The neatest thing happened today. I was walking around Florence after dropping off my laundry at this little laundromat and went towards the river that runs through the middle of town. There were people everywhere just standing. I had no idea what was going on so naturally I picked a spot on one of the bridges and just waited. I figured everyone else seemed to know what they were doing and I had all the time in the world to wait and see what it was. Well let me tell you…. was I in for a great surprise. Out of nowhere over the mountains came nine fighter jets each one trailing different colored smoke. Green, white and red. At first I couldn’t tell what it was and then it hit me… they were making the Italian flag in the air. They swooped down right above us and then took off. Luckily I got a still picture of it and a few minutes later they came around the mountains again and got down even closer. Im so glad I had the foresight to turn my camera into video mode and got the best clip of them flying overhead. Check out the video below!
Archive for the 'Trip Log' Category
As part of my Scottish Culture class, we are able to take part in three different trips throughout the semester. Our second one was Wednesday in St. Andrews, Scotland. On our way there we stopped at the base of the Firth of Fourth Bridge. It was built in the late 1800s and was considered way ahead of its time when it was built. It filled the gap over the water between South Queensferry and North Queensferry. To the left of it is a new bridge built for vehicles as the old one is just meant for the rail system. We then headed to Falkland Palace. It is set way out in the middle of nowhere. Believe it or not, the palace belongs to the queen technically but as the story has it she has never visited there and the last royalty to actually stay there was over one hundred years ago. It has been restored and it is now a beautiful little place nestled between two sets of mountains on either side. Next stop was St. Andrews… the home of golf! We were dropped off in the middle of town and headed straight to the nearest pub for lunch. As some of you may recall, my family and I visited Scotland in 2005 and spent four or five days in St. Andrews. My favorite part of being there Wednesday was being able to relive the fun moments I had with my family and when I walked to St. Andrews Golf course I could picture the way it looked three years ago. We visited it twice. The first time Dad and I played the course and two weeks later we watched the British Open! I could picture Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson stepping up to the tee box at the seventeenth.
We wrapped up the trip by going to a tiny little fishing village on the coast called Crail. It was so pretty and the views of the Scottish coastline was just beautiful. Check out the pictures I have posted. They speak for themselves.
St. Andrews Trip Pictures
 Crail, Sotland
Its final. I have my Easter break plans finished. Starting Thursday March 20, I fly out of Edinburgh to Prague, Czech Republic to visit my good friend from high school Monica. It has been so long since we have seen each other so I cant wait to see her. Im staying in this beautiful hotel right out of the city called Hotel Kavalir. Monica and I have all sorts of fun things planned while Im there including a visit to the theater and supposedly we are going to the biggest club in the world. Should prove to be interesting. Who knows what else she has up her sleeve! I then leave the following Wednesday to fly out to Rome, Italy. Im meeting a bunch of my new American friends there until Sunday. Next stop is Florence where I will be spending over a week at which time I plan on sitting in a cafe somewhere drinking espresso, eating every single bit of Italian food I can get my hands on and just relaxing. One of my good friends from Keene is there as well so we have plans to do all sorts of fun stuff together. So far we have a trip to Venice and an Italian soccer game on the docket. I hope to rent a moped and do some touring outside the city. If I have time and a way to get there, Tuscany is only an hour outside of Florence. When I was there years ago, that was one of my favorite places. It was so picturesque with rolling hills with vineyards everywhere. My goal is to take a wine tour as well. Hopefully my Study of Wine course will help a little! Unfortunately I will be missing that class on Monday the 6th but I figured I would be drinking plenty of Italian wine to make up for it. That afternoon on the 6th, I fly from Florence to London, London to Edinburgh. Tuesday the 7th is one of my days off from class so I plan to just unpack and settle back into the routine of Edinburgh as well as post the hundreds of pictures I will be taking. Im bringing my laptop with me so hopefully I will be able to post a few times while Im traveling. I think overall the trip will be amazing and hopefully very relaxing. I want wish everyone a happy Easter. 
This morning I got up with a whole list of things to do and I seemed to get distracted (not a surprise) by the beautifully clear warm day outside my window. The sun was so strong and so warm it was just the kind of day you walk outside and you can’t help but smile and realize how great life is regardless of the bad things that have been going on. Across the street is the nicest little pastry shop so I headed over to get two pastries and a juice. Next door to the bakery is a wonderful fruit stand where I bought two plums.¬†I¬†came back to my room, grabbed my iPod and a blanket and headed back out to have breakfast in the park right outside my flat. I spread the blanket out under a big oak and looked up at the clear blue sky with not a cloud in it. Let me tell you, that is a rare experience here in Edinburgh. I slipped on my headphones and just melted into the grass as for the¬†briefest¬†moment, I didn’t have a care in the world. No thoughts of school, the work I had to accomplish, planning the final stages of my spring break trip, relationships… nothing. One of my favorite guitarists in the world is George Benson. He has a song called “Got To Be There”. The title was just so fitting of the moment that I was experiencing. You just had to be there.¬†As I got ready to head back inside and face reality and the pile of papers on my desk, the clouds started to roll in and even now as I’m typing this blog entry, the sun seems to drift in and out from behind the clouds catching my eye every once and a while in its short bursts of warmth. The moment was so perfect that it was if someone had planned it just for me.¬†Of all the fun things I am doing here in Scotland and all the traveling I have done and will be doing, I know this is one of those times that will stick with me forever. So simple, uncomplicated and so effortless, the moments that I enjoyed sitting under that tree.¬†
After last night I just have to ask… who said boys can’t cook? We definitely proved that statement wrong. Dinner consisted ¬†of an eight pound roast chicken, creamed¬†broccoli,¬†caramelized¬†carrots and bananas foster for dessert. It was pretty much amazing if I can say so. My flatmates and I invited the guys from Flat 1 to join us for our bi-weekly Sunday night roast. Picture this… nine guys all crammed into this tiny kitchen drinking wine, eating everything in sight and laughing so loud people outside were wondering if we were OK. The guys from across the hall each brought their own plates, forks, knives, chairs, and they even brought their kitchen table with them. After we finished dinner prepared by my flatmate Alan, I started cooking my bananas foster which I was quite pleased with. Of course they all got excited when I lit the rum on fire and¬†flamb√©ed¬†the bananas. They turned out the lights and started taking pictures. Im going to try to get a few of them and post them. It was a fun night girl free! We don’t usually have that considering yes we are all a bunch of guys and who would want to give up a night with the girls?¬†
Thursday Feb 28 I boarded a plane bound for London. The only plans in concrete were where I was staying for the night. For the first time in my life, I planned my own plane tickets, hotel reservations and what I was going to do when I got to my destination. Looking back at it, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Day 1
So I landed in London at 22:30 and then proceeded to take a hour long train and then finally a ten minute tube ride to my hostel. It was a beautiful old victorian home that had been turned into a great little place to stay. It was clean, safe and best off it had free breakfast. The next morning I got up and hit the city early. I started at St. James’ Cathedral. I actually found it to be more beautiful than Westminster Abby (later that day). There was a sign outside the building that said there had a been a church at that location since 604A.D. Crazy! Next I took the tube to see London Bridge. As I got closer to the bridge, it was this plain road across the river. Nothing special about it and I was all confused. I looked down the river to see the famous Tower Bridge which was the one I was actually looking for. I walked across it and took all sorts of pictures looking at it and then from it looking down the river. It was beautiful. The hostel I was staying at had all sorts of free maps so I took one. As Im standing on the Tower Bridge, I pulled out my map and said to myself.. what next? I decided to head to Westminster and check out the House of Parliament and Westminster Abby. Again, down into the tube (good thing I bought the day pass) and popped up out of the underground station looking up at Big Ben. Of course I have seen pictures of it in history books but to actually see the clock and the House of Parliament in person was just amazing. As I walked around the outside of the building I came across the fancy entrance where all the important people get to go into. I went up to one of the guards and asked if they did tours of the building. She informed me that unless I had a family member who worked in there I could not get in. Disappointed I started to walk away when she said to me, “We do have a live debate in the House of Commons today if you want to go to it.” My face lit up. She brought me through security where I was practically strip searched and then was lucky enough to stand in line for forty five minutes. Finally I was brought up a winding staircase through one of the towers of the building where I went through another metal detector… just in case they missed my 9mm on the first time through. I then proceeded into the big room known better as the House of Commons. It was the most moving thing I did on my trip. If you know me well, I am very active in my student government at home where I have served as Vice President of the student body and parliamentarian. During that position I had to familiarize myself with parliamentary procedure which I got to see put into action during my trip to London. Even better, the topic was a good one. They were discussing who should be monitoring the internet and movies put out for the public. One side argued that it should be the government while the other side thought it should be a private company. It was so much fun.
I then got in touch with the three girls I knew who were also in London. We met up for lunch in a little cafe and all proceeded to go to Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum. It was the neatest place. It had statues of so many famous people. I saw everyone from the Beatles to the Pope to Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Queen to Sameuel Jackson and many many more. After the wax museum we went to the British Museum where I saw the Rosetta Stone! There was everything from pieces of the Parthenon to art from Greece to Egyptian mummies. It was overwhelming all the artifacts that was there. I could have spend two days there. Now mind you this was all done Friday. That night I went out for some Thai food and crashed in my hostel. An exhausting day one.
Day 2
Yet another early morning and crazy busy day. I started with the National Gallery which was yet another very overwhelming place. For each artists I mention there was one room full of each of their work; Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Seurat, Da Vinci and many more. I saw Sunflowers by Van Gogh, Bathers at Asni√®res by Seurat, Bathers at La Grenouill√®re by Monet, The Virgin of the Rocks by Da Vinci and so many others! It was breathtaking. After spending hours there I had lunch in the middle of St. James park which is situated directly in front of Buckingham Palace. I slipped on my iPod and just relaxed for a while taking in everything. From there I went to the mounted guards house where I took some pictures of the uniformed British guards. It was better than nothing since I missed the changing of the guards that morning. Next I moved on to Harrods where I purchased the most expensive gelato of my life and was looking for a nice wool coat which is popular over here. I found a beautiful one until I looked at the price… it was 999 pounds! Thats $2,000!! I quickly left there and headed to the London Eye where I took the largest ferris wheel ride of my life. Each capsule like room carried up to fifteen people and it went high above the city. I went during sunset and I got some great pictures of the House of Parliament and looking down the river both East and West. It was beautiful. Finally that night I went to Victoria where I saw Wicked. The seats were amazing… fourth from the balcony. All of the actors and actresses did a great job and the pit orchestra sounded wonderful. My only complaint was that the audience didn’t laugh at half of the jokes made in the play. I was the only one laughing and found myself looking like an idiot. Oh well… I had fun!
Sunday morning I woke up early… again… and caught a train from Liverpool St. to Stansted Airport 45 minutes away. Unfortunately the Liverpool station was closed due to construction and I had to take a bus to the next station which put me thirty minutes behind schedule. I squeeked into the flight terminal just in time and was the third to last person to board the plane. It was a close one but the flight was great and as we decsended into Edinburgh I had a flashback of how excited I was when I did the exact same flight pattern one month before when I was flying into Edinburgh to start my four and a half month journey there. It was a great feeling to look back at how much I had done since I had gotten here and it just reminded me how fortunate I was to be experiencing such an amazing time in my life.
As part of my Scottish culture course we are able to go on a few trips throughout the semester. Our first one was today at Edinburgh Castle. There is not much I can say about how beautiful everything was. I have more than made up for the lack of words in the over sixty pictures I have posted from the trip. The views were breathtaking and the history of the places just was overwhelming. From the great hall to the war memorial to the royal¬†jewels. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures of the crown and the rest of the gems but take my word for it… they were spectacular. Be sure to look at this photo gallery. The images speak for themselves.¬†
This weekend has been packed full of fun. Friday I went shopping with a few friends downtown. The first stop was the Edinburgh Woolen Store. It has been so cold here that I had wanted to buy a scarf. There were so many to choose from… unfortunately many of them were pink or purple or very bright. Not quite my style. I found a very nice black and white cashmere one. It makes all the difference when the wind is howling at a nice calm 40 mph. It has been so strong at times that you cant move any further forward and it just pushes you back. Its nuts. Saturday was an afternoon trip to the Edinburgh zoo. It is situated on the side of a hill outside of town and overlooks the city. There was everything from six different species of monkeys to hippos to deer (like Ive never seen one of those) to my favorite… penguins! There were hundreds of penguins. We ended up closing the park and found us all by ourselves alone in the middle of the penguin exhibit. Ooops! That night I went to the cinemas and saw Definitely, Maybe. It was of course a chick flick but a decent one. Now I’m sure your asking yourself… what exciting thing did he do Sunday? Well today I am doing laundry and studying as electrifying as that sounds. I am looking forward to my London trip this upcoming weekend. I will be flying down Thursday night out of Edinburgh and meeting a few friends there. We are planning to take in some of the sights and go see the show Wicked. I am so excited. I will be sure to post all the details when I get back next Sunday.¬†
By popular demand (my mother) I have been asked to post these two funny little stories. They both demonstrate some interesting cultural differences between the US and Scotland.
Short Story #1 – Before I came on my trip I received many publications from Napier about my housing situation including many rules and regulations that were different between the US and Scotland. I opened the housing lease and a pamphlet fell out that said “Don’t forget to buy a TV license”. I said to my family… I need a license to watch TV??? What am I getting myself into? Sure enough, this past week I just got a letter in the mail telling me that I was being investigated by the UK government for not owning a TV license at my place of residence. It was very official looking and described exactly what the rules were and that if I did not buy a license I would be fined 1,000 pounds! Come to find out after looking into the law more carefully, the license is merely the cost of connecting to the cable jack in my room. It stands in place of having to pay a Comcast or other cable company. I called the TV licensing department and informed them that I did not have a TV and they said they would drop the investigation. The part you should know is that every student at Napier received one of these letters and we all get to be lucky enough to call and dispute the investigation. Crazy!
Short Story #2 – During orientation week we had a housing meeting where we had to sign our lease and collect our keys. During the presentation we got the normal… don’t play with fire extinguishers, don’t tamper with smoke detectors etc. etc. The next slide was titled “Unacceptable Behaviors”. One of the bullet points of the slide said… Don’t be anti-social… you will be fined heavily!! At this point I’m thinking you have got to be kidding me. Every American student in the room looked at each other as if to say this has got to be a joke. There is no way they can fine you for being in your room alone and not socializing. So one brave soul raises his hand and asked… would you please define antisocial behavior? The woman giving the lecture looked at him funny and replied that antisocial behavior is being loud and disruptive when you were drunk or having a party at 3AM when other residents were trying to sleep. All of the Americans at one time went Oh! Again the woman looked puzzled and asked what we thought antisocial was. Someone shouted out what the American meaning of antisocial was. We all had a good laugh at that one and still from day to day will say to a fellow roommate who has been in their room a while to not be antisocial or we might have to fine them heavily!
This weekend has been full of great events. As the title gives away I went to my first ceilidh on Friday. A ceilidh is a scottish dance that is very similar to line square dancing. Mary and I went together along with many of her friends. There was a live band that consisted of an electric guitar, fiddle and drum kit and of course all of the guys had kilts on! There was one young guy who taught each dance to us and would then walk us through the steps as we danced to the music. After much twirling, jumping, kicking and shouting we would have to break for water every two songs. It was so much fun filled with lots of laughter. 
¬†On Sunday I traveled to Glasgow taking my first train ride of the trip towards the west coast of Scotland . We passed hundreds of sheep, hilly pastures and lots of green. We passed under the city and then arrived in this a beautiful train station in the heart of Glasgow. It is home to a beautiful museum, good food and lots and lots of shopping. The museum had everything from mummies, to stuffed lions, and tigers and bears (Oh my!), to a life size WWII British fighter plane hanging from the ceiling to paintings from Monet and Van Gogh. We spent many hours there until we all were starving and went for lunch where I finally had my first fish and chips of the trip! Lastly we enjoyed much of the shopping that the city had to offer including a visit to the local Apple Mac store. If you know me well, you know I was like a kid in a candy shop having to touch everything there. I was able to play with the new MacBook Air which is the world’s thinest notebook. It was so neat! Eventually we all crashed and decided to take the train back around 1800 at which time I slept the entire way. Mind you I was made to meet up with my friends by 0830 at the train station to leave. A long day but full of fun and adventure!¬†
Next weekend I will be traveling to St. Andrews… finally! Thank you to all of my loyal readers. I hope you have been enjoying the blog and pictures thus far. Its hard to believe I am going into my fourth week here! Time is flying by. The best part is that I am enjoying every day here. I’ve been finding already, that it is fun for me to read some of my first posts to this blog and to think about how much I have done in such little time.¬†As the Scots say… Cheers! ¬†
