Tag: tourist spot

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Doune & Callander

Went out to Doune Castle, where it seems that its Monty Python fame has now been overshadowed by Outlander. Continued up into Callander, at the edge of the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park where I hiked to Bracklinn Falls. I tried stopping by Samson’s Stone while I was there, but I took two different  trails, and each time my GPS told me to turn there was only dense forest; even when I found an official park map there was only a dot surrounded by green and no trails so I’m not sure how to get there without a helicopter. It was a beautiful day to waste a couple hours in the forest though, I was led to believe it’d be raining pretty much everyday here but the weather’s been absolutely smashing all week.

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Edinburgh

Day trip into Edinburgh where we explored Calton Hill and the National Museum of Scotland (and passed by the Forth Bridges on our way there). One of my classes then went together to the Edinburgh Dungeons (which was not at all what I was expecting after having done zero research: part semi hasted house and part heightened dramatized history lessons) and it was quite a good time – even though we got hanged (literally a ride at the end – basically a mini tower of terror). We also stopped by the Frankenstein Bar since that’s the first book we’re reading in that class.

Frankestein Bar Video

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Stirling Castle

Today I just took a casual stroll through Stirling Castle after class, as you do. For dinner we went into town to try some Scotland favorites: pizza crunch (deep fried pizza), fried haggis, and a fried Mars bar; pizza could have been really good if it had come with more dipping sauce on the side, but the others were really good.

Stirling Castle Video

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William Wallace Monument*

Well, my luggage didn’t make it, but I have arrived to Stirling. I’ve started to meet all the other international students, and a couple of us wandered up to the William Wallace Monument – which is just a 20 min walk from campus; the inside wasn’t open but there’s lots of different trails around the base.

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All the Cliffs

Kilkee Cliffs (quite windy but not too cold) & Cliffs of Moher (extremely windy and quite cold); we spent a lot of time at the underrated Kilkee Cliffs and then were lucky enough to get the handicap buggy to the top of the Cliffs of Moher. In between we stopped at Loophead Lighthouse, Doonagore Castle, and drove through Doolin.

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Arriving in Dublin

Landed at 1am – I mean 7am – so the perfect time to get started with our day! Got some breakfast, saw the Book of Kells, toured the Guinness factory, then grabbed dinner at the oldest pub and are taking an early night.

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Munich, Last Day

We took a couple different routes on the Hop-Off-Hop-Off buses so I feel like we really got to see a lot of the city. That includes Marienplatz, St. Michael’s church, the eternal flame monument for those lost in WWII, Nymphenburg Palace, Olympic Park where we went to the top of the tower, a market where we saw a maypole,  Odeonsplatz, and the English Gardens. The gardens were beautiful, and we stumbled across a place where apparently a lot of people go to surf the little waves coming out from under the bridge.

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Last Day in Budapest

We visited the Shoes on the Danube, a memorial there to honor those lost in WWII. We also went through the Labyrinth, naturally made, but now used in connection to Dracula; they were quite creepy with very few lights, fog, and opera music echoing throughout accompanied by wax figures as a masquerade ball. We took the funicular down Buda Hill, rode the Budapest Eye, and as we were sitting having a milkshake to cool down, a random parade came by as there are multiple festivals happening around here, but what mostly caught my attention was the guy having to wear a fur coat in 90 degrees. We had a great dinner where we cooked our own meat on a lava rock (I had some Mangalica Pork, mostly because I was really intrigued by the concept of eating a fuzzy pig). And then we were supposed to take an overnight train tonight to Munich, but we ended up missing that one, but we were able to get another train to Munich tomorrow morning and a hotel room in the same hotel we stayed in last night so it all worked out. Plus we were glad to be able to take a shower after sweating all day.

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History in Budapest

We visited the Rock Hospital which was not what I had expected but was extremely interesting. They didn’t allow us to take photos inside, but they had wax statues all through the tunnels in the cave to represent how it was used in WWII as a hospital and later as a potential nuclear shelter for the threat during the Cold War. We went to Gellert Hill and visited the church built into the stone, and then I hiked up to the top and the views were spectacular (you can see a more detailed story of that adventure by searching “Hiking Gellert Hill”). We also walked through a local market (located in a very large, grand looking building) and got some fresh fruit. And finally, as it is the last night of the cruise, they led us into town to the street filled with all the nightlife and bars and we hung out with some of the friends we have made.

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Bratislava & Budapest

We had a short stop in Bratislava, a cute little town hit hard by multiple wars, and you can see the newly renovated buildings right next to those damaged by war. Some of those that haven’t been renovated yet have numbers next to some of the damaged parts, because they want to preserve some of that history in which the buildings were destroyed, so those parts will not get renovated. They also have multiple statues representing their freedom, like Man At Work, and there is a compass embedded in the ground with many different large cities from around the world and how far away they are. In St. Mark’s Cathedral they have glass in the ground to show the crypts below. We then had a long boat ride to our final cruise stop, Budapest. Everyone gathered on the deck to watch as we sailed into the beautiful city lit up at night.