How to: Tourism at home

If you had asked me a week ago how you can be a citizen in your own city or country, I would have told you I had no clue whatsoever. That's because I actually didn't, nor had bothered to try.
Usually we think about tourism as something we do when we go abroad, and last spring I admired Gary for the way he kept on showing us Scotland in new and different way.

This week it became my turn to be a tourist and a guide at the same time.

Paris #5 4 day cake party

My Paris trip is coming to an end, and life and thesis waits just around the corner. Paris is amazing, and Paris has been so good to and for me. I've lived in a relatively stress-free bubble for almost a week, and I've walked in average 18 km a day. It's really no wonder my feet hurt a little.

Paris #4 Let them eat cake!

You may have noticed I have a bit of an affection for old royal palaces. Last year I had a spontaneous trip to Kensington Palace (link), and today the trip went to Versailles. It was horribly cold outside, but probably also because we were up three hours earlier than we have been the past couple of days. I was tired of trying to fit my black spring coat places around me without ruining, so I'd adorned my blue rain coat which can fold into itself.

Paris #3 Royalty for a day

I was so tired after yesterday that I slept through the first alarm, probably also because I was using earplugs. We woke up and I had another breakfast of champs, again featuring fresh strawberries. I had way too much breakfast though, so I felt like a bloated fish for too long, which was kinda unpractical really, and majorly uncomfortable as well. It meant that I didn't really focus too much on the paintings in the Louvre, but I felt better during the afternoon, however. That's also when I had my first crepe.

Paris #2 Liberté, égalité, fraternité

Cécile and I decided to sleep in, and I had a breakfast of champs with fresh strawberries. Along with that I had a mint tea and an espresso. After finishing that we were ready to go. I decided to put on summer pants and no socks, which was a bit of a... bet for me, as it would be way too cold for that back home. However, it wasn't cold, my feet have been perfectly warm all day and so have the rest of me.

Paris #1 Paris, baby

I didn't realize how much I had actually missed writing these entries. I have longed for it, and I have also longed for a hiatus from thesis writing and Denmark. So I decided on a trip to Paris because I really want to see the city and I very much needed to go see a friend too.

Living in fear

When my father was a young boy, every killing and waste of human life in the Gaza Zone was front page news and broadcast on TV and radio.
I never experienced such a broadcasting until September 11th 2001. That is when my whole life could have been upped, and I could have started living in fear.

The inevitable change

... and how it happens without permission

One of the things I struggled with right after coming home from Glasgow was stillness. I felt like I had changed so much, and everything at home was still very much the same. I marveled at the speed with which I fell back into my old routines, even though I was no longer the same person.

August: Home

It's months since I came home, and I've been holding out on doing this entry as I wasn't even sure I wanted to, but "Glasgow" hasn't ended for me yet, and I am sure it won't. I might be home in my own apartment, in my own bed (yay!), but I still miss Glasgow, a lot. Even more on days when it rains.

Week 15: "My heart's in the highlands..."

I have traveled Scotland far and wide, and I have managed to travel from one end of Great Britain to the other in just under a day.
I have experienced Scottish weather, and I have fallen in love with the country and lost my heart in the highlands.

Week 14 #3: 50 Shades of...

I was in Aberdeen this past Sunday. It rained. And it is probably the first time while being in Scotland that I have witnessed actual Scottish rain. And it doesn't rain vertically like it would anywhere else in the world. It rains horizontally. I'm not kidding you, and it feels like small bullets are thrown in our face. Also, umbrellas are not good for anything because they just get broken.

Week 14 #2: 101 to survival in Scotland

So, I've been in Scotland almost 14 weeks now, and while I have come to feel quite at home with Scottish society, it is also very, very different from Denmark where I come from. I thought I'd list those differences here:

Week 14 #1: Week of good-byes

This is a weird entry to write for me. Realizing that this is my last week in Glasgow, and with last comes a lot of see ya laters, and I don't like doing that. I don't like leaving friends, knowing it might be quite a while before I will be able to see them again, but they days are passing, and while I wish I had more numbers I just have to make the best of those left at my disposal.

   

Week 13 #3: Isle of dreams

I have had a friend visiting from Thursday until today, and we were exploring a bit of Glasgow and Scotland.
Friday we explored Glasgow Botanic Gardens, I will post an entry about that during the next week, and yesterday we went on a trip to Oban and Isle of Seil, aka isle of dreams. And sheep.

Week 13 #2: This thing called...

This post is going up a couple of days later than I'm happy with, but I returned to Glasgow, which means I returned to life. And returning to life means returning to school and this little thing called studying,  which I am no longer sure I even know how to do. Anyway...

Week 13 #1: Where there are no hippos

London, London, London. The city is beautiful, absolutely stunning in sunshine. Yes, it is noisy, and most probable also very dirty, but stunning.

               

Week 12 #3: London, darling

Busy week this week! So many places to see, so much traveling, but I love it. Last night, after coming back from Inverness (link) I went to London. I caught the bus at 11:40 pm, and slept all the way, curled up on two seats. Who knew sleeping on a bus was actually comfortable?

 

Week 12 #2: Inverness

I already stated after my trip to Dublin (link) that this week is going to particular busy. Today I was in Inverness with Gary and a couple of foreigners. I have gotten over my fear of going alone, and now the best thing about the trips is possibly all the new people I get to meet.
They're all really something, and scenery and sunshine aside, they might actually be one of the best things.

Week 12 #1: Dublin in my heart

So, this is the first entry of a very busy week. As some of you might know already I was in Dublin yesterday. It started very early with me getting up at 05:30, catching a train to meet up with Polina in West End (crossing that off my list) and getting to the airport.
We landed in Dublin around 10 am, and asked which bus would take us to the city center, and the man in the help desk was very nice, but he also managed to scare the life out of me by saying that if we took a certain bus, we would miss the flight. And I can't ever let that happen...
We found our way into city center and to our hotel, My Place, which is highly recommendable. Since we couldn't check in before 2 pm we decided to go get something to eat, and then explore until we could check in.
We hit O'Connell street after a little getting lost, and found something to eat. It decided to start raining while we were eating, but we were planning our day anyway, so it didn't matter. Spirits lifted and the rain gone, we set out for adventures.

Week 11 #2: Nessie hunting

You can't go to Scotland and not have seen  Loch Ness. Something about that is just wrong, so of course I had to go to Loch Ness, and even though my mom proclaimed that I would never find Nessie, I still had to go and try.
Loch Ness is far away from Glasgow, although not as far as Inverness and Aberdeen, but still far enough.
We had a coffee break at the Green Welly, which I already knew because of my trip to Glencoe and Glenfinnan (link). After that we headed basically the same way as I did when I went to Glencoe. Up through Rannach Moor, past the Three Sisters and through Fort William, there still is no fort.
Deeper into the highlands we went, and we even passed by Ben* Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland.

On the way to Loch Ness Gary told us a couple of stories. First there was one with a couple of questionable details, but the moral of the story was to not be greedy. This was exemplified by a man stealing a golden egg from a golden dragon, who then punished the man by teaching him a very golden lesson. He was basically turned into gold and added to a collection of golden humans who had once been too greedy as well.
Another story was about the three lochs that run from Fort William to Loch Ness basically. These three lochs are connected so Nessie is free to roam around. These lochs are Loch Eil, Loch Lochy (very creative name) and Loch Oich. Loch Oich is then connected to Loch Ness via Oich River and the Caledonian Canal. Loch Ness is then connected to the sea, so Nessie could be somewhere in Australia by now for all we know.