Category: travel

It was my intention to catch up on my blogging of the rest of my semester in Iceland and my Spring term in Zanzibar (and Kenya, where we were eventually evacuated due to covid before going home 2 weeks early) before I peaced off to a whole other country that would require its own post, but alas. I went to Guatemala for 10 days. When your brother needs supplies from the US, and you want to cart some Spanish language books over to an Education Centre, you do it. I reminded myself that James began his fun trip to Greece in 2017/18? by stopping in Cameroon for a few days to see my village and drop off a whole suitcase for me, so it was very easy to tackle the challenge of packing the essentials for myself plus everything else I could think of to bring James and Lily in a carry on and person item. I packed 3 outfits, and I am quite proud. Despite being an RPCV, I have always tended to be an overpacker/preparer.

This foray into Central America was my first, and it surprised me how similar and different it was to Africa. It was a culture shock, but not in the way I anticipated. The pace of life was similar, I quickly learned that lazy afternoons were out of self preservation, as was common in my village. It was truly too hot to move between about 11am-3pm. I had to admit within the first day that it was even hotter than dry season in the Adamawa. The humidity of the jungle added an extra fun element and I found myself dripping sweat in new and fun places. And out of habit I had packed pants, used to Muslim communities. I wore a swimsuit half the time I was there. The next shock was the scale of development. Before I left, James told me that Guatemala is like Cameroon, but several decades more developed. I completely agree, the infrastructure is more present and fleshed out, they had a fair amount of tourism (the first thing I noticed was relative lack of plastic garbage), but there were still stands by the side of the road selling vegetables, and kids who couldn’t afford to go to school. This I am familiar with. Women also seemed more independent, while girls are still the first to miss out on education in deference to their male siblings, women rode motos, something I certainly never would have seen in the Adamawa.

The biggest culture shock of all for me was having to defer to my brother for all translation needs. I hadn’t realized how accustomed I was to being in charge while traveling, or how competent I felt navigating a developing country (at least at the end of my service in PC, compared to the beginning) until I realized I couldn’t haggle the bus prices down for us all. James did great though, and I’m sure if he spent 2 years in Guatemala he’d also only spend 25% more than locals for everything. So begins my journey in Guatemala, with James and Lily picking me up from the Flores airport, on September 12th.

The first few days I got to see the local go to stores and what they offered (everything!! well, not really, but plenty for Lily to make some of the best food I’ve ever had) and we added the books I brought from the US to the ed center library. I also got to have a go at painting the shelves for the books, so they were all spruced up when the new ones were added. I sat in on James and Lily tutoring in English (they have several sessions a week at the center with especially motivated kiddos) and they did great! They use the same method I used when I taught English (via French and Fulfulde) and it’s perfect when you yourself are also trying to learn as you teach.

My favorite place to visit (other than the local ex-pat chill hang spot, the hotel/bar/restaurant/swimming spot “El Gringo Perdido”) was the permaculture farm Sol y Verde. This farm, started by an extension worker from the states named Andrew, accepts volunteer workers who work on projects ranging from tree planting to experimental vanilla propagation. We had the pleasure of planting a bit, and helping set some (also sort of experimental) mole traps, which we intended to deal with the very real mole problem the farm has. They wreck havoc on the plants with all their tunneling.

The visit to the farm was very interesting to me. Andrew knew a lot more about permaculture than I ever have, and it was cool to see what worked and what didn’t in Central America from a food security standpoint. I brought some resources about beekeeping with me (including a simple handbook I put together for those just starting out) but found out that lots of people kept bees locally, and mostly using modern techniques. I’m happy that Lily and James have a place they can go to do the kind of volunteering that you see the results from very quickly, but I do think their strengths lie in the long view of aid work: improving livelihoods through education and resource access. It’s a bigger time scale, but no less important than improving crop diversity or farming practices.

The tourism aspect of my trip was pretty lit too. We spent a few days at El Gringo, a place I would have sold my left kidney to have access to within walking distance in Cameroon (free coffee and tea and filtered water for volunteers?? a lake without schisto??), we visited the island city of Flores, and we trekked to Tikal.

Tikal. Oh my. Top 5 experiences of my life, without a doubt. We woke up at 4 am to make it to the top of the highest temple at the ancient Mayan citadel with plenty of time before sunrise. To do this, a guide takes you into the park in the pitch dark, and you climb up lots of stairs until you reach the top of Temple IV (the tallest at Tikal), which has no handrails. That’s ok though, because sitting up there in the dark and the fog is pretty distracting from how easy it would be to topple down the ancient steps and die. To my dismay (but understandably) you couldn’t enter the 3 chambered room at the top of the temple, which really made me seriously consider going to school for archeology just for the opportunity to do so, but the view made up for that. Holy crap. We didn’t see the sun as it came up due to the fog, but the general other worldliness of it all was really hightened by this fact. At one point we saw what I believe was Temple III (The Temple of the Jaguar Priest) through the fog, and I had to pinch myself. I felt like Indiana Jones. The freaky sound of the howler monkeys made it feel even more like a movie.

I can’t say enough about Tikal. I wish I’d had a week to see the rest of it all, but I think we really hit the highlights. If you ever have the chance to be on top of an ancient Mayan temple as the sun rises, take it. I have to thank my excellent hosts for such an amazing trip! James did a great job helping me navigate (and buy souvenirs, I got a really cool Guatemalan hammock, which I had plenty of space for on the way home), and Lily impressed me as usual with her ability to stand my brother for long periods of time, cook amazing food, and watch good tv with me (thanks for introducing me to Lost, Lily!). I had such a great 10 days in Guatemala, and I am happy to know that James and Lily are thriving there and having life changing experiences. The only consolation I had on having to return home was that I flew from Guatemala City straight to a Harry Styles concert in Chicago. Without that, I would have been pretty darn bummed!

If you’ve made it this far, great job! I hope to have more posts in future chronicling the trips I’v neglected, but until then I just have to find a real person job as a recent MA grad. As of now I have what I am calling a “full-time part-time job” or a full-time job not in my field, but I am hoping to have something I’m truly passionate about soon, whether that is located in the states or abroad again. We’ll see!

See yeeso, au revoir, adios, until next time!

For the last week or so of the trip, I was traveling with my brother. During scheduling, we realized we had one free night, so I picked a city in between Edinburgh and our next destination, Inverness, and we went knowing very little about my pick (Perth).

As it turns out, it was a pretty interesting city.

As we didn’t have a ton of time in Perth, I had researched a few stopping points beforehand to make the most of our stay. The first one was the Black Watch Museum, which ended up being far more interesting to James and to me than I could have ever hoped. The Black Guard is a infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, formed in 1881. Since it’s formation, it has served on every continent and every war that the UK has been involved in. They are, and I mean this with the deepest respect, complete Bad-Asses. I mean, seriously, They served in many of these places all over the world in kilts. If you ever find yourself in Perth, please consider giving it the museum a visit, and leave yourself several hours to appreciate it.

Our next stop was Huntingtower Castle, which was not open but we figured it would be impossible to stop us from getting near it for a look, which is what we did.

This castle was built in the 15th century, and King James VI, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, was held here for 10 months as a prisoner in 1582.

The rest of the fun bits of this city involved a trip to “T.K. Maxx” and a very good Indian restaurant. The next day we were off to Inverness and a cabin on the Loch in Drumnadrochit.

We spent a decent amount of time in Drumnadrochit walking to and from the small local grocery store. Drumnadrochit is a little village on the edge of the Loch that runs on tourism during the peak seasons, which January is most decidedly not a part of. There were no open restaurants while we were there.

James and I certainly made do. I was happy to stay in Drumnadrochit the whole time, especially since the newly converted Croft we were staying in had a pull out bed in the loft which was situated by a wood burning stove, and the bathtub was enormous. The shower was luxurious as well. Some nights I took a bath AND shower.

Our very first day we walked into town to visit the Loch Ness Exhibit. Situated in the historical hotel where old timey people used to stay while on the search for Nessie, the exhibit reported the scientific findings on the Loch Ness Monster over the years. (Hint: they haven’t found her). It was an amusing stop, and we spent the remainder of the day grocery shopping and enjoying the Croft.

On the next day, our first full day on the Loch, we took a touristy cruise on the lake to get a closer view of the Urquhart Castle that we could see from our Airbnb.

The castle was huge. The present ruins date from the 13th to 16th century, and the castle has been occupied by many different parties throughout history. The fortification played a part in the Wars for Scottish Independence in the 14th century, then was held as a royal castle before it was given to Clan Grant in 1509. Largely abandoned in the mid 17th century, it was partially destroyed in 1692 to prevent its use by Jacobite forces. We ended that day much like the day before, by walking to the grocery and back and getting nice and cozy in the Croft.

The next day we finally took a bus into Inverness. We walked around a bit, but found it to be more of a metropolitan area than what we were looking for, and decided to have lunch at a local restaurant called Cafe Artysan. As if the delicious food wasn’t enough, the Cafe also sold locally made soaps that smell GREAT. We headed back to Drumnadrochit and took a long walk around the lake.

All in all, Loch Ness was a highlight of the trip. I would highly recommend visiting on the off-season, as it is relaxing and I think you get a better idea of what the area is really like without all the cheesy tourist trappings.

The next morning, the 8th of January, we took a bus to Inverness, and from there a train to Thurso in Northern Scotland. Thurso was the nearest city to Scrabster Port with a train station that I could find. From Thurso we took a taxi to the Port and boarded a ferry. Ferry, in my opinion, is a vast understatement for this hulking behemoth of a ship that took us to the Orkney Isles. Then again, I’ve never been on a cruise ship so maybe this was a small ferry in comparison. We had apparently gotten very lucky because the day before a huge storm had come through the area and all of the ferries had been canceled. As it was, the ship was still rocking quite a bit, and James and I had fun walking around the ship like sailors three sheets to the wind. We arrived later in the evening, checked into our Airbnb in Kirkwall, and planned our next day.

Day One in Orkney started at the Broch of Gurness. If you are an archaeological enthusiast, I highly recommend Orkney. I had spent many hours in Cameroon planning the most efficient way to get to all of the sites with our rental car, and lemme tell you, you cannot throw a very old rock of archaeological significance without hitting another very old rock of archaeological significance in this place.

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village on the northeast coast of Mainland Orkney, was settled around 500 to 200 BC, and used to be home to a substantial community. The gate to this amazingly ancient site was also open and there was no one there so we could have trampled all over it if we wanted. We didn’t though, because our mother raised us to respect Iron Age settlements, or something like that.

At the center of this settlement is a Broch (or tower) which once stood about 10 meters high. It was divided into rooms and was the heart of the community.

Next we went to Skara Brae, which was significantly more monitored and protected. There was a fence around it and a marked walking path.

Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement from around 3180 BC to 2500 BC and is located on the Bay of Skaill on Mainland Orkney. My favorite part of this settlement and the Broch of Gurness were the odd little stone basins I kept seeing everywhere, which I later found out were used to store fish and bait for later use. Clever!

We then drove to the Earl’s Palace in Birsay, not to be confused with the Earl’s Palace in Kirkwall that we visited the next day. Honestly, this place. The Birsay Palace is a ruined 16th century castle.

Our next stop were the Stones of Stenness. These babies were erected in the Neolithic period and may be the oldest standing henge in the British Isles. Based on radiocarbon dating, work on the site is thought to have begun around 3200 BC. This stone circle originally held up to 12 stones, with an additional standing stone called the “Stenness Watch Stone” outside of the circle that you drive past on you way to yet ANOTHER henge within spitting distance of Stenness.

The Ring of Brodgar needs to be seen to be believed. It is impossible to capture the scope of the whole circle in one photo, but you can get the scale of the individual stones with these pictures, keeping in mind I’m a little over 5’9″.

The circle was constructed around 2500 BC to 2000 BC and stands on a small isthmus. The diameter of the circle is 104 meters, and it originally consisted of 60 giant stones, of which only 27 remain today. With this huge monument, our first day was mostly over. We spent a few hours of the night driving around hoping to get a glimpse of the Northern Lights, but had no luck. James and I weren’t too upset though, as it’s more reason to come back and see the rest of the many things we didn’t have time to see.

The second day we started at the Italian Chapel.

The Italian Chapel was built by Italian prisoners of war during World War II. These prisoners were in Orkney constructing the Churchill Barriers, enormous boundaries of concrete sunk into the water between islands in Orkney to prevent German U-boats from entering the Scapa Flow. These barriers now act as convenient bridges between the smaller islands and the mainland. The Chapel was constructed out of two metal barracks stuck together and decorated with limited resources. The results are magnificent.

We then traveled on to Mullhead Nature Reserve and a hike to see the sites there.

First we encountered the Gloup, a collapsed sea cave at the start of our walk.

We then trekked along the cliffs to the Brough of Deerness.

In order to get to the Brough, we had to head down to the water and then back up to get to the isolated little island. There we found the remains of the 10th century Brough of Deerness chapel and Viking Settlement.

We ended the hiking with a jog around the cliffs.

The last bit of daylight was spent exploring closer to our Airbnb in Kirkwall, and we visited the Earl’s Palace. Construction was started here in 1607.

The Palace is right next to St. Magnus Cathedral, and absolutely gorgeous old church (and I should know, at this point I’ve seen a lot).

With that, and a bit of souvenir shopping, our last day in Kirkwall was over. We were up before dawn the next day on a flight to Aberdeen and then London.

London Part 2:

During my very short stay in London with my brother I managed to visit Baker’s Street for the first time, shop at Lush, eat at Chipotle, and see a movie. But that was on the last day. Most of the remains of our first day was spent on the Harry Potter Warner Brother’s Studio Tour. Oh man. Here are some pictures, because they are better than words, and I shouldn’t need to label any of these props from the movie.

All of the sets and props from the movies were amazing, but the bit that made me teary eyed was absolutely the scale model of Hogwarts. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life.

So that was a major trip highlight. The next day I insisted we wander around the perfectly decrepit and creepy Kensal Green Cemetery, which was opened in 1833. I think James was surprised at how interesting it was. I was surprised at how blatantly racist some of the tombstones managed to be, especially those of the government officials working overseas at the time (sculptures of natives holding up your tombstone, really???).

All in all, that was it for our short stay back in London before our flights home. The next morning, the 13th, we both had early flights so we got up before dawn (again) and headed to the airport. I was in Istanbul by lunchtime and in Yaoundé the next day at 2 am. Perhaps I shouldn’t end a post about a happy family vacation with a picture of a creepy cemetery, but that’s how it panned out. Thanks for reading Part 1 and Part 2 of this very lengthy vacation! I will be posting again soon about the results of the beekeeping training this weekend.

It’s finally here! I’m doing it! The vacation post! This has been in the back of my mind since I got back from the U.K., but I put it off upon arriving back in Cameroon on the grounds that I had Mid Service Training (MST) the next day… actually, that day. (I landed around 2/3 in the morning day one of the training). Then I put it off on the grounds that it would make me sad to think about another year without my family. But here we are, 8 months until Close of Service (COS) and I’m chipping away at the three week family vacation adventure. I’d like to note I’m doing this on a laptop powered with my solar battery as the power has been out for days now. The lack of electricity is yet another excuse I use to put off blogging when this post seems too daunting. Alas, I have to get this done before this weekend, as I am headed into the city for our Beekeeping training! April 5th-7th is the long awaited training for the apiculture groups in my village and Casey’s village. After this is completed we can finally begin setting up the apiaries in our respective villages, there will be a post on that as soon as it happens. For now, here’s a link to my last Bee Update! 

In order to truly enjoy the weekend in Ngaoundéré and all the good food that entails, I have to finish all my little projects.

So, without further ado:

LONDON PART 1:

I arrived late in the evening on December 22nd at Heathrow Airport. A short Heathrow Express trip and a connection to the Underground later, I was somewhere near our Airbnb. The issue was that I had no idea where it was. My cousin Emily was already there and she had sent directions which I could access on the internet at the airport, but once I left Heathrow I only had my Cameroon SIM and it, surprise surprise, didn’t work in London. I was pretty turned around. I was in a legitimate city for the first time in over year and I couldn’t help but wonder if I looked as star struck as I felt. Tired, hungry, and simultaneously sweaty and chilly somehow, I struck out in a random direction. It was the completely opposite direction of the Airbnb, but allowed me to inquire at a local Boots (a store I could have spend 3 hours in, just looking at the shampoo options) about the street where the Airbnb was located. They told me, and I found it. This is something I would have only done in the US pre-PC in a nervous, not travel-related, sweat, so I felt pretty great about my personal development. The woman at reception let me in and asked if I was the girl coming from Africa because she had a key for me. I said I was the girl coming from Africa, and felt even more tired as I realized just 3 days previously I had been in my house in West Africa and had barely slept since then. Emily had gone out to get a SIM, so I had some alone time to just stare at things and take a hot shower and be less gross. Emily eventually came back, and we had dinner at a local pub, which was amazing and was of course never open again during our trip after I talked it up to my dad. After that, I waited for my parents. They arrived around 2:30 am and we had our little reunion. It was so great, I could hardly believe it. Eventually we calmed down enough to go to bed and were up fairly early the next day to get a start on things.

We managed to pack a lot into this first day. Here are some highlights.

This church was built on the site of a garden from Saxon times. It was restored in 950 AD, and rebuilt after the great fire in 1697 and finally damaged severely in the blitz. I firmly believe if more churches were actually gardens or just open to the air, more people would attend.

My second ever visit to the Tower of London was extra special because I got to watch my mom and dad see the same things I saw not too long ago. See my Scotland and England Post if you want more musings on some of the places that were revisits for me this trip.

Dad and I had a tacit agreement to both order beers that we could share at mealtime to maximize the experience. I broke this a few times. to his dismay, by ordering stouts and sours and other weird (and fun) beers.

One of my favorite parts of London at Christmas was the Christmas Market. They had amazing warm cider and wine, and great food choices. They also had a wonderful honey mead that I picked up to bring back as a gift to Cameroon, only to lug it around for another week to Scotland and give up and drink it by the Lock Ness. I stand by that choice.

A first visit for me was The British Museum. I especially appreciated the little bits of Cameroon like this jug, which my parents spotted for me. With the museum, our first day was done. I also bought new hiking/work boots somehow during this long day, but that didn’t earn a photo in the post.

Our second day started with a trip up to the top of The Shard, yet another first for me.

After the trip to the top of the Shard, we visited the Borough Market, which was overwhelming in comparison to my local village market day. We then headed back to the Airbnb, and Emily and my mom were nice enough to go ahead to St. Paul’s to save our space in the line to the Christmas Eve service while I took a nap.

The Christmas Eve Service was pretty special, especially since I had only ever seen the cathedral during a brief tour when I was there in college. The music was beautiful and sounded right in the large space. We then returned to the Airbnb to eat food, drink wine, and exchange presents.

Christmas Day we went on a red bus tour and stopped a few places to get out and wander about. We ended the day enjoying the London Christmas lights.

On the 26th we walked around a fair bit, and I finally got to visit the location of the first public drinking fountain in London. I was pretty thrilled at the documentation of the birth of a public, and sanitary, drinking supply.

I then dragged my poor father to The Ten Bells pub for a (much needed, for my father) pre-musical drink, only to find that it wasn’t open. I still got to see this last known location of one of Jack the Ripper’s victims, and we eventually got to a pub with a decent beer, so we were both happy and enjoyed the performance of Les Miserables. Seeing as how it was the first musical I ever student directed in High School, I was pretty much over the moon to see it done professionally. It was a great way to end our stay in London.

The next morning, we were on a train to Wales.

I’ve always wanted to go to Wales, ever since I learned that Lloyd originally came from the Welsh name Llwyd, and that it meant “grey” or “brown” or “holy”. I’ve never been quite sure which one is more accurate. I am sure, however, that both sides of my family have some ancestors from Wales, and, like lots of American mutts, I’ve always wanted to have a better understanding of the motherland. Sure, I’m Polish and German too, and I’ve been to those countries and felt pretty much at home (especially in my favorite city, Kraków) but there was something special about Wales to me. I mean, I ended up with the freckles in the family, I wanted to see where they came from. I was not disappointed. We stayed in an Airbnb that I tragically forgot to take a photo of. It was called “The Cwtch” (Welsh for a cubbyhole or a hug) and was about as cozy as you can get. A log cabin with a sleeping loft set right on the edge of Brecon Beacons National Park. I’d go back in a heartbeat. We’d picked up a rental car when we’d first arrived the evening before (a nightmare on the narrow Welsh roads, with my father driving on the WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD) so we drove to several hiking spots on our first full day. The first was called Owl’s Grove. Enjoy these pictures of a mossy fairyland, I suggest a Hozier album as background viewing music.

From there we headed to another hiking path, this time with waterfalls.

After all that hiking, we were starving. We ate at the Red Cow Inn, where I had one of my favorite meals of the trip. We ordered appetizers, I had a Christmas Ale, and I fell asleep promptly afterwards in the car. It was what late-night Cameroonian PCV dreams are made of.

Our second full day was just my mom and dad and me, as Emily had gone off to explore Stirling Castle in Scotland. We started our exploration at one of my favorite tourist spots that I’ve ever visited: The remains of Tintern Abbey. The ruins of this 13th century abbey are breathtaking. Seeing this abbey in person is a religious experience, and not just because it used to be used for such purposes. As I said earlier, an open church is just about as good as it gets, in my opinion, for getting close to the spiritual, and this place was ten times the size of the ruins of the church in London. Add to it’s size the surrounding countryside framed by skeletal stone windows, and you have a masterpiece. Here it is, from just about every angle:

I figured nothing could ever top that, but we did visit several other interesting sites that day.

The Monnow Bridge in Monmouth was built circa 1270 as a town defense and is the only surviving medieval bridge in Britain with the gate tower still standing. This gate tower was used as a toll-house, guard room, and dwelling house.

Raglan Castle was also a fascinating visit, a medieval castle in use between the 15th and 17th centuries. Unfortunately it was destroyed after the English Civil War to prevent military use.

As if all that wasn’t enough walking about, we ended the day with a very long uphill hike, but I was satisfied with it all at the end because I got to wander around a very old and very mossy cemetery.

The next day we returned the car and were off to Edinburgh, one of my favorite cities, for Hogmanay! Here James met up with us, and the Lloyd family was complete again!

Celebrating Hogmanay (the Scottish New Years celebrations) in Edinburgh is a once in a lifetime chance that I highly recommend. The festivities began the day before New Years Eve with a torch procession. And these are NOT the tiny candles I imagined we would be carrying when I thought of fire safety restrictions and the other laws that would be in place for a similar activity in America. Oh no, in Scotland they trust you with full blown sticks of fire (whether they should trust tourists is another matter, several young women from not-Scotland almost lit me on fire while they were taking a selfie). This procession follows the Royal Mile down to King Arthur’s Seat and ends in a party and fireworks. We watched the fireworks, but did not stay for the party.

On New Year’s Eve we decided to visit the Palace at Holyrood and Holyrood Abbey. This was very exciting for me because the last time I was in Edinburgh the Queen was in residence so I couldn’t do the tour.

On this day we also went to see the Royal Yacht Britannia, which I do not have a photo of because I skipped that and got my eyebrows done, bought new underwear at H&M, and stared at stuff in a Boots for about an hour. I have since seen the ship in the “The Crown”, but I still think I got the better end of the deal on this one.

On the first day of the new year we lost Emily, because she had to return to America. The Lloyd clan spent the day visiting Edinburgh castle (I again refer you to my post about Scotland because I didn’t bother to take pictures this time) and went to the Royal Museum of Scotland. Oh boy. What a place. I didn’t even know it existed until we walked by in search of food, but I could have spent our entire trip there. It is full of amazing and varied exhibits, there really is something for everyone.

The next day we trekked to St. Andrews so my father and brother could go see A Very Old Golf Course™ and my mom and I enjoyed the beach. I have been to the beach pretty much every year of my life, so it was nice to see it again.

We then headed to Stirling Castle, which Emily had visited earlier in the trip and had given her seal of approval. It was full of history that I really appreciated, being obsessed with all period dramas involving Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Victoria, both of whom had been to this castle.

I posed by the statue of Robert the Bruce, who unfortunately did not resemble Chris Pine.

That day, I found out that my roommate from my study abroad program in Freiburg, Germany just happened to also be on vacation in Edinburgh. Seeing as how she was currently teaching in Germany, I was living in Africa, and we had also previously found each other on separate vacations in Venice in a random piazza (see Three Countries, One Post) I was completely amazed.

We met up the following day. We hunted for the tombstones that inspired J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series, and we got a haircut together, my first professional one in over a year. Luckily, Anna also needed a haircut because she had been avoiding getting one in German. I could completely sympathize.

The 3rd of January was also my last full day with my parents.We had a nice dinner and my mom and I went out for a fancy cocktail and a chat.

The next morning, James and I sent out parents off on a train bound for London. We initially planned on going back to nap and take a late train to the start of the siblings leg of the trip in Perth, but I found myself antsy and ready to move on. We were on our way an hour later.

I’m going to end Part 1 here, although Part 2 will be significantly shorter because James and I have a more leisurely approach to travel so we did things more slowly and I took less pictures. I am afraid that if I try to squeeze Perth, Loch Ness, the Orkney Isles, and London into this post it might never upload. So, Part 2: Lloyd Sibling’s Adventure will be up tomorrow!

My last week in Europe followed my final week in Freiburg. After the going away dinner with my fellow IES students, Kenny and I caught an early morning flight from Basel to Edinburgh. We started our day out right with some amazing tea and a full Scottish breakfast (I had blood pudding and loved it).

One of the coolest buildings we saw at the castle was the chapel, the oldest standing building in Edinburgh. After our explorations of the fortress it was time to try some famous Scotch whisky.

Kenny and I decided to explore some old cemeteries of course. These photos are from the Old Calton Burial Ground.

We climbed up to Calton Hill..

And then cut through another cemetery on the way to the palace.

The Queen happened to be in residence! You can see in these photos the Royal Banner of Scotland is out.

I then indulged Kenny in what ended up being an amazing tour of the relatively new Scottish Parliament. We couldn’t see some of the main rooms so we got to be the few people to actually go inside the offices of the parliament and sit in the famous “think pods”.

We then climbed up to Arthur’s Seat, which was more difficult than I expected. The wind was so strong up there that it stole your breath away.

We then trekked to Craigmillar Castle, where I found out some scenes from Outlander season 3 had just been filmed!

The castle was in pretty amazing shape. considering. That night we did a Ghost Tour of Edinburgh, which took us into the amazingly creepy underground vaults.

The next day we took a bus to Glasgow, and I was not nearly as impressed. It was an interesting city, but not my type of sight-seeing. We checked out the Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis (Kenny and I like cemeteries) but headed back to Edinburgh sooner than we had planned.

After our adventures in Scotland (P.S. haggis is delicious!), we took a bus to our last destination, London.

We got the London Pass, and decided to spend our first day there taking a tour bus and getting acquainted with the city.

We walked to Buckingham palace from our hotel just off of Hyde Park.

We spent a few hours exploring Kensington as well, which I found very interesting since I love everything involving Queen Victoria.

Luckily, the London Pass let us skip the lines at the Tower, so we got to see a lot there.

We also made a special stop at Lloyd’s so I could get some souviners and some cheesy pictures.

We then hopped on a boat (also included in the London Pass) and traveled down the Thames.

We got off at Westminster and went inside (unfortunately there was no photography allowed). It was crazy to see the burial places of so many famous monarchs and historical figures.

We then made a short stop at Whitehall, which had an amazing ceiling by Peter Paul Rubens. This banqueting hall functions as both a museum and an event space.

One of the coolest things that I saw in London was the Churchill War Rooms. It was like stepping into history.

The last good picture I have is from our trip to King’s Cross, where I got to see Platform 9 3/4.

London was amazing. I feel like I saw a lot of what I wanted to see, but that was only scratching the surface. I will absolutely have to visit again.

Well, that does it for that Europe trip. Now all I have to do is pick out a few choice pictures from trips to 11 countries and 22 cities and gather my hundreds of souvenirs into something resembling a scrapbook. Wish me luck!

Ok, on to my last few adventures in Europe. I met up with Kenny in Paris, and then we made a trip to Naples, where we visited the ruins of Pompeii. Whe then spent a few days in the wonderful city of Rome. I was surprised by how much I ended up liking Paris and Rome, as I don’t typically like everything about big busy cities! Paris was amazing, and we had some really great food and saw some amazing buildings. We started with an afternoon walking around and taking in the city…

We then spent a few hours (not nearly enough!) at the Louvre.

We spent the better part of a day at Versailles, which was a short train ride away.

Our last day we traveled to the Basilique, and my camera died… But I managed to snag a few pictures before our too short time in Paris came to a close!

Our next big trip involved a flight to Naples (which I did NOT like) for a day at Pompeii, and then a train to Rome.

The Roman Forum at Pompeii was unreal..

The baths of the Forum were very well-preserved, it was amazing to see the pigments on the walls.

Our next big trip was to Rome, where I was blown away by the ruins and everything wonderful about the city

During our first day in Rome we mainly wandered about and picked out areas to revisit later for a longer time. This is the Roman Forum, which we toured later.

Kenny and I got the Omni Pass, which included free entry into a lot of the places we wanted to see, and also gave us a guaranteed time to go to the Vatican…

We got to then skip the line and head into the basilica…

We finally went into the Colosseum itself and it was amazing.

The sheer size of the place was unreal. We then moved on to explore parts of the city we had not yet seen.

We actually ended up stumbling upon the Pantheon after getting lost looking for it several times.

The next day we spent a good deal of time at the ruins of the Roman Forum, which we massive and incredible.

We didn’t make it inside the Pantheon until the next day, before we left, but boy was it worth it.

Ok, that’s it for those trips! All I have left is Scotland and London and that wraps up my time in Europe!

It’s been awhile! I’m home now, and since I last posted I had a weekend away in Berlin and then Pentecost break with the rents in München, Salzburg, Florence, Cinque Terre, and Milan. I then met Kenny in Paris, went to Rome, Edinburgh, London… But one step at a time.

I’m afraid that all of my photos from the week with my parents are iPhone pictures because I handed over the responsibility of photographer to my dad (willingly and gratefully) but if you use the internet at all you’ll have seen all of his Facebook posts, so I’ll try not to be redundant.

I then went home for a week of classes, and my official trip with the rents began. And boy, was it a doozy. It all started in München…

Next it was on to Salzburg, which was a real treat. We did some exploring on our own and then did a day with the Sound of Music tour and a quick trip to some salt mines.

Then, the next leg of our trip began! To Italy, first stop, Venice (for a few hours).

Venice was very interesting, and I’m glad I ran into my roommate Anna, but it was honestly too crowded for me. I’d been to some major cities at that point, but Venice was a bit much for me. We got on the connecting train to Florence with a bit of relief, I think.

Florence was AMAZING, and I would love to go again to spend more time with the art. From Florence, we took another train to Cinque Terre!

From Cinque Terre we headed to Milan, where my parents left early in the morning for home, and I spent a day with a tour group seeing some of the major parts of Milan before heading home for Freiburg.

My tour ended at the beautiful Cathedral, and I spent the next few hours wandering around the city, ending in a botanical garden. Overall the day alone wasn’t too bad, and I made friends with some of the tour group! It was home to Freiburg again, and then on to a bunch of trips with Kenny (pictures and posts from those adventures are coming soon , I promise!)