Day 20

Today, I ended up waking up pretty late due to losing my dad's alarm clock (sorry dad, I love you!). Therefore, I did not go on the hike to the top of the mountain along with Jake, Nate, Dylan and Jeff. Instead, I met up with Ed, Honi and Amy and we decided we would go to The Elephant House, which is where J.K. Rowling first thought up the idea of Harry Potter! Brandon ended up meeting up with us and then we all headed there. I ordered Ceyanne tea and a panini, both of which were absolutely excellent. The presentation for everything was amazing as well. Oh yeah, and along the way I also tried my very first Irn-Bru, which was like a soda but even better.

We then decided to go check out the shopping center and headed that way. The girls decided to go shopping and us guys split up with them, instead wandering about the city. We saw the castle and I instantly decided that we had to go and see it up-close...so we did. We ended up going through a neat-looking graveyard where the inventor of logarithms was buried, and then took a trail that led us straight up to the castle. Once there, we walked around and checked out all of the shops.

I found out that I am from a Scottish clan and decided that I would, no matter what, find something with Thompson on it for a souvenir. This took a while, but eventually, after checking out about 20 shops, I decided to buy a cool shot-glass. We also walked by the Whisky place! We then grabbed some really cheap pizza at this small shop and headed back to meet up with Honi and Amy. We all walked back to the dorms, took a couple hour break, and then headed out to the student bar once again. Honi, Amy, Dylan and I all went to this great and pretty cheap pizza place for dinner beforehand. It was fantastic!

We then headed to the student bar and met up with Ed and Mary, soon after followed by Jake and Nate. We basically just chilled here for the rest of the night before meeting up with some locals who led everybody to a club. Since we weren't dressed correctly, Nate, Dylan and I all decided to head back and passed out as soon as we got home. It was another pretty awesome day.

Day 19

Today basically consisted of travelling from Stratford to Edinburgh. The first thing we did was have another all-you-can-eat breakfast. I actually woke up a lot later than anticipated, and thus had to rush through breakfast. It was cool though - I still got to stuff my face. :P We headed into town and stopped at Rydall Mount, which is actually yet another house of good ole Wordsworth. Honestly, the beauty of the garden was absolutely ridiculous. Jacqueline actually knocked down a portrait inside of the house, which was absolutely hilarious. Nate, Dylan and I went on an adventure into the wilderness but came out of it relatively unscathed.

We then proceeded to head back towards the bus, when we suddenly discovered something breathtaking: a cat!

It quickly stole all of our hearts and we fell in love. The cat flew up the tree and played with some birds until the situation changed and the birds taunted it - it then went down and was about to run away...until it came right up to me and let me pet it, followed by everybody else. <3 We all played with it until the bus finally came, when I took it upon myself to pick the cat up for a picture. The cat did not want to be picked up, however, and quickly jumped out of my arms and scratched my clothes. So cute!

After this, we had a pretty darn long bus-ride on the way to Edinburgh. Jake and I, along with Nate and Dylan, all watched Fight Club. I hadn't ever watched it before, so I discovered why so many people (Juan and Anuroop) just loved the movie. We did stop by for lunch, however, and I had some spaghetti.

Edinburgh blew me away - everything is so green and beautiful! The architecture is simply amazing and different from both Paris and London. We arrived and checked into our lodgings - we're staying at the University of Edinburgh in single-room dorms, although we share a bathroom between 6 of us. I amazingly had Nate, Dylan, Honi, and Amy all on the same floor as myself.

Jake, Nate, Dylan, Honi, Amy, Haley, Erin, Jeff, and I all decided that it was a great idea to go grab some dinner and then check out the student bar. We actually didn't have to walk that far, and ended up eating at the Auld Hoose (Old House), which was pretty cheap and great. I had some steak and ale pie and tried some of Jeff's haggis, which was amazing.

We then proceeded to the student bar, but ran into Kean and the gang on the way. We chatted with them for a bit before proceeding, and then found this hilarious saying on a wall...

We then arrived at the student bar and discovered that it's actually 4 bars inside of one building that's similar to the Memorial Union. Okay, America is so lame. We ended up just chilling for a while inside the library-type bar and having a blast talking about life and playing games.
We had decided early on that we really wanted to do karaoke, and thus headed towards a place we believed would be a karaoke place. It ended up being an 80's bar with a separate booking for karaoke and an expensive cover-charge, so we instead set about finding a club to go to. We went up this really long and sketchy staircase and then literally ran into a couple interesting guys who led us to a bar. Jake, Jeff and I ended up staying all night long and dancing with everybody...just let me tell you that nothing is as it seems. Great first day/night in Edinburgh!

Day 18

Today began with one of the most beautiful things that I could imagine - an all you can eat buffet for breakfast. Even more amazing is the fact that we will be receiving these breakfasts for another entire week until we hit Dublin.

After breakfast, we all piled onto the bus for the ride into Windermere and saw Dove Cottage, which is basically where Wordsworth lived for about 8 years and wrote most of his famous works. In my opinion, the garden, or backyard, was the most impressive because of how truly beautiful it was.

We then met with this guy who told us a lot about Wordsworth's past, quizzed us on some of his works (which we failed) and then showed us some awesome old books and allowed me and John to hold a couple of them. Following this, I went to eat lunch with Kean, Chris, Michelle and Erica. We then proceeded back to the bus and drove for about 30 minutes to our new place of residence, which ended up being the only 4-star hotel in the city which was pretty neat. I met up with Dylan, Nate, Jake, Jeff, Honi and Amy and we went on a little excursion into the wilderness. What we discovered there, I will never tell. Just kidding - we actually found a team-building exercise playground in which we messed around with for quite a bit. Nate and I both slipped on the giant teeter-totter....but it was fun nonetheless. We all then walked the long trek into town, seeing tons of cows along the way, and eventually decided to look for a place to eat since it was raining pretty heavily. Nate got hit on by this old man and then we ended up eating some pizza at this restaurant. We sat here for a good few hours before making the journey back home, where Jake and I sat with Chloe, Parker and Mary for a few minutes before they left and we met up with Dr. Foy. We had a good conversation with him and then headed to our rooms, where I passed out automatically. Great, exhausting day!

Day 17

Today was the day we left London! It was full of mixed emotions. I was, for one, glad to be leaving since I was totally exhausted and was looking forward to the nice long bus-ride. On the other hand, I was sad because London was full of such great memories that I shall cherish forever. FOREVER.
The bus ride lasted about 3 hours and I basically slept and stared out the window the entire time.

We then arrived in Stratford Upon Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare himself. That's right folks, THE Shakespeare indeed. That's pretty funny, because the place that we stayed at was actually called The Shakespeare as well...and I got to room with Nate again! Party~.

Once we got there, we all dispersed and I headed out with Ellyse, Jacqueline, Chris, Haley and I believe Cat. We ended up going to a magic shop and then eating breakfast at this place. I saw a cat and it actually let me pet it. I almost died because of that amazing experience! Oh yeah, and Chris found a hair in his food after he'd already eaten about half of it. Crazy stuff!
We then proceeded to a rabbit store where everybody went off on their own and left me, but where I actually met up with Ed and Katherine and proceeded to explore with them. We ended up finding a lame mall, a store literally called Old Guys, and then miraculously meeting up with Jake, Nate and Dylan after they all had real English breakfasts. We went and explored the area, found the river, explored the river, climbed trees, and altogether had a blast.

We then proceeded to grab some of Stratfords "famous" ice-cream, which was actually pretty darn good. The toilet here was interesting as well - there was even an extra seat for someone to sit and chat with you while you go about your business!

After this, we ended up going to our rooms and literally passing out for a couple hours. Beforehand, however, Dylan tried to hang out with us and Nate ended up whining until we got to sleep. This did not occur until after Dylan returned with breaking news though - apparently Greg had locked himself in the bathroom and couldn't get out. Yes, locked himself IN the bathroom. :P

After awakening from this, we just went out for dinner and ended up going with Honi and Amy to eat. 

We then all proceeded to the Shakespeare theatre, where we saw a VERY interesting rendition of As You Like It. Ed and I actually got to talking to some interesting theater majors from a religious school in Massachusetts. It was cool because Jacqueline and Jacqueline sat next to each other as well. Oh, and Ellyse and Jen were there too. :) 

 After this, we all decided that we just wanted to go home and crash. Apparently, Nate tried really hard to not wake me up and succeeded, thankfully. 

Day 16

Today was the last day in London! Boy, the memories that have been made here. Anyway, the day basically consisted of going to the Tower of London. I actually wore the free shirt that I won yesterday at the National Gallery...and it garnered me some looks, let me tell you.

But it's awesome because it almost says Trevor backwards in the mirror! :D It really says poverty...but a man can dream.
The Tower of London was pretty amazing! Once we arrived, Ed and I decided that we would get some really delicious-looking hot dogs, only to later discover - too late in fact - that we made the worst decision of our lives. The hot-dogs were not good. At all. :( Oh well, we then went with Jeff to go take pictures of the bridge and then got scolded by Dr. Foy when we got back for going missing.

We ended up having the awesome tour guide from before! She really made the tour so much better because of her amazing antics. Anyway, as we were gazing upon the magical "tower", Rachel accidentally let her ticket fly away and it landed over the fence. I then proceeded to gallantly hop over the fence, retrieve the ticket for her, and receive a round of applause. It was beauteous. We then had the tour of the tower, which was incredible. One thing that really jumped out at me were the awesome ravens, which had me and Jeff entranced. I took SO many pictures of them, it was ridiculous.

We got a walk-through and saw all of the fantastic artwork and jewelry/armor that everybody wore back in the day, and I became jealous because I wanted everything. It turned out that the place was used not only for royalty but also for royal people who were in trouble. They basically went there before they were sent to the gallows or let free - two children even disappeared there! Anyway, one sad thing about the whole event was that the cod-piece was missing. It was really disheartening. :( Dylan, Jake and Nate all got giant lollipops and ate them to their enjoyment until they eventually threw them away in disgust. All except Jake, of course, who wanted to get his money's worth. Oh, and we finally got to see a guard up-close! :D Enjoy all the following pictures of the tower! (There's actually 24 towers, but who needs to know right?)

As it was the last night in London, we of course decided that we had to hit the town and party it up. I packed beforehand, knowing that we had to wake up early and that it would be a pain in the buttox to do it in the morning. I basically ended up going dancing with Kristine, Ed, Jake, Rachel, Chloe, Parker, Dylan, and Nate. We tried to meet up with Amy and Honi, but that failed. :( It was a fun night though! :D