Slowing down a bit... but not too much

After traveling pretty much every weekend since getting here, it has been nice to give myself somewhat of a breather since getting back from Paris. I have logged quite a few hours in the library working away on a big paper for my Fiction in Edinburgh class, but in between the studying I have also had a chance to explore more of my city. I always love to be on the move - sitting still and staying in one place for an extended amount of time has never been one of my strong points. Therefore, even though I haven't been heading off on any big trips these past few weeks, I did take it upon myself to 'travel' all over Edinburgh in hopes of keeping my busy-bodied side happy.

I love nothing more than a good to-do list. So, of course, when I first got here I had to compile one for Edinburgh, just to make sure that I hadn't missed out on anything when December 18th rolls around. As much fun as being deported on the grounds of overstaying my temporary student visa sounds, I think I'll go home and enjoy Christmas with my family minus any run-ins with the British authorities. But my list definitely received some check marks recently, starting with the Edinburgh Royal Botanical Garden. My friend Katie from Melbourne, Australia and I wandered through the 70 acres of gardens (not all 70 acres though... we're not that intense), snapped pictures of Scotland's largest plant fossil, one of the 'Craigleith Trees' that lived 320 million years ago, and spent far too much time making funny quacking sounds at the ducks and feeding them crumbs from our sandwiches. We also both love to walk, so we decided to forgo the bus and head back home on foot instead, which allowed us to stop and spend the £1.20 on coffee instead of public transportation. I mean... cutting twenty minutes off your journey with a bus ride or enjoying a delicious latte? That is not even a question.

The Glass House at the Botanic Garden

Wandering through the different gardens

My first weekend of staying in Edinburgh was filled with Arcadia activities. I am pretty sure I have mentioned before how impressed I have been with my study abroad program, and this weekend was no exception. Over the summer our study abroad coordinators sent out a list of all the programs and weekend trips they would be offering throughout the semester. I signed up for a bunch and ended up getting pretty much all of my top choices. Arcadia also operates study abroad programs at the University of Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews, so participating in their trips is a great way to meet other students and hear about their experiences at different universities around Scotland. I ended up doing two events in one day, beginning with a book club event for One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, a mystery novel I read for one of the Arcadia book clubs I signed up for (I say 'one of' because I did in fact sign up for both book clubs... they both looked so good I couldn't help myself!!) We started off at The Writer's Museum, then took a guided literary tour of Edinburgh before getting a chance to actually meet the author of our book, Christopher Brookmyre, for lunch at a pub on the Royal Mile. After having met him it is pretty neat to stumble across one of his novels while wandering through the second hand book stores here in Edinburgh (which I do... on a daily basis).

The second event of the day was an Indian Culture Evening, complete with Ballywood dancing and superbly delicious, mouth watering, delectable, life changing Indian food from Mother India's. The Ballywood dancing... well... I am going to choose not to elaborate on that portion of the evening. We'll just say our dance class reconfirmed the fact that I have never been, and will never ever be, much of a dancer. But thankfully my parents raised me to have a good sense of humor and I ended up having quite a good time in the back row waving my arms and hopping around with my fellow awkward dancers. Honestly, the main reason I signed up for the event was for the food. Mother India has been voted the best Indian restaurant in Scotland and whoever made that decision was absolutely, 100% correct. I cannot even begin to describe how the butter chicken and chana masala simply melt in your mouth, or how the perfectly seasoned garlic naan bread soaks up the leftover sauce on your plate so well, or how you just cannot stop eating the super spicy ginger chicken partly because your taste buds will die if you do and partly because it is SO GOOD. Anyway, per usual I digress into talking about food too much. Bottom line - if you ever come to Edinburgh, GO TO MOTHER INDIA. For every meal. Breakfast included. Just break into the kitchen if the restaurant is closed. End of story.

View of Princes Street Gardens and the Scott Monument during our literary walking tour

The next day it was time to venture a little bit outside of Edinburgh, this time to the town of Linlithgow about a 20 minute ride away. Okay, prepare yourself for a confusing connection: My high school Spanish teacher's friend who she worked with after college now lives and works in Afghanistan where she has a roommate who is originally from Edinburgh. Confused yet? Basically, in a nutshell, my teacher's friend's roommate's family wanted me to bring a friend out to Linlithgow for the day so they could be the most amazing hosts and show us around the town and cook us the most delicious meals ever. That is most the important thing to know.

My friend Mairead (who is also studying abroad through the Arcadia program) and I took the train out to Linlithgow on Sunday where we were met by Linda and John Pirie and their dog Barney. Linda immediately switched into tour guide mode and made sure that we saw Linlithgow Palace, Blackness Castle, and once she learned I was a bit of a bookworm, even the Hawes Inn in South Queensferry where a scene from Robert Louis Stevenson's book Kidnapped was set. Then she drove us back to her house where she and John cooked us a delicious dinner and dessert and stuffed our pockets full of Cadbury chocolates before driving us back to the train station in a glorious food coma. After subsisting on 19 pence cans of spaghetti hoops (they're not as sketchy as they sound, I promise) and tomato soup, it was great to enjoy a home cooked meal. (I am seriously missing your cooking Mommy!!!!! And might possibly be counting down the days until you get here...)

Visiting Linlithgow Palace - where Mary Queen of Scots was born in 1542

Blackness Castle, which used to serve as the state prison. In the lower level of this portion of the castle, there was this super cozy area called 'the pit' specially reserved for the worst criminals. Basically they plopped you down there and left you to deal with the fluctuating tides and nice little sea creatures that might drift in and share the space with you. Fun, fun, fun.

I have also been spending a lot of time with one of my fellow Davidson students, Jenny Hall, the girl that I traveled to the Isle of Skye with back at the end of September. She is also an English major (and conveniently equally obsessed with all things book wormish and historical) and a very to-do list oriented person, aka the perfect partner for exploring the city. Each week we plan out at least three or four 'adventures' and places that we want to check off of our lists. The Edinburgh Zoo is one of two zoos in the world that has a daily penguin walk. Yes, you read that correctly a penguin walk. Allow me to set up the scenario for you - two overly sugared up (thanks to an ice cream stop on the way to the zoo...), perpetually childish, and Disney obsessed 20 year old girls make their way to the Edinburgh Zoo, where they are easily the only people over the age of 10 (maybe 8...) jumping up and down and using funny voices to talk to the adorable little penguins. Did we care? Um... clearly not.

Penguins!!

Yeah... a wee bit excited

The penguins are released to make their rounds and visit everyone!

Jenny and I left the zoo and headed off to our next activity - (drumroll please...) 44 SCOTLAND STREET!! Allow me to explain - after I decided to study abroad in Scotland, I decided to do some reading before coming here. I chose to begin with Alexander McCall Smith's (the author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books which you probably have heard of) 44 Scotland Street series and ended up absolutely falling in love with the series. It sometimes (more like always) ended up competing with my Davidson reading last semester. The books started out as daily installments in The Scotsman newspaper and they were so popular that he decided to publish them as novels. 44 Scotland Street, Love Over Scotland, Espresso Tales, The World According to Bertie, and The Unbearable Lightness of Scones carried me through spring semester and my summer in D.C. and made me even more excited for finally going abroad. Thanks to the series, I feel like I was able to familiarize myself with Edinburgh even before I actually arrived. Sometimes when I am wandering around now I will come across a name of a street or pub or restaurant that I recognize from the daily routines of the book's main characters. I recommended the books to Jenny over the summer and she became equally obsessed with them - therefore we made a vow to pay a visit to Scotland Street at some point during the semester.

THERE IT IS!!!

Interestingly enough... there is no number 44 on Scotland street. It stops at 43! Just a little joke from Alexander McCall Smith I suppose. We spoke with a woman who lived farther down the street and she told us that ever since the book's publication, they have had quite a few people searching confusedly for 44. We decided to just take a picture at number 43. Close enough.

Paying a visit to the Cumberland Bar, where the character Angus Lordie and his dog Cyril spend a lot of their time

With Halloween fast approaching, Jenny and I went thrift store hunting in search of an acceptable costume that wouldn't break the bank. We ended up deciding to be sailor girls. In retrospect, I kind of wish I had opted for a big old body suit like a furry teddy bear or wildebeest or Highland Cow... anything WARM. But our dresses were cute, even if they were a little chilly.

Seeing that I have absolutely ZERO hair, make-up, or fashion fashionable Jenny was in charge of my appearance

At a Halloween party in our friend Louisa's flat, who also goes to Davidson

Jenny showing off her costume

The next day we decided to continue the Halloween spirit by paying a visit to the Edinburgh Dungeons. Now, this is probably one of the most touristy things you can do in Edinburgh. Once again, did we care? Nope. We are determined to see as much of our city as possible, so pretty much anything goes. And let me point out... this thing was SCARY!! Maybe the bravest of souls would consider pitch black dark confined spaces, random characters covered in blood and gore jumping out at you, big gusts of cold air, fake dead bodies, and a 16th century torture chamber a little hokey. We, on the other hand, did not. We found it terrifying. And certainly did not fail to express this with a healthy number of blood curdling screams. We spent most of the journey through the dungeons clutching onto one another and alternating who kept their eyes open and led us and who buried their face in the other's shoulder. Fun times, fun times.

Allow me to explain this picture - the culmination of your Edinburgh Dungeons experience involved being 'hanged' at the gallows. They plunk you in this ride, strap you in and then raise you up while the executioner reads your death sentence aloud in a booming, ominous voice. Then... they hang you!!! Eeek!!! Ahhh!!!! This part was actually fun though, seeing that I am missing out on Scarowinds this year, this would just have to do! But this was our picture from the ride... rather than paying £10 we managed to sneakily snap a mediocre quality photo of it. It was just too good to leave behind...

Jenny and I then took our Halloween adventures outside of Edinburgh and went to St. Andrews to visit Meme Summerrell, yet another Davidson student, who is studying there for the semester. (For the record, I promise I am hanging out with non-Davidson people... they are just the only ones mentioned in this particular blog I guess!) We took a train up there on Saturday morning and spent the afternoon exploring the town before dressing up in our costumes and going out yet again for Halloween.

The Cathedral ruins

Watching a football game with Meme and some of her friends from the football team at a bar in St. Andrews

Tour guide Meme showed us around the town and even took us to the dorm where Prince William lived when he attended St. Andrews

Davidson reunion

Mommy, this photo is for you

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, regarded as the "Home of Golf" since the rules of golf were first established here in 1897

Halloween party number two! I promise I was wearing my costume... it was just really, really cold.

Well those are all the adventures I have to share as of right now! This week Jenny and I are planning on either trying out falconry (yes, you read that correctly) or going on a day trip to Glasgow to see their amazing art and science museums. Quite possibly we'll just end up doing both. Then this coming weekend I am participating in another Arcadia trip, this time an overnight trip to the Firbrush Activity Center where we can choose from a bunch of outdoor activities such as hill walking, white water kayaking, orienteering, and mountain biking. I hope everyone is doing well, and thanks for reading!

The Humaniteers in Paris

Well, I am now back in the United Kingdom after venturing to Paris with Patrick for four days. I am already experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the crepes, French pastries, baguettes, and delicious coffee concoctions that kept us going during all of our sightseeing adventures. One thing is for sure, they definitely know how to bake a loaf of bread down there in Paris.

We ended up having an amazing trip and thankfully did not run into any major problems resulting from the strikes that were going on during our trip. We both made it to the airport without delays and only spent a few minutes wandering around trying to figure out the RER train and metro into the city so we could check into our hotel. Then, with our Lonely Planet and Frommer's guidebooks in hand, we set out to see the city.

We had drawn up an ambitious schedule for ourselves, with hopes of conquering as many attractions as possible during our four day trip. We both purchased Paris Museum passes to save us a good deal of money on the main tourist draws and cut out time waiting in line to buy tickets. Now, I should explain the name of this particular post. I owe the title to Patrick, since he was the one to coin the phrase "Humaniteer" this past spring in the midst of lectures and discussion groups covering the French Revolution, Romanticism, Goethe's Faust, Freud, Don Giovanni, and Modernism, just to name a few. We both took the two-year "Western Tradition" Humanities sequence at Davidson, which is a survey course covering philosophy, history, music, literature, and religion from the Ancient World all the way up to the 20th century. Therefore, while we were in Paris we decided to commit ourselves to seeing as many Humanities related things as possible.

After settling into our hotel, we walked over to the Latin Quarter in search of dinner. Being the Food Network watching, Top Chef crazed food lover that I am, I had done a lot of research on restaurants in Paris to try to find us a few good places to eat without completely blowing our budget. So with Patrick's excellent sense of direction and map skills, we made it to the road and the street number of the restaurant I had chosen for us... only problem was that there was no restaurant by that name anywhere to be found. Rather than worrying about it too much, we just let our growling stomachs lead us to the restaurant right next door. It was on rue St. Severin right in the heart of the Latin Quarter, which made it pretty touristy as a result. But nevertheless, we had a nice pre fix three course dinner for a reasonable price and then wandered towards the Seine to see Notre Dame.

Getting a picture on our first night after dinner before heading back to rest up for the jam-packed day of sightseeing we had planned for Thursday

We woke up early on Thursday well rested and ready to conquer Notre Dame, St. Chapelle, the Conciergerie, the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower. Given all the ground we had to cover we knew we needed a good breakfast to keep us going. We ended up eating breakfast in the first place we came to that was open since we were pretty hungry by that point. It was quite an interesting experience since we soon realized that it was an entirely organic café. But we enjoyed our bio friendly, fair trade breakfast for the most part and just sprinkled several extra packs of sugar on everything to make up for its uber-healthiness. Ironically, when we walked back outside we realized there was a bakery right next door... which is where we breakfasted every morning after that.

Now, Patrick being the absolutely amazing person that he is, not only tolerated, but encouraged my obsession with bookstores that first morning. We had passed the famous Shakespeare & Company the night before on our way to dinner, which caused me to emit a muffled scream and jump about a foot up in the air. So when we veered off in the opposite direction of Notre Dame I gave him a confused look and asked where we were going. "Back to your bookstore," he replied with a smile. I don't think I've ever loved him more than that moment. Haha, only joking of course, but I was quite excited. The store was originally owned by Sylvia Beach, an American expatriate, who was the first person to publish James Joyce's Ulysses in 1922. The shop was once considered the center of literary culture and modernism in Paris and was frequented by authors such as Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. Um... can you say COOL? I think my initial reaction was justified.

BOOKS

After I had oohed and ahed over the rows of shelves groaning under the weight of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of amazing, glorious, beautiful books, we headed off to officially start our day. Notre Dame was very impressive and after we figured out our camera settings, we both managed to get some nice pictures of the Rose Window (Humanities stop number one).

Then it was up to the towers courtesy of our Paris Museum pass! We were both out of breath after trekking up a seemingly never ending spiral staircase, but the views from the top were well worth it.

Picture with the gargoyles! I was also very, very excited to be exploring the home of The Hunchback of Notre Dame - one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. When we went up to see the bells, I half expected to run into Quasimodo

After seeing St. Chapelle and attempting to visit the Conciergerie, (where Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were imprisoned) which ended up being closed for restoration, we headed off in search of lunch. A hankering for crepes and some yummy crusty baguette bread led us to a little street corner bakery on the Ile St. Louis. Now, the lady in charge was either having a really bad day or it is just completely normal for people to yell like that in Paris. Patrick and I just stood there watching in amazement as this woman snapped at the poor teenage boy working for her, lashing out at him for even the slightest mistake. The poor kid was so flustered and fumbled with the cash register a little bit, causing his boss to turn from slicing the banana for our crepe to slap at him and nearly chop off his hand. I mean, that Nutella and banana crepe was superbly delicious, but not worth anyone losing fingers over. Once we made it out of there with our sandwich and crepe we sat on the steps leading down to the river and enjoyed our picnic lunch. It's lunchtime right now and man would I would give anything for one of those delicious baguettes!!!!!!

Walking along the Seine after eating our lunch

Then we were off to the Louvre to check some more items off the Humanities sightseeing list. Apparently it would take nine months to see every single one of the 36,000 works of art housed in the museum, giving each one an adequate amount of time. Seeing that we weren't really equipped to do that in terms of time or mental capacity (I think my brain would explode) we just settled for seeing the highlights. We still spent over three hours in there though and covered a good amount of ground as we wandered through each wing.

Venus de Milo

Audio guide!!! We just bought one to share - more money leftover for crepes!!

There's the Mona Lisa in the background! With about 100 tourists...

After trekking through the museum for all those hours, we were glad to return to the world of daylight and fresh air. We wandered through the Tuileries Garden and saw the Place de la Concorde before walking down the Champs Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe. Unfortunately, our hopes of walking up to the viewing platform were dashed when we found out it was closed due to the strike. But we decided to come back later on in our trip and give it another go. Despite snacking on crepes sucre throughout the day, our energy was flagging so we then set our sights on dinner. I took us to a little bistro in the 7th arrondisement where we feasted on salad, duck, fish soup, and delicious creme brulee before walking towards the Eiffel Tower.

View from the tip top!

Trying to figure out camera settings. Mr. Master Photographer did a pretty good job in the end

WINDY!!!

We were absolutely exhausted after all that walking, so it was all we could do to make it back to the hotel and conk out to rest up for day two and a schedule consisting of Versailles and the Catacombs. However, we woke up feeling well rested and ready for another big day and managed to get to Versailles around 11:00.

The audio guides continue...

There it is!! The Hall of Mirrors

Marie Antoinette's bed

Wandering through the gardens

Time for the catacombs!!!! AHHHH!!!! It was pretty scary down there... none of the pictures we tried to take of the actual skulls and bones came out very well, but trust me, it really was creepy.

That night we ended up going on somewhat of an adventure for dinner. We decided we were craving Indian food, so I did some research and took us to an arrondisement that was supposed to have great ethnic food. Once again, the place I had found for us ended up being closed, this time for the strike we think (although our French was definitely not up to reading the sign...), so we ended up in this random little restaurant on Bradley Alley, which my Lonely Planet book said was a good place for Indian food, where we ordered chicken vindaloo and curry. Just enough to refuel us for another day of sightseeing.

For day three, our agenda included the Museé d'Orsay, Napoleon's Tomb, a boat cruise on the Seine, and the Sacre Coeur in Montmartre.

Patrick and the elephant statue outside the Museé d'Orsay

The same kind of boat that we took our cruise on

There's Napoleon!

In front of Les Invalides, where we saw Napoleon's Tomb

Nice view of the Eiffel Tower as we power walked towards our boat cruise trying to get there on time

On the boat! And being silly per usual

Passing by Notre Dame

After our cruise was over, we decided to walk back to the Arc de Triomphe and make a second attempt at going up to the top. Unfortunately it was still closed due to the strike, but we decided that we were very lucky if that was the only thing from the strike that affected our trip.

Just took pictures standing in front of it instead

To make up for missing out on the 284 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, we took the metro up to Montmartre to see the city from the dome of the Sacre Coeur. Climbing to the top involved roughly the same number of stairs, so perhaps it is a good thing we didn't attempt both (as you can see from this picture of Patrick at the top...).

But the panoramic view of the city was worth it

After resting from all of our walking, Patrick took me out to a nice dinner to celebrate our one year anniversary. We went to a restaurant called Les Dix Vins and definitely experienced some authentic French cuisine. The menu was presented to us on a little chalkboard... and was written entirely in French. After spending ten minutes pouring over the list of dishes and attempting to use my Spanish to help me understand another romance language, we gave up and asked for a menu in English. (Good thing we did too, who knows what we would have ended up ordering! Some of the items offered were pretty intense and we were not really feeling adventurous enough for sampling tripe, frog legs, or calves brains...).

For my entreé, I was presented with prawns, complete with heads, antennae, eyeballs and all. Then for my plat I received fish... but not just any fish. An actual, head on, tail on, scales and all, fish staring straight up at me. I felt sort of bad eating the poor little thing, but it just tasted so delicious that any sense of guilt melted right away along with the delicious buttery lemony sauce covering my plate. Patrick's meal was equally delicious, he ordered a duck and goat cheese tart and then had himself a nice manly steak with potatoes au gratin. For dessert we savored his creme brulee and then a chocolate covered pear for me, before meandering back to our hotel in a food coma.

On our last morning in Paris we had two main goals - return to the Louvre and see the three famous Humanities paintings we had somehow missed and then make it to the once in a lifetime Monet exhibit showing at the Grand Palais. During our three hour trip to the Louvre on our first day we managed to skip over the French painting room which housed Liberty Leading the People, the Women of Algiers, and Death of Sardanapalus, all three of which we had studied in Humanities and that we absolutely could not miss, being in Paris and all.

There! Now we can check it off the list!

The Monet exhibit we sought out began in September and continues until January 24th, so it was lucky that our trip fell during this time. It is the first major exhibition in France of Monet's work in over 30 years and there were over 200 paintings on loan from both French and foreign museums. We left the Louvre excited for the exhibit and thinking that it was just around the corner at the Palais Royal. Well, come to find out it actually was at the Grand Palais... there are too many palaces in Paris! We ended up practically sprinting the two miles or so along the Champs Élysées with our rolling suitcases in tow to get there in time to see the exhibit and still get to the airport on time. We then proceeded to wait in line for about an hour and a half, shivering and blowing on each others hands to keep our fingers from freezing off. But we were bound and determined, and refused to leave the line even when others started bailing out. It was most definitely worth the wait, we were able to see paintings beginning with his early landscapes in Normandy and ending with the famous water lilies.

Waiting in line. Chilly, chilly, chilly.

After seeing the Monet exhibit, we booked it to the airport and both made it home without any problems. Overall we had a wonderful trip and it is really just now hitting me that I have now been to Paris. It really hit me when I woke up this morning and drank my cup of instant coffee instead of savoring a café au lait or café mocha accompanied by a heaping mound of whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkled on top. Oh well... I will be in Vienna in exactly one month to visit Patrick so there are most definitely more outstanding coffee creations in the near future.

For now, I am back to a reality minus crepes and croissants and with plenty of reading, papers, and presentations to keep me sufficiently occupied. It will be nice to slow down for a little while before embarking on another round of adventures beginning the first weekend of November. For now, study, study, study and just enjoy Edinburgh! I love how it really does feel like coming home whenever I get back from a trip. Flying in and looking down on the city last night made me realize that I actually had missed it while I was gone for just a few days. And it even rained in honor of my homecoming!! Shocker. Welcome back to Scotland :)