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Austria United Kingdom

“Edinburgh,” or, “I've found my One True Love and it is this city”

Well, folks, I’m back in Austria.1 The United Kingdom was a lot of fun, though, and I managed to squeeze in a trip up to Scotland at the end.2 And let me tell you, folks, I am very glad I did – only got a day and two nights up there, but it was definitely enough time for me to absolutely fall in love with the city.
It’s a couple different things, really – thanks to Rebecca and her family, I’ve had a deep love of the Scottish accent for quite a while.3 And secondly, Edinburgh specific, is the fact that it’s an old city in a very different way than any of the other European cities I’ve seen this semester. Vienna has a very distinct architectural style, and as long as you stay in the first district you’ll only see, like, four buildings that don’t match that. Prague’s specific style is enforced by the World Heritage Organization. And I don’t really approve of that – it makes for a nice tourism industry, yeah, but living there, you can get bored of it all pretty quickly.
Edinburgh didn’t have that problem – yes, it’s easy to tell that it’s old and a lot of the stuff has been there for a while, but there’s a sense of freedom to the architecture, and the way it varies, that I just didn’t get from anywhere else. I loved it.4
But hey, time to share the love, and that means pictures.

Categories
Austria United Kingdom

“Trent,” or, “no, you can’t buy a $200 fish-eye lens for a single photo”

This is a quick one, because I find it hard to take photos while shivering1 and I didn’t grab a jacket today. Or on this trip. I only had a carry-on, it’s a bit difficult to pack ten day’s worth of clothes into a carry-on sized bag.
Anyhow, went for a quick jaunt around one of the other parks on the Nottingham campus. Pretty dang photogenic, and less windy than yesterday.2

Categories
Austria United Kingdom

“Nottingham,” or, “Wayne Manor is a five-minute walk from your dorm”

I’m in England this week! Because how many other times in life am I going to have the opportunity to say “yeah, I went to England for Fall Break.” (Probably not many, so I’m grabbing the chance when I’ve got it.)
Anyhow, I’m here visiting Chase, because he’s studying abroad in Nottingham.1
I’m actually not doing a whole lot while I’m here – I tend to prefer to just sit around and work on my own projects, or sit around and be lazy as my ‘vacation’ time. I spent yesterday wandering around the campus,2 and today I’m hoping to find a coffee shop or something where I can just sit around and work on my laptop for a few hours.3
Sunday, though, Chase dragged me to a nearby park to take some photos, because he’s even more of a photography nerd than I am. It was pretty cool, though – turns out that the park has a mansion that served as Wayne Manor in the Nolan Batman trilogy.
What’s that? You want pictures? Alright, I can do that.