Travelin' Man

I have had the wonderful opportunity while being here at the University of Aberdeen to do quite a bit of traveling on the weekends. Some of the places in Scotland I have been are Glasgow (twice), Stonehaven (twice), Dundee, Edinburgh, Gullane, and of course, Aberdeen. On top of that, this past weekend I was able to go to Northern Ireland. My flat mate (roommate) lives in Larne, which is a small town right outside of the capital city of Belfast. Edinburgh and Northern Ireland have definitely been my favorite places so far.

Edinburgh was by far one of the coolest cities I have been to. It has a wonderful mixture of natural beauty combined with historic buildings, architecture, and a well-kept medieval castle. In the historic section of the city “Old Town” as they call it, they have a strip called the Royal Mile. On one end of the Royal Mile is the Edinburgh castle, overlooking the whole city, and at the bottom of the Mile is Hollyrood House, or palace. This is where the queen stays when she comes to Edinburgh. Between these to historic destinations is a mile of historic, yet still in business, buildings, shops, churches, all made out of stone. We were there for a day and a half, and in the morning we rose up around 5:45 and climbed to the top of Arthur’s Seat, which is a massive hill, some may even call it a mountain. We wanted to make it in time for the sunrise, which we barely accomplished (the previous night we went to the top of Calton Hill for the sunset). It overlooks all of Edinburgh, seated right behind Hollyrood.

That same day, the three friends (all Americans) and myself went to a very small village outside of Edinburgh called Gullane. This place was amazing as well. It was a small town on the shore and has paths connecting town to town meant for horse only that lies behind the links course on the other side of the stone wall. We were able to explore this countryside, and even found an old abandon castle that dated to the 14^th century. No one was there, so we just gave ourselves a grand tour.

This past weekend in Northern Ireland proved to be one of the coolest weekends of my life. We (Brandon and Zac Sansom) stayed with my flat mate James’ family. The first day we went to Castlewellan and to the Mournes. I think I can honestly say that this was the most beautiful place I have even been to. At Castlewellan we were able to walk around a lake that is surrounded by forest, with a castle sitting on a hill in the distance, trees bursting in color all around it, dwarfing it in their magnitude. We then went through the so-called World’s Largest Peace Maze. This was amazing, even though we raced to the finish, and I didn’t win. I was only bitter for two seconds. After this we went to the Mourne Mountians. We climbed up through the forest that reminded me of Sherwood Forest from Robin Hood, or something out of Lord of the Rings, following a raging stream that violently stormed down the hill. Once we reached the end of the tree line, the mountains opened up in all of God’s intended glory for them all. It was a masterpiece of greenery, heighth, depth, streams, rocks, boulders…and sheep! We didn’t have much time to climb to the top because it gets dark around 4:30, so instead of going the normal touristy way, we took the road less traveled, nearly straight up, destined to the peak of the tallest mountain. I fell several times, stepped in several holes, and was a muddy mess. I did have tennis shoes on, so that didn’t help with the typical soaking grass and slippery slopes. As we neared the top, this sheep dog went flying past us, climbing the mountain in two minutes, unbelievable, minutes later, we saw a small dot at the bottom of the hill, a shepherd, calling for his dog and the sheep. Moments later, we see sheep running down from the top of the mountain, being musically driven by this dog. We couldn’t believe that a dog could be trained to do what we were seeing. It was a cool sight, and they nearly went right by us. As we neared the top, we could see all of New Castle, several golf courses, the Sea, and a view that many would die to see. God is beautiful.

The next day we drove up the North Shore with our driver and new friend Jonny from "Norn Iron" We went to a rope bridge that straddled the sea about 100 meters high. The cliffs were massive and picturesque, and stretched as far as I can see. It was pretty scary going across that flimsy bridge, while James was jumping up and down on it, dirty man. We went straightaway after that to Giant's Causeway, which some consider the other natural wonder of the world. This was a volcanic rock formation that hardened in hexagonal shapes and stacks, that extend from the cliffs facing the Scottish shore. Pictures and videos to come soon.

I am doing great and thoroughly enjoying my time. I have been meeting unbelievable people from nearly all over the world. More to come on the happenings and my experience as a student here in Aberdeen, for those who are considering studying abroad...stay tuned, I have some encouraging words for you. Love you all.