Isle of Skye

Only a few days after coming back from Germany, I was off to the Isle of Skye with my study abroad provider Butler and the rest of my group of study abroad students. The Ilse of Skye is in the mid north west of Scotland. We went with a tour bus company and a Scotland tour company. Students from the other big Scottish Universities acompanied us which turned out being a five bus convoy through the Scottish country side.
We stopped at different places along the long bus ride over to the only brigde to the Isle. Stopping at places like the Queens veiw and Culloden battle feild on the way over. After getting to the Isle and going over the only bridge built interestingly enough by the Bank of America, we park and entered into our hotel that was over looking the bridge and the fishing village across on the other bank. Even though we where just on the Isle of Skye just over the bridge it was clear that we were on the good side of the water way, made clear by the castle on our side.
After a long day of thraveling we were all hungry and Butler had worked it out that we would have dinner at the bar down the street. The bar its self was a very cool place, it had wooden carvings of a cow and a highland warrior in the front yard and inexpensive locally brewed beer. In my book thats all you need to have a really cool place of business. After dinner with a blanket of rain coming down my self and a pack of slightly brave (mostly dumb) people went to try to get over to the castle on a bluff over looking the small village. It turned out that you could only get to the ruins of the castle when it was low tide, of course we went at high tide and decided that the hill side would be navigable. We quickly learned that the hill wasn't really a hill it was just rock holding up wetlands on the other side, with water constantly flowing down into the sea. After tip toeing through the wet, very wet, wetlands we got to the castle and found out it belonged to a very interesting women named Saucy Mary, which of course made her castle very saucy aswell ( that was a joke, although in ruin there was nothing of the castle that was to be called "saucy" in any meaning of the word.)
During the next day we went to the Macdonald clan castle and gardens. The main castle was in ruins but it was still very cool and so were the gardens. We were there for several hours where we were able to walk through the trails of the gardens. While walking the trails alone I thought I was lost but lucky me I walked into an area that was full of the thing I was thinking of the whole time on the bus on the way over. While traveling the day before I saw a sheep dog herding a group of sheep and thought to my self "what would it be like to hunt sheep? They dont look that fast and they do look awfully sheepish." So long story short while hiking I walked trough a gate with trail markers on it and BAM sheep everywhere. After finding the ones with out the horns I started stalking them (aka walking low to the ground trying not to make noise). Then I found out that sheep are very athletic and can run in mud much better then my self, who had many problems with balance. After tracking my pray unseccessfully I looked at my watch thinking I would be late to get to the tour buses for are next stop to a mountian for a nice mid day hike. So like any person who was previously hunting sheep with their bare hands would do when they think their late, I ran through the empty mud covered trails arriving at the buses sweaty and out of breath while smelling like sheep. Needless to say I was about 15 minutes early and the tour gauides thought me very strange.
Half of the tour group went to the hike up the mountian and the other half went of a bus tour of the Isle. The bus tour sounded nice but I did not want to sit down on a bus of more then half of my waking hours. On our way to the mountian we stopped to get lunch matterials from a market in a village and brought our bounty of lunch stuff on our hike and consumed it on a steep side of the mountian. It was a cool day, cold and quite awesome.
That night we eat at the same bar walked back over to Saucy Marys castle while it was low tide this time. I along with accouple other males of my group of pals from my program did some stand up comedy/ movie quotes and gymnastics there before leaving as the sun disapeared. For the rest of the night we listened to the live band in the bar that we had dinner in and enjoyed the local brews.
The next day we were on our way back and stopped at the Fairy River thats sight includes a old stone foot brigde and which people who viste must submerge their heads under the cold mountian water for 8 seconds for every last beauty and so on and so forth. After sealing my beauty with flipping cold cold refreshing waters we traveled over to Loch Ness were we spent some time and money on lunch and staring with out an end to the dark waters. I saw no monster, was I disapointed? Not really, the market there had good bread, baked goods always a good thing. Our last stop was a gas station of the side of the road which was a temperary home for I guess you might call the a "biker gang" except they were all riding sport bikes and were mostly over weight and untreatening looking. We had some ice cream and exploided a bottle of deit Coke for entertainment value. Then back on the road to Edinburgh. The ride swiftly turned from a ride through the counrty side to a song requesting sing along session, of which yours truely was loud vocals, not lead, but loud. Then back to the student dorms for the walk back to are different flats.

Germany travels, Part 5#

After our time if Freiberg we took the S-bahn (train) to Heidelburg, where the two girls and my self had booked a two person room. We booked a two person room because it was cheaper then a three person room, even though there would be three of us staying in the room, take that you evil hotel chain that was nothing but nice. Heidelberg home of one of the oldest universities in the world is also home of one of the biggest "dopest" castles is europe in my own oppion.
The castle is one a hill side on the far side of the city overlooking the university. I know what your thinking, how cool would it be to go to that university and see a massive castle everday when you walk into the streets. Well thats University of Edinburgh, University of Stirling and sevel other universities that I have not been to, but sound like nice places.
The castle is home to the largest wine barrel in the world and extremly cool gardens to one side. The castle and university are looking over a large river where locals and students alike sail, row, swim and so on.
While in Freiberg we had purchased several brands of local beer in a supermarket and had brought them to Heidelberg. During the nights at Heidelberg it had become a job to finish these beers. They for the most part were so bad that with every mouth full all I and one of the girls wanted to do is throw up everywhere. One of the beers that I had purchase which was labeled as "dark" was as far as I could tell beer with ground charcoal in it, it was like drinking a cold fire place. With one more of my beers left and with us about to leave to Frankfurt where we were flying out of later that day I stode it in my bag for later.
After taking about an hour and a half train to Frankfurt me and one of the girls realized that the airport we were flying out of was actully not in the city at all. The airport we were flying out of was a two hour bus ride through the mountians with a screeming baby. The babies high screems and its parents lack of interest really made the trip "fun." After we had reached the airport that was for all extensive purposes was in the middle of no where, like really the place had no fences around the run ways and rearest town if you can call it that was about 5 miles down the road. We got there and realized that we had about four hours untill our plane was do to arrive none the less take off. So we got our bags from the under storage of the bus and sat on the front steps of the airport while I finished my last beer which was the best by far and still bad compared to every other beer I have had before apart from the beers I had in the 2 days before and blue ribbon (I'm not sorry that stuff is cheap for a good reason). While I was drinking and waiting we were approached by a bachelor party with the future groom was dressed as a flight attendent (a female one) and was selling little bottles of liquor. He was sober and the rest of his party was as far as I could tell hammered! After they had passed and we had waited another two otherly uneventful hours, other then a little American boy that started talking to the American girl I was with about pokemon and super heros. That little boy should have choosen someone who knew about pokemon and super heros to have a conversation with, like I dont know ME!!!! What ever I'm not mad he was a little jerk (that was a joke he was a nice kid and the American girl he was talking to had not a clue of what he was talking about, I know albout the powerrangers and I look like I do too!) (also a joke, but true). We landed in Edinburgh very glad to be back and went back to our apartments to claps burt out.

Germany travels, Part 4#

After our strange four stop eight hour train through the cold dark German country side we arrived in Freiburg Germany. It was about 7am and cold very cold and I had not slep for the better part of the last two days. We grabbed a taxi at the train station to our hostel which just had opened when we arrived. We were able to check in a store our bags in a storage room. Not to sound mean or but the hostel was on the stranger side of "arts'ee." For examble in one of the bathrooms there was a gap in the wall and the walls of the gap were painted with strange things as I can best discribe them, there was also a chair in the shelf of the gap that I thought was placed there for storage, but when I tryed to move it it was nailed to the floor. It was not bad, I just would have liked to side it the chair is all.
The city was really cool, but there wasnt much to do. There was a mountian on one side of the city. Ok it wasnt reallly a mountain, it was a hill with trees on it which made it look taller then it was. On one side of the hill there was a vineyard at the top of that vineyard there was a tourist platform walking path and wall. When me and my fellow travelers went to the top of this hill we went on the walk and on this platform. We sat of the wall and one of the girls dropped her 120 American dollar sunglasses down the 15 foot stone wall into the vineyard below. So we sent her to go get her sunglasses expecting her to go about 40 yards down the wall where there was a break in the fence and it leveled out to ground level. After about 20 minutes of watch above where she had dropped her glasses, I desided that I would go find her/ go get the glasses. I go the 40 yards to the fence, go through it just to see her climbing through the thorn bushes on the lower side of the hill. She had goin almost to the bottom of the hill about 85 feet away and climbed the 70 degree slope through the thorns instead of going through the fence. What ever, after that we continued up the hill to the next platform only about another 60 yards bup the hill, not even half way up. That is were the girls stopped and pulled the "oh Schuy, its so sunny and nice out, why cant we just sit here for a little while?" After traveling with them for about a couple of weeks now I had reallized that  this is code for we're tired and even though it has been sunny back in Scotland for weeks before we had left we want to slepp out side in the sun and burn all of our day light. So there for I left the girls and went up the hill by my self. I was able to get all the way to the top up the three story tower and all the way back down to the place where I had left the girls, only to find them 30 yards away saying that they had been looking for me for the last 20 minutes. Even though I had only been goin for about 25 minutes and they looked well rested.
There wasnt much else in the town its self. However there was a brewery and being a manly male I was very wanting to go to the brewery for a tour/ drinking beer. But as we were walking to the frront gate along side the build was the Coke brand name. So when we got to the front gate they would not let us take a tour and told us to go take a hike. To which I replied we were just on a hike and perhaps they sould go on one to relax those amazing people skills that they were showing. What ever it wasnt that good of a beer anyways, but I geuss thats what happens when there is so much coke around, zing.
The city streets were pretty cool though there was water canals along most of the roads. The canals if anything made life more interesting, one minute your walking down the street not paying attention, next your in a water park.

Germany travels, Part 3#

The third day in Munich we went to the concentration camp Dachau just outside of Munich. Dachau was the training camp for the SS and the rest of the prison guards. It is now a monument to those who were killed there. I was a beautiful day and yet still not a good place after so many years have goin bye. After going through the buildings and grounds we walked the trail that the prisnors had walked from the train station. It was a drasticly depressing time but I was grad we went.
After we got back to the city center we desided to do some exploring of the inner city and found a very cheap beirgarden near one of the rivers and started drinking at 5pm to be classy. Most of the nght is not at my liberty to tell, but what I can tell you is after carrying one of the girls back to the hostel after over a gallon of 'liquid' one of the English men in my hostel room desided he was German and tryed very hard to get comfy with a certain American that was having none of that crap.
The next day which was are last day in Munich the city of beer, we went to the German national museum where  I had the greatest time. But where the girls had not the greatest time and were hung over and funny to me, not so funny to them. They also claimed that it was a "boy museum" which would have been completely incorrect except for all the interesting things that led be to beleive that it was a "boys museum." Also the very attractive French women making out on the third floor of the airplane part of the museum, that was mostly enjoyed by the men of the near by area.
Then we traveled over to the BMW headquarters and spent some time at their dealership playing with all the high tech stuff  before heading outside to the Munich olympic fair grounds. The fair grounds are flipping massive and so cool.
Next on our tour of Germany was the town of Freiburg, that we took a night train with about a thousand stops. So the girls got sleep and good old Schuy got nothing but highly aware of the weird dude in the train cab with us the entire time.

I like Hockey, Go BRUINS!