The Final Countdown

Ok, I'm going to try to do this post without crying.

These past few days have been great, but also bittersweet. On Thursday I had my last day of work. While I was happy to not have to think about certain things, like free hospital car parking, ever again, I was really upset that the internship was ending. I had such a great experience working for Margaret, and I didn't want to leave. On Friday Mom got here, and she got to meet a bunch of my friends. But Friday night the goodbyes began - I was making fun of people for being emotional, but I was actually starting to get emotional myself.

Saturday Mom and I did some touristy stuff - we went to the Castle, which was nice, but once we got to the Parliament I started to get kind of upset, realizing that I wasn't going to be back there on Monday. So I was kind of in a funk for the rest of the day. Then Saturday night we went to Glasgow to have dinner with Margaret and her husband Rab, which was great.



Today (Sunday) was absolutely gorgeous. It was an amazing day - the sun was shining and it was warm (you rarely get both in Edinburgh). We hiked up Arthur's Seat for the amazing views, then we walked around New Town and lay in St. Andrew's Square for a bit.

Tomorrow we leave for Rome, and I start my Europe trip. I'm really excited, but I just don't want to be leaving Edinburgh...at all. Ok, I'm going to have to stop now before I start to cry.

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post in the next few weeks, but I'll try to do it as much as possible, and hopefully I'll get some pictures in too. I'm going to Rome, then Seville, then Madrid, then Berlin. I'll be back in NYC on May 11.
xoxo Pam

A Tribute to Glasgow

I dedicate this blog posting to Glasgow - a city I have come to love since I've been in Scotland.

Pretty much every Monday and Friday I have gone to my MSP's constituency office in the East End of Glasgow. Many people who live in Scotland have never been to the East End of Glasgow because they're afraid they'll get knifed. However, every morning I was in Glasgow I took the X19 bus from the city centre to the East End, and I'm still standing - so there you go.

Glasgow and Edinburgh have a long time rivalry (similar to the New York/Boston rivalry), so I assumed that if I loved Edinburgh I wouldn't like Glasgow. I was wrong. Glasgow might not be as picturesque as Edinburgh, but it has some amazing architecture and good people, and any city with those two things should certainly be appreciated. My two favorite buildings in Glasgow are the city chambers building in the middle of George Square (see picture) and the Glasgow Museum of Art (see picture). Queen Street Station is also beautiful, as is Buchanan Street (see pictures).

Another part of the city I now love is Easterhouse. The whole East End of Glasgow has this kind of "survivor" character, but no neighborhood has attitude like Easterhouse. Imagine you are from England, and you come to Brooklyn and hear the Bensonhurst accent. That is what it was like for me in Easterhouse every Monday and Friday...lets just say I did a lot of smiling and nodding.


Basically, the East End is the reason Glasgow is seen as the city bringing Scotland down. The housing, health and general demographic picture of the East End is worse than most of Scotland (see picture). But it is improving, and East Enders are survivors.

So, I salute you, Glasgow. It's been a pleasure knowing you.
[Please forgive the melodrama of this post. I'm getting sentimental as I get ready to leave.]
xoxo Pam

Square Pegs, Round Holes

That is the metaphor my Highland tour guide used to describe the Jacobite Rebellion and the general hostilities between Catholics and Protestants in Scotland. Glad to have sectarianism sorted out in one simple phrase.

I spent the weekend in the Highlands and the Isle of Skye. It was my last trip in Scotland, and it was incredible. We had fantastic weather (which was really lucky because if you don't have good weather on Skye there's a good chance you won't be able to see anything). It was a very busy weekend, so I'll break it down day by day.

Friday morning we left Edinburgh and traveled through the Highlands. We stopped at Loch Tummel, which was beautiful, but nothing compared to what was about to come. Then we continued through the Highlands via Aviemore (a quaint little town where we had an overpriced lunch) and Culloden Battlefield. The Battle of Culloden was the final stand between the Jacobites (the Catholics in the Highlands who supported King James) and the British Army (who served William of Orange). The Jacobites were massacred (mainly because Culloden is a flat field and the only military prowess the Jacobites had was an ability to run down a hill screaming and freak people out) and it secured William's rule over Britain - the battle also completed changed life in the Highlands, ending clan rule and leading up to the Clearances. Also, the fact that Britain had a secure government allowed the Industrial Revolution to really take hold (since people weren't worried about anarchy taking hold anymore). So yeah, Culloden is a pretty important place in world history. After seeing that, we continued through the Highlands towards Skye, arriving just before a miraculous sunset (see picture). We also hung out with the locals at a bar near our hotel, and some of them were pretty funny (this one guy had completely white hair and virtually no teeth...but that didn't stop him from showing his moves on the dance floor!)





Saturday we traveled around Skye through the Cuillin Mountains, which were gorgeous (see picture). But the best part of the day was hiking up the Old Man of Storr (see pictures). The view was incredible, and it was amazing being smack in the middle of the Highlands on such a clear day. We also visited Dunvegan Castle, which was a little disappointing (it was small and kind of boring), but still very pretty. Saturday night we did karaoke at the bar, and Tom and I did a fantastic rendition of "Proud Mary" and boy did we do Tina proud. And here's something I've learned - no matter where you go in the world, no matter what cultural differences there might be, everyone is able to sit down and enjoy listening to some Ike & Tina tunes. Remember that.




Sunday was also a great day - we left Skye for the Highlands, passing through Eilean Donan Castle (see picture) which was absolutely gorgeous, and then continuing on towards Loch Ness. Loch Ness is nice, but it's not the prettiest loch in Scotland, so I understand why they had to make up some money making scam (i.e. the Monster) to get people to come. Then we went to Glen Coe, which was incredible. The pictures don't even come close to doing it justice.

Anyway, I'm having a total panic attack about leaving Edinburgh, but I'm psyched for my Euro trip starting next week! I'll keep you all posted as the last days wind down.
xoxo
Pam

Trying Not to Fall Off the Cliffs...

...and pretending to be pensive while posing on top of them for pictures. All in a Sunday afternoon.

In case you couldn't tell from the photos (which I assume you can't), I went up to north east Scotland on Sunday, and it is absolutely gorgeous. We went to a town called Stonehaven, which is in Aberdeenshire. The town is a quaint harbor town, and a few miles away there is a castle, Dunnottar Castle, while lays in ruins on top of miraculous cliffs (see pictures).

Alright, enough melodrama. No, seriously, it was beautiful. It was this strange mix between beach and mountains - kind of like Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. The train ride up was also fantastic. It went through Fife (the route you take to go to St. Andrews) and then past Dundee along the east coast towards Aberdeen. It sure beats the New York to Baltimore route, which has about 5 minutes of pretty Maryland countryside and 2 hours of ugly, ugly New Jersey.

The only downside of the trip is the fact that I am INCREDIBLY sore from hiking up all of those cliffs. My legs felt like they were going to fall off today.

Well, that's it for now.
xoxo Pam

Ahoy Praha!

I am the best tourist ever.

I just spent the last 3 days in Prague, and I saw everything...and I will now break it down for you all:

Views: There are amazing views in Prague. We went to Petrin Hill and climbed Petrin Tower, which is huge (and a little scary when you're at the top), and got to see the entire city. As you can see from the pictures, it is gorgeous. A river runs through the middle of the city, and there are 3 bridges which go over it (including the famous Charles Bridge - see picture).




The Castle: Prague Castle is incredible. It is massive, and the main attraction there is St. Vitus Cathedral (see picture). It was raining when we went, but that was probably a good thing because if it had been sunny, it would have been packed. The other parts of the castle are St. George's Basilica and Golden Lane (a cute little street that runs through the castle - yes, the castle is so huge that a street actually runs through it).

Churches: Prague has some incredible churches, aside from St. Vitus Cathedral. Some of them (like Tyn Church) are kind of gaudy, but their detail is still striking. The other thing that was kind of odd about them is it is really difficult to tell what sect of Christianity they are for. Most of the Churches turned out to be Catholic, but there is very little religious imagery in them (with the exception of bloody figures of Jesus hanging from the cross...but that doesn't really narrow it down if you're trying to determine which sect of Christianity they represent).





Synagogues: Prague also has a ton of synagogues, most of them located in the Jewish district of Josefov. Since the end of World War II, there are very few Jews living in any part of Prague, including the Josefov area. Most of them were either killed or displaced during the Holocaust, and their families never returned. The oldest functioning synagogue, the Old-New Synagogue, only has about 150 members. The nicest synagogue, oddly enough, wasn't even in the Jewish District.



Neighborhoods: There are 4 main areas of Prague - Mala Strana (Little Quarter), Nove Mesto (New Town), Stare Mesto (Old Town, which contains Josefov) and the area where Prague Castle is. My favorite area was Stare Mesto; it has this gorgeous square in the middle, and these classic little streets which run through it. Mala Strana was great too, and it has the added benefit of being less crowded (outside of Charles Bridge) and having nice parks.




Museums: Yes, the trip was educational as well. I went to 2 museums in Prague - the Kafka Museum and the Museum of Communism. The Kafka Museum was nice, but the Museum of Communism was the real treat. First of all, it is hidden in this side street in Nove Mesto, right under a massive McDonalds (I won't even get into the irony of that). It details the history of Communist rule in Czechslovakia after World War II, and has part of the Berlin Wall in it (see picture). There was also this documentary video playing; the video was basically an account of many many Czech cops beating up protesters in Wenceslas Square (Wenceslas, as in "good King Wenceslas looked about on the feast of Stephen/when the snow came round about, deep and crisp and even..." c'mon, who remembers Brearley Winter Assemblies?).




The trip was fantastic. Prague is beautiful and fun and interesting (especially if you're a history buff, I'm not naming any names) and we had a great time. You should all be really jealous of me, or go to Prague ASAP.
xoxo Pam

Day in Queensferry

Can I just say I love day trips? The trains in Scotland are amazing - they run so smoothly and getting around is so easy, it's the perfect country for day trips.

Today Tom, Fernando and I went to Queensferry, an area just north of Edinburgh along the Firth of Forth (aka that body of water around Edinburgh). The super famous Forth Road Bridge is there (see picture) - supposedly, it was this really challenging engineering project that ended up really successful, but whatever I just thought it looked cool. In fact, that bridge is only for the train - they have another bridge about half a mile to the left that is for pedestrians and cars (see picture).

The town is cute, but there's really nothing in it. We popped into a pub for a bit, and it was PACKED, in part because there were only like 2 pubs in the town (clearly not enough for Scotsmen) and because there was this crazy horse race on TV. I had NO idea how intense those races are! They had to jump over 30 massive walls of dirt, and all of these horses fell/knocked their jockeys off...it was crazy!

Well, another incredibly enjoyable day in Scotland has come and gone, and I really can't believe the time is flying by so fast...seriously, it's freaking me out. I can't even think about leaving.

Tomorrow I'm off to Prague for a few days (it's recess at the Parliament so I was able to take some days off), so you'll hear about that soon!
xoxo Pam