A Winter Wonderland!

Salzburg = winter wonderland. The best way I can describe it.  Coming into Austria on the train the scenery was beautiful, and Salzburg was just as beautiful.  We weren’t staying in the prettiest area of Salzburg, but the next morning when we woke up and it was snowing, everything looked amazing.  

Sound of Music tour was awesome, but not so much because we were seeing places from a movie, more because we were seeing some beautiful spots, had a hilarious tour guide and listened to a soundtrack that reminded us of childhood on the way.  We also met a lovely Canadian girl called Sophie.  We saw the lake and the gates at the back of Schloss Leopoldskron where Maria and the children capsized the boat in front of the Captain and Baroness first.  That was cool, the edges of the lake were all sluggish and starting to freeze, and three ducks swam past with little drifts of snow on their backs.  Then we went to Hellbrunn Palace where we saw the gazebo from ‘Sixteen Going On Seventeen’.  It was originally at the place on the lake, but so many tourists were jumping the fence day and night to see it/dance around it that they wanted to get rid of it, so it was moved.  Now its also locked, cos apparently a couple of years ago an old lady hurt herself dancing around in it.  Anyway, then we went to Mondsee, which was a gorgeous little town and home to the church where they shot the wedding scenes.  The church was beautiful, though not half as big as it looked in the shots in the movie!  We also had lunch in a little restaurant there - Grace and I tried some Austrian goulash, which like the Czech version was pretty delicious, and Jo and Sophie had Käsespätzle.  We all had tap water too, on the recommendation of the tour guide, and he was right that its definitely delicious water!  Though we were all a bit shocked when they charged us each 50c for a glass of tap water?!  We also drove past the house they used for the von Trapp house in the movie, with the avenue of trees that the children were hanging out of leading up to it.  We weren’t able to get very close to that though, as the road in front is restricted to residents and guests.  And on the way home we watched a video about Salzburg and the Sound of Music, narrated/hosted by a somewhat older Liesl.  Altogether very enjoyable :) Here's a few pics - you can see all the rest on Facebook of course!

In the afternoon we just wandered the streets of Salzburg - had to go and buy a big backpack for me, as unfortunately my suitcase wheel stopped turning in the UK, and as I still had to use it the wheel had worn almost completely down on one side just from dragging it around by the time we got to Salzburg.  So I am now the proud owner of a hiking backpack, which I managed to get on sale.  But its not quite as big as my massive suitcase so I have also had to send a whole bunch of stuff back to Australia - definitely not a cheap exercise! :( Ah well, the joys of travelling I guess!  We also had to stop many times to take lots of snow pictures - it was just so beautiful and I was trying as hard as I could to catch it on camera! Made a wee snowman, checked out the gardens where some of the do-re-mi scenes were filmed... But the other main touristy thing we did in the afternoon was have a piece of the famous Original Sachertorte from the Sacher Hotel, which was very fancy and very delicious.  Sachertorte is basically just a chocolate cake with apricot marmalade and covered in chocolate.  Although the hot chocolate tasted more like warm milk, which was weird but in the end good with the richness of the Sachertorte.  

Anyway after our relatively lazy afternoon we went to the Augustiner Bräu, which is a huge brewery that can seat around 5000 people according to our tour guide.  He also gleefully pointed out that it is both attached to a church and next to a hospital.  It was pretty cool - kinda like a big indoor picnic area as there are just big halls filled with tables, and you go and get your stein of beer served from big kegs and then either bring your own food, or go choose from the wide variety of foods available at the little stall-like shops in one of the area between halls.  Apparently they have really nice big areas outside too when its summer.  We met our new friend Sophie there, and also 4 other Australians that she had met on the salt mine tour she did in the afternoon.  (Note: according to them, if you’re in Salzburg then DON’T do the salt mine tour!).  It was nice to have some company other than each other for a night - you can kinda run out of things to talk about when you hang out with the same people all day every day for a few weeks...  But aside from that, everyone was really cool and we had a really good night.  Had a beer and some dinner at Augustiner, then went to search out the oldest restaurant in Europe.  Turned out they didn’t just serve drinks, and was a very intimidating and fancy fine dining restaurant, so we searched out another bar in the Old Town.  It was quite interesting - it was a little underground and appeared to just be a hole hacked out of rock.  It was also empty except for one guy, and blaring really loud music.  But we all sat down and got a drink, and eventually a massive group of about 40 guys came in.  We stayed for a bit, debating what would cause such a large group of just guys to go out together (buck’s night, sports team...), and after Jo and I chatted with one guy and found out why they were there (not a football team, but a group of football team FANS out for a belated Christmas do?!) we headed to a rooftop bar across the river.  Then after that we headed home.  

We were going to try and do something like the Red Bull hangar the next morning, but then left the hotel and had so much stuff with us that we decided to just head straight to Budapest.  Little did we know... But I will elaborate more on that in my next post, which should be soon as we're on a train all night tomorrow night! :P

Prague!

On the very long train from Prague to Salzburg, which leaves plenty of time for a more in detail recount of Prague.  Hence after not having posted at all for a long time I have now done two within a day of each other!  Unfortunately Hogmanay and Berlin etc didn’t get the same in depth descriptions, but oh well.  I definitely plan on going back to those places at some point.  Prague I could go back to, but I would definitely want to learn at least a few phrases/useful words in Czech first.  I’d forgotten how hard it is to be in a country where you don’t speak the language at all - my only other experience of this was in France on two separate days.  Though to be fair I at least know a handful of words in French, whereas I have not the first clue when it comes to Czech.  

But yeah, regardless of the language barrier, I did quite enjoy Prague.  It’s a beautiful city, probably the second prettiest I’ve been to yet, coming in second to Edinburgh and with Strasbourg in third (note city, because the little villages we saw in Elsass and some I saw on the train through Germany were gorgeous!).  It is remarkably well preserved considering it went through WWII and the following years of Soviet communism.  Did a free walking tour in the morning, from which I learnt the following facts.  There is a concert hall in Prague that is the last remaining building in Europe that Mozart played in live.  They also have a huge astronomical clock that is either 600 or 800 years old (my memory gets a  little fuzzy when it gets down to specifics!) and the largest medieval castle I think in Eastern Europe.... But anyway, there’s a lot of beautiful old buildings all throughout Prague, many of which are a bit run down now but still beautiful.  

The walking tour was really interesting, went through the Old Town and a bit of the New Town with a Czech guy who studied drama therapy at university, so was very enthusiastic and dramatic!  We also saw the Jewish Quarter with lots of synagogues, one of which was a museum that apparently Hitler established and stored items taken by the SS etc to create a museum of an extinct race.  Also saw an old church which has two “creepy and spooky” legends/stories with it.  First is that there was an old rich guy who went to sleep in his study and slept for several days, and so his servants thought he was dead and had him buried in the family crypt.  He then woke up and managed to push the top off his coffin, but couldn’t get the door to the crypt open.  People heard yelling and loud noises from inside and assumed his spirit couldn’t rest, and so the priest took holy water and blessed the door of the crypt, and after a few days the noises stopped.  But not long after another member of the family died, and when they opened the door to the crypt and found the guy sitting leaning on the coffin, with a grimace on his face because he’d died in such distress.  The other story is about a statue of Mary inside the church, which apparently has a beautiful necklace on it.  A thief saw it and decided he’d like to steal it, so he got himself locked inside the church one night.  But when he reached up to take it, the statue grabbed his hand.  So he was stuck standing there with his arm above his head.  He tried bargaining with Mary, but remained stuck there.  When the priest found him the next day, he looked at it and said “We’ll just have to chop the hand off”.  The thief was relieved, until he realised the priest meant his hand.  So now there is a mummified black hand still hanging there - didn’t get to see it properly cos the church wasn’t open, but we peered through the window and could sort of make out a bit of it.  

I also got the impression from the tour guide that the Czech people are very proud of their democracy and their tradition of tendency towards democracy and democratic values even when they were held back from it.  Many stories included past kings who were very liberal about religion and supported science and the arts.  We also heard stories about the Prague Spring when Dubcek introduced “communism with a human face” and also about the students who set themselves on fire in protest when the liberties introduced during the Prague Spring were taken away again by the Soviets.  We also saw the site where there used to stand a huge statue of Stalin with a group of workers behind him.  Unsurprisingly it was blown up around the Velvet Revolution when the Czechs separated from the USSR.  It was actually amazing to remember how new the democracy of the Czech Republic is.  Our guide was saying they have presidential elections in a few days which will be the first (or one of the first?) since they became the Czech Republic.  And he was also saying that one of the potential candidates is a Czech of Germany heritage whose family was made leave all their possessions behind and leave Czechoslovakia back when the Nazis were threatening to invade.  This property included a big palace up on the hill with all the castle buildings.  But he forgave and forgot, and came back to Czechoslovakia to make a career as a politician.

Lots of very interesting stuff, which certainly delighted my inner history/politics nerd.  And we had still more of it in the afternoon, as we decided to go with the same guide on his castle tour that started just after the morning walking tour.  That was pretty cool too, there was a lot to see up there as well, the highlights of which were probably the first courtyard, the big cathedral and Golden Lane.  The courtyard wasn’t particularly finely adorned - the guide described the design as minimalist before minimalism became popular - but it had this awesome little spot which I have put a picture of below:

 

Doesn’t look particularly special, but if you stand in the middle of the circle (where Jo is standing) with your chin up and facing back towards the steps, when you speak it is amplified so that it sounds like you have two speakers on either side of your head.  Though it only sounds like that to you, not to anyone else.  It was pretty amazing, though something that you really have to experience cos you can’t really imagine it.  The cathedral took I think around 100 years to finish buildings, as it was a slow process interrupted by wars and other things.  It was an amazing big structure of Gothic architecture, that strongly reminded me of the Scott Monument in Edinburgh and probably also other churches around Edinburgh too.  This is it below:

It also had lots of big stained glass windows, with the exception of one which was handpainted in art nouveau style.  It is also the place where they store the royal jewels in a  casket which has seven locks and seven different people hold the keys, including the president.  The place where they store it is also along an outer wall, behind a huge mosaic which is made up of more than 1 million little pieces. Tried to get a picture of that too, although it was a little big.  Very impressive though!

Then Golden Lane, which I liked simply because it was so cute.  It used to be servants quarters, and is lots of little houses built into the bottom of what was a very thick wall.  Jo and Grace made me pose next to one of the doors because I was actually slightly too tall for it.  The famous writer Kafka also lived in one of the little houses at one point.  Above the houses you could walk inside the wall, where they displayed suits of armour, and also at one end medieval weapons of torture.  They also had a little gift shop, in which above the door they had a chastity belt! (Though it wasn’t an Everlast :P ).  Had a laugh about that, and of course had to get a picture.

 

We met a nice Canadian guy on the afternoon tour who was doing his masters in Edinburgh, and who strongly reminded me of my Canadian friend Karl from Freiburg!  Also met a couple from Wollongong, who were hilarious.  It was also strange, because the guy reminded Grace and I a lot of our cousin Tim, and we also found out he used to live in the same suburb our cousin currently lives in too!  We had a good laugh with them about the Brazilian guy in the group who would step directly in front of the tablet screen when the guide was showing us pictures, blocking the view of everyone standing behind him.  We also ran into them again not long after the tour which was lucky cos they were able to guide us back to where we needed to go.

Had some Czech food that night, namely goulash served in bread.  It was pretty delicious.  The previous night (just after we’d arrived) we had gone out in search of a place recommended to us by the hostel receptionist, but somehow managed to find ourselves in an Azerbaijani restaurant so ended up sampling some traditional Azerbaijani food.  Easy to do when everything is in Czech!  The Azerbaijani place also didn’t have English menus, but luckily someone there spoke English so he came over and translated the menu for us and gave us recommendations.  

But we’re now in Austria, which I am liking already.  Aside from the fact that its nice being able to read the signs and mostly understand people again, the views from the train were beautiful.  Lots of snow-dusted little villages and a very alpine-y landscape.  Looking forward to exploring Salzburg tomorrow, and Vienna next week.  Will hopefully do a Sound of Music tour tomorrow too! :)

Farewell Scotland, hello continental Europe!

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!

Travelling and time wasting

As the title might suggest, I'm once again travelling and finding myself with an abundance of time to waste.  Feeling very thankful to multinational chains right now, as I sit here taking full advantage of Starbucks and its 2 hours of free wifi.  So I think the last time I posted I was still in Dundee and feeling rather excited about Christmas....

I have now left Dundee for good.  Caught a sleeper train to London with Jo last Wednesday night, which was a fun little adventure.  It was bittersweet leaving - while I still have a lot of fun travelling to look forward to, I really enjoyed my time in Dundee and met some lovely people.  Will definitely have to try and get back to visit sometime in the near future.  Also I realised I never actually climbed the law!   I guess I was on crutches when everyone else did it, so kinda forgot about it and had noone else wanting to do it to remind me.  But anyway, I definitely really enjoyed my exchange experience and am so blessed I got the opportunity to do it.  All thats left from exchange is to await my final marks, and hope I don't have to struggle with the German department too much to get credit when I get home....

So moving on, I have been visiting Dub and Dee for the past few days, at their place near London.  That has been nice - I think I definitely crashed a little bit, sleeping in really late two of the mornings I was there.  But it was great to see them again, and meet baby Jessica.  Even got to go on a tour of the British museum led by Dub, looking at the many artefacts on display there that corroborate events and people described in the Bible.  That was really interesting, and a little bit mind-blowing.  Its really amazing that stuff from that long ago has been dug up again and we're able to see it.  I was also weirdly/nerdily excited that I got to hold a real Roman denarius while I was there - made from real silver. It was only small, but much heavier than I expected.  Can't imagine carrying around a bag of them!   Also went with the whole family to Cambridge yesterday afternoon, which was nice.  Actually had some nice weather - 8 degrees and sunny!  Walked around a bit and looked at the beautiful old buildings and the river punters and the markets.  Didn't go into King's College, which apparently is the more famous one and has an amazing chapel, cos its like 10 quid just to go in.  But I did have quick look in Trinity College - which apparently Isaac Newton had a room at, and Prince Charles stayed at when he went to uni.  It also had a little statue of Henry VIII over the entrance, which the history nerd in me loved.  I also paid to go in and have a look at St John's College, which was lovely too - like all them really.  But it has a replica of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, which is very picturesque.

I have to say, its all the history that really makes Europe and the UK for me.  I mean I love the scenery and the sights too, but I think Australia is better for natural wonders, with our great beaches and stuff like the Barrier Reef.  But everywhere you go here just has so much history behind it - and a lot of it I have studied too, which makes it even more interesting I guess!

So anyway as I said before, I'm now sitting in a Starbucks wasting time while I wait for Grace to meet me.  We will probably just have a quiet day today, as I'm guessing Grace will be a bit jetlagged.  But there are Christmas markets to look forward to, and catching up with Jasmina when she gets to Germany too!  Looking forward to that, feels like forever since I last saw her.  I also need to sort out my luggage situation, as my suitcase has somehow managed to break - one of the wheels is no longer working, making it rather painful as I'm essentially dragging a 20kg bag behind me (that will be closer to 30 once I reclaim the stuff I left behind for the week in the UK :S).  But yeah, a week in Germany, then Christmas and New Year in the UK!  Can't wait!

And since this will probably be my last post before Christmas, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, celebrating the biggest birthday in the world with family and friends!  And if I don't make it on again before New Years either, Happy New Year as well!  Look forward to seeing everyone in Australia again in the new year :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Firstly, when you read the title it should sound like the line in Michael Buble's version of this song :)
But yes, actually starting to get really excited for Christmas this year - and its only the start of December!  I think there's something about the fact that its winter so it feels more Christmassy... Which I know is a little ridiculous as I have never experienced a winter christmas in my life!  I blame the Christmas carols and retailers (snowmen, snowflakes, reindeer etc..).  The only downside is that I won't be with most of my family for Christmas, but Grace is coming over and we'll be staying at the lovely Jo's place for Christmas and then heading to Dub and Dee's place for Boxing Day so it promises to be fun nonetheless!

Quick summary of events since my last blog, before I go on to more Christmas stuff! From where I left off I have since made it through the terrible week of assessments, which I ended on a good note with a trip to St Andrews with the history society (picture below - see Facebook for more photos).

I finally made it to St Andrews, and it was as lovely as everyone has said :) We went to the castle and cathedral (both ruins) before going to a pub quiz with the St Andrews uni history society.  Have to say the best part of the castle was the old mine and countermine - where people outside the walls tried to tunnel in, and the people inside the walls built their own tunnel to meet up with the one from the outside.  It was a little creepy cos it was very small and obviously dark, but definitely the most adventurous part of the trip :P  Got lucky with the weather - although it was freezing the whole time, at least for the start of the trip there was a nice bit of sun. Enough for me to optimistically wear my sunnies for maybe an hour anyway!  Am planning on going back there for a bit more of a look around probably tomorrow with Jo - despite the fact that I should be studying, I have a whole week between exams which also happens to be my last week in Dundee, so I'm not inclined to waste the entire time studying!  Had my first exam yesterday, so it's one down one to go now.

But back to what I've done, the other exciting thing I've done, which incidentally ties in with my Christmas theme, was the Christmas dinner on Saturday night put on by Beth and Maria in their flat downstairs.  Although I had to leave kinda early to study for my exam, it was an awesome party.  I was so impressed with all the effort that went into it!  There were lots of decorations - a wall of paper snowflakes for starters, and Christmas stockings pinned to the notice board, a big snowman to take pictures with, a little Christmas tree with presents, a piece of mistletoe hanging in the corner, Christmas crackers and even reindeer poo in the hallway!  We also had a visit from Santa, who had all the presents everyone brought in a big sack, and everyone had to go sit on his knee to receive one :P

I also got to try two new delicious desserts that I will definitely have to remember in future.  Namely peppermint bark and oreo truffles.  Thank you Morgan for introducing me to those!  Also thanks to the party I am now the proud owner of a 46p santa hat from Tesco! Altogether it was a great party, with great company, great atmosphere, and great food.  Definitely put me in the right mood to be getting super excited about Christmas!

Which leads me to my future Christmas plans.  Firstly, and what will be the official beginning of my Christmas markets tour, is the last Stammtisch at the Edinburgh German Christmas market this Friday.  While it will be bittersweet, cos I have loved going to Stammtisch this semester and getting to know a great group of people and this will be the last time I get to hang out with them, it'll still be lots of fun :) I shall also finish my Scottish souvenir shopping while in Edinburgh - mainly the tartan kilted skirt I am still determined to get!

Next week I will bid a fond farewell to Dundee, ending with a Christmas dinner at Jenna's house which will be my first real 'traditional' Christmas dinner. Looking forward to that! Then I'll be off to get the sleeper train to London with Jo (which will be an adventure in itself - sleepover on a train! There will definitely be pictures!), where I'll stay with Dub and Dee until I fly to Germany on the 17th to meet Grace in Frankfurt.  Then we have a cute little apartment in Mainz for 4 nights and the Christmas market tour will really take place!  We have 3 full days in which I plan to attempt to go to the Christmas markets in Wiesbaden, Mainz, Ruedesheim, and Frankfurt.  Am also on a mission to find a cinema that will be showing The Hobbit in original version (i.e. English!).  And of course the highlight of the trip will be seeing Jasmina!! :) Can't wait to explore a Christmas market or two together.

All of this ending of course with Christmas in London - first at Jo's, then heading to Dub and Dee's for Boxing Day :) Can't wait! Basically, I am blessed to have a lot to look forward to this month, and it promises to be awesome!  Having so many other plans this month is also making me forget the sad fact that I'm leaving Dundee in a week's time - I don't know where the semester has gone?! But even though its been short it has been awesome, and I have met lots of lovely people while here.  But more on that later - I'm sure in my procrastination I will write another blog entry soon :)

Slipping...

Just realised exactly how long it has been since my last post!  I left off at Northern Ireland, which was now over a month ago!   But I'm afraid as the end of semester approaches and it has become super busy everything has been let slide a little - firstly this blog, but also things like grocery shopping, room cleaning and laundry...  So yes I am currently wearing the last of my clean clothes and have already had to resort to buying new underwear as I ran out, and I'm living one day at a time food-wise, mainly on Tesco sandwiches!  End of semester = good times! :P

So anyway, will have to just summarise things as I've missed so much and also am procrastinating right now from doing work on the 6 various assessments I have due this week :S  In a quick summary, what I have missed since my last (proper) post:  Republic of Ireland, Skyfall, Wales, Guy Fawkes Day, rugby matches in Edinburgh, Stammtisch, Katie's visit.  And now I should briefly expand on these things!  In no real order...

Skyfall: Ended up going to see it twice, here in Dundee with Jo and then again in Swansea with Meredith.  Lucky it was such a good movie!  I also put it down as experiencing yet another small part of British culture :)  In fact it made Jo very patriotic, and also very fervent in her desire to be a Bond girl  :P  Another interesting thing is that like Germany, sweet popcorn is a common thing here in the cinema.  But unlike Germany, they seem to also have butter/salted as an alternative option.

Guy Fawkes Day - So I'm guessing it's less of a deal in Scotland, judging by photos I've seen of Guy Fawkes Day celebrations elsewhere, and I would love to go to celebrations in England some day, but it was still nice here as well.  Got to trek through a large park and stand in the freezing cold and see a bonfire and some fireworks :) Reminded me a little of Skyfire, without the picnic and the lake and the warmer weather.  So actually not much like Skyfire :P But I guess they were the last fireworks I saw before then, so I automatically thought of it.  It also made me sad to realise that I won't be hanging with my cousins seeing the fireworks in Wollongong for New Years Eve this year.  Even though Hogmanay (Scottish name for NYE) in Edinburgh will definitely be awesome - would be even more awesome if they could be there with us!

Republic of Ireland - Ok so I talked at length about Northern Ireland in my last post, but will hve to be a bit shorter with the second half of that week I'm afraid.  Went to Dublin first, where I met Meredith.  Then the next day we wandered around Dublin a bit with a girl from Perth we met in the hostel, and also went to the Guinness Storehouse.  That was pretty cool, and Meredith was more than happy to benefit from the fact that I don't really like Guinness!  But we both got certificates for learning to pour the perfect pint of Guinness :) Then after planning a quiet dinner and a movie back at the hostel, we ended up going on a pub crawl in Dublin, as we were in the Temple Bar area.  That was fun, met some random people and went for a bit of a walk around.  The highlight of that though was definitely the last place we went to, which has this guy doing live music who was amazing!  Started to get a bit of a sore throat from cheering and singing along!  Then the next day we got a bus to Limerick, which turned out to be even more awesome than we thought.   Stayed at the Robin's Nest Guesthouse, which I most definitely recommend to anyone headed to Limerick!  Dave and Rosie were the people who owned the place and they were lovely hosts.  We went on a Paddywagon tour to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren - it was pretty amazing, just for all the beautiful scenery! Took a scenic drive through County Clare as well, and also got lovely views of Galway Bay.  Saw an ancient tomb in the Burren, and also just the weird landscape was interesting - I think the guide said people say its similar to what the surface of the moon would look like.  We also managed to run into a girl who from memory was from Wollongong, that we met on the pub crawl in Dublin while at the Cliffs.  Also, fun fact that I may have also put under the pics I put on Facebook, but the Cliffs of Moher were the Cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride! :)  Anyway, that night Dave and Rosie invited us for dinner, which was lovely - a home-cooked meal and some real Irish company!  Got to try my first Irish coffee, and we ended the night watching Downton Abbey.  Then the next day they gave us a lift into town, and ended up keeping our bags for us while we spontaneously went to the rugby match that was on.  That was awesome - the atmosphere of joining the crowds streaming down the street to the stadium, and then being there for a home win.  Munster, which was the home team, was playing Edinburgh.  Was slightly conflicted about who to go for, but had to go for Munster, as they were the home team and I was also inadvertently already wearing their colours!  So that was awesome, and afterwards Dave and Rosie came back in with our bags and gave us a lift to the bus back to Dublin - some of the nicest people I have met, and I can't recommend their guesthouse enough!  Got back to Dublin, and had close call with printing my boarding pass for Ryanair - something to be careful of in future, as I hadn't realised if you don't pre-print it they charge like 60 quid for them to print it for you!  But we got that done at an internet cafe, and then just headed to the airport and spent the night there - actually managed to get a bit of sleep, as they had some padded booths in the food court that were free :)  

Wales - This was my first prolonged experience of typical UK weather - rained at some point every day we were there.  But it was still nice :) Flew into Cardiff in the morning, so had most of the day to wander around there which was good.  Found a Wetherspoons right next to the bus/train stations that had very decent prices for food - we ended up going there several times while in Cardiff! - and that was our first stop of the day.  Then we went to Cardiff Bay, and from there started our own self-guided Torchwood/Doctor Who tour of Cardiff - which you can see from pictures I have put on Facebook.  The highlight of this was the shrine to Ianto Jones that people made where the entrance to Torchwood was - some people are far to obsessed with TV shows, but it was certainly interesting and a little amusing to see - and also the church from the episode where Rose's dad dies.  Then went for a walk down Cardiff's high street after dropping our bags off at the hostel.  It was pretty cool - they had lots of different flags along the street, and we also found a market where we got some curry, cheese and chips, and also some UK flags.  Best thing we found was definitely the dalek sitting outside a costume shop in a little arcade though!  There was a massive line around it though cos of Halloween, so we went back the next morning to be touristy/nerdy and take pictures!  Anyway, the next morning we met Barbara - who I met on the course in Freiburg and goes to uni in Wales - and we went to the Doctor Who Experience!  It was amazing - only slightly disappointing thing being it was very much orientated around the current Doctor, so there wasn't half as much tenth doctor as I could have liked!  But yeah, that was awesome.  Then afterwards we headed to Swansea, where we stayed with Barbara for most of the rest of our trip.  It was quite nice - there was a nice beach that we went for a walk on, as well as going for a wander around the town itself.  That's also where we went and saw Skyfall, and I was also a nerd and spent a few hours in the Swansea Uni library working on an essay I had forgotten about until just before we left!  Altogether it was nice and relaxing, and nice to catch up with Barbara again :) 

[Ok so this is not staying as brief as I would have liked, which is definitely not a good thing for the amount of work I'm getting done...! :S But oh well, it's nice reliving these memories anyway :) And we're on the home stretch now!]

Rugby matches - these were awesome!  Both were at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh.  The first one was definitely the best - the All Blacks vs Scotland, with a sold out crowd.  Went with my flatmate Calum - who I also stayed with - his brother Rory, and my other flatmate Camilla and her boyfriend.  We also were with a bunch of friends - all exchange students - at first, but weren't sitting with them as they bought their tickets separately.  But yeah, both of them were great, I love the atmosphere.  As you may have gathered from my comments on the pictures I put up on Facebook!  Bagpipes, kilts, and some rugby thrown in - whats not to love?!  Actually that is definitely one thing I love about Scotland - how Scottish men will use any occasion as an excuse to wear their kilt.  That and the fact that in Edinburgh you will always find at least one busking bagpiper, and usually more than one.  But anyway, the rugby was definitely an awesome experience, from the meandering there past stalls with match day scarves and street percussionists and young boys playing bagpipes or fundraising for their rugby clubs in a crowd of people wearing jerseys and kilts, to the walking back afterwards in a crush of people who use their people power to just walk in front of the traffic.  Love it all.  We also went to an Australian bar the first weekend in Edinburgh, which was funny - I swear there were more French than Aussies in there cos they were showing the live broadcast of the Wallabies playing France.  Was pretty gutted that they didn't have twisties as was advertised on their website, but had a Bundy rum and coke with Beth, Meredith and Maria as an alternative taste of home :P 

So that was the last 2 weekends, and then this weekend I was in Edinburgh again with Jenna as our friend Katie, who we met in Freiburg and has been working there since, came to visit :)  That was fun, we did slightly more touristy stuff like going to the foot of the castle, going to a whisky bar and trying some of the whiskies, having a look in St Giles Cathedral, and just walking around Edinburgh a bit.  Then went to dinner with some of Jenna's friends before going back to her friend Rachel's place for the night.  All in all was a good day, and a good weekend back in Dundee - didn't do anything too major, just hung out and went out on Saturday night.  

Lastly I have to mention Stammtisch - which I may or may not have mentioned before I'm not sure.  Basically its just a bunch of German speakers and learners of German meeting up for a few drinks at the pub every so often - in theory to speak German, though gotta be honest thats more rare than it should be...  Its a great group of people and its been fun hanging out with them every few weeks this semester!  But I'm reminded of it because our last one for the year, and my last one ever :( will be in Edinburgh next weekend, cos they have a German Christmas market!  Should be fun, I'm looking forward to it.  Can then compare it to the christmas markets we'll go to in Frankfurt soon!  

But anyways, given the length of this post it is definitely time for me to stop procrastinating and get back to work!  That's me all caught up for now, and there will probably be no further news for at least a week or so while I get past the next week or so of assessment hell, and then the two exams I have left.  But after that is when the real travels begin - definitely something to look forward to!  So until then ;)

Quick wee update...

Hey! I just realised I'm actually not sure who bothers to read this other than my parents and Jo, Paul and Emily.... but anyway, along whoever else does bother to regularly read this, just wanted to reassure you all that I haven't given up on my oh-so-inspiring blog writing just yet!  Will finish off Ireland and also talk a bit about Wales and the Doctor Who Experience just as soon as I have finished this pesky essay due on Wednesday.  Will also then have time to upload some photos to Facebook :) But in the meantime, its the library for me!