A Very Lucky Girl

I’ve been back in the States for barely three days now. It’s honestly hard to say considering all of the days run together and I’m still operating on Scotland time. Which means I can barely keep my eyes open past 9 PM (3 AM) and wake up anywhere between 5-7 AM (11AM-1PM). Which wouldn’t be a terrible schedule if I had any reason to go to bed and wake up that early (I don’t). It’s strange to be here. I feel as if at least half of my heart is   missing. I go through pictures from my time in Scotland and feel as if I’m there. I close my eyes and hear "Timber" and taste the jagerbombs at the Union. I can feel the biting wind at Broughty Ferry and see the magnificent sunsets from Zee’s kitchen window over the River Tay. The night my blanket stops smelling like Dundee is the night I will cry myself to sleep. It’s hard to be excited to be in America. I love being able to see my friends (and dog) whenever the urge strikes, but I’ve now lost that same connection with Dundee. I ge...

back when we were babies 5 months ago I can't even begin to comprehend how to say goodbye to home. Dundee was my savior. My sanity in the midst of confusion. And even though it's ending, I consider Dundee my beginning.  I thought a lot about what makes me feel so connected to Dundee. I feel for this place what I feel for Raleigh, North Carolina, my favorite place I lived growing up. What made these settings special? I think the common denominator is feet.  In Raleigh I was devoted to running cross-country and track. My feet pounded the pavement around the school, around my home, around my neighborhood, and even all of over the state when we traveled to compete in meets.  I've done minimal running in Dundee, but my feet have carried me all over this city and all over the country of Scotland! I've walked to the Union and back countless times, I've trudged to Tesco for groceries and donuts, and I've gone to great lengths to skip the Old Hawkhill hill. Ta...

We took our final night trains from Germany to Denmark, and lemme tell ya, I was thrilled. We took a short train from Heidelberg to Frankfurt, then a longer one on to Hamburg where we would change again. We didn't have reservations for our train from Frankfurt to Hamburg so we figured we needed to sit in the second-class upright seats as opposed to the sleeping compartments. I found out with 45 minutes left on our 6 hour train from hell that we were wrong. We could have been sprawled in the sleeping compartments only one car back. Another fun fact: at one stop at least 5 teens were arrested off of our train and escorted onto the platform by security officers. Never a dull moment when traveling with a Eurail pass!  We eventually arrived in Copenhagen and made a few laps of the train station in search of an ATM where I tried not to cry at the exchange rate. After some searching, we located the bus that would drop us off in the vicinity of our hostel. Or not. Because all of the stops...

After an eventful afternoon in Amsterdam, we took a series of trains to Heidelberg, arriving at 9:30 in the morning, exhausted, unshowered, and starving. We took a crowded bus to the city centre, where our hostel was located just below the castle! The hostel was well-kept and all of the visitors were friendly. After a quick nap/coma, we ventured to the streets, intent on locating food. We ate dinner at Pizza Hut that evening. And, I don't know about Gibby, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! We enjoyed the free Wifi, informed everyone of our safety, and slept early. In the morning we headed straight uphill to Schloss Heidelberg. If I was an enemy attacking said castle hundreds of years ago, the incline alone would have been enough to make me think twice. My legs screamed at me as we trudged upwards. But, once inside, the views were spectacular, and worth every sore muscle! We scoured every inch of the property, crashed a wedding party, and pointed out the Old Bridge from our perch on ...

The journey from Paris to Brussels, Belgium was needlessly arduous. I KNOW there is a train that goes directly from Paris to Brussels, but the lady we made our reservations with obstinately disagreed and booked us on THREE different connections. A journey that should have taken 2 hours took 4. Astrid Loomans, another friend from my North Carolina days, mentioned we could probably stay with her family when we traveled to Belgium and the Loomans family was gracious enough to take Kylie and me in for the weekend. Astrid's older brother, Thomas, picked us up at the station. To say he looked different is an understatement. I did NOT recognize him in the slightest.  It was so strange to stay in a real house again! It was the only place I've stayed since being in Europe that reminded me of American homes. Kylie and I shared Astrid's room and bathroom and I giggled at Astrid's old Twilight series books. I couldn't resist opening her old St. David's yearbooks and remi...

We took an early train out of Switzerland, bound for Paris! We passed endless yellow field on the way in and when we arrived and tried to navigate the metro a guy handed me a free metro ticket. Paris was off to a great start! Until we got to the Louvre. We walked all around, looking for an entrance, until we saw the sign stating it was closed on Tuesdays. Guess what day it was? Typical. No Mona Lisa for me this trip. I had arranged to stay with one of my friends, Penelope, who I knew from my North Carolina days, so with our afternoon plans shot to hell, we headed toward her apartment through the Jardin de Tuileries. We only got slightly lost and I threw myself down on the ground in the nearest park and prepared to have a slight breakdown. I hadn't been there 3 seconds before a policeman asked me to move to a different patch of grass. I still have no idea as to why. But I followed his instructions and moved myself and my emotions. I was tired of planning, tired of plans not going as...

Switzerland was everything Gibby and I needed at that point in our euro trip. As soon as we crossed the border I think I breathed a sigh of utter relief. The terrors of Milan and Naples were behind us and the Swiss alps were before us. We chose to stay at a hostel in Interlaken, a small town situated next to lake Thun (pronounced toon as in cartoon, not thun as in thunder up). I learned this from my super awesome paragliding guide who looked scarily similar to Sean Bean from National Treasure . Did I mention I went paragliding? Yeah, I did.  We originally were only going to stay one night in Switzerland and then head to Paris, but we loved it so much (and the trains were so messed up) that we decided to stay for two. I'm so glad we had an entire full day!  Switzerland is on the Swiss franc and we honestly could only afford McDonald's. So we ate it for dinner two nights in a row.  We spent our time aimle ssly turning corners and reveling in actual beds and hot sho...

If you see me at any point on Sunday, chances are I've been crying, am crying, or will be crying. You see, my other half leaves me to start her journey to Alberta, Canada, the land of maple syrup and moose. I would not have made it through this semester without her. We've essentially been inseparable since January 4th, when I first met her. I had flown in from America just that morning and was taking a much-needed nap. I woke up to the sound of someone moving around next door and I flew to the door and poked my lovely bed-head out, "HEY! My name is Taylor! What's yours? Where are you from?" I'm 99% sure she thought I was psycho. She introduced herself and we made plans to attend an introductory meeting at the university the following evening. After the meeting we went to braes and got our first drinks together. There have been many more. We grocery shopped together from the very beginning, making meals for two every night. You could say we're dating, we d...

Everything in Italy was pretty much all downhill after LDL abandoned Cadet Squad in Rome. She flew back to Dundee on our Friday in Rome due to final projects. Kylie and I dried the tears and moved on down the coast of Italy to Naples, bikinis in hand, in search of a proper beach. After some confusion we located our hostel where we had double room (thankfully) that locked from the inside. We kept that sucker locked at all times. Common areas were the only ones with Wifi, the church bells outside rang for more than an hour, the shower stalls were translucent on three sides, I found a bug in our bed just as we were about to go to sleep, and the lighting in our room can only be described as mood lighting. There was no other option.  We were hoping not to spend very much time at the hostel, because we had the beach mission in mind. We changed into our swimsuits immediately, covered them with actual clothes, and walked down the street in the direction of the water. Before we had gone fa...

it's really just all pirates and politics It was about an hour and a half from Arezzo to Rome and LDL made a friend on the way. He had already extended an invitation to his place in Dubai by the time we pulled into Roma Termini. We booked a triple room for three nights at Hotel Cressy a few blocks away from the main train station and checked in immediately. LDL and I took the double bed and Gibby took the single. After dumping our backpacks, we hit a nearby restaurant for pizza. Where LDL proceeded to spill vinaigrette on her leather purse from Prague to add to the marks of beer and gelato. I dissolved into fits of giggles.  After lunch we wasted no time in locating the Colosseum, the place of death for half a million people from 80-406 AD. Though the place is in ruins, those ruins were spectacular.  We joined a tour that refreshed me on the history I learned from Mr. Davis in Latin class at St.David's. From the Colosseum, our tour guide, Brent, led us to palatine h...

Since Taylor C. was so generous with her hospitality, we stayed in Arezzo for two nights and used our day in the middle to take a trip by train (what else?) to the famed city of Florence.  The place was surprisingly packed despite it being the bare beginning of tourist season. I imagine the proximity of Easter was a large draw. We braved the streets without a paper map and moved blindly through the maze of tourists and vendors. My first purchase of the day was raspberry gelato for breakfast. The fruit base made me feel slightly better about my nutrition choices.  We found a giant arch near a carousel that probably is really significant and continued under it until we reached the river. We walked along the edge until we accidentally found the right narrow street that spilled us into Piazza del Duomo . The cathedral was the most spectacular building I saw. The intricacies of the architecture was flawless and mesmerizing. We walked around outside for quite a while for two ...