Edinburgh, Scotland

Okay, so I went to Scotland a week and a half ago, but due to the fact that I had 3 papers due in a five day span I was unable to write, however here it goes.

We left on Thursday night from Bath on a train to Edinburgh, however, a few days earlier we noticed that we had a 6 hour stop over in Birmingham in the middle of the night therefore we got a hotel room for the night, I think I might have gotten 3.5 hours of sleep. Nonetheless I slept on the train from Birmingham to Edinburgh and we arrived there around 10 a.m. on Friday. We had trouble finding our hostel because we got off the wrong train station so we had to walk twice as far, but that was fine. Later that day we went on a free walking tour of the city, which was amazing. I don't think we would of found out some much about the city if we just wandered, but the tour was over 3 hours long and I just knew that I would sleep well that night. All of us then decided to go on a whiskey tour, which you go on this little ride and sit in a whiskey barrel and see how whiskey is made and then we tried whiskey which I found out that I do not enjoy. After we went to dinner and then went to the hostel and went to bed fairly early.

On Saturday, we walked along the Royal mile where there are a lot of shops and restaurants. We had lunch and then decided that we wanted to find Arthur's seat because we heard from one of our program advisor's that it was a must to do in Edinburgh, we walked to the end of the Royal mile and there it was.

Now this may not look like that bad of a walk, but I was out of breath at some points due to it being steep, but the view of the city that we got was breathtaking and I am glad that we did it. After that some of us went are different ways but met up later. I went to a thing called People's story where it talks about how people lived and worked in the city back in the 1800's to the 1960's. Then we all met up to go to Mary King's Close and a close is a narrow alleyway and this close was underneath the current city. We got to see how people lived during the plague and what their houses were like, it was very interesting. Later that night we went on a pub crawl, which was okay but I was rather tired so I went back to the hostel early in the night, however, other people in our room were rather loud therefore I did not get much sleep!

Sunday one of the girls and I went to the Royal Yacht Britannia while the other three girls went to the castle.

The Yacht was so interesting, plus the Royal family lived on it from time to time when they had to sail places. This picture is a model of the boat, since I was unable to get the whole boat in one picture. I think we walked around the boat for almost two hours with a self guided audio guide. After we grabbed something to eat in the food court since the boat was located right outside of the mall, fascinating! We then decided to go see a movie instead of being a tourist for the rest of the day and I believe that was a good decision. The day was coming to a close and we needed to get back to the hostel in order to get our stuff and get to the airport since taking the train would have been to long, however, we still did not back home, I guess Bath is my home now but only for a little over a month, until midnight. Overall it was a fun trip and I enjoyed myself.

Now onto other news! My dad is coming in a little over a week and I am super excited to see him and travel to London and Amsterdam with him. Also, my mom, sister and Aunt are coming in a month which is also very exciting. This is the perfect time for them to be coming since all of my papers are done and I am starting to get a little homesick but also mixed emotion about leaving Bath, but I still have time to enjoy it and that is just what I am going to do. Last night I booked my flights to Rome and Venice with my sister and we are going to be there for a week just the two of us. What a good way to end my semester abroad before I have to head back to the states and start working again. One little side note that I forgot to mention early was that I tried oranges over here for the first time (no I am not kidding) and I fell in love, I now have an orange every day, oh the things I am experience while I am abroad! I will write soon!!

Love to all,

Monica

Spring Break in Morocco and Spain

This post will explain day by day what I did on my spring break

Saturday- Day 1- We arrived in Marrakesh around 4 p.m. Moroccan time. In the airport I changed my money to Durham which the exchange rate is really good like 12 Durham is 1 pound. All six of us got into a little taxi and the taxi driver took us to our place, once we got let out there was a man waiting to take our luggage and walk it to the place we needed to go, but we could do it on our own. Where the taxi driver dropped us off we still needed to walk a ways, but a man showed us the way to the hostel. Once we got to the hostel he came inside and demanded 20 Durham from each of us, it is a cultural thing, that was a little nerve racking and we were scared, but we paid him and he went away. After we walked to the market which was huge and beautiful, but none of us bought anything, which was fine. Then we went back to the hostel since we wanted to know a good place to go eat dinner was and the lady that ran the hostel called a guy and he showed us the way. The food was amazing I had chicken with vegetables and bread, which is always good no matter what. Then we walked around the market a little more, but it was getting late so we headed back to the hostel.

Sunday- Day 2- We took a taxi to the place we had to be picked us to go on our tour, then a van came and picked us up and brought us to the market, which we could of walked to, oh well. All 6 of us did not know how long the bus ride was going to be, but it took 8+ hours of driving to get to the place where the camels were, long time in a mini bus. We did stop along the way, once to get something for breakfast around 9 and then again just to stretch our legs, we stopped for lunch where I had eggs with tomatoes in them, with of course bread. After we walked across the street to a couple of little shops and I bought a pictures with camels on it, which was made out of tea and saffron. We drove through mountains and around them, sometimes I thought we were going to go off the cliff or hit a car when we were passing them. We finally made it to the camels around 730 p.m. and then it took about an hour and a half to get to the campsite, my legs were sore but it was well worth it! We had a tradition dinner which was chicken, veggies, bread and mint tea. After we listened and danced to music around a bonfire, which was a nice way to end the day.

Monday- Day 3- Woke up to the sound of the camels around 645 a.m. and we had bread with strawberry jam and I had coffee with milk and a cube of sugar it in. Then we got back on to the camels and rode 45 minutes to the mini van and then it was another 8+ hours back to Marrakesh, which we did not stop as much this time since we wanted to get back early. Once we got back to Marrakesh we had to find a different hostel since the one we were staying at before was booked for that night. We asked a police officer where to go and since none of us really spoke French it was difficult to understand the directions. We ended up going the wrong way too many times it took us over an hour when it should of taken 10 minutes from where we were. Finally we asked a man at a money exchange place and he took us to the hostel, I don't know what we would have done if he did not show us, we were thinking about just going to the airport and sleeping there for the night. We even tried calling the hostel but no one picked up! Anyways we got there and we were all so hungry, tired, smelly, so we decided that we should eat some food. We went to a nice restaurant and had more bread, chicken and veggies. There was a belly dancer and some people playing music, which was nice. After that we decided to do some shopping but by this time it was really late, I don't even know what time it was, but most of the stores were closed, but I did get some things. After we went back to the hostel and I took one of the best showers ever! By the time I went to bed I think it was like midnight and we had to wake up at 4 in order to get to the airport in time for our 705 flight to Madrid. Lets just say that I was really tired.

Tuesday- Day 4- Madrid here we come! As stated above getting up was rather difficult, but the four of us managed to do it. The night before the person that runs the hostel called us a cab, so we would not have to worry about trying to find one in the morning, which was great! Everything at both airports went fine and I even slept on the plane which was wonderful! We found a cab and they brought us right to the hostel. Once we were settled we walked around and got some food to eat, I got eggs with ham on top of French fries, it was so good especially since I did not have breakfast. We were all so tired that we came back to the hostel and took a nap, which was nice. After we asked where some good places to go around the city so we went to the palace, the gardens and the temple and decided to do other stuff the next day. We ended up walking for a long time and we even came across where Jennifer Aniston and Gerald Butler were going to be for there new movie, but we could not see anything and by that time it was already 830, so we went to dinner near our hostel and the food was good and cheap. I even got desert, which was a chocolate torte, yummy, you know me with chocolate deserts!!! We came back to the hostel and just hung out the rest of the night with people that were here.

Wednesday- Day 5- More of Madrid! I finally got to sleep in, which was so nice since this is supposed to be a vacation. We had a late start, but we all needed to get some sleep, we walked the opposite way of where we were on Tuesday and we went to the Prado museum which is so big, it was kind of overwhelming. After we went to the botanical gardens, where I took a lot of pictures of the flowers. We then walked towards a fountain which was beautiful and then since it was around 330 we decided to get some food, we all got Kebabs and they were so good and I got baklava, which I was craving. Then we came back to the hostel and I took a nap and then we did some walking around and had dinner with 5 other people from the program who just came into Madrid.

Thursday- Day 8- Barcelona! One of my flatmates and I just walked around the city and the Ramblas, which is one of the main streets with shops, hotels and restaurants on both sides of the street. We did not do a lot because we were waiting for another one of our flatmates to arrive and we didn't want to do anything without her. So it was a relaxing day, but we also explored!

Friday- Day 7- Woke up and had breakfast at the hostel for free which has not happened at any of the other hostels so far, we then went on the metro to a park which was beautiful it had a view of the whole city and on the benches there were mosaics that were beautiful also. After that we back on the metro to a cathedral, but the line was so long we decided not to go see it but we are going back the next day. After that we came back and walked around the Ramblas again and we tried to find Segways, but we could not find them so instead we took bikes out for about an hour and half, just riding around the city. After that I did some shopping, for myself and others. Then we went out to dinner and had Tepas and I tried fried Calamari and fried eggplant, yeah for trying new things!

Saturday- Day 8- We went to the cathedral and the outside is beautiful but I don't know if it was worth 10 euros to go inside of it since they are still building it, o well. Next we went to the Picasso Museum and then the chocolate museum, where they have sculptures made out of chocolate. After we went to a market where any food a person would need is sold there, the market is covered and if you wanted fruits or veggies all of the stands are in the same general area, which makes shopping easier. We came back to the hostel packed up our stuff and then went out for our last dinner in Barcelona, which was delicious.

Sunday- Day 9- Heading "home" to England. It was nice to be back in Bath where I was familiar with my surroundings, but I really did enjoy my spring break and it will be something that I will not forget.

Tonight I am heading to Scotland on an overnight train, which it will be the first time for me and I will be back Sunday night!

Love to all,

Monica

Oxford!

So I think that the title says it all, I was in Oxford before Spring break so two weeks ago now and it was amazing! When we first arrived at University College we were shown to our rooms and I had one of the biggest rooms with a piano in it, plus a double bed which I think few people had. After getting settled in our rooms we had a tour of Oxford, which was nice to know our bearings around the city. Then we had the afternoon to ourselves to do whatever we wanted, so five of us went to a sandwich place and got dinner, which was good. Then we went to a disco in the college's pub and it was great, we danced to some American music and the director of the program put on a wig and was dancing around, so funny.

On Sunday I went to Christ Church for a religious service and it was different than I was used to, but I did enjoy it. Later we went punting which is a flat boat with a long pole to push you along the river, luckily no one fell in, but I did get the metal pole dropped on my head, which hurt.

Monday I had two classes, but I did do some exploring of Oxford, which it is such a beautiful city. On Tuesday, I had a tour of Christ Church where they filmed part of Harry Potter, I am getting to see all these places where the movie was filmed. For dinner that night most of the program went to an Indian Restaurant, which I found out that I like Indian food, I hope I can find a place back in the states that will have good Indian food, that will be one of my missions when I come back in 2 months!!

On to Wednesday I had class in the morning and then I did more exploring of the city and this time I brought my camera to take some pictures, I also did some shopping for me and others, some great presents for people! Thursday I went to Saint Mary Tower and I got a view of the entire city which was breathtaking. As a group we went to the Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum, which had some interesting things inside of it like shrunken heads and those were in the Harry Potter movies too. We all came back and we were going to go to the Botanical Gardens but of course it started to rain!

So instead I decided to take a nap, however I spent until 725 p.m. Now that does not sound bad, but I had to be at a formal dinner at 730 and I wanted to take a shower, as you may guess I did not shower but I got ready in like 5 minutes and I was not even late to the dinner, now that is impressive I thought! The food was so good I ate goat cheese with roasted figs, then the main course was a rump of beef with rosti potatoes and leeks then for dessert was pear and frangipane tarte with vanilla clotted cream, it was so yummy. I did try everything however some things I liked more than others, but at least I tried it! So Thursday was our last night in Oxford some of us went out and I enjoyed myself, but I probably could of used the sleep however no regrets.

Friday we got up earlier and then drove to Blenheim Palace, however some people left early to start spring break, but my flight was not until Saturday morning. The Palace was built in 1704 and it had beautiful gardens and even a maze to go through, we got lost a little but eventually we made it out of the maze. The Palace is so big that it has a little train that will take you from the Palace to the gardens and maze, which was a lot of fun especially since the train pulled us backwards. We arrived back in Bath around 4 p.m. and I had to do laundry and get ready for Spring Break in Morocco and Spain!