I visited Hogwarts this week! I walked up and down the streets of Diagon Alley, I saw the cemetery where the graves of Tom Riddle, McGonagall and Moody can be found, I saw pictures of the Hogwarts Express, and I even saw the school sitting up on the hill! Okay, okay... I saw J.K. Rowling's inspiration for it all, at least! Edinburgh was a magical city filled with so much history. Walking down The Royal Mile, the main street, you really did feel like you were taking a stroll down Diagon Alley, walking past all the magic wand shops, owl pet stores, and wizarding hat emporiums. I visited the Café where Harry Potter was first born. J.K. Rowling would sit in The Elephant House and write for hours upon hours inventing the story of Harry Potter. A plaque outside of the store marks it as the birthplace of Harry Potter, and inside are a few pictures of J.K. Rowling and a few trinkets to be sold to Potter fans; but other than that, you would never really know that a legacy was born here... that is, until you walk into the bathroom.
The second you open the doorway into the bathrooms, you are awed by the colors and words that cover every inch of white wall in the small room. You have to stand there and just stare for a second because of how incredible it is. Then, when you walk into the stalls, there is even more writing! There are quotes, thank you's, notes to J.K. Rowling, signatures, you name it! The toilet seat was by far the funniest, and my favorite though, and if you're a Harry Potter fan or at least have seen the movies you'll know where these sayings are from! Being in this place (the café in general not the restrooms) really inspired me to buckle down and start writing my own books. I know I want to be a writer, I just have to stop making excuses and do it.
What was truly amazing to see on the streets of Edinburgh was the history that still lived there. My Scottish family clan were the MacMillans, and I found so many articles and souvenirs bearing their name. The Scotts are proud of their heritage, or at least the tourists
who come visit are. You could see the history on either end of the Royal Mile, from the castle on the hill (Hogwarts) all the way to the Palace of Hollyrood made famous by Mary, Queen of Scots. But, the real history lies below these fancy buildings. We took a tour called The Real Mary King's Close which showed us what the people of Edinburgh really lived like back in the day before they joined governance with England and became the United Kingdom. But the craziest part of all, it was all underground! An entire little village dwells under the streets of the Royal Mile, roads and houses built on top of it as the city expanded and grew. The living conditions back in those times were horrible. I don't even want to explain because you will be disgusted. We couldn't even take photos down there because of how dark many of the rooms were, but being able to walk through these streets and houses underground was simply incredible.
By far, though, the most incredible experience I had in Scotland happened at sunrise. The first morning we were there, I got myself up at 5:30 in the morning, and a group of friends and I ventured off in search of Arthur's Seat. Today, it is a large hill/ mountain located in Hollyrood Park and overlooking all of Edinburgh. Legend has it that Camelot, the infamous castle of King Arthur, once sat at the very top. So, we were determined to climb it and watch the sunrise up over the mountains of the Highlands off in the distance. We didn't known that there were multiple paths up the hill and therefore, of course we took the first path we saw...probably the most difficult trail possible. I had never hiked ANYTHING before, and I was climbing up rocks, balancing on the edge, and praying for dear life I made it to the top alive. But, just as the sun was beginning to peek up above the mountains, I made it to the top. I felt as though I was on top of the world. The rocks glistened with dew and frost as the sunlight began to reach them, and I just could not help but think about how beautiful so much of this world is. I am so grateful for this experience; when else will I ever be able to say I hiked to the top of a mountain and watched the sun rise over the Scotland Highlands? And the best part of all? From the top we could see the easy trail that went down the back side of Arthur's Seat, and it was a peaceful stroll back down.
My expectations of Belgium: chocolate, waffles, beer. The reality: chocolate, waffles, beer, mussels, beautiful buildings AND "French" fries. Brussels is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. It is full of importance and possesses an air of regality. You walk into the Grand Place and you feel as though you have stepped back through time. There are buildings towering above you in every direction of the square; but these building aren't the steel skyscrapers of New York, they are ornate mason structures with gold details and statues of important figures throughout history decorating their outer walls. City hall reaches up towards the sky and 300 of these statues of mayors, politicians, painters and more look down on the square at the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to visit this majestic city each year.
And the best part of all, my hostel was right down one of the streets that leads up to the Grand Place! All around the square was the best restaurants, waffle shops, frites shops and shopping! So, I bet you're wondering what a frite is right? Well, we call them "French" fries, but actually we are incorrect! Fries originated in Belgium and there are Belgian Frite shops everywhere! And what goes better with fries than a nice warm waffle? My favorite waffle shop was called Los Churros and Waffles and I fell IN LOVE with a Belgian sauce they had called Speculoos. It is similar to Nutella except that it tastes like Teddy Grahams or graham crackers! It was so delicious, I ate at least one a day. I mean, look at them, how couldn't you?
We toured the city in the most fairytale-esque way possible... a horse drawn carriage of course! The carriage ride was perfect, just 30 minutes and we got to see the main attractions around the square. We learned about all of the important buildings standing today as well as those we could no longer see. We learned that the city before us was not the original Brussels, the real Brussels was actually below our feet. The city had been destroyed by wars in the 13th century and the people built a bigger and better Brussels on top of the ruins. Down one of the side streets, though, you can actually see some of the ruins of the city below ground through glass panels!
While on the carriage ride, we passed by beautiful business and government buildings dating back to the 17th century that Brussels is famous for as the capital of the E.U. Around one of the corners of these majestic buildings, we saw a little boy peeing! His name is Mannekin Piss and he is actually a statue on the outskirts of the square. Technically, he's a fountain... of a little boy peeing, if you catch my drift. The legend goes that back in the days of the wars, a little boy peed on one of the bombs in the streets, stopping it from going off and saving the lives of many people! And so, they erected a statue in honor of the little peeing boy.
On the other side of the city (a metro ride away, DO NOT attempt to walk!) there is a massive structure called the Atomium. It is known as the Eiffel Tower of Belgium. The structure resembles a giant atom, but you can actually go inside of it. Stepping inside, you feel like you have entered the Twilight Zone. The balls all hold displays of both the creation of the structure as well as objects from past decades showing what the future was thought to look like. You travel from ball to ball by the escalators that are within the tubes connecting them. Traveling through those feels like you are in an episode of Star Trek; the lights change colors, and the round windows above allow you to see up into the sky. But, when you get to the top, you can see why it is called the Eiffel Tower of Belgium; the views of the city are incredible. We went at dusk right before closing time, and we watched the sun set over the city of Brussels. It was a beautiful sight to see.
My favorite day, however, was definitely Valentine's Day, or Gal-entine's Day as my friends and I called it. We took a train an hour north to the smaller city of Bruges. Getting off the train into the city, I felt as though I had stepped back 300 years in time. The city looks as though it is right out of the pages of a fairytale. Everywhere you look, there are cobblestone streets, horse-drawn carriages, and beautiful French and Dutch inspired houses. Canals run through the streets, and beautiful ornate churches can be found around every corner. There is a city square, just like that in Brussels, and the entire place is surrounded by beautiful colored shops, a massive tower, and plenty of old, majestic buildings. The city was a land of romance, and spending Galentine's day there was the best decision we made. It didn't hurt that Bruges is the chocolate capital of Belgium, either! I bought so many yummy pieces, and they were all gone by the end of the day! Bruges is now my new favorite city, and I hope to travel back there someday.. maybe with my own Valentine on my arm!
I took a huge step this past week; I made my first international excursion without the aid of my parents! Now, I didn't say the trip went entirely without a hitch.... I accidentally left my passport at the hostel on the journey back to Ireland and didn't realize it until an hour and a half later when I was at the airport. Needless to say, I missed my flight and had to pay a hefty price for a new one, but hey, lesson learned. I will now always check to make sure I have that little blue book before I leave. It could have been worse, I could have lost it!
In just 3 days, the beautiful city of Amsterdam became my favorite place in the world (I'm sure I'll say that about every place I go, but for now it's Amsterdam). The city is shaped like a half moon or the smile of the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland. Canals run through the entirety of the city, and beautiful old Dutch houses line these canals side by side in seamless rows. The houses were what made me fall for the city, not just for their beautiful architecture, but also the story behind them.
I took a free walking tour the first morning that I arrived. It was so perfect, the guide picked us up right from our hostel, the famous Flying Pig where many travelers stay, and we all walked to Dam Square where the free tour leaves from every day. It was my guide who told me the story of the city and these buildings I saw. I had noticed that some of the houses were crooked, others leaned into the streets, and every single one of them was as narrow as could be.
He answered all three of my questions first with the simple answer: The Dutch do anything they can to save money. Of course, this didn't make any sense to me, so he went on to explain what he meant. A long time ago, Amsterdam was a marshland with the Amstel river running through it. In order to make a city on top of these wetlands, the Dutch had to dam the Amstel (hence Amsterdam). To build houses on the soft soil, they took logs and thrust them deep into the ground in order to create stilts for the houses to be built on top of. Through the years, of course, some of these logs have rotted through, making sides of some of the houses sink into the soil slightly. This is what causes them to be crooked. But why don't the Dutch fix this? Well, the houses are all so close that when one is crooked, it leans up against the house beside it. The way the Dutch see it, if the house isn't going to fall, then why spend the money to fix it? Instead, they even out the floors and the windows on the inside to make the house appear to be straight. But if you're on the street, you will notice their crookedness.
As for the narrowness and front leaning of some of the houses, those go hand in hand. In the old days, property taxes on houses in Amsterdam were determined by the width of the house. Therefore, because the Dutch like to save every penny possible, narrow houses 5 stories high were the result. Now, how does one fit furniture and storage into these narrow houses and then proceed to carry them up those 5 steep flights of stairs? Why, you make a pulley on the outside of the house, of course, and hoist everything up through the window. But, how do you make it so that the items being pulled up don't break the windows when they sway? The Dutch thought the best solution to this was to build houses that tilted forward slightly so that the objects wouldn't hit the glass. It was too late before they realized that they could just make the pulley longer.
Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to make it to the Rijks or Van Gogh Museums, but I did get to see the I Amsterdam sign that is outside between the two. It is very crowded during the daytime, and difficult to take a picture of it. But my friends and I found that if you go back when it's dark, the pictures don't turn out quite as well, but there's no one there in the way of the sign! I also toured Anne Frank's House and they have done an amazing job with the museum and features throughout. Definitely worth the wait in line.
My final three comments about the beautiful city of Amsterdam:
1. Try the strropwaffles! Regular cookies will never taste the same again.
2. When crossing the street, watch out for bicycles more than cars.
3. The Red Light District looks EXACTLY how you would expect.
