Getaways: Edinburgh

This post is part of a monthly installment. Check out the first here.

Not only do I have another Getaway post for you, I have some news for you as well. Edinburgh was featured on my bucket list only a couple of weeks ago, and I've already checked it off. Pretty productive travelling, if I do say so myself ;)

I visited the scenic capital of Scotland a couple of weeks ago for nearly a week, and though I gave Scotland so much time, Edinburgh for the weekend would still be epic.

Edinburgh is a quick jaunt from Ireland and England, but I know some of you from the States and elsewhere might not find it the best option for a weekend away. But if you ever find yourself in the British Isles, make sure you add Edinburgh to your bucket list.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh's city centre is split into two parts: Old Town and New Town. Both are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Old Town is a huge medieval frontier whose main pass, the Royal Mile, connects two castles. Edinburgh Castle sits at the top of the city as a huge medieval fortress, while the Palace at Holyrood Park -- still a Royal residence -- lays at the base of Holyrood Park and Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano.

If this combination of royalty and volcanoes isn't enough to impress you, don't forget about New Town.  Don't be fooled by the name. New Town is Georgian, built as an extension of Edinburgh in the late 1700s in an effort for the nouveau-riche to escape the tiny streets of walled Edinburgh. New Town is all about space, clean lines, and parks. The architecture is gorgeous, the parks are rampant, and the shopping is pretty good.

I could have easily spent weeks in Edinburgh. With a million nooks and crannies, the Highlands at your doorstep, and some really cool new friends, Edinburgh is my new dream home. And obviously, everyone is going to agree with me. We're all going to visit Edinburgh for weeks at a time, fall in love, and stay forever together.

But just for arguments sake, let's just say for some weird reason we only have a weekend to spend in this epic capital. How should we spent our time?

1) Visit a Castle (or Two)
This may seem very cliché for some locals who've never forked up the £10 to go inside Edinburgh Castle, but this massive medieval fortress is a village in and of itself and definitely worth the visit. Plan to spend a couple of hours in the Castle -- they even have a very nice tea rooms with traditional tea served all day. Prepare for a bit of a hike to get up the mountain, but don't worry, there are plenty of pubs along the way.

If you have the time, also go check out Holyrood Palace at the bottom of the Royal Mile. Still a royal residence, the Palace tour is extremely well-orchestrated (which might make it a bit more sterile than Edinburgh Castle). No pictures allowed inside though, so beware. You might have to buy a couple of postcards on your way out, then ;)

Edinburgh Castle, up there looking all majestic.

Palace at Holyrood

2) Take a walking tour
Sandeman's New Europe Walking Tours offers a free walking tour of Edinburgh at 10 o'clock every morning. THAT IS NOT A TYPO. Yes, it's a free tour. No it's not bad! It was actually fantastic. It was a huge group (which is somewhat unsurprising, considering its general freeness), which they split into four smaller groups. The tour lasted about 3 hours, and in that time we got an incredible amount of history about Scotland and Edinburgh especially. Our tour guide was absolutely fantastic-- thanks Sabela!! -- and it really helped me get my bearings in the city.

Edinburgh has hundereds of "wynds" or closes branching off throughout the city. Though these are usually tiny (you could touch either side as you walk through them!), we learned that these were what most streets in Old Town would've been like when the city was walled. There just wasn't enough space! Even now, Edinburgh residents will describe Old Town and the Royal Mile as the skeleton of the fish -- with one main, hilly road (spine) and hundreds of spikey bits poking off in a general downward fashion!

If walking is not your thing, check out Edinburgh Bike Tours as well!

One of the many "wynds" in Old Town, Edinburgh. 

3) Be quirky
Edinburgh is quirky, don't let anyone tell you any different. As an example, the city hosts the biggest Fringe festival in the world every year. People have inscribed the names of characters from Harry Potter into tombstones, and often graveyards are treated as public parks. Take advantage of the quirkiness and get your feet dirty in Edinburgh a little bit.

Ideas:
Greyfriars Churchyard
There is a statue to a dog here called Greyfriars Bobby. His grave is just outside the churchyard. Bobby was an officers dog for two years from the day he was born, and he and his officer were never apart. One day, sadly, his officer died. Bobby attended the funeral along with everyone else. But when everyone went home, Bobby stayed. Bobby stayed for 14 years by his officer's graveside, before he too died. People still bring sticks and other gifts to Bobby's grave.

Greyfriars is also said to be home to some pretty famous characters. Buried here is a Thomas Riddell, a Peter Pettigrew, as well as a few other names such as Moodie and McGonnegall. Nearby is the now-famous Elephant House Café where J.K. Rowling allegedly wrote a great deal of the Harry Potter books. I wonder where she got her inspiration.

The Writers' Museum
Nestled in one of the closes near St. Giles Cathedral (which is also worth a visit!!) is the Writers' Museum, housed in a medieval mansion and home to exhibits on Edinburgh's three most historically famous writers: Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Burns. The building is adorable, and if you love writing as much as I do, it's definitely worth a trip to this little museum.

Greyfriars Bobby, probably Edinburgh's most famous resident before Harry Potter

If you visit the Elephant House Café for some tea and cake, be sure to visit the bathroom.
It was literally one of the coolest and inspirational things I had ever seen.
Thousands of HP fans had inscribed their thanks to the authoress.

The Writers' Museum, in an old medieval mansion house

4) Be alone
I actually booked this trip alone, and though it didn't seem odd to me at the time, I realized once I was on the plane that it was the first time I'd ever travelled alone before. Yes, I have travelled around loads before, but usually it was with a friend in the adjoining city or just a day of wandering around alone with my friends back in the hostel. Though I've always talked about travelling alone, I've never really seemed to do it!

Edinburgh is a fantastic city to visit alone, probably because it's just that, a city. There's plenty to do, lots of walking and exploring to be done. There are some wonderful cafés and pubs with nooks and crannies to get lost in and people watch while you have your evening tea.

Walk around alone for a while, even if you've gone with a friend, just to get your bearings and to stand on your own two legs in one of the most beautiful cities.

My evening tea in an alleyway of a teashop.

5) Meet people
That being said, being alone will probably become a magnet condition for meeting new people. I stayed alone in my hostel, and met some of the coolest girls, with whom I celebrated a rather epic Halloween night. Eating alone in pubs and cafés, I met locals and foreigners who all loved talking about why they moved to Edinburgh. I even ended up friending some of them on Facebook (which of course makes it official).

I even realized (AFTER booking my flights, how dumb am I?) that my cousin lives in Edinburgh! Totally forgot. We met up for a couple pints and had a blast!

Whether you're alone or in a group, one of the greatest things about travelling anywhere is meeting people. But Edinburgh attracts some of the coolest. So go ahead, chat to the locals - the bartenders, the tour guides - and have lunch with fellow travellers.

Me 'n' cuz

A kindly and random fellow American helped me with this one.

Scottish Poppy Memorial outside Scott Monument

Did a little shopping too, of course :)

I hope this has inspired all of you to start saving now. I'm already saving for my next trip to Scotland. :) Enjoy xx

Welcome to Getaways and Dublin!

As a full-time student and current working girl, my weekend getaways have been limited. But as an American living in a foreign country, I have always wanted my weekend getaways and extended travel trips to be a constant presence. 

A few months ago, I shared some of my Favorite Irish Adventures to date. When my dad and brother visited, I got to take a few more adventures around Ireland and another weekend to Munich. 

Though I don't get to travel as often as I'd like to, there are many trips in my arsenal that I'd like to share with you on the blog, from weekends to weeklongs and from real-life, actually-happened adventures to it's-gonna-happen-just-you-wait-and-see ones. 

Welcome to Getaway! In these posts, we'll share some of my favorite short-trips.

There are few Getaways that stand out to me, whether for the epicness of the place visited itself or for the epicness of the time I personally had there. And there are a few places that I've got my eye on for near-future weekend getaways as well!

So here you go,  check out Dublin and the first of many Diva's Getaways!

Dublin

My most recent jaunt to Dublin last March featured an epic Jason Derulo concert and the boy (an adventure for another post), but I've been to Dublin many times.

A small enough city, the Irish capital is like a teaser trailer of real Ireland for tourists who haven't gotten into the countryside yet and bigger cities for expats missing their homeland. Dublin has a big pub and club scene and enough shopping to satisfy a desire for retail therapy. There are so many little nooks and crannies to explore, but every time I go back all I want to do is wander the streets, visit the Queen of Tarts (best tea shop ever!), and soak up the city life. 

Components in a good Dublin Getaway:

1) Hostels
Used to the luxury of a hot shower, we are often turned off by the idea of hostels. Hostels get a bad rap from films and our parents' stories of backpacking across deserted islands. But you can rest easy in an Irish hostel. The standard of living here is fairly high, and that often translates to lovely little hostels. The hostels outside of Dublin are undoubtedly better, but in the big city, they are better than most you'd find outside of Ireland. So go ahead, book a hostel, you (probably) won't regret it. Check out Kinlay House Hostel near Christchurch and Temple Bar.

2) Bus It
Dublin City has a good public transport system, which includes a tourist option. A hop-on, hop-off bus tour may sound ridiculous, but there is no better way to see Dublin. With no grid system and a sprawl of about 45 square miles, Dublin can be difficult to master your first time. Dublin Sightseeing Tours offers an inexpensive and easily accessible bus tour. Buy a ticket for the day, do the full route (45 minutes to an hour), get your bearings, and then start picking places you want to stop on the second round. Some favorite Dublin landmarks to explore include Christchurch, Dublin City Gaol, Trinity College, Grafton Street and O'Connell Bridge, and, of course, the Guinness factory!

3) Pub Culture
Pub culture is a colloquial term often used by Irish and Irish connoisseurs to describe the insatiable desire of Irish and Ireland lovers to congregate in a cozy pub and laugh and tell stories for hours and hours over a few good pints. Dublin's pub culture is no different. Many of the pubs in the city are very well decorated and include (often loud) Irish music every night. From mid-afternoon to early evening, pubs in Dublin can be chill and relaxed, a great atmosphere to unwind after a long day of touristing. After 8PM, Temple Bar area is alive with tourists and the music can be heard echoing up and down the cobblestone streets.

4) Nightlife
The pub scene might not appeal to you - perhaps you've had your fill of pubs elsewhere or perhaps you've just spent too much time in them this afternoon! In this case, the Dublin nightlife might satisfy in other ways. If you're up for a nightclub of adventures, check out Coppers - but just beware, it gets a little crazy. You have been warned.

5) Do Something City-Like
Whether Dublin is your first or only stop in Ireland or it's your weekend away from the Irish countryside, one of the best parts about experiencing Dublin or any other city is living the city life. Each city has its own aura, its own culture, and it is an awesome thing to explore. Do something super normal in the city you're visiting. Go to a show, go shopping, visit a museum, or just walk around the neighborhoods. Get down and dirty in the city and enjoy not only the novelty of a new place but also the buzz that is city life. 

Bestie Travels Part One: Ring of Kerry

This is the first of four posts about L's epic week-long journey to the Emerald Isle.

 

On a windy Saturday morning - on which I decided for some reason not to wear a coat - the boy and I made the quick trek over to the airport and waited eagerly (on my part) for the flight from London to land. My bestie L, after driving three hours to Washington, DC, flying 7 hours to London, and waiting 4 hours for the hour flight to Cork, was coming!!

That chipper little twit didn't want a jet-lag nap or anything, and after a quick cup of coffee, we headed into town for some food and exploring. But the epicness of our journey was to come the following day.

I think I've expounded upon the glories of driving around Ireland before, but just in case you're new:

Ireland might be one of the prettiest roadtrips in the world. (And you all know how I feel about roadtrips). L wanted to see a little bit of the country, including the Ring of Kerry and the Cliffs of Moher - her one other proviso was a castle slash ruin. So we rented a car in Cork City early Sunday morning and headed off into the wild. 

Day one of our two-day travel included a trip West to Killarney, the biggest town in County Kerry and about an hour away from Cork City. We stopped in Killarney for lunch, walked around a bit, and then hopped in the car to tour the Ring of Kerry, a long, winding road encircling the Ivereagh Peninsula, following the coast, winding through the mountains. We lucked out with the weather, and our four hour cruise was interspersed with stops, coffee runs, and photo ops.

We were wrecked by the time we got back to Killarney, and we started the drive up to Doolin, County Clare (just north of Limerick City, for those of you who know your way around), where we would stay the night before heading to the Cliffs of Moher in the morning. 

Somewhere near Limerick, our starving bellies made us eat two whole pizzas from Pizza Hut (the first I'd ever seen in Ireland, so I guess I went a bit crazy). We finally made it to the hostel at about 10:30PM, after making the poor innkeeper wait up for us. 

We stayed in the Aille River Hostel, and if you're ever up in Doolin, please consider staying here. It's one of the nicest hostels I've ever stayed in. Set up in an old stone house, it has a huge and welcoming kitchen facility, the dorms are comfortable and spacious, and it literally sits on the river across from town. Picturesque, affordable, friendly. 

Wanna travel the Ring of Kerry with L and I?

Enjoy....

Finally made it to the hostel (this picture was taken the next morning... when it was no longer sunny)

 Stay tuned... we're going to the Cliffs of Moher next.

Getaway: Favorite Irish Adventures

Announcement: my best friend is coming to Ireland! 

At the end of March, the Ravishing L from Richmond is making an enormous trek from Virginia to Cork City for the week, and I have no words to express my enthusiasm. 

We've been talking on and off for weeks about what we should do with her short time here, keeping in mind of course the bestie hibernation that will occur and revolving around her tourist goals and my insider's perspective. I think we finally have a plan, but it's flexible, and I think we're both gearing up for an adventurous week in which snap decisions are made and last minute left-right-or-straight turns are taken. I'm excited.

With all this travel on my mind recently, I had begun working on an Irish bucket list. Just because I live here now doesn't mean that
a) I'll live here forever, and
b) that I can't be a travelling touristing kind of person as well! 

But as I build the bucket list, I have to acknowledge all the beautiful and wonderful places in Ireland that I've already travelled to. So in preparation for my Irish bucket list (which I will hopefully share with you in the next couple of posts), I'd like to share just some of the favorite places in Ireland that I've travelled to thus far.  In no way is this list comprehensive (please see my old blog for more!), but it is reflective of how awesome travelling and adventuring around Ireland can be.

Enjoy! x

Cliffs of Moher, County Clare

The Cliffs of Moher are the perfect tourist destination, but just because they're typical doesn't mean they're not worth the trek! When my mom visited me here in 2010, we took a mini-roadtrip to Clare and Tipperary. The Cliffs are absolutely beautiful, especially in this light. But I think more than half of my love for them stems from the adventures we had on our way!

Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

On a field trip in 2010, we drove up to Belfast for the weekend. We got a great tour of the city, and we even got to tour the murals on both sides. This wall separates the two residential sides of the city (traditionally, Catholic and Protestant). But on this side of it, people from all over the world have made a mural of peace. Visitors come and write messages of hope, prayer, and peace for Belfast along the wall.

Dingle, County Kerry

This picture was taken when my friends and I trekked out to Dingle for the weekend (we didn't walk there, just when we got there). We had a great adventure in this tiny Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking territory) town. Little did I know that my future housemate would be from Dingle herself. I've been back a few times since x

Giant's Causeway, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

On the same field trip that took us to Belfast, we drove an hour or so outside the city to the Giant's Causeway, a huge natural phenomenon caused by glacier movement thousands of years ago. The walk was crisp and hearty, and the world was beautiful up there. You can see Scotland from the cliff.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree, County Sligo

Ever read Yeats? Well, I wrote my undergraduate research thesis on Yeats' appropriation of the medieval Irish Táin. But I spent a few days driving around Sligo on my own and I saw this sign that said "Lake Isle of Innisfree, 4km". So I took it.

Pearse's Cottage, Ros Muc, County Galway

On the course in Carna, we took a day trip to see Patrick Pearse's cottage. Pearse lived in Dublin full-time for most of his political career, but he kept this cottage in Galway. Seeing the beauty and peacefulness of the place, it makes his sacrifice that much greater. I distinctly remember wandering down to the lake and just lying down on the edge for a while. It was so beautiful.

The Rock of Cashel, Cashel, County Tipperary

Former massive castle slash Church and old bishop's seat, I've been here three times already. It's one of my absolute favorite places, and I'm just not sure why. I've taken the tour there twice, and I've roamed over every piece of ruined rock. From the top of that hill, you can see all of Munster. If you wander down the hill and across a field, there's an old ruined convent as well. Driving along and seeing this place just pop up out of the road is pretty gorgeous.

Slea Head Drive, Dingle, County Kerry

Famous roadway (I'm pretty sure it's part of the "new" Wild Atlantic Way) Slea Head Drive winds along the cliffs near Dingle.

Walking to Fínis Island, Carna, County Galway

Fínis Island is crazy typical touristness for locals in Carna, but being a tourist myself, I couldn't have cared less. On our last day in Carna, we all walked out to Fínis when the tide was low. Only in Galway can you walk to an island.

Wexford Birthday Bound

A couple of weekends back, the Lovely L turned Twenty-One (it looks much lovelier when written out, don't you think?) and she invited us all down to her home in Wexford for a big celebration. Wexford town is no small journey from Cork City, but I dutifully caught the bus on Saturday morning (after a delicious breakfast in town with the boy), journeyed two and half hours to Waterford and then still caught the bus to Wexford.

Out in the Barn

The night began with the inflation of a million balloons, the creation of a balloon chain (not without some major poppage), the strategic placing of fairy lights, and basically the beautification of the barn. Lovely L's Lovely Mother fed an entire infantry of post-barn-decorators and pre-party-goers before we all got down to business.

Birthday girl and lovely friends

Wexford was quite the adventure, but it didn't end there. After a late, late night of laughing and singing country music, and a morning filled of sorting out the night before and watching films like Ted all curled up and cozy on the couch, I caught the bus back toward Cork via Waterford, at which point the boy asked if I'd stop to come hang out with his family and friends in his hometown for the day. How could I say no?

It was a great weekend away from town. I love Cork, but sometimes it's great to get out and about, away from the city in the company of great friends! x