Mom's Visit and our trip to London!

Taylor left Sunday March 8th mid-day and then my mom got into Scotland that night!!! 

Since I figured my mom would be a little jet-lagged we decided to take it easy and ate dinner at her hotel (The Scotsman) and then just relaxed in her room! The next day, Monday, I had class so my mom met me at Peter's Yard for lunch in between classes!  After I finished class for the day I met up with my mom again, showed her my shoe-box of a flat, and then we got dinner at this really great Italian place on George Street, Gusto.  Honestly, it was one of the best meals I had had in Scotland so far! On Tuesday I met my mom for lunch at the Outsider before I headed to class! Once I finished class I met up with my mom again for dinner.  My mom took me and my friends from school to a great Thai place, Thai Orchid.  On Wednesday I didn't have class so I showed my mom the castle (I could now be a tour guide I know so much about that place) and then we just toured around the city a little bit before grabbing dinner in New Town at a sea food place.  

On Thursday we flew to London!!! I had not been there since I graduated from high school so I was glad to go back! We arrived and immediately went to Harrods (surprise, surprise) and then walked around a bit before heading back to the hotel.  The next day (Friday) we rode the London Eye which had amazing views of the city! After that we did a little bit more touring around before we got dinner and saw Hairspray! Saturday we did some more touring of the city and then saw Mamma Mia live!  Our last night we went to a really fantastic Indian food restaurant!  Then on Sunday my mom flew back to Texas/ I went to Edi.  

Tay's Visit to Scotland!

Hello again!

The weekend after my trip to Italy Taylor came all the way from Prague to visit! She arrived on Thursday March 5th around 10pm and we went straight to one of my favorite places, The Jazz Bar! They have this amazing guitarist perform every Tuesday and Thursday from 1-3am! 

On Friday Tay and I got breakfast at another great spot, Always Sunday, before we headed to the Castle! (shown below). 

 

After the castle I took Tay to what I thought was this really adorable cafe called Chocolate Soup.  Unfortunately we BOTH got food poisoning by 5:30 pm and literally did not get out of bed until around 9am the next day.  On Saturday when we were feeling better Tay and I walked around New Town and did a little shopping on George Street! That night we all went out to the 5-story club Espionage! Sunday morning Tay and I got some brunch and then Tay was off to the airport to go back to Prague! Other than the oh so wonderful food poisoning it was such a great weekend! 

My Fabulous Weekend with the Lafitte Family

(and the much needed life update continues with my recap of my Italy trip)

From February 25th-March 1st I visited Amy and her family in Italy! I arrived in Florence on Wednesday and immediately fell in love with the greatness that is Italian food! Amy took me out to a great restaurant my first night and then to her favorite little bar Kakuya! 

The next day we took the train to meet up with Amy's parents who were renting the most amazing house in the Tuscany countryside.  Amy's parents met us at the train and then, of course, we went and got MORE amazing italian food in Sienna before driving to the house.  I had, hands down, the most delicious, heavenly gnocchi I have EVER consumed.  hmmmm delicious. After dinner we drove to the house (after slightly getting lost).  The house was AMAZING.  The next day Amy's two friends from her program met us and we went to a little Italian town (which I know cant remember the name of... this is why you should not wait until two months after to blog) and bought wine and cheese.  Then we went back to the house and had a little wine/cheese before our big pizza feast later that night! The house had a massive pizza (pictured) oven outside so we cooked delicious pizzas (also pictured) for dinner and then went into food coma! 

Saturday we literally did not leave the house once.  Instead we based our day on eating!  I woke up and ate breakfast.  Sat around, ate lunch.  Watched High School Music 3 with the girls (yes we are in fact in college and watch HSM 3... and yes I put up pictures of this as well), then ate MORE cheese.  For dinner the Lafittes had an amazing Italian cook come in to cook us a wonderful traditional Italian meal! Finally on Sunday, after gaining what felt like a million or so pounds, we took the train back to Florence and then I came back to Scotland! 

Yes I am, in fact, alive

Hey Yall!

So its official, I am the worst blogger of all time.  Sorry family for being so absolutely lame but here here is a very longgggg post explaining all the fun places I have been since Copenhagen (which I realize was over 2 months ago.  whoops). 

For the weekend of February 20th I went to northern Scotland with a few of my friends from Edinburgh! We took the morning train and arrived in Inverness around lunchtime.  Inverness was amazingly beautiful and the pictures I took there don't even seem real! Below is a picture of the river that runs through the city! Later on in the day we visited the Black Isle Brewery.   

Black Isle is an organic beer brewery a few miles outside of the city.  We got to see where the beer was made (they hand bottle their beers!) and tried a few of their brews (my personal favorite was their red kite brew).  Below are some pictures of the brewery and the surrounding scenery! That night we got dinner at a traditional Scottish pub, Hootananny's.  Oddly enough this little pub is famous for its Thai food so we ate and then enjoyed the traditional Scottish music (which included a man on a fiddle and alot of dancing).  On our last day we took the ferry to Loch Ness and went Nessie spotting! Sadly Nessie was a little shy and didn't show up, but we still got some great pictures of Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle.