Uggs are NOT climbing shoes

So the weekend started out well with an otley run. Otley road is a major road in Leeds with a lot of pubs on it. The goal is spend a half an hour and have a drink in each. The otley run I went on was Canadian themed and it was a ton of fun!


Friday night I left for Edinburgh. We arrived at our hostel to find we were directly beneath castle rock!! ( The view from the doorstep of the hostel can be seen above). The castle was so beautiful inside. Some of the buildings date back to the 12th century. After a whiskey tasting (which was so good i actually bought some... I am willing to give it to the highest bidder back home) we headed down to the elephant cafe for lunch. For those of you who are not Harry Potter Fans, the Elephant cafe is where J.K.Rowling penned the first harry potter novel on a napkin. From the cafe you can see Castle Rock, a cemetary(with the graves of Tim McGongall and Tom Riddle) and a castle-like orphanage, which the locals say is the "real hogwarts".

After lunch, we headed down to the local starbucks for our free tour. We spent 3 hours walking around learning about Edinburgh history. Highlights included a heart in the middle of the street which people constantly spit on (in tradition with olden times when people spit on it because that was where they collected taxes) Greyfriars bobby ( a dog who sat by his masters grave for 10 years after he died), and trying the local cuisine of deep-fried mars bars(sound disgusting -tastes delicious) and Irn-Bru(a Scottish soda). It was such a cheap and great way to see the city. That night, we went on the pub-crawl with the same tour group and had a ton of fun.

Sunday we decided to hike Arthur seat(the peak to the left in the pic), a large hill with a 360 view of Edinburgh. Since this was a weekend trip, i only brought two pairs of shoes: Uggs and flats. Uggs were perfectly adequate to hike the hill. It was a bit steep at parts but nothing horrible. We were lucky to have a clear day, because we could see for miles from the top. We sat and ate our lunch and heading back down the hill, and this is when our problems began. 6 of us had climbed Arthur's seat, 4 guys and 2 girls. The guys choose the path down, and what do you know, they decided we were going to climb down the cliff face. If Emma and I had been wearing tennis shoes, it would have been fine... but climbing down a pretty vertical cliff with ugg boots and a longchamp purse is not really the way to do it. Nevertheless we made it down... and it was totally worth it.

I spent the few hours we had left at the Edinburgh museum, seeing Dolly the Sheep (stuffed and creepy looking) and various ancient Scottish artifacts. Then we hopped on the train and headed home!!

In other news... I passed my first test!! yay!! Its refreshing to know I can still pass this semester even though I am gone every weekend/ cannot will myself to do much schoolwork. I also got a lovely care package from my parents containing lots of goldfish, chex mix, girlscout cookies, and easymac so I am not longer suffering from American food withdrawl. I am heading to Prague tomorrow (AH!!) which will be the first European country, besides England, I have EVER been too!

Tipsy Tuesdays?

Tuesday nights have been the best nights I have had in Leeds so far. Tuesday night is "international night" at a local pub and they have become an event of sorts among my friends. Last week, we went to the Eldon pub early and watched the Leeds soccer game, this week we had a potluck dinner, and next week we are holding a beerpong tournament complete with pizza and curly fries. We were talking about a possible "drink potluck" the week after....

Also... through wikipedia... I have found out some pretty cool facts about places I have been. For Example:
The Harry Potter movies use the Durham Catherdral (which I went to last weekend) as the sets for classrooms and corridors! I didn't take a picture of the walkways... but I am pretty sure the scenes where filmed in the corridors all around this courtyard!

Hello all!

So last Saturday I went to York. It was so beautiful because the city walls and some of the buildings have been around since the 12th century! We walked around, saw Yorkminister and Castle Howard, and then did a bit of shopping.
Yorkminister

Castle Howard

It was a perfect day trip, and we were exhausted after walking the wall around the city.

Sunday was the superbowl!! Me and two other Americans convinced all of our other international friends to go to a bar from 1am-4:30 am in order to watch it. Needless to say I was exhausted the next morning. Besides that, I had pretty much a routine week; classes, International night at the pub tuesday (there was a soccer game before we went to watch, so we were there for almost 6 hours!).
Thursday I went to a charity masquerade ball in a casino with some of my friends. I played one round of roulette, and lost (surprise surprise!). But we had a ton of fun watching the boys gamble and dancing.

Finally, Amber and I spent Friday and Saturday in Durham with her cousin who goes to college there. Durham is fascinating. It has both a cathedral and a castle which are built on a cliff over looking a river. The castle is actually part of the University of Durham housing (yes! college students actually get to LIVE inside a castle with was built in the 1500's.... some of it was actually built in the 1000's). There is a bar in the basement of the castle that we went to one night to have a couple of drinks. The close the castle doors at night, so to get to the bar you have to go through this 4 feet tall opening by the gate. I was trying to think back in the 1500's what this basement would have been. I thought it was a cellar but others said it was probably a dungeon. Good thing I'll never know...

Right: the courtyard inside the castle gate(the bar was underneath the steps to the left)

I was completely in awe of my surroundings in Durham the entire time I was there.
Above: The castle. The students live in the keep, to the right. The bar was more to the left inside the doors.
Below: The left is part of the castle while the top of the cathedral can be seen to the right.

One night we went out to Newcastle to go to a club. It was a bit different than what I am use to in the states, but awesome seeing the nightlife in Britain. The only problem, however, is that the first train back to Durham is at 4:30 am... which meant that after the club closed, at 3:30, we had to sit outside the train station for an hour in about 15 degree weather. Needless to say, I woke up the next morning tired and with a bit of a cold. I still ended up having a great weekend though!

I have my first test Tuesday (AH! have to start studying for that....) And then I am spending the rest of the week trying to plan out and book my spring break! I basically have the first two weeks figured out : Barcelona, Madrid, Venice, Florence, and Rome. Now its time to start working on the second two weeks. It is a TON of work to try to plan all this, but I am sure it will work out in the end.

I go to Edinburgh this weekend! which I am VERY excited for. The only problem is my camera broke yesterday :-(. So I am working on finding a replacement before then.

Happy Valentines Day <3

Forecast: Foggy

So it's been a pretty low key week. The weather has been quite gloomy (fog so thick you can only see 5 feet in front of you). Amber and I went to the top floor of Harvey Nichol's to eat at their sushi bar!! And last night I went ice skating with a few friends.
but I spent most of my time planning trips... This is what I have planned (some tentatively) at this point:

Feb. 6th - York
Feb 12-14 - Newcastle
Feb 19-21 - Edinburgh
Feb 26- 1 - Praque
March 4-8 - London
March 12-14- Munich (possibly...)
April 23-26 - Istanbul (possibly....) or Bristol, Bath & Stonehenge
May 7-10 - Paris (my mom and aunt are coming)

its seems a bit crazy to have so many weekends full already but I am so excited for all of them!!