Parading the Palace

Day 3: The Elephant House, National Museum of Scotland, National Library of Scotland and the Palace of Holyrood.

We let ourselves sleep in this morning, thankfully. We left late morning and made our way to the Royal Mile. We first made it a point to stop at the Birthplace of Harry Potter, (which I still need to read and watch), The Elephant House. It's a cafe and coffee shop very cutely decorated with elephants. We first stopped at the National Library, though there was barely anything there. They had a high tech exhibit that was more than disappointing. Not like the one in London, but is any library like London's?

Anyway, I had a latte at the cafe. It was so cute and warm inside, no wonder why J.K. Rowling drew inspiration to write.

Next we went to the National Museum of Scotland, where we spent a little over two hours in! It had a ton of stuff. Nothing I would say was commonly recognizable, but it was all really cool!

Replica of Mary queen of Scots tomb in Westminster Abbey.

We then ventured to the Palace of Holyrood House, where Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Victoria among others made residence. It is a working building and Queen Elizabeth II visits in the summer for residency. It's used for royal and governmental functions. 

And it's beautiful.

It was so pretty! I loved everything about it. Neat history, too.

Then we tried to find this marshmallow place called The Marshmallow Lady. Alas, we gave up after going in circles. We walked like 13 miles today, so we thought that was enough. Plus it was like 5:30 p.m. at this point, and we hadn't eaten since breakfast.

But it was a pretty walk back along Princes Street:

We ended up stopping at a pub right across the hotel to finally eat. Steak and ale pie, yum! 

Now we are trying to get rest before our flight out to London tomorrow! I'm going to miss you, Edinburgh!!!!

Cheers,

Kelli

Dun Dun Dungeon

Day 2: the Edinburgh Dungeon! And the Edinburgh Castle :) May 27.

Talk about opposite, huh? Well, kind of. 

Started the day with breakfast in our room: peanut butter sandwiches and apples. Man, I could live on that stuff. Peanut butter, I mean. 

Anyway, we went to the castle the first thing. It opened at 9:30, so we waited until it opened, along with the other hoards of people on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. Once we got in, it was amazing. Not like it wasn't amazing to begin with. It's seated in a freaking rock mountain overlooking the whole city. Gee whiz. I remember walking along the street in Tuesday and then randomly looking up. I turned the corner and was hit with the magnificent image of the castle. Literally almost like took my breath away. 

So when we got inside the gates, we went to the edge where you could look out at the city. Beautiful.

We perused the grounds for about 3 and a half hours. There was so much to see!

The Scottish Crown Jewels, the Jacobite rebellion artifacts, royal army museums, you name it. There was even a graveyard for dogs of soldiers, which was started during Queen Victoria's reign. Gosh I love that woman. 

Scottish man. He's coming home with me, mom! ;)

The castle was gorgeous, though. I loved everything about it. Had to pause a few times to take it all in. Btw, Mary Queen of Scots lived here. So for you Tudor fans or history buffs...yeah. 

More pictures!

Yay, UK!

Alright. So after finally getting through that amazing castle and visit in the gift shop, we explored the city until our next tour. We went to a mall and had McDonalds for lunch. I know what you're thinking. But they are different over here. I promise. And it was a cheap option, plus, we wanted to compare differences. If you were wondering, it was much better. Fries weren't downed in salt. Food tasted more fresh. As fresh as it can be for mac dons. 

Then it was time for the DUNGEON. DUN DUN DUN. 

It was an amusement/haunted house type thing. Except it was in underground creepy Edinburgh. Yeeks. The backstory is that two men teamed up and dug up graves and sold the bodies to doctors so they could do medical tests and stuff on them. So to make more money, they started intentionally murdering people. They were arrested after their 19th victim. Eerrieeeeee. 

So yeah, it was cheesy and freaky, but pretty great :)

Then we went shopping at Primark briefly. Love Primark. So much. I got Scotland socks! That was really random and irrelevant. But I love them.

Then we were on our way on a tight schedule. We had a date to see Pitch Oerfect 2 at 6:10. Oh, yeah. (Said in Kool-aid guy voice.)

IT WAS SO FUNNY. And being like 2/4 Americans in the theatre, we laughed at parts others didn't get. So it was really cool to see how other people would react. And we got a student discount! UNL fees help us across the seas. They must feel sorry that we actually have to pay for our college in the U.S.

Oh, and this is the Scots Monument. We couldn't pass up a photo op. It's gorgeous voice and so gothic. You could go to the top for 4 pounds, but we thought being on the outside was good enough. We couldn't miss our movie time! 

Then we just rested so we could sleep in the next day. I fell asleep to Zoey 101. Living the good life here in the U.K. :)

Cheers,

Kelli

Flapping the wings again...

Yesterday marked the first day of a new journey. 

Day 1: Edinburgh, Scotland!

But first, we had to say our goodbyes to Ireland.

At 5 a.m. Good lord.

We rode away in the coach at 6 to the airport. Our flight to Scotland left at 1, but getting a ride to the airport was easier if we left with everyone else. So we waited. For like, five hours. But it was alright, because yet again, an attractive Irish man (at the Aer Lingus desk) helped us out. We checked in our bags and were expecting to pay around 50 euro for the fee. But since it was so early in the morning when we checked in our bags, he said not to worry about it :) Thank you kind sir!

We finally boarded the plane, and after a half hour, we were told we had to switch planes because of a heating issue. It only set us back about an hour, thankfully! It was a beautiful flight. 

Once we landed, we eagerly waited for our luggage. Once we got that, we darted for currency exchange and a taxi. First time riding in a black taxi cab! We got to our hotel and were delighted to get settled before dashing out again for a booked tour at Mary Kings Close.

The attraction was guided by a character. A close is a very narrow street. Mary kings close was just one of the many closes that were abandoned because the government built a building on top of them. Weird, right? So basically, the closes were undergoing streets, now. The plague struck the people of Edinburgh and in the closes, which our guide informed us about. It got kind of creepy at times, but it was really interesting and informative! As well as entertaining and humorous. 

After that, we walked around for a while, searching for food. We stopped in a few shops, as well. We came across a small diner that offered take away. They had burgers and chips (fries), so we jumped at it. It was about 8:30 at this point. The people were extremely nice there and talked to us about where we were from. The owner said he was going to New York soon, and that he loved America. That was a nice thing to hear!

Netflix, take away and sleep was the only thing on our agenda from that point. :) it's nice to take it easy!

Cheers,

Kelli 

Dublin Dame

Day 13: Trinity College and the Book of Kells and Dublin

What else is there to do in an airport for 5 hours than catch up on blog posts? Watch out, world.

So yesterday, Monday May 25, we spent our last day in Ireland by roaming Dublin. Grand, it was. First we went to Trinity College, which is historic in its own right. Smack dab in the middle of Dublin, the college is a main tourist attraction. If I actually went to school there, I might be a bit annoyed with mobs of tourists. Alas, I probably won't have to experience that.

Here's the courtyard:

Our whole group met for a presentation from a PR professional. Though I'm not studying PR or Ad, I thought he it was pretty runner nesting. We then said adios to Frank, our tour guide. Then we were pretty much free for 8 hours in Dublin. 

A good sized group of us went to the library to see the Book of Kells. This book is often called the most beautiful book in the world, apparently. :) It documents the four gospels and was handwritten. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed, but it was allowed in the library. 

It's ginormous. I don't Ben know how you would find a specific book. Bindings line the walls of the two-story library, with busts if famous writers and philosophers on the pathway. Simply amazing. 

After that excitement, we had hours to kill. I followed this coffee shop on Instagram back in January or February when I applied for this study abroad trip and have wanted to venture out to it ever since. That coffee shop actually inspired my idea of doing something with coffee for my project. It's something I like and am obligated to like, as a journalist. What could be a better combination than journalism and coffee???

It was almost an hour walk to find, but we did it. It's just a simple little nook in Stoneybrook, Dublin. It was spectacular--the setting, the food, the COFFEE. I can't say enough. I interviewed the owner, Ken Flood, on a whim as he was working behind the counter. I loved hearing bits about hottie shop started just one year ago and the visions he has had and continues to have for it. 

The shop started off only doing coffee, and just recently (like a month ago) started serving food. He said people know they're serious about the product because they are very precise and specific in the menu. Simplicity is the element. He said his wife is Australian and the shop has lots of Aussie design influences. 

That's the actual shop name, but to keep things fun, Flood said they often change the sign out front. This time it says "Yes" in support of the same sex marriage referendum that Ireland voted on just last week Friday. And I noticed the Cinderella figurine--adds a nice touch, doesn't it? You can definitely feel the love when you're in this place. 

Ken Flood, one of the owners of Love Supreme. He is a Dublin native and recently moved back from Sydney just a few years ago. 

If you read closely, this tells about where the coffee beans came from. The shop does direct trade, which means the farmer is directly paid top dollar. (Or whatever currency.) Flood said they won't take coffee that's older than 5 months. That includes the whole process of picking the beans, as well. This ensures the freshest coffee. And that's exactly what it tasted like. So smooth and fresh. I had a coffee white, which was one of the roughly five drinks on the menu. It was the best thing I've ever had--even better than the mocha. It was beautifully presented and lengthily savoured. Flood really takes his coffee seriously and with heart, and it shows. 

Lemon curd poppyseed cake thing. I forget the actual name, but it was delightful and nearly heavenly. 

After the coffee, Kayla and I roamed around Dublin. We made our way back near Trinity and stumbled upon a lot of souvenir shops and on Dublin Castle. We wanted to find a movie theatre to see Pitch Perfect 2, but we couldn't find any close theaters. 

We sat, we walked. We shopped. Tried to waste time until 8:30 p.m. when our bus was picking us up. It was an extremely long day. But a very fun one--one of my favorites!!! And we checked out the fish and chips in Dublin for dinner. Gotta compare all the isles!

So back to Bray it was. For the last time. We packed up, signed thank you cards and stayed up too late. It was great. Then up at 5 a.m. to leave with everyone to the airport. 

Is it really the end of a journey?

Cheers,

Kelli