Lost in London

Okay, so I'm finally here at my hostel. Finally. Gosh. Everything was peachy this morning... Got to the airport on time, flight only took an hour, took the London Express from London Stansted to Victoria Station... And then I got lost. Wandered around Victoria Station for almost an hour, stopping to get food at Burger King before I finally found the Info Centre. Asked them how to get to King's Cross and they directed me to the Victoria Line which is underneath the Victoria Station. So, anyway, got on the Victoria Line, got off at King's Cross/St Pancras and then realized that I'd forgotten to write down the street my hostel was on. Durrr... I bought a map, asked several random people on the street/in restaurants/at newspaper stands before I found another hostel that said Journey's Hostel was on Caledonian Street. So I finally get here after being lost in London for almost three hours. I'm really tired and have come down with some sort of cold so I think I'm just going to stay in this area and not go to any museums today. I'll be going to see Wicked tonight at the Apollo Victoria and then tomorrow I'll hit as many museums as I can before my trip on the London Eye at 7:30.

Some guy from Ireland came in to get his bag (there are lockers right next to the computers) and was talking to me about something, though I couldn't tell what he was saying half the time! I can understand Scottish accents now but some thick Irish accents are so hard to make sense of!

Alright, I'm gonna get out and walk around a bit, see if I can get rid of this headache. Ciao!

Isle of Skye and London

So, last weekend I traveled up to the Isle of Skye in western Scotland and it was ahh-mazing! Go here to see 50 or so of my pictures (I took 290 including videos). The first two days were solid sunshine, though a wee bit windy, and the third was pouring rain the entire way back to the 'burgh. That was alright by all of us, however, because we were exhausted from the first two days of the Skye trip. While on Skye I hiked around lighthouses, 16th century houses and brochs, sampled the local ales and whisky, and generally got to know everyone on the minicoach. If you're ever in Scotland, I very highly suggest you take a trip with Rabbie's Trail Burners; they are fantastic!

Tomorrow morning I head down to London for a weekend full of museums, theatre and sightseeing! I had to splurge a little and get a plane ticket because the rail workers in Scotland are on strike and the trains are barely running at all. So, that means that I can be in London in an hour and a half after leaving Edinburgh and get started on my adventures. The hostel I'm staying at near King's Cross Station supposedly has internet access so I'll see if I can post from there.

Hope y'all are having a great start to the month of March!

New pictures!

New pictures have now been added to my picture site from last weekend's tourist day out! Here's a couple of my favorites:

This is looking down the Royal Mile from the top of Camera Obscura (right near Edinburgh Castle).

And this one is looking out over all the chimneys!

Tomorrow morning I'm off to the Isle of Skye... Have a great weekend y'all!

Travel!

For the first time in the two months that I've been in Edinburgh I'm going to leave the city limits. This weekend I'm going on a three-day trip to the Isle of Skye with Rabbie's Trail Burners! (Check out the itinerary here.) And next weekend I'm going to London to see the following museums: British Museum, Freud Museum, Museum of London, Natural History Museum, and the Science Museum. Then, the weekend after, I'm headed off to the Isle of Mull with my flatmate and some friends! And the weekend after that my Mom is here so we'll be going to Glasgow and Dumfries!

I'm so excited to travel!

Okay, I know...

I know what you're all thinking, "Dang, that Liza is a lazy blogger for sure!" So, yes, it's true that I haven't updated in the last two weeks. But, you all have to trust me, I'm not dead! I've just been up to lots of stuff and/or been too lazy to update this thing-a-ma-blog o' mine. To make up for it, I give you this video (opens a new window) which is a promotional video from Our Dynamic Earth's events department. It shows what fabulous events are possible at Dynamic Earth and has some great visuals and images of the landmark building I work in.

My internship is going as well as could be. I'm nearly half-way to my goal of surveying 100 visitors and I should hopefully have more completed surveys once I go in tomorrow to check the survey box. Next up for this week will be completing a costings list of materials for the polar-themed activity for pre-school kids. I can't believe I've only got three and a half weeks of my internship left! My goodness, time sure does fly when one is learning so much and having a great time!

Yesterday one of my coworkers grabbed some ASVA (Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions) passes so that we could be touristy and get into attractions for free. First off we went into the National Gallery of Scotland and looked at some simply amazing art! We saw art by Monet, Degas, Gauguin, Cézanne, Rembrandt, as well as Raeburn's Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch. There was this one painting that was so interesting... There was a man whose face was so realistic! You should have seen his hair, his eyebrows, his wrinkles; I think I looked at that one for about 15 minutes for that reason alone.

After that we went off to Camera Obscura and the World of Illusions which completely blew me away! (The website is still in construction but you can see some of the views from the tower there.) The first thing we did was go to the very top of the building to the tower which overlooks Edinburgh including the Castle, Princes Street and the Royal Mile. My coworker let me use her camera so I'll try to put up the pictures we took there soon. Then there was a presentation using the actual camera obscura and that was one of the most extraordinary things I have ever seen in my 21.66 years of life! The rest of the building houses a collection of visual illusions, hands-on activities, and enough holographic wonders to last a few hours at least. This is a definite must-see for any visitor to Edinburgh!

Then we went to the 3D Loch Ness Experience which was kinda interesting, I guess... I can't see how they're a 4 star visitor attraction, but it was worth seeing just to say that I've seen it. What I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't have gone if I had to pay a fiver (10 US dollars) to see the 25 minute film. Some of it was 3D and some of it wasn't, or so it seemed. Thank goodness for the ASVA pass making it free for us!

Finally we went to the Scotch Whiskey Heritage Centre which was a perfect ending to a day of tourist activities! With our (free) admission we also got to attend a whiskey tasting session before the start of our tour. Yes, ladies and gents, I had my first taste of whiskey and it was beautiful. I had a dram of Isle of Skye and I really appreciated the caramel/citrus taste that went down smooth with a slight zing at the end. Made me all warm and toasty! The tour was fun; a series of four sessions: First a video, second a talk from a guide telling us about what a distillery is like, third a projected video of a deceased noser (a person who checks whiskey by smelling it) and, fourth, a barrel ride through the history of whiskey in Scotland. Yes, you heard me right: A barrel ride! It was like going on a trip through a wax figure history of the topic and was kinda cheesy, but I love cheesy things so I had a good time.

All in all it was a great day doing touristy things! I'll let you all know, via this thing-a-ma-blog, when I've got new pictures posted. Hope you're all doing fab!

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Snow, free tours and school, oh my!

We finally got some sticky snow, even though it was only a couple of centimeters. Here's the snow right outside my window...

And here's a wee bit of snow on Salisbury Crags, right by Dynamic Earth...

All of it was even lovelier in person! Also, with the (literally) freezing temperatures we're having, I've gotten to use my puffy brown, knee-length jacket with faux fur lined hood; I feel like I'm walking around still wrapped up in the duvet from my bed!

In just a few weeks' time I'll be heading out on a 3 day tour to the Isle of Skye in the northwest of Scotland! I had heard great things about Rabbie's Trail Burners, located on the Royal Mile, so I went to see them last Monday. Since I still had my ASVA pass from the trip to the zoo, I asked if they had a discount for ASVA, not really expecting much. The fella at the desk wasn't sure and asked someone else in the shop. She didn't know either and told him to call up someone to ask about it. So, he calls, and I'm waiting patiently, telling him my name and that I'm with Dynamic Earth, etc. He hangs up the phone and says, "Yes, you do get a discount... Free!" I couldn't believe it and blurted out, "Are you sure?" He booked me on a tour and told me to give a call back a week before to just confirm that the tour would be going on the date I wanted. (In the slower months, one has to have patience and understand that a tour bus cannot just go with one visitor aboard!) I will need to pay for my lodging in a hostel or B&B and food but that would have been extra anyway. This is saving me the 79 pounds (roughly $155) that I would have paid for the 3 day trip (click there to see the itinerary)!

For those of you keeping up on my academic life, I've decided to ditch the Anthroplogy minor idea. Why, you say? (Or perhaps you don't say and I'm just stuffing words into your mouth.) Well, I looked at what I would need to get my half finished minor in Community Development and it is decidedly less than I remembered. It would take less time, less money and less insanity to complete. Less is more, sometimes.

And with that, I shall end this post. Thanks for tuning in and, if you want me to know you've been reading, leave me a comment! =)

Zoo Review

Yesterday, Sunday, I decided to go to the Edinburgh Zoo for a few hours since I had the ASVA pass (Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions) that gets me in free to most of the museums/galleries/zoos/guided tours/castles/distilleries/etc. in Scotland. The zoo here is located on a hill and so I ended up getting quite the workout! They had a lot of animals, some I hadn't seen before, some I hadn't heard of before, some I was suprised to see. For example, they had a skunk. Yes, a skunk in a zoo! It was in a little hutch when I was there so I didn't see it, but I smelled it for sure. Some of the more unique animals I saw were the Painted Hunting Dogs, the Maned Wolves, the Southern Cassowary, the Eastern Bongo, the Capybara, the Cotton-Top Tamarins, and the Steller Sea Eagle. (I'll post pictures to my picture site soon!) And here's a video of the Oriental Small-clawed Otters! They were so tiny!

The trip to and from the zoo was also a very musical one. On the walk to the bus stop I listened to The Shins, my favorite walking music. On the bus I listened to Seu Jorge and Four Tet. At the zoo I listened to the Glenn Miller Orchestra (and Bill Bailey for the Zebra song). On the bus ride home I listened to Belle & Sebastian and Cities of Foam. Walking back to the flat I listened to Frou Frou. Huzzah for musical diversity!

Today I have the day off and I think I'll hang out at home for a little longer and then do touristy stuff. I was thinking of going to Mary King's Close and then buying tickets for my trip to the Isle of Skye. I might stop by the library as well. Hope y'all have a fab week!