the countdown

Hogmanay street party in Edinburgh - Welcoming in 2011 Scottish style!!

The Christmas journey (and Hogmanay)

From the guardian.co.uk on December 19th (date of departure for the fam)

"Millions of people faced a struggle to get home in time for Christmas as travel plans were thrown into chaos when planes were grounded, trains cancelled and roads made impassable by heavy snow."

The family's adventure (4 days after the ETD...)
Hanover > Toronto > Halifax (overnight) > Montreal > London, England > Edinburgh > Glasgow
They missed every flight they planned to take and every flight they managed to make it on was delayed. After a stressful journey, they made it here with a stack of unused boarding passes and smiles on their faces.  I was so blessed to be with them for Christmas.  After a good night's sleep, they were ready for the festivities...

Our Christmas was filled with family reuniting, gift opening, cider drinking, turkey eating, paper crown wearing, flamming Christmas pudding eating, nature walking, and endless glasses of expensive wine.  It was like being home away from home for Christmas.

Everyone was pleased to get their gifts from Canada!

The celebrating was long from over as Hogmanay was right around the corner.  My sister and I abandoned the rents and went to downtown Edinburgh to see if there was a party we could crash...  

Along with 80, 000 other people at the street party, we welcomed in the new year Scottish style!

A castle view, never ending firworks, singing in the street, and so many kilts... best new years ever.

Family adventures up next! Cheers.

study break

Hello again!  That's right, I haven't given up on this thing yet.  Let me bring you back in time again to mid December, right before exams....

Actually sitting down and studying after 4 months of doing nothing but traveling was tough let me tell you.. it didn't last long though before a friend and I came up with another way to procrastinate.  What better study break to have in Scotland than by making shortbread?!  Our excuse: "Well, we have to eat."

Not just any shortbread requires this much concentration though - only special Scottish shortbread...

We had quite the collection, complete with William Wallace, kilts, bottles of whisky, castles, Nessie and anything else we could think of that was related to Scotland.  Also note the difference between coos and rams - it's all in the horns!

Then one thing led to another...

And finally, my favourite: 

It was lucky we had an extra kilt for William Wallace after his unfortunate accident battling off Nessie.  He slipped into it just in time to fall in love with a young lassie offering him some whisky.  If this isn't true Scottish love, I don't know what is!  

(Forget Braveheart; this is what really happened I'm sure.)

Next up:  The epic adventures of the rest of the fam jam.  Will they make it to the UK despite the closure of airports??  Will they see parts of the world they never expected to see?? What will the fate of our Christmas and Hogmanay be?? 

Oooohhhh, stay tuned to find out! Cheers!

Glen Coe 360

Enjoy a 30 second video of Glen Coe from my Highland adventures:

Cheers to that!

The hills are alive!

I made it back to Canadia land safe and sound... but before I tell you about that, let's go back in time and pick up where I left off shall we? Back in mid December, a three day bus tour to the Highlands was a perfect way to get us 'ready' for exams... 

We made it to Edinburgh nice and early, said hello to our cheerful tour guides (complete with kilts and lovely accents) and we were on our way! 

There were four others on the tour with us: 2 doe-eyed Brazilians on their honeymoon, one guy from Spain with questionable English, and one guy from Calcutta that didn't say a word the whole time... an interesting mix of people for sure. We took the front seats and quickly made friends with Craig and Hamish our tour guides... that's right.. There is no one I'd rather explore Scotland with than with a guy named Hamish.

A cathedral in Dunkeld

We were driving through a beautiful winter wonderland on our way to Ruthven Barracks ^ 

 Here is the million dollar (or pound) shot of me that you've been waiting for: the moment I laid eyes on Nessie! 

 ^ Urquhart Castle overlooking Loch Ness and Eilean Donan castle ^

By the end of day 1 we accomplished quite a bit: Made it all the way up to the Isle of Skye, found Nessie, and even tried whisky for the first time (yuck!). So far so good.

We didn't waste any time on day 2 as we went out to explore the Isle of Skye in all it's beauty.

Testing out the myth that if you put your face in the Faerie Glen river for 7 seconds you will have eternal beauty.. I was pondering the pro's and cons of taking part in this, but the con of being so cold and having my face fall off in the river outweighed obtaining eternal beauty.

On to the town of Portree. Over looking the harbour.

^ Kilt Rock on the coast! If you use a little.. ok, a lot of imagination, it's suppose to look like the  pleating on the back of a kilt.

On our way back to the hostel we drove by some Highland cows in a bus shelter! Definitely postcard material.  It was amazing. The rest of the people on the bus jumped out and got some good pictures before I got a chance (I let them all go first as a good Canadian should), so by the time I wiggled my way through to the front I was left with this ^ their butts. 

It was already day 3, and time to make the long trip home. We made sure to jump off the bus and get some good photo opps though. Once again, gorgeous weather. 

This has officially become my most favourite place in the whole wide world.  Isn't it amazing?!  Glen Coe was 100x better in real life.. let me tell you.  Huge mountains rising up all around you and being able to see for miles... sigh.  I wish I could have spent more time there and climbed one of them.

And finally, I would like to introduce you to Heather (left) and Hamish (right).  Our last stop before heading back to Stirling was to see the famous Highland Cows of course.  Hamish can be seen on a variety of postcards, calenders, and other Scottish souvenirs.  A perfect end to an amazing tour. 

We said a sad farewell to the rest of the group once we were back in Stirling and slowly walked home to face the reality of studying like students should... but not for long!  Stay tuned for an entertaining study break of mine. A little taste of Scotland coming right up! Cheers.

I'm still alive..

To begin, I’m sorry for all the times you have checked here in hopes of an update but have been disappointed with the word ‘Beatlesville’ for weeks on end.  I hope we can still be friends.  Despite having abandoned this blog for about a month now.. here are 5 reasons why you should check back next week:

5) I don’t want to keep my gorgeous pictures of the Highlands all to myself

4) I found Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, and I will reveal all

3) After meeting the famous Highland Cow, Hamish, I promised I would pass on greetings

2) I have an epic Christmas and Hogmanay (New Years) to report

And most importantly...

1) I know you still love me and the fact that you are reading this proves that you still have faith in me to update this blog.

Talk to you soon from snowy Scotland. Cheers!

Beatlesville

The plan for Friday morning: Wake up, bus from uni to train station, train to Glasgow, bus to Manchester... Piece of cake.

What actually happened: Leave res a little later than expected, miss train by 1 minute, catch the next train and arrive in Glasgow @ 11:00am.  ETD for bus: 11:00am.  RUNN!

Needless to say, we had a bit of a rocky start on this trip.. but by some miracle, we made it on the bus in time and we were on our way down to Manchester.  England, here we come!

After a 5 hour bus trip, we spent the night wandering around this German market in the city center.  

It wasn't hard to get into the Christmas spirit.

I was very satisfied after eating a German sausage and drinking some caramel hot chocolate, mmmm...  Time for bed after a long day of travelling.

Day 1: already gone through 3 pairs of socks to stay warm. Sooo cold - I'm such a wimpy Canadian.. :(

Good morning Manchester!  There were some impressive football skills downtown to get everyone ready for the game in the afternoon..

Man United vs. Blackburn Rovers GO REDS GO!

I have officially fallen in love with football - I've always wanted to go to a game, and it was amazing.  

It was a totally different atmosphere than a hockey game; Even though there were 76,000 people in the stadium, it was so quiet until there was a goal or a card or something - then people would go crazy.  So serious.. 

Man United won 7:1, way to go guys!

(I've been so proud of myself for not saying the word 'soccer' for the past 3 months btw...)

Next stop: Liverpool

Our hostel with Liverpool flags, posters, and banners everywhere seemed like a good place to leave our Man Utd bag that I got the day before. We conveniently forgot it hanging up on the wall in the living room.

Being good students and taking time to LEARN at the Beatles Story Museum. ^

 

 ^ Set up in The Cavern club where they use to play.

We definitely drew a crowd with our amazing duet of 'Yellow Submarine' on the giant piano.

(Mom and dad, those lessons paid off!)

Meeting up with relatives was a great way to see the sights of Liverpool!  Our personal tour guides continued our Beatlesville tour by taking us to see some exciting things including Paul McCartney's and John Lennon's childhood homes (respectively ^) and...

And finally this:

What is it you ask?? A Lambanana! That's right - a cross between a lamb and a banana.  They are kind of like the moose you can find around Toronto: all over the city and each one painted differently.  We saw one in the train station on our way back home and stopped to say hello.

On the long bus ride home, we were gradually seeing more and more snow the closer we got to Scotland.  Since I've been back, there have been a few snowdays.. trains, buses, and flights were cancelled earlier in the week and snowmen have been popping up all around campus.  

Here are a few snowy pictures to leave you with:

Sad looking swans in their frozen loch

I'm off to go find the Loch Ness Monster this weekend.  Next time you hear from me, I'll be famous.  

Stay warm. Cheers!