Here, there, everywhere. #HogsAbroad in the UK.

Today is my last day in the UK! I feel that I have seen a good amount of the UK, but still have several places I wasn’t able to make it to on this trip.

View up to Arthur’s Seat

From my time in Edinburgh, I spent a lot of it simply relaxing. I went to Portobello Beach, hiked to Arthur’s seat and visited Holyrood Palace. Oh, and of course Edinburgh Castle and Old Town. After leaving Edinburgh, I returned to London.

I spent the majority of the last week here, relaxing and exploring. For London itself, I saw a lot of the tourist attractions a few weeks ago. This time, I tried to experience more of the museums. My favorite was the Natural History Museum- they had so many dinosaur fossils.

I took a day trip to Brighton to visit  my friend, Caitlyn, who had been studying at a university near Brighton. It was great getting to see her, and I got to meet a few of her friends from uni as well. We had a ton of fun going out to eat and ending the night with ice cream.

Dover Castle

Yesterday I visited Dover. Luckily, I arrived just as the rain ended, and got on the bus to return right before it started up again. Dover Castle was fascinating. The site is rich with history, intrigue and romance. There was a continuous fog that descended, receded, and then descended again.

I was able to explore several sets of tunnels within the cliffs, including the underground hospital from WWII. The construction of the castle itself was very interesting- it functioned more as a hotel, before becoming important to the defense of England. I did manage to slip while angling for that “perfect” picture, and slid down a hill.

I have a nice bruise and grass stained pants for my efforts. Furthermore, I had a slight panic attack when the bus started heading towards the ferries- it turned out just to be a bus stop that looped around the ferries. I was so happy to get back last night so I could face plant  into my pillow.

I’ll be up early tomorrow to catch my plane to Bali. It’ll take about 18 hours (excluding the time change, it’s a full 24 hours if you include it!) to get to Indonesia. I am pretty excited- now I’ll not only be able to visit a beach, but actually get in the water!
Until next time.
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Claire Beach will be traveling to several countries during her International Service Learning Program this summer. Her ultimate destination will be a seven-week stay in Indonesia where she will be observing and conducting research for her project, Community Nature and Conservation, through the Honors College.

Beach is studying economics and international business in Walton College. She is observing and conducting research on the profitability of ecotourism business and environmental preservation in other parts of the globe, particularly developing countries. She will be attending the School of International Training. You can read more from Claire at hogtrailsandtales.wordpress.com.

Find out more about the SIT Indonesia: Community Nature Conservation in Bali (Summer) program at http://studyabroad.sit.edu/programs/summer/summer-2016/abe/