Shalyn Takes on Scotland!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Hawaii

Hello Everyone!

I said that I would post something about Hawaii so I will make it short and sweet!

I had a fantastic time in Hawaii! Marissa is just like a sister to me so being with her again was the best part of the trip. I got to spend more time with her and her new family (Tony and Jordan) and was able to see all of the lovely island of Oahu the she currently inhabits!

I was able to see her wedding dress (I won't post pictures! ha!) and the site where she will be getting married and having the reception.

We spent a good amount of time at Pearl Harbor. The place was wonderful! It was a gorgeous day when we were there. Several survivors from Pearl Harbor were on site which was really neat to see. The Arizona Memorial was pretty impressive. The site was free and we were able to see all of the exhibits they had to offer. I would recommend it to anyone heading out to the island =]

The scheduling throughout the week never seemed to be in our favor =/ The two days we had planned to go snorkeling, the beach was closed (it was in a national park) and the day we planned on doing a hike at Diamond Head, that was also closed (another park).

We took a hike to the Makapuu Lighthouse and the view was stunning! I also attempted to surf the Pacific with Tony but an attempt is all I can call it... Marissa and I also spent a whole day at the Polynesian Cultural Center where we learned about the 6/7 main islands that share the same history. It was a really great day and it ended with a luau and a show called Ha: Breath of Life. Oh yeah - it was over 82 degrees the entire time I was there =] hehe I experienced my very first (and hopefully only!) tsunami evacuation after the earthquake in Japan. Thankfully nothing happened but it did result in sitting in a 'safe place' until about 4am =/

There are some pictures below but I didn't get a chance to take a whole lot because a lot of them are from driving in a car. Enjoy!

Love, Sha =]

Pearl Harbor with the USS Arizona Memorial in the far right corner

The USS Arizona Memorial (The rusted portions sticking up above the water are actual portions of the ship. When you are inside and you look down, you can see the battleship and a map within the memorial tells you what parts of the ship you are looking at.)

Marissa and I at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor (and yes, I am that short!)

Just showing off my newly discovered photo skills. Pretty sweet, huh?

The USA flag and the Hawai'i state flag

Homeless Hawaiin Lane! (They get checks from the state but they like living in tents in downtown Waikiki better!)

Fort Hasse (spelling?) Beach which is on base closest to their house

Cheesy pose at Pyramid Rock Beach on the other side of the flight line

Another beach on base (I don't remember the name) that is full of coconuts! (See, she has a coconut!)

A lovely view from the car window!

The fog always surrounds the mountains like this!

Another lovely Hawaii beach!

A view of Diamond Head, the mountain that we tried to hike. From the top, there is a beautiful view of Waikiki =]

Marissa, Tony and Jordan at the Makapu'u Lighthouse Hike on my final morning

View from the top of the Makapuu Lighthouse Hike!

Me at the luau

Marissa at the luau

In front of one of the Polynesian places, Rapa Nui

Me and the mighty Pacific

Just monkeying around ;]

Can you see me?!

Me in front of the Iolani Palace

View from the base of Diamond Head

Us!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Links to the European Adventure Pictures!

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Return Trip and Some Reflecting

My flight from Berlin to Scotland was delayed because of some snow. I was able to make it to the grocery store before getting back to the flat and I actually did run across campus back to my flat because it just felt so good to be back! I went to the Wallace Monument with my friend Elsa and took a night to go out with the friends I made that were still on campus. Lisa and I headed to Glasgow the afternoon of the 19th in order to beat the storm and make sure we were by the airport. We had a relaxing night out in the city and watched a movie and skyped my family from the hotel room.

The next day was an adventure - I went to the airport with Lisa the following morning (who flew out hours before me) so I spent A LOT of time hanging around the airport! My flight out of Scotland was delayed an hour and then from Iceland, it left another 30 minutes later. Then on the flight home, we were put in a holding pattern because it was snowing in Boston. Point is - I made it home!!!! Ryan and Chris were waiting for me right outside the international luggage return and boy were they a sight for sore eyes. My mom and dad drove the van up and we all hugged like crazy people! When I got home, I ran right to Sugar's cage and found out she wasn't excited to see me because Katie, Mary Kate and Tina were waiting right next to her cage on the couch to surprise me! They decorated the house and I ran right by it! They also managed to cover my ENTIRE bed in balloons... =]

The holidays were wonderful it was great to be surrounded by all of my friends and family for the first time in months. The family had a great Christmas. New year's eve was spent with the Church family as usual and then with Katie and some friends in New Britain.

My flat mate Melanie came to visit me Jan. 3rd-9th. I met her in New York on the 3rd and we spent that first night roaming around Times Square and Rockefeller Center. The next morning, we headed for the UN Building and had a really interesting tour. If you ever go to NYC, I would recommend it, especially if you are like me and don't know too much about it. After that, we walked by the Chrysler building, headed down to the Financial District and the World Trade Center. We also walked over the Brooklyn Bridge before heading home to CT for dinner with the family and Katie. I got a really awesome cold so the next day, we took it easy and had a driving tour of Haddam and the shoreline and even made a stop at the beach! Melanie started to get my cold (she will tell you that it was really because of allergies!) so we rested up and headed to Boston for a day trip on Thursday. We stopped by Frog Pond and the Mass. State House which was hosting an inauguration that included a very large amount of free food that we took on the rode for dinner! We headed out to Old North Church where Paul Revere started his famous ride and then followed the Freedom Trail to the Revere house, Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, the Bunker Hill monument and the USS Constitution. On the way home, we stopped to visit my friends Steph and Kofi in Worcester. Friday, we went to breakfast with Katie and then went up to the airport to pick Chris up. We spent the rest of the day with the family and packed up for NYC. Saturday, the three of us visited Central Park, took a trip on the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, went up to the Empire State Building and overlooked Times Square from the Marriott hotel. We grabbed a meal and then headed back to the hostel for an early night in (bedtime at 9pm!) Melanie got in a shuttle at 4:30am! to head to Mexico for her study abroad program (she made it safe and sound!) and Chris and I spent the rest of the day exploring the Financial District, World Trade Center, Times Square and Rockefeller Center before heading back to CT.

I've been using my time at home to re-organize and get ready to head back to Clark. I am looking forward to going back with my same routine and have regular extra curriculars! It will also be good to have my friends near me again and to finish up senior year back in the states! If everything goes according to plan, I will graduate on May 22nd =] It's been great to be at home and to finally get some of the sleep I always seem to be missing out on! I still can't believe that time has gone by this quickly!!!

My trip abroad was an amazing experience that I am so glad to have had. I made some really great friends (and so far, I have managed to keep in touch with all of them!) and I learned a lot about myself on my trip. There are tons of other mushy, life affirming things I learned and experienced but I wont bore you with those! But what I do know is that I definitely have a thirst to travel and I can't wait to go back to Europe to see my friends and then get out there and see more of the world! Hawaii is my next big trip and I am SO excited - I think it's just about 50 days until I am headed out there!

And this morning, I finally finished organizing all of my photos and ALL of them are up on facebook now. I think there is a way to share the link with people who aren't on facebook and as soon as I have time to sit down and figure it out, I will send those around!

Hope these posts weren't too long or too late for you!!

Love, Shalyn =]

FLORENCE and VENICE!!!!!

So I have been slacking on the blog posts lately....lack of internet around the globe and lack of sleep in Scotland/USA

So, here's the update on Florence and Venice!

It was a long-ish train ride out to Florence from Rome (around 4 hours). The hostel was a short walk from the train station and it was a lovely small town feel. When I got to the square, there was a huge church, called a duomo (if I spelled that correctly). At first sight, it looked like it was a 3-D puzzle someone had constructed because the entire exterior was painted in all sorts of greens and whites with designs and loads of statues all around. The whole thing is massive! Not only is it really tall and have a huge tower, the building seems to stretch forever. It also has a separate building which has been turned into a museum of some sort (but it cost money to go into it and cash was low).

After a walk around the duomo, I ventured over to the gallery where the statue of David is held. The whole gallery is kind of interesting - at this point, I had seen a lot of churches and a lot of artwork so I didn't pay as close attention as I could have. There were quite a few rooms dedicated to paintings while there were others that focused on music and statues. I liked those two because with the music, there was an interactive section that enabled you to hear what they sounded like and it showed me some I had never heard of before. The statue room was neat just because sculptures must take a rare form of patience and skill.

After that, I spent some time walking around the town. I walked through a street market in between a bunch of churches that was filled with signs informing me that if I bought fake/knock off goods, it is punishable under the law. After my 'night time' walk (since it was already really dark), I met some people back at the hostel. The woman that ran it provided us with some home made snacks and wine every night so we could meet other travelers. I ended up going to dinner with about 9 other people from the flat for a traditional Italian meal followed by some delicious gelatto! One of the guys in the flat had been there for a bit so he took a group of us to this really cool point that overlooks the entire city of Florence. This point was also near the fake statue of David that they put up in the town so that you are actually allowed to take pictures of it! Later on that night, a few of us went out for a night out on the town and had a good time.

The next morning, I headed out on another train to Venice. This ride was half as long but cost twice as much - yippee! During the day, I walked around the islands a little bit and spent some time just relaxing in the hostel and reading because it was absolutely freezing out. I took my book (about the history of Portugal!) to go and get some tea and a local little shop and did some reading to warm up! I met a guy named Alex (from Chile) who was also in the same hostel in Florence and we took a night walk around Florence and got something to drink.

The following morning (after a lovely night of 10 hours of sleep!!!), I walked around the entire island on the main tourist path and saw the three main touristy things - bridges and churches. It was another freezing cold day but the island was beautiful - the way that everything is situated in the water is really neat. I would definitely like to go back there in the warmer weather!!!

I hopped on a flight to Berlin that afternoon. I was supposed to be heading there to meet my flat mate Lisa but because of the snow storm in Scotland, her finals were rescheduled so she wasn't in Berlin. I only ended up spending one night in a hotel that I booked and of course, it was snowing like crazy in Berlin and I didn't have enough cash to afford getting lost if I headed into the city (which would have happened with the snow) so I spent the night relaxing, reading and sleeping! Man did that feel good! I was okay with not exploring because I plan on going back to Germany when Lisa and Melanie are both there and spending some quality time with them in their country =]

Monday, December 13, 2010

ROME!!!!!!!

On my flight to Rome, I recall writing in my journal that I felt like I was going to end up sleeping with the fishes...a guy in the row in front of me had been saving seats for two cary looking guys in business suits who sat in front of and next to me...During the last 20 minutes of the flight, the mafia man next to me started speaking to me when he realized I spoke Engligh because he was so excited to practice and then he leaned over and started pointing out all the places of Rome to me and at the end of the flight shook my hand and called me a friend. Precious, I know.

Driving in Rome is scary - point blank, you gotta have balls. The crazy taxi driver I had to get to the hotel did not obey street lines, street signs and just barely obeyed stop lights. She missed the turn and started yelling in Italian which is pretty scary if you ever witness it. I had to eat dinner at the hotel since there was nothing else around and my waiter was also glad to speak English because he really enjoys it. I had some lovely pasta and eben though I am not a big fan of tomatoes, I enjoyed every single one of them in that salad. Fresh veggies!!!! I had another king size bed, another balcony complete with a table and chairs, some awesome American shows dubbed over in Italian, a hot shower, a heater to dry my sink washed clothes on and even a urinal in the bathroom!!!! It took me a while to realize what it was...I must have looked like the caveman when he discovered fire.

The hotel offered a taxi to the nearest metro station so I hopped on that and took the stop the hotel man told me to...well, no one knew the street I was trying to get to. Ended up calling the hostel and after some trial and error, found my way through the constuction zone to the street I needed! The man at this hostel was awesome - when I told him I would have two days here, he took out a map and quite literally, made me an itinerary. I had two other girls from America staying in my room and the three of us spent the first day together. We grabbed some pizza at a local shop for lunch and then continued full speed ahead so we didn't waste any time! We visited the keyhole to the city which is where you can look through a keyhole and through the gardens, see the Vatican! We headed through some orange gardens to get a good view of the city and then ended up at the mouth of truth. As legend says, if you stick your hand into this mouth and tell a lie, it will bite your hand off. (The walking tour guide the next day told us that this 'mouth of truth' is actually an old manhole from ancient Roman times). Next, we headed along the Tiber and crossed over into one of the smaller neighborhoods to get a local chocolate shot - a shot glass made out of chocolate and filled with chocolate liquer or Baileys then topped with whipped cream and powder. To do this shot, you pick it up and stick the whole thing in your mouth bottom first. Difficult but delicous! We headed back across the river and walked through the old Jewish ghetto which was really neat. There are a lot of monuments and statues that I don't know the name of or their significance but I took a lot of pictures anyway! It was getting dark early because it had been cloudy and overcast all day and it sprinkled for about an hour. We walked past the cat sanctuary which was an old ruins site that a bunch of stray cats took over. It's walled off and they can't get out and people and vets do take care of them - they are all tagged. Above, there were tons of bats and they were pooping so we ran out of there! Next, we hit up Piazza Navona which is where they have the Christmas market and Santa was there!!! We had to pay to get our picture with him and the Mrs. though. We also made it to the Pantheon on this part of the walking tour which is very impressive! All of the building are just so old but extremely detailed and it's hard to describe just how awesome they are in person so go see for yourself =] Grabbed a nice bite to eat and shared a bottle of wine before heading back to the hostel for the night. We also had the chance to eat some gelatto - there was a shop with over 100 flavors!

Day 2 involved breakfast at the hostel and then straight off to go chill with the Pope. I battled my way through the street vendors to the Basillica and walked around the inside for a long time. There was no opportunity to light candles in there though because the Italian guard kept saying something along the lines of NO FLAME! at me...Oh well. The building was beautiful and incredibly detailed. What Notre Dame had for size and Gothic architechture, this rivaled with it's incredible number of paintings, things that involved gold, and decorated columns. Don't worry, I have a lot of pictures! Next, I popped inside the Vatican museum which was exhausting. I thought taking the scenice route to the Sistine Chapel was a good idea but half way through it, I needed to get out. I'm not much of a museum person and I have seen an overwhlming amount of churches on this trip so I think that the Vatican and St. Peter's will be my last one if I can help it! The Sistine Chapel was pretty incredible. (Between you and me, I managed to take a picture of the ceiling so I will put that up!) After my tour of Vatican City, I headed back to the center and explored Circus Maximus and the Colleseum. Wow. The ruins are incredible. I don't think I can effectively describe it all in words but it was just AWESOME. I spent quite a bit of time walking around this area and had an old lady take a picture of me in front of the colleseum! Time for food and then I headed out for another free walking tour! We started at the Spanish steps which literal name doesn't mean that at all (it was a lot of words and I can't remember them, sorry!) We headed around to a few smaller churches and checked out their differenct architecture. Our tour guide told us that a lot of the columns that are displayed throughout the city are recyled - if the building wasn't a church, it could be knowcked down so that it's parts could be reused to build new things (he called it recycling instead of looting ha). There was a lot of information being thrown at me and I was tired and cold so my memory was very out of focus so I can't offer you too much information =/ We made it around to the Pantheon again and then headed over to the Fountain of Trevi which was really cool! Neptune is in the middle of this statue and the way that it is structured and just almost appears out of the street is really neat. Grabbed a late dinner and then found my way all by myself back to the hostel on the bus! Woot!

Rome has been awesome but I think the most exhausting out of all the cities I have been in. It's an early bed time for me since I am catching an 8:43am train to Florence tomorrow! Good night and I will try to post as soon as I can so I don't forget important historical information!

P.S. - Do not worry about seeing pictures; I have already filled one memory card and am almost halfway through a second. It's just a matter of how soon can I get them up when I get home...

MADRID!!!!

The ride to Madrid was long but the time managed to pass fairly quickly as I switched between reading my book and sleeping...if you have ever seen me sleep while in a car, you can only imagine how entertained the Spanish people must have been with my head rolling all around...

I will continue to be proud of myself for making it all the way from the train station via the metro and some walking to my hostel without asking for directions!!!!! To all of you who enjoy making fun of me for being bad with directions - I can now prove you wrong! Ha! The hostel was pretty cool - it had tons of people in it and was more like a hotel than anything. I shared my room with two Italian girls and we had our own bathroom which was really nice! I went out and consulted the map the lady at reception gave me and started to go and see some sights she suggested. I bought myself some lunch that consisted of fruits and veggies because it's been hard to get those into my diet lately. I also went and bought two books in Spanish to help me learn the language more efficiently. I walked to this gorgeous park and had lunch then walked all the way through it to the other end of town with a pit stop back at the hostel to grab my jacket because it was actually fairly chilly in Madrid. I spent the better half of 3 hours looking for a Christmas market but of all the places she circled on the map and I thought was it, I could not find it =[

The nest morning something amazing happened - I DID MY LAUNDRY!!!! I finally had a hostel that had really cheap laundry machines and washed all of my clothes. I don't think I have ever appreciated clean clothes that much before! Had some breakfast then packed up my things and left it in the hostel storage closet. Joined a walking tour that started around 11:30am. We started off at the center of Madrid where the guide showed us what the city has that is equivalent to the Statue of Liberty or Eiffel Tower - a small statue of a bear getting some berries out of a tree. Not quite impressive in size at all but the story behind it is that the particular berries ferment on the tree so every season, the bears and other animals go eat them and essentially get drunk and as the guide liked to say - that's how they do it in Madrid. We moved on to the opera house and how Queen Isabel 2 put a lot of work in to establishing the influence and presence of art in Madrid (according to the tour guide, this was because she was a lonley old lady who needed to put her love somewhere). Next, we moved on to the governement building that was once and old Moorish building but when the new king took over (originally from France) he had is destroyed and built this new giant building instead. From here, the offical church of the city is literally right across from the government building and is pretty ugly from the front but from the other side, it's beautiful. This was because in these days, if your building was to be more beautiful than the ones around you, you were being a snob and could get in some serious trouble from that. We carried on to a park/church so we could see the influence from all the other cultures only to talk about the Spanish Inquisition. Another fun fact was that when King....took over, he wanted desperately to do something that people would remember him by so he changed the capital of Spain from Toledo to Madrid. This then involved moving all the nobles to Madrid and when there wasn't enough space to house them, this king decided to make a tax that required the local people to house the nobles. Long story short, a lot of the houses had tons of extra windows to confuse the king when he went around trying to determine if one was able to hosue the nobles. Trickery! Finally, I found the Christmas market! It was a lot different than what I thought it was going to be so I wouldn't have spent a lot of time there the night before anyway.

I then made it to the airport in time to hop on my flight to lovely Roma!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

SEVILLE!!!!!

Hola Once Again!

I suppose there will be a section in each post for me to write down what I forgot from the last city...

From Barcelona - I forgot to mention that there was a palace we went to that was significant. It was in the main square (that I forget the name of) and it is unique because most of the stones that make up the walls are from headstones of graves from a demolished Jewish graveyard during the Inquisition. I thought that this was really powerful and when I was going through pictures, I remembered that.

On to Seville!

I had an uneventful flight to Seville - had to wake up at 5:30 am to get to the metro and then on to the airport. Slept the entire flight there which turned out to be acceptable because it was super cloudy. When I got to the airport, I picked up a lovely map and guidebook then got in line for the only bus that takes you to the city. Since it is another holiday in Spain today, it only ran once and hour so I shoved my way to the front and hopped on. I made friends with an American girl from Virginia for the bus ride and when we got off the bus, I met a guy named CJ from California. He was very kind and walked in my direction so I didn't get lost and then sent me on my way after giving me some pointers about what to do in the city. There have been some really amazing people on this trip and their stories are incredible - inspiring at times.

After a long walk with my backpack, purse, North Face slung over my purse and my wool sweater with the sleeves rolled up, I finally arrived at the hostel after a hot and sun drenched walk along the river. I was sweating and was glad it was so cool in here! I am sharing my room tonight with two girls from the states who are leaving before dawn to head back to Barcelona and then I think I have it all to myself! The hostel is pretty empty so I will have no problem with access to things. I hopped on the internet and had to change some things around - I am now headed back to Stirling on the 17th (two days earlier than planned) because there is no way Lisa would make it to Berlin. I will only be spending one night there so the equivalent of a day). It will be nice to see everyone who is still on campus and give me a chance to properly pack and say goodbye.

I will have to admit that I was a failure for lunch - I went to McDonald's (my second time since being in Europe though!) I did, however, win a free hamburger thanks to the monopoly game going on! I spent my time reading my Seville book and deciding where I wanted to go. On my way out of lunch, a gypsy lady stopped me and handed me a sprig of rosemary and started telling me a fortune despite all the 'No entiendo' (I don't understand). I did understand that she thought I had a strong heart, good health due to a gesture upward, people were watching me from above. I also understood the 'Nececitas pagar' portion meaning she wanted me to pay her...she didn't like the answer no and even worse, she hated that I refused to give her more than .60€ I believe she called me some names as I walked away...

I went on a walking tour today (Wednesday I think?) and it was pretty informative. Some of the historical stories are amusing because Barcelona and Seville both believe that Christopher Columbus came from their cities and that doesn't allow for fluid historical accuracy. We were brought through some of the old Jewish neighbourhoods that came with more horror stories about the Inquisition. There are loads of gardens and lush green plants everywhere and trees sprouting with oranges. One of my favorite parts of the tour was when we went to Plaza de España. It is a huge plaza that has a special section for each part of Spain and huge parts dedicated to Seville. It is brightly decorated with all kinds of tiles and artwork and it is just impressive. (I would recommend going to check this out for yourself someday!) The people of Seville LOVE Christopher Columbus...you can't escape him. Another part about the tour that stuck out was the sign or phrase that is all over Seville - NO DO with a vertical infinity symbol in the middle. The infinity sign represents the word 'madeja' which would appear in wedding rituals to signify the bond the couple had for their life. The reason this is all around Madrid is because it was a 'gift' King Alphonse X left for the city. It literally translates to 'No me ha dejado' meaning 'She has not abandoned me'. He left this as his parting gift to the city because when his own son and the Pope turned against him and showed up with the Spanish army ready to attack the city, Seville stood up against them and fought for King Alphonse X. (He ended up being removed from kingship and was to remain exiled in Seville while his son took over.)

Day 2 in Seville started off with a trip to the bus station to purchase my ticket to Madrid. Tomorrow (the 10th) I have a 6 hour bus ride to Madrid. Woot! After the bus ticket, I headed back towards the center of town and for €2, I took a tour of the cathedral and the Giralda. Th cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe and the 3rd largest cathedral (after the Vatican and St. Paul's) The inside was beautiful- loaded with details and a lot of gold and silver. The organ was massive! The Giralda (tower next to the church) involved a climb up over30 sections of ramp (there are no stairs in the tower because the sultan, who commissioned it, had to climb it 5 times a day for prayer so he had ramps put in so he could ride his horse up to the top) It is very Arabic on the inside but the top of the tower is a portion added by the Catholics. Following the cathedral tour, I headed back outside into the side streets and checked out all the souvenir shops - it's amazing how there can be so many with the same things! I stopped in a restaurant for some paella (a very cultural dish) with a glass of sangria. Typically, paella is made with fish or seafood but I had mine with chicken instead =] It was really good so I would recommend it! Walked down town a bit more then headed back to the hostel for a siesta since the hot Spanish sun was making me tired!

After my siesta, I headed out for some Ben and Jerrys (which is a small luxury I treated myself to!) and then I sat by a beautiful fountain people watching for a while. I exchanged greetings with some lovely old people and was able to watch people bike riding and roller blading all over the plaza. This was a particularly lonely night for me...after traveling by yourself for quite sometime, it gets to you, so the people watching helped not to mention all of the awesome Christmas music that the performers were playing in the street! I grabbed some food then headed back through the crowded streets to get ready to leave real early the next day! I really love Seville and would love to head back there some day!

There are loads more stories but I will write about those when I put all of my pictures up on facebook. It is easier to write a historical caption when I can see the picture and so can everyone else!