Road Trip Part 2-- Hills, Horses, and Terror

“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.”--William Least Heat

Learning to drive a manual is a traumatic, terrifying, and stressful event. For the driver that is multiplied by 30489903486... approximately. Not sure how the rest of the world felt, but Sarah and I were strangely apprehensive we I got behind the wheel. I was used to traffic patterns by now so that wasn't too terrifying. Reversing I can do perfectly. So if I had driven the entire time backwards we would've been golden besides a really stiff next from looking behind me. Too bad I'm 99.99% sure that's illegal. After Sarah and I dined and explored the castle I got behind the wheel for my first lesson. The castle was located in the middle of nowhere and there was a road nearby that didn't have a lot of traffic.

For those of you who have never driven manual before you're about to get a glimpse into a whole new world of driving. Getting into first gear... or I should attempting to get into first gear awakened some sort of weird laughing terrorized animal inside of me. As I tried to shift into first gear after backing up flawlessly I had a slightly inflated ego. Sarah told me to give the car more gas than it needed and ease off the clutch. Normal people probably would've done something.. well... normal. Me being me took this as floor it and then jerk of the clutch and realize this was dumb halfway through and then pump the clutch in a panic. It resulted in 1. a jerking motion of the car similar to what I think getting rammed from behind by a rhino would feel like. and 2. giving Sarah whiplash I the car jerked backwards and forwards and her seatbelt locked with each jerk. As it did this, every jerk forward resulted in her saying "nope. nope. nope. nope. nope"

It looked something like this... but picture it in a car not my room.

It's an attractive video I know... but I think I deserve credit for pretending I was driving and almost knocking myself out on my own knees just for this reenactment.

I managed to get it into first and roll down the road at a whopping 5mph. Watch out Scotland I'm coming for you... if I can ever get it into second gear.

I stalled out quite a few times and Sarah about died laughing at me panic and yell at the car and then laugh at myself. I got pretty confident and decided to roll my bad self and awesome skills into the street because I was ready for a quest. I rolled to a stop and managed to stall out. SHOCK. Then I accidentally gave the car too much gas, peeled out of the gravel entranceway spewing gravel everywhere and screeched into the street with minimal jerking. Sarah's reaction was nervous laughing and something resembling this face:

Poor girl...

Once I got out of 2nd I was golden. UNTIL... DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN... we reached the hill of doom. Steep slopes are terrifying. I know it may seem like I'm throwing that word out there like a pro baseball player on steroids, but yeesh... I tried will all my might to get up that hill as the stoplight turned green. Little did I know the hill had it out for me and wanted to humiliate me. As I was swiftly going backwards down the hill trying to get it into first a van filled with guys pulls up behind expecting us to have the ability to oh you know DRIVE.... They quickly realized I was in distress.. well I'm sure the hazard lights Sarah always subtlely turned on when I got stuck gave them a clue... I just couldn't get up the hill. We had to get out of the car and do a walk of shame around the car so Sarah could drive. Needless to say that was the end of my lesson for the day.

The next day we booked a horseback riding trip in the Trossachs. I actually drove there and didn't kill anyone or thing... except a small curb but it deserved it anyway for getting in my way. The gps saved our lives many a time but I think it wanted to test us that day and see what we were made of. It told us to turn down a dirt road, so we obliged. We ended up 2 miles down a sheep pasture looking at a severe no trespassing sign... We decided to turn around. Quickly. I managed to avoid the sheep that had gradually begun to come towards our car in a creepy manner. Yes sheep can walk creepily. Just go to Scotland and walk into a field. You'll understand.

After getting passed by approximately 20945786 cars since we were driving at a speed that rivaled a blind grandmother snail we arrived at the horseback riding farm only to find the other cars that had passed us had also decided to go for a ride.

We got geared up and situated on our horses. I had a rather chilled out horse named Mitch and Sarah had a squat fiesty horse with a butt that rivals Beyonce's named Elby. The trip started out well as most seem to do. It got slightly more adventurous as we went along. Sarah is pretty much an expert rider and I've only ever been on a horse once before this. We were led in a line throughout the fields and countryside and even into the woods. My horse was the SLOWEST horse of all time. The PONY.... not horse, but a pony that was behind me literally had its head stuck up my horse's butt and would let out an exasperated sigh every few minutes. Mitch was unaffected and refused to go slower than death no matter now many times I kicked him in the side as you're supposed to do to make them go faster. The girls leading us described him as leisurely. Sarah lucked out and got the me equivalent of a horse that wanted to run ahead of everyone and jump around and play in a speedy fashion. I got the porker who likes to stand in the stable all day. I made do. I eventually got him to go faster, but as revenge he would jerk to a stop and uproot bushes that had poisonous flowers... Smart horse... So there I was trying to make my horse stop eating, stay in the saddle, make my horse move forward by twisting its head away from the bushes (which is HARD. Horses mean bussiness and are not weak) while kicking him to go faster while getting yelled at for not keeping the massive fatty from eating the entire time. He would try and veer towards bushes and it took everything I could do to keep him with the group.

We stopped to take pictures with Lake Menteith in the background. It's the only lake in Scotland instead of a loch. It was named as an insult after the man who betrayed William Wallace.

You may be wondering why my horse is leaning to the side like a drunken sailor... I have no idea. You may also be wondering about his emo hairstyle, but the real wonder ladies and gentlemen is his HUGE moustache that is hard to see from this picture. Let's just say my horse seems to be an emo version of Wyatt Earp. Google him. You won't be disappointed.






The rest of the ride was absolutely amazing apart from me attempting to wrestle a horse 5 times my size away from food and a very precarious ledge that my horse liked to trip on, which terrified me.

After we dismounted and got back in the car we made the drive to Glen Coe! We had planned to do a walk around Loch Lochan and in the mountains there. The drive was amazing and extremely eventful. We stopped at a rest stop to get some lunch and snacks and discovered that someone had the weirdest pet ever. We walked in to find a GOOSE on a leash lapping up water from a bowl like a dog. I couldn't make that up if I tried. I swear Sarah and I need our own tv show because stuff like that is the norm when we hang out.

On the way I was driving for the first time doing a long distance haul... A curb from hell came out of nowhere, meanwhile Sarah was munching on a new bag of cheeseballs. I may or may not have hit the curb really hard causing the entire car to bounce which then caused Sarah to yell and throw the entire bag of cheeseballs in the air making it rain delicious balls of cheese all over the car. We were still finding them even on the last day of our trip.

We FINALLY saw a shaggy cow. We had been looking for them and as I was driving I looked over and yelled... YAKS! Not sure why I yelled that as they were clearly cows. Oops. We found the parking lot after driving through mountains for 30 minutes which was the best view I've ever had in my life. We took the Loch Lochan trail and went up a mountain trail and back down and around the Loch.

After walking around for a few hours we decided to make the drive back to the small town and find where the filming of Hagrid's hut was in the Prisoner of Azkaban. We again had the best view of all time, but it was slightly terrifying driving down the road peacefully to have a tour bus come out of nowhere and drive past like it was in the grand prix. Those drivers have nerves of steel.

We kept stopping to see views like these:

The last place we stopped had a large pile of rocks in a dome shape. Apparently it's a burial place of Kings. Personally I would feel shafted if I was a king and someone said "hmmm I know exactly where we're going to bury you! Under a large pile of rocks. But wait there's more! It's going to be a dome shape and will eventually be on the side of a highway. Enjoy the afterlife!"

No. Just no. Anyone who tries to bury me there will get haunted by me. You've been warned.


At this dome shaped tomb thing was a bridge near a creek. On top of this bridge was a very awkward guy who was making his mom take pictures of him "modeling" for facebook... Yes he actually said that to us. I was slightly embarrassed to be around this guy, who was probably about 20, and felt bad for his mom. It got even more awkward when he took off his shirt and told her to make sure she got a good muscle shot. Poor guy. Doomed for life.

We made sure we hiked to a very high up place to we could pretend we couldn't hear him trying to talk to us about his facebook modeling pictures and then enjoyed the scenery and laughed at him modeling more on the pile of rocks.

Later that day we were heading back to Edinburgh and were starving. We aren't the happiest people in the world when that happens... After attempting to go to Tesco in 3 diferent places to find out it was shut we finally found an ASDA. I have never been happier to go into a walmart owned building. On our way out of the parking lot we came to a stoplight. Luckily there was only one car around and they were behind us. Sarah had a lapse in judgment and forgot we had to drive on the left hand side of the road. We were halfway down the lane and I was yelling that it was the wrong side of the road. What does she do? She slams on the brakes, looks around and then looks at me with terrified eyes and then peels out and speeds down the lane to the roundabout where we almost cut the other car off and then we both freak out a little after we realized we were still alive... The guy in the car behind us had a perfect view of the entire shenanigans and even slowed down to watch us more. He pulled up beside of and his friend did this:

And mouthed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He probably thought we were really stupid British girls. Whoops.

Next friday there will be the last post about this trip! Come back and read it :)


“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.”--Mark Jenkins

Road Trip Part 1--Ping Pong, Stalling, and Castles

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine



One of my best friends, Sarah, had decided to visit me from the States. We courageously planned to teach ourselves how to drive a manual and rented a car to take us on an epic journey up the East Coast of England to Scotland and back down the West Coast. My parents and friends tried to talk me out of it.  Knowing me, it was a losing battle. Sarah and I have a knack for having hilarious and completely random adventures together and this one was by no means an exception, but the icing on the cake.

Sarah flew from the States and landed at 7am and drove from London to Leicester for the first time driving on the left hand side of the road... Did I mention it was in LONDON?? This girls has some cajones. If you don't know what that means...look it up but don't use google image unless you want a vulgar surprise ;-)

Back to the trip. Sarah and I spent the two days exploring Leicester. We went everywhere that anyone could possibly go in Leicester like the Newarke Museum, Cathedrals, Leicester Uni, New Walk Museum, parks, Guildhall, etc. We then discovered Leicester had assembled ping pong tables everywhere and we quickly took over a table for 2 hours. That may seem like a long time to bounce a small ball across a net with wooden paddles, but I'm guessing you have never played ultimate ping pong with no paddles. Sarah and I became bored with the normal version and decided to ditch the paddles and whack the ball as hard as we could without paddles and even if it went off the table we still  smacked it around. This led to the ball being lost several times and us playing in the bushes at one point. Everyone else got some entertainment too, so it was a win win situation.


Here's a demonstration of the shenanigans and the extent to what we had to do to retrieve the ball.

Sarah and I know how to have fun doing just about anything. One of the many things I love about her.

The next morning we had a lovely 5am wake up call and hit the road to Edinburgh. Poor Sarah had to drive the entire 6 hours because I hadn't learned how to drive manual yet. When we arrived at the parking lot after getting lost we decided to go to Edinburgh Castle first. On the way we saw a bagpipe parade that started the second we crossed the street in front of them. Thanks Edinburgh for welcoming us like that. No where else gave us a parade :-p

It was a hike and a half up the hill where they used to torture people. Great thoughts to get you encouraged enough to keep going... Once we got there it starting raining... SHOCK. We toured every single room you could possibly go into including the: dungeons, royal jewels, war memorial, canon area, and one of the halls. 

The pictures do it so much more justice than words. Next on our list was to just walk around outside and enjoy the view and we did just that. We could literally see ALL of Edinburgh from up there. How in the world people would decided it was a good idea to storm that castle is beyond me. I think they were a little wr

ong in the head. If you didn't have a stroke running up the steep incline and somehow managed to miss the arrows and flaming pots of poo being rained down on you then you had to get over the walls or through the gate. If I happened to be a male warrior attempting to besiege the castle in the past I would've just laughed at my commanding officer and patted him on the back and said good luck and then mutter "..idiot".

Next on our tourist to do list we went to the National Museum of Scotland. For those of you who read my previous blog about the trip to the Irish National Museum you will be pleased to know Scotland knows how to build a fantastic museum. There was only one flaw to this plan. Sarah decided we should start at the top of the museum and work our way down. Folks, never do this. They put the boring stuff on top and the ridiculously fun and interactive things on the bottom to rope people in. We discovered that sad fact 10 minutes before it was closing. We walked downstairs expecting to find more boring things only to find we could've spent our time looking at cloned sheep, mega sloths, rockets, and racing formula 1 cars. It was a sad and slightly embarrassing moment in the lives of Sarah and Emma as we realized our stupidity. Oops. BUT never fear we came back 2 days later, which you'll hear about later.

We did get to see these things on our journeys at the top of the building:

In case you're wondering the top left picture is a bear claw necklace. The bee picture is a creepy but fascinating perpetual motion clock. The bottom left picture is a really complicated locking trunk that I'm convinced was the inspiration of Mad Eye Moody's trunk. Last but not least is the bottom right picture of an Anglo-Saxon Brooch.
 YAY history! At this point Sarah and I were TIRED from walking over the entire castle and all over Edinburgh after getting no sleep and driving for what felt like decades. We decided to get one last picture and the Olympics statue and then make the 30 minute drive to our hotel. For those of you who think all hotels in Britain are typical... think again.

As we drove to our hotel up the driveway we had to compose ourselves before going inside. It was a flipping CASTLE. The reception area had an enormous fireplace with suits of armor flanking it with a gigantic moose looking skull mounted above it. If that doesn't scream castle then the stuff boar in the living room does. 

We were in love. We had dinner inside before heading to our rooms in another building. We met the owner and were given permission to explore the whole castle. He obviously didn't know what he had just set loose in his beloved castle. We sang songs in the music room as I accompanied myself on the piano in a very unprofessional sounding way since I'm awful at playing piano. Then we pretended to be philosophical in the library and climbed the ladders to look for more books, but we were really just taking pictures. We also walked around with ridiculously stereotypical British butler accents. It just felt so right, but seeing as we were dressed in jeans and sweatshirts it probably looked like a bunch of nutters were meandering around the castle. 

Then we let ourselves into the garden and discovered.. SLUGS. Slugs were EVERYWHERE. We went for a walk and I'm pretty sure I accidentally killed about 50 just by walking. They are surprisingly camouflaged. 

In case there are slug lovers reading this blog, I really did try to avoid them but it just wouldn't work. I like to think I helped the human race by protecting them from slug invasion, which was obviously being plotted.

Look out for next week's blog for part 2 of the trip!

“We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.” – John Hope Franklin

Harry Potter Studios

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live"--Albus Dumbledore

Yes ladies and gentlemen my fastastical nerdy dream came true! I went to the HP Studios in London. Needless to say I was in my own blissful little bubble of a world of nothing but Harry Potter and the making of the film. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I first arrived at the studios, but the entire experience, and believe me it was an unforgettable experience, blew me out of the water.

The line leading up to the beginning of the self guided tour had pictures of the actors on the walls, the ford anglia hanging from the ceiling, and quotes and information from J.K Rowling. We were guided into a room and shown a video and the screen then gave way to a door. Little did we know we would walk through those doors just the like actors did for years into the Great Hall. The first thing that caught my eye was the attention to detail. Details the cameras wouldn't always pick up and that most people wouldn't notice were literally everywhere. The objects on the tables and murals on wall were absolutely amazing.


I won't give a play by play of the entire experience, but I will highlight some of my favorite parts. My all time favorite parts were the ones where we got to see how the behind the scenes affects, such as costuming, makeup, wigs, animatronics, and character prosthetics. While there we learned that the actress who played Luna had made all of her jewelry for the film and we saw all of her costumes. It's great to see how the actors contributed and what other talents they have. Most actors are only known for one thing and by displaying these items it gives them more dimensionality.

The experience had every single prop you remembered and never even noticed from the films. The left absolutely nothing out. It is overwhelming to see just how many objects a film can accumulate. You thought hoarders were bad. Goooooooood grief. At least is was organized and they had really cool facts about everything you were looking at. The Gryffindor beds never changed size as the actors grew and the cameramen had to choose certain angles because everyone's feet were dangling off the end.


Whole sets were kept such as the potions classroom and Dumbledore's office.





















Another one of my favorite things was the overall lack of laziness. There were TONS of things that could have been easily done with CGI, but were made by hand. Moody's trunk with all the layers inside, the Magic is Might statue from the Ministry of Magic, Harry's house in Godric's Hollow. And these super cool working doors.

Can I just say that butterbeer is delicious? Look how happy we are drinking it. YUM

The surprises just kept on coming. The chess pieces from the Sorcerer's Stone were actually made and were enormous!

The next room after this consisted of all the animatronics and prosthetics. It really made me realize that there's so much I could do in film and I have only scratched the surface. I can't even wait to see where I end up in the film industry after seeing all of this. Yes, it's slightly cheesy, but I felt extremely inspired after seeing everything.





At first I was a little creeped out by seeing all of the goblin masks just sitting on a shelf staring at me with those lifelike faces, but then I just didn't want to stop staring at them. After taking stage makeup and have to make prosthetic noses and cuts for myself and failing miserably quite a few times I have major respect for those people who make them look flawless and easy to make.

Before touring the studios I always thought the dementors and werewolves were entirely the product of CGI. However, I was yet again wrong. Actors were put in harnesses with the torso of the creature they were playing on top of them. It seems weird until you see the picture. Then it all makes sense.











They also had a basilisk head that moved, Aragog and Buckbeak! Another one of my favorite parts was touring the actual Diagon Alley. I wish we could've gone inside the stores, but it was so cool to walk by the windows of the shops I imagined from reading and saw in the movies. There was so much in the windows to look at I probably could've spent all day in there.

I never thought I would think architecture and engineering plans were interesting, but holy crap. The next room was amazing. It was essentially wall papered with plans for anything you can possibly think of. Pictures do it so much more justice than my ravings can.

The next room had small models of things like the Beauzbatons carriage, Luna's house and the Durmstrang ship. What was more impressive were the paintings lining the walls. They were al of scenes from the film or inspired by certain aspects and exhibited artistic license.
I wish there had been pictures of them for sale in the gift shop because I would've bought every single one. It was great to see a different take on certain things or a static perspective of scenes.

 The last room was the most impressive and we spent the most time in there. There have been very few things I have seen that have stopped me in my tracks and made me just stare with a loss for words. The ENORMOUS, but not full scale,  replica of the castle was phenomenal. This model was the epitome of attention to detail. It was by far my favorite part of the tour. They definitely saved the best for last. You got to walk around the entire model and listened to the theme music. To sum it up it just made me extremely happy and in awe.

The only part of the studios that was not extraorinary was the gift shop. It was geared towards children, but did not have anything affordable for anyone my age and above. I ended up with peppermint toads and Hermione's wand, which is now on display in my room :) Laura and I did manage to have some fun in the gift shop as we always seem to do.

Reality needs to get on this level of awesome

As sappy as this is I really took this whole experience to heart. It goes to show that a movie and more importantly a series of books and move an entire generation. We grew up with these books and will always want to pick them up to read them and never be able to put them back down. The studios are an amazing contribution to the books and movies. It lets the readers who enjoy them both so much to actually experience them in person and more importantly to be a part of it and see just how much work went into the making of the films. I have never seen any movie set and everyone involved create something so imaginative. They have set the bar extremely high for those in the future.

"It is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."--Albus Dumbledore