Gotta ride a camel before you meet your maker.

Old Rick Steves episodes are pretty fantastic, I must say. All of these tourists in early 90s clothes. Awesome.

Anyway, since I am currently doing nothing better and Lena has made a request, I suppose I should do a Europe summary post of things I've learned. I head back to LA in less than 2 weeks, so no better time than now.

Bullet points will have to suffice, otherwise this entry has the potential to be 40 years long. I know, ridiculous.

• Poland was incredible. Because Warsaw was approx. 99% destroyed during WWII, it is new and shiny and completely rebuilt in the old style. Buildings with beautiful colors galore. Krakow was one of my favorite cities of the trip, because it has a little of everything. Old World charm and university students coexisting happily. Unlike Hungarians, the Poles are still happy to be Polish after years of occupation. A much more upbeat place.
• Germany was... Germany. I dunno, everyone knows so much about Germany, it's almost not worth recapping. I had a ton of fun. Munich was another of my favorite cities, because it's spectacularly clean and has tons to see and do. Dresden I loved as well, because basically the entire point of the city is art. It's centered around 2 huge museum complexes, one for the old and one for the new. And like Warsaw, it's almost entirely new but rebuilt how it was before the war. It's still being rebuilt, actually, because after the war was Soviet occupation and then a period of economic troubles that just recently allowed for state building projects. There's something to be said for looking to rebuild a city exactly the way it was before a period of hardship. It seems sort of naive, like putting things back how they were will undo the trouble, but it's also really touching and shows sort of a pride in the identity of your ancestors.
• Paris was pretty great, especially since I had someone else to really explore with this time. I love the French way of life, because it's like that of Americans but with a widespread appreciation of the finer things, basically. Good food, high culture (and low), enjoyment of current trends in fashion etc etc. Also, Kate and I had a really good CouchSurfing host. I can't really speak highly enough of CouchSurfing. It's something that I think everyone should try, at least once. Some people are weird, but others are fantastic, and that's what's really worth experiencing.
• Ireland, I'd have a really hard time talking about. It really meant so much to me to finally be able to go there, a nation that's fascinated and entranced me since I was young. It's the place of my ancestors, to a certain extent, and the place that my family credits for our most notable traits (wit, lightheartedness in the face of adversity, ego haha). It was honestly and truly like going home, as corny as it sounds. I think the Irish people are absolutely the nicest in the part of the world that I've been to so far. It's not hard to believe that they would help strangers in need without a second thought. Hey, any nation whose favorite pastimes are talking and drinking is tops in my book. I would love to (and probably will) live there in the future. North or south, it doesn't matter. The political situation is stable, for the time being, and people really do just want to heal. They're tired with the killing and fighting and are really trying to live their lives in peace.
• Going back to Edinburgh and getting to show it to Kate was super nice. It's a fantastic city, and everyone should go there.
• London is stressful and will be forever. It's too big and too crowded to really be enjoyable. I guess it's sort of like LA. A good place to visit, but I would go crazy if I actually had to live there. It's best in small doses, which is a shame, because omg the museums.
• And the USA- Lena is wrong. The arctic AC in stores is probably one of the greatest things about this country haha. The first step into a store on a hot summer day is one of the things I live for.

So yeah, that's a lot in a condensed manner. After all that traveling, NJ has stopped feeling like home. I think that's the biggest change. I've said again and again I don't really feel like anywhere is "home," because I'm comfortable everywhere. Here, now, this really feels like my parents' house for the first time. It's somewhere I can visit, but it's not where I live. I know that I definitely want to get a Master's, and I have a general idea of where I'd like to go to grad school. LA, Boston, Ireland or Scotland. Beyond that, it's up to the school and scholarships.

Now, I am excited to get back to SC. I miss having people around me at all times. I miss drinking until I'm stupid, honestly. And I miss learning. Basically, I miss being a college student.

We all want something beautiful.

I'm going to say right now, this entry is going to do the Highlands absolutely no justice. There aren't words strong enough to actually describe the sort of landscape up there. There just aren't. Maybe if you were to listen the theme to Jurassic Park or Lord of the Rings with your eyes closed and imagine the landscape evoked by that music (minus any possible dinosaurs or hobbits), you could sort of get it. But probably not.
The tour of the Highlands started here in Edinburgh. We took a bus for three days of gorgeous countryside and awesome Celtic myths. I saw mountains and castles and fairy knolls. Also, more sheep and deer than I've ever seen in my life. The guide was a Glaswegian named Tony, and I absolutely fell in love with him haha. It helped that he looked remarkably like Damian Lewis and was impossibly charming and funny, as Scotsmen are wont to be. But yeah, besides Tony being a great guide, the tour had all sorts of other upsides. Mostly, I plan to make enough money to buy a house up there (the going rate for a one-story, modestly sized house is half a million $) and then completely withdraw from civilization. It's overrated anyway.
I don't really know how to write up the trip. I think it's better told through pictures, which I'll post on Facebook eventually. Sadly, I don't have pictures of everything because my camera batteries are sort of waging a war of attrition against me. They've ceased holding a charge for any longer than, say, 5 minutes of use. Fucking frustrating.
Anyway, as I said, the tour was three days. We went from here to Loch Ness and spent the first night in Fort Augustus on the edge of the loch. For the next day, we drove up to the Isle of Skye, where we spent the night. The Isle of Skye might as well not even be earth. The landscape up there seems completely alien, for a variety of reasons. I was basically looking out the bus window and thinking that I was further from what I consider real life than I ever had been before. That night it snowed, so there was a nice coating of snow on everything for the ride back down to Edinburgh for the next day. Abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous.
I know, I'm a total cop-out. I honestly have no idea what else to say about it. If you want some things to Google, to sort of piece together what I saw for yourself, I can give a list:

• Glencoe
• Eilean Donan Castle
• Culloden
• Inverness
• William Wallace Memorial
• Commando Memorial
• Loch Cluanie and Loch Lochie
• Portree (there's video of an exploding whale if you look hard enough)
• Doune Castle (where part of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed)
• Ben Nevis
  

Maybe Google will have some pictures for you. It really is all in the seeing of these things. Though plenty of them also have amazing stories, both historical and mythical, attached.
Part of the absolute charm of Scotland is the regard for and love of the landscape. The Scots really, really love their country, and they have been enduring some of the worst weather in the world for thousands of years because of this love. The Highlanders especially exemplify this spirit, because it can be a miserable life up there. Especially in the winter and especially when there were no modern conveniences. It's sort of astounding to think about the things that people will put up with to stay where they are. The Scots enjoy what they call "hill-walking" or "going for a wee wander," which is actually hiking. I've learned that understating things is sort of the Scottish way. We went for a wee wander in Glencoe on the first day, and if I'm going to live in the Highlands, I am for sure going to need to get in shape haha. I am so not a hiker. And Scotland's hills are actually mountains, so yeah. I'd be perfectly happy being a sheep farmer's wife. It's not a bad life, when you wake up everyday to the most beautiful countryside in the world (I haven't actually been everywhere in the world, but I have no reservations about that sweeping statement).
And then I returned to Edinburgh to find that my 18 year old cousin is apparently engaged, fueling my current burning desire to retreat from everything. How did I find this out? Through motherfucking Facebook. Here comes a big, long diatribe, so get yourself a drink or something. It's actually sort of shocking to me how hurt I am by this, but there you have it. I'm changing my life's ambitions because of it. I was considering, following my earlier deep introspection, moving back to the East Coast after graduation because of the disconnect that I'm feeling between me and my family. Not anymore. I will be applying to grad schools here in the UK, pretty much exclusively I think. I probably sound completely irrational, but it mostly feels like my family has forgotten that I exist. It's stupid, I know. They're all so proud of me, talk about me all the time, blah blah blah. But my cousin, who has lived next door to me for all 18 years of her existence, decides to get engaged, and nobody sees fit to tell me this for two months. I have to find out from an update to her fiance's Facebook. Excuse me, what? I talked to my cousin last week. I talk to other members of my family every goddamn week. This is big news, guys. The sort of thing that I would like to know about, if only to voice my disapproval. Because I absolutely disapprove. This is going to change my life as well as theirs, as selfish as that sounds.
Basically, the way I see it is this. Ashley, my cousin, has been dating Ben, who graduated high school with me and was a friend of mine, since spring of my freshman year. So for two-ish years. Fine, whatever. I don't particularly like Ben, as he's always been basically an irritation for me. We agree about nothing, I think he's a fool. His dad's a priest, and he wants to be one too. He's changed religions (from Presbyterianism to Episcopalianism), I think mostly to win over my family. He'll say that it was after deep introspection and lots of searching blah blah don't care. Not the source of my deep-seated dislike. My family also dislikes Ben, for basically the same reasons that I do. He's opinionated, obnoxious, and foolish.
Ashley drags him along to all of our family functions, and, if there's one thing that should be known about my family, it's that they like to tear outsiders apart behind their backs. Maybe not the most noble trait, but whatever. We love each other and try to keep each other from being stupid. It's sort of like being part of a clan, with the inherent distrust of outsiders. Someone who has married into the family will probably forever be criticized, for one thing or another. Examples: being neurotic, being too overbearing, treating a dog like a child (my uncles are excellent fodder for the Lynch tribunal). So Ben doesn't stand a chance, is what I'm saying. He's already been a topic of discussion whenever I've been home, and I'd rather not have to talk about him for the rest of my life. I'd rather not have to see him for the rest of my life. He disturbs my hard-won peace. I know, I sound completely awful and selfish saying all of this. He makes my cousin happy blah blah blah. She's 18. She wants to go to med school, and she's still only a freshman in college. Ben's a junior, and he still lives with his parents. I don't know when they plan to marry, but I'm afraid that he's going to ruin her potential. She's a smart girl, but the women in my family do stupid stuff for love. Like marry idiots.
I genuinely like going to family functions. Have done for my entire life. Ben has made them more difficult than enjoyable. I sort of predicted that this would happen, but not so soon. I expected to have time to wean myself off of using my family as a source of peace. But fine, this is the way it is now. Ashley and Ben will get married, and I'll be the absent achiever. Talk about a person who can't deal with change. I'll probably seem like the jealous spinster, and I'll be forced to endure the wedding to avoid having people say mean shit behind my back. This is an odd side of me, I know. I'm not doing myself any favors here.
I just wish that someone had thought to tell me about this. If I had a fortress of solitude, it was my family. It may seem weird to be so upset about something happening in my extended family, but as I said, clan structure. My cousins might as well be my brothers and sisters for as often as we saw each other growing up. I can't make a distinction between immediate and extended. We all live next door to one another, for fuck's sake. I said before that home was no longer feeling like home. This just sort of clinches it. Growing up sucks, really. I wasn't ready to give up the peace that I felt with my family.
In better news, Doctor Who is back. This is how I will get through everything.