Traveler's Tales: Great Scot!

How can one do justice in describing a visit to Edinburgh? As I recollect my fond memories of my trip in early May, it seems that I have to tell about many cities. There is the Old City and the New City, cleaved in two by a large valley. There is the daytime Edinburgh of tourists and shops and the nighttime Edinburgh of clubs and hard-partying, drink-downing Scots. The city is at once both young and old.

In a way, I feel as though I visited the city as two different people: there was tourist me, off to visit the castle and hike Arthur's Seat; and there was the student me, the young American me, hoping from bar to bar, scene to scene. Its amazing how much one's experience of a place is dependent upon one's identity in that place.

It is hard to experience a city as a local might without some sort of guide who can tell you what is real or authentic. I was lucky to be staying with my college buddy Nathan Hakimi who has been living in the city for the past four months. His abroad program has placed him in a flat with other Scottish students so he is keyed into the local nightlife already.

Some of the higlights of my trip include the first night I got there, when we sat around and watched election returns (an historic night to be there), went to a club, came back and kept watching election results. It was interesting to see how other culture's relate to their elections. The youth were mostly nonplussed.



The next day, Nathan and I walked up to Edinburgh Castle and spent most of the day wandering arond the castle, which is basically the Tower of London of Edinburgh. Please don't tell any Scots I said that, they would not be pleased. That night, Nathan and I went to a cool venue where there was a concert of alt-acts. The headliner were a pair of American's singing British folk (much better than that description might lead you to believe).

Saturday morning, I woke up early and set out to explore the city on my own, as a tourist. I chose to go on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour as a way to both get around the city and get a bit of a tour. Halfway through the ride, I hopped-off at the foot of Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is a mountain/public park that holds court over the entire city and the North Sea. I popped in my headphones and took a hike to the top. It was tough, but worth it. The views all the way up were incredible. By the time I got back to the bus, I was exhausted. But my day of tourism was not over, I went to the touristy shopping street to get my hands on some cheap Scottish cashmere (check!).

(not Roslin Chapel)

That night, Nathan and I went to go see a play at a local theater (The Goat, by Edward Albee) and then met some of his friends at a club. The next morning we were pretty worn out from the late night but decided to go on a little adventure. About a half hour outside of Edinburgh is Roslin Chapel. Roslin was made famous by its portrayal in The DaVinci Code. Over ten years, the church has seen its visitation risen from a couple thousand a year to around 150,000 a year. Thats a big increase. The chapel is famous for its intricate masonry and mysterious carvings. The chapel was a treat, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has an extra afternoon in Edinburgh. That night, I was back in A'dam.

I still have a few more days in Amsterdam and definitely have more posts to write: I have yet to tell you about Istanbul or Budapest. I also want to write a wrap-up about my experience here. I return hom on June 3rd, but might have a few posts out after that. I can't wait to see you all soon.

Getting on with it...

Would it be cliche to say that I have been doing so much lately that I haven't been able to write about it? Well, I am here now, ready to regale you with my goings on!

The past month has been so much fun! Even though the weather has recently turned sour (rain, gray skies...) there was a two-week period where we saw sun and warm weather! So it was nice to have some real outdoor friendly weather in the city. Some highlights include visiting the nearby botanic garden, having a picnic in the Oosterpark and going to a great local brewery which is housed in an old windmill and has a patio on the IJ channel.

Amsterdam in the Spring can be a magical place, everywhere there seems to be something flowering or growing. Tulips pop up in every park and in every planter. The city grows. Tourists flood into the city, spilling over into the bike lanes and tram cars. Somehow the city keeps running smoothly.

Even the hardworking Dutch occasionally strike and for the past two weeks there has been no sanitation department activity. Its supposed to end tonight. I hope so, my trash day is tomorrow.

Above all, there has been three major highlights in my last few weeks: a group trip to Schiermonnikoog (pronounced: ski-er-moan-ee-koh), Koninginnedag (eh, not worth the pronunciation, just call it Queen's Day) and a trip to Edinburgh. I know, Dutch is an insane language and thank god we speak English (it was this close to being Dutch...).

Schiermonnikoog is an usland in the way north of The Netherlands in Friesland province. It is one of a string of islands that form a chain between the North Sea and the Wadden Sea. The difference between the currents of the two seas has made Schiermonnikoog an important ecological site and the entire island (including the village/beach town) is a National Park.

The trip was organized by my abroad organization, CIEE, and was great as usual. Very well planned, fun, and not too strict.

One of the unique features of the Island that results from the weird current patterns is that when the tide goes out, much of seabed is revealed as a murky, muddy well mudflat. not only can you hike it, it is even possibly to walk across the sea shore to the mainland. We did get that far. But we did go waddenlopen as its called. Our guide taught us all about the ecological heritage of the mudflats and we even caught some
Oysters and Mussels that we later cooked!


Later that day, we got the opportunity to explore the island on our own. I set out to circumnavigate the island by bike. I even managed to recruit a couple friends to join me on my journey around the island. We made a few stops to enjoy the nature (a quick walk around the km-wide beach, a short stop at the dunes). It was a lot of fun, and there was a lot to see.

By the time we made it back, we were exhausted. Luckily, there was not much to do besides dinner. After dinner we all went out, including our program directors. The next day followed a similar pattern, lots of outdoor activity and even a campfire on the beach at night.

April 30th is the official celebration of the Queen's Birthday (Koninginnedag). The entire country is on holiday and there are massive street parties in every city in the nation. By far, the largest one is in Amsterdam. It is estimated that around 700,000 people came into the city for the celebrations, roughly doubling the population. On Koninginnegad, anyone is allowed to sell things in the street, the entire country has a vrijmarket (free market). That means loads of stree vendors, food, and all sorts of other goodies.

On Koninginnedag, it is customary to deck oneself out in Organge and spend the entire day partying with friends. The Dutch know how to have a holiday. In fact, because they have the next day off, the Dutch have turned the night before Queens Day, other wise known as Koninginnenacht into a party in its own right. There were free concerts held all over the city.

In the Dam, there was a huge carnival going on which included a large Ferris wheel. The pictures are evidence of the awesome views provided by the ride.

I have been having so much in the past few weeks that the time has just been flying by! I cannot believe that I am leaving here in less that three weeks! I am excited to be home again and see everyone but really sad about leaving Amsterdam. The fickle thing about abroad is that you can never recreate the experience. No matter how often I come back to Amsterdam, I will never have the same experience because abroad is so much about the people you meet and spend time with. I have made great friendships with people from all over the world, some of them I will probably never see again.

I hope to write again soon about my trip last weekend to Edinburgh. But, you will have to forgive me if I choose to spend my last few days in Amsterdam and not in front of a screen. Tot ziens!