Home for Christmas!

Flashback to December:

After my exams I had a day off then I flew home for Christmas Break.

I flew home via Dublin on Aer Lingus.  The Irish never cease to amaze me with their ability to consume alcohol.  I arrived in Dublin at 9:30 in the morning and the bar was packed with people having pints.  At Burger King you could upgrade your meal from a soft drink to a pint of beer!  My four hours in the airport were spent mostly perusing the incredible number of Guinness trinkets you could buy.  Aer Lingus itself was quite an experience.  They definitely didn't want you to forget they were an Irish airline.  Everything was green.  The outside of the plane, the inside of the plane, the uniforms, the headphones they gave us, even our food was served on a green tray.  We arrived in Toronto nicely, unfortunately my bag took about an hour to arrive.

Once my bag finally did arrive and I got home I spent most of the rest of the evening on the sofa with Mars curled up next to me.

Much of the first week I spent on the sofa because I caught a cold.  But it was much more pleasant to be stuck on the sofa with two dogs for company.  As some sofa breaks, I tried to stage some photos with the dogs.  As per usual, there were some great photos and some terrible but also funny photos.

Mars was not a fan of getting on the sleigh but accepted it once he was on

Jenny actually loved the sleigh.  She sat there for quite a while of her own free will
after we had stopped telling her to stay

Photogenic as usual

I think this is the only picture I have ever taken where it isn't Mars making a weird face!

Christmas dog

She hated the lights...

Christmas was pretty low key this year which I was definitely ok with.  It was nice to have a relaxing day with family.

Tired puppies after Christmas

After Christmas I spent a day working at the clinic which was fun, although it was very very busy!  The day didn't get off to an auspicious start.  Holding the first animal of the day I somehow managed to snap my name tag into two pieces.  Luckily the day improved from there.

The rest of my Christmas break was spent relaxing and doing some shopping for things to take back that are way more expensive to buy in Edinburgh (example Maple Syrup is extraordinarily expensive in Scotland so I stocked up at Costco).

On January 1st it was time for me to fly back.  This time I was flying through London.  Our flight leaving Toronto was late because we had to taxi from one end of the airport to the other to get de-iced and then taxi back to take off.  Then when we arrived in London we were put in a holding pattern before we could land.  So that meant my two hour plus layover was less than an hour.  Luckily I made it through customs, security and to my gate for my flight to Edinburgh as my plane was boarding.

I had one day to recover then it was time for classes again.  And I think I will leave that for the next post!

Some Photography Attempts, The Christmas Market and Exams

Flashback to November:

When exams roll around I end up pretty much living at my desk, the library or the gym and don't get to go out and do much fun.  So once my midterm exams are over I like to try and go back out and explore Edinburgh.  I'm here for four years I have got to make the most of it!

One sunny afternoon (a rather rare occurrence especially in November) I went out for a walk around the city and took some pictures.  Some of the pictures I had taken before, but it was on a gloomy day, so I wanted a version of it in the sun.

Edinburgh Castle with some fall colours

St. Giles Cathedral

Scott Monument with the Remembrance Day memorial
(They are tiny crosses with poppies covering the grass)

Later in the month it was the start of the Edinburgh Christmas market.  I decided that I wanted to try out some night photography.  Other than the botanic gardens light night I really hadn't done much in the way of night photography.  I was going to take pictures on George Street because it is always so nicely decorated for Christmas.  But this particular Sunday afternoon the streets were packed.  It then occurred to me it was the official opening party of Edinburgh Christmas and the Street of Light which was at the other end of George Street.  To get away from the crowds I decided to head up to Calton Hill.  I set up in one spot and got quite a few photos.

Edinburgh Castle, The Balmoral Hotel and the rides at Edinburgh Christmas

Edinburgh Castle

I decided to move to another location on Calton Hill to try and get another view.  As I was setting up my tripod I noticed that quite a crowd was gathering.  There were murmurs of fireworks.  That's when it occurred to me there are always fireworks for the opening of Edinburgh Christmas and they were going to start in two minutes.  The first few fireworks that went off I didn't get great pictures as I wasn't quite ready.  But after a couple fireworks I managed to get a good shot.  Unfortunately there was no wind so the smoke didn't clear and the fireworks became more and more obscured.

Lucky chance to stumble upon the fireworks

On the walk home I decided to stop and take a picture of the castle from the Castle Esplanade.

The Castle at Night

After that night it was time to buckle down and start studying.  I hadn't been staying on top of work quite as well as I had in previous semesters (once the cow portion of the farm course was over my motivation took a turn for the worse) so I had quite a bit of work to do the couple weeks before the exams.  I had some serious moments of regret during that revision week.  Why didn't I revise more during the semester?!  All in all it turned out fine and the exams went really well (of course there were some moments of self doubt right after the exams!)  But after some time the doubt lifted and I felt really good about my exams.

The Lumineers and The Botanic Gardens

Flashback to October/Early November:

The semester rolled on and I had my two in course assessments for veterinary public health and farm animal medicine a week apart from each other.  The weekend in between a friend I went to The Lumineers concert.  It was held at Usher Hall which is a really nice venue for a concert, big enough for an energetic atmosphere but also small enough it still feels fairly intimate.  I had wanted to see the Lumineers on their last tour in Toronto but wasn't able to get tickets.  So when my friend offered me an extra ticket I jumped at the chance.  We had standing tickets and because of some timing confusion (we ended up being super early) we got a really good spot close to the front.  They sounded just as good live as they do on their album.  It was such a good study break!

About 4 rows back from the front!

Once exams were done a friend and I went to the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens for Botanic Lights.  They light up the gardens at night in lots of different ways.  I had seen pictures for the past two years but was never able to time it right to be able to go.  This year it worked out perfectly so I was very excited.  Both my friend and I brought our cameras and tripods with us to try and get some cool pictures.  The weather was beautiful (as in not raining or blowing a gale) but quite chilly (ok so it was just around freezing but for Edinburgh standards that is pretty cold.  I think living here has made me a bit soft when it comes to cold weather!)  The tour was divided into different parts of the world and the decorations in each section reflected what part of the world you were supposed to be in.  We took our time going through looking at all the different displays.  It was really fun but after a couple hours touring around we were definitely ready to head home to warm up.

Lighted path with some ghostly figures

String of Prayer Flags - Common in Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet
It is believed the wind will pick up the prayers written on the flags and
blow the prayers far and wide.

The arctic

The hedge - 8m tall and 212m long!

Palm House

Rosslyn Chapel and Back to School

Flashback to Late September/Early October:

After returning home from Copenhagen and Stockholm I started classes.

The semester consisted of two different courses.  Veterinary Public Health, which involved a lot of information about slaughter safety and welfare as well as public health safety regarding meat and infectious disease that can be spread from animal to humans.  My second course was farm animal medicine.  That course covered all medicine and surgery for cows, sheep, pigs, poultry and even fish. For those of you that know me, while I really do like cows and did enjoy my lambing experience with sheep, farm animal medicine and veterinary public health are definitely not my two favourite subjects!

My parents got back from Islay at the same time I got back from Stockholm.  On my second day of classes I had a big gap so we decided to go to the Rosslyn Chapel which is about a mile away from campus.  For anyone who is a Dan Brown fan or has seen the movie the Da Vinci Code you may know that the Rosslyn Chapel is featured in the book and is used as a filming location in the movie (I haven't seen the movie but I feel like I should watch it to see the Rosslyn Chapel portrayed in film).

The construction for the chapel started in 1456.  The chapel was meant to be cruciform in shape but only the choir, the lady chapel and the crypt (built at an earlier date) were ever completed.  The chapel was abandoned and left in disrepair.  In the 1650s Oliver Cromwell's troops used the chapel as a horse stable.  However restorations started with Queen Victoria when she visited the chapel and thought it was astoundingly beautiful.  After many years of restorations (and restoring damages made by early restorations) the chapel is the way it stands now.  Made of sandstone the intricate carvings on the inside of the chapel are amazing (unfortunately you aren't allow to take pictures of the inside).

Details on the window give only a tiny insight into the intricacies of the carvings inside.

The semester started off pretty well until early October when I managed to break my finger playing field hockey.  My finger got pinched between two sticks and I managed to fracture two bones and crack a third.  I got incredibly lucky in the sense that my semester was somewhat front loaded in terms of practicals so I never had to try and work with a cow with my broken finger.

One week after the break - still some nice bruising around the knuckle
(but this is very faded compared to what it was originally!)

Copenhagen and Stockholm

So it has been a while....

First semester was busier than any of my previous semesters.  I fell behind on the blog and felt like I was too far behind to catch up!  My goal is over the next couple weeks to try and catch up on the many posts that I missed and then stay up to date.  I'm not making any guarantees but I will do my best!

So time for a flashback to September:

After returning from the Faroe Islands my parents and I did some touristy things for the day.

First off we went to visit Linlithgow Palace.  Like most palaces and castles in Scotland this palace had its history of destruction (fires, wars etc) and rebuilding.  Its first form was built in the 12th century and was occupied until 1745,  In this year Bonnie Prince Charlie came to visit, however he didn't stay overnight which was quite a disappointment for them.  In 1746 much of the palace was destroyed in a fire.  (For any Outlander fans, Linlithgow Palace served as Wentworth Prison in the TV show).

The Entrance with the fountain behind

An engraving on the fountain

View of the Palace from one of the towers

We then headed to the Kelpies (in a post a while ago I have a picture of the Mini Kelpies).  The Kelpies represent the horse powered heritage of Scotland.  They were impressively tall in person.

The following day my parents set off for Islay, famous for its Scotch Distilleries and a friend and I left for Copenhagen, Denmark.  When we arrived the weather was incredible, 25 degrees and sunny. Neither of us were quite prepared for such warm weather.  We took a train in from the airport and got off a few stops before our hostel to walk around.  We spent most of the rest of the day just touring around.  In the evening we got a pizza from a little pizza joint and sat in a park overlooking the water to eat.  We headed back to our hostel, got a pint of Carlsberg each and sat out in the garden for the remainder of the evening.

The next day we went out to a bakery for breakfast.  They had incredible pastries!  After breakfast we walked around for a couple hours and then returned back to our hostel to rent bicycles and take a bicycle tour.  Copenhagen is an incredibly bike friendly city.  Every road has a bike lane, major roads have bike traffic signals and there are several bike only roads.  We had a blast biking around the city and we got to see so much more than if we had just walked.

Our wonderfully unhealthy breakfast

Waiting at a pedestrian/bike drawbridge

National Gallery of Denmark

The Little Mermaid -The fairy tale the Little Mermaid was
written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen

St. Alban's Church

Nyhaven - Definitely the most picturesque part of Copenhagen

 After biking around the city for most of the day we decided that we hadn't had enough exercise so we climbed the tower at the Church of Our Saviour.  The 400 steps to the top were worth it when we got to see the views.  We really did have incredible weather while we were in Copenhagen.

You can just make out Sweden in the distance

View of Copenhagen

At the base of the tower

At the end of the day we were pretty tired so we went for a nice dinner and then headed back to the hostel for bed.  The next morning we had a few hours before our train to Stockholm so we walked around the city some more.  We stopped off at the botanic gardens which were very pretty.  Before our train we made a detour back to the bakery for some more pastries for the 5 hour train ride.

After our 5 hour train ride (which ended up having a couple delays and turned into 6.5 hours) we arrived in Stockholm.  When we got to our hostel they told us they had upgraded us from a group room to a private double so we were very excited.  After checking in we walked around a little bit and then went for dinner.  We went for the traditional Swedish Meatball meal with mashed potatoes.  We were thoroughly satisfied with our meals.

Much nicer than bunks in a group room!

The next day we headed out walking.  Stockholm is made up of lots and lots of little islands.  We started out on a very small island that housed the Swedish Parliament.  We then headed to Gamla Stan which is the Old Town.  It was an interesting mix of stores selling authentic Swedish art, crafts and gifts and your classic touristy shops.  We managed to kill quite a bit of time perusing the stores.  I also saw many things in stores that my mom had bought when she had travelled to Sweden.  And even managed to replace a christmas figurine that one of the dogs had chewed up!  After Gamla Stan we headed over to another island to go to the Vasa Museum.  The line up was incredibly long so we decided to wait and go to the museum the next morning.  We toured around the island and looked at all the boats moored in the piers.  We finished off our touring with walking down Drottninggatan which is the main shopping street.  For dinner we headed to a cool buger place called Vigarda.  We headed back to our room and tried a bunch of Swedish candy that we had bought earlier in the day.

Pretty Building near the Hostel

Swedish Parliament

The Old Town

"Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes"

Royal Palace

One of the many sailboats moored along the piers

Such a pretty view

The next morning we headed straight to the Vasa Museum.  The Vasa ship capsized and sank in 1628 after sailing only 1300 metres.  Because the water was so cold and and poorly oxygenated the wood of the ship was very well preserved.  333 years later they raised the ship from the bottom of the sea.  It was reassembled and is now on display in the museum.  The ship that is on display is incredibly 95% original, only the metal bolts were replaced and a very small amount of the wood.  The details in the wood carving was amazing.  However just looking at the ship you could tell it was far too top heavy.  The ship never stood a chance!

The intricate carvings on the stern

I couldn't do the ship justice

After the museum we headed back to Gamla Stan where we both bought some gifts and some pastries to bring home.  It was then time to head to the airport and head back to Edinburgh.

Our trip to Copenhagen and Stockholm was so much fun and I would definitely go back to either city.