98 something days later...

Christmas Card option 1

After counting down from 98 days, the time has finally come for the Marsh’s to invade Scotland! I never thought this day would ever come and it has. It was awesome actually seeing my family get off the bus and giving them all hugs. 

Dad and Sary with some Scottish hats on

Once I hugged them all, we headed to Jurys Inn (where they were staying) for them to drop off their bags and check in. They found out that they wouldn’t be able to get into their rooms until about 2 so I decided to bring them to Elephants and Bagels to have breakfast. From there I showed them my campus and then my room. I would say they were surprised by my room and impressed that I wasn’t more homesick. I think the pictures I have put up have made my room a little “homier”. When we sat down in my kitchen area it was obvious they were all jet-lagged. Sary was falling asleep on the stool and dad was pulling a mom (his head was bobbing). So we headed back to their hotel hoping their rooms would be ready and they were. Once they got to their rooms, Todd was asleep in about 5mins and Sary was soon after. Mom of course felt bad that she was leaving me so she decided to skip her nap and come with me to get Subway and some post cards. 

After everyone woke up and took showers we headed to the castle. The castle and view still impressive me and I have seen it probably five or so times. From there we headed to Princes Street and then to a pub on Rose Street for drinks and an appetizer. Then we went to a restaurant called The Filling Station, which is actually where I ate the first day I was in Edinburgh. After dinner Todd, Sary and I headed to Finnegan’s for drinks, while the old farts went to sleep.

Me, Sary and Todd on Calton Hill

The next day I showed them Calton Hill, where of course we took pictures. Then we went to Hoolyrood Palace, where for the first time I actually went inside. It was pretty cool, but I definitely would never want to live there. To old fashion for me…there weren’t any big screen TVs or couches to hangout on! Then I took them up Arthur’s Seat. Well, we of course took the long way around, so what should have been a 30min hike up took an hour. I think they were slightly surprised about how steep Arthur’s Seat really is. Mom said “people are going to ask me how my vacation went and I am going to say, as she is walking up the hill out of breath, ‘I had a heart attack and lost 25 pounds’!” I don’t think it was that bad, but then again after walking around Europe for 13 days I don’t think I could ever complain about walking again. After our hike, we met up with Nick and Alexa and we went out to dinner.

Mom and Dad overlooking the city

The van!

The next morning, Friday, we were off on our adventure around the highlands. It started off with dad and Nick going to the airport to get the van that we would be using. Once they got back, we took out one of the seats, loaded the car and started our journey. Nick was awesome and the best tour guide to have. He brought us through Glasgow, where he showed us Glasgow Uni, then headed to a Loch (don’t remember the name…Nick could you tell me), where we stopped and took pictures. Next we stopped at a Bed and Breakfast where we had lunch. The place was really cool and definitely Scottish. From there we continued our journey to Glencoe, where we would be spending the night. On our journey we stopped along the way to take some pictures of the views. Once we got to our hotel for the night, we went for a hike in the woods, and then came back for dinner and drinks. This is where we really got to know the locals. They were very impressed by the Marsh’s and kept insisting on buying us drinks. We met a guy named Danny and his brother Patrick and their friend Tattoo Tony and let’s just say they were as Scottish as you could get!

The first Loch

Christmas card option 2

Christmas Card option 3

Todd during our hike

The next day we woke up early and headed to Loch Ness where we went hiking. The hike was awesome! It only took an hour, but it followed the water and then opened up to this field. After our hike, we continued our trip to Inverness, which reminded me a lot of Amsterdam. That night we went a restaurant and then to another pub, where again we met some real locals, or characters as mom would say. On Sunday, we had a long drive ahead of us to St. Andrews. Lets just say I say more sheep than cars for awhile. During our drive we stopped at Castle Stuart, where the Scottish Open will be played, then went to a whiskey distillery called Glenlivet, which is the number 2 malt whiskey in the states. From there we headed to Balmoral to look around the estate. Or as mom and dad kept saying our new house! After our drive up hill, downhill, around a turn and through the woods we finally made it to St. Andrews.

Mom and Sary

Dad, Sary and SHEEP!

Inverness...which is the background on my computer!

Their future

I have already been to St. Andrews before, so it was nice going back and being in a place that I knew. Once we checked in at our Bed and Breakfast, we headed to the golf course to get a family picture on the bridge before the sunset. When we got there we met a couple from Georgia, who were going to be playing golf the next day and teeing off right after mom and dad. After talking and taking pictures we went and had dinner and then went to a pub where Todd finally got to play darts. Since they have gotten off the plane they all have been asking to play darts so it was nice to find a pub that had one!

On Monday, mom and dad had a tee time at 11:10 to play the Old Course at St. Andrews. So after taking pictures of them on the first hole, Todd, Sary, Nick and I headed to the chapel and to the castle. We spent about two hours probably at the castle, taking pictures and looking around. I never thought that was possible there, since there really is not a lot left of the castle standing. After walking around we found a pub to have lunch and then headed off to watch mom and dad on the 17^th green, walk with them over the bridge for the 18^th hole. They seemed to have fun and it was pretty cool being able to watch them play on a course where some of the best have played. 

Dad in the sand trap

Mom and Old Course

After golf, we got back on the road and headed back to Edinburgh to finish our trip. It was kind of a sad day knowing they would be leaving the next morning early because I didn’t want them to leave quite yet. When we got back I came back to my room and unpacked and then met them at Jurys Inn. From there we went out to dinner and then to Finnegan’s for one last drink with my family. They of course walked me home (mom didn’t like the idea of me walking home alone…um mom your about 90 days late!) where I hugged them all goodbye.

It was sad seeing them leave, but I kept telling myself that in 3 weekends I will be home. And then that got me to thinking where has the time gone? I remember telling myself and my family that in 97 days I would be seeing them and it has come and gone so quickly. That just means these next three weeks are going to go by even faster! 

So after a very fun, adventurous and exhausting spring break, I am back at school and should start to focus on school work. I am forcing myself to start studying tomorrow for my exam on Tuesday. Hopefully I can! Oh and I think we have enough options for Christmas cards to last 4 years!

A picture with Nick in it!!

Our new home...a.k.a Balmoral

Florence and Venice

City of Florence

After traveling for 9 days at this point we were all pretty tired of walking and physically exhausted; so it was nice we were going to two smaller cities, where everything is close to each other. Our first stop was Florence and it was especially nice to stop there because Alexa and my friends from RWU are studying there for the semester. They met us at the train station and then brought us to our hostel. It was awesome, for once, not have to figure out where our hostel was; the boys new exactly how to get there! Once we got to Ciao Hotel, the beds were awesome, the boys gave us a map with a bunch of sites circled on it to see. We then walked to the other side of the city, stopped to get some gelato, and then made our way to the Piazza Michelangelo, which is where you can see the whole city. It was really pretty and the cool part was we got there in the late afternoon and by the time we were making our way down the sun was setting so we got to the whole city at sunset!

View of the City

View of City at sunset

That night, the boys were very sweet and made us dinner. For once we were having a "home cooked" meal, which consisted of chicken parm, pasta, bread and wine...I think that is a pretty Italian dinner if you ask me! The meal was awesome and we rounded out the night by playing a round of cards.

Monday morning we woke up, barely, actually more like struggled to wake up, but we eventually did and we headed to some of the sites the boys had told us about. Well being Monday and all most of the museums and the famous gardens were closed so we went and saw the Duomo, Piazza Della Repubblica and then went to the market where we bargained for souvenirs. I made out with three scarves for only 11 euros...I think that is pretty successful! We did everything in a quick three hours, including lunch, so we headed back to our hotel to freshen up. We watched Pinocchio and all took naps, which felt really nice, but it made us all tired for the rest of the night.

Piazza Dela Repubblica

The Duomo

The ceiling of the Duomo

For dinner we met up with the boys and a few of our other friends who are studying there at a resturant, where its buffet style and you only pay for your drink. So 8.50 euros and three courses later we were stuffed and headed back to their apartment to relax. After talking and deciding what we were going to do for the night we headed to two different bars. The last bar, was an Irish bar and full of Americans. Funny thing, we ran into even more kids from RWU! It was nice to see a bunch of different people that we all recognize from school and just be able to hangout with them; it made us feel like we were back at school. After saying our goodbyes we headed back to our hostel to repack and be ready to check out in the morning.

Tuesday we again struggled to get up, but once we did we headed to see the famous David. The line was not bad at all, only about 15 minutes. When you walk in to the museum, there are all these really old paintings, and then some of Michelangelo's sculptures that he never got to finish. It was really interesting to see those because you get an understanding of how much time and effort goes into making a sculpture, which makes you appreciate the David even more. At the end of the hallway is the famous David. It is unbelievably huge and totally disproportion. One thing I learned (thank you Rockett) is the David was created to be hung in the Vatican, therefore people would be looking up at it from underneath. However, because it was so big, the David couldn't be suspended. So to really understand it, we had to stand really close and look up that way you don't really see how huge his hands and feet are compared to the rest of his body.

Hello Venice

After seeing the David we headed off and that is where we split up. Alexa, Anthony and Cahrissa headed off to Pairs and Haley and I headed off to Venice. We caught our train at 3:30 and arrived around 5. After finding our hostel, we dropped off our bags and then took the train to the main island.

The first day we got there, we just did a quick walk around one part of the island and then found some dinner. It was really quiet and nice just to sit by the water and eat some Italian dinner. After dinner we headed back to our hotel and guess what...we were in bed just after 10! I haven't been in bed that early since I left to come to Scotland. Aah it felt so nice to be going to sleep so early!

Piazza San Marco

The next morning we got up and headed over to the island where we were going to spend the whole day. The first part of the day we went and found Piazza San Marco. It was packed with people! So we took a few quick photos, but just kept walking because we knew if we sat we were not getting up. Then we bought tickets for the water taxi to bring us over to the Island of Murano, where they make all the pretty glass. After a forty minute taxi ride, we got off and were directed into a building. Inside, one room had all the different glass they make and in the other room they had a viewing area where you could sit and watch them blow and make glass. It reminded me of Simon and Pierce, except not as hot. They even had someone there to talk about what each person was doing and what they were making. Of course, we couldn't see the final product because it has to sit in a cooling oven for 48 hours. But they did have samples. We took our time walking around the store and just looking at all the different things they make. Then instead of rushing back to the main island, we walked around the Island of Murano. It was really small and very pretty; mainly the people walking around were tourists, but it was nice to get a taste of what it would be like to live there.

Island of Murano

We eventually made our way back to the main island, where we stopped at a restaurant, right on the water to get some dinner. I had a traditional Italian pizza and WOW was it good! The crust was extra thin and really crispy. I wouldn't be able to live there; pizza and gelato would be the only things I would eat! After dinner Haley and I decided to take a gondola ride at sunset around the city. Our gondola person (don't know what to call him) was really nice and told us a little about the city. The city is connected all by bridges, there is in fact almost 400 bridges, the city is sinking, and the water rises 4 times a day. He didn't sing (I know what a shame), but he was cute and young so we just talked about our trip and what we thought of Venice.

After our gondola ride

After our gondola ride we headed back to our hotel, where we again repacked (for the last time!) and went to bed pretty early. We were up at 8 and at the airport by 9:30 to catch our plane to London, where we then had a four hour layover and finally after what seemed like forever we landed in Edinburgh around 8! So 6 cities, 5 flights, 4 sex on the beaches, 3 different countries, 2 weeks all equaled 1 ridiculous EuroTrip! I am happy to be back in Edinburgh, but the best part after counting down 90 something days my family is finally coming! They will be here Wednesday morning early and I am super excited! So get ready for some more blogs about this up coming week!

Haley, Cahrissa, Alexa and me eating some gelato!!

Rome

Well we flew on April Fool's Day and without a joke it was a nice flight; pretty packed and everyone spoke Italian. My thought as we were in the air...what are we getting ourselves into? We arrived in Rome without a problem, got on a bus to bring us to the city. Well...who would have thought it would be in the upper 60s outside, possibly 80 inside the bus, be an hour away from the city and have to drive on all these twisty, curvy roads going up and down hills; can you say car sick?

After about an hour we finally made it to the train station where the directions told us to go and then it was up to us to find this hostel, with the limited amount of directions that were given. So after walking around for a bit, we finally asked a taxi driver, who very nicely explained in some broken English where the hostel was. And I have to say running on 4 hours of sleep, hungry, and exhausted I am pretty proud of us for understanding this men and finding our hostel! A 10 minute walk later (yes our hostel was that close) we made it to the place where we were staying, climbed the three flights of stairs that literally went straight up, and checked in. The hostel was okay, very Italy like and definitely a down grade from the JetPak (Berlin) and the Wombats (Munich), but it would do for two nights.We went to bed pretty much after we got there because the next day was going to require a lot of brain power and a ton of walking!

The Vatican

So we woke up Saturday morning and Lex left to go meet her brother at his hotel. It was really nice to have Anthony with us for the last few places; having someone who brought new excitement for being in Europe definitely kept us going. We met them at The Vatican, where we probably stood in line for only 10 minutes. Of course when we got inside, you have a choice to go to the Cupola, or go inside the church. Well, we decided it would be fun to go to the Cupola...! Hmm, not exactly what I was expecting...literally the walls slanted in, the hallway got narrower and narrower and then to make matters a little worse there weren't any windows, it was 70 degrees and a ton of people. Can you say claustrophobia? My legs were shaking, I was sweating and all I wanted to do was get to the top, take one picture and get back down.

View from up top the Cupola

With that said, once I got to the top it was such a gorgeous view that I didn't want to rush it; even though there were so so many people up there. You could barely walk around. Anyways, after climbing what seemed like forever we made our way back down and went inside the church.

Mass

 

View up top the Cupola

          
The church is absolutely the coolest thing to see. When I walked in I was just amazed by the whole thing, you could spend so many hours just walking around and looking at everything. With all the different sculptures, paintings, places to pray, places to hear the mass, the ceiling it was a lot to take in. The nice part about being inside was it was so much cooler than it was outside.

Inside the Vatican

After waking around for a few hours we decided it was time to get lunch and then head to The Sistine Chapel. Now, the only thing I really cared about seeing was the famous painting of the fingers touching. So we get into this building and wind our ways through it, going from one room to the next, because you can't just walk right to Michelangelo's ceiling painting of the nine scenes from the Old Testament. But of course, we finally made it and were even able to snag a few photos. It was pretty cool just to look up and see all the detail. Who in their right mind would every want to lie on his/her back and paint it is beyond me, but it was really neat to see.

Yes...I really took that photo

The Colosseum

From there we decided to make our way to the Colosseum, which was on the other side of the city. So thank you to whoever decided to take the metro because I am pretty sure if we had decided to walk we wouldn't have the energy to walk around the Colosseum once we got there. The metro ride was only five minutes and it dropped us right outside the Colosseum. It was so cool to see and totally made us feel we were in the movie Gladiator. Interesting fact about the Colosseum is there used to be an outer wall all a way around it, but an earthquake knocked down part of it.

Inside the Colosseum

Where the gladiators stayed

The Trevi Fountain

After taking a few pictures, we got some gelato and then sat on the hill outside of the Colosseum and just relaxed for a bit. That night was probably the first time we were in bed before 12 the whole trip and it felt amazing. Sunday we woke up and went to the Trevi Fountain and The Pantheon. The Trevi Fountain was really cool, the water looked so blue and yes I throw in some change for good luck, hopefully it will pay off! The Pantheon wasn't all that special to see, but of course we took pictures any ways. Then came probably the worse decision of all time, lets just walk around Rome until our train at 2:30. Hmm, so we started walking, would get to a corner and choose a direction and keep doing that until we realized that we pretty much walked in a zig-zag all the way back to the Vatican, which is on the other side of the city. In 70 degree weather, which is warm to 5 girls all coming from Scotland and 1 boy who came from New York where it snowed the day before, we were all sweating and didn't realize how long it would take us to walk back. I would say the choice to walk around made us all tired for the rest of the trip...yes we were exhausted for the next four days! 

The Pantheon

After a long day, we got on the train and headed to Florence, where we would be greeted by our friends from RWU who are studying their for the semester. Alexa and I were really excited to see them. I still think it is really cool that even though we are abroad we still can see our friends! The best part about the train was not only were we not on an airplane, we could sit for a whole hour without moving! I might be young, but I just didn't have the energy anymore to walk; so the train was definitely a nice break!

Munich

Wombats hostel with its own Wombar

After a great time in Berlin, we were off to Munich or as they pernounce it Muchen on Wednesday the 30th. Our flight was quick and we hopped on the train to the main train station, which thank heaven our hostel, Wombats, was a five minute walk from. Wombats was just as nice as JetPak, except this time we shared the room with four other boys. We didn't really talk to the ones we shared with the first night, but the second night we hung out with two of them. One of the boys is from the states, goes to Georgetown, and he is studying in Munich for the semester. We arrived at Wombats around 12 and couldn't check in until 2. So we went off to walk around the city. It was such a nice day out and warm so we found a Biergarten and just lounged in the park for a few hours. We headed back to our hostel to get to our room and then Lex and I registered for classes for the fall. Who would have thought I would be registering for classes in Munich?

That night for dinner, we decided to go to the train station, which had every possible food you could think of, and find something for dinner. We went to sleep pretty early because the next day we wanted to hit Dachau, the concentration camp, the BMW museum, the Olympic Stadium and another Biergarten at night.

After sleeping for what seemed like only a few hours, we got up and got ready to head to Dachau. We all had pretty mixed feelings about going to a concentration camp; none of us really knew what to expect. It was an overcast morning, and kind of chilly, which made the experience even more real like. When we arrived we got headsets to listen to, which explained the different parts of the concentration camp and had real life explanations of people who actually were in the camp during the Holocaust. It was amazing to hear that the camp was built during the World War I as a factory and then transformed as a concentration camp. It was only supposed to hold 6,000 people, but by the end of the war more than 20,000 people were housed. As you walked in the gate you entered this huge, cleared area, where they would have roll call. At times they would have to spend hours there, standing at attention; you couldn't even help those who have fallen.

Sign at the entrance

Roll call area

I won't go into specifics, but I would definitely suggest going to one if you ever have the opportunity. It was a really neat experience to just get a glimpse of what these people lived through for years. There is no way to describe the feeling you get walking around where thousands were fighting for their lives, while others were dieing every day.

After going to the concentration camp in the morning we headed to the BMW museum and Olympic Stadium, which was really cool to see. I choose to just go to the Olympic Stadium and just walk around. Unfortunately, you can't go into any of the buildings, but it was pretty neat to see the place.

Main venue on the right

Looking across to the venue

View from the hill

Across the venue, there was a hill that you could climb up and look all over the Olympic park, but also on the other three sides look over Munich. It was a nice break from the city and walking around those streets, to walk up the hill and just sit up there looking over everything. You could even see the mountains. Afterword, we went into the BMW area to look at some of the cars. I think I found my new car...or I should say ride!

I look good!

After literally going form one end of the city to the next we headed back to Wombats, to take showers and get ready for the night. Well, we didn't really make it to the Biergarten. We were having to much fun in the Wombar, meeting all sorts of people from all different places that we decided it would be more fun to stay there for the night. The next day we woke up and were going to take part in a Walking Tour around Munich, but came to a group decision that it would be best if we just walked around the city close to Wombats because we needed to be head to the airport around 2:30 to catch our flight to Rome. The city was really pretty, or I should say the part of the city we saw was really nice. It was such a beautiful weekend that it just made us want to be outside, enjoying the nice weather. I don't really know what we saw, but here are a few pictures.

Lex and me and this huge "O"

BierGarten

Munich was a lot of fun and I think most of us liked it more than Berlin. I do wish we went on the Walking Tour because that is the best way to get some history, as well as be able to see the city. After walking around, we got our bags, headed to the airport, where we caught our plane to Rome. Most of our thoughts at this point was "I am definitely a frequent flyer now"!! This being our fourth flight in eight days is pretty ridiculous, but we were determined to get through it.