Scotland

November 29-30, 2014

Edinburgh, Scotland

Castle Rock Hostel

I really liked the hostel we stayed at in Edinburgh! Even though we just stayed for one night. Not only were we in the Avengers themed room (I was Captain America♡) but this was the view from our window!!! 

It was even better in the morning:

We only had one day in Edinburgh so we decided to spend the majority of it climbing Arthur's seat. This was one of the best decisions we made during our study abroad trips. I loved climbing Arthur's seats and looking out over the beautiful scenery. Even in November the grass was still quite green and the sky was so perfectly blue! We could even see the sea from one side of the mountain.

It took a while to climb... Megan and Brittany kept me entertained though!

Shout out to the guy perfectly posing for this picture

  

After descending from the beautiful Arthur's seat, we made our way back to the hostel to check out and put our luggage in storage for the rest of the day. 

Probably one of my favorite parts of this trip was touring a weaving factory. The factory weaved mostly scarves and blankets. It would have been awesome to see the factory in action, but unfortunately since it was Sunday, no one was working the looms.It was still very interesting to see the set up and the amount of looms they had. It sure made me miss weaving; I can't wait to have my own loom someday!

Afterwards, we went into town for some shopping. Shopping is always a bad idea because I always find something I fall in love with. I did well though and mostly only purchased Christmas presents, yay me! haha. We also ran into a small Christmas market that was fun to look around that even had fair rides, but we didn't ride any. After we got tired of shopping we went to Costa and Starbucks for some hot cocoa and to wait until it was closer to time for our train to arrive.

Edinburgh is a trip I'd recommend to anyone. There was so much more to see that we didn't have time for. I'd love to go back and tour the castle and visit some of the museums. I would also love to see more of Scotland, I'm sure there are many other cities I'd fall equally in love with!

Paris!

November 12-16, 2014

Paris, France

November 12

Over all the travel to get to France was pretty pleasant. We had to leave class a little early in order to have time to eat before catching a cab to the train station. We were a little worried because the cabs had been running late all day, but we still made it to the train station with plenty of time to spare.

I slept the entire train ride... big shocker there. I didn't get to catch up on any of my previous blog posts like I had planned. (And still haven't, haha!) The worst part about sleeping on trains is Megan and Brittany waking me up. lol. Of course I'm glad they don't leave me all alone on the train, but sleep is so great, I'm never ready to wake up!

When we arrived in London we had a short walk over to where we would board the Eurostar for a straight shot to Paris! Compared to airport security, this was nothing! We made it through very quickly, with hardly any waiting in line. The only downside was we didn't get a stamp in our passport when we went through passport control to get on the Eurostar and there is no passport control when you get off, so no stamp for us. :(

During the ride on the Eurostar I got two blog posts almost complete, they were just lacking pictures, which was helpful now that I'm going back to finish them up. I was just really lazy on the Eurostar, but couldn't fall asleep again.

People on the Eurostar apparently found us interesting, especially the little boys across from us. They would just sit and watch us, I'm pretty sure they were French, so maybe they'd never seen an American before. lol

Paris was nothing short of interesting. When we were leaving the station a lady in front of me on the escalator backed into me and caused me to fall backward. Luckily Megan was there to save the day and I only got a little scratched up! Luckily, getting to the hotel wasn't too difficult it just required a little bit of walking. When we got to the hostel we dropped off our luggage in the room. It was just Megan, Brittany, and I at that point in a four person bedroom, which meant we had a roommate assigned to us. Our roommate the first night was Canadian. He was very awkward and apparently wasn't expecting three girls. He was trying to sleep anyway, so we were not upset that we had to leave. haha.

Our first stop was to see the Arc de Triomphe. It was incredible to see it by night. We didn't stay too long, since there were some creepers roaming around, and it was too late to to buy our Paris passes there.

After leaving Arc de Triomphe we took the metro a couple of stops and walked the rest of the way to the Eiffel Tower! As you can tell by the few pictures, out of the MANY that I took, I really love the Eiffel Tower. I have wanted to see it since I was little, and watched Rugrats in Paris over and over again. Plus, who wouldn't want to go see it, it is even more miraculous in person!

After getting a little chilly at the Eiffel Tower, we decided that was a good way to end our first night and headed back to the hostel. More to come on the rest of our long weekend trip soon! :)

Leicester Day Trip

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Leicester

Leicestershire, England

Sunday was also a day we were able to sleep in. We left for Leicester at 12. As soon as we arrived we walked around in the mall for a while before making our way towards the RUGBY stadium. That's right. I got to witness my first ever rugby game. In England. And it was awesome. I'm not going to lie, I had no idea when to cheer, nor what was going on half the time. But the strange mix of football and soccer was interesting to me. My favorite part is how they just life their teammates up to catch the ball sometimes. It's like they think "hey, the ball is a little high. No big deal, up you go. Cool. We're good now. And it's all that easy." They just pick the guy up and put him back down again so gracefully. It's incredible, you could say I'm more than a little impressed. 

Since I had no idea what was going on I had to watch the key players: bun man, half pony, long hair don't care, and pony.  (nomenclature I claim as my own, don't worry, I'm describing them based on their hair. lol.) Half pony was the captain of the home team, the Leicester Tigers. The opposing team was the Sharks, whom I was inadvertently supporting with my blue shirt, that I promptly covered up when I realized this. Dually note that it does indeed pay to do a little research before you try new things, so that maybe you can actually know what's going on and not support the wrong team... like I did. 

Our presence clearly counted as a good luck charm since the Tigers won the game 29-13. The game started out slow for the Tigers, but they pulled through at the end. I enjoyed my first rugby game, but of course my rugby buddies did help make it that way. We made our way back to the charter bus and rode back to Harlaxton. The night ended with a late night rehearsal for Cinderella. (Performances started the week after...more to come on this in future posts!) And thus ended another day in the life of Kate Miller. I thought it was pretty good. But I may be a bit biased. ;)

Nottingham Day Trip

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Nottingham

Derbyshire, England

Nottingham was a very cute little town! We got to sleep in the day of this trip (which is mostly unheard of at Harlaxton) since we didn't leave until 12pm. There's something about moving vehicles that makes me unusually tired. I always. always. always. fall asleep. So needless to say I slept the whole way there. Falling asleep usually results in me having no clue where we are when we finally arrive. 

When we first got there we passed by the oldest pub in England on the way to the Nottingham Castle. We also took lots of with a Robin Hood statue near the castle.

The castle was a pleasant little surprise for only £4 to get in. I think what I liked most was all of the dress up clothes (it's the little kid in me.) The castle was full pf exhibitions about Nottingham and also of the Great Wars.

Being in England exactly 100 years from the start of the Great War, and 96 years from the end of it has been a very different experience. It has been interesting seeing the way the war is memorialized here in comparison to America. The Poppy Appeal is a charity for War Veterans which encourages people to wear poppies in support of Veterans around the time of Remembrance Day (Veterans Day.) People have been wearing poppies for approximately the past two weeks, it has been beautiful to see so many in support of the brave men who fought for their country and for other countries as well. 

The Nottingham castle had an area (meant for children) devoted to Robin Hood---Robin Hood took place in Nottingham, in case you've forgotten---, a section of historical fashion, and also ironically a history of the Greeks. We spent most of the day at the castle, then went into the shopping mall after the castle closed to browse for the last hour until we had to get on the bus.

One funny part of the museum was a display I saw with a picture creepily similar to my dad. Not necessarily twins, but the resemblance is freaky!

 
The Nottingham trip was so relaxing and fun without having to travel far. I'm glad I decided to do a lot of travel within England, it has helped me to realize the vast differences in the types of landscapes and cultures that make up this beautiful country.