The last LUU trips

I actually have photos with this update.  Amazing, I know.  However, to put them up was just as annoying as usual, but I will try to do it more in the future.

The Stonehenge trip was amazing.  I can't believe I was allowed to go into the middle of it, and that probably was one of the top experiences of my life.  We were there right before sunset too, and it was just amazing that I even had some sun.  I don't know how, but some travel god is looking after me.  Every trip I've been on so far has had great weather. 

Besides Stonehenge, the other places I mentioned we were visited were also pretty interesting.  I didn't learn as much as I had hoped, because the archaeologist ended up not coming.  (More seats were booked than available, and he opted out because he said he'd been there a few times, so he thought that'd be fair.)

It turns out that Glastonbury was a lot more interesting than I thought it'd be.  It's famous for having a lot of power leys crossing over the city, and as a result, it's a pretty big place for people interested in magick.  Glastonbury Tor (a giant hill) is fabled to be an isle in the past when there was more water around there, and actually one of the stories is that it was the Isle of Avalon.  In the Glastonbury Abbey is the supposed site where the monks found King Arthur and Genevieve's graves, and then they supposedly moved the bones to a different site in the Abbey.  The ground is too acidic to know if the bones were there (obviously).  It's pretty interesting and amusing at the same time.

Paper turned in without a hitch.  I find out my grade on it tomorrow, plus have a conference with my professor about it to discuss it.  There are advantages to staying in Leeds when everyone's gone home after all.

Edinburgh was this past weekend, and it is probably one of my favorite cities now.  The castle was a bit overpriced (£12), but inside was HUGE.  I learned a lot about Scottish history.  An amusing story I heard was about the Stone of Destiny -- and the prophecy with it is that wherever the Stone of Destiny lies, the Scots will rule.  For awhile the English had it, and then around the 1950s a few college students got the idea to steal it back, breaking it in the process.  They did get it fixed, and then a lot of Scottish pride was ignited again when it was back for a little bit (before the English took it again).  I want to read the book the person wrote about how he stole it -- I hope to find it in the library.  

I also got to eat breakfast in the Elephant House on Sunday, which is where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter.  It was an amazing atmosphere!  I loved the mellow, piano music over the speakers, and I could see myself spending hours in there writing as well if I lived there.  Rowling also got inspiration for some of her characters from the graveyard down the street from the Elephant House, and in there I found a Tom Riddell and a McGonagall.  

The graveyards are an interesting part of Edinburgh, and Edinburgh is known as one of the most haunted places in the UK as well.  I took a ghost tour on Friday night, and it was pretty interesting.  One of the headstones I saw was for a dog called Greyfriar's Bobby, who was a little terrier that was so loyal that he refused to leave his master's grave when he died.  His statue is apparently the most photographed statue in Edinburgh.

This part is the only legal part in Edinburgh where people can spit on.  It used to be the foundation of this prison, and people used to spit on the door, which had this design on it.  When the prison was gone, they put this in its place.  People continue to spit on it, and it's pretty amusing to watch everyone walk around it and spit.  It's also amusing to watch tourists think its cute and sit on it.  There are a lot of things in the ground like this (although the others you can't spit on) around Edinburgh.  There's just so much history people walk by and walk on, and I almost missed quite a few.  I saw the site for the last hanging (gold bricks marking it) and the old residence of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone.

Then, of course, what's a good weekend without some hiking?  I didn't expect that, so I didn't bring practical shoes, so I wore a type of flats (luckily they're kind of sporty and have decent grip).  We climbed Arthur's Seat, and funnily enough we started on the wrong path, so we ended up basically climbing two cliffs.  I was so sore the next day.  

Then, here's a picture of the hostel I stayed at with the Edinburgh castle in the background (by the way, the volcanic rock the castle sits on is called Castle Rock).  Then the random picture was a mistake... My new camera has problems taking pictures quickly when first turning it on, so when nothing happened, I started putting it down to wait for the guy to pass so I could take pictures.  The photo went off in his face.  It was a little embarrassing, but there are nice people in hostels.  He brushed it off with, "I knew you were a fan!" before he went to the Posh Room to use the internet.

And that's the end of the LUU trips.  From now on, if I go anywhere, I will have to plan them myself.  But thanks, Leeds Union, I now understand why you're the #1 university union in the UK.