Edinburgh

The trip is over. I really enjoyed experiencing Scotland and Ireland... but am so very happy to be back home with my loving husband. He's such a heart's companion that traveling without him loses it's luster. Also, I missed the dog. People all during our trip were tramping with their dogs and I wished I had mine with me, too! He adds so much exuberance to a hike :). All in all, it's good to be home.

We had a long day of traveling to get to our first destination. Our round trip to and from the states was through Dublin, Ireland, but our trip started in Edinburgh, Scotland... so we had a long LONG layover after a red-eye flight to Dublin before we boarded RyanAir for Edinburgh. The Dublin airport is... very nice. We survived it. And RyanAir is an experience I'd recommend to anyone traveling in Europe. On our way back from Scotland we landed a full half an hour early (??!!!???). But, I digress...

The big to do for the whole trip started after we got to Edinburgh. I was driving the rental car. Which means I was driving on the wrong side of the road (for me) and the wrong side of the car (for me)... and it was a stick with the shifter on the wrong side of the driver (for me)... and I was doing this all on 0 sleep. Eek.

For the record we had no accidents and only a handful of incidents where I could be heard to say "Oh shit! The left! Drive on the left!"... all involving only our car. I'm quite proud of myself.

We stayed at the Best Western in Dublin... one of, that is. It was a good walk to city center, but Lori and I like to walk, and there were multiple enticements to motivate us.

The view from our hotel room. The building in the background on the left is Edinburgh Castle.

Beautiful architecture

Sunset on our quest to find food

Guinness at a cute little pub

 We had delicious coffee and croissants from a shop right across from our hotel the next morning and set off to find Edinburgh Castle and other sites.

I want!

On our way to the castle we stopped into a church and church yard. Donald the caretaker showed us around and talked about the history for a while... and even told us about his pet squirrels that live out in the cemetery. I had already met one of the squirrels. It grabbed my finger asking for food!

Spring had certainly come to Scotland! Everything was in bloom. We had to walk through a large city park on our way to the castle. It was beautiful and alive with color.

Of COURSE William Wallace was standing out in front of Edinburgh Castle.

 Edinburgh is a very pretty city. I really enjoyed the vistas from the castle.

If you serve in the Scottish military, you are allowed to have your wedding at Edinburgh Castle. This groom (his face is not visible in the photo) had just returned from a tour of duty in Afganistan.

Tiny kilt!

 After visiting the castle, we wandered around a while and then went on an "underground" ghost tour. The tour was a bit of a cheesy experience, but we got a shot of whiskey and a shortbread afterwards. It was my first shot of whiskey and while it was I'm sure watered down, it was quite pleasant.

We met a couple of girls on that tour who were traveling around, too... and walked to a park at the other end of the city with them. They were quite fun.

Another view of the pretty city

Karen (left) and Angelina (right)

Thus ended our stay in Edinburgh.

Flash post: Dublin

Back in civilization again... at least as close to it as you can get in Dublin. I'll be home tomorrow afternoon and able to post photos sometime after that, although... I have to edit them... so... it may be a slow process. :)

The trip has been grand. Exhausting in parts, but quite enjoyable. Scotland is my favorite. I think the ruggedness of that country just spoke to me in a way that Ireland could not have. It's nice here in Ireland, too, though. The people are friendly and the atmosphere is lively.

More when I get home. Cheers!

Flash post from Scotland

Sorry, no pictures yet... and I only have 5 minutes left of webtime, so this will have to be really quick. I just wanted to update anyone who reads and/or cares about this blog/me on my trip. Scotland is amazing. It's green and cool and rugged and I love it. I just spent 4 days in the Orkney Islands. What a beautiful part of the world... I can't express in words, although I'm hoping to at a later date express in a novel... I can't wait to share my photos with you!

Things that have surprised me: the vegetarian friendly options at almost every location... the ease with which I've adjusted to driving a stick shift with my left and and on the left side of the road... the super weather we've had...

It's really lovely. I promise to upload photos as soon as I hit US soil. I'm in Ireland all next week, though, so it'll be a little while yet.

I miss my dog and love and miss my husband so much! But this has been a wonderful adventure so far, and I'm glad that it will continue for a while longer.

If you post a comment, I won't be able to moderate it right away, but rest assured, I'll publish it as soon as I am able.

Cheers!

A break from Winter

This past weekend was warm in the Northeast. It would have been lovely to tramp around the countryside discovering all the budding and blooming flowers, hearing the cacophony of singing frogs in the forest.

Except, we went to Florida. The trip to a tropical clime was much needed after this long cold winter. We began thawing out immediately, soaking in every ounce of humidity and sun we could handle. I, of course, brought my camera to capture some of our trip.

Our good friend Emi got married at Epcot Center this weekend, which was why we went to Florida in the first place (aside from the thawing out). We had a wonderful time at her wedding, and she let me take photos of her and her sister getting ready that morning, to add to my portfolio. Here is a sampling of those photos:

And here are a couple photos at the ceremony...

We took it real easy at the resort, went to Epcot one afternoon, but mostly just laid around by the pool. It was lovely. At one point we took a series of buses to get to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, the resort connected to the Animal Kingdom Park. We ate a wonderful vegetarian lunch there and then spent some time watching the animals that live at the resort. It was better than the zoo :)

The rest are the photos I took at Epcot. The light was fading, so I had to work fast. :) We had a good time, though. It was nice to be with friends and in the warm weather and sunshine. Just a little shot of vitamin D to carry us through until it warms up for good here at home.

It snowed again this morning.

On pretending to be a writer

I haven't written much lately. Apart from scribbling down a couple of lines based on a story that friend/roomie Lori was telling about her high school days (it was just too good to pass up!), I haven't done any substantial creative work in the past 2 months. So much for new year's resolutions... I blame that snotty French child that gave me the crud when we were in the airport smashed together for so many hours. Or maybe I blame Air France for cancelling my flight and forcing me to share air with that snotty kid... or maybe I blame the French weather... or the Connecticut weather... any way you look at it, not much has happened on that front of late.

I keep expecting that to change any day. I just need a wild hair of inspiration or a motivator or something like that... I've been reading like crazy. I know it doesn't look like it based on my little book list widget, but that's because the book I'm reading now (A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth) is GIANORMOUS!!! I'm 300 pages from the end... and that's saying something!

I have my fingers crossed that next month's venture will change things. You see, I've booked a trip to Scotland. I'm going... at probably not the BEST time of year to travel there... to the Orkney Islands! I have wanted to go to the OI for years now, as attested by this previous post. I realize I only posted that a year ago, but the obsession has been growing for some time now... and now I'm going! I'm very excited to be able to spend a few days lurking about the islands. I hope to talk to some of the locals and see, rain or shine, the standing stones, the North Sea battered shore, the rugged landscape... all in the name of a novel idea I had last year.

This photo has nothing to do with the Orkneys... I just wanted to share it with you.

I came up with an idea... I won't talk about it yet... for a novel set in the OIs. I hope to see the story build, strengthened and infused with the local lore (which I've been web stalking for a while) and now hopefully with some first hand experience as well!

After going to the OIs, Lori and I plan to drive down the length of Scotland, visiting Loch Ness and driving through the highlands as part of our journey. The last leg of our journey will be spent in Ireland, also a place I have been dreaming of visiting!

Believe you me, I will be packing at least one journal and a lot of sweaters. And I will be masquerading as the thing that I have a sneaking suspicion I actually am... a writer.

Last Days

Today is our last day in Paris and we're not doing anything special. We're hunkering down, actually, because tomorrow's travel could possibly do us in otherwise. We have a 7:25 a.m. flight to Berlin with a layover and then a flight to NYC that gets in at 3 p.m.... and it's supposed to snow in Berlin, which could complicate matters... We're more than a little nervous about getting where we need to go. Can you blame us?

Yesterday started slowly, too. We did some shopping for a couple more souvenirs, which was definitely satisfactory... and then came back to the apartment to nap a little... and then Noah cooked dinner! We had tortellinis and salad and baguette toasted with cheese on it... yum!!! After that we got ourselves together and went out back to Montmartre to our favorite crepe place in honor of Lori's birthday... crepes and tea stuffed in next to dinner and then we were ready to meet Rita and her boyfriend down by the Moulin Rouge.

I know Rita from Davis, CA, so it was fun being able to connect with her here, too. We walked back up the hill to the Cafe de les 2 Moulins and had champagne and chatted until after midnight, when we decided maybe we'd better hit the metro and head back home.

So it's noon here now, and I'm thinking it's time for croissants and espresso. I'll see if I can persuade Noah out of bed!

Shopping, eating and a travel sloth

Today was a day of wandering about Paris aimlessly... well, not entirely aimlessly. After sleeping the morning away, we made our way to Chez Omar for lunch... a late lunch... the most amazing couscous EVER, actually. We sat in that restaurant and ate our couscous with stewed carrots, turnips, zuchinni, and garbanzo beans, and drank our wine... and it was good.

After that we wandered aimlessly about Paris. See?

Cool art on a wall in the Jewish district.

Marc and Sherris :)

We bought some tasty foods at Le Bon Marche... yum, some souvenirs and some things to eat now. We've been snacking since we got back to the apartment, even though we'll be going to dinner in 45 minutes.

Also, Noah has acquired a travel sloth. Apparently Marc has three and didn't know that Noah likes sloths... so now this cute little guy will travel around with us!

Travel Sloth!

I think tomorrow will be another day of shopping with more eating in, since we are in an apartment, and since Marc and Sherris are abandoning us for the coast. We'll spend our last 2 days in Paris here at the apartment pretending that we are actual Parisians... who don't speak good French... and are vegetarians... I said pretend, didn't I???