Scotland: Edinburgh and Glasgow

Our time in Edinburgh was wonderful. Both Pia and I fell in love with this city. I felt as if I stepped into a magical kingdom and reality stopped for a day and a half.

We arrived in Edinburgh at 7am last Sunday morning. Thanks to those drunk girls, we didn't get ANY sleep, but we decided not to waste our only day in the city. So we decided to take a hike up to Arthur's Seat, which is an 822 foot hill which was formed by an extinct volcano system. We decided to stray from the main road and took a very narrow and steep path up the hill, which made for resting breaks every 30 seconds. But once we got to the top, the views were incredible.

By the time we made it back down the hill, it was lunchtime (aka our favorite time) and we went to The Elephant House, which is a cafe in Old Town where JK Rowling got her inspiration for Harry Potter. Pia and I each ordered a sandwich on focaccia bread, then walked to the nearest patisserie and took our dessert to the main square, sat in the warm sun, and listened to the bagpipes as we ate our cake. It was a perfect day.

The Royal Mile... main street in Edinburgh

Cemetary

We went back to our hostel to shower and take a nap, since we were still running on zero sleep. That night, we got dressed up and went next door to the Royal Mile Tavern, where we enjoyed a couple of Scottish beers and listened to some great live music. At that moment, we honestly thought about cutting the rest of our trip and just staying in Edinburgh for 3 months instead. But we didn't. We moved on to Glasgow... unfortunately.

We had a few more hours in Edinburgh the next day, before our bus left for Glasgow. We walked around the city some more, saw the Edinburgh Castle, and visited the Writer's Museum. The Writer's Museum is a museum that celebrates the lives of three famous Scottish writers - Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

I can't say that our time in Glasgow was as wonderful as Edinburgh. No magical kingdoms or mountains. Since we would be using up the rest of our British money in Glasgow, we tried not to take any more money out of the atm and just use up what we had... which meant hot dogs and beans for dinner... for two days. Talk about a healthy diet. (But don't worry... we have been living on fruit, salads, and butternut squash the past 3-4 days! And beer.)

On our first day in Glasgow, it was pouring rain. So we decided to go somewhere indoors... we visited one of the largest libraries in Europe - The Mitchell Library. In the afternoon, Pia went to an art museum and I walked around the main square in downtown Glasgow and did some people watching. Then we came back for a nice meal of hot dogs and beans. Yum.

The next morning, we got up at 3am and walked to the bus station to catch the only bus early enough to make our RyanAir flight at the Prestwick Airport... NOT the Glasgow Airport. After we made the big hike up the hill to the bus station, we were exhausted. As we were waiting for our bus to come at 4:30, three Irishmen about our age asked us why Pia and I weren't speaking to one another and why I was reading my book instead. We explained to them that in America, people usually don't speak to one another at 4 in the morning, but they were convinced that we were "in a fight" and it was time for us to make up. They asked me what book I was reading ("Reconstructing Amelia" - don't ask, I got it for free at a hostel) and one of the guys said, "it looks to me like you should be reconstructing your relationship". Even though Pia and I weren't fighting, they did put us in a better mood... and we started to get excited about going to Ireland and hearing those Irish accents ALL the time :)

Pia and I have been in Ireland the past 4 days and we have LOVED every second of it. I will hopefully get a post up about our time in Ireland before we head to Rome next week!

Shea

The rest of our time in London

Here are some pictures to go with my first post of Iceland and part of London...

the coast of Iceland

Pia next to the troll's door

on top of a cliff on the coast of Iceland

our hike in Iceland!

on our walking tour in London

our tour guide I told you about :)

taking a nap in Regent's Park

The rest of our time in London was so much fun. On Thursday, Pia and I went to Diagon Alley in the morning and then came back to the hostel to do some more planning. That night, we went to Regent's Park to see the play, Pride and Prejudice, at the Open Air Theatre and it was wonderful! Pia and I both love Jane Austen so it was a perfect evening.

Intermission at the Open Air Theatre

The stage for Pride and Prejudice

Friday, Pia and I went to an Evensong service at Westminster Abbey, where we heard the Australian Children's Choir from Sydney sing and it was beautiful. Then we went to Harrod's, where we enjoyed looking around and bought some raspberry cheesecake from the international food hall. On our way back to the hostel, we decided to walk through Hyde Park instead of around it like we usually do. This was such a good idea. Hyde Park is one of the biggest, most beautiful parks I've ever seen. We walked along the lake as we saw children playing and trying to catch the millions of pigeons that were hanging out there, and it made for the perfect photo! Then one of Pia's blisters popped on her white flip flops. Lovely.

Happiness in Hyde Park

St. Paul's cathedral

On our last day in London, Pia and I decided to split up. Pia wanted to go to the Tate Modern and I wanted to go to St. Paul's. We thought this would work perfectly since these two places are so close to one another. We were using the street maps to get to what was labeled, "Tate Britain". Once we got there, I left to go to St. Paul's. As I was looking at the street maps, I couldn't seem to find St. Paul's anywhere. So I kept walking in the direction where I thought it was. Eventually, I found it on the map. Turns out, the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern are two separate museums and that is why I had to walk an extra hour to get to St. Paul's. After walking another hour back to Tate Britain to meet up with Pia, we decided to ride bikes to the Borough Market (which was also by the other Tate and St. Paul's).. We had a late lunch there, then walked along the boardwalk by the river. We stopped along the way to listen to some street performers play as we ate our very large watermelons that we got from the market. :) It was good day!

Enjoying some watermelon by the river :)

After watching the Parliament light up at night, we headed back to the hostel to get our backpacks and rushed over to the bus station. When we got to the bus station five minutes before we were supposed to leave (whoops), we ran over to the Megabus at our platform and they told us it was overbooked! So they sent us to another bus and the driver on that bus told us it was overbooked as well! So he sent us back to the first bus, which had pleeennnty of open seats on the top level. Right as we were starting to fall asleep on the bus, we made a stop in Newcastle to pick up more passengers, and three very very very drunk girls got on the bus without tickets. It was 4 in the morning and they were screaming and singing, waking everyone up. Then Pia went to tell the driver that these girls got on the bus through the back door without tickets, and all he did was come back and tell them to behave. Twenty minutes later, these girls decided that getting on this bus to Edinburgh wasn't such a good idea after all, so the bus driver left them on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. And everybody was happy.

So far, Pia and I have been traveling well together. Other than the fact that she has learned from her dad, "every man for himself" and I have learned from my dad, "never leave a man behind" (which has caused her to leave me behind more than a few times...haha) and the fact that I have been trying to speak like the Brits and the Scots with my wonderful talents of speaking with an accent (not), so Pia can't wait to get out of the UK... because that's when she thinks I'll stop... we'll see about that.

Overall, we enjoyed London, but so far, Edinburgh has been our favorite place! I'll make a post about our time there shortly!

A few hours in Iceland and a couple days in London

Hey everyone! Pia and I have safely made it across the pond and we are currently enjoying London! Our trip over was great... Pia just might be my good luck charm when it comes to traveling :) Late Sunday night, we flew into Keflavik, Iceland around 11pm, and it was still daylight, so that threw us off a little. We called for our hotel shuttle and we stayed in a nice private room (the last private room we'll sleep in over the next 3 months...) We got up early because we only had the morning to explore the little town of Keflavik, Iceland. We walked jacket-less in the 50 degree weather to the coast... which was so beautiful! As we were exploring, we came across a pathway with big footsteps that led to a wooden house with a huge door. It looked like it was made for a giant. Then we heard some strange noises coming from the other side of the door so we started running away. Later, we asked the tourist office what that house was, and he said it's where the troll lives...

We walked around some more and did some hiking. At the top of the cliff, on the other side of the ocean bay, we saw our first volcano! Then we headed back to the hotel and got ready to go back to the airport.

Two nights ago, we arrived at our hostel in London. London is such a fun city. I love everything about it except for this hostel. I've never stayed in a hostel that smells this badly. We are in an 18 person dorm with bunks 3 levels high, so everyone's crap is ALL over the floor. There are no fans and no windows. We honestly thought about sleeping outside last night. When I went to take a shower yesterday morning, the water was freezing cold and there was absolutely NO water pressure. In fact, it was like little droplets coming out of the shower head. But I guess it felt good considering I woke up drenched in sweat. Ahhhh only 3 more nights. We can do it.

Yesterday, we took a free walking tour around the center city of London. Our tour guide was really cute and really funny... and REALLY gay. I've never seen a man swing his hips so much. And he would walk with his water bottle in one hand held high in the air, and his other hand would be on his hip. We made sure to get a picture of it. Speaking of pictures, I'll try to upload some to go with this post in a couple days! 

After the tour, we went with some people in the tour group to get fish and chips in an underground pub. Then Pia and I walked around a small market and headed back to the hostel due to some big, painful blisters on our feet.

After some more London-planning and a nap, Pia and I decided to go to Soho last night. As we were walking around, we saw about 20 Audi cars parked in front of a movie theater and tons of people starting to gather around. We found out that it was the premiere of Wolverine and HUGH JACKMAN was inside the theater!! We waited and waited, along with hundreds of other people, for him to come up. Camera-ready and everything. Unfortunately, he went out the back of the theater and we never saw him. We were so disappointed!

After another morning of waking up in sweat and taking a cold shower, Pia and I thought it would be a good idea to rent bikes and ride them to King's Cross to get a photo on Platform 9 and three quarters from Harry Potter. Well, the bike idea backfired big time. We spent probably an hour walking/riding around finding bikes that worked and stations that had the bikes. After an hour of this, we ended up only about 10 minutes from our hostel. So. Not. Worth. It.

We walked 5 miles to King's Cross and got our picture that we worked so hard for. Then we walked to Regent's Park, had lunch, and spent two hours just laying in the park under a tree in 80 degree weather. That made everything worth it :)

Tonight we're planning on seeing a free live Indie band in a bar in Notting Hill. Tomorrow, we plan on going to a market and in the evening, we are seeing Pride and Prejudice in Regents Park. Our last two days will consist of more touristy things - Tate Modern, St. Paul's, Diagon Alley, Evensong, and hopefully... celebrating the birth of the Royal Baby!

I probably won't have any phone battery for the rest of our stay in London, and it is costing me to use this computer, so I probably won't be online for a few days!

Our next stop is Edinburgh... we leave on Saturday!

Shea

Tomorrow is almost here!

For those of you who don't know, I will be leaving the country tomorrow to take on my dream of backpacking Europe with my best friend for 3 months. After our trip, I will settle in Madrid, where I will teach English for a school year. It has been one looonnnggg road to get here, though, let me tell you. If you've never applied for a National Visa before, I can honestly tell you that it is not a fun nor easy process. I won't go into all the boring details, but it involved getting a physical, having a notary notarize something "incorrectly"... which led to getting yet another physical and finding a mobile notary at the last minute, making last minute trips to the Secretary of State in Des Moines, applying for a background check, figuring out what an Apostille is and how to get two of them, and driving to Chicago and back with my sister to walk in and out of the Spanish Consulate all in a total of 4 minutes. FOUR MINUTES. But we made the trip worth it by getting some stress-relieving shopping in :)

Running on 1 hour of sleep, but so happy to have my Visa!

I applied for my Visa three weeks ago and these past three weeks have been very stressful... I checked my email constantly, waiting for an email from the Spanish Consulate letting me know that my visa was ready. They told me it would take 3-4 weeks and I thought, there is no way that I will get it before my big backpacking trip in 3 weeks. I thought I was going to have to fly back to the U.S. for just one day to pick up my Visa in Chicago and fly back to Europe... another thousand dollars that I do not have. But as I was checking my email in the bathroom (don't pretend you've never done that before) right before I boarded my plane to Boston this past Wednesday, I GOT THE EMAIL! I started screaming, ran out of the bathroom jumping up and down, and called nearly every member of my family with shaky hands. I had to make a quick decision whether or not I should even board the plane to Boston, since now I had to go to Chicago. I decided to get on the plane anyway and then we just sat there for 2 hours on the runway. Side note: I have the worst travel luck.... ever. The plane came back to the gate and I ran off as fast as I could, applied to get a refund for my ticket, got my baggage, and booked a ticket for the overnight Megabus from Omaha to Chicago. I arrived in Chicago the next morning at 7am, walked from Union Station to Michigan Avenue to get my Visa, took the train to the airport, and then flew to Boston (after sitting on the runway for another half hour. I swear, every time I get on a plane I cause some big storm to happen.) I finally made it to Boston on Thursday and have spent the past couple of days with Pia's family in Rhode Island.

so happy to be with my best friend on the beach in Rhode Island

 Pia and I fly out tomorrow afternoon! We're flying from Boston to London, with a layover in Reykavik, Iceland for 16 hours. Our itinerary consists of 15 countries and 21 cities all within about 3 months. It's going to be one crazy adventure, but we all know that there will be some good stories to come out of it!

I won't have my laptop with me, but I plan on blogging from my phone or hostel computers as much as I can so I can keep you all updated on what's going on with our travels.

When Pia and I end our travels in Munich during Oktoberfest, we will head to Madrid for about a week and I will look for a place to live so I can start my new job on October 1st!

Wish us luck tomorrow :)

Shea