Edinburgh

Before I embarked on my journey to St. Andrews and the Scottish Highlands, I stayed in Edinburgh for a night and returned there when I flew out to London.

I found Edinburgh to be a really interesting mixture of old and new. The city itself was fairly bustling and had the basic components of any modern city yet, if I looked up past the street I'd see a castle in the distance on top of a majestic hill. The heights of Edinburgh where the remnants of its past lay, serve as a reminder that it is definitely not your typical capitol city.

{view from the top}

{old meets new}

{church clock}

{high street}

{the time}

{more high street}

{very colourful high street}

Hogwarts Express

Although the title of this post is quite attention-grabbing, it is also a tad misleading since I did not in fact ride on the actual Hogwarts Express. I was however, take a very beautiful and very scenic train ride through the Scottish highlands where parts of Harry Potter were filmed.

The last time I had seen such sweeping mountainscapes was when I went to Ecuador in 2009. Although my day in the highlands started very early, my eyes were glued to the dramatic landscape that was just outside my window. 

My friends and I took a train from Glasgow to Fort William, stopping off in beautiful Fort William for a couple hours before hopping back on the train to depart for Mallaig. 

Fort William

Rolling mountains, and birds flying over a clear undisturbed lake are the images that stick in my head from Fort William. The couple of hours I spent there were very relaxing, it was nice to walk around and breathe in the clean country air. 

{Clear water, clear sky}

{Soaring bird}

{Bird over still water}

Mallaig

I had a few hours in Mallaig which gave me a lot of time to stretch my legs before my long return journey back to Glasgow. Mallaig being far less touristy than Fort William, was very quaint with its colourful scattered houses, active boating culture, and of course rolling hills. It is very much a town that has a close connection with the water. 

{the harbour}

{houses on the hills}

{boat returning to the harbour}

{scattered houses}

{wild and windy sea}

{signs in the UK}

{lucky horseshoe}

Scenes from the Train 

I probably spent about 12 hours on the train that day going from Glasgow to Mallaig, and then back to Glasgow at night. But the surreal scenery kept me awake in the morning and allowed for some pretty dramatic photographs.

{sunrise and sheep}

{a small river}

{daybreak}

{on the train}

{looking out the window}

{ a still deer}

{mountains}

The Land of Haggis

After being in bustling London for a few nights, Scotland offered a much more relaxed pace. From the moment I first laid eyes on the rolling mountains and the expansive fields, I knew that Scotland is a place to get away from it all. The air was cleaner and the wind was wild. I like to think that the Scottish wind got the London smokiness out of my clothes.

The word that Lauren and I kept using to describe Scotland was "quaint". We had decided rather early on that London is "fab" and Scotland is "quaint." That's a description that I still stick to whenever someone asks me what I thought about those two countries.

St. Andrews 

The first major stop on my Scotland trip was St. Andrews where my friend from home is also studying abroad. One of my favourite vacation spots in Canada has to be St Andrews, New Brunswick so it was really nice to visit it's namesake and see all the similarities. The sea, the small-town feel, and the cute independently-owned restaurants and cafes are what reminded me of the Canadian St. Andrews.

{downtown St. Andrews}

{One of the gates to the University of St. Andrews campus}

{The University of St. Andrew - where Will and Kate met!}

{wild water}

{shoreline}

{Scottish thistle}

{Scottish thistle}

Haggis and other Scottish food 

Since I was in the Land of Haggis, I had to give the traditional Scottish dish a try. For those of you who don't know, haggis is a sheep's heart, liver, and lungs minced with onion, stock, and spices and is encased in the sheep's stomach. Very economical if you ask me! At home I would definitely stay away from things like haggis but I thought that I'd be adventurous when in Scotland. And I found that I actually didn't mind the taste! As long as I didn't dwell on what I was eating it was pretty good.

However, I wasn't brave enough to try blood pudding which is a type of sausage made by cooking blood  with meat, fat, and bread. But I did try an empire cookie which was extremely tasty! An empire biscuit is a traditional Scottish cookie which has a layer of jam in between two cookies. The top of the empire biscuit is covered with white icing and topped off with a maraschino cherry.

{Empire biscuit, so delicious!}

Berlin

Although I just got back from a trip, another travel opportunity arose and I decided to take part in it. I am leaving for Berlin tonight and will be back on Sunday. I thought I might as well travel now while the flights are cheap, it's cold in Copenhagen, and school isn't very busy.

All this tripping is causing me to be behind in my posts - I still haven't even posted about Scotland yet! So in the next couple weeks expect multiple posts about two very lovely countries.

London Calling Part II

Despite the delay this post is a continuation of my last one about London! All the photographs from the previous post were from my first full day in London (on Saturday January 28th).

Saturday was extremely busy - we saw Buckingham Palace, The Tower of London, and Abbey Road. It was so great to go out to dinner that night to be able to sit down and rest for a couple of hours!

I definitely got a crash course in London! I am glad that I did most of the London sightseeing at the beginning because by the end of the trip all I wanted to do was sit around all day and drink tea and eat scones with jam and clotted cream. 

So without further adieu, here are the pictures from my final touristy excursion of the day on that very busy Saturday.

{Abbey Road}

{I get by with a little help from my friends}

{the wall opposite Abbey Road}

{my contribution to the wall}

Then the day was wrapped up with a trip to Piccadilly Circus for dinner.

{busy London night}

{Picadilly - the more commercial area of London}

{decked out for the Chinese New Year}

Then the following day there was a Chinese New Year celebration! London was decked out in Chinese lanterns and Chinatown was bustling - the wait for chinese restaurants in Chinatown were at least an hour, but it was worth it!

{Chinese New Year festivities}

{creeping on a father-son moment}

{very busy Chinatown. The crowd around the restaurant we were waiting in line for}

{now creeping a father-daughter moment}

Other sights seen include

1 Big Ben

{far shot}

{shot through the fence}

{extreme close up}

2 Westminster Abbey

{Westminster}

3 A London Telephone Booth

{a very British picture}

4 Denmark Street - a street notable for its connections with British music. On this street: Elton John recorded "Your Song", the Sex Pistols lived and recorded, and the Rolling Stones recorded their first album. 

{Denmark street}

5. Camden Market

{very vibrant Camden Market}

{Camden Market}

{Missing elephant}

{Camden market jewellery}

6 And of course a visit to London isn't complete without scones and tea!

{roobios tea, and a scone with jam and clotted cream}

6 The last touristy thing visited in London was the Tate Modern Gallery which I really enjoyed!

{a close-up of Monet's waterlilies}

{Roy Lichtenstein}

{admiring waterlilies}

{Andy Warhol self-portrait}

{David Shrigley's horoscopes}