Wooden Shoes & Window Girls

I know I haven't blogged in a bit, but that is because I just got home today from an AMAZING trip with my mom! Sorry in advance - this is going to be a long one!

She arrived on Thursday morning, St. Patricks Day, at the painful time of 6:30am. We had briefly talked about my address and how to get a cab to my apartment, but instead I got out of bed and met her at the airport as a surprise. She was very happy! From there, we both hopped in a cab to my apartment, where we chatted and caught up and took a short nap. Finally, we thought enough time had passed that perhaps we could check into the beautiful Balmoral hotel, so we headed over there.


The room wasn't ready, so we ate breakfast and relaxed until it was...and it was worth the wait! We had a gorgeous suite with windows overlooking Princes Street, and the bed was a marshmallow heaven that made me think of my lumpy, springy mattress in my flat and laugh.


We spent the afternoon exploring the area, and I gave her a quick overview tour of the city. We covered Princes Street and that area, as well as getting over to the Royal Mile, the Edinburgh Castle, and Grassmarket. That night, we went down to the hotel's bar and shared delicious cocktails before heading out to a nearby Indian restaurant, Zest (which was amazing!)



The next day, we had a private driver for the day. She was great, and gave us an overview driving tour of Edinburgh, and then we headed out towards the Highlands. We stopped in Birnam, Crieff, Dunkeld, and more! We saw the Beatrix Potter museum, who created Peter Rabbit, visited the Edradour Distillery (Scotland's smallest whiskey distillery), and visited the Gleneagles hotel/resort (home of my future wedding. just kidding...sort of).





Saturday morning, we were off to the airport to Amsterdam. We arrived at our hotel, the Banks Mansion, and then decided to go walk around and explore.


We were given a map and the ladies at the front desk circled the different areas, but we just decided to wing it. We walked through the streets, and through little market places, and then...it happened. One second we are window shopping, looking at clothing and cakes, and the next thing we know we look over and there are half-naked (or three-quarters naked), overweight and bad looking girls, standing in tacky lingerie in a window. It was like being at a zoo. Each girl was in her own window box, with a seat and a mirror. One girl was looking in the mirror popping zits, another reading with her book propped on her rolls of fat, another chatting on her cellphone. It was so bizarre. We walked the street quickly to get out of there, trying not to show the shock on our face, and trying not to laugh too blatantly. Apart from that, and the "Mellow Yellow" cafes we passed along the street (which reeked up the entire sidewalk), I really liked Amsterdam. It was gorgeous, with the architecture and the canals.


The first night our hotel made us reservations at a restaurant we never found, so we ended up going to an Indonesian restaurant just across the street from our hotel. The next day we explored the city some more, and visited the purse and handbag museum, the famous Rijksmuseum, the Diamond museum, and the Bols liquor museum. It was such a fun day.





Bols was by far the most amazing. I highly recommend it, it was an extremely hands-on experience. There were different scent tests, taste tests, and textures. They also had amazing flavors, my favorite being Natural Yogurt. If you know me at all, you know I am a little obsessed with natural yogurt/greek yogurt/yogurt flavored gelato/everything yogurt. This was a yogurt liquor, and they mixed it with strawberry liquor and fresh strawberries and it was a strawberry smoothie with a kick. So...we decided to switch from doing carry-on to checking suitcases so that we could bring home some Bols.
That night, our last in Amsterdam, we had a delicious dinner at Little Buddha.


Monday morning we headed off to Copenhagen, to the Copenhagen Admiral Hotel.



We explored the city, saw Amalienborg Royal Palace (their guards seem much happier than in London), saw the Little Mermaid, and did a Jump On/Jump off tour bus, all on the first day!





The next day we did the bus again, as well as the Canal Boat tour, and enjoyed lunch along the water in Nyhavn (with the bright buildings, picture above), and shopped. For our last dinner together, we ate at the hotel's restaurant called SALT. The menu contained meat, meat, and more meat, but they made up some delicious alternatives for us picky eaters.

Today, we got up early and headed back from Copenhagen to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam I flew back to Edinburgh, while Mom headed home to JFK. It was an amazing, fun and busy week of traveling, and I miss her already! As for this week...a big project on Monday, an essay Wednesday, and then looking forward to my trip to Prague with Sissy Friday!!
[For the full photo album of the trip, see Facebook]

I did not know that about you.

Last night, we went out to this vodka bar nearby called Revolution. It was so fun! The ambiance of the bar (pub? club? lounge?) was great, really relaxed and dim lighting yet pretty, and the cocktail menu was unbelievable.


We started by just trying a couple cocktails (here is Kat and I, trying to be creative...fail).

Then Kat and I decided to splurge and split a six-stick, trying 6 different flavors of vodka.


The flavors we tried were: Love Candy (valentines day sweetheart candies), Cappuccino, Birthday Cake, Irn Bru, BlackJack, and Strawberries & Vanilla.

Afterwards, we came home and the girls that live down the hall were having a 21st birthday bash. It was 2 of their birthdays yesterday, and a third roommate's birthday today.



Today I had a poster presentation for my Scottish Culture & Society class.

The printout was £18 to print at school (crazy!) It was very strange. Rather than present it to the class or something, you set it up on a board in the hallway and some volunteers walked around and would ask you questions/ask you to present your poster to them, and then they would give you a grade and give it to the teacher. So basically, the teacher never even saw our poster, and at the end, told us to take it home.
Then I met up with Leah & her sister who is visiting and we got dinner at Illegal Jacks, a local tex-mex place - basically Edinburgh's idea of Chipotle (except not quite as good).
Tomorrow Mommy arrives!! Hooray!!

Stumbling

I have been trying for some time now to write my paper for my Wine Studies class. It is due next Monday, the 21st, while I will be away traveling with my mom. I am not skipping class on Monday, they just have a weird system here where even though my class is on Thursday, you have to take the 20-minute bus to campus to hand in your paper at the drop-off station (where your name is covered and sealed, therefore the professor can grade you without bias). Imagine that at UNH?? Everything you hand in doesn't have your name on it, just your student ID number for the grade. It makes sense I suppose. Anyway, so while I was "writing", I happened to go on StumbleUpon.com, and am addicted again.

I found this amazing picture, and I liked it and didn't know what to do with it. So I thought I'd post it.

A Rainy Day in Edinburgh

Today, although not in Dublin, Leah and I went out and made the most of our day, trying lots of new places and things. First, we went out to lunch at a nearby cafe called Monster Mash.

To start, I got a natural cream soda (way creamier than i've had at home..a little strange), and Leah got a delicious Bailey's Irish Milkshake.


To eat, Leah got 2 sausages - a vegetarian sausage with Spinach, Leeks and Cheese (so yummy), and one with Lamb & Rosemary, and garlic mashed potatoes. I tried vegetarian haggis, neeps, and tatties for the first time! It was three layers: vegetarian haggis on top (made up of some sort of veggie meat and grains, lentils etc), then a layer of carrots, turnips (maybe sweet potatoes? not sure), and then a layer of mashed potatoes. It is the traditional Scottish dish (well, mine was the vegetarian version), and it looks gross, but it was actually delicious!


Then, we went over to the Lothian Bus place to renew my monthly bus pass for the last time!! Crazy, already down to the end. We shopped around Princes Street and the surrounding area, stopping at this little bakery called Bibi's for cupcakes.

I got a blueberry cupcake. It was yellow cake with blueberries inside, with a cream cheese frosting and a fresh blueberry on top. Sooo yummy.

We explored the area more, and ventured to St. Jame's Shopping Center, which was a local mall/indoor shopping area we had never been. We walked around there, got some fresh smoothies, and afterwards came home. It was a fun day, and we didn't let the rain keep us down!

And the worst airline award goes to...

So today is Scott's 21st birthday. Sadly, I obviously didn't get to be there to celebrate with him =(.
INSTEAD, my 3 flatmates and I were headed off to Dublin for a weekend! We got up bright and early to catch a 9:30am bus to the airport.


We arrived around 11am, grabbed some food, and headed to the gate, which was posted under departures saying "Delayed". We figured what the heck, so we'll have time to spare, we have each other. Not so much. As it turns out, our 12:40pm flight had been delayed to 3:40pm. We continued to make the best of it.


So what do you do to kill 4 hours in an airport? Why, you peruse the duty free shops, of course! I guarded the bags, and Leah, Kat and Lindsay came back with a Smirnoff bottle enclosed in an ipod playing speaker system.


After some more food, and magazines, and tune-blasting, it was finally time to board. on Ryan Air, seats are not assigned, so you have to get in line, first come first serve. We waited in line right at the front, ready to get the best seats, all together. We check in, and start walking through. We get to the bottom of the stairs, and wait, and wait, and wait. Finally, someone comes and gets us and tells us that the plane they sent is having major engineering issues and is unable to fly (comforting). So they brought us back up the stairs and back inside, where we were told our flight would leave in "5 minutes or 5 hours, who knows". Also reassuring.


At this point, people started getting very upset - as they should. They finally announced the new flight would be leaving around 5:30pm, and gave out vouchers of £3.50 as an attempt to ease the tension (it didn't work). There were/are also no Ryan Air representatives in the entire airport, and they only way they can be contacted is online or by phone. After more waiting and waiting, we were exhausted and frustrated. Tensions were high, and to be quite honest, I didn't feel comfortable with their planes. They started this round of boarding with "we will get everyone de-boarded and check the plane to make sure it will be able to fly again before letting you all on." So there was a chance it couldn't fly?! After checking their website (and losing an entire day in the airport), we learned that if a flight had been delayed over 3 hours, you were entitled to a full refund if you chose not to fly. So, we chose not to fly.

Lindsay headed on, as Zach was already there alone (he had taken an earlier flight that morning), and she went to meet him, while Leah, Kat and I, exhausted, frustrated, and yet content, headed back to the flat.


The moral of the story is, European travel companies obviously hate me. Again, you get what you pay for. Never will I ever fly Ryan Air again. Hopefully my upcoming travels with my mom next week go much smoother!! Luckily, I still had a very fun day in the airport, spending quality time with my flatmates that I haven't had in a while. Just 5 days until Mommy gets here, yay!!

Crepes & Candies

A few days ago, we found this little Brazilian creperie just a few blocks away from our flat. It is literally this tiny little shed with a guy in it (about the size of the Hut, or smaller), with a delicious menu of sweet or savory crepes and fresh smoothies and juices.

He is so friendly, and cooks up amazing fresh crepes. Lindsay enjoyed a sweet crepe, filled with chocolate, nutella, sliced almonds, and fresh bananas and strawberries. I opted for a savory crepe, called the Margarita-ta, filled with fresh mozzarella, parmesan, sun-dried tomatoes, Brazilian nuts, rocket, and basil.


Last night, Kat and I went to the movies and saw Paul.

It was a lot different than I expected, and not funny as I had thought (especially with Jason Bateman and Kristen Wiig!) I'm not sure I would recommend it. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, the movie theater has an entire wall of candy, so I obviously gave in and got some.

My life is about to get hectic, with a group presentation Wednesday, an internship (phone) interview Wednesday night, Dublin this weekend, an essay due Monday when I get home, mommy coming to visit the 17th and traveling with her until the 23rd, and another huge project due the 28th, downtime for 2 days, meeting sissy in Prague until April 6th, my last class April 7th, travel travel for 2 weeks, and HOME! I can't believe everything is spiraling to an end so quickly, and yet I am so excited for my upcoming visitors and to see everyone at home!!

KOO-ROSS

Today for my Scottish Culture & Society class we took a half-day field trip to Culross (pronounced KOO-ROSS) in Fife. We met at Craiglockhart, where our class normally meets, at 1pm and filed onto two buses. The drive was about an hour, but we stopped at the Firth of Fourth bridge for some pictures.



When we arrived in Culross, we were given about 2 hours to explore the town and do whatever we pleased. We walked around taking pictures of everything, and hiked up to the Abbey at the top of the hill.







At 4:30, we headed back to the buses and went back to Edinburgh. On our way home, we stopped at a new grocery store I hadn't been to, called Waitrose.

It was amazing! They had by far the biggest as well as freshest selection of everything imaginable from fruits and vegetables to fresh bread, way better than Sainsbury's picked over half-stocked shelves. Definitely going back there again.