1 down 5 to go

Hello everyone!
I left Amsterdam early this morning and am now in Florence. Since I didn't have an Amsterdam/Holland post, I'll give you a few of the highlights:
1. love how everyone rides bikes
2. hate how everyone rides bikes because it is nearly impossible to cross the street with both bike traffic AND vehicle traffic
3. everyone is tall
4. I still love Amsterdam. Even though it's touristy and known for sex and drugs, it is such a unique city with so much history and more to offer than just the Red Light District and coffee shops. The canals, narrow streets, and house boats make me love the city so much for its distinct beauty.
5. I stayed outside of Amsterdam in an adorable town called Lieden. Between going back and forth between Lieden, Amsterdam, the Hague and the tulip gardens, I got to see a lot of the Dutch countryside.
6. Even though we went to the tulip gardens, few tulips were out. But the ones that were out were absolutely beautiful and the enormous garden was still magical.
7. Dutch cheese is delicious. Though we didn't buy any we got ample opportunities to try many different kinds in the multitude of cheese shops around Amsterdam.

this morning we had a bumpy transition between Amsterdam and Florence involving sprinting to the absolute end of Amsterdam airport and barely making our flight, getting diverted from Pisa to Bologna back to Pisa, and trekking through the narrow Florence streets with enormous suitcases.

Currently: in Florence. In love. Such a beautiful city I cannot wait to explore it more tomorrow! I have already eaten gelato and can't wait to sink my teeth into some spaghetti!

nom nom nom

Euro Trip

I'm out of my funk and ready to go on my 3 week Euro Trip.
I said goodbye to Edinburgh yesterday by going to the one sight I had yet to go to: Coloton Hill. It's a hill in the city with some monuments on top and gives great views of the castle and Princes Street.
I'm leaving in 10 minutes for the airport and can't wait to embark on this epic adventure. I'll keep you all updated!

Heatwave

I've become probably the worst blogger of all time, but this trend of sporadic and few posts will probably continue over spring break, which I am leaving for on Sunday!

Today was the last day of classes at the university for the year. The rest of my time here is break and the examination period. Even though people will still be around there will be far fewer and it won't be the same since everyone will be studying. It's been really weird for me to think that even though my time abroad is only 3/5 over, the life and routines I've gotten used to are ending. It's very strange and I'm in kind of a funk right now, which is a shame because I'm about to go on an amazing three week trip!

The weather here has been unbelievable. Yesterday it was 60 and people freaked out. I saw some girls sunbathing. I hiked up Arthur's Seat.

This is the most awkward post and I am so sorry, but this funk is seriously getting to me! I'm bringing my computer with me on my trip so I'll post whenever I can. However, I won't be able to post pictures so that might be a little boring, but I'll add pictures once I get back or create multiple slideshows of my trips.

Itinerary:

Amsterdam March 27-31

Florence March 31- April 3 (Cinque Terre April 2)

Prague April 3-6

Copenhagen April 6-9 (day trip to Sweden on the 8)

Istanbul April 9-16

So that's 6 countries, 6 different languages, 5 currencies, and 2 continents. Having such an amazing trip planned should seemingly get me out of my funk, but I am very sad to say goodbye to Edinburgh as I know it.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures I've taken this past week. Unfortunately, I am not in any of them. I'll make sure to get ample photos of your favorite face during my break!

Tom Riddle's grave!

Edinburgh from Arthur's seat

Sorry for Slacking

Hi Everyone!
Sorry I've been seriously slacking on writing here, but I've had a busy couple of days. I was going to write on Friday, but St. Patrick's Day wasn't too exciting and I ended up not having time after the rugby game yesterday.

St. Patrick's Day:
Though there weren't any parades or celebrations of epic proportions, the Edinburgh Irish Pubs were very excited to celebrate their home country's favorite holiday. Christine and I went pub hopping during the day and accumulated two St. Paddy's Day t-shirts and an awesome Guinness hat. All the pubs were playing Irish music and some even had live music. Many people were doing Irish jigs. It was a really fun and happy atmosphere.

Yesterday I went to the Scotland v. Italy rugby game and Scotland won! Woo hoo! We had terrible seats but it was a really great experience. People got decked out in their team's gear and many Scottish men were wearing kilts. The highlight of the game for me was during halftime when we found a little stage outside of the stadium with bagpipe players. I started a little dance party and a bunch of people started dancing to the traditional Scottish music.

little boys dressed in kilts and Scotland rugby attire

getting a full cultural experience: kilts, beer, and rugby

Mary Caroline, me, and Christine

The end of the dance party I started (kilt included):

Today me and Christine's friend Hannah arrived all the way from Colorado! She's staying with us for the week and we'll be doing a lot of touristy stuff with her so expect lots of great pictures!

Sorry this is such a lame entry after such a long time away. It's truly been a great couple of days and I'm sorry I can't express it more enthusiastically. All of my essay writing has taken all of the inspiration out of me. But don't worry--I'll get a second wind this week!

FREEDOM

I am finally done with all of my essays!! I finished my Irish Celtic paper today and turned it in along with another paper due today. I am so relieved and happy to be done! I am now released from the library wahoo!!

The past month I have worked on 4 essays. All together I: printed out 40 pages; wrote 10, 195 words; cited 25 sources; and cited 7 images. 

Since I've been complaining about my essays for so long, I might as well share with you what I thought was the most interesting things I learned:

• the banishment of tartan in 1746 eventually helped it become a symbol of Scotland even though it was originally only a symbol of the Jacobites (tartan was banned for 6 years).
• The Jacobites were a group of people who supported King James II of Scotland and VII of England (they're the same person, but James I of England was the 6th king of Scotland to be named James). King James II was forced out of the throne because he was a Catholic king in a Protestant country. This is the time in history when the Hanovers (current ruling family in England) were brought over from Germany to rule England as a protestant country.
• Bonnie means 'attractive'
• • poets in both Scotland and Ireland were highly respected and held jobs that allowed them to live a lavish lifestyle and sometimes own their own land under their wealthy patrons. The job of poet was hereditary and required years of education (up to 12 in Ireland)

So now you all know that I'm learning. And it is ALL about Scotland. I know a lot about Scotland, which is really nice. I understand more references in my Scottish Lit. class than most international students.

One of my classes tomorrow is cancelled because the teachers are on strike.

okay bye! 

final essay!

I am in the home stretch of writing my last essay that is due on Monday and plan to be done with it by tomorrow evening! However, travel plans have been distracting me as I just finalized everything for my trip to London! Now Christine and I are planning a trip to Paris, and then we will be planning our final trip which will include Munich, Hungary, and Croatia.
Before I get back to my paper, I'm going to get a little excitement out and put up a countdown!

6 Nations Rugby game v. Italy: 4 days
Hannah comes: 5 days
Last day of classes: 10 days
Leave for Amsterdam/start 3 week spring break: 12 days
Go to Istanbul/see mother: 25 days
Tentative Paris trip: 37 days
London: 43 days
See Ian and Fifi again: 44 days
DIPLO: 44 days
Royal Wedding: 45 days

and I'll stop it there...because highlights after that involve exams :( but time in Edinburgh :)

3 Days, 2 Museums, 1 Hostel: Successful Trip

My trip to Madrid was a great success. Out of all the weekend trips I've done so far, I think Madrid has been my favorite. I successfully balanced sightseeing, having fun, and exploring the city to feel like I got as full of an experience as I could in 2 1/2 days.

Friday:

floor directory for Kapital (7 floor club)

Maddy and her two friends, Christina and Emma, didn't get to the hostel until 6. We dropped off our stuff in our separate 6 person rooms and went out into the rain to explore and find a place to eat. We ended up eating at a tapas bar called Lateral, which was recommended by someone I know who is currently studying in Madrid. The tapas were DELICIOUS; the dinner started my 2 day delicious food binge (since we don't have much of that in Scotland). After dinner we got ready and then went out to a 7 story club. It was so much fun because they had a huge dance floor on the main level and then different types of lounges and bars on the floors above--they even had karaoke. On the main level they had a stage with very odd dancers and miniature performances sporadically to keep the crowd entertained.





Saturday:

Alexander Calder sculpture

I woke up before Maddy and her friends and went to the Reina Sofia Museum by myself because they had gone the weekend before for their surrealism class. The collection is really incredible; it's entirely surrealist. The museum itself was too big and weirdly laid out. I began to feel oddly depressed after looking at surrealist artwork for about 45 minutes and sat in the sculpture garden for a bit, where they have an enormous Alexander Calder sculpture. I also was not the biggest fan of the museum because they allow people to take pictures inside and many of the people who go do not go to enjoy the artwork, rather they go to say they've been there and take pictures of the famous paintings. I did really enjoy finally seeing La Guernica (some of the images are truly haunting and need to be seen in person to get the effect Picasso had intended) and the Dali paintings. The way he uses color and is able to fragment his images to look like dreams is absolutely amazing. They also have a great collection of Joan Miros.

me in front of the Reina Sofia

The rest of Saturday in bullets:

communist protest

• took the metro by myself to Plaza del Sol to meet up with Maddy. Upon emerging I found myself looking at a communist demonstration which included yelling and sporadic bangs (fire crackers?). I miraculously found Maddy and we went to Plaza Mayor.
• Took a New Europe walking tour. Guides work on tips so they're amazing. If you're in a European city that does these GO. 
• Highlights of tour:
• World's oldest restaurant
• extensive history lesson on Spain's history (did you know that Spain was a dictatorship until 1975?!)
• bridge with the most suicides in Madrid
• Palacio Real

symbol of Madrid: a bear kissing a tree

Maddy and me in Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor

Even though it doesn't look like it, I'm seriously enjoying these churros

most beautiful strawberries i've ever seen

Me with Maddy's trusty guid

Saturday night we met up with an old high school friend that happened to be in Madrid.

Beaver alums: Maddy, Jacob, me

brave friends sleep on the top bunk

Maddy and I returned to an empty room and decided it was the perfect time to document my first hostel experience (maddy's second) pretty much for this blog

you keep your stuff in lockers

Sunday:

Maddy and I woke up early and went to the Prado Museum. It is considered one of the best museums in the world. However, it is strictly classical art. I really enjoyed seeing the Titians and pieces by El Greco, but let's not lie to ourselves: an entire museum dedicated to paintings of Jesus in almost identical style does not sound very interesting. Maddy and I looked for the humor in the paintings, because since there is a lot of prostitution and sinning in the bible, classical art at the time tended to paint pictures of these scenes.
favorite recurring themes:

• men sneakily grabbing women's boobs
• floating baby heads (okay, angel heads. still weird)
• naked babies 
• midgets doing different things: standing next to huge dogs, riding tiny horses, hanging out naked

Even though Prado has an incredible collection and there were many paintings that blew me away, I could not help but keep in mind the movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop" (if you haven't seen it, watch it now. It literally changed my life) and asking myself: what is art? When you're in a museum full of classical paintings, many of which look the same, it is only logical to ask, "why is this here? how is this different from the last painting i saw?" Usually people ask these questions about modern art, but I think it is important to ask it about classical art as well because many times we are told something is art and just take it as that.
All in all, the Prado and Reina Sofia are amazing museums, but it is way too overwhelming for me to go into a huge museum with the same period paintings. To me, it makes them less amazing as a group. However, when I found a painting I loved, I was able to look at it in a different light since it was among so many other similar paintings.

Favorite HILARIOUS classical painting:

Ruben's 'Creation of the Milky Way'

After Prado we went to this huge market that they have on Sundays. Vendors sell clothing, purses, oddities, antiques: just about anything except for food and livestock. It was way too crowded and I had to leave; I've discovered I don't really like huge crowds.

Overall thoughts on Madrid/Spain:

• the food is DELICIOUS, most notably churros
• wonderful culture and interesting history
• too much PDA
• no sense of punctuality
• apparently they're really organized: all classical art in Prado, all modern in Reina Sofia. no mixing.
• cars actually stop for you if you're in the street
• ABSOLUTELY LOVE.