Edinburgh and Scotland

I now have the exciting task of writing about Edinburgh and Scotland, which are now some of my favorite places on the planet. I absolutely loved Scotland, from the coastline to the highlands to the city of Edinburgh. The country is beautiful and I really liked the people and the way of life there. We had a very adventurous weekend and spent a lot of time outside and in the wilderness, which I was very happy to do. I love visiting other places, but a lot of the time is just spent looking at old buildings. Which I really appreciate but you can only see so many cathedrals and fountains.....

Our trip to Edinburgh began with an early morning train ride through the English countryside and into the Scottish countryside and along the coastline up to Edinburgh. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and we got to rest a little bit before our big weekend. Here is the Scottish coastline....

When we first got to Edinburgh we ate lunch (food is a priority when it comes to traveling with me) and then went for a hike up to Arthur's Seat, one of the mountains that overlooks the city of Edinburgh. It was a vigorous hike, but we took breaks along the way to look at the city, the water and the surrounding mountains. Once we got to the top, the climb was well worth it because the views were amazing.

One side of the mountain

 The very top of the mountain 

Edinburgh Castle from the mountain

Other mountains as seen from the mountain

More of the city of Edinburgh

Three of us on top of the mountain

Me holding Simba from Pride Rock 

(photo by Casey Germann, you steal it, you die)

After we frolicked for a bit at the top of the mountain, we decided it was best to start heading back to the city. Melissa and her friend Lauren decided to take the normal people route, while Casey and I decided that it would be more fun to bounce down the mountain. The grass was very high and soft and fluffy for some reason, so if you just ran and jumped down the side of the mountain the grass almost acted as a trampoline. We followed this method halfway down the mountain until Casey started to just roll down the mountain. I refrained from doing so, because it makes me motion sick, and took pictures of her instead. Here are some good ones:

Thus essentially completed our first day in Scotland. We made it an early night in order to rest up for our Highland tour that we embarked upon on Saturday. This was another amazing part of the trip. The highlands are gorgeous and peaceful and calm and I am very fortunate that I got a chance to see them. We also got to see a highland coo! For all of you who don't know what that is, it's basically a big, hairy, shaggy brown cow. According to our tour guide, it is spelled "cooooooooooooooo" but the last two o's are silent. We spent a lot of the day driving around in our tour bus, but honestly that was my favorite part because we just got to look out the window at the scenery. Most of the day, I simply couldn't believe where I was because the views were so breathtaking. 

Hamish the Scottish Coo

Casey and I are coos too

Waterfall and river that we overlooked while eating lunch

The beautiful highlands

More scenery 

A Scottish loch in the highlands

After our tour we were pretty tired, but we really wanted to go out and get a taste for Edinburgh's night life. We ended up at a bar that had a band playing live covers. The bar's atmosphere was great, and it had a picture of Animal from the Muppets on the wall and a large ant-like thing made out of cardboard on the ceiling. It was a bit more artsy and eclectic but I really enjoyed the time we spent there. Very funky but very cool.

The next day we really got to explore the city of Edinburgh. All of the buildings in the town are built in an old Gothic style, making the town look really old but also beautiful. We also got to eat breakfast in the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter! 

Cafe where Harry Potter was born

J.K. Rowling overlooked Edinburgh Castle while writing HP

Another inspiration for Hogwarts 

Walking down the Royal Mile

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh had a really interesting and different tone than all the other cities I have visited. I really liked how adventurous and outdoorsy we were able to be rather than just going in and out of museums and old buildings. I also liked how all of the buildings were still of an old-fashioned architecture. It made the city beautiful and I appreciated it more because it hadn't been updated to modern terms. It was very refreshing to go to a city that was off the beaten path and that was able to stand on its own without a million old famous buildings. I think that Edinburgh is tied for Florence as one of my favorite places I've been so far and I would love to get the chance to go back to Scotland at some point in my life.

Update: Things I Want to Do/Things I've Done

THINGS I WANT TO DO:

• Go to the London Zoo
• Go to the Aquarium (if, in fact, it is an aquarium)
• Go to the Jewish Museum
• Go on the London Eye
• Go to The Globe
• Go to a football game
• Go to Amsterdam
• Go to Germany (where the beer is cheaper than water!)
• Go to France (Paris/Leon)
• Go to Switzerland
• Go to the Tate Modern Museum

THINGS I'VE DONE:

• Had my first legal drink!
• Saw Westminster Abbey
• Saw Big Ben
• Boated under the London Bridge
• Went to Buckingham Palace
• Went to Trafalgar Square
• Befriended a Londoner (Simon)
• Went to London pubs
• Rode the tube 
• Went shopping (a little) 
• Went to Oxford
• Completed half of a Harry Potter tour (Oxford) 
• Went to Notting Hill
• Went to Portabello Market
• Watched Love Actually
• Saw live music in England AND Ireland
• Went to Ireland
• Went on a double-decker
• Went to the Museum of Natural History
• Mingled with British people
• Saw more of England
• Went to Stonehenge
• Harry Potter Tour (including Kings Cross, Platform 9 3/4 - "Excuse me, can you tell me where I might find platform nine and three-quarters?" "Platform nine and three-quarters? Think you're bein' funny, do ya?"
• Walked on The Harry Potter Bridge (aka The Millenium Bridge)
• Went to Abbey Road
• Saw the Dover white cliffs
• Saw the London country-side 
• Go to Italy (read: eat my way through Italy)  
• Go to Spain
• Go to Scotland 
• Went to the Imperial War Museum
• Went on a Duck Tour of London (even in the Thames too!)
• Went to Salisbury and Salisbury Cathedral
• Took a train through England and Scotland and saw both countrysides
• Went on a highland tour of Scotland

I'm glad that so many things are being put on the "Things I've Done" list, but as my time in London grows shorter, I know that there are some things that I won't get to do. But my time in London was short to begin with, and I'll say that I've gotten a pretty good amount of stuff in already!

Malaga - Costa del Sol

This post may be a bit old, considering I just returned from a different weekend trip, but I need to write about every place and chronological order seems to be the best way to do it. Two weekends ago Melissa and I went on a romantic weekend together to the sunny coast of Spain to the small city of Malaga and it was one of my favorite trips since I've been over here. The city is very small and manageable and the downtown area is adorable and very aesthetically pleasing. The center of the town is just a few small roads that all are connected by the one main road, which is actually a pedestrian zone, so it's very pretty with just the buildings and people and without the cars. 

The surrounding area is beautiful as well, with the water just down the street and sidewalks lined with palm trees. Malaga is known for being the birthplace of Picasso, but my favorite part was climbing up into the Alcazaba, a centuries-old fortress, and up into the Castillo Gibralfaro. These old palaces and fortresses are not only beautifully landscaped, but they also have amazing views out over the city of Malaga, into the surrounding mountainous areas and over the beaches and ocean. 

 Pathway into the Alcazaba

 Looking into the port, there was even a lighthouse!

 Pretty gardens in the Alcazaba

 Small stream and flowers 

 Overlooking Malaga and the mountains

 Funky mountain in the other direction

I would have to say that Malaga was one of my favorite places that I have been to. It was a perfect weekend get-away; the city is very small and we spent a good portion of the weekend on the beach, since we had amazing weather, but if the weather wasn't so good we would have had trouble finding things to do that involved shelter. We walked past Picasso's birthplace and drank some good sangria, but the highlight of the weekend was definitely relaxing on the beach and getting a tan. We even swam in the Mediterranean! And by swam, I mean we went under the water and came up screaming because it was so cold and then ran out of the water. But hey, that counts for something!

Perduta....dov'e (insert any place in Italy here)? This means "I'm lost....where is (ANYWHERE IN ITALY)?"

So I know I've been slacking on the blog posts, but I finally have a bit of free time (1 hour in between classes) so I'm going to update about my Italy trip. Which was three weeks ago. 

After a very busy weekend with Katerina in town and two days of finals, Melissa, Kat and I finally arrived in Rome. We got a good night's sleep and got up in the morning for a serious day of sightseeing. We went everywhere from the Spanish Steps to McDonalds to the ancient ruins to the Coliseum to the Trevi Fountain. It was a long day but very informative and cheap, thanks to our free walking tours! The next day we headed to the Vatican before we left, which was an amazing site - beautiful and elaborate!

Begin photo gallery.

 

Street

Forum Ruins

Coliseum

Trevi Fountain

Vatican Walkway

St. Peter's

The main night we spent in Rome was a lot of fun - one of two big party nights we had in Italy. We went on a pub crawl, which I would recommend for anyone visiting Rome. You get to meet people, you get a lot of cheap drinks and you even get a free t-shirt! Of course, many people we met were only visiting Rome and were not actual Italians, but we met some fun Australians and Canadians so it was well worth it!

  

The three of us with our shirts!

Next stop, Florence. Out of all the cities I have been to while I've been over here, Florence is definitely my favorite. The buildings are beautiful, the city is small enough to manage and the people there are a ton of fun! We also climbed up the Duomo clock tower to get amazing views of the city and the surrounding countryside (which by the way is beautiful - when we were on the train from Rome to Florence we got the most unbelievable views of the Italian countryside)!

Begin photo gallery part due (that's Italian for two).

 

Beautiful Duomo

 

Tower that we climbed

  

There it is again...that beast

Triumphant after climbing 414 steps

View from one of the museums

 

View from tower

Another beautiful view

The day we were in Florence was Melissa's 21st birthday, so obviously we had to go out and enjoy the nightlife. There are a lot of American students studying in Florence, and we had gotten tips from a family friend who studied there last year. We started at a bar called FishPub, where they had 5 shots for 5 euros. It was a lot of fun and they played Miley, so it was all right by me. We also met some cool Argentinians, and got to practice our Spanish speaking abilities. Embarassing. For some reason, we don't have pictures of this night and I'm not sure why.... We ended the night at a different bar that was still a cool atmosphere but not as fun (in my opinion), but I'm still a fan of the Florence nightlife.

  

I found a picture of us! In our hostel...

The next day we headed to Venice where my camera conveniently stopped working. Luckily, Katerina took pictures of every single bridge we walked over, so I wasn't worried about capturing the sights. The first day in Venice we were lucky enough to go to two of my favorite places in the world (I can say that now): Murano and Burano, the islands off of Venice. Murano is known for its blown glass and Burano is known for its colorful houses and lace products. We also spent a lot of time wandering and getting lost in Venice (well, we got lost everywhere), but we managed to see San Marc's Square and ride boats along the canals. I can't remember where we stayed....must have blocked that out of my memory. 

Yay more photos!

 

Melissa and me and the pretty houses of Burano

Katerina and me outside Hotel Pants

So now we get to talk about the best part: FOOD. We ate THE. BEST. FOOD. EVER. I have no idea what was wrong with 11-year-old-me-who-was-in-Italy-but-refused-to-eat-anything-but-bread. I ate amazing carbonara, unbelievable paninis, the best ravioli ever, pesto gnocchi and delicious pizza, to name a few things. We also had tons of gelato and Italian cookies as well as the best Prosecco ever. I was full and happy for the whole time and want to go back already.

Dover and a Surprise Trip to Canterbury

This past Sunday, I went on a day trip to what I thought was going to be the White Cliffs of Dover and Dover Castle. Boy, was I in for a surprise. This was a trip that BU offered through it's "social programme," and all I wanted to do since even before I arrived in London was take a trip to see the Dover White Cliffs. I basically begged Melissa to buy a ticket and was very excited to find out that most of my friends had decided to come along for the day as well.

The first surprise came when we boarded the bus and the tour guide handed out an itinerary and started speaking on bus's loud speaker. She told us that there had been a change in the plans, and we were now going to spend the morning in Canterbury, then go to Dover in the afternoon rather than Dover first then Canterbury. The change of plans threw us all off, solely because we were completely unaware that we were going to spend time in Canterbury in the first place!

So off we headed to Canterbury, which was actually a very pleasant surprise as the town was made up of cobblestone streets and very old, adorable buildings and shops along with a cute little river! See below. 

 

  

  

  

I've been really enjoying taking small day trips out of the city to the other towns around England because they have all been so beautiful! Canterbury was so old and quaint and cute, it was definitely a good surprise that we ended up there. We also got to go in the ChristChurch in the town, which was of course gorgeous. It bewilders me that something that intricate and detailed could be built in 1072 with the amount of technology (or lack thereof) they had. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to take pictures inside the cathedral so that is in my mind and my mind only. All I can say was that it was breathtakingly beautiful, like most of the buildlings in England.  

So my excitement continued to build all day long and finally, off we went to go to the cliffs. We first had to walk through an underground museum in the underground tunnels used during WWII as bases and hospitals before we arrived at the look out point to see the cliffs. The tunnel museum was pretty interesting, though. The tunnel system is very extensive and really helped the troops to plan certain attacks and was also very useful in housing and healing wounded soldiers. However, all I wanted to do was see the cliffs and walking through tunnels for 60 minutes was not making me happy. Finally, we were released from our tour and we were left on our own to find the supposed "look out" from which we could view the cliffs. 

After wandering around for about 20 minutes, we asked someone where a good place to see the cliffs from was. He kindly informed us that we were standing ON the white cliffs, and probably wouldn't be able to SEE them unless we went down to the bottom where the road was. Or across the channel to France. Which was really convenient, because the only reason we had come on the trip was to VIEW the white cliffs not walk around IN THE TUNNELS BUILT INSIDE OF THEM. Luckily, we found the "viewing area" and got these views of the cliffs:

 

We also only got a chance to walk AROUND the castle grounds rather than a chance to go INSIDE the castle. Fortunately (again), we had beautiful views to defer our negative energy from being blatantly lied to by our school.

 The castle that we were never able to go in because we ran out of time

 

View from ON TOP OF the White Cliffs

 

Another view standing ON TOP OF the cliffs

 Myself, Melissa and Ellie all happy because we thought we were going to see the beautiful White Cliffs of Dover

So that's the last time I pay $30 to go on a trip organized by BU. Until March 14, when I go to Stonehenge for a day trip. That one would be hard to mess up. I mean, they are big rocks piled on top of each other. Maybe they'll let us stand on those too!