London Calling

Aaagh! Frantic blogging may commence. The last mini trip I went on in the last week was to London for 2 days with Emily. A free trip to London. A bit of background:
   Em is a part time bartender at the Whey Pat pub. She entered the Pilsner Urquell Master Bartender challenge purely to win free amazon gift cards and cheated at both written tests. Naturally, this got the attention of the company and they called her up the day I arrived in Scotland to announce that out of 1700 entries within the UK, she was in the top 10 finalists for the master bartender competition, and they flying her and a friend down to London to compete in the finals. The winner of the London final would be flown to Prague for the world championships. This is the story of how we got a free, all expenses paid trip to London.
   We arrived early Sunday morning and had the whole day to explore, since Em only had competition in the afternoon/evening on Monday. We stayed at an uber nice, very expensive hotel on the Strand, right near the Thames and all of the theatres, which was perfect because we wanted to see a musical. We saw Shrek the Musical. It was hilarious and full of energy, except for Donkey for whom we had no love. We generally spent the next few days walking about. Em had a few hours of competition on Monday and then there was a reception for all of the plus ones. She was 1 point away from going to Prague, which came as a shock because we generally treated the entire situation as a bit of a laugh. It was so fun to see London with my bestie, and to see sights I had not seen the last time I went. My favorite was St Paul's Cathedral. One of my favorite films is Mary Poppins, and the scene where she sings Feed the Birds is so reminiscent of my childhood. For me, St Paul's is very London, more so than red double decker buses or telephone booths, or even icons like Big Ben and the London Eye.

A view of the Thames, Big Ben, the eye, and Parliament from the Jubilee Bridge.

St Pauls from across the Thames.

On the doors leading into St Paul's Cathedral.

Buckingham Palace (and newly purple hair!)

The previous day, with blond hair. Picking up tickets to see Shrek the Musical.

In case you can't see it, the sign reads "At some point in our lives, 1 in 4 of us will be affected by mental illness. Bring 3 friends...."

Geneva to France

After spending a few days in Edinburgh, I flew to Geneva. I arrived late in the afternoon and immediately began enjoying the warm temperatures. It felt like heaven after Edinburgh. A lovely Scottish woman sat next to me on my flight and directed me to a machine where I could get a free train ticket to Geneva city centre, where, after a few confusing false starts, I managed to walk to my hostel. Where my hostel in Edinburgh had been charming, fun, and all around inviting, the "youth" hostel in Geneva was cold, austere, and smelled of weird disinfectant. It was also plainly not a youth hostel, as I saw old men and entire families checking in when I collected my key.
    Since I had arrived so late in the day (4 pm) most museums were already closed. My hostel was only a 5 minute walk from the lake, so I ended up strolling around the lake for a good two hours. It was absolutely gorgeous, as the sun had burned away most of the clouds from the mountains overlooking the Lake Geneva. It was definitely my favorite part of the city. Overall, Geneva failed to impress for me. It's extremely expensive, for one thing. I purchased a bottle of water and it cost me 8 francs. I ended up going out to an Italian restaurant for dinner and paying an exorbitant amount for a small pizza simply because I couldn't find a grocery store, even after wandering about the city for a good half hour. For being such an international city, Geneva also seemed quite dirty and run down, and I don't think I was in a bad area of town, given that my hostel was right behind the Palace Wilson, which is an extremely posh and expensive hotel named in honor of President Woodrow Wilson. I met a few people later in the evening back at my hostel and talked with them for a bit on the patio, but Geneve left me cold. I had such an immediate visceral reaction to Edinburgh, I loved it so much, that Geneva felt like such a let down. Still, the lake was beautiful and I only spent a day there, as I met two of my brothers, Karl and Ryan, at the airport early the next morning.
    Karl & Ryan were in France to do a bike trip through the Alps, but as they got in quite early, we had the day to explore a bit. Our hotel was in Anthy-sur-Leman. I couldn't figure out what Leman was until I realized that it's the French word for Lake Geneva. It's quite funny passing from Switzerland to France- they don't ask for passports or anything. Bruno, the guide, said that Switzerland has an agreement with the countries surrounding it for easier travel between nations.
    We explored Yvoire, a medieval town a bit down from Anthy for most of the morning/afternoon. It was so charming. There were flowers and ivy exploding from every building. The town we stayed in, Anthy, was absolutely tiny. It seemed like the hotel/restuarant (L'Auberge D'Anthy) was literally the center of town. There was a few restaurants and an ice cream stand down by the lake, along with a little library and muncipal center. No grocery store or even petrol station.
    We had a great breakfast in the morning and then Karl and Ryan headed off for their bike trip and Bruno dropped me off at the last tram stop in Geneva to get back to the airport. My French is definitely horrendous, and I wasn't entirely sure I was on the correct tram until I overheard some British women talking about getting off at the train station.
   Even though Geneva was a bit of a fail, France was spectacularly gorgeous and welcoming and it was so so lovely to see and visit with both Karl and Ryan. Another stamp on my passport doesn't hurt either!

 

Yvoire, France.

Karl next to lac Leman (Lake Geneva), French side. 

Castle in Yvoire. 

Our hotel in Anthy. And pretty much the entire town.

Who are these studs???

Edinburgh

”Such was my first view of Edinburgh. I descended again into her streets in a sort of stupor of admiration.” - JG Lockhart
I've had a busy last 2 weeks. I started my travels last week in Edinburgh, possibly my favorite city that I've ever visited. I have two people to thank for my fantastic time- Emily, for recommending the Castle Rock Hostel, which was cheap, safe, friendly, and in a phenomenal location at the foot of Edinburgh Castle and right off the Royal Mile. The other person is sister Dee, who told me to just go with the flow in terms of travel as I poured over tourist guides. I had absolutely no preconceived notions of the city, or really any places that I had to see while I was there, and consequently, I wandered and enjoyed.
    The weather was awful, as Scotland was experiencing the after effects of the rain from Hurricane Irene, and it was freezing. I spent the first day holed up in the National Museum of Scotland, touring exhibits and generally looking for any way to stay indoors. I did venture up to the roof for a panoramic view of the city- just in time! The wind and rain was so bad that they closed the roof terrace off for fear of safety. I met a lot of really lovely people at my hostel and went out with a few of them to a pub with great live music.
  Slightly better weather, and some rays of sunshine the next day meant venturing down the Mile. I went up to the castle but decided I didn't want to pay 15 pounds entry or wait in the huge queue to enter. Instead, I walked down the Royal Mile towards the Palace of Holyrood, stopping when something looked interesting. St Giles Cathedral was stunning, and I stopped to listen to the brief 15 minute service they had. The museum of Edinburgh was fun as well, if a little cramped as they made way for new exhibits. They had a great exhibit on women suffragists in the UK, which was fascinating. I've taken a lot of classes on American suffragists, so it was lovely to see other views. I did go to the Scottish Parliament for a bit, which sits at the base of Arthur' Seat. All of the signs in the parliament are in both English and Gaelic. The Palace of Holyrood is the official queens residence when she is in Scotland. Luckily, she wasn't visiting at the time, so the palace was open for tours. The crumbling ruins of the abbey lie directly behind the palace.
    Seeing Mary, Queen of Scots bedchamber and rooms was probably my favorite bit of the castle. I don't have a strong opinion of the queen- many do- but they told the story of when she was having dinner in her private chamber with her secretary David Rizzio, and her husband and several Protestant nobles burst in and attacked Rizzio. They slit his throat in front of a pregnant Mary. It seemed suddenly very real, standing in her bedchamber, hearing this story. You often don't get the feeling that these stories happened to real people, especially when they are royals. It was powerful.
  Edinburgh as a whole was wonderful. I could definitely see myself living there someday, and this was after two days in the city. I can't fully articulate what it was that I loved so much, but it seemed almost magical.
Enough words! Pictures ahoy:

St Giles Cathedral- the blue was soo vibrant.

 

Stained glass window in St Giles- it was difficult to pick only one photo of the windows!

Outside of Parliament.

Courtyard of Palace of Holyrood

For dee :)

Directly across the street from my hostel.

The palace and abbey, from the gardens. You can see a bit of Arthur's Seat in the background (the mountain).

Dundee to Pitlochry

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead!

I feel as if I've been here for weeks instead of days, because I am definitely fulfilling my obligation (to myself) of having as many new adventures as possible! After an impossibly gorgeous day in St Andrews on Thursday, and a lovely 1.5 hr walk around the town, Em & I trundled off to Dundee on Friday for a bit of shopping and exploring. We were hoping for sunshine, since we'd planned an afternoon at the Camperdown Country Park, but the drizzly and gray weather turned out to be a blessing, because it meant that we only had to share the wildlife centre with one other couple.

  field in St Andrews

The Dundee wildlife centre was very cool. It felt a bit like someone had plunked down a few rusty, maybe-not-so-sturdy fences around a few animals and thought, "lets charge people for this!" Even with the rainy weather, we managed to see all of the animals, including 4 adorable otters and two European brown bears. We must have spent 25 minutes in front of their cage. The park itself was huge as well, and we'll probably go back for a visit. 

 Entrance to wildlife centre

Today we traveled to Pitlochry, in Perthshire, for the Highland Games! It was, as is appropos for Scotland, raining, making the field impossibly muddy, but Pitlochry has only canceled the games for World War II, so a little weather meant nothing. Kudos to all of the runners and bikers who someone managed to not wipe out on the muddy track. Did I mention the field was all grass as well? We saw traditional events as well as Scottish events like throwing the caper and the hammer throw, all done with men in kilts. There were bagpipe competitions, dancing, and booths of sweets and games. And an incredibly muddy field. I had an awesome day, despite the traveling conditions. If you waited for sun in Scotland, you would never manage to travel anywhere. Both Emily & I loved Pitlochry- it's such a charming little town. 

 This is one of the bagpipers. Everyone else had traditional shoes/socks on, but she was rocking the wellies.

He's throwing a hammer- you can see it just above the left net.

 The clock in the train station at Perth- which is pronounced like PEAR-TH.

 This is us with Armon. He was amazing, and we got to use props in our photo! Ferdinand from Germany took an excellent picture for us :)

 A view of the River Tummel, from the dam and fish ladder. 

 My extremely muddy feet and shoes. I'm pretty sure some of that mud will stay with me for the rest of my life.

 Oh, and I won a bottle of whiskey at one of the booths. You could buy 5 tickets for a pound to support the high school, and one of mine matched up with the whiskey. I have no idea what I'll do with it, but I'm so pleased to win such a quintessentially Scottish thing at the Highland Games.

A jump into the North Sea is in order tomorrow, and then off to Edinburgh and Geneva all of next week!

Arrival!

I've forgotten how damp it is in Scotland.  The wind constantly blows, which felt bracing and invigorating rather than cold as I waited for my bus outside the Edinburgh airport on Monday, rather than bone-chilling. One woman worried for me. "Dear, aren't you cold? You should have a jacket", she fussed. After 13+ hours of flying and sitting in airports, the wind whipping through my thin lace t-shirt felt incredible. I was here.

My journey couldn't have been more simple, as a matter of fact. I took a direct flight from Phoenix to London Heathrow, with a short connection time before flying up to Edinburgh. I was a bit nervous for immigration as I waited in line. There was an officer barking orders at the long line of students, handing us extra papers to fill out. As I watched one student in front of me fumble with paperwork, I had the dreadful thought that I might be denied entry, as implausible as that is. No worries were needed. The man handling my entry immediately became excited for me that I was studying in Brighton, announced that he had lived in Tucson, Arizona for a few years, and wrote down the name of the THE BEST (his words) chocolate shop in Brighton on an empty boarding card. Entre-vouz to the UK!

I've been in St Andrews for the last couple of days, safely sequestered with my bestie. We've gotten me a UK phone, booked travel plans, played trivial pursuit, had a diet coke at the Whey Pat, and generally just reveled in the fact that we are once again in the same country. It's been uneventful and thoroughly relaxing.

It was sunny today (a rare occurrence for my visits!) with a nippy wind but perfect for a picnic. We traipsed down Lade Braes to eat our lunch on top of Hallow Hill.  We also visited the auction house and are bidding on a few items tomorrow. I'll let everyone know if I win anything with my ridiculously low bids! I do have to convert everything to british pounds in my head ;).

I'm going to try and update once a week, unless it's a bit too crazy with travel. We have Dundee on Friday, followed by the Highland Games in Pitlochry this weekend, then I have a solid week of travel- Edinburgh, Geneva, London, and back to St Andrews for a few days before heading down to Brighton.

A few pictures:

Emily & I with our lunchboxes :)