Italy!

Just one picture because I'm having trouble using a pirated wireless connection. Italy was AMAZING! I promise more pictures soon. Best parts: wine, scenery, ART. Worst parts: grumpiness in the family. More soon!

The Weekend's Adventure!

Josh and I arrived in London and decided to wander the city for a while, both recalling that there are lots of trains running between London and Glasgow. So, we took the tube (subway) a few times, but walked A LOT. The tube now costs four pounds per ride (that's $8!). Around 1:00 we decided to grab some lunch and get our train. So we went to the train station and found that the tickets were going to be $120/person just to get to Glasgow! We went to an internet cafe and discovered that the cheap tickets had to be booked way in advance. I really wanted to go to Scotland, as you could tell from my post last week about the exciting blog posts to come, so I suggested we research renting a car. Turns out it was cheaper to rent a car than to take a train (with gas it probably ended up being a little more expensive), and we'd be able to get all the way to Oban that day. The train would have required finding a place to stay in Glasgow for the night. So we rented a car and drove 9 hours from London to Oban. We got there at 3 in the morning, and everything was closed except a gas station. So we used the bathroom at the gas station and slept in the car. The next morning we found a cute bed and breakfast with a view of the ocean from our room. Over the next few days we traveled all around Scotland, experiencing much more of the region than we would have been able to without a car. On Monday we drove back to London, flew to Bremmen, Germany, and took a bus from Bremmen back to Groningen. I'm VERY tired, but it was definitely worth it! Enjoy the pictures and posts, there are probably 5 new ones, so keep scrolling down!

For my sister, the former Krispy Kreme corporate employee, guess what is in the Stanstead (London) airport?




No trips on the agenda until the end of the month when we're going to Vienna. We may try to get over to Berlin for a day or two before the weather gets much colder. Oh, and I have homework...

London

This is a sculpture in the British Museum. The picture was taken in a courtyard at the museum that is covered with a canopy, kind of like the Louvre (but much better according to Josh).



Big Ben. Yeah. I didn't think I cared to see these British iconic monuments, but I turned into a tourist seeking out Big Ben like everyone else.



Westminster Abbey. I had no idea it was so beautiful, especially the open arches in the front. I've never seen anything like it!



Statue in Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly Circus reminded me a lot of Times Square in New York. There are even those gigantic electric billboards.



Finally, a pair of British phone booths. They're red, so of course I was drawn to them. And like I said, I found myself taking pictures of every clearly "British" thing I could find.

Oban

Downtown Oban.



A church and youth hostel in Oban.



The Oban distillery. We gave it the old college try, but wow, Oban whiskey is unpleasant!



View of Oban from Isle of Kerrera.

Isle of Kerrera

Pictures from around the Isle of Kerrera.






Note: these sheep were very snobby and wouldn't let Josh pet them.

Argyll and the Isle of Seil

"Hairy coo" with her baby. We were perpetually intrigued with these strange cows.



Loch near Connell. There is so much water in Scotland. This is just your typical, run of the mill, breath-taking lake view!



I was proud of this picture. It's the same loch as the previous picture. Josh is making me into a photographer.



"The Bridge Across the Atlantic" We heard about this bridge and were curious about what such a bridge would look like. It's really small and in the middle of nowhere. Crossing onto the Isle of Seil.



Isle of Seil. There are sheep on that mountain. Well, there are sheep on every mountain. I was entertained because they will go anywhere, even on the steepest mountainside. I can't do that. I'm impressed.

Adventure...

You're asking yourself "what is THAT?" It's a clootie dumpling, which is a traditional scottish desert. It is a sort of boiled bread that has fruit and nuts in it. It tastes a lot like bread pudding. We both liked it quite a lot. Hard not to like something when it's floating in cream!



This is not a picture from the Western United States, it's from the Cairngorm mountains. Who knew the Scottish highlands were so high?



This is Kilchurn Castle. It's in ruins and you can't go inside, but it's quite pretty. We had to walk through a sheep pasture, complete with sheep poop, to get there.



St. Conan's Church, as viewed from Kilchurn Castle. It's beautiful, but we were both (strangely) disappointed that the building is less than 200 years old...



The shore by Kilchurn Castle. I just thought this was a pretty picture.

Loch Ness and Inverness

When we realized we were only 78 miles from Inverness, I couldn't resist the opportunity to go THAT FAR north in Scotland! Not to mention, we got to see Loch Ness! The first picture is Urquhart Castle, a castle ruins on the shores of Loch Ness. It was technically closed by the time we got there, so this was the best picture I could get. The second picture was taken from the shore of Loch Ness. Unfortunately, "Nessie" (the "monster," but she doesn't like to be called that) is shy around cameras. The third picture is just a pretty shot in the Loch Ness area.

Carlisle, Cumbria County, UK

We stopped in Carlisle on the way from Oban back to London. For those of you from Pennsylvania, the similarities are interesting: 1) Carlisle, PA is in Cumberland County, Carlisle, UK is in Cumbria County; 2) Both places have/had Constables, Carlisle, UK's "Cumbria Constabulary," and Carlisle, PA "Hilary and Elizabeth Constable" :)

BRACE YOURSELVES

Tuesday of next week there will be a new post: Josh and Elizabeth's Adventures in SCOTLAND!

I wanted to give you all a heads up, this is going to be an exciting one!

Our weekend in Paris

Paris was so awesome! We were staying in a hotel about 5 minutes from Montmartre. Josh had the LSAT on Saturday, so I spent that day walking around by myself. I decided not to speak English for the entire day, which was fun and exciting because I haven't taken French in a really long time. I managed to do it though!

Surprisingly, I found myself most excited about art museums. I do enjoy art, but I didn't expect to like spending hours in museums. I've posted a bunch of pictures (see below). I saw several Van Gogh pieces, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, etc. It was actually a little overwhelming to see so many great, classic pieces. It also made me want to go to Amsterdam to the Van Gogh museum!

We were sitting on a park bench eating panini and I learned something new about French children: they love to terrorize pigeons. They chase them and kick at them. It seemed: 1) cliche and 2) very evil.

Sites of Paris

Some of my favorite paintings from La Musee d'Orsay and La Musee de L'Orangerie

This weekend's adventure

We're going to Paris! In an effort to keep our luggage to a minimum, I'm not bringing my laptop. So check in on Monday, I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to share! We have both been to Paris before, but Josh has to go there to take the LSAT. Am I complaining about the chance to wander around Mont Matre and practice my French? No way!

This is particularly exciting because in order to get cheap plane tickets we had to travel out of Bremmen, Germany. This will be my first time in Germany, though we won't get to do anything there. Hopefully the bus from Groningen to Bremmen will prove to be a painless experience and we'll be able to go to Berlin via Bremmen one of these weekends!

Niagra Falls

My friend Margaret mentioned Niagra Falls the other day and I realized I never posted any pictures from our trip there on the blog. So here are some of my favorites. We were only there for a couple of hours en route to Wisconsin from Maine, but it was well worth the detour!

One more picture of Niagra Falls

Exploring Groningen

Today Josh and I went for a walk (I think I have bronchitis, so I wanted to take it easy but still get some exercise) and discovered a fascinating new place. It's about 3 minutes on foot from our apartment. At first glance it looks like a park/woods with trails, which is very nice since it's right here in the city. Then you walk about 100 yards and what do you see? Hairy cows. That's right, the Highland cows with super long hair that hangs in their faces. They're very cute. We were looking forward to seeing some of them in Scotland, but here they are right by our apartment! Keep on walking down the path and you come to a fenced in area with various sizes and types of goats, and one sheep. I love little goats, so that was exciting. I even got up the courage to pet one! Further down the path there is another fenced in area of LARGE grey and white geese (maybe they were geese...hard to tell). Across from that fenced in area there are tame deer! Beyond the animal area there are more paths, open fields, soccer fields, volleyball courts. Leaving the park we saw people taking a HERD of ponies back to their stables. Wow. We will surely spend a lot of time at this park in the future. Maybe I'll convince someone to let me ride a pony!

Cooking

One of the best things about having an apartment is that I get to cook our meals again. One would think that eating out all the time would be fun, but after a while it gets frustrating. Spending a lot of money is worrisome and, at least some of the time, I found myself thinking "I could make this dish better than the cook here did." So, I'm happy to have a kitchen (no oven or microwave...so I have to be creative) to make the food I want to make, the way I want it. The other night I made us pork chops, sauerkraut, and dumplings. Funny to think my family has been in the US for over 100 years and yet I wouldn't be surprised if the German couple who lives upstairs hasn't eaten a very similar dish. You all know that I love to cook, but you may not have known that I like to take pictures of the food I make.

Apartment Pictures

Just some pictures of our apartment. It's a studio with a kitchenette in the corner. Luckily the bathroom is a separate room. The other people who live in our building (it's only three apartment) have a one bedroom apartment, which is a kitchen/living room in the attic and a bedroom with a closet that has been converted into a shower on our floor. And their bathroom is in the hallway. Josh and I feel our set-up, though smaller, is better. At least we don't have to use a key to lock and unlock doors between our kitchen and our bedroom!

Oh, and yes, that would be our toilet plugged into the wall. Apparently its electric. It makes the loudest, most unsettling noise every time it is flushed.

Doritos, with a twist

In a Subway restaurant, where the sandwiches are better than they make them in the US! Note: I'm so cool, just like these Cool American Doritos!

Us on a Perfect Groningen Day!