Bronnietravels's Blog

It’s about 11am and I’m waiting for Becky to get home from hockey, so it’s time for another update…

Last Friday we left school early and went to town to the National galleries and to go shopping. We seem to go into Topshop a lot, and I’ve found a really nice red skirt in there, but it’s £35 pounds… When we got to the cinemas there was a guy dressed up as the Doctor. Suffice it to say we all took photos…

On Monday the librarian from school Mr Shepley took all seven Australian exchanges to the Royal Mile for a tour. We started at Holyrood and walked all the way up to the castle, seeing the cemetery Adam Smith is buried in, Knox House, and many other places, as well as giving us a history of the Old Town and the New Town. I really really enjoyed it even though it was quite cold and the weather wasn’t great.

On that note, the weather here has been absolutely terrible! It rained for a week straight, finally stopping on Thursday. Thursday was a really nice day and sunny (for once!) but quite cold.

I am really enjoying school here because it seems really relaxed. Childcare is alot of fun; on Thursday we took them outside and they played in the mud and sand, before we took them back inside and helped them get their coats, overalls and wellies off.

On Thursday night Becky, Helen and I went to We Will Rock You at the Edinburgh Playhouse, and it was fantastic!!! I really hope it comes to Sydney so I can see it again!

I’m getting a little bit homesick, and I’m really missing the family. I have written Gran, Marty and Elsie letters but I still have to buy stamps so I can send them.

I’ve bought an Edinburgh University jumper and a Munro kilt pin, and I’m going shopping later on today so I can get things I need.
Tomorrow we’re going to the SkiDome in Glasgow to go sledding. I’m quite excited for it as people say it is a lot of fun.

I will try to update more often from now on but I can’t promise anything…

It’s currently Tuesday evening, so here’s another update… I had a really, really busy weekend!

It all started with the Ghost Tour on Friday night. We were led in to the Edinburgh Vaults at around 9:00. Scary stuff. Our guide told us stories of how murderers, thieves and body snatchers used to use the vaults as hideouts and workplaces, before he made one of the rooms completely dark… We were all really freaked out. After we finished that part of the tour, we went up to a room where we had drinks while our guide told us more stories. That was seriously the scariest bit. He told us a story of his worst experience.

He had been on a midnight vigil (12-6am) down in the vaults, and whilst checking them before he left, he felt as though someone was staring at his back intently, watching him angrily. He said ‘there is nothing here’ out loud and finished his work and went up. The next morning, a woman off the street that he had never met before told him he couldn’t go back down there, because ‘he is angry at you, you said he didn’t exist.’ He went down again that night and he was trying to do his act, but everyone was looking at something behind him. He turned around to see the last three candles in a long line of them blown out, and then the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, until the last one went out, and then his own went out, as if someone had been walking down the row of them putting them out with a snuffer. He nearly fainted but pulled himself together and then someone in the group fainted. By the time he had taken her up and come back down, another two people fainted. He took them and then went back down and another two had fainted. Suffice it to say he got the entire group out and didn’t return to work for 6 months.

We got out of the tour at about 10:30 and had to leg it to Louise’s place in the pouring rain. None of us had umbrellas, it was rainy and horrible, and we had to run for about 15 minutes to get there… I’ve never been happier to see a house in my life!!! 

On Saturday morning we went to Edinburgh Castle. It was fantastic! We went to the War Memorial, St. Margaret’s Chapel, the Royal Scots Dragoon exhibit and The Royal Apartments where James VI was born, and we also saw the Scottish Honours and the Destiny Stone which was very cool. Sadly my camera was having a spaz and decided not to work so I’m going to have to ‘borrow’ Gabby’s photos.

After we did the castle we went down to George Street and met up with Georgia, Becky, Isa, Louise, Anna and Jess and had lunch. We then went to Jack Wills, Top Shop, French Connection, Miss Selfridge and Office Shoes… I managed not to buy anything haha.

Isa, Georgia, Anna and Jess went back to Durham on the train and Gabby, Becky, Louise and I headed up to the Royal Mile for the tour of Mary King’s Close. It was also really good and Gabby was still scared from the night before. The tour went through Mary King’s Close and a few others with more historical details than the Ghost Tour.

After the tour we went home and got ready to go out for dinner at the Dome for Laura’s birthday. The Dome is a really beautiful old Restaurant and Bar with really nice Christmas Decorations up.

On Sunday we celebrated Laura’s birthday and I got to watch the new episode of Doctor Who in the evening (yes, small things excite me)

Yesterday was a relatively normal day and I had my first Goodfoodology lesson today, which was pretty interesting as a local butcher came in and showed us different cuts of meat and how to cook them.

I’m looking forward to the week ahead as we’re scheduled to go to the Gallery on Friday afternoon before I’m being subjected to New Moon on friday. We’re then going to the Rugby on Saturday…

So, week one in the land of Kilts, Haggis and highland coos.

Everything is fantastic!!!!

School is really good, even if it is completely different to PLC and I think I’m settling in well. The school is quite hard to navigate around because it’s all in one building except for music, art and childcare. The building is (from what I’ve gathered) 3 levels, all of which look exactly the same from an outsider’s point of view and there are heaps and heaps of different stairs that all lead to different places. There are also a lot of doors in all the corridors and it really doesn’t help that everything sort of looks the same.

Classes seem to be a lot more relaxed and the school isnt anywhere near as technology based as PLC is… You’d be lucky to find a teacher with a computer in their classroom let alone a laptop! However, I think I actually prefer it that way because lessons are alot easier to follow and there isnt the period where you’re waiting for everyone to get their technology ready before lessons can actually start. There are something like 9 periods in a day, school starts at around 9 and finishes at 3:50. Every lesson is a double which is good and bad because if you like the subject there is more of it but if not you’re screwed.

I’ve chosen to take History (in which we’re doing the Russian Revolution, FINALLY!!!), Music (in which we’re composing, yuck!), Childcare, and Goodfoodology, but I havent had any of those lessons yet.

I caught my first double decker bus today and my first single decker train on monday, in which i was hassled by the ticket man for not looking under 16! Public transport seems alot quicker and more reliable, and there are even electronic signs at the bus stops to tell you which bus is coming next. Petersham could do with some of them!!!

On the whole, the first 5 days have been great! We’re off to do a ghost tour in the streets of Edinburgh on Friday night and we’re then doing a tour of Mary King’s Close in Edinburgh on Saturday.

I am starting to miss people heaps but I think it’s getting better.

I’ll write again soon!

So you’re off to see the world… well bits of it anyway!

This blog is yours and has been set up for you so that you can blog away the lonely nights, and keep track of your travels.

For years to come you’ll be able to look back at your first big adventure overseas, and when it comes time for your second big adventure, you will be able to use this blog.

You can get your twitter feed into your page, photos from you flickr account (if you have one?) displaying and anything else you want (within reason!).

And the best thing? You can share things on here with Mum, Dad and the rest of the family without having to have us as friends on Facebook!

Lots of love… we’ll miss you.

Your sisters.

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