It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff

Quick explanation of the title - There is so much going on in this post, I really didn't know what to call it, so it's just a 'big ball of wibbly wobbly....time-y wimey....stuff....'

Time for another post! I seem to be behind, again.... Things to catch up on: IFSA-Butler trip to Isle of Skye, Easter Weekend, and the Royal Wedding.

Isle of Skye. Eilean A Cheo. The Misty Isle. Two weekends ago, the study abroad program that I am apart of, IFSA-Butler, collected all of their students from the various Scottish Universities and brought them up to the Highlands for a weekend on this beautiful piece of land.

The buses picked us up at the gates of the university early in the morning, so we would have a day filled with highland adventures. Before we left the lowlands, we made a quick stop at ASDA to meet up with all of the Scotland groups. In case you did not know, Wal-mart has extended its hands to the UK in the form of ASDA. Though still not nearly as large as the super center we are used to back at home, it still had the grocery section along with its shoes and clothing section. Definitely not the type of store you see in the UK everyday.

IFSA was kind enough to provide each of the buses with tour guides that could inform us about the surrounding areas that we were passing and give us little folklore, as well. Our tour guide was a small scottish woman named Andy. Andy was very loud. Andy did not understand that early in the morning, college students might like to sleep a little bit. She thought we might like to be the party bus at 8 am and listen to loud music and yell 'SEXY COOOOOOSSS' every time we saw a highland cow. Now, unlike the Glasgow group (whose bus the Stirling group was sharing), us Stirling kids had seen a coo or two, as we are fairly close to quite a bit of farmland. So, while the Glasgow kids thought it was hilarious and they were the coolest things under the sun, we Stirling folk really just wanted to sleep. Simple enough. Not gonna happen on this trip.

Though loud, Andy was also very good for a story or two and seemed to know quite a bit about the different areas we were driving through. Like Burnham Wood, for instance. Yes. That's right. THE Burnham Wood. From the Scottish play. Needless to say, I was excited. Unfortunately, we didn't stop. We kept driving until we ended up at a place called the Queen's View (that is, Victoria...). The Queen's view overlooks Loch Tummel, and a story goes that, while visiting the highlands, the Queen wanted to stop for tea, and just so happened to stop there. There was more to the story, something about not being able to boil water and asking one of the farmers who lived in the area to boil their water, but I don't remember it exactly. But the view, itself, was amazing!
After we had all sufficiently taken in the view, there was an optional 'light' hike down to Loch Tummel. I put quotation marks because Andy pretty much led us down a cliff. There was little path to the footpath that we were taking. It was more along the lines of, 'head straight down until you hit the loch, you can't miss it and there's no losing it!' Once we got down there, though, it was quite gorgeous. The loch, as you can see, spread out for miles. After a short exploration, it was a heart attack back up the hill and off again.

We had a quick lunch at a cute town called Aviemore, and then headed to the Culloden Moor battlefield, the day before the 265th anniversary of the battle itself. For those who don't know, the battle of Culloden was was essentially the slaughter of the Jacobite army by the Government Redcoats in April of 1747. The Jacobite army was attempting to bring back their exiled king, James VII of Scotland and II of England, who had been a Catholic Stuart, and thus a threat to Protestants. After the battle, the Redcoats were ordered to kill any and all Jacobites still living. Bonnie Prince Charlie, who had been fighting with the Jacobites, fled and went back to France.

The battlefield was just quiet and somber, as many are. Red flags flew to show where the Redcoat army was, and blue flags to show where the Jacobite army began. There were also gravestones to show where major clan leaders had fallen.
After walking around for a bit, we then got back onto the buses and finally headed over the waters to the Isle of Skye. The village that we stayed at was called Kyleakin, at the Kings Arms Inn. According to its website, Kyleakin is gaelic for “Strait of Haakon,” which was named for the Norwegian King Haakon. It is also supposed to be pronounced as two separate words. The first view of Skye is quite amazing, as is the drive over the Kyleakin Bridge, which is the only bridge to connect Skye to the mainland. All other ways require a ferry. In this picture, Kyleakin is on the right. We are crossing the bridge.

One interesting thing about the Kings Arms Inn is that it does not have showers. Just bathtubes. As many of us had not taken a bath in quite some time, we were all confused as to how it is properly done. But we were determined to stay clean on our Skye adventure.

We had some time between when we had arrived in Kyleakin and when we were to head over to the Castle Moil restaurant for dinner, so a few friends and I wandered around. On a hill across a bay were the ruins to the Castle Moil, so we made an attempt to head for that. However, there apparently was no footpath to get there, and we ended up simply walking through tall grasses and brush. Reminded me of LBOLA work.
Muddy though it was, I was quite determined to reach the ruins, so, leaving my IFSA butler crew behind, I managed to wrestle my way through the brush and reach the windy hillside. Unfortunately, after all that hard work, the ruins were not that impressive. So, shoulders hunched, I made my way back to safety, and we returned to the Inn to change for dinner.

The rest of the day was pretty lo key, consisting of dinner and a fun gathering at the local pub with live music (it was our program coordinators birthday, so we all sang her happy birthday, getting the band in on it as well). After a long day, it was time to rest up for the next days adventures around Skye.

After an early wake up call and a delicious breakfast, we head up to the Armadale Castle, which is home to the Clan Donald on Skye. To be honest, the castle grounds were more impressive than the castle itself, which had attached to it a more modern looking abode. The laundry house was neat looking, though!
There was also a museum on the grounds, which told of some history of the Highlands and the battles that had been fought. The forests were quite lovely, and there was a stunning view of the ocean right by the castle, but all in all, not too exciting, unfortunately. After this, we were to split up into two groups, one to go on a hike up to the Old Man of Storr (long story short, a giant wasn't allowed to be out in the sun, but fell in love and stayed out past dawn and turned into stone, and is therefore now the Old Man of Storr) and the other on a sightseeing bus tour around Skye. Given the damp weather and the late night beforehand, most people went for the bus tour, as did I. On the tour, we wandered to Lealt Falls, the Kilt Rock Waterfall and cliffs, saw the ruins of Duntulm Castle, and wandered the memorial grave site of Flora Macdonald, who had assisted Bonnie Prince Charlie in his escape from the Redcoats.
This is a picture of the Kilt Rock water falls and cliffs. The cliffs behind the waterfalls are apparently supposed to look like the back of a kilt. Bit of a stretch, and more difficult to see in the picture than when at the actual falls. After our day tour, we had some time to wander around the capitol of Skye, Portree, which is only bigger than Kyleakin in that it probably has about two more blocks in the village center. On the way back to our Inn, we stopped by the river at Sligachan, which, the story goes, if you put your face in the water for 7 seconds (no more, no less) you will stay young forever..... that is, only if you stay on Skye. Naturally, we all had to try it out. We are still waiting on the results.
After this, it was time to return to the Inn for dinner (which, sidenote, I learned is also called Tea here..... High Tea makes SO much more sense, now....) and another quiet night in.

Sunday, the last day of our little adventure. It was time to leave Skye and wander back through the Highlands of the mainland. On our way home, we made a quick stop at the Eilean Donan castle. Now, this may mean little to you, unless you have seen 'Made of Honor.' It is one of the castle's that they filmed the movie at. Fun fact of the day.
It was then off to Fort Augustus, to have lunch at the beautiful Loch Ness and to do some of our own Nessie sighting. The Loch was calm and the day sunny. Definitely a place I would like to return to and have more of a chance to explore. Apparently, Loch Ness is the largest loch in volume Scotland, and could hold all of the lakes in England and Wales combined! It is only second to Loch Lomand as the biggest loch in surface area. This is why it can so easily hide Nessie! Unfortunately, we had no such luck in finding her, but it was still a gorgeous day and it is a beautiful body of water, so no complaints here.
Finally, it was time to pack up the buses once more and head back to Stirling, to continue our studies. All in all, a very successful trip.

The next weekend:
Easter! It is Easter weekend in Scotland! However, considering I had had a presentation the Thursday beforehand, I did not have any exciting plans, and simply stayed on campus, which worked just fine for me. So nothing too thrilling to note on this weekend. Went on a few walks through the hills behind campus,
Made a sad attempt to see a sunrise on Dumyat Hill on Easter Morning - there was another hill in the way.... However, the walk back down was beautiful! The morning sun made everything seem so much brighter and clearer than usual.
After that, I made some more bread for the Easter dinner that a friend was making (Lamb, mashed potatoes, spanakopita, green beans, and bread!).

Monday was slightly more eventful, as I pretty much visited Hogwarts (i.e. University of Glasgow). My friend Dana and I got a tour of Glasgow from her boyfriend, and were able to see all the beautiful areas of Glasgow, including the Kelvingrove park and Art Gallery and Museum. We even got to try the infamous deep fried mars bar. Dana and I split it, as I don't know if we would have been able to handle the much deep fried-ness. Then it was back to Stirling, and back to classes. Well, for most people. Due to Easter Monday being off, teacher strikes on Tuesday, no class on Wednesday, and leaving for London on Thursday, I got away with no class that week. Good stuff. Up next: Royal Birthday Weekend.

Though I'm sure everyone was more excited about the Royal Wedding, I, however, was excited that it was my good friend Marta's 21st birthday. So that Thursday, I took an early train down to London to spend her birthday weekend with her. Though, I must say, nothing really to note happened on Thursday, except the usual birthday shenanigans of a nice dinner and going out. So, we move to the wedding.

Friday, April 29th. Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton get married. Met at University of Saint Andrews, in Scotland, in case you didn't know. I'm sure most of you already know the story, from what I hear, as it's been on the news in the US as well as the UK. Large, excited crowds, giant tv screens, parades, telecasters, and merriment all around. It was pretty much what it looked like on TV. Except I didn't really see it, as large crowds and being 5'2" don't really go together very well. Oh well, it was exciting to be apart of the crowd. There were Union Jack's everywhere, and many people even dressed up!

All the restaurants and pubs were also decorated, and the entire city had an air of excitement around it. That night was spent simply enjoying the city air. The next day, Marta and I had a special little treat - going to see the Doctor Who Experience. Since arriving in the UK, we have both become quite the fans, and decided this was a necessary thing to do. And it was amazing. Anyone who is a Doctor Who fan should go and see it. We helped the Doctor fight off Daleks. No big deal.

After the Doctor Who Experience it was off to Camden Town, which I have decided is kind of like Market Night....... on crack. Literally mazes of shops and booths for blocks and blocks. It is amazing. It has everything and anything you would want. If I do find my way back to London, I would need an entire weekend just to explore this one area. Quite amazing. But then it was back to her flat, for a much needed quiet night in. Then it was to the trains on Sunday morning back to Stirling, and here I am.

Not too much has happened since Sunday, except for the farewell dinner for IFSA-Butler, as classes are ending and finals are beginning. So, wish me luck!

Climbing Uphill

And we're back. I still have two weeks to catch up on!! How does this happen? Well. Here we go.

So Spring Break has just ended. We got back to Stirling finally. There was no time to relax after our stressful Perugia debacle, however. It was time to crank out the essays. So that's what that week was. Essay time. Then, the weekend was free to relax and take a breath.

Thursday, after I turned in my final mid-semester essay, I went to go and pick up my good friend Dylan from back at Redlands, who was to stay for some of the weekend. If you recall, he is currently studying abroad in St. Andrews. So showed him around campus, and then, for the first time since I've been in Stirling, went to the William Wallace monument. I've been here for over 2 months. The monument is literally right next to the school. Dylan was very disappointed in me. He had already seen it, as his homestay happened to be in Stirling. So we quickly remedied that and climbed the 246 steps up to the top. The view was amazing (However, smart me forgot her camera back in the room...) and incredibly windy. After that, it was back down the hill and the steps for what we thought would be a quiet evening of hanging out. Little did we know we would learn something new. A skill so useful, that the days of yore would be proud. That's right. We learned how to make bread. Bread? you ask. Why did you learn to make bread? Because smart Kristy decided she was going to make chicken pesto pizza that night for her friends for dinner. But Tesko did not have the required dough crust. So we needed to make our own. We did not take into account the yeast needing two hours to rise. So instead of pizza, we had pasta, and instead of crust, we made bread. In muffin tins. But did we make muffins? No. We made them in the shape of bread sticks. So they had awkward lumps and looked more like old telephones than bread sticks.

The next day, it was time for Dylan to be on his merry way back to St. Andrews.

While Dylan made his way back to school, Dana and I decide we need to climb the hill that we have so cleverly dubbed 'Big Papa.' It's real name is Dumyat Hill, but at this point, we didn't feel worthy to call it that; at least, not until after we had conquered it. So off we went, day packs in hand. We started off by wandering through the school gardens, as there was word that there might be a path in that direction. Though there were few flowers actually growing, the day was warm and beautiful and our spirits were high. We find a road that seems to be headed closer to the hill in the distance, which leads us to a cute churchyard. Past the graveyard by the church, there is a path winding it's way through the trees, getting closer to our destination. So we take it. And it brings us to a sheep pasture, right along some more rolling hills. We decide this is a good place to stop for lunch.
After lunch, we carefully made out way through the sheep pasture, trying not to scare the newly born lambs that were closely following their mothers.
We then found ourselves on the other side of the pasture, facing a house. We were pretty sure we had just unintentionally crossed private property. So we quickly jumped the fence and walked into a very cute little village, with all the houses built extremely close together. The 'village' only went for about 2 blocks, and after that, went back to the hills. Right after the village, there was a small trail that went to the left, towards Big Papa. So we took it. Looking back at it, we're pretty sure that the trail we took had been some sort of sheep path. It was definitely NOT built for people to walk on. But we were determined and took it regardless. It was definitely more scenic than the trail we took on our way back (the ACTUAL trail we should have originally taken), with small streams flowing and created mini waterfalls over rocks.
After about 10 minutes, the trees thinned out and we were walking the hills of Scotland, with the views getting better and better. However, due to the fact that we were not taking the 'people approved' route, we had to stop quite a few times to catch our breath. Big Papa kept on looming closer and closer - but never close enough. We kept on thinking we were there right around the next corner, only to realize we had another hill to cross in order to reach him.
We weren't even at the top of Big Papa and we felt like we could already see for miles across Stirling. The Wallace Monument, in the distance, is where we had come from, as it is right next to our campus:
Once up on the hills, needless to say, there were many Lord of the Rings references. We were just waiting for a helicopter to come out of nowhere and film a sweeping shot of us running towards a battle or something. Unfortunately, it was a simple wish. In true Kristy and Dana form, our hike made sure that we had to work extra hard, making us do a little unintentional rock climbing in order to reach our destination. The hills just became more and more vibrant as we continued up and up.

Finally, after about an hour and a half to two hours of wandering around, we made it to the top of Dumyat Hill! We had finally conquered it! Like at the other hills that we had climbed, there were piles of rocks to show how many people had reached the summit. So we quickly found our own rocks to add and threw them to the top!

However, after this, we looked over and saw that there was another hill to conquer, that was just a hop, skip and a jump away. So after a quick snack and water break, we gathered our things together again and made our way next door - where we also found the actual path that we should have taken on our way up. It was not nearly as pretty as the one we went on. But was much easier to navigate. The hill next door also had a pile of rocks, so we added ones to that, as well, and took another break. The hills were extremely windy, as there was nothing to protect them from such elements.

After quite the hike up, it was time to head back down. On our way, we passed by more pastures, but instead of sheep, they had Highland Coos..... WITH BABIES!! Who were adorable! So fluffy!
So after about 10 minutes of trying to convince the baby highland cattle that they needed to come to us and failing, we went and found our way back to campus.

Later that night - Kristy learns about Ceilidhs!

What is a ceilidh, you ask?
Ceilidh: (esp in Scotland and Ireland) an informal social gathering with folk music, singing, dancing, and storytellinghe.White Sergeant

Mostly, though, traditional fold music and dancing. Lots and lots of dancing. Which is fairly fast paced. Good thing before each song they teach you the dance moves! Here is an example of some of the dances:

Strip the Willow - very fast paced with a LOT of spinning
The Dashing White Sergeant
The Flying Scotsman
etc.

According to our scottish friend, true ceilidh form is dancing every dance. Ceilidhs last for about 3 or 4 hours. There are a lot of dances. And after a long day of hiking, I was already exhausted. But I did manage to dance most of them. I think I only missed about 3 or 4. Which, for my first ceilidh, I thought was pretty good. Many of us who had attended the ceilidh had never been to one before, so, needless to say, there was a lot of stepping on each others feet and bumping into each other.

At the end of the ceilidh, everyone gathers on the dance floor, takes hands, and sings Auld Lang Syne. A great way to end a lively night.

So there you have it! Dumyat Hill and Ceilidhs! I will try and continue to update, but for now, it's time to go and get my glasses fixed (really no story behind that one.... they just kind of broke. Sad day.). Until next time!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

And so we move on to Rome - stop one in the Italian venture.

To take a quote from my travel journal on my train ride down to Rome from Munich - "Well hello, Italia. You're looking beautiful this morning. And that she was, with a flog-like mist covering her hills and the sun shining through, intensifying the green shadows in an attempt to break the fog." This, however, was the highlight of the train ride, as the compartment I had been in was somewhat squished, with 3 other kids in their twenty-somethings who decided to take up as much space as physically possible and an older Italian woman who had said a somewhat heartening goodbye to her husband in Munich (granted, I couldn't quite understand, as this was all said in Italian - but it seemed sincere, as they held hands out the window of the train before it departed.). Upon writing in my travel journal, I had since moved carriages into a much more spacious area, with just one other gentleman. But, as you could probably tell, the sun was rising at this point, so there was little time for more sleep. Ah well, that wasn't going to stop me enjoying Rome!

Ah Rome. Many people seem to dislike it's busy and touristy streets, with Gypsy's and pickpockets at any and every historical site, but I really loved it. The atmosphere, the history, the people - All were welcoming to me and the friends that I had since met up with at Rome Termini train station.

After dropping our things off at our hostel, we decided to start our sight seeing immediately. We didn't realize that everything would be so close by and Rome was such a walk-able city! We saw about 16 or so sights that first day alone! These included:

Repubblica y Piazza della Repubblica
St. Paul's Within the Walls
San Carlo Quattro Fontane
Fontana del Tritone
Trinita dei Monti (Spanish Steps)
Villa Medici and the surrounding park area
Fontane di Trevi (Trevi Fountain)
St. Ignazio di Loyola
Pantheon
Area Sacra
Chiesa del Gesu
Palazzo Venezia
Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II
Colonna Traiana y Mercati Traianei
Colosseo (Colosseum)
Arco di Costantino

Unfortunately, I really only have the Italian names of these places, as those are the names that are on the map that we got, but some of them you can figure out (Like the Colosseum). The day itself was gorgeous, and up at the Medici Villa one could look over all of Rome it seemed. Flowers were blooming and it was comfortably in the upper 70's the entire time, with few clouds darting around the sky. Some of the sites, like the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain were quite crowded with tourists, but it didn't bother us too much. The only time we really had a bit of a misunderstanding was when a man tried to sell us flowers by putting them in our hands and expecting us to pay for them. When he realized we weren't going to (We told him we had just gotten off the plane and therefore had no money at the time - this was only partly true, but he believed it), he took his flowers back and disappointingly stalked away to bother other tourists that he might have more luck with. At the Medici Villa, we wandered around the park area and got our first taste of Italian Gelato (albeit from a food stand - still delicious), taking in the views and the sunshine, which was a welcome change from the usual cloudy and rainy days of Stirling. But soon we were ready to be off again, and went to search for more 'hot spots.'

The Trevi Fountain, though beautiful, was absolutely packed, and it took quite a bit of maneuvering to get a good seat in the house, if you will. We were finally able to snag a spot from a couple that had moved to get our turn in taking pictures and throwing pennies into the fountain!
On our way from the Trevi Fountain to the Pantheon, we quite literally stumbled upon St. Ignazio di Loyola - a stunning church set far back in a quiet alleyway. It seemed an odd place for such a beautiful church. It was definitely one of the more intense churches that we had seen thus far.

The church apparently holds the relics of Saint John Berchmans. Intense. Moving on. From there we continued to wander about, seeing the Pantheon and Area Sacra. Area Sacra was interesting because not only was it a small ruin area that was only about as bit as a small square as any other in Rome, but it had literally been turned into a cat sanctuary. At the bottom of the ruins, there was another building that was completely devoted to taking care of these stray cats - around the ruins there were about 50 felines roaming about, sleeping, and playing. It was quite the sight to see - I was a bit jealous that they got to play around the ruins like that.

From there, we wandered over to Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II and ate dinner by the Colonna Traiana y Mercati Traianei ruins - you know, just another average day in Rome. I really wish that could be my life every day - eating dinner on ancient ruins. It would be great. Since Europe had finally gone through daylight savings (Europe does it 3 or 4 weeks after the States do - way to change that, too, US....), the days were getting longer, so my friend Dana and I decided it was time to hit up the Colosseum. So we did. And it was amazing. My inner history nerd was going wild at this point, so instead of overwhelming you with my thoughts while walking around the immense, ancient structure that holds so much history, I will just let you look at the classic Colosseum photo that everyone takes on their visit:

There it is! THE Colosseum! Naturally, there were people dressed as ancient Romans walking around. And there were ruins everywhere. It was every history nerds dream in one place. Definitely want to make another visit and take more than two days in Rome to see what it has to offer. Anyway, after the Colosseum, we were all pretty beat (They had had a 6 am flight, so had also been up quite early) and headed for an early nights sleep.

Next Day
It is a Wednesday. So like any good Roman should know, on Wednesdays and Sundays, the Pope holds audience at St. Peters Basilica. So what do we do? We wake ourselves up at 6am and hoof it all the way across Rome to see Pope Benedict XVI. We were 2 hours early. Which, apparently, was a good thing, because when we got there, there weren't nearly as many people as there would be 2 hours later. So we were able to snag seats. About 15 or so rows away from where the Pope sat. It was worth it. Excitement grew as St. Peter's square quickly filled up, so the few hundreds of people that were there when we first arrived turned into thousands. And then he came.

The Pope made his arrival in his Pope Mobile turned convertible hummer and worked the crowd like never before. You'd be surprised at how important it is for a Pope to be able to work the crowd. And everyone loved him. The short service was held in Latin, and, once finished, about 7 or so different Cardinals came up and spoke in their different respective languages, thanking certain groups of people in the crowd for coming and saying that the Pope would give his blessings to them. Then the Pope would speak (in each respective language - we were impressed) and give his blessings to the people and to their families and friends. The crowd at times seemed almost electric, as people cheered when he was done giving his speech - One choir got up and sang for him, and the Pope stood and clapped for them afterward. All in all, a very cool experience.
After the Pope, we were all pumped about Popish and Vatican things, so decided, after a quick lunch, to go and see the Sistine Chapel. We didn't realize that this would require us to see all of the Vatican Museum. So off we went, room after room after room after room. In case you didn't know, it is a HUGE museum. Beautiful, but after a while, when you were only expecting to see the Sistine Chapel, it got long. So near the end, we bypassed a few rooms and beelined it to the chapel. Which was beautiful. I think you might recognize this part of the ceiling?I think some famous painter named Michelangelo or something painted it. No big deal. Not like it's world renowned or anything.

It turned out that the Sistine Chapel was the last stop of the museum, so we wandered around outside for a bit, and then decided it was time for more gelato. The greatest gelato in the world. You may think I am joking, but I am quite serious. This gelato is a main reason for my desire to go back to Rome. The place we got it was a little hole in the wall across from the Vatican called Old Bridge Gelateria. If you ever plan on going to visit the Vatican, or just Rome in general, find this gelateria. It is amazing. It was only 1 euro 50 for three scoops of different flavors. After we had made our way through the crowd of people to get our gelato, we went to find cover under an awning around the corner, as it had started raining. However, it was quite sunny a block away. But then the rain turned to almost hail-like size. But it was still sunny a block away. And then there was lighting. Even though the sun was still shining. It was a very odd storm that lasted a total of 15 or 20 minutes, and then went on it's merry way, leaving Rome bathed in sunshine once more. A funny thing did, indeed, happen on the way to the Forum.

After going to the Colosseum, Dana and I were still in need of some Roman Ruins, so it was off to the Forum (as mentioned above). This is possibly my absolute favorite area of the city. Wandering through the ruins. We were there for almost an hour and a half and I still don't feel like I've even scratched the surface of it.

There were ruins everywhere, yet it still seemed so well laid out, that it was easy to imagine it all built up again in it's glory days. Oh how I wish I could have seen it.
But, once again, it was time to go, as we had to meet two of our other friends that we had separated from for dinner - another reason to come back to Rome. Once again, we had had a very long day of walking, and an early morning ahead of us, so we pretty much just went to bed after that. Not very exciting when it came to the night life.

Thursday-
It's off to Perugia, Italy! For those of you who don't know Perugia (I certainly didn't before this trip), it is all on a giant hill borderline mountain. The train station is at the bottom of the hill and the old city/city centre is at the top. Also, it is by no means whatsoever on a grid system. The streets go every which way and turn on a dime if they so choose, changing names while they're at it. Nor do they like road signs. All of this together made the finding of our hostel somewhat impossible. We finally find a road sign that matches our map and decide to take it. We miss a turn somewhere and end up at the bus station about halfway up. This will come into play later on. We ask a friendly old lady which way to go, and she points us on our way. We finally come to the top and find the city centre and our hostel. Which, it turns, out, doesn't open until 4. So we park it by the Fontana Maggiore and do some sun bathing, as it is, once again, a gorgeous day. After we are able to drop our bags off, we wander around Perugia to be greated by some truly amazing views:
Another thing we learn that, because Perugia is on a giant hill/mountain, it has escalators taking pedestrians from one street to another. Not nearly enough to say it was extensive, however. Still, this would have helped our tired muscles on the way up to the hostel. We also learn that it has some sort of Underground City, which is pretty much used like regular city streets. But it's underground. We were walking along a street after dinner and saw an open door and lo and behold - there was the underground city. Through a random door in a wall. There wasn't too much in it, no shops or anything, just the streets and some old building-less windows. There was another escalator at the end, taking pedestrians farther down the hill. It was getting late after this discovery, so we wound back through the streets of Perugia to our Hostel.

Friday, April 1st:
The day that will be known as Black Friday. The day that the world pulled the most evil of April Fools day pranks on us. Perugia, you were our downfall.

That morning, our train was to leave at around 11 am, and we were to arrive in Bologna at around 2pm, which would give us plenty of time to wander around the city, before our 4 or 5 pm flight the next day back to Edinburgh, Scotland. Since our train left fairly late in the morning, we took our sweet time getting down the hill, grabbing some breakfast along the way. Once arriving at the train station, we beeline it for the ticket machine, as we had purchased our tickets online weeks before, but had yet to print them out. As our tickets were printing, a man who spoke English came up to us to inform us that printing them out was pointless. You see, trenitalia had chosen April Fools Day, of all days, to go on strike. We were stunned. We had a plane to catch the next day, and the trains from Perugia would not get us to Bologna on time to catch our flight. In vain, we stubbornly sat by our platform, in hopes that a train would magically make it's way towards the station. It didn't. Here is where our train should have been:
After finally realizing there would be no way, we called up our program adviser (we were all from IFSA-Butler) to get help on what to do next, and were informed that there should be a 730 AM bus the next day to Florence, in which we could take a train to Bologna, which should leave every half hour (the train strike was to be over at 9pm that night). This sounded perfect to us, as long as we could get another night in the hostel. So back up the hill we went, to the previous mentioned bus station. With everyone else that had been stranded at the train station. Unfortunately (but understandably) for us, no one really spoke english at the bus station. However, we were able to make out that there was not, in fact, a bus at 730 to Florence. Nor was there a bus to Bologna. Or any bus that could get us north that could help us GET to Bologna on time for our plane. We were stranded in Perugia. At this point, we were so done with Perugia, we jumped the next bus to Rome, figuring that at least in Rome we could catch another plane back to the UK (We could not see how we would be able to get to Bologna on time for our flight - we had briefly considered renting a car, but realized quickly that would not work for many reasons). On the way, we found out that the cheapest flight out of Rome was £127 and would only get us into Manchester. We were desperate to get to Bologna. On the bus ride back to Rome, we found out that there were to be night trains (after 9pm - when the strike was over) to Bologna! Perfect! We had it all planned out - we would head back to Rome Termini, where I had originally come in from Munich, get our tickets and be on our way!

The bus that we had taken back to Rome, however, took us to a different train/bus station called Rome Tibertini. We didn't think this a problem, although, apparently it was, as there were no buses from Rome Tibertini to Rome Termini, where we needed to be. I have been told that the buses may have also been on strike at this point, but I don't know if that was completely right. There may just not have been a city bus going there. We did find, however, that there was a metro that would easily take us between the two stations.

So we arrived at Rome Termini train station, found help, and found a cheap overnight train ticket (only about £27 versus £87) which would leave at about 1030 that night. However, it would be leaving out of Rome Tibertini, the train station that we had just come from. It was only 4 or 5 at the time, thought, and we knew the area around Rome Termini better than Rome Tibertini, and knew we would be able to take the metro back, so we wandered around and found some dinner.

After dinner and a quick gelato dessert, it was back down to the metro to head to Rome Tibertini. It was about 8 or 830 at this time, so we had roughly 2 hours to get to our train. On our way down the stairs to the metro, a surge of people come up against us. When we reached the bottom of the metro, we were quickly turned away as, go figure, metro had just gone on strike. Just our luck. And there were no buses to Rome Tibertini still. So, no metro and no bus. And we had no idea how or if we could walk there, and we had about 2 hours to figure this out. Our only choice was to stand in the long line outside of the train station for the taxis. We finally got a taxi about a half hour later, and we zoomed off, arrive at Rome Tibertini with an hour plus till our train. We were comforted in seeing our train up on the schedule board, though it had no platform yet. So we all took turns in taking a bathroom break. Normally, this wouldn't be anything worth noting. However, on my return from the bathroom, I arrive to a group of gloomy looking faces and a "Hey Kristy, you know what would be funny? If our train was canceled. But really...." On the board, where our train number and information had comfortably sat, there was the dreaded CANCELED word staring back at us. At this point, we had lost all hope of ever getting out of Italy. It was clear Italy did not want us to leave, and it was going to do everything in it's power to keep us there. It did not, however, take into account Francesco.

Francesco. An angel from heaven. An Italian man who had taken only about 2 years of English, who could communicate with us just enough to get his points across, but could, more importantly, translate for us. Clearly seeing us in distress, he realized that we were trying to get to Bologna, where he also happened to be going. We quickly latched onto him. It appeared there were other trains to Bologna, but we would have to buy another ticket. At this point, we were ready to do anything to get home. But there was no way we were buying our ticket until 1o minutes before the train was coming, to be absolutely positive that it was, in fact, coming and we were not just throwing more money down the train. Luckily, though, we didn't need to, as a half hour later, a woman came up, speaking excitedly in Italian, to say that the train to Bologna was not canceled!! It was only 2 hours delayed! Thank goodness! So during our wait, we taught Francesco how to play Go Fish, and then, once the familiar and very welcome clickity clack of the train came down the platform, went our separate ways. I shall forever be grateful for Francesco.

We finally arrived in Bologna at 4 or 430 am - roughly 13 hours after we were originally supposed to arrive. Some of our group instantly took a bus to the airport, as we were so done with public transportation at this point, and so tired, that there was little desire to see Bologna. However, myself and two others decided to walk around a bit. Not much was open, and there wasn't a whole lot to see around the train station, and we were afraid to walk much farther, so we left for the airport around 10 am, and sat around the airport for a few hours, taking nap shifts. Thankfully, our plane went off without a hitch (not including the few babies that were on board and not enjoying the plane ride), and we arrived in Edinburgh as previously planned, ready to kiss the ground once we had landed.

Although the last two days of spring break were incredibly stressful, I would still like to think that my very first adventures to mainland Europe were a success. Even though all of the transportation issues occurred, we were able to successfully make our way back safe and sound, and I do still want to see much more of Italy. I just never plan on changing cities while I'm there, unless I have a car of my own to do it. If I've learned anything - Never trust Italian Public Transportation.

In Old Bavaria

It’s that time again!

Sorry it’s been so long since the last blog, but things have been quite busy. I think I have about 3 weeks to catch up on (including Spring Break). So, let’s go!

Week 1:

One reason I have 3 weeks and not just two is because there really wasn’t anything worth blogging about going on this week. It was mostly just trying to finish up mid semester essays before Spring Break. Which mostly worked (Got 2 out of 3 done!). Other than that, nothing really to note happened. Just lived in the library, as often happens during these times. On to week two!

Week 2 (Spring Break Week!):

So for Spring Break, my plans went as thus –

Saturday:

Morning – Leave Edinburgh airport

Afternoon – Arrive in Frankfurt Hahn airport in Germany

Find Quincy and go to Heidelberg, GermanySaturday to

Monday: Spend the time with my friend, Quincy, from Redlands, as he is studying abroad at the University of Heidelberg.

Monday: Leave Heidelberg first for Munich, then a 5 hour train layover, then an overnight train ride from Munich to Rome, Italy.

Tuesday Morning: Meet friends from Stirling in Rome

Tuesday to Thursday Morning: Roam around Rome

Thursday: Train to Perugia. Spend the day and night in Perugia

Friday: Train to Bologna. Spend the day and night in Bologna.

Saturday afternoon: Flight back to Edinburgh.

So, as you can tell, it was quite the busy time, wandering from city to city. Or, at least, that’s what was SUPPOSED to happen. But we will get to that later. First, let’s start at the beginning.

The plane from Edinburgh to Frankfuhrt hahn was early in the morning, so I ended up staying the night at Edinburgh airport. This ended up working out alright, as I found two friends from Stirling who also had early flights leaving, and sat and talked with them. It was also convenient because one of them had a large travel book of places across Europe, and the travel book had a few phrases in different languages that were good to know. Needless to say, I immediately found German and Italian and wrote some phrases down in my notebook.

The flight itself was uneventful, however, upon arriving in Frankfurt, I did have a small panic attack, as I realized that I would be very limited in communicating with people. But I was lucky, as many of the workers in Frankfurt Hahn airport spoke English and directed me to the correct bus stop into Mainz, where I would be meeting my friend at the Hauptbahnhof (central railway station), and we would continue our journey to Heidelberg. Heidelberg, and apparently most of Germany, is well known for it’s environmentalism – so everyone rides bikes. It was really quite insane to see the number of bikes on the road and outside of buildings.

Bikes outside of the Hauptbahnof

Upon arriving in Heidelberg, we wandered around Altstadt (Old Town), which was absolutely beautiful – the classic, picturesque German town. Since I was determined to have a wurst of some sort while in Germany, Quincy brought me to a cute restaurant down a street just off the main square, where we indulged in Bratwurst and beer. Both were quite delicious, and I was most satisfied.

After dinner, we wandered up to the Heidelberg Castle. For some reason or another, no one was at the main gates, so we got in for free! The castle itself is quite stunning. It was first thought to be built around 1214!

Quincy and I also got a chance to wander around the gardens of the castle, climbing around the ruins like it was a giant playground. Almost makes one want to live in a Castle someday. We then headed back into Altstadt and ate this desert called Schneeballentraume. I’m pretty sure there is absolutely no way to possibly describe this desert – so here is a definition I found online which seems to suffice:

Schneeballentraume – strips of dough glued together in the shape of a ball and fried.

So there ya go. Then they add all sorts of delightful toppings, most notably, chocolate. They are quite delicious and filling. However, after a very long day, it was time to head back and be off to bed, so we could be rested for the next morning’s adventures.

Day the second!

The next day, we wander to the Zoo! Apparently the University of Heidelberg has a Zoo! And they draw people in by having an exhibit of White Brown Bears outside. Not polar bears. White brown bears. I didn’t know they existed, either.

After seeing those, though, we were sold and into the zoo we went. They had many animals that most zoos had, including farm animals, like donkeys and chickens and roosters. Apparently they like their farm animals. After the Zoo, we decided to hike up Philosophers Way, a giant hill/small mountain across the river from the castle and Altstadt. At the top, there were two ancient monasteries (or, well, the ruins to them, at least). One was St. Michaels, and I believe the other was known as St. Stephens.

St. Michael's Monastery

In between the two Monasteries is an amphitheatre that was apparently used throughout WWII, possibly for Nazi Youth Rallies, though I’m not 100% on that one. The views on the way up and at the top near the monasteries were really quite lovely, as we could see all of Heidelberg sprawled out before us. After this, it was time to wander back down the mountain, as Quincy had a test he needed to study for, that would be the next day.

Travel Day

Monday the 28^th – travel day! This was the day that I left Heidelberg. I first took a train into Munich and was able to spend a few hours wandering around Marienplatz – the main square, with the gorgeous town hall.

I don’t know if it is like this every day, but there were carts and stands EVERYWHERE along the road, selling nuts of every type, vegetables, fruits, and other things. It was almost like a giant Farmer’s market, but it seemed to natural that it may just be like that all the time. But then it was back to the Hauptbahnof to catch my overnight train to Rome! It’s off to the fatherland!!