Some good craic

And we're in the homestretch! I am entering my final days in Madrid and I could not be sadder. Other kids are talking about how excited they are to return home, but I'm not ready to make it back to Lake County just yet (Sorry, Mom and Dad).

In the past two weekends, I've seen some of the most spectacular things abroad. The past couple weeks have been a bit hectic. With finals quickly approaching, I have had quite the load of tests, papers, and group projects. Though the weeks are busy, quick trips to the Mexican restaurant La Tierra make them bearable.

Between class study break

Churros dates are always a good idea in the middle of the week to treat ourselves (and prove that I'm actually in Spain sometimes).

Churros with this chica

Two weekends ago we went to an annual festival in Sevilla called Feria. This week long celebration includes all the Sevillians taking off work and school to go to the hundreds of private tents to eat, drink, and dance the Sevillana.

We arrived in Sevilla bright and early on Friday morning where we met our friends Ben and Jonny at the train station. Ben came fully equipped for our arrival. Unfortunately, we weren't able to check into our apartment for the weekend until 3 p.m. so we lugged all of our stuff around Sevilla as we took in the sights and beautiful weather. 

We went to Plaza de España for a few hours (Fun fact: Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones was filmed here) and gave our best attempts at being a crew team for the afternoon. 

We struggled a bit 

After wandering around the city, we saw several stores that sold the proper dresses for the Feria. Naturally we took it upon ourselves to pop in and try on these 300 Euro dresses. I liked my dress a little too much and would have more strongly considered buying one had they not been so expensive. 

How well do we blend in?

Sevilla is hands down my favorite city in Spain that I've seen. Everywhere you go looks like it could be in a movie. Palm trees and stunning architecture to what appeared to be no end. Sevilla's cathedral is also the third largest cathedral in the world. 

Frankie's thoughts on the cathedral: "Eh."

We then took a stroll through the gardens in Sevilla in search of where we thought they filmed Game of Thrones's Dorne. Turns out they actually filmed it in the Alcázar in Sevilla (oops), but these gardens were stunning nonetheless.

After we'd checked into the apartment in the afternoon, it was a race to get ready for the Feria and try to blend in as best as we could (this was not possible). The women in Sevilla wore fabulous, colorful dresses with a flower in their hair. These women themselves were flowers; everywhere we went was another beautiful girl dressed to the nines. So we then put on our own dresses and pantsuits and had the boys attempt to put the flowers in our hair for about 40 minutes. It was quite comical.

They weren't half bad at this

After a 40 minute bus ride with me regretting wearing the wedges I bought, we made it the festival grounds. 

How pretty!

At the Feria, there are hundreds of tents of which 90% are private. So in order to get into them, you had to know someone. Thankfully MK's older brother studied in Sevilla and his host mom gladly welcomed us into her tent. We were also lucky enough to go to our friend Angela's tent who is originally from Sevilla. As this is a primarily private event, there were few Americans so I felt extremely fortunate to be in the midst of this Spanish tradition that so few get to experience. 

Ladies dancing the Sevillana 

Feria at night

This festival goes on for 7 days and the nights are looong. People stay out until 6 or 7 in the morning. It was the most bizarre thing to walk around at 3 a.m. and see the streets packed with people with all the vendors and tents open. 

Captured a rare moment of the flowers staying in our hair

Towards the end of the night, our group split up as MK and Jonny went to find an ATM while we wandered only to find the fair grounds of Feria. I've never seen such a large/unsafe fair. All the rides were like an 8 year old's dream where the rides are wild and have very little safety regulations. We rode on the ferris wheel only to find out the doors to our cage had no lock/didn't shut. Eek!

But don't worry we made it back down and got some crepes before calling it a night. 

View from the Ferris wheel (Fair with Feria tents behind)

The next day we slept in a bit because we didn't get back from the Feria until 5 a.m. (ouch). We decided to tour the cathedral and grab lunch at a cool restaurant we passed the day before. This cathedral was absolutely massive and extremely beautiful.

Christopher Columbus's tomb

View from the courtyard

El Pintón was a neat restaurant we splurged at

Ben didn't realize his Manhattan would be a flask of straight whiskey with a tince of vermouth 

All smiles for fun drinks on a rainy day

Because it was raining all day, we decided to not go the fairgrounds that night and instead invited our other SLU friend's over to hang out in the apartment and enjoy one last night in Sevilla together. 

Procession outside my bedroom window

The week flew by and I was once again packing my travel bag to head off to Scotland. Let me just say, this was one of my favorite trips this semester. I loved this country.

We started the weekend off with a bit of an interesting experience. With the two different Airbnbs I booked with the same owner, there was a bit of confusion. He gave us the wrong address for the first night and then freaked out when we were knocking on the door of his already occupied Airbnb. Let me also set the scene with a barren hallway and the steepest steps in an apartment that I've ever seen. The next address he sent us to was not any clearer. We pushed open the door labeled '51A' to see at the end of a red hallway a swarm of bugs and graffiti along the walls. 

Steepest stairs of my life

At this point, everyone was questioning why the hell I chose these Airbnbs but I promised that they looked nice online. We still couldn't find the keys in a lockbox as he had described so we went around back to find more apartments. We found the keys with the passcode but still couldn't open any of those doors. Eventually the owner came and told us those were the wrong keys. The Airbnb with another set of keys with the same exact code was actually the shack behind the apartments, behind the barricade, and by the dumpsters. Of course it was there!! How could we have missed that??

It wasn't these rear apartments like we had guessed

Literally tucked behind this barricade and to the right

Thank God it was actually carpeted and way more decent looking that all others we had seen

We ordered some Domino's and went off to bed before our early start the next day. On Friday we took a 12 hour long bus tour through the highlands of Scotland and boy, did we go everywhere. We continually stopped at these incredible views and even got the chance to look for Nessie!

The Scotland crew

Weeping Glen

For lunch we had some fresh fish and chips in a small town before we got the chance to experience the Inverness and its beers that we sampled as we sat along the Loch Ness. (Loch=Lake)

Local Inverness brew?

Wasn't too shabby 

Prettier than the views

On Friday evening, we caught a quick one hour train over to St Andrews. Here we stayed at the only hostel in town that was advertised as "Cheapest lodging in town." We definitely got what we paid for with some bugs, the smell of mold, a freezing room, and a grumpy worker. But, hey, it was cheap and we weren't looking to pay hundreds for an actual Bed and Breakfast anyway. 

The next morning we got up with a big brunch on our minds. We found a pub called The Rule that had a tasty Traditional Scottish Breakfast, which I was sure to indulge in. One of the things I love most about the northern European countries is the hearty food and generous portions. #nomoretinyespressosplease

Couldn't wait to eat it before I snapped this pic

Next we wandered over to St Andrews golf links along the water where we checked out some of the course and the clubhouse. I absolutely loved this area with the view of all the old buildings, even though I was freezing my butt off the whole time. 

We popped into the British Golf Museum cafe for some coffee to warm up where I had a massive mug of hot chocolate. Finally larger cups that give you more than two sips of your drink!

Example A: Content Elaine

After we had warmed up a bit, we walked along the beach past the castle on a search to find a large rock that all the University of St Andrews students supposedly climb after graduation. While we found a rock, we weren't sure if it was the rock. Regardless, it looked pretty steep so only Michael made the climb.

Path along the coast

He forgot his phone at the bottom

I swear these flowers smelled like coconut

On our way out of town, we stopped at St Andrews Brewing Company for lunch where I had the best beer of my abroad time! The St Andrews Brewing Co. oatmeal stout takes the cake for my favorite beer in Europe thus far. Oh, and the food was incredible as well (think bacon in the white cheddar mac n' cheese). 

St Andrews Oatmeal Stout

Found a stained glass window in St. James church for my Confirmation saint, St. Margaret of Scotland

We caught the train back to Edinburgh that evening and made our way to the first Airbnb we mistakenly went to. Three flights of stairs later, we entered the apartment that was considerably better than we expected. To our surprise we found a projector in the living room so we quickly bought an HDMI cord and settled on a night in after a long day of traveling.

Once again, thank you, Michael and Ben, for being our chefs and whipping up some tasty stir fry for our movie night. 

The next morning we decided to walk around Edinburgh before our flight that afternoon. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. There is a strip in Edinburgh called the Royal Mile which is a street with pubs, stores, street vendors, an immense black cathedral, a castle on one end, and the ocean on the other. The sun was out this day as were the people. It was this day that I felt, "Yeah, I could totally live here."

Old church made market! Super cool

Edinburgh castle

View from the castle of the church and Arthur's Seat

View down the Royal Mile

One goal that we had the whole trip was to try the Scottish dish, haggis. Haggis is the heart, liver, and lungs of sheep mixed with oats and stock, traditionally served with turnips and potatoes. Despite this grotesque description, the dish was actually quite tasty, even if it was served in a stomach.

Yup, I ate that

And now as I write this, I have no assignments left for the semester. Just studying and exploring the city as it's my third and final full weekend here in Madrid. I look forward to being a tourist in my own town and savoring these moments with friends in the city that has been home to us all for the past five months.