A Very Lucky Girl

Just last night I returned from the most magical weekend of my life to date. I started doing research on Highland excursions at the beginning of the semester, determined to make it to the legendary Isle of Skye, but most I found left from Edinburgh or Glasgow. However, at an international Dundee University event, I discovered Heartland Travel, the relatively new company that picks students up from their universities before making the drive to the Highlands! I found a weekend that worked with my schedule and booked it immediately. None of my other international friends chose this weekend until the trip was full and it was too late for them. So I arrived at the meeting point on Friday morning and met 15 new friends. There were two girls from St. Andrew's, three of us from Dundee, and the rest were from Stirling.  Nori, our faithful leader, gave us a run-down of the weekend as he drove us North. We passed countless sheep and precious lambs as the Glen Coe mountains slowly came into ...

As I mentioned before in my first post about London , our hostel was absolutely not conducive to sound sleep. Therefore, on Saturday morning I woke up at 5 AM, almost an hour and a half before my alarm was scheduled to start singing. I used my extra time to Whatsapp Tyler, considering it was only 11 PM in Oklahoma. We weren't even in the same day yet! Eventually I crawled out of bed and located my clothes by flashlight, trying desperately to not wake up Kiera. Today was our split up day, bringing out our equally nerdy tendencies with different tours. I booked a 10 hour bus tour to Windsor, Oxford, and Stonehenge, while she was jetting off to Warner Bros. Harry Potter tour later in the afternoon. I didn't see a single sign of the continental breakfast that was promised on the hostel website so I headed straight to the tube station. I took the DLR to Tower Hill before I transferred to the Circle Line and landed at Victoria Station. The entire travel time took about an hour. I sna...

Last weekend I ventured off to London, England with Kiera, a friend who hails from Ontario. In the days leading up to the flight I played Joey Tribbiani's voice saying "London, baby!" over and over again in my head.  We took the train to Edinburgh on Thursday afternoon because most flights to major cities leave from Edinburgh for the cheapest price. Our flight left at 6:20 AM on Friday so we stayed with Kiera's family on Thursday evening. We read books to young Kate before turning in for bed around 8:30 PM without shame. Our cab was scheduled to come for us at 4:45 AM.  The ride to the airport is a blur and we both passed out on the flight. We arrived at Gatwick airport, south of London. Our welcome included completely armed security personnel meandering with AK47s and dogs. We exchanged glances and hurried to the train station.  We sat on a train for an hour before it decided to begin moving, due to a broken down train north of the station. We finally left Gatwi...