the leap

wingardium leviosa

2012-11-26T13:05:00.000+13:00

maybe i mentioned it and maybe i didn't (yes, i'm actually too lazy to look back 5 blog posts to check), but one of the many interesting facts i learned on my walking tour of edinburgh included that one of my favorite novel series was written. here comes the embarrassing part where i admit what series it is to those of you who didn't understand the title of this post: harry potter.

part of our tour was through one of the many famous graveyards of edinburgh - greyfriars. of course greyfriars is well-known for many different reasons including a dog ghost and a violent poltergeist, but most important to this basically-still-a-tween girl were the names of several people buried in the graveyard. sure, jk is a pretty creative lady i'm sure, but when it comes to character names many of these were actually borrowed from people who are buried in greyfriars. pretty thrilling to see the grave of tom riddle, though i did feel kind of badly that the person buried there has no idea what their name represents to harry potter fans.

there was also a school just on the other side of the graveyard that was supposedly jk's inspiration for her description of hogwarts. c'mon ms. rowling, can't you come up with ANYTHING on your own?!

after my walking tour, i had to go visit the cafe where jk spent many afternoons writing what would eventually absorb several hours (sometimes days) of my early college life. hey, i was still technically a "young adult" at the time...

the elephant house was a cute little cafe that looked like something out of the west village. feeling inspired (and almost like a writer myself - i mean this is a blog after all...), i walked in planning to grab a seat and a latte. one quick look at the obscene prices and that plan dissolved, but i still took a look around and had a moment to think "being here right now is cool."

and this is the end of the nerdiest blog post of all time.

taking arthur's seat

2012-11-25T11:54:00.000+13:00

true to form, most of my time in ediburgh it was pretty gray and rainy. i had been pretty good about waking up early and going for short runs around and slightly up some of the peaks just outside edinburgh, but i was barely willing to do that in the rain so i knew the probability of an actual hike was completely weather dependent. when i woke up one morning to a beautiful sunny day, it was clearly the day to climb arthur's seat. which is a peak in scotland and not anything to do with any men i may have met at the hostel. (perverts...)

wikipedia claims that arthur's seat is "relatively easy to climb" and it seemed pretty accurate judging by some of the outfits of others who shared my idea for a morning hike. jean skirts, ballet flats, and even rain boots were ran rampant, so i figured my nikes and cotton layers would be just fine. they probably would have been had i figured out before i started hiking that there was an easy path and a not so easy path.

see, i told you. skirts and ballet flats...

maybe the first hint of "this isn't the easy route" would have been the jagged cliffs.

photo while considering turning back...

it took me about an hour an a half to make it all the way to the top, which of course included a few "scenic breaks" to eat my self-made-from-the-hostel-free-breakfast trail mix and drink water. once i got to the top though, i could see all the jean skirts walking up a much easier path. so....next time i guess?

my incredibly practical outfit. i mean that scarf was NECESSARY.

i know it's "all about the journey, not the destination," but i was pretty pleased to finally make it to the top. the panoramic views of the city were incredible, and incredibly hard to capture on film, but i still made an attempt.

panoramic view with a non-panoramic camera.

sittin' on arthur's seat!

loch ness

2012-11-23T11:12:00.000+13:00

i didn't plan my trip to edinburgh very well, but if i was going to stay in scotland for any period of time, i was definitely going to figure out how to get over to loch ness and visit the infamous lake monster, nessie. this was not a small feat. from edinburgh there were several day trips - "day" being the operative word as the entire tour there and back was planned at 12 hours. luckily, haggis tours was at the top of the street from my hostel, so rolling out of bed for a 7:45 am bus departure wasn't an issue. (hey, i was on vacation. 7:45 is like 4:45 in real life time...)

i arrived bright and early and was greeted by a much smaller bus than i anticipated, operated by a driver who apparently felt that the best way to break the ice early in the morning was to tell dirty jokes. i was immediately both literally and figuratively on board with haggis tours.

as luck would ~~always~~ have it, i got sat next to a smelly old man who took up an additional 1/4 of my seat on top of his own. the good news was that apparently he didn't want to sit next to me either, as he practically begged people to switch with him until a girl named amanda offered to trade. maybe that was actually the bad news (why didn't he want to sit next to me?!). amanda was about my age and from brazil and we ended up getting along really well, so the move was a good one. plus, she kept answering for me at roll call, which was another bonus since i was probably too tired to respond myself.

just one more hurdle in the road before we made it to the boat for our lake tour. there was a big car accident on the way, and we ended up having to turn the bus around completely to try another route. sounds simple, but on the back muddy roads we were taking this turned into a 33-ish point turn event for our bus. luckily a man who barely spoke english but claimed to understand what an "axel" was volunteered to direct us in completing this turn. moment 1 of a few where i wondered if maybe i might not make it home after this trip.

by the time we got to the boat, we had just enough time to grab our "lunch" that came with our tour and run to the boat. quotation marks have never been more necessary here. the brochure claimed a sandwich/bagged style lunch, which wasn't entirely a lie. there were four options: ham and tomato, cheese and pickle, hummus and pepper, and egg and mayonnaise. if these four sandwiches were presented in a line up, i'm 100% positive you wouldn't be able to identify one from the other, which was kind of unsettling given my new little healthy eating thing i had going on. in this case, hunger won and i kept my eyes closed.

the boat trip was pretty simple - actually it was more like a booze cruise. the boat sold very expensive local loch ness monster themed beers and m&ms. we cruised around the lake and watched monitors that showed the depth of the lake and sensed any movement.

kind of regretting not trying nessie's "monster mash."

monitors showing the depth of the lake. excuse me - the loch.

cool kids at the back of the boat. teacher's pets up front.

much to my dismay, i only saw one nessie the whole trip...

thank goodness she wasn't real. i struggled enough just getting a shot of the fake monster...

so maybe i didn't see a monster, but the five year old child within felt pretty fulfilled at my attempt.

me at age 5. plus 22.

the good ship, jollyboat

2012-11-20T15:34:00.001+13:00

as i mentioned before, i went to several different shows throughout the week during the fringe. each act was very different and interesting (sometimes "in its own way"), but it might be a little pretentious of me to write a full out review of each performance i saw. not to mention boring. so i'll try to pick out a few that were the most interesting.

at the tricity ukulele cabaret, one of the acts was a pair of brothers who used their ukuleles to perform a rap about the bible. obviously intrigued by this and after hearing they had a free show offering every afternoon, i decided to check them out the following day. they called their "band" jollyboat, and performed the same bible rap along with about 6 other songs about various random topics that spoke directly to my appreciation of awkward humor - a love song incorporating computer shorthand, a song about a guy who can't remember what he did on wednesday, and even a song they planned to use as the wining number for x factor. maybe it wasn't for everyone, but i found them hilarious and immediately became a jollyboat fan. which clearly meant i had to establish my dedication and started following them on twitter.

band of brothers. literally.

though the show was free, it wasn't surprising that the brothers offered ways to support their act at the end of the show. for 5£, you could get a cd of their "latest hits" or for 10£, you received a cd and a t-shirt with a line from their song about pirates. "i kissed a gull and i liked it."

unfortunately, having used up my cash to buy dinner before the show, i had neither on me. i did, however, out my name down to receive a link to their youtube page they are currently in the process of setting up.

i haven't yet received the email with the link, but in the meantime here's a little amateurish preview of their "art" so to speak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OVz6z7722I&sns=em

adventures in veganism

2012-11-15T18:58:00.000+13:00

so even though traveling is an amazing adventure, believe it or not every once in awhile a girl is bound to get bored. which is precisely what has lead me to start reading a long list of books i always wanted to read, books on my kindle recommendations, and even a few books i felt compelled to read purely because everyone else has read them. "skinny bitch" falls into category three.

i read "skinny bitch" just before my arrival in edinburgh, and while i wasn't completely convinced of everything in there, it certainly peaked my curiosity of being a vegan. i've never really been one of those people who cries over a burger thinking of the poor cow it once was. maybe it's a bit pessimistic, but i don't genuinely believe that one person's decisions (i.e. whether to eat meat or not) can have enough of an impact to affect something like the cruelty of animals in the meat production industry. yeah sure, many parts can make up a whole, but it wasn't enough of a reason for me to make such a major life adjustment.

reading further into things and learning about the health implications of the individual who consumes meat and other animal products, however, was impactful enough for me to want to make a change. not entirely selfish, the part about how feeding animals for production essentially helps cause works hunger helped too. i won't sit here on my high horse though and tell you why i decided to go vegan and why you should too. you can do the research if you choose, but this post is about how i did the impossible and delved into veganism during my trip to europe.

there were so many restaurants and shops available in edinburgh, it made the beginning of my journey on the vegan path seem much more manageable than i ever imagined. for breakfast i usually ate fruit, which was both healthy and cheap. a win-win in my book! lunch and dinner were a breeze, particularly after my discovery of vegan cream cheese, which i would argue is better than the real thing. for snacks i always kept nuts and dried fruit on hand. and maybe a vegan double chocolate chip cookie (now you can put aside all those thoughts about how being vegan is purely for weight loss..).

proof that "vegan" does not necessarily always mean "healthy." especially when it comes to me...

and yes, for those who are wondering, i am clearly getting enough protein in my diet as i'm about three months in now and never felt better. i have had small "cheats" here and there when options weren't available (the ashram) or when i REALLY wanted to experience something (paneer from mcdonald's in india), but overall it's been both a good and easy change for me. thankfully this decision happened after i left paris (wheels of brie galore), but soon up was my trip to another cheese/chocolate capital - switzerland. stay tuned...

gardiloo

2012-11-15T15:42:00.000+13:00

as i mentioned before, my trip to edinburgh was a total whim. the fringe festival was on and it was easy for me to get to, so as jaded traveler as this sounds, i thought it was going to be purely a time filler between london and switzerland.

edinburgh did end up turning into an unexpected highlight of my entire trip. even more unexpectedly was that my free walking tour at my hostel was primarily responsible for turning my perception of edinburgh on it's head.

free? i'm so in.

another piece in my series - "me holding a ticket stub."

i left the tour not only with a list of about 15 things i didn't know there was to do in edinburgh beforehand (mostly harry potter and cloned sheep related - stay tuned...), but also with some interesting facts about the history of scotland.

dolly, the first clone. also, very unrelated to this post.

one thing i learned was despite wearing skirts, the people of scotland are a rough bunch and took punishment for crime very seriously. in the old days if someone was caught stealing, it wasn't uncommon for the perpetrator to have his ear nailed to a post in the middle of the town square. if this wasn't humiliating/painful enough, the people of the town were then encouraged to come by and kick the criminal. as in you steal an apple, your ear gets nailed to a dirty wooden pole, and then random strangers come up and kick you in the shins. what could be worse? well, if kicking wasn't your thing, the acceptable options for abuse were not limited - people could also "gardiloo" on the criminal.

"gardiloo" was the scottish attempt at saying "watch for the water" in french ("regard de l'eau"). a fancy term for a less than fancy act - as there were no toilets in edinburgh at the time, houses would typically use a communal bucket. luckily, the main street in town was built on a slope running down to a lake, so at 10 am and 10 pm every day, the town had a regularly scheduled dump (literally), and as the contents of the house bucket were tossed out the window families yelled "gardiloo!"

criminal punishment in old ediburgh sounds to me like the beginning of a game of "would you rather."

life is a cabaret

2012-11-14T17:47:00.001+13:00

i mentioned one of the reasons i headed over to edinburgh in the first place was to see the fringe festival. while there were actually apparently three festivals on at the time of my arrival, the fringe is an annual festival that attracts tourists from all over with comedy, plays, live music performances, poetry, and basically every other form of performance art you can think of. the acts are scattered throughout the week of the festival, with some acts repeating every day at the same time in the same venue. notoriety of each performance varies from david hasselhoff to two old retirees from cork, as does the price if each show you attend. while i couldn't quite afford the 40£ price tag for a talk with good ol' mitch buchanan (or the cost of dignity lost), there were many free acts listed for artists who are seeking publicity, so i didn't waste any time and decided to go see the return act of the tricity ukulele cabaret.

standard me-holding-my-ticket-to-something photo.

i wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but wasn't that pretty much why i was there in the first place? ok, that AND the fact that it was a free event. the show started at 9:30pm, which was the perfect amount of time for me to check into my hostel and rid myself of any "i'm too tired from traveling" excuses. the venue was in a pub that hosted many simultaneous acts in separate rooms, so i also managed to grab a "i need to wind down from travel exhaustion" beer.

as a woman in a floor length blue velvet dress with a ukulele headband holding together her up-do approached the mic, i knew i had made a good decision to attend. the tricity ukulele cabaret is one if the repeat acts that hosts five to six artists who request to perform a number on the ukulele. from the audience, three judges are selected and each act receives a 1-5 score based on their performance. the winner from the previous night not only wins the pride if being the best ukuleler (new word?), but they are also able to return the following night for a one-song performance of the host of a song on the subject of their choosing.

so, the first act of my performance was the winner from the previous night, who apparently requested that the host write a song about a drunk tap dancing penguin. to top things off, the winner was also dressed in a penguin suit and proceeded to tap dance on stage. drunk. so drunk in fact, that as she took an aggressive "first sip" of her beer during her dance, the beer overflowed out of the bottle into her mouth, which caused her to spray the entire front row with a lovely beer and saliva mixture. so basically, just like sea world: "if you are sitting in the front row, you may get wet."

the remaining acts were slightly more serious performances, including this amazing hippie woman with glittery leg warmers who sounded almost exactly like norah jones. she kind of cheated and played a banjo AND a ukulele (also glittery of course), but unfortunately she didn't win. despite bringing her "number one fan" to the stage (her 4 year old son), the prize went to some woman who performed a song about how she thought her baby wasn't hers when she had him (her baby is blond, she is asian).

clearly not the woman who sang about being asian.

facehunters

2012-11-13T14:02:00.000+13:00

so it's been awhile since i've written. a very long while. first i was removed from the internet for about 3 months solid between staying at an ashram in india and volunteering in thailand. then i got distracted with returning to the US, catching up with friends and family, and setting my "real life" back up. and then after that (because yes, there has definitely been enough time between my last post and this one for 3 full excuses) i simply wondered if anyone still cared to read about my trip. so, i asked like one of my friends, and she said she cared, so i'm back to try and finish what i started.

pretty sure the one friend who wanted me to write again was mostly interested in my india experience, but it feels unfair to skip an entire month of traveling just to get there. i'll try to cut it short. well, shortER, but here we go. back to edinburgh....

the final show i saw during the fringe festival was a play called "facehunters." i guess i was in the mindset of "rounding out my experience" at the fringe festival, and i was so desperate to do so i was even willing to fork over actual money for the ticket. by now hopefully most of those who are reading this know what a big deal it was for me to pay for anything. even food, water, and shelter were reevaluated as necessities at times.

i read in a review that "facehunters" was basically the UK version of "rent." (annnnd you can thank me later for getting "525,600 miiiiiiinutes.." stuck in your head...) the plot-line was similar and pretty typical of most stories about people in their early/mid 20's - drugs, sex, love triangles. and a magical polaroid image of two girls that ages so the two girls in the photo don't have to age in real life. so i mean maybe it was like "rent," or maybe it was like "death becomes her."

either way, it was a pretty good show and i left with a strong desire to be able to pull off metallic silver leggings and doc martens in a similar fashion to the play's hipster chorus. there was even some solid audience interaction. directly after curtain, one of the "small hipster girl" background actresses approached a couple and gave them an extremely loud and angry lecture on audience etiquette and how talking during a performance can "ruin the vibe, man!" totally...

edinburgh

2012-11-09T22:52:00.001+13:00

after dublin, i had about a week until i was scheduled to be in switzerland for a family reunion. i'll give you a minute to get over the shock of my having actual scheduled plans. deciding on a place to go, however, was proving to be a challenge as i fell into somewhat if a travel slump. it sounds really silly to say out loud, but i was really sad about leaving london and started to worry that i might not find another place i loved as much. luckily, i didn't have to worry long. i took a tip from a friend and headed over to edinburgh to check out the fringe festival.

immediately i knew that there was more to love in this city than free comedy and live music. pulling up to prince street, i couldn't help the "wow" that escaped. it was beautiful. maybe my expectations were unnecessarily low, but i was excited to be there.

the city was buzzing with the festivals (yes, plural) in town and there were people everywhere. not just tourists as you might expect. even the locals were excited about the fringe and the entertainment was everywhere. there wasn't a corner you could turn without running into a bagpiper, someone advertising their comedy show, or various other performers singing and dancing through the streets.

maybe i just have a thing for the uk, but edinburgh is now one of my favorite places i have been. i was there for a week and felt like i was constantly rushing around trying to squeeze in everything i wanted to do and see there. typical scotland, it rained A LOT, but it certainly didn't rain on my edinburgh parade. (insert punch line drumroll/symbols)

the jameson distillery

2012-11-08T23:03:00.001+13:00

i know i don't have the most creative title for this post, but really how many of you after hearing i visited dublin didn't assume i would be writing about at least one distillery or brewery tour? i know my audience. you're no fools, so i'll pretend i'm saving my creativity for future, less obvious postings.

the big to do in dublin seems to be the guiness tour, which i also made sure to do so i could remain in the good tourist books. personally, however, i was much more excited about visiting the distillery of my favorite whiskey - jameson.

booking my tour online, i decided i would once again take a chance on my "youthful looks" and purchased a student rate ticket for the tour. they never even checked my ID - fortune favors the brave. or the babyfaced?

despite the fact that they have actually moved most production to their facilities in cork, i really enjoyed my tour. especially the part when i volunteered myself for a whiskey tasting at the end. along with my complimentary jameson and ginger cocktail (yum!), i was given three shots of different bourbons for comparison. one shot was jameson, one was a scotch, and one was an american whiskey. we tasted all three, taking some water in between to taste the differences. my lovely (and really good looking) tour guide asked me if the american whiskey reminded me of anything. "like, college?" he asked. um have we met? maybe at balls?

another plus of taking the tour is the opportunity to buy a bottle of the jameson 12 year distillery reserve, which is only available for purchase in the distillery in dublin for 49€. being that jameson is my favorite whiskey, i was immediately pulled into a cartoonesque situation - on one shoulder was the practical budget traveler angel and the other was the once-in-a-lifetime experience craving devil. ok, maybe it wasn't so black and white as to who was playing the devil/angel roles. fortunately, the decision of whether or not to purchase this limited edition whiskey was quickly solved by the cashier. unfortunately, it was due to my decision to buy and ship the whiskey (not exactly backpack friendly) and the US customs laws prohibiting the shipping of alcohol from other countries that my decision was NOT to buy the whiskey.

sooooo, any friends taking any trips to dublin anytime soon? let me know. and leave some room to bring back a 750ml green glass bottle...

sorry - kind of...

2012-11-04T23:52:00.001+13:00

i knew from the beginning of my trip that there was a strong possibility i would go silent on the blog for a significant period of time. especially after i booked in for a four week yoga teacher's training course at an ashram in a small town in the himalayas (read: no internet). there was this optimistic part of me that thought i could write all my blog entries about dublin, edinburgh, and switzerland and have them all scheduled to post while i was locked away becoming a serious yogi, but when the internet was also a little patchy where i was staying in the swiss mountains, i simply gave up.

so i thought i would write a quick entry to say sorry, but only kind of. i've gotten a lot of notes asking for updates and i honestly had no idea anyone besides my mom really still kept up with this blog, but i really appreciate hearing how much you care about what i'm doing and how i'm doing. i'm sorry i am not doing a good job holding up my end of the bargain updating you on this platform i created solely for that purpose, but i promise it will come. maybe in two weeks since i am now heading off to live in another remote place with no internet for a volunteering project.

but for a quick update, the reason i'm only "kind of" sorry is separating myself from reporting everything i have been doing has given me a lot more time to DO things. amazing things - things i never thought i would be so lucky to be able to do. places i never knew i would see. and of course some of the best people i have ever met in my life (not that you guys aren't awesome too of course..). ok, i don't mean to turn this into a sermon and i promise i'm not crying while i'm writing this or anything, but to those of you who asked i just thought i'd answer your question: yes, i'm doing well. in fact, i've never been better.

my favorite butter

2012-09-13T18:10:00.000+12:00

i have a problem with peanut butter. a huge problem. and i feel like i need to talk about it. literally, i'm addicted. i try to go off the butter, but every time i'm in a supermarket i hear the preserves aisle calling my name. and then it's in my cart. i don't even know how it got there.

the first time i allowed myself to dip my toe in the european peanut butter pond (not literally), i was in amsterdam. leaving the comfort of my hostel's free breakfasts (which also often served as lunches), i was forced to buy groceries to live on while staying with my couch surfing host. as she was pretty fussy about random things, i used the excuse that i needed to get food that did not require refrigeration and didn't take up space. rice cakes and dutch peanut butter it is!

there are generally a few types of pb anywhere you go (light, smooth, extra crunchy) but there were several types of dutch peanut butter. like at least seven. not knowing the language, i had no idea what i was picking, so i tried to do the responsible thing and pick the one with the least amount of calories per 100g. when i couldn't figure out the nutrition label, i turned to the only other source of information at hand, and picked the one with the most attractive label. it was delicious. very creamy, and tasted almost like almond butter or a slightly sweeter version of actual peanut butter. it was gone in a matter of days, until i was left basically licking the jar at the bus station.

next it was on to france, where i actually skipped the pb all together. i know, so healthy right? wrong. i went straight for the nutella. it goes better with baguettes/croissants anyway. i did the same in spain actually, where nutella is much cheaper and easier to come by. those are my excuses and i'm standing by them.

in london, being without for about a month, i was planning to go off the peanut butter all together and be healthy. london knew i didn't really want to do that though, so when i showed up at the local sainsburys of course a pot of pb was on special for 65p. oh, london. you know me so well. how was i to resist?! plus, it was crunchy which is obviously the best kind of peanut butter in the world. i'm not embarrassed that i went through a jar a week. ok, maybe i'm a little embarrassed.

in ireland, the most frequently found brand of peanut butter is panda and features an incredibly ridiculous looking bear. an obvious choice for branding? the only unfortunate thing was the price. one of the reasons peanut butter is a great food for travelers is the low cost per meal it affords. in ireland, however, a jar will set you back 4+ €, maybe 3€ if it's on special. this meant that my only brush with peanut butter in ireland was a sketchy jar on the "free food" shelf in my hostel that i didn't dare taste. even if i am 2/3 done with my rabies vaccination series.

while i'm sure this isn't the last of my "experimentation" in different countries and their peanut butter, i'm also sure that the entertainment value of this post for you isn't worth a follow up post. besides, what would i name it? "peanut butter, the sequel?" "pb2?" give me some credit, i'd obviously name it something much more creative that i won't share here. you know. so you don't steal the name. for your peanut butter blog. (buying it? no?)

temple bar

2012-09-13T06:20:00.001+12:00

to be honest, i'm not really sure why i started a blog post on temple bar, a section of town in dublin. the only reason i can really think of is that it's listed as a "must see" by many guidebooks and previous tourists of dublin. that and it has cobblestone streets, and we all know how much travelers/tourists love cobblestone streets. the disappointing news is i learned from takin a free walking tour that the apparent authenticity from the presence of cobblestone streets is actually slightly less "genuinely old fashioned" than one might think.

once upon a time, temple bar was actually a rather run down or derelict part of dublin. the area was one of those typical bohemian artistic centers, and i'm having a really hard time dealing with the fact that i used the word "derelict" without some reference to zoolander. anyway, it was the center for these people to move to, mostly because it was affordable under the often limited budget of an artist. as the story goes in other cities, however, this of course eventually turned temple bar into a "trendy" area, which increased the rent, and drove out the bohemians.

today temple bar is still the home to many different artistic venues like photography exhibits, street performers, and even an independent film theater (where i made sure to catch the least indie film available starring seth rogan and michelle williams). the area is one of the main attractions for tourists, and i spent a decent amount of pub time in the many different venues available. the cobblestones, though seeming to fit the mold of appearing in an old "artistic" part of town unfortunately are new and were moved from another part of town to temple bar to give tourists the authentic vibe they crave when visiting this part of town.

so, i guess temple bar is just another bit of the infamous irish humor, and we're all just a bunch of suckers. i was anyway.

dublin

2012-09-05T01:44:00.001+12:00

as most people go to amsterdam for the drugs, it seems most people also go to dublin for the pubs. much like in the case with my trip to amsterdam, however, i had a few other reasons for visiting dublin up my sleeve. and no, it has nothing to do with "being irish." (isn't almost everyone in america at least a little irish?) while i did a little pubbing of my own, one of the greater pulls for my visit to dublin was my bookworm side.

there is so much history to this city and so many great authors lived there. james joyce, oscar wilde, bram stoker, george bernard shaw, jonathan swift. and those are just the safe names that most average people are familiar with. i won't dare list some of the others that made me excited. there were so many places that carried inspiration for some of the great stories these authors had written and so many pubs and cafes they previously visited. it was cool for a nerd like me to have a chance to walk in their shoes.

it's not all history and nerdy bookish tourism stops in dublin as you might imagine. the city definitely has a bit of a hard edge to it. the first hint i got of this was the hostel pub crawl. while most of the hostels i've stayed in run a pub crawl, dublin is the only place i have been so far that the pub crawl goes every night including sunday. i myself chose to have more of a casual sunday (i'm a nana, what can i say?), but roaming around the streets at night i noticed that every pub i passed was packed. sunday funday to the fullest. which begs the question, is new york really deserving of the title "the city that never sleeps?"

back to my point about being irish, i guess i did care a little bit that i was visiting the land of my ancestors. or at least i thought i was. you definitely feel irish with a name like Quigley, until you're standing in front of the standard coat of arms key ring stand in a dublin tourist shop and Quigley is no where to be found. so maybe i'm not as irish as i thought, but i'll continue to maintain my heritage. at least on march 17th.

elliot's

2012-09-04T00:25:00.001+12:00

by now you know that i have been spending a lot of meal times in grocery stores and dairies. or with my face buried in a roll of digestives. since i'm traveling on a budget with no immediate plans for additional funding (unless of course anyone would like to donate to the cause), this has been a really cost effective way of preventing starvation and a great way to try a lot of the local foods. that makes it sound like i'm delving into local markets in the tropics, which isn't exactly the same but kind of is at the same time if you think about it.

when one of my close friends from college got engaged (yay!) and told me she was scheduled to be in london during my last few nights in town (YAY!), it was time to take a break from coupon cutting and head out for a night on the town. another friend who used to live in london recently and who is a supreme foodie gave us a few recommendations, so we combed through the list and decided to go out to dinner at a place called elliot's cafe near london bridge.

elliot's was located near one of the larger markets in london called borough market. the whole idea is that elliot's takes whatever is available and fresh at the market, and creates a menu based on what is available. i'm not sure how often the menu changes. it probably changes seasonally, but it would be SO cool if it changed daily. so let's pretend a little guy named elliot combs the market daily for the best of the best and prepares the menu shortly after gathering ingredients. this theory also makes for a good reason to have a photo i took of the menu included in this post, so we're going with it.

i don't mean to sound like i'm auditioning as a writer for michelin guides, but this place was a total five-starrer. we put ourselves (or at least our stomachs) in the hands of the waitress and allowed her to pick out pretty much our entire meal from wine to dessert (yes, DESSERT!!). everything was incredible and fresh and delicious.

thanks SO much, libby, for the amazing recommendation! and of course thanks to lauren for the good company!

the united kingdom of snacks

2012-09-03T00:39:00.001+12:00

back at home in the US, we have a pretty good range of snack time food available in our local supermarkets. though not always the best foods for you and sometimes infamously processed (i.e. twinkies or pretty much anything made by hostess), if hunger strikes you know you've always or a friend in the confectionary/chips aisle. i'm pretty patriotic in this sense and until recently believed the US dominated the on-the-go snack category. recently being when i arrived in the UK.

maybe it had to do with being in love with london and thus blurring any potential imperfections, but almost every snack i ate ended with me stating "this is my new favorite snack." i left the UK with a lot of "new favorite" snacks, but there were definitely some that stood out among the others. and some that have developed into addictions worthy of a rehabilitation program.

my parents traveled a lot when i was younger and frequently brought back treats from europe, asia, and the uk, so when i arrived i was knowledgable enough to head straight for the cadbury racks at the supermarket. cadbury fruit and nut bars were always a favorite of my mom and step dad, but of course i wanted nothing to do with anything that didn't at least involve some caramel when i was younger. now that i've matured and developed a more refined taste necessary to truly appreciate a candy bar, however, i decided to give these chocolate bars another go. what a great/terrible decision. they were nothing like what i remembered, and were completely and utterly delicious. and on special in sainsburys offering 4 bars for 1£. so, at least i was getting my "5 a day" one way or another.

if my roommate in college (yes, roommate is both versions of english since we did live in the same bedroom) taught me one thing, it was that you always need a little salty with your sweet. that's a joke that almost no one but her will find funny, but if it made her do an embarrassing snorting noise reading this in her office, then it was worth it. taking this "advice" into consideration, i sought out a little salty to go with all that chocolate and discovered the wonderful world of english crisps. ok, i'm not really a huge chip eater in general and with flavor offerings like "cheese and bacon," i didn't really have anything tempting me to jump on the wagon, but i did find a few crisp alternatives that became fast favorites.

while in NZ there seemed to be a divide between vegemite and marmite, due to the number of marmite products and sheer availability of the spread versus vegemite, the preference was made perfectly clear in the UK. among these snacks were some marmite flavored rice cakes which peaked my interest. don't even TRY to make fun of me for enjoying rice cakes either. it's just about my one redeeming quality as far as my health is concerned. they might not necessarily be a snack enjoyed by all, but it was a nice little twist on one if my staple snacks.

my favorite by far was sweet and salty popcorn. so maybe this was a bit of a two in one deal as far as "a little salty with my sweet" goes, but trust me the quality was far from most botched combination efforts (i'm thinking of shampoo + conditioners of course). i assumed this was a simpler title for what we call "kettle corn" in the US, and i honestly can't outline the difference to you, but trust me it's different. whatever that secret difference ingredient is makes sweet and salty popcorn awesome and it's likely i'll never be able to have kettle corn again without facing disappointment.

last but not least, of course, were the infamous and addictive mcvities digestives. i'm sure most of you don't need me to describe these graham cracker-like biscuits that come plain, topped with milk or dark chocolate, or even topped with chocolate AND files with caramel these days. these biscuits are a british classic and for good reason. if my country made these cookies, i'd make sure the whole world knew they were american. i'd probably even pretend to be related to whoever created the recipe. depends how many glasses of wine i've had really.

i won't go into how many rolls of these i ate my way through while i was in the UK. it's embarrassing. i mean but if they didn't WANT you to eat the entire roll in one sitting, they wouldn't make a package that isn't resealable. right?

you can find me in da pub

2012-09-02T03:45:00.001+12:00

i came back to london a day earlier than my friend i was staying with to make an immunization appointment i had scheduled, so instead of staying at her place in streatham (and probably over OVER staying my welcome), i booked a hostel for my last week in london. since it wasn't the height of olympic activity, the prices were much more reasonable and it was kind of nice to have the opportunity to stay in the city so my schedule wasn't dictated by a train schedule. plus, like many of the hostels in london, mine was located above a pub, which sounded to me like just about the coolest most london-y (that's a word - i just made it) thing i could do for my last week in this fabulous city.

unfortunately, staying above a pub actually ended up being a bit more romanticized in my head than how it actually was. walking up the staircase in the back of the pub covered in old english printed carpets didn't help to immediately erase the notion that this was going to be a "cool" experience. my rose colored glasses were not smashed right away due to any lack of cleanliness or decor, and it took a few hours for them to adjust to the harsh light of reality. (oooooh! ahhhh! metaphors!)

it started to hit me when i walked into my room. i knew i was staying in a "mixed 15 person" room, to which i was no stranger. instead of the double bunk beds i had been accustomed to in previous hostels, however, here i was faced with a triple bunk - three people sleeping on top of each other. not so bad, until you realize the beds are made with support similar to that offered from a metal clothes hanger and that every time anyone moves the entire bed shakes enough to register on the richter scale. guess who had top bunk...

also, i'm not sure what "mixed" means in UK english, because i was the only female sleeping in my room. i know some of you are thinking about my awesome odds in this situation, but my company consisted of two old smelly men who snored, one hippie potentially american guy and his tiny sidekick who only spoke spanish, and four italian guys who didn't look a day over 14 and didn't talk to each other a decibel below screaming 24/7. so, no thanks. this made already complicated hostel behavior like changing your clothes quite difficult. i was watched even once when i was putting leggings on underneath a dress i was wearing. and trust me, with my balance i was in no way making this act sexy.

all in all, i've stayed in much worse before. like much worse only a couple of weeks prior in barcelona. so i really can't complain. i had good wifi, hot showers, and was near a park so i could go on morning runs.

apart from this blog entry, i'm still willing to blur some of the details to continue romanticizing the idea of staying above a pub in london. at least to anyone i talk to who hasn't read this, and if you have and i start telling you how "amaaaazing" it was, do me the favor of simply nodding and smiling.

the meating place

2012-08-26T01:37:00.001+12:00

so i mentioned that the highlights of cardiff in my opinion were a quick view of the waterfront and the restaurants. since it's slightly more interesting to talk about food, i'll spare you my "the lovely rolling planes along the lake" talk. for now.

our first night out, my friend laura found a cute little cuban place and invited the lawyer she was working with on the case, tom, to join us. it was sort of like a first date in a "we'll see how cool you are to hang out with tonight, but no guarantees about tomorrow" kind of way. as it turned out, we ended up having fun with tom and agreed to a "second date" the following night. the only stipulation laura provided was that he had to pick the place we went for dinner and it had to be better than her choice. we're not demanding at all.

much to our surprise (and delight) tom succeeded and brought us to a restaurant called the meating place. the meating place is every vegetarian's nightmare, as their specialty is meat kabobs accompanied with pita bread, cous cous, roasted vegetables and your choose of sauce. this isn't just any kabob. the dramatics involved with serving the kabob are why i chose the word "nightmare."

the meating place.

each individual table is affixed with a sort of gothic looking chandelier that hangs from the rafters. the only thing missing from these chandeliers, however, is any form of decorative hangings. this is where the meat comes in. after you order your chicken, beef, or mixed meat kabob, your server returns with a 3 foot log metal skewer that holds the cooked meat, and hangs the skewer from the chandelier in front of you.

exciting meat skewers!

and my much less exciting kebab and quinoa.

it may not sound very exciting, but we were psyched. plus it inspired lots of interesting "what if" conversation like "what if my kabob swings into your kabob, is that considered rude" and "what if i don't know my own strength, pull too hard, and rip down the roof of the restaurant."

great news - the roof was still intact when we left, and no one was harmed during the course of our dinner.

cardiff

2012-08-25T04:42:00.001+12:00

you know how sometimes you meet someone and fall head over heels crazy in love with them so immediately that it's almost too much? well, that's kind of like london and i. i was so infatuated with the city from the get go that every day i woke up early and literally packed as much into my day as i possibly could. i walked miles around the city, and was basically wearing myself into the ground. what can i say? i'm a dedicated girlfriend.

but like most new and obsessive relationships, london and i also had some space issues to work out and we needed time apart. luckily for us (london and i, that is...) my friend who i was staying with in london was assigned to a case in cardiff for a few days and invited me to come along.

still in the habit of "go! go! go!" from london, i woke up early my first day and went for a run along the waterside and into town to see what was happening. well, not a whole lot actually. there was a castle, a few strange statues, beautiful water views, and shopping/restaurants, but really nothing i would have freaked out about if i hadn't seen it.

i took this as some sort of message from the universe telling me to CHILL OUT, and that's exactly what i did. i woke up early and went on leisurely runs along the water, took long hot showers, did a little shopping and had a nice hot meal every night.

it was the perfect little mini break from the big smoke, and i would soon be ready to turn back to my love affair with london more level-headedly.

the magical mystery tour

2012-08-24T21:43:00.001+12:00

i mentioned earlier that my step dad had told me about a company called london walks that puts on 30+ different themed walking tours. despite my terrified run to the train station after my first tour, i was really satisfied with my first tour with this company. that's actually putting it mildly since the first tour inspired me to watch a movie, read a book, and scour the internet for hours to learn more. so, i decided to go on another tour. it was actually a tough choice, but i decided i had to go on a tour highlighting the best of landmarks in london that had history with the beatles.

once again, my timing was perfect as it turns out that a few of my friends from college were in town visiting. ok, maybe it was less about my miraculous timing and more about the olympics being in town, but it meant i was able to drag someone else slim for the ride this time. too bad this tour wasn't as scary as jack the ripper to require companionship for sanity reasons, but it was still nice to have a friend to chat with during the walks between places and take a day off from being the weird girl by herself.

our tour guide showed up with a sergeant pepper jacket and an absolutely ridiculous accent. so, all signs pointed to an excellent tour from the beginning. we made several stops along the way, some at buildings i wouldn't have honestly taken a second look at had i not known the history behind the place. some of the stops included places like paul mccartney's current offices (which by the way, he was THERE! i didn't meet him, but just taking this small opportunity to show off..), the gallery where john and yoko first met, the palladium theatre (duh!), the rooftop where the beatles performed their final "live show," and of course ending up at abbey road and abbey road studios.

the abbey road stop actually presented some photographic issues for me. it felt like the kind of place you need to take a photo in, but what kind of photo was i going to take? getting my friend to take a photo of me solo walking across the crosswalk felt lame, and a picture of a simple crosswalk felt even lamer. so i took photos of the studio and left the crosswalk unphotographed. i know, shocking.

will i regret this decision? maybe, but probably not as much as i regret not going to kings cross and getting someone to take my photo at platform 9 and 3/4. let's be real about where my true fandom lies...

reigniting the flame

2012-08-23T00:12:00.001+12:00

i'm willing to bet that given the context, i've actually tricked you here with this title. this is not another post about the olympics. this isn't even a post about me getting back together with an ex lover. this is a post about my rediscovery of my love for cupcakes.

yeah, ok. i'd be lying if i said i haven't had a cupcake since leaving new york, but cupcakes aren't quite the staple in NZ. there are a couple shops that i can think of that make cupcakes, but, no offense to any kiwis reading this, the cupcakes are so far from the quality you get in new york that it wasn't even much of a temptation for me to go. so, i guess we CAN say i haven't had a GOOD cupcake since i left new york. until i arrived in london.

the first cupcake stop i made was completely spontaneous. there i was, walking around in soho minding my own business, when i stumbled upon hummingbird bakery. i tried not to go in. i really did, but the magnetic force of red velvet was too strong to resist. i went in and ordered one cupcake to go.

trying to err on the healthier side, i did manage to choose a "free from" version, which was gluten and egg free. i'm not sure how they did it, but tasting that cream cheese frosting made it pretty hard to believe it was free from anything that might be calorie ridden. if i had to compare, i'd say hummingbird is like a cross between billie's bakery and buttercup bakery. there weren't any major queues (i.e. magnolia) and the taste also wasn't overwhelmingly buttery (also i.e. magnolia).

as it turns out, the expression "it's all downhill from there" applies in this situation. not that the other cupcake places i visited were terrible by any means. they were great, but hummingbird was definitely my personal favorite.

the next place i ventured to was called lola's. lola's was enticing not just because it was named after my dog, but because of the many different favors they offered. it reminded me of crumbs, but a little more interesting. maybe that's only because it was new to me, but sticky toffee pudding and tiramisu cupcakes put m&ms and oreo cupcakes to shame in my opinion. despite the crazy flavors, and living up to its new york comparison, lola's was ok. not world changing. to be fair, i did get banana, which anyone who knows me knows i'm addicted to banana bread, so i did have high expectations going in.

the final place i went to was another spur of the moment decision. walking around before the play we went to see, sarah and i literally bumped into a shop called candy cakes. when i say literally, i basically walked into the store window. they had several cupcakes with candy baked in and on top of them, as you probably guessed. we had candy to eat during the show, but they were too cute to pass up so we each got a baby cupcake. i mean mine was lemon and had edible glitter on it. and it matched my top. i had to.

again, it was just ok. good, but y ranking still stands as follows:
1) hummingbird
2) lola's
3) candy cakes

so obviously i went back to hummingbird again to indulge before i left london. oh cupcakes, you've gotten me again!!

team gb '12

2012-08-22T02:30:00.000+12:00

it would be pretty strange if i went to london during the 2012 summer olympics and didn't even mention that this was going on. yeah, so here it goes...

being that i wasn't very planned out and wasn't even sure how long i was planning to stay in london when i arrived (haha, take THAT passport control!), i had not prebooked tickets to any of the events that were happening throughout the city. being that the olympics is a pretty large event, my natural assumption was that i'd be able to work out some tickets while i was there. unfortunately, there was a glitch in this plan, as tickets were nearly impossible to come by.

well, i shouldn't say impossible, because it seemed to be pretty possible exclusively for uk citizens. as if i needed another reason to lust after citizenship. apparently, while many event tickets sold out prior to the games, there ended up being several "no shows" and there were reports in the paper over concern of showing the world only half filled stadiums. so to solve this problem, they decided to release more tickets during the event. the only problem is the genius who decided to do this didn't explain how to get said tickets. also, in order to get these tickets, apparently you had to be a uk citizen. which makes TOTAL sense for an event that represents the coming together of people from all over the world, right?!?

even though i wasn't quite able to score tickets, i didn't let missing olympic beach volleyball matches affect my experience. only enough to make slightly snide remarks on my blog, anyway. the city was covered with people from all over the world. i'm sure this isn't such a far departure from london during the summer normally, but it was a lot more obvious when all these people were wearing body paint and flags as capes. there were italians, french, germans, koreans, australians, and even the odd american here and there.

it was really great to be around, particularly when i would bump into the olympics unexpectedly. one day when trying to take a shortcut through st. james park, i walked right into crowds heading into a beach volleyball match. another day, on my way to topshop to drool over things i couldn't fit in my backpack, i was held up by a cycling race. the best, however, was the random cheering. i'd literally be walking around trying to find a sandwich or something boring and out of nowhere there would be the large cheer of a crowd. it always came out of nowhere and was gone about as quickly as it happened, but it added a little something special to my london experience. especially the time i heard a cheer just as i successfully navigated myself to a train station to make the last train home. pretty sure THAT cheer was for me...

masterpiece thee-ay-tore

2012-08-21T06:24:00.001+12:00

one of the things i actually missed about new york, was the ability to see amazing live musicals and plays. this is of course a completely ridiculous thing to miss, since it actually wasn't something i did all that often (usually only with out of town guests) and most of the time i think i complained about going (it's so expensive, the line at tkts, etc). when i arrived in london and friends who lived there were asking what was on my list of things i wanted to do, however, nostalgia crept in and i was reminded of the pleasantries accompanying a night at the theatre.

my friend who i was staying with was out of town for my second week in london, leaving me up to my own devices to entertain myself. this meant i highjacked her friendship with another kiwi living in london, sarah, and forced her to do touristy things with me. ok, maybe it wasn't that forced. she actually had the idea of going to a show and when i clasped my hands together and "yay'd" at her suggestion, the deal was sealed.

we decided to look into getting tickets to matilda (based off the roald dahl book), which was really her looking into tickets and me awaiting the information. it was one of my first times playing tourist, so i was allowed to enjoy a little irresponsibility right? as it turns out, matilda was quite popular, expensive, and sold out until september, so we decided to go see a play called mousetrap based on a recommendation from her co-worker.

mousetrap is a play that has been running in for the past 60 years, and is a sort of old timey, who-done-it type of murder mystery. it was adorable and good fun, but of course i have to keep the promise the murderer requested at the end of the show and keep the secret of what happens "forever locked in my heart." (see, how CUTE!)

not only was sarah kind enough to organize tickets to a show, she also organized dinner for us at a well known spot in chinatown called wong kei's. i'm a huge fan of ethnic food and an even larger fan of the cheap/authentic variety, so i was so excited to go. of course being authentic also meant it was very quick - get in, get out. immediately when you sit, the waiter or waitress hands you a menu and at the same time asks what you'd like to eat. this was clearly a very stressful situation which i needed to eat 4 spring rolls to calm myself down...oh, wong kei's was amazing. thank you, sarah!

wong kei's was so good in fact, that i secretly returned on my own one sunday for a quiet little dinner for one. mostly because this dinner turned into a small feast, and no one should have to see one girl consume that much food in one sitting. at least if it were the nathan's hot dog eating contest, you'd know what you were in for...

harrod's

2012-08-20T03:19:00.001+12:00

it's no secret that harrod's is an amazing store and one of the many highlights of london. for those of you who haven't yet had the absolute pleasure of visiting, harrod's is one of the better known upscale department stores in london. they sell everything from designer bags and clothes, tea, cigars, gourmet foods, cupcakes, pet accessories, actual live pets, toys, and even an entire line of harrod's branded goods. basically, this store is literally my budget traveling nightmare.

seriously, it's like a magical harrod's fairy crawled into my head at night, stole everything i've ever dreamed of wanting, and put it all in a very premium priced store. ok maybe it's just a great store filled with anything anyone could possibly want, but the point is that harrod's for me was yet another hard lesson in self control.

fresh flowers. you know, to make the hostel feel like home...

but i totally NEED a tin decorated as a bear guard...

always a shopper at heart, it wasn't as difficult as i anticipated passing up on the luxury designer clothes. i did stare at/pick up/clutch to my chest a beautiful celine bag for awhile, but it was easy to say "you can get that when you're employed again." what wasn't as easy to pass up was the food hall.

really, it's food hallS, with each room separated into different categories of food - chocolates and confectionaries, tea, meat, baking and pastries, and even a room with a caviar bar. can you guess which was the most difficult to resist? if you guessed caviar bar, you're wrong...

despite the torture i endured preventing myself from maxing out my credit card in this shop, i visited several times and eventually treated myself to an enormous almond croissant. i had to. i was still coming down from france...

a walk with jack the ripper

2012-08-18T06:08:00.001+12:00

like most 20 somethings, very rarely do i take advice from my parents. given that i had only been in london previously for about 48 hours and my parents have been several times, i decided that i would make an exception in the case of things to do in london. just this once! (don't get any ideas, mom...)

my step dad had recommended a tour company called london walks, who host about 30+ different walking tours featuring different themes throughout the city. walking tours are one of my favorite things to do in a new city. i'm one of those crazy people who would prefer to walk for 45 minutes than take the tube for fear of "missing something," so london walks was right up my alley.

at a price of 9£ per tour (7£ if you're like me and still riding the coat tails of your student ID), it was easy to squeeze in a few of the tours they offered over the time that i was in town. the first tour that jumped out at me and one of the more interesting ones i took, however, was the jack the ripper tour.

ok so now you get that this blog post is slightly deceiving and i didn't actually teleport back in time for a one on one interview with the real jack the ripper. c'mon, i've got to do SOMETHING to draw in you readers! besides i'm pretty sure jack the ripper's first posthumous interview is reserved for the likes of barbara walters.

so i'm sort of a sucker for mysteries, and since no one actually knows who jack the ripper was to this day, this was an obvious choice for me. i'm always getting sucked into things like cold case and i even read a novel about the case details of the lindburgh baby kidnapping. it's like maybe i think i can solve the case if i pay enough attention. what really grabbed my attention about this tour, however, was the description of our tour guide. donald was described as being "internationally recognized as the leading authority on jack the ripper" and wrote a "best selling" book on the topic.

sure, lots of tours over exaggerate the accreditation of their guides, but this guy definitely lived up to every word of praise. NBC even showed up to film the tour i was on. so, if you're watching the office and any specials are coming up next about london walking tours, stay tuned!

the tour was amazing and i was captivated the whole time. it took everything out of me not to bust out a notebook harriet the spy style and demand further details. the only mistake i made was going on a walking tour about murder that ended at 9:30pm by myself. completely forgot about that whole walk-back-through-where-jack-killed-people-in-the-dark-by-myself bit, which actually turned into more of a sprint for the nearest train station.