Notting Hill Carnival

I joined back up with Julia and Anna (who made me promise not to put the picture I took of her up on the Internet because she hated it) and we set out to take London by storm.  We made it as far as Notting Hill, where the festivities for the annual Carnival were winding down.  It was basically a parade of colors.  If we had made it a little earlier we could have participated in the street party and Caribbean foods, but we didn't realize what time it ended until it was almost too late to see anything at all!  So we were glad to witness what we did (except for the woman sleepily grinding on a guy on one of the floats...we weren't glad to witness that.)

Yay!  We've caught up!  I actually am in London right now!  Right now as I type this and write now as you read it (provided you read it the day it goes up on my site, because September 2nd I take the Eurostar back to Paris).

Syria: Musings of an American in London

We interrupt our regular schedule of one post a day to bring you a timely perspective of the Syrian crisis from an American in London.

Art and architecture in Liverpool

Liverpool is an artsy city, not just because of music: it was declared the Cultural capital of Europe in 2008.

Liverpool music scene as experienced by a non-musical person

I took a side trip for a few days to Liverpool and Manchester.  It's actually a lot cooler than I thought it would be.  Liverpool is a city I could see myself living in.  I loved that all day every day I could hear people singing on the streets, usually The Beatles, of course.

I was lucky because David, the guy I met on the ferry from Northern Ireland, had stayed at a great hostel while he was in Liverpool (and I was in Edinburgh) so he recommended I stay at Hoax.  It's a new hostel -- only opened this month -- so it had low prices despite being in the most desirable part of town.  It was right by the Cavern (top left), which is where the Beatles played before they outgrew it.  I happened to be there during Beatles Week and so there was a constant (sold out) line up of cover bands playing there.  There's also a statue of Eleanor Rigby (top right) in the alley where Hoax is, and the brick wall outside the Cavern (bottom left) has the names of all the famous people to sing there.

The basement of Hoax, Hopskotch (bottom right), is a bar they also own, and I wandered down for open mic night, where I heard this adorable girl play some great covers of American Country music.  You just never know what you're going to hear over here!

Bath time

On my last day in Cardiff I took a day trip out to Bath, which is really all you need.  It's pretty (mostly due to the fact that all the buildings are primarily made out of the same white stone) and it's neat to wander around the only entire city that UNESCO has designated a world heritage site, but there's not a lot to do.  I spent an hour touring the Roman Baths, and then window shopped a little, then I was ready to go home.

Cardiff for lovers of Doctor Who

Anyone who loves Doctor Who (and probably a majority of the people who love someone who loves Doctor Who) knows that a large number of Doctor Who scenes are shot in Cardiff, and that it is also the location of Torchwood.  For this fact alone, I had to see Cardiff.

Standing on the rift!  I wonder if I soak up enough space energy if I can fly away like the TARDIS.

Greetings from Cardiff, Wales

They have a pretty castle and a pretty coastline but of course I came for one thing, and one thing only:

The fringe

I love it when I accidentally wind up in a city at the same time as a festival, and I arrived in Edinburgh smack in the middle of the Fringe Festival, which is an arts festival involving street performances, dramas, comedies, magic shows, musicals singing...and freshly made donuts.  Donuts so fresh you watch them make them after you order them.  Delicious.

Upper left: This guy would stand perfectly still for tips.  It was so perfect, he looked like a painted statue.  I just had to have a picture (I paid him for it, don't panic).

Upper right: I'm not sure what show they belonged to but this creepy duo would sneak up on you to give you their flyers while playing super eerie accordion music.

Lower left: Some people stood around shoving unwanted flyers in your face, which is massively annoying, but others found creative ways to get you to take the flyers from them.  Like this group that pretended to sleep in the middle of the street.

Lower right: The one place in all of Europe that tried to card me...and I had stopped carrying my ID weeks ago.  Luckily neither me nor Anna nor Julia actually wanted to get in.

Greyfriar's Bobby

Many years ago the police in Edinburgh were told to each a buy a dog to take on patrol with them at night.  Most of them bought "scary" dogs, but John Gray had taken a different approach to his work.  Instead of working through intimidation, he had tried to get to know the people in the area and gain their trust, so he also bought a dog, but it was a terrier.  A cute terrier named Bobby.

Castles and Haggis: It's Scotland!

Scotland is absolutely beautiful.  It's green, there's cliff's everywhere, and there's centuries of architecture smooshed into Edinburgh.

Scotland: Land of the Fandoms

Edinburgh has been the inspiration for so many authors.  How could it not be?  Look at this freaking awesome castle and all the places in the city that you can see it!

The art of accidentally meeting people

Ok, I'll let you all in on a little secret: I wasn't that fond of Northern Ireland.

So Sunday morning, I got up bright and early and headed for the bus stop so that I could be whisked to the ferry that would take me away to Scotland.

I was lucky enough to meet fellow Mid-Westerner David at the bus stop because then I had a ferry buddy for the trip!  (Even if poor David was never supposed to be on my ferry to begin with...long story.)

We split in Glasgow so I could go to Edinburgh and find out what the Fringe Festival is all about and he could go on down to Liverpool to see the home of the Beatles (as I understand it to be, anyway).  

Scotland was beautiful!  Just look at that upper right corner of the collage.  It's threatening to storm but there's still and abundance of bright green trees and comforting purple heather.  At least I think that's called heather....

My good luck continued when I walked into my amazing hostel to find I would not be the only girl in my dorm!!!  Yay!!!!  Not only that, but Sam invited me to go out with her and her two new friends (Anna and Julia), all of whom turn out to be fangirls of one kind or another.  

Needless to say this has led to a lot of really excited Harry Potter/Supernatural/Doctor Who/Sherlock talk!

Belfast

Grey and green: The subtle beauty of Ireland

Ireland is fighting Germany for my favorite country.  

Irish people are snarky and comical: I wanted to spend my entire trip hanging out with my hysterical tour guide.  I wanted her to introduce me to all her friends and let me hang out in a pub with them where they taught me how to be Irish.

Irish food is delicious and seems the most homey: Guiness stews and vegetable soups.  Mmmmmm.

Ireland is really beautiful!

Zadar at night

I had one whopping night in Zadar before my flight to Dublin and I was lucky enough to run into Tegan (below) in the lobby of the hostel.  After enjoying an afternoon beer and snacks, we walked downtown as the sun set and admired both the water and architecture.  We chose a really popular Italian style restaurant that had what looked like a half-excavated archaeological dig in the front.  (They had ridiculously good seafood!)  Then we wandered along the water again, listened to the sea organ, and goofed off on the solar panels that become an LED show at night.  

Zadar is actually a very cool little place.  At the end of the night we went to a bar that our hostel recommended.  It was along the top of what appeared to be an old city wall that overlooked the port.  It was quiet and posh, which was great since I'm not really into the party scene anymore (contrary to what my pictures with the LED solar panels seems to suggest!)

Split: A pleasant surprise!

When I arrived in Split, I had not read anything about it, so I was expecting a basic, boring beach town.  Kind of like Destin, Florida, where I have spent (too) many summers.  Yeah, beaches, pretty, ok.  Yeah, surf shops, woo hoo.  This was the reason I almost didn't visit the coast of Croatia at all.  But eventually, with a heat wave following me across the continent I decided that if I had to be hot, I may as well be hot on a pretty beach.

Welcome to Split!  

Munich's Englischer Gartens as a postcard

The Englischer Gartens in Munich were originally built by the royal family for their own exclusive use, but now they are open to the public and are a perfect place to go for a walk, a bike ride, or a swim.  I loved them so much when we went through on my bike tour, that when I came back to Munich for a longer visit, I spent an entire day just hanging out at the park.

Top left: There are actually waterfalls you can play in in the middle of the park.  There are also signs warning you will possibly die by doing so, but, you know....

Top right: Chilling at my spot by the man-made river through the park.  

Bottom right:  It's basically like the Lazy Miami at King's Island.  Except frigid.  I'm not even kidding -- people use it to chill their beers in the middle of the sweltering Munich summer.

Bottom left: Just a pig.  A pig who think's he is hot stuff.  Sexy pig pose.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein is supposedly where Walt Disney got the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland.  More exciting -- to me at least -- is that it is the castle is where Chitty Chitty Bang Bang landed.  You know, when they get into the castle designed as wind up dolls?  No?  Ok, here, look at my pretty pictures on the hike to the castle.

Liechstenstein - the most difficult place to get to in Europe

A train from Paris to Basel

A second train from Basel to Zurich.

Another train from Zurich to Buchs.

A bus from Buchs to Vaduz-Schaan.

And then a half mile walk to my hostel.

That was the easiest route to take to get into Liechtenstein.

When you think of Paris...

...you inevitably think of the Eiffel Tower.

It's a small weird, weird world - The Parisian Edition

[CAN CAN GIRLS]

When you think you can't
You'll find you can can!
[SOPHIE]
Everyone can can can!
[SOPHIE AND CAN CAN GIRLS]
You can can can too!

--Anastasia Soundtrack, "Paris Holds The Key To Her Heart"

The lyrics really have absolutely nothing to do with my trip, but Anastasia has been my favorite princess ever since I learned of her existance when I was in grade school, and this song is so fun to sing.

What else is fun and a little bit obnoxious?

Selfies!

Not the most flattering blog ever written about Paris

The first thing I noticed about Paris was....how to put this delicately.....

It's kind of gross.

Now some of my perception could be blamed on the fact that I just came from the Netherlands and the Dutch people are stereotypically clean freaks.  The street sweeping truck passed me multiple times a day in Amsterdam.  I'm pretty sure they employ someone just to go around and find all the gum people spit out during the day.  My view of all cities everywhere has been ruined by the cleanliness of Amsterdam.

But regardless.  Paris...

Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon

Despite not running since setting foot on this continent almost 2 months ago, I still finished in 2:13:22. Yay!  

Ireland had people blessing it's constantly overcast skies for probably the first time ever.

By the way, Ireland?  Amazing.  Love it.  I want to keep my entries somewhat in order though, so more Paris articles later this week, then my adventures paragliding in Munich and soaking up the sun on the coast of Croatia.  

But for me, I'll be heading to Belfast on Thursday and then hopefully *crosses fingers and prays imploringly* getting a ferry to Scotland and getting to Edinburgh before 10pm on August 11.  After that I'll be traveling the rails again, this time across Great Britain.

So much to do before I come home September 10th!

Disclaimer:  I do not recommend my training schedule to anyone not wanting to hobble up and down three flights of steps to get to their room in the hostel.

Amsterdam: beautiful, fun, and delicious

Believe it or not, these are actually all pictures in the Red Light district.  Which is where I stayed.  Accidentally.  But it felt super safe and I was close to all sorts of great restaurants (because, hello, the stoners need gelato and waffles (they totally ripped off our "birthday cakes" at CU, btw), and funny stores (the "Condomerie"?????).  

Ich bin ein Berliner!

Overall Berlin was one of my favorite stops: rich history, interesting people, great beer (and not-so-great-but-definitely-intriguing flavored beer), tremendous amounts of food, a thriving arts scene...

Top left: yes I drank beer.  Quite a bit of it actually!
Top middle: my 3 euro meal that was some sort of falafel-asian food thing.  But delicious
Top right: If you squint you can see the Berlin Wall ending on the left of the picture, beyond the bikes, and facing what starts a long line of crazy offers like hot air balloon rides in a balloon that looks like a globe, currywursts, painted cars, museums, art displays and...
Bottom left: an artificial beach.  Just down the road from the wall and from Checkpoint Charlie
Bottom middle: Raspberry flavored beer.  Apparently when the French arrived many moons ago, they didn't like the taste of beer so they added fruit flavoring.  I don't like it.
Bottom right: Just another example of random art work in Berlin

As President Kennedy said after the wall went up:

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"