Edinburgh/Dublin Photo Diary

Oh, life. The more that I slip into my psychotic home routine, the more that it all feels like a dream.
At the tail end of my amazinetasticventure, we skipped around a bit. There is just so much to see in this big scary magnificent world, even the smallest of Isle collections deserves a proper jump-about.

Edinburgh, Scotland::: I can't roll my 'R's but besides that, everything was perfect.  We took a train from King's Cross Station in London (platform 9 & 3/4!) and it was stunning in the morning light. Then a few wonderful (albeit sick) days in what has become one of my top eventual-living destinations.

Stuck on a bridge in Newcastle, and not even mad about it.

The village of Blyth at about 90 mph.

We stayed in the heart of Old Edinburgh. The peaking buildings, narrow passages and alley-hill stairwells were a fun and navigable maze.

Buildings and churches over 1200 years old casually jut out of everywhere like it's no big deal.

Opposite Old Town is a parallel hill with a gorgeous, beachy bay. 

Dusky lighting and gothic architecture like The Scott Monument keep you in that perfect 'tea and rain smell' mood.

The view from the castle is amazing for 360 degrees.

My favorite part of the castle (which I remembered from my visit at age 12) is the cemetery for Soldier's Dogs high atop the hill in a place of honor. This dog was named Winkle.

The Veteran's Memorial within the castle.

No visit to the world capital of Scotch is complete without a mad, mad pub crawl. Happy stag-do Matty!

Dublin, Ireland:::On St. Patrick's Day weekend.

People compare St. Patricks in Ireland to Cinco de Mayo in Mexico,  in the theoretical sense that Americans totally celebrate it way harder and no one in said countries of origin really care about that holiday. 

In the case of Ireland, that is absolute nonsense. 

The gang goes to Trinity College and Temple Bar for St. Patty's.

(look it up, it's a big deal).

Trinity College is a prestigious private university that is known for it's limestone Chapel and it's Fire Fighting Robot Competition. Swear.

The famous Temple Bar District during the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Above is an adequate example of almost everyone's "before" and "after" faces on St. Pat's in Dublin.

  

Well I promise that it was more than just Guiness drinking. We got to check out the misty windy hills in West Dublin and the sparce businesses that speckled them (pubs). 

Snowed in, but we didn't care. Everything seems like a good time in Ireland. 

The Castle is not entirely open to the public while the President uses it as a functioning office & Parliament, but the grounds were gorgeous and the mix of many centuries of architecture made it even more interesting.

The Dubh Linn Gardens are Celtic-beautiful and double as a helicopter landing pad.

The Dublin Cathedral and The River Liffey on a dreary walk to the Old Jameson Distillery (Pronounced 'jam-i-sunn'). From the architecture to the easy public transport to the way that everything is written in English & Gaelic-I suggest Ireland as a precious, lovely travel destination. The people are darling, the food is delish and you won't have to walk too far with a dry mouth. 

Budapest Photo Diary

Upon digging through thousands of images of my recent grand adventure, it appears that I did in fact...do lots of things. On a delightful whim, (yeah, groupon) my friend Shannon and I spent Valentine's Day in Budapest, Hungary. There is something so special about the ancient elegance of the architecture paired with the run-down, grungey post-war type of living that people don't seem to notice they embody.
After a comfortable stint in English-speaking countries, we forgot that we were headed to an exceptionally foreign land until our plane bumped along the blizzard-ridden runway. From there it was all hand signals and head scratching over the currency exchange, but a great time nonetheless.

My favorite picture from Budapest (from the Szechenyi Baths). Placed first thusly, I cannot keep surprises.

My favorite roof, can't we just line the world in copper and let it mold? Please?

Hotel Zara was beautiful, clean and offered adorably coiffed English speaking concierge help. 

The Szechenyi Baths are thousands of years old and offer over a dozen pools in various temperatures with famous mineral/healing qualities. We spent an entire afternoon there, wandering from this pool to that, and never quite adjusting to the "old men in tiny speedo" conundrum.

Not sure if you can tell but THAT IS A GIANT SUPER FUN WHIRLPOOL in the middle of a giant beautiful Roman hot springs pool. After momentary annoyance that these adults were squealing/giggling/shreiking like toddlers, we realized that they were enjoying a gigantic tile circle in which you could moonwalk/float/spin/whip around in very fast and satisfying circles. 

Blurry pictures from a rained-upon tour bus. I am so glad that Shannon insisted on doing touristy things!

This is the Budapest Ministry of Defense, which is entirely covered in bullet holes from WWII.

A few marvelous statues and epic tiling on the hill top Cathedral, which was built by something like a dozen kings and has about as many random, mismatched towers.

Parliament! Budapest is technically two cities; Buda and Pest, which are on either side of the River Danube. We stayed on the Pest side? Which is also home to Parliament.

Also, someone from this side of the river discovered that washing hands before delivering babies would save a lot of lives.  Progress.

Below: A few shots from the Buda side, all foggy and wonderful. 

And, we're back to Pest; I definitely recommend visiting this city (these two cities). 

Despite Hungary's colorful history of supporting Nazis and being colonized by damned near anyone who walked by, it is beautiful, the people are lovely, and they often fry up cheese and serve it with jam. You just can't go wrong.