A series of places, ending in Dundee!

 Ok!  First blog in awhile I know, but due to retardedness on my part I haven't had my computer for about a week, which was very sad :( So I'm going to go back over everything I can remember between then and now.  Feel very free to stop reading now, as this promises to be fairly long, and is just as much a memory exercise for me as anything else.  

So anyway, back to Freiburg.  Last weekend was not as great as I had hoped.  Was planning on going to Switzerland or at least a short trip nearby, but ended up being quite sick the whole weekend.  All I managed to achieve was a short shopping trip both days, as a means of getting out of the house.  Managed a little bit more on my last two days though.  

Had an international picnic at Seepark on Monday, where everyone was supposed to bring food from their country.  That was pretty cool, although there were so many people that when it got dark it was impossible to find anyone who wasn't already right there!  We also did a Stadtspiel on Monday in the second half of class, in which we had to go to a certain place in the city and find the answers to a sheet of questions.  That was good cos during it I finally saw the inside of the Munster - even though it was a little awkward cos we accidentally walked in on the midday mass!  But had a good team too :)  Also went to the Schauinsland on Monday arvo - apparently the longest cable car system thing in Germany, or something like that.  It was ok, there was really good views, but it was a little anticlimactic, and also kinda strange sitting for so long in a small car with strangers...

Tuesday was the last day of the course, so instead of class in the morning my class had a picnic breakfast on the Schlossberg - another place I hadn't managed to get to before then.  That was really nice, and had beautiful views of Freiburg.  The downside being that I managed to spill a large amount of chocolate milk on my white shirt.  Luckily I had taken a travel stain remover pen with me in my bag, which did an amazing job getting rid of most of it, cos we went straight from the picnic to the official ending ceremony.  The ceremony was interesting - there were the obligatory speeches by the course coordinators, and the final performance by the Sommerchor (course choir).  The choir was awesome, especially cos they had Jenny (a girl from my class) play the trumpet.  The weirdest part was when they opened up the mic to the room, with interesting results... the first girl got up and sang an opera song, then a guy got up and sang some song everyone was supposed to know, and got the room to stand up and hold hands and sing. Then another girl got up and sang a song in Hungarian or something.  I think it would have kept going but they cut it off there.  Then that arvo was just spent packing and cleaning and getting ready to leave the next day.  

Had brekkie with Rebecca Wednesday morning then took the bus to the airport to get the plane to London.  The flight was pretty good, and definitely a lot quicker than the one to Germany!  London looked like a model town as we flew over it, and was nice and sunny - but once we actually landed at Heathrow it was the grey rainy London welcome I had expected.  Took the tube to the city, which I have to say I enjoyed.  I now totally understand why its called the tube, cos that was precisely the shape of the train.  All the stations were interesting too, though I reckon it must have been pretty stuffy and crowded in WWII when people took shelter down there.  Didn't like the tube so much after getting to the middle of the city though - changing trains was rather difficult with my all my bags!  But I eventually made it in and found my parents and our family friends, Dub and Dee.  It was nice to see them again, and be so enthusiastically welcomed by their very cute kids Jack and Alice.  Went briefly to the British Museum with them, and Dub gave us a quick tour which was really interesting.  Then we headed back to Elsenham, a very cute little village just near Cambridge, for the night.  

Next day we headed to York.  Have to say I wasn't initially impressed with the English countryside, but as we drove further north it became more what I pictured.  Saw my first castle on the way to York, which was Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire.  It was pretty cool - half was ruins of the original castle, and then the Little Castle which was built later and still intact, though unfurnished.  We also took a detour from the motorway to find a country pub for lunch, and ended up in a deceptively pub-looking fancy restaurant for lunch.  Not cheap, but it was definitely delicious.  Dad and I had our first taste of panna cotta - which he is now in love with.  That day was definitely a day for good food, cos we had delicious Indian food for dinner once we reached York.

Cos we didn't get to York til later, we didn't get to explore til the next day.  But driving in we could see that York is a pretty cool city.  The first thing I noticed was the random mix of architecture, ranging from back in the Roman times right through to modern architecture, and all built practically on top of each other.  There's a Roman wall that still has a large part standing through the middle of the city and you can walk along the top of it.  We did a free tour of the city with this cute old lady who had been voluntarily leading tours for 24 years.  That was pretty cool, we saw all the best parts of the middle of the city, including the Shambles which was the butchers street in medieval times and still had original buildings with the hooks for hanging their meat on the street, and also the smallest medieval window in York.  We also climbed the tower of the York Minster, which was 275 steps of spiralling staircase!  The top was weird though - felt like being in a cage because it was completely enclosed, I guess to stop people from throwing themselves off the roof.  I was also pretty excited to see my first squirrels!  They were so cute!!  Little grey things scurrying around under the trees.  So much better than ratty possums!  We also saw the end of a street performance while having lunch which was quite funny.  He called himself the Man with Big Balls.  I found this link of Youtube, I think the show is similar to the one we saw. 

Enjoyed some more of the English countryside that afternoon on the way to the next place we stayed, just near Newcastle.  I have to say what I LOVE about the English and Scottish countryside is all the stone - bridges, fences, walls... Stone just looks so picturesque, and especially when it's covered by growing green stuff.  Stayed at the Bay Horse Inn, which was a very cute little pub/B&B in a tiny little village, and in which I had a delicious dinner of pork casseroled with apple and cider.  I have definitely been loving the food here in the UK - most definitely my kinda food!  

Next day we headed for Edinburgh - or at least, somewhere slightly south of Edinburgh.  Went first to Belsay - an big country estate with an old castle and also a still old but slightly newer country manor.  That was beautiful.  Definitely worth getting lost on the way to finding it. The newer manor was interesting, left completely unfurnished at the request of the family so that visitors would focus on the architecture.  Apparently it was meticulously designed by the guy who had it built, with a very obviously Greek style.  They also had heaps of gardens, including a huge one that went through big ravines where stone had been quarried to build the manor.  The other two great things at Belsay I found in the gift shop - a cool recycled wool throw for 12 quid, that obviously I bought!  I also saw an amazing looking bottle of gin, made of vodka made of organically grown apples.  Managed to resist buying it, but definitely wrote down the name for future reference!  The other exciting thing I saw on the trip was what the Enid Blyton loving part of me would fondly like to believe was heather.  Though I am resolved to actually touch heather at some point lol.

Also on the way we stopped in the town of Jedburgh, just over the Scottish border, where I had my first taste of haggis (from dad's plate, but it still counts!).  It was surprisingly good - as long as you don't think about what you're eating.  It pretty much just tasted like mince but with a weird texture.  Actually also on the topic of food I had my first taste of black pudding with my B&B breakfast.  A very strange food - not bad, but a really weird texture and very herby.  Too herby for me, but other than that not too bad.  But back to Jedburgh, we also toured the house that Mary Queen of Scots stayed in when she was briefly there.  It was made into a museum about her life, which was kind of interesting.  Then we went on to the B&B we were booked into for the night, which it turned out was a farm practically in the middle of nowhere.  It was kind of cute, and the people were really nice, but we had to drive 8 miles to the town of Biggar (yes, we made many bad puns!) for dinner at 'the Elph', aka the Elphinstone Hotel.  Where again, since I'm so food orientated, I have to mention the amazing steak and ale 'pie' I had for dinner, which was basically a plate of delicious meaty goodness with two pieces of pastry on top.  So good...

Then the next day we headed to Dundee.  But since I've already written so much for now, might leave that til tomorrow.  On a quick side note, I just have to say for at least the first 4 days of my time in the UK it was consistently both sunny and rainy at different points during the day.  So awesomely stereotypical!  But the weather here in Dundee hasn't been too bad so far - only slightly rainy once or twice, and a surprising amount of sunshine.  Even though the sunshine in Scotland definitely has no bite compared to Australian sunshine, or even in the sunshine in Freiburg!

Anyway, thats me for now, but more about Dundee tomorrow/soon! :)