The Best Tea I Have Ever Had

The day after we got home from Skye we spent the day walking around Edinburgh.  It was the best weather day Edinburgh had all year, 17 and sunny.  We both managed to get sunburns in Scotland!  We started our day by climbing the Scott Monument.  The Scott Monument is in the Princes Street Gardens and is for Sir Walter Scott who was a Scottish playwright, novelist and poet.  It is the largest monument to a writer in the world and it is 287 steps to the top.  From the top there were some pretty incredible views of the city.

Down Princes Street toward the Balmoral and Calton Hill

Edinburgh Castle

Princes Street

Back at the bottom of the Monument

After the Scott Monument we continued down to Dean Village and walked along the water of Leith.  After walking for a while we came back to George Street and had some fantastic burgers.

Sun's out in Dean Village

After our late lunch we walked up and down the Royal Mile.  We went into all the touristy shops and found some pretty hilarious "Scottish Gifts".  We finished our day out with hiking up Arthur's Seat to watch the sunset.

The next day we took a little bit easier.  The weather wasn't as nice so we decided to do more indoors.  We decided to visit some museums.  We started with the Scottish National Museum which I have been to quite a few times.  We focused mainly on the Scottish history section and the kids section.  After the Scottish National Museum we went to the Scottish National Gallery.  We finished that day with a movie.

The following day we started with Edinburgh Castle.  It was school holidays so there were so many people there.  I don't have any pictures but I plan to go back and visit again.  I decided to purchase an annual Historic Scotland membership because I have a couple trips planned that I am hoping to visit some Historic Scotland locations.  So hopefully the next time I go back to the castle it will be a little less busy!

After the castle we went to the Signet Library for afternoon tea.  I had seen pictures of the inside of the building which looked beautiful and the reviews of the food were fantastic so I always wanted to try it.  And we were far from disappointed.  We started our meal with an amuse bouche of butternut squash soup.  Then it was onto the savouries.  There were various different pastries and sandwiches to try.  After we were satisfied with our savouries our sweet tray arrived.  It had scones, pastries and other desserts.  Our meal finished off with a palate cleanser of a lemon sorbet.  Throughout the meal we were given unlimited tea so both my friend and I had two pots of tea each.  It was such a fun experience.  I definitely plan to take my friends and family there when they visit.

Savouries Tray

Sweet Tray

Lemon Sorbet

On the last day of my friend's trip we went to North Berwick, a cute little coastal town.  We started by walking along the beaches.  Even in the middle of the week there were quite a few people walking along the beaches with children and dogs.  When we were walking along the beach we noticed there was quite a lot of sea glass.  So we both collected some sea glass for some future crafts.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon strolling down the streets looking at shops and stopped at a cafe for some lunch.

North Berwick Beach

We finished up my friends trip with an evening tour at Mary King's Close back in Edinburgh.  Mary King's Close was a narrow street that had tenement buildings up to seven stories tall on both sides of the street.  The close is now covered because the City Chambers were built on top of the close.  But you can still tour the lower levels of the close and since it was covered it has been incredibly well preserved.  It gives an interesting insight to what life was like in Edinburgh from the 16th century onwards.

The next day I took her back to the Glasgow Airport.  I think she got a pretty good taste of Scotland in her short trip.

Canadians on Tour on the Isle of Skye

Ready for a picture heavy post?

I finished large animal ICU on the Monday morning at 9:30am and then drove straight to the Glasgow Airport to pick up my friend.  When we got back to Edinburgh we were both pretty tired.  So we just had a little stroll around Edinburgh, got some dinner and then went to bed.

The next day we started our road trip.  We started with a visit to a place called Finnich Glen, also known as the Devil's Pulpit.  To get down to the glen there were quite a few fairly treacherous stairs.  I decided that the path beside the stairs actually looked safer.  Well I was very wrong.  I managed to slip and fall right on my tailbone.  4 weeks later I can still feel the bruise!  But it was worth the fall.  The glen was stunning and we were the only ones around.  For Outlander fans, this was used as a filming location in the first season.

After Finnich Glen drove through Glencoe and stopped to have a look at the Three Sisters.  We continued on to see the Glenfinnan Viaduct.  This was the third time I had been to see the Viaduct but my friend really wanted to see it.  It was part of the very famous flying car scene in the second Harry Potter film.  It was still as impressive as the first time I saw it.  After Glenfinnan we drove onto the port town of Mallaig where we stayed for the night.

Three Sisters

Glenfinnan Viaduct

The next morning we walked around Mallaig and then caught the ferry to the Isle of Skye.  The ferry ride was a little bumpier than my friend would have liked.  She didn't seem very reassured when I said it was actually relatively calm!

View of Skye from the ferry

Our Ferry - the spray kept hitting some of the cars and setting off car alarms

Our first stop on Skye was the Fairy Pools.  I had been to the Fairy Pools before but the last time I was there it was raining and there were so many midges (for those of you who have been fortunate enough to not be subjected to midges they are really really nasty biting flies about the size of fruit flies). This time there was no rain or midges so it was quite a bit more enjoyable. We spent a fair amount of time hiking around the pools.

Our next stop was Neist Point.  I think on Skye it is my favourite view.  It is quite a hike up and down but it is definitely worth it.  We also had some excitement on our drive to and from Neist Point.  I am now pretty comfortable driving on the left side of the road but the drive to Neist Point tested that.  It was a single track road (one lane with places for you to pullover to allow oncoming cars to pass) and it was along the edge of a cliff.  I think the drive had my friend quite stressed.  On the way back from Neist Point I was driving along the single track road up a hill.  And as I came over the hill there was a sheep asleep in the middle of the road.  So I had to slam on the brakes and came about 3 feet from hitting it.  I was very stressed but the sheep was completely unaware how close it was to catastrophe. She barely even raised her head!  I had to drive through the passing place because she refused to get up from her napping place.  After Neist Point we headed to Portree the main town where we were staying in a hostel.

Its tough being a sheep in Scotland!  What a view

The next day we headed out for a breakfast picnic on Coral Beach.  It was a little chilly but we had the whole beach to ourselves.  After the Coral Beach we went to Faerie Glen.  Faerie Glen is a very interesting place.  Driving along the road the scenery is rather average and then all of a sudden these cone shaped hills appear.  We hiked up and down most of the hills.  When we arrived there were lots of people but by the time we were done we were the only ones there.  How lucky were we that at two different very touristy locations on Skye we got to be alone.  We finished out day with a drive along the coast and past Kilt Rock and back to Portree for the evening.

Coral Beach

Faerie Glen

Faerie Glen

Uig

Kilt Rock

Our final day was a busy one.  We started with a 10km hike to Boreraig.  Boreraig is an abandoned crofting village that was cleared to make way for sheep.  There are still sheep on the land today.  

The view coming over the hill on our hike.  All the sweat to get there was worth it

One of the ruined crofters homes

Some Cheviot Ewes enjoying their land

After our hike we started heading home.  We stopped at Eilean Donan Castle.  The first castle on the site was built in the 13th century.  It was home of the MacRae clan.  In the 1700s it was occupied by Spanish soldiers supporting the Jacobite rising.  When the rising failed, the castle was destroyed.  In 1912 John MacRae-Gilstrap purchased the castle and had it restored to the castle that stands today.

After Eilean Donan we made the rest of our journey home to Edinburgh.  I think I will leave it there as there are already a ton of pictures in this post.

A mini roadtrip and finished lectures FOREVER!

Well sorry for another blogging break.  I was writing exams and there was a lot of studying going on.  So here is what happened since the last blog and now.  It is probably going to have to fit into a couple posts.

Now that I have a car I want to make use of it and go some places I wouldn't have normally gone.  So the weekend after I got the car  a friend and I decided to have a mini road trip to England.  We went to Berwick-Upon Tweed which is a few miles south of the Scottish border.  In true British history, the Scots and the English fought for possession of the city with England finally gaining and maintaing control in the 1400s.  The town is surrounded by medieval walls.

View along the town walls

Berwick Parish Church

Bridge over the River Tweed

The following weekend a friend and I went out to the Pentland Hills for another hike.  We spent a couple hours climbing two hills.  Part of the one hill is cordoned off and is used by the british military for target practice.  As we started climbing we could hear gun shots going off in the distance which is sort of an unsettling feeling!  But the climb was worth the view we got.

View from the top

View of the city, Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat

Then it came up to be the final day of lectures.  While I am still in classes until the end of May the last official lecture with new material was the 27th of February.  It has become a tradition for the last lecture to wear onesies, with a strong showing of animal onesies.  So we celebrated in style in our lecture on equine farriery.  I am officially done lectures forever (at least in a formal university setting).  After being in university for seven years I am really looking forward to all that hard work paying off in clinics next year.

I'm dressed as a giraffe.  Can you find me?

Then it was onto exams.  I had two written exams and three OSPRE exams.  The OSPRE exams were to do a clinical exam of a cow, sheep and rabbit with an examiner watching you and report your clinical findings to the examiner.  Cow and rabbit I felt very comfortable with as soon as I was finished.  Sheep I thought I had really gone awry but after getting my marks back I was clearly wrong.  I did super well on all three and I could not have been happier.

As soon as exams finished I had four weeks off during Easter.  I started with two weeks of EMS placements.  I decided to stay at the school and do a week of small animal ICU and a week of large animal (pretty much just horses) ICU.  There was not too much sleep those two weeks.  In both weeks I got to see lots of really interesting cases.  Small animal was quite hectic at times.  One evening we admitted five cases after hours.  As a student you are often sent in to take the history from the owners while the patient is being triaged.  So I got lots of practice taking histories.  But mainly what small animal ICU taught me was how much I have forgotten of cat and dog from last year!  Will definitely have to brush up before I have my ICU rotation in June.  Large animal ICU one of the exciting bits (although somewhat stressful to watch) was getting to see them place a tracheostomy tube in a horse that was having difficulty breathing.  I did enjoy my time on large animal ICU but I do think small animal is still where I would rather be.

After I finished my ICU placements a friend that I met in my first year at the University of Guelph came to visit.  And I think I will leave our adventures for the next post.

Horses and Butterflies

Two weeks ago I did a session called Equine PALs (Peer Assisted Learning).  Along with a few others from my class, we worked with some second year students teaching them how to do a clinical exam of a horse.  This session counts towards a certificate I am working on.  The certificate is for teaching in Veterinary Medicine.  Essentially throughout my degree I participate in or create teaching sessions and reflect on how they went and what could have been improved.  We are currently the only veterinary school with a certificate like this.  While I have no ambitions to be a teacher per se, a lot of being a vet is about being a teacher.  You have to explain and teach things to clients on a daily basis.

The next day we spent an afternoon at Butterfly World.  We didn't go to see the butterflies, we went to look at how they housed their reptiles and discussed if their husbandry needs were being met.  A lot of reptile medicine is preventive.  Many conditions they get can be stopped or prevented by proper husbandry.  We were split into groups and led by either a final year on their exotics rotation or by the exotics clinician.  My group ended up with the clinician.  As we got to the first stop it was a Red-Footed Tortoise.  He asked us where the tortoise was from.  Well I had no idea, but I had noticed an information plaque.  So I subtly tried to read the plaque.  When I answered South America, the clinician told me I had almost gotten away with reading the plaque and that he had only seen my head turn toward the plaque at the last second.  For the rest of the tour, if he asked our group a question and we didn't know the answer but the answer was on a sign, he would have me read it because in his words "I am a very good reader!"  We looked at lots of different animals like many snakes, a monitor lizard (who was out for a walk on a leash), other lizards, other turtles, chickens, quails and some insects and spiders "just for fun" (I wouldn't call insects and spiders fun...).   All in all the afternoon was quite good.  It was quite funny to see us university students touring around a facility filled with children probably all 5 and under!

Huck the Red-Footed Tortoise

Hen with tiny little black chicks and a quail at the front

As I mentioned last post I have been out a few nights since my photo tour doing some night photography around the city.  So as promised here are some photos from those outings.

Edinburgh Castle

View of Edinburgh Castle from the Grassmarket

View from the Mound

Scotland's National Gallery

I also went out one evening to try and catch a good sunset.  It's hard to get a good sunset.  It takes me a while to get down to Calton Hill or to another location to take pictures of the sunset.  So I have to set off well before I can tell whether it is colour are going to be worthwhile photographing.  Also since it is cloudy so much of the time that limits the beautiful sunsets.  I caught one a couple weeks ago that was pretty good.  It was definitely worth the hike up to Calton Hill.

Sunset from Calton Hill

From Calton Hill, looking at the clock tower of the Balmoral Hotel

Photography, Comedy, and my Birthday

A few weeks ago I went on another photography tour/lesson with Iconic Tours.  This time it focused on learning how to take night photos.  I had done a little bit of night photography before but all my settings were sort of trial and error as opposed to having a specific reason for setting it that way.

I signed up for a group tour and the day of the tour the tour guide Will emailed me to say I was the only one who signed up so I was going to get a private tour.  I met him at St. Giles and we went on our way.

Our first photo stop was Barrie's Close just around the corner.  We tried a couple different things and this was my favourite photo.

Can you see the "ghost"?

We then moved on and took some light trails pictures over Waverley Bridge.  To get light trails you set your exposure for a really long time so when cars go by it blurs their lights.  It works particularly well in Edinburgh with all the double decker buses!

Waverley Bridge, Waverley Station and the Balmoral

Next we went up to Calton Hill and took several different pictures from different locations.

From Left to Right:  Edinburgh Castle, The Clock Tower of the Balmoral Hotel,
The Scott Monument and the Dugald Stewart Monument

Looking down Princes Street

Caught another photographer shooting the National Monument

After Calton Hill we headed back toward the Old Town and stopped at Advocates Close off the Royal Mile.  I had been there before during my day tour but I think I like the feel of it better in the night time.

We moved onto Greyfriars Kirkyard.  It hadn't really crossed my mind to go wandering about a graveyard at night but it turns out there are lots of interesting photos to be had if you know where to look.  Will got out a light and lit up one or the more intricate grave stones.  Illuminated from below it gave the grave stone some very interesting shadows.

Our last stop on our tour was to Victoria Terrace.  From here we tried some more light trails.  After multiple attempts we were getting ready to give up.  There didn't seem to be much traffic heading up Victoria Street.  But we tried one last time and this is the result I got.  I think this is probably my favourite picture of the whole tour.

Can you see the truck with the flashing lights
making a u-turn at the base of the street?

I really enjoyed my photo tour.  I feel like I learned a lot of cool tricks that I will implement into my photography from now on.  I have already been back out a couple nights to take some pictures (But I will save those pictures for my next post!).

Two Thursday's ago a friend and I went to Glasgow to see a comedian Jack Whitehall.  We went to Glasgow early and had dinner at a Mexican Tapas restaurant.  After an incredibly filling meal we decided we would walk the half hour from the restaurant to the venue.  We both thoroughly enjoyed the show.  He only took one jab at Trump but it was a big one.  He also got in a couple shots at the Scots including the fact that Scotland is the only place where pilots get arrested for being too drunk to fly the plane (he did eventually mention that the pilots in question were in fact Canadian...).  But most of his jokes revolved around the many unfortunate and funny circumstances he seems to find himself in.  It was nice to get out of Edinburgh for a change of pace.

Jack Whitehall  - At Large

On the way home we ended up having quite the adventure.  We arrived to Glasgow Queen Street Station in plenty of time for the 11pm train.  The train would get us into Edinburgh just before midnight and would get me home slightly after midnight.  Well when we arrived we discovered that the train would only go partway to Edinburgh due to track works and then we would have to take a replacement bus service the rest of the way.  So we headed off and got off the train in a little town called Polmont.  When we arrived in Polmont there was staff their directing us to line up next to a bowling green.  We then waited for several minutes while they counted how many of us there were to figure out how many buses they needed.  Eventually the buses showed up and continued the route that the train would follow.  Unfortunately the roads aren't as straight as the train tracks so it took substantially longer to get home.  At 1:30am I arrived home.  It made getting up for 9am lecture the next day a little more challenging!  Luckily I only had two lectures I had to stay awake through.

That Saturday was my 25th birthday.  I started the day test driving cars with a friend.  After much discussion over the past few months with my parents I decided (with their approval) to get a used car.  I don't need a car but it will make certain things more convenient such as placements.  It will also give me more chances to explore some places around Edinburgh and Scotland you can't get to or are difficult to get to by public transportation.  I test drove two cars.  The first was a Vauxhall Corsa.  It is basically a nice little station wagon.  The first test drive was interesting.  I had never driven on the left side of the road except for about 10 minutes where my friend let me drive her car around a little subdivision.  So this was my first drive on real roads on the left hand side.  It was a little stressful.  After the test drive I thought the car seemed pretty nice.  Onto the next car.  It was a tiny little 3 door Peugeot.  Went to pull onto the main road which was up a hill.  When I took my foot off the break the car rolled back substantially.  Then when I put my foot on the gas it took a second to kick in and then it started up.  We were on a road with a speed limit of 50mph.  Well the car could go that fast but I'm not sure how much faster it could go!  Part of the reason I was getting a car is I have a mini road trip planned with a friend from home all through the Isle of Skye.  Well Skye is very hilly and the speed limits are quite generous.  I don't think the Peugeot was the right fit.  After some consideration I decided to put a deposit down on the Corsa.  And last Friday I picked up my car.  I have driven to and from campus a couple times now and I am really pleased.  All I need now is my parking permit for parking around my flat (at the moment I can only park after control hours are over... So after 5:30pm and have to be gone by 8:30am.  The one plus is it is making me stay on campus to work!).  I also have to learn how to parallel park.  I was not very good at parallel parking when I was sitting on the left side of the car... So lets see how it goes now that I am on the opposite side!

After the car adventure I went out to dinner with two friends to a place called Gusto.  It was more of an upscale restaurant (well as upscale as a student budget would allow).  We started with a cheese, olive and bread platter, I had a lamb dish for my main and finished it off with the classic sticky toffee pudding.  All in all it was a great birthday.