Hey there,
So we last left our narrator about to board a train, but the questions is, to where? Well if you couldn't tell by the (very) obvious picture I was headed to Paris and Scotland (ok the Scotland picture maybe not be as obvious, but the Paris picture should have been a piece of cake).
The first train I took was the Eurostar to Paris. Yes the train was fine and we managed to get there without any issues. And by there I mean the train station in Paris. From there....well lets skip that part because I am not at the point where I can a) laugh or b) just shrug my shoulders and say "what can you do?" As my family knows I am not the world's best traveler by any stretch of the imagination. In fact it makes me down right cranky and after a two and half hour train ride in which I could not even understand the engineer in English, I was miserable (please keep in mind it was midnight when we got into the station) and all I wanted to do was get to the hostel. Which we did....eventually. We weren't sure what exit out of the Metro station we should use and the map wasn't really helping. However, we got there all in one piece and thank goodness my two roommates can speak at least high school French. If they hadn't I just would have sat down and stayed at the train station until morning. But lets move on to more interesting things, shall we?
I spent about five days in Paris and each day was jammed packed. The first day we went to Notre Dame and walked to the Louvre and took pictures outside. We then went to the Eiffel Tower, but then realized that we could not go all the way to the top because it was too windy.
So we decided to save it for another day. I know that may not sound like much, but let me tell you that was a lot of walking. By the time we got back to the hostel it was six and we were all wiped out.
Notre Dame from the outside.
This is outside of the Louvre
There is water flowing from fountains by the triangular domes.
One of the triangular domes.
The next day we went to the Eiffel tower during the day and the Louvre at night.
The Eiffel Tower was....tall. Yeah that about sums it up. We went all the way to the top and well, I am not the biggest fan of heights (if you haven't gotten that hint like a hundred times before). So I was a little freaked out. But I went to the top and that is all that matters. Even if I was cowering the whole time. But I did managed to get pictures of it.
So after that we went to Louvre at night. Which was pretty cool if only for the fact that I got to see the "Mona Lisa." Oh, I'm sorry, Mona. We're best friends now so she asked me to call her that. I know you are all jealous. Here is a picture of my dear friend Mona.
The next day we went to an art museum that was not the Louvre and then we went the Basilica and climbed up nine flights of steps and Esther did some math and it was over 200 steps. So yeah I got a ton of exercise in Paris. No doubt about that.
We did some other stuff as well, such as walk along the Champ Elysees and just a bunch of different small stuff. And then we packed up and headed back to London for a day to refuel and rest up.
After London it was off to King's Cross to board a train to Edinburgh. Which took even longer than the train to Paris. This train was a four and half hour ride. But I was a little better this time because I could understand what the engineers were saying and I really appreciated that.
Instead of arriving at night like we had in Paris, we got there in the afternoon leaving us a full afternoon to explore.
We could not get into our room right away so we stopped for lunch and saw a bunch of school kids (the uniforms were kind of a tip off) eating there. And we all had the same thought. What are kids doing out of school at one o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon? We just shrugged and figured they were given a lunch hour and ate our own lunches.
We headed back to the hostel and unpacked and decided to do some exploring.
The first stop was the Writer's Museum which displayed artifacts from some famous Scottish authors, Robert Burns (Auld Lang Syne), Walter Scott (Ivanhoe), and Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island).
The museum was neat and had some desks and canes etc. from these authors. And that is about it. Nothing to out of the ordinary. I think my expectations were a bit higher than they should have been.
After we left the Writer's Museum we went to the library, which was really cool. First, the library was beautiful. Secondly, they had exhibits you could walk through. The first exhibit was about Scottish theatre and they displayed some of the costumes used for some famous productions. The other exhibition we went to was about famous people from the United Kingdom. They had artifacts from different time periods and had an interactive computer display that explained what everything in the display case was. It was neat and a good way to pass the time.
That night we decided to go to The Elephant House, the restaurant where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter. The food was so good. In fact we ate there three times. And we where there for four days. You do the math.
The next day we went on a free walking tour of Edinburgh and had the best tour guide ever! Her name is Kate and she was just so funny. She would reenact things and just crack tons of jokes. And I learned. Big plus. The tour was three and half hours and I was entertained the whole time.
That night Esther and I went on a ghost tour and Kate was our tour guide again. I went into a graveyard at night and went into one of the mausoleums. The only real scary part was walking up this giant hill in the dark and trying to walk down "Jacob's Ladder" a winding staircase that does not have the same two steps. Seriously, no one step is identical, some were long, others were short, and some just weren't there. But it was a fun tour that ended with Esther and I going to a pub (the price of the tour included a drink).
We had to wake up early the next morning because we were going on a tour of the Highlands. It was beautiful. The bus ride was long, but so worth it.
We stopped by Loch Ness on the tour and I tried calling for Nessie (the monster) in a Scottish accent. But she didn't come. My mom thinks the accent scared her away. I think she's camera shy.
We were so tired when we got back that we all went to bed early.
We had agreed that Saturday would be a catch up day and we would do whatever we hadn't managed to get to. So we went to the Castle and we went down High Street and bought gifts. Sadly I did not get a kilt. I really wanted one, but it just didn't work out. But I did get a scarf and that was good.
Me storming the Castle like Robert the Bruce did.
And so the next morning we packed up and headed out.
Both locations were great, but I have to say that Scotland captured my heart. I loved it. I want to move there, but I have a feeling that some people might have a few reservations. And I totally understand , but we can all dream.
I am sorry that I didn't post more pictures, but there were so many that it would just take forever.
Join us next time where our narrator tackles a new challenge. An internship abroad. I know you are on the edge of your seats.
