Edinburghs best kept secret and Arthurs Seat (fail)

“There is no way I’m climbing all the way to the top!” my mom said. And for those of you who wondered why we never made it to Arthur’s seat, that is the explanation. So instead we climbed the other mountain, but that was only after our lovely morning stop at The Elephant House were J. K. Rowling wrote the beginning of Harry Potter and were we found Edinburgh’s best kept secret: “The loo.”

    The bathrooms at the Elephant House are one of a kind, so if you are going there, grab a camera and a pen cause on the walls Harry Potter fans from all over have written thanks and fun things, literally all over. The walls, the roof, the mirror – everywhere is covered with words and it is – in a weird way – beautiful.

We had lunch in the Meadows, a great park that was full of life on this sunny – yes, sunny! – day in Scotland before we went climbing and walking around one of the mountains. The path led us to Holyrood Palace, the Royal Residence, where we stopped for the worlds largest hot chocolate ever and a visit to our newly discovered palace.

     And for those who wonder if the climb was worth it – the view from the top is stunning, so please, please do it if you want to have a look at all of Edinburgh and more! It was not hard at all and it was great fun.

One more day to go;
Mari Clémentine

Magical Edinburgh

“You look a bit lost there, girls. Can I help?” First one, then another Scottish man came to help us find the way to the Smart at IQ apartments, it did not take them long time to point it out for us and we ran inside, hiding from the rain.

The next day it wasn’t raining and we had time to explore magical Edinburgh. It’s so cozy, it’s fantasy-like in so many ways. The way the houses are built, the castle on the top of the city and not to forget the Greyfriars graveyard that not only holds a beautiful story about a man and his dog, but also the names of Minevra McGonegal and Thomas Riddell? (Voldemort). It truly looks like something taken straight out of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.

  

    Then we have the Elephant House, also heavily crowded around lunch time, so make sure to get there early. They have overpriced cakes, but also the best view of Edinburgh Castle and this was where Harry Potter first was written. Something they will make sure you know.
    There are several nice shops, secondhand stores, malls, streets, bridges, museums, parks and buildings to see in Edinburgh and we walked around half the city that day and listened to bagpipes (of course), but I could never tell you everything.

    In the evening we sat down on a bridge listening to a band called the The Spinning Blowfish, consisting of a drummer, a guitarist and a guy on bagpipes. They were good. They were awesome, and with the bagpipe and converse they caught the essence of Edinburgh.

Mari Clémentine

I fell in love with Harry Potter (at the Studio Tour)

  Did you know the Knight Bus was built out of three London double-decker busses? Or that there is actually a Hogwarts seal INSIDE the fireplace in the Great Hall? Well, did you know that Emma fell in the yuleball “Cinderella-moment” scene? No? Well, then you should consider a trip to The Warner Bros Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter. The only downside of this trip is that it will take at least half your day (2 pm – 9 pm for the 4 o’clock tour), but it’s well worth it.

    Personally I’ve always had an inner Potter-geek and I’ve loved the books and movies for years, so when I got the chance to go to London I had to visit the studios. I HAD TO go and therefor it ended with no Oxford trip. Well, my inner movie-maker geek was quite pleased as well actually...

    So off I went, all by myself, to the world of Harry Potter, butterbeer, chocolate frogs, every flavor beens and very high prices. Well, I recommend the digi-guide for you all to get the back stories. And it’s narrated by Tom Felton. Yeah, TOM FELTON! You have to see it for yourself, even the store is magical.

    Check out golden-tours for both tickets and transpotation in the worlds coolest buss and I’ll see you in Edinburgh!

Mari Clémentine

Just like old times - Brighton

 The sun is shining! It’s a miracle! It’s a miracle! The wonderful sea-side city of Brighton is located only an hour from London by train and should be known as the capital of gays. Our destination for the day was a town I know very well indeed as I spent 3 weeks there in 2009 and it hadn’t really changed much.
    The burger-seller at Churchill Square still had the most wonderful burgers, W.H. Smith just inside could still tempt me as ever before and yes, I ended up buying a book, the one behind my favorite musical, Wicked.
    As we went to the pier I felt the nostalgia grip around me and I nearly expected my old roommates to be waiting for me by the Ghost House. They never showed up though, but I went on, past the Royal Pavillion and through the Lanes were we sat down for a coffee, watching the city, as alive as ever.

    Our day ended with a bus ride up to Hangleton and down again to see the street where I lived and the beautiful view of the city and the ocean. Though crowded, Brighton was just as I remembered it and even though we lost a precious day in London, I think it might was worth it.

Mari Clémentine

Dancing through life - Wicked

  "It's good to see me, isn't it? No need to answer, that was retorical."-Glinda

    Starbucks. I spilt my hot chocolate all over my lightblue jeans. I was on my way to a musical. So I ran. I ran to Zara, to the sales rack to pick up the first dress I found and it looked beautiful in a dark, twisted way and cost me only… well, to much. And I had to pair it with converse. But it was better than my jeans and it fitted the whole wicked witch theme going on, so why not?
    I discovered the musical Wicked four years ago and have been a fan ever since, even though I never saw it I knew the storyline and I listened to the music all the time. When writing.

    In 2009 when I last went to London I wanted to see it so badly, but there was no time, so this time it was a dream coming true. It truly was amazing. I started crying under the first song. Everything was so perfect. Glinda, Elphaba, the dialogue sounded even better in British, the dancers were the best and the scene, the props – I loved it all. I cried and I cried and I cried. It was worth the 50 pounds. It was worth more.

    If you’re in London, allow yourself to see one musical. If you can only allow yourself to see one musical, see Wicked. It’s spectacular!

Amen.

Mari Clémentine



A toystore in London

Oh, the smell of tea in the morning. Yeah, after travelling half the day, arriving at our hotel at 11 pm last night (after walking the wrong way 5 times), (it’s so charming, located in Holland Road, a couple of minutes’ walk from the Tube), we finally  made it to London.

London is something. It really is. From the moment I climbed the stairs up from Victoria to collect the tickets to my first West End Show. ‘til I came out from the Apollo Victoria with tears in my eyes. London really is something.

    “Excuse me! Are you mother and daughter?” The cute, princess-boy from the 5 star make up studio appeared out of nowhere and offered us a 90% discount on a full make-over, photoshoot and night out in London. “I love your hair!” I was sold when he said that, but we’re budget travelers, so we could not afford it. I loved him anyways.

    We went on to find Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace (and the squirrels in St. James Park) just waiting for us. Spotted: A group from Netherlands’ Olympic Team. Lunch: The Hard Rock Café. Our 10^th. In the shadow of Keith Richards guitar. London can be glamorous on a budget to. It’s all about investments and smart spending. Like sharing a sandwich at HRC. It will be enough for both of you.

     From Piccadilly Circus we went for a quick walk up Regent Street to what I believe is the biggest toystore I’ve ever visited in my whole life.  The walk was quick because it started raining, but I still recommend everyone, young or old to check it out. They have life size lego-figures of the Royal Family. They have giant teddybear guards. They have 6 floors!!! And I got lost in the Harry Potter noble collection part. Yes. I went shopping (on purpose) one place today and it was at Hamley’s. A toystore.

Mari Clémentine

Pisa - Capital of Tourists

I have so much trouble getting up in the morning these days, but eventually we went to the train station to catch a train for Pisa. Pisa is the capital of Italy in the eyes of tourists not going to the rest of Italy, or so it seems. Never in my life have I met so many tourists on a train connecting two cities.

    Around Pisa we discovered a bunch of people speaking languages we could understand and we all came for the very same reason: The Leaning Tower. It’s actually the freestanding bellower of the Duomo and was constructed on unstable foundation – therefor it became the “leaning” tower.

    Pisa was hot. We crossed Arno River again. I ran into an Italian bookstore just because of the air-condition. Pisa: Not much to see but the leaning tower, but people speak great English! We were supposed to go on to Lucca or Volterra, but the heat were too much so we returned to Florence for one last drink at Hard Rock. Next stop: London, baby!

Mari Clémentine

They never told me Gucci was from Florence...

“You have very nice hair,” the lovley girl who had showed us the first floor at Museo Gucci told me. “Oh, thank you.” It was so nice to hear after trying to fix it all morning.

Florence has two great museums: The Uffizi Gallery and Accademia where Michelangelos David is standing. How did we end up with going to none of them? Don’t ask. Early that morning we went out to visit the Basilica di Santa Corce which holds the tomb of both Michelangelo and Galileo, it’s kind of a must, but not to interesting even though the church were rather nice, they were working on it and we did not get to see it in all its glory. So we went back to Piazza della Signora and that’s when I could not help myself. “Let’s go to the Gucci museum!” I said and dragged my mom with me to the entrance where a suit-dressed lady met us. “Do you wish to visit the museum?” she asked. I nodded and followed her. And that’s how we ended up at a fashion museum.
    The Gucci museum is the most fun thing we’ve done in Florence so far. They have different themes like travel and sport where you get different cards where they tell you about the different items you see and why they are as they are. In addition to that Paul Fryer also had a video installation and an exibition at the second floor. It was all such great fun and I would recommend it to any woman who cares about what she wears.

    

“Signorina bellina!” I smiled at the man in the restaurant door and went to the next door store to pick up some water and yogurt. This evening we ate at the Cucciolo. Snack bar again. Our we brought the pizza home and it’s really the best pizza I’ve ever had. It’s located in Via del Corso and you have to try it for yourself to get it – and it’s only 3.50!

   The rest of the evening we spent watching a fun comedian/talking pantomime clown who took people from the crowd and made them do fun stuff. People where gathering, hundreds of them, laughing and clapping. The man had been doing it for 29 years.

Mari Clémentine

Freezing in 30+ in Florence

This should've been posted after "Sunflowers", I don't know what happend, but here it is c:
So I got to sleep for a long time today. No one woke me up before ten to nine. How lucky I am. Packing was on my list last night, but I kinda ended up taking a shower and going to bed instead, so this morning I woke up, got ready, threw all my things in a suitcase and went to check out, it was time to take the train to the next Italian city: Florence.

    It is a three hour (on the minute) train ride to Firenze Rifredi, and with an air-conditioned train, I had a rather nice time on the train. The air in Florence was much cooler than in Rome it was a welcome change, but now, sitting out at the food terrace of our hotel, overlooking the Duomo, at ten o’clock, I am wearing both a jacket and a scarf. Yeah. I just came from Rome, please excuse my strange behavior.  

Mari Clementine

The painting

This is the story of how I made it up to myself when I bought a small oil painting for 50 euro at the top of Florence:

“Well… Actually it’s our painting I said,” looking at my mom as she had given me half of the money. “And I do love sunflowers.” She nodded. “And if it hangs on our wall for 500 days, that’s only 5 cents a day!”

“And we walked up here and if we hadn’t walked with would probably have taken some expencive night tour of Florence!”

“Yeah!”

“And that would have cost us 30 euro at least!”

“Our 60! And then we actually saved money!”

     Yes. That actually happened. Welcome to my world. But as you all know, since you of course read tis blog every day, I have a thing for sunflowers, and the oil painting was of a sunflower field here in Tuscany, so the money gods have forgiven me, right?

Mari Clémentine

Party at the Piazza

After walking around Basilica di Santa Corce for a while I think we both understood that we would never find that tourist information so we could get a map, so in the end my mom said “Let’s go to the river!” So we did, only steps away from the Basilica where Michelangelo and Galileo sleeps the river of Arno is splitting the city in two.

    We crossed the blue river and went out to explore the streets the tourists haven’t taken over yet and found a little shop where we bought a map, not that we have needed it much. The Duomo can be seen from pretty much all over the city and we live right next to it at a charming little two star hotel called Hotel Medici.

 For lunch we had pizza, bought in a tiny, tiny shop somewhere between Ponte alle Gazie and the beautiful Ponte Vecchio, eaten at a street corner. Dinner on the other hand was not so Italian as we have a tradition of visiting Hard Rock and this one were just across the Piazza della Republica, a minute or two from the hotel. The food was great, the drinks were even greater and it was good to speak with someone who actually understood English. So while watching music videos and resting between Rod Stewards shoes and Paul Stanly’s guitar we had a lovley meal.

    “I don’t get why people go to Paris or Rome for romantic holidays,” my mom said. “They should try Florence.” I agreed and we spent the rest of the evening going from Piazza della Republica to Piazza Signoria listening to the incredible street musicians of Florence.. The trio at Republica got an entire crowd of at least hundred watching, clapping and enjoying the fun men playing violin, accordion and bass. At Signoria the crowds from Uffizi sat down to listen to the man on the guitar, and later another one playing the flute. Further up the street, two more en at the accordion played classics like Toccata.

      We decided to climb up the stairs to Piazzale Michelangelo in the evening. From there you can see the whole of Florence and it was stunning, even better as the guy in front of the David Statue singing “Oh baby, baby, it’s a wild world,” and while dancing around up there I tought that everyone should know about Florence and come here instead of going off to Rome for their romantic springbreak.

Mari Clémentine