Days 26-28: London

Monday after landing in London we met up with the group and went to a presentation by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Kind of a governing body for construction in the UK. After the presentation we walked by Westminster Abbey and also went to Churchill's London at War, which was a museum in what was used by the British government as a command post and bomb shelter throughout WW2.

Westminster Abbey.

From London zoo

Some people trying to see how many they could cram into a telephone booth. They got 8.

From London zoo

Tuesday we went on a Thames river cruise, and afterwords walked through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace. Tuesday was kind of a short day so I didn't get to take too many pictures.

Changing of the guard at the Royal Palace.

From London zoo

At Kensington Palace.

From London zoo

Wednesday a group of us went to the London Zoo, and it was awesome. I didn't really expect to like it so much, but I guess I just forgot how much fun it is to see some of the animals.

My favorite part was walking through their rain forest exhibit. In the exhibit, you walk around this rectangular pit that has a small section of rainforest habitat they've created in a greenhouse. This pit is probably about 12 feet below the walkway that you're on, and there are trees that grow up over the walkway and which allow some of the animals to climb up on to the walkway, such as this guy. I have no idea what he's called, but I like him.

From London zoo

And his little friend.

From London zoo

From London zoo

This guy climbed up over us. Kind of scary.

From London zoo

Not sure what he is either.

From London zoo

Meercat.

From London zoo

These otters were pretty cool. They would grab a rock and try to balance it on their paws while juggling it back and forth. They were actually really good at it. I wish I had a video.

From London zoo

Bigger rock. He dropped it.

From London zoo

War Eagle.

From London zoo

Look at that turtle. Huge.

From London zoo

Its kind of hard to tell in this picture, but the monkey that's being jumped on was sitting there eating something, when the monkey that's on top of him walked up and swatted the food out of his hand. The first monkey was obviously none too happy about this, so the second monkey jumped on top of him and then ran away.

From London zoo

Regent's Park walking back from the zoo.

From London zoo

From London zoo

Day 24 & 25: Dublin

Saturday we all got on one of the big red city tour buses, just so we could orient ourselves with the city and get a better understanding of what everything was about. We got off at the Jameson distillery and went on a tour. The tour was pretty cool in that we got to see how Irish whisky was made and how its different compared to Scotch and American versions. Yours truly was one of the lucky eight selected for a taste test, in that I got to sample Jameson, Jack Daniels, and Johnny Walker Black and tell which one I liked best. As this was Ireland, I of course said Jameson was the best. But really I preferred the Johnny Walker. After the Jameson tour we walked over to the Guinness factory, which is really quite massive. The building consisted of seven levels, each one giving different information about Guinness including how it’s made, the different kinds of Guinness, and Guinness marketing campaigns throughout the years. Finally we got to the seventh floor where you get your complimentary glass of Guinness. I’ve heard Guinness doesn’t travel well and therefore that a glass at the brewery is the best that it gets. Turns out that’s true. Compared to Guinness I’ve had in the states it seems to have a little more flavor and taste, and not seem as bland.

From Manchester + Dublin

Jameson tasting.

From Manchester + Dublin

Found outside the Guinness brewery.

From Manchester + Dublin

Inside the Guinness Brewery on the tour.

From Manchester + Dublin

The purpose of the tour. A pint of Guinness seven floors up with a wonderful view of Dublin.

From Manchester + Dublin

The bar area.

From Manchester + Dublin

Sunday I went with Jeff, Clinton, and Kay to take a day long bus tour of Wicklow. We left pretty early and made a few stops along the way for some photo opportunities. This was a German cemetery for airmen who were shot down during WWII and crashed in the Wicklow area of Ireland.

From Manchester + Dublin

From Manchester + Dublin

Apparently this bridge was used in the filming for a scene from ‘PS I Love You.’ I haven’t seen it so I have no idea, but it looked cool.

From Manchester + Dublin

Incredible road.

From Manchester + Dublin

Great view overlooking a lake.

From Manchester + Dublin

It was pretty windy.

From Manchester + Dublin

From Manchester + Dublin

From Manchester + Dublin

Overall it was a great side trip and a good break from the urban setting of Dublin.

Day 23: Dublin

We certainly started off the Dublin trip with a bang. We're in a pretty big group as there's 11 of us total, so finding accommodations was a little troublesome. We were originally scheduled to be staying in a set of apartments on the south side of town. However, a few days before we left we got an email saying we had been 'upgraded' to a new set of apartments. We thought this was great, however it turned out to be pretty pretty bad. Our flight didn't end up getting us into Dublin until about 11:30 Thursday night. As we were taking the cab into Dublin, the driver mentioned in his 15 years of driving he had never driven anyone to where we were going. Warning sign #1.
When we pulled onto the street where we were saying, the driver started to mention that this wasn't exactly the best side of town, and that he wouldn't walk alone at night, or wonder off the main street. Warning sign #2. We finally got into our apartments, and they actually weren't too bad, besides being in the absolute slums of Dublin. To cap it all off, the property manager who was letting us into our apartments, Martin, had a HUGE attitude and was completely rude to everyone and was showing absolutely no respect to any of us.
At this point we had figured out that our 'upgrade' was nothing more than a dupe and that they had probably just run out of room in our original location and just moved us over to the rough side of town and hoped we wouldn't notice. We gave the booking agency a very angry phone call and they promised they would send someone over in the morning to work it all out. We survived the night, barely. Turns out someone was stabbed to death not too far from us. The booking agency sent Karen over, and she was genuinely sorry for the mistake, and realized her company had screwed up big time. We got a full refund for all four nights we were supposed to stay there, including the night before, plus 100 Euros extra. We immediately went straight to the Holiday Inn in the good part of town, and couldn't have been happier since.
The rest of Friday consisted of us walking around town and seeing the Temple Bar area. We spent most of the day going to pubs and seeing what Dublin had to offer. Today, Saturday, we plan on doing a bus tour and seeing more of Dublin's traditional landmarks. I'll bring my camera this time so I should have plenty of pictures.

Days 18-22

I haven't been posting too much because this has been the home stretch for thesis. We have gone to a few sites around Manchester but honestly, this city is pretty boring. I'll be leaving to Dublin for the weekend in a few hours though, so I should have plenty of pictures when I get back. In addition, I just turned in my Thesis, the culmination of 10 weeks and hundreds of hours of work. I feel so liberated. Kind of like this:




And this:



And a little of this:



And a bit of this:



...All rolled into one.
Anyway, we're off to Dublin and I'll have plenty of pictures when we get back to London on Monday.

Day 16 & 17

Unfortunately nothing much of note has happened the the last few days. Friday consisted of working on thesis all day. Some of the other people did go back to St. Andrews to see The Open, however. Saturday also consisted of working on Thesis all day. The benefit of all the work is I'm finaly starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so that's good. We turn in Thesis this Thursday so I'll finally be able to relax after that evening. Saturday evening about ten of us all went on a haunted tour in the vaults underneath the main streets of Edinburgh. The tour was by Auld Reekie Tours, and it was pretty entertaining. It started off by a guide taking us to a few different buildings up on the main street, sort of giving us a back story on the vaults underground. Apparently they were used by shopkeepers as storage in the late 1700s and by the homeless once the shopkeepers had moved on. While I never saw any poltergeists or anything else out of the ordinary as claimed by the tour guide, it was a pretty spooky place overall and the guide had some entertaining stories. What more can you ask for with ghost tours?

Day 15 & 16: Edinburgh

Not too much has gone on for the past few days except for a lot of work on Thesis. Yesterday we took a bus out to visit Heriot-Watt University. They have a construction program so we were able to listen to a short presentation by two of their professors. Afterwords, we came back to Edinburgh and went on a whiskey tour. I thought it would be kind of lame at first because you go on a ride in these big barrels, kind of like something that would be in Disney World. But it was actually pretty interesting, as they explained the process of how the whiskey was made, of which I had no idea. Once the ride was over you're brought into a room with four different small bottles with cotton balls in them, each with a distinctive smell of the four major whiskey producing regions in Scotland.

From Day 15 & 16

A short presentation explained each region and you were then asked to pick which one you liked best, and then they brought out a bottle and poured you a small glass of the type of whiskey you liked best.

From Day 15 & 16

Next you went into a room which contained the world's largest whiskey collection. It was mighty impressive to say the least. The picture doesn't do it justice, every wall of the rooms was filled top to bottom just like in this picture.

From Day 15 & 16

Thursday, we left this morning to head out to see a presentation about the new tram they are building in Edinburgh. Currently the only public transportation available in the city are city buses. However, starting in 2012 there will be a tram that runs through the middle of the city and out to connect with the airport. It has been a controversial project because some people feel the bus system is fine and that a tram running through the city along with all the electrical wires required will negatively affect the old time feel of Edinburgh. After the presentation we left to go out to a construction site were they were building part of the rail line for the tram.

From Day 15 & 16

From Day 15 & 16

Having seen that we continued on to get a look at the Firth Bridge. Not much to say here except that it is very impressive, especially for having been built in 1890.

From Day 15 & 16

Finally, we went on to get a look at the Scottish Parliament. Wow. I always had heard it was a controversial building when it was completed in 2004 but I had never actually seen it. It looks more like an art gallery than a building for the Scottish government. Not only that, but it cost 440 million pounds. Incredible.

From Day 15 & 16

From Day 15 & 16

Day 13 & 14: Edinburgh and St. Andrews

From Day 13 & 14

We arrived in Edinburgh early Monday afternoon and got to walk around the town a bit before having dinner and settling in for the night. This is actually my second time in Edinburgh, my first trip being three years ago, and I was immediately reminded of how great a city Edinburgh is compared to London. Don't get me wrong, London is a great city but its just something about Edinburgh that makes it seem much more friendly and fun than London. We didn't do too much on Monday but on Tuesday we woke up super early and caught a train out to St. Andrews to watch a practice round of the British Open. Not only is St. Andrews a neat little town in its own right, but the golf course was simply outstanding. I've never been to Augusta, but its by far the most beautiful course I've ever seen. While there we got a few glimpses of Tiger before he ran off, but also got a much closer look at Phil Mickelson. I've always heard good things about Phil, but today I found out why he has the reputation of being a really good person. During the day some golfers will stop and sign a few autographs while they're playing their practice rounds, but when asked Phil always said no, but he would after the 18th hole. Later in the day I and a few other students along with many other people gathered around where the players were exiting the course. Some players signed a few autographs, and others just ignored everyone completely. After Phil had finished the 18th, he came out a few minutes later and started signing autographs for probably a good 15-20 minutes. If you wanted something signed, good chance you got it signed. Really a class act. On the other hand, Rory McIlroy, the 21 year old British golfer who just got on the cover of the latest golfing videogame and who had lots of younger fans screaming his name when he came out, walked on by without even glancing at anyone. Pretty disappointing to not take 5 minutes out of your day to show some appreciation towards your fans when your job is to play golf professionally. Overall it was a great day, the weather continues to be absolutely perfect, and I'm looking forward to the rest of our week here in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh

From Day 13 & 14

The Open

From Day 13 & 14

The infamous Tiger.

From Day 13 & 14

From Day 13 & 14

From Day 13 & 14

From Day 13 & 14

From Day 13 & 14

Phil

From Day 13 & 14

St. Andrews Castle.

From Day 13 & 14

From Day 13 & 14

From Day 13 & 14

At the top of the tower.

From Day 13 & 14

Towel I bought. Argyle.

From Day 13 & 14

Oh yeah. And Phil Mickelson signed my ticket.

From Day 13 & 14