Bonnie Scotland

Scotland, oh Scotland. A country I just discovered wasn't a province in England not more than a year ago. Still, when my girl Sammy said she had booked tickets, I jumped at the opportunity to spend a week traveling with her!

Not to make myself sound like a super ignorant American (I figured I kinda already did that in my first paragraph) but here is a conclusive list of the things I knew about Scotland prior to my trip: whiskey, time warp portals (Outlander anyone?), kilts, bagpipes, and a strong accent that even native english speakers can't understand.

I am happy to inform you, Scotland gives a lot more.

We flew into Edinburgh where my good friend Adi is doing his masters. Adi and I met traveling last summer and have staying in contact, and he was nice enough to be our guide for the week!! He was seriously the best guide ever. He knew everything!! He even drove us up into the Highlands for a day. But I'll get back to that later.

First lesson learned: Scotland is COLD!! For some reason, after living in Germany, I thought there was no where on the planet who could have worse summers than here. I was wrong. It might have been 40 degrees, but I could be rounding up. I was freezing. Adi drove us home, then took us to a pub where he instructed Sammy on all the different flavors and we listened to live music.

 The next day we woke up and did a walking tour of Edinburgh. We learned a lot about the dark past of Edinburgh!! We also got to see where many famous authors got there start, along with the cemetary JK Rowling walked around when she needed inspiration. You can find the names of characters on the graves!!

Pond on the way to old town

Edinburgh Castle

Graveyard

This marked the graves of people who died from infectious diseases.. to warn grave robbers

Where JK Rowling wrote the first few Harry Potters

Bagpiper

After this, we walked hiked to the top of Edinburgh to a place called Arthurs Seat. You can see a 360 degree panoramic of the entire city. It's really beautiful. Especially with the ocean in the background. It was one of those moments where I look out and can't believe that some people don't believe in a god. There's no way something a gorgeous as that could have happened by accident. But that just my opinion. It was very windy and we were quite cold, but stayed up there as long as possible. A lady was up there playing the bagpipes which made it even better!

Half-way up

The ocean

Casually bagpipping

Freezing

Old chapel ruins on the way down

Edinburgh sunset (it's on a bay, that's the other side in the background)

We woke up super early the next morning and drove up! I don't know where we stopped, but Adi knew all the good places. Our final stop was Loch Ness, where we said hi to Nessie and played in Castle Urquart. We drank lots of hot chocolate and saw lots of rainbows on the way up!!

Doune Castle, where Monty Python was filmed

Rainbow over Urquart Castle

Group Photo

God reminding us He's not going to flood to earth again. Phew!

We were exhausted when we got back. Sammy and I watched a movie and slept a long time. The next day we went to the Scottish Musuem. We saw lots of cool things, like the first cloned sheep "Dolly" who has since been stuffed. We also saw the first chest board and found a lots of cool coins. Oh, and we got our New Year's Eve outfits. You like?

We went home and watched a movie/waited for Adi to get home. Then we cooked dinner and went to our underground tour!! As mentioned before, Edinburgh has a dark history. One of which is an underground city. Once affluent, later abondoned, then reused by the homeless, drug-addicts, prostitutes, and such types of people. It was three stories underground and there were no windows. All the water from the streets washed into the lowest floor (remember they used to throw their poop on the streets) and the average life span of someone living here was 3-6 months. Gross. It was so bad, the cops wouldn't even go in it. Now it's used to give tourists a fright. The lead you in their by candle light and tell you the darkest stories and some of paranormal activity. It was a bit hokey, but we still got a good scare and had a LOT of fun.

After this, we went to pub to hear live music. All in all, the trip was a huge success. We had such a great time and most of it was thanks to our awesome host Adi!! Thanks again!

Lose Yourself in Venice Part 2

Now, where did I leave off?

We woke up in the morning and I was eager to have a real Italian Cappuccino! Emma and I went to the hotel bar and ordered two cappuccinos, complete with chocolate dust on top. We sat in the courtyard of our hotel and drank. They were delicious!

After this we headed back into town.

Now you're probably thinking.. Okay Stephanie, where's the catch with your title? Well. Here it comes. Lose yourself in Venice. I beg you-try NOT to get lost! The thing with Venice is, it is full of old, skinny, barely fit in there buildings, connected by bridges, walkways, and half of the time they are interrupted by a canal or a dead-end. You can walk for minutes in one direction, only to find yourself stuck yet again in a dodgy corner of the island! The good thing is, it's always a beautiful view. But when it's 85 degrees outside, it can be frustrating.

Erik and I just spent the day re-visiting everything in day light. It mostly looked the same but with more people!

Erik's baked lasagna

Cool little kid chasing the pidgeons that I wouldn't let Erik touch.

In on of the dodgy corners we came across a candy shop where I bought the biggest meriangue I have ever seen!! It was strawberry flavored and SO GOOD!

I was a happy camper! After this we started home again. Luckily the traffic wasn't that bad and the clouds were nice a high, so we got to see a lot of the Alps we missed on the way there. We stopped at the most beautiful Mc Donalds I have ever seen somewhere in Austria. It had full windows over-looking a mountain and a canyon in the Alps. I wish I had my camera!! But I did managed to catch a few good ones of the ride back.

It was a really great trip. I am so happy I got to go to Venice. I feel like the luckiest girl alive. Thanks to Erik for driving.. I'm sure it wasn't the most fun for him to drive with three girls 6 hours both ways.... He is the best!

If you haven't made it to Venice, on your next European adventure it is a must see!! It is so beautiful and romantic. Hope you all enjoyed, and really, go lose yourself in Venice!

Lose Yourself in Venice, Part 1

So I've been hanging out in Munich for a little while. Knowing I'm surrounded in close proximity by 5-6 other countries has been killing me... I need to get out! When I found out Venice was only 5 hours away by car, I was dead-set determined to get the gang together and get on the road. So that's exactly what I did.

We took a drive through the a popular skiing destination for rich people, The South Tirols, which covers Austria and Northern Italy. The drive started out well but we hit a huge cloud bank, and most of the Alps were covered. It was still really nice!

We hit a bit of traffic on the way there, but the drive wasn't really that bad. Since it was on our route, we decided to make a pit stop in Verona, the famous city of Romeo and Juliet, on our way there.

It was over 80 degrees!! Such a change from the freezing German summers!

The arena where Gladiators fought

Streets of Verona

My first Italian Gelato!!!

Erik by the Bubble Gum Alley

Juliet's Balcony

And the courtyard where Romeo stood :)

Verona was really beautiful. It was very Italian in the architecture, with the pale oranges and pinks and the ornate white trim. We didn't stay very long because we were eager to get to Venice. I really didn't want to miss the sunset!!


So we got back in the car and finished our trip. Our hotel ended up being really nice! It wasn't on the island because we had a car, but it was just a short bus ride away. We took the bus onto the island and sat down to have dinner.

Erik's pizza had eggplant, salami, prosciutto, olives, artichokes, bell pepper, mushrooms, and eggplant on it! I was so jealous!

I could see dusk was coming so I hurried Erik up so we could make it to the Grand Canal by sunset.

Venice at dusk is gorgeous. All of the colors of the sky reflect on to the water and it looks like an oil painting. plus, the weather is finally comfortable enough to enjoy everything you see.

Ahh Venice at dusk! There was so much to take in I didn't even know where to look! I just had to stop, take a deep breath, and thank God for putting me here and making such a beautiful scene.

When most of the colors had faded, we decided to get some gelato! When my dad and Chris when to Italy, the thing I remember most about their trip is how much Gelato they ate!! Every since then I had always wanted to have some. Now, we have Gelato in Germany, and I thought it was good.. until I went to Italy!! We found this cute little place right on the ocean and got a couple of scoops. I decided I was going to try a new flavor every time, so I had Melon and Strawberry. Surprisingly, Melon was my favorite! It was delicious! Erik makes fun of me because I say everything is "the best thing ever". He says it's over-used and he can never really tell how good things are, because I love everything. After hearing me declare it, "the best gelato ever", Erik just kind of rolled his eyes and ignored me... but then he took one bite of his ice cream and said, "wow, this really is the best gelato ever!" HAHAHA it was such a momentous occasion for us!

Gelati Nico, a Venetian MUST DO!!

Now that it was pretty dark outside, all the lights of the city were getting turned on. The sky was dark but there were still lots of street lamps and windows lit up everywhere. It was great. We made our way through the alleys and dead-ends (stay tuned for part 2) to Piazza San Marco where the giant Basilica is.

The Basilica

The Plaza

Nook of Venice

Creepy alley

There were people playing music and people sitting on the steps, it was really nice.

After this, we walked to The Rinalti Bridge to see The Grand Canal at night. It was gorgeous! The lights were reflecting on the water and there were boats that went by--it was really nice!

The Bridge

Words/photos can't express how beautiful it was

After this, Erik and I were done. We met up with the girls we drove with, left the island, curled up in our hotel room, and were out cold in a matter of minutes!!

to be continued...