Nach Edinburgh

So this last weekend I continued my travels and made a short trip to visit Katie in Edinburgh, where she is studying abroad for a semester. I left early Thursday morning and so began the most hectic day of traveling I have probably ever had. I decided to save some money and take the S7 train to the airport instead of the City Airport Train. Taking the S7 involves a greater understanding of the train system in Vienna. I probably made it much more difficult than it had to be (mostly because of my excitement and nervousness) but I eventually figured out the price I had to pay, where to get tickets, and which train I should take. I made it to the airport with an hour and a half before my flight left. I tried to do the self-check in but it would not let me and said something was wrong. So began the emotional rollercoaster ride of traveling to Edinburgh.

I went up to the desk and handed the lady my passport. She sat there for a little bit and then told me I had been placed on standby. My original plan was to fly to Dusseldorf, have a 4 hour layover and then fly to Edinburgh. They told me there was still a chance I would make my flight so I walked to my gate. As it turned out, there had been a mechanical error and they had to switch to a smaller plain. That meant a number of people were on standby but of course I was at the bottom. The plane boarded and finally the man behind the desk told me I would be switched to a different flight and he was not sure when I would make it to Edinburgh. My heart sank. That was the last thing I wanted to hear. I gathered my belongings and walked to the help desk a floor above me. I waited in line thinking about how much of a hassle traveling can be. I just wanted to be in Edinburgh. Eventually it was my turn and I went up to the desk. Once again I handed them my passport and once again the lady sat there for a while looking at the screen. Eventually she looked up and smiled, “We can put you on a London flight at 11:30 and you will actually get to Edinburgh before you originally were planned to arrive.” This was a miracle. Not only did they put me on a quicker flight but because of the problems I had they gave me a free meal voucher. I happily ate my sandwich and drank my orange juice and boarded the plane to London. I tried to sleep for most of it and opened my eyes as we were beginning our descent. I had not really paid that much attention to my Edinburgh ticket until that point and I saw that it left at 2:25 pm. Once we landed I turned on my phone. It was 2:05 pm. How could this be? Why would they give me a 20 minute turn around in Heathrow where it would take 20 minutes just to get to my gate much less go through three security checkpoints. So being the foolish, lovesick man I was I started running through the airport not bothering to check to see that the ACTUAL time was 1:05 pm. Now inside my head I knew that London is an hour behind Vienna, but what I did not connect is that my cheap Austrian phone does not automatically update the time like my phone does in the US. So there I was sprinting around Heathrow with my belt halfway on trying to find my gate. I finally arrived and ran up to the desk and asked, “Did I make it?” and showed them my ticket. He responded, “Yes of course, we will begin boarding in about 15 minutes.” Needless to say, I was pretty embarrassed and also sweaty from running but in the end, I made it to my gate and on my plane to Edinburgh.

Katie, being the incredibly nice girl that she is, met me at the airport and we took the bus back to her place. I met some of her roommates and after getting situated we decided to head out to dinner at a place she likes. It was a very cozy restaurant and I really wish I had brought my camera because Katie ordered Haggis! I of course tried some and after about five spoonfuls I had had enough. I told Katie NOT to tell me what Haggis is or how they make it, and I only allowed her to tell that they normally serve in a sheep’s stomach. It tasted like black licorice to me, which I do not like so I stuck to my spicy chicken and she ate the chicken and vegetables on her plate. Needless to say we did not finish the Haggis but we did order it and we both had a fair amount. One other funny story from that dinner is the ladies sitting next to us thought I had a New York accent. I told them they were quite far off but it sparked a fun conversation with some Scottish women. After dinner, I decided the next thing to cross off my list was some fresh cider. We went to the World’s End Inn (I like how I remember the pub but not the name of the restaurant although I think it was something along the line of Mickey’s) Anyways I asked the bartender what he thought a good cider was and he scoffed at me, so I just got whatever cider was on tap. It turned out to be Strongbow. Meanwhile Katie ordered a mixed berry Kapfenburg. Both were alright but after having some of the best beer in the world, it just did not compare. Call me a Pilsner man I guess. Once back at her place we chatted with her roommates (who are quite nice) for a while and then headed to bed.

The next day we went on our first hike of the trip. I say “first” because Katie had me walking all over the place! Yes, I know this is a good thing but usually she nearly kills me because she works out all the time. However, I guess I have really built up the muscles over the past two months because not only did I keep up with her (and not take Ibuprofen once!!) my long gangly legs also passed her while climbing the mountain. Our hike was up to Arthur’s seat, apparently the best view of Edinburgh. One fun thing about Arthur’s seat is that everyone uses the small rocks to spell things near the summit. Katie, once again being adorable, had already written something with rocks a couple days before I arrived. It was “I (heart) Patrick”. Unfortunately, someone had erased my name and put Aya. As you can see we immediately remedied the situation and placed our own faces there as well. We summited and after doing a photo shoot at the top and admiring the view, we headed back down. We then wandered around Arthur’s seat for a little longer and headed back to Katie’s. For lunch, she made me homemade mac and cheese. As I have said before, she is too nice. Once done eating, I entered into a food coma and needed to nap. For dinner we went to the Mosque Kitchen, a cheap student place where you can get pretty decent curry. We were in somewhat of a hurry because we wanted to make it to our rugby game!! Katie had bought us both tickets to an Edinburgh rugby game and I must say by the end it was fairly fun to watch. I slowly began to understand more and more of what was happening and the Edinburgh team ended up winning! Once the game ended we decided we were a little chilly and should stop at a pub so Katie could try a Hot Toddie and I could try some Scotch. We went to a place called Whiski’s, which was appropriate for what we were going to be trying. Katie was not the biggest fan of her drink so I had a little of hers and then looked at the menu to try to figure out what I should order. I learned that the lowlands single malts are the best things to start out with and so I chose one of their most popular scotch’s: the 12 year old Glenkinchie, also known as the “Edinburgh Malt”. It was actually quite good and fun to order a “wee nip” of something. While we were drinking, some live music came on so we listened to that for a while before heading back to Katie’s and going to bed.

Katie's room, before we went on our hike

Arthur's Seat

The heart Katie made

Works for her as well!

One picture at the top

Got this as I was trying to figure out the self timer but I really like it

Us at the top

Taken by someone else and not the self timer

It was windy!

A little scared going down

I almost fell!!

But Katie is apparently Mary Poppins so she was not nervous at all

Katie making me Mac and Cheese!!

She made me so much I entered a food coma

The rugby game!!

Gotta have a photo in the phone booths

The next day was our big day trip to North Berwick. We woke up early and headed to the Waverly train station. There was a little bit of confusion, we thought we were taking the train, but we ended up taking the bus. We arrived at North Berwick around 11:30 and wandered around for a while getting our bearings. We went to the information center to get a map and then ate lunch. I got some fresh haddock which was actually quite good and we also ordered a pot of tea to warm up. We then went to the famous Seabird Center that North Berwick is famous for. Near North Berwick, there is the Bass Rock which at some times of the year has over 150,000 birds on it. In fact, from afar it looks like the top is white because of all of the Gannet’s on the island. When we went there, they told us there were still about 2,000 birds on the island. The Seabird Center also had live cameras that you could use to look around the multiple islands. After the Seabird Center, we went on a walk through the Glen (a forest) and made our way to the foot of the Law (their version of Arthur’s Seat). We made it to the top and took a bunch of pictures. As you can see, we went a slightly different way down. We then headed to the bus stop, but on the way we went to a candy shop and got some Mega Sours. Take a Warhead and multiply it by two. I could really only eat 3 before my tongue started hurting. I slept on Katie’s shoulder for most of the way back and we eventually made it back to her house my nap continued. Yes, I could hike and keep up with her but I was still tired. That night we had our Ghost Tour. We heard some good stories and Martin, our guide, was very good. It was not quite as scary but we still went into the Edinburgh vaults, supposedly the most haunted place in the United Kingdom.

The beach

Fresh Haddock... I was hungry

Katie loved the Ketchup

Inside the seabird center

Wandering through the Glen

The Law!!

On top of the Law with Bass Rock in the back... probably my favorite picture of the trip

That is how Katie went down, it was a little steep

Martin, our guide

The next day was very relaxing and we spent much of the day planning our trip to Paris. Eventually we made it out the door and headed to Calton Hill. Once again we took a couple pictures and wandered around the various monuments. It was a very nice walk and fun to once again have a nice view of Edinburgh. That night Katie made me shrimp stir fry (how lucky am I?) and we continued our relaxing day. I left the next morning and Katie once again went to the airport for me. My flight back was not nearly as eventful as my flight to Edinburgh. Overall, it was a fantastic trip and I am really glad I went. Lets recount what I had: Haggis, Cider, Rugby, Scotch, Bagpipes, Edinburgh Vaults and Seabirds. Thank you Katie for showing me around and being such a wonderful host!

Gotta get a picture with the Hairy Coo hat

Picture from Calton Hill with Arthur's Seat at the background

Katie reading about the monuments and thinking

From Calton Hill

Not as good as Mary Poppins

Our romantic dinner with wine and shrimp stir fry in Katie's room

Since I have returned I have mainly just focused on classes. The more exciting information is that my parents arrive tomorrow. I can’t wait for their visit and after that I head to Paris to once again meet up with Katie!

Czech this out!

So it has been a little over two weeks since my last blog and a lot has happened. Once again I will try to cover the highlights and also try to use pictures instead of writing an extremely long post.

Lets begin with a fun evening Jack, David and I had before the 9-day trip. A while back, our RA took us to the Prater area. It resembles an amusement park and also has an old famous Ferris wheel. In the Prater area, there is a restaurant called the Schwiezerhaus. It does not use any preservatives in their beer and our RA said it is the freshest beer in Vienna. They are also notorious for serving a leg of pork. Naturally, we had to return to this place. We ordered many beers, ate some pork with delicious mustard and then went on a ride. All in all, it was a very fun trip.

We will do it!! Also, check out those beers... they are indeed as tasty as they look

Nomming away at some pig leg

It really is a lot

Feeling good after we ate it

So good in fact, we decided to do this ride

This only gives you some idea of what the actual ride is like... Also I should point out that Jack refused to get on it

Now to discuss the 9-day tour. Rather than go day by day and explain every little detail I will use some of my 300 pictures and describe one night in particular. Also, if anyone was curious, Prague was my favorite city. I guess I did not give Budapest as much of a shot and might return there later in the semester. Regardless, I found Prague to be the most aesthetically pleasing and also it had the best nightlife.

Prague at night

John Lennon Wall

Famous spot on the river where couples lock a lock on the railing representing their love and then throw the key into the river

Church in Prague Castle

Railing from which officials give speeches, also Hitler gave a speech from this balcony

Church again

In front of a mosaic I really liked

Defenestration!! Famous story of people who got thrown out of this window and survived

We climbed many steps to get to the top for some good views of the city

We decided to see the changing of the guard

And so did everyone else

Inside the church

Tomb in the church

Room for King Wenceslas

At the soccer game

Replicating a photo for fun

At this point in the trip, Jack, David and I decided to check out the five story club. In short, it is the largest club in central Europe and each story has a different theme. The top one is chill hip hop, the 4^th floor is more modern/techno music, the 3^rd floor is oldies, I forget the 2^nd floor and the 1^st floor is more of a lounge. I spent most of my night on the 3^rd and 4^th floors. Since David had showed up before us, he had already found a spot on the dance floor on the 4^th floor. The whole building was so big though that it took about a half an hour just to find him. We were also with some girls from our trip and for most of the night I had to pretend to be their boyfriends so that creepy foreigners would stay away from them. This scenario usually had two conclusions: I would either be glared at and made fun of, or given a high five and pat on the back. Jack had to leave a little early because he is a gentlemen and decided to show some girls on our program back to the hotel since they were completely lost. I should also point out at this time that Jack and I were the favorites of one of the IES employees since we were the only ones who could quickly (it took us by the second day usually) get to know a city and be able to visualize where we were and how to get back to the hotel (this will come in handy later). Anyways, I stayed at the club with David and three girls. For a while, we danced on the 4^th floor. The dance floor was basically a big empty pool and from time to time they would turn on smoke. When they did so, you could honestly not see a foot in front of you. At about 2 in the morning, we moved downstairs to the oldies music. This floor had a bunch of tiles that would light up underneath you. It was also probably 100 degrees. At 330 in the morning I decided it was probably time to leave. I walked off the dance floor and the group began following me. Right as we got to the stairs, the song “Summer of 69” came on. Naturally, David and I could not leave during this awesome song and we immediately ran back to the dance floor and jammed out to it for a while. Eventually we made it out of the club with our group of people and to the streetcar station. There we met up with some other IES students and said goodbye to David since he was staying at a hostel (he decided to shadow the IES trip to the first two cities). On the Streetcar, we maintained American Stereotypes by being loud and obnoxious. One thing that came of this is we determined who else on the streetcar could speak English. So we made friends with a 17 year old kid from Florida and a group of 5 Italians from Italy. As it turned out the Italians were staying at the same hotel as us but were completely lost. So now in a group of about 7 IES students and 5 Italians, I was the only one who knew how to get home. After transferring to the bus I realized if I screwed up I would have a lot of angry people on my hands. Nevertheless, I knew that displaying confidence would make everyone feel better. Eventually we made it back to the hotel and everyone thanked me. The Italians said I should come visit Napoli (where they were from), and I told them I would come watch a football game with them if I ever got a chance. Back at the hotel, Jack was still awake and surfing the internet in the lobby. As it turned out there was also a wedding party that night at our hotel. It had just ended but there was a group of 3 people still chatting in the lobby. I decided I already made friends with Italians why not make friends with Czech’s and Slovakians? I joined their circle and we talked for about half an hour. At one point they brought up politics in broken English and I explained to them that Bush was bad and Obama was good. They agreed on both accounts and said Obama had good socialist policies. I then explained to them that Obama was in fact a Democrat. The language barrier kind of got in the way at this point, and we changed the subject. Once it was bedtime and I decided to leave they insisted on giving me a box with all sorts of wedding treats in it. This was very kind and I ate the cupcake for breakfast the next morning. That concludes the story of one night in Prague, which was probably one of the wildest nights I have ever had. And please do not worry, I still saw all of the main sights our tour guide wanted us to see.

Wandering the streets of Prague

On Charles Bridge

Famous clock

Our Booze Cruise on the river at night

Onto Krakow, Poland! (In Poland, on the first full day my camera got low on batteries so I had to cut down on the amount of pictures I was taking)

In front of the most secure fortress in Krakow near the old town

Krakow Castle

In the castle square

Da Pope

Polish Dragon!! This thing was awesome and would breathe fire from time to time. The story goes it lived in a cave under the castle and lived off lamb, deer and virgins (our guide told us this was the reason there are no virgins in Krakow) One day someone put a bunch of "spice" in a lamb and left it outside the cave. The dragon ate it and had such a fire in its stomach it drank the entire river and then exploded.

Panels in St. Marys Basilica

Auschwitz

Wall of Death

Birkenau

Schindlers Factory, which is now a really cool Museum

Old town at twilight

Our farewell feast, each table got this much food and only one table finished it all. It was not ours though

Onto Budapest!!

Part of Heroes Square, they have 13 statues and all of them are of heroes in Hungary's history

I liked this guy, because he was the first person to say you could not persecute someone for being a witch

Other part of Heroes Square

This guy was awesome because he fought back against the Turks

View of Budapest from the hilltop overlooking the city

Monument on top of the hill

Gladiator!!

Roman ruins

Our tour guide explaining how smart the Romans were

Liters...

And Meters...

Of BEER!!! Oh my!!

Do not worry, we finished it all

Giant club we went to on the last night

Communist statue garden. They took all of the communist statues out of Budapest and moved them here

With Lenin

Wondering where Stalin's body is

Overall, the trip was great and well worth it. At the end, one of our guides told me that the actual cost of the trip was about three times as much as we actually paid. So thank you IES for subsidizing all of that cost. This week we have started classes and I am enjoying them, although I wish I was taking an Economics class. I will just have to make up for that fact by doing some outside reading. More importantly though, this weekend I am going to visit Edinburgh and Katie!