FREEDOM! (the Scottish slogan)

We keep visiting places that make me say, "this is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life"....but it's true, we really do, and Edinburgh is definitely one of them.  If I've ever felt as though I was going back in time, it was there, with the stone and brick buildings and roads with what felt like medieval architecture....surrounded by bright green grass. Oh. So. Stunning.  I just LOVE this city!!  It's rich with Scottish history but also full of young students, which makes for a cool and vibrant scene where I felt very safe, in awe and satisfied whether I wanted a quiet night or a more exciting one.  We stayed at the bottom of the adorable 'Grassmarket' with my cousin, an extremely central location with an incredible view of the Edinburgh Castle. It was quite mind blowing to walk out of our apartment every day to see that view, like...'is this real??'?

Anyway, I really enjoyed learning more about Scotland's history, much of which is still very real in the sense of their ongoing battle with England for independence.  They are very close to achieving it, as there will be a public vote in 2014 to finally separate or not.  We strolled through one of the most beautiful cemeteries I've ever seen, with a view into the cafe where J.K. Rowling spent many hours gaining inspiration for her writing, and you can see a school that is a borderline replica of the Hogwarts school when you gaze in the direction of her view.  The Scottish have a serious culture of ghosts and hauntings, and it was really spooky to learn of some of the ghost stories that they honestly believe to be true.  We also learned the origin of the term "graveyard shift", which came from back when the graverobbers were a real issue.  It was common for the body of a newly deceased person to be stolen and sold to medical research schools for a hefty chunk of change, so often the families of the deceased would take turns for the first few weeks (while the body was still useful) to literally sleep at the grave to prevent the theft of the body of their loved one.  Hence the term, "graveyard shift".  We learned that Scotch is the #1 export for all of the UK! I felt so inclined to go for a tasting, so Matt and I went, but I just could not bring myself to have more than two sips before I had to stop. YUCK!!!!  Speaking of yuck, we also learned about the origin of the term, "shitfaced".  Back in the day when there was no plumbing, people would throw their human waste out into the street, which typically would drain into a marsh or water area.  Well, in this particular neighborhood in Edinburgh, there were homes right next to the marsh, and you can imagine how disgusting and unhealthy the conditions were. To get a bit further away from the fumes, homes were built higher up, so when you threw your stuff out the window, you'd typically yell out a common courtesy call and if someone was passing by below, they'd have a few seconds to respond and let the person know to wait. Well, Scottish are also famous for their drinking habits.  So the drunk people at night would be stumbling around past these homes, someone would be getting ready to throw their business out the window, they'd call out, and the drunken fool below would not register in time....instead, they'd say something like, "HUH?" and look up......and you can imagine what would happen next to bring about the term, SHITFACED. HAHA.

I know this is an odd story for me to choose to highlight, but if you know me well enough, you know how ridiculous my sense of humor is, so I was thoroughly amused by this.  Anyway....a sweeter story was that of the dog, Greyfriar Bobby, who became famous in Edinburgh during the 14th century after he spent FOURTEEN years at the grave of his owner who passed away after just two years of them being best friends. He is somewhat of a local celebrity, with his own little tribute in the main cemetery. So sweet. Disney has been inspired by this story more than once.

We went for an incredible hike at Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano with impeccable views of the city, the sea, the hills.....ahhh.   We had delicious (vegetarian) meals at David Bann, Brew Lab (also delish coffee) and more great coffee at Black Medicine.  We really enjoyed the National Museum which had such awesome natural history displays, the Botanical Gardens and the castle was one of the prettiest I've seen yet.

Greyfriars Kirkyard 

Bobby!

Hogwarts!

Scottish Monument

Our attempt at enjoying Scotch Whiskey

Edinburgh Castle

Stumbled upon this lovely garden 

Arthur's Seat 

Awesome remains of a chapel along the hike at Arthur's Sear

sunset :)

My beautiful cousin and host, Saba

Prague, the BEAUTIFUL city.

Our stay in Prague was short but sweet.  Before I get into it, let me say that if you ever get a chance to do a road trip such as ours, all over Germany, to Prague in the Czech Republic and then to Austria's Vienna....it is just so beautiful. The roads are like none we've ever seen before, it's funny how the moment you leave the city you enter endless trees and rolling hills.  Throw in herds of white tailed deer, 100 year old homes that people still live in....and you are totally enchanted.

Enter Prague, one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen.  Like most of Europe, packed with fascinating history- much of which is just so obvious as you roam the streets.   Our host was so hilarious and nice, and in his broken English managed to tell us about some of his favorite restaurants to check out. One of his reviews included him throwing his arms up in the air and growling like a gorilla, to which our response was..."Ohhhh, rowdy- sounds like a happening place! Cool, we'll check it out."  After spending an embarrassingly amount of time trying to convert Euros to Dollars to Korunas (repeat, repeat, repeat), we made our way on the bus into Old Town for some dinner.  As we approached the restaurant, we peaked into the window and indeed, there were cavemen......literally it was a caveman and gorilla themed restaurant....needless to say, we ventured elsewhere.

Highlights of Prague were mostly seen via Sandeman's Free Tour- these are SUCH great tours and I highly recommend them to anyone who goes to a city where they are offered.  We saw so much, including:

The famous astronomical clock which was first installed in 1410 and STILL works, not only to tell you the time, but the date, position of the sun/moon and every hour on the hour does a little show including all 12 of the apostles and a singing crow. To think how many years it's been doing that... pretty crazy!

The Estates Theatre where Mozart's Don Giovani was debuted.

Jewish Quarter One of the coolest things to me was the Spanish Synagogue which represents a very rare time in history when there was peace between Jews and Muslims, and it is very apparent via the Islamic design...of the Synagogue...

Old-New Synagogue (name due to an unfortunate German mis-translation), the oldest working synagogue in Europe build in 1270.  Story has it that a rabbi made a Golum out of clay and that every Sunday, the rabbi would let the Golum rest.  One Sunday, he forgot, and the Golum became furious, ripping up trees and breaking things.  They put him in the attic and he is apparently still there, nobody has been brave enough to go see if this is true, after a WWII Nazi soldier went in and never came back...

Jewish Cemetery (we saw the tribute to it in Berlin), founded in 1478.  People had to be buried on top of each other due to lack of space given to the.  There are about 12 layers and around 100,000 people are thought to be buried there.

It ended with some beautiful views of the Prague Castle.

We did our own walk through the GORGEOUS Lesser Quarter based off of a cool thing that we found through National Geographic's website, which has been cool to have. Through this, we saw one of the most beautiful parts of Europe I've ever been.

On Karmelitska Street, we found a tiny door (#25) that we were able to walk to the back of and if we had been there earlier, we could've seen the beautiful garden where there's apparently some more great views of the castle.   We strolled through Maltezske Namesti (Square of the Knights of Malta) with the stunning Maltese Order's Church of Our Lady Below the Chain.  Just to the right of the church ,we found the Lennon Peace Wall, which became a space in the 80's after Lennon's death, where people would spray things like "give peace a chance" and the police would cover it up the next day.  We crossed a bridge over the Certovka stream and our breath was taken away as walked towards Charles Bridge for views of the the Old Town. STUNNING.

Did I already say that this city is BEAUTIFUL??

Oh, Berlin!

I can't believe how vastly different Berlin is from everywhere else we've seen so far in Germany.  It's full of character- big city, rough, full of history and strife, with a bold and diverse population.  The streets are covered in graffiti and young people are everywhere, and it's suddenly not hard to believe that it was only 23 years ago that the Berlin Wall came down, ending years of brutality.  It's an exciting place to be and I find myself feeling tender for this city, hoping to see a bright future for it.

It is SO great to have my best friend and her hubby here! I feel so lucky!!  We picked them up with beers waiting for them in the car....because, well...you CAN! They were very amused.  Our old Victorian apartment is funky and huge, and we were giddy the second we walked into it.  As soon as we unloaded and rested for a while, we walked to a Sudanese/African restaurant called Nil, where they had delicious falafel wraps and vegan dishes DELICIOUS.  Luckily there was still a Christmas market for Laura and Nich to see, so we ventured over for some Gluwein and crepes :) It was beautiful, but unfortunately a lot more commercialized from the ones we saw previously.  

Highlights of the trip so far include:

- Deutsches Historisches Museum/ German History Museum    This country seems to have been in war after war and then Berlin gets hit with the wall in which people are literally trapped. So crazy to me.  This place is full of fascinating history which helped us all understand history that is just so deep and complicated.
-Best veggie burger EVER at BBI International (Berlin Burger International) and incredible Belgian waffles at Kauf Dich- don't worry, Laura and I worked out :)
-East Side Gallery, an approximately one mile long section of the wall with over 100 paintings by artists from all over the world as a memorial for freedom
-Berliner Dom: gorgeous dome church
-Day trip to Dresden which is full of stunning architecture (and supposedly Hitler's ashes in the Elba river) and the quintessential town of Pillnitz

And by the way, given that everyone sets off insane LEGIT fireworks here, on New Years Eve, there are truly fireworks going off in every direction from every direction.  The few days leading up to New Years Eve, people were testing them out and it honestly sounded like bombs or guns going off....as silly as it sounds, it kind of felt like it created the feeling of living there during war.

Cheers! And welcome to Berlin! 

This is where the Berlin wall used to be, one foot on the east, one on the west. 

Berliner Dom

YUM. BBI veggie burgers.

Love!

Pillnitz