Les vacances de la Toussaint

Two weeks off of work?? I am spoiled with this job. And it was difficult to wake up crazy early on Monday to go back to work... But I had a great vacation! You already read about the first week; now, onto week two- the real adventures!

On Friday, N. and I took a train from Nantes to Paris and got all checked into our hostel before wandering over to la Tour Eiffel. On display at the Champs de Mars, there were all these random, painted bear statues. It turns out that they're called "Buddy Bears", and they've been traveling the world to promote unity between nations. There are 140 of them (one for each UN-recognized country), painted individually by artists from that particular nation. It was actually pretty cool! Some of them were really intricate and fun. It was interesting to see how each country decided to represent itself artistically. 

Of course the bear for the USA was dressed like the Statue of Liberty!
Particularly fitting for the Bears' display in France, seeing as Gustave Eiffel designed Lady Liberty! 

More Buddy Bears

After walking around la Tour Eiffel, we headed over to "La Terrace" to warm ourselves up with a big café crème. Then, we headed towards the Seine and walked from les Invalides along the river to Notre Dame. On our walk, we passed by lots of great bridges! Pont Alexandre III, Pont des Arts (with thousands of lovers' locks on it! Just like in Cologne and the Cinque Terre!), and Pont Neuf (which always reminds me of "The Bourne Identity"). We also passed by lots of "bouquinistes" on  the left bank. I love glancing at all of the old books they sell!

Le Pont des Arts and its lovers' locks.

By the time we arrived at Notre Dame, it had started pouring down rain, and even with rain jackets and umbrellas, we were completely soaked! Luckily, it was after 4pm, so we could properly check into the hostel and get settled into our room, so we hopped onto the nearest metro and took a break from the cold and the rain at our "home away from home" for the weekend.

A very autumn-feeling view of Notre Dame

Later on in the evening, we took the metro up to Pigalle and stumbled up on the Moulin Rouge! It was dark by that time, so the place was all lit up. Cool! In six previous visits to Paris, I had never seen the Moulin Rouge, so I was stoked to check another landmark off of my list. Although, Pigalle is a bit of a creepy place to be at night. Needless to say, we hustled out of there ASAP and made our way to meet up with the Murphys!

The Murphys are friends of Kris' who are traveling through Europe for several weeks. They started their journey in Paris, so N. and I got to hang out with them for a couple of days while our trips overlapped. On Friday night, we went to dinner at a place called Chez Papa. I had a really tasty dish of duck in a peach sauce. Delicious!

Over the next two days, we visited the Pantheon and the Latin Quarter, the Champs Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe, we walked up the stairs to the 2nd story of la Tour Eiffel, visited Place des Voges, explored the Centre Pompidou (modern art museum), met up with my French friend Fanny for lunch, walked through the Louvre's courtyard and the Jardin des Tuilieres, walked through the Jardin du Luxembourg, and took over my favorite American bar in the Latin Quarter, "Le Violon Dingue". Great success!! I think it's safe to say that we got the most out of our three and a half days in Paris. :) Such fun to explore the city and get into good trouble with N. and the Murphys!!

This is modern art. I don't get it.

N. gets a Murphy sandwich in Place des Voges

Epic statues inside the Pantheon

Foucault's Pendulum!!! In the Pantheon, where it was first displayed in 1851.
The UW has a Foucault Pendulum in the Physics and Astronomy Building, which I
loved to watch between classes. I was nerding out big time when I saw this.
French Physics, for the win!

With Fanny, next to Notre Dame!

On Monday, N. headed off to London to visit some family, while I flew to Edinburgh to visit an old friend from Texas, Sharon, who just finished her Master's Degree at the University of Edinburgh. It had been SEVEN YEARS since I'd seen her- crazy!! 

Edinburgh!

There are bagpipers aplenty in this city.

Edinburgh is an absolutely beautiful city. I am so glad I was able to visit. Sharon was a great tour guide, and it was a real pleasure to get to know her as an adult, versus having known her before as a middle- and high-schooler. She's a wonderful gal and we still have a LOT in common! It's fortunate that we were able to reconnect while we're both in Europe!

I arrived late on Monday night, but we still had time to grab a pint at Deacon Brody's Tavern in town. We were ready for adventuring the next morning, and we started off by going to the Scott Memorial downtown. It's an intimidating structure, very dramatic and gothic, and for only 3 pounds, you can climb up the tower! Of course, we climbed it and had a look around- I always have to climb things! Downtown is really nice, and there are lots of memorials to famous Scotsmen through time. I enjoyed discovering who they all were when we stumbled upon new statues. 

The Sir Walter Scott Memorial.

A statue of David Hume, Scottish philosopher, and his very golden toe.

We continued to walk around town and visited the Meadows, Greyfriar's Cemetery and the statue of Greyfriar's Bobby, and the new University campus area. We stopped at a pub for a relaxed afternoon drink, and I was quite excited because the bar had a porter on tap!! I haven't had a good porter since before I left for Europe, so I was in heaven at this pub. Yum!

I'll Greyfriar your Bobby! But really, the story of that dog is pretty cute.

Porter! Amazing!

Me lovin' on my dark beer. Oh, how I miss microbrewed porters!
Europe's one failure.

After more explorations, wanderings around town, and some dinner, we decided to take a ghost tour! Super creepy! It was a lot of fun, though. The guide was wearing a great old-school cape and was telling all sorts of great stories of murder and torture and various horror stories that happened in Edinburgh in the 17th and 18th centuries. After walking around town for a bit, the guide took the group into the vaults below the city and told us more ghost stories. Ooooh, it was kind of scary, even if I don't really buy into the whole ghost business. I do feel like a ghost tour was the perfect thing to do in Edinburgh in the fall. The city looks and feels so ancient, and in combination with the blustery, cold weather and the fact that sunset is at about 16:30 at this time of year, Edinburgh can be an awesomely creepy city! I really enjoyed it.

We got a late start the next day, but the weather was so wonderful that we knew we had to hike to Arthur's Seat! Arthur's Seat is an outcropping of rock and meadow on the edge of town that provides fantastic 360º views of the city at the top. It was a bit of a trek to get up to the top, but totally worth it for the view. The wind was insane!! We're talking gale-force winds, at least. I almost got knocked over a few times, it was hard to stay standing up straight! If you ever visit Edinburgh, though, I highly recommend the hike.

Arthur's Seat, as seen from a bridge downtown, is the
 big pump in the middle of the outcropping.

Beginning the hike up Arthur's Seat.

The view from the top!

Sharon getting pummeled by the wind at the top of Arthur's Seat.
That was the most intense wind I've ever experienced!

Looking out over the city of Portobello and the bay.

The next day, one of the things we did was enjoy the classy treat of High Tea at the Waldorf Astoria hotel! I had some delicious green tea, and we both enjoyed fresh scones with jam. For whatever reason, I fell in love with the scones and am now in the mood to make some for myself! I'm quite pleased that we enjoyed High Tea during my visit; it just felt so British! :)

Sharon enjoying High Tea at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Swanky AND delicious!

Later on the same day, we went to the "Whiski Room" and tasted a few whiskies from the region. I loved it! Whisky is definitely an intense drink to be enjoyed responsibly, but I'm glad I got to try some real Scotch in Scotland! :) After that, we walked to a great cafe called The Chocolate Tree and enjoyed some cake and hot chocolate. It was almost a complete overload for the taste buds, but boy, was it good!

Amazing hot chocolate and a vegan chocolate cake
with fresh fruit at The Chocolate Tree cafe!

In the evening, we walked to another pub that had dark beer on tap, and then we mosey'd over to George Street to meet up with IAIN!! Iain, if you'll recall from my posts from 2009, was one of my great friends when I was in Nantes studying abroad. He currently lives and works in Glasgow, so he made the drive into Edinburgh and met up with Sharon and I for dinner. We had a wonderful time catching up, taking silly pictures, and devouring some great Indian food. It was absolutely lovely to see Iain after three years!!

Reunion! Dinner with Sharon and Iain :)

Being silly as "Awkward Girl Holding a Balloon", "Awkward Starfish on the Face",
and "Awkward Palm Tree".

I left town early the next day and headed back to Paris, where I met back up with N. We caught the train back to Nantes and spent the rest of the weekend prepping ourselves for going back to work. I had a really great week, and am very grateful to have been able to see the Murphys, Sharon, and Iain- all in one fell swoop! I hope we're all able to continue to keep in contact as the years go by; they are all amazing people who I am very fortunate to know!