The story of one American college student getting lost in the UK

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After Edinburgh, I went back to the Kelvingrove to finish seeing the last of the museum. And after that? I did very little. I spent about a week cooking and preparing to come back home. I had some ingredients left over from the semester, and as other students moved out I inherited their food. I spent a lot of time cooking, and experimented with a metric chocolate chip cookie recipe (but they never seemed to come out right).

It’s bittersweet leaving Glasgow. I had been looking forward to coming back home for the cheesy reason that I missed my family (particularly my cats!). While traveling had been fun, being in a different time zone made planning things for this summer and beyond difficult. Going into study abroad, I knew it was an experience with a definitive end. As the end approached and I had to plan for things in the US, being far away was becoming a hindrance.

Now that I’m back in the US, I miss Glasgow. I met some great people and really enjoyed the classes I took. The city was wonderful, and being able to walk places was something I took for granted. I miss the accent. All the traveling I got to do was amazing, and I saw so much in such a short period of time. Going to places where I didn’t speak the language was particularly eye-opening, while also terrifying.

In times like this I feel incredibly lucky to live in our current day, with all of our technology. With social media, I can stay in contact with so many people that I met and befriended. While I may be leaving the continent, I don’t need to leave their lives.

I hope you have enjoyed reading along on my adventures abroad! Chronicling my journey has been helpful for me to remember what I’ve done, and also share with others without breaking email size limits with all of my photos.

My story here ends much like it began: due to when my flight back to the US was, I arrived two days to orientation for my summer internship. But I didn’t miss any flights this time, so I call it an improvement.

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My last trip in Scotland was to Edinburgh, the capital! I had only seen the Edinburgh airport previously, and I couldn’t miss out on checking out the city when it was just a cheap train ride away. The city itself is quite complicated to navigate, with many hills and layers and bridges. The old town itself felt like a fantasy city, and I loved it! 

I went to the Surgeon’s Hall Museums, which had an incredible collection. Edinburgh was an essential location in the development of modern medicine, with a focus on dissecting cadavers to learn anatomy and scientific experiments rather than trusting the texts of the Ancient Greeks during the Scottish Enlightenment. Grave robbing became a large problem as the medical students’ demand for cadavers outpaced what the government wanted to legally provide. No pictures were allowed in the museum, but it was a great look into medical history.

I also went on a ghost tour into the vaults of Edinburgh, which are underground structures built in the arches of the South Bridge in the 1700s. To be honest, I wanted to see the vaults themselves rather than any ghosts. In a foolish move, the city planned the space to be used by craftsmen, ignoring the fact that it had no natural light or airflow. Craftsmen soon left the space, and were replaced by criminals and the city’s poorest. The vaults reminded me of caves I’ve been in, and I cannot believe that Irish immigrants would have to raise families in the space. No ghosts sighted, though.

Edinburgh is an absolutely incredible city, and the layers of the city made it feel like something from a book. Wandering around the old streets was great fun, and it was a nice day trip.

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We then made it to Loch Ness, which was beautiful! I was so grateful for the good weather we had. Loch Ness is the largest loch by volume, only helping to fuel the legends of monsters in the depths. We didn’t see any monster, just the gorgeous landscape.

We went out on a cute boat for an hour, enjoying the landscape. We could also see the ruins of Urquhart Castle on the shore!

On the way back, we drove through Inverness, the capital of the Highlands. We stopped in a small town shortly after, and bought some locally made ice cream to end the day.

The trip north was wonderful, and I’m glad I managed to visit the Highlands before leaving Scotland. The environment is so different from what I’m used to, and the sweeping hills without trees are so unique.

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Just a quick explanation of why I haven’t posted anything recently!

 In my preparations to return to the US, I changed back from my UK SIM card to my US SIM card in my phone. However, when I tired to restore my phone to a backup, it wanted to send an authentication code to my UK number, and I wasn’t paying for service on that card. I didn’t want to pay the expensive rate for a single text message, so I had to wait a few days for my Apple ID to let me back in. Now, everything is well and I will be finishing up with some final photos and thoughts on my study abroad experience!

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On the 18th, we went on a bus tour to Loch Ness! The first part of the trip was up to Loch Lomond, which is a great National Park just North of Glasgow. Loch Lomond is the largest loch by area, and it is huge! I learned that the song which I had know as “the I’ll take the high road, you take the low road song” is actually called the Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond. It’s also the last song traditionally played at the end of a Scottish wedding reception! (Here’s a version that I really enjoy)

After Loch Lomond, we went up to Glen Coe. which is a gorgeous landscape. The mountains and hills without any trees are so odd to me, and it really messes with my sense of scale. You may recognize the area as a filming location for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets! Another lovely sight was the blooming gorse and broom, two very similar looking plants that dominate patches of the countryside. Its so yellow! 

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Next in Belfast was the Titanic Belfast, which is a really modern visitor attraction... thing? I wouldn’t call it a museum, exactly. The first part was checking out the SS Nomadic, which is the last White Star vessel remaining. It was used to carry passengers out to the Titanic. (Enjoy my messy hair - it was windy and drizzling.) The actual Titanic Belfast building started with the history of Belfast and the events leading up to the Titanic’s construction. Then, to represent the building of the Titanic, they had a RIDE. If you’ve ever been to Hershey Park, it was exactly like the Chocolate World ride (without the cows). They had heaters facing you around the fake kilns! It was wild.

A window showed where the Titanic had been at launch (there’s a faint outline visible in the picture). Next was the sinking of the Titanic, which was surprisingly sad given that I knew what was coming. They had the last message sent out by the ship on the wall, half cut-off, and those kinds of things always get to me. It was also interesting to realize that public interest in the Titanic largely stems from the number of wealthy individuals who died in the sinking.

To end our exploration, we walked around the Botanic Garden, which was quite cute!

Our flight the next day was early, so we decided to take the last train to the airport around midnight rather then walking for an hour. The train station was right next to the airport, which was really convenient. We had gotten a bus from the airport that stopped a few minutes away from our hostel, so I was feeling really good about Belfast. It had been so much less trouble then our adventure to the airport in Madrid. And then we arrived at the airport gate - which was locked until 3:30.

So we sat outside of this gate for a good half hour before a guard came over to open the gate and let an employee drive out of the parking lot. He told us there was a 24 hour Tesco up the road that we could hang out in, so we took a hike over to the Tesco. Now, this Tesco was a Tesco Extra, while we are used to Tesco Express’s in Glasgow. So we spent two hours exploring all of British Walmart (with a break in the middle to go outside and eat the snacks we bought).

Belfast was a great city, and it really reminded me of home. There’s definitely some similarities between Baltimore and Belfast, and it has me looking forward to going back home. 

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After the Ulster Museum, we walked over to the HMS Caroline and saw a seal in the harbor! It was so cute, and I wish I could have taken a picture to show you! The Caroline served in WWI and WWII, living through some intense naval battles. Now, the ship is decked out in it’s WWI style. There were also jellyfish swimming around the ship, which was an unexpected surprise! My favorite thing I learned on the ship was that they had three ship mascots - two cats and a rabbit!

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The evening of the fourteenth, my roommate and I found ourselves in the Glasgow airport again. We flew out to Belfast, Northern Ireland and arrived with only enough time to sleep.

We started the next day at the Ulster Museum. It had a great collection, with wicker dragons, a Game of Thrones medieval-style tapestry, art, and fossils! I didn’t actually know that Game of Thrones was filmed in Northern Ireland until I arrived. The two paintings I took photos of were by Sir John Lavery, and I absolutely love his style. The ammonite and driftwood fossil is simply incredible, and it took hundreds of hours for all of the shells to be uncovered from the rock. Only part of the largest shell was visible when it was first uncovered! The museum also had part of a granite column from the Giant’s Causeway, which is located near Belfast. Since we only had one day in the city, we didn’t have time to head out to see it. I will definitely come back one day to see it for myself, though! The museum itself had an interesting architectural style, with half of it’s exterior being modern while the other was more classical.

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The Kelvingrove Museum had a wonderful art collection, and I took pictures of some of my favorites!

Albert Marquet’s The Port of Algiers is just gorgeous, with the blue and orange playing off each other. I had to take a picture of Monet’s View of Ventimiglia, with the classic softness of Monet’s works. I love the simplification in SJ Peploe’s Laggan Farm Buildings near Dalbeattie. It was interesting to see Vincent van Gogh’s Portrait of Alexander Reid, as I’ve never seen a portrait done by van Gogh. Reid was a Glaswegian art dealer who shared a flat with van Gogh in Paris for some time. Rachel Ruysch’s Flowers in a Terracotta Vase is so incredibly realistic, with such clearly defined petals! Peploe’s color patches are seen again in Old Duff, giving such a lovely style to the figure. His clothes almost seem like part of the background, with flesh-tone really popping out. The use of red in JD Fregusson’s The Pink Parasol - Bertha Case really stood out to me, as well as the strong brushstrokes.

The museum was so large that I could only get through one floor before running out of time. But don’t worry, I’ll be back there again!

After the museum, I stopped by a food truck that has been set up everyday on the path I take to campus. The gyro was so good! 

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I spent a good bit of time studying for my final marine bio exam after returning from Madrid, but it was all worth it! I’m hoping I did okay on it, since it counts for 70% of my grade!

Now that I’m finished with exams, I’ve been spending all my time tourist-ing around! I finally stopped in the Hunterian Art Gallery on campus, which had an interesting collection. Hunter himself bought the tiny Rembrandt I took a picture of, which was the most expensive painting he bought. However, it was still less than some of the minerals he purchased! There were also many works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, which were just lovely.

Now that its warmer, Kelvingrove Park has really come alive! I took a walk around the place, and it looks so different with all of the green!

I went out with some friends for Sunday Roast before they went home for the semester. It was sooooo good, and I finally had some Yorkshire pudding!

I also stopped by the Kelvingrove Museum, which has a varied collection covering many times and places. The building itself is also quite beautiful!

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The garden also had a greenhouse area with desert and tropical plants. I’d never seen a blooming aloe plant before, so I was surprised to find one. Sadly, I couldn’t get a good picture of it.

After the garden, we went to the Chocolatería San Ginés, which is a café that has been open in the area since 1894. They are know for their chocolate con churros, a rich Spanish breakfast. The churros were delicious, without the cinnamon-sugar of the Mexican version, but I wasn’t prepared for the Spanish hot chocolate. I knew it was rich - I did not know it was essentially a chocolate sauce for drinking. As I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate (I know, I know.), I think I’d rather have my churros with café con leche next time. So much chocolate...

We then got lost and found the Basilica de San Francisco el Grande, which had a cute garden next to it with a beautiful view! With some reorienting, we found a cluster of restaurants and then struggled to chose where to stop. We eventually picked one restaurant, which served paella as tapas. It was so good! I wasn’t hungry due to the chocolate con churros, so tapas and a beer was enough for me.

I had read on the internet that there were supposed to be fireworks that night, to celebrate Labor Day and the May 2nd holiday. So we waited in a park for two hours, watching as the sun set. There were no fireworks.

Once again, I was taking an early flight out of the airport. In order to get to the airport, the last metro train left at 2am. So we took the metro out and then walked through a residential area, following a man with a rolling suitcase who we assumed was also walking to the airport. We eventually lost him but arrived at the employee entrance to the airport, and then spent quite a bit of time walking around to the main entrance.

Madrid was wonderful, and I wish I had more time to travel in Spain! It was great to go there before coming back to study for my final exam. 

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After our walk through the park, we headed over to the Royal Botanical Garden! On our way we passed the Museo Nacional del Prado, which was closed for the holiday. We did get to see some statues around it, though! 

The garden had so many gorgeous flowers in bloom! They also had some palms under netting for protection, because there is apparently a beetle that can kill them in the area. 

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The next day, we had a late start in preparation for a late night to get to the airport. We went to the Puerta de Alcalá, which was built in 1778 to replace the older medieval gate in the city’s walls. We then took a long walk through El Retiro, which is a huge and beautiful park! The weather was wonderful as well! We also found a bunch of cats napping in the park, which was a great surprise! 

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We then went to the Reina Sofia art museum, which has free entry from 7-9 on Monday nights! The museum was huge, and we barely got through two floors before it closed. I made sure to see Picasso’s Guernica, which was presented alongside many of his sketches and studies of elements that would be included in the final piece. Its an incredible piece, and the size of it really makes a statement. There were also a couple of Salvador Dalí’s works, which are always incredible to stare at. The detail and optical illusions he created are impressive purely from a technical standpoint, but the way he used it to create meaning is another level of skill entirely. (Dalí’s one of my favorite artists, can you tell?) Pieces that I liked and I was allowed to take picture of include a series of abstractions by Luis Gordillo called Bather with little circles and a little study done by Julio González.

We were kicked out of the museum at closing time, but my backpack was still in the coatroom on the other side of the museum. One could say my eight years of Spanish classes were leading up to the moment when I had to ask the security guard at the main entrance to let me back inside. A very stressful five minutes, but everything worked out in the end!

After the museum, we went to a little tapas bar called Tinto y Tapas. I had a glass of red wine, but I was slightly disappointed that the only tapas offered were olives. It was a very casual end to the day.

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On April 30th we went back to the Glasgow Airport, this time for a short trip to Madrid! I was really looking forward to visiting Spain while on this side of the Atlantic (and I’m taking a culture of Spain course next semester, so you could even say this was an educational trip!). The flight was super cheap as well (£43 for a round trip!). 

Our time in Madrid started with a delicious lunch. Traditionally lunch is the largest meal in Spain, and we didn’t want to miss out! I ate the best roast chicken I’ve ever had! We then walked to the Plaza de España and same the monument to Cervantes, which had bronze statues of Don Quixote and Sancho in front of Cervantes himself. I loved reading Don Quixote, so it was really cool to see the monument.

We continued on to the Temple of Debod, which was an Ancient Egyptian temple to Amun that was given to Spain in 1968. The original site was going to be underwater, due to the building of the Aswan High Dam, so the temple was deconstructed and sent to Madrid. The park around it had a wonderful view, and a giant agave plant. 

We walked past the Royal Palace on our way to la Plaza Mayor, which was huge! It was so cool to actually see a place that I had read about in my middle school Spanish textbooks. We then walked over to the Puerta del Sol, which was super busy. It reminded me of Time Square, with all the street artists, tourists, and mascot characters trying to get you to take a picture with them. Puerta del Sol was where the old post office was located in Madrid, so it was historically an important place to learn news from abroad and around the country. We saw the statue of Charles III, and el Oso y el Madroño, which is the image on the coat of arms of Madrid. The madroño, I learned, translates to the strawberry tree, which immediately confused me. Apparently, the strawberry tree is a Mediterranean and western European tree with small red fruits that kind of look like strawberries. It’s always a good time to learn a new botany fact!

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The castle currently houses an agricultural museum, and had flowering bushes in the courtyard. Apparently the castle had originally been built out of cardboard and wood in 1896, but they re-built it permanently due to it’s popularity.

Continuing through the park, we went over to a George Washington statue which I hadn’t expected to see. It was built in 1906 by the American Hungarian Federation, to celebrate the connection between the U.S. and Hungary. Walking through City Park was a calm end to my time in Budapest, and it was nice to catch up with a friend.

I really enjoyed Budapest, and it was a nice end before having to go back to Scotland (even though I had to stay up all night at the airport because i had to catch the last bus). I had a great time on this Easter Break adventure, but Its always nice to come back to your own bed.

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Then, we went to a cat cafe! I’d been to the cat cafe in Baltimore, but this one was a little different. These cats aren’t up for adoption, so they’re much more laid back and generally unperturbed by humans. They were adorable! One cat took a real shine to Ellie and let her pet it’s stomach.

We took the old metro line (which had fancy little stations) to get to our next destination. It’s the third oldest metro in the world! Walking down the steps we saw a man drop a bottle of wine on the ground, shattering it, which was heartbreaking.

We arrived in Heroes’ Square. The Millennial Monument stood proud even in the cloudy weather. This monument was built to celebrate 1,000 years of Hungarian state, and was completed while Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As such, half of the monument had statues of - you guessed it - the Hapsburg family. However, after it was damaged in WWII the statues were replaced with Hungarian figures.

We walked into City Park, seeing the Vajdahunyad Castle which was built at the same time as the Millennium Monument. I have more photos, so I’ll continue in the next post!