Seeing the Sights: The Birthday Trip, Edinburgh

April 6th, 2015:

All right, so my first full day in Edinburgh started with a walking tour. During the break in the tour I found myself a salted caramel milkshake from this milk shoppe in Grassmarket. Turns out, it's the number one rated restaurant in Edinburgh. I just randomly choose the best. 

Notable moment:

-When discussing Harry Potter, there were two people who had never seen nor read them so our guide starts by a) calling them losers, and b) summarizing with "There's a wizard boy who goes to wizard school." I found that amusing. Boiled down, that's the premise. Not that I'm sure the entire world hadn't figured out that much without knowing anything else. 

From there, I had time until my "ghost tour" so I wandered on my own. I visited St. Giles' Cathedral (which is not technically a Cathedral) where they have this super modern-looking organ.

Epically modern organ in St. Giles'

Mrs. Claus dress in the vintage shop in Grassmarket

I ended up at a vintage shop that was like something out of a movie or a dream. I could have spent so much time and money in there. So. Much.

Inside of the Writers' Museum

The Writers' Museum is just off the Royal Mile and it's free, so of course it went on my "To-Do" list. They have a gorgeous maroon spiral staircase that leads through all four? floors. The lowest level is all Robert Lewis Stevenson. Robert Burns has a large section to himself, of course. The walls are all painted this fantastic shade of green that I apparently captured zero pictures of. All the paint in this museum was amazingly rich in colour; gorgeous! They had bits of poetry cast over the loudspeakers in the different sections. The top floor had a display on the printing press and a discussion between a master printer and his apprentice about the book they were printing, what went into it, how the press was changing the world, relations between Edinburgh and London printing houses, etc. Overall, very cool.

Elephant House, where JKR wrote Harry Potter

When it hit 6:45p I made my way to the spot where the ghost tour was meeting up. It probably wasn't the best tour out there, more history than ghosts/legends, but that was still cool. Just a bit different than what I'd figured from advertisements. But it was free, so you get what you pay for.

Hard Rock Edinburgh: Check!

Post-tour it was still early enough that I hit up a couple more of the spots on my "to-do" list that were in a different party of the city from where I was staying (which is why I hadn't been there before). First stop, of course, was the Edinburgh Hard Rock Cafe. Which just so happens to be on the same street as...

Grand Lodge of Scotland

The Grand Lodge of Scotland! This building was big. Not as big as I was expecting, for some reason, but still really big. I toured a bit of the Grand Lodge of England during my trip in August, and I keep wondering if I'd just arrive at these places earlier in the day (i.e. before 9pm when I seem to be visiting) I might be able to check out the interior. I mean, I doubt they'd let me into a Lodge room. Luckily, the outsides are pretty impressive as well.

A ridiculously large Hollister. This picture
does not do justice to how completely
massive this thing was. I do not understand.

Between the Hard Rock and the Lodge is this massive Hollister. It's ridiculously huge for what it is. My mind immediately went to a "condemning capitalism and materialism" place. Especially since the facade of the Hollister, with it's bay windows and columns, doesn't at all match with the rest of the building. It doesn't have to, I guess, but it's not like the building it's in is unappealing!

I headed up the street, trying to find some of the buildings I'd seen across the way from the Royal Mile. The darkness did not make this any easier, though I do carry a flashlight. I walked up Calton Hill and found a road diverging near a wood, and I, I took the darker one closer to the city lights. I didn't actually make it very far when I turned around and picked the other road (which is unfortunate, because I walked this road back and I was almost at the end).
It passed several monuments before coming upon a grassy field. Voices led me to a few benches where I plopped down and stared out over the city, which might be more gorgeous at night than it is during the day. It was incredible. I have a recording of me complaining how lame my camera is for not being able to capture the awesome. Alas. I sat up there for quite a while before moving on to explore more of Calton Hill and find my way down. I came down next to the building I'd been looking for, this big old Roman-esque, column-fronted building. My tour guide that evening said that it was a high school until the 1960s and has since been vacant. Which is super sad, because it's beautiful! I'd love to go to school there...

After a long day, I flopped into bed.

April 7th, 2015: 

I started by wasting time until I had to descend all the stairs to check out of my hostel. Moving my luggage into a locker, I hit the town. I think it was the first place on the list, but it seems the first place I have pictures of is the National Museum. I wasn't here long, however. It's a poor idea to go into somewhere cool when you're hungry. I was hoping to see the Game Masters exhibit, but the tickets for it sell out first thing, so that didn't happen. Much of the museum looks, of course, like every other museum. The building's architecture is different, but there are the stuffed animals, the busts, etc. The coolest thing about this one was the machines exhibit. Some of them you could put your hand over a panel and watch the machine do whatever it was designed to; wheels spinning, lights flashing, etc.

I'm the only person in the classic section of the museum. The place
was pretty packed, but not this corridor. 

Wandering through what might have been the art section or maybe the world cultures section, I found this set of paintings entitled "Raven vs. Pontiac" which initially hits me as very SEAK. Of course, I read the artist bio and find he's from Juneau!

"Born in... Juneau, Alaska"

Raven vs. Pontiac

Infamous "Irn Bru" tastes like fizzy bubble gum

From here I had lunch in Grassmarket at a little pie shoppe, that was really good (and included haggis). I spent more time than I'd care to admit picking up gifts I'd passed by during my wanderings the previous two days. There was one thing in particular I remembered seeing, but couldn't remember where I'd seen it. When I finally found it again (after a couple of hours of walking in and out of shops around the Old Town looking for this one item) I found it in a shop I'd walked into and out of several times. Ugh.
      Around dinner time I went looking for haggis, neeps, and tatties. But because it was dinner time, so was everyone else. After wandering through street after street of packed pubs (and closed restaurants; Edinburgh closes at 5p everybody) I ended up *sigh* at Subway. The cookies were great, the food was good (at least it's something I can't get in Tartu), but it wasn't haggis. Ah, well.

Since I was missing an Estonian test, I figured gaining some test-luck
the way the UoE students do can't hurt. (Hume Statue)

     I picked up my luggage and made my way to the bus station. I was hoping that a nine hour bus ride on a Tuesday evening wouldn't be packed, but it was pretty packed. The bus was so full they brought in a second bus that was going to take a longer route. Everyone was so focused on the first bus that I just slid on the second one. The time comes for us to leave and (apart from couples traveling together) there's one person for each set of two seats. Fantastic. The bus starts pulling away and stops, and two buddies get on. Of course, of ALL the open seats he had to pass to get to the back of the bus, he chooses the seat next to me. Great. Just great. Either way, we're on our way to London.

I'm a bit sad that I didn't have enough time or energy to climb Arthur's Seat, but I'll just have to save that for my next trip to Edinburgh.

Ad for a pizza company.
I found it both insulting and motivational.

Plaid shoes, tights, dress, purse.
I would totally wear this. 

Seeing the Sights: The Birthday Trip, Dublin & Edinburgh

April 4th, 2015: My tour guide yesterday suggested a trip to Howth (the tour from their company is about 6 hours long), and seeing as I had no plans, I figured why not. I'd get to see a bit more of Ireland, and more than just Dublin city centre. Explanation for all the Spaniards: It's Holy Week, so they travel with their time off. This means that there were two giant tour groups of Spaniards, and a group of three Americans for the English tour. Having a small group was awesome; we got to know each other and our guide, made a few friends, and when Sinead gave us suggestions of other things to do, she could tailor them a bit to suit us.
     Anyway, after the short train ride from Dublin centre, we made our way to the pier. It's been so long since I've smelled fish! Made me a bit home sick, but I've yet to find ocean that smells like home, which ruins the sensory connection. The Howth pier has these footprints marking where King George IV landed, got of his boat, stood to make a speech, staggered around due to his inebriated state, and proceeded to head immediately back to his boat to sleep it off.

    Above is the gate to the St. Lawrence Castle. The doors on the gate haven't been closed in nearly 500 years. Grace O'Malley came to visit the St. Lawrence family but was denied entrance because they were at dinner. Not used to being told "no", she kidnapped the St. Lawrence heir and held him until she was seen, where she struck a bargain with the head of the family to return young St. Lawrence, provided the gate was never closed and an extra place always be set at dinner in case of unexpected guests. They agreed and both traditions are kept today.

     Here is the entrance to the St. Lawrence Castle, and as we passed a couple members of the St. Lawrence family came out on to the porch to let the dog out. Many portions of the castle, as well as the furniture and paintings with in them, haven't been moved since the castle was moved uphill in the 17th century.

 Heading up Muck Rock, we passed the spot in "Ulysses" by James Joyce were the proposal takes place. I learned that the entire book takes place in a single day, July (June?) 23rd. Huh.

View overlooking Sutton & Dublin

 After lunch at the pub we headed 'round the cliff walk filled with heather. Why did I always think heather was purple? Does it smell like coconut to anyone else? Pictured in the background is the Old Bailey lighthouse.

Wales... somewhere that-a-way

Thirty years ago, the Dublin Zoo's wallaby population had grown out of control, breeding like rabbits as dem wallabies were. So they were trying to find somewhere to put them. They ended up on this island beyond Ireland's Eye. No one lives there, though apparently there is one house. One house and a ton of wallabies. 

 This house has been placed in a state of "dibs" by our tour guide. The wall that runs along the property exterior is the wall from the original St. Lawrence castle built in the... 12th century? We also passed W.B. Yeats house from 1880-1883. Much of the day was spent in the sun wandering the Howth area, which is how I ended up with a sunburn. Anyway, we returned to Dublin centre and my new friends and I parted ways. I headed for a bookstore, and managed to finally find a copy of Harry Potter in Irish. Apparently, only the first was ever translated, and it never made it out of hard back. Either way, I have one! 

Pretty good hot chocolate, but I didn't find it outstanding.

     From there I headed to this chocolate shop chain that apparently has some of the best hot chocolate in the world. Depending on what you order you also receive a chocolate sample, so at the suggestion of the guy behind the counter I tried the white chocolate praline. It was fanastic, and that (combined with my favourite Estonian chocolates) made it finally dawn on me that I really like pralines. The holiday tomorrow means that I won't spend all the money on chocolate...

 There were still a couple of things to do on my list, so I set off in search of a shop I'd asked my guide about. Unfortunately, it was closed, so I'll have to try again tomorrow. On my way back to the hostel I picked up Atlantic Hake fish & chips from Beshoff Bros. with salt, vinegar, tartar sauce, and lemon. Salt & vinegar is not a combo in Estonia, and there are moments I desperately miss salt & vinegar chips.
     Both one of the girls on my tour and our guide suggested "Once," a movie/Broadway play about a  Dubliner musician, so I turned that on while I ate. All I can say is "meh," though I do find it interesting that neither of the main characters ever receives a name.
     Post-dinner, I was off to Tesco to find some sunscreen/lotion, since I'd left my stick in Tartu, thinking I wouldn't need it. However, the containers were bigger than I could take on the plane and crazy expensive so... that was a no go. It did, however, mean I was in Temple Bar. Night life had definitely picked up from alcohol-less Good Friday night.


From there I just wandered the darkened streets of Dublin. Some Easter-related services (I assume) was going on in the courtyard of Christ Church Cathedral. To me, it looked awfully cultish...

And, of course, once a Masonic youth, always a Masonic youth. I headed for the Grand Lodge of Ireland, conveniently located adjacent the National Library (which is flippin' gorgeous) and the National Archaeology museum (which I wanted to visit, but opens at the same time I need to be at the airport tomorrow). It sits amid completely normal houses/buildings. It looks like there are apartments on either side of this tall stone structure, emblazoned with the square and compass on the top. 

     Since, at home, the cornerstone of our new Masonic Temple was laid today, I feel this visit was pretty kismet.

Little island off the coast of Ireland

April 5th, 2015: Hostel checkout was at 10am, per usual, so I waited until then to check out, that way I could have charged electronics for the day, unsure when I would next have access to an outlet. Then the search began for souvenirs with names on them. I'd received several suggestions of places to start, and began. Because of the holiday, most of them didn't open until noon, something I had forgotten, and instead spent two hours walking around in circles. I had the nagging feeling that there was something I wanted to do/see that opened at noon, but couldn't remember what it was and never did. I picked up some gelato along the way and came out with a new flavour high up in my "favourites" list. Unfortunately, it's only made by that company. :( It was a vanilla (?) with hazelnuts, caramel, and white chocolate. At least, those were some of the flavours I could ID.

Crowd outside the barricade at the
Easter Rising celebration

I ate my ice cream in St. Stephens Green, since there are only a few places with public benches. This is where we came across this man and his pigeons. He had a giant shopping bag full of bird seed and would give out handfuls to whomever wanted to help feed the birds. He was attempting to get a girl to overcome her fear of birds, but she was not having any of that. Kids were all pretty excited.
The search continued but to no avail, and eventually I had to go catch my shuttle to the airport. Dublin airport is pretty nice, since I only saw it in the dark last time. I ate my Easter hot cross buns in the food court and read until it was time for my Visa check and trip through security.


The flight is pretty short between Dublin and Edinburgh. (The concerning part was the kid behind me while we were boarding who turned to tell his mother he was "having a queue poo.") And the bus system into the city is pretty intuitive. Unlike many of the other journeys I've taken from airports to city centres, the distance between Edinburgh and the airport is residential. Lots of little cute houses that I would totally live in as willingly as I would live in a gorgeous mansion. The age old adorable vs. expansive.
     As soon as I got off the bus, I was greeted by a bagpipe. Along the way in search of said piper, I saw an add for chili cheese dogs... we may be getting one of those in the next couple of days.
    I checked into my hostel (8 flights of stairs between me and the front door), dropped my bag & swapped shoes. Weather said it was likely to rain in Dublin to I brought boots, and then received a sunburn while I was there. It's much easier to just wear them than to pack my big winter boots into my backpack on travel days. Post-shoe swap, I repacked my purse and explored the Royal Mile, seeing both ends before returning to the hostel.

Arthur's Seat. Hopefully, I'll make the trek to the top before I leave.
This photo didn't look as dark when I took it...

Holyrood Palace

As I meandered, I followed little streets as well, and ended up walking through a cemetery. It was too dark to read much of what was carved into the headstones, but they were beautiful. Conveniently, the cemetery is directly in front of the US embassy, which I wouldn't have noticed if a tour hadn't been walking past and pointed it out.

Edinburgh Castle

THERE IS SO MUCH TARTAN! I hadn't fully grasped that this would be the case when I planned this trip. This tartan girl is going to have to use all her thrifty willpower to avoid leaving Edinburgh broke. Suitcases, shoes, dresses, skirts, scarves, purses, hats... *breathe, breathe*.
     I made it back to the hostel and grabbed my computer to write this up and play catch-up with everything I've missed. I even have some homework that should be done, but that's just not going to happen tonight. The wifi is only accessible in the communal portions of the building, so that's how I ended up in the bar with my diet Pepsi.

Aaaaaand as I'm writing this I just saw my first bar fight. The exciting international life. Followed immediately by a Bohemian Rhapsody sing-a-long by those of us left in the bar.

I have a bit of a plan for tomorrow, but we'll see where the day takes us. Hopefully, it'll include haggis.

Seeing the Sights: The Birthday Trip, Dublin 1

April 2nd, 2015: I awoke to snow coating the ground in Tartu. Packing my final items, I left the coziness of my dorm and headed out into the world. Arriving at the bus station, I had to stick my backpack in the hold; don't know why, but this ride I wasn't allowed to have it on the bus. My plans of doing homework and snacking on my juustustritsel were left behind amid the fat, falling flakes as I fell asleep.
    Thus we arrived in Riga around 11am, were I would have plenty of time to waste. I had to add "print boarding pass" to my list of things to do, as I apparently missed that one when printing all of my confirmations out. And there's all sorts of fees for checking in at the airport here. But with so much time I found myself a chair and set to my marketing homework, YouTube, reading, and other amusements.
    Around 6:15, my laptop had been recharged to a decent level, my book was finished, and my homework turned it. I got my boarding pass printed and headed to the public transport buses to get to the airport.

Annoyingly blurry

  

There are a few nice things about being an US passport holder while traveling in the EU, one of which is that the "Other" passport/visa check line is usually MUCH shorter. There had to have been 4 or 5 flights in and I went from one of the herd to the third person in a line of less than 10. 

     Next came a bus to the city centre, and a stroll to the hostel. I'm still figuring out my camera settings, so sometimes pictures turn out, sometimes they don't. All the photos I wanted to post from my walk to the hostel are blurry to some degree.

    My flight landed at nearly midnight, the bus left around midnight:30. I didn't get to check in to the hostel until after 1am. At this point, I was just tired so I attempted to creep into the room. Creaky floors and squeaky metal bed frames made this next to impossible, but I was finally in bed, no one seemed to have woken up in the process, and I slipped into unconsciousness.

April 3rd, 2015: If there's free breakfast to be had, I don't care what time it is, I'll be there. Luckily, when I travel I like getting a decently early start on things. After a breakfast, I joined a free walking tour around the city. Turns out, the tour was three (3!) hours long. Our tour guide was fantastic, funny, and extremely knowledgable, so the time didn't really matter. He started by asking where we were from. To the guy from Boston he said, "Welcome home!" 

I have a bunch of photos from the tour, but here are just a couple. 

Dublin Castle

So when Barak Obama visited in 2011, the bar inside Dublin Castle is where he paid for the "most expensive pint of Guinness." When Queen Elizabeth II visited later that week, she edged closer and closer toward the Throne Room and they had to make up a story so she wouldn't go in.

Epic looking building in Trinity College

We saw "heaven" (the campus church, one of the few to offer Catholic & Protestant services) and "hell" (the exams hall across the way). 

We learned about some of the perks of being a Trinity Scholar:

-Free housing on campus or reimbursed off

-Free meals with professors in the dining hall

-Permission to graze your sheep on school grounds

-Permission to take your sword into exams

-Permission to ask for a pint during exams, which a proctor will bring you

-If you own a crossbow, you may be allowed to climb the bell tower and shoot Catholics (the chances of this happening were slim, and our guide wasn't entirely sure if this was true)

We also visited Dubh Linn Gardens, saw the Spike, 

My view during lunch

At the end of our tour, the guides take their groups to a pub where there is a discounted lunch served. As it's Good Friday, lots of pubs are closed (since they can't serve alcohol; the only day of the year places like Temple Bar are closed), and this one was as well. Of course I picked the one day of the year in Ireland you can't buy alcohol. So we ended up at a different restaurant he suggested. I made a few friends, two Canadians studying in Barcelona who traveled to the same cities I'm heading to (just in reverse), and joined them. They gave me some activity suggestions for my time in Dublin as well as in Edinburgh.
     From there, I hit a few of the highlights of Dublin my tour hadn't and walked where the mood took me.

"Have a Badass Easter." Well, pub Badass, don't mind if I do.

The sun came out over St. Patrick's.

Found another hippocampus!

Swans, making friends.

Molly Malone. I don't know why I thought this was
somewhere else in the city...

National. Leprechaun. Museum. I don't know
how to feel about this.

I only went into two (three?) bookstores today. I'm on the hunt for something specific, but I didn't buy anything. Backpacking does curb that habit a bit. So far, I'm loving Dublin. I think exploring puts me in a good mood, which makes it easier to love wherever I am at the moment. A bit worn down, I returned to my hostel to the song "Xanadu" which is one of my favourtes, though I'm not sure why, which just perked me back up again. I did some laptop charging and went in search of some of the world's best hot chocolate. Unfortunately, they had closed for the evening. Better luck next time.
    I've been surprised by the amount of Spanish surrounding me here. The tour was offered in Spanish as well, my roommates are Spanish, lots of people on the bus were Spanish. I don't know why it surprises me, but it does. I've gotten used to accented English, but hearing American accents still surprises me, as well.
   I have a semblance of a plan for the next few days. Let's do this thing.

Checkin' Dublin off the list

Oldest theatre in Europe 

Overheard conversation of the day:
A man walks by with his 8-10 year old son and says, "How can I owe you if I've paid for everything all day?" His son replies, "Touche." There is a pause.
"I still owe you, don't I?"
"Yeah."

Owned by Bono

Owned by Bono

Owned in part by Bono

"Probably"?

First off, Dwarf Jar? Secondly, why do you have a Dalek
hanging in your café? (Top left)

I found this sign interesting because of the font they're using.
It's one with which I am very familiar, because it's the Jane Austen
font. Interesting choice for a tattoo parlour.