London or Marseille

Please, allow me to be frank for a bit. When Team Scottish Interns visited Marseille a few weekends ago I was not too impressed with the city itself. I was extremely impressed with the sights and the architecture and the history, but the city was just dirty and the people were ornery (surprise, surprise). Trash was everywhere, along with graffiti on every building and feces on the walk way. However, now that I have visited London I have become more appreciative of Marseille. It took a London trip to fully appreciate Marseille and I'll tell you why... As disturbing as the city was, it did not distract from the grandeur of the sights we saw. The Massif des Calanques, Notre Dame de la Garde, Cathedral Major, Palais de Longchamp, etc. all expressed the history and character of Marseille in all its Glory. London, on the other hand, is large and clean and has plenty of very friendly people. But, after three full days of seeing what it had to offer, I left wanting. I didn't get the feel that London had retained its own identity. It is just too big and too modern. The sights we saw had just become tourist attractions. A means of making money. I didn't get any sense of history and character like I did with Marseille. I would say, in regards to the buildings and the architecture, the two cities were equal. They were designed and built by equally talented and detail-oriented individuals. The art was equal in beauty and the sculptures were equal in magnificence. But, London lacked. It lacked the sense of nostalgia and humility that usually comes from just being in the midst of such antique. London was too much like the U.S. while Marseille is the epitome of an ancient European city that American tourists are dying to experience. If I was to advise between London and Marseille, I would suggest Marseille any day!

Marseille in all its Glory! A view of the sunset from Vieux Port.

Marseille in all its Glory!

Chateau d'If

Ashley, Zan, myself and Miss K posing in front of the infamous Chateau d'If. If you don't know why it's infamous, I'm not going to tell you!

It was all fun and games until we got inside and couldn't wait to escape! (see below)

Yeah, I know. We look cool.

Palais de Longchamp

Here we are. Posing again. This time outside a large..um..thing. It's supposed to be a fountain, but without any water I don't know what you would call it. I wish they had the water flowing. From the looks of it, though, I don't think they've had the water flowing for a long, long time.

Voila! The backside of the center-most sculpture! I won't lie; I didn't actually take this picture. My camera batteries had depleted long before we arrived. (In fact, they didn't even last a whole day. But, that's beside the point). I do, however, take some credit for the picture since it was my idea to take it. I like it. I like it a lot.

When it all comes down to it: We are all posers. But, I like the picture, so don't judge. The second picture shows a graffiti sign hanging from the art. I don't know if the perps just didn't have souls or just don't have anything better to do. I don't know what it says, so any French-speakers out there, help me out. It really amazed me that nobody had bothered to take it down. I was about to climb up there and take it down myself, but there was a security guard walking around and I was afraid he'd either shoot me or deport me. The bobbies in Scotland don't carry guns, but I don't know what France's law-enforcement is like. It can't be too scary since the juvenile delinquents seem to run amuck in this city! But, the point is, graffiti has become part of the architecture in the city here. From the words of a Frenchman, "Marseille is an antique city without any antiques."

Uh oh. Busted! We played on this silly little children's playground toy for quite some time. We couldn't figure out how to stay on it. Our legs kept hitting the ground on the short end and we'd go rollin'. No wonder these French kids have to occupy their time with destructive activities. Their playground equipment is lame!

The longest park bench in the world! (supposedly 3km or somethin) Betcha didn't even know it existed, eh? I sure didn't. I am not sure if it counts as the longest in the world because there are breaks in the bench every few feet. Perhaps it should be the longest 'series' of park benches in the world! The second picture is of a chicken! Yeah, we were there during festival so we saw a lot of crazy costumes. The funniest was this little beauty salon where the workers were all dressed up. One was a cat, and this guy was a chicken. They were just going about their business. Cutting hair in their costumes. We wanted to take a picture from outside, but we'd look stupid, so to our advantage, the guy came outside to talk to this car and..SNAP! We got him!

What did I tell you about the graffiti?! Everywhere! Okay, these were pretty cool. Even though that funny looking astronaut on the left is smoking a joint.

Cathedral Major

By far my most favorite place in Marseille! As an expert once said as he used to sit and 'enjoy its silent enormity,' "It is so huge that it seems to swallow sound. The peacefulness there is almost haunting - even when there are crazy riots going on outside!"

I would put more pictures up, but I don't have any of the inside. It is not very respectful to take pictures inside a church, so the only way to experience this magnicficent, striped Cathedral is first-hand.

Massif des Calanques

When we arrived in Marseille on Friday afternoon the first thing we did (after checking into the hotel, of course) was hike down to the Calanques. Now, I didn't know anything about any Calanques before this trip, but I know that I am a better person for having witnessed them! I cannot put into words their beauty, so I will quote a description from a tourist website and show some amazing pictures. You can see for yourself.

Massif des Calanques: Directly south of Marseille, and to the west of Cassis, is the wild coastline of the Massif des Calanques. Some of France's most beautiful and dramatic scenery can be found along this 12-mile (19km) stretch of coastline; the sea has cut gorges, up to a mile (two km) deep, into the limestone. Dazzling white limestone cliffs overhang the sea and attract rock climbers and deep-sea divers. The mountains rise up 1,850ft (564m) and are a haven for climbers.

Amen.

The walk to the Calanques was a breath of fresh air. Literally. We have been cooped up inside the crowded city of Edinburgh day after day, so this nature hike was the best thing since sliced bread! On both sides we were surrounded by trees, mountains, valleys, and rocks. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks! I love rocks! I took so many pictures here. I couldn't help myself. There was so much beauty. I will shut up and put more pictures up for you to see...

(P.S. Keep that little rock in the background in mind. It comes up later in all its glory.)

After walking for a while we finally could see water! This picture is actually zoomed in. That rock on the left is the same one shown earlier that you were supposed to keep in mind. Remember?? We were still pretty far and had a long way to climb down before we reached the water, but we could see it! The following pictures will jump to the Calanques and the Mediterranean, so be ye warned of the beauty that follows...

(P.S. When I said 'beauty that follows' I was not talking about me. I was talking about the rock!)

Hey, I didn't write it.

Well, there you have my expedition to Massif des Calanques. Is it any wonder that we spent most of our day here? Or any wonder that I dedicated an entire post to it? No. Because it's amazing and you know it! I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I enjoyed the view in person. I highly recommend the sight to any and everyone and I can honestly say I would go back in a heartbeat.

Scottish Desserts

Here we are. Flatmates in Edinburgh. Doing what we do best. Pigging out! We really enjoy eating here in Scotland. We actually spend quite a lot of time during the week doing it, so we thought it would be appropriate to document the activity. We are incredibly ridiculous when we eat. Especially when we eat desserts because we won't even take it out of the original packaging. What's the point? I mean, it's only going to be gone with in 5 mins anyway! Why make more dirty dishes for us to clean later? No point. Kendra is shown here devouring a 16 portion cake and I am sucking the life, and certainly all the chocolate ice cream, off that poor spoon.

No, I am not exaggerating when I say they have really good desserts here. Their cheap Wal-Mart-equivalent chocolate is better than anything I've had in the States! There are also a bunch of candies and such that I will severely miss when I go back home. Caramel Logs and Jammie Dodgers, to name a few. Unfortunately, however, they do not know how to do cookies. A real cookie is hard to come by here and it makes me yearn. And don't even think about cinnamon candy. It doesn't exist. But, by golly, their pastries are delicious. Can't wait to get over to Europe, though. That is where the high quality pastries are supposed to be!

The Highlands and the Isle of Skye

On Friday, the 10th of March, eight interns, two Scots, and two Brazilians piled into this fabulous Mini Bus and headed toward the highlands and the Isle of Skye. The journey wasn't too bad and the bus wasn't too uncomfortable, but the scenery was amazing. The rumors are true...Scotland is absolutely breath-taking. It has so many different landscapes. It reminds me of driving through Utah, except for that whole desert thing. We saw green rolling hills, usually surrounded by large, blue lochs, rocky mountains, green mountains, white mountains. You name it. They got it. I hope the following pictures do a little justice to the magnificence of Scotland.

Plockton

The first town we stopped in was called Plockton. Great name, eh? We actually didn't get here until late the night before, so we went straight to the bunkhouse. There were three sets of bunkbeds in one room and a few others in the other room.

Before breakfast we took a wee walk around the town. I didn't get far because I was too busy looking at a few sights. There was an Open-Air Church, a Memorial from the men who died in the Great War, but my favorite part was the view we got of Loch Alsh (below).

I know it doesn't look like much. It kind of looks like a picture of mud taken on a gloomy day, but don't judge. You have to remember that we are in Scotland and the days usually don't look much different than this. Also remember that it is hard to capture the big picture on a camera. When you are surrounded by the scenery you are able to feel the beauty, rather than just see it. I am continually awed by the greens and blues because, as beautiful as Utah is, it could use a little help in the color department. Being a desert and all.

Portree

The harbor at the charming little village of Portree. I like the colorful houses!

We spotted a tower sitting atop a hillside and we wanted to explore it. There was this pesky sign, but being ignorant tourists we pretended we didn't know 'Strictly No Admittace' meant the same things in Scotland. I think they just meant 'you can't come in unless you are Trisha.' They already knew that I can do whatever I want. And I wanted to go up there. It was kind of spooky because it was really quiet, except there were tons of crows flying around 'caw'ing up a storm.

Once we got up there we realized it was just a lonely tower, but we climbed the metal spiral stairs inside and got a better view of Portree.

There were 12 beds in the bunkhouse we stayed at on the second night. The room was too big to get it all in the picture. It was kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Still beautiful Scotland country, but also frigid Scotland weather. Since the bunkhouse was so open and lacked any real means of heat, we froze the whole night. From the second picture you can get an idea of how windy it was that night. The door was actually attached to the telephone booth the night before.

Eilean Donan Castle: Probably the most well-known of all castles in Scotland. We didn't get to go inside. I don't remember why; it was too cold to even stand outside long enough to get a few pictures! I think we were just too cheap and cold to pay to go inside and look around.

The Skye trip ended with a bang. When I say 'bang', I mean blizzard! We got stranded in Fort William (the Outdoor Capital of the UK, if you must know) for a while because it was snowing so bad in some parts of Scotland. They closed all the roads down. I still don't know why, but, hey, we do as we're told. This picture was taken out of a window of our speeding minibus. It looks like a drawing, but it's definitely not. I would know. I nearly froze to death trying to take the picture!