Scotland Week 5

Day 1 Monday

On the first day we stop at a couple of places in England including Fountains Abbey.  

We stayed at a Harry Potter Castle in Durham.  It was great but it was a little anti climatic when we found out we were sleeping in the haunted part of the castle, the rooms were a little creepy, and we had to walk up a billion sairs to get up there.  When my room mate was is the shower I was all alone in my “dungeon” and quickly called my mom and told her how freaked out I was.  She told me that Emily was pregnant and then I became happy : )  

The next morning we had a harry potter breakfast and I went to the morning services at the cathedral next door.

Second Day in Scotland

We arrive in Abbotsford, Scotland and visited Sir Walter Scott’s House.  Scotland is beautiful, green, hilly, and very rainy.  The rain is soft.  Scott’s house was very fascinating.  He contributed so much to the history of Scotland.  I thought it was funny how proud our tour guide was to be Scottish.  

We arrived at this pretty nice hostel that night in Edinburg and went out for dinner at the Filling Station and then went to Chocolate Soup for some hot chocolate.  We then went on a haunted 18+ tour that takes you down to these vaults.  This was one of the the scariest nights of my life.  The last 10 minutes were unbearable.  I’m glad I did it thought.  For the most part is was fun and interesting to do it in “the most haunted cities in the world.”  The tour told us about the witch trials that took place in the citiy and some of the torure methods they used.  In the vaults, they showed us a haunted wiken church and some other very scary vaults.  I had the eeriest feelings.  Some of the girls felt fingers across the back of the neck.  

 Day 3 Edinburgh

I love Scotland! It is gorgeous, raw, and historic.  The people I think are friendlier than Londoners and more down to earth and funny.  We actually just got back from a pub with live music.  This singer guy was so awesome and entertaining.  He asked us where we were from on his microphone.  Abby yelled Utah.  He asked if we like the Osmonds.  We said no.  Every one started laughing.  He ended up playing a Scottish song for us and all of the scots were singing along.  

Earlier today we went to the national gallery, Edinburgh castle, the history museum, the elephant cake (where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter on napkins), did some shopping, went to an organ recital at St. Giles Cathedral for the best organist in the world (still boring), ate dinner at this Mexican restaurant, went to chocolate soup again for a cupcake, and went to a pub for some fun.  

 

There was a funeral going on for a firefighter who lost his life.  The streets were very quiet and lined with people.  It was so interesting and touching.

And I thought Paris had a lot of make outers in public, but I guess Edinburgh is as well.

 
Chocolate Soup... so divine!

I bought my first souvenir since I’ve been on study abroad.  I got a Scotland sweater that I fell in love with.  About 7 other girls went out and bought the same exact sweatshirt.  I thought that was funny.  All in all I absolutely love Scotland! It is amazing and I don’t want to leave yet!  The hostel smells disgusting...

Here is the bus that we practically spent half of our time during the whole week.  Let's just say it gets pretty interesting on that bus...

 Day 4 Thursday

Today we left Scotland. On the way back to England, the drive was breathtaking. We stopped at the Wordsworth Museum in which I was not required to go because I am not in the English class (hallelujah).  Instead, me and Becky explored the town called Grasmere Village in the Lake District.  it was such a charming little town.  We good some original ginger bread, English ice cream, tomato soup, Cornish pie, and some truffles.  I have been eating so much.  

We then headed to our hostel in Windermere in the lake district.  We took a boat out to Bowness and looked in cute shops and I bought a canvas with paints (yay!).   We took the boat back to our hostel which is right on the shore of the beautiful lake.  Very picturesque.  For some reason the scenery here reminded me o f Jurassic Park.  It was that gorgeous.  We had a tasteless dinner at the hostel.  We then played scum with a bunch of students in the lobby of the hostel including professor Hawkins and his kids. It was fun.  Me and Nathan (his son) had a “Oh no you din’t fight” and his dad told him to shut up. Haha I felt like an awkward turtle.   

Day 5 Friday

We went to the Preston Temple and church history sites that day.  Joseph Fielding came to England and there were about 1000 converts in the first couple of years, which is a lot.  10 or so years later  there were about 20,000 members.  Today we owe a lot to our membership to our English ancestors who joined the church in those days.  That really hit me hard and touched me with the spirit  Something else that impacted me was when we went to the house that Heber C. Kimball live and had a vision of hundreds of demon like people coming towards him.  It was such an intense vision that he fainted.  When Joseph Smith heard of his vision he actually got excited because  he knew satan was trying so hard from stopping the church from developing in England.  He knew how much would come about from having so many converts in England.  This was a good reminder to me to know how true the church is.  The Kimball house has actually been up for sale for the past 13 years and there was an article on the window and people now think that it I haunted.  

 Peter the tour guide then took us in the park where he showed us a plant that the early aints planted to symbolize/represent all of the baptisms.  We then went down by the river  where they would get baptized.   The temple is about 10 mile south of preston.  It is called the preston temple because President HInkley had inspiration.  After that we stopped at a really boring cotton mill for 2.5 hours.  We only had 30 minutes at the temple.  I was so confused.

 

The Preston, England Temple

The River where they would baptized the members.

Heber C. Kimball's House where  he had the vision.

Peter the tour guide telling us about the early missionaries in England and also President Hinckley's experiences when he served a mission here.