Hannah meets Nessie

I got a week and a half after my aunt left, and then my dad and his girlfriend came for a visit. I'm quite popular apparently, either that or everybody was just waiting for an excuse to come to Europe. Either way, they got here on Thanksgiving. Poor things were very jet-lagged. They spent two days in Aberdeen and we did a couple of rambles about so I could show them the town and the uni's campus in between classes. Then on Saturday we headed to Inverness, which is the city close to Loch Ness (where the Loch Ness monster aka Nessie lives).

But to get to Inverness we rented a car...to drive...on the wrong side of the road...in a car that had the driver's seat on the opposite side that it does in the states...on the tiny streets...with manual transmission (also now on the left because of the driver's seat being switched). It was a wee bit scary...actually no, it was a lot scary. But my dad handled it fairly well, and we didn't die, so that was good. I only almost peed my pants a couple of times. Also I have to say, my least favorite thing about roads in Scotland (besides the fact that they are very small and twisty) is that they have a lot of roundabouts which have no rhyme or reason to them seemingly - it's basically just EVERYBODY GOOOOO!!! Seriously, there aren't any traffic lights, and when there are they aren't for the traffic circle, but rather for the pedestrian crossings. It's very scary. And stupid. But if that's the worst thing I've found about Scotland, I think I'm doing pretty well.

Anyway, it took us quite a long time to get to Inverness, and then we realized that our hotel wasn't in Inverness the town, but rather just in the area of Inverness, and was really in another 'town' small village/location/area thing. It was right next to the Loch, about 20 miles outside of the centre of Inverness. Now that road was the smallest, most winding, longest road I think I've ever been on. Plus it was a two way road. It was pitch-dark. And it was raining. Needless to say, that was also quite scary. Oh and on one side there was almost a sheer drop for a lot of the journey. So yeah...But we got there and had a very interesting dinner at the hotel. I didn't think it was bad, I kinda liked it actually, but I think I've been in Scotland a little too long. The other two didn't seem so keen on it.

The next morning though when I woke up and saw the view from our hotel, I thought all the scary was pretty well worth it:

View from our hotel

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeep...oh and a little cute village

We headed down the Loch to Fort Augustus which is at the opposite side of the Loch from Inverness. Along the way we stopped at the Falls of Foyers, and took a mini-hike down to see some of the Falls:

Pretty mini-waterfall

 The view on the hike down

But it wasn't until we got further down that we saw the big one:

This ain't no sissy waterfall.

Oh, hey look who's here!

We then continued on to Fort Augustus. I have to say, I'm a very big fan of the highlands, they are beautiful. Aberdeen is in the highlands as well, but not as far North as Inverness, which is where you get even more giant hill/mountain things. Needless to say then the drive was beautiful as we drove down along the Loch:

If you look closely you can see a little waterfall on the side of the hill.

Such fun colors

Loch Tarff. When the road breaks away from Loch Ness, it passes this Loch.

Fort Augustus is another cute little town right on Loch Ness.

Fort Augustus:

I FOUND NESSIE!!! Oh wait...no. That's a wire statue...oops...

We took a short boat cruise on the Loch. It was interesting to hear about some of the history, and about how deep the Loch is, which is 755ft at its deepest. The second deepest in Scotland, and holding more freshwater than all of the lakes in England and Wales put together, just to give you an idea.

Looking out at Loch Ness

Many of the areas around the Loch are unreachable, and so many wild animals live in this area including wild Goats.

Loch Ness.

Oh there we go, there's Nessie. That's better.

We headed back to Aberdeen, slightly less terrified of the driving. And that was the end of my travels with them. It was short but nice, and I think they had a good time after getting over the jet-lag, car issues and food.

That's all for now. I'll be doing another post about the everyday things soon, since they have been focused mainly on traveling lately. But I've run out of time for tonight - I have to actually go and do a little schoolwork. Imagine that.

Hannah and the London Bridge (not falling down)

I have some major ketchup catch-up to do. I promised a post about London and then I fell off the grid - sorry about that! (That was my profuse apology, mom). If you were wondering when the 'study' part of 'study abroad' came in, that's what has been going on the past few weeks, and my 'excuse' for not posting recently. But that's for another post. Right now it's London time!

I went to London early in November. It was my last trip with my aunt before she headed back to the states. This was the only time we ever had trouble finding each other at the airport, but after a little bit of waiting (and maybe just a little panicking on both our parts) we finally found each other and were able to head off to our lovely hotel near the London Bridge.

The street our hotel was on - you can see the tower of London down there at the end (it was smaller than I would thought).

We both decided that since we were so tired from traveling, we would take it easy on Saturday. So we slept in a bit and then headed out to the Portobello Market, which is in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London. It's a fairly well-known street market (if you've seen the movie 'Notting Hill' with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, this is the neighborhood the movie was set in). It was very neat, lots of people and shops both inside and outside. We met a nice woman at a stall selling teapots and tea cups, who had a really neat English cockney accent.

View of the hopping Portobello Market on a Saturday afternoon

A store in the Notting Hill neighborhood - sewing machines eeeverywhere!

We spent a couple hours wandering around the market. I can see why it is famous, they really do have neat stuff there. Then we headed off to St. Martin in the Fields to have tea at the Cafe in the Crypt (only a little creepy) and see a concert.

On our way there we ran into a singing tube station worker. He asked us if we needed help while we were looking at the map in the station and then asked where we were from. We then got treated to several full verses of 'Chicago' (Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town...). It was quite impressive actually, and a bit strange...but mostly impressive. He had a decent voice as well.

On a side-note, I was quite impressed with the tube system. I don't we ever waited for more than two minutes for a train. That is really something when you are from Chicago and used to dealing with the 'L' Hear that CTA? It can be done!

At St. Martin in the Fields we had some tea (interrupted by the most orderly false fire alarm I've ever experienced).

Then we heard a lovely concert that consisted of several pieces, the highlight being Mozart's Requiem. It was a candlelight concert, which was apparently a big deal, as it was one of the main advertising points for the concert: 'Mozart Requiem by candlelight.' 

St. Martin in the Fields (before the lights were dimmed - because even though it was a candlelight concert, they didn't actually turn the lights all the way off, somewhat strangely I thought).

The next morning we headed off into the countryside on a tour of several really cool places. First up was Warwick Castle, one of the most well-preserved castles in England. We really lucked out as the weather was absolutely gorgeous:

Off we go into the country!

We had a really fun tour guide who my aunt had also had for another tour she had taken earlier in the week. He was very funny, if you know Eddie Izzard, think that type of intellectual history humor. If you don't know Eddie Izzard, for shame! Go discover him immediately! Seriously. Did you do it? Okay I'll wait...

...

Good, now we can get on with business.

So anyway, our first stop was Warwick castle. Parts of it were a little chintzy/touristy, but if you avoided those parts, it was an excellent castle:

THIS is a real castle.

The Mound. Excellent view from up there.

Inside the castle

View of the rest of the castle from about halfway up the Mound.

View of the castle's ramparts from the top of the Mound

View from the Mound looking out. So much pretty.

There I am at the top of the Mound.

Window inside the castle. Beautiful stained-glass.

Artsy picture looking out the window. I'm sure those window smudges say something profound about history/the state of the world.

 We spent quite a while sitting by the river that runs alongside the castle:

I was being a creeper and took a picture of my aunt while she was sitting by the river

But then I went and joined her, and we actually got a picture TOGETHER! What a novel idea.

Next we headed off to Stratford-upon-Avon, which for those of you not up on your Shakespeare, is where he was born (and also where he was buried). It's a very cute town, heavy on the tourists of course, but not in a bad way. We got to go see Shakespeare's birthplace, a milestone for any English major I think.

ThisismestandinginfrontofShakepeare'shouse! (It was so exciting it all had to be one word). 

Seriously though, it was a very cool experience.

We then headed off to Oxford. Along the way we drove through part of the Cotswolds (very beautiful, lots of sheep). One of the things I learned is that apparently it is coming back into style to have a thatched roof. It's partially a status thing, they are quite expensive and they take a long time to make. They don't look how I would have imagined them though: The image I had in my head was something like this:

 This is what the ones in the Cotswolds really look like:

The one on the left is the thatched roof, the one on the right is not.

When we got into Oxford, we headed to Christ Church College, one of the 38 colleges that makes up Oxford University. There are a couple of cool things about this College, beyond the fact that it is part of Oxford University. First off, it was where Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) came up with and wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. He was a math tutor at Christ Church College and used to tell stories to the Dean of the College's daughters (one of whom was named Alice). The character of the white rabbit was apparently modeled on the Dean (who was perpetually running late). In the Dining Hall there is a stained glass window that has portraits of characters from the books and also of the original Alice and Charles Dodgson:

It's a bit hard to make out in this photo I took, but if you look carefully, in the upper left hand window you can see Alice at the bottom, under the circle that is a picture of Charles Dodgson. The other circle on upper window furthest to the right is the Dean's daughter Alice.

 Speaking of the Dining Hall, one of the other cool things about Christ Church College is that many of the scenes from the first two Harry Potter films were filmed here - including the Dining Hall for the Great Hall! Harry Potter freak out moment!

The Dining Hall (aka the Great Hall)

Looking the other way

On a side-note this Dining Hall is in use as well, it is actually where the students of Christ Church College eat their meals. Jealous.

The rest of the college was impressive as well, although you can't see the whole thing as some parts are restricted to students. But another fun thing to see was the Tom Quadrangle, which was just very pretty:

Tom Quadrangle

Standing in front of the Tom Quad

After wandering around Oxford a little bit more we headed back into London, and back to our hotel. The next morning we got up nice and early and parted ways for the last time as I headed back to Aberdeen and my aunt headed home to the states. I had a fantastic time traveling around with her, I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to travel so much in such a short amount of time. I know I'll remember these trips forever.

But, you say, 'this was a month ago, what on earth have you been doing since then?' Well I'll tell you...but in the next post. :)

Water water everywhere - Tales from Venice

Venice Venice Venice!
What a truly amazing place. I've heard that it is one of the places in the world that really is what you expect it to be. And that is true. It is a city floating on a lagoon. There are boats and palaces and churches everywhere.

But I'm getting all ahead of myself, let me start from the beginning.

I left on Friday and flew to Amsterdam and then on to Venice from there. I had a funny moment when I got to Venice and I was expecting to go through a border check, but didn't. It wasn't until later that I realized Italy and the Netherlands are both part of the European Union, and I had gone through the border in Amsterdam. It was a little disappointing not to get a passport stamp in Italy, but it did save me the time of waiting in that line - so that was nice.

I arrived around 10pm, and my Aunt met me in the airport. The Marco Polo airport is one the mainland, so we had to take a bus to a boat and then a boat to Venice. It was very dark, but so exciting going into Venice only with the lights of the buildings lighting the way.

It took us about an hour to get to the Bed & Breakfast we stayed at. A really nice place, our room had a little balcony overlooking a canal.

View from our balcony

Looking the other way from the balcony

It turned out that we were right along what seemed to be a major thoroughfare for gondolas. So on Saturday morning, one of the first things I heard was a gondolier singing as he rowed along outside the window (this was actually the only time I heard a gondolier singing).

We headed out into the city pretty early on Saturday morning. We wandered in the direction of Piazza San Marco, one of the most popular tourist spots in the city. Along the way there were tons of shops selling Venetian masks, which were all really neat to look at:

 Walking into Piazza San Marco was quite impressive, as all the streets up to that point had been quite small and the campos (squares) we had come across were also fairly small. But Piazza San Marco just opens up into this huge square with the St. Mark's Basilica at one end, along with the Doge's Palace,  and the campanile and clock tower on either side.

The Campanile in Piazza San Marco (this fell down in 1902 and had to be rebuilt)

Me in front of St. Mark's Basilica in Piazza San Marco

Aunt B. and St. Mark's Basilica

St. Mark's Basilica (Closeup)

Piazza San Marco (facing away from the basilica)

The Clock of the Clock Tower

The Clock Tower in Piazza San Marco

The Doge's Palace

We went into St. Mark's basilica, it was a bit crowded but very neat.

Saint Mark's Basilica

We spent a while in the Basilica and then decided to wander around the streets on 'our' side of the Grand Canal. A little bit on the geography of Venice for those of you who are unsure (as I was before I went). The island is shaped like a fish (seriously), it's split in half on a diagonal by the Grand Canal, which is where the city boats run (like any other cities' buses, except boats). The boats also run around the outside of the island. Then there are a bunch of small canals running like streets through Venice, which are too small for the city boats (but gondolas and other smaller boats travel down them and there are bridges here and there to get across them when walking around).

'Our' side of the Canal was on the side with San Marco (near the bottom of the fish) as this was where our B&B was. There are a couple of other islands surrounding Venice, including Lido (which I will talk about a bit later).

Gondoliers chillin' by the Lagoon, one of them is texting which we found rather amusing

Aunt B by the Lagoon

Me by the Lagoon

We took a city boat to the Rialto Bridge, which is famous for the stores/markets on and around it:

Me on the city boat (I'm on a boat annnnd it's going fast annnd - little Lonely Island humor there).

Rialto Bridge

We spent a bit of time on and around the bridge before walking back in the general direction of San Marco. Along the way we found some delicious gelato:

Mmmmm...mini version of the Baguette Project: The Gelato Project! (I'm getting so creative with these names...somebody stop me).


One of my favorite things about Venice was just the wandering around. The whole city has a really cool vibe to it, it's like walking through a place that is hovering on the edge of reality. I think it has to do with the fact that its very nature is one of blurring borders; it is a city, but it's also floating on the water. Not quite land but not quite water.

For instance, there were many doors that led directly into the water.

And staircases that led to the water

 It's a rather surreal place. All the sounds are muffled by the closeness of the buildings and the water. The sound of cars that I've been so accustomed to my whole life was nowhere to be found. When we were in the little paths between the buildings and came out onto a canal, sometimes the only thing we could heard was the swishing of an oar, or the call of a seagull or pigeon.




It was very easy to get lost in the small alleyways and little passages, but that was the fun of it. I liked walking through a little passageway and all of a sudden coming out onto a canal or into a campo (which strangely enough means 'field' because there actually used to be grass in the campos, but now they are all more like squares, with stone covering any grass that might have once been).





Saturday night we went to a concert at San Vidal Church. The group - called Interpreti Veneziani - was fantastic. They played Vivaldi's Four Seasons, a Tartini cello concerto and Saint-Saens 'Danza Macabra' They were great, and it was also a funny concert as they played extremely fast, and I mean fast. The concert including an encore was only a little over an hour long, I would guess that normally playing all those pieces plus an encore would usually take at least two hours. It was quite impressive, I think the word I used at the time was 'efficient.' Probably one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

Concert at San Vidal. For the encore the bass player was the soloist, they even let him sit in the middle.

Then we headed back to the B&B.

It was quite dark

At 5am on Sunday morning we were awoken by a hit-the-deck-grab-your-life-jackets-we're-all-going-to-die-duck-and-cover kind of siren going off all through the streets. The owner of the B&B had warned us that Sunday morning was a high tide morning (meaning that much of the sidewalks would be under water - including Piazza San Marco). But she hadn't warned us that there would be a siren going off to warn everyone else. So after several moments of contained-inside-my-head panic I decided that must be what it was. And my aunt and I, who were both of course awake, both agreed on that and spent the next hour or so making 'we forgot to purchase our life jackets in the gift shop' jokes until we fell back to sleep for a while.

Once we got up for real after the alarming alarm of the early morning, we waited a little while so that the water would be gone (it only lasts from about 8am to 10am according to the B&B owner). Then we headed out on a mission to get to the Accademia Gallerie - an art museum. We spent an hour or so poking around there, looking at all the Italian paintings (many of the pieces used to be in churches I believe). Then we headed to the Guggenheim collection, another art collection this time of mostly modernist art including Picasso, Dali, Pollock, Duchamp, Klee, Calder and many more. That was very neat to see, especially as much of it matched up with what I'm currently studying in my Modernism class at Aberdeen. Gotta love those class-real life connections.

The Guggenheim collection Garden

Calder Sculpture "Three-Colored Dog"

The Guggenheim Collection building from a boat on the Grand Canal

Later, after all the art, we decided to take a boat ride and ended up going out to Lido. Lido is well-known for its beaches during the summer. Apparently it is also a popular place to live as the island has cars, unlike Venice and the other surrounding islands.

The floating little house is a city boat stop

On the boat to Lido - the sun decided to come play for a minute

Looking towards Lido from the boat

Our last major stop of the day was the Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari. Of all the places we went while in Venice, this was my absolute favorite. It is a breathtaking basilica, the architecture, the art, the whole thing. When we went it was also very quite there were probably ten or fifteen other people in the whole place and it's giant. You couldn't take photos inside, but look it up on google, the photos they have on there don't do it justice, but it'll give you an idea of how big it is and what it looks like.

I'm not a religious person, but the only way I can think to describe the experience of being in the Basilica Frari was spiritual. At the front, behind the alter is Titian's Assumption, which he painted for this spot. I have honestly never seen anything like it. All I can say is, if you are ever in Venice, go to this basilica.

Monday morning I had to head back to Scotland. When we walked out of the B&B we found out that it was another high tide morning. So we took off our socks and shoes and walked through the flooded sidewalks to get to Piazza San Marco where we had to catch the boat to get to the airport. Even Piazza San Marco was partially flooded, it looked beautiful though with the reflections of all the buildings in the water and the blue sky:

I arrived back in Aberdeen after many boats, buses and planes. I was greeted by this sight, which definitely helped ease me back after losing the beauty of Venice:

I guess Aberdeen is pretty nice too :)

Alrighty, that's it for Venice. This upcoming weekend I will be in London so stay tuned...

Until next time, be well.