scotland - the royal mile

in edinbrugh there is a castle and a palace about a mile apart. the distance between these historic places is logically named "the royal mile." michelle wanted to take me there, so i obliged.

on the way up the hill i noticed the architecture changing...

we got a great parking spot on george street (michelle was excited) and i even saw an american flag! it's a rare site for me these days, you realize...

there were scores of older looking taxis advertising to the best of their abilities

make no mistake, irn bru was not to be outdone!

when we got close to the mile we hiked up some stairs

(i was just grateful it wasn't a hill or mountain)

then we were there: atop the royal mile at last

it's really quite a pretty place, though there are masses of tourists and touristy shops

around the middle of the mile there is a great cathedral. we went in and snooped around, but didn't PAY THE FEE to take pictures. google it if you wanna know!

the day went from sunny to overcast to gloomy over the course of two hours, but i was able to see through the gloom and notice the uniqueness of the place

despite the sometimes inclement weather, there were people enjoying themselves all over the place (michelle and me included)

the steeples in europe are sometimes so ominous looking...

i even caught a few glimpses of spring... though in my mind "spring" equates to "pretty flowers"

one side of the sky was blue, the other scary gray

scotland is covered with hills/mountains that decorate the background of everything. notice the snow... in april... aye aye aye

when we got near the castle and saw some phone booths, i couldn't keep myself from going in one. i'm a tourist at heart sometimes, i guess :)

from the castle wall i could see pretty buildings everywhere

the view from castle hill

after the compulsory tourist walk, we went shopping. no matter that it was easter day, as no one even seemed to realize that it was the resurrection day in the UK. all the shops and restaurants were open, people were bustling to and fro, and i didn't see a single egg, bunny, or cross.

whatev, we shopped.

i picked up some scottish stuff for a few friends in hungary and tried on a piece of scotland myself.

there was a bagpiper, niel, who was a kindly gent. he tolerated my questions and seemed to really enjoy his job. i didn't let on how much i dislike the sound of the silly instrument, but rather requested 'amazing grace' and listened to him blow his bag.

look how presh! it sounded just like i imagined/remembered. no need to post a video.

actually, i'll post THIS video instead:

Ross Playing the Bagpipe + Bloopers (HILARIOUS!!!) - The best video clips are right here

scotland - new lanark

there is a world heritage site near edinbrugh, so when traffic was too bad to go to any noteworthy lochs, we hit up New Lanark instead.

it was a bit wintery still, but green was starting to spring up in places....

(found this online) there is a working waterwheel there

there were some rad cobblestone buildings

there was a trail all around the place and to stay on it you had to follow this little fella

look how cute their "rubbish bins" arejust saw this stuck on some ford. the harrison ford mobile, lol
hehehe, i cracked up at a lot of signs
the whole place was very old school and traditional looking

outside of the site, in Lanark, there is a cool church (adorned with a clock as almost every church i saw in scotland was) near a famous gas lamp post. it was used by provosts (the scottish equivalent of a mayor) back in the day and it still pretty cool looking nowadays.

we stopped at "Inn on the Loch" for a lovely lunch on the way home

it overlooks a cute little loch (lake... idk why they use other words for things there)

with TONS of swans! yay! they are vicious, mind you. so hands off! then we saw some buoys. i say "boo-eez" while brits say "boyz"... though there already is a word called boys. whatev.

see how pretty?

there is some farmer with a good sense of humor who dyes his sheep red (or blue, i heard) for pretty much no reason at all except to entertain the people on the highways. people like me.

scotland - the food

before i even went to scotland i heard about "irn bru" that is, "iron brew" and that i had to try it. it's some kind of orange counterpart to dr pepper and mountain dew. it has like a million flavo(u)rs and is chock full of caffeine. my verdict: mountain dew-esque. weird colo(u)r, unique taste, youngins like it as a sugary pick-me-up. i can live with or without it. :)

a few times at my friends' house in livingston, UK i had some delicious toast made from this seedy bread. it was so good, like... enough to make it to the blog. get some if you can!

sometimes when michelle and i talk online she tells me she's eating a curly wurly. i stare blankly at the screen when she says stuff like that. but now i know it! and have eaten one, even. caramel covered in chocolate. can't miss, really.

one breakfast was traditional in the sense that is was a british eastery food: hot cross buns. you know, from the song! they cost more than one or two pennies, but they were worth it.

on a shopping day we hit up a mall food court because, well, because we were hungry. some nice polish girl at o'briens handed over some delicious 'toasties' or hot sandwiches. i got tomahto basil soup whilst michelle sampled the potato leek soup. we each had half of an apple caramel muffin. i know your mouth is watering now, isn't it? mmm good.... kind of hard to mess up, though. ;)

for our (pre) easter feast michelle cooked up a storm! somehow she used plain potatoes and this:

to make this:

and married them with roast chicken, sausages wrapped in bacon, corn, bread sauce, gravy, green beans and broccoli! um, can you say insanely good?!?!

there were some odd chips/crisps around. like...

and weirdest

cadbury comes from the UK, in case you didn't know. so i left with a dozen eggs... that's right!

those little guys are only available at easter time, BUT there is something equally awesome available year-round:

that's a candy bar made out of cadbury creme eggs. take a moment to think on that.

since i'd practically be fired for going on vacation/holiday without bringing something back for my colleagues, i picked up some scottish shortbread. it's no scottish whiskey, but it'll do, i'm sure. haven't tasted it, but i'll let you know if they eat it.

in case you're wondering (which i'm certain you are), no. i did not have haggis. if you know me at all you know i'm a slightly picky eater. one line i don't make a habit of crossing is the internal-organs-as-food line. sheep stomach can be on someone else's plate, thank you very much. i'll stick to roast potatoes and cadbury eggs. healthy, huh?

scotland - the visitees

i met some random girl online about a year ago on omegle.com. it gives you a stranger to talk to and we got paired up. we spent an hour or so chatting about life and whatnot and when we were signing off we decided to exchange email info. i remember that i saved her address as "michelle good chat on omegle." i especially liked her because of her knowledge of and interest in the english language, pop culture, and her sense of humor (humour).

from then on we chatted regularly, usually in the evenings. we shared details about our lives, sent links back and forth all the time, googled a LOT (like if there was a limit we'd have reached it), and got acquainted. over the course of the year we built a pretty strong friendship, one that is rarely paralleled these days (well, in our lives anyway). we got to know each other as well as two people can on the internet, i'd say, so when my two week long spring break came up i knew just what i wanted to do.

meet my newest best friend.

here we are together. finally.

me and michelle

michelle and her husband paul being cute as they got ready for a picture

the picture

paul, a scotsman, really tested my listening skills with his accent

i mean... can we BE any cuter?

i can't really put into words what it was like to meet her, but i'll try. she was JUST what i expected, the exact person i had gotten to know and love on the internet over the past year. she's charming and witty and sweet and lovable, easy to get along with, considerate, very english, educated, funny, sensitive, curious, and the tiniest bit ... shall we say, detail-oriented? haha, it's one of her most endearing features.

the next few posts will be about the adventures of christie and michelle. buckle up.

christmas (a little late, but... whatever)

i went home for christmas.

i spent some time with family and friend in florida, got to know my little sister all over again, went to a relative's house who has lived in florida for most of my life but i'd never visited before, had a little christmas party with some strangers, and went to my pregnant sister's city to pet her belly and go to dinner and a museum with most of my immediate family.

then i headed to texas to see the rest of my immediate family, my texas-dwelling sis and bro-in-law, and some friends. the weather was snowy and cold, incapacitating most of the state. i was sick for a few days with my sister so we sat on the couch watching 'lie to me' and sharing a box of tissues. i hung out with a few brave college friends and my childhood bff. we ate wings and chick-fil-a and chili's and mexican food and pei wei and olive garden. a friend invited me to her family's domino game night so i hung out with them and had a good laugh with her crazy grandma. had a slurpee and got a TON of new clothes, too.

off to illinois. after some luggage delays (which were settled 2 hours before i left illinois) i met up with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. we ate and talked, of course, 'cause that's what people do. i went to church (for the first time in a year and a half), played blitz (card game) with the grands, hung out with uncle/aunt/cousin who have lived far away my whole life but who made for a lovely weekend anyway, and i kissed the cheeks off my grandparents.

my grandfather, an ethnic hugarian, asked me to speak to him in his long lost mother tongue. i could say sentences to him and ask him questions, which he understood but couldn't reply to. then we played a translation game. i'd say some nouns in hungarian and he would promptly reply "tomato" or "dog" or "window." it was great to see him reliving his childhood and participating in my hungarian experience, too. he's so freaking sweet.

(family!!!)

back to florida. i took turns with dad reading bed time stories to morgan and we played games and sang songs.

dad, tara, morgan and i went kayaking one early afternoon. it was shorts and t-shirt weather, sandals and sunglasses weather. un-christmas, but very florida.

it was a good trip with a LOT of traveling. to and fro, here and there... overall i was on 11 planes. ELEVEN. luggage was lost twice, but always returned. i was on buses, planes, trains, in cars, trucks, and taxis. i brought some of hungary with me to the US and a LOT of the US back to hungary. i didn't get to see everyone i wanted to, nor do all i wanted to do with the people i did see, but i'm sooooo glad i went. it was a much needed reminder of home and my roots and my country.

i love america for a lot of reasons, mostly the people i know and love there.

but i love hungary just as much. that's right, JUST AS MUCH. and going between the two countries just proved that fact to me, because on both transatlantic flights i had the feeling i was "going home."

:)