In London Town

After the conference Lara and I made our way to another old friend, Shaun, who was kind enough to help us out with accommodation for the rest of our stay in London.

The second last day of our trip we spent exploring the parts of London we had not already seen. Lara had been wanting to visit Madam Tussauds since she arrived in Dublin and who was I to say no. So off we went to get our photos taken with the stars! This was followed by the London Eye, Parliament, Big Ben, West Minster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Oxford street, a very big toy shop and of course Harrods...yes we did all of this in one day and so you can imagine how tired we were afterwards. Shaun was amazed, he said we had done more than two days worth of sightseeing in one day!

After more than almost two weeks of travelling it was nice to finally be heading home. Ireland and the UK was absolutely memorable, but I was looking forward to getting home and showing my sister the beautiful white winter wonderland that is Sweden, but that is another story...

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars Conference for Inbound Scholars to UK, Ireland, Europe and the Middle East

I know that it is quiet a mouthful, but that is the official name of what I've decided to call The Conference for short. Ambassadorial Scholars from all over the globe gathered at the head quarters of Rotary London for a 2 day conference.

We spent the first day exploring the city of London by foot. We saw many places of interest including St Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar square, Piccadilly Circus and many more strange and interesting places. It was a fun afternoon being able to meet and socialize with all the other scholars. It is amazing how similar many of our experience have been even though we are in completely different countries, ranging from Turkey, Spain, Sweden (obviously), Switzerland, the UK and many more.

Sunday was conference day and we spent most of it listening to various speakers as well as in discussion groups where we were able to share ideas and experiences on how to make the Ambassadorial programme even better.

Even though the conference was only a two days it really made an impact on me. As a scholar you don’t often come in contact with people who really understand what you are going through and it was nice to be able to share and connect with fellow scholars on a somewhat different level. 

Road Trip!

Unfortunately Lara has decided that she no longer likes this game so I'm afraid you are going to have to listen to my monotone description of events, Sorry.

As beautiful as Edinburgh is to walk in, it is a nightmare to drive in! We hired a car and after one or two wrong turns, a dead end and a little run in with the traffic cops I finally got the hang of it and we were soon on the open road heading for England. 

We took the coastal road to Newcastle and stopped once or twice to admire the breathtaking views and admire the quaint little villages. I never really understood the term "rolling hills" until seeing them in England. What made it even better where the ones still snow capped! 

If I thought Edinburgh was bad to drive in, Newcastle was even worse! In actual fact to save me repeating myself later on I'll just say that driving in all major cities in England is a BAD, really, really BAD! 

One of the main reasons for driving down to London is that we  wanted to visit some old school friends of mine. Claire and Darryl have been my friends since grade 1 and I've not seen either of them for almost 12 years! 

Claire lives in Newcastle and we spent the evening at her mother's house discussing the good old days. After only one very short night in Newcastle we had to move on to Birmingham where Darryl is studying. Again one night was far too short to catch up on 12 years, but we tried our best. It is amazing that even after 12 years, growing up in different countries, how much we all still had in common. 

Our next stop was visiting our cousin Kerry, Dave and of course our newest little cousin, Josh at their home near Windsor. First we made a quick stop in a very rainy, but still mesmerizing Oxford. What a university town! I think I'm going to have to make a plan to go and study there...

We spent 2 days at their house and it was so nice to just relax while spending time with family. We played with Josh, helped Kerry around the house and of course went to visit Windsor Castle. Kerry really made us feel at home and it was sad to have to leave, but I did have a conference to get to...

The Ups and Downs of Edinburgh

Damian: Our next stop was the Scottish capital. My friends had all been telling me to visit it and upon arrival it was easy to see why. It is like something straight out of the story book of the middle ages and ones imagination can’t help, but run wild at the sight of such historical middle age marvels! 

We were only there for one night, but just being able to walk to royal mile from castle to palace and try imagine what life was like here over 900 years ago was enough to satisfy me. We stayed in the middle of the old town and creepy does not even start to describe the feeling you get while walking through the many twisty allies. Pubs are overly abundant in Scotland and we spent the night once again socializing with some fellow backpackers at the local pub singing along with the live musician. 

Lara: Um? How do I put this? For me Edinburgh was not the best place on earth. If it weren't for the all the hills at every corner of every street it would have been OK. It was great to see the old palace and castle of Edinburgh and imagine the people living there in those times. Every building had history and was beautiful, but it does get a little irritating when your big brother is oohing and aahing at every building that you drive past. The cold did not help much either.

Going out with the Aussie and the Englishman was so much fun, but trying to be picked up by a Scotsman with an accent is a bit of an experience. People this is when the "smile and nod" technique comes into play. 

Damian: In my defence the places where amazing and every single one was worth all the oh's and ah's I could muster. I would do it all again just to see Lara being hit on by the Scotsman...so funny! I actually had to translate his English for her...

In Dublin's fair city...

At this point I would like to introduce my guest author for the month. It is none other than my sister Lara, who flew all the way from SA to meet me in Dublin and has spent the past month travelling with me. Say hello Lara.

Lara: HI! 

Damian: As you can see she is not one for many words. No sorry that is crazy of course she is! come on say something more! 

Lara: I have no idea what to say.

Damian: Why don't you start by telling everyone about Dublin?

Lara: Dublin was awesome. The best part for me was the fact that we could catch a tourist bus and see everything from monuments, old buildings, the Guinness brewery and Jameson distillery. We saw it all. Two places that really stood out for me was the Jameson distillery and the Viking Museum. Why? Simply because it was interesting to see how much effort went into making one bottle of whiskey. The Viking place was interesting because it went into great detail to explain how life was when they were around. Also the interactive exhibits were fun and I was able to write my name in runes! 

What made travelling exciting for me was being able to meet lots of interesting people from all over the world at the hostels we stayed at. It started in Dublin with Australian girls, a German guy and an American couple. It’s  fascinating listening to them talk about their own travels and the places they had visited. 

Damian: I have to agree with my sister, Dublin was amazing. The whole time I was there I could not get the song Molly Malone out of my head. Especially after actually being able to see the statue! The Guinness brewery was the best tour I have ever taken and I learnt so much about the art of beer making, something that has always fascinated me. To top it all off we even got to enjoy a pint on the roof of the building overlooking the whole of Dublin...breathtaking! 

January

The year started off a little slowly with all my friends and house mates spending the holidays at home, but as they started to return that is when things really started to become crazy fun again. At this point I would just like to bring to your attention that the average temperature in Linköping for the past month has been -20'C and as I'm typing this post there is easily 50cm of snow covering everything outside!

Under these circumstances it is easy to understand how things slowly led from one thing to another and soon we found ourselves marching towards the forest near my house, wearing everything we owned, armed with shopping bags because we were going sledding and nothing was going to stop us. It was great fun and the sight of almost 10 students screaming like little children as they sped down slippery slopes inside big blue IKEA shopping bags turned more than a few heads. Unfortunately the cold got the better of us and after only about an hour we were sweating out the craziness in the sauna.

Sledding along with movie marathons, parties and fika's is pretty much all one can do in this weather, but I'm not complaining as even that can be fun. However, the real highlight of January was my trip to Ireland and the UK.