it was cloudy and raining outside and all of us were exhausted and do you know what happened? We all fell asleep for a short while. We arrived at Stirling to only get out and take a picture of Stirling Castle. We didn't have time to go into it and we wouldn't have been able to anyway because at the moment it is under construction. We arrived back in Edinburgh in time for supper and I spent the rest of the evening with Dad. We went to Garfunkels (third time I have ate at this restaurant this semester, twice in London and now in Scotland) where Dad got cottage pie and I tried the haggis. Now haggis is sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs) with several spices, minced onions and other things. It sounds absolutely disgusting but actually, it wasn't too bad. Now I can say I tried the local food in Scotland. Dad and I walked around the city while drinking a white cafe mocha from Starbucks before parting.

We got up around 5 the next morning to catch our train at 6:52 and it was goodbye to Scotland! After about an hour, we arrived at Carlisle, England and this is where Dad and I parted with the rest of the girls. They were heading back to Bangor and we were too but we were making a pit stop at Carlisle to see Hadrian's wall for Dad and just being in Carlisle for me. I figured it would be pretty cool to say that I have been to Carlisle in England and in Iowa. We got on a train to Haltwhistle and then a bus to Housestead. Hadrian's wall was built by the Romans that stretched for several miles. We walked along the wall for an hour looking for a tree. But not just any old tree. The tree that was in the scene of Kevin Costner's film Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It is when Morgan Freeman plays an arabian who swears his allegiance to Robin Hood and they find a boy being chased by guards up into the tree. And we found it! It took a little while but we actually found it. Dad was so excited. We walked back fairly fast to catch our bus and our train back to Carlisle. Once we got back to Carlisle, we wandered around looking at shops, eating at McDonald's, and got a white cafe mocha at Starbucks again. We had a lot of time to kill before our train headed back to Bangor. We took the extremely late train because it was cheap but it was bringing us back to Bangor around 2 am. But don't worry, we made it! We got back in my room and just crashed.

Now the video (hopefully you can see it) is just for kicks and giggles. It is the part in the Monty Python and the Holy Grail film where the French are taunting King Arthur and his knights from the castle. I just thought this part is hilarious.