Showing posts with label scotland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scotland. Show all posts
Monday, 6 April 2009
Sunday, 5 April 2009
4/5/09 Stirling Castle and William Wallace Monument
Today I headed out to see the sights at the Stirling Castle, which was an important power stronghold in Scotland during medieval times.
Next I headed out to the William Wallace monument and climbed up the hill and then all the way up the narrow staircase on the inside to the very top. Standing on the top of the tower was breathtaking as the wind was whipping from all sides and the view was spectacular.
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| From Scotland Trip |
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| From Scotland Trip |
Next I headed out to the William Wallace monument and climbed up the hill and then all the way up the narrow staircase on the inside to the very top. Standing on the top of the tower was breathtaking as the wind was whipping from all sides and the view was spectacular.
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| From Scotland Trip |
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| From Scotland Trip |
Saturday, 4 April 2009
4/4/09 Tour of Edinburgh, off to Stirling
In the morning after finishing packing JJ and I headed out to a New Europe walking tour of the city, starting at the King Charles Cathedral. Ironically, our tour guide was actually from Melbourne, Australia and was quite funny. We learned important things such as the origin of the word shit-faced and saw where JK Rowling got inspiration for and worked on Harry Potter.
Sadly, we had to leave the tour early to head off to Stirling with the rest of the London Program. Once in Stirling we went to the location of the Glenturret Distillery for the Famous Grouse Experience. They really pulled out all the stops for us, as we were greeted with a real Scottish bagpiper as soon as we stepped off the bus.
I sampled several different whiskeys as we got an in depth look into how and where different kinds of whiskeys are made. After the tour we were treated to an elaborate Scottish dinner, and I tried haggis, which was really quite good. The bus ride back was interesting to say the least, as our bus driver had quite the unique taste in music.
At night a few of us went out to a random bar in Stirling and just chilled out for the most part, It seemed like the city had a decent nightlife despite what we had been previously told.
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| From Scotland Trip |
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| From Scotland Trip |
Sadly, we had to leave the tour early to head off to Stirling with the rest of the London Program. Once in Stirling we went to the location of the Glenturret Distillery for the Famous Grouse Experience. They really pulled out all the stops for us, as we were greeted with a real Scottish bagpiper as soon as we stepped off the bus.
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| From Scotland Trip |
I sampled several different whiskeys as we got an in depth look into how and where different kinds of whiskeys are made. After the tour we were treated to an elaborate Scottish dinner, and I tried haggis, which was really quite good. The bus ride back was interesting to say the least, as our bus driver had quite the unique taste in music.
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| From Scotland Trip |
At night a few of us went out to a random bar in Stirling and just chilled out for the most part, It seemed like the city had a decent nightlife despite what we had been previously told.
Friday, 3 April 2009
4/3/09 St Andrews, pub crawl
What visit to Scotland would be complete without a visit to the famous St Andrews? Now I am not really a fan of golf, but it was still really neat to see a place with such a storied history. We heard about the business aspects of St Andrews from some of their representatives and then toured around the practice range and the facilities. I walked on part of the old course, and stood on the famous footbridge near the last hole.
In the free time we had at St Andrews, JJ, Nate and I went on a little expedition to explore the rocky shoreline.
We got on the bus back to Edinburgh since we didn't want to play golf. At night JJ, Nate and I embarked on the Insomniac Pub Crawl. Nate felt sick to his stomach shortly after starting and had to walk back to the hotel. At the next stop we met some cool German guys and I talked to them about my recent trip to Munich. The night wore on and our last stop was the club Hive. Apparently some other SU kids were there and quickly came over to join us. JJ was dancing with some girl and so I had to play wingman and stop the SU kids from cockblocking him by holding them back and saying "it's alright!".
After a bit I lost track of JJ and wandered around the club looking for him to see if he wanted to leave. I didn't find him, but as I was walking around by the bar some random girl touched my arm and said I smelled nice. So I walked with her arm in arm and asked if she had seen my lost sexy Swedish friend. She hadn't and we started dancing. After some dancing she was obviously impressed with a)my sexy dance moves and b)my impeccable style, so she asked "are you gay?" I smiled as I looked into her eyes and said "No", and then I kissed her. After some making out and whatnot, I noticed that the German guys were making their way towards me. Random girl wandered off but I didn't really care.
Of course the German guy interrogated me as to why I wasn't drinking a beer at that exact moment. I told him I had already drank a lot, which probably perpetuated the stereotype that Americans suck at drinking compared to Europeans, especially Germans. The German guy said in his thick accent, "I am going to be your teacher and teach you to drink beer. B...E...E...R...BEER!" He put his arm around me and we walked back towards the bar. However, he made a quick turn onto the three shallow steps that led down to the dance-floor. I wasn't expecting this and the steps were slippery and covered in spilled drinks so I slipped and fell right on my ass and side. Basically everyone on the dance-floor looked over at me as I was on my ass, but I thought it was funny and laughed at myself as I stood up, only slightly hurt. I figured that was probably my queue to leave and said goodbye to the German guys and walked back to the Apex hotel. I still have a small mark/scar on my side from those steps, what a night.
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| From Scotland Trip |
In the free time we had at St Andrews, JJ, Nate and I went on a little expedition to explore the rocky shoreline.
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| From Scotland Trip |
We got on the bus back to Edinburgh since we didn't want to play golf. At night JJ, Nate and I embarked on the Insomniac Pub Crawl. Nate felt sick to his stomach shortly after starting and had to walk back to the hotel. At the next stop we met some cool German guys and I talked to them about my recent trip to Munich. The night wore on and our last stop was the club Hive. Apparently some other SU kids were there and quickly came over to join us. JJ was dancing with some girl and so I had to play wingman and stop the SU kids from cockblocking him by holding them back and saying "it's alright!".
After a bit I lost track of JJ and wandered around the club looking for him to see if he wanted to leave. I didn't find him, but as I was walking around by the bar some random girl touched my arm and said I smelled nice. So I walked with her arm in arm and asked if she had seen my lost sexy Swedish friend. She hadn't and we started dancing. After some dancing she was obviously impressed with a)my sexy dance moves and b)my impeccable style, so she asked "are you gay?" I smiled as I looked into her eyes and said "No", and then I kissed her. After some making out and whatnot, I noticed that the German guys were making their way towards me. Random girl wandered off but I didn't really care.
Of course the German guy interrogated me as to why I wasn't drinking a beer at that exact moment. I told him I had already drank a lot, which probably perpetuated the stereotype that Americans suck at drinking compared to Europeans, especially Germans. The German guy said in his thick accent, "I am going to be your teacher and teach you to drink beer. B...E...E...R...BEER!" He put his arm around me and we walked back towards the bar. However, he made a quick turn onto the three shallow steps that led down to the dance-floor. I wasn't expecting this and the steps were slippery and covered in spilled drinks so I slipped and fell right on my ass and side. Basically everyone on the dance-floor looked over at me as I was on my ass, but I thought it was funny and laughed at myself as I stood up, only slightly hurt. I figured that was probably my queue to leave and said goodbye to the German guys and walked back to the Apex hotel. I still have a small mark/scar on my side from those steps, what a night.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
4/2/09 Lockharen Woolen Mills, Scottish Enterprises
Today we went to visit Lockharen Woolen Mills, which was a 1.5 hour drive from where we were. On the way I really wished we would stop and get a better look at the beautiful Scottish countryside I could see through the windows. The mill tour was kind of stupid, the only thing I learned was that if there was one thread missing in a fabric that they had to then fix the entire thing by hand. Overall it seemed like poor time management as we spent 1.5 hrs driving each way for a 45 min tour which was not very interesting or relevant. We certainly could have done a lot more with those 4 hours.
Next we went to Scottish enterprises, which was a government entity that did business consulting. We did a case study about how to fix the problems of a family manufacturing business, which was interesting. I found this visit gave some useful insights into business consulting.
At night JJ, Nate and I had pizza at an Italian restaurant across from our hotel.
Next we went to Scottish enterprises, which was a government entity that did business consulting. We did a case study about how to fix the problems of a family manufacturing business, which was interesting. I found this visit gave some useful insights into business consulting.
At night JJ, Nate and I had pizza at an Italian restaurant across from our hotel.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
4/1/09 Off to Edinburgh
Off to Scotland with the rest of the London program people for the next 5 days. The flight was short, and I stupidly brought a full bottle of mouthwash with me and the cap broke during the flight inside my luggage. Luckily most of my clothes were in vacuum seal plastic bags, although my pants did get a stain on the side, which I didn't notice for a few days. We stayed at the Apex Hotel which was really quite nice.
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