The Grand North American Adventure, part 1: Inauspicious Beginnings

As you may have guessed from the sky photos last week, I spent my autumnal break travelling. Yes indeed, Mr Morrgan and I embarked on a grand North American adventure! First we spent a little under a week in the Boston area on the east coast of USA, then headed up north to Ottawa (and Montréal) in Canada.

Hello America!

Our trip did not begin too well. We were scheduled for a total of three flights, Turku -> Stockholm, Stockholm -> Frankfurt and Frankfurt -> Boston. Well. Our first flight ended up being so late that we arrived at Stockholm airport at the time our next flight was leaving. Much frantic running about with a generally helpless and lost appearance ensued, until a lovely lady managed to get us rebooked for a flight to the US, though to New York, and from New York to Boston.

During our trip, we appreciated literature!

Naturally the gate for this flight was at the other end of the airport, so we once again had to run to make it to our new flight (as it turned out, running would become the theme of this trip). We made it on the flight, though! Alas, our luggage did not. Nor did the information that I needed gluten free food.

We appreciated art!

We arrived in New York well on time and entered the huge security check queue on the way to our final flight, looking at the time and saying silly things like "Oh, we have half an hour. We'll make it through this checkpoint easy."

And history!

Haha, haha, haha. 25 minutes later we were nowhere near the end of the queue. After some more frantic helplessness an attendant let us go through the VIP line to get straight to the security check, but it was in vain. By the time we reached the gate, our plane was taking off. How eerily familiar!

Aaaaaand architecture!

Once again our flight was rescheduled. Interestingly, despite this disaster of a flight, we ended up arriving in Boston only an hour or so late. Sadly, our luggage didn't, so the next day was mostly spent hunting for socks and underpants.

Also, a wee bit of the night life!

Oddly enough, not that many photos were taken over the course of almost 2 weeks, but nonetheless I found I have too many for one blog post, or even two. A total of three posts full of photos is needed to fully describe this adventure, so stay tuned for parts 2 (USA) and 3 (Canada)!

Taking to the Sky

I can't decide which is the best thing about flying. It's either the moment of takeoff, when gravity seems to relinquish its hold on you and makes the butterflies in your stomach flutter about in a good way; or when you see views like this:

Magical. Like a white, unexplored world in the sky.

(It's too bad absolutely everything else about air travel sucks.)

A Birthday in Scotland, part 2

Here's the 2nd batch of Scotland photos! These are mostly from our day trip to Loch Lomond, with various stops at places along the way and back.

Our first stop was at the Forth (Rail) Bridge, crossing the Firth of Forth. It's old (finished in 1890) but still in use today, about 2,5 km long and absolutely massive.

Our second stop was in the city of Stirling, by its castle. We figured the 1,5 hrs stop wouldn't be enough to explore the castle properly, so instead we took in the scenery of the city itself while enjoying an icecream. Scenery including, as seen above, the graveyard around the Church of the Holy Rude.

Fun fact: Holy Rude actually means Holy Cross, like the differently spelled Holyrood in Edinburgh that came up in my previous Scotland post. (To be honest though, this wasn't as fun a fact as the mental image the words "Holy Rude" first conjured up in my mind.)

Outside Stirling Castle stands this statue, with the William Wallace Monument (seen Braveheart?) far in the background. In an interesting turn of events, I found out after the trip that the man this statue portrays is meant to be my greatgreat*insert-lots-of-greats-here* grandfather. (Genealogy is fun!)

The name is hard to see in the photo, so I'll give a hint: his name begins with Robert. Ends with Bruce.

Onwards we went and soon came to Loch Lomond, where we had a lovely lunch and wandered along the shores.

The views were delightful. We could happily have spent a whole afternoon here, but sadly only had another 1,5 hrs.

On the way back to Edinburgh we stopped at Scotland's southernmost Highland distillery Glengoyne, where we enjoyed a tour and whisky tasting. Mr Morrgan, who is the true whisky appreciator of us two, took a liking to their 17 year old and brought a bottle of it back home.

The next day it weas time to head back home to Finland, but on the way to the airport I had the chance to do one more thing I'd wanted to since I was a kid - ride on the top of a double-decker bus!

So, those were some of the highlights from the Scotland birthday trip. And for those who might have been wondering, yes I did eat haggis and black pudding (and even a deep-fried Mars bar) and liked it very much. ;)

A Birthday in Scotland, part 1

As the title says, I have indeed been to Scotland to celebrate my 30th birthday. It was about time, considering I was about 10 when I started saving up my weekly allowance for a trip to see Loch Ness and the monster. (I was a great big dino fan back then.)

I never did save enough of my allowance when I was 10, but maybe that just made this birthday trip to Edinburgh 20 years later all the more exciting. =)

It really was an excellent holiday, and as is the custom here at the Morrgan's Creatures blog, I shall prove it with photos!

On my birthday, Mr Morrgan and I visited Edinburgh Castle.
Fun fact: the castle is built on an ancient, extinct volcano.

As it happens, it was also the birthday of the Duke of Edinburgh, which was celebrated at the castle. It was fun seeing a birthday gun salute on my birthday, even though it was intended for the Duke. ;)

The castle had some very pretty interiors. Sadly my poor old camera isn't up to taking indoors photos anymore, so this is all you'll get to see.

It seemed every other corner in Edinburgh had something major happen at one time or another. Fortunately there were plenty of commemorative plaques to educate us on the details of past important events.

The city was also littered with monuments. This is the Scott Monument in the Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh. It's open to the public and we thought it'd be fun to climb up and take a look at the view.

It wasn't. It was possibly the most terrifying thing I have ever done. Not because of the heights, but because the 287 steps up to the top are INCREDIBLY narrow, at worst about 40 cm wide. The real "fun" is when you're going one way and meet people trying to go the other way and you then have to pass one another on these cramped stairs. As I said, terrifying.

The views from the monument were delightful though, so it is worth the climb if you don't mind those moments of terror.

The weather was quite variable during the trip, so when the sun was (mostly) out one morning we took the chance to head out to the hills of Holyrood Park.

They were very pretty hills.

You get quite the views of Edinburgh from up here, so if you don't mind a longer walk, you might prefer this to the scary Scott Monument.

Just don't get too close to the edge - one of the paths was closed by the police while a forensics team was investigating an accident that had taken place the night before.

There's no lack of spots for lovely city views in Edinburgh, so no worries if neither of the above were to your tastes. I think our favourite was Calton Hill, which includes the Nelson Monument above.

The views from Calton Hill were breathtaking.

That's it for now! I'll post a second batch of photos later this week, showing more of what's outside Edinburgh. Hope you enjoyed these and stay tuned!

Tuesday Finds: Travelling

End of January. It's about that time of year when I feel like travelling. Sure, the weather is nice and cold at the moment, with pretty white snow around. But, before you know it, the snow's melting and everything is wet and grey and icky.

Seems like a good idea to me to make travel plans and prepare now, in order to be ready to flee once the unpleasant part of early spring shows up.

Travelling Slippers by
susistitches.etsy.com

Personalized Luggage Tag by
CestSuperbeLabels.etsy.com

Passport Cover: I Want To Ride My Bicycle by
twopolkadots.etsy.com

Screen Printed Vintage Luggage Set by
BrightWall.etsy.com

New Zealand photos, part 2

Thought I forgot already, did you? Well I kinda did. But the rest of the photos are here now! As promised before, it's the awesome scenery we saw while on two of NZ's three scenic trains: the TranzCoastal and the TranzAlpine, both operating in the South Island.

The photos start off with ones from the TranzAlpine, travelling from Christchurch on the east coast to Greymouth on the west coast and back, complete with entertaining commentary on the scenery as you enjoy the ride. The last 4 are from going up north along the east coast with the TranzCoastal and travelling across to Wellington in the North Island via the Interislander ferry.

On the way to Greymouth it was absolutely pouring with rain and so windy that said rain was horizontal. It did however give us the chance to see rainbows and pretty waterfalls from the mountains.

Once we got close to Greymouth however, the weather began to clear up.

On the way back there were clear skies and warm sun most of the time. The weather couldn't have been better, as this way we got the chance to see completely different conditions in one trip.

Cows!

Mmmmmm.

While travelling along the coast, I spotted jumping dolphins several times. Yay! Also seals.

The only problem with this type of sightseeing is that you can't jump out and walk along the beach whenever you wish.

Mmmmmmm again.

I do like this water. Oh yes I do. (I suspect NZers must dump blue dye into the water. No water can be that gorgeously blue and turquoise and be real!)

So there you have it. A small selection from the 1000+ photos we ended up taking during the trip. I hope you enjoyed them!

New Zealand photos, part 1

So yes, I've been to New Zealand with Mr Morrgan. The whole thing started out as a family emergency, so we "planned" the trip, got time off work, got tickets and were off in only about 3 weeks.

We're good at panicky surprise travel, it seems. If it isn't work-related or unplanned, it doesn't happen. We still need to go on our honeymoon, for example. Been thinking about doing that for only the past 5 years or so.

Anyway. Fortunately everything ended up going well, so we got about 3 lovely weeks in New Zealand with Mr Morrgan's side of the family. As tradition dictates, there will now be some photos.

Early in the trip, we got the chance to explore Real Proper NZ bush with just a little trail going through it, somewhere near Palmerston North on the North Island. For a Finn, it was odd seeing pines and tree ferns mixed together. How exotic!

Ah, the tree ferns, how I love them. It's not too hard to imagine a big dino munching on the fronds.

More tree ferns! Well, one. We also spent a lot of time among more organized plant life, such as the Botanic Garden in Wellington...

...and the one in Christchurch. Once I'm rich and famous, I want a pond and a bridge like this.

We even went to see the Ellerslie International Flower Show in Christchurch, with such fancy sights as a flower lighthouse...

...a brass band on bicycles...

...and a more peaceful Japanese-style garden.

While in Christchurch, we also spotted this pretty water fountain thingie...

...and this. The NZers have interesting ideas about lawns!

The 2nd part will be all the awesome scenery we enjoyed, mostly from the South Island. Hills! Mountains! Rivers! Turquoise seas! Cows! Don't miss it!

Welcome Home

So, we've been travelling. Starting with the train to Wellington at 6 am Tuesday morning local time from Palmerston North, New Zealand, and arriving in Turku, Finland, at about 1 am local time on the night to Thursday. All in all, that's over 50 hours of trains, flights and airports. Over 50 hours. *shudder* Fortunately everything went smoothly, with the main setback being a jar of Kraft's crunchy peanut butter confiscated by airport security (sniffle).

After two days of travelling, with no proper sleep during the whole time, one ends up in a certain zombie-like state. In such a state, we found the last flight of the trip, from London to Helsinki, to be very amusing. Hilarious, even. It was like a "welcome back to Finland" type of thing.

Some background first. On the way over, we went with British Airways from Helsinki (Finland) to London (UK), from there to Sydney (Australia) via Bangkok (Thailand), and finally to Wellington (NZ). Travelling back, we flew with Qantas from Wellington to Melbourne (Australia) and from there to London via Hong Kong. The last bit to Helsinki was with Finnair.

The BA and Qantas flights, especially BA, happily surprised me by actually having good food. For example the lamb and whiskey pot pie, or the nice chicken curry... All served with salad and dressing, bread, dessert and your choice of beverage (mostly wine in my case). In short, food with actual flavour and variety. Even the coffee was nice most of the time.

So, what about the Finnair flight?

Well.

Imagine, if you will, the following "meal". Overcooked, soft pasta. Strangely cooked chicken, with occasional inedible crunchy bits of... cartilage? (Actually, I don't really want to know.) Veggies that seemed to be that cheap kind of thawed frozen peas, carrot cubes and undefined beige "other". Anything alcoholic had a price tag and I don't even know how to describe the coffee.

Welcome home to Finland!

Then getting off the plane and stepping into the Finnish early spring weather; cold, dark and rainy with dirty piles of melting snow... Remembering the pictured warm sun, blue waters and 25+ °C (77+ °F) of that last day in Wellington...

Yup. Home sweet home. *sigh*