Getting Ready for London

Hello All,
Alright so I just typed this whole thing but then the computer deleted it so the message won't be in quite as much detail.
Today Sarah and I hung around town and leisurely (not sure on spelling, sorry aunt lori) read books. We were planning on travelling to Stirling Castle but by the time the bus arrived in St. Andrews and would get us to the castle it wasn't going to be worth it for today anyways. Tonight we went and had dinner at a Japanese/Thai place and it was quite delicious.
Tomorrow morning I leave for London on the train at 9:30am and should arrive in London around 3pmish. My hostel that I am staying at is in Greenwich so the plan for the rest of tomorrow is to explore around Greenwich. Tuesday I plan on getting on one of the sightseeing hop-on hop-off buses to see the city. Then Wednesday and Thursday morning I will see the other things I didn't see. I head back to St. Andrews on Thursday afternoon. I am getting quite excited to leave but also a little nervous. Luckily it stays really light here until around 10:30pm (hopefully close to same in London) so that I won't be walking around in the dark. I'm not sure if I will have internet access so this may be the last blog for a few days. I have an international pay as you go phone that I use to talk to Dad and Mom so they know that I will be safe.
Love to all,
Heather heading to London

Dolly and the Queen

Hello All!
Today Sarah and I headed back into Edinburgh and went to the National Musuem of Scotland which houses the Dolly the cloned sheep. We were mostly going just to see Dolly but found some really cool other things in the museum as well. The museum was free and huge so we spent quite a long time there.
The highlight of my day was that the Queen herself is in Scotland staying at her Holyrood House/Palace. I took a picture of the flag flying that indicates that she is here. I was hoping to see her but sadly did not. I was still quite excited that she was in the same place as I was. Quite impressive.
It poured today and was quite cold again so we were soaked almost the whole day but it was worth it. I'm not sure what tomorrow entails yet but Monday I head to London.
Love you all

Zoo, Birds, and Transformers

Hi All!

Yesterday Sarah and I went to the Edinburgh Zoo. We didn't think that it could be that large based on the fact that it was in the city but it is huge. There are gigantic hills that most people take a safari bus up to the top and then walk their way down. Well we walked both ways, it was quite the workout. I was mighty impressed with the amount of space the animals had to roam around in. It was quite fun because they had lots of monkeys and I was able to pick them out before reading the signs from my Social Behavior of Primates course last semester. The zoo was wonderful except it fell in the ratings do to the fact that most of the animals were hiding within their enclosures so we missed out on some of the cool animals like all the big cats. Overall it was great fun though.

Last Night I decided to give mom a call and was out walking around outside and got pooped on by a stupid bird for the 4th time in my life. Some people never get pooped on in their life and I've already been pooped on 4 times. Mom couldn't stop laughing while we were on the phone. It was quite gross though.

Today our plan was to go to 2 different castles however once we started trying to figure out how to get there by bus it wasn't going to be so simple so we decided to hang around town. We ended up going and seeing Transformers 2 tonight. I haven't seen the first one but I must say the second one was awesome and I recommend it.

Tomorrow Sarah has to go do some research work so I'm going to hang out here in the morning then meet up with her later in the afternoon. I'm not sure what the weekend entails yet but it will be an adventure I'm sure. Monday I am heading off to London.

Love you all

Seals, Beaches, and Fog Banks

Hello All!
Yesterday Sarah and I headed into North Queensferry to the Deep Sea World which is an aquarium. They had all tips of fish from around here as well as tropical fish, amazon rainforest fish, sharks, rays, and adorable Common Seals. We got to watch the feeding and training session of the seals and one was being quite stubborn it was funny. The seals come from their seal rescue and rehabilitation program over here. The seals go to a place called the SSPCA Middlebank first where they are assessed and kept for 24 hours and then usually are trasported to the aquarium. I thought this was quite cool. The aquarium also had a stonefish which is the world's most venomous fish and he looks like a rock so if you stepped on him you'd never know it and they are fatal to humans. Quite impressive I thought since I've never seen one. After the aquarium we headed back to Sarah's and watched movies the rest of the night.
Today Sarah had to do some work on her research and had a doctors appointment so I was on my own. It was actually a gorgeous day in St. Andrews so I headed down to West Sands beach which is by the Old Course and walked along the beach then layed down and read a book. The water was extremely warm at the beach today for some reason and I thought about going in but only went up to my ankles. I found some cool seashells, algae, and even shark egg sacs while walking along the beach. It was a great time. I headed back to meet up with Sarah and we went and walked the old pier. We saw some schools of what looked like sardines but was hard to tell. Sarah had another thing to go tonight so I decided that I would head down to East Sands which is the beach closest to her and the place she was going and read again and wait for her. The water at East Sands was much colder but people were still in it. As I was reading I started to get cold so I sat up and turned to put my coat on and saw a huge fog bank that rolled into the town in a matter of like 2 minutes and it was thick. It was quite cool to see and when Sarah came out of her meeting she said she'd never seen anything like it. It's still foggy now and brought in the colder weather so we are in for the night.
Love to all,
Heather

The Chippy and Highland Games

Hello All!
Yesterday Sarah and I headed into a little fishing town to go to the UK's top voted Fish and Chips place. I figured I had to try fish and chips from the land of fish and chips. The restaurant was very busy and they people said that was actually a quite day. The fish and chips presentation in the newspaper box was quite cute. I am not a big fish eater so I wasn't too thrilled about the fish and chips but it was good. It was one of Sarah's friends birthday's last night so he was having a birthday party and we headed into Dundee for that. Her friends seemed pretty nice but I felt quite out of the loop as they were all talking about their work they are doing. When it was time for us to head back and catch the last bus, the birthday guy said that it should only take us about 15 minutes to walk to the bus station....well it was talking us longer than that and we ended up literally running across town hoping the bus was still there but were sure it wasn't. Luckily it was still there and we made it home safely.
Today we headed up to Aberdeen for the Highland Games. I found out these were going on before I even came over here and told Sarah that I had to go and she agreed she wanted to see authentic highland games also. Aberdeen is not that close, about an hour and a half by bus, and the buses don't run often there so our time was limited. But let me tell you these games were so cool. They had the heavy weight games where they throw all the heavy stuff to see who wins, they had scottish and irish dancing, they had tug-a-war, track tip competitions, and the thing I thought was the coolest was a bagpipe competition. I could sit and watch them for hours. It was a perfect sunny day for the Highland games and very glad that we went.
I'm not sure what tomorrow entails yet but I look forward to another fun day.
Love
Heather

Visiting Nessie and Playing Golf

Hello all!
Thursday Sarah and I made the long trek up to the Highlands via buses to visit Nessie at Loch Ness. The bus rides were long but the scenery was amazing. As we headed up you could see sheep, highland cows, and deer in massive amounts all along the mountains. Loch Ness is most famous for the sea monster Nessie but really it should be famous for it's breathtaking beauty. It was amazing how gorgeous it was up there. It was sunny also which was another plus. We went to the Urquhart Castle which is mostly ruins now because it was blown up to avoid the Jacobites from taking it over. The castle is where the most sightings of Nessie have been reported but unfortunately she decided not the grace us with her presence. We also checked out the Loch Ness Centre which featured movies about all the theories of Nessie. Does she really exist?
Today it was gorgeous and sunny in St. Andrews. We headed down and played the 18 hole putter golf course on the Old Course. It was so much fun and we decided that we are going to play again next week. I also got authentic Wellies today to keep my feet dry. I am excited to wear them but I will hold off for the sun that we are having.
Well I am exhausted and heading to bed. Tomorrow lies another day of adventures. Love you all,
Heather

The Rainy Mile

Today Sarah and I travelled to Glamis Castle. It was an extremely rainy day here. Sarah said she hasn't actually seen it this rainy in a really long time. We rode the bus into Glamis village and were trying to see out the windows at the beautiful landscape but this task was soon given up because the windows kept fogging up. When we got off at Glamis village we assumed that the castle would only be a short walk away. Well technically it was, at least the gate was. The castle ended up being down a driveway that was about a mile long. Now normally this would not be a huge problem but the rain added an extra element to our walk today. We were freezing and soaking wet the whole walk down but I must say it was worth it. Glamis castle is a fairy tale castle. It was gorgeous even in the rain. We went on a tour that only showed us a small portion of the castle because the one of the Lord Glamis uses the house as their current residence. Glamis castle was the birth place of the Queen Mother and there are many references to her and pictures of her throughout the castle parts that we saw. The castle is also supposedly haunted and there is a window that you can see on the outside of the castle that when you look through it all you see is a wall. It is said that one of the lords and a friend were playing cards and they played on into the sabbath sunday and the devil himself showed up and started closing in the walls of the room they were in until they were totally enclosed in. It is said that you can still see them every once and a while from that window today closed into the room. This castle was by far the coolest we've seen thus far I think. Some of the doors from rooms are hidden into the walls of the room, it makes it look like a secret passageway. I would've loved to be the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret playing around in this castle growing up. After the castle we headed back into Dundee and to the mall and I got a bigger air mattress to sleep on and then we headed back to St. Andrews for dinner and soon bed. Tomorrow we are planning on going to Loch Ness. I am hoping the weather gets some what better. If this rain continues I'm buying myself true Wellies (aka rainboots if you didn't know).
Love you All
~Heather

Research and Golf

Hello All~
Sorry for the delay in updates, I've been really tired the last couple of nights. Monday we headed into Dundee which is about 30 minutes away by bus and is also where Sarah's research is done for her Masters. We went to Discovery Point which contains the Royal Research Ship (RRS Discovery) which was the first ship built and designed for research in the Antarctic. The museum was quite interesting and interactive. They have the actual ship out in the harbor that you also go onto. The ship isn't the same as it used to be in all parts due to modification over the years but most of it is the same and it was quite impressive. We spent many hours at Discovery Point and had planned on travelling to Glamis castle which is amount 11 miles outside Dundee but by the time we got to the bus station we wouldn't have had much time at the castle so we just headed back into St. Andrews and walked around some more. Yesterday (Tuesday) we stayed in St. Andrews and it was golf day. It was actually a very nice day yesterday, sunny, but still cold. We headed down to the other side of town which is about a 15 minute walk to the Old Course. We had lunch at a pub called 1 Golf Place which was quite delicious. Then we headed out by the Old Course and there were tons of people standing around and also people playing on the course. We walked across the course at holes 1 and 18 where there was a path and headed up towards one of the club houses. There is another course called the Himalayas which is technically the ladies putting green but is now a putting course that anyone can play on for 2 pounds and 18 holes. We were going to play but decided that we weren't dressed appropriately because the people were still dressed in golf attire so we are going to go back another day when dressed appropriately. After checking out the golf courses we headed onto the beach called West Sands which is right across from the Old Course. The beach reminded me of a cross between Florida beaches and Oregon beaches just much colder. We then headed off the beach and up to the British Golf Museum which was extrememly cool. We spent a long time in there. I took a lot of pictures until my camera battery died unfortunately but I got a book all about it. After the museum we went through the golf shops which had way cool stuff but way over priced. They are very proud of their stuff. There were some good deals but I decided not to buy anything I can always go bac. After all the golf stuff we walked more of the town and went to a place called B. Janetta's which is an ice cream/gelato place which Sarah prepared me so I could take lactaid. I had strawberry and it was one of the best I've ever had. I will defanitely have to go back. We went to another pub last night for dinner and Sarah had traditional Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties. Haggis is lamb, beef, oatmeal, onions, seasonings and spices all mixed together. Neeps is Turnips and Tatties are mashed Potatoes. It didn't look all that appetizing. Sarah said it wasn't awful but not necessarily good either and didn't think she'd order it again. I'm not sure I can bring myself to try it but maybe the mood will strike me.
Today we are going to Glamis castle and around Dundee.
Love you all,
Heather

Day in St. Andrews

Hello All!
Sorry I didn't update last night, yesterday was a busy day. In the morning Sarah and I travelled around St. Andrews and the old Cathedral ruins that are right next to her place. It was amazing to see some of the old parts of the cathedral. Inside this area is now an old cemetary. There is even a cementary and giant headstone memorial for an old golfer. I took a picture for you Dad and all the golfers. We then headed into Market Street which is the main street in town. As we were walking along Sarah pointed out parts of the university which are spread all across the town. We stopped into Starbucks and had a muffin and drink to get us going for the day (that's for you Grandma Pat). The Starbucks look exactly the same here as they do at home. We then walked around Market Street for a while and it started to really rain so we came back to Sarah's place and hung out for a while. I ended up taking a nap. After our down time and the rain sort of stopped we headed to lunch at B. Janetta's cafe where I had a panini. After lunch we went to Tesco which is the local grocery store to pick up some groceries so we weren't eating out all day long. We took the groceries back to Sarah's and then headed to the local movie theater and saw the Hangover, very funny. The movie theaters here are two stories and depending on where you sit the prices are different. Also the theaters don't show movie previews which Sarah (she hadn't been to one yet) and I were waiting for. After the movie we headed to one of the local pubs, called the Criterion, to meet up with some of Sarah's friends from school. The pubs here do this thing called Pub games where it's all trivia and you play in teams to answer the trivia questions and the team that wins gets a case a beer. Well it just so happened that the team Sarah and I played on with her friends won, so our team one a case of beer. I was thought the pub games were quite fun and a great idea. The two other girls we were playing with took the case of beer home with them for later this week. Sarah and her friends just started a once a week dinner night together so they were saving it for that. After the pub, it was like 10:30 pm and still light outside, we headed to get some dinner from a local shop. We got our food as take out because it's cheaper and then headed back to Sarah's to eat it. That was pretty much all for the day except for heading to bed. Today we are heading into Dundee.
Love to all
~Heather

I have arrived

Hello All! I have arrived in Scotland and am currently at my friends place in St. Andrews. It's been a long trip but well worth it thus far. The long lay over in JFK New York airport was quite boring and confusing. Their airport is not very organized but I managed to make it through. Found a Starbucks and got my frappacuino fix for the day. The flight to Edinburgh was better than from New York. We had individual movie players which was nice. I was sitting next to an elderely couple that actually grew up in Scotland and then moved to the US when their daughter was 2. They are staying in the Dundee area with their family that still lives here. They gave me some ideas of places to go and said that I would love it. I didn't get to sleep much on the plane and am extremely tired. When I arrived in Edinburgh I couldn't believe how green it was it was gorgeous. I met up with Sarah about and hour later because my flight got in early. We headed out on the bus into downtown Edinburgh and to the train station where I could store my luggage. We had some breakfast thing called a pasty which was like a pastry filled with different things. Mine was bacon and cheese. But it also had like potatoes and onions in it. It wasnt my favorite but I tried it out. We then walked from the train station up tons of hills to the Edinburgh Castle. That place was so cool. They were doing a changing of the guard when we got up there so we got to see that as well as the bagpipers playing. I recorded a video so hopefully it works. We spent quite a long time at the castle. We then headed out and walked the Royal Mile. There were some pretty amazing buildings along the way including St. Giles Cathedral which we went into and I got chills. The stained glass was amazing as well as the huge organ pipes and all the wood work. We continued along the Royal Mile down to the Holyrood Palace which is where the Queen stays when she is here in Scotland. Because it's the Queens property you are not allowed to take pictures inside, which was a bummer because things were amazing. We walked through the gardens which were beautiful but got my allergies going. As we were walking through the gardens it started to rain. I didn't have my umbrella with me because it was still in my suitcase but it wasn't too bad. We then hoped back on the city bus and went and had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. Sarah collects drumsticks from them and didn't realize there was one until we passed it so we decided to sit down for a bite to eat. We then decided that we would go back to the train station and get my luggage and head towards St. Andrews for the rest of the evening. The bus ride to St. Andrews took about 2 hours. I was trying to stay awake to see the countryside but was so exhausted that I fell asleep. I will defanitely sleep well tonight. Things that I have learned thus far today towards the rest of my trip:
1. There is A LOT of walking including LOTS of hills. So I will be getting my exercise in.
2. You have to pay to use the bathrooms. This was crazy to me.
I have taken lots of pictures thus far and plan to take many more. Tomorrow the plan is to map out the rest of my time and explore St. Andrews.
Love you all. Signing off from St. Andrews

Getting Ready

Hello All!
I am currently getting ready to take off on my awesome Graduation trip to Scotland, England, and Ireland, thanks to Grandpa and Grandma McCarn (I love you and thank you very much). I am figuring out all the last minute details of things to pack and things that I can live without. I am extremely excited to leave on Friday morning bright and early (6:30am). I first head to New York JFK airport and have a five hour layover and then head over to Edinburgh, Scotland. My friend Sarah is meeting me at the airport when I get in (8:20am) and the plan is travel around Edinburgh for the day and then head to St. Andrews where she is going to school and I will be staying with her. I have no idea what my trip schedule is going to be like yet but I plan on seeing as much as possible in the five weeks that I am there. Well I am off to get to packing and have some dinner. Love you all and updates coming soon.
Love,
Heather