England: Day II (London)

Tuesday, July 12^th:

Tower Bridge Over the Thames:

            London is a really fun city by day filled with tons of beautiful sights. Today we slept in a little bit and then made our way over to the Tower of London by way of the London Underground after eating some pastries from Starbucks (yay…). The best way to travel this mode of transport is to pick up an Oyster Card, which is a rechargeable card that scans you in and out of the subway stations and automatically calculates the fees. It is unbelievably efficient. We rode it over to the Tower of London to see our first real tourist site of London. The Tower of London is a giant fortress which was the seat of the British crown for centuries, and now is the location of, most importantly, the British Crown Jewels. We toured the area, seeing old prisons, palaces, and the old chapel royal (which is closed unless you have a guided tour) before we waited in the rather long line to view the crown jewels. It is definitely worth it, and this collection is the most powerful and impressive I have seen yet. And what’s more, these jewels are still in use! There are tons of scepters, orbs, trumpets, crowns, jewels, robes, ceremonial plates, and beautiful decorations on display in each room, and the wait was a mere fifteen minutes.

The Tower of London and the Gherkin Building:

            Following the Tower of London, we walked over to the iconic Tower Bridge which stands tall over the Thames River. We rode the elevator up to the top to check out the views and see the exhibit about bridges around the world before making our way back down for lunch. On our way, we got to see the Tower Bridge road actually rise up to allow a tall sailboat through, so that was pretty cool. We stopped at a local brew-pub called The Draft House for lunch and enjoyed some of their home-brewed ale and some beer-battered fish and chips. From here we walked to the nearest underground station to make our way over to Westminster to check out Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. When you exit the underground station at Westminster, you are literally greeted by the massive bell tower that you have seen so many times on the media, but (for me anyway) nothing compares to seeing it in person.

Big Ben and the Palaces of Westminster:

            We walked around the area taking pictures of the Houses of Parliament inside the Palaces of Westminster before making our way over to the Abbey. Unfortunately, tourists are not allowed inside the Palaces unless they are with a guided tour (only on Saturdays) or unless they go in to watch the debates in Parliament, which carried a two hour wait. Instead, we walked inside the world famous Westminster Abbey, the center of the Church of England for over a millennia. No pictures are allowed inside, but this church has one of the most impressive interiors that are to be found in the entire world. The original church dates back to the 8^th century, and nearly all the kings, queens, and important figures of British history are buried here. It is covered with lavish gothic decorations, coats of arms of knights passed, and just beautiful tombs. We spent over two hours here, checking out the graves of the kings and queens of old as well as the Shakespeare monument and the graves of Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton, to name a few.

Westminster Abbey:

            Next we walked over towards Buckingham palace again, walking by the government buildings of London where the Prime Minister resides. We discovered this by asking a police officer who he was guarding as he stood outside a building with a submachine gun. He asked us to guess, and then told us jokingly it was Simon Cowell before telling us the truth. He then offered the best quote of the trip, saying “If Simon Cowell was inside that building I would go in there and shoot him myself.” Classic. When we got to Buckingham Palace we discovered that the Palace was closed to tourists while the Queen was living there, and that she would not again leave until the middle of August until October. Bummer, but it was also funny because the Queen was hosting a private garden party for select guests, who came pouring in and out of the palace wearing the fanciest hats and penguin-tail tuxedos I had ever seen. We grabbed a beer at a really cool and old bar called Westminster Arms near Buckingham. We both tried Spitfire Ale of of the cask, and decided that it was not cold enough to support the bitter taste it offered, but it had potential. We decided to walk back to the Thames and Westminster to check out the London Eye Ferris Wheel. We decided that it was way too expensive and not worth the wait, so we went home to get some rest before we planned on having dinner with another friend of ours from Cornell, Joe Salameh, who also works in London.

Buckingham Palace:

            Joe met us at our hotel and we rode the subway to find a place to dinner in the Notting Hill Gate area. We found a place called the Kensington Wine Rooms where we sat down for a nice dinner. I had some cold pea and watercress soup, as well as a duck-strip salad, and we drank down some New Zealand Pinot Noir with dinner. After dinner we walked over to another really awesome pub called Churchill Arms. I literally think we stumbled upon the oldest pubs in the city, and I could not be happier about that. Here we tried some more British beers, such as London Pride, Fullers ESP, and Fullers Honey Dew, before we moved on. We tried to ride the bus back into the city center, however found ourselves on the wrong bus and ended up deep in the suburbs of London. Here we realized that we had to wait twenty-five minutes for the next bus, and by the time we got back to the City Center, the pubs had closed. We walked around looking for clubs with low covers, but this is my qualm with London night life. All of the fun pubs close at midnight, and nearly everything open later has a membership requirement, a big cover charge, or is a strip club—none of which I am particularly interested in at this point.

The London Horse Guards Building:

            We did have a funny run-in while walking around. Joe was looking for a certain club before he suddenly stopped, knocked on a random black wall, and randomly a light came on and a door opened. Turns out that he had found “Milk and Honey,” one of the most exclusive member bars in the city. Unfortunately, however, we needed to be members to go inside. Joe went home after this because he had work the next day, but Max and I found our way back to Oneill’s before realizing that it is just about impossible to get inside after 1am. We also found out that the bar called “O-Bar” that we had gotten denied entry into last night due to us wearing shorts was actually a gay bar, so that’s kind of lucky…We decided to take a cab back home and to call it a night. While our night was fun, we wished that the pubs we enjoyed so much were open later.

England: Day I (London)

Monday, July 11^th:

An Evening at Buckingham Palace:

            Another awesome day in the books! London is a sweet city. I woke up late this morning and took a taxi to the airport, had lunch there, and hopped on my plane to London. When I arrived, Max was already waiting at our hotel, the Hamiltons Hotel. He was jetlagged, so he rested while I planned the next four days of sightseeing and fun. I finally got him out of bed in time to go get some early dinner and a drink at a place called The Albany. I ate some Shepherd's Pie with chips and salad here while we sampled some local drinks. My friend Chris Burt from Cornell, who works in London, came to meet us at The Albany and show us around a little bit. We took the Underground, which is the most efficient subway system ever, over to Buckingham Palace for a few minutes before we took a cab to find another bar. We settled on a place called The Coal Hole, which ended up being one of the oldest pubs in the city. We tried some other British beers here, such as Titanic and London Pride, before Chris went home (he had to work the next day) and we went to another bar.

A Clock Tower in Western London:

            While looking for this other bar, O’Neills, we were told that we weren’t allowed inside one bar because we had shorts on, which set the tone for some of the night life in London. Pubs close at midnight or earlier in London, and nearly everything you can get into later requires a club membership or a large cover charge, and is most often than not a club. Anyways, we found O’Neills with the unneeded help of a street girl who tried to hustle money out of us for the information we already had, and went inside. O’Neills was recommended to me by friend Matt Collins, and in typical Collins flavor it was a bar of mostly Americans and people crowding the room dancing to (pretty bad) local music. Nonetheless, we had a good time there and left to go home to sleep around 2am.

Ireland: Day III (Dublin)

Sunday, July 10^th:

The Old Jameson Distillery:

            Today was yet another great day in Ireland, with (amazingly) no rain, and a lot of Irish traditions. As my hostel was near to the Old Jameson Distillery, this was my first tourist site of the day. I got there around noon and waited for a guided tour of the Old Distillery. Jameson is the fastest growing whiskey in the world, and it was brewed here for over two hundred years before moving to a place near Cork, Ireland. The tour was informative and cool, and topped off with a complimentary (read: included) drink of Jameson. It may not be my favorite whiskey in the world, but it sure is smooth. To continue the Irish theme of drinking for the day, I made my way towards the Guinness Brewery and Storehouse at St. James Gate next. On the way I got to see the Old City Walls and St. Audoen’s Gate and Church, which was cool. I stopped for lunch at a cool little place called Café Noto and ate a Chicken Pesto Sandwich with dried tomatoes, lettuce, and roasted pepper, and drank yet another tropical fruit smoothie.

St. James Gate, the Site of the Guinness Factory:

            The Guinness Storehouse is the biggest attraction in Dublin, as well as the city’s tallest building. It is the largest beer brewery in the world, churning out over three million pints per year worth of beer. The tour is very interactive and fun, and you learn what goes into each pint and how it all began. I personally enjoyed the floor of the building dedicated to over one hundred fifty years of advertising that the company has put out. All visitors get to taste a small sip of Guinness, then they can either redeem their ticket stub for a free (again, read: included) Guinness at the Gravity Bar on the top of the building, or at the Perfect Pint Bar, where the workers teach you how to pour the perfect Guinness, which takes exactly 119.5 seconds. If you pour the best Guinness in your grouping, you are given a certificate, which I naturally earned for myself. I had another beer at the Gravity Bar, which offers a three hundred sixty degree view of Dublin through its windows before leaving to go back towards Dublin Castle.

Christ Church Cathedral and the River Liffey:

            Inside the grounds of Dublin Castle is another museum called the Chester Beatty Library. It is a free-entry museum, and it houses tons of old literature, including some of the first accounts of the bible ever found, written on papyrus strips. There were some truly remarkable things in this museum, however I only had thirty minutes inside before it closed. I was pretty hungry by now, so I walked over to the Temple Bar area again and found a restaurant called the Porter House Brewing Company. I was astonished that they did not serve Guinness at a restaurant in the middle of Dublin, but alas, they only sell draught beers that they themselves brew. I tried their Plain Porter, which is close to Guinness, as well as their Brain Blásta seven percent alcohol IPA. I enjoyed both of these, as well as a Whistable Bay English beer, with some amazing Irish Lamb Stew with carrots and potatoes (of course…). I hung out at this bar for a while watching some football (soccer) on TV before heading home for sleep before my flight to London the next day. Tomorrow my friend Max Weisz from Cornell comes to meet me in London for the rest of the trip. It should be sweet!

Ireland: Day II (Dublin)

Saturday, July 8^th:

Trinity College (Founded 1592):

            Very cool and fun day today! I started my day off by walking straight over to the nearby Trinity College of Dublin. Trinity is one of the oldest universities in the world, and it is within its library that the Book of Kells remains. The Book of Kells is a hand illustrated version of the four gospels written by a monk in the 8^th century. It is one of the oldest books in the world, and an important work in early Christian history. The Trinity College Library holds thousands of other books, but it is this one that it is known for. Visitors walk through a series of rooms explaining the book of Kells along with other information about early Christian works. At the end of the exhibition is the book, though to preserve its illustrations, only two pages are shown each day, and no pictures are allowed. One of the two pages is a fully illustrated one, and the other shows the normal text pages of the work. My illustrated page-of-the-day happened to be the portrait of Christ, one of the most famous pages in the book—pretty sweet! After I looked at the pages for a few minutes, I made my way upstairs to the other exhibition in the great library of Trinity College. It is up here that they also display the lire, or harp, that became the national symbol of Ireland. It is one of the oldest harps in the world.

St. Patrick's Cathedral:

            After walking around Trinity College some more, I left and headed over to St. Stephen’s Green for lunch. The park is Dublin’s biggest park, and I stopped at a café for a Tex-Mex Panini and a tropical fruit smoothie (starting to like these a lot when I skip breakfast…). I walked around the park for a bit before walking across the city to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the biggest in the city, and the namesake for the famous Irish holiday. This church is absolutely huge, and stunning. The inside is filled with towering altars, beautiful stained glass, and many banners of knights of the past. While in here I also pretended to be a part of a guided tour that allowed me to get access to the choir and Lady Chapel, where normal visitors are not allowed! I took a lot of pictures, then left to walk to another church, Christ Church Cathedral, which is the oldest established church in the city. The original church on its land was built when the Vikings lived in Dublin. It is another big and beautiful church filled with tons of stained glass windows. What I liked the best was the baptismal room, filled with windows of saint portraits. It also had a cool crypt with some old Irish church treasures.

Christ Church Cathedral and Synod Hall (Formerly St. Michael's Church):

            I continued my tour of the city by walking to the Dublin Castle area. Here I walked by city hall and through the gates into the castle grounds. The state apartments of Dublin Castle were closed for the weekend for state use (lame) but I got to walk around the grounds and into the Chapel Royal with its wooden vaulted ceiling and beautiful artistic decoration. I walked back to my hostel next to move my luggage to the hostel I would be staying at for the next two nights, the Generator Hostel. On my taxi ride over, the cab driver informed me that it was just on the news because it was brand new and got great reviews! That excited me and I was eager to check it out. It is a brand new and awesome place, but unfortunately it was so new that they had yet to install internet, as advertised on the internet booking website. Anyways, after moving my luggage in I went out again to find food. I ended up eating some “New York Pizza” at a place near Temple Bar, the party district. The pizza was decent, but filling, so I moved on to a place called John Mulligan’s Pub, which advertises as having the best Guinness in Dublin—I can attest to its tastiness.

Bedford Tower of Dublin Castle:

After this I tried jumping in and out of bars, including a fun stop at a bar called Fitzpatrick’s where I watched cricket for a while (trying to figure out the rules) and listened to a local band make fun of some American guys who were in the bar in a group. I was about to head home again sort of early when two girls asked me for directions to meet up with their friends at a bar called Sin É (Gaelic!). They told me I should come along, and I ended up hanging out with them and their four or five guy friends until almost 5am. I was happy I found some people to hang with again, and went to bed after a busy day and fun night. Another fun note: the city of Dublin lights their bridges over the River Liffey with bright green lights at night, which looks astoundingly…Irish.

The Record Tower and Chapel Royal of Dublin Castle:

Ireland: Day I (Dublin)

Friday, July 8th:

The River Liffey and the Ha'Penny Bridge:

            This morning I woke up around 9am or so because I had to catch a flight to Dublin. I also wanted to lighten my bags a little, so I went to a local post office and sent a few things home in the mail. Soon I was on my way to the airport and I got through avoiding baggage fees for once! Ryan Air has some interesting requirements for both checked baggage and hand bags, and you also have to print your boarding pass from the internet before you come to the airport or you incur a forty pound fee to reprint it! No wonder the flights are so cheap, because they make all of their money in fees.

The Spire of Dublin:

            Anyways, the flight to Dublin was quick and I got to the city in no time, to the Times Hostel on College Street. I was exhausted from the late night last night, though, so I kind of took it easy for a while. The hostel seemed very nice, though, and for once I had internet in my room, so I took advantage of it and did some work on my computer looking for hotels and things. After a while I got pretty hungry, so I decided to venture out to find some food and explore the city a little. Dublin was very bustling for the weekend bar hopping, and the Temple Bar area where most of the nightlife is was absolutely packed with people. I learned later that a lot of British people come to Dublin for bachelor and bachelorette party weekends, and it shows. Some of these parties can be seen walking the streets in strange costumes, such as superheroes or angels and devils. I walked across the Ha’Penny Bridge over the River Liffey and over to a place called The Church for dinner. I had heard of it in a free pub guide that I picked up, and the idea sounded very cool: a bar and restaurant (and nightclub) that was built inside a refurbished church. Here I ate some Irish seafood chowder with a side salad and some fries (chips) while chatting with a nice couple from Buffalo. After dinner I just went home to get some more rest and to book a few hostels for the rest of my trip. Feels a little lame staying in on a Friday night, but I am exhausted!

Scotland: Day XIII (Edinburgh)

Thursday, July 7^th:

The Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile:

            Before I get into today’s events and sites, I have to share with you my horrible story from late last night. The Cowgate Hostel has the kind of doors that lock automatically behind you. At around 4am last night, I half sleep-walked out to the bathroom outside of my room in just my boxers to pee. I soon realized that I was now locked out of my room in just my boxers, everyone around was asleep, and reception did not open until 8:30am. After panicking for over half an hour and deliberating wall-walking out the bathroom window into my room, I finally managed to successfully break into my room with a fork (nice security there…). Thank god! It could have been a very long night.

The (Sir Walter) Scott Monument:

            I woke up this morning very irritated (and kind of hungover) about the late-night happening, but quickly gathered my stuff to bring to St. Christopher’s Hostel to drop it off for some more sightseeing. I ate a Scottish breakfast there of bacon and eggs before heading out to the Scott Monument on Princes Street. Princes Street is the busiest street in the city (for cars, anyway) but it has some cool sites and shops along it for visitors. The Scott Monument is a gothic monument dedicated to Sir Walter Scott that stands high above the lower part of Edinburgh. Visitors can climb the ~300 steps to the top (as I did) to take in the views. Warning, though, the stairwells get too narrow for people going up and down to pass one another on the way, and it can get frustrating. From here I walked away from central Edinburgh down Princes Street to Calton Hill. I wandered through a cool cemetery nearby with the grave of David Hume in it, and then went up to see the old city observatory, the Nelson memorial, and the National Monument.

Calton Hill (The National Monument and the Nelson Monument):

            From here I decided to walk down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the very bottom of the Royal Mile. Unfortunately, though, the palace was closed to visitors because the Queen was in town throwing a party. The Scottish Parliament building is also right across the street from the palace, and it is a pretty cool display of architectural design. Instead of going inside the palace, I decided to climb up Arthur’s Seat, the massive rock mountain-crag that overlooks the entire city. I bought myself an umbrella because it looked like it was going to rain, and headed up. The hike took about thirty minutes, but it was definitely worth it! I ended up being up there all by myself, and it is one of the most beautiful sights I have seen on my trip so far. Definitely up there with the place we ate dinner overlooking the city in Prague! I stayed up there for a long time before wandering back down because I had gotten hungry. I stopped at a place called Café Vivo on the Royal Mile and got a really tasty Italian Panini with mozzarella cheese, salami, sundried tomatoes, and black olives. I also had a cranberry/raspberry/banana smoothie, and it really recharged my batteries. I took a long walk back up the Royal Mile, passing old buildings and the Old Canongate Tolbooth on my way back to the hostel.

Arthur's Seat:

Edinburgh and Arthur's Seat:

            I dropped a few things off at the hostel before heading out again back towards Princes Street. I wanted to buy myself a new backpack and a new raincoat for the rest of the trip, and found some at a place called Blacks. From here I walked in a giant circle around Edinburgh Castle, through the Princes Gardens (with the world’s first floral clock), passing St. John’s Church and all the way over to St. Mary’s Cathedral. This massive cathedral looked absolutely beautiful from the outside, but unfortunately it was closed for the day by the time I had gotten there. I walked back to my hostel through the Grassmarket bar area and up the Granny’s Green Steps back home, listening all the while to the sweet sounds of bagpipes blown through the air.

Princes Street from Calton Hill to St. Mary's Cathedral:

            I took a short nap before going down to the bar for some Texan Chili dinner, when Colton met up with me again. We walked back down to Grassmarket, stopping at a cool pub called Finnegan’s Wake where we drank some Murphy’s Irish Stout and John Smith Ale. We wandered around there before going back up to find a bar that was open late enough for us—the Bank Bar from the pub crawl. There we met two friendly Norwegian ladies and a Welsh guy named Rhys who we hung with for the rest of the night. We had some very interesting and fun chats; Rhys is a private legal defender for (wealthy) pedophiles and the like, so those chats got strange. All in all I had a great time in Edinburgh and would love to go back. Tomorrow I will wake up and take a flight to the fun city of Dublin in Ireland. So long, Edinburgh!

Edinburgh Castle from the Princes Gardens:

Scotland: Day XII (Edinburgh)

Wednesday, July 6^th:

The High Kirk of St. Giles and a Statue of Adam Smith:

            Today was a great day, and a very long and fun-filled night! This morning I walked through the rain with all of my bags the twenty minutes up to the Royal Mile area of Edinburgh to check into my new hostel. This hostel, the Cowgate Tourist Hostel, ended up being the first of the hostels I have been to that is somewhat sub-par in cleanliness and the like, but it gets the job done as far as a bed to sleep in. I dropped my luggage off in the (sketchy) luggage-store and walked up to the Royal Mile, the main street in Edinburgh that runs from Edinburgh Castle down the hill to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. My first site of the day was the High Kirk of St. Giles, or St. Giles Cathedral. It is one of the biggest (not tallest) churches in the city, and the inside is filled with beautiful décor and many banners flying of ancient knights. The highlight of the inside is the Thistle Chapel, an entirely wooden oak vaulted chapel for the use of Scottish knights, many of whose banners hang inside the church sanctuary. The original church dates from 1120, and it is one of the most important in the nation.

St. Margaret's Chapel at Edinburgh Castle:

            Immediately after walking around St. Giles I walked farther up the Royal Mile to get some lunch. I settled on a little pub called The Castle Arms where I had some Ale Battered Fish and Chips (the usual Scottish fare). After that quick fill-up, I walked up to Edinburgh Castle. The castle is guarded by the coolest looking guards yet, sporting traditional Scottish Kilts. Also out front, construction workers are assembling the stadium for the annual August celebration of the Scottish Military Tattoo bagpipe concert. I went into the castle and wandered around, taking in all of the views that overlook Edinburgh from its highest point. The castle is pretty large, especially for one that dates well before the 11^th century. One of the sites I enjoyed a lot is the oldest building at the Castle, dating from the 12^th century, St. Margaret’s Chapel. Immediately outside its door is also the massive cannon known as Mons Meg.

Crown Plaza at Edinburgh Castle:

            I walked over to the Crown Plaza next, and went inside the big building that houses the Scottish Crown Jewels. Kind of a cool story here, they were hidden in a locked chest in a vault for over 300 years without anyone knowing where they were until Sir Walter Scott obtained a royal mandate to break in. Now on display is the Scottish crown, sword of state, and royal orb, along with a beautiful necklace and charm of St. George and the Dragon. Also on display is the Stone of Scone, also known as the Stone of Destiny, upon which Scottish kings were coronated for centuries. It was taken to Westminster Abbey in the late 13^th century to use for coronations there, and it will be taken to and from Westminster for every future coronation. Next to the crown jewels chamber is the Scottish War Memorial, a big building that pays tribute to each branch of the military that lost members to World War I. Also on the square is the Great Hall, a hall used for royal receptions but today is filled with Medieval weaponry. Finally along the crown plaza is the state apartments where Mary, Queen of Scots lived, as did Queen Mary and James VI. There is not a whole lot left in the state apartments, but it was interesting to walk through. Much of the rest of the castle is dedicated to military history, so I decided to leave and get some dinner before my planned Pub Crawl that night. I ate at a place called The Filling Station, and enjoyed some goat cheese bruschetta, sweet chili chicken salad, and onion rings.

A View of New Town Edinburgh from Edinburgh Castle:

            At 8pm I went over to the Bank Bar near the Tron Kirk for a Sandeman’s Pub Crawl. Sandemans runs pub crawls and free walking tours every day at various cities across Europe, and it is a great way to meet people, especially while travelling alone like I am. I wore my Bruins hat out, and hockey was the topic of conversation with nearly everyone I talked to, mostly from Canada. The pub crawl was twelve pounds and included a free drink at each of five bars and one club along the course of the night. They also offer you some great drink specials along the way. Each of the bars were fun, and I met a friendly guy named Colton from Vancouver Island (not a Canucks fan, though) who I hung out with for the night. I do not remember the names of the bars, though one of them had a funny Frankenstein Monster display in it, and we also went to Belushi’s Bar on the ground floor of the Edinburgh branch of St. Christopher’s Hostels where I will stay tomorrow night. The club was nothing special, but I had fun and got home around 2am to hit the hay.