They'll never take my freedom!

You've guessed it! Och aye, we're in Scotland!

Fun fact: only one scene of Braveheart was actually filmed in Scotland. The movie got much better tax breaks from Ireland, so most of it was filmed there! (Sorry to ruin the movie magic, Dad...would it help if I told you that I stood in the only place in Scotland the movie was filmed?)

The trip to Scotland started out as most ISA trips did: on a chilly, English morning in a train station. We got to the newly renovated King's Cross station at 7 a.m. on the dot, only to have Maria tell us that she told us to get here an hour earlier than we actually needed to be to ensure that we had no latecomers, like usual. So we meandered around, checking out the station's new digs, until we finally boarded the train.

Edinburgh from the castle

With the usual delays, we arrived in Edinburgh later than expected, and only had time to grab a quick lunch and a super quick tour of the spectacular city and castle. I'm pretty bummed that that's all we got to see of the magnificent city - because of this, Edinburgh is high on my list of places to visit again, soon. (Grad school?)

Regardless, the castle was epic. Beautiful views, some spectacular jewelry (the Scottish crown jewels), and the relatively sparse apartments of James I, King of Scotland. On top of all of that was this breathtaking war memorial. And, with that, our fifty minute tour was up, and we were loaded onto a tour bus with our very Scottish tour guide, Alan, to lead the way!

Loch Ness

It was a bumpy, twisty, beautiful ride to Loch Ness, where we checked into our hostel (Morag's Lodge: http://www.moragslodge.com/), and were treated to a free dinner. This is the first time I've ever experienced pineapple on a hamburger...it's genius.

From there, we departed down the path to the Loch itself, and took a boat cruise out onto Loch Ness! Keeping our cold eyes peeled for Nessie, we learned all about the different sonar devices used to track the monster - apparently there's not just one Nessie, but a whole family of her! And, much to my surprise, there's a surprising amount of science put into this venture: DNA testing, the tracking of fish breeding patterns, and so on. Whether you believe in the monster or not, though, the lake was spectacular. Just as, I was soon to find out, all of Scotland is.

We returned to our hostel and had a lovely time with our guides, Alan, and the ISA troop in the hostel's bar. We tried the local beer (Black Isle), played some games, and almost agreed to don some tartan - luckily, most of us went to bed before that happened. We were up early, and were headed to the Isle of Skye!

Eilean Donan

As we drove through the Scottish countryside, Alan regaled us with tales of yore. He was full of them! I don't know how he remembered it all - I certainly don't. I do remember his story about the Skye Bridge, which links the Isle of Skye back to mainland Scotland. It was designed to resemble two elegant birds in flight, a venture which (if Alan's disdain is anything to go by), failed miserably. There was also some big controversy with the bridge and tolls - but I'm afraid I don't remember most of it, and don't want to tell the story wrong.

On the way to Skye, we took a whole bunch of scenic stops - one at a lake that's shaped like Scotland, and one at this ancient castle on another Loch called Eilean Donan. I actually can't say enough about how rugged and gorgeous Scotland is - it was quite unlike anywhere else we'd been, and I felt like at every turn was another view or another building that was just astonishing, and couldn't possibly be topped.


We explored Eilean Donan, and headed out, back on the way to the Isle of Skye. We crossed over the Skye Bridge, and took a stop in a little fishing town known for all these colorful houses on the harbor. Then, we went to our most spectacular stop yet: a view over the entire Isle of Skye, high on a cliff. Words fail me, and pictures just do not do it justice. We spent a while up there, just soaking it all in.

We finally left, and made our way to what Alan called the Scottish equivalent of the Irish Giant's Causeway. I've never been to the Giant's Causeway, but I'll tell you that these cliff faces were pretty awesome. We left the cliffs and went to "God's Thumb," which just made me think of the movie Holes. Alan then took us to a spot in between these two mountain ranges: one range is among the oldest in the world, and the other, among the youngest. Incredible!

Then, Alan parked the bus and took us down to a little river, and told us a story. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young bride from one clan, who was about to be married to a handsome young man of a rival clan. Their marriage was going to repair some historic warring between the two clans. On the way to her marriage, the bride was crossing the bridge over the river we were standing at, on a horse, her long veil hiding her beautiful, smiling face. But then, a mouse ran across the bridge and spooked her horse, throwing her into the rocky water below. Face mangled and dress wet, the poor bride thought to herself, "my fiancee will love me no matter what I look like!" But when she arrived at the altar and he lifted her veil to find her once beautiful face bleeding and gross, the groom fled. The bride ran back to the river, weeping, and a fairy spirit came to her and asked her why she was crying. She told him, and he told her that if she stuck her face in the river she would be given eternal beauty and life. So she did, and she still runs around the mountains to this day.

Well, of course that meant that we all had to stick our faces in the river.

And everyone did it. Even Maria, who complained the whole way about her makeup, was a true ISA champ and put her face in the cold Scottish water in the name of beauty and life.

With that long day behind us, we finally retired to our hostel, Saucy Mary's (http://www.saucymarys.com/index.htm). A few of us went exploring, but we all eventually found our way back to the hostel for dinner (mainly because it was basically the only thing open in the town). Our dinner was accompanied by some lively Scottish music, and a good time was had by all.

The next morning we departed from the Isle of Skye, and got to see Ben Nevis and a World War II memorial. Then, we wound our way through the Highlands (finally stopping at that one place that Braveheart was filmed), and were told countless stories of the different clans and their wars. I especially remember how hated the Campbell clan was, for their deception against some other clan. There was also some story about a brave Highlander that I only vaguely recall, but remember as being very entertaining.

Countless breathtaking views and a visit to an ox later, we were back in Edinburgh, to board another train and to sleep through the five hour ride back to good ol' Londontown.

M.I.A.

Hello 2013!

It's been more than a year since I left for London, and much has changed. Namely, of course, that I'm no longer in London (sadness). However, my adventures abroad haven't finished yet - not if I have anything to say about it.

Some interested parties have noticed that my blog posts trail off in the beginning of May. There are a lot of excuses for this, but for the most part - I got busy, and before I knew it I was home. Luckily for all of you (well, probably not, but luckily for me) I wrote down a whole bunch of notes in my trusty iPod Touch in regards to my last month abroad. I've been meaning to update this for just about...well, ever, and now that I've gotten a fantastic opportunity to spend a week studying in Prague, it felt wrong of me to re-start the blog without...well...finishing it, first! So here I am.

This final blog will probably take three posts to complete - but I'll get myself through Switzerland and Paris (v 2.0) in this one!

So, Dad and I were off to Switzerland. We arrived in Zurich, and had some difficulty getting ourselves out of the winding knot of underground hallways at the train station to get to the hotel. Of course, once we figured it out, we found out that the route was actually extraordinarily simple. That didn't stop us from getting lost every time we entered the train station, though.

The hotel was a charming little place called Hotel Townhouse, located on the Bahnhofstrasse (the main shopping drag in Zurich). I highly recommend it if you're ever in Zurich; but not, perhaps, if you are a starving college student (the website is http://townhouse.ch/en/).

We had arrived later in the evening, so after I tried on the plush bathrobes, we collapsed for the night to wake up early and get on the impeccably timed, comfortable train to Montreux. The Swiss have timely, well-organized public transport down to a T.

Once in Montreux, we figured out the public bus system and got ourselves to the Chateau de Chillon. While we waited for the Chateau to open, we had a quick pseudo-snack of coffee at the restaurant across the street (that wasn't technically open either, but the man and his adorable dog let us come in anyway). We grabbed our audioguides and were off!

The medieval Chateau has some fascinating history, which I won't impart entirely upon you. But we found Lord Byron's signature on the walls in the dungeon, and it turns out that it was once inhabited by a St. Pantaleon - so that was cool!

The tour ended up with us climbing these extremely tall, narrow, rickety stairs (and some ladders) to get to the top of the tower, for some spectacular views of Lake Geneva.

Lake Geneva

Once our tour of the Chateau finished, we took the bus back into town and ate lunch at a yummy little place next to a statue of Freddie Mercury, and then decided to use our rail ticket to take the Golden Pass through the mountains and the countryside to Interlaken, and then to Lucerne. The Golden Pass train features some extraordinary panoramic windows, and the whole time I felt like breaking out into the Sound of Music (wrong country, yeah, but...)

Five hours later we were in Lucerne, leaving the dodgy train station (with the drug deals going on right outside) down to a restaurant that we thought was in our guidebook. I think we were one door off, though, because we wound up at a restaurant that definitely wasn't in the price range that the book promised. Regardless, I had this delicious chicken and potato dumpling meal in a Mediterranean sauce, and Dad accidentally ordered a beer. Then I almost forgot our guidebook (with our rail tickets inside) at the table - our lovely waitress came running out after us just as I realized it (and just as it was starting to rain...)

The following day, we had a plan to go to Bern and back to Lucerne. But, Dad, never one to waste an opportunity, woke me up at Bern with the scariest question I've ever been asked: "How adventurous are you feeling today?"

Well, one thing led to another, and against the advice of the travel people at the Bern train station who advised us that visibility wasn't going to be great anyway, we decided to head up into the Alps! As we got higher and higher the connecting trains got ricketier and ricketier, but it was just beautiful. Definitely worth it.

Kleine Scheidegg

CHEESE

We reached the top and traipsed through the snow to the only thing open at the top: a restaurant serving exclusively cheesey meals. We happily downed our cheese delicacies (pineapple, ham, cheese, and potatoes - what more could you possibly want?) and our Toblerone mousse dessert (wrap your mind around that one!), the sun finally came out and we snapped some pictures. We then high-tailed it down the mountain, since my converse and thin winter coat weren't nearly enough to battle the cold mountain air.

Once in Bern, we poked around a bit - we found a market where these older gentlemen were playing giant chess, and marveled at the old-time feel and beauty of the whole place. Then we headed to the Parliament building and (predictably) got a bit lost, but made it to the fascinating Einstein museum to poke around until it closed. It was fascinating.

We then schlepped over to a cathedral in the rain (closed), and walked up and down some posh shopping streets to get them back home some gifts. Dad found a wifi hotspot and we huddled together outside a Starbucks while he checked his email. We saw this big, beautiful clock thing (the Bern astronomical clock, which I would soon be reminded of in Prague), and walked back to the train station  to head back to Zurich.

When we got back to Zurich, I somehow convinced Dad to go to this ultra-modern vegetarian buffet place, which was actually delicious, called Hiltl (http://www.hiltl.ch/en/). And then we were asleep, because we had to be up at some ridiculously early hour to get ourselves to Paris!

Typical

We didn't have very much time to spend in Paris, so we started right away with the highlights: we left the lovely Hotel le Littre (http://www.hotellittreparis.com/) and hopped right on the Metro to the Notre Dame. We also tried to find another church, got lost (again), and when we finally did get to it, it was closed. Mon dieu!

Well, regardless. We hiked over to the Louvre, where Dad was entirely unimpressed with the Mona Lisa. After a few hours of exploring the massive museum, we decided we were too tired to go on, and returned to Hotel le Littre for a nap and some free macaroons (God bless the French)!

The superb staff at the hotel recommended to us a little cafe around the corner to eat at, and we then hopped again on the Metro to get to the Eiffel Tower at night. Dad (whatta guy) bought me a beautiful scarf, and we took some touristy pictures by the Trocadero.

The next morning, we ate breakfast at le Littre, and went straight to the Eiffel Tower, where we waited in line forever to go up to the top for a quick view of the city streets (I don't think Dad shares my affinity for heights...). Then, we hustled on over to the Champs Elysses and the Arc du Triomphe, and unfortunately had to say goodbye to the City of Lights and head our separate ways. We parted at the Gare du Nord, where I awaited my Chunnel train back to London, and Dad caught a train back to Charles de Gauelle. What a whirlwind!

For me, though, the whirlwind had just begun! When I finally returned (exhausted) to London, it wasn't long before I was off to Scotland!

Ta - I'll be back soon for Scotland, London adventures with Emily, and my final trips!