Day 3: The Old Course at St Andrew's

I woke up this morning to a cloudy, rainy, chilly day in Edinburgh, about a two hour's drive from St Andrews. Usually, seeing weather like that out the window would bring depression, but for a day at St Andrews, the weather couldnt have been any better. When I think of the Old Course I picture in my head golfers struggling out there in terrible weather conditions. Kind of like if I went to Russia, I would want it to be absolutely miserably cold. Bone-chilling, because that is how I picture Russia.

Along the way to St Andrews we stopped at a few coastal towns where I learned a few more worthless little tid-bits just as yesterday I learned about shit-faced. It's a shame that these are the things I will remember from my travels.

Botched: As in, "You really botched that." It came from a story about the Forth Bridge built here just outside Edinburgh. The engineer, Thomas Bouch, was awarded responsibility for the design and construction of the bridge, just after he completed the Tay Bridge nearby. Well, the Tay Bridge collapsed just before construction was to begin on the Forth Bridge, so obviously he was taken off the project. Thus, creating the phrase locally, "A Bouched job." Which, after some time, somehow, change to botched any time someone in Scotland screwed something up.

But anyway,  the main attraction for me was obviously St Andrews. When we arrived to the course, it wasn't as I expected at all. Not in a bad way necessarily, it was just...different. For one, it was three courses piled right on top of each other, crossing paths and overlapping throughout the entire grounds. I did not play the course, but walked it 1-18 and found myself confused numerous times about what course I was actually even on. What I will remember most is definitely the bunkers. They are insane. Watching pro golfers try to get out of them is funny enough, but watching in-person, average golfers attempt to get out was hilarious.

After spending the afternoon walking the course and getting in everyone's way (I literally walked right down the middle of number 18 and over the bridge during play) our tour headed back to Edinburgh after a couple more stops in small towns. 

It was the best day so far. It is nap time now. Tomorrow it is off to Norway.

Day 2: Shit-faced Drunk

"What did you learn today, Brad?" That's what my mom would say around the dinner table in elementary school. Well, she wouldn't be too thrilled with what I learned today.


No, I did not get shit-faced drunk if that is what you are wondering. I did not have a single drink today actually. I did, though, go on a 'free' walking tour of Edinburgh today with an Irishman as our tour guide. A bit odd since I am in Scotland, but it was a great tour nonetheless. As I mentioned yesterday, Edinburgh is an absolutely amazing city. I feel confident saying it is already up there in my top 3 favorite European cities and may take the number 1 spot by the time I leave here. It is how I pictured Dublin would be, which ultimately disappointed me as a city. If you have to choose between Dublin or Edinburgh, hands-down go with Edinburgh. 

Edinburgh Castle. Across the street from my hostel.

What did I learn on my tour today? Well, I learned that the term shit-faced drunk came from Edinburgh. You see, in old Edinburgh families had no way to dispose of their urine and poo except to throw it in the streets and let it work its way down the Royal Mile to the lake. Problem is, they would throw it down there from their 3rd and 4th story windows into the streets during the day and obviously people would become covered in shit. Not an ideal system clearly. To solve the problem a law was put into placed restricting people from throwing their feces into the streets until after 10pm...the same time the pubs closed. 

The story goes that the French would come into town not knowing of this practice and leave the pubs walking under the windows and be so drunk that they had no idea that the locals were throwing their piss and feces down on their faces...leaving them shit-faced drunk. And that, folks, is your fun fact of the day. 

the elephant house. Where Rowling wrote much of Harry Potter.

Other than that, I saw the room JK Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potter books and the cemetery. Basically, this whole city reminds me of Harry Potter. Probably because she was inspired by so many of the places here. Hogwarts was based on a local private school here, the houses all look like Potter's, and the names on the headstones of many of the deceased in the cemetery across from Rowling's flat are character names in Harry Potter.

Finally, I ended the night by catching the 10pm showing of the newest Dark Knight movie. My least favorite of the three, but it was nice seeing a movie in a theatre for the first time in two years.

Off to St Andrews tomorrow. I cant wait.

Chronicles of My Last European Trip

Today I begin my world-wind, two-week trip that has been in the works for the last few months. If all goes as planned, it should be the most memorable of any trip Ive been on in the last two years here in Europe. My time working in Garmisch is done and I have three weeks left before my return to the States. On my two-week travel agenda is Scotland, where I will be spending three days in Edinburgh and taking a tour of the Old Course at St Andrews, a golf lovers dream. After my time in Scotland I will be moving on to Norway, where I will be in Oslo for two days and then hiking the fjords on the western coast for two days. 

The fact that I am finally making it to Norway is important to me. In college I was assigned Norway as the country for my final project in one of my travel and tourism classes and I instantly fell in love with it. Working on that project is when I can pinpoint acquiring the itch to travel Europe, as travellers call it. In Norway I will be hiking Priekestolen, or Pulpits Rock, a massive cliff overlooking the fjords. Safe it will not be. After Norway it is a quick 45-minute flight from Stavanger to London where my girlfriend will be meeting up with me for the Olympics. I have been lucky enough to get tickets to the Women's Gold Medal Soccer Game. (Hopefully the US Women make it!) After three days of taking in the Olympics and showing off my American pride/stupidity and trying to make it into the background of the Today Show it is red-eye flight time to Krakow, Poland for the Coke Live Music Festival where we will be seeing my favorite band, The Killers. In addition to them, the other headliner is Snoop Dogg of all people, in this two-day music festival. We will be camping on the grounds, which should be interesting, because as of now I have no tent. Somewhere along the way I should probably look into that. After Poland it is back to Garmisch to pack up all my belongings and move to St Louis, in which my two-year stint travelling Europe will come to an end and a new American adventure will begin.

Off we go...

Day 1: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Edinburgh, Scotland

Today will be comprised entirely of travel. After awhile though, the actual event of travelling becomes quite enjoyable. Never more so than during my 3-hour train ride from Garmisch to Memmingen Airport. On sunny summer days like today, there is no place in the world more beautiful than the Bavarian countryside. The rolling hills with the snow-capped Alps in the distance, the cattle and horses casually roaming the farms, and the men, women, and children in their traditional dirndls and lederhosen ready for a day's work or, more likely, a day spent at the beer festival in a town nearby. Nothing beats Bavaria.

After spending a couple hours finishing up the first Hunger Games book on the train, I reach Memmingen Airport for my flight to London where I have a 5-hour layover. In the terminals and concourses of Stansted Airport in London you just feel the buzz of the Olympics taking place about 12km away in the heart of the city. Everyone is reading the news of the previous days' events. The Brits is reminiscing about Great Britain's Men's Gymnastics Team's Bronze Medal, the first medal in 100 years for them. Germans are walking around in their red, black, and yellow, British boys in their soccer jerseys are running around reenacting Ryan Giggs goal from the day before, and the Americans are all decorated head-to-toe in their stars and stripes...and jean shorts. 

At some point during my 5-hour layover it hits me that I am going to run out of money on this trip. I think it was when I exchanged the 105 EUR in my wallet and got 77 pounds in return. God, it sucks getting paid in dollars. I went from $135 to 105 EUR to 77 pounds. I have already committed to sleeping two nights in Norwegian airports to save money, but now it may be three. Ive researched the best areas of the airport for sleep (Yes, there is a website for that. Sleepinginairports.net). Norway is the most expensive place in the world. To put it in perspective, a McDonald's hamburger will run you approximately $6. Yes, for one measly, shitty, hamburger. The cheapest hostel I can find (which has awful reviews) will set me back $80/night. I find a hostel for one night in Oslo for $95 and a bed in a mountain lodge near Preikestolen  for $76. This is just for a bed in an 8-bed dorm room. I'll be sleeping in a damn bunk bed.

Pulpit's Rock

At around 11pm I finally arrive in Scotland and settle into my 8-bed dorm room. My favorite part about the UK? Reading and speaking ENGLISH, duh. It really is comforting after living in Germany though. The hostel is in a great location, just across the street from Edinburgh Castle. There are only two of us in the room. Me and a guy from Dominica. No, not the Dominican Republic which is what I thought, but a really small island nation down near South America in the Caribbean that Christopher Columbus named after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday (Dominica in Latin) November 3, 1493. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominica He explains to me where it is and how he ended up in Scotland, then oddly, mixes in the statement 'I am not black,' which is odd, because clearly he isn't. He is white. I look into it later online and see that the island's 71,000 population consists primarily of former African slaves and is the first British Colony to have a legislature controlled by a black majority. This just goes to show, you can travel all you want, and think that you are cultured and fairly confident in the happenings of the world, but really there is so much we don't know. Maybe you knew about Dominica and its history, but I honestly hadn't a clue.

Time for bed now. Big day of walking around seeing Edinburgh tomorrow.