Have gotten a bit slack over Christmas in the blog department, but realistically this is a trend that will probably continue for the rest of my travels. Who knew simply writing down past events in a not so creative way could be such an effort?!
So anyway, brief run-down of Christmas and Hogmanay.... I think last I wrote was just before I met Grace in Germany. We were in Germany for 4 days, and we spent pretty much the entire time at Christmas markets - went to the ones in Mainz (which was literally right down the street from the apartment we stayed in), Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. They were all amazing! And the last one we went to in Wiesbaden was the best, despite the icy rain for most of it, because I got to catch up with Jasmina! That was lovely, just wish we'd been in Germany a bit longer so we could hang out some more. But yeah, so far still love Germany - am yet to have a bad experience :)
Had a lovely Christmas at Jo's place. Got to meet some of her friends, experience a carvery meal, see a wee bit of London (which was dominated by shopping lol), attend our first Christingle service and eat a delicious Christmas dinner. Then on Boxing Day we headed to Dub and Dee's (again for me, first time for Grace). It was great to see them again, went for a walk around Elsenham and saw some thatched cottages, went to Anglesey Abbey and had a conservation tour of the house, and spent a few hours in Cambridge. Both Grace and I have put pictures up on Facebook.
After that we headed back into London and got a bit more stuck into the touristy stuff - went and saw Buckingham Palace, took a walk along the Diana Memorial Walk, went to the Churchill War Room and then headed over to the Tower of London. Unfortunately we wasted so much time trying to find our way around the interrupted tube services in the morning when we got there that by the time we made it to the Tower it was too late to be worth going in. But we had a look around the outside and took a few pictures. Just another thing on my list of things to do next time I'm there. A list that just keeps getting longer the more places I go! Anyway after that we went and met Jo at Victoria Station and headed to Manchester.
Manchester wasn't very successful in terms of sightseeing, was more of a rest and recuperation stop on the way to Hogmanay. Quite liked what I saw of it though. Had one full day there, then headed on to Edinburgh for Hogmanay! That was great, I remembered how much I love Scotland when I got back there. Did a few more touristy things like Edinburgh Castle and a tour of some of Edinburgh's underground vaults where the homeless and criminals used to hide out back when being homeless was illegal in Edinburgh. There was also a Wiccan temple (not sure about both spelling and terminology there, but anyway it was a vault that modern day witches now use as their meeting place). Also got to meet up with Hannah again, which was awesome! And just to top that off managed to beat all odds and find Jenna and a whole bunch of other Dundee people at the crowded street party! Unfortunately didn't manage to catch up with Meredith, Beth, Maria and Calum. But all in all Hogmanay was pretty good fun. Fireworks over the castle looked pretty amazing.
After Edinburgh we ducked up to Inverness for our last two days in Scotland, which was lovely. Just wish we could have had a little more time! Stayed at a lovely little B&B that my parents and also cousins had previously stayed at and highly recommended. It was also very conveniently located right across the river from the town centre. Inverness itself was lovely. Got some nice pictures of the buildings along the riverside. We did an afternoon tour which included a short cruise across Loch Ness to the ruins of Urquhart Castle. Then had a delicious Scottish dinner at the Hootananny - a pub known for its Scottish music. But I have decided to make a seperate blog (probably on Tumblr this time) where I will now note and describe in more detail all the amazing food I come across :) So I'll try and avoid repeating that now.
Anyway, after bidding a fond farewell to Scotland and the UK, we headed over to Berlin to begin our continental adventures. Spent about 4 full days in Berlin, which was awesome. After my second experience of Germany, albeit a lot shorter one this time, I'm still loving Germany. Public transport is amazing, lots of interesting history, and delicious food. We were a bit laid back, which meant that we didn't fit in as much as we probably could have, but we saw some of the main touristy sights in Berlin, the highlights of which were probably Hohenschoenhausen Prison, the Berlin Cathedral and the dome at the top of the German Reichstag. Everything we saw was pretty awesome, but those are probably what stood out the most. The second two in particular offered great views over Berlin, and the prison was fascinating but terrible - atrocities that continued to go on after WWII, just no longer carried out by Nazis. It was also amazing getting to see bits of the wall and seeing it marked where it used to stand around the city. The Brandenburger Tor was also pretty cool, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was also really interesting. Incredibly depressing/saddening information centre underneath it as well. We also went to see Pitch Perfect at the cinema in Potsdamer Platz, which is where they have the film premieres in Berlin.
Now in Prague, which I will talk about in the next post as I really should be sleeping... But for mum and dad (/any other interested parties) we're headed to Salzburg tomorrow and then Budapest after that :) So that's me done for now - will try not to leave quite as long til my next post this time!
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