Solo Country Hopping Begins

Week 1 - Vacation Bible School in the Bronx, NYC
Week 2 - News Release Basketball Camp in Lorrach, GER
Week 3 - Black Forest Academy (southwestern Germany)
Week 4 - London, Oxford, Edinburgh, Scotland, Southern Europe
Week 5 - Southern Europe, Tokyo
Week 6 - Tokyo, Hong Kong
Week 7 - Los Angeles

Chapter 3

I just ate the best raspberry I have ever had in my life. Food can be a beautiful thing and a fine pastry shop called "Paul" located in Lisbon airport and founded in 1889, has nailed the art of a raspberry pastry. So, of course, how could I possibly resist? YUM.

Now, within reason, that has been the story of my life over the last week. Even while serving at BFA last week, I was also itinerary planning for this week and next. Who do I know over here? Where do I want to go that would be easiest to do while traveling solo? All while keeping a budget in mind...an undetermined budget :), but I'm pretty sure before every purchase I do a subconscious check if Mom's eyebrows would raise, crinkle in consternation, or stay the same as she would shake her head and smile. I guess we shall see at the end of my journey if I followed her advice more often than not.

Harvard teammate and 2015 graduate, Erin McDonnell, turned in her dissertation for her Master's degree in Public Health from the University of Edinburgh. Birthmom side cousin, Coast Guard member, and part of the Boston family branch, Joe Durfey, was serving on a music and ministry trip with his church from Virginia. Destination? To Scotland...Edinburgh of all places. Soooo...eyebrow raise inserted, and a plane ticket was purchased to fly to Great Britain. Toss in a late night appearance to Oxford University where I bunked up at a hostel called YHA (GREAT place!...felt a bit like Mary and Joseph, minus a TON of key components, when I rolled up to their door at half past midnight even though online it said booked full. A bed in a female dorm where I experienced my first hostel in complete peace and quiet and I was a fan) and set my alarm for 5:30am to go take a self led campus tour.

TOTALLY WORTH IT! Such an amazing place! The history, the architecture, the open fields and lovely rivers, the super helpful city maps and concise descriptive paragraphs on what was in front of me...truly an incredible experience. I didn't know a soul on campus currently, but my college roommate had attended there for her Master's degree in Medical Anthropology (she's now getting her MD at Stanford Medical School). After a nice stroll to start the day, I headed back for breakfast and caught the bus back to London. Having been there for a 10 hour visit with friends before, I had knocked out quite a few tourist spots, but I had my heart set on reaching the Tower Bridge. Starting at London Victoria, I was in for quite the hike...

Why do you have to pay to use the bathroom?!? Can't a girl just try and stay hydrated in peace?!? Ugh. That's all I will say. It thankfully was a bit overcast until I reached the bridge, and then right on time, thank you Lord :), the sun came out for some niiiiice photos. A bit exhausted, I made my way to the train station, found room on a bench outside by some nice looking old gentlemen...and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep for nearly 30 minutes. Clutch like a wrestler on my bags just in case, no one worry. From Britain to Scotland I rode the train, watching the sunset over rolling hills covered with sheep and cows. Loooooaaaadddsss of sheep. And some stunning horses! (I should add, extra blessings to those who willingly ride backwards on trains/subways. I've done that once and that was one time too many for me.) All the sudden, I look to the east and the train could literally fall right over the edge of the cliff! Hello to the crags of Scotland.

At this point I had recovered and was finally awake. Or I thought I was. The train pulled into Waverly station, I stepped out, and BRRRRR!!! OH MY!!! Maybe 60 degrees? Which in a tshirt and capri yoga pants in Illinois, maybe I would be loving it. But when my mindset all along had been Southern Europe and sunshine, this was a rude awakening that BFA needed to be applied. Be flexible always...and put on a jacket!

A little wandering and flights of stairs and I found my teammate dressed and ready to enjoy the largest arts festival in the world called the Fringe Festival. Cheers! Turf covered beer garden and birthday party for a friend and I felt like I was right back in college (same rules that I had then). We eventually made it back to the dorm and Erin asked me what my step count was for the day. Huh? Old person moment-check. She promptly showed me on my phone that Apple tracked me everywhere I went. Weird. Oh well because then I was pumped that I had knocked out 17 miles from 5:30am to 2:00am! New record :)

Sunday morning I woke up a little late, took a blessed shower (Erin had a lovely flat on campus and was an even better host), and took a little walk to find Joe at the church where he was playing for morning worship. I arrived a little late, but all was well, and it was so cool to take part in the service of Destiny Church. An incredibly diverse church, they have multiple campuses and are sharing about the Grace and Truth of Christ right out of the Bible. Solid.

A bus ride down Princes street, full of fashion stores and a gagillion people, followed by a walk up and down the Royal Mile, and I was content with my experience of the Fringe festival. Then came the shortbread. Oh me oh my. Shortbread, hot chamomile tea, and a phenomenal deep/intriguing/thought-provoking/challenging conversation with my HWBB for life sister and it was a Sunday for the books. Additional bonus came when we facetimed with our teammate and my classmate Elle on her family vacation down the shore in Jersey. Among many things, we had a lively discussion about the effectiveness of cupping, a phenomenon everyone was discussing after Michael Phelps had circles all over his shoulders and chest. Yepp. It always looks like that. It works really well to loosen up the skin tissue from the muscle. And it's fun to play with...thank you Harvard trainer :)

The next morning I woke up to sunshine coming through my window. My tour bus didn't leave for awhile so I journaled and listened to Flat Irons Community Church's message for the weekend. A really nice way to start a Monday. Until my bus was going to be leaving actually quite soon. Then it turned into a sprint. Fifty pounds (about $60+) is no joke. In my rush I forgot the simple directions Erin had given me and became overly disoriented. In my defense, everything looks different when it is overcast than how it looked in the bright sunlight with blue sky everywhere! A little God bless him help from a Scottish man on his way to work and I had called the bus service to make sure they didn't leave me. He pointed me in the right direction and off I flew. POURING sweat. Classic. Fanned myself for the first 30 minutes of the trip ha.

WOW. Thank you for waiting Sir because the tour was AMAZING. Done by The Heart of Scotland tour company, I took the Scotland in a day tour that went from 9am to 6:30pm. We traveled through the city and headed northwest to the base of the Highlands, a city called Dunkeld (Dad, this is the location of the river panorama in the set of photos with the cathedral near the beginning of the tour shots). From there we continued on to Blair Castle where I took a tour of both the castle and the gardens, as well as some of my own exploring all around the grounds. About to run out of time, I rushed to the dining hall and ate chocolate fudge cake for lunch and purchased some scones with raisins for the road. Insert, consternation eyebrows from Mom as lunch cost me 8£. But I made the bus :)

Next we went to the Queen's View where you could look across multiple lochs and down a river leading all the way to the western border of Scotland. I wasn't paying enough attention to remember the names but it was an incredible view. Having pointed out the "mountains" (a passenger from Russia strongly disputed the use of that word), our driver noted that being so far north, Arctic winds effected anything above the tree line. Yay jacket weather because next stop was to smell the heather on top of those said mountains. My parents would have loved it...I missed a little more greenery. Also, random tidbit, but I slept a Ton on the trip. It was like a nodding off marathon. Every time he talked or there was something to look at, "I'm up, I'm up"...otherwise...hopefully I didn't snore. Kenmore was a scenic resort village--where the other loch, river, and bridge panoramic photos are from--that we enjoyed along the way back before stopping at Hermitage place where for the first time in awhile I was legitimately scared.

See I have this thing. An urge that acts up whenever I see rocks. I want to, I must, climb them. So after seeing one of the largest trees in Great Britain, a Douglas Fir that was super tall, and going to where some famous writer (Walter Scott maybe?) would go to think deep thoughts while overlooking a gorgeous waterfall, I wanted to touch the water. That took some maneuvering. But down I scampered until I was directly under the bridge and my toes where on the edge of a very deep dark pool. My thoughts? Of Knights and ancient battles and soldiers dying in the water. One of my worst fears would be struggling in water so needless to say those thoughts weren't helpful, neither was the ledge I was on, so after taking a moment to face the fear and snap a couple of photos, up the rocks I scampered again. Ew. Heebyjeeby feeling for sure. What to do after that? Climb the stone wall in front of me of course. Hopefully I didn't scare that random family too much as I emerged over the edge. Then another jog to catch the bus...what can I say, I'm a creature of habit.

Napping and bus riding back to the city and I met Erin back at the flat. After a little downtime, we went out to eat down the street and then headed up to the crags overlooking the city. Coolest moment of the Scotland segment of the trip. We didn't make it all the way to Arthur's seat, it was too late and she still had some work to do on her dissertation, but we saw the sunset and the city come alive in the lights. Nearly a full moon looked over the city on the other side. It was the perfect way to finish the Edinburgh experience...and the best part? It wasn't even cold!! :)

3:45AM. TIME TO WAKE UP! Shower, pack, walk to catch the bus, sit in the airport waiting at the gate because so far security has been a breeze. Oo. Minus customs in London. Gross. Promptly fell asleep on my bags, only to thank the Good Lord be miraculously awakened on time to get in line. I had learned my lesson with my first Easy Jet flight and had purchased a scarf with an accompanying bag large enough to fit my tote so I wasn't charged 60€ (thank you Basel ugh). Boarded the plane, and off to Lisbon I was shipped. Did I remember it was a 3+ hour flight? Nope. So I wasn't upset about the middle seat until halfway through the trip when they charged for snacks and drinks and my neck was like a slinky with knots. But oh hallelujah when I caught glimpses of sunshine and the ocean out the window, and even more so the vibrant colors of the buildings, my slinky neck faded to the background as my new adventure began:

Lisboa!

(On the train heading north from Barcelona right now to meet up with an old AAU teammate! Gotta run!)

Much love!

M