The Super Bowl abroad and my first overnight trip.

I have learned one main thing in the past week. Being abroad is more fun when you have things to do...


A group of about 20 of Americans all went to a sports bar to watch the super bowl. A few highlights include standing and singing the Star Spangled Banner while everyone else sat there trying to ignore us. It was also fun to listen to the locals try and talk football during the game. My favorite quote was "challenge the play, that way you'll take a few minutes off the game clock". It was also fun to hear the entire bar sing "Oh when the saints go marching in".

By far the best part of the night, besides watching Drew Brees win, was when The Who played at half time. There were two reasons locals came to watch the game. The first was to watch the big hits in slow motion and yell "OOOOOOO". The second was to hear their beloved band play. It didn't matter how drunk they were, all of them knew every word to the music. In fact half time was when we were all able to get up, go to the bathroom, and order more drinks and food without waiting in line, sweet huh.

The second thing I did was visit Edinburgh, Scotland. I went with 2 of my roomates and one of their friends. Now, I know some of you may be thinking that a semester abroad may change me. Well, here is proof that it hasn't. The bus was supposed to leave at 11. One of my roomates and I hadn't bought our tickets ahead of time so we planned on getting there early. We left our flat at about 10:15 planning to walk there. After walking for 30 mins we decided to call a cab after all, and rode it the last 2 (yes only 2) blocks to the station. While we got in line my other roomate boarded the train and was attempting to stall for us. We got through the line and onto the train at 11:00 exactly. The clock on the bus turned 11:01 before I found an empty seat..... maybe that's something that I should change.

The first thing we did upon arriving in Edinburgh was look for a hostel for the night. We found one recommended in a traveling book I have and got settled. We then went to a "The Elephant Cafe". This is extremely famous for the place that J.K. Rowling created Harry Potter. It was awesome. After eating an overpriced meal we headed back to the hostel for a pub crawl they were putting on. It was us and about 50-60 other backpacking kids from all over so that was fun.

We got up and headed out to explore. We got to their downtown shopping strip and walked down the "Royal Mile". At the bottom was the Queen's official Residence in Scotland. After taking the closest picture I could we saw a large hill (or small mountain) to the right of it. We immediately decided we needed to climb it. However, we needed to get supplies first. After equipped with a snickers, a red bull, whiskey (when in scotland), and a cigar for the top, we set off on our journey. It ended up being quite the extravaganza. It started out as a basic hill, but at certain points we were walking on paths a literally foot wide with steep inclines and no rail or anything for the side. Because of this we were extremely surprised to see young children with their families at the top. It was then we found out there was a much easier (and I think shorter) path on the other side. Anyways the view was fantastic and we had a lot of fun. I am attaching a link to a slide show at the bottom for you all to see this and the rest of my trip.

Once back on town we went to a pub to watch a huge Rugby game between Scotland and Whales. Scotland lost on a last minute score so everyone was extremely upset. After that we went out to a few pubs. There was a random man who sat with us and started talking to us. We eventually got around to traveling (he has been absolutely everywhere, including a trip to NY last month when he spent $5,000 in 5 days) so we started asking him for advice. He then rambled for a half hour about how expensive Dublin is and if we really want to see Ireland to go to Belfast (where he is from). After listening to this over and over I finally asked him "Isn't Northern Ireland still at war with itself?". To which he responded "No that's all but over, plus if it wasn't it's not like Americans tourists were targets." Needless to say I didn't feel reassured and will not be going there.

After that we headed in to crash for the night. In the morn' we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the castle. It's built on an extinct volcanic rock, and dates back at least to the 11th century, so that was extremely cool. (check out the link for more pictures)



I leave for Paris/Versailles on Thursday so I'll keep you posted when I get back.

Also, to all the hype about the family Brew. For now I will continue to do investigative research on my end throughout travels, and we'll talk logistics when I get back. :)

Here is the link to photos (same as on my facebook) http://www.flickr.com/photos/27735608@N07/sets/72157623442759756/detail/