So, a little insight into the “behind the scenes” of Roni’s blogging: Basically, I feel I need to be extremely caffeinated (to the levels of potential health risks) in order to write an at least semi-entertaining blog. Otherwise I feel it is a wee bit lackluster or just plain dull. Therefore I am two cups of coffee deep and yet still lack any form of inspiration to start my blog or to recount my days. I, therefore, apologize in advance if anyone falls asleep or into a deep un-revivable coma as a result of my subsequent post:

In our “stick it to the man” moment, Erin & I made our first attempt at complete college-student-abroad independence (other than the whole “flying to a separate country” thing) & picked a city on a random bus route & booked a hostel to stay the night there. We figured, well, its SCOTLAND. So, any city we pick HAS to be amazing & gorgeous & full of adventure. Plus, we discovered this city, Stirling, held “one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland”, as claimed by our good & reliable source Wikipedia. Thus, we thought that this act of independence COULDN’T go wrong. On top of all that epic-ness, our hostel was called “Willy Wallace” (yes, after Mel Gibson in Braveheart… or more historically speaking, his character). But the greatest thing about it was that it looked like a fun house! Purple and Orange walls, posters of everything under the sun hanging up (OBVIOUSLY including a huge-life-size movie poster of braveheart & Mel Gibson & all that is his glorious kilt), and even a hostel dog that just sat on the couch waiting for a walk from one of the poor students residing there.

But I digress (ß FAVORITE word, if not favorite activity), Erin & I woke up sulking but determined, & caught the early bust to Stirling. When attempting to buy a round-trip ticket to Stirling, the girl next to me in line asked in an adorable English accent, “What’s that?” First, I was a little bit confused and was going to respond with some second grade response like “A ticket is a little piece of paper that gets you from one little house to another”. But before I could confusingly respond with my belittling answer, she continues, “Is a Round-trip kind of like a return ticket?”. The pieces clicked JUST in time, and I responded with a classic American answer of “Oh, yeah. I keep assuming most people know what I am talking about. I never knew there was a difference. Etc”. All-in-all, I felt like a class-A idiot for my near-embarrassing-comment and avoided anything that would once again stick me out as obviously being American. Which basically means, I sat with my iPod not opening my mouth for the next two hours. (:

The 2hr bus ride provided the same sights really any bus trip thus far has given us – sheep, occasional horse, lots of green landscape - but to our great surprise, at the very end of the trip we spent a long drive following next to the Ochil Hills. Which, from our low perspective, looked like large, green mountains with fog hiding their peaks. Like I have said before, I would have been MORE than happy to just spend my day climbing those hills and skipping the city and castle all together, but I am pretty sure the bus driver would not have been happy to make such an unplanned stop. So, I stayed on to our final destination.

As we entered the city of Stirling, we noticed a cute Scottish city to our right. It looked basically like a mix of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, but on a much smaller scale. It had a church & steeple in the middle of the city & everything, thus looking very promising from the start. Erin & I, already exhausted and ready to crawl into bed, decided that a coffee was RECQUIRED before we even thought about making our way through the city. So, we stop at what looks like a little hole-in-the-wall coffee shop; which, by principle USUALLY has the best coffee. That assumption, Ultimate Fail. Our bad decisions start there. Not only does this little coffee shop not know what an espresso is (Note to café shop, it is NOT, by definition, a cup of watered down coffee), but it had failed to discover the invention of a coffee sleeve. So wielding this tall scalding cup of dark water, all the while being careful not to squeeze it too hard for the top (naturally) does not fit properly, we take our first sip & realize somehow they have managed to infuse a distinct taste of hay into this cup of disaster. Our need for caffeine overcame our gag-reflex and we sat in a nice indoor shop attempting to get warm and prepare ourselves for the upcoming cold stroll through town.

After finishing our coffee, we found our hostel two doors down and attempted to check in. Like I said, the atmosphere definitely promised a great first hostel experience, but after realizing that we could not check in until later, we made the decision to just travel the city until we could. So, we grab a map and randomly pick a direction. Aimlessly wandering a city alone and with nothing but a map to give you at least a sense of where you are, is surprisingly very productive. We realized that without even knowing it, we were on our way to the castle. So, while stopping to take random pictures with cool old things (yes, that is my description, cool old things.) we finally see the castle looming over the highest cliff. Naturally, we are drawn to it and eventually find ourselves successfully standing in front of this (finally) cliché / storybook looking castle.

This castle, as so accurately described by Wikipedia, looks so picture-book that one kind of expects to see Rapunzel chilling in the window of one of the towers. (Although, through sufficient searching and zoomed camera lens, we found her to no avail – Corny joke of the day). There was only one odd aspect to this magnificent picture –all the overweight construction workers sitting around the castle on what I can assume is a smoking break. Yeah, if you ever want a complete fairytale-esque castle quickly ruined, simply place some creepy men in yellow vests eyeing you while you’re attempting to take pictures, not quite the experience I had hoped for. With some more investigation, we realized that we had come during the off-season and that the castle was being remodeled to resemble its prime years during the Renaissance. GREAT in theory, but once one realizes you came a month before it re-opened, kind of a letdown. But, Erin & I were happy enough to have seen it in person, and stood on its outer walls and left not too dejected.

After taking a different route back to the city centre, we came to realize that in our hour or so walk, we had basically saw and walked the entire city and seen or ran into every significant monument that was currently open during the off season. So, while having planned two days and a hostel to visit this gorgeous city, Erin & I had seen the bulk of it in only a few hours. At a loss at what to do to fill the rest of the hours we had, we stopped in a few shops and bought some very cute… souvenirs for ourselves. Ok, a bag/purse may not count as a souvenir, but it being bought in Scotland, I consoled myself with the fact that by definition it was. (Stacey, YOU’D LOVE the bag, fyi. Was considering saving it for you, but I liked it too much and selfish-me popped it’s pretty head. I shall find you an equally awesome bag, I promise).

To quicken this up (My attention span is weaning), after our mini shopping excursion we found ourselves still at a loss to do, but determined to stay strong and stick with our planned trip (especially since every five minutes we were forced to think “what would dad do in a new city”) we walked around the parts of the map that we had yet to hip in our first wandering around.

We had definitely overestimated the size of this city, because after about another 45minutes we were back at square one, with a few more streets stored away in our Stirling memory. So, we asked ourselves the obvious question, “What would any old-fashioned American do, if they had hours of free time on their hands?”. Needless to say, we ended up at the Stirling Cinema and attempted to find a film we had yet seen. So, in summation, we were filling our day in a new Scottish city watching an American film. Father would tear up with pride (probably not). Now, one would THINK that the process of buying a movie ticket would be pretty similar to purchasing one in the US. Nope, complete confusion. I am told that this was simply a weird movie theatre in Stirling, so it must not be taken as a generalization for cinemas in GB. But we found that each movie only played once (or if we were lucky) twice a day and that if you wanted to order a ticket, you had to pick your seat in advance. Pick our seat… assigned seating in a movie theatre. Def. a shocker. Having struggled and being unsuccessful, we finally ordered it from a human being and made it into the theater. To our COMPLETE surprise and nearly tearful happiness, the first fifteen minutes of the film “No Strings Attached” (the only film that was playing at that point in the day) was set at the UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN! Yes, Ashton Kutcher was supposedly a student at UofM & the scene depicted an exaggerated version of a Frat party where EVERYONE was clad in maize and blue and the block M was plastered EVEYWHERE. The repetition of “Ann Arbor” was JUST the little piece of home we needed (:

Two happy hours later, Erin and I left the cinema with the decision that to pay 30 pounds for a hostel in a city that after dark seemed useless to anyone that did NOT feel like sitting in a bar and drinking, was completely unnecessary. So, we saved money by heading to the bus station and catching the last bus back to St. Andrews. Now, I am NOT saying that the entire independent excursion was a complete dud. I am SO happy I got out of St. Andrews and experienced a new city (literally) topped with a castle. But I only wish someone had notified me that it was more of a DAY excursion & not a multiple day affair. Not carrying an overnight bag might have made the situation a lot easier, or at least more agile.

Sleeping in my own StA uncomfortable bed, I realized it was all-in-all a successful and very interesting day.

Today:

Basically, I have spent my entire day drinking Mr. Boylan amounts of coffee and attempting to blog, yet failing. Which I really shouldn’t tell you, because then one looks back at the blog I actually DID just write and expect it to be of epic proportions seeing as how I have literally spent hours of free time on it. Thus, providing a bar for myself that I have obviously failed to reach, and thereby diminishing everything I just accomplished. Some may say I am over thinking this whole thing in the midst of my downward caffeinated spiral, but I think it’s the right amount of analysis to my oh-so-entertaining blog (;

Once again, I apologize for my… very interesting blog this morning. Can’t say it wasn’t entertaining to write it, if not also confusing to read! Good-day all my loved ones & STAY TUNED for my next GREAT ADVENTURE and extremely caffeine inspired rendition of it all! <3>