Liam Kinnon

It is hard to believe that it has been a little over a month since I was in Europe.  Already it feels like the memories are slipping into dull recollections. Sensory phantasms jolted alive by a word, a picture, or a dream.

It is strange, because I traveled with someone I had met briefly, and we haven’t spoken much since.  I think the rehearsal of conversations, the “remember whens…” help make the past real.  My brother and his girlfriend traveled together this past summer.  Their stories, and the way they still fill them out for each other, come across as fully alive these six months later.  I worry that the adventure I experienced will start to feel like it belonged to someone else.

Then again, maybe not.

Scotland was a lot of fun. It was a quick few days, trying to pack a lot of things in. I got to see so much, and learn more about this country within a country.

Our first day in Scotland we walked up to the Edinburgh castle. It is an amazing, and imposing building. It hosts the crown jewels of Scotland, as well as a few museums, and a scotch and book store (a winning combination if you ask me).

We spent the majority of that day wandering along the Royal Mile and enjoying the various sights of the Old City. As well as occasionally snooping about for unprotected wifi.

The next day we got up early and made our way to Haggis Adventures for a Highlands Tour. There were a number of stops, the most beautiful being Glencoe. A beautiful place with a tragic history, it was the scene of the massacre of the MacDonald clan.

I also took advantage of the opportunity to eat Haggis. Sounds (and kind of looks) gross, but tastes exactly the opposite. I really enjoyed it. A delicious breakfast.

Our final Highland Adventure stop was Loch Ness.  We did not see one of the monsters, but did enjoy some spectacular scenery.  It was incredibly beautiful.  I plan to return to Scotland do a walking tour through the Highlands.  It is an amazing place.

The following Morning Heidi returned to London to catch her flight home.  It has been strange traveling “alone” after five weeks of having a friend (a well-organized friend no less!) along for the journey.  I say “alone” because I have fortunately spent the last few days first with very good friends in Edinburgh, and am now with family friends just outside of London.

I spent another day in Edinburgh being shown about the city by my hosts.  I got to see some delightful things, but the pictures are on the point and shoot, not my iPhone.  I did manage to get one over to my Facebook page.  It is pretty epic.

Yesterday I took the train to London, then another train out to Surrey, where I am staying now.  It has been a wonderfully relaxed day here so far, a trend I plan to continue until I depart for Estonia on Monday.

Wow, time has been flying the past few days. London was great. I had so much fun and saw so many different things. I especially loved that the museums are all free. I highly recommend the Tate Modern and National Gallery.



A rather strange piece at the Tate modern.

I also really enjoyed the tower of London. Even if it wasn’t free. Definitely take part in one of the yeoman warder tours, included with the ticket. They are both entertaining and informative.



Gates of the tower.

We took the train out to Cambridge and met up with some good friends who are graciously hosting us. I had an incredible day. We started with a wonderful lunch at a pub on the river. Then we went out punting, which was a ton of fun.



Paul and I, I’m punting!

After this we visited the museum, which had a decent collection, especially of Cezanne.

We went from the museum to kings college chapel for choral evensong, which was absolutely gorgeous. The chapel and the choir.

We had dinner, then went to see te Murray Watts play: Mr. Darwin’s Tree. It was a fantastic one-man play. Great writing, and brilliant acting and blocking. I loved it.

Yes, Cambridge has been a lot of fun. We are off to Edinburgh tonight. Should be fantastic.

One more from the Thames.

London has been amazing. We are staying in an amazing apartment very close to Angel station.  I’ve probably done more just sitting around in the airport than I should have, but it has felt like a real vacation here.

That isn’t to say that I haven’t done anything.  Since arriving on Monday I have seen the British museum, the Tower of London, Deathtrap (an amazing play), walked along the Thames, seen the London Monument, visited a little Christopher Wren church mentioned in the Wasteland by T.S. Eliot. attended Evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and visited the Tate Modern.

Yup, I’ve kept busy alright.

I have been remiss on the blogging front, I think access to wifi without the constraints of either a) having to pay for it, or b) not being sure that it is legitimate, or c) going to actually continue to be usable, has actually increased my desire to blog and make sure it gets out while I’m still connected.  I haven’t been making wonderful prose, but I have been more productive in terms of actually publishing the drafts.

I was going to add pictures, but this draft is not showing up on the iPhone wordpress app (buggy as all get out, I use it out of desperation), and the pictures from my camera are apparently too big to upload to the site. I will do a post with pictures tomorrow, it will also feature the story of how I’ve discovered my third travel rule.

Prague was a whirlwind. We arrived after an adventure on the trains. We got up at 4am to catch the only nonstop train from Salzburg to Prague. We have so far managed to avoid transfers and wanted to keep it that way. About an hour and a half outside of Prague the conductor poked his head in and prattled off something in German, then the train stopped in the middle of nowhere and people started piling off. We left the train and found a small shed and five shuttle buses. Assuming that everyone else was trying to get to Prague we got on the shuttles, which took us to another station, where we followed the crowd to another train, and still managed to get into Prague on time.

Prague has been beautiful. We are staying at a friend of a friend’s beautiful apartment about 25 minutes (by foot) from the old city. We decided to explore the city by foot, and, having not eaten since the night previous ducked into a dark restaurant thinking that it looked authentic. We ended up eating mexican for lunch.

We walked down to the Old City and discovered a Dali exhibition called Prints, Statues, and Ceramics. It was pretty intense. Dali is a genius.

We spent the next day walking around the city. Prague is an intensely beautiful city. Even the average buildings are beautifully decorated.

Heidi and I went to a delicious restaurant called Sivorsky Dum, I think. I ordered the hunter’s platter and the beer sampler. It was quite delightful to eat hare, turkey, and venison washed down with 8 different kinds of beer (sampler sized).

This morning we left quite early. Our flight was at 950, but we had a fair bit of public transit to do; so we left at 7am. We had our first near crisis when the bus to the airport’s doors closed when Heidi was already on board, and I was not. It was fine though, I arrived fifteen minutes later and check-in, passport control, and security were all a breeze.

In London we split up, Heidi to go meet the wonderful man who is hosting us. I haven’t met him as he had to leave, but he has graciously given us the use of his apartment. I managed to meet a good friend of my family’s in the two hours we overlapped in London. It was great seeing a dear friend and chatting about both life and the trip so far with someone I trust, face to face.

The rest of today was just getting settled in and watching an episode or two of friends while doing so. I’m on a decent air mattress and ready to sleep, hopefully tomorrow’s update will be a little more exciting.

Bonus: Prague Dusk

Salzburg is beautiful. We only had one day, less than 24 hours, and I have been totally exhausted this whole time. We took an overnight train from Venice, which I thought was a great idea, but it turns out that not all overnight trains let you use the couchettes. When I asked the ticket taker about it (in English) he replied, as you will see on the tickets (written in Italian) it says no Couchettes. I was not sure how to reply, so I didn’t.

Remember rule #1, about not assuming, I had done it again.

Salzburg is beautiful, I’m a little sad that I won’t get to spend more time here, but I fully intend to return for a longer stay in the future.

Salzburg at Dawn

The view from the hills.

The only other thing I will add is that Winter appears to be setting in here. I decided not to bring a winter jacket, so this morning found me at H&M, buying the cheapest warm jacket I could find. It has served me well so far.

I did not buy this hat, but I wanted to.

I’m not sure about whether I will be getting much internet access between here (Salzburg) and London. I will try to update when I can.

Salzburg, I’ll return.

Venice is beautiful. We have seen a lot in the last 24 hours. I’ve had a lot of fun, and plan to obtain a history of this city when I return home (any recommendations?).

I’m using sketchy alleyway wifi so I’ll just leave you with some pics.

Venice really is sinking. There was a foot of water in St Marks square at high tide.

Creeper shot (High Tide).

(Self Portrait: Venice 2010)

From the bridge of sighs. The Doge’s palace is amazing.

Alright, t-minus 3 hours to the overnight to Salzburg. Sound of Music here I come!

Last one: Hipstamatic Experiment

Rome so far has been a lot of fun. The city is wonderfully old, with so much to do. Yesterday morning I got a late start, then went to see a special Van Gogh exhibition they have on here in Rome. It was an amazing amount of work, spanning his artistic career (if you can call it that, he sold only one painting in his lifetime). I especially enjoyed getting to look at his letters and the drawings he would include in them.

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The only real downside to that exhibit is that it is really popular, I was definitely bumped and jostled almost the entire time. It was hard to really enjoy the works, but I managed to anyway.

After that exhibit I headed to the colosseum, I bought a Roma Pass to skip the insanely long lines which served me well. I also participated in the guided tour. It was a great introduction to the building, and little did I know that it also included a tour of the archaeological excavations of the Palatine hill. Overall, for four euros, the tour was definitely worth it.

It was amazing to see the remains of the homes of the emperor, and having a guide describe just how ornately decorated these buildings would have been helps to imagine the splendor these ruins once had.

Today was another late start. I have been up too late most nights reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and now its sequel. Really great stories, although a few unfortunate translation decisions. (I’m assuming this, I don’t read Swedish)

I decided to see the Vatican Museum and have stumbled across my second rule:

Liam’s travel rules #2:
Get up early for popular attractions.

I waited in line for over an hour and a half. It turns out it was well worth it. Apart from the massive collection of things the Vatican has acquired the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel are worth the lineup and price alone. I also got the audio guide which I felt enhanced my experience.

“School of Athens”

Me in the Sistine Chapel

I have definitely started to hit a wall though, once I left the Vatican I decided to get back to the hostel and do some reading, while drinking a Fanta of course. I think tomorrow I will either go the musical instruments museum or the national gallery. Not sure which yet… We’ll see when I wake up.

Rome, if not the cradle of European civilization, was definitely the center of it for thousands of years. The senate, the emperors, and the papacy, so much of what is right and wrong with Western civilization can find its origins in this city.

We had only been here for only a few hours and I was already delighted. On our walk to dinner earlier had I commented, “Everything is so old.” Heidi’s reply was, “Yes, and this is the newer part of the city.”

We ate dinner at the Old Bear, a restaurant Heidi and her friends discovered on a semester abroad over a year ago. It has a very delightful atmosphere with delicious food. I had the Roman Gnocci which was delicious.

Today I slept in and took a while to get started, including getting my laundry done. It was a little more expensive than I would have liked, but it felt good to have clean clothes on. I spent the rest of the day just wandering. I went into St. Peter’s Basilica, which is overwhelming. La Pieta by Michelangelo is gorgeous, it does attract a crowd though.

I wandered the rest of the Basilica. It is a vast building. I walked through the crypt and felt a wave of emotion as I passed John Paul II’s tomb. There were flowers, candles, and messages written and thrown on the tomb. It is strange and beautiful that this man, who lived so recently, has so gripped the catholic faith. Rightly so, I think.

I walked down to what I believe is the national building, I’m not sure what else to call it. It was a free museum and had amazing views of the archaeological work going on right in the heart of the city.

After that I wandered some more. Then went to the Old Bear again for dinner today. It is seriously good food. It has been a really good day.

Alright, that about does it for the past couple of days. Tomorrow I’m off to see a Van Gogh exhibition and the Coliseum/Roman Senate area. Should be fun.

One last photo, the Tiber is an especially dirty river. I could see the freshwater of the rain land and float for a bit on top of the river, before it disappeared into the Tiber’s ooze, delightful… and these guys were rowing on it.

Yesterday was an extended (7 hour) voyage from Cordoba to Valencia. I honestly can’t say much about Valencia except that it is the most modern feeling city I visited in Spain. The city of Arts and Sciences is an architectural masterpiece. Definitely check it out. I plan to return exclusively to check this place out in further detail.

We left our hostel for the airport this morning. I developed a new rule today. Here it is:

Liam’s travel rules #1
Don’t Assume Anything

failing to follow this rule fortunately did not result in dire consequences.  I learned that Ryanair, our  airline, is more like a skyborne greyhound.  It is first-come, first-serve seating.  Heidi asked why people were lining up, and I replied “There is still time shouldn’t be a problem.”  Turns out I should have paid attention to my ticket.  We ended up sitting right on top of the wing.  Which did not result in spectactular views of the Meditarranean.

Alright, I have a minute and 20 seconds left on this computer.  So I will say save our brief Roman adventure for tomorrow’s update.  Needless to say we landed safely and have enjoyed our first evening in Italy, I have at least.