Hutchins Travels

Britain

Michael hutchins — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:58:08 GMT

My time in Scotland is almost over, I have been living here since early September of last year (excepting three weeks for Christmas).

The friends I have made have been from all over the United Kingdom: the Channel Islands, the south, the midlands, the highlands, northern England, the diffuse area of London and southern Scotland. I have traveled through and received visas from seven different points of entry into the country. I have flown in it, around it, to it, from it and through it. I have taken a train under the Chunnel, seen it from Ireland, crossed it by train and bus.

There are a lot of cultural ties between this country and that of my home such as laughing at obscure yet unknown references in Family Guy episodes, cursing profusely while running Toad's Turnpike in reverse, noticing that shoes are remarkably hard to find in bushes at night and celebrating holidays with loud explosives.

Likewise there are differences, otherwise we would still be the same country. And not just the pronunciation of tomato or misspelling of color, only in the last weeks have I noticed a subtle difference in the way we few society. It is the feeling that the government allows us the residence or citizens to do what we do instead of us allowing the government to do what it does. I suppose it is the reason American revolted in the first place and I can still feel the echoes of it in modern Britain.

This feeling does not ruin my experience living here, in fact I only barely noticed it after eight or so months. Other parts of the society bugged me first, such as the prevalent CCTV everywhere in the country or the TV license system. Whenever I see I camera positioned from the top of a building or a protruding black bulge on the ceiling I try to smile and wave, wondering who if anybody is watching out at me.

I will miss Scotland. Men wearing kilts just walking down the street living their life. Pubs lining streets with business at every hour of the day. Such fierce regional pride between areas smaller then a Californian County. Street names changing at least every two blocks. Buildings older then my state draped with ungainly cables connecting them to the modern world.

It has been a long journey and soon I will be on the road again heading home.

Free Derry

Michael hutchins — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:52:42 GMT

You Are Now Entering Free Derry

Murals around the square speak of the violent struggle around this square

This is a mural of the first victim of Bloody Sunday

This one shows a little girl shot dead by a rubber bullet, the one hundredth victim of The Troubles

Over here you can see a student leading the fight from behind her barricade

This smoke in this one comes from CS gas and molotov cocktails thrown from both sides

That blue one over there depicts people fleeing over debris away from British Paratroopers

Everyone wanted to find spent rubber bullets as souvenirs

The IRA blew up the statue that stood atop the city walls

A monument for the hunger strikes in the prisons

The ceasefire was signed in 1994

You Are Now Entering Free Derry

Uninhabited

Michael hutchins — Sat, 03 May 2008 08:43:41 GMT

A creepy night.

It was dark, as it tends to be at night, the building was empty save for myself. The tarpaulin walls beat against the steel frame and reverberated through the hall as empty footsteps of a distant room. Counters sporting banners for Ryanair repeated along the far wall, enticing with promises of cheap getaways and low, low, fares.

The board predicted the next flight to be in seven hours, until then I was alone.

I came to the East Midlands Airport with the intention of sleeping through the night. I wanted to get the earliest flight to Rome imagining myself fresh and ready after a sound sleep on a steel seat. I was not expecting much and in a way I found more then I imagined.

I had a full, slightly padded bench to myself. No one came around or even moved through the hall, my only companions the disembodied voice of safety mingled through the beating wind. My bag served as my pillow, my jacket my blanket. A bandana encircled my face to block out the unending waves of fluorescent light.

Sleep did not come easily.

The unbearable emptiness of a room build to be full and moving. The echoes of activity lingered in disheveled cord enticing queues of people, in empty floorspace planned to hold milling crowds and in countless flight desks waiting to send midlanders on to their dreams.

Sleep eventually came in bursts and fits. Everytime I awoke and looked around more people materialized out of the ether and onto the adjoining benches. As they arrived I could sleep easier knowing other people still existed.

That night I glimpsed our world uninhabited, empty and abandoned. As I wandered Rome that morning I felt that the edifices of today will soon become the ruins of tomorrow.

Delicacies

Michael hutchins — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:04:56 GMT

"You remind me of Donny Osmond. But it just might be because I am drunk".

My friends wait outside eating their food as I wait for my food next to an inebriated Scot. The chip shop was closing for the night, the slowly rotating "leg" of meat was being enclosed up in plastic wrap for the night. Only a few fried sausages remained in the display case.

I waited expectantly for the Scottish delicacy I have heard about since I came to Edinburgh.

"Are you really ordering that?"

My confidence in my culturally culinary choice was beginning to wane.

I had heard about it from friends and classmates. It has cousins in county fairs and relatives in fast food. Some have said it is disgusting while others claim it is delicious.

Either case I cannot pass up unique and local foods.

I got a brief glimpse of my delicate midnight snack as it was wrapped in nondescriptbrown paper. I stepped into the warm spring night and met with my friends as we headed back with our prizes of the night.

I opened the paper and looked at what I had bought. A rare delicacy of Scotland, a delight to behold I hesitantly took my first bite of my battered mars bar.

A chocolate exterior mingled with the melting caramel while holding the gaze of the crpe-like batter encompassing the attention of this bar of pure flavor.

As I finished I felt my heart stiffen and my arteries scream.

I felt time being cut off the end of my life.

I awoke this morning craving another.

Hyacinths

Michael hutchins — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:27:25 GMT

This April was not cruel.

This garden was full of hyacinths, sunlight emboldened the already sweet smell as it filtered across the benches and into the flat Dutch sky.

A small girl attempted to move large wooden chess pieces into their proper places, proper in her mind. She lifts the smallest pawns with only minor exertions but the queen is taller then she and proves to heavy to bear by such a small figure.

The benches are filled with elderly couples as they soak in the fragrant sunlight.

Three adults walk to the chess set and put the pieces in their order. They watched the young girl with warm smiles, knowing that she was not close to being right. Moving the pieces to their places they happily walk away.

Watching, I enjoy the hyacinths.

I stand up and walk to the chess board. The knight is switched with the bishop, I put it back next to the rooks.

Making the first move on the board I leave through the hyacinths in this April afternoon.

Snow

Michael hutchins — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:48:44 GMT

The bed in the loft creaked from the unmet sleeper. I arrived to the hostel on the last bus into the small valley town and I never had a chance to meet my new roommate.

The sun had risen on the mountains over the valley, it had yet to arrive on the quiet April floor. An eerie blue permeated through the window curtain, I slipped across the chilled floor, the window had been open all night. Moving the curtain aside to close the window the valley is fresh white. The mist of the evening had turned into the snow of the night.

Gentle blankets coated everything in site. A clean white starting from the train tracks reached to the top of the mountains on either side of me. A crispness in the air matched the pure blue of the sky.

I felt refreshed in this clear morning, the sickness of the past week cleared from my body, as well as my mind. I was ready to start the day, ready to explore, ready to live.

Ireland Plan

Michael hutchins — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:52:37 GMT

I just booked flights into and out of Ireland as well as two tours. I found Ryanair to be the cheapest way to get out of the country at only eleven pounds for Belfast City Airport to Glasgow Prestwick. Going into the country nothing was exactly cheap but Ryanair won out as the cheapest, this time from Edinburgh to Dublin.

Due to the success of my trip with MacBackpackersI decided to book a four day trip to southwest Ireland with Paddywagon Tours. I have read mixed reviews of Paddywagon online but since they go to where I want to go, are cheap and include hostels and breakfast I decided to take the risk. I also booked their one day tour to the Giant's Causeway and Derry from Belfast. While I like to travel on my own I find that tours like these are helpful for areas that are not as connected as, say, Germany.

Hostels for a two single days in Dublin and two days in Belfast and I am set for this study break of a trip. I was originally planning to go from Saturday May 3rd to Sunday May 11th, but then I consulted my calender and noticed that I have a final on that Monday. So a Saturday return it is.

Before this though I need to get through three exams, Statistical Mechanics, Electromagnetism and Astrophysics. Nothing like progressively harder exams.

Skye

Michael hutchins — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:26:19 GMT

I swam in Loch Ness, I gained eternal beauty from the waters of Sligachan, I watched a hang glider miss his death by mere feet and I pet a hairy coo.

It was a fun trip and as I had hoped it was more of an experience then a tour. My guide was from the highlands and throughout the trip told us about the history, stories and legends of the land. I feel a deeper connection with Scotland now, where before I had experience the culture through the capital I now feel I have experienced the culture through the landscape.

The highlight of the trip was climbing to the top of the Old Man of Storr, from there our guide took us down an unmarked path. We started the downward trek with a highland charge down the longest of the descending slopes. After the slopes we skirted around the edge of the forest and through the boggy ground that ate boots of unsuspecting mid-westerners. With the group strung out over the path someone in the group attempted to catch one of the many sheep dotting the field. Fleeing from the charging american the sheep stumbled and fell, luckily it was able to recover and flee before it was caught.

I am glad I took a tour to the Isle of Skye since almost all of the places we wereunaccessibleexcept by car. Our guide, Greame, also made the trip memorable with his stories and attitude. I am now planning on signing up for a similar trip for my visit to Ireland, not the entire trip but to see southwest Ireland and maybe the Giant's Causeway.

Backpacking Europe

Michael hutchins — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:19:08 GMT

I suppose I should have put this in before the post about my next plans.

Last Sunday I arrived home from a three week backpacking trip through Europe. It was the trip I always wanted to take and it had some really good moments and some bad moments. But experiencing life in an intensified way is one of the points of traveling. So here is a short overview, I will expand on each place in the future as well as add more of my photos.

I started out the day before Good Friday and flew into East Midlands Airport. I spent the night in the Ryanair side of the terminal, not something I wouldrecommend. I flew into Rome early in the morning. I spent that night in Rome and the next day before taking an evening train to Florence. Easter Sunday and the next day I was in Florence. It was pretty rainy throughout this first part of my trip.

After Florence I spent three nights in Vernazza in the Cinque Terre (pictures in my photo gallery). The weather was nice here and the landscape really reminded me of home. After hiking through all five of the towns and exploring the area I went to Florence again to catch a night train to Munich.

I had two days in Munich, the first was used for the city itself and the second to go down to the Austrian border for Neuschwanstein Castle and the Bavarian Alps. I really enjoyed both days here as the weather was finally clear after rain through Italy. Following Munich I went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber for a few days, a good city but I think I stayed half a day too long. I finished off Germany by going to the Rhine River valley and staying in a castle hostel in Bacharach. I did not like this part because I got food poisoning and was essentially in bed for two days. Being sick did save money though.

After Germany I went to Switzerland which I thoroughly enjoyed, Lauternbrunnen was my home base and the lovely Valley Hostel. I hiked around both sides of the valley, in the valley and for a day I went to the CERN open day near Geneva. I had perfect weather with clear days and a little bit of fresh snow blanketing the landscape.

I finished off the trip with Amsterdam and Brugge (Belgium). Amsterdam itself was quite busy after Switzerland and I did not like my hostel at all, though I think this is a symptom of Amsterdam and not the hostel itself. For a day trip I visited the Keukenhof Tulip garden near Haarlem, the flowers were really beautiful. The last two days were spent in Brugge essentially lounging about the city because I was ready to go home at this point.

Now I am in the process of planning a week long trip to Ireland for the week starting May 3rd. I just need to figure out things like how to get there and where to go. I think ferries will be the best way to get there from Scotland. And my current sights list starts with Belfast, Giant's Causeway (and the Antrim Coast), Dublin and the DinglePeninsula. I will probably then take a ferry from Cork to England and a train back to Scotland.

Isle of Skye

Michael hutchins — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:33:30 GMT

Tomorrow I leave for the Isle of Skye in northwestern Scotland. I am going with the tour group MacBackpackers for a three day, two night trip.

I feel this will be a nice change from backpacking around Europe on my own (I just finished a three week backpacking trip last Sunday). Someone will let me know what is important, where to go, I will be driven around on a coach, a hostel is already chosen and most importantly I don't have to change to euros or try to learn another language.

Luckily the weather has been decent here in Edinburgh so I hope that the same weather pattern will extend over to Skye. I doubt it.

The trip will also take me to Loch Ness for part of tomorrow on the way to Skye. Last time I was at Loch Ness was ten years ago with my grandmother and brother. Surprisingly it was raining, in Scotland, who would have thought.

Website Links

Michael hutchins — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:00:00 GMT

So I added a new Websites box on the left there and I thought I should explain why I put them there and what they are (before they are clicked on).

The first two are for my photo albums, I am currently trying to decide between making the site myself with the help of a free program, Galerie, or to use Google's Picasa Web Hosting. So I will try them both for a little bit, see what feedback and get and then stick with one and eliminate the other.

The next links are for my Mom's site: her PNN blog, followed by her new book publishing company, A Few Little Books, and finally with her site for humor writing Miss Behaved. She has a book out called Being Miss Behaved and I may or may not have been, with or without the help of my brother, inspiration for one or more articles.

Web Galleries

Michael hutchins — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:34:02 GMT

So I am trying to find an alternative to .Mac to host my photo albums online. While .Mac is nice I am not sure I want to pay a yearly subscriptions for it. Two methods present themselves to me, one is to use UCSB's webhosting service and the other is Google Picasa. I made the UCSB site using the program Galerie.

Galerie:

http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~hutchins/index.html

Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/michutch42/

E-mail In

Michael hutchins — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:18:04 GMT

I am really just testing the e-mail in article feature to see if photos can or cannot be included.