I Woke Up in a Car

After Ireland, we flew to Scotland and I showed my parents and sister around Edinburgh for a day and went to the castle again. The next day, we drove to Inverness, stopping at Cawdor Castle along the way. After Inverness, we drove through the Highlands, stopping at Loch Ness and Eileen Donan castle before crossing over to the Isle of Skye. I had travelled a similar route on my Highlands tour but I saw a lot that I didn’t see last time and also didn’t see stuff I did see last time so it was good I did both. As I explained last time I want to the Highlands, there is breathtaking landscape of towering mountains, often over lakes or the ocean. Waterfalls can be spotted throughout the Highlands, even as you drive along the road. ... read more

This will be my last entry before I leave for my two-week Ireland/Scotland trip before returning home on June 11th. Last Friday, I went on a Literary Pub Tour. The tour consisted of two actor/tour guides arguing back and forth over what Edinburgh's literary world had been about: Enlightenment/academia vs saloons, drinking, sex and the life of the common man. In the end, it was decided that it was both. Honestly, I was a little disappointed by this tour. It didn't tell me anything I hadn't already gathered by living here these past few months. For tourists who are having a short visit, it's a good idea but it really didn't go too much in depth with information. This past Friday, after I finished my last test (!), I went to the People's Museum which displays ... read more

Last week, I hiked Arthur’s Seat as well as various other hill/rock formation things in Holyrood Park which begins at the foot of the palace. The rock formation on Arthur’s Seat is from the same volcano as the one the castle sits on. From the top of the hill and from the other hills I climbed, you can see a panoramic view of the city and a bit of the ocean. I say hill, but they are each pretty steep and large. Arthur’s Seat takes around 45 minutes to climb. The park was nice because you are surrounded by hilly greenery and flowers. It is sort of like the Highlands of Edinburgh (a very small version of the Highlands). Last weekend, there was a Celidh street festival. It was under a tent with Celtic and Scotland ... read more

On our way to Berlin, we stopped at the old Saxony capital of Dresden for lunch. Dresden was greatly impacted by the WWII bombing...Uh, there's not much to say about it besides old. So yeah, moving right along... Dan gave us a driving tour of Berlin. We saw the Soviet memorial, the Holocaust memorial, the Reichstag, the Bradensburg gate, and of course the Berlin Wall and more. We saw the mural part of the wall as well as the part that is less well-perserved and gives you an idea of what it looked like way back when. There are holes in it as a result of people chipping away at it when it was announced that it would come down. For the sake of preservation, a wired gate was put around it to prevent people from ... read more

Salzburg was the low part of my journey. After over a week of long days and being sleep deprived, I was starting to feel sick. On the way to Salzburg, I was trying hard to not throw up. Originally, I was going to do the optional driving Sound of Music tour (Salzburg was the setting for the movie) but I had to cancel since the bus on the way over was adding to my nausea due to motion sickness and continuing on a bus for the rest of the day didn't sound appealing. In the end, it was a good thing I canceled because the ones who went on the tour had a horrible time because the guide was awful so I ended up saving money and time by not going. I felt okay enough to ... read more