5K & Chocolate

Last weekend I participated in my first 5k in Hyde Park. It was a fun run to help raise money for hospices' in London. We raised over 12,000 BPS! This run was very unique because we ran in santa suits. They sent us a package that included red pants, jacket, hat, black belt, and a fluffy beard. It was so much fun dressing up and seeing hundred others wearing the same goofy outfit. There were a few contests going on throughout the race, one where we had to ‘catch the reindeer’. A man dressed head to toe in a reindeer outfit where he started one minute before the rest of us. He said he would donate 50 quid (about $100) to every person that passed him. Only one guy passed him, who came in first finishing a little over 17:00 minutes. I finished right in the middle of the pack with a finish of 28:00 minutes. I couldn’t help but smile at the very end, because I completed my first race! Just like a lot of people have told me, after a race, you will crave a beer. (Can anybody explain to me why this is?) Naturally, I did. So Courtney and I decided on Chicago’s Rib Shack in Knightsbridge for lunch and a good 'ol MGD.

Stretching

Received a medal!

Thanks for the support!

Chicago, we might be calling you home next year!

De-lish.

 After our lunch, we took the tube south and headed towards London’s Chocolate Festival (in case you were wondering- I did take off my santa suit at this point).  The festival was brilliant! It had all these little vendors showing off their specialties. We came across chocolate syrup, various hot chocolates, cheesecakes, cupcakes, cakes, brownies, etc. After walking around awhile, we managed to find a chocolate cooking class put on by the Food Network UK channel. It was about an hour-long where the chef made millionaire’s shortbread. After the demonstration, Courtney and I were ready to taste test what the vendors had to offer. We bought one-bite cupcakes, chocolate and red velvet cake, chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake and cookies and cream cupcakes. Yes, we might have bought a little much but I justified it because I just ran a race, and Courtney justified it by thinking: How often are we at Chocolate Festivals? Exactly. Everything was delightful; it was a perfect Sunday to end the weekend. xx

Food Network Demonstration

Final product

Mini cupcakes!

Merry Christmas!!!!

I want to wish everyone a 

Merry Christmas

 from across the pond!

Check out my family and I jamming out!

It's a music video from JibJab, to the tune of, 

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."

Starring: 

Courtney (Bass), Kelsey (Electric Guitar), 

Pete (Saxophone), Lindsey (Cello) 

& Quentin (Drums)

St. Andrews Day Trip

Our last day in Scotland! Since our five day tour with Haggis Adventures ended, Courtney and I signed up for a day trip to St. Andrews. When we first pulled into St. Andrews, I was already in love! This was a cute city of about 16,000. Besides being popular for educating the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (and hosting their fairytale love story), it’s also widely known as the “home of golf”. They have seven golf courses that hold the British Open every five years. The courses were open to the public so after having lunch in the clubhouse, we walked on the Old Course. 

St. Andrews Links Clubhouse

Cruisin' 

Classy lunch in the clubhouse

Famous Old Course bridge

They told us you had to book your tee time at least one year in advance!

After viewing the golf courses, I was determined to find where William met Kate, so I walked towards the University. I found the building he studied in as well as a coffee shop where they met for coffee! 

I wasn’t really into seeing more cathedrals or castles at this point, so I went shopping for earrings, while Courtney explored other parts of the city. After a few hours of small town shops we had to meet back in the town center for our bus ride back. A very quick trip to St. Andrews but well worth seeing the history and the fancy shops!

Art History building...where Prince William studied:)

Read the sign on the right!

Scotland Day 5

Today we got up surprisingly not feeling too bad!  I thought the whisky would be bad to me, but turns out we’re friends!  Perhaps I’m part Scottish!  We checked out of the hostel and made our way to Glen Coe.

Glen Coe is a valley where a tragic story took place.  In a nutshell, the McDonald’s clan settled in the valley.  Pretty much the Campbell’s screwed them over by siding with the English and slaughtered almost the whole clan.

Our tour guide was such a great storyteller and he had such love for his country.  He said that even to this day, some people still  hate any Campbell’s.

It was also kind of cool that this is the place where we spent, 11/11/11 at 11:11:11.  

It was also Veteran’s Day so a few moments of silence were held.

"They may take our lives,
but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!!!!"

Our final stop was a visit to the William Wallace Monument.  One of my favorite movies of all time is, “Braveheart,” so I enjoyed this place.

Overall, Scotland was a beautiful and amazing country.  I learned a lot and have an understanding of the Scottish people.  They are very passionate about their country and just genuinely good people.

I highly recommend doing a tour throughout Scotland and we had a great time with Haggis Adventures!

Scotland Day 4

Today we began by making our way to Oban, Scotland.  We made a few stops throughout the day and took a few nature walks.

The Harry Potter Bridge

Bus vs. Cow

We were driving around and got stopped by these "hairy coo's" as they called them.

Braveheart Film Location

We made it to Oban and Kelsey and I split up, but decided to meet up later at the pub down the street where they gave you traditional Scottish dance lessons!  I went to dinner with some trip mates and Kelsey hung out in the hostel.

We timed it perfectly because as we were coming out of the restaurant, we heard bagpipes coming from down the road.  It was all the people from our hostel being led by a huge Scottish man to the pub!

Our real Scottish dance partners!

At the pub, I decide it’s time to be a local.  I order myself a whisky, with a splash of water.  It was going down pretty well!  I needed something in me if I was about to learn some new dances.

The guy who led the group here was a one-man show and he was awesome!  He taught us all the different dances as well as played the bagpipes and accordion.  We had such a good time here and it was a great way to spend out last night with the tour group.

Scotland Day 3

Day 3 began with us leaving our hostel to hit the open road.  We are now making our way to the beautiful Isle of Skye.  The roads are crazy over there!  They basically fit one car so if you see a car coming at you, one of you has to pull over.  Their driving is playing “chicken” at all times on back roads!  Keep in mind we are in a huge yellow bus, so it’s not that easy to come to a stop, but we are easy to spot.

One of our first stops is the magical Eilean Donan Castle.  Our bus driver/tour guide set it up perfectly.  He had us close our eyes and then went on to tell us a story about where we were going.  I thought it was going to be something scary based on his story so I was bracing myself thinking that we might fall off a cliff or something.  He then finished with, “turn your head to the right, and open your eyes.”  That’s when I got the chills instantly and saw this:

Eilean Donan Castle is one of the most visited castles in Scotland.  The final scene in, “Made of Honor,” was filmed here.  They were closed for the season but we were able to walk around it.

We then stopped off for lunch and made it to our next photo op.  The Scottish, much like the Irish, are good at the BS-ing.  Kelsey and I had a hard time depicting what was true and what wasn’t.  We were pretty gullible, but like to think we just trust what people tell us.

Still not sure if this is true or not, but the “legend” goes something like this:  you walk up the muddy hill, take a drink from the stream, and keep the water in your mouth until you make it back to where you started and then spit it on a rock and your wish will come true.

It seemed like a fun idea in theory, until you sank ankle deep in mud!  Kelsey gave up at the start, but I was already half way up when I thought this wasn’t a good idea.  I made it to the top, got a big gulp of water, and then made my way down.  The tricky part was not laughing at how ridiculous this was and accidentally spitting out your mouthful too early.  I made it down, thankfully without falling, (I cannot say the same for the majority of the group) and made my wish.

Next it was time for a hike.  Everyone was already muddy and wet so why not?  This was no small hill.  This mountain was legit.  It took us a good half hour at a pretty big incline, but the views were worth it.

Our whole tour group.

We drove around some more and finally made it to our hostel, Saucy Mary’s.  Kelsey and I ate dinner down in the bar and had our favorite meal in Scotland!

Fresh prawns caught that day,
we actually met the men who caught them!

 

I had my local beer and Kelsey had her cider as we busted out the cards to play some drinking games with our fellow trip mates.  P & A was a success and to make things complete, they had a live Scottish band playing Scottish music.  Great day!

Scotland Day 2

Our second day began by waking up to a crispy, frosty morning.  I had a typical hostel breakfast.  It’s pretty basic: toast, jam, bland cereal, hard-boiled eggs.  We all meet on the bus and begin our 2^nd day.  Our tour guide set us up to plant a couple of trees.  They are trying to rebuild their native forest and we helped them out!

After that, we got back in the bus and made our way to Loch Ness to see if we could spot, “The Loch Ness Monster.”  We went down by the lake = loch, and our tour guide had us do this goofy dance to try and get “Vanessa,” to come out and say, “hello.”  After looking like fools, we did not manage to see Nessie.  I am a believer though!

Next we made our way to see the battlefield of Culloden.  This is where the Jacobite (Scottish Rebels) fought their last battle with the British for freedom.  It was a slaughter due to many variables, but it’s an interesting story in Scottish history.

We made a few other stops throughout the day including an old rock formation site, where they are not sure what it was used for.  

We also learned about the fairies of Scotland and stopped off at this spot where you would leave something that represented an ailment of yours and the fairies would help you out.  See pictures!









The day came to and end and Kelsey and I stopped at the hostel pub for a pint and listened to a local one-man-band sing a couple songs.