After my Irish adventure finished I headed to Scotland, where I spent several days in Glasgow and then Edinburgh before beginning a tour of the highlands with the Haggis Tour company. My tour was five days long and I spent most of the time staring open-mouthed at the scenery - the mountains of the Highlands were snow-capped and each one just looked more amazing than the last. The tour took me to the Isle of Skye, Oban, Culloden Battlefield, Inverness (which is apparently the home of the ugliest Scots, although from what I could gather they weren't that bad) and Loch Ness. My highlights for that trip was the beauty of Skye and staying in a castle in the North. The castle had been converted into a hostel and was supposedly haunted. Didn't see any evidence of ghosts and I must have been in every room of the castle, as I was playing an awesome game of Sardines with the rest of my tour group. Sardines is like Hide and Seek, but in reverse, for one person hides and everyone else searches and when you find the first person you hide with them, so as more people find you, more people hide and get squashed together like sardines. We played for over two hours and we were giggling messes by the end of it. This was mainly from the fun of the game, but also because we kept getting told off by these two old bats in the dining room. It was hilarious - a dozen men and women, ranging from 20 - 35 years old, getting a dressing down by two biddies, ah good times!
After my tour ended I went back to Glasgow (home of Scotland's largest Borders bookstore, much to my delight) and then I flew to Budapest. Despite the fact that it was a ridiculously expensive city ($3 Aus for a bag of pasta - Outrageous!) and the Hungarians clearly didn't like me (I am generally quite personable when I am a tourist, so I don't know what happened), I still loved Budapest. It was just so photogenic, the architecture, the river, the people - everything was just interesting to look at and photograph. I stayed in a very small hostel in Budapest which was run by a young Hungarian woman called Olga, it was more like staying at someone's house rather than a hostel. I was constantly on the move while I was in the city, as there was so much I wanted to see, but the highlights were the cruise on the Danube and seeing La Boheme at the Hungarian Opera House for only $4! I also spent a brilliant three hours on the banks of the Danube at sunset, I borrowed Olga's tripod and took long exposure shots of the river and the Buda side of the Danube.
From Budapest I flew to Berlin, which has been my ultimate European destination since last year. Berlin was brilliant, exceeding my expectations on every level. It rained nearly the whole time I was there, but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm for seeing as many of the sights as possible. I followed my own walking tour plan of the city, but everything there is so easy to negotiate and the Germans are so friendly that it is easy to explore and have a great time. I tried as many different variations of the wurst (kurrywurst was my fave) as possible and I bought a massive pretzel from a bicycle seller outside the Reichstag. The shopping in Berlin was great, everything was so quirky and different and the markets were brilliant too, I bought a beautiful green amber ring that is, by far, my best ring purchase EVER - yes, a big call, I know! I loved my time in Berlin and I am looking forward to the Summer when I go there again.
After Berlin I flew to Copenhagen. Hm, Copenhagen. How should I describe it? It was kind of, well, bland. It lacked zest, that zing that makes a city interesting. It was nice, sure, and I loved all of that royal family stuff (you won't believe the number of Mary & Frederik magnets I bought!) but, for me, it was definitely zest-less. I spent a lot of time wandering around the city, checking out the sights (Little Mermaid, changing of the guard, Tivoli, museums) and it all just made me go 'Meh!' and shrug my shoulders. I'm not entirely sure why Copenhagen didn't do for me, I know plenty of people who really like the city, but I just didn't like it. I shouldn't fill this paragraph with just complaints, as my entire stay wasn't all blandness. I went on a great day trip to Malmö, Sweden (I love how pretentious it sounds to say you went on a day trip to another country - brilliant!), where I ate Swedish meatballs and lusted after all of those knick-knacks and furniture that the Swedish are so good at designing. I also went on a day trip north of Copenhagen to the Louisiana Art Gallery, which was an amazingly beautiful gallery on the coast in a town called Humlebaek. The setting was lovely (you could see the coast of Sweden from the gallery) and the gallery had a great exhibition of Cezanne and Giacometti works.
So there you have it, this was a condensed version of what I did for that mystery month of April. Sorry it has been so long in coming!
