Snotty in Scotland

Last week I spent a few days in Scotland (for the first time!) to visit all the lovelies that I met in Paris and Berlin.

My journey began from London King's Cross on Wednesday morning, where I completely forgot that Harry Potter had been there and accidentally found Platform 9 and 3 quarters! I couldn't really get near it as there was a biq queue for photos but it was still pretty awesome to see it.

The train ride up was lovely! The scenery really was something- from rolling dales with sheep to cliff faces and sparkling sea!

Hilary and Sophie surprised me (more like gave me a heart attack) at the train station, and we walked back to Sophie's house which would be my crash pad for the next few days. We went out for dinner that night at Tuk Tuk which did authentic Indian street food. It was so yummy, After that, Sophie and Hilary went to help at their Buddies (for the incoming international students and of which Blythe is the president) meet and greet. Naturally, I decided to help out too since I was there, but in reality all I really did was hold some papers and tell people to move on... We took Sophie's buddies to Revs but after a pint they decided to go clubbing and we went to the pub. I also tried chips and gravy for the first time that night and I have to say that it wasn't as terrible as I imagined although I am still very much a salt n vinegar kinda gal.

The next day was sightseeing time! Sophie took me to the top of the David Hume Tower at the uni, a tower which I have heard many tales about from Joe and Niamh, so it was a must-see. The view of the city was pretty decent up there too, apart from the mistiness.

Misty view of the castle

After that we met up with Hilary and had lunch at The Elephant House, where J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter! The toilets were covered in quotes from the books, and someone had written 'THIS WAY TO THE MINISTRY' above the toilet. I had an excellent lamb pie there, followed by a peppermint caramel (!) shortbread.

The sightseeing continued and we walked down the Royal Mile, stopping at St. Giles cathedral and an incredible fudge shop. 

St. Giles Cathedral

I'm still chuckling

We walked to the end of the Royal Mile, where we went inside the Scottish Parliament building. It was quite something to be there amidst all the referendum talk. People from the BBC were interviewing people outside and they came over to us too, but we didn't speak to them. The atmosphere in Edinburgh was pretty intense, with Yes supporters on the Meadows everyday and stickers or posters in nearly every window we went past.

The Scottish Parliament and the crags in the back

The Debate Room

Holyrood - where the Queen stays

We still had some time to kill before dinner so we walked up Calton Hill. It was actually really warm and sunny, but still the view was obscured by the weather! I also got very grumpy when I realised I couldn't climb up on the monument because I was wearing a skirt. Grumpy indeed.

Eerie

Dinner was at Hilary and Blythe's place, where we all made pizza. It turned out more like bread with a LOT of cheese on, but was still bloody good. Sophie, Hilary and I then got changed and headed out with her Snowsports Society group. The room they had set aside for Snow Soc was horrendously hot and sticky and just awful, so we escaped outside. Joe made an appearance then with a couple of his friends from home (one of them I had already briefly met in Paris). We spent the rest of the night playing drinking games and, after being told to go inside, ridiculous dancing and Sophie playing DJ...

I met Joe and his friends for a full English in the morning which hit the spot wonderfully, to sort ourselves out for the day, and Sophie joined us afterwards. We went up to the roof of the National Museum of Scotland for some air and pictures.

Museum roof

Excellent advertising

Joe went to a meeting so Sophie and I went for a wander in the Grassmarket, stopping for coffee and cake at Hula, where Hilary met us. I bought a new purple shirt in Armstrongs (biggest vintage shop in Britain or something) and then dragged them into Mr. Wood's Fossils where, as they put it, I bought some 'rocks'. We walked around the Greyfriars graveyard (here I go again). Greyfriars is quite legendary as back in the 19th Century, a man was buried here and his faithful dog Bobby guarded his grave for the next 14 years until he died himself. Bobby has a little statue outside the pub, named Greyfriars Bobby, and is buried at the entrance of the graveyard.

Grassmarket

Bobby!

Sophie and I went to the chippy for dinner, and then we all went out to a bar for one of their friend's birthdays. That was a good laugh and after that we went to a place called Cav, which, quite frankly, made me feel fucking ancient. It was full of freshers. Joe then dragged us to the dreaded Hive, which I have heard too many stories about. It was absolutely rank. I mean, one of the rooms literally smelt of semen. I rest my case.

Saturday was a little more leisurely. I met up with Niamh for an hour which was lovely! We had coffee and croissants on the Links and had a good old natter. I've missed Niamh and hopefully I'll back in Edinburgh for a few days at Christmas. It was so good to see everyone again.

Ma Berlin gals

Not long after noodles with Hilary and Sophie, they were getting me on my train and saying goodbye! It went far too fast, as these trips always do and as a lovely memento of the trip, I have caught some flu thing. I'm blaming Hive.

Peace
xxx

Lest we forget

On Monday, my mum and I set out for a daytrip to Péronne and the Valley of the Somme. It was an early start, as all our Lodges daytrips are, but we managed some sleep and woke ourself up with Starbucks before the tunnel.

Then, when we had arrived en France, our guide stood up and I realised it was one of my old teachers from high school - Mr Ford! So odd! But he was an excellent guide the whole day, even handing out sketch maps of the Battle of the Somme so we could follow his explanations and see where we were. I found it all fascinating as I never learned so much about World War 1 at school, and especially not in such detail. The Battle of the Somme began on July 1st 1916 and ended on 18th November of the same year. The first day of the battle remains the worst day in the history of the British army, with 60, 000 casualties and 20, 000 dead. I can't even imagine what that amount of people looks like.

Our first stop was Péronne, where we visited the Museum of the Great War. It was well done, really informative and displayed not only war-time artifacts but also artwork. The cabinets were organised in a way I hadn't seen before too, with French, British and German objects on separate shelves, for each topic and theme.

I've never seen exhibits laid out like this, this is the British Front Line

This made me cry, the last line says "I will mourn you all my life."

After the museum, on our drive to the mine crater at la Boiselle, we stopped briefly at the South African Memorial and cemetery. It is actually the only memorial dedicated to the South Africans who served in the war and is located at Delville Wood - where they were almost completely annihilated by the Germans in 1916. You can read more here.

And then we came to the Lochnager crater, which was terrifyingly big and is in fact the largest man-made mine crater created on the Western Front. It's a really moving memorial, albeit quite unsettling. I had been thinking of the thousands of missing dead all day as I walked on the site of their grave, and at the crater there is a separate memorial to George Nugent. He was found at the crater in 1998(!) by a man from Colchester. As you can probably imagine, and if you've been to any battlefield before, the presence of death is palpable. You can see more pictures and read more about George Nugent on the official website.

We then headed to the Thiepval memorial, which is the largest British war memorial in the world. It remembers the 72, 195 British and South African soldiers that died on the Somme battlefields, who have no known grave. What is also interesting about Thiepval is that both French and British soldiers are commemorated and buried together here, representative of their alliance during the offensive against the German front. 

I also found the names of several O'Dwyers and Dwyers in the cemetary register, and I couldn't help wondering if any of them are my distant relatives. I know that my great-granddad fought at the Somme and survived, so perhaps others were there too. 

After Thiepval, we drove to the Newfoundland memorial at Beaumont Hamel. This was a really impressive memorial, and the trench system had even been preserved to an extent. They were completely grown over but just walking through them for a few minutes was enough. On July 16th 1916, pretty much the entire Newfoundland Regiment were wiped out, with 710 killed, wounded or missing.

The caribou

The trench network

The Newfoundland Memorial Park was our last stop for the day and we headed back to the tunnel to find out there was a 6 hour delay .... luckily, our drivers got us onto a ferry but that there was an hour delay for that too. We crawled into bed at half past 3 in the morning, but it was such an interesting and moving day. I understand that some people are not interested in war itself but I refuse to believe that anyone could visit these battlefields and not feel so incredibly indebted to these men. The First World War was an absolute atrocity and these memorials will serve as reminders to generations and generations to come of the sacrifice that was made here, and that it must never be allowed to happen again.

My Top Ten Moments

This was quite difficult to compile, but here it is. I can't even decide on an order, so it's bullet points instead!

• Watching Germany win the World Cup at the Kulturbrauerei

Machine

• Hearing and seeing the Blue Danube at a dinner show in Vienna

• Experiencing the gorgeous Christmas markets in Strasbourg

• Playing the Mind Maze in Prague with Sia and Sarah

Happy defeat

• Exploring Plitvice National Park in Croatia

Just call me Kirsty Two-Pairs

• Spending my 21st birthday in Paris with my best friend

Possibly my favourite picture of us ever

• Going to the fashion show at Galeries Lafayette with Elinor

Yeah I don't have any pictures of the actual show, soz, have this beautiful tree

• making Stollen with Niamh and Joe

It turned out wonderfully

• Seeing a Lippizaner perform a Levade in Vienna

The Lippizaner's saddles

• Having a 3 course meal in an empty restaurant with a view of the Alps

Pie in the sky

Oh and going up the Eiffel Tower at night with my sister!

Up in the fog

Hello but not really goodbye

Hello!

I've been home for 5 days now and this is the first night I have been able to put my feet up! It's been a lovely but busy return with a 21st party and night out, a day at an airshow in Cambridge, okay maybe a fairly relaxed Bank Holiday Monday followed by a day out in France to visit the Somme (there'll be a post about that too!) and then a sleepover with Lewis. It's good to be home and I have already consumed 3 chicken roast dinners.

Anyway, the Year Abroad is now over and I can't quite believe it. It seems like no time has passed since I packed my suitcase for Paris. It's been a fantastic experience and I've met some equally fantastic people.

You'll be pleased to know (or maybe not) to learn that this blog will not end here. I've really enjoyed rambling about my jaunts away from home, so I'm going to keep it up. Obviously posts won't be as frequent, but you'll be the first to know about it when this worrywart has ventured abroad again.

x

Last day in Berlin

After I got home from the bus station, I packed all my stuff and went straight back out for a coffee at the bakery. Then I made for the DDR Museum, which was so interesting and interactive, but there were just too many people so it quickly became frustrating.

Exploring a house in the DDR Museum

Some random graffiti near Mehringdamm

I headed to the Jewish Museum, which I had been meaning to go to since forever and was suitably impressed. It's the biggest Jewish Museum in the world and I was pretty exhausted at the end, but it was really worth the visit and I learnt quite a lot!

Schalechet's installation, Fallen Leaves

After wolfing down some noodles, I went back to Hermannplatz and bought some last minute souvenirs. Spencer, Kat and I all had dinner together at the flat, had a sing a long to Queen (not really sure why but it was a good laugh) and that was it! All over.

I'll be back Berlin, 'hab dich wirklich Lieb

x

Is there any wool?

I'm currently on my last bus journey of my little adventure, heading back to Berlin. It feels weird to be going back as it already feels like I've left. Tomorrow will consist of packing, last minute souvenir shopping (how many Ritter Sports can I squeeze in my suitcase?), going to the bank and having a wander around soaking up the city. I'm definitely going to cry!

Anyway, Sia and I made it to Vienna and headed straight to the McDonalds near her flat. We just chilled out and watched tv, as we suddenly realised that Croatia had been quite stressful.

Wednesday was really relaxed. We stopped by the art school that Hitler was rejected from, twice. It was just so odd to stand there and think, wow, even mentalists like him had dreams once.

Then we went to the Haus der Musik, which was entertaining and interesting, albeit quite bizarre. We composed a song by throwing dice (for which I bought the certificate because it was a real achievement) and learnt some very interesting facts about Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (he lived in 68 flats in Vienna because he was an awful tenant and also wrote one of the most well-known love letters?) and Schubert (who died at 32 from typhus).


For lunch, we went to Naschmarkt which didn't feel like Vienna at all!

Look at the size of em!

We had a Chinese there and then headed to the Hofburg Palace again to find the Papyrus Museum. We found it on our second attempt - we were actually in the right building the first time, we just didn't realise it was there... Anyway, that was really interesting and, as usual, I yabbered on about Ancient Egypt for about an hour. The ticket we bought was also for the Globe Museum and the Esperanto Museum... obviously we went. We have now got some very obscure facts under our belt for future quizzes. Do you know what graticules are? Do you know who the most prominent globe maker in the 16th century was? No? Should have gone to the globe museum.

The Esperanto museum was really small but I loved it. I didn't really know anything about it but I'm basically fluent now. Vi telefonas?

Dinner was at Vapiano, followed by coffee and cake at Cafe Central. I've just realised I didn't eat a single Sachertorte this time!

Today, we headed straight to the Spanish Riding School where we had a ticket to watch the morning exercises. Those horses are beautiful, and we were lucky enough to see one horse do a 'levade', where the horse rests on just its hind legs for 5 seconds. It can only be seen with the Lippizaners in Vienna, and I saw it even though I didn't go to a performance! You can't take pictures of any of it when the horses are around, because obviously it upsets them. Sad, but I have some lovely postcards. We watched for a couple of hours, then headed to lunch at one of the most famous restaurants in Vienna. After that we paid a visit to the old library in the palace.

My camera really didn't do this place justice, as usual

I want it!

I spent most of it whining about how unfair it was that I didn't have one. It was unreal. Beauty, eat your heart out.

Then it was back to the Spanish Riding School for our guided tour. It was excellent, and we got to go in the stables, inches away from these incredible horses! A question for all the horse riders out there: Is wool usually used in the soil stuff in a training centre? A woman was surprised that there was none there?

The indoor riding area, with the royal box

Our next stop was the Imperial Crypt, of course, where we saw the tombs of Franz Josef, Sisi and Rudolf. I may elaborate on this at some point but I'm tired and well aware that my Blackberry keyboard is horrendously loud so I need to end soon...

We had more coffee and cake at Demal, which is another famous cafe, stopped at Spar to buy Mozartkuegeln (amazing dark chocolate marzipan and pistachio balls) for my mum and then chilled at home until it was time to drop me off.

I'm glad I came back to Vienna again, and I reckon it's not the last time. As Billy Joel once said "Vienna waits for you."

See ya in Berlin
Xxx

Zany Zagreb

Onto today! This morning, we went down for breakfast to find out that the woman at the desk had no idea we had ordered one, and offered to go to the shop! We told her not to worry, and went to a cafe she recommended for breakfast. Stuffed on chocolate and strawberry pancakes, we walked to the Kaptol to catch the tourist bus, but the next one was at 12, so we went into the cathedral and explored more of the old town.

The main square

We also went to the Museum of Broken Relationships, which Sia had read about but had no idea it was in Zagreb! It was actually a really interesting concept; people donate items from a finished relationship along with their story to the museum, for closure and release. Some of it was quite funny, and others quite sad. What I liked the most is that it didn't just focus on romantic relationships, rather on friendship and family too. One of my favourite ones was a burger dog toy with the caption "His dog left more traces behind than he did."

I'm still chuckling

We went back to the bus stop to find there were no seats left, so walked through the market to buy souvenirs and then stumbled on a lovely art stall, but Sia had to pay for her poster inside. Then I decided to buy 4 rhino pictures (they were really cute okay, and I became an art expert in Potsdam, remember?). We were there for some time, as the adorable old man wrapped up our pictures and then took us to the office, where Sia had to work the pin machine for him!

We are both now proud owners of naive art.

Lunch was at the same chain that we'd been to for breakfast, before we walked back to the hostel to get our bags. We had to wait for like 15 minutes for the tram and were getting a bit worried about time, but we made it to the bus station fine. We thought we had to check in so went up to the counter with our tickets, but the man said to just go straight to the bus, so we did. However, it was never going to be easy because that's our life, and the driver told us to get off and wait to see if there were spaces available! As you can imagine, I was not a happy bunny and prepared for war, but luck was on our side and we managed to get seats... We're sitting apart but we are on the bus to Vienna and currently sitting at the border of Slovenia, waiting to be checked.

Lunch, but what am I doing with my hands?

It's been a brilliant few days, but I'm looking forward to a MacDonalds and crashing in Sia's room.
Next update when I'm on my way back to Berlin, can't believe how fast it's all gone!

Laters
Xxxx