Pounds and Cheers

I'm sitting in the Edinburgh airport, waiting to board my flight to London, Gatwick and then home to Bordeaux. I've been in Edinburgh, Scotland the since Monday and my short visit to the United Kingdom has been jolly good.

University of Edinburgh

I stayed with my friend from back home, Sarah, who is getting her masters at the University of Edinburgh this year. My flight got in rather late on Monday so we didn't do much except get ready for exploring on Tuesday. We got an early start Tuesday morning and saw the sights. We walked from the flat she shares with seven other university students and walked around a little of University of Edinburgh's campus. Sarah told me Edinburgh is very much a college town and so most of the people walking around are either tourists or college students. It's very different from Bordeaux in that sense, which is definitely not a college town.


From the university we walked to Edinburgh Castle, a place in which I would LOVE to take up residence. Not only is the stone castle itself very impressive, because it is located on top of a large hill in the center of the city, the 360 degree views of the city are absolutely amazing. As poor university students already feeling the effects of the outrageous pound to dollar conversion, we did not buy tickets to go inside which makes me a little concerned that if this castle ever goes on the market it will be a tad out of my price range. Bugger.

Edinburgh Castle, my new home

View of Edinburgh from the Castle

View of Edinburgh from the Castle

After house hunting we walked up and down the Royal Mile and made friends along the way. We chatted with a bagpiper who serenaded us for a while and later sought refuge from the wind and rain in a kilt shop. The kilt maker was all too happy to talk to us San Franciscans about Scottish traditional garb and festivities. Turns out, he had a shop in downtown San Francisco a while back but got sick of commuting from Hayward each day so came back to the homeland. Can't say I blame him! It really is crazy how small the world becomes when you start talking to people across the globe.

The Royal Mile

Oink! (formerly known as Babe)

What kind of trip would it be if I ignored the traditional Scottish faire? Fear not, Sarah made sure we hit the big ones. We had pork sandwiches at a restaurant called Oink, which featured an entire cooked pig in its front window. We got pasties filled with meat and potatoes, and for dinner we went to a pub called the Old Belle and watched a football (soccer) game. I ordered the traditional haggis, neeps, and tatties but Sarah wouldn't let me in on what haggis was until I had washed my dinner down with some Ginger Grouse ginger beer for fear that I wouldn't be able to finish my meal once I knew what I was eating. There was no need to worry though, the sheep's liver, heart, and lungs cooked in sheep stomach was pretty appetizing, even after I knew what I was eating.

Sarah plays for the University of Edinburgh's basketball team so on Wednesday we headed to Durham, England, about 3 hours away to her game against Durham University. UK basketball is not nearly as competitive as US basketball but it was still so fun to travel with her team of Scotts and watch some them play. They ended up losing by 40 points but it turns out the Durham team is almost entirely comprised of former US college basketball players so it's no surprise the Scotts didn't stand a chance. One of the girls on the Durham team played at Baylor and was teammates with Brittney Griner for a couple of seasons! Like I said, it's a small world.

Which brings us to today, Thursday. Sarah and I parted ways this morning, she to class and I to the airport, but not before a traditional Scottish breakfast of haggis, fried eggs, black pudding, sausage, and hash browns, among other goodies. It was not a long stay in Edinburgh, but we took in a lot and besides the weather and the strength of the pound, no complaints! Got to go, their calling my flight to board! Cheers.

Eating My Way Through Barcelona

No habla! My French-speaking abilities for the first time in the last six weeks were of no use to me. That's because I was in España! Barcelona, to be exact. It was my first time in Spain and Barcelona did not disappoint. Other than the fact that I had no idea what was being said around me in Spanish and Catalan, I was completely enamored with the city. Most likely this is due to the fact that I consider myself to be a city person and Barcelona fits the bill of a large, urban city. It actually reminded me a lot of San Francisco. No complaints there.

Exploring Barcelona

I was staying with a friend of mine from San Francisco who is studying in Barcelona for the semester. She lives around the corner from la Sagrada Família and while we didn't actually go inside Gaudí's famously unfinished Roman Catholic church, I was constantly struck by its enormous looming presence.

The most important activity  in Barcelona--eating. And when you've finished eating, walking around the city in search of your next meal. It is a never-ending cycle and while your pants may not fit the next day, you will not mind. On Friday, my first full day in Barcelona, my friend and I took the metro to Mercado de La Boqueria and bought things for a picnic lunch. We bought fresh juices, empanadas, chorizo, papaya, chicken, and cheese. Where was our picnic you may ask? On the Mediterranean Sea! I had to keep pinching myself to remind me that I wasn't dreaming and that I was actually eating a picnic lunch in the sun on the beach in the Mediterranean.

Picnic lunch from the market

Papaya on the Mediterranean!

More tapas--calamari, grilled vegetables and bread

The next two days consisted of lots of tapas and wandering the streets of Barcelona. We ate fried calamari, drank sangria (lots of sangria), different cheese dishes, potatoes, and paella. And dessert. Lots of dessert, ranging from gelato to artisanal chocolate to churros dipped in chocolate, which was a particular favorite of mine. Needless to say, we did not go hungry.

Churros dipped in chocolate

My last night in Barcelona, I went to a flamenco show! At first we were worried it might be too touristy and that our 20 euros were going to some hokey, Disneyland-esque type of thing. Not at all the case. Our 20 euros bought us a free drink (read: more sangria) and a very fun flamenco show. It was a five person production with a guitarist, a man on the box drums, a female singer, and two flamenco dancers. It was loud, they were proud, and I was entertained for an hour and a half. The music was like nothing I'd heard before and I couldn't get over how fast the dancers moved their feet across the stage.

Flamenco dancing

Alas, my weekend in Barcelona had to come to a close on Sunday. It is a city I would definitely like to return to. However, it is interesting to note that I felt a strange longing for the French language while I was in Spain. Could it be that I am becoming more Bordelaise than I anticipated? Hopefully this means that sometime in the next couple months the transformation will be complete and there won't be a constant English-French struggle in my brain quand je parle français!

California's Introduction to Winter

Yesterday's weather forecast was snowing, with a chance of losing circulation in one's toes. The appropriate activity for days such as yesterday is staying in bed with a cup of tea, reading a book and binge-watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix. What should be avoided is going outside, finding the tallest sand dune in Europe, and climbing it, which is naturally how I spent my day yesterday. My toes have not yet forgiven me.

My seafood and veggie lunch.

In efforts to explore areas outside of Bordeaux, some friends and I hopped on a train yesterday morning and traveled 60km southwest to the seaside town of Arcachon. The weather boasted a balmy -2 degrees Celsius upon our arrival. We found a restaurant two blocks from the ocean and I had the plat du jour which was salmon with grilled vegetables. A town located right next to the sea, Arcachon does know how to prepare seafood, and my salmon and veggies were delicious. After lunch, we took a bus 15 minutes through a woody area to la Dune du Pilat, the tallest sand dune in Europe, measuring in at 500m wide from east to west and 2.7km from north to south. It stands 110m above sea level.

This is what we had come to Arcachon to see. It's pretty famous and over one million people visit the dune each year. However, most of the visiting is done in the summer months, and for good reason. It was freezing. Climbing la Dune du Pilat, I was the coldest I have ever been in my entire life. It was as if France was telling me, "Hello California, let me show you what the word winter really means." Did I forget to mention that when I left Bordeaux yesterday morning it was snowing? That should have been my first clue to go back inside. My second should have been when I was purchasing my train ticket and the man at the counter chuckled when I told him where I wanted to go.

The forest at our backs.

High above the treetops, that's where you'll find me. 

In front of us, the Atlantic Ocean.

We didn't traverse the entire dune, that would have taken weeks at our pace, but we did make it to the top of one of the peaks! The view in front of us of the ocean, and at our backs a dense forest was breathtaking, but so too was the wind and subzero temperature. After taking a couple obligatory pictures, I started to become really concerned about the state of my toes. I, like every one of the Californians I was traveling with, was unprepared for the treacherous conditions. In case there was any doubt, converse high-tops lack insulation, among other things, and are definitely not appropriate footwear when taking on any extreme weather. When we made it back down the dune, I dumped the sand from my sneakers and held my toes in my hands, making sure I could wiggle all 10 of them. Upon seeing movement, we headed to the train station and back to Bordeaux to warm up and apologize to our weary bodies for the day's events. It was an exciting adventure, and one I would repeat when the weather warms up. That seems to be a recurring theme in my life at the moment.

Winter-1     Stacey-0