Paris

Ok, sorry for the wait. Even though I had a blast in Paris, I spent a lot of time struggling with picking the right words and things to say in this post, and I’m still not sure that I can fully elaborate the great time I had in this lovely city. Well, here it is anyway:

Although it had been the plan for months to leave Madison House at 6:15 to get to the train station, I did not fully understand just how early that really is until I woke up. Our group met at St. Pancras station and we were on the train and headed to our destination before the sun even rose. I slept like a baby for the train ride, and before I knew it I was in Gare du Nord train station. My classmates and I dispersed to find our hotels, and met up at the Musee D’Orsay around 1 for the first required group destination. Occupying a former train station, the building itself was huge and absolutely filled to the brim with Impressionist and Post-impressionist art. Being something of a Van Gogh fan, I was pleased to see a number of his paintings, along with Monet’s Water Lilies, Cezanne’s Apples and Oranges, and many more. We also met up with the JMU Salamanca and Florence programs, so I got to meet up with some familiar faces (including Cory “Woman-Hater” Rutledge) and meet some new ones as well.

The next stop on our trip was none other than the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. Having been a kid in the late 90′s I was very familiar with the cathedral, and was pleased to actually be here in person. It has held up pretty well for an 800-year old building, and although it’s a little smaller than I imagined it, I was still in awe of the Gothic building.

We examined the architecture for a little bit, then were free to roam inside the building for a while. It was packed full of tourists, and I think everyone there got the impression that it was a really cool building. Oh, and there was a statue of Charlemagne outside:

By the time we left it was pretty dark, but we wouldn’t need sunlight for our next destination. We got to the Louvre around 5:30 (when admission was free for students) and did a quick run-through of their most famous works. I got to see some really beautiful sculptures and paintings, most notably some chick named Lisa:

The exterior of the Louvre was unlike any building I’ve ever seen. It was a beautiful palace, decorated with sculptures and carvings, all the while bathed in nearly perfect lighting. Here’s a picture:

We didn’t do much else the rest of the night- some JMU people went to an Irish bar and we turned in early to get ready to see more of Paris the next day. Oh, and I tried some escargot for dinner. Not as bad as you’d think.

The second day was a lot like the first- I spent most of it checking out museums and sightseeing. Though we didn’t go inside, the Centre Pompidou was our first destination. It houses France’s modern art collection, and I can hardly think of a better place to put it than a building that looks like this:

After that was the Musée du quai Branly, which housed art from more “primitive” cultures than our own. This was a really interesting place that Wikipedia would be better at describing than I would. Check it out here. The next two places we went seemed to be pretty obvious to go to- the Eiffel tower and the Arc de Triomphe.

I would give plenty of more examples of the places I’d seen, but honestly, it was mostly just walking around. I managed to hit up the Champs-Elysees, one of Paris’ busiest streets, and I did quite a bit of walking and subway-riding checking out the rest of Paris. Well, I know finals are coming up for everyone, so I’ll pretty much wrap things up now. Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay!

Paris Coming…

Hey guys,

I went to Paris this weekend, and you’ll definitely be reading about it in the next day or two. Things are getting a little hectic over here with Thanksgiving (I’m on potato duty) and finals coming up, but you can expect my next (long) post around Thursday night, or Friday at the latest. In the meantime, you can check out my Facebook album of Paris pictures, which will almost surely be up by the time you are reading this. Happy Thanksgiving!

Western England

So I know that this entry is super-late, but I’ve been really busy over here doing things like going to Borough Market, seeing plays, museums, and generally having a great time. Even right now I have to rush this post because I will be leaving to see a movie in about half an hour, so I’ll try to crank this one out asbestos I can. Last weekend JMU had a trip to Western England to check out a variety of destinations, including Salisbury, Bath, Castle Combe, and Avebury. Hard to believe we saw all of these places, but I think that, all things considered, we spent enough time to get an appreciation for life in England outside of its capital city.

Friday morning my fellow students and I crawled out of bed to hop on the bus (or coach) to our first destination, Stonehenge. Giving the phrase “middle of nowhere” a completely new meaning, Stonehenge is surrounded by miles of farms, fields, and sheep.  We arrived and listened to our audio guide explain everything that current authorities know about the massive stone structures (which is to say, not much.)

OMFG HISTORY

I’ve seen dozens of pictures of Stonehenge in textbooks, on the internet, etc., and I’ll admit, they’re much bigger in person. We completed a giant loop around the site, which took around 45 minutes, and pretty soon we were on our way to Salisbury.

Around lunchtime, we hit the town of Salisbury, which is sort of a typical little English town that is both charming and filled with history. We walked through Old Town, and decided to eat at a rather large tea room where I had what is quickly becoming one of my favorite meals, a Full English breakfast with a nice pot of Earl Grey tea. The restaurant had a very elaborate, almost Victorian feel, filled with bright hues, lace, and other decorations that made me question my masculinity for choosing such a place. But hey, at least the food was good. After that, we headed to the main attraction of the town- Salisbury Cathedral.

This isn’t a history blog, but I understand that a lot of you probably haven’t heard of the place so I’ll try to highlight some of the important parts. Salisbury Cathedral is the tallest church in the British Isles, with a spire around 400 feet tall. It was built in the 1200′s, and is home to lots of famous dead people and one of the four existing copies of the Magna Carta. It is done in the early Gothic style, and is truly brilliant to behold in person. We took a tour that explained the important parts of the church, and by the end I was in complete awe that this massive building was built by people who didn’t even have electricity.

It's bigger than it looks.

After we left Salisbury we drove a little bit more through the English Countryside until we hit our main destination- the ancient city of Bath. Once a major tourist attraction, this city has been a popular place for people to relax up until about a hundred years ago. The city is still very much alive and vibrant, and is filled with beautiful Georgian architecture, plenty of shops and places to eat, and a variety of tourist attractions including Aquae Sulis, or the Roman baths that give the city its name. The city is home to a local university, meaning that there is a noticeable student population as well as more bars and clubs then one can physically drink at. We were given the rest of the day as a free day, so I made the most of the city by exploring and eating plenty of cheap, delicious pub food (I’ve never had a bad plate of fish and chips and as of right now I have reason to believe that I never will.)

This is Bath

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed for the ever-popular Roman baths. There’s actually a lot left for a 1,950 year old complex, including the baths themselves, and plenty of mosaics and temple ruins.

Don't go in there

It really is a surreal thing to see buildings from so long ago freely mix with buildings from the present. I’ve been exposed to it before, but never in such volume. I bet this is what Athenians feel like. Anyways, we took a bus tour of Bath afterwards, but since I’d already seen most of the city, I took the liberty of having a pretty nice nap. We finished up the day with a whole lot more exploring and a little adventuring, and by the end of the day I was thrilled to be in such a great city.

Sunday morning we left pretty early, as we still had a few places to see before we headed home. First up was Castle Combe, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Since we didn’t actually do anything in the city other than explore, I’ll let these pictures do the talking (I took these off of Google because theirs are better.)

[Edit: I removed the pictures because I don't technically have permission to use them. I'm sure you can find them online if you really want to.]

Anyways, we left the little city after a little bit and headed to our next and final destination, Avebury. Avebury is also home to massive rock formations in the form of a 450 meter circle, but unlike Stonehenge, people decided to set up shop and live right in the middle. It was so crazy to be in this little village surrounded by a rock circle that was older than written language. There were a few small museums in the middle that gave some insight into the lives of the people who built them (for the record, that’s druids, not aliens) but once again, for the most part we really don’t really know what the structures were for. Here’s some more pictures from Google:
[Edit: pictures removed]

So that’s about it for my trip. Once we saw the circles, we headed back on the bus to our flat in London. I’m now nearing the final portion of my semester, and this place is growing on me like athlete’s foot. As of writing this I have slightly less than 3 weeks left, and though I’ll be glad to see everyone back in the states, I’m really going to miss the magic and majesty that is England. Thanks for reading!

Barcelona!

Ok so yesterday I made the point that I didn’t really want to see a lot of the French and Italian cities because they were too obvious a choice and too tourist-y. Well, for the second part of my trip I did the exact opposite… and went with spending the remainder of my break in the sunny Mediterranean metropolis of Barcelona. Although my knowledge of Europe is painfully limited and I did not know it at the time, Barcelona lies on the Mediterranean sea in the northeast of eh-Spain. What this means to people who don’t care about geography is that even in late October, the weather is awesome. Oh, and it was awesome.

Barcelona as a city is definitely one of the hotspots of Europe. It was definitely a good choice to host the 1992 Olympic Games, as it’s big, beautiful, and totally a blast to be in. The best way I can think of describing Barcelona is as a city with the work taken out of it- people enjoy the sun, drink hard, stay out late, and are generally always up for a good time, even in the middle of the day in late October. Although the city still has all of the trappings of the glory of the Spanish Empire- elaborate Neo-Gothic architecture at every corner, wonderful public works in places from parks to the beachside, and beautiful churches that reach for the heavens everywhere you turn. If you are too distracted or intoxicated to get the point of my last paragraph, I’ll summarize: Barcelona was an amazing city and I would absolutely come back in a heartbeat.

Fun Fact: People don’t speak Spanish in Barcelona; Catalan is the language of choice. So thanks, high school Spanish class  Of course, like any other international city, English is widely spoken.

We arrived in the city around mid-afternoon and took a bus from the airport to the general area of our hostel, located just off of the famous Las Ramblas. It is probably the most tourist-y area of Barcelona, as it connects Plaza Catalunya to a massive monument of Christopher Columbus right near the water.

Las Ramblas, Catalan for "the Ramblas"

Las Ramblas, as the street is called, is lined by big trees and filled with street vendors and mimes, ranging from the traditional Charlie Chaplin lookalikes to people dressed up in demon costumes who fully expect you to take pictures with them (but why???). There are also tons of restaurants serving paella (a rice and seafood dish that is all over Barcelona- of course, I’m allergic to seafood so my experience was kept to a minimum) and tapas (snacks, in English). Anyways, we didn’t do a whole lot the first day, but we did manage to find some good places to eat and drink for the upcoming week.

Barcelona's got a pretty sweet harbour

One of the guys I had the pleasure of traveling with, Rob, had a friend who currently studies abroad in a major Barcelonan(?) university. He was great at showing us around the neighborhood and explaining the culture to us gringoes. For example, late nights in Barcelona are not uncommon, people eat around 10, pre-game around midnight, and hit the clubs/bars around 3am. It is a fairly regular occurrence to see people on the subway at 6am and not know if they are heading to work or coming back from a party. It is also not customary to tip in Barcelona, which means the service is terrible at any restaurant you go. And I mean terrible. Anyway, this guy played futbol for his school, and on Tuesday we got the chance to see his school play the University of Barcelona. I was not aware of this and I’m assuming you aren’t, but apparently by the time a player gets to university it is bascially too late for them to have any hopes of a professional career, so collegiate soccer is much more laid back than it is here (we’re talking 3 times a week practices.)

Camp Nou

After about a day or two of walking, the four of us had the best idea of the entire trip: rent bikes. Barcelona was no Amsterdam; you couldn’t simply see the city by foot. Over the course of the next 4 days or so, we spent a ton of time biking around the city and seeing things that you just wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Mind you, we managed to do this after laying on the beach for about 3+ hours every day (that’s right, the city has it’s own beach. And did I mention the perfect, 75 degree weather?) Chief among the places we visited on bikes was Montjuic, a large hill in a massive park that overlooks the whole of Barcelona and is host to the site of the XXV Olympics, wonderfully opulent hotels, its cable car system, and the titular Castel Montjuic (It’s about a 400m climb to the castle, which was pretty tough if I say so myself).

We also biked to Camp Nou (the host of Football Club Barcelona), Diagonal Street (or Avinguda Diagona, one of the biggest and most important streets in Barca and a major shopping hub), and  tons of quiet streets and neighborhoods whose names I cannot recall.

Here's that Castle I was telling you about

If you can imagine, 5 days of laying in the sun and biking got us pretty tired towards the end. That, combined with late nights and the unusually high content of the alcoholic beverages served, meant that by our last day in the city, Sunday, we barely had the energy to do anything. I still managed to hit Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona- all I’ll say about that one is that while I could understand and appreciate the appeal of contemporary art, it doesn’t really mean that I like it. By the end of the day, we were extremely happy to get out of the city for our airport hotel and go to sleep early for out 7am flight back to London.

Bottom Line: I can’t wait to get back to Barcelona. I give this city two thumbs up.

Amsterdam

Ok… after nearly two weeks of nail biting suspense, here’s my long-awaited next post.

I’m going to get the terrible pun out of the way as soon as possible and say that I had an Amsterdamn good time on my trip to the Netherlands (arf, arf, arf.)I chose Amsterdam as one of two visits on my trip to Europe because I wanted to see a quintessential European city. I felt that cities like Paris and Rome are almost non-indicative of European life, as they are incredibly famous locations and certainly the most thought-of places to travel when one is considering Europe as a destination. In other words, when people go to see Rome, they see Rome- not Italy. I felt Amsterdam would not really fall into this trap mainly because it is basically the only major Dutch city apart from the Hague and easily the population center of the tiny country. Sure enough, I got a pretty good view of Dutch life when I visited, and it was one of the most delightful places I’ve seen on my semester abroad. SIDE NOTE: Many people instantly equate Amsterdam with sex and drugs. Most of these people haven’t actually been to Amsterdam, or else that these two, ahem, pastimes, are basically kept restricted to two distinct zones that really have nothing to do with the Amsterdam that people actually live in. More on that later.

Amsterdam, and the Netherlands itself, is incredibly flat, as its historical tendency to flood has basically wiped away all hills and valleys that could have possibly existed. The planners of the city reconciled this by filling the city with canals and dams, or dikes. As a result, Amsterdam is laid out in a really cool way that is almost like a half-spider web. The middle of the city, or Centraalcity, has roads and canals branching out from it like spokes, which are in turn connected by other roads and canals running perpendicularly. A picture would probably give a better idea of what I’m talking about:

 

See what I mean?

Ok, so enough about geography. Here’s what I did:

We got into Schipol airport around evening time, being delighted at our surroundings and shocked at the brevity of the flight (50 minutes? What?) We took a brief train ride to Centraalcity, where we navigated a few blocks to our hotel on the border of the Green Light district, the drug center of the city. Coincidentally, our hotel was located right next to a police station. My brain almost exploded when I saw people lighting up j’s in front of cops. We were pretty tired at that point (Thursday night) so we hit the hay and got ready for a full weekend.

Let me preface my next paragraph by saying that Amsterdam is a beautiful city throughout, and one of the only places where I’ve felt entirely complacent to simply walk around and take it all in. That said, that’s basically what we did Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We explored from about noon to sunset, taking it all in and pausing just to rest and eat. It’s really easy to navigate, and even easier to lose track of time. The architecture was unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and each of the buildings I passed were elaborate, imposing, and filled with that kind of beauty you just don’t see in America.

And thats a mall!

 

Being college students, we did not really manage to hit two major destinations on the list- the Heineken Brewery Museum and the Van Gogh Museum. We did get it together enough to see the Anne Frank House.

The house had a huge line to get into, and was remarkably well-preserved. I was incredibly moved upon my visit and seeing the house and the three tiny rooms where Anne, her family, and her friends lived in hiding all those years. While reading the books, it is easy to distance oneself from the horrors of the occurrences, but actually seeing the places mentioned brought a depressing and sobering layer that I never actually thought I would ever see with my own two eyes.

On to a lighter topic, we found a massive park in the city on Saturday and spent equal time enjoying nature and dodging bikes- yes the stereotype is true, they really are everywhere. In the middle of a park we saw a crazy guy singing and dancing shirtless, and throwing a frisbee directly above him and trying to catch it. He was obviously having a blast.

 

WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE

 

 

Amsterdam has tons of shops and lots of restaurants, and while I mostly ate fast-food falafel, I got the chance to try out a few pretty cool beers, including my new favorite, Grimbergen:

 

Delicious

It’s a Belgian Abbey beer that’s pretty strong and something like 6 percent alcohol by volume. I don’t know enough about beers to really talk about it in length, but it had a pretty wheat-y taste and a slightly cinnamon-y aftertaste. You gotta try it, dude.

There were a few other weird things that I saw in my time there, like two men playing on an oversized chess set and getting really passionate about it, and a patch of grass in the middle of the city filled with life size bronze iguana replicas, and a carnival in the middle of the city, complete with rides, games, and food stands.

 

I forget what this is, but I took a picture of it.

By the time we left early on Monday morning, we were confident that we had seen the best Amsterdam had to offer and explored the city to a reasonable extent. I had a good time and recommend it to anyone who wants to see a beautiful European city. Next stop, Barcelona!

 

 

 

Sorry for the Delay…

Hey readers,

Just got back from an amazing 10 days in Amsterdam and Barcelona. Right now I’m starting to type some stuff and waiting for Facebook to upload my pictures, but you can rest assured that I’ll get at least one of the cities done by tomorrow.

-Your awesome friend,

Mike

 

 

EDIT: Well, it turns out I should have been doing homework on the trip- I’m swamped until tomorrow. I’m really sorry and I promise that if I don’t get anything done by tomorrow at midnight I will give every reader of the blog free money

Uhhh… Post?

Well, I feel bad since I didn’t really do anything this weekend and I don’t have anything new to post. So I think I’ll just post one of the essays I’ve written for Art History. Both of the paintings I’ve written about are located in the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, so I’ve had the privilege of seeing these and many others with my own eyes. Enjoy!

Portrait Comparison

by Mike Bock

The two paintings I chose to compare were Rembrandt’s Self Portrait at Age 63 and Velazquez’s Portrait of Archbishop Fernando de Valdes. Both paintings are simple depictions of older-looking men- but the difference is that while Velazquez was commissioned to paint the Archbishop, Rembrandt painted himself as an ongoing project of his. I believe that, because of this fact, Rembrandt included certain subtleties about his emotional state that form a kind of depth that Velazquez was not able to achieve. Rembrandt sought to capture his emotions as well as simply his physical appearance, whereas Velazquez merely wanted to capture the image of his powerful subject.

Portrait of Archbishop Fernando de Valdes

Velazquez’s Portrait is very much a symbol of power as it is a portrait. The man in the frame has a stern appearance with harshly staring eyes, almost as if his physical appearance is commanding the viewer. While the man in the portrait is obviously far along in his life, the way he is painted does not really suggest a frailty seen in other men his age. His black robes and hat are probably typical of what an Archbishop would wear at the time, which reinforces the authoritative nature of the portrait. Even the background (a red curtain lined with gold) suggests a superior nature. Velazquez clearly sought to capture the commanding nature of the man as well as his physical characteristics, and has done so quite well.

Self Portrait at the age of 63

Rembrandt’s Self Portrait, while similar at first glance, is almost the polar opposite of Velazquez’s painting. Rembrandt painted himself very near the end of his life, and the painting itself reflects that. The subject is a man whom is obviously aged, with a kind of quiet dignity that was not seen in his earlier self-portraits. The painting is drawn with very soft lines and colors, and the viewer gets the feeling that Rembrandt is a gentle, almost frail man. His eyes seem to be attempting to connect to the audience, and they appear to be with both pride and sadness. Rembrandt does not seek to make his portrait commanding like Velazquez did- he seeks to connect to his audience in an emotional way.

While the subject of the two portraits is similar, the way the audience perceives and relates to them could not be more different. Velazquez wanted to capture the image of a powerful, important man, while Rembrandt wanted to capture his emotional state as much as he did his physical appearance. Both paintings are excellent examples of portraits of the time, and perform very well at both corporeal appearances of the subjects and the specific ideas they wish to convey.

See, Mom? I’m doing work over here.

Ireland

Disclaimer: This is my wordiest post yet because I forgot my camera at home for the whole trip. I’ll try to take other people’s pictures and put them in, so keep checking back if you want to see them.

I know I literally say this every weekend, but this past weekend in Dublin was easily the most amazing weekend I’ve had here. I had an excellent time and I completely recommend it to anyone who happens to be in Europe. I know I’m going to have a difficult time putting what I have to say into words, but bear with me and I’ll try to do the best I can.

Thursday afternoon Trevor (one of the guys I’m doing the semester with) and I took the train out to Gatwick Airport for our flight to the Emerald Isle. Everything went according to plan and  we ended up on our discount flight through Ryanair with no problems. The flight was really short, and despite the crammed seats and unusual smell of the plane (wish I was kidding) we made it through without running out of fuel or anything. It’s really easy to get into Ireland from the UK- they pretty much just stamp your passport and that’s it. We strolled out of the airport and hopped on a bus to downtown Dublin.

The first thing that struck me about Ireland is the prevalence of Irish (the language.) It’s on all of the public signs and all throughout the airport and even the city, and although it is always accompanied by English, I didn’t expect it to have such a presence. Another thing I picked up on was the relative lack of redheads. I was definitely surprised, but in typical Mike fashion I checked Wikipedia when I got home and it said redheads only make up 10% of the Irish population and the biggest percentages are found in the northern counties, as in nowhere near Dublin. I was pretty surprised when I red that information.

Ireland is a fairly small country, and Dublin was pretty small, too. It’s mostly built along a small river that runs throughout the city, and it usually takes about 15-20 minutes to get wherever you want to go around the city. That includes our hostel, the Guinness factory, Temple Bar, Trinity College, and all the other major attractions of the city.

Me in Trinity College. I'm getting smarter already.

Thursday night was pretty relaxed as we went out for a couple drinks in a pub then turned in. Nothing special there, except for the fact that Guinness is by far the most prevalent beer in Dublin, undoubtedly due to the fact that the brewery is literally inside the city. Oh, and don’t expect to get a beer for any less than 5 euro… Dublin knows its a tourist-y town and will take your money accordingly. We found our hostel alright and though it seemed kind of sketchy at first, it ended up being pretty decent considering how cheap it was. Hostels are a really interesting place to meet people from all walks of life, from  the ex-Army guy from Seattle traveling the world to the vaguely pedophilic male nurse who stole my bed the first night.

Friday morning we woke up and pretty much headed straight for the Guinness brewery in a section of Dublin called St. James’ Gate. The brewery takes up most of the area and is something like 52 acres big, but the part that was open to the public is the old storehouse. The entry fee is 12 euro, but the idea is that you start at the bottom and learn how beer is made, and as you move up the floors you get to see more stuff like the taste testing room, the history of the company, etc. At the top there is a “sky bar” that provides a 360 degree view of Dublin. Oh, and they also give out free Guinnesses. I’ll just let that one simmer with you, readers.

At the top of the Guinness factory

The rest of Friday was relatively uneventful. We ate lunch, walked around and explored places like Temple Bar and Trinity College. The day went by pretty quickly, and before I knew it, it was time for the pub crawl. Led by an Irish guy in his mid-twenties, the tour took us to no less than 5 bars and 1 club, each with either free or discounted drinks. We met more than a few interesting people on the crawl, and it turned out to be a blast. I would definitely recommend this.

Saturday Trevor, Kendra, and I  took an all-day bus tour of southern Ireland that stopped at some really awesome places. We caught the bus at around 8am, and for anyone who couldn’t really read between the lines of the last paragraph, I passed out on the bus almost instantly. I woke up about an hour later in this beautiful, majestic countryside that words simply wouldn’t be able to do justice. We found ourselves driving a long, winding road through the Wicklow Mountains, surrounded by valleys, lakes, purple heather as far as the eye could see (it was pretty foggy), and vibrant green trees. Oh, and sheep. The bus’ first stop was the “Guinness” lake: the name was chosen for its dark color and not because it was full of beer like I’d hoped. Coincidentally, (this one goes out to the ladies)This lake also happens to be the place where the ending scene of P.S. I Love You was shot.

I swear this isn't Photoshopped

Our next point on the tour was Glendalough, an awesome place that you can read about here (scroll to the bottom for pictures). We saw ruins of churches and buildings that were easily 1000 years old, and a tower built with the original intention of defense against Vikings. Also in the vicinity was the most beautiful lake I’ve ever laid eyes on. From the village, visitors could take a short walk through a really old forest to the peaceful and serene Upper Lake, which sat in a valley and was surrounded by trees and greenery. Upon discovering this I promptly kicked myself for not bringing my camera.

After Glendalough was Kilkenny, an Irish village in the countryside. It seemed like a really nice little place, and when we arrived we ate at a local pub and toured the Castle in the heart of town. The thing that stuck out to me in the castle was the fact that people lived there up to about the turn of the 20th century, so rather than seeing crumbly old furniture and wax models of people with crossbows, the majority of the decor was relatively modern. Kilkenny seemed like the place to be that day, as people from all over the county had descended onto the 5 block retail area, presumably to fight about which family is more Catholic. Just kidding, Kilkenny.

We left Kilkenny and, on the way back to Dublin, stopped at a 4,000+ year old burial site. The site was situated in the middle of a field, and was one huge rock laying on top of some other big rocks. I bet it was really something 4,000 years ago. After seeing this and NOT taking a picture of it (stupid brain) we headed back to Dublin and found a pub to watch the evenings’ Ireland-Italy football match. It was a really intense game, and Ireland did really well, managing to tie the 2006 World Cup winners 2-2. I won’t do a recap because this blog is long enough as it is, but I can say that both times Ireland scored the pub went nuts. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years watching sports.

Sunday was mainly just a relaxed day while we waited to head back to the airport. We stopped in a restaurant called “The Queen of Tart” where I had the best Banana-Chocolate Chip muffin I have ever eaten. Our group also headed over to a park, where we found an open field and relaxed until a homeless man sat three feet next to us and stared at us. Can’t make this stuff up. The whole day went pretty well, until I found out that I missed my flight and had to buy a new one at the airport for something like 5 times what I originally paid for it. The ride home was decent if not expensive, and by the time I made it home I realized that I just had one of the best weekends of my life.

Edinburgh

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve never really thought about Edinburgh, or the rest of Scotland, outside of the realm of certain stereotypes. I never considered that Scotland was a beautiful place, full of (mostly) nice people, exciting history, and reasonably good food (more on that later). If you can’t tell by now, I had an excellent time in Edinburgh. Here’s why:

So we left King’s Cross and made the 4 and a half hour journey northeast to Scotland’s “other” city. And let me tell you, if you thought English landscape is pretty (and I do,) Scotland is like something out of a fantasy novel. On one particular stretch, we rode along a cliff overlooking the sea, with a lighthouse on a rocky outcrop in the distance. Straight outta Potter. When we got there, the weather was about 15 degrees colder and rainy (okay, so some stereotypes are true.) We left the train station and were immediately hit with this:

And that’s the newer part. Downtown Edinburgh is split into Old Town (where the Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle, and most of the really cool pubs/restaurants are) and a New Town, which is still really freakin’ old. For those of you wondering, the Royal Mile is the street that connects the Edinburg Castle to the Scottish Parliament. It’s supposed to be a mile, but since it is entirely uphill, I’m sure myself and others who have walked it multiple times can agree that it feels way longer and that the Scots should have built their city in a flatter area. After checking into our hotel, we pretty much immediately took a bus tour of all of the important sights and buildings of Old Town. It is actually a relatively small area, so the bus tour pretty much covered most of it. After the bus tour, we were free to explore the city and shop (like, duh) to our leisure while waiting for the ghost tour that me and four friends had booked previously. We ate in an old pub with an apparently generic name, as I can’t seem to remember it. It was here that I tried the legendary Haggis. Here’s some pictures by Josh Lee chronicling the experience:

Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties. Neeps are mashed turnips and Tatties are mashed potatoes.

Trepidation

Success! You have won me over, sheep's stomach.

It didn’t taste nearly as bad as anyone with common sense would think it would. It basically tasted like ground beef mixed with a little liver. I can definitely see myself getting this again next time I’m in Scotland. Upon arriving the city, I figured an unusual dish like this probably wouldn’t be widely consumed outside of rural areas. The thing is, it’s in basically every pub and lots of restaurants in Edinburgh.  Touching on that subject, stores that sell kilts, scarves, and other products made from Scottish wool litter the Royal Mile, and it is impossible to walk 100 yards without seeing a kilt store. There are also a surprising amount of people wearing them- I must have seen about a dozen people legitimately wearing kilts as part of their apparel. I had originally thought of a good joke to put there but I forgot it so you can make up your own kilt-related humor. I would also advise turning safe search ON while looking for kilt pictures in Google Images.

I won’t touch on the ghost tour, as I will likely dedicate a separate post to that later on. I will say, however, that Scotland has a bloody history and I most certainly believe that there is something unnatural in the Edinburgh Vaults. After the ghost tour, we went to a bar/club called Frankenstein, which was the only Halloween-themed bar I have been to and is decorated with all of the trappings of a cheesy haunted house. Needless to say, I loved it.

The next morning we awoke at the ungodly hour of 8am to go to Edinburgh Castle. At this point my camera had died and I did not replace the batteries yet, so no pictures of the Castle. I will say, however, that pictures would simply not do a place like Edinburgh Castle justice. Simply approaching the entrance, the history of the place is overwhelming, and the feeling only grows as one goes deeper into the castle. The oldest part of the Castle, a chapel located in the center, had been around for abut 400 years before Columbus reached America. See what I mean? The castle was really awesome and worth the 10 pound admission fee.

After that, we went to the Scottish Parliament on the other end of the Mile. Unlike the Castle, I really have nothing nice to say about the Parliament Building. It’s modern art and architecture at its worst:

It was only built about 8 years ago, and it just looks terrible. Even the Scots we met at a pub during the Manchester United game agreed with us. Anyways, after that we had the rest of the day free, which I pretty much spent wandering the city and killing time before hitting the town later that night. I will not bore you with details, but Scottish clubs are basically the same as English clubs.

The next day we had basically a morning and an afternoon to do whatever we we wanted, so Rich, Josh, Trevor and I decided to climb Arthur’s Seat. Arthur’s Seat is actually a mountain located in the center of a very large part overlooking Edinburgh. It took us most of the morning, and I don’t regret a minute of it:

I was actually here

It's basically Middle Earth

It's all about It's all about the Climb

The weather was great, the scenery was breathtaking, and the view was unlike any I have ever seen. We stopped at the ruins of a 800-year old church located near the bottom on the way back, and while sitting there it finally hit me that I am really lucky to be here.

After that, we pretty much just hung around for a little bit then took the train back home. I was pretty exhausted by that point so I was probably more excited than I’ve ever been to go to sleep.

Scotland is a really awesome place, I’m having a fantastic time on my trip, and my only regret is that there aren’t more people that I can share this experience with.

Staches and Salamanca

Buenos días Super Fantastic readers!

For those of you that don’t know me my name is Cory Rutledge.  I am one of Mike’s roommates at JMU and am currently studying in Salamanca, Spain.  It is about two hours away from Madrid in the northwest of Spain.  The University of Salamanca is one of the oldest universities in the world, having been founded in 1218.  You can find out more here if you are the academic type.  That explains the second half of the name of the post.  The other half “staches” pertains to the fact that I am attempting to grow out a mustache and currently look like the illegitimate son of Tom Selleck who cannot live up to his dad’s powerful mustache.

This is what I look like, minus the chest hair, mustache, cordless phone...and minus being Tom Selleck

So yeah. Here is a picture of my actual process in the mustache growing deal.  Not only is this mustache a girl repellent (which is good considering I have a girlfriend) it also seems to be a people repellent.  No one wants to speak to me at all.  Just kidding but I think some people may consider it a bit strange.

Salamanca has been wonderful so far.  It is extremely difficult to speak Spanish because the Spanish speak so freaking fast but piece by piece I am getting used to it.  I am sure Mike is having a much tougher time understanding English so I won’t complain.  I am living with one other JMU student, Jack Stevens, with a host mother, Escoli, who is the best.  She cooks pretty good, yells at us if we try and make our beds, and oh yeah leaves every night at midnight to go chill with her boyfriend.  My parents, who are younger, are in bed by 10 every night, at the latest!

Ok ladies here is the fashion portion of the post.  Since I am living in Europe now I automatically know more than everyone about fashion so here it goes.  Baggy pants for girls:  in.  Tight pants for girls:  in.  Strange leather/plastic/shiny pants:  in.  Tight pants on boys:  in.  Only wearing small shorts spandex to the gym if you are a guy and are only amongst other guys:  uncomfortably in.  Witches (Got to keep it clean) always be wearing heels and always be running wild and shopping.

On to another topic.  Some (Jennifer) may not enjoy this topic but I wish to speak on it anyways.  Cars.  Here is Spain virtually every single car is a stick and virtually every single car is diesel.  I find that awesomely fascinating.  I have seen minivans that were stick.  How crazy is that?  I mean a stick Chrysler Town & Country?  C’mon!!  Oh yeah everyone sucks at paying attention to pedestrians too so you have to be super careful at crosswalks.  All the cars are tiny here.  Even the delivery trucks and armored cars are only the size of a mid-size truck or SUV in the U.S.  Seriously the biggest pickup I have seen was probably about the size of a Ford Ranger, tiny compared to America.

Oh and despite the economic downturn, if you ever need a construction job, come to Spain.  It is ridiculous how much work is going on.  It seems as if every single street is having work done.  Our madre says our street has been closed to cars since July.  That would not fly in America.  Oh and they just finished this massive MASSIVE mall across the street from our house, the Corte Inglés.  This is a super mall with every single thing you could ever want packed into one.  And all the salmantinos (as the people of Salamanca are called) are fascinated by it.  It is apparently a big deal to have one of these and as they were building it, people would just stop in the middle of the street just to watch.  Just to watch them build it!  For hours and hours upon end.  Of course now it is packed all the time but it is also super expensive so not the best place to shop for a poor turkey like me.

Anyways that is all for me.  I hope you guys enjoyed my little post here