Craic ≠ Crack

Let me begin by saying sorry! I’ve been sick for the past couple of weeks and completely left the blog hanging. But now I’m back and ready for an intense update. This blog post is about my trip to Scotland, and the next will be about Ireland. While most people were actually reading during “Reading Week”, some of my friends and I went on a short European adventure. Here we go:

We suffered on the most uncomfortable bus ride of my life through the night. Keep in mind that I can fall asleep practically anywhere, and I could not get an ounce of shut eye on this bus. We were thrilled to get to the hostel and take a nap, to then realize that check in was not until 2 pm. It was 9 am. So instead we grabbed breakfast in the hostel’s kitchen and passed out on their couches until 11 am.

That’s when we headed over to the 3 hour walking tour of Edinburgh. One of our first stops was the Heart of Midlothian, which is a heart shape in the street of town that represents an old place of public execution. There are many myths; some say that you do it because you want to do it in disdain of the prisoners that were killed there; some say they do it to show contempt for the tax office that once stood there; some say it is done for good luck. What is ‘it’ you ask? Oh, ‘it’ is spit. People spit on this heart. In the middle of the street. Good luck or not, I wasn’t risking it, so I forced my friends to spit on it with me. Below is a picture of the Midlothian Heart that I took, as well as some ladylike spitting: We saw many more things on the tour, such as the grave of Greyfriar’s Bobby [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyfriars_Bobb], the quick view of the castle in Edinburgh, the “birthplace of Harry Potter” (called The Elephant House), and we saw the building that was J.K. Rowling’s inspiration for Hogwarts.

Before we knew it, the tour was over and we could check in and (more importantly) pass out. We took a nap and then headed out for the evening.

We went to a pub called the Brass Monkey. The cool thing about this pub is that instead of tables, there are mattresses and pillows. We snuggled there and the girls downed some hard cider. Then we headed back to the High Street Hostel to get some sleep for Day 2.

Day 2 we headed over to the National Museum of Scotland. I had the pleasure of dressing up in Viking costumes, hanging out with Dolly the Sheep (who has been discussed in just about every single Biology class I’ve ever taken)[http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_collections/highlights/dolly_the_sheep.aspx], and seeing a breathtaking view of Scotland’s skyline from their viewing tower.

We walked to the castle to get a closer look and then explored the road that runs through the town of Edinburgh, the Royal Mile, until it was time to go out.

Keep in mind, this was a Sunday night. We went to a club and were the only people there that weren’t staff members. The bartender gave us delicious Jam Donut shots and then we headed out to play drinking games and have a quiet night in a pub. Or so we thought. There we are, four young ladies minding our own business, when a man comes stumbling over. Not only is this man drunk, but he has an incredibly thick Scottish accent and we can only understand one third of the words slurring out of his mouth. His friends join him and buy us a drink or two. We learn that this man’s name is Craig (pictured to the left with his arms over Marissa and Jess) and it turns out that he made our night, and our trip to Scotland. He gave us each nicknames (mine was a young Rachel Weisz, which I took as a compliment since she’s married to ‘James Bond’, who the Scottish are obsessed with) and convinced us to go to a club. We went to a club and avoided sexual contact with Craig all night long, which included telling him that we were all lesbians. I can’t describe Craig in words and do him justice, because he is actually that ridiculous. Think of what a drunk Scottish child would say, and Craig said it in an even more outrageous way. This is how we learned what craic is (pronounced “crack”). Craig asked Jessica and me if we “wanted to have craic tonight”. We turn to each other and then asked him, “Like cocaine?” He could tell by the surprised look on our faces that we were freaked out by what he said. Thank goodness he explained himself. Turns out that “craic” means fun! And we made sure to have craic the rest of the trip.

The next day we decided to conquer Arthur’s Seat. For those of you who don’t know, Arthur’s seat is an extinct volcano which gives you an indescribable view of Edinburgh once you get up top. We did not know however that when we climbed up, we took some advanced hikers’ trail. We were not in hiking gear, and especially not hiking shoes (Courtney was wearing boots with heels). We struggled and sweat a bit, but we finally got to the top. And this is why it was worth it: Make sure you click on these pictures (and all of the ones in the post) too see them full size!

That night we went on a ghost tour. This tour included super-creepy stories and super-creepy secret rooms hidden in one of Edinburgh’s bridges. If I talk about it in any more detail, I may have nightmares.

In conclusion, I had so much craic in Scotland and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Cheers!

P.S. Coming soon is my trip to Ireland!

Struggle Bus to Belgium

Thursday

So Court and I woke up at the crack of dawn after “sleeping” (aka a three hour nap) and got ready to head to Brussels. We had to take the tube to the bus so we left at 6:50 am for the 8 am bus. When we left to go walk to the tube stop, it was pouring. So we changed into rain boots and trekked to the tube stop in the rain as our suitcases and sweatshirts got soaked. After a thirty minute tube ride, we finally got to the bus station! …or so we thought. Apparently the bus station was outside of the tube, through the national rail station, across the street, through an overpass, across the street again, inside double doors, back outside and then back through another set of doors. By the time we figured that out, it was 5 before 8 and check in had closed.

Luckily, there was a 9:30 am bus to Brussels! They had us wait until 9:15 to check in, and that time actually flew by. We finally had our official tickets! But after over an hour in the bus station with birds flying all around and barely any heat, anyone would get antsy. So when 9:30 rolled around, we were pumped to get onto the bus. Then at 9:30, they made an announcement. And we started to gather our luggage. And we stopped. The announcement was not that the bus was boarding, but that the bus was delayed forty-five minutes (which turned out to be an hour). Of course. So, we waited. I was coughing up a storm and Courtney’s back had given up on her, but we sat and waited and discussed how awesome the Pats are. (Courtney hates the Pats.) So at 10:30 the bus finally arrived and we got on!

After driving along for a few hours (it’s about an eight hour ride), we go into a tunnel and just stopped. Great. We sat there for what seemed like forever. We were in such heavy traffic that the bus driver came back and answered someone’s question! So I asked, “Excuse me, what are we waiting for?” He giggled and said, “We’re in the English Channel”. Turns out the dumb American thought that the boat/vessel carrying us through the sea was a tunnel with traffic. That explained the light rocking of the bus…..

Skip through a lot of sleeping and ta-da! We had arrived in Brussels, Belgium! We were ecstatic. Now all we had to do was find the hostel. Easier said than done. The hostel was walking distance from the bus station, which was great. What wasn’t great was that the directions were in broken English. And by broken English I mean that they made no sense. It must have been very amusing to an onlooker to see these two young, American girls with no sense of direction wandering around with suitcases past stores like “Sexy City” and “Erotique”. Instead of a ten minute walk, it turned into a thirty minute struggle.

But then we found the hostel. We were done and we could relax and get dinner! Just kidding. My card was declined. Backtrack a few moments before to me on the bus frantically emailing Mommy to make sure that I had enough money on my debit card to pay for the hostel. I didn’t. So she transferred money (Thanks again Mom!) and I thought that was that. Turns out, ING loves to take their time transferring money (it’s been 5 days now and still no money). When I went to pay for the hostel, the money hadn’t transferred yet. Courtney couldn’t use her card outside of the UK and didn’t bring enough money in cash to pay for all three nights up front. What about my British bank account you ask? I entered the wrong PIN too many times and my account had been locked for five days. With my luck, these five days included our entire trip to Belgium. After freaking out and holding back tears, with Devin and my mom’s help and patience, I managed to get Mama Kaston to call the front desk and give me a credit card number. Keep in mind, when Mommy calls after all of this panicking, she says, “All you need is a credit card number?” in the most nonchalant manner. I guess technically I had been overreacting, but after this kind of day I think my insanity was reasonable.

So we finally had the room in the hostel taken care of and we could lay in a bed and relax. Of course not. The reception was ten minutes away from the hostel we had booked. And because Courtney and I have no sense of direction, the ten minute walk doubled to twenty.

Okay, so I’m serious this time when I say that we got to put our bags in the room and grab dinner. We ate at a cute little restaurant. I had spaghetti for dinner and was tempted into having double chocolate cake for dessert. No regrets: it was delicious. Keep in mind, this is Belgian chocolate we’re talking about.

Friday

After a much needed long night’s rest, Courtney and I grabbed some breakfast and headed out to see the sights of Brussels …in the rain. Thankfully, our hostel was on the same street as the center of town, so we walked around getting free chocolate samples and going into literally every single tourist shop in the city. For lunch, we had a nutritious and delicious box of Belgian chocolates. If I could have that for lunch every day and not get diabetes, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would elaborate, but our entire day was pretty much just walking around and eating chocolate. And for dinner we had a Belgian classic: Subway.

After dinner we met up with some friends that came separately to Brussels at a notorious bar called Delirium Café. The bar is famous for having 2,004 beers on tap [number according to Wikipedia] and a pink elephant as its logo. It was lots of fun and many selfies were taken. Courtney and I may or may not have stolen the cute cups that they have, which are in the pictured to the left.

Saturday

We started the day off right with some Belgian waffles at Waffle Factory. To say that these waffles were delicious is an understatement. I had one covered in bananas andstrawberries, and one filled with Belgian chocolate.

Courtney’s had chocolate drizzled over strawberries (Courtney also got another waffle later, don’t worry). After breakfast, we continued to go into the last few tourist and chocolate places that we hadn’t bothered yet and finally saw Mannekin Pis. I’d like you to keep in mind that the only thing in tourist places in Belgium is this statue, chocolates and beer souvenirs. Naturally, Courtney and I were expecting this lavish statue that people from all corners of the world came to see! Instead, we nearly missed the tiny thing. There are replicas of the statue in store windows that are bigger than the real one. Regardless, we got some pictures (like the one to the right) and ate more chocolate.

So we headed back to the hostel room and did some research; someone had mentioned a beer festival was going on. We did some intense Googling and found out that the 6th Annual Beerfest in Brugge was that day! After going to the tourist center and finding out how to get to Brugge by train, we headed off to a beer festival. I mean, who could pass up a Belgian Beerfest?! I used the last of my money to get the train ticket and we headed on the next train to Brugge, Belgium. As we were sitting on the train ride there, I turned to Courtney and asked, “What if we walk out of the station and the Beerfest isn’t there?” Clearly we hadn’t thought that far ahead, but it was too late now. We got to the station and there was no Beerfest in sight. Thank goodness I have no shame because I literally started asking everyone around where it was. Finally, we discovered that it was in the center of the town, a twenty minute walk away.

As we got closer, we saw more and more people with beer glasses. We eventually found the Beerfest, only to discover that although admission was free, it was ten euros for a package (tokens for beer and a glass), money I clearly didn’t have. So Courtney and I may or may not have managed to get glasses and one and a half drinks each (as maybe shown on the left). The second beer was the most delicious beer I’ve ever had in my life, some sort of berrylicious concoction. Then we headed back to the train station (we actually didn’t get lost!) and went home. We crashed and then woke up bright and early for our eight hour bus ride back home.

To end our struggle of a trip, the tube line that took us home from the bus was closed, so we had to transfer, ending the trip just the way it had started. Regardless of all of these bumps in the road, we still managed to have an awesome trip and survive our first endeavor in Europe.

Here’s to Nothing

This is not only my first time in London, but it’s my first time blogging, so bear with me.

I’ve always wanted to study abroad and see the world, since as far back as I can remember. Having an Israeli father and American mother, when it came to traveling, it was simply a given. My first time on an airplane was when I was still months old. However, in my childhood, I had only really traveled to Israel to visit family. Then senior year of high school, I had the opportunity to go an international school in Mexico – but that was for only two weeks. One year ago, I had an unforgettable trip through Birthright to Israel and saw the country in its entirety from North to South.

But now that I was no longer a teen, I figured it was time to venture to places that I had never seen before, without my parents or little sister there to hold my hand the whole way. So when I was accepted to study abroad at Queen Mary University of London for the Spring semester in 2013 I was thrilled! And terrified.

So this blog is my way to help me grow up and have you join in the experience. I want to start my blog with something I’ve come to find commonly said in Britain: cheers.

Cheers to new experiences! Cheers to British accents! Cheers to making new friends! Cheers to making memories! Cheers to growing up but always having fun! Cheers to making long distance relationships work! Cheers to good grades! Cheers to drinking legally! Cheers to traveling! Cheers to learning from your mistakes! Cheers to London! And damnit, cheers to me!