Avengers are Awesome!

Okay, I don't want anyone to get mad at me, so I'm just going to say right away: this post is just going to be me kind-of, sort-of reviewing The Avengers. And I know that it hasn't come out in the States yet, which is where most of my friends and family are right now, so you've been warned!

The Avengers came out in theaters on April 26 here in Scotland, and a bunch of my FYSAE friends and I wanted to go see it, so we got our tickets to the 12:30 showing, and headed into town, so psyched. We'd all seen the previous movies about the individual Avengers (Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor for me), so of course we all had our favorite superheroes, and I for one was really, really excited to see what the movie would be like with all the heroes brought together...and some new ones introduced. After what felt like a half an hour of commercials and previews, the movie finally started.

And it was totally freakin' awesome! Bringing all those superheroes together made for an incredible movie. Obviously, each of the heroes has their own, rather large ego (except for Captain America, who is still very much the good soldier). Putting the heroes in the same room made for a great clashing of their egos, and in the scenes where they fought with each other, it was really, really cool, and also pretty entertaining. When they figured out what S.H.I.E.L.D. had designed them for and actually started working together as a team, it was even more awesome. My only problem with the movie came when I couldn't figure out which hero was my favorite! I had like Thor the best by far before seeing The Avengers, but in the midst of the epic fight scene, I had no clue which of the heroes I liked best.

Overall, The Avengers was such a great movie. I've always had a soft spot for superhero movies, so that aspect of the movie was obviously amazing. There was also some humor (there were a few parts where my friends and I were laughing like we were watching a comedy). They even brought Pepper Potts back, so there was more of the funny/romantic back and forth between her and Iron Man. But The Avengers was such an amazing movie, I left the movie wishing that I could stay for the next showing. It's a really, really good movie, so when it comes out in the States, go see it! It's super awesome!

A tout a l'heure!

Sunrise Stroll

The loch, the library, and the Wallace Monument at sunrise.

Last night I just could not fall asleep, so around three in the morning, I just decided that since I no longer have classes on Wednesday, I would just stay up to watch the sunrise, and then go to sleep afterwards. I spent a couple hours online, playing games, watching youtube videos, and talking to some people from back home. Then, around five, the sky started to look a bit lighter, so I pulled my jacket on, grabbed my camera, and headed out for a walk around the loch.

Dumyat, from across Airthrey Loch.

It was really nice and peaceful, just going for a walk around the loch in semi-darkness. No one else was out; rabbits were either still asleep or nibbling on grass without moving much; the swans were just little white bumps floating on the loch, still fast asleep. It was raining, so I by the time I was halfway around the loch, my jacket was covered in raindrops, my hair was wet, and there were enough water droplets on my glasses that sometimes things looked distorted to me. Since it was rainy and cloudy, I couldn't really see the sun rising, but I could see the sky lightening behind Dumyat, the top of the hill hidden behind thin clouds.

Even though I was starting to feel tired at this point, I was still amazed by how cool it felt to be the only person out and about as the sun rose and the animals on campus started their days. As I was walking around the loch, I actually saw the swans starting to raise their heads, looking around the loch as they started their day. I still don't understand how they sleep floating in the loch though. I'm cold enough on dry land, wearing a jacket, and they spend all their time in the same cold weather with their butts in even colder water! I don't think I could do it, so it's a good thing I'm not a swan.

All the darker shapes on the grass are rabbits!

After walking around the loch, when the sun was pretty far up, I headed back to my residence hall. It was time for me to go to sleep. I must of passed a few dozen bunnies on the way. I swear, these things are everywhere. So after walking around the loch and watching the sun rise and the animals wake up, I headed back to my room and went to sleep at six in the morning. And this has nothing to do with watching the sunrise, but when I woke up, I went down to the lobby to check the mail, and my cookies from home had arrived! So now, I have chocolate chip cookies, and I'm quite content.

A tout a l'heure!

Golfing!

This weekend, my friends Ian, Heley and I decided to head down the road to the golf course right next to the campus. I'd never been golfing other than mini-golf (which I am notoriously bad at) but I was excited to see how it would go. The golf course next to campus is a nine-hole course with good prices for students, so we decided that since we didn't have anything else planned this weekend, we would go golfing on Saturday. It was raining in the morning, so we waited until the rain stopped, and then we headed to the golf course.

Lining up the shot...

On the walk over, we joked about discovering that one of us was in fact a golfing prodigy. Heley had been golfing before, but I can't remember if Ian had or not. We just thought how funny it would be if one of us turned out to be an amazing golfer. (Spoiler, none of us turned out to be excellent golfers.) We got to the course, paid for our tickets, clubs, and golf balls, and then headed out to start golfing. Since we didn't really know what we were doing, we let the two men right behind us go first. Good thing, too.

Heley's shot wasn't bad, nor was Ian's--they both got about halfway to the hole. Mine wasn't terrible, but it was much, much closer to the tee than the hole. After nine strokes, with a line forming behind us, I just grabbed my golf ball and we moved on to the next hole. The second and third hole I did increasingly poorly, scoring an 11 and a 13 (well over par!). But on the fourth hole, I did it in five strokes--only two over par! On the next two holes, my golfing improved a bit--the ball was moving more than a couple of feet per hit, and I was happily in the single digits.

I made it to the putting green!

And then came the Lochside hole. This is the second-longest distance on the course. Unlike the longest though, this hole has the worst terrain I had yet golfed on. The loch is to the left, to the right is a handful of trees, as well as a roped-off area of green that looks like the hole belongs there. Instead, the hole is 132 metres away. The distance isn't too terrible, but from the point where you tee off, there's a slight hill down, before a much sharper hill up to the hole. If you were skilled enough, I'm sure you could easily get the golf ball from the teeing off point to the top of the hill, and then you'd have an easy time of finishing out the round. But, not having much golfing skill, I ended up with my ball at the lowest point of the hole, awkwardly placed so that there were several trees between me and the hole. It took several swings to finally get up the hill to the hole, and then a few more strokes with the putter to finally finish the round for me. It ended up taking me 18 strokes to finish that round. 18! (That's fifteen over par haha).

Now, there were only two holes left. The second to last hole, I started pretty well (I say it's because there was a tee left at this hole, so I didn't have to golf off a turf mat. But on the second swing, it felt like my left shoulder popped out of place. I've always had some issues with my shoulders (my guess is that rises from my discovery at about 6 years old that I could pop my shoulders out with no harm done). But after that swing, my shoulder hurt. I didn't want to hurt it more, so I didn't finish that hole or the last one. Even without playing out the last hole and a half, I ended up with a score of 74 (par for the entire game was 27).

Winding up to hit...and this stroke was perfect!

Before I say anything else, I should say that my shoulder is completely fine. It was just a little painful after twisting it the wrong way or something. With that said, I think golfing is pretty fun. I've never tried it at home, but maybe with some more practice, I could improve on my 47-over-par score. Ian, Heley and I may not have been the best golfers, and we may have been completely showed up by a really, really young boy playing behind us, but we had a really good time, and I can now say that I've been golfing in Scotland!

After we finished up our game of golf, we walked into Bridge of Allan for fish and chips for our early dinner. I really cannot get over how much I enjoy fish and chips. They really are the best. If I'm craving fast food in the States, it's a cheeseburger and french fries. If I'm craving fast food here, it's fish and chips all the way. I'm going to have to find a good fish and chips place back home this summer!

A tout a l'heure!

P.S. Opa, Mom told me that you read this, so I figured the post about me going golfing would also be the perfect place to wish you happy birthday....so, Happy Birthday Opa! Love you!

Birthday Weekend!

The view from the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle. All the red and white barricades are Princes Street. The whole street is
under a ton of construction. The park is part of a really big park between Princes Street and the Royal Mile.

My friend's birthday is April 10, and mine is April 16, so we decided that this past weekend we would go into Edinburgh to celebrate. We both booked a night in a hostel that Arcadia gave us vouchers for. On Saturday (not the unlucky Friday the 13th!) we headed to Edinburgh on the 10:30 train. It took about an hour to get there, and then we just started walking around. We headed to the hostel first. We were too early to check in, but they had a luggage room where I was at least able to leave my backpack. Our first stop was a bakery to get something to eat. I got a chicken pie, and it was pretty awesome. On our way to the bakery, we passed a man wearing a top hat, a cape, and carrying a walking stick. Then we set off for Princes Street and Edinburgh Castle. On our way down Princes Street, we came across a street performer. His face, hair and hands were painted a very metallic silver, and he was doing to the robot to the song played from the stereo in front of him.

On the bridge over to the Royal Mile, there was a massive tent set up that said 'Bang goes the theory' on the sides. Megan and I decided to check it out, and we found ourselves in the middle of a science fair in an inflatable tent. It was more geared towards little kids, but it was cool to see all the experiments that were running. It reminded me of being a little kid going to things like that with my parents. And here I was, celebrating my 19th birthday, standing in the middle of a science fair in Edinburgh.

The 'Invisible Man'...with a really large torso.

Once we were finished checking out the science fair, my friend and I continued across the bridge to Edinburgh Castle. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that I went to Edinburgh Castle with my family, but the weather was frigid, and we spent most of the time doing our best just to keep warm. On the way up to the castle, we passed a man dressed as William Wallace, complete with the blue face paint. He was taking pictures with tourists, and then started waving at people with one of those fake hands you see at Halloween. We continued on to the castle and toured it, more thoroughly than I had been able to when my family visited. It was pretty cool to see it again, but we didn't stay long.

We headed back down the Royal Mile to stop at some of the shops. I got a few souvenirs, and we headed back to the hostel to check in. On the way there, we passed an 'Invisible Man.' It was a man in a suit, but the shirt and jacket were pulled up over his head, and then he had a hat and sunglasses suspended above the suit. A little ways further down the block, we came across a double decker bus that had just married decorations on the front. We sat in square for a while, and even saw the wedding party come out to take their pictures. While they were talking their pictures, another wedding party went into the building. I have no idea what the building was, but apparently it's a popular one for weddings! Finally, we headed back to the hostel and I had my first experience checking myself into a hostel. My friend took a nap, and I did some crocheting I had brought with me. A couple hours later, my friend and I headed out to find somewhere to eat.

I may have taken a creepy picture of the wedding party.

We wandered down the Royal Mile, looking for a cheap place to eat. We settled on Subway. It's the first time I've had Subway since I left the States, and I have to admit, it was nice to have a little taste of home. While we were at dinner, I noticed an older gentleman up the street who was wearing a strange assortment of clothes, topped off with a red three-point had lined with a gold trim.

We went for a walk after dinner, and ended up walking around the back of Edinburgh Castle. It was a nice walk, and there were some cool views too. At one point, I thought it was really cool because on my right, Edinburgh Castle stood on the top of a massive slab of rock. On my left, the neighborhood was a very modern neighborhood, very similar to neighborhoods I've walked through in Philadelphia or New York City, or even in Allentown. I was struck by the stark contrast between the very old, historical Scotland, and the very new, albeit a bit rundown Scotland.

Happy to be sheltered after walking through the rain!!

Then, it started raining. And we were far from any shop we could take shelter in. It took us about fifteen minutes walking in cold rain and wind before we got to a souvenir shop. We went into the shop just to get out of the weather. I ended up buying an umbrella with the Scottish flag as the design. And of course, after I bought that, it stopped raining! By that point, it was around seven o'clock, and already the city was closing. Shops everywhere were locked for the day, and only restaurants and pubs were open. I can't get used to the feeling of being in a major city on a Saturday evening and having the city feel very, very dead. My friend and I headed back to the hostel. We were going to go out to a pub to celebrate our birthdays, but after being rained on, we were soaked, and I couldn't feel my fingers. We ended up going to the bar on the ground floor of our hostel.

The view of Edinburgh Castle from behind.

That night in the bar, my friend and I wanted to just hang out and have a few drinks. We ordered our drinks, and then I ordered french fries and my friend ordered onion rings. When my friend ran up to the room to get her driver's license, an older gentleman came over and started talking to me. He thought I was Irish because I coated my chips (not fries, my mistake!), so when I said I was American, he started talking to me. When my friend came back down, he continued talking to us, and was later joined by his friend. They talked to us for a while, about how they had built the hostel, and there was a well with dead babies in the bottom preserved just outside the bar. And then it came up that I was German, and the one guy started going off about how much he hated Germans. To top off the night, I mentioned it was my birthday and the one guy offered to buy me a drink. I'm still not used to having strangers offer to buy a drink, so I declined. He called me a pussy and then he and his friend left.

To say the least, it was one of the the weirdest days I've ever experienced. We saw a lot of strange people, and experienced way too many weird situations. Although I'm happy to say that it was one of the most interesting social experiences I've ever had.

After the rain cleared, I just thought that the way the sun hit the castle made for a spectacular view. 

A tout a l'heure!

A Day of Castles

On my family's last full day in Scotland, we decided to visit a few sites closer to Stirling. Our plans were to visit Doune Castle, Stirling Castle, the Wallace Monument, and to just kind of wander the downtown area of Stirling. So after a later start than usual, we all hopped back into the car and headed out to Doune. Doune's very close to Stirling, so before long, we were at the castle. For those of you who don't know, Doune is the sight of the Monty Python film. It's the castle they launched the cow out of, and most of the scenes inside a castle are filmed in different parts of Doune.

I had seen the castle before, but this time, I decided to get the audio guide as well. The audio guide through Doune was narrated by Terry Jones, who played more than one character in the Monty Python movie. It was pretty cool doing the audio guide, because they don't have many plaques to explain things in detail throughout the castle. But on the audio guide, they explain not only the actual rooms in the castle, but also the history behind them. I heard several historical stories, about the man who had overseen the construction of the castle and then lived there most of his life. I also heard several stories about the Monty Python film sites throughout the castle. It was pretty cool.

Doune Castle!

Naptime for all the lambs! And their moms too, but the
lambs were by far the cutest.

After about an hour at Doune, we headed back to Stirling to see Stirling Castle. This time, I didn't really feel like walking around the castle again. When I had come to see the castle with the FYSAE group on our arrival in Stirling, I had spent what felt like a few hours wandering through the castle, looking in all the rooms, reading all the plaques, and exploring the outside of the castle. So this time, I just hung out in the courtyard while my family toured the castle. After they finished seeing everything they wanted to see, we headed into town for tea (or hot chocolate) and something small to eat. I ended up with hot chocolate and a cinnamon swirl pastry, while everyone else got a hot chocolate and a hot cross bun. We also stopped so Mom could see more of the sheep...that are all over Scotland.

Wallace Monument, as seen from my kitchen.

We were going to go see the Wallace Monument, but it's a bit expensive to just walk up the stairs to the top, just to see a few very small rooms with a handful of historical artifacts on the way up. So we decided to just head back to the dorms, where Mom was going to make her Quidditch Player's Pie for dinner. Since we weren't hungry after just having had a snack, we decided to go for a walk around the loch, maybe stop to feed the swans, and then to head to the kitchen for dinner. Alyssa was the one who fed the swans, and they are attracted to food very, very fast. Before she had even tossed a piece of bread out onto the loch, the swans were making a beeline toward the shore. I was highly entertained because as soon as the swans started to get angry at one another, and then kept moving closer and closer to Alyssa, she started freaking out a little, and started moving backwards as fast as she could while still throwing pieces of bread.

Finally, it was time for my first home-cooked dinner since I moved into Stirling's campus housing. Mom cooked her Quidditch Player's Pie, which is made by baking beef, carrots and peas all mixed together, and then making mashed potatoes and spreading that on top of the mix of meat and vegetables, and then baking that for a few more minutes. It was delicious. There's nothing quite like a good, home-cooked meal, which I have missed quite a bit since leaving home! It was certainly a good way to end my family's last night in Scotland with me!

They can smell food from a mile away...or at least from halfway across the loch!

A tout a l'heure!

Fort William and Ibhin Nis

I'm not sure what mountain this is, but it's some more of the beautiful scenery you can see all over Scotland!

On Friday, my family and I journeyed North to visit Fort William, Glenfinnan, and Inverness (also known by its Gaelic name, Ibhin Nis). It was a long drive to get to Fort William. They city is on the waterfront of Loch Eil and Loch Linnhe. Rising behind the city is the mountain Ben Nevis, which is considered a Munro. (A Munro is a mountain that has an elevation higher than 3,500 feet). We wandered down the main street in Fort William. Fort William is quite a small town, serving mainly as a point for hikers to start out on a hike up Ben Nevis, or out into some of the surrounding scenery. We wandered down the main road, looking in some of the shops. Alyssa got some souvenirs, both for herself and her friends. And my mom got herself a wool sweater, made with authentic wool straight from Scottish sheep.

The Glenfinnan Viaduct, of Harry Potter fame! :D

After about an hour in Fort William, we headed out to Glenfinnan to see the Glenfinnan monument. We pulled up in the parking lot across the street from the monument. I got out of the car, looking at the scenery behind the monument. Then Mom told me to look to my left. There, sprawled against the Scottish scenery, was the Glenfinnan Viaduct. I of course, recognized it from the scene in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Ron and Harry were driving the flying Ford Anglia and Harry ended up dangling out of the car, high above the Hogwarts Express. That whole scene took place above the Glenfinnan Viaduct. After two months in Scotland, I finally got to see my first authentic Harry Potter location! I was really, really excited about it. We snapped a bunch of pictures, climbed up a nearby hill for an even better view, took some more pictures, and then headed back to the car to drive up to Loch Ness.

The view opposite the Glenfinnan Viaduct.
The Glenfinnan Monument is visible
between the trees in the bottom right corner.

We didn't have much time at Loch Ness, because we were meeting Mom's friend in Inverness for dinner. We drove around the loch (which is Gaelic for lake), stopping to see Foyer Falls, which are waterfalls in the woods surrounding Loch Ness. The water has a yellow/brown color to it that makes it look like the waterfall isn't water at all, but is actually root beer. It's a pretty cool sight. The walk down to the viewing point wasn't far, but the walk back up to the road was a bit of a hike. We continued on around Loch Ness, stopping at one point to get pictures of the loch and the Urquhart Castle that was across the loch from us. There was a little path that went down to the beach, so we headed out there to get our pictures. Once we had all gotten several pictures, we got back in the car and continued around the loch to get to Urquhart Castle. Dad got some more close-up pictures of the Castle, but we decided not to go tour these ruins. During our whole visit to Loch Ness, we didn't catch a sight of the infamous Loch Ness monster, known as 'Nessie' through most of Scotland. I personally don't think that Nessie exists, but that could just be the skeptic in me! I'm sure Loch Ness will continue to attract a lot of tourists, many of whom will surely be believers.

Loch Ness, the edge of the beach we were at, and some of the surrounding mountains. And this view, with the low hanging clouds, is very, very typical of Scottish weather. But it wasn't raining, so I was very happy about that!

The Foyer Falls. It's hard to see the strange
color, but you can almost see it at the top.

Finally, we headed to our last stop, Inverness. I believe it's a fairly large city, but we just got to town, found a place to park, and headed to a local bar and restaurant to meet Mom's friend Ross for dinner. We met him at the restaurant, and then waited hungrily for about half an hour before the restaurant started serving food. After what felt like forever, a waitress came and asked what we wanted to eat. This time, I got lasagna. I know, not the most Scottish of meals! But it was delicious, and it certainly appeased my hunger. On the way back to the car, we even got to see some cool graffiti. Spray-painted high up on a wall was the phrase 'Keep Moving,' but it was written so the letters were all backwards. It made me wonder if the graffiti artist's message was actually 'Keep Moving Backwards.' After our longest (both in time and miles) trip through Scotland--it took three hours to get to Fort William, another few to Loch Ness, and then another three-four hour drive back to Stirling--we were all feeling pretty beat. All of us were very happy to be headed back to Stirling for a good, long night's sleep.

A tout a l'heure!

Gone to Glasgow

The building I think it City Hall, as well as a monument to soldiers in George Square in Glasgow.

After our trip to the Cairngorms, my parents, my sister and I headed to Glasgow. We didn't really have specific plans, but we figured we'd get into the city and go from there. We parked close to George Square, which I believe is or is very close to the city center. We headed to the information center and decided to take the tour bus around the city and then decide which sites we wanted to spend more time at.

The tour bus that took us through Glasgow!

The tour was pretty cool. We got to see most of Glasgow from the bus, but the best part was that the bus plays a recording that tells you about all the sights you're seeing as you tour the city. There was so much to see, and I feel like I learned a lot about the history of Glasgow from what they talked about on the bus. Once we had done the whole circuit once, we decided to ride the bus to the Glasgow Green where we could see the People's Palace, and the only terra-cotta fountain in the world. We headed up the street so Alyssa could visit a local sweet shop, took a quick look through the museum in the People's Palace, and then caught the tour bus back to George Square.

Me and Alyssa in the mus-
eum in the People's Palace.

When we got back to George Square, we decided to find a place to get something to eat. We were going to go to the Horseshoe Bar, which I believe has one of the longest bars. We got there, walked around the bar to try to find a place to sit...only to be asked to leave because Alyssa is only 15. So with a short trip to the bar under our belts, we headed to Prince's Square in the hopes of finding a nice cafe. Almost as soon as we got there, we found a tea room, which Mom had wanted to visit anyway. It was perfect...until we got to the top of the stairs to find a sign that said the tea room was closed. It seemed luck was not on our side when it came to finding food. Finally, we headed into a shopping center and immediately found a cafe. I have never been so happy to get a hot chocolate and blueberry muffin. (I was starving!) Once we'd gotten our food, we headed back to George Square to ride the Glasgow Wheel and get some pictures of the square before heading back to Stirling.

The largest terra-cotta fountain in the world, and the best example of its kind. The fountain was apparently moved here from another cite, and somehow stayed in such amazing shape. Its in the square out front of the People's Palace.

On our way from one square to the other, we passed the Museum of Modern Art. In front of the museum, there's a statue of a man riding a horse. I was a bit befuddled when we had first seen the statue, as we were driving into town, since there's a traffic cone on the man's head. On the bus tour through Glasgow, I learned that the young people who hang out in that area at night put the cone on the statue. The next day, city officials will remove the cone, only to find another cone on the statue's head the next morning. In this way, it's become sort of a twisted Glasgow tradition that this particular statue always has a neon orange traffic cone on his head.

Me and Mom on the Glasgow Wheel!

The ride on the Glasgow Wheel was very cool. Alyssa's not a fan of heights, so she didn't enjoy the parts at the top as much as Mom, Dad and I did, but we all enjoyed being able to see the city from high above George Square. There's some really unique stuff that you wouldn't see if you weren't up so high--I saw a clock tower where the clocks had blue faces; a steeple of some kind that had a metal ship on the top; and a building that had a few extra levels added with glass facades that contrasted with the stone facade on the rest of the building. Once our ride on the wheel ended, we explored the square for a bit, looking at all the statues of famous Scots.

Dad and Alyssa on the Glasgow Wheel!

After snapping several more pictures, we headed back to Stirling. Mom was going to cook her Quidditch Player's Pie that night, but by the time we got back to Stirling, we wouldn't have been able to eat until past 8. So we decided to go to the Allanwater Cafe...again. We all ordered the fish and chips...again (what can I say? They're delicious!). While we were there, someone tied their dog up just outside our window, so we of course spent half our meal admiring how adorable the dog was. I swear the longer I'm away from Koda, the cuter every single dog I see appears to me. It was nice to have another good, English meal, complete with ice cream for dessert! Another great day in Scotland with my family!

The monument in honor of Sir Walter Scott and the Glasgow Wheel in George Square.

A tout a l'heure!

Cairngorms...kind of

On Wednesday, we decided that we would head up to the Cairngorms National Park. The Cairngorms are a mountain range in the highlands of Scotland. There was a lot to do--train trips, a reindeer herd, and a wildlife range. We headed out early that morning, excited to see the park.

The view from the top of the Cairngorms. We stopped just long enough to snap a few pictures before we huddled up in the car again. It was too cold for us! And I can't believe there was so much snow (it wasn't just on top of the mountains!)

To start, we headed to the top of the mountains where there was a train that ran from the visitor's lodge to the summit of the mountain. Even just stepping out of the car, I was freezing, and I'm pretty sure the rest of my family was too. None of us were dressed for winter weather, and that was precisely what we had emerged into. There were a few inches of snow coating the ground, the wind was just as biting as it had been in Edinburgh the day before, and I was eager to find some warmth. Realizing that at the top of the mountain it would be even colder and windier--not to mention that it was cloudy enough that we would have been in the midst of the clouds, unable to see any of the views--we decided to just head further down the mountain to see some of the other attractions in Cairngorm. We took a few pictures from the top, but quickly headed back to the car to go to the reindeer paddock.

Probably the most exciting shot of the sleepy reindeer. 

The reindeer paddock was decent. We had missed the morning walk up the hill to see the reindeer in a more natural environment (even though reindeer aren't natural to Scotland). Instead, we got tickets to see the reindeer in the paddock. After their busy morning, all the reindeer were just sitting toward the back of the paddock, not really doing anything too exciting. Since the reindeer weren't so exciting, I chose to do the little kids' activity where you had to find pictures of six elves that were "hidden" around the paddock. When we left the paddock, I had my sister take the list of the elves into the lodge, where she got a sticker for it. We left the reindeer paddock, laughing that we had been so easily sucked into a tourists trap.

At this point, we'd been in the Cairngorms for about an hour, with little to show for it. We decided to drive back down to Aviemore, the town at the base of the mountains. There was a rail station in town, and the train that ran out of it around 3:00 served tea and biscuits on the ride. We decided that would be a good way to get some good views of the Cairngorms and also to have a snack so we weren't all so hungry. We passed a few attractions on the way down to the train station, but most were just more tourist traps. They had pottery painting, clay pigeon shooting, and another wildlife section. When we got to the rail station, we asked about getting tickets for the ride that served tea and biscuits. The man at the ticket station explained that tickets for the ride had to be booked online, otherwise we could ride the train, but there wouldn't be any tea and biscuits for us. Since we had hoped to take the train ride for the views and the snacks, we decided just to find a cafe or somewhere else to eat in town. As we walked to the car, Mom asked "So, what's Plan F?" By that point, we had burned through all of our lightly laid plans for the day.

For some reason, there was a telephone booth out here. This
was pretty much the middle of nowhere!

We ended up going to a restaurant with the 'original' dumplings, which I assume are a dessert that's more popular in Scotland. The dumplings weren't bad, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. I ordered the strawberry dumpling, which was dumplings with strawberry jam and ice cream. I was assuming that the dumplings were similar to apple dumplings, but obviously without the apple, depending on what you ordered. Instead, it was more like a thick pancake with raisins and nuts in it, with ice cream and strawberry jam on top.

The day was looking like a flop, but our luck turned after we left the dumpling restaurant. On our way back to the A9, which is the highway that goes back to Stirling, I saw a 'heeland coo' in a field on the side of the road. 'Heeland coos' are the highland cows, which usually have rust-coloured, long hair. The pictures I've seen most often are of the males, so they have long horns like we see on bulls in the States. This was the first time I'd seen one of the coos, so I was pretty excited, as were the rest of my family. Finally, here was some authentic Scottish wildlife! We had seen sheep the whole way to the Cairngorms, but coos are much more specific to Scotland. Like the picture of foreign tourists, Mom parked the car, and all four of us headed down the sidewalk with our cameras out. The coos weren't very close to the road, so we all stood at the fence and zoomed in with our cameras to try to see them better. Again, Alyssa got the best pictures, so I'll be borrowing her photography skills again for this blog.

My first look at one of the famous 'heeland coos' of the highlands of Scotland. I personally think they're adorable.

After the coos, we decided we would just head back to Stirling. But Alyssa mentioned that she had seen some ruins of the A9 on the way to the Cairngorms, so we decided to stop and check them out. The ruins turned out to be the remains of the Ruthven Barracks, which were built early in the 1700s. The site itself has a rich history dating back to the early 1200s, when the first castle was believed to have been built there. It was fascinating to see the barracks, and hear about the history. It was obvious that the ruins were in disrepair--parts of it were boarded up, and many of the plaques that described the barracks said things like "here, there would have been two levels," where it looked like it was just one, big hall. Without even intending to, we had come across fascinating Scottish history.

The ruins of the Ruthven Barracks. You can't tell, but the person coming out of the doorway in the middle of the picture is my Mom! There was a tour there that day, so I think they're having a snowball fight over on the left.

Once we had seen the ruins, we headed back to Stirling. For dinner this time, we went to Nicky Tam's, a bar/restaurant in Stirling. Both Alyssa and I got the not-so traditional Scottish burgers. (Just regular burgers with Scottish beef!). Mom and Dad got much more traditional Scottish meals. Dad got haggis, neeps, and tatties, or haggis, turnips, and mashed potatoes. Mom got a steak and ale pie, also a much more traditional meal.

With our not so great trip to the Cairngorms behind us, we finished the day on a much better note than I would've thought earlier in the day. We might not have been able to see what we had planned on seeing, but the day turned out all the better for it.

A tout a l'heure!

Arrival and Edinburgh

With my family headed back to the States, I've now got time to post about this past week. Most of the past week's been packed with lots of traveling across Scotland, so til now, I haven't really had the time to post about our adventures. So, now that my week of sightseeing with my family is done, here goes!

The picture Alyssa took from the airplane as she got her first view of the United Kingdom, flying into Manchester.

Break at Stirling is officially April 2 to April 9, but since the second is a Monday, a lot of people had already headed home or off on vacations by the weekend. After a very slow weekend, I was very happy to head into town on Monday. I had some shopping I wanted to do, and then I was heading a little bit out of town to meet Mom, Dad, and Alyssa (my sister) at Mom and Dad's guest house. I went to town in the afternoon, bought some yarn from the yarn store, and then headed to a used book shop. I'd heard about this shop--it's a bookstore that has all these used books, and you can find some really great stuff if you look around a bit. I bought 'Hamlet.' Admittedly, it's not one of my absolute favorite books, but it's a classic, it is quite good, and the books itself was very cool (it's a blue, cloth-bound book with gold engravings on the front and then the inside's got amazing drawings).

Finally, I headed out to meet my family at their guest house. The woman who owns the guest house showed me to Mom and Dad's room, and I got to see my family again! Since I figured they'd be jet lagged after just arriving to Scotland, I gave them a tour of campus, checked Alyssa in with the porter, and we headed into Bridge of Allan for dinner. We went to the Allanwater Cafe, where we all ordered fish and chips (not bad for a British meal!). It was a good night, especially considering that my family was tired, and were all ready to go to sleep pretty much right after dinner.

Edinburgh Castle, from the bottom of the hill. 

Tuesday was more exciting than Monday. Mom and Dad got to University early to pick me and Alyssa up, and we headed to Edinburgh, bundled up to try to stay warm. After the heat wave last week, Tuesday was forecast to be cold, with the biting winds I'm starting to get used to here. We parked at the base of the hill that Edinburgh Castle is built atop, and set out on foot for the castle. We got to the castle just in time to see the firing of the gun at one o'clock. It was pretty cool, watching the ceremonial firing of the gun. We explored the rest of the castle, and got to see the crown jewels of Scotland too! It's amazing, being able to see the history of the country I'm spending the entirety of my spring semester in.

The firing of the gun at one o'clock. The way they did it seemed like a very strict, ceremonial routine, but it was really cool.

Our hot chocolate and shortbread at the Elephant House.

After the castle, we headed down the royal mile. We stopped so Dad could get a hat--his ears must have been frozen from the wind and the sporadic rain. Then, we headed down the road that led to the Royal Museum of Scotland. On the way there, we stopped for my second trip to the Elephant House. We got hot chocolates to warm us up, and shortbreads to fill us up. The shortbreads are shaped like elephants, and they're really, really good. After we finished our snack, we headed down the street to see Greyfriar's Bobby before going into the Royal Museum of Scotland. The museum was awesome. I'd been before, but it was still fascinating to see how much history there was from such a small country. We stayed in the Scottish history section of the museum, moving from the early history level up to the sports and more modern-day Scottish facts.

Greyfriar's Bobby!

At the end of the day, we headed back to Stirling. After our more traditional Scottish meal of fish and chips the night before, we went out to eat at a restaurant called Papa Joe's. I think we must have picked one of the few restaurants that served all American food. The menu even said 'fries' instead of 'chips.' Mom, Alyssa and I ordered pizzas, and Dad at least order salmon. I'm sure it's much more local than my pizza! By that point, we were all pretty tired, so Mom and Dad dropped me and Alyssa off at AKD (my residence hall). Alyssa and I were both out pretty quick.

My sister's a very, very good photographer, so I'm stealing her pictures for my blog posts about this week! Thanks, sis.

A tout a l'heure!

My apologies for the delay in posts! My family's here for the week, so I'm enjoying my time with them! Expect a battery of posts throughout the coming week. :)

A tout a l'heure!