Whew, am I tired. Knackered. Shattered. Kerplonked. You know. I'm even too tired to think of anymore "tired" slang terms. As Hard-Fi says, "I've been working all week and I'm tired." Nine hours a day, five days a week on my feet. Although, if it wasn't for the cd player in the stockroom I'd go mad -- the music in the shop drives me off the wall. Our big summer sale is getting kicked off soon, so that's going to be lots of fun. And by fun, I mean work. I've not really had a weekend to rest for awhile, either. Last weekend Stephanie came and visited me in Edinburgh and we had a grand time. Not going to get much rest next weekend, either, as I'm going to Paris for the first time since I was nine.
Also had a great day in Glasgow last week, visiting the radio show Tallah's working for. It's on the BBC. So Katie and I went to the BBC! The building is amazing, it's right on the Clyde River in Glasgow. Made me want to work for them. Or just any amazing radio station.
Other than that, my life has been gorgeously unexciting. Call me a scrubber, but I miss being able to go out on week nights and stay up past midnight. So what's coming up in my fascinating life? Going to see Nine Black Alps tomorrow night here in Edinburgh, Paris for the weekend, and lots and lots of of prep for Fresh Air coverage of the Edinburgh festeival. I'll be going part time in August when the festival is, so I can devote more time to my duties as Press offices Liason/Reviews Coordinator and as a festival crew member.
That's all I have the energy to write about tonight. More later when my life is thrilling again.
Sunday, July 8
Tuesday, July 3
Second Adventures in Dublin and the Night I Almost Spent in Glasgow's Bus Station
So I went to Dublin last weekend to visit my friend Stephanie, who I went to Eastern Europe with. It was a good weekend, but I was flying in and out of Glasgow Airport since that's where I could get the cheapest flight. In case you've had your head under a rock, this should explain why alarm bells should be going off in your head right now.
I flew to Dublin Friday night, so no problem there. Had a good weekend with Steph, did a little shopping, had a night out on Saturday, walked around Trinity College some on Sunday... all in all I really enjoyed my second trip to the city. Dublin seems like a very cool town, a good sized city that, while lacking huge numbers of tourist attractions, feels to me like it'd be a really cool place to live -- kind of like Edinburgh. Lots of culture, lots of energy... lots of pubs. Anyway, enough romanticizing about Dublin, I'm sure the winters (and summers) are just as cold as Scotland.
I was due to arrive back into Glasgow on Sunday night about 9.45, but thanks to flight delays I got in about half past 11. I'm still amazed that the airport was open and functioning, though I wish they'd re-routed my flight to Edinburgh. When I got in, the terminal was all cordoned off and smelt of burnt rubber. They weren't allowing traffic anywhere near the airport, so I and a bunch of other passengers had to walk over to a bus stop way out under some overpass, next to a gas station. Finally the airport bus comes and I get back into Glasgow Buchanan Street Bus Station about 20 past Midnight. Thinking that, like any other night of the week, there were busses at 1, 1.30, and 3am I'd be ok for getting back to town. Oh no.
So the 900 bus pulls up, and I head over to it to ask the driver if he's going back to Edinburgh right away since it was a bit early for the 1am bus. He looks at me and informs me that the next bus is at 5.30am. Clearly, at this point, I am screwed.
So I'm sitting in the bus station, not wanting to spend the night in the bus station, but least of all wander around Glasgow in the middle of the night looking for a place to stay or to catch a 100-odd pound taxi home. While considering my fate and how I was going to manage staying awake until 5am, a tour bus pulled into the station and one of the station workers came up and asked if I was trying to get back into Edinburgh. Hearing the desperationin my 'yes' he recommended that I go over to the coach that pulled in, as he had a hunch the driver was going back and that I might be able to get a lift. This was indeed the case, thankfully, and the driver (grudgingly) gave me a ride. So I arrived back into town well into the early hours of the night. And I say nothing good ever happens to me.
Why would you attack Glasgow? Honestly. I know it's the biggest city in Scotland, but the airport's not exactly a hub and as far as mental significance goes, Edinburgh is the capital. Besides, weegies aren't a good bunch to choose to mess with. They will go after you -- and they have knives.
Anyway, I'm safe now. At least when I fly to Paris in a couple of weeks it'll be in and out of Edinburgh.
I flew to Dublin Friday night, so no problem there. Had a good weekend with Steph, did a little shopping, had a night out on Saturday, walked around Trinity College some on Sunday... all in all I really enjoyed my second trip to the city. Dublin seems like a very cool town, a good sized city that, while lacking huge numbers of tourist attractions, feels to me like it'd be a really cool place to live -- kind of like Edinburgh. Lots of culture, lots of energy... lots of pubs. Anyway, enough romanticizing about Dublin, I'm sure the winters (and summers) are just as cold as Scotland.
I was due to arrive back into Glasgow on Sunday night about 9.45, but thanks to flight delays I got in about half past 11. I'm still amazed that the airport was open and functioning, though I wish they'd re-routed my flight to Edinburgh. When I got in, the terminal was all cordoned off and smelt of burnt rubber. They weren't allowing traffic anywhere near the airport, so I and a bunch of other passengers had to walk over to a bus stop way out under some overpass, next to a gas station. Finally the airport bus comes and I get back into Glasgow Buchanan Street Bus Station about 20 past Midnight. Thinking that, like any other night of the week, there were busses at 1, 1.30, and 3am I'd be ok for getting back to town. Oh no.
So the 900 bus pulls up, and I head over to it to ask the driver if he's going back to Edinburgh right away since it was a bit early for the 1am bus. He looks at me and informs me that the next bus is at 5.30am. Clearly, at this point, I am screwed.
So I'm sitting in the bus station, not wanting to spend the night in the bus station, but least of all wander around Glasgow in the middle of the night looking for a place to stay or to catch a 100-odd pound taxi home. While considering my fate and how I was going to manage staying awake until 5am, a tour bus pulled into the station and one of the station workers came up and asked if I was trying to get back into Edinburgh. Hearing the desperationin my 'yes' he recommended that I go over to the coach that pulled in, as he had a hunch the driver was going back and that I might be able to get a lift. This was indeed the case, thankfully, and the driver (grudgingly) gave me a ride. So I arrived back into town well into the early hours of the night. And I say nothing good ever happens to me.
Why would you attack Glasgow? Honestly. I know it's the biggest city in Scotland, but the airport's not exactly a hub and as far as mental significance goes, Edinburgh is the capital. Besides, weegies aren't a good bunch to choose to mess with. They will go after you -- and they have knives.
Anyway, I'm safe now. At least when I fly to Paris in a couple of weeks it'll be in and out of Edinburgh.
Wednesday, June 27
Cold Cold Cold
I can take winter in Scotland; it's summer that'll drive me from this country. Low of 4 degrees Celcius last night, approximately the temperature where my blood turns solid and I lose the ability to do anything but roll on the floor and cry about how cold I am and whine about the weather. If it were March, it would be a different story, but it is almost July.
This is how truly boring my life is right now -- I've nothing more to say after my usual weather-related intro. I'm going on some trips in the next few weekends, but work takes up all my days and saps my energy for the evenings so I never do anything interesting on week nights.
So, instead, here's a few photos from Spring Break:
In Bucharest:
In and near Brasov, Romania:
Budapest:
I've picked these sort of haphazardly; I can assure you I have other, better pictures. Which I will one day upload.
This is how truly boring my life is right now -- I've nothing more to say after my usual weather-related intro. I'm going on some trips in the next few weekends, but work takes up all my days and saps my energy for the evenings so I never do anything interesting on week nights.
So, instead, here's a few photos from Spring Break:
In Bucharest:
In and near Brasov, Romania:
Budapest:
I've picked these sort of haphazardly; I can assure you I have other, better pictures. Which I will one day upload.
Friday, June 22
New Flatmates
I realized that I've not told you much about my new flat, the one I've moved into since leaving my university student flat. I moved across town which, in Edinburgh terms, means I live about a 10 minute walk away from where I used to. My old flatmate, Rhoslyn, was kind enough to get her mom to drive me (but mostly my stuff) over the day before I left for Venice. So when I came home from that trip I went straight to my new summer home. Hah, that makes it sound posh. Actually, for a student flat it's quite nice. It's in Marchmont, a more residential but still studenty part of town. The flat's quite spacious, and has a lot of character and nice high ceilings, things my former flat sorely lacked. It's in one of the many old stone flats that are all over the city.
The human flatmate situation is in flux for the summer, with various familiar faces subletting, moving in/out, etc. However, the old stone flat buildings of Edinburgh are notoriously infested with mice. I've seen one in our flat, and while cooking dinner at my friend Katie's yesterday one just ran right across the floor while we were chatting and cooking away. Bold as brass. So I get to share my new flat with the mice, the giant spider I saw sneaking around my wellies last night, and the mildew. It's not been as frigidly cold lately, but it's been incredibly humid. So much so that the hand towel in the bathroom won't dry. Oh well. It'll be a good summer, if it ever gets here.
Now for a few pictures from my trip to Venice. See, I can follow up on my promises sometimes.
In the Plaza San Marco:
On the Grand Canal:
Near the bus station, at night:
Just an average canal. They're all over the city. Boring:
A (slightly) cooler canal:
Also, today's the longest day of the year! According to BBC Weather, today in Edinburgh, sunrise was at 4:27am and sunset is at 10:03pm. Hooray for long days! It really is bizarre to look out the window at 11:30pm and the sky will still be fairly blue. It's sort of like being a little kid again -- oh, it's getting dark outside, time for bed! However, I do like the early sunrises; they make it far easier to get out of bed at 6am to get ready for work.
The human flatmate situation is in flux for the summer, with various familiar faces subletting, moving in/out, etc. However, the old stone flat buildings of Edinburgh are notoriously infested with mice. I've seen one in our flat, and while cooking dinner at my friend Katie's yesterday one just ran right across the floor while we were chatting and cooking away. Bold as brass. So I get to share my new flat with the mice, the giant spider I saw sneaking around my wellies last night, and the mildew. It's not been as frigidly cold lately, but it's been incredibly humid. So much so that the hand towel in the bathroom won't dry. Oh well. It'll be a good summer, if it ever gets here.
Now for a few pictures from my trip to Venice. See, I can follow up on my promises sometimes.
In the Plaza San Marco:
On the Grand Canal:
Near the bus station, at night:
Just an average canal. They're all over the city. Boring:
A (slightly) cooler canal:
Also, today's the longest day of the year! According to BBC Weather, today in Edinburgh, sunrise was at 4:27am and sunset is at 10:03pm. Hooray for long days! It really is bizarre to look out the window at 11:30pm and the sky will still be fairly blue. It's sort of like being a little kid again -- oh, it's getting dark outside, time for bed! However, I do like the early sunrises; they make it far easier to get out of bed at 6am to get ready for work.
Wednesday, June 20
June June June
Hi Everyone, just for fun I thought I'd start my entry off with an exciting complaint about the weather: It is frigid. Absolutely minging. Everything I thought winter would but shouldn't be, it is. Cold. Rainy. Windy. Incredibly miserable. It's so cold and humid the hand towel in the bathroom won't even dry. I asked someone when summer was going to get here. Referencing the few warm days had at the end of April, he said it was already gone. I can't believe I shipped my winter coat home. Actually, I can, but I regret it.
Anyway.
I've been up to nothing too exciting here, just working working working. And isn't that exciting. So I'll tell you about my trip to Venice then. I and several teammates from the rugby team went along to the Mirano (note: not Murano) 7s tournament, in a small town near Venice. The pictures are up from the tournament, with a lot of unflatering ones of us (in the light blue). We flew in Thursday morning from Liverpool and spent the afternoon toodling around the village nearby our hotel. Since the tournament was Saturday, we spent Friday, Sunday, and Monday in Venice itself. It was only 5 euros return to Venice, though on the slowest bus imagineable. Highlights of the tournament included:
-taking 2nd overall
-streaker on a bicycle
-large box of fresh fruit
-watching rugby all day, in a tournament atmosphere (which I miss from home!)
-getting to play 7s
Venice is a beautiful city. Saying that, I would never go there in the summer, for three reasons: the tourists, the smell, and the heat. It was already plenty warm and crowded when we were there, and I could tell that any warmer and the canals would smell quite a bit. Nonetheless, I had an excellent time there and would love to go back and explore more of Italy.
Being in Italy reminded me a lot of California -- it drove home really how much the southern part of the West Coast has a mediterranean climate. And of course I love the Italians. Good food, talking with your hands, not getting places on time... all things I can identify with. Ah, the motherland.Yeah, yeah, yeah... pictures to follow.
In the midst of all my working for the summer I'm trying to plan some weekends before the Edinburgh Festival rushes up in August and takes up all my time. Things have started going so fast here, since I started working. The weeks zip by as each day blends into the next, and weekends are even quicker. Before I know it it'll be time to go home. I'm finally starting to feel 'ready to go home' but I'm not ready to leave Edinburgh yet. Don't think I'll ever be really ready to leave this city, but by September I think I'll be really ready to go back home. Anyway, I'm planning trips to Paris and Dublin before I leave, and also probalby some places in England and Scotland.
Right, I need to sleep now so I can be functional at work tomorrow. I hate starting at 7.30am.
Anyway.
I've been up to nothing too exciting here, just working working working. And isn't that exciting. So I'll tell you about my trip to Venice then. I and several teammates from the rugby team went along to the Mirano (note: not Murano) 7s tournament, in a small town near Venice. The pictures are up from the tournament, with a lot of unflatering ones of us (in the light blue). We flew in Thursday morning from Liverpool and spent the afternoon toodling around the village nearby our hotel. Since the tournament was Saturday, we spent Friday, Sunday, and Monday in Venice itself. It was only 5 euros return to Venice, though on the slowest bus imagineable. Highlights of the tournament included:
-taking 2nd overall
-streaker on a bicycle
-large box of fresh fruit
-watching rugby all day, in a tournament atmosphere (which I miss from home!)
-getting to play 7s
Venice is a beautiful city. Saying that, I would never go there in the summer, for three reasons: the tourists, the smell, and the heat. It was already plenty warm and crowded when we were there, and I could tell that any warmer and the canals would smell quite a bit. Nonetheless, I had an excellent time there and would love to go back and explore more of Italy.
Being in Italy reminded me a lot of California -- it drove home really how much the southern part of the West Coast has a mediterranean climate. And of course I love the Italians. Good food, talking with your hands, not getting places on time... all things I can identify with. Ah, the motherland.Yeah, yeah, yeah... pictures to follow.
In the midst of all my working for the summer I'm trying to plan some weekends before the Edinburgh Festival rushes up in August and takes up all my time. Things have started going so fast here, since I started working. The weeks zip by as each day blends into the next, and weekends are even quicker. Before I know it it'll be time to go home. I'm finally starting to feel 'ready to go home' but I'm not ready to leave Edinburgh yet. Don't think I'll ever be really ready to leave this city, but by September I think I'll be really ready to go back home. Anyway, I'm planning trips to Paris and Dublin before I leave, and also probalby some places in England and Scotland.
Right, I need to sleep now so I can be functional at work tomorrow. I hate starting at 7.30am.
Wednesday, June 13
Boring Days
It's June and it's far too cold here. I've been working, a.k.a. nothing exciting's been happening. Venice was great (recap on that later), and the new flat is working out very well. Now if I just had the time to run errands!! I'll stop whinging and write you a more informative post later.
Wednesday, May 30
Crap Weather!
Well, May is almost over, and I want to know where the good weather is!!!! We had a couple of lovely weeks in April and then we got blasted back to February or March or something. All month long the weather has been consistently horrid: cloudy, cold, rainy, and generally miserable. I keep wondering when summer will arrive and if I'm making the right decision by sending home my winter coats.
What have I been up to in the past week and a half? Aside from working, that is... Monday I saw this awesome band, 1990s, at Cabaret Voltaire at a free warm-up gig for the Rockness Festival. They are one of my new favorite bands, really really brilliant. The only way I can describe their music is... happy. Deliriously happy, like on pills happy. It's inspiringly great and never fails to bring a smile to my face. Thursday I went through to Glasgow to see The Cribs and came back in time for Indie Club Together, the legendary Fresh Air Indie club night. Had a thoroughly Scottish experience at a chippy over in Glasgow, as I was too scared to ask for salt and sauce on my chips when the woman working there 'asked' (read: demanded), "Salt and vinegar?" Also, apparently even pizza gets gourmet treatment in the deep frier over there. Hilarious, though not too bad tasting, but I don't think I'd ever choose to eat it again.
I'm moving flats tomorrow, as I have to leave student accommodation for the summer. Fine by me! I'm moving over to my friend Kiran's flat in another part of town. I've done some preparation, so it should be easy enough, though on top of that I have to pack and leave for Venice. That's right: Venice, baby! It's technically for a rugby 7s tournament this weekend, but I think we might not even have enough people to play which kind of sucks. But I still get to go to Venice, hey hey! Bring on the homeland. I'll be there for about 5 days, which'll be my longest vacation this summer. I may spend a couple of weekends away but I won't really have the time since I'm working full time. Oh well, it's like Franz Ferdinand says, "It's always better on holiday/That's why we only work when we need the money." And I need the money. However, I am considering cutting back on my hours or quitting a bit early in August as I'm going to be the Press Officer/Reviews Coordinator for Fresh Air's coverage of the Edinburgh Festival. I'm very excited about that. But not nearly as excited right now as I am about Venice!
What have I been up to in the past week and a half? Aside from working, that is... Monday I saw this awesome band, 1990s, at Cabaret Voltaire at a free warm-up gig for the Rockness Festival. They are one of my new favorite bands, really really brilliant. The only way I can describe their music is... happy. Deliriously happy, like on pills happy. It's inspiringly great and never fails to bring a smile to my face. Thursday I went through to Glasgow to see The Cribs and came back in time for Indie Club Together, the legendary Fresh Air Indie club night. Had a thoroughly Scottish experience at a chippy over in Glasgow, as I was too scared to ask for salt and sauce on my chips when the woman working there 'asked' (read: demanded), "Salt and vinegar?" Also, apparently even pizza gets gourmet treatment in the deep frier over there. Hilarious, though not too bad tasting, but I don't think I'd ever choose to eat it again.
I'm moving flats tomorrow, as I have to leave student accommodation for the summer. Fine by me! I'm moving over to my friend Kiran's flat in another part of town. I've done some preparation, so it should be easy enough, though on top of that I have to pack and leave for Venice. That's right: Venice, baby! It's technically for a rugby 7s tournament this weekend, but I think we might not even have enough people to play which kind of sucks. But I still get to go to Venice, hey hey! Bring on the homeland. I'll be there for about 5 days, which'll be my longest vacation this summer. I may spend a couple of weekends away but I won't really have the time since I'm working full time. Oh well, it's like Franz Ferdinand says, "It's always better on holiday/That's why we only work when we need the money." And I need the money. However, I am considering cutting back on my hours or quitting a bit early in August as I'm going to be the Press Officer/Reviews Coordinator for Fresh Air's coverage of the Edinburgh Festival. I'm very excited about that. But not nearly as excited right now as I am about Venice!
Sunday, May 20
May Flowers
Wow, I realize I've gone 20 days into May without updating you all. My sincere apologies, but I have been very busy. I finished up my exams on the 8th, which was quite a bit earlier than everyone else as the official end of exams was this past Friday. Cue much celebration for the weekend! I had a really nice day yesterday: I went shopping in Stockbridge (the posh side of Edinburgh) with my friend Kiran, watched the FA Cup Final (Chelsea 1 - Man Utd 0, yay!), had dinner with Katie, Nick, and Kiran, and went to a beach party (which, in British terms, is more Hawaiian themed than anything else). A really nice end to the semester. Also, Tenants is over, which is actually fantastic -- I'm so glad not to have to always be rushing to finish the next episode and run it to the studio. If you missed its broadcast, you can download the episodes from the Fresh Air website or subscribe to the podcast.
Other than that, everything else has been winding down here -- had the leaving party for EAP and end-of-season dinner for rugby, and the Fresh Air end-of-year night out is this Friday. On top of that, Thursday is Indie Club Together, a big indie club night we're putting on. Unfortunately, I'm going to be late to that since I'm also seeing The Cribs in Glasgow the same night. I'm very excited about that. Speaking of concerts and such, I saw The Noisettes on the 6th (also in Glasgow) and they were very good. I had to miss MC Lars in Edinburgh this past Tuesday 'cause it was my first day at work and I was absolutely exhausted.
Yes, I now work! I've gotten a job as a stock room assistant at this posh High Street shop here, thanks to Tallah. It happened in fairly short order, but basically it's 7.30am-4.30pm every day, Monday to Friday. Yeah, it's a lot of hours (and very early ones), but it's a paying job and steady employment for the summer. Plus, the discount is incredible. The job itself is quite good, really. I process shipment and restock the floor, and don't have to deal with customers. Couldn't be better. The last excellent bit about it is that all my friends are going to have similar hours over the summer, so it'll be convenient to hang out together.
Something I've been dying to tell all you Americans about is Eurovision. It's one fantastic night (Saturday the 12th this year) where the a nominated pop group from 20 European countries get together and battle it out to be voted the top group on the continent! It's really really really incredibly fantastically cheesy and outrageous. Serbia won this year, Britain tied with France for 2nd to last (poor Ireland took last, with 5 points), but Ukraine was my favorite act. It's really a shame they only came in second. Some classic quotes from the evening, courtesy of some obnoxious girl in a pink dress they picked out of the audience:
"...I'm single and -- where's the camera?"
"Ten minutes ago I wasn't anybody! But now I'm everybody!"
Also, there was a great sign in the crowd that just simply said "Where's Andorra?" Anyway, here's Ukraine's performance, for your viewing pleasure. San Francisco, watch and take notes.
I honestly think they might have even outdone The Castro. Here's the music video for the same song, which is just as fabulous. Who wouldn't go clubbing with their elderly Ukrainian mother and her magic glasses?
I can tell you what's going to be pumping on my iPod all summer!
Other than that, everything else has been winding down here -- had the leaving party for EAP and end-of-season dinner for rugby, and the Fresh Air end-of-year night out is this Friday. On top of that, Thursday is Indie Club Together, a big indie club night we're putting on. Unfortunately, I'm going to be late to that since I'm also seeing The Cribs in Glasgow the same night. I'm very excited about that. Speaking of concerts and such, I saw The Noisettes on the 6th (also in Glasgow) and they were very good. I had to miss MC Lars in Edinburgh this past Tuesday 'cause it was my first day at work and I was absolutely exhausted.
Yes, I now work! I've gotten a job as a stock room assistant at this posh High Street shop here, thanks to Tallah. It happened in fairly short order, but basically it's 7.30am-4.30pm every day, Monday to Friday. Yeah, it's a lot of hours (and very early ones), but it's a paying job and steady employment for the summer. Plus, the discount is incredible. The job itself is quite good, really. I process shipment and restock the floor, and don't have to deal with customers. Couldn't be better. The last excellent bit about it is that all my friends are going to have similar hours over the summer, so it'll be convenient to hang out together.
Something I've been dying to tell all you Americans about is Eurovision. It's one fantastic night (Saturday the 12th this year) where the a nominated pop group from 20 European countries get together and battle it out to be voted the top group on the continent! It's really really really incredibly fantastically cheesy and outrageous. Serbia won this year, Britain tied with France for 2nd to last (poor Ireland took last, with 5 points), but Ukraine was my favorite act. It's really a shame they only came in second. Some classic quotes from the evening, courtesy of some obnoxious girl in a pink dress they picked out of the audience:
"...I'm single and -- where's the camera?"
"Ten minutes ago I wasn't anybody! But now I'm everybody!"
Also, there was a great sign in the crowd that just simply said "Where's Andorra?" Anyway, here's Ukraine's performance, for your viewing pleasure. San Francisco, watch and take notes.
I honestly think they might have even outdone The Castro. Here's the music video for the same song, which is just as fabulous. Who wouldn't go clubbing with their elderly Ukrainian mother and her magic glasses?
I can tell you what's going to be pumping on my iPod all summer!
Monday, April 30
67 Posts Into My Scottish Adventure...
I couldn't just leave my blog to fester with 66 posts. Too much potential for evil.
Anyway, so much has been happening, I've gotten practically no sleep for the past week. Tenants has been on air for a week, meaning we're only about one fourth of the way through its broadcast. That's right, only 6 out of a whopping 20 episodes have aired. I often wonder what we were thinking, taking on a project this big. Tallah and I have been really busy with editing the episodes, adding in music and sound effects, tacking on intros and outros, finding missing lines, ... and basically not sleeping. Since I had four exams last week it's my turn to go the extra mile on the soap this week while she catches up with her work. Whew.
So yeah, school? What's that? Kidding. Like I said, last week was a gauntlet of exams, with Animal Biology on Monday, a class test for Genetics Wednesday, lab exam for Animal Bio Thursday, and Oceanography on Friday. It was hell, but at least it's over now. Soon as I get the chance to catch up on my sleep I'll be ok.... I have one more exam, the final for Genetics, on May 8th, and then I'm finished! I'm done relatively early in comparison to some of my classmates; the exam period officially ends May 25 and I do know some sad souls with an exam that day.
Rugby season is coming to a close here, and we have just one game left. Our last premier (club) league game was yesterday, against the Murrayfield Wanderers ("Wandies"), which was rough. They're a good club side, and very "street smart", as the ref called it. What is 'street smart' in rugby, you ask? Little things that aren't always technically legal if the ref sees them. Like, say, tripping me while I'm running to catch up with play across the field or punching one of our locks after the breakdown's been blown up. If you don't know rugby lingo... you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Don't worry about it -- they play dirty, is what I'm trying to say. Unpleasant. Ok, you're going to beat us by a substantial margin anyway, why bother being nasty? It just doesn't make rugby any fun to play. Anyway, we've got one game left, and a rather important one at that: it'll be the playoff to determine if we can move up into the BUSA Premier North League, instead of staying in SUSA (Scotland). It'd be awesome if we win, we would get to play at a much higher tier next season and probably improve loads. Not that I'm going to be there or anything, but still.
The weather here has been amazing, by Scotland standards. It's gone from LA-winter-like to Norcal-summer-like weather; cool in the mornings and evenings but warm and sunny during the day. Still a bit nippy for shorts unless you're running around and you pretty much always need a jumper or coat for when the wind picks up. Nonetheless, it's a big improvement! Also, spring is in gorgeous bloom, with a new bunch of flower or tree starting to blossom just about every week. Right now it's the cherry trees, which I love, so large chunks of The Meadows (and other, smaller green spaces around town) are lined with pale-pink blossoms. It's just gorgeous. Sigh, spring is here, though summer seems to be a ways off.
And speaking of summer, I'll fill you in on my plans, since they're nearing completion every day. Sorry, no, that makes it sound like I'm some sort of mad scientist or something. Anyway, like I've said before, I'm going to be living in Edinburgh for the summer. This means I get to stay and help Fresh Air cover the Edinburgh Festival in August and (boo, drudgery) get a job. Well, can't live for free I guess, huh? Would be nice, though. Things have changed slightly with the living situation and I'm staying at my friend Kiran's flat, with him, our friend Heather, and one of his existing flatmates. Plus a bunch of my other friends will be living really nearby in the same neighborhood. It's going to be really fun.
Enough from me, I need to eat some dinner and get to editing the next episode of Tenants. More later! Once I have more energy I'll put up photos galore. I promise.
Anyway, so much has been happening, I've gotten practically no sleep for the past week. Tenants has been on air for a week, meaning we're only about one fourth of the way through its broadcast. That's right, only 6 out of a whopping 20 episodes have aired. I often wonder what we were thinking, taking on a project this big. Tallah and I have been really busy with editing the episodes, adding in music and sound effects, tacking on intros and outros, finding missing lines, ... and basically not sleeping. Since I had four exams last week it's my turn to go the extra mile on the soap this week while she catches up with her work. Whew.
So yeah, school? What's that? Kidding. Like I said, last week was a gauntlet of exams, with Animal Biology on Monday, a class test for Genetics Wednesday, lab exam for Animal Bio Thursday, and Oceanography on Friday. It was hell, but at least it's over now. Soon as I get the chance to catch up on my sleep I'll be ok.... I have one more exam, the final for Genetics, on May 8th, and then I'm finished! I'm done relatively early in comparison to some of my classmates; the exam period officially ends May 25 and I do know some sad souls with an exam that day.
Rugby season is coming to a close here, and we have just one game left. Our last premier (club) league game was yesterday, against the Murrayfield Wanderers ("Wandies"), which was rough. They're a good club side, and very "street smart", as the ref called it. What is 'street smart' in rugby, you ask? Little things that aren't always technically legal if the ref sees them. Like, say, tripping me while I'm running to catch up with play across the field or punching one of our locks after the breakdown's been blown up. If you don't know rugby lingo... you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Don't worry about it -- they play dirty, is what I'm trying to say. Unpleasant. Ok, you're going to beat us by a substantial margin anyway, why bother being nasty? It just doesn't make rugby any fun to play. Anyway, we've got one game left, and a rather important one at that: it'll be the playoff to determine if we can move up into the BUSA Premier North League, instead of staying in SUSA (Scotland). It'd be awesome if we win, we would get to play at a much higher tier next season and probably improve loads. Not that I'm going to be there or anything, but still.
The weather here has been amazing, by Scotland standards. It's gone from LA-winter-like to Norcal-summer-like weather; cool in the mornings and evenings but warm and sunny during the day. Still a bit nippy for shorts unless you're running around and you pretty much always need a jumper or coat for when the wind picks up. Nonetheless, it's a big improvement! Also, spring is in gorgeous bloom, with a new bunch of flower or tree starting to blossom just about every week. Right now it's the cherry trees, which I love, so large chunks of The Meadows (and other, smaller green spaces around town) are lined with pale-pink blossoms. It's just gorgeous. Sigh, spring is here, though summer seems to be a ways off.
And speaking of summer, I'll fill you in on my plans, since they're nearing completion every day. Sorry, no, that makes it sound like I'm some sort of mad scientist or something. Anyway, like I've said before, I'm going to be living in Edinburgh for the summer. This means I get to stay and help Fresh Air cover the Edinburgh Festival in August and (boo, drudgery) get a job. Well, can't live for free I guess, huh? Would be nice, though. Things have changed slightly with the living situation and I'm staying at my friend Kiran's flat, with him, our friend Heather, and one of his existing flatmates. Plus a bunch of my other friends will be living really nearby in the same neighborhood. It's going to be really fun.
Enough from me, I need to eat some dinner and get to editing the next episode of Tenants. More later! Once I have more energy I'll put up photos galore. I promise.
Monday, April 23
Tenants!
Wow, it's going on air today! The soap opera I've been working on for ages is finally getting it's premiere at 1pm (repeated at 5.30pm) on Fresh Air. In fact, that's when you can hear it every day, with an omnibus on Saturdays at 12.30!
We've got our own page on the Fresh Air site, in addition to our myspace page.
Ok, ok, a little more explanation is due, I suppose. Too bad! You'll just have to listen! (Or download the podcast.)
We've got our own page on the Fresh Air site, in addition to our myspace page.
Ok, ok, a little more explanation is due, I suppose. Too bad! You'll just have to listen! (Or download the podcast.)
Thursday, April 19
Late Night Thoughts/Update
How's life? Boring. What have I been up to? Studying for finals, or as they'd say here, revising for exams. That and working to get Tenants the soap ready for broadcast Monday. I have four exams next week. So much fun to look forward to.
The weather here is warming up a bit -- it's now like an LA winter, but without so much rain and a bit windier. Also, all the flowers and trees have started blooming, and I can't wait until The Meadows' cherry trees hit full blossom.
The weather here is warming up a bit -- it's now like an LA winter, but without so much rain and a bit windier. Also, all the flowers and trees have started blooming, and I can't wait until The Meadows' cherry trees hit full blossom.
Thursday, April 12
Wrap It Up! (European Adventure Part 8 of 8)
Sorry for the few days delay, I've been decompressing my travel experiences upon arrival back in Edinburgh. Now, to where I left off talking about Budapest...
First, our adventures in Pest: Heroes Park is a huge plaza with enormous statues to a bunch of Hungarian Dudes. Sorry, I'm afraid I can't be any more specific than that, otherwise I'll have to kill you/admit I didn't read everything in the guidebook. We strolled about and had a look, and then went over to the neighboring park to chill and grab a couple pretzels. In one part of the park was the amazing Magyar Museum (an amazing building, we didn't actually go inside) where we wandered around and snapped away suitably. Back on the Metro, to pop up next to the apparently famous Gerbeaud cafe in Vorosmarty Ter, where we had lunch after doing some shopping at the Easter market in the square. Onwards from our posh luncheon, to Parliament. Breathtaking building, absolutely gorgeous. We walked on from there, down the banks of the Danube, and got to see the sun starting to set over the hills of Buda, which was lovely. Realizing that daylight was running short, we hurried over to St. Stephen's Basilica and ran around inside taking awe-struck photos as politely as possible, since it was Easter Sunday. It is the only place I've ever literally said "Oh my god" as soon as I walked in. (And give me some credit, I've been to my share of fancy churches.) It's huge and beautifully decorated inside, almost everything is golden. It's just incredible. Anyway, after that we ran over to the Old Synagogue, but it was closing so we had to make do with pictures of the outside (still lovely, though). Afterwards, we wandered around town for ages trying to find an open supermarket or at least somewhere to get food. (Sadly, we had to repeat the same adventure the next night, too.)
I wish we'd had more time in Budapest to actually go into places instead of just standing outside and taking pictures before moving on to the next landmark.
Now for that amazing overall travel reflection: I love how everything, absolutely everything, becomes and adventure when you're traveling. "Ok! We found the bus we need! Now we just have to buy a ticket for it..." "Look, there's a ticket machine!" Fortunately, the machine speaks English. Unfortunately, according to the machine, we do not. What shall we do next guys? Try and buy a train ticket? Find a toilet? Dare we even attempt to figure out how to get inside this building?? Sometimes a bit of daring and the ability to accurately pantomime is all you need.
Anyway, it feels really good to be back in Edinburgh. I loved every minute of my trip, but I'm very glad I decided to come back early -- it just gives me the time to breathe a little and ease into studying rather than having an exam four days after I return. I swear, though, I felt like I was gone for about a month.
As always, pictures to follow (when I have the motivation/time).
First, our adventures in Pest: Heroes Park is a huge plaza with enormous statues to a bunch of Hungarian Dudes. Sorry, I'm afraid I can't be any more specific than that, otherwise I'll have to kill you/admit I didn't read everything in the guidebook. We strolled about and had a look, and then went over to the neighboring park to chill and grab a couple pretzels. In one part of the park was the amazing Magyar Museum (an amazing building, we didn't actually go inside) where we wandered around and snapped away suitably. Back on the Metro, to pop up next to the apparently famous Gerbeaud cafe in Vorosmarty Ter, where we had lunch after doing some shopping at the Easter market in the square. Onwards from our posh luncheon, to Parliament. Breathtaking building, absolutely gorgeous. We walked on from there, down the banks of the Danube, and got to see the sun starting to set over the hills of Buda, which was lovely. Realizing that daylight was running short, we hurried over to St. Stephen's Basilica and ran around inside taking awe-struck photos as politely as possible, since it was Easter Sunday. It is the only place I've ever literally said "Oh my god" as soon as I walked in. (And give me some credit, I've been to my share of fancy churches.) It's huge and beautifully decorated inside, almost everything is golden. It's just incredible. Anyway, after that we ran over to the Old Synagogue, but it was closing so we had to make do with pictures of the outside (still lovely, though). Afterwards, we wandered around town for ages trying to find an open supermarket or at least somewhere to get food. (Sadly, we had to repeat the same adventure the next night, too.)
I wish we'd had more time in Budapest to actually go into places instead of just standing outside and taking pictures before moving on to the next landmark.
Now for that amazing overall travel reflection: I love how everything, absolutely everything, becomes and adventure when you're traveling. "Ok! We found the bus we need! Now we just have to buy a ticket for it..." "Look, there's a ticket machine!" Fortunately, the machine speaks English. Unfortunately, according to the machine, we do not. What shall we do next guys? Try and buy a train ticket? Find a toilet? Dare we even attempt to figure out how to get inside this building?? Sometimes a bit of daring and the ability to accurately pantomime is all you need.
Anyway, it feels really good to be back in Edinburgh. I loved every minute of my trip, but I'm very glad I decided to come back early -- it just gives me the time to breathe a little and ease into studying rather than having an exam four days after I return. I swear, though, I felt like I was gone for about a month.
As always, pictures to follow (when I have the motivation/time).
Tuesday, April 10
Part 7: No More Guessing, I'm Bored With This Game
The Journey Home to Edinburgh
7.15am, catch the tram from Rakoczi* ter to Blaha Lujza ter. 7.20am, catch M2 Metro from Blaha Lujza ter to Deak Ferenc ter, transfer to M3 Metro. 7.30am, M3 Metro to Kobanya-Kispest, end of the line. 7.55am, catch BKV-Ferihegy bus no. 200 to Airport. 8.30am, check-in, everyone mobs the desk. 10.30am, catch EasyJet flight to London Luton with several very active small children. 10.31am, headache begins. 12.15pm, collect baggage, realize iPod charger is missing from checked backpack; headache worsens. 12.25pm, airport bus from Luton to Baker Street tube station. 1.35pm, tube from Baker Street to King's Cross/St. Pancras. 1.49pm, arrive King's Cross and realize I have 11 minutes to make a cheaper train or wait till 3pm; I run. 1.50pm panic at ticket buying machine. 1.52pm, get on train, feel silly for running and panicking. 2pm prompt, safely on a train to Edinburgh as it departs King's Cross. 5.25pm, iPod runs out of battery. 6.30pm, arrive back in Edinburgh, walk home, make a cup of tea, and promptly overdose on the interenet.
Sigh..............
(*All Hungarian place names are missing several accent marks)
Monday, April 9
Can You Guess.... Part 6
A Pleasant Day in Buda
Yesterday = Pest
Today = Buda
Tomorrow = Home! (ish)
Tonight is my last evening before I fly back to London, and I'll be sad to leave Eastern Europe. It's been a trip, to say the least. Anyway, on to the last couple day's events...
Today we struck out nice and early, like the good workers we are, and trekked out to the Statue Park, a collection of old communist statues. Unless you are as amused by these old sculptures as we were, I wouldn't recommend going, it's nothing amazing. However, if you like blasphemy and silly photos in front of statues, you'd be in heaven (like us!). A few postcards and one ridiculous Lenin-shaped candle later, we were on our way back into town, ready to tackle Buda.
We had lunch (pizza again, how adventurous) and then headed up into the old town on the hill. We started out at Fisherman's Bastion, an amazing fortification along the wall with great views of the city along the river. It stretches the length of a few city blocks and is made all out of white stone. It's beautifully decorated and, interestingly enough, all the columns are in different styles. After that we wandered around the old cathedral and over to the palace for some more great vistas and photos. On the way we stopped at a little handicrafts market, and I got an embroidered table runner which I plan to use as a wall hanging. The sole reason I bought it is so that when I have kids and they say, "Mom, why do we have so much old crap in the house?" I can say, "Ohhh no, I bought this in Hungary aaaaages ago, when I was on vacation from Edinburgh. I must have been, oh, 20 years old? That was 2007; it's very old and valuable now." It's a red floral pattern on a rough, tan colored piece of linen.
Anyway, on to the palace, where we walked around wallowing in its splendor, and then I fell asleep in the grass for a bit while Stephanie wrote some postcards. Lovely, except now I'm a little sunburned. Me! That's how pathetically pasty I've become, living in Scotland. I'm out in the sun for one day and the back of my neck gets sunburned. Tsk. Anyway, we walked back down through Buda and headed back to the hostel to regroup before heading out to get groceries and dinner.
Buda and Pest are amazing cities, both old and beautiful in their own ways. Buda's much more medieval and renaissance, up on the hill and overlooking the Danube, while Pest is flat and has lovely large boulevards decorated in a more baroque style. I love both parts, and oddly enough the city reminds me a bit of San Francisco. Sigh, home.
More in a bit, there's people waiting to use the computer here....
Can You Guess Where I Am? Part 5
Budapest
Yesterday: Pest
Today: Buda
(Tomorrow: Budapest --> London --> Edinburgh)
Yes, Budapest is actually two distinct cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube. Yesterday we got our transit passes and fully took advantage of the metro and tram, zipping all over Pest to see some of the amazing monuments. I'd read in Lonely Planet that Pest is the flat, industrial neighbor to Buda, so I'd assumed it would be rather boring and probably kind of ugly. Here is where I am wrong. Very wrong. I'll elaborate more on what we saw later (we're on our way out the door right now for a full day in Buda, as it's our last day), but the list includes: Heroes Park, The Magyar Museum, Parliament, The Danube, some cool Easter marketplace and lunch at a well-known cafe, St. Stephen's Basilica (though not his mummified right hand, boo), and the old synagogue. I might have forgotten a couple of things; I'll have to check my pictures and guidebook and fill you in later.
Now we're off to Statue Park, where they've dragged a bunch of old communist statues together, and then Buda. I'm excited.
P.S. If I thought Romanian was hard... Hungarian is crazy. No joke. They have words longer than train stations to put them on.
Sunday, April 8
Radio Update
My radio show, Rhymes With Unk, will return April 23rd, to be broadcast every Monday from 5.30-7pm on Fresh Air! And if you ignore this reminder, I'll track you down and break your knees. Or maybe just post another blog. Yes, that'll be cheaper.
FreshAir.org.uk
FreshAir.org.uk
Can You Guess Where I Am? Part 4b
Yesterday/Saturday = 12 hour train ride Brasov --> Budapest
Today/Easter Sunday = Budapest
(Tomorrow/Easter Monday (argh!) = Budapest)
Right, so I didn't cover a few things in my blog last night, but they're all sort of retrospective-y things on Romania anyway. First of all, I heard two (Romanian) jokes while I was there, which I thought were funny.
First one: The parts of the body are having a meeting to decide who should be the boss. The brain says, "I should be the boss because I tell the body what to do, I coordinate the movements and I do all the thinking." The eyes disagree, and say, "We should be the boss because we perceive the world around us, figure out what's important, and gather information." The mouth chimes in: "I should be the boss because I control the information going out and communicate to the outside world." Then the butt speaks up. "I should be the boss," it says, "because when I decide to stop working, no more food can come in and the whole system shuts down." Moral of the story: Any asshole can be the boss.
Second one: Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism are having a tea party. On the day of the event, Capitalism and Communism show up, but Socialism is late. Finally, Socialism runs in, out of breath, and apologizes: "Sorry I'm late guys, I was waiting in line for meat." Capitalism says, "What's a line?" and Communism says, "What's meat?"
Well I thought they were funny. The second one is a little more Romanian, but I think the first is pretty universal. You know me and my jokes... bad and inseparable.
Anyway, Romania was an interesting country to visit; it really is a bit of a mind boggle that it is in Europe proper and the EU. It's sort of a hard country to visit, but I'm really glad I went. So much cooler than everyone else's spring break trips to Berlin, Rome, Paris, etc.
Lovely reflections on Budapest and Hungary to follow, when I've actually experienced something of the city.
Today/Easter Sunday = Budapest
(Tomorrow/Easter Monday (argh!) = Budapest)
Right, so I didn't cover a few things in my blog last night, but they're all sort of retrospective-y things on Romania anyway. First of all, I heard two (Romanian) jokes while I was there, which I thought were funny.
First one: The parts of the body are having a meeting to decide who should be the boss. The brain says, "I should be the boss because I tell the body what to do, I coordinate the movements and I do all the thinking." The eyes disagree, and say, "We should be the boss because we perceive the world around us, figure out what's important, and gather information." The mouth chimes in: "I should be the boss because I control the information going out and communicate to the outside world." Then the butt speaks up. "I should be the boss," it says, "because when I decide to stop working, no more food can come in and the whole system shuts down." Moral of the story: Any asshole can be the boss.
Second one: Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism are having a tea party. On the day of the event, Capitalism and Communism show up, but Socialism is late. Finally, Socialism runs in, out of breath, and apologizes: "Sorry I'm late guys, I was waiting in line for meat." Capitalism says, "What's a line?" and Communism says, "What's meat?"
Well I thought they were funny. The second one is a little more Romanian, but I think the first is pretty universal. You know me and my jokes... bad and inseparable.
Anyway, Romania was an interesting country to visit; it really is a bit of a mind boggle that it is in Europe proper and the EU. It's sort of a hard country to visit, but I'm really glad I went. So much cooler than everyone else's spring break trips to Berlin, Rome, Paris, etc.
Lovely reflections on Budapest and Hungary to follow, when I've actually experienced something of the city.
Saturday, April 7
Can You Guess Where I Am? Part 4
There's nothing like a refreshing 12 hour train ride to help remind you just how long a day can be. Fun.
Today was our epic journey from Romania to Hungary, via just about every single little town we could pass on the way. Add an hour or more for passport inspection at the border, twice (once by each country). Not getting hassled at the Brasov train station by some gypsy children. This girl of about 10 or so came up to us while Stephanie was buying Hungarian forint at the exchange window, but we just shook our heads and ignored her and headed for our platform. We knew it was going to be a long 20 minute wait for our train when we saw her crossing the tracks and climbing the fences across the tracks to get to us. Sigh. Not knowing any Romanian, we attempted to ward her off with shakes of the head and saying 'nu inteleg' (which means 'I don't understand'), and she finally walked off with the banana peels left over from our breakfast on the platform. Odd. We think she was offering to throw them away for us for spare change. Anyway, she finally left, but her younger brothers (we assume) came round and tried their schtick. Not as clever as their sister, they both gave up after we told them we didn't understand Romanian. Tough situation.
On the upside, we did get our own train compartment for the trip, with 8 seats and just us 3 travelers. I've never seen an actual train compartment (except in Sherlock Holmes shows on PBS) much less been in one. Rustic and 70s-tastic, but comfy. Though we did get a little stir crazy after several hours. Napping, studying, and iPod wars ensued, with me taking gold in all events: I napped the most, studied, and my iPod died first.
Needless to say we arrived in Budapest all in one piece and found our way easily to our hostel (for once!). As we were walking off the train platform, an American woman approached us and asked, "Do you speak English? Oh, yes, Canada!" commenting on the deceptively placed Canadian flag luggage tag on Stephanie's backpack. Before we could even say anything, she handed us three validated metro day tickets and told us they were good until midnight. Welcome to Budapest, indeed. Since our hostel was within walking distance, we took a joyride on the trams just to see if we could find a supermarket that was open. We didn't, but enjoyed the trip and felt like we used the tickets.
From what we've seen in our limited wander around, it looks very nice and I'm excited to be in a more... developed (is that PC to say?) country.
Looking back on Romania, I'm glad we went there first. It would be sort of a shock after seeing Budapest, since the country's so dirty and much less developed. The difference was apparent immediately as soon as we crossed into Hungary -- there wasn't trash strewn all over the place, houses were in proper shape, fields of livestock had fences around them, no horse-drawn wagons... even the bicycles looked nicer and in better shape.
Anyway, my trip here is sadly almost over, as I'm leaving to go back to London on Tuesday. I get the next couple days here (Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, wooo.... better go hang out in the Jewish Quarter...) and then returning to Edinburgh to be able to study enough for my finals. Steph and Clancey are going on to Sarajevo and Croatia, following our original itinerary. I'm glad I came along and would love to see the rest, but I'm not going to lie, I will really appreciate the 9 extra days to study.
As always, pictures to follow. :)
x
Today was our epic journey from Romania to Hungary, via just about every single little town we could pass on the way. Add an hour or more for passport inspection at the border, twice (once by each country). Not getting hassled at the Brasov train station by some gypsy children. This girl of about 10 or so came up to us while Stephanie was buying Hungarian forint at the exchange window, but we just shook our heads and ignored her and headed for our platform. We knew it was going to be a long 20 minute wait for our train when we saw her crossing the tracks and climbing the fences across the tracks to get to us. Sigh. Not knowing any Romanian, we attempted to ward her off with shakes of the head and saying 'nu inteleg' (which means 'I don't understand'), and she finally walked off with the banana peels left over from our breakfast on the platform. Odd. We think she was offering to throw them away for us for spare change. Anyway, she finally left, but her younger brothers (we assume) came round and tried their schtick. Not as clever as their sister, they both gave up after we told them we didn't understand Romanian. Tough situation.
On the upside, we did get our own train compartment for the trip, with 8 seats and just us 3 travelers. I've never seen an actual train compartment (except in Sherlock Holmes shows on PBS) much less been in one. Rustic and 70s-tastic, but comfy. Though we did get a little stir crazy after several hours. Napping, studying, and iPod wars ensued, with me taking gold in all events: I napped the most, studied, and my iPod died first.
Needless to say we arrived in Budapest all in one piece and found our way easily to our hostel (for once!). As we were walking off the train platform, an American woman approached us and asked, "Do you speak English? Oh, yes, Canada!" commenting on the deceptively placed Canadian flag luggage tag on Stephanie's backpack. Before we could even say anything, she handed us three validated metro day tickets and told us they were good until midnight. Welcome to Budapest, indeed. Since our hostel was within walking distance, we took a joyride on the trams just to see if we could find a supermarket that was open. We didn't, but enjoyed the trip and felt like we used the tickets.
From what we've seen in our limited wander around, it looks very nice and I'm excited to be in a more... developed (is that PC to say?) country.
Looking back on Romania, I'm glad we went there first. It would be sort of a shock after seeing Budapest, since the country's so dirty and much less developed. The difference was apparent immediately as soon as we crossed into Hungary -- there wasn't trash strewn all over the place, houses were in proper shape, fields of livestock had fences around them, no horse-drawn wagons... even the bicycles looked nicer and in better shape.
Anyway, my trip here is sadly almost over, as I'm leaving to go back to London on Tuesday. I get the next couple days here (Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, wooo.... better go hang out in the Jewish Quarter...) and then returning to Edinburgh to be able to study enough for my finals. Steph and Clancey are going on to Sarajevo and Croatia, following our original itinerary. I'm glad I came along and would love to see the rest, but I'm not going to lie, I will really appreciate the 9 extra days to study.
As always, pictures to follow. :)
x
Friday, April 6
Can You Guess Where I Am? Part 3
Transylvania
Wednesday = Bucharest --> Brasov (via train)
Thursday = Peles Castle, Rasnov, Bran Castle
Today = Brasov
(Tomorrow = 11 hour train to Budapest!)
So much to say, where to begin? Well, I'm in Brasov now, a cute little mountain city in the mountains, and a great place for trips around the area. Upon arrival on Wednesday, we congratulated ourselves on buying tickets and getting on what we thought was the right bus. As it turns out, bus lines change and we rode in a few circles and spent a few extra lei getting to the hostel for the evening. Annoying as that was, it was a lot easier than finding the place in Bucharest. We settled in and headed out for a walk around town in the evening light before treating ourselves to a nice traditional Romanian fare at a restaurant near the hostel. Appetizer, beer, and mains included, our 3 person bill came to 59 lei, or about $23. Not bad! Being the power tourists that we are, we turned in early and prepared for our castle tour the next day.
The hostel we're staying at gives minibus tours of the main castles nearby, Bran, Rasnov, and Peles. For only 60 lei, you get transportation (though not entrance) to all three. After talking to fellow travelers who said they'd spent 68 lei and two days accomplishing the same feat, we decided to take the gamble and sign up. I'm normally pretty wary of tours from the places you stay, but this was a good deal, and even included a stop at a restaurant for lunch. Anyway, on to the interesting part: the castles. The Peles Castle is a magnificent building, and was actually more of a summer palace for the royal family. Decorated in a variety of styles (Italian, German, Baroque, Hungarian, Iranian, Middle Eastern, Indian, etc.), it was a gorgeous 59 room example of royal finery and excess. Beautiful. Rasnov castle was a place of defense for the region, so it's up on a mountain, and has amazing views. It's crumbling, but still mostly intact, and even has a bit of a museum in one part. Probably my favorite castle of the three, for the views and cool stone remains. Bran was the third castle we visited, and is for some reason associated with Vlad Tepes a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, once King of Wallachia, whom Dracula was based upon. Apparently he never actually set foot in the castle, but it's still cool. It's less impressive castle than really really cool, modest palace fort kinda place (adjectives fail me right now, sorry). The modest size of most rooms inside and white architecture made me liken it to a very very spacious Greek style house. But in a royal kind of way... Hard to explain. Anyway, back to the hostel for some food and another early evening.
Today we set out for Brasov's main drag, intending to see the interiors of the old Synagogue and the Black Church. Unfortunately, there was something going on in the Synagogue (which is only open till 1pm anyway) and since it's Good Friday most of the churches are actively in use. Kinda awkward and gauche to go busting in and snapping photos during services/prayers. Not to be deterred, we explored more of the city, and climbed some trails up to the old defense tower, the Blacksmiths' Bastion, and had some lovely italian pastries (which I ordered in a mixture of Romanian and sign language). Afterwards, more exploring, and back to the hostel to cook for ourselves again and pack up for tomorrow.
Brasov is a much more welcoming city than Bucharest, which makes sense since it is the most visited city in Romania. It's very pretty and has a lovely town square; Lonely Planet dubs it "The New Prague." Fitting. Though smaller, it actually looks how I expected Bucharest to look. Oh well. We took the right advice and ended up in the small, nice city for several days rather than the dirty capital. I'm also feeling like I stand out a little less, or maybe it's just that I'm not as stared at here. Either way, I feel slightly more comfortable. I think it's just that people are more used to foriegners.
Tomorrow's our 11 hour train trip to Budapest, so I'd best be off and charge my iPod!
Tuesday, April 3
Can You Guess Where I Am? Part 2
Bucharest
Sunday = London
Monday = London --> Bucharest
Today = Bucharest
(Tomorrow = Bucharest --> Brasov!)
Hello All, I write to you from the Romanian capital city, Bucuresti! It's, er... nice. Doesn't seem to really have recovered from communism yet, though. I have a picture (that I'll put up later) that sums it all up: nice, old building, flanked by decent modern and ugly crumbling ones. At least the hostel here is nice and homey.
It's a very new experience for me, traveling in a country where neither I nor the people I'm with speak the language. English isn't terribly common here, and it's hard to communicate "we don't understand" with much more than a vacant pleading stare, a shrug, and a shake of the head. From my knowledge of Spanish and French, and The Lonely Planet's guide on Romanian (of which one page is ripped out -- second hand books are lovely!), I can get by enough to find the right way on the metro or point out menu items. But just barely.
Yesterday was a trip and a half. We flew from Luton (London) to Bucharest International Airport, which (I think) is the best (by which I mean most entertaining) airport I've met so far. Disembark the plane on to the two packed shuttle buses, just to drive 50ft. in a semicircle to the one gate terminal. The baggage handlers place your luggage on the carousel outside, just on the other side of the window, then run in and take it off the conveyor belt since there's too much to fit on it all at once. From that point on we began the long wander to our hostel, including plenty of faffing about with the airport buses and a lucky tip from some fellow hostelers.
Today was a grand, self-led walking tour of the city, after adventures with buying tickets at the train station. We pretty much walked Central Bucharest from south to North, starting at the House of the People/Palace of the Parliament. Onwards up through the old quarter (small, windy, crumbling cobblestone streets), into a lovely park with good people watching, then up to Piata Revolutiei with many cool and important buildings. Most interesting in Piata Revolutiei was the Cescu Church, which was gutted during the 1989 revolution. It was left vacant for awhile in remembrance of those who died in the revolution, but now a glass building lives inside of it. (That's really the only way to describe how it looks.) There are still bullet holes in the walls.
Bucharest is an interesting city. If Prague and Budapest are the first steps out of the west, one of our German hostel-mates told us, then Bucharest is the second. I would agree. There's a great disparity between rich and poor here, with a very thin gilding of posh cafes, fancy cars, nice shops, and a Hilton. However, most of the people seem fairly poor, and the city in general is in terrible shape. There are a also a ton of cars here (so lots of smog), though apparently plenty of parking -- sidewalks are not off limits and I've had to dodge more than one car on territory I'd foolishly assumed was mine.
Romanians practice the art of aggressive queuing -- if you're not within eight inches of the person in front of you, you're not in line. Takes some practice, but Clancey showed everyone up by elbowing an old man out of the way at the supermarket.
I've been told by people that Romanians are both very kind and helpful and suspicious. To be fair, we've met with as many smiles as rolled eyes -- at least we're not pissing everybody off. Couldn't even say the same for NYC.
I've been feeling a little conspicuous here, as I'm as tall as most men here and a lot fairer than most. My blonde-counter ratio is running at 13:3 (artificial:natural) even after a full day of walking around the city. Glad I brought my cap! I'll probably be wearing it a lot in the next few days.
So... what's next? Brasov: heart of Romania, Transylvania, and seated near some of the prettiest (still medieval-looking) towns in the country. Or so Lonely Planet says. They've not been wrong so far!
x
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
