Scotland

Leaving the Castle

Ah Fall

After Finding my friend in the Elephant House!

Cookie from the Elephant House!

At the Scotch Whiskey tasting

Edinburgh

Trying Haggis

Streets of Glasgow

On our way to Glasgow

Edinburgh

Great park!

Cemetery and Fall Leaves

St Giles Cathedral

So the only reason I was not depressed leaving Dublin was because I knew that I would be back in Scotland in only 4 short days! We left after our class in Florence was finished and hoped on the train to Pisa. From there we got to the airport, had a snack and waited for our flight. I decided that I really love flying out on Thursday nights and leaving on Sunday mornings because A. I get more sleep and B. it was a lot less stressful.

The flight there was so beautiful flying over the snow covered alps while the sun was setting. When we finally landed it was dark but still an hour earlier than Italy because we were in the UK. We got off, went to the ATM to get out pounds and hoped on the bus to the city center... the only problem was, not all of us made it onto the bus! We turned around and the rude bus driver had not let Bevy on saying that it was full and she could take the next one. I was really upset because there were PLENTY of seats, and the guy was just being rude! So we yelled at Bevy to get on the next one, but we didn't know where we were going so we couldn't tell her where to meet us and her cell was dead!

Luckily we found out there was WIFI on the bus so we were able to Facebook her and she was able to check it and find out where we got off. But we weren't sure if she had received the message, so when we got to Princes Street I jumped on the bus that came after ours and asked if I could look for her, and the driver said no! I was pretty unhappy at that point so I just yelled for Bevy and it turned out she was only a few seats back so she got off happily. Needless to say, do NOT take the airbus from Edinburgh to the city center!

We went to the apartment we had rented next and it was probably twice as big as the one in Dublin! Huge fluffy couches, big screen tv, big kitchen and three bedrooms and it was only a little more expensive than staying at a hostel. We met David's friends who study at Aberdeen who were very cool and they took us out to show us the night life.

It was FREEZING but so pretty that you had to get over it. We went to some pubs and saw lots of locals in Halloween costumes and tried the local beer, Tennent's, and then returned back to our awesome apartment.

The next morning we woke up, went to the cutest little stand in the park to get coffee, and then went to the train station to go to Glasgow. We bought our tickets, got a bagel (which I was happy about because they don't have them in Italy) and then hurried to get on a train.

About five minutes out the ticket lady came by and took our tickets, then told us that we were on the wrong train going the opposite direction! Whoops! So we had to hop off at the next station and get back to Edinburgh, luckily the next train back came quickly and that ticket lady had a good laugh about or situation.

When we got on the correct train, we headed out to Glasgow and passed all of the beautiful Scottish countryside. But as we approached the actual town it started to rain :-(. We really had to idea what to do in Glasgow either so we started wandering until we found one of their famous squares, but it was not even close to how pretty Edinburgh was. We looked in some shops, stopped and had haggis and appetizers for lunch, which was not all that bad, just a little bland, and sat in a big red pub watching it rain and laughing when we realized we were A. the only girls in the pub and B. the only people under 30!

We headed back to Edinburgh a little sad that Glasgow hadn't been as great as we had hoped, but were cheered up quickly when we returned to our fluffy beds and american television. When David and his friends returned we went to dinner at a little chinese restaurant and then went to a pub close to our apartment where they were playing live music which was so fun! We found seats and watched him perform all sorts of great oldies and had a pint of Tennents. In front of us there ended up being a guy from Texas talking to a Scottish guy who eventually turned towards us and we all chatted for awhile about how funny it is that we run into people from all over.

The next day was my favorite because we got to explore all of Edinburgh. We woke up early and headed out towards the castle, eating breakfast at a cute little place called the Deacon and it had a little story behind it where this Deacon made chests for people and got keys to their houses robbing them at night. Eventually he got caught and was hung on the gallows which he had actually designed for the city the year before. ... ok Maybe it wasn't that cute, but it was still kinda cool.

Next we went and checked out the castle but decided not to go in because it was very expensive and the line was really long. Instead we went to a whisky distillery for a tour which was so worth it even though I hate scotch! The tour started with a little ride that described the whole process and I sort of felt like I was at Disneyland. Then we had a presentation where we learned about all of the different areas that produce Scotch and got to try them and smell the differences, for me none of them tasted different because I couldn't handle the taste anyways, but it was interesting to smell the different flavors. Then we got to see the largest whiskey collection in the world and finish our tasting in a great location over the whole city.

After our tasting we found the coffee shop where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter, the Elephant House, so we obviously had to stop in and get an elephant cookie and hot chocolate! While sitting and talking who should turn around and say "Holly?!" but my great friend Lauren Weaver who has been studying in Bordeaux this year. I could not believe it! We ran to each other and laughed for about 20 minutes about how crazy it was that neither of us knew that we were going to Scotland and yet here we were in the same coffee shop... we both must obviously love Harry Potter!

We made plans to meet up that night and then headed out to keep exploring. We literally just walked all over the city seeing the beautiful parks, the schools, cathedrals and everything! It is honestly the most beautiful city I've ever been to because everything looks lovely and it is not like Italy where you find graffiti all over the place. Also the fact that it was fall and the leaves where changing made everything that much better.

The school that inspired JK Rowling for Hogwarts was on the way home so Alison found a Harry Potter book, bought it and took a picture in front of it. That was a great moment of the trip.

That was the day before Halloween so I went out and bought a kilt and matching hat to wear that evening because it just felt appropriate. I met up with Lauren and we went to dinner to catch up then met up with the rest of my group to go out to one of the Halloween parties. We went to a place called the Three Sisters which was celebrating and while walking around who did we run into but another OU student abroad and friend of mine Nathan Crain! This was just too weird!! Two friends in one day in one city when I had no idea they were even there. That was just too funny.

The next day we had to take a train down to Newcastle to fly back to Italy and that was yet another gorgeous ride with scenery like something out of a movie.

In Newcastle it was around 10am but Alison's favorite beer is NewCastle so she obviously had to have one at the airport, that was pretty funny as well. That was a long day of travel and made me relieved that I will actually be staying in Italy for the next weekend!

Dublin for my Birthday!

Birthday set up!

Trinity College Library!

Trinity College

Christchurch

So Pretty!

Cliffs of Howth

How I picture Ireland!

A bit windy!

Guiness Factory

At the top level

Inside the factory

Hiking the Cliffs... in heels!

So pretty!

Before I had even left the states to study abroad I knew that I wanted to spend my 21st birthday in Ireland for a few reasons, 1. because I'd never been and it was the top of the list of places I wanted to go, 2. because it actually matters at some of the bars in the Temple Bar section whether or not you are 21 so I might actually get carded, and 3. my family is Irish which has made me familiar with the country since I was little and had a soft spot for it!

We woke up early on Friday and took a plane from Pisa to Dublin and arrived at 8:40am. Instead of staying in a hostel, I found an apartment for the 5 of us to stay in which was so much nicer and more fun for my birthday and also my roommate Alison, whose birthday was the day before mine.

The first thing we did after checking in was visit the Guiness Factory which was down the street. Like I said in my Munich post, I'm not exactly a big beer fan, let alone Guiness the darkest beer out there! But it was not bad and for the experience you obviously have to have one. The tour was huge and showed how it was made, the history, how to pour a proper pint, and then a great rooftop bar overlooking all of Dublin. We had fun sitting around up there and got some great advice from the workers there on where to eat and what to do. They told us that the best fish and chips in all of Dublin were right down the street from our apartment and also to go visit a small fishing village outside Dublin called Howth if we wanted to experience the real Dublin like people picture.

Next we got some food and did a little wandering around the Christchurch area and Trinity College. After, since we'd had a long day of travel, we just sat in our apartment appreciating couches (we don't have any in our apartment at home) and american television... in english! Watching friends and drinking Dr. Pepper may have been one of the biggest highlights of the weekend....

That night we went down to Grafton Street which I had heard is supposed to be the big pub scene with typical irish people but I was sorely disappointed. Most of the "typical pubs" turned out to be clubs and they were full of lots of old people.... who weren't even Irish!! We had fun anyways and I did find a nice Irish couple that Alison and I were able to chat with for awhile that was fun, but we decided we needed a new location the next evening for our birthday celebration.

In the morning Alison and I went to get breakfast and found bagels! Something I had not even realized I missed. They were delicious and we sat drinking hot chocolate for awhile deciding what to do with our day. This was actually Alison's birthday so we had to make it special. We headed back to the hotel, got ready and then headed out to the bus station to go to Howth. Along the way we were not sure where we were so we stopped and chatted with a sweet little Irish lady who gave us even more great information about the best ways to get there, where to go when we got there and even told us some cute stories. The irish hospitality was really unbelievable, the next day we had 2 different people give up their places in a starbucks so that the 5 of us could sit together!

We drove along the coast on a double decker bus out to Howth and got out at the port. We walked along the water and what did we see but several sea lions! They were playing and looking at the people on the dock. They were so cute! We walked to the end and took some pictures and then it was lunch time. We went into this little restaurant called the Oar House not expecting much because it didn't look to crowded or fancy, but on the inside it was so cute and full of people! It worked out perfectly because apparently you need reservations to eat there, but they just so happened to have one 4 person table left just for us!

I ate the more fresh and delicious salmon for lunch as well as oysters with Alison. AND! The water was even free, with ice, and free refills! This is a big deal in Europe! After finishing one of the best lunches I've ever eaten we went to the tourist office and got a map of hiking the cliffs.

I didn't exactly realize we were going to be hiking on scary tiny paths along steep cliffs that day, so I was wearing my heeled boots that are several inches high. It was a bit scary, and not the most comfortable, but you sort of forget about pains and scaredness when you turn around and see beautiful cliffs, hills, old walls, and green just all around you. It was truly breathtaking and something I'll never forget. It was also a very long hike and we needed to meet up with our fifth friend that came with us so we had to book it for the last kilometer or so which was a little on the scary side!

We got to the end of the trail, found the bus and just collapsed on the way back because we were so mentally and physically exhausted. We started chatting and laughing about the silliest things and being the one thing I seriously try to avoid being.... loud americans, but sometimes it is unavoidable when something is funny enough! I had been laughing till I cried about silly little comments Bevy had been making about a "swamp" that was outside the window and eventually everyone joined in. Taylor said she heard an irish man behind us say, do you think they're drunk? By george it's only 2pm! Obviously we were deliriously tired so we got back and took a long break before going to dinner.

For dinner we got chinese food which was the first I've had since leaving the US and it was pretty good! We had a good time talking about our days adventures and Alison's birthday, then we went home and got changed to go out and celebrate my 21st and Alison's 22nd. My mom had sent me a large Happy Birthday banner, a black and gold boa and an obnoxiously huge crown to wear on my birthday, so I pulled them all out, hung up the banner, put on my outfit and headed to temple bar.

We first went to the actual Temple Bar and it was packed! We had fun just pushing through to the bar, getting a beer and then finding a place to stand. As we passed we met a lot of people from all over the world. Obviously when you're wearing a huge crown that says 21 on it people notice and start conversation so that was fun and interesting!

As it got closer to midnight we moved to a different pub with a live band and I had my first official drink of my 21st birthday which was a beer.... who could believe it?! The band played lots of songs we knew and we had a lot of fun watching them and chatting until the place closed at 2 and we went to sleep.

On our last day, and my birthday, we had to wait till 12 to get any of the things we wanted done because it was Sunday and nothing was open! First we had the best fish and chips of all time, they were sooo greasy but amazingly good! Then we toured Christchurch which I loved! I had been getting a little sick of the Italian churches lately. Finally we went to Trinity College where I was able to go to the Library and see the Book of Kells!! This was a big deal for me since I did so much research on illuminated manuscript last semester so I spent probably a solid 20 minutes just staring at the pages they had open. The ticket also let us into the library above which was seriously the most beautiful library I've ever seen!

We still had a few hours left so we went to Starbucks and then I bought the book Pillars of the Earth because I have been talking to my dad about reading it for some time now and with all of the focus on cathedrals now. After the past 2 weeks of traveling I am through 740 of the 1100 pages if that tells you how much time we spend on the road!

Leaving Dublin was depressing because it is just never enough time but I was comforted by the fact that I would spend the next weekend in Scotland which should be equally beautiful!

Barcelona!

In front of Sagrada Famiglia, or the Gaudi Church

Out with Kara!

Finally found some Dr Pepper!

Park Guell

Some of the Gaudi Benchs

In front of the Gaudi Buildings

They look like gingerbread houses!

With our great host Jacqueline!

Most of the group from the weekend

Barcelona!

The Beach

With the artist of the piece I bought!

At the textiles museums, a 3D version of what certain types of music sound like

Outside the Picasso Museum

First Spanish Sangria

In one of the pretty piazzas

Mini bananas!

Outside a great food market!

First outing with the girls!

Last weekend in Barcelona was so fun because we had a huge group there! Kara's best friend from home is studying abroad there so we spent the weekend with her and her 4 roommates who also had several guests so it was a packed house!

Kara and I left Thursday night and got into Barcelona around 11:30pm. We stayed up chatting and getting to know her roomies then went to bed so that we could wake up and see most of the city the next morning. When we got up we first headed to the main square of town where the main shops and road are. We walked along looking at crazy street performers, tents selling cute little bunnies, chicks, and ducks, and then stopping at the coolest food market I've ever seen. It had all sorts of exotic fruits, veggies, baked goods from around the world, fresh seafood, and lots of other great stuff. We walked around the whole thing sampling different kinds of fruits and exploring all of the different stands.

Next we walked to the gothic district where there were a lot of artists tents set up along the road and I decided to buy a piece from one of them that was really interesting and reminded me of Barcelona. It was a picture, framed in a wide frame of a Gaudi building with the windows cut and pushed back to make it look 3D, it's a little hard to explain, but I'd never seen anything like it so I really wanted one!

Next we wandered and saw some local sites before stopping at a delicious tapas restaurant where we ate friend camembert, chicken, mushrooms, mussels, and the most amazing lemon sorbet with sage. We also obviously had to try our first Spanish sangria which was also very good. At this point I was very content with my trip to Barcelona and was surprised by the food because everyone always says that Spanish food isn't very good!

After lunch we headed to the Picasso museum, which was interesting, but I'm not too into modern art so I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have something else. But the fact that the museum was opened within his lifetime and he got to see it was pretty cool to me.

Next we went to one of the coolest museums I've ever seen! I'm not sure of the name but it was all about manufacturing textiles and all of the exhibits were mind-blowing! It only cost us 3 euro to get in and they gave us the fanciest digital guides I've ever seen which explained each piece and how it was made. They had so many things I never would have even thought possible! There was a chair and lamp constructed from some sort of digital pen that draws in thin air and is transcribed into a 3D printer. There were also little balls that showed the different kinds of sounds that music makes in 3D form, shoes that were scanned from peoples feet to fit them perfectly, 3D ultrasounds, and so many other cool things! I was in awe.

At this point we met up with Jacqueline's roommate Alicia and went to get a delicious mojito and then I found a store that sold Dr. Pepper! You can imagine my excitement so I obviously had to buy 3 of them.

After my great find we walked down the port down to the beach and watched some surfers for awhile. It was a little cloudy and cold to go in the water, but it was fun to see the beach since we're landlocked in Arezzo. Then we got some chinese food and headed back to prepare for the evening because the night doesn't start till 12 or 1am in Barcelona.

Going out in Barcelona was so fun but there is no way I could live there! People stay out till 6 or 7 in the morning and then sleep till 2 or 3 in the afternoon. It was not my lifestyle but was fun to experience once!

Needless to say we got a late start the next day. We headed over to Park Guell where Gaudi did all of the construction and looks out over all of Barcelona. It was really pretty and quite a hike to the top. There were all sorts of artists and musicians playing and there was this one instrument that I'm not sure the name but looked like a big turtle shell and I made the most gorgeous sounds!

After this we got a little lost and just wandered the city for about an hour in the general direction of Jacqueline's apartment till we found the antique district with lots of cute shops and places to eat. Again I found Dr Pepper AND nerds! Another great find, then we looked through the shops and went to eat at a Lebanese restaurant. The place had great tea and delicious food so again I was very happy with it even though this wasn't technically Spanish food.

That evening we went back to the Gothic district where all of the locals go and danced at a local club called Magic where all they played was literally music from the 50's, 60's and 70's in America! So funny, we had a great time dancing around to music that they would never play today in the States.

On our last day we went down the fancy shopping area and looked at the different buildings, then we went to the Barcelona cathedral and the main street but this time it was really empty because it was a holiday so it was weird to see it that way! Eventually after walking half the city we found our other friends and ate some more delicious tapas (best fried artichokes I've ever had!) then we got some sweets and Kara found Horchata (some non-alcoholic dessert drink that she really wanted to get ever since she heard we were going to Spain) then we went to the biggest American pub I have ever seen and I legitimately felt like I was back in Norman because every single person there was American (probably around 2-300) and they were playing all of the football games on huge screens around the different levels of the bar with people singing karaoke on the first floor. It was really fun to feel at home again, but Kara and I had to be on a 5:45 bus to the airport so we headed back to get a little bit of sleep before we left!

Barcelona was so fun but it also made me appreciate my small town of Arezzo where things aren't so big and crazy and cheaper also!

Munich/Oktoberfest

Beer and Coffee at 9am

Some people get a little TOO into it....

Glockenspiel!

Hoffbrauhaus!

In front of one of the bigger tents!

My dirndl +rainboots!

Kate braided my hair

Our first German bratwurst!

The Locals Tent

Insanely huge pretzel!

Turning to Fall! In my almost traditional wear (minus the rain gear!)

At the Entrance!

Outside the Gingerbread House!

The Three of Us in the Gingerbread house!

The band above the bar!

Amazing "tent" which is really a building they construct for only 3 weeks and tear down!

In the Lauenbrau tent with my Lauenbrau beer!

My general sentiments about the beer...

The food was like the fair! (Minus the crazy fried foods in Dallas!)

So Oktoberfest was easily one of the coolest things I've ever been to in my whole life!

It started Thursday night when Kara, Kate and I had to take the train to Pisa and stay the night there to catch our 7:30am flight to Memmingen, which is 2 hours by train away from Munich. Since you can only carry on one bag, it's a bit difficult to fit a lot of things, so I went ahead and wore my dirndl (traditional dress) on the plane and basically never took it off the whole weekend! The flight from Pisa to Memmingen was just one hour and it was our first experience with RyanAir. We were a bit nervous because the flights are so cheap that we weren't sure what to expect. But it turned out to be a great experience which I am happy to do again when I travel to all of the rest of my destinations!

When we arrived in Memmingen we found a taxi to the train station and made friends with 2 other American travelers (the plane was all American students studying abroad!). We had 30 minutes till our train so we all got sandwiches and our first beer of the weekend at 9AM! Not exactly my idea of a delicious breakfast, but for this weekend it had to be done!

Bavaria has a pass where it's only 28 Euro all day to travel by any means for 2-5 people, so my friends and I split it with these other 2 girls and it made it very inexpensive to get into Munich! One of the best parts was getting on the train and at every stop seeing all of the locals get on in their lederhosen and dirndls! There was hardly anywhere to sit, so one group of guys just camped out in the passageways placing their cartons of beer between the doors so they could still chat with each other, I found that rather funny and clever!

When we got to Munich we walked to our hotel, noticing the difference in the air there and in Italy, it just seemed fresher and with less cigarette smoke, which we appreciated. Then we checked in, did a quick refresher and headed out to the city center to show Kara and Kate around before we went to Oktoberfest since they had never been there before. We went to the Glockenspiel, Hoffbrauhaus, Cathedral, and wandered around the streets for several hours getting fruit and snacks along the way.

When we were too tired to keep going we took a taxi back to the hotel and took showers to get ready for our night at Oktoberfest. Most people will tell you that you can't get into any of the tents without reservations past midday, but that proved to not be true for us!

We followed the crowd, in the rain, to the festivities and had a bratwurst at one of the stands. We asked a group of guys around us to take our picture and we started laughing when after they took our picture they came back a few seconds later with little roses for us, that was sweet but also awkward while we were trying to eat a very unattractive food!

Next we set our sights on getting into one of the tents and decided on a side entrance to one of the bigger tents that had some servers on break outside. We went and chatted them up, saying we were from Texas and we were only there for the weekend. After a minute or two one of them went and talked to the guards, got us in, brought us beers and put us at a table with a bunch of his friends! It could not have worked out more perfectly! We had a lot of fun standing on the benches watching all of the local Germans do their beer chants and what not. We also bought on of the biggest pretzels I've ever seen and got to know the people around us. Kara met some Americans sitting behind us, one of which worked for some company that has to do with her major and talked to her about jobs for a long time which was awesome! Kate and I talked to our new German friends about Oktoberfest and all sorts of funny things.

When we left Kara somehow snuck out her beer mug, only to have it taken away when we tried to find a cab though, so that was her goal for the next day!

By the time the tents closed (around 11pm) we were all so exhausted that all we wanted to do was sleep. We could never find a cab so we just walked back to the hotel and fell asleep with the intent of waking up very early to get back into a tent the next day.

Well... that did not happen considering how tired we were, so we didn't wake up till around 9:30, get ready, go and eat one of the most delicious pastries I've ever had in my life! They pulled out hot chocolate croissants when Kara went to go get sugar for her coffee and she literally stopped dead in her tracks saying.... are those hot?.... can I have one? almost stuttering from her excitement. It was the best one I've ever had by far and was a great start to our day even though it was starting later than we would have liked.

Next Kara went to meet her friend at the Hoffbrauhaus tent while Kate and I went to buy our train tickets back to Memmingen for that night because I booked a hotel there that night so that we could wake up and not have to worry about getting back to the airport. Then we went to meet Kara with her friend Jacqueline who we are going to stay with in Barcelona next weekend! We tried to get into the Hoffbrauhaus with her, but they were pulling people out and arresting them during that time so we didn't think that it was probably our best option for the day.

So we stopped for some coffee, and decided to look for a small tent. There was a little (in comparison to the others) gingerbread house behind us so we went up to the reserved entrance and asked where to get in, he told us there was no beer in there and we said that was ok, and so he just went ahead and let us in! Easy peasy!

Inside was the cutest thing you've ever seen, tons of little sweets hanging from the ceilings and a band was playing on top of the bar with people standing in their seats dancing around. They even had little crowns for everyone to wear. We walked around, met a few people, had a drink danced to the band and then decided it was time to move back to a more traditional beer tent.

Across the street was Lauenbrau so we went to one of the guards there and chatted him up, asking where the entrance was, what to do if we didn't have reservations, and when we could tell he was thinking about letting us in, we pulled out one of Kate's CD's and told him that it was her and shes very famous in the states and she would sign it for him if he let us in. He didn't believe us at first so he made Kate sing for him, then he said Ok go on in! So thanks to Kate we got into our third tent of the weekend easily!

We walked around to find a table (you don't get served unless you're at a table) and being three girls it's pretty easy to find a table with a few spaces and guys that are willing to let you stand there to get a beer. So we stood with one group for a little bit, got our beers chatted with them about where they were from, and then moved on. We met some Americans from Alabama, some German girls who were sweet and let us sit and eat a little bit with them, then we bought another pretzel, met some italians, more germans, more americans, more germans, stood on the benches and participated in the songs as much as we could (some were even american!) then it was getting late enough that we needed to catch our train back to Memmingen. We said bye to all of our new friends and then Kara was able to smuggle out her mug like she had wanted from the beginning.

We got on our train to Memmingen, fell asleep, woke up, found a taxi that took us to the quaintest little hotel! That was when we were sad we didn't have an extra day to explore the little town of Memmingen before heading back to Pisa, something for the future maybe!

The next morning we got to the airport, found our friends we made from the first plane ride, exchanged stories and went home. It felt good to come back to Arezzo and it really does feel like home now!