Inverness and Isle of Skye weekend!

Been relaxing too much in the crap weather.

It was high time I explored Scotland!

I planned a 3 day weekend trip up to the Highlands and the Isle of Skye to the west with Steph and Linnea, who were visiting back in June. I managed to plan this trip in an afternoon, and it all turned out excellently. Here is a recap of our epic Highland adventures with some complimentary photos!

We got up at 7:00 am to get ready and pack our bags. Hustled our butts to Buchanan St. bus station... but cut it a little too close. We tried to find our bus, which I found, but I couldn't find the other girls in time. Bus was full anyway, and left, after I argued with the guy working there (who was a total jerk). We managed to get on another bus that connected to an Inverness bus in Perth. So we chilled eating Pocky and taking dodgy pictures of my Professor Layton figure.

We got to Inverness at about 2:00pm and were dropped off in the city center. We ate at the Riverside Cafe which was recommended to us by the Lonely Planet guide. It was alright. I had a gammon, brie, tomato and onion salad, but it had tons of red peppers. :(

Got a cab to our first hotel - The Kingsmills Hotel - which was considered 4 stars. There was friendly service and they showed us to our room down some cool halls, and there was a crazy birthday party/wedding going on outside. We tried to decide what we were gonna do around Loch Ness. The boat tours had already closed pretty much, but our concierge found a way for us to see Loch Ness... a tour taxi! It was perfect! The company is Tartan Taxis Inverness, and our guide's name was John and he was a total bro, gave us lots of info about the area, gum, a good chat and we listened to the Killers. He took us to some great look out points of Loch Ness, a really beautiful garden place with a maze of beautiful plants and trails, Urquhart Castle, and then the Loch Ness Exhibition center. He also took us to a place where we could dip our hands and feet in the Loch! We were super lucky as well, because it was a completely GORGEOUS day, barely any clouds in the sky, and apparently that is EXTREMELY rare. I got some souvenirs from the Ness store, but I lost the bag during the trip. I am a derp. :(

After our awesome tour, he dropped us off at a Turkish restaurant that was quite near. The food was good, but the service was awful. We had wine, Halloumi and Hummus, Olives and bread to start, lamb and rice grilled with a tomato, and we each had a different dessert. (Chocolate pudding, baklava and honey yogurt pistachio walnut creation.)

Taxi'd back to the hotel where we filled out what we wanted for breakfast and had tea time with Layton. :} Then went to sleep in the most COMFIEST BED I have ever slept in! In the morning we had showers and picked at breakfast which I wasn't charged for. (yesssss) Then got a taxi to the bus station where we got our bus to Portree on Isle of Skye.

We passed through the Highlands and OMFG the sights! So beautiful, never have I seen such images. The photos we took do not convey the largeness of these hills. They towered over us, over everything. We had to look straight up in the sky to see them/the tops. In combination with the sky it was just so nice. After getting to Portree, we got picked up by a nice guy who ran a car rental business. We got a car sorted, went back into town to get info, food and some books.

We traveled all the way to a nice spot outside of Portree to eat on the side of the road looking out at the hills. When there are no cars, it is SO quiet, you can hear the blood in your ears. The only thing that was crap was the midges (tiny flies). Other than that, cheese on buns, blueberry muffins and smoothies were had. Backtracking, we went to Edinbane where the Lodge was for our Bed and Breakfast. Greeted by a very friendly older lady who took us right in, made some jokes, took us up to our cozy room which was just awesome, and apparently haunted. We didn't stay long as we had a adventuring to do!

We drove to Dunvegan castle first. Most of it was getting renovated from the outside. We went inside and weren't allowed to take pictures, but there were some incredibly lovely paintings inside. And some cool things like a cramped dungeon and a post boat! I got Heather a bracelet from the shop.

After checking out the pretty gardens, we drove up to Uig, where the fairy glen was. We found it without trouble even though there were no signs. This place was incredible, it honestly looked like something in a picture book or fairy tale. There was sheep poop everywhere and stone creations of fairy rings people made, the biggest being a spiral where there were offerings in the middle. We put a strawberry there. We climbed up to this rocky cliff hill that was pretty scary to climb because there was a steep, grassy drop on either side. We went to the top and ate strawberries and had probably the most peaceful moment of my life. It was BLISS. We explored the glen for awhile, climbing hills, looking at bunnies and discovering wild thistles.

We took the car back to our lodge, where we got a delicious dinner and dessert and drinks. We hung out in the lodge lounge, where we played dominoes and laughed at the TERMINATORS on TV. We retreated to bed, and about an hour after I entered into REM sleep, my phone all of a sudden went dead and vibrated itself off my dresser, very strange! In the morning, we lazily got up and had a mediocre breakfast (these Bed and Breakfasts don't know how to soft boil eggs it seems) and set off.

First, we checked out Edinbane pottery, where the stuff was cool but hella expensive. We drove all the way to Plockton, where we went on an hour long seal boat spotting trip! We saw so many awesome seals. They were fat and hilarious and the boat trip was just awesome and relaxing. Then there came the stressful race against time down narrow roads for Steph. It didn't help it was misty raining and cars were slow. We did make it back to the car rental shop okay though.

During the bus trip, we made a brief stop in Fort William where we got out and found a hill to sit and draw where I saw a dude with Sephiroth's hair. HAHAH. Pics happened and you better believe the trip home was epic!


Steph, Linnea and I in front of Loch Ness

In the Gardens

In front of the KingsMills Hotel :D

JUMP IF YOU LOVE LOCH NESS

This reminds me of a very clever puzzle...

Edinburgh Spooky Spa Trip!

The summer has started, everyone! Yesterday night was summer solstice, the longest day of the year! So much sun, so much hot! This flat is positively BOILING! But we're beating the beat with ice lollies and water, and trying to get outside as much as we can! All in all, a Glasgow summer is no different than a Vancouver summer! However, I've been told a few times that the weather isn't normally like this.. haw haw! I guess we brought the good weather from back home!

Speaking of back home, my best friend Steph took time off work to come to visit me in Scotland! She got here June 10th, and we've been chilling out, having teas, shopping, exploring, generally being awesome. Kody and I took her up to St. Mungo's Cathedral, the Necropolis, and other random bits of Glasgow. The West End Festival has also been going on, so we've checked out random bits of that. The day it started, I got my friend Greig to come with us to see some random things, like the Japanese Matsuri (which turned out to be just taiko drumming), the Greek Food Festival, and hanging out in Kelvingrove Gardens, checking out the cool garden displays and KILLER PLANTS! whoaaaaaAAa!

We also went to the Glasgow West End Festival Parade on Sunday the 13th. Lots of cool costumes and a super hot day, incredibly crowded in the park, but I got a lot of really good shots. We also met up with my friend Jamie one day and we went to a great Scottish restaurant called the Bothy and had super excellent food!

On Monday, Steph and I got up early to go to Queens St. Station to take a train into Edinburgh. We had lots of time to kill before we went on our Underground vaults tour, so we explored the Royal Mile, and the huge Scottish store behind Edinburgh castle, where they also made tartans. We explored Princes St, and I got a swanky watch from SWATCH. Unexpected purchase FTW!

We went into a cool cafe and had some wine, sambuca shots, and delicious hot chocolate with marshmallows. I had a Belgian waffle with bacon, brie cheese and maple syrup on it and the salad. Super delicious. The Underground Vaults tour we went on was pretty neat, we went in there with about 10 other people. Our guide was an Australian lady. It was quite dark, cramped and musty down there, and the lights played tricks with my eyes, but nothing crazy happened in the creepy vaults. We didn't go to the area with Mr. Boots or anything, but there was apparently supposed to be a Bridge Entity who was hostile.

Afterwards, we took the Airlink/Taxi to our hotel, which was Norton House Hotel and Spa. It was very nice there, down a windy bumpy path offroad. We were shown our room, which had a nice shower, LCD TV on the wall, and a strange painting I dubbed "the Vagina Wall". We jumped into our bathing suits and checked out the pool facilities and had a very short swim, but we got to test the hydropool, "experience shower", with fragrance, drench and cold water, sauna and steam room (which smelled like menthol and feet) .

Then went for our swanky dinner. We both had some fruity rose wine, and I had cauliflower soup, and salmon on cress/tomatoes and vanilla pannacotta with summer berries for dessert. It was really amazing, and the waiters were young with hilariously posh attitudes. I felt so out of place, haha. We rushed to get back to downtown to our City of the Dead tour, but we were too late and there wasn't enough people. We walked around a bit, and got hassled for a "fag" by a 14ish year old fiesty pikey girl. Then we decided to were tired and went back to the hotel after late shopping a bit more. We got into pjs and watched most of the movie 8MM which was on tv.

The next day we got up earlyish to pick up Linnea from the airport, who was arriving from Sweden! We first had a nice breakfast at the hotel and went on a nice walk in their Woodland park area, where we found an awesome clover patch. Couldn't find any with 4 leaves, but the clover was really soft!

After getting to the airport and picking up Linnea, we got ready to go on our spa adventure. We had a drink and then lunch, which was carrot coriander soup, aubergine flaked pastry, chicken tikka rolls and tasty seasoned chips, and vanilla pannacotta with rhubarb for dessert with a glass of champagne each. Then we got shown our lockers with slippers/rober after we took a swim. Our spa books had hilariously mispelled our names. Molly "Nemeses" (Nemecek) and Steph "Laserr" (Larsen). I got a back and leg massage which I kept falling asleep during, and a really nice facial. Then I met with Linnea and we went into the relaxation room for a snooze and a cup of peppermint tea as we waited for Steph.

After we enjoyed ourselves and changed, we got a taxi and bus back into Edinburgh where we dropped off Linnea's suit case so she didn't have to carry it. We had All You Can Eat Chinese at Jimmy Chung's by Waverly station. (Ice cream and syrup, yum!) Then we headed to the cathedral where we went on our much anticipated City of the Dead Tour. Ours had quite a lot of schoolkids attending on it, which were more amusing than annoying. This one girl actually reminded me of Tasli, which was really cute. :D Our tour guide was a cool blonde lady, and she made sure we got awesome stories. The Greyfriars kirkyard was creepy, especially since we were walking on over 250K dead bodies under the grass! Going into the Covenanter's Prison was especially creepy because she really warned everyone that poltergeist activity can happen. So we went into the crypt where all the stuff happens, and it felt really odd in there. After about 10 minutes of her talking about stuff in there, a guy with a werewolf mask or something came in to scare us. How cheesy! Oh well. It was a good tour, then afterward we bought some things from the souvenir store and went to the train station where we left for home to Glasgow.

The next 2 days consisted of beadmaking, shopping, visiting Steph's lovely Great Aunt Myrtle, planning for Inverness, and cooking. We met with Jamie again for Ketchup's burgers and drinks, and that was awesome. Yay!

Next on the list of updates is Inverness and Loch Ness, and Isle of Skye! Stay tuned shortly..


Linnea and Steph and Layton eat my delicious Moroccan Carrot Soup!

Oh my gawd, GREYFRIARS U GAIZ :O

Steph inspects some lovely lovely clover!

Greig and Steph have a delicious greek lunch!

We found-a Maaario!

PROFESSOR LAYTON LONDON PREMIERE

Just because I'm traveling, doesn't mean I have stopped being the complete awesome geek that I am! :D



I heard over at the Professor Layton Livejournal community that the Professor Layton movie that debuted in Japan in December was having a once only ever London Premiere! Me, being a huge Professor Layton fan, could not waste this opportunity, being only a hop, skip and a jump away from London. So I managed to get a couple of free tickets from the MangaUK's twitter, bought a train ticket to London and left on a Thursday to meet with Chris, who oh so nicely lets me use his couch every time I want to do something in London!

The 5 hour train ride to London from Glasgow was pretty uneventful. I managed to get a seat in the quiet coach, so there wasn't any screaming children. It was nice for a change! The only thing that I'm beginning to notice is that I am starting to get motion sickness from being on trains too long, and that's not fun. It's not just looking out the window, it's just the rocking motion that is stirring my insides. Bleegh. Managed to watch some Alf and Adam & Joe, then arrived at Euston London train station at about 5pm.

Met Chris at his work, which is the Wellcome Library. I had a very awkward meeting with his friend Tracy (who also worked at the library), because I couldn't work the card reader, and as she was telling me how to use it, I called her Annabell (who is Chris's OTHER friend) so she was extremely confused. I'm such a dork. Chris set me up with my very own library card that reads "Jakface McGee", because that is apparently my name now. When he got off work, I was famished and demanded we go to India India, where we got some deliciously amazing curry and pappadoms with many delicious chutneys :D (the spicy hot salty one with chunks of lime is fantastic!) We went back to Chris's house where we watched a bit of TV. The Grudge 3 (yes, it exists) was on TV, so we were watching it and making snide comments, until a part where the girl was going up the stairs because she heard a noises and she looks over the banister and SEES...... Mr. Potato Head. We LOST it. Andy reinacted it with Sackboy puppet style from behind the couch.

Chris had to work on Friday, which was the day of the Premiere, so I took Andy with me on Friday instead for adventures! We got up at about 8am on Friday, had crumpets and tea in the sunny backyard forest (hehe), and head out to find the BFI building. When we walked inside, it was great because there were some awesome Layton cosplayers, and the building itself was very inviting and modern looking, and everyone looked really excited to be there. We were given free tea/coffee/water and pastries before the showing, and then we went into a room where we all watched the completely fantastic film!

The movie itself was an absolute charm. I wasn't sure what to expect, I was expecting something that was just like a very long cutscene, however I was surprised to be rewarded with something that reminded me a mixture of a Lupin the 3rd and a Miyazaki film. The scene at the beginning with Big Ben gave me shivers, and a lot of the music just excited me to the point of my hairs standing up on the back of my neck! I was used to the North America voice acting so listening to it in Japanese I had to get used to (I have a great fondness for the Professor's English voice) but regardless of that, I still enjoyed every minute of it. The style was true to the games, had just the right amount of action, emotion and humour. A+++ would view again!

Afterwards, we hung out with the Layton cosplayers a bit so I could get some photos of them, and we stuck the Luke girl on the carousel so we could get some photos of her on there. Got some great shots! After we said our goodbyes, Andy and I got some free enormous Starbucks drinks thanks to his coupons, and we walked around Piccadilly Circus and many parks, including Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, taking lots of pictures and bothering the squirrels with pretend food. Then we met up with Chris and Lap to go watch the Prince of Persia movie that came out that day. It was surprisingly better than I thought it was going to be! Though I wasn't impressed with the use of the Papyrus font... :|

On Saturday, Chris worked until 4 and then we were going to Cinnamon (an Indian restaurant again) to celebrate Roy's birthday. I stayed inside and worked on a comic, then headed out to meet with them. Dinner at Cinnamon was really nice, and we got free wine/drinks because it was on Brick Lane, which is a huge street just with Curry restaurants, and they have "Curry pimps" outside each restaurant asking you to try their restaurant, and if you go there they'll give you such-and-such for free. It's kind of awesome. Our dinner was really great, except for a couple tables down one person had an epileptic fit that scared the shit out of everyone. They had to be laid on the floor for 15 minutes and an ambulance came and everything! yaaaaay. :(

On Sunday, Chris and I met up (after me getting completely lost, me ftl) and had a downtown adventure before we saw the Layton Movie again (this time I had pre-paid for tickets so Chris could see it too, it was the only other movie-screening that was public for the Layton movie) but it didn't start until 3:30, so we took Roy the Duck and Sackboy with us to take pictures of them riding all the Art Elephants that were scattered around London. It was a ridiculously hot day, and walking around was quite nice. We walked through Hyde Park and walked all the way to the BFI theatre, and saw more squirrels and a duck that had a staredown with Roy the Duck!

The Sunday showing was showing in one of the larger screens of the NFT building. It was great because the screen was bigger, sound was better, and the audience, which had people of all ages, were TOTALLY in to the movie, laughing at all the right moments, and getting into the puzzles (You could hear murmurs of surprise when the Professor said the answers to the puzzles, it was great!) It had a cool screen that was all lit up with red lights! Fiery!

Afterwards we got some touristy photos of me, we found a Somerfields that was wonderfully open, got some ingredients for the BREAKFAST QUICHE we were going to make the next morning so we could watch series finale of LOST (which was aired in UK the same time it was aired in the USA, which was 5am for UK.. so we recorded it) and eat delicious breakfast quiche. Went home, received a Joei and a Lap, played Singstar, watched Joei play Street Fighter... then went to sleep.

Got up early Monday morning to make the quiche. It was quite the adventure, and we made a video out of it, so I'll just post it here with just a DISCLAIMER that there is some horrible English swears! You've been warned! DON'T SHOW KIDS!



The LOST finale was interesting. I enjoyed it but could see why people are frustrated because lots of questions are left unanswered! Oh well, that's life!

Afterwards, Chris, Lap and I went into Richmond, which is a nice town not far from where Chris lives. Lap had to go to work, so Chris and I walked around a bit around the docks after I purchased some comfortable sandals, since my feet were actually dying from all the blisters (17 to be exact). That's what happens when I forget my sole inserts for my army boots. :( We had some food at Revolution, which was a neat restaurant with antler chandeliers. And they had these SANDS OF TIME hourglasses that meant if we didn't get our food in 15 minutes we got it free. I had a Chicken salad thing that was pretty good and Chris got 2 for 1 burgers... Which he somehow finished. ahahah. We got some ice creams and walked around the fields and trails a bit, and found the "Thames Walk" which looked like a short path to the next pub where we wanted a drink. Turns out it was a 3.3 mile walk beside the Thames River, and my feet, even with my new shoes, were absolutely dying. Almost gave up a few times and called for an ambulance, but Chris was determined I could make it. We eventually made it back to the bridge where we first saw the Hippie Community from the bus we took into Richmond, and we were pretty much home already. It was ridiculous. So I spent the rest of the day on the couch hahaahah.

Tuesday, I was ready to go home to Glasgow! Packed up my stuff and headed out at about noon and met Chris outside of his work and got an iced latte tee hee, hugged and said goodbye to Chris, and was on the train, where I drew a crapload of stuff! Yay!

It's June! And adventure times are soon! Tomorrow starts the Glasgow West End Festival, lots to do and see, and in 3 days I get a Steph! And in a week after that, I get a Linnea! And then Sweden at the end of June! Many more things to happen, stay tuned!


Squirrel tricked by my hand that does not feed.

I am a tourist, yes, that is blatantly obvious

Roy and Sackboy Sitting in a Tree~

Layton and Luke!

Chris and Roy the Duck have a staredown.

Long awaited VENICE, ITALY post!

Hello! How I've missed you all. Sorry for being so lazy/forgetful, but I have finally written my Venice post from when I went there with Eren in early April. It was a very magical trip, and I absolutely loved it there so I really should have been more inspired to write about it, but I guess I was so overwhelmed by all that happened, I didn't know what to write first.

Going to Venice was a dream come true. Plane trip was uneventful, although we did get dry, crappy breadsticks and flew over the Alps. I didn't realize before how many mountains there were (way more than you might think, over 20 minutes of flying over them!!), and there are so many small villages nestled in the mountains! I wonder how life is there?

After getting to the airport, we got tickets from an unfriendly woman for a ferry to cross to the main island. Wasn't like the €100 each private boat trip I was expecting! Waiting for the boat on the pier with other people while the sun was going down over the water was beautiful. By the time we got on our boat, it got pretty dark. It took over an hour to get to our San Marco dock. With the help of our Google maps printout, asking someone in Hotel Serenissima (swanky!) and walking up and down deserted, echoey Venice streets, we eventually found our hotel hidden around a corner by a river side (with a scary unmoving beggar with his arms held out and his head down...) .

The Hotel Corte Grimani where we stayed was quite nice. The inside lobby area stank, but apparently that's really common. The old guy behind the counter who looked like Santos from Minna No Nihongo, took 20 minutes to explain to us the Venice map and gave us suggestions and stories of what to do/see. After grabbing a free internet access code, we went up to our room in the tiny elevator. Our room was room 302, so it was meant to be! We were starving because we hadn't eaten all day, and there wasn't any room service. I found hotel paper though and drew Ezio on it with miscellaneous HAI VENEZIA! messages on it. There was free water and cookies, so we partook in that, then took in some internet and went to sleep.

Got up the next day pretty early. The view and sounds outside our window were fantastic, and there was even a pigeon coop on the roof across from us. (Assassin's Creed much?) So we quickly got ready and departed. We wanted to shop, get lost in the maze of streets and explore everywhere, but first we were starving! Let me tell you something first, our Venice map got lots of wear out of it! It was quite easy navigating to the larger area because of the Per San Marco and Per Rialto signs everywhere on the buildings.

We went to a place called MR. SANDWICH for breakfast near the Rialto Bridge, and had a wonderful toasted sandwich with a cappuccino, and I normally don't like coffee but this tasted incredibly delightful. We were served by a really friendly Italian man that didn't mind that Eren couldn't pronounce Macchiato. Bahaha!

After breakfast we explored a bit down the streets, crowded with tourists and tourist trappings stalls. I went into a Murano glass shop run by a cool girl listening to ska music. I bought a red and black Murano glass snail and told her I would be back on Sunday to shop more. We happened to find a Lush in the hidden shops under all the old stone awnings, which I had to check out. Going through the rest of the alleyways, we cam across some great shops, ones with a lot of masks, Murano... you can tell it wa sa very touristy place. I found a great artistic dress in a shop run by a chinese lady (and later the zipper broke, sads. Need to get it fixed). We also got some sweets from one of the many bakeries and sweet shops scattered around (meringue cookies and melon rope, because I got addicted to the stuff thanks to Sweden).

We happily started a 3-a-day gelato taste test. Gelato was only 1 euro per scoop, so we tried as much as we could. Gelato is like ice cream, except way thicker, creamier and with incredible amounts of flavour. Flavours tried included Lemon, White Chocolate, Nutella, Extreme Chocolate, Strawberry, Kinder Surprise.. can't remember the rest. But most of them were nommy.

We checked out some of the amazing buildings and cathedrals scattered around, and made sure to take a couple of nerdy photos of us trying to climb some pillars a la Ezio. We had a late lunch at a fantastic restaurant on the first day. I had a fresh creamy ham sauce tortellini dish, while Eren had an artichoke, cheese, ham and mushroom pizza which was also tasty. I partook in the breadsticks and white house wine, which was divine, and cheap! Really satisfying meal.

We walked quite far all around the city, and discovered the Piazza Roma which is where all the cars/busses/trains drop all the people off because they can't go into the city. They had a newer bridge built over the water that was really modern and neat to cross over. There were some small posters put up in an area of construction that had a cracked out Snail on it that reminded me of Sausage the Snail. I was delighted. :D

Seeing all the Gondoliers float in their gondolas and go under bridges with people was so cool, they had their stripey shirts and awesome straw hats n' everything. Just like you'd expect! Some of them even sang/whistled.

We ate the meringue cookies at the waterside by the Rialto bridge and watched the gondoliers go by. We saw the seagulls flying around trying to get a bit of food action from people. We closely inspected the water in the canals (without getting too close) and summarized that is definitely pure AIDS. It smelled like the bathroom from Trainspotting. Oh well, the view was nice.

During the day, the lineups to get into St. Marco cathedral were huge, so we didn't bother going inside. There was lots of really cool things to see on the outside, anyway. Saturday night in St. Marco square there was a live band (bass, violin, clarinet, accordion) that played beautiful songs and even the Tetris song! I got some crappy video of it on my phone. Lights at night on the canals were creepy but hauntingly pretty. Night walking in St. Marco square was lovely! The architecture in this area is incredible, with the long row of pillared buildings and the ornate Torre D'Orlogio (clock tower) sitting adjacent to the San Marco Cathedral, when walking under it is quite neat.

On Sunday we walked all over Venice trying to find all the glyph locations from Assassin's Creed 2 (there are 6 locations, but one doesn't exist anymore because it was..well, a thieves guild. Haha) and taking pictures/video of each one. Before we left our hotel on Sunday we scoured the internet for an hour trying to find a proper old map from AC2 that showed us where the glyph locations were supposed to be. Translating it to the new map we had was a bit hard because even though it's very similar, it was definitely shrunk down for the game.

• Gilda dei Ladri di Venezia (this is the thieves guild location that didn't exist.. haha)
• San Giacomo di Rialto
• Ponte di Rialto Rialto Bridge
• Scuola Grande di San Marco
• Torre Dell'Orologio Clock Tower
• Campanile di San Marco
• San Pietro di Castello To the very very east of Venice where no one was!

At one of the locations at the far east, where we found the San Pietro di Castello, we were sitting on a bench and we saw a bunch of people on the large bridge going across one of the canals, and they were all wearing a different colour jacket. The funny thing was, most of them weren't together. Rainbow people! :D Also there were barely any people over on this side, so it was really quiet and quite beautiful. We had to cross 7 bridges to get to this place, one of the bridges being the "Lovers Bridge". There is a story behind it and you're supposed to kiss a loved one after you cross the bridge. So adorable!

Getting to this part in the east we walked down a street where mostly the locals were out and about, and there was some sort of flea market display in the streets that had some interesting items. We got some gelato and explored the nearby garden which had a fantastic statue/fountain and a really nice walking path that sheltered us from the sun. We got to the edge of the water and walked all the way up, admiring the skyline of beautiful Venice with all the boats going to and from the docks. On the way in the water, we saw a bizarre drowned woman statue covered in seaweed. We also angered a local gazebo.

During our shopping adventures, we saw a lot of really neat things. Like cybernetic masks instead of the normal Carnivale masks. We also found a small dragon and eclectic figure store where Eren got a little dragon figure. Also went back to Murano shop run by cool ska girl, and bought lotsa neat things and presents! I wanted to go mask hunting to find the perfect mask for me and a Plague Doctor mask for Kody. Another shop we saw had amazing Greek God statues in the window. I wanted the Lady Justice and Zeus ones but they would have been too huge to carry back. Also to my delight and surprise, I found out that Lupin the 3rd is very popular in Italy, as I saw lots of Lupin merchandise and clothing at random stores. I got a really awesome purple and green Lupin shirt with fuzzy black designs!

Caffe del Doge was amazing. Spent 17 euros in there. That's where I had the best hot chocolate I've ever had. It was pure chocolate with cinnamon sprinkled on top. Exquisite.

Found an amazing mask shop that did huge masks of cartoons/people, like the Joker, Simpsons, the Hulk, etc. and sold Italian manga!

Steph asked me to try to find a spiral/shell design necklace charm she lost, and we searched everywhere in most Murano shops but we could not find what she described. Apparently there was only one shop that sold them though (and there was a lot of Murano shops.) I did buy her a cool pendant though.

On Monday before we left, we decided to partake in one of the 80 Euro Gondola rides. It was about 30 minutes and it was really lovely. Our Gondolier was secretly Ezio, we think. He showed us some really old buildlings, like the Marco Polo building and some really old marble buildings from the 1400's. He took us to where we were looking out over the water on Saturday eating meringues. It was cool to see it from the other side on the water! We even got in a mini traffic jam on the water, which was cool, haha. And there was this old Gondolier with the coolest mustache! He was a bro. This was a really nice way to end the Venice trip, I think, even if it was an expensive one!

FINAL THOUGHTS!

Walking over so many bridges was really cool. Gorgeous city, old buildings, quite friendly people, the streets were very narrow and so crowded with tourists, it was sometimes very hard to get past. Apparently less than 1% of tourists actually take time to see the gorgeous sights and buildings. How sad! We made sure to see as much as we could, chased pigeons, fought our way through crowds, had lots of candy, gelato and expensive delicious foods. Our bed was very comfy and our bathroom had a bidet. Haha. The Hotel Corte Grimani was clean and very nice. Staff was nice too. Ferry ride back was fun and crowded. People got splashed by the water!

I was a bit worried at airport security that I wouldn't be able to take everything because I had like 5 carry on bags, but I guess they're used to it. Had shitty breadsticks on the plane ride back, too! Was uneventful and we got back safe and sound. Venice was amazing, A+++ would visit again many many times!

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Foods we tried:
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Toasted sandwiches
Super Expensive crab (that was just a small pile of crab with bits of shell in it on some lettuce.. :| )
Beef Goulash noodles
Lemon Pana Cotta with Raspberry sauce (this was EXTRA NICE)
Smoked Salmon Penne
Random pizza
Lots of wine
The BEST hot chocolate
Croissants
Spinach and Cheese pastry
Fruit Milkshake
Many delicious sandwiches on Monday, like my fav. Cream cheese and ham with no crust. DIVINE!
Random bakery cookies and pastries

I have a crapload of photos from Venice, you can see my photo album here if you haven't seen any my photos already! http://www.flickr.com/photos/43711291@N02/sets/72157623803323554/ GO SEE GO SEE!

Heidelberg Ho!

I know, I know. My Venice post is coming up, HOLD YOUR HORSES.

I just got back from Germany today, and I'm full of Kody's Double Down chicken bacon mozerella explosion and ceasar salad. Ffsdgdsgsd. :}

I had heard about Heidelberg from Eren and the moment I saw pictures of it, I had to go see it. It was getting quite close to the time I had to go (Sunday) but with some good news from Eren's friend, we managed to get an all day return pass for the both of us for 39 euros, so it was off to Frankfurt am Main train station early Saturday morning!

We wandered the train station for a bit and went to the information desk to get help on how to get a ticket to Heidelberg, and we were served by a man with the most amazing moustache in the world. (Well, almost as awesome as the guy with the windmill in his beard.) We went to go outside to get something to eat, when a confused Eren stopped in the middle of oncoming pedestrians, and a very upset German guy yelled "ACHTUNG!!!!!!!" and forced his way past Eren. It scared the crap out of him, but I found it hilarious and kept yelling it out at random intervals all day. For breakfast, we had some Starbucks drinks (myself a chai latte and Eren a Caramel Frapp) with schnitzel sandwich bun and an egg and chive bun with lettuce, cucumber and tomato for breakfast.

The train ride was quite uneventful at 1 hr and 40 minutes. We got to the main station and made a beeline for the bathrooms (which we had to pay 50 euro cents for), which were will disgusting despite paying for it. I took note while waiting for Eren to come out, that outside there were tons of bicycles everywhere! Must be the best way to get around Heidelberg - scenically. I guess it means the air is cleaner too. :) We were greeted by a strange horse/person/dragon statue with a spinning head in its body when we went into the Tourist Information center to get a map.

We walked down a really nice road with gorgeous houses and trees. It was quite picture perfect! We were even greeted by a snail in one of the flower gardens in the road. We kept traveling down the road to find Heidelberg Castle, when we came across an interesting set of stairs that Eren insisted we check out. So we went up , and it was a steep climb, but we were greeted with a lush forest, dirt and rock paths, a mysterious gravestone, and wonderful lookout points that looked over the large, tree covered hills and old city below. The climb was quite brutal, because I wasn't used to it. We kept having to stop because my asthma was acting up. Eventually we got to a high up area with a cute log hut that was graffiti'ed to hell, but the best graffiti said "Russian Special Forces Barbeque Division" right under the window, so hilarious pictures had to happen.

After descending, we went off road and ran down some winding dirt paths until we came across a beautiful area of houses and a small stream waterfall. We followed the road that quickly brought us to the castle through posh houses territory. One even had a security camera outside that we had to go up to and wave! Outside the castle area we got some expensive water and I got my Germany sticker for my laptop. We took a breather on one of the bences and had our treats. (Eren had a vanilla strudel and I had a Berliner, which is a jam filled doughnut.) We explored and took lots of pictures, and saw terrible parents making their kids walk on top of the railing that had like a 100m drop to the ground below. Some kid came up to Eren when he was eating Apple candy and demanded he gave him some. What kind of world do we live in where kids demand candy from strangers?!

Anyhoo.. we walked all around the castle, and found a nice garden area with a hilarious Zeus statue with derpy wall eyes. We also found a huge pond that was full of tadpoles! It was awesome! Walking along the forested area that was protected by a short, stone wall, we found tons of snails, even teeny ones, begging to be photographed. We found a MASSIVE snail on a bench nearby, further on past the "Fronds Goethe" statue. After chilling and eating beef pepperoni sticks, we went to the inside castle area. The apothecary was closed, but we still took photos inside of the amazing statues on the wall. There was a wedding going on too!

Going through the exit had a lot of great stone covered paths and roads down to the main old town Heidelberg, where I found a shop called "Piu Piu". Hehe. We walked into a shop that sold organic baking and pesto and sauces, got some taste tests and bought 2 expensive (2.10 euro each) ginger cookies. Happened to follow a big dumb cute fluffy white dog to a Thai restaurant that was kind of expensive and the food was quite overcooked and tasteless. Also had an "Ice smoothie" from the Chiquita juice bar, but the new girl forgot half the ingredients, including the "ice" part, so it ended up just being a warm blend of orange, banana and passion fruit (that overtook most of the drink).

After the long trek down old town and finding our way back to the station at around 9pm, we got on the double decker train, and tried to sleep, but it was loud and incredibly uncomfortable. In Heidelberg train station, I had a Mr. Grimmer moment. (Mr. Grimmer is a character from the manga/anime Monster, which is set in Germany/Czech Republic, and is a great thriller/action story) A girl approached me and ask for change (she said she was sleeping under a bridge AND she said "I will become baby in 5 months"....lol) I gave her a Euro, just to make her go away. :|

Ah well, Heidelberg was gorgeous. A+++ would visit again.

The weather was a bit rainy but overall quite warm and very enjoyable air.
Have some delicious photos! I haven't posted in awhile, so have a lot!


I am part of the Special Forces Barbeque Edition. So sayeth my happy Doctor Tennant impression.

Inside the walls of Castle Heidelberg

Derp Zeus all like "sup gaiz"

A view of Old Town Heidelberg from above

Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool at the ponds in the Garden

At a lookout point from walking in the forest uphill! Leo girl~

My handsome garden snail!

Our magic forest path

This was BIG Snail! He was about 4 inches long! Wowww :D

No German town is complete without a giant Pretzel sign

Resting at a lookout point

I got me some gooey snail kisses~

Tadpoles!

Sunset over the S-Line Train tracks

Sheep Respite

The WTF statue.

Messages + Frankfurt, Germany

I just wanted to let you all know I am alive and well, though many of you who keep up with my Facebook, Twitter and DeviantArt pages already knew that!

Adventures lately have been few, but I will recap as best as I can.

First I'd just like to make a point or two.

The most important being the tea count. I might have to cancel the 1000 cups of tea challenge, only for the fact that I seem to have a caffeine allergy of some sort, which I think I developed by drinking energy drinks so much while working on the Prince of Persia costumes back in 2008. Every time I seem to have a cup of tea with caffeine (so, the regular kind, earl grey, etc) I get heart palpitations. I could do this challenge with just fruit and peppermint tea, but I think I'd honestly get extremely sick of 650 more cups of that before September hits. So I will continue the count, but don't expect me to reach the goal. It's sad, I know, but I can't do anything to help it!

I'm working very hard to update Insane Yeti Squirrel as best I can. Time allows me to update twice a week while letting me do things in between, like play games or do other projects or explore. I need to stick to a strict updating regime if I hope to gain any sort of following. I know I can do it.

**************

Currently I am in Frankfurt, Germany visiting Eren. I arrived here on March 20th, after Kody and Caz dropped me off at the Edinburgh airport. (Thanks guys!) Edinburgh airport is pretty tiny and was surprisingly fast to get through security and everything, so I had a couple hours to kill before I boarded the plane. Ended up drawing in the new sketchbook I bought just an hour previous and enjoying a cinnamon latte from Costa Coffee along the way (it was free! Woo hoo!)

When I got to Frankfurt, it wasn't very tough getting through security at all. Eren was waiting for me on the other side, and we went straight to the train station. There are a LOT of train lines in Frankfurt. If you thought London was confusing, you should see Frankfurt's train system, holllyyyyy smokes, and Frankfurt isn't even close to being as big as London is! We met up with his friends at the Tower Cafe, where I had a ginger ale with an orange slice in it (starting with the 0.2 L or 0.3L servings again, I remember this from Czech Republic!) and a VERY tasty chicken ceasar salad. We hung out there for a couple hours and went to go karaoke after. I wanted to drop all of my belongings off at Eren's beforehand, so we went to his house to meet up with them later. Except as luck would have it... Eren had lost all of his keys. :( Couldn't get in or buzz any of the neighbours since he didn't even have his flat key. So while I went to karaoke with his friends with all of my bags still weighing down my back, Eren went back to all the places he was that day to try to retrieve them - with no luck. Very upsetting indeed. So after everything, karaoke was completed super late, and we took a cab to Eren's friend Phil's house for the night, where he graciously offered us the use of his attic to sleep in. (It had 2 single beds and a cool, very low, slanted ceiling!)

I won't get into details about running around trying to figure out how to break into Eren's flat, but eventually we managed, buzzing countless German neighbours and trying to communicate and a locksmith later. Needless to say, since Eren didn't have the front building key replaced (would have taken 2 weeks and expensive to replace and he was moving anyway) I had to be under "house arrest" (meaning I couldn't leave the house because I wouldn't be able to get back in) so I could let Eren back in at the end of the day. This went on for a week and a bit. Had to rely on Eren to bring back foods from the corner store. I managed to go to the store once on my own, but I got a little nervous, not knowing what to do if I was asked questions in German. Most of the time I just say "Sorry I don't understand" or just mumble incoherently and ignore. Only because so far I've come to realize that most the German people I've come into contact with are not very nice people. I'm sure there are lots of lovely German folk, but so far I have not felt welcome in this country from the moment I've stepped into it's borders. I've been greeted with scoffs, rudeness, ignoring, patronizing, probably only because I don't speak German, or they are scared of an alternative looking individual like me. Whatever the reason is, I'm sorry to be on the receiving end of such bad treatment.

Eren's move to his new flat generally went okay. Since he didn't have a friend with a car to help him move, we went back and forth carrying many large, heavy bags on the train and walking long distances. Needless to say, my back was EXTREMELY sore, my arms were tired, and I was cranky a lot of the time. We even made an Ikea trip that was really fun, we even got Swedish Meatballs, lingonberry jam and potatoes (missed this from Sweden!), but we still had to carry home all the heavy spoils. His new flat is much better than his old one. It's in a tall building, he lives on the 9th floor, and has a balcony view of the direction of the sunset and a view of Frankfurt city. It's quite astounding! I'll post a picture.

So since I've been in his new flat, I've built most of his Ikea furniture (the bed, the bookshelf, the TV entertainment stand, and the computer desk) I am a freakin' LUMBERJACK but it made me have sore thumbs and palms from screwdriving by hand so much. We've experimented with the little food we buy at a time, we've watched all of Glee, played Kings Quest 4 and 5 and have started 6, and are playing it on the 40 inch LCD TV he bought for his new flat, I've tried out Final Fantasy XIII (it's kinda boring, music is a bit drab, characters are annoying), watched Amelie and Moulin Rouge, playing Heavy Rain, BlazBlue... etc etc etc. I've been trying to draw lots too. Sometimes all it takes is a little inspiration and free time. Which I got lots of at the moment! I also watched the entire 74 episode series of Monster, which was incredible, and very appropriate to watch in Germany, since the entire thing takes place in Germany and Czech Republic!

His friend had a Musicals and Fajitas night, where we watched Jesus Christ Superstar and most of Mamma Mia! while eating very tasty fajitas and drinking delicious wine. It was great fun!

I haven't seen much of Frankfurt yet, but we hope to take a day trip to Heidelberg, which is a gorgeous little town with a castle nestled in the nearby forest brush. To get to the main town you go over an enormous, stone bridge. If you can, look up a picture. I'm very excited to visit this beautiful German town!

My Dad wants me to go to Berlin and I would love to, but I might not have time as I have to go back to Scotland sometime soon so I can prepare for friends visiting when it gets warmer. Also, didn't think I'd say this, but prefer the atmosphere of more friendly Glaswegians than Germans, it seems! Hahahaha! Well, maybe Berlin another time, another adventure. We shall see! Maybe another time I'll do both Berlin and Amsterdam.

We did go to Venice, which was an epic trip. Next post will be about Venice! Yay!

Me at karaoke with my €6.50 bottle of Fanta and Tambourine

Singing "Viva Forever" with Phil

Typical German dinner. Wurst and apfelwine!

Sunset out of Eren's Balcony

I'm still alive!

Heya folks! Just giving you a quick update saying I'm still alive, still drinking tea, and still hanging out in Glasgow with my friends Kody and Carly!

I've been doing art and trying to come up with plans for myself for future projects and such.

I did manage to see a bit of Perth, Dundee and St. Andrews last weekend. My boyfriend Eren's friend had a wedding last Saturday, where I had good food, good champagne, and managed to do quite a bit of Ceilidh dancing, which was so much fun! They had a live band and everything. It's basically like line dancing, but if your life ain't in danger at some point while you're dancing then you're not doing it right! Haha, it was crazy! I was lucky because Eren was up there with me dancing like mad. ^-^

Some of the cool things I've been seeing/doing/eating around this crazy town....

- played Guitar Hero with a Theremin

- making frequent trips on the train... train is always fun!

- buying tons of tea... earl grey, turkish apple, green apple pear, peppermint, insta-chai, green tea jasmine are some of our list

- making a game with Eren, with dialogue written by Tyler! It's Insane Yeti Squirrel themed!

- stayed at a really pretty hotel called "Mark's Hotel" where they had crazy wallpaper and a fantom possessed shower!

- had all you can eat Chinese food in Dundee, and on the way saw a "Jak's Cafe" (spelled the same way!)

- Beat Assassin's Creed 2 (HAH!)

- cooking stuff! Pancakes, breakfast, Japanese hamburg steak, Apple Crisp, Banana Bread Loaf

- Looking into bellydancing lessons, jewelry making classes, the university's pool for swimming funtimes!

- been buying beads for making voodoo/pirate inspired jewelry!

- Lush is only a 5 minute walk away and since Kody has a large tub at his flat, have been getting my Lush baths! *heart*

- went go-karting and laser tagging for a birthday party of someone I didn't know (was pretty amazing at go-karting for the first time, but laser tagging I leave something to be desired..)

Caz and I went to Edinburgh quite a few weeks ago. We went on a Sunday so not much was open and we went quite late in the day.. but I did manage to see Edinburgh castle from afar and saw a bunch of adorable shops! Caz and I made our first joint purchase - a cupcake teapot! Yay! I'm still planning on going back there soon when the weather gets nicer, and Steph and I will be going there when she comes up too for the City of the Dead tour. Getting excited for a bit better weather for more adventures.

Upcoming adventures include..

- Germany trip to see Eren
- Italy weekend with Eren while I'm in Germany

- Loch Ness Blair Witch adventure with Kody and Caz

So a few fun things on the horizon! Don't worry, more fun adventures and pictures will come soon! Love you all!

Me and Eren at the wedding! Happies!

The best hot chocolate I've ever had

Edinburgh Castle

Our Cupcake Teapot baby!