Tag Archives: scotland

Glasgow, Fife, Scottish Borders, and The Highlands

(I promise, this is the last post about Scotland!)

We were lucky enough to experience a lot of different areas of Scotland in such a short amount of time, thanks to two excellent bus tours and quality public transportation. We spent the better part of one of our days in Edinburgh on a guided excursion to the Scottish Borders, south of Edinburgh towards the border of England. It’s some of the best Scottish countryside, green rolling hill after green rolling hill. We were on a Rabbies bus tour lead by our very enthusiastic guide Ewan, who told us all about famous Scots like William Wallace and Walter Scott along the way. We stopped and had lunch in a little town called Melrose, famous for its Abbey, and found some friendly sheep! We then drove through the Tweed Valley to a village called Roslin, whose chapel became famous in The Da Vinci Code. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but the detail of the carvings inside of the church was beautiful. It’s said to have links to Freemasonry, the Knights Templar, and the Holy Grail, but I don’t think anything has ever been proven. Although, there’s apparently a chamber below the main church that goes down at least as deep as the chapel is tall, but the family/trust doesn’t want it opened…

We also spent a day around the East Neuk of Fife, about two hours north of Edinburgh. I never really understood why Nova Scotia has its name–I would’ve thought a place called “New Scotland” would be filled with rolling green hills and lots of cows and sheep. I could definitely see if the part of Scotland they were referring to when naming it was Fife, because the whole region gave off an east coast fishing village feel. Our first stop was in St. Andrews, the biggest and most well known town of the region. It’s famous for its university and golf, and even though it was a chilly day it we had a great time walking along the beaches and (possibly trespassing on) St. Andrew’s golf course. We had heard about a fish place that we could not miss for lunch, so we hopped on a bus and headed 15 minutes down the coast to a town called Anstruther. The town was pretty dead (the amount of closed ice cream and souvenir shops indicated that it was more of a summer getaway than a February excursion), but Anstruther Fish Bar was packed (you can read more about it in my ‘What I Ate’ entry for Scotland).

Our last stop was Pittenweem, a cute town with an even cuter name, only a few minutes drive from Anstruther. All of the fishing villages are actually connected by the Fife Coastal Trail, and if I ever went back in the summer it would be amazing to rent a bike and ride to each one. Thankfully for us there’s also a hop-on-hop-off bus that was the better choice for winter. Most things were closed, but we walked along the docks and the coastline (which was much needed after our lunch) before catching the bus back to Edinburgh. I’d definitely love to come back in the summer and head to the beach, and see the puffins that make their summer homes along the coast.

After four days in Edinburgh, we hopped on a train and headed an hour west to Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city. I liked Glasgow, but it was too similar to London–there wasn’t much of an unique old town like in Edinburgh. We didn’t spend too much time in the city, however, because we spend a whole day on a trip up to the Scottish Highlands.

Glencoe

When I thought I saw Nessie

The highlands aren’t exactly close to Glasgow, but it was definitely possible to get a taste of them in one day. We departed from Glasgow, heading up Loch Lomond and making stops at viewpoints along the way. My favorite stop was Glencoe, a valley in the west with a tragic backstory but gorgeous views–it was even in Skyfall and some of the Harry Potter movies. I’d seen pictures of it in the summer, but it was stunning covered in snow as well. We finally reached Fort Augustus where we stopped for lunch, which sits on the end of Loch Ness, and took a lake cruise. I always thought the story about the Loch Ness monster was a bit farfetched, but the thing about the loch is that one, it’s extremely big (it’s almost 1,000 ft deep and holds more water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined), and two, the peat soil from the surrounding land turns the water black, making underwater visibility almost impossible. I won’t say I believe in Nessie, but I wouldn’t go swimming in the loch either. After our cruise we started our journey back through Inverness, admiring the beautiful countryside the whole way back (at least until the sun went down). Our tour guide was great, even blasting classic Scottish songs from Scotland the Brave to I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).

Heilan’ Coos

The next day was our last in Scotland, but we had the whole morning and afternoon before we had to head to the airport. Our only goal? Finding Heilan’ Coos. Highland Cows are almost like Texas Longhorns, but with a tuft of hair on their foreheads that makes it look like they have bangs. In short, they’re as cute as they are delicious. We had to see them up close, so we headed to Glasgow’s Pollok Park in the pouring rain, where they keep a small herd. It took a while, and we even ended up on a Downton Abbey-esque detour to the country manor Pollok House, but after trekking through the woods and mud, we found them. It was awesome (I’ll let the picture speak for themselves).

Scotland was absolutely amazing. I had always wanted to go, and might’ve even studied there had Penn State offered more programs. It’s definitely a place I want to go back to again–as much as I enjoyed the beautiful British February weather, something tells me that I might like it even more in July!

Until next time!

Location: Loch Ness, Scotland

All About Edinburgh

We managed to do so much in Scotland that I had to break it up over multiple blogs! We spent the most time in Edinburgh, so I think it deserved its own post. That being said, Edinburgh was absolutely stunning. It’s definitely one of my new favorite cities–I could’ve spent weeks there! We stayed near the Royal Mile, a stretch of the old town filled with bagpipes, kilts, and whiskey shops, capped on either end by Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The old town

In the Edinburgh vaults…

definitely has a dark vibe–the grey stone buildings, narrow alleys (known as closes), and almost constant cloudy skies alone contributes to that, but when you learn about the sinister history of the city (think grave robbers, underground crime cities, public torture and execution…) it’s even more chilling. I always thought ghost tours seemed cheesy and theatrical, but we took took one into a series of underground chambers called the Edinburgh vaults, and it was absolutely terrifying.

On top of Arthur’s Seat

The scary underground of Edinburgh was a must-see, but the hills around the city were even better. The best view of the old town has to be from Calton Hill, which takes less than ten minutes to reach the top of and is gorgeous at sunset. For the more adventurous there’s Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano overlooking Holyrood Palace–some legends even say it was the site of King Arthur’s Camelot. It took us a little under an hour to reach the official summit, which was quite snowy and rocky. On a clear day you can see for miles, out over the sea to the east of the city and even the beginnings of the Highlands to the north.

Victoria Street

The bathrooms at Elephant House Cafe

Edinburgh is also where J.K Rowling wrote a lot of the Harry Potter books, and all around the city you can see where she took inspiration. The Elephant House Cafe is a now-famed spot where she would sit and write, and if you ever go there to eat, it’s worth checking the bathrooms–they’re covered in Harry Potter graffiti. Not too far away (and right next to our hostel as it happened), Greyfriars Kirkyard cemetery has a McGonagall, a Moody, and even a Tom Riddell buried there (and was also home to a dog called Bobby, whose story is so adorable and sweet it’ll make you forget all about Edinburgh’s dark history–check it out!). Victoria Street was also said to be the inspiration for Diagon and Knockturn Alleys, and we went into an antique store that I would definitely believe was the inspiration for Borgin and Burkes.

My next post will be about the side trips we took to the Scottish Borders and the Kingdom of Fife! Stay tuned! 🙂

Location: edinburgh

What I Ate: Scotland Edition

While writing my previous blog about my trip to Scotland, I realized that if I was going to talk about all of the food I ate then it would’ve been a mile long, so I decided to dedicate an entire post to all of the delicious (and not so delicious) things I tried while up north:

Haggis:

Haggis balls featuring Irn Bru: basically Scotland in a nutshell

Probably the most infamous of British dishes, Haggis is the lovely Scottish delicacy that consists of minced sheep’s pluck (heart, lungs, and liver), oats, and spices. It’s unfortunate that I knew what it was when I went to take my first bite, because if I hadn’t I probably would’ve gone in for a second. We ordered it as an appetizer, so it came in little fried balls rather than in the traditional sheep’s stomach casing (which was fine by me)…and it was not terrible. I only took one bite, but at the fault of my brain and not my tastebuds. The spices were pretty tasty (they do make veggie haggis–I would try that sometime), but the texture was not especially appealing. An interesting experience, but not one I particularly want to have again.

Irn Bru:

Irn Bru earrings: in case there was any doubt of how much the Scots like this beverage

Scotland is one of the only places where Coke is not the best selling soda on the market, and it’s because of Irn Bru. A fizzy orange drink, it looks almost like Fanta, and some people say they just taste citrus when they drink it. In my opinion? It tastes like bubblegum and battery acid. It’s acidic but not in a citrus-y way and is so reminiscent of that Hubba Bubba bubble tape I used to eat in elementary school that I think it would make a way better candy than a drink. It was, however, oddly refreshing to just keep sipping–I finished my bottle.

Salmon:

Salmon

I’ve only been eating salmon for a few years, but this was by far the best I’ve ever had. Scotland is known for their salmon and I’ve just never had any that was so fresh. It was also a nice break from all the fried pub food I had been devouring!

Fish and chips!

Fish and Chips:

Fish and chips is definitely not just a Scottish thing, but the fish and chips I had there took over as THE BEST, in my opinion, fish and chips ever (a title previously held by The Codmother in San Francisco). It was in a little fishing village in the East Neuk of Fife called Anstruther, at a restaurant called Anstruther Fish Bar. The village is pretty much dead in the winter but this place was packed with locals on their lunch breaks. The fish was unreal. I’ve never had fish that was so good and fresh, and you could look out the window and see the fishing boats that brought it in. It’s about a two-hour bus ride from Edinburgh, but I believe that it’s worth making the trip for Anstruther Fish Bar alone.

Hot toddy:

Hot toddy

I’m not a huge whiskey drinker, but when in Scotland you can’t not have at least a dram. I became familiar with hot toddies at the pub down the street from my London flat, but unsurprisingly, they make them better in Scotland. A mix of hot tea, whiskey, lemon, honey, and spices, it’s the perfect winter warmer after being outside all day (and was much needed after a terrifying Edinburgh ghost tour we took)!

Brazilian Crepes:

Brazilian crepes in the making

It might seem about out of place, but when a bunch of locals told us about a food stand in Edinburgh that had the best crepes in the Scotland, we couldn’t just pass it up. Tupiniquim sells sweet and savoury Brazilian crepes, which are naturally gluten free because they have a tapioca base instead of traditional flour. We had just eaten lunch so we opted for a sweet sugar, cinnamon, and banana crepe that was out of this world. It was similar to a regular french crepe but lighter and a bit more sturdy, which made it excellent street food!

I also had an amazing dessert, but you can read about it in my post on Hot Chocolate! More about my adventures in Scotland coming soon!

Location: Edinburgh

Edinburgh & Paris weekend trips, plus everything in between!

For the 10am (I think) train, Amber and I arrived at King’s Cross railway station early and (un-)fortunate enough that we were standing on the wrong side of the information boards. As we were standing there waiting for the rest of our group, we spotted the infamous Platform 9 and � minus a huge queue! We took advantage of the opportunity to take photographs of ourselves with the trolley stuck in a thick brick wall.

To say that our train ride was interesting is an understatement. The group of 4 men who sat on the table seats adjacent to us were very entertaining. Not sure if that was intentional though. At first they were playing cards–SpongeBob cards. At one point, they all emerged from a restroom wearing funny masks and animal onesies and just sit there and enjoy the rest of the train ride!

It was first time I stayed at a hostel but it wasn’t as nasty as I expected it to be. The hostel provided clean bed linens but no towels. The cabinets and shower room floor were somewhat questionable but everything else was okay. I stayed for 2 nights with 3 other girls. It was actually fun to sleep on bunk beds! It made me think of the days when my sister and I used to sleep on our own bunk bed.

The place is called Budget Backpackers with a donkey logo. It is very conveniently located. All the major attractions, including many of the spooky tours, Arthur’s Seat, Camera Obscura and Edinburgh Castle were IN WALKING DISTANCE. We literally walked to ALL of these places (although we didn’t visit Camera Obscura).

We arrived on Friday evening and right after the check-in, Fatima, Amber and I walked around the area and ate late lunch/early dinner. Then we came back we all took a nap until around 6 by which time Randal arrived. We were supposed to go to a free pub crawl organized by the hostel staff but since we had time, we went to Ciao Roma, an Italian restaurant, for a nice frozen treat before going to pubs. I ended up going to only 2 pubs though, because I did not bring my passport with me to the trip as I did not plan to drink.

The next morning, we climbed to the top of Arthur’s Seat, the volcano near the hostel. That day we were blessed with sunshine and we had too much fun picture-taking and ended up not going to Gilmerton’s Cove which was about 15 minutes away from Edinburgh on a bus.

After the mountain climbing, I joined Team Goldsmiths for a hike up the stairs to the magnificent Edinburgh Castle while the girls I went mountain climbing with were passed out in the hostel room.

I enjoyed the Castle visit very much. While it may not be considered conventionally ‘fun’ to take a walk in a centuries-old castle, but I found it fascinating. I personally like historical sites in general, especially ancient buildings and ruins. I don’t know if my dad (who is an architect) has to do with my fondness with old buildings at all but those are the things we love to talk about.

Then at 6 we met up with the rest of CIEE gang for a group dinner. During dinner somebody mentioned going to a haunted tour. My “roommates” wanted to go so we (I was VERY reluctant) decided to join others for a spooky night out. Our first choice–allegedly the scariest of all–were all booked so we got tickets from another tour, the Mercat Hidden & Haunted Tour. The guide was pretty awesome, and the tour was, um, bearable. I’m usually not a haunted-anything person so I was relieved that it wasn’t too intense. But some people were disappointed that it wasn’t scary enough.

On the way back, Amber insisted on going to a nightclub and we complied. We had a few drinks and danced for a while. Then outside of the nightclub were a bunch of canopied tricycle taxis, just like the ones in Shanghai. But my Americanos found them very amusing and wanted to get on one even though our hostel was literally 2 seconds away. I initially backed out, thinking it was overpriced. In Shanghai, you could hop on them for a fraction of the cost you would be asked to pay in Edinburgh. I told the driver that for me that kind of vehicles are nothing new. But the driver said it would be the same price for the two people as three. I hopped on. The ride was brief but the driver indeed did his best to impress me.

On Sunday we left Scotland for London at noon. I slept better on the train back. It was a lot of walking in just 2 days so I wasn’t surprised.

As much as I’d like to transition smoothly into my Paris trip but I thought it would be better to bring us back to the night before I left and the days that followed my Edinburgh trip leading up to Paris briefly.

As I said a few paragraphs ago, I did not take my passport with me to Edinburgh. I tucked it away in the safe in my dorm room along with my laptop.

When I returned on Sunday, the safe refused to open. I swear I never changed my pass code but it kept telling me I was using the wrong code. I complained at the housing office and they said they’d look for the key.

The next day, I went to the office again. They told me they were still looking for the key.

Tuesday they promised they’d check up on my safe regardless around 5 in the afternoon. No one came.

Wednesday I told them I needed my passport back immediately for my upcoming Paris trip.

Thursday the dorm staff filed a formal complaints on my behalf.

Thursday aka. the day I was scheduled to leave London, the handymen from the company which manufactured my safe came in the morning. They were able to open the safe after 15+ minutes.

I took a bus to Paris from Victoria Coach Station. The coach station was a few minutes walk from Victoria tube station. I wasn’t aware of this until I asked someone who was working in the tube station kiosk.

There are screens in the entrance of the coach station on which I’d find my itinerary and I would just go to the designated gate and look for a check-in desk for my bus carrier (I took Euroline which was the cheapest option I could find). The whole procedure was similar to checking in for a plane flight minus tossing the luggage part but the station itself was more chaotic.

The bus driver stopped a few times for bathroom breaks, immigration inspection and a ferry ride. The passengers and the bus would hop on the same ferry but on different floors.

And as soon as the ferry is done crossing the Channel, the passengers get back on the original bus and continue on their journey.

I arrived in Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport on Friday morning at 7:20. My Penn State friend Victoria came to pick me up. We rode a train to her dorm which was in suburbs of Paris.

We caught up on each other’s stories since Winter Break and then I took a nap in her room while Victoria left for her morning classes.

Around 11am, Victoria’s neighbor barged into the room where the sink is (two rooms share one shower room and the shower is located in between the rooms, so her neighbors come in from the shower-room door quite often). His voice woke me up and I got up and checked in on what has happened and he assured me he wasn’t aware I was there and that his name is Felix who lives a few doors down. Felix kindly invited me to dine with “the rest of the boys” to which I politely declined because I was supposed to have lunch with Victoria. But I did come out to say hi to my friend’s fellow residents, who happen to be all male.

After Victoria came back, she took me to the cafeteria which “does not open that often.” Diners could choose one side, one entree and up to two desserts but I was already full with one dessert.

Then we got back and took a walk in a park with Felix and his friend Chris who is visiting from Germany. We went back when it started raining and went back out for a nice dinner later.

On Saturday morning, Victoria, Felix, Chris and I took a train to Paris and visited Notre Dame de Paris. I really liked how intricately it was built. It was quite overwhelming to think of how much energy, calculation and planning had gone into every single detail to make this exquisite building a reality. And needless to say the engineers back in the days didn’t have cranes to lift those stones up!

But Victoria and I ran into walls on another church. Turns out pretty much any tourist attraction in Paris requires visitors to show their passports in order to earn eligibility to enter (a passport alone does not guarantee free entry).

Bummed, Victoria and I went separate ways from the boys. We went to a crepe place to have our breakfast! But I think it was one of the best decisions we’ve made. We ate our crispy crepes right by the Seine. It was surprisingly peaceful down the bridge despite being so close to busy streets.

We walked around for a while afterwards before popping into an Indian restaurant called Safran for lunch. We both had the same 3-course meal which consisted of tomato-based chicken curry which I really adored! The wait staff gave each of us a packet of free bindis after the meal and one of them blurted out “Arigato!” to which we giggled (I’m technically Japanese on the paperwork but I’d identify more with being Shanghainese/Chinese, and Victoria is Chinese American). The bindis were such a pleasant surprise though. I’m looking forward to sporting them in my future performances with the Penn State Belly Dance Club 🙂

Then Victoria and I went to Sacre Coeur. The white of the basilica against the azure sky was truly marvelous. Outside of Sacre Coeur were tourist “bracelet” scams, marathon runners and portrait/caricature artists.

As the sky was darkening, we took the metro to Tour Eiffel and on the way to the iconic tower, we stumbled upon the Japanese Cultural Centre in Paris (Maison de la culture du Japon a Paris). There was a special exhibition documenting the 2011 earthquake, its aftermath and journey to recovery. It was actually funny that all of the sudden our positions are reversed in which I was the one who could understand what was going on while Victoria became clueless in the middle of Paris.

Somehow on the way from Sacre Coeur and Tour Eiffel, Victoria’s favorite circle scarf went missing and we could not find it. So we turned to Champs Elysees for a scarf hunting. Plus it was right on the way to Arc de Triumphe.

We tried unsuccessfully to go to the rooftop terrace at Gallery Lafayette to see the beautiful city lights but the store’s shutters went down as we were about to cross the street. We gave up and waited for Magnus, a friend of Victoria’s, for dinner and call it a day.

On my last day, we went to Musee du Louvre. The place was HUGE but I’m happy I got to see Mona Lisa, Nike of Samothrace, Venus de Milo and the Code of Hammurabi in person. Bear with me, but for a history/archaeology/museum junkie like me, it is such a powerful experience to go and see the actual things that you read in books standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.

Overall it was a very productive weekend in Paris! I feel so accomplished in squeezing so many landmarks in 3 days 🙂 Many many thanks to Victoria and friends who showed me around 😀

Pictures to follow soon! Promise!!!!

Location: London, UK

Paris and Scotland

Sorry for not having blogged in a while, but I have been non-stop traveling, plus school work is finally beginning to build up! I’ll start at the beginning… Since the last blog I have had the incredible opportunity of traveling to Paris with a group of friends. We planned our trip before the national security warned Americans in Europe not to travel to large tourist cities, but we took the risk and had an absolutely wonderful time!

We arrived in Paris on the EuroStar – a train that actually travels under the English Channel! It was very exciting, and a new and different way to get around! We got to the hotel and immediately went to sleep, preparing ourselves for the next day. We got a chance to see the Eiffel Tower (I didn’t go up, though, seeing as this was my 9th trip to Paris), the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, and Notre Dame. In the evening, we went up to Sacre Coeur, the church on the very top of Paris, to watch the sunset. We were also lucky to experience an international food festival that was going on. That night was rather exciting, to say the least. After dinner, we all wanted to go experience the eiffel tower at night, so we made our way to the gorgeous structure. Our luck seemed to be better than ever, and we arrived right on the hour to see the tower sparkle. We met some people from all over the world and had a great night sitting by the tower watching the lights and soaking in the city. On the way back to the hotel, however, our luck began to change. As we were walking, a young man was coming in the opposite direction and began yelling very vulgar things at my friends and myself. Being fluent in french, I understood what he was saying, and was very disheartened at the offensive language he was using. He was also scaring my friends, so being the confident and somewhat confrontational person that I am, I asked him to please leave us alone and stop being so rude. Now here was my mistake – I should have just ignored him and let him get it out of his system. Before I could react, he had wound up his fist and punched me on the right side of my face. Shocked, I began to feel a sense of rage crawl over my entire body, and he seemingly knocked the common sense out of me. I was angry and in pain, and I wanted revenge. Thank God my friends pulled me away from this scene because we were absolutely floored to find out that this man was the member of a rather violent French gang, and that he was most likely on his way to get his friends and come back. Needless to say, we ran to the nearest cab driver and went home. Now, if you are reading this and getting worried, don’t. I actually think I took the punch like a champ, and from now on would like to be referred to as Rocky Balboa, or simply Rocky would do. After this night, however, I will never again confront any stranger for any rude thing they may say. We continued our adventure by traveling up to the northern coast of France and taking a ferry across the not-so-still channel back home. The Paris trip (minus the punch in the face) was a wonderful success and I gleamed at the opportunity to speak French for an entire weekend!

The very next day, my parents arrived in London! My dad had a scheduled meeting in the city, so my mom tagged along. On Thursday, they rented a car and drove down my way to visit me and my friends and host family. That day, they took all my friends and I out to a pub called Fox’s for lunch, and then treated my host family to a lovely Tapas style dinner before the 3 of us left for Gatwick Airport. We travelled up to Edinburgh, Scotland for the weekend to spend time together and just relax. We ended up having an absolutely amazing time. We got to see the castle in Edinburgh, the old and new sides of town, and there was a Starbucks on every street corner. Needless to say, I was in heaven! I also had a very lucky encounter: I found out that two of my good friends from my international school in Lausanne, Switzerland, both atten the University of Edinburgh, and I had a chance to meet up with them and catch up. We all went over to my friend Henri’s house and listened to music and reminisced. Henri had also finally achieved his lifelong dream of owning his own, personal bouncy castle, so naturally we spent most of the night sitting in the bouncy castle. Overall, the past two weeks, though hectic, have created some amazing memories and I loved the chance to show my family the lifestyle I’ve acquired whilst living overseas! I look forward to my next post when I can actually put up some pictures – however at the moment I am having some technical difficulties loading the pictures onto my computer! So look out for a post within the next day or two with photos from both the Paris and Scotland trips!

Also to look forward to: Thursday begins our half term break and a group of us will be traveling around Ireland and the highlands of Scotland – we have rented a car and it should be quite an exciting trip! Until next time, peace, love and trips galore!

Location: Bognor Regis, United Kingdom

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