Vienna

Hello from another beautiful city! Vienna has to be our favourite place so far! The people are nice, the streets are nice and the schnitzel is nice. Knowing what we know now, we both agree we would have liked more than 3 days here, so I'm sure we'll be back!

Day 1: We came in at about 6:30 in the morning from Prague and were very tired from the night train. We lucked out at the hostel because they had beds ready so we took a nap. We also found out today and tomorrow were holidays. Holidays are great if you get them off work, but we've hit so many holidays on this trip where you can't even get groceries, so that sucked. When we got up we wanted to do a walking tour but of course, because of the stupid holiday, there was none....so we did our own. We looked up a self directed walking tour online, took a screen shot with all the numbers marked on a map and off we went. There was only one problem: because we just had a map with numbers, we had no idea what we were suppose to be looking for or seeing at each number. It turned into quite the entertaining scavenger hunt afternoon. We saw a statue around number 2 and thought "Oh look at that man. He looks important right? This has to be number 2" when it was the massive gardens around the corner. We did see St. Stephen's Cathedral, Mozart's apartment and some sculpture thanking the gods for not killing the entire population with the plague so we could probably make our own tour company after this successful walk. We had a coffee and a piece of cake (the famous Sacher torte) at a cafe right across from St. Stephen's Cathedral (where Mozart got married) which made for some good people watching. We saw the town hall afterwards which had a bunch of cranes in front of it taking down the Eurovision stage. We had no idea what Eurovision was but people made sure we learnt. It's basically American Idol where each country only has one performer competing. Apparently Australia was the wild card entry and apparently this was important. Apparently Sweden won and apparently everyone booed Russia. Needless to say I'm glad we missed it as it seemed like the city was crowded. We went to a Austrian restaurant after where Jordon finally got his real wiener schnitzel. Most places make there schnitzel out of pork so finding the veal was difficult, but worth it. We weren't ready to go back to the hostel yet so we went to an Australian bar (yes, you read that right). I think because people mix up Austria and Australia a lot places decided to cash in on that mistake. We did end up meeting Australians AND Austrians there and had quite a few drinks....Jordon maybe had a few more than I did but I was able to get him home safely.

Day 2: we only had one thing on our agenda today: the opera. The opera house in Vienna is one of the most famous and you could see a show for only 3 Euros per person. Unfortunately for us, tonight's show was 5 hours long and the reason the tickets are so cheap are because you're standing. The opera was called Götterdämmerung. It was the last of 4 operas about a ring with a curse. It was all in German but they had a little screen where it translated it to English. We got in line at about 1:00 for our tickets and were able to buy them at 2:30. Then we stood in another line to get into the gallery. After 2 1/2 hours we were finally standing at a railing where you had to tie a scarf to save your spot (it's quite the process). The show finally started and the sound was amazing. I didn't need an opera as I would have been happy just with the symphony. About an hour into the show I started to get really hot. I had to sit down on the little step behind me because I felt like I was going to faint. Oh hello dehydration. I had to get out of there and get some water. One thing you don't want to do is run to the bathroom and start drinking and slurping from the sink in an opera house where people in there have more money on their fingers than you have in your band account.... I didn't care. I must have stood there for a good 20 minutes getting fluids back into me. I had to wait for the next intermission to go back in but they had a TV I could watch it on. Somehow we survived the next three hours, though our feet were sore and our stomachs were growly. We walked to a Thai restaurant as we wanted to eat something a bit different and it was delicious. We called it a night after that.

Day 3: Things were finally open today! The main thing we were excited about was the Naschmarkt right across from our hostel. It had a ton of booths and restaurants but we knew we couldn't make a full day of it so we tried to find something else to do. When Jordon was reading off all the different museums, nothing really interested me. And then he said the most amazing thing, words that I never thought I'd hear but reminded me how amazing of a man he is and how lucky I am. "....or we could go to the zoo?" I was so excited. It was an incredible zoo too! They had pandas, aquariums and more than one elephant, which is a big deal to us Edmontonians. There was one part that was terrifying though: we were walking through this beautiful tropical pavilion with birds and fish and plants and bats. Bats that weren't in a cage. Bats that when you pushed the plastic out of the way were flying everywhere. They wanted you to walk across a bridge in a cave like thing with HUNDREDS of bats flapping around like some stupid Mario Kart level! We tried. We must have tried to open the plastic curtains ten times before I'd jump back. In the end we didn't walk through there. Austrians have a sick sense of humour. We lucked out with the location of the zoo because we were able to see the palace on our walk back home. Once we got back to the Naschmarkt, we found a Turkish restaurant that served up some tasty falafel. Our hostel had a really cheap bar that we went to after were we met up with some girls from Australia/London who we'd met earlier. They ended up being teachers as well who had done the move to the UK for work so I was able to pick their brains a bit and set up a drinking group if we move. After a couple drinks we headed back up to get a good night sleep.

We're on our way to Salzberg now which I hope is just as beautiful as Vienna but a bit warmer.

- Vanessa xo

Prague

Ahoy! It feels very piratey to say hello in Czech but I love it. Prague has to be one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. The different eras of architecture and the look outs over the city are incredible. We had three full days here after our weird train ride from Berlin.

A wonderful tour guide gave us some good advice about Prague:

1. Czechs don't smile. If they look like they want to slap you when you're ordering food, it's a good place to stay.

2. Restaurants and cafes will try to add things onto your bill or charge you extra if you're a foreigner. You shouldn't pay more than 45 crowns for a Pilsner or 170 crowns for some goulash.

3. Do not say Czechoslovakia. That does not exist anymore and they can get offended.

4. Avoid Charles Bridge during the day. It's too crowed so go later in the evening when it's lit up.

Day 1: When we got to our train platform and there was no train, I started freaking out about missing our train. Turns out German train conductors were apparently on strike so there actually wasn't a train. We ran up to the information center where they told us we'd need to take a bus to Dresden and then we can catch the train from there. Luckily a bus came in about 15 minutes but this caused us to get into Prague later than expected. I had booked us two nights at a campground but when we got to the train station in Prague, we realised how far from the center it was and decided to just find a hostel. We stayed in one of the nicest hostels I'd seen yet . They had one shower in a room with a locked door! You really appreciate this when it's usually rows of curtains. After we settled in we went on the hunt for Czech food. We found a busy place that was highly recommend by the internet and feasted on meat and dumplings... that's all they eat, a big piece of meat and various dumpings. It was really good but is it too much to ask for some broccoli? Anyway, after supper we rolled our way to a bar to grab a drink before bed. It was a tiny hole in the wall and was supposed to be the number one bar in Prague.... I didn't get it though. We walked the city a little bit before making our way back to the hostel.

Day 2: Free walking tour! We got up and made our way to the meeting spot for another walking tour. Our guide Callum was pretty hilarious and made the history interesting. The best part about the tour was the history behind the astronomical clock (which is rated the number 1 overrated tourist attraction every year). Okay, so it doesn't do much.. it rings every hour, a skeleton rings his bell, some figures move and a golden rooster flaps its wings. It literally lasts about 2 minutes. BUT hearing about how it was made and the math and science that went into creating all the different hands on the clock (one hand even shows what zodiac period we're in) gave us a better appreciation for the over rated clock. After our walking tour we needed a pick me up and found a Mexican place to share nachos as Jordon had been craving them for about three weeks now. After taking a quick break back at the hostel, we ventured out to Wenceslas Square which was pretty much a street filled with shops and restaurants. When it got close to supper we found the Olive Garden of Prague... not an actual Olive Garden, just a chain of restaurants that would be comparable, but they had stone oven pizza, which was good enough for us. We ended up getting dinner and a show because in the street below us some hip hop dancers were busking which was pretty entertaining to watch.

Day 3: Because of the success of the walking tour the day before, we decided to book the castle tour with the same company. Now a lot of people think the cathedral is the Prague castle but it is actually the collection of buildings underneath. It is the largest castle in Europe which sounds really cool, until you get there. Most of the buildings have been redone so it's not this cool 4 stone walls with towers type thing. Most of the time we didn't feel like we were in the castle. We did get to go inside the Gothic cathedral, which you could do on your own anyway. It seemed like we could have just walked and did the same tour ourselves. After our tour guide left us we went into this garden where they had peacocks, fish and 6 massive owls. It was a nice place to sit and relax for a bit. We had also booked the beer tasting tour with the company for later in the evening so thought it would be a good idea to have a quick snack before drinking. Now if you know me at all, you know I'm not a beer drinker and this woman put 7 beers in front of me.... Let's just say I held it together really well while the guide was giving us the history and low down on the different types of beer... and fell apart as soon as she left. We only had an hour and a half so 7 beers was way too many. We also hadn't eaten so we had to find some dinner after, as we were giggling down the cobblestones.

Day 4: today was a weird day. We had to be up early to check out of the hostel but weren't leaving Prague until midnight on a night train. We didn't want to do everything right away because then we'd have nothing to do to keep us occupied until our train. We went to Vysehrad which is where the first palace was before they moved it to the other side of the river. We climbed the stairs up to the top of what would have been the castle walls and spent some time taking in the views. We then headed towards a park where "lovers stroll" because we thought "Hey, that's us!" We didn't stroll, we slept. It was really sunny so we took a nap in the grass which killed time. We needed to get groceries after our cat nap but were on a tight budget. We had 1000 crowns left to our name to cover groceries and supper and didn't want to take out more cash because no where else uses crowns. This also caused our day to be weird because we were counting every penny. Groceries cost us less than we thought so we had beer money! Yay! Not only could we get a drink, but we could sit somewhere to kill MORE time (noticing a theme to our day?). Above I mentioned not going to Charles Bridge when it was busy, so obliviously we went when it was busy. To be fair, it was a Saturday night but I'm glad we went. The sun was setting and reflecting off the river with the castle in the background and it honestly took my breath away. I have a couple of photos on my Facebook but they didn't do it justice. It was the most amazing evening and probably my favourite moment on this trip so far. At last, it was time to grab our bags, head to the train station, eat some Burger King (your options are limited at midnight) and get set up in our little two sleeper train cabin.

See you in Vienna!

-Vanessa xo

Berlin

Guten Morgen! That as been one of two phrases I've learnt in German. We had a full week in Berlin, which is the longest we'll stay in any one city, and I'm glad we did. Berlin is huge and spread out. If you're walking everywhere like us, it takes you anywhere up to an hour just to get to the different areas. We really enjoyed our week here but are ready to move on.

Berlin is an incredible city. Here's some things to know or things that might interest you:

1. Unlike a lot of other cities/countries, Berlin really acknowledges their history, good and bad. They have numerous memorials for victims of the holocaust, the book burning and countless museums that talk about the negatives. Most other places only show things that state "look at all the good we did" while ignoring their negatives. It really shows that Nazi Germany is NOT a representation of German history.

2. It's very relaxed. We noticed that the city itself is not touristy. They don't have shops with keychains and T-shirts every 10 steps.

3. They claim to be a city that never sleeps, except on Sundays when stupid tourists need to buy groceries and everything's closed so you buy a 1 day old loaf of bread 😡

Day 1: After a 6 hour train ride from Amsterdam we just wanted to get to the apartment we were staying at. Berlin was our first experience using Air BnB. Unfortunately we didn't have time in the morning to screen shot directions to this girl's apartment. After running around the train station looking for WiFi and a bathroom, it was nice to learn her place was only a 10 minute walk from where we were. We got to Maximilla's place and collapsed on the bed (you miss the little things when camping). We cleaned up and headed out to find a supermarket to stock up on groceries now that we had access to a REAL kitchen (FYI some places here will claim that a microwave and a garbage can is a kitchen on their websites, tricky bastards). We found a place called Penny. It was extremely cheap but not a big selection (Europe is really missing out on a great thing called nachos). We headed to the till, pulled out our credit card and were denied. Cash only, which wouldn't have been a problem if we didn't use our last Euros for coffee on the train. So Jordon went on an ATM adventure while I stood in everyone's way not knowing how to say sorry or excuse me in German. About 15 minutes later, Jordon came running back in "flushed with cash." We gave our money to the annoyed cashier and ran out. After making supper, HURRAY for home cooked meals, we tried to figure out our next couple of days in Berlin

Day 2: We wanted to explore the city but have an understanding of what we were looking at. I found a company that offered "free" walking tours. They're not actually free, you pay what you think the tour was worth at the end, little bit more than tip-based tours. The nice thing about these tours are the guides are excellent because they want you to think it's worth a lot. We were put in a group where our guide use to be a history teacher in London and he was fantastic. There were so many incredible things we saw so I'll try to give you the idea without boring you. My favourite part was walking through the Jewish memorial. It was built in 2005 by an architect from New York for all the Jewish victims from the holocaust. It's these big cement blocks at varying heights in rows. I know this doesn't sound like much but I think it's more about the experience of walking through it. You have to go through single file as there is not enough room to walk beside someone giving you the sense of loneliness. People also disappear as you see them in front or beside you, giving the illusion of ghosts. There are no names unlike many other memorials because they were nameless victims. The really interesting part is the architect never said what it represents leaving you to make your own interpretations and to really think about it. Maybe the holocaust is something we can never truly understand so a memorial we can never truly understand is appropriate. There's some deep thoughts for you. Moving on! We were able to stand exactly where Hitler's bunker was, which is now a car park and where his staff tried to burn his body so the Soviets couldn't get a hold of it. There is a children's slide on the exact spot where they cremated Hitler to signify that good wins over evil... though there where no children playing on the slide (it looked pretty... beat up). We saw the last Nazi building that is still in use by the government today, one of the three original standing pieces of the Berlin wall and the exact balcony where Michael Jackson held his baby over for the world to see (end that on a happier note). After the 3 hour tour, we found a little Italian restaurant where we ate delicious cheap pizza. We headed back to the apartment with the intent of planning our next phase of the trip but the internet wasn't working very well, so I fell asleep early.

Day 3: Jordon and I had different schedules this morning. I was up at 6 and he snoozed until 10 meaning when he wanted breakfast I was almost ready for lunch. We decided to head to Alexanderplatz, the square where the big TV tower stands. Other than the TV tower, there wasn't much there except for the cheapest lunch of delicious bratwurst from a vendor. We did a bit of people watching while eating lunch, then made our way to Museum Island. There are so many museums in Berlin but unless you really love history, you probably only want to choose a couple. We went to the Pergamonmuseum where you can see ancient civilisation structures and artifacts. The main room with the Pergamon was closed for renovations but we were still able to see the Ishtar Gate which was pretty incredible. After the museum we headed back to make supper and then our plan was to go out after. Jordon's body had a different plan and he fell asleep early. Maybe tomorrow we'll be ready to not fall asleep at 9:00.

Day 4: We succeeded in getting up at a decent time this morning. As I stated above, Berlin shows all of their history, including Nazi Germany. With free access to the Sachsenhousen concentration camp, we felt it would be good to go see where these terrors happened. It was a very... interesting visit. We got the audio tours which walked you through the entire camp including the bunkers, the prison and the execution pits. We thought we knew what we were walking into, but we definitely left with a haunting feeling. You can't walk through something like that and not feel some sense of loss. It was extremely informative of what actually happened in these places and worth visiting. We needed to do something light hearted and not full of history so we headed to the Ka De We department store. The set up of this place is incredible! The first floor is all stores that make you feel poor, like Burberry and Louis Vuitton, but that's okay because as soon as you reach the next floor, it becomes more affordable tricking you into buying things. The next 3 floors were all clothes and accessories. Hit floor 5 and it was a paradise for children... and us. Trains, toys, stuffed animals and stationary lined the entire floor. We thought it couldn't get any better. We were wrong. The 6th floor was a true paradise. Walls lined with every type of food and drink imaginable. They even had a Canada section which of course only had maple syrup. You could eat on the top floor looking over the city, so we got some very expensive schnitzel for supper and enjoyed the view. Apparently we couldn't get enough of the city view because after supper we headed to a bar called Solar which had an amazing view as well. It was pretty pricey as well so we drank REALLY slowly. We finally stayed up past 9!

Day 5: we usually try to eat out only once a day and we hadn't done brunch yet in Berlin. I found a place about half an hour away so we headed off on a breakfast adventure. It is a really busy place on Sundays and they were booked with reservations. Luckily it wasn't too cold to enjoy our brunch outside. I wanted to see the East Side Gallery (another original piece of the Berlin wall with art on it) and since we had already started walking in that direction, we headed there. Both of us wore our new shoes which was a bad idea for the amount of walking we ended up doing. By the time we were done the East Side Gallery, our feet were killing us. We started the long walk back to the apartment... slowly but surely. We needed groceries as well but nothing was open. We found a little bakery with the saddest loaf of bread, but it was only 1 Euro, so we had bread, our good Gouda and left over pasta for supper. After supper we headed towards another area of the city we hadn't been to yet where there was a major shopping street. Berlin is really odd on a Sunday night because no one is out on the streets. We walked a bunch of major roads and it was extremely quiet. All the shops were closed on the big street but we found a restaurant to grab a cup of tea and free WiFi to book some more of our trip. Unfortunately no one's WiFi seemed to be working, but we did find ice cream for the walk home.

Day 6: Jordon wanted to go to a new area in the North East. We had reservations to go up the Reichstag parliament building at 2 so it was another early morning. I ran to get the groceries we couldn't find on Sunday, made breakfast and off we went. They had an old brewery that had a bunch of shops and restaurants but of course they were all closed (no 9:00 opening times here). We eventually just stopped for a coffee because there wasn't as much to see as we thought there was. We walked back to the city center, found free working WiFi at Starbucks (of course) and made our way to the Reichstag. It has a glass dome at the top where visitors can go up and look around. Part of the idea was that if the government ever forgot who holds the real power, they just had to look up and see who holds it....American tourists. It was a really nice view but we had laundry to do. We went back, threw all our clothes in a bag and went to some fancy laundromat. There wasn't anywhere to sit down and eat while waiting for our clothes but lots of donar places. We grabbed our heart clogging meat meals and went back to the laundromat. With clean clothes in hand, we went back to the apartment, kicked up our feet and had a drink. When you're traveling, you start to miss the simple things like watching a movie. I was able to download Netflix on my phone and we watched some Daredevil on the tiny screen in bed.

Day 7: it is our last day in Berlin and we head for Prague tomorrow. We are going to a place called Potsdam which is suppose to have a beautiful palace and gardens. We have a huge supper to make and packing to do so today won't be too exciting.

Being done Berlin means we are officially half way done our trip. Berlin offered us history, food, amazing architecture and some rest. It truly is an incredible city that let's you stand where some of the most defining historic moments took place.

Catch you in Prague,

-Vanessa xo

Amsterdam

The land of sex, drugs and stroopwaffles. Weed is just a permanent smell in the city. We're heading to Berlin on a train right now so I can give you my low-down on this... interesting city.

Couple of things we learnt:

1. It smells like weed. It you can't handle walking around looking disgusted at all the people smoking pot, it may not be the city for you. It's legal here and everyone is doing it.

2. Anne Frank's house has a huge line. We didn't even go in because the line up was too long. Get there early in the morning.

3. The Red Light District is exactly what you have heard it is. No more no less.... well there was a bit more clothes than I expected. Sex shows, women standing in windows with old men thinking they're being sneaky taking a zoomed in picture from across the road and lots of sex shops.

4. There are two distinct types of coffee shops. They might both serve coffee but one would have... higher... quality brownies.

Day 1: we arrived in Amsterdam pretty early in the morning. As it is usually our first task getting into a new city, we set off to find food. A lot of the streets look the exact same in Amsterdam and they have a H&M every 10 steps so it doesn't help trying to remember where stores and restaurants are. I'm usually very good with directions but I got turned around in this city quite frequently. We found a little cafe where I ate the fanciest looking piece of toast. It had chicken, guacamole, avocado and more stuff I had no idea what to do with. They don't warn you about trying to eat a 20 cm high piece of toast delicately. We headed off to the campground where we set up our tent surrounded by people getting high. Again, it's everywhere. We figured trying to go out in Europe in hiking boots wasn't a very fashionable decision so we found a big shopping street (with 3 H&M's on the ONE street) to buy some shoes. After going into a bunch of stores with shoes that were too expensive for me to justify shoving into a backpack, we found a store that was comparable to Payless. I found a cheap flat and we were on our way to dinner. Eating out in these cities can be a hit and miss. Sometimes you feel like an idiot sitting on Trip Advisor trying to find a good restaurant and maybe you should have just winged it. Well we didn't wing it this night and I'm glad we didn't. We went to a restaurant with no menu, thirty seats and high reviews. They told you what they were serving that night and you chose from the 5 dishes. Both Jordon and I agreed it was one of the best meals we had ever had. We had mussels, salmon and a curry chicken. It was incredibly priced too. Jordon said he would have paid double for that meal. We headed back to the campground to make sure our tent didn't fly into the canal.

Day 2: the nice thing about our campground was it had a little supermarket where you could buy freshly baked croissants and spreads for a couple of Euros. We grabbed some breakfast, showered and ventured off into the city centre again. We wanted to go and see where Anne Frank's house was. What should have been a 15 minute walk turned into a 45 minute walk because I think the city streets physically change every 10 minutes. It's probably a hilarious trick to play on tourists. Anyway, get to Anne Frank's house, see the lineup, look at the outside, think "huh, there's that"and head to a park for lunch. I did the inside of her house back in grade 10 and Jordon didn't seem too interested so it wasn't a big deal to us to skip. If history interests you though, it is worth the lineup. We went to the Rijksmuseum after lunch where I was much more impressed with the outside and the gardens than the inside. It was the museum to see in Amsterdam though. We saw a couple pieces by Van Gough, Waterloo and Nights Watch by Rembrandt. I was highly entertained by the tourists taking a picture of EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the museum... " oh here's a picture of a piece by... I can't remember. OH! And this was painted by... a guy... in a village... depicting that... devastation." We definitely needed a drink after our hard museum day and found a nice spot on the canal to sit outside. We had an early night at the campground.

Day 3: our campground had canoes you could rent for an hour but only on weekends which sucked because it was 25 degrees and being in the water would have been nice. We went back into the city and did a canal tour instead. It took us to "100 top sights" and I think 95 of those sights were the different canals. It was enjoyable regardless. I also found out walking 6 days in a row makes you loose weight. My jeans had been falling down on me so we went back to the shopping street to find some jeans. Once I was all decked out we went back to our tent to have a drink and relax a bit. At some point, it became clear that having an experience was a thing in Amsterdam. While relaxing back at our tent, we looked into a live sex show (sorry Baba). They were incredibly expensive for something to just "have an experience." In the end we decided to just have a drink and people watch ON the Red Light District and put our money towards a bus tour the next day. Also we got ice cream.

Day 4: we headed into the city early to grab breakfast before our bus tour. We found a place that did Dutch pancakes which could have been called Heaven. It's this thin round pancake the size of a clock which you can fill with anything they have (I went for bananas, blueberries and nutella). We were on a sugar high (I promise), so we walked back towards the museum as the buildings around there looked really nice, before getting onto our sun visor, fanny-packed, classic tourist filled bus. There was also an adorably naive lady who kept asking "What's that smell?" Welcome to Amsterdam. We headed out to Zaanse Schans which is a windmill village where we went inside a working windmill that chops wood. The windmills were pretty incredible to see from the inside. Next stop was the fishing village of Volendam. The houses were amazing with their bright red roofs. We went into a cheese factory where they showed us how they made Gouda and we ended up buying some for supper later. We took a ferry across the lake to another little town called Marken where they showed us how they make the wooden clogs. Both of us were pretty tired from trying to walk at a slow pace with all the lovely old people who just want to get their pictures and were oblivious to anything around them.... okay maybe annoyed is a better word, so we called it a day and ate our Gouda back in our tent.

Amsterdam is a must see city. Even if you don't enjoy the smell and the Red Light District, the houses and canals are a sight to behold. We didn't see a live sex show, but maybe next time Amsterdam.

- Vanessa xo

Edinburgh

I'm typing this post on an hour of sleep while in the air on route to Amsterdam. We're pretty tired right now due to the early flight and loud Edinburgh Friday nights, nevertheless we enjoyed the old city of Edinburgh.

Some things to consider if you're visiting Edinburgh:

1. A tourist is a tourist is a tourist. Coming from the quiet country side in the Highlands, see all the tourist shops again was... annoying? Edinburgh was a big tourist stop, but one worth it.

2. Live music is not necessarily good music. Almost every pub had live music every night. Walk by places once the music starts so you can hear a bit before committing to a place.

3. Edinburgh Castle is a long stop. There is so much to see in there! Don't let it stop you from going but give it the time it needs.

Day 1: it took us about 4 hours on a bus from Aviemore to get to Edinburgh. Every time I thought we'd turn onto a highway into the city we would go around the round a bout into some little village. Some of them were quite beautiful, but we were ready to get off the bus. Once in Edinburgh we got terribly turned around from the bus station. We were starving and looking for our hostel as to not take our tiny human sized bags into a restaurant with us. Thanks to the gigantic Edinburgh Castle looming over us, we finally realised we had to turn around. We checked into our hostel and went on a hunt for Indian food (you can only have so much pub food before you are sick of it). The place we wanted to try was closed until 5, so to kill time Jordon got a new do from a nice Turkish man. After supper we explored Edinburgh a little more and found a pub with live music...well the real reason we ended up in this pub is the 20% off drinks for us poor people, but also live music. We listened to this man with an eye-patch for about an hour before heading off to bed.

Day 2: Edinburgh Castle was first on our stop this morning. When we walked outside the sun it our faces which was literally a warm welcome. We walked down to the castle, paid with our right arms to get in ($60) and made our way to the FREE tour (I love that word). There was a lot of items from wars that the Scots fought in. My dad would have loved this place while dragging us along. After 3 hours in the castle, we headed to the People of Scotland session where you could spend two hours looking up your family history. We found out Jordon's great great great (great?) Grandfather was a shoemaker. So there's that. We explored the city a bit more before making supper and packing our bags for Amsterdam.

The plane is descending now and before I make it explode with my phone, I'll call it a day.

We'll see how well I can write a post while in Amsterdam.

- Vanessa xo

Inverness

We are currently sitting in a sitting room (what an obvious name) at Jordon's second cousin's place. Irene was so welcoming and picked us up at the Inverness bus station on Monday. It is now our last night out in this little village called Kochando before we bus to Edinburgh in the morning. There's not much to do until Irene gets home from work, which is awesome for our poor healing swelled feet and awesome for you lovely people as I can update you!

Day 1: We arrived in Inverness at about 12:30 in the afternoon. We thought we were going to have some time to take a breather, but like any respectable older person, Irene was half an hour early or "on time." We hopped in her car and she took us to a garden centre with her daughter Louise for a coffee and to see if we were criminals before letting us into her house. I'm not sure why they call them garden centres when you can purchase everything under the sun from there and I didn't see many plants. Either way the scone and tea were yummy. She then took us out to the house about an hour outside Inverness. Looking out the back seat and realising you're on the wrong side of the road and there's nothing you can do about it was nerve wreaking and took some getting use to. Once we were settled in, we went to the farm to meet the others who were extremely busy with lambing. So Jordon got to take us on a joyride in a Range Rover through the fields trying to shift with his left hand. We had a lot of booking to do for the next leg of the trip so we went back, did some laundry and relaxed.

Day 2: The house is empty by the time we get up here. We're left to make our own breakfast, which is totally fine, but you always have to wonder if hosts actually mean "eat whatever you want." Like, really? I can have this whole box of cookies that were stashed all the way in the back of a cupboard I couldn't reach without a chair? So I had toast. We headed off to the Chardu distillery right up the road and got an intimate private tour. By that I mean we were the only suckers paying for a tour. It was interesting and you got a taste at the end. Once Irene got home, she drove us to some different sights in the area. It was a rainy day so it was a car tour. Jordon got to see where his ancestors lived and a war memorial with his great uncle's name on it. We went on got dinner at a hotel where both Irene and her daughter had their wedding receptions (maybe it was a hint?) I finally had the fresh fish and chips I deserved. We went over to Irene's sisters and drank more whiskey as she works at the Glenleivet distillery which means we got sent home with a goody bag of scotch, vodka and fudge.

Day 3: We packed up all our nice clean clothes this morning and are heading to the farm again this afternoon. I want to touch at least one lamb. Jordon says he's going to feel a little bad the next time he eats lamb stew, but only a little. There are so many in the fields all over Scotland right now so it's hard not to be reminded how cute they are before they are turned into your dinner. 

The last three days have been very relaxing after that ridiculous hike, but we're excited to head off to a new place tomorrow. 

Catch you in Edinburgh,

-Vanessa xo

The West Highland Way

I have just completed walking 93 miles over 6 days on the West Highland Way in Scotland. It was one of the most trying experiences of my life, physically and emotionally.

Here's some advice in case you're thinking of doing a hike like this:

1. Do some training. We put on our packs and did a bit of walking in the river valley but it was no where near enough.

2. Don't let the first day deceive you. The first 20 miles was lovely. Simple rolling hills, flat easy fields and beautiful forests.... we spent the next two days walking along slippery cliffs by the lake and then climbing steep hills.

3. Pack light. We did wild camping all along the trail which meant we were carrying everything on our backs. People thought we were insane. Pay for the service to have your bag transfered from town to town if you can't pack light.

4. Treat it as one big bar hop. When I had times of doubt and wanted to give up, knowing there was a town with a nice warm pub up ahead kept me going.

5. Do the hike with someone you know you work well with. I doubted every life decision I ever made on this hike because some points were so draining. If I didn't do this with Jordon, I could have never completed it.

Day 1: we started in Milngaive which is about half an hour out of Glasgow. We looked like eager little idiots who had no idea what they were getting themselves into. We had bought our dehydrated food, protein bars and were ready to go. The weather in Scotland is a joke. One minute it's raining then sun then snow... yes, we walked through snow on our first day which I have to admit we were not expecting. The sun came out quick enough though. We pushed through to Drymen, which was about 16 miles. Once we dried off there, we decided to go a bit further as we had a late start in the morning. We went another 4 miles and found a beautiful place in the woods to camp. It looked out onto Loch Lomond and was quite isolated. In that moment I was sure we had made a good choice in doing this hike.

Day 2: that moment didn't last long. When I woke up on day 2, I was wet, cold and tired. I didn't get a good sleep, I was cold all night and everything was damp in the morning. I couldn't even make instant oatmeal properly and broke our jetboil stove. Things were looking bleak. We walked about 26 miles and I was exhausted by the end. My body was extremely sore as well but we did end up catching up to the 6 day schedule instead of the 7 day which was a good thing. We ended in Inversnaid that night (in case you're looking up this hike on a map, which you should. Be impressed by how much we walked). We met a couple from Glasgow at the hostel/campground we were staying at who confirmed that we were insane carrying all our gear.

Day 3: I had a shower. It was lovely. I woke up warmer because our hostel linens that we had can actually go into your sleeping bag (why I didn't think of this on the first night, I'm not sure). Jordon thought he lost his Iron Ring though so we had a later start because we were looking for that. Day 3 was shorter mile wise. We only did about 13 miles to Crainlarich. We decided to treat ourselves to a proper meal to celebrate being done day 3 out of 6. We found another place in the woods to set up and in the middle of the night, we think we found out what the fox says. It was so annoying and neither of us could sleep through this hackling.

Day 4: another miserable morning for me. My right shoulder was killing me and I honestly wanted to hop on the train and just go straight to Fort William, but alas, I pushed on. We knew the next day was going to be a 21 mile day, so we went an extra three miles on day 4, for a total of 16 miles, to shave off some of the miles for the big day. We had an early night which was awesome because we could actually stretch out before just crashing for the night.

Day 5: I was so excited this morning. One more night in a tent then we'll be done. We had to do 10 miles before we hit the next town and we conquered it in 3 hours and 40 minutes. We were getting good at this. Day 5 was definitely my best day. We got to our last town, Kiolocleven at about 5:30. The only problem is we wanted to stay in a room but everything was booked full because of some stupid motorbike crap. Once our lovely abode was set up again, we went to a local bar who had live music. The couple from Glasgow ended up there too and bought us drinks (always the benefit of talking up older people).

Day 6: this was it. 13 more miles and we were done. The excitement I felt was unbelievable! And then dread kicked in. We walked through the worst rain and wind ever. If we had known it was going to be like that we would have caught a train. You get to these points on the hike where your only option is to turn back or push forward. There's no where to go and wait it out. Somehow we did it. I literally cried when I saw Fort William come into view. We got a hotel room, pulled out everything from our packs to dry (everything was soaked) and watched bad television for the rest of the night.

It's now the next morning after Day 6. My body feels better, we're about to have a great breakfast and then bus to Inverness. I pushed myself harder than I ever have before and completed something I thought was impossible at times. It is a great way to see the varying landscapes of Scotland (and the varying weather), just prepare properly for the West Highland Way.

- Vanessa xo