Adios Scotland!

Hey Everyone,
Tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Jacob and I are leaving the house and heading for the airport. We will arrive home around 5:30 in Appleton. Today is a "house cleaning day" so we've been cleaning and packing since early this morning. My suitcases are both very close to the weight limit so I'm crossing my fingers that they won't go over. If they do I will just where 3 layers of clothes or something like that. Jacob and I both have 2 huge suitcases and two carry ons. Hopefully check in and the flights go well especially since the Osama death. We've been warned by Stout and River Falls that the US Department of State that the possibility of a terrorist attack on Americans is highly likely and to be careful. Yes, it's nerve racking but I can't live my life worried about every little thing that "could" happen.

It's crazy to think about how fast our time went here. We arrived in Scotland on January 27th and now it's already May 5th! (Happy Cinco de Mayo!) I feel like it was just yesterday that I was bawling my eyes out in the airport saying goodbye to my mom and Jacob's family. Now our adventure has come to an end and it's definitely bittersweet. I can't wait to see everyone but at the same time I don't want to leave this beautiful country and the new friends I have made. I will definitely miss the travelling over here but I'll travel more in my future. I also think that being over here sparked Jacob's travel bug!

If anyone sees Jacob or I when we get home feel free to ask us questions! We are more than happy to talk about our 3 month long experience over seas.

After 16 flights, $13,000, 6 countries, a million sandwiches, 50 souvenirs, 30 bus rides, 1 hairy coo, 4 classes, 1 peacock, and 6 cartons of tea later,....our trip is almost over. We would like to thank everyone who has followed our blogs and supported us during our time abroad!

Love Everyone and see you tomorrow!

Hayley and Jacob

The Emerald Isle

This past weekend Jacob and I went to Ireland and Northern Ireland on a tour. It was an early birthday gift to me from him and my family. Jacob and I had an 8 a.m. flight out of Edinburgh into Dublin on Thursday morning so we were up early in order to catch the bus to the airport. We flew Ryanair which is a budget airline. Jacob was asleep before we even took off and his mouth was moving really odd. I kept watching him and eventually nudged him to ask if he was ok. He said, "Was I moving my mouth?" And I told him yes. His response was "Oh, I was dreaming that I was eating a smore and I couldn't get the marshmallow into my mouth." What entertainment! Maybe next time I won't wake him up and see what else he ends up doing. We both ended up sleeping for the 45 minute flight and woke up to our plane landing on the runway and we were still going really fast. I closed my eyes and hung on tight because I was certain that our plane was going right off the edge of that runway. Thankfully we made it safely but it was a close one in my opinion. We took the airport bus to the city center of Dublin which was conveniently located across the street from our hotel.

We got unpacked and headed out for some lunch. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. Oops, we should have known better but we can't help but eat an amazing American burger! We then continued to Temple Bar to do some souvenir shopping. We walked around the rest of the day and went back to the hotel since our tour started at 8 am the next day.

We woke up and got ready for the day. We then walked around the block to where our tour left with PaddyWagon Tours. There were 6 of us on the 3 day Northern Ireland tour. 2 American (us), 3 Canadians, and 1 Australian. Since there were only six of us we took a minivan. Our first stop on the tour was Slane Castle. They made us climb up a brick wall and look over barbed wire in order to see this castle that was probably 3 football fields away. We stopped for two minutes because our tour guide said we weren't supposed to be there taking pictures, yet it was on our itinerary? Why put it on the list of things we get to see when we don't even get to go in or up to it? Next we saw Oliver Plunkett's head in a jar in a Cathedral in a small town. It was kind of gross to see a Priests’ head sitting in a jar inside a church. We then made our way to Monasterboice were they had huge Celtic cross monuments in a cemetery. We saw a grave where a person passed away a year to the day that we were there. Creepy! We then headed to the Grianan Ailligh which is Ireland’s version of the Colosseum according to our tour guide Colm. We then drove to our hostel which was an interesting ordeal.

            The hostel was right across the street from where the bomb was found 2 weeks ago in Northern Ireland. There was a guy with a huge gun standing outside of the Police Station. I was scared to say the least. They only had one room key for a 6 person room so we couldn’t really lock our door when we left or someone would get locked out. We didn’t even get to stay in the actual hostel we had to stay up the street in some random apartment building. Our tour guide also forgot to tell us what time we needed to be up in the morning so we had to guess what time we had to get up.

            The next morning we got up about 2 hours earlier than we needed to. We went to Giant’s Causeway which was gorgeous. There were cliffs and hexagonal stones that were popping up all over the place that were formed by a volcanic eruption. I can’t explain in words how beautiful it was so pictures will have to do. We then went to a Rope Bridge which we shouldn’t have had to pay for because according to our tour it was included but we had to pay for it anyways because our tour guide told us it wasn’t included. This bridge was high up and it’s a skimpy rope bridge that was very very scary. I hate heights and the winds were 20 mph. I cried after I finished crossing it and the bad thing was that the bridge leads to an island so I had to cross the scary bridge twice.

            We then took a 2 hour drive to Belfast where we were going to be staying that night. They ended up “overbooking” our hostel which I am not quite sure how that’s possible since the tour cost $500 for 2 people. May I ask why we weren’t priority? I find it quite ridiculous that we couldn’t stay there when we paid so much money. They took us to a completely different part of town and made us stay at a hostel that wasn’t even affiliated with PaddyWagon. It was called the Linen House and it was disgusting. The lady at the front desk tried to make us pay to stay there and we refused since we already paid money for the tour. We were put in an 18 person room where there was no lock on the door so all of our stuff had the possibility of being stolen. 2 of the people in the room were living there which made the room smell. I actually never saw them get up and leave so maybe I should have checked their pulse. Oops.

            The next day we walked around Belfast and finally rode back to Dublin. Many more things went wrong on the tour but there’s too many to write. I’ve e-mailed the company requesting a full refund. All in all we loved Ireland the country but not so much the tour. We come in 3 days which is crazy! Time has gone by way too fast. We can’t wait to see everyone!

Love you all,
Hayley and Jacob

Jacob had a great idea to feed the pigeons. There were 4 when he started. Then they all swooped in.

Jacob and I in Dublin

The two of us on top of a hill by Derry

Hayley on top of part of Giant's Causeway

Jacob and I on part of Giant's Causeway

Jacob with Giant's Causeway

The very scary bridge

Jacob and I on the Island after crossing the scary bridge!

The Highlands

April 21^st – April 24^th  Jacob and I took a house trip to the Highlands of Scotland which is the northern part of Scotland. This region of Scotland is very mountainous and has a very gorgeous landscape. We left early in the morning and of course we had issues. We didn’t have enough seats on the bus for everyone who was going and there was no bathroom on the bus like there was supposed to be. The extra people who couldn’t fit on the bus rode along in our Supervisor’s car for the trip. We stopped to look at the Firth of Forth Bridge which we also saw on our Hairy Coo tour, and took many pictures. We stopped at Scone Palace next which is where every King of Scotland has been crowned. On the grounds of the Scone Palace they had tons of peacocks. This was cool because at the Palace we have a peacock named Charlie and he gets fed by us. There were probably four regular peacocks and one white peacock which I have never seen before. I thought the white peacock was stunning and not to mention the fact that every peacock had its fan out while we were there. Jacob and I even fed the peacocks grass out of our hands which was entertaining. They had a hedge maze as well which was fun and would have been much more beautiful if the hedges were green and not a crusty brown from the cold weather. I actually think that Jacob and I cheated our way through this maze by taking a path that looked like a made path but at the same time looked a little sketchy and not necessarily part of the maze. Oh well, we finished it and that’s all that mattered.

As for food let’s just say that I am sick of sandwiches and do not plan on eating one until at least two months after I return to the U.S. Ham sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, chicken tikka sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…I’m over sandwiches. Trying to eat cheap isn’t as easy as it seems when we have nowhere to keep food cold. We probably ate 10 sandwiches between the two of us over our 4 day trip. Yuck.

Our next stop was Culloden Battlefield where the Jacobites and the Government forces fought for… (Actually I’m not sure what they were fighting for. I obviously didn’t get that out of the tour.) It was nice to see but looking at a field is something I can do for free in Wisconsin. Stick some red and blue flags in the ground and call it a battlefield. Maybe I’m being a little harsh, of course I enjoyed it but some things are just not as interesting to me as it is to others.

Next we went to Cairngorms Fernicular which is a train that scales up the side of a mountain and drops people off at the top.  There was still snow at the top of the mountain and people were snowboarding in t-shirts down the mountain. We were 2,083 feet above sea level half way up the mountain. Jacob also decided that the water coming off of the mountain must be fresh so he decided to drink a handful of it. I told him that if he got sick or any diseases from that water that I was not going to help him out. I begged him not to drink it but he still did. Luckily he’s been fine since drinking it and following in his footsteps my roommate Nikki and friend Rachel also drank the water.

We went to the beach as well which was meant to be a trip for “Dolphin Watching”. I was all excited to dolphin watch, until we got there and didn’t see any dolphins. I originally thought this was going to be a big tourist attraction where they lied and claimed to see dolphins just to rake in the money from those “stupid Americans” who will sit for hours just to see one dolphin. There actually weren’t any attractions around, not even a bathroom which I really could’ve used at the time. We didn’t see any dolphins that day but oh well.

We went to Fort William which is still an active Army base but other than that there wasn’t much to see. We actually did see dolphins when we were at the top of Fort William so that was sort of cool and ironic at the same time because we could see the place where we “Dolphin Watched” the day before. Maybe the other place wasn’t lying about their dolphins then!

We then went to Urquhart Castle (On Loch Ness) which attracts 300,000 visitors per year. The Castle was beautiful but it was more of the ruins of the Castle. I love seeing all of the attractions but I am kind of bored with all of the Castles and history. All the Castles are starting to blend together and the same with the history of the Castles. After the Castle some of the house got into their swimsuits and jumped into Loch Ness. (Notorious for the story of the Loch Ness Monster aka Nessie.) I decided to keep my sanity and stay warm by taking pictures of the people jumping into Loch Ness. Jacob also declined the offer and stood on the side and videotaped the event. Everyone who jumped in was freezing and at least 2 people came out bleeding. I think I made the right decision.

We then saw Ben Nevis which is the highest point in Scotland. It was gorgeous and still had snow at the top. Usually the top of the mountain wasn’t visible because of the clouds and people who climb Ben Nevis usually can’t find their way back down because of the clouds. That night we played Pictionary at the hostel our friends John, Amber and Brian.

We also saw the bridge where the Harry Potter train passes over in the 1^st and 2^nd movies. It was cool but since I’ve never been a huge Harry Potter fan it was just another bridge to me. Overall the trip was great, just not as interesting as I would’ve hoped. We spent a lot of time on the bus getting from place to place which felt kind of like a waste of time.

Aside from the trip there was an incident that happened about 2 weeks ago at the house. People were having a bonfire outside the house when the cops showed up and asked them if they had seen a 19 year old girl walking around? They said no and the cops said she had been missing for about 24 hours and she was last seen in the park where we live. The next morning they pulled her body out of the river literally right behind the Palace. She either fell or jumped off the bridge (which Jacob can see from his room) after taking a large amount of drugs. Jacob can see the flowers placed where she was found from his window. It’s crazy to think that our backyard is a crime scene. What a sad story and prayers to the family of the girl.

Tomorrow Jacob and I are leaving for a 4 day trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland. It should be a great time and hopefully it goes on without a hitch since Jacob did all the planning. It took a lot for me not to step in and print out all my sheets and maps for this trip but I let him completely take the lead since him and my family surprised me with this trip for my early birthday present. After Ireland we have a couple days and then we return to the U.S. on May 6^th!

A white Peacock

Jacob and I on top of Cairngorm Mountain

Jacob and I with Loch Ness

Jacob and I with Ben Nevis in the background

Jacob and I with the lake in the background

Love and Miss You All!

Hayley and Jacob

Camera Obscura, Hairy Coo Tour, and Jacob's Host Family

Hello,

On Friday Jacob, Brian, John and Amber (people who we go to school with) went to Edinburgh's number one attraction according to TripAdvisor, Camera Obscura! It's basically a tourist attraction full of optical illusions. We had a great time and laughed a lot. There were goofy mirrors, vortex tunnel, and even a machine that would turn your picture into a monkey! We took tons of pictures and enjoyed our day out. We also went out to eat at Bella Italia which is possibly the most popular Italian Restaurant chain in the UK. They are all over. We also finished up our souvenir shopping which was nice.

Endless Light Tunnel

Heat Spots (Jacob lifting his shirt up)

Colored Shadows (Blue, pink, and yellow)

Jacob's Severed Head

How did Jacob get so tall?

Jacob as the Asian Race

Jacob and I on top of the Camera Obscura building with the Edinburgh Castle in the background

The Hairy Coo Tour bus

Our Tour Guide

Jacob and I with the crazy mirrors!

Yesterday Jacob and I went on the Hairy Coo tour that my family went on when they were here in Edinburgh! They work on a tips only basis which means the tour is technically free. So at the end of the tour you tip them whatever you think it was worth! In the beginning of the tour our tour guide Don made fun of a paper boy walking along saying that he must not be in any hurry to get the people of Edinburgh their daily newspaper. His jokes and comments were priceless. We learned a lot of Scotland from him, more than we have learned since we have gotten here. We stopped at Forth Bridge, the William Wallace Monument (Braveheart?), the only lake in Scotland, Loch Drunkie, fed some Highland Cows (aka Hairy Coos), the Doune Castle (where Monty Python was filmed), and that's about it! We had a fabulous time and couldn't have asked for a better day. He told us so many things that it's impossible to regurgitate it into this blog so I will just post some pictures!

 Jacob and I with the Forth Bridge

 My pizza from lunch. They cooked it by putting it in a deep fryer. Yuck.

 Jacob and I with Loch Drunkie!

 Jacob feeding Kyle the Hairy Coo

 Me with the Hairy Coo

 3 Hairy Coos!

 Jacob and I at Doune Castle and the Scottish flag! We LOVE Scotland!

I'd take the Orange Hairy Coo Bus anyday over the red Lambo!

Jacob and I went with his host family today for a walk on the beach. We spent 7 hours with them and it was great! They bought us some ice cream wafers which were great and they made us haggis and chicken for dinner which was delicious! They bought us Easter Eggs as their gift to us for Easter! Has a great time with them!

Love and Miss you all!

Hayley and Jacob!



Exploring Edinburgh

This weekend Jacob and I did some exploring of Edinburgh since we don't have too much time left before we leave. We went to the Royal Botanic Gardens, went to the Elephant House which is where J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books, went to Calton Hill which overlooks Edinburgh and even picked up trash in Dalkeith. I'm really going to miss Edinburgh and everything is has to offer when we leave. Here are some pictures of our adventures!

On Calton Hill overlooking New Town of Edinburgh

Jacob with the National Monument on Calton Hill

Dandelion

Princes St. in Edinburgh. Famous for it's shopping district. Divides New Town and Old Town of Edinburgh

Jacob and I with Edinburgh as our background. Our home. :)

Flower at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh

Jacob in a greenhouse at the Royal Botanic Gardens

Jacob with a huge leaf in the greenhouse

The Elephant House where the Harry Potter books were written.

My elephant cookie at the Elephant house. And Jacob's snacks.

Our cleaning crew in front of the house. Our yellow garbage bag vests read "Keep Scotland Tidy".

Jacob and Travis with the shopping cart, road sign, tire and other random garbage they found in an alley in Dalkeith.

Me pulling a bike out of the river. We found 13 or 14 bikes/scooters in the river. All with in 100 feet of eachother.

Jacob and the girls pulling out more bikes.

Our home :) Yes, we live here!

Costa Del Sol, Spain

April 1^{st -}  Torremolinos, Spain

We woke up at 3:00 a.m. in order to catch our taxi which picked us up at the house at 4:00 a.m. This is what happens when you book the cheapest flight possible, they only leave at the extreme hours of the day so we had a 6:20 a.m. flight. Jacob and I chose Spain for his birthday weekend and we were more than excited. We did not go alone on this trip however Kadie, Charity, Rachel, Nicki, Ashley and Karissa also went. They all shared two rooms and Jacob and I had our own since we booked this trip before they did.  We flew Ryanair for the first time and let’s just say that we weren’t very fond of it. Ryanair is a budget airline in Europe, and by budget I mean budget. We only paid $50.00 round trip to Spain. Much cheaper than flying to Florida in the U.S. The downfalls of Ryanair are endless. You have to pay 35.00 pounds per checked bag (I think it’s that much anyways), you’re carry on must fit in this teeny tiny compartment thing and trust me, they check it before you board the plane. The reason for them checking it is they want to find every reason to get money from you. If it doesn’t fit in the compartment they charge you 50 pounds to have it checked. Ryanair is also one big infomercial, and don’t get me wrong Billy Mayes, I love infomercials at 3 in the morning when I can’t sleep, but not on a plane where I would like to read my book in silence! For example, our flight was 3 hours long, twice they tried to sell us lottery scratchoffs, twice they tried to sell us international phone cards, and twice they tried to sell us food because no complimentary food is given (including water). Did I mention that I thought we were going to die before we even took off? The pilot announced that we were going to MOSCOW not Malaga, Spain! He said it 2 times and then eventually changed it to Spain. It’s nice to know that the person who’s in charge of getting you there is planning on taking you to a completely different country! Also, in the middle of this speech of how we were going to Moscow, the power on the plane completely shut off, and once it came back on the pilot says “Oh that’s not good.” Well isn’t that reassuring, I’m going up how many thousands of feet in the air, what will I do if the power shuts off while I’m up there? Contrary to some people laughing, I was not and was holding back tears because I was seeing my life flash before my eyes. Another thing about Ryanair is  people tend to be extremely loud and noisy. Usually on planes everyone minds their own business but not on this flight. And the biggest problem was that their seats didn’t recline. Poor Jacob is so tall that his knees hit the seat the entire flight. Oh well, we got there around 10:00 a.m. their time and decided to take a  taxi from the airport for 5 euros per person. This taxi was a lot less sketchy compared to the one in Rome since there were actual airport workers assigning us to a taxi. Much more legit. They let us check in early since we were there 3 hours before check-in time. Jacob and I decided to grab some lunch at a restaurant on the beach which was nice. Jacob was overly happy to find an omelet there. We then went to the ice-cream stand where Jacob and I both got mint chocolate chip. We basically spent the rest of the day laying on the beach since our hotel was right on it. We ended up with some pretty nasty sunburns which I’m still dealing with the after effects of. But it was all worth it to lay on the beach. As we were picking through the shells in the sand Jacob somehow cut his finger open and it was bleeding everywhere. Good thing we swiped the towels from the hotel which were white….not! White towels are not exactly good when it comes to red blood everywhere. We ran back to the hotel and asked the front desk for some band-aids and rubbing alcohol. We got him all bandaged up and returned the stuff to the desk. His cut was fine for the rest of the trip.

April 2^nd – Torremolinos, Spain

Jacob and I woke up at 9:30 a.m. went souvenir shopping. We also bought some much needed sunscreen and aloe vera to help the sunburns we already had and to prevent them from getting worse. Again we sat on the beach and relaxed. Collected some pretty cool shells some of which we plan on adding to our fish tank when we get home to the United States of America. We were sick of paying to eat out for every meal so we walked a mile to a familiar grocery store and spent 10 euros of which we got 4 meals out of. Much cheaper than eating out constantly. We watched a show they had at the hotel that night which was a mixture of dancing, acrobatics and magic. It was very entertaining even though we were in a room filled with elderly people. Most of the attractions at our resort were geared told the older people but we didn’t mind! We fit right in, remember? We read books in bed!

That night I also stepped on a frog while Jacob and I were walking around the pool. I felt something squirt up on my leg and I just assumed I stepped on a berry, but when I looked down there was a frog laying there. I definitely killed him and Jacob made me feel guilty for the rest of the night. Didn’t he think I felt guilty enough? I prayed for the frog and named him Franc. RIP Franc.

April 3^rd – Torremolinos, Spain

Woke up around 10 a.m. and ate some of the hot dogs we had purchased the night before. We had to be checked out of the hotel by noon, yet our flight didn’t leave until 8:30 p.m. They had a luggage room of which they let us store our backpacks for the day. We basically walked the beach and sat in the lobby for 3 hours until we could catch a taxi to the airport for our flight. Everything went great and we enjoyed Spain so much! We wish we could go back there every weekend!

Jacob and I on the beach in Torremolinos, Spain

The Beach





View from our hotel room

Obviously we are meant to be together! H and J!

Love and miss you all!

Hayley and Jacob