Wales

Of all of the places that I have been so far, Wales has, in my opinion, been the most beautiful. I may have missed some countryside on the way there, because as per usual I was napping, but when I woke up I saw a huge castle nestled into the rolling hills of Conwy. It was pretty cool. It was also pretty terrifying to drive through as out bus was literally the size of some of the streets we were on. Our bus driver, however, is a pro and only bottomed out like twice. If I had been driving, the bus would no longer have a floor.

We arrived on Friday and took a tour of the oldest standing, non-castle building in Conwy, called the Aberconwy House. It was pretty awesome to be in a building with so much history, but we were also in a very small building stuffed full of Americans. It was hard to breath without getting some American hair in your mouth. After that we were all free for the night, so we walked around some charity shops (I FINALLY got a jacket), and ate dinner at a really really tasty fish and chips shop. I have never before understood the appeal of fish and chips, but let me tell you, freshly caught fish with some chips is highly appealing.

The next day we drove to the biggest coastal town in Wales, Llandudno. I honestly thought I was in a retirement community in Florida or something. It was a very cool town, but you could tell it was the off season. So we walked around amongst the elderly, went shell picking, and some people even explored some little caves off the beach. Plus I found my elephant.    :)

Now for the most part Wales was awesome. There was one small problem with the trip, however. The teachers who go on these trips with us, and know for a fact how much time on the weekends we have to work on homework, assigned me so much stuff due for Monday that I had basically no free time at night to walk around and explore Conwy. So while some people sat on castle walls and watched fireworks, I sat on my butt and read Henry IV Part 1. Both nights. So fun.

The last day we were there we took a bus tour of Snowdonia, a mountain range in the north of Wales. Now, don't get me wrong, I saw a lot of it and it was all gorgeous, but our tour guide had such a lulling voice that I... fell asleep. Total shocker, I know. But I still saw most of it, and got to eat some of the most delicious ice cream I have ever tasted. Plus, we all watched a slate cutting presentation, and how cool is that? Now towards the end of this tour we started to here whispers from the front. Bad whispers. Apparently when we bottomed out, we broke something with the belt on the bus which was screwing with the ventilation or some crap. This meant that we either had to wait for another bus to come take us home, or get the part replaced. Now, I am a good student. I always get my work done, and I had assumed that I would have all of Sunday night to write two papers. Umm no. We were supposed to get home at 6, we did not even leave Llandudno until 10 p.m. I did not even start writing my papers until 12:30. So so fun.

Of course while we were stuck in Llandudno, we made the most of it (with a lot of grumbling, naturally). We started out by playing Hide and Seek in the Dark (hide and seek where you have to get to a certain spot to be safe) and then moved on to Sardines. Now in this game one person hides and everyone else looks for them. When you find them you hide with them, and the last person to find the group becomes it. It was the second round of the game and we were all just sort of walking around when all of a sudden someone took off towards the bus. We all knew what this meant, so naturally we all took off running too. Some of you may not know this, but I come from a long line of giant klutzes. I took like ten steps, tripped over my own feet, and took what I have been assured was an absolutely magnificent face plant. Now I had some momentum going from all the running, and I literally skidded on the asphalt. I looked SO cool. Rest assured family, I am carrying on our traditions in England.

Malta

Someone told me that Malta is sunny 300 days of the year. We apparently went on one of the 65 that it is not. When we first got to Malta, all I could think was, "Oohhh looky, palm trees!" Soon after, however, I took my life into my own hands by getting into a taxi with a Maltese driver. All I could do on the trip to the hotel was laugh hysterically. I have to assume this is a natural reaction to the fact that we could all have died at any moment. In Malta there are no such things as lanes, turning signals, or the parts of the brain that tell you you should be afraid for your life. Luckily we did not die, and instead we were deposited in front of... the wrong hotel. Now this was not the fault of our fearless driver, this was the hotels bad. Originally we were supposed to stay at a place called St. George's, but they were under construction so our entire group had been (unknowingly) moved to the hotel next door. Not to complain or anything, but lets just say there were colonies of ants on the 8th floor. 'Nuff said.

Monday my roommates and I went out and explored St. Julian's, the area that we were staying in. We had breakfast in a little cafe where I ate the 2nd best doughnut of my life (Iceland has better). It was warm, gooey, and filled with Nutella. Ummm, yes please? Then we walked down and looked at the beach, which had huge waves breaking all over the rocks. It was so windy I almost blew away. Not even kidding. After those two strenuous activities, we all decided that we had earned a nap. And by nap I mean we went back to bed for like 3 hours. Then, when we dragged our butts out of bed, we went for dinner at a really yummy Italian restaurant next to our hotel. It was a hard day.

On Tuesday we basically did the exact same thing as the day before. We got up late, walked on the beach, took another nap, and had dinner. Once again I had pasta, only this pasta was probably made by some sort of god. That is the only explanation for how delicious it was.Wednesday was our last, and most eventful, day. About eight of us took a bus tour of the northern half of the Island. We got to drive up to overlooks where you could see entire bays, and some of it was just incredibly beautiful. A lot of Malta looks pretty similar as they have to fit a lot of people onto one small island, but there were some spots where I could have stayed forever. The Golden Bay, for example. If I could have just stayed at the Radisson right next to the water, frolicked on it's secluded beach, and eaten from the same restaurant there everyday, I would have been a happy woman. The sand was crazy soft, and the water was the same temperature as the air. I LOVED that beach. Sitting on the double-decker bus was also an interesting experience. It was literally like having someone hold a blow-dryer set on cool up to my face for two hours.

Our last night in Malta did not turn out how I would have liked it too. We ate in, which was nice, and then we went out to a few clubs. At the last club I was in, a bouncer literally threw me and a friend out because I, in his words, “was clearly not 17.” First of all, I am 20 and had done nothing wrong. Second of all, the night before we all saw what appeared to be a middle school convention being held in a club about two feet away. None of this mattered to the bouncer however, who wouldn’t even check my I.D. So while Malta was a lot of fun, it didn’t exactly end on a high note.

The view from my hotel...

 Apparently someone was dubsteppin' on the rocks.

 The ancient city of Mdina.

 Try getting out of that parking lot.

Edinburgh

Over the weekend I went to a far off place called Edinburgh. Now for all of you Minnesotans reading this, that is Ed-in-burrow not Ed-in-burg. Kind of like how it is Wuster, not Wor-chest-er. Don't worry, I have made the same mistake many a time. Edinburgh was amazing, though. It was, in my opinion, far superior to London. It was  smaller, less crowded, and had an old time feel about it (that is, of course, ignoring all of the Starbucks). Friday night, after a 7 or 8 hour long bus ride (ouch), we took a cursory walk around Edinburgh to get a feel for it. Right away we turned a corner and I saw one of the most beautiful monuments I have ever seen. I won't even try to describe it, but it looked like something out of a fairy tale. We didn't really go very far on Friday, but we did manage to make a pit stop in H & M as per usual. I swear after this year I will have been to that store in every country in Europe.

Saturday was awesome. We all were up and ready to go by 9. We walked to the National Gallery Complex and had to write a one page paper about our favorite paintings. I have to admit that I had to chuckle just a little bit when our program director (who is absolutely wonderful) got all excited about seeing her favorite Van Gogh painting, which was actually a fairly well known Monet. She was just so excited I couldn't tell her that it wasn't what she thought it was. After that I walked up (and I do mean UP) to the Edinburgh Castle. I think it was probably the most impressive castle I have ever seen, up there on the side of a cliff, overlooking the city. If I was not so incredibly cheap I would have jumped on the chance to take a tour of it, but seeing as how I am incredibly cheap and didn't want to pay 9 pounds to do this... I didn't.

Right after that we took a tour of the Scottish Parliament. Not to offend the Scots or anything, I mean after all I am mostly Scottish, but that building is very strange. It is one of the most modern examples of modern architecture I have ever seen, and I don't know if that is a good thing. There was just a lot going on up in that building. All over the sides of the buildings the designer had put these black shapes which were supposed to symbolize curtains being drawn aside, because their parliament is supposed to be transparent. All I saw were hairdryers. For realsies.

Later that night we all went on a ghost tour of Mary King's Close. Our tour guide was excellent. She was one of the best story tellers I have ever come across, and the Close (which is like an underground street that used to be open to the air) was fantastic and creepy. I wouldn't say that the tour was scary, but it was amazing to literally be under the official buildings on high street (literally they wouldn't even let you take pictures underneath the official buildings, like you were inside them or something) where people used to live and work. That was probably my favorite thing that we did all day. Basically, Edinburgh was really cool. I would, and hopefully will, go back in a heartbeat.

Random giraffe statues...

 Random foot statue...

 Monument of fairy tale proportions...

 Edinburgh Castle

 Hairdryers. For realsies.