Berlin

July 29, 2016July 12, 20174 Comments

I spent four days in Berlin, and admittedly it was not my favorite. I don’t know if it was because I was just coming off of a great few days with some friends in a city I really enjoyed (Copenhagen) or something else, but I did not fall in love with Berlin.

I arrived at my hostel later in the day and used the afternoon to catch up on some sleep and go grocery shopping so I could cook my own food while I was there. I bought eggs, toast, and stuff to make a spinach salad. It was nice to take a break from eating almost every meal out and make some yummy, healthy food. After putting my food away I went on a nice 7 mile run to Tiergarten, which is a 520 acre park in the middle of Berlin. Although I was enjoying my run, I decided to turn around once I hit an area where about 100 older men were sunbathing naked.

The next day I slept in a bit and then decided to meet up with my friend, Joanna, who I had met in Copenhagen. She was at the Berlin Gay Pride parade, so I took the metro to Tiergarten and fought my way through the crowd to find them. It was awesome to be in Berlin for the parade. Everyone was so nice and happy to be there.

One of the buses in the parade

After Pride I went home and made a spinach salad in the communal kitchen and met an Australian girl. Her dad was an Australian ambassador so she had moved 15 times in her life. Crazy! After dinner we went up to the rooftop bar for a drink.

My third day in Berlin started at the East Side Gallery, which is an open air gallery made from the Berlin wall and is over one kilometer long. In addition to the street art on the walls, there was an exhibition on the war in Syria, which was excellent, but also devastating to read about. I definitely got emotional reading about the injuries innocent children and citizens face from the bombings and shootings in the war.

Berlin Wall

Close up of some of the street art on the Berlin Wall

After a quick rest back in the hostel, I went out to meet Jack Montgomery for dinner. Funnily enough, the day before I had received a Facebook notification that “Jack is also traveling in Berlin” so I decided to reach out to see if he was free to catch up! Luckily he was and after not seeing each other for a couple of years, we made it happen across the globe in Berlin. I had so much fun seeing him, and hearing all about what he had been up to. He brought his girlfriend, who was awesome, and we managed to spend 5 hours at the restaurant before they finally said, “we are closing, but feel free to stay sitting at the tables outside.” We decided it might be time to call it a night.

With Jack after dinner

My last full day in Berlin was filled primarily with a free walking tour. Once again, it was a great way to see a lot of the important sites in a major city. While I had been to a lot of the places we went on the tour, it was nice to hear the historical significance of each place. Also, I met an awesome girl from Texas, Leighton, who I spent most of the tour with. Always fun to experience a tour with someone. On the tour we went to the Holocaust memorial and the place where Hitler got married, and then 24 hours later committed suicide. It was surreal to be right where so much horrific history took place.

Victory Column Siegessäule

Berliner Com, 1800’s cathedral

Reichstagsgebäude, a parliament building

After the tour, Leighton and I decided to meet up later and make dinner together! We were both craving some healthy home-cooked food. It was delicious.

Chicken, peach, & avocado, spinach and peach salad.

After we went up the rooftop bar and met two Aussie guys (AUSTRALIANS ARE EVERYWHERE) and had a relaxing evening just hanging and talking with them. Knowing I had an early train the next morning I called it a night and say goodbye to them.

With Leighton up at the bar

Overall, while I can see why so many people like Berlin, I didn’t end up liking it all that much. It was so big and it felt like a hassle to go any where. I’ve decided I like smaller, more manageable cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

Now off to Prague to meet up with Sabrina!!

Copenhagen (+ Hamburg)

July 26, 2016July 22, 20172 Comments

Wow oh wow did I love Copenhagen. It is my new favorite city! From the time I arrived to the time I sadly left, I had an amazing time. I arrived at my hostel around 8am (thanks to an early 6am flight from Bergen!) and couldn’t check in until 2pm so I slept on a large sofa bed that the hostel had in its lounge area. When I woke up there were about 10 others doing the same thing (it was a huge sofa bed) so at least I wasn’t the only weirdo doing this. After checking in to my room, which was great, I walked to the rose gardens and park surrounding the Rosenborg Castle. Everyone was lounging around, soaking up the sun’s rays.

Rosenborg Castle

The surrounding park

Around 5:30pm I headed back to the hostel to get a seat for the free dinner the hostel puts on. However, they only serve people seated in specific tables so you have to arrive early to make sure you reserve a seat! I really enjoyed this activity because it made it easy to meet people. I ended up meeting two girls from California who were headed off to college in the fall, one at Colorado College and one to Cal Poly. What a coincidence this was because the only person I know that goes to CC was meeting me the next day in Copenhagen. My new friend was thrilled at the prospect of meeting someone who goes to CC. We ended up bonding over the fact that the guys we sat with were rude and arrogant. After dinner we switched tables to meet some nicer people. Luckily I did. An Aussie (Brendan) and Kiwi (Ryan) sat down with us and we hit it off right away. I ended up talking with them the rest of the night before heading off to bed to catch up on much needed to sleep. I knew I would see them tomorrow as we both had decided to do the free walking tour.

Before the walking tour at 11am, I went to Stella Cafe and had a delicious omelette. After fueling up, I met up with Brendan and Ryan for the tour. As soon as the tour started we met another Aussie, Joanna, who ended up walking with us the rest of the tour. The tour was a great way to see all the main sites in Copenhagen, and because Copenhagen is fairly small, we really were able to see a lot of what I wanted to see. Half way through the tour, we had a 20 minute break to get some coffee and food. Brenden and Ryan went for the bacon wrapped sausages, while Joanna went to get coffee. I wanted a Danish pastry called kanelsnegle (basically a Danish cinnamon roll). IT WAS SO GOOD.

Kanelsnegle in all its glory!!

After the tour we headed back to the hostel to rest our feet and get a beer. At this point Adam Granath met up with me and the group. Also Brendan had a friend from Australia that lives in Copenhagen now so he met us as well. We were now a group of 6. Brendan’s local friend took us to a fabulous food market called Copenhagen Street Food. It’s right on the water and eating outside is a must. I had a yummy burger and some delicious ice cream.

The food market outdoor eating area

After eating, we went to a couple of different bars where we learned a traditional Danish drinking game, which is played at bars. It is sorta similar to BS, but uses dice. It’s called Mia and it’s super fun. After the first bar, we went to The Living Room, which was a totally cool, hipster bar with tons of comfy couches. We met up with more locals and headed to one of their apartments for more drinks before heading out to another bar. Really fun evening.

The next day I slept in (as I like to do) and went for a long run which included a stop at Kastellet, which is one of the best preserved start fortresses in Europe. It was built in 1662!

Windmill within the fortress

After my run I rushed through a quick tower because my cousin Delaney was set to arrive around 2pm!!! She brought along two friends, Julia and Annika. I was so excited to see some familiar faces. Delaney and Annika go to school together at Colorado College, and Julia (from Germany) spent a semester abroad at their school. After getting settled in the hostel room we set off to explore the city. Because I had been there for a few days I became a bit of a tour guide and took them to my favorite spot: Nyhavn, a 17th century waterfront, canal and entertainment district. I can’t get enough of the colored houses all over Scandinavia.

Nyhavn

Exploring Copenhagen

Much deserved ice cream after walking around for hours

After walking around a bit our stomach started grumbling so we decided to try a restaurant that had been recommended to them: Cock’s and Cows. Delicious food, but with Copenhagen already being so expensive, it definitely wasn’t a place we could afford to go to twice.

After a satisfying late lunch/early dinner, we meandered back to the hostel to hang at the hostel bar. The four of us grabbed a beer and enjoyed talking with all sorts of new people. We also met up with the girl that is going to be a freshmen at CC so the four of the them could catch up on all things CC. Around 11, they all decided to go out, but I decided to stay and continue playing card games with Joanna and two swedes we had met (I am not super into the club scene). About an hour later, Brendan and Ryan showed up and dragged the four of us out to some bars. We were the only ones in the first bar we went to and they finally kicked us out around 2am because the bar was closing down for the night. We then found another bar that was tropical themed and proceeded to also close out that bar, but not before dancing to some fun music. We ended up back at the hostel around 4am (which is WAYYY past my bedtime), but I was glad I went out.

The next morning, Delaney, Julia, and Annika went on the walking tour that I had gone on, while I caught up on some sleep and then hung out with Brendan and Ryan at the hostel. Eventually they had to leave for the airport so we said our goodbyes, but hopefully I’ll see them again at some point! Once the girls were done with the walking tour we met up at the Copenhagen Street Food market for some late lunch/early dinner. After we walked to the rose gardens to hang on the lawn.

Opera house in Copenhagen (view from the food market)

Hanging at the park

Our bus to Hamburg was a night bus, meaning we were going to board at 11:30pm and arrive at 6am the next day. After a quick drink at the hostel bar, we grabbed our stuff and headed to the bus station.

Once on the bus we settled in to try to get some sleep before arriving in Hamburg. We quickly realized however that it was going to be tough because every 1.5 hours they woke us up by going over the loud speaker to announce a stop. Also, once we arrived at the German border, German officials came on the bus to check passports. Interestingly, they spent about 20 seconds on my American passport, but about 10 minutes on a guy who looked Middle Eastern. I guess in the past couple months they have started to check passports even between Schengen countries. Nonetheless, we were off again towards Hamburg. Once we arrived, we grabbed a local train to Julia’s hometown of Bad Oldesloe.

We were lucky enough to visit when there was a local parade happening so we got to see some local festivities before heading back to Julia’s house for a lovely breakfast made by here mother. We ate outside in their adorable gazebo.

The mayor of Bad Oldesloe

All the school children in the parade

Laney contributing an American favorite to breakfast: Toad in the hole

Breakfast in Julia’s backyard

After a much needed one hour power nap we headed back in to Hamburg. The first item on the agenda was a stop at a Hamburg court house where Julia’s awesome father works as a judge. The building was super cool and we got to sit in on the case he was presiding over. Even though it was in German and we couldn’t understand a word of it, it was still fascinating. After he was nice enough to give us a tour of the courthouse and then treated us to some yummy ice cream.

The courthouse where Julia’s dad works

Tour inside another court house

After saying goodbye we explored different areas of Hamburg and saw shopping districts, canals, and a beautiful government building.

A traditional German pastry!

We ended the day on a ferry around the river which gave us a unique view of the city.

On the ferry with Julia

A sculpture in Hamburg

We decided to make dinner for Julia’s parents when we got back so after grocery shopping we got to work! We prepared a summery spinach salad, quinoa, and sausages. T’was a great success. It was so fun to talk with Julia’s parents and learn a bit about their lives in Germany.

Homemade dinner

Sadly, Delaney and I were both leaving for our next cities early the next morning so we said our goodbyes and went to bed. Julia rode the train into Hamburg with us in the morning and I had to say bye to both of them as I headed to the bus terminal, while the two of them continued on to the airport as Delaney was going to Barcelona!

Now off to Berlin!!

Norway (Oslo +Bergen)

July 17, 2016July 12, 20173 Comments

After leaving the heavenly island off of Stockholm, we headed to Oslo. We stayed at Saga Poshtel, which was a “posh” version of a hostel, so it was certainly nice, but made it feel more like a hotel. As such, the atmosphere was definitely less social and friendly. The first night I went on a 6 mile run up the river in Oslo and then headed to bed early after a long travel day. The next day Megan and I did some solo exploring before reconvening for a bike tour through Olso. I spent time at the The Viking Ship Museum, which has three different viking ships built around 820 ad (!!).

The biking tour was fun, but Megan and I agreed that our favorite bike tour is still Amsterdam.

View from the Royal Palace, Oslo

The main walking promenade

I met a lovely couple from San Diego on the bike tour, and decided to meet up later with them. Megan wanted to try a new vegetarian restaurant so she ventured out on her own. After eating dinner at Illegal Burger, I met up with the couple at a bar. When I arrived they said they were starving so I went to an Indian restaurant with them so they could eat. I had a ton of fun with them. After, we decided to head to Andy’s Pub, which was a fun piano bar that they had been to before. The guy playing piano belted out American classic after American classic, so it was cool to be able to sing along. We finally left the bar at 1am.

The next morning I met two Austrian guys in my hostel room and decided to join them in visiting the National Museum of Contemporary Art. It was definitely a cool assortment of exhibitions, some I liked more than others. After a fun morning walking around with them, they unfortunately had to catch their flight home. It started to rain so I decided to hang out in my new favorite juice bar and book some upcoming hostels. At one point, the rain was coming down harder than I had ever seen.

This picture doesn’t even do it justice. It was like stepping out into a shower.

The rain finally let up just in time for me to head back to the hostel to meet up with Mehrdad for our final overlap. We strolled around Oslo and found a cute pizzeria that didn’t break the bank, which is RARE in Norway!

Mehrdad ready to eat delicious, reasonably priced pizza!

After dinner we headed towards the main walking promenade and found a bar with live music and decided to stop for a drink. One single drink because one beer was about the same price as the pizza we had had earlier (Around 12$!!). But despite the crazy prices, we had a really nice time listening to the guitar player.

The next day Mehrdad and I took a ferry out to Hovedøya, which is an island right off of Oslo. We walked around and saw a couple of ruins. There were a lot of families playing in the water and picnicking. Unfortunately, the sky decided to open up as we were halfway around the island. We were trapped under some trees, which, luckily, prevented a surprising amount of rainfall from hitting us. The rain let up a bit and we made a sprint for the other side of the island where the ferry would pick us up. After getting back we walked to the Oslo Opera House. It is a stunning building and you can walk on it. I mean literally on top of it, which gives you an awesome view of the city.

On top of the Oslo Opera House with Mehrdad

Sadly, it was time to hop on the train to Bergen, which meant a final goodbye to Mehrdad. Luckily, he lives in Berkeley so I am sure I will see him back in the Bay!

The train to Bergen passed through some incredible countryside. Despite a long train ride, it was quite enjoyable.

Norwegian countryside

Bergen was an adorable city in the western part of Norway. Despite it being cloudy almost every day, it was really fun to spend time there. We arrived at 10:30pm so we walked straight to our hostel and passed out. The first day Megan went on a serious hike, which required hiking boots, which meant I couldn’t join. But I walked around Bryggen, which is a World Heritage site. It’s the old wharf which was quite important from the 14th century to the 16th century. Now it houses different museums and shops.

Bryggen!

Inside Bryggen

After walking around that area, I found an adorable cafe for lunch. I had a delicious sandwich, while I read my book. Next, I took off on a Fjord tour on a boat! It’s always fun to see things from a different perspective, such as seeing the land from the water! It was a 4.5 hour tour and stopped by a water fall where they collected some fresh water for us to try. Trust me, it was delicious. We also stopped in front of another waterfall! It was definitely a a highlight of my time in Bergen. I also met a couple that had just graduated from Stanford, one of whom was from Colorado so we had a lot to talk about!

And we’re off!

A little village outside of Bergen

WATERFALL

Some fjords

I finished the day with a ride up the funicular! It offered incredible views of Bergen. Highly recommend doing this if you visit Bergen!

View from the top of Mount Fløyen

There are goats living under the viewing decks!

Unfortunately, Megan’s flight took off early in the morning so we had to say goodbye the night before. She heads to London for a day and then takes off for home!

My final day in Bergen had me exploring other parts of the city center and finding a fun cafe for lunch. I managed to read a full book before heading back to the hostel for a siesta. That night I caught up with my parents and had cereal for dinner because my wallet needed a break from Norwegian prices(!).

Bergen

Off to Denmark next! Wish me luck because I’ll be getting up at 3:30am to catch a 6am flight 😦

xoxo

Sweden

July 11, 2016July 12, 20173 Comments

This trip is flying by!!! Megan and I arrived in Stockholm, after our adventure in Latvia, just in time to watch France take on Germany in the semi-finals of Euro-cup. After dropping our stuff in our hostel, we settled in next door at a restaurant that shares a courtyard with the hostel. They had set up a large screen that was showing the game outside. I ordered a traditional Swedish dish: Meatballs! T’was delicious and it reminded me of the meatballs served at IKEA, which makes sense as IKEA is a Swedish brand (wow it’s all coming together!!). During the game two local Swedish guys sat down next to us and Megan and I ended up talking with them most of the game. It was fascinating to hear about Swedish life and how different it is compared to the US. When I asked them if they could list any downsides to living in Sweden, they paused and had to think for a minute. They finally came up with the weather, and fair point, as it is dark for 8 months of the year. But if weather is the only downside to living in your country then I would say you’re doing pretty well.

The next morning Megan and I joined a bike tour around Stockholm. We figured that because we would only have one day in Stockholm this would be the easiest way to see a lot of Stockholm. While the tour itself didn’t knock our socks off, we did get to see a lot of Stockholm and we biked to the highest point within the city, which offered great views.

View from the highest point in Stockholm

After the tour we grabbed lunch and walked through Old Town. Stockholm was beautiful, but didn’t feel all that different from a clean, put-together American city.

Megan goofing off with not one, but two viking helmets

After finishing the afternoon in Stockholm, we got on a bus to our Airbnb in Idalen, which is on an island in the Stockholm archipelago. It was AMAZING! We stayed in a cottage in the backyard of the home of the sweetest couple ever. After they welcomed us, Megan and I took off on a run to get some exercise and to see some of the beaches! Stunning is the only word to describe it:

Idalen, Sweden

Can you have too many beach/sunset pictures??

After our run, we jumped into the water at this beach!

The next day we set off on our bikes to rent a kayak for the afternoon. Although it was fun, we ended up paddling for our lives as soon as it started to thunderstorm all around us (!!).

Megan in the kayak right before the thunderstorm hit!

After safely making it to shore, we rode our bikes back to the Airbnb in the rain. We dried off in the cottage and decided to have a lazy rest of the day. We made some dinner and then watched a movie.

Luckily the next day was a bit sunnier! Megan and I went for a beautiful hike in one of the many nature preserves. We walked to a lake and back, which ended up being about 5 miles.

After a yummy avocado + apple spinach salad for lunch, we headed down to the local beach for some relaxing and some reading. This wrapped up our incredible adventure off the beaten path in the Stockholm archipelago. Both Megan and I marveled at how easy it was to find a place to stay out in the middle of a random island because of Airbnb. Definitely a positive experience!

Now off to Norway!

Amsterdam + (Latvia)

July 10, 2016July 12, 20179 Comments

Wow, oh, wow! Amsterdam was fabulous! It also marked the last of my solo travels. Megan, who I became friends with at Tufts this past year, joined me in Amsterdam after she attended a 6-week long study abroad program in Talloires, which is put on through the Tufts European Center. We met at the at soccer tryouts last fall (for the Tufts club team) when everyone at tryouts was going around saying their name, where they were from, and what position they play. It came my turn and I said “Meg, from Palo Alto (because no one knows Los Altos!!), and defense. After five others had gone, I was surprised to hear a new face say the exact same thing. I mean literally the exact same answer. Her name was Meg. She grew up in Palo Alto. She plays defense. It was hilarious. She later told me that she thought it was a prank and that all the seniors had figured out where different freshmen were from and pretended to have their name and be from their hometown. But obviously that wasn’t the case. Ever since bonding over our shared traits, we have been friends. We have been to concerts, done half marathons, and are now traveling Europe together!

Amsterdam is the first city of six cities we will be doing together- and it was a great one to start with, although it did start a bit rocky as Megan took the wrong train from the airport and ended up in the countryside in a town called Hilversum before she was able to get off and board the right train back to Amsterdam. She did eventually make it to the hostel and we had some delicious Asian fusion for a late dinner.

Our first full day in Amsterdam was sunny and warm! A nice reprieve from the cloudiness and rain I experienced in the U.K. We started our day with a walking tour around the city and walked past the narrowest house in Amsterdam! The reason houses in Amsterdam are so tall, but narrow is that back in the day taxes were determined by how wide your house was! So if you wanted to show off your wealth, you would build a particularly wide house. If you were stingy (like my dad 😉 ), then you built as narrow a house as you could!

Narrowest house in Amsterdam

We then had lunch at Il Panorama. We sat outside on a canal and had amazing focaccia with grilled vegetables as a starter! Next we were off to the I AMSTERDAM sign. Don’t worry, we took a lot of pictures 🙂

M is for Meg!

Meg + Megan

Megan

After some wandering around, we arrived at Foodhallen for some dinner. Foodhallen is a food hall with upscale eateries inside. It seemed to be where a lot of working professionals went after work. To finish off the day, we had some delicious Belgium waffles!

Meg with her sushi at Foodhallen

Strawberries + Nutella

The next day was primarily spent on a bike tour of the countryside! We got on our bikes and rode like locals… or like a group of herded tourists in matching ponchos. Although we hit some rain, we still had so much fun. We stopped at a windmill and a farm that makes cheese and carves clogs. He was one of three traditional clog makers left in The Netherlands.

After the bike tour we took a few hours to rest before heading out on a tour of the Red Light District. It was fascinating to learn the history of the area, along with how it has evolved into a legitimate and legal business. We heard about the tax, health, and safety implications of being a sex worker. Women have to apply for their business license at the county hall, just like every other person applying for a business license. Altogether, it was cool to understand how the business actually works.

The next day we took a train to a town called Utrecht. We had heard from a few locals that it was a cute town so we decided to check it out. It was definitely worth it if you have a few days while in Amsterdam. It’s only about 20 min. away by train so it’s easy to visit for the morning and lunch, which is exactly what we did! We walked around the town, which isn’t too large, and then found a nice Italian restaurant next to one of their canals to eat lunch. Overall, a really fun town to visit for a couple of hours.

To finish off the day, we went to dinner with two Canadians and a brother and sister from Alabama where we watched Portugal play Wales in the semi-finals of Euro Cup. We both enjoyed hanging with the four of them, although it got a bit awkward when the Canadians brought up Trump… Luckily, the topic switched quite quickly. Unfortunately, Wales lost 2-0 and Portugal advanced to the final. After the game, we all headed back to the hostel and Megan and I packed up our stuff as we were leaving at 7am the next morning.

Amsterdam was definitely one of my favorite stops so far (along with Galway and Edinburgh). Meg and I dubbed it “one of the most Instagrammable cities” we had each been too. The canals made for a beautiful backdrop around every single corner. Some examples:

Also, neither of us smoke weed so we decided to focus on other things Amsterdam had to offer, but we did see the first Coffee Shop and some other fun weed related things!

First coffee shop!

For all you cannabis lovers out there!!!

After Amsterdam, our next stop was Stockholm… but the cheapest way to get there was to have a layover in Riga, Latvia. We embraced this by leaving the airport and spending the afternoon exploring this Baltic country (about 5 hours).

First stop was Centraltrigus, a food market that occupies 72.3 thousand square metres of space and has over 3000 trade stands. We walked around and snacked on some fresh raspberries for about 1.50$. SO CHEAP!!

After walking around the market and the rest of town, we found a delicious lunch place called Street Fries Kitchen. It was sooo good! Megan had lentil and avocado salad and I had a ham, cheese, and egg crepe. Definitely one of our favorite meals so far!

Lastly, we meandered back to the bus stop by walking in a park along the canal.

Riga!

Megan frolicking through the park!

We took the bus back to the airport and despite Megan setting off the metal detector for the 3rd time (!!!), we made it through to the plane!

Now off to Sweden 🙂

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Edinburgh + Southend on Sea

July 6, 2016July 12, 20173 Comments

What a wild time to be in the UK! The day I arrived in Edinburgh votes were being cast far and wide. Much to my surprise, and to the surprise of almost every young Brit I had talked to, the UK had voted to leave the European Union. However, other than the stock markets crashing and many jokes about how Departugal, Italeave, Byegium, and Slovakout are soon to come, there have not been any noticeable, immediate changes to day-to-day life. That being said, I think many citizens of the UK are noticeably nervous about what the ramifications will be as no one really knows. Additionally, Scotland is already full of calls for a referendum to leave the UK again, as they almost left a year ago, and a majority of Scotland voted to stay in the EU on last week’s vote. The Scottish people I have talked to said that many of the people who voted to stay in the UK last year would now vote to leave the UK because they want to stay in the EU. This could cause another referendum to take place in Scotland.

But on to less important things: my time in Edinburgh! I arrived at my hostel and immediately really liked it! There were tons of people to meet and an awesome bar + restaurant in the hostel. I stayed in a 30 person room (!!!) which was fun, but also loud…

The first day I met up with Mehrdad for our third city meet up! We had breakfast at my hostel before setting out to see the Edinburgh Castle. It’s incredible because it lies in the center of Edinburgh on a large hill. It was constructed in the 12th century. Research undertaken in 2014 identified 26 sieges in its 1100-year-old history, giving it a claim to having been “the most besieged place in Great Britain and one of the most attacked in the world.” Pretty incredible!

After that, Mehrdad took off for his next city, but of course we will see each other soon in Norway. The rest of the day I lazily walked around Edinburgh, taking in the incredibly old architecture and admiring all the bagpipers playing for tourists.

The Royal Mile

Parade through Edinburgh

That night I met another Californian (this time from Monterey). I feel like all of California has taken off the month of June and is traveling through Ireland and the UK because I have met SO many people from CA. The two of us also started talking to a New Zealander and spent the rest of the night talking at the bar in the hostel.

My second day in Edinburgh started off with a free walking tour put on by the hostel. We walked by where J.K. Rowling wrote some of Harry Potter and we saw the graveyard where “Thomas Riddle” was buried. Our tour guide went to school with J.K. Rowling’s daughter at the school that inspired Hogwarts. Always fun to have a local show off his city and it always helps to learn of other things I want to do during the rest of my stay. In this case, Arthur’s Seat was mentioned as a great hike so I knew that was something I would try to do.

Where J.K. Rowling wrote some of the Harry Potter series

Grave of “Thomas Riddle”

I ran into the New Zealander again and we played cards in the hostel while the rain pounded down outside. Luckily the rain subsided later in the afternoon as he was going on a Ghost tour (which is pretty popular in Edinburgh) and I planned to go on a run through a park in Edinburgh called The Meadows. It was a beautiful park with tennis courts, play structures for kids, and big grassy fields where people were picnicking, playing soccer, and playing cricket. After 6 miles in the park, I headed back to shower and get dinner with Sage, the New Zealander. After dinner we had some yummy frozen yogurt and ate it while people watching in the the Grass Market area. Plenty of hen and stag parties walked on by as it was a Saturday night. I guess it is a tradition here for the groom-to-be to dress up in a tight girly dress, as we saw about 6 different grooms in this attire. After dinner the girl from Monterey took us out to some clubs that she had been to the night before, and while I had a good time, I was also glad to be in bed by 1:30am.

The next day started with a hike to Arthur’s seat in Holyrood Park, which is a 640 acre Royal Park next to Holyrood Palace, which is where Queen Elizabeth resides when visiting Edinburgh. The park’s highest point is Arthurs Seat, an ancient volcano, and it sits 251m above sea level giving excellent views of the city; it is also the site of a large and well preserved fort. This is one of four hill forts dating from around 2000 years ago. It was an awesome hike, and the views were incredible.

The view from half way up the volcano (Holyrood Palace on the left)

The hike up to Arthur’s Seat

View from Arthur’s Seat

The next day I went on a tour of the Highlands of Scotland and Loch Ness where “Nessie” the sea monster lives. It was nice to get out of Edinburgh for the day and see some of the other regions of Scotland. I can’t stress how beautiful it was. It is so rural and untouched, other than the sheep that roam the farm land. Scotland has thousands of lochs and many are very deep as glaciers created large valleys within the mountains and then they were filled with water. Although it was a long day with many hours in a bus, it was a fun. Also, I sat next to a Belgium girl on the bus and she was also traveling solo. We ended up hitting it off and spent the whole day exploring each stop together. It was awesome to have someone to talk to on the long bus rides. After the tour dropped us back off at the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, we decided to go to a pub together to get dinner and watch England take on Iceland in round 16 of Euro Cup. Although England was heavily favored, Iceland pulled out huge upset and won 2-1. I was rooting for them because they were the underdog but I was still shocked that they won.

Train tracks in the Highlands of Scotland

With a bag piper in Glencoe

Loch Ness

Because the day of the tour wiped me out, I decided to sleep in the next day and take it easy. I had seen much of what I wanted to see so I found a cafe and curled up with a book and a hot chocolate.

Next, I took a 5 hour train to London and then a 1 hour train to Southend on Sea, which is about 40 miles east of central London. I stayed with Lauren, who I met last summer in Barcelona with the guys I stayed with earlier in my trip! After she picked me up at the train station we went bowling with her brother, her cousin, and her cousin’s girlfriend (also named Meg!). We became UK Meg and US Meg. Lauren and UK Meg dominated at bowling and proceeded to beat the boys, which was fun to watch! (I didn’t fare so well… coming in last both rounds).

What a winning technique!!!

After bowling, I was lucky enough to be included in the birthday dinner for Lauren’s cousin. It was his 21st, which sounded exciting until he reminded me that he’s been drinking legally longer than I have. We all went out to dinner to a lovely restaurant and it was so fun to be a part of the family for the night! After traveling solo for a bit, I enjoyed the boisterous nature of a family meal. Also, everyone in Lauren’s family was amazing and hilarious. It seemed every time I looked away from my wine glass, it magically was refilled… not sure if it was Lauren’s mom or aunt ;).

Birthday time

Lauren and I took a nice walk the next day around Southend and along the sea front. Quite a picturesque view! That night we settled in and watch “Everest,” which was a great film.

Low tide in Southend

After sleeping in, Lauren and I spent a lazy day around the house and watched some British TV. That night we went to a Make A Wish fundraiser at a school where Lauren’s friend works. It was a quiz night, which I was quite excited for… however I was not much help after I quickly realized that most questions were about British history and life. But I still have a great time!

Saturday brought quite an exciting day! Lauren’s cousin had a barbecue, and most of the guys that I met in Barcelona were coming so I was quite excited to see them all again so soon after seeing them back in early June. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and there seemed to be endless amounts of food and alcohol… so not much to complain about.

Backyard BBQ

Josh!

After a fabulous BBQ, a bunch of us headed out to a bar and then to Josh’s house to play some drinking games. I had a great evening, although I did not manage to get much sleep as I went to bed around 4am and needed to be up at 7am to catch a train to London, to then get on a bus that would take me to Amsterdam. This led to a very long, and sleep deprived day on an 11 hour bus ride. Not so fun… but the bus ride took me from England to France, through Belgium, and finally to the Netherlands, so again, I can’t really complain!

Until next time 🙂

Bonus photo of AJ with a plastic container on his head 🙂

First Video: Europe 2016 UK + Ireland

July 6, 2016July 12, 2017Leave a comment

I can’t believe it but my first month in Europe is complete! I’ve had the most amazing time exploring the UK and Ireland, which included riding a motorcycle for the first time (sorry mom + dad), learning how to operate lochs for a canal boat (thanks Simon!), and sampled some of Ireland’s greatest exports (Guinness and Irish Whiskey). I spent 39 hours in buses, trains, and planes and visited 17 cities in 4 countries!

So grateful for the friends I made along the way and for the friends who opened their homes to me. Can’t wait to continue this journey!

Here’s a video of my first month in Europe!

The Pursuit Of Travel

A solo traveler's guide to the world

Month: July 2016