Mum & Pop Visit Scotland

I know this post is just a tad overdue but this past week I have been going crazy trying to finish all of my essays and preparing for a trip to Dublin, which turns out didn't actually happen. More on that later though.


Mom & Dad arrived in Edinburgh Saturday the 3rd around 11. I picked them up at the train station and took them the rest of the way to Stirling. They got checked into their hotel & were obviously pretty tired from the night of traveling, so we agreed to meet up later that night. I went back to their hotel around 6 that evening and then took them on a walk around the town of Stirling. It was interesting to see the town again through somebody else's eyes. We met up with Katie and her family, who was visiting during break also, and we all headed out to dinner. I know both families enjoyed meeting each other since they had heard so much about Katie and I and how much we had been traveling together.


Sunday was Easter so we went to church in the morning. I was surprised that everything was about the same as at home but it was interesting to attend a mass in a different country. After we grabbed some lunch and headed to the University so I could show Mom & Dad what I've been calling home for the past 2 months. We were planning on going to the William Wallace Monument that day because it is so close to campus but the weather wasn't cooperating very well. Mom & Dad decided that they could handle the traditional Scottish weather so we headed up to the monument. It was still raining off and on but when we got all the way to the top the sun decided to come out! We took some great pictures of the University and Stirling way down below. It was great to finally get to the top of this huge monument that I had been staring at from my window all semester long.


After the William Wallace Monument we walked to the Bridge of Allan, a cute little town very close to the University. We got some ice cream and relaxed in the park, the day had already been filled with lots of walking any the rents were a little jet-lagged. We walked back to the University, Mom & Dad got on the bus and headed back to their hotel to rest from the long day. We met up later for a small dinner and some drinks and caught up on everything that we had both missed for 2 months.


Tuesday morning we headed to Glasgow. The weather was again acting typically Scottish so we decided to take a sightseeing bus around town to stay dry, rather than walking everywhere. It was actually a great way to see this city and hear about its history from a live tour guide. There were a few places that I wanted to check out but most of them were closed because it was Easter Monday, a bank holiday that they celebrate here. One museum that was open was the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. It was HUGE! We spent a few hours wandering around in there and only scratched the surface. I'm not a huge museum fan but this one was interesting, it had typical Glaswegian art and artifacts, as well as from around the world. My favorite part was the French wing that held the Monet and the Renoir. After grabbing lunch at the museum we walked around the grounds of Glasgow University, which reminded me a lot of Hogwarts, and then hopped back on our bus. We finished our day with a little shopping on Buchanan Street, famous for its shopping. We headed back to Stirling, ate some dinner and called it an early night.


Tuesday was another rainy day in Scotland, but we made the best of it. We headed up to Stirling Castle and explored. This was one thing that I had done earlier in the semester but it was interesting to see it again through my parents eyes. One thing we did do with my parents was visit the weavers studio. There were two women working on a HUGE tapestry, one in a set of seven. There are already 4 of them done and it takes over a year to finish just one. Once completed they will hang in the royal chambers of the castle. Mom and I found it so interesting to watch them weave so intricately. After the castle all we wanted was a hot meal to warm ourselves up from the cold rain. We ate at an amazing little Italian place in town, did a little bit of shopping and then hopped on the train to Edinburgh. Our highland tour left from Edinburgh early the next morning so we had stay the night.


Once settled at our hotel we walked around the city a little bit since the weather had cleared up a bit. Dad and I decided to climb to the top of the Scott's monument, which had great views of the city of Edinburgh. We had some drinks and an amazing dinner at a cute little pub by our hotel, where I finally got Mom and Dad to try Haggis, which they actually said they liked! :) After dinner we called it an early night, we had a big day the next day.


Wednesday started out Scottish highlands tour. Our tour bus was pretty small, a large van basically with a driver/tour guide and only eleven people total. The small group was really nice, much better then a huge coach tour with lots of people. We left Edinburgh at about 8:30 Wednesday morning and headed north. It took some time to get out of the city but once we did it was smooth sailing from there. We passed Linlithgow Palace where Mary Queen of Scots was born, then Stirling, where you could see the castle and the Wallace Monument perfectly. Our first stop was on the border of the highlands at the Trossachs woollen mill. This stop is home to Hamish the highland cow, an institution in Scotland. He is also thought to be the most photographed cow in the world. After some pictures and gift shop shopping we got back on the bus and headed to Glencoe. The scenery on the way was breathtaking! You could see the landscape changing right before your very eyes as we moved north from the midlands to the highlands. You could notice the increase in sheep too!


After a stop for lunch just outside of Glencoe we kept chugging along up to Fort William and the Glenfinnian Monument. The Glenfinnian Monument honors "Bonnie Prince Charlie" and the site where he started the Jacobite rebellion. This site was also home to another famous monument in Scotland, The Glenfinnian Viaduct, made famous by the Harry Potter movies. This is the bridge that the Hogwarts Express travels over on its way to Hogwarts. After a short stop there we headed north once again. On the way we caught views of Ben Nevis, the tallest point in the UK, which I hope to climb before I leave.

Our next stop was the Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness! We drove past the world famous Loch for sometime before reaching the castle and heard all about the legend of the Loch Ness monster, keeping our eyes peeled the whole time of course. The castle was really interesting because it was not rebuilt of re-furbished in anyway. It was left just as they found it. It was cool to explore the ruins of a castle for once instead of one that had been fixed up. After about an hour of exploring it was time to get back on the bus and head to our last stop for the day, Inverness, the self proclaimed capitol of the highlands. We were dropped off at the B&B where we would be staying that night, got all settled in and then had dinner and a great restaurant along the river. After dinner we all crashed, it had been a long day of driving and sightseeing.


Thursday was going to be another big day. We left our B&B at about 9:30 and headed straight to Culoden Battlefields. This was not exactly my favorite part of the tour but still pretty interesting. Next stop was Clava Carins. They were ancient burial grounds which are scattered all around Scotland. Apparently they were built to coincide with certain solar and lunar events, even though they were built thousands of years ago, amazing. Next was a very long journey south to St. Andrews. We stopped along the way and had some lunch in the very cute little town of Pitlochery. We ate at a cute little pub and fit in as much shopping as we could before getting back on the bus.


We finally arrived at St. Andrews around 3:00 in the afternoon, our bus driver drove us around the town, showing us the main sights including the Old Course, The Cathedral, and St. Andrews University. He then dropped us off and we were able to explore the town ourselves, we of course picked the golf courses. We took lots of pictures of the Old Course, the 18th green and 1st tee were the highlights, as well as the Swilcan Bridge. We watched a few golfers who were playing the legendary course and then walked out to the beach. It was so windy, No wonder it's such a hard course! After seeing the golf courses we walked around the campus of St. Andrews University the oldest university in Scotland. It was very very old but incredibly beautiful, as everything seems to be here. After just two short hours in St. Andrews we had to get back on our bus and head back to Edinburgh. It was about an hour and a half back to Edinburgh and we arrived around 7:00 that evening. We were all whipped out from a busy too days, but definitely enjoyed ourselves on a great tour of the highlands.

Friday we spent the day in Edinburgh, mostly walking the streets of Old Towne and shopping. We did visit John Knox House on the Royal Mile which was pretty uneventful. We also walked up to the Edinburgh castle to see the great views of the city below. We decided not to go inside because of the crowds and also my parents were pretty "castled out" from the past week. We were all pretty worn out from the crazy week of traveling. So we just took it easy the last day. Friday night we had dinner with the Wanzer family again. It was great to catch up with them and hear all about what they did with their week in Scotland. After dinner we said our goodbyes and Katie and I got on the train back to Stirling.

I'm so glad that my parents were able to come visit me during my short time here. It was great to be able to share this experience with them, especially since it is something so important to me. Thanks for everything Mom & Dad!

The week after break sure was a busy one with essays due in all three of my classes. I got them all finished and was ready to spend a long weekend in Dublin with Spencer and Katie when we got some disappointing news. A volcano in Iceland erupted on Wednesday the 14th which sent volcanic ash into the atmosphere. Because of this our plane to Dublin was cancelled, along with all other planes across Europe! No flights have flown from northern and eastern Europe for the whole weekend. So far flights are cancelled through this Wednesday but they could very easily be grounded for longer. The good news is that we will still have time to go to Dublin again after classes are finished and we can schedule a flight with the same airline for free.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be cleared up by next Thursday when Spencer and I are planning on traveling to Vienna, Austria for the weekend.

Sorry about the length of this post but its an update from a jam-packed weekend of traveling. I didn't put any pictures in this one because it's so long but I will put the album up of all the pictures soon. Hope everyone is having a good week. Until next time.. Cheers!

Paris

Okay folks... here it is & I'm sorry it took so long.

We arrived in Paris Friday around 6:30pm, by the time we took the bus into the center of Paris it was almost 8:30. Stepping off the bus was a bit of a culture shock! Neither Katie and I spoke any French so we could tell right away that navigating this huge city was going to be a challenge. Luckily we had our friend Sylvain to help us! We met Sylvain at Stirling, he studied there fall semester and moved back to Paris, his hometown, at the end of February for an internship. Without Sly we would have been totally lost, so thanks again Sly!

Once we met up with him he got us some metro cards for the weekend and took us to the heart of Paris, the Arc de Triomphe. The picture below was the view that we got coming out of the metro station. (Sly made sure to get that particular exit for us) It was completely breathtaking to see our first Parisian monument and all light up too.

After gawking for a bit we walked down the Champs Elysees and got some famous French macaroons. They were delicious. Next it was off to Concorde Square where we were able to get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower for the first time. It was absolutely magical, we stopped and stared for quite awhile! But we couldn't stop too long because we still had lots more to see, next stop- The Louvre. Seeing this all light up was also beautiful and I still can't believe how big it was!

After The Lourve we walked along the river Seine. We walked past the Pont Neuf bridge and finally made it to the last stop of the night, Notre Dame cathedral. It was so late that it wasn't light up anymore but it was still incredibly beautiful. To get to our hostel we took the public bikes that they have in Paris, which are very handy late at night when the metro isn't running anymore. We got to our hostel and crashed! We had seen a lot already and had even more to see the next day.

Saturday morning we had met Sly at the National Opera. Navigating the metro system by ourselves was a little interesting with a language barrier but we got it eventually. It was of course another beautiful building and seeing Paris for the first time during the day was amazing. We shopped a little in the morning and then made our way to go see the main attraction... the Eiffel Tower! Seeing it up close and in day light was incredible, just how I always imagined it.

After grabbing some lunch we made our way towards the Moulin Rouge. (a must stop for Katie) We did a little shopping but there wasn't much to see there so we headed up to Sacré-Cœur Basilica or the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which was close by. It is a beautiful white domed church with a view of the city to match. We stayed here for quite a bit also because the views were just so amazing! Sly finally pulled us away and we headed back to our hostel for a power nap. We had been so busy all day that it was much needed. We went out to dinner that night at a great little Chinese place that Sly found us and then headed down towards Notre Dame again. Seeing it all light up was awesome and you could really appreciate how beautiful it was.

We crossed the river Seine, went for drinks at a cute little French piano bistro. The drinks and music was great and the view wasn't bad either! The last stop of the day was back to the Eiffel Tower to see it all light up up close. This was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. It's even more beautiful at night and there was almost nobody around compared to the middle of the day.

After sitting in the park for quite awhile we headed back. We had still had one more day in Paris and it was going to be another busy one. Sunday we took a train to Versailles Palace and did a free walking tour of the gardens and grounds. The guided tour was really nice because they taught us a lot about the history of the Palace and all the the different monarchs who lived their and made it the way it is. After the tour we were able to head into the palace for free! (thanks to a nice student discount) It was VERY crowded and we were very sick of walking by this point but we saw the main attractions in the castle like the King's and Queen's bed chambers and the famous Hall of Mirrors, which separates the two. The pictures below are of the outside gates of the Palace; the fountain of Apollo, the most famous of all the fountains; and the backside of the palace, taken from the gardens.

The weather on Sunday wasn't the greatest, typical Persian weather I guess, so we just decided to catch the train back to Paris and head to the airport. Even though the weather didn't exactly cooperate with us on Sunday we were not ready to leave Paris. It really is as beautiful as everybody says and I hope to be back someday.

Ciao Italia!

This past weekend I had the chance to visit the island of Sicily, just off mainland Italy. My friend Katie has good family friends there so we stayed with them while we were there. After a very long day of traveling on Thursday we finally made it to Taormina, which is just north of Catania, the second largest city in Sicily. Taormina is a very popular tourist town and is the place to be in the summer because it is right on the Mediterranean Sea and has beautiful views.


Thursday night Ricardo, the oldest son of the family we stayed with, took us to a small bakery to try some pizza and pastries and then drove us around the town to see a few of good lookout spots. It was late at night but the lights of the city were still beautiful!


Friday was a pretty lazy day, we sat out on the terrace most of the morning and soaked up the sun, something we haven’t seen too much of in Scotland lately! After an wonderful lunch made by Riccardo’s mother the three of us headed down to walk along the beach. It was very relaxing and a good way to experience the culture of Sicily. After that we headed back to the house to relax until dinner time. Italians eat dinner very late at night, usually around 9 or 10 at night. After dinner we went out to a pub with Riccardo and a friend of his in the next town over. We had a few drinks there and Katie and I tried our first Italian wine... which was of course very good! We went back home and the Italians taught us how to play some card games with a Sicilian deck of cards, which is different than a regular deck. They were so much fun Katie and I both made sure to get a deck before we left.


Saturday was pretty relaxing too. We slept in and then had lunch around 2:00 then soaked up the sun for a little bit more. After that we went to a local hotel to work out for a little bit and swim. It felt good to get some exercise after eating so much pasta! Saturday night the family ordered traditional Italian pizzas for dinner. There were about 6 different kinds and I had to try them all. There was an all vegetable one, a traditional margarita pizza which is SO much better than what we have back home, a 4 cheese and prosciutto pizza with blu cheese dressing, one had French fries and sausage, another had hard boiled eggs, peas and ham and the last one I would describe as having a salad on top of it. They were all very good, some more than others though. I think my favorite one was the four cheese with ham! With dinner we had the local beer and watched an Italian football (soccer) game, it almost felt like I was back home again! After dinner we went out to a pub right on the water. It was a beautiful night so we walked around a little bit too. When we went back home it was the Americans turn to teach the Italians some drinking games. Playing with a Sicilian deck of cards made things a lot harder but it was still lots of fun.


Sunday was another day with lots and lots of food. In Sicily, Sunday lunch is a very big deal. The whole family gets together to eat a ton and drink lots of wine. The meal consisted of about 10-15 appetizers brought out one after the other. They included everything from warm ricotta cheese; a seafood platter with octopus, squid and clams; a plate of mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh basil; anchovies flavored with lemon and salt' fried cheese (my favorite); roasted artichokes and many others. I’m proud to say I tried them all, even the seafood which is usually not my favorite. After the appetizers comes the pasta course. The noodles in the pasta were handmade and hand rolled fresh pasta and the whole dish was absolutely amazing! Just when you think the meal is over, they bring out the meat course. I tried a few different things but by this time I was stuffed. And no Italian meal would be complete without Tiramisu! I was so full by this point but it was just so good I had to finish it, there’s always room for dessert right?


After we finished dinner we headed home so the boys could watch a football match on TV. Katie and I decided to skip the game and walk up the hillside instead. It was a long long way up but the views were perfect! At the top of this hill sits a church built right into the hill which was just as beautiful. We could also see Mt. Etna from the top, the volcano on Sicily. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip for sure. By the time we got back down the game was over so Riccardo took Katie and I shopping on some of Taorima's main shopping streets. The shops in Taormina were pretty high end, lots of famous designers, because after all it's Italy! We just bought a few little souvenirs and also got some real Italian gelato. We headed home and had another fabulous dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the night. We even found an NCAA basketball game on TV, it was in Italian most of the time, but Katie and I were still excited to watch it!


Monday was our last full day in Sicily so we did a lot. In the morning we got up around 9:00 and headed to the beach. Sicilians think that this time of year is very very cold and there aren't many tourists in the city either so needless to say we were the only ones on the beach! The water was pretty cold but the sun still felt so nice. After we soaked up some sun we went back to have some lunch. For our last lunch in Sicily, Riccardo's Mom made octopus salad and black ink spaghetti with squid. I was determined to try both of them and neither were that bad, considering I'm not a huge fan of seafood. The spaghetti was interesting, but really didn't have too much flavor. The octopus salad was pretty good, after you got over the sight of the octopus tentacles and the little suction cups! It was definitely the most interesting meal of the trip but still very good.


In the afternoon we finally went to explore the Greek/Roman theatre in Taormina. The theatre is built into the side of the hills and has AMAZING views of the rest of the city and Mt. Etna. After exploring for about an hour and getting lots of good pictures, we headed an hour south to Catania to do some more shopping. We went to the local shopping center, the mall basically, and shopped for a couple hours. We headed back home to Taormina to have our last dinner in Sicily, which was a fabulous salad with tuna fish, mozzarella, cucumbers and tomatoes. We were pretty worn out from our busy day so we had another relaxing night watching a movie and packing up or stuff.


On Tuesday morning, needless to say we did not want to leave! The whole weekend was absolutely perfect and it was nice to be in a home again and eat real home cooked meals, especially Italian. It's definitely going to be hard staying in a hostel after this trip! Staying with a family also gave us a chance to experience the real Italian culture and cuisine. They were so generous to have us in their home for the weekend and show us around their beautiful city. I definitely hope to be back someday!

This blog is long enough so I decided not to put pictures in it. There is a link to a photo album on the right side of the page. Just click on the Sicily one and it should take you right to it!

Until next time... CIAO CIAO!!