by Allison Pitts

On Friday, we went to explore Edinburgh Castle. As we approached the castle through the Military Tattoo all I could think of was how large and beautiful the place was. Looking up at the castle, I felt like I was stepping back in time.  Once inside the main walls of the castle, we continued to look around and soak in the views. We were told that the castle would get crowded so we were to take pictures early and then tour the castle. The view from one of the highest lookouts of the castle was spectacular. You could see all around Edinburgh. We were lucky to tour the castle on such a clear day, because we were able to see the entire city! Walking around and reading about all of the history in the Edinburgh Castle, I began to realize how old the place really was. It is strange coming from a country that is only a little more than two hundred years old and then learning about things that happened in medieval times right where you are standing.

            My favorite part of touring the castle was learning about The Scottish Crown Jewels. The crown jewels consist of a Crown, a Sceptre and a Sword of State. The Scottish Crown Jewels are the oldest in the British Isles. Although we were not allowed to take pictures of them, their well-preserved beauty amazed me. The crown alone was made of pure Scottish gold, gemstones, precious stones and pearls. 

Leaving the castle, I felt so lucky that I was in beautiful Edinburgh and had the opportunity to learn about and see such amazing history. The Edinburgh Castle is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to and learning how many things have happened there made the castle all the more beautiful and exciting to visit. 

by Julie Kimelman

Today we met at Waverley Station at 10am for an hour-long train ride to Stirling Castle.  I still can’t believe how nice these trains are compared to Amtrak! When we finally arrived, we took a taxi to the top Castle Rock and then climbed another staircase to the castle entrance.  Aside from the breathtaking view, the first thing that stood out to me was the outer defense. In addition to the ditch and drawbridge surrounding the castle, we learned that the outer defense consists of low, thick walls designed to resist attack, along with Guardroom Square, which consists of higher walls.

Stirling Castle is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland because of its prime location on top of Castle Hill.  We began our journey in the Unicorn Cafe where Bill gave us a historical overview while we ate lunch. Once we all had a general understanding, we took some time to explore the main courtyard while waiting for our tour to begin. The inside of the Palace has two separate spaces, one for the king and one for the queen. It was really cool to be able to walk through each of the rooms and speak to the actors representing the different people who would have been in each of the chambers.  On the tour we learned that when Prince Henry was born, James VI did not think that the chapel that Queen Mary was crowned in was royal enough for Prince Henry’s christening so he rebuilt it in 1594.  In the early 1600s, Stirling became more of a military center rather than royal residence.

After the formal tour, we went to explore the back of the castle and the tapestry exhibition.  We met a very nice man in the exhibition who explained that Historic Scotland has commissioned seven hand-made tapestries to be hung in the Queen’s Inner Hall. Part of the exhibition room was set up as a studio for the weavers, and the other part explained the story of the Unicorn.

We concluded our day by walking through Stirling, admiring the beautiful town and eating together at Nicky-Tams.

by Sam Wend

Today we kicked into high gear again with an all-day tourist trip to St. Andrews. Half of the girls -- there are ten of us living together -- still recovering from jet lag, the whole gang boarded a train at Waverly Station and rolled through the beautiful Scottish countryside, crossing the Firth of Forth to Fife arriving by mid-morning in the small but beautiful medieval town.

St. Andrews has a somewhat eclectic claim to fame. First, it's the birthplace of golf. We didn't spend a whole lot of time on that area of the town, as none of the group are golfers, but we did pause for a moment to look out at the 18th hole.    

In addition to the golf course, one of the other popular draws of the town is the University of St. Andrews, which is celebrating its 600th anniversary this year. Both Xela and her husband Bill went here -- as did Prince William and Kate. Bill was our guide for the day, and as we walked he pointed out buildings such as the dorm where he lived and the new arts building that had "coincidentally" been built right around the time Prince William arrived at the university to study Art History.

Before long, we arrived at the St. Andrew Castle. Before exploring the ruins, we visited the corresponding museum. We walked through winding hallways lined with beautiful paintings and writings on the history of the town and the castle, but I hardly had a chance or a need to look at any of them, as Bill's value as a guide became apparent. Well learned in medieval history, he was an invaluable treasure trove of information about St. Andrews Castle and beyond.

As Bill explained and as can likely be guessed from the town's name, St. Andrews is significant in large part because of its role as a religious epicenter. Without its towering cathedral and important location as a place of religious worship and pilgrimage, it would just be another lovely but sleepy seaside town. In the medieval times, and still today in many countries, the separation of church and state is an unheard of concept; the two were irreversibly intertwined. Therefore, bishops of the church played roles in local government and were quite powerful, and they lived in castles to protect them from their enemies.


Unfortunately, little remains of the castle today. The outer circle can clearly be seen in the form of rocky walls and foundations, but the majority if it is long since gone. Still, it makes for fascinating exploration, particularly when one takes a moment to envision what it was like in its heyday.

One particularly interesting part of the castle ruins that we got to explore was the mine and counter-mine. In the olden days, without good gunpowder or cannonballs, it was very difficult to cause significant damage to castle walls and get at anyone hiding within. So, when armies attacked a castle, one way to attempt to bring it down was by digging a tunnel underneath the walls and lighting a fire, which would then cause heat to rise and collide with likely cold weather conditions, making the stone walls buckle and crack. In retaliation, the castle-dwellers would dig a counter-mine, which they would intersect with the attacker's mine and fight the opposing forces, in theory killing them before their mine workers could light a fire and do any damage. St. Andrews is one of the only places where a mine and counter-mine both still exist, since after they was used, whichever party won would typically fill in the mines to protect themselves. However, at the time the ones we explored were made, the castle was very close to being torn down, so no one ever bothered to fill them in.

After the Castle, the logical next stop in such a religious town was the Cathedral of St. Andrews. This gorgeous epicenter of religious life was built over the course of eleven bishops' eras -- over one hundred years -- and when nearly finished, the west end caved in and had to be rebuilt. That said, in its time it was enormous (with altars numbering in the teens, so no one could miss hearing mass any time they came by), and I wish I could have seen it in its full glory. Unfortunately, it was torn down in the 16th century during the Scottish Reformation, when Catholic masses were outlawed. The Calvinists destroyed countless Catholic saints’ statues and relics because they didn't understand the concept of praying to saints for intercession and saw the opulence of the cathedral as unnecessarily materialistic. Today, the beautiful ruins sit for all to explore and remember, and the large grassy terrain serves as a cemetery.

Before the enormous Cathedral was built, the area's church was St. Rule's (St. Regulus) Cathedral, which quickly became too small for the demands of the town, hence the building of the Cathedral of St. Andrews. Today, all that stands of St. Rule's Cathedral is a beautiful old tower, which would've once served as a watchtower. You can still climb a mountain of winding, curving stairs to reach the roof of the building for incredible views of the town -- which, of course, we did.

After basking in the glory of the magnificent view and enjoying the rare but splendid Scottish sunshine, we descended the spiral staircase and headed out to what Bill continually insisted was the best bakery in the world, Fisher and Donaldson. Best in the world is a bit of a stretch to me, but I did enjoy an absolutely scrumptious treat called a "Coffee Cream Tower."

Finally, we made one last official stop, to the primary buildings of the University of St. Andrews, where Bill told us a little more about the school itself and about its founding. For many years, Scotland and England were not exactly pals. Scotland didn't have a university of its own, so the closest options were Oxford and Cambridge, where Scots were permitted to go but not really welcome. Scotland and France were allies at the time, but going to university in Paris would have been extraordinarily expensive. Therefore, the Scots were striving for a long time to get a university of their own, but didn't have the power or the money to get the papacy to support them in doing so, which was necessary at the time since a university had to be approved/chartered by the Church. They finally succeeded when there was a schism in the Church in the late 1300s and early 1400s and there were three popes because all had been recognized at one point and none had stepped down. Scotland approached one, who did not at the time have the support of any full country's government behind him, and told him they would officially support him -- if he would give them a university. And so, the University of St. Andrews was formed.

After our visit to the university, we were set free to wander the town for a couple hours. Then, we reconvened for dinner at Rules Pub Diner, where I had a delicious beef chili burrito. Storms clouds threatened as we wrapped up our meal, so we headed back to the train station and returned to Edinburgh, exhausted but pleased with our wonderful day. 

by Katelin Del Rosario

4:57

The commuter’s bus to the Newark airport from New York City was running late due to rush hour, and despite having three hours until my 8:00 flight to Edinburgh took off, my palms were sweating with nervousness.

What if the bus took another hour? What if I was late?

The weather did not make the wait go by faster. The air was not as heavy as it had been in the previous week, but the air was not only heavy, but as any other city, the air itself felt like someone had somehow managed to fill the air with sludge.

5:26

Finally, the bus turned the corner and pulled up to our bus stop. I let out a deep sigh of relief. Finally. I let the bus driver take my luggage so he could store it under the bus. I stored my baby guitar in the compartment above my seat and sat down towards the back of the bus hoping that no one would sit next to me, but due to the bus’s tardiness, there were too many people hoping to get on the bus that I knew I wouldn’t be alone. As I predicted, someone sat next to me, a man middle aged with dark brown hair and a sharp nose, but I didn’t mind so much. 

6:21

I got off the bus at Terminal C and rushed to check-in my bags so that I could get to my gate. Due to the unusually good customer service at the counter, the check-in line only took twenty minutes to get through.

Thank God. 

I walked briskly to airport security and waited for my turn to go through that magical metal portal that led to the airport gates to the airport gates. I stood in line and looked back to ensure that my bag was closed properly.

“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t steal anything.” Someone said behind me.

I turned back to apologize. “I—“

The man had a goatee and glasses. His face reminded me of a cute English bulldog—round and pudgy. He had earrings with a picture of an animated cat in his left ear. But the thing that caught my eye was his fedora hat. I adored fedora hats. I realized that I had been staring for far too long and had not finished my sentence, and the man was looking at me oddly.

“I…like your hat.” I finished lamely.

That seemed to appease him. He instantly brightened and straightened. It was obvious that he loved his hat. “Thank you! Are you a musician?” He asked pointing to my guitar case.

“Oh, yeah. I play.”

“Are you in the business?”

I nodded in affirmation. “Yup.”

“That’s awesome! Performing or business?”

“Oh, I’m on the business side. I’m an entertainment and arts management major at Drexel University.” I explained. “What about you?”

“Business as well. Music.” He replied.

I laughed with glee. “I should’ve known by your hat.” I told him.

“Why is that?”

“In my experience, most people involved in the music industry wear fedora hats. So what exactly do you do?”

“I work in booking venues. I’m in charge of booking all the major venues in the Northeast area like Radio City. I’m on my way to a tour of the US and Canada with a band.”

            I held true to my EAM training, because the only thing I could think about at that point was getting his business card. Unfortunately, we had only begun to talk about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival when it was my turn to hand the security officer my boarding pass and passport.

            Just my luck.

            “See you around.” He said as he went to another part of the line.

            It was one of the few times that I wished that the security line hadn’t gone by so fast. I put all my belongings on the conveyer belt and walked through the metal detector. When it didn’t beep in protest, I smiled and quickly gathered my bags so that I could catch the guy before he went to his gate. I spotted him from my spot, and slowly reoriented my stuff so that it would not look like I was waiting for him to get to my side of security. Once he went past security, he sat down at one of the benches to get his stuff together.

            I approached him. “Did your hat survive?”

            He looked up. “No, the guy smushed my hat.” He said with a frown. He looked like a little kid that had just had his action figure sat on by his parent. “These hats are so hard to travel with.”

            I agreed with a nod. My mind yelled at me that it was time to pick up the pace so that I could go to my gate. “Well, it was nice talking to you…” I trailed off realizing that I never caught his name.

            “Sean.” He finished.

            “Katelin. Thanks for keeping me company in the line. Look me up if you’re ever in Philly.”

            “Likewise. Oh, here. Let me give you this.” He reached into his wallet, pulled out his business card, and handed one to me.

            “Thank you so much. I’m really sorry I don’t have a business card for you.”

            “That’s ok. You’re a student. You don’t need one quite yet.”

            “It was nice meeting you, Sean. If you’re ever in Philly, let me know.”

            “I will. It was nice meeting you as well. Good luck in Edinburgh.”

            “Good luck on your tour.”

            I turned toward my gate and walked away with the business card in hand. I stopped for a moment to take it all in: Edinburgh Fringe, one month away from home, meeting Sean.

            “Oh!” I looked at the business card in my hand. “Sean Striegel. VP Live Nation Booking….VP.”

            Wait, did I just meet the VP of Live Nation? I’m not even in Edinburgh yet.

            7:17

            I glanced at my clock. “Oh, good gosh. Gotta go.” I tucked Sean’s business card safely in my wallet as I rushed to my gate to board my flight to Edinburgh.

by Ali Pajonk

Hi Friends!

So I’d been in Europe for five days already and had yet to start my blog, so I decided to sit and recap my travels today. And what better place to do it than the Elephant Room. Yup that’s right, my flat is right around the corner from the café where JK Rowling spent much of her time writing Harry Potter! And if she could get inspiration to write seven novels here, I’m sure I can crank out a blog post…as long as I don’t get distracted by the amazing view of the Edinburgh castle out the window. Welp here goes nothing, hope you guys enjoy my stories! Cheers!

I made my crazy journey to Edinburgh with my friend and fellow EAM major Sam, and after sitting on a plane for a two-hour rain delay for our flight to Dublin, we were finally in the air at around 9pm. For anyone who doesn’t know me, you should probably know how much I hate planes and that I’m petrified of flying, so a seven hour flight wasn’t exactly my dream come true. But I sucked it up and took some natural anxiety relief drops (which I’m convinced were just drops of vanilla extract but whatever) and I was good for the entire flight. Didn’t even have to clutch onto the armrests once! I managed to sleep most of the time and before I knew it we were descending and I got my first glimpse of Europe from the sky. Green. Green everywhere. This was the first point where I started to deny that any of this was real (still in denial almost a week later) and I thought that any minute I’d wake up in my bed back in Philly. But I keep waking up and I’m still here, so hopefully it’ll set in soon.

We got off the plane at around 8:30 Dublin time, went through “customs” (a woman asking why we were there and stamping our passports), grabbed our luggage and ventured out of the airport to find a bus. Busses in Ireland try to be tourist-friendly with their small luggage sections, but it doesn’t really help when your bag is 50 pounds and you can’t lift it over the edge to put it inside. So I sat on the stairs of the bus, cuddling with my suitcase that’s almost as big as I am and tried to fall asleep so I wouldn’t think about how nauseous I felt riding sitting sideways. FYI bus drivers and taxi drivers have the same “yolo” lifestyle as they do at home, just on the opposite side of the road. After what seemed like the longest bus ride of my life, we were dropped off in the center of Dublin and walked a few blocks to our adorable hostel. Abbey Court is the cutest purple building covered in flowers that’s right along the River Liffey (my new favorite river, especially when the locals refer to it with their accents). It was exactly what I pictured a hostel would be, but luckily our roommates were much less scary than I had imagined. Most of the people who were staying with us were college students or in their late 20’s, and from what it sounded like they didn’t speak much English.

We dropped off our luggage and attempted to fight the jet lag by wandering around for a while and we found a group that was about to go on a three hour walking tour of the city, so we tagged along.  Our tour guide Ciaran (Ky-ron) was so cool, and took us to a bunch of amazing places around the city. We learned about Ireland’s crazy history, where their battles and rebellions almost always began with heavy drinking at the pub and didn’t always end well for the Irish (shocker). It was also confirmed that all of the Irish stereotypes about drinking are absolutely true and have been throughout history, and the American version of an Irish pub is pretty accurate. Here are some of the things we got to see!

The remains of the Dublin Castle (the rest was burned down)

The filming spot for a scene in PS I Love You! Which is right across the street from the birthplace of Jonathan Swift, who was the author of Gulliver’s Travels and who also proposed that the Irish government allow families to sell their babies for red meat (a satire piece commenting on the way the government was treating its people).

We also saw Wall-E :)

U2 used to perform across the street from The Clarence Hotel and the owner wouldn’t let them in because they weren’t the “type of people they wanted to serve”. So once they got their big break they basically gave them the finger and bought the building, and the rest of the property on that side of the block. Take that.

The Temple bar is one of the oldest pubs in Dublin!    

The beautiful campus of Trinity College. Looks just like Drexel…yup.

We ended the tour at another building, but I couldn’t tell you what it was. Cairan let us sit on the steps while he talked since we had been walking for so long. Aka I may or may not have fallen asleep.

After the tour we went back to the hostel to bring our luggage to our room and take a little rest. No naps though, we fought that jet lag to the death. I almost gave in at one point, so we went out to explore the city more to stay awake. We went back over to Trinity College and got to see the library right before it closed. If it looks familiar to you, it’s probably because it was used as the Jedi library in the Star Wars movies. It was basically a church full of books and was by far the most beautiful library I’ve ever seen.

After the library we realized that we had hardly eaten all day, so we went to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen (yeah my first meal in Europe was a burger, sue me) and had delicious burgers, fried mushrooms and the best chocolate milkshake ever. Afterwards we did a lot more wandering, went back to the Temple Bar pub to hang out for a while, and called it a night after getting to use Wi-Fi for the first time in what felt like years. Needless to say I passed out the second my head hit the pillow that night, but it was the best feeling in the world. Ali:1 Jetlag: 0