July 2018 Travel Roundup

JULY 2018 TRAVEL ROUNDUP

July was another full month of travel. We spent just under two weeks in Prague and then a full two weeks in Scotland with my mom and aunt. We got to spend time in cities, visit castles and take gorgeous hikes. We ended the month with something really exciting… we came home! It’s still super surreal that we’re home and although the international part of our big trip is over, we still have loads of things to see and do here in the US over the next couple of months. Enough about being home, though, check out our month of July!

PLACES VISITED

⋙ CZECH REPUBLIC: Prague

⋙ SCOTLAND: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Isle of Sky and Inverness

⋙ UNITED STATES: Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas

TRAVEL HIGHLIGHTS

WALKING ALL OVER PRAGUE’S OLD TOWN: We ended up spending 10 days in Prague alone. We had been very go, go, go and knew we had two weeks of that ahead of us with Scotland as well. So, we planted ourselves in Prague and really explored this gorgeous city. We loved the affordability, the beer, the people and just the beauty of the city.

LEARNING MORE ABOUT PRAGUE’S JEWISH HISTORY: Prague’s Jewish Quarter has a rich (albeit sometimes sad) history. We visited 4 of the historic synagogues and really came to learn a lot of about the Jewish history dating all the way back to the first crusades, though the holocaust and to today. Their exhibits and museums were incredibly well done. Additionally, Franz Kafka is from Prague’s Jewish Center and there are several historical ties to him within this quarter and the city itself.

VISITING THE BIRTHPLACE OF HARRY POTTER: One of the stops I was most excited to make in Edinburgh, Scotland was, believe it or not, a cafe. The Elephant House is one of the main cafes that J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.  We asked which seat was her favorite and we were told that the seat that overlooked the castle and cemetery, which helped inspire Rowling. So, of course, we enjoyed our breakfast there! It was amazing! Don’t forget to pop into the toilets to check out the amazing graffiti-covered walls. My favorite was the “this way to the ministry” above the toilet. HP fans get it. 😉

EXPLORING CAMBUSKENNETH ABBEY IN STIRLING: Cambuskenneth Abbey is a site that’s mostly ruins now, but it’s the ruins of a 12th century abbey along with an old cemetery as well. It’s tucked away into a neighborhood but also sits right on the river. It’s beautiful old ruin and it’s 100% free to visit!

CHECKING OUT THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS ROUTE AT GLENFINNAN VIADUCT: This viaduct was made famous by the Harry Potter films as an iconic shot on the route to Hogwarts. This railway sits in the Highlands of Scotland and is also the site of a Jacobite Monument. It’s well worth the visit and be sure to hike up the hill behind the monument visitor’s center to get this stunning view!

FINDING MYSELF BELIEVING IN FAIRIES AGAIN ON THE ISLE OF SKYE: The Fairy Glenn hike on the Isle of Skye. You have to wind up a teeny tiny one lane road with little pull outs along the way to get there. Suddenly, you get into this richly green valley and in this valley are dozens of really small, perfectly round hills. All this green was made up of tiny ferns. They’re just everywhere. I could totally picture fairies living under them. On another hill is what looks like a ruined tower of an old castle, but it’s actually just a basalt rock. All0in-all, it’s just unreal. It totally blew me away.

CLIMBING UP TO THE OLD MAN OF STORR: This hike was the number one thing I wanted to do on the Isle of Skye and the view was absolutely worth it. Only Matt made it to the very tippy top of this hike, but I’m a-okay with that because I made it almost to the very top and the reason I didn’t was because I was cheering on my super asthmatic mama (who’s also afraid of heights) decided to climb this big old mountain! I was so proud of her! Also, my aunt is super afraid of heights and she rocked it to just under the top as well! These awesome ladies in my life are just so incredible.

GETTING MY “OUTLANDER” ON AT THE CLAVA CAIRNS: These ancient stone circles surround passage graves. It was one of those moments that just totally stood out to me from this trip. First of all, since I studied anthropology and religious studies, I eat this stuff up. Then, on top of that, I’m one of those Outlander fans. I’ve been in love with that book series for almost a decade and visiting a set of stone circles near Culloden was pretty amazing. Plus, Diana Gabaldon herself was photographed at the cleft rock of Clava Cairns! It’s a really magical site that isn’t overly touristy (yet) and you can walk right up to the stones.

SURPRISING FAMILY IN MISSOURI + VISITING FAMILY IN KANSAS: None of my family members knew that we were coming home except for my mom and aunt who we were flying home with from Scotland. So we spent the first 24 hours of being home surprising my dad, my grandparents and my brother! I also got to hold my baby nephew for the first time! Then the very next day we were in a car to drive to Wichita to see Matt’s grandma for a couple of days. Seeing our family was so special to us.

TRAVEL LAUGHS + MISHAPS

HAVING TO TAKE OUR RENTAL CAR BACK FOR AN EVEN BIGGER ONE: This was a part mishap/part laugh. We were supposed to get an SUV because we had four people and four people’s worth of luggage. What we got was a 4-door Fiat. So we piled our crap in, very uncomfortably, and got a bigger Hyundai car, which ended up being perfect because it was so much more spacious, a hybrid and took unleaded instead of diesel.

LOADS OF LAUGHS WITH MY FAMILY: When my family gets together, there are always tons of laughs. It’s amazing just how often I crack up with them. We had several nights in where we all just sat around laughing. It makes me so happy to have such a fun family and that Matt jumps right in with the madness that is my family… or at least documents it, like he did for this pic.

DRIVING TO ARKANSAS FOR NON-EXISTANT WATERFALLS: Arkansas is filled with beautiful waterfalls, although many of them are wet-weather falls. Others may be flowing year-round but are much more spectacular after heavy rains. Well, semi-spontaneously (as in the night before) we saw that some large storms were rolling through Jasper, Arkansas, so we thought that it would be a perfect day to check out some waterfalls. My parents, Matt, Brady (our dog) and I loaded up in the truck and made our way to some of our favorite waterfalls that my mom had never been to. We got all the way to Arkansas and the base of Triple Falls only to find them barely trickling. It was so disappointing. So, instead of going to the others, we just made our way back home. We sadly didn’t see waterfalls like we wanted, but we did have a fun trip with my parents. The first photo above is what we saw, but the second is what we were supposed to be seeing. It’s so crazy. I took those photos about the same time two years ago. Big bummer.

JULY TRAVEL FAVORITES

FAVORITE PLACE WE STAYED: Our flat in Stirling was definitely my favorite. We had two bedrooms and bathrooms (ours even had a nice soaking tub), a spacious living room, a decent location AND it was on the first floor which was a huge benefit after having the 7th story walk-up in Edinburgh.

FAVORITE SITE: My favorite site was the Clava Cairn. I know I already described this in detail above, but I just cannot get over how cool this experience was. It combines my love for archaeology, history and literature all into one. Plus, it was just stunning!

FAVORITE MEAL: My favorite meal was probably the bangers + mash I had in Edinburgh. It was the first place we ate with my mom and aunt and it was so freakin’ tasty! Plus, we had some really declines beer there as well.

FAVORITE DRINK: All the beers. I had so much beer in the month of July. The Czech beers were all unbelievable and flavorful and the Scottish craft beers I had were all pretty dang tasty too!

FAVORITE FREE SITE: The Fairy Glen Trail on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. I’ve never been to a place that mesmerized me the way this place did. These hills just mound up out of a valley and each one is covered in ferns. It just looks so magical. I could go back there again and again.

MOST POPULAR BLOG POST FROM JULY

This post is all about our time in Portugal. We gave tips, listed favorites and suggestions of must-sees. Portugal was one of my favorite stops of our 5 months in Europe + Morocco. So, it was really fun for me to put this post together.

OTHER NEW BLOG POSTS

To read any of these posts, simply click on the photo

   

MOST POPULAR INSTAGRAM POST

A post shared by PAIGE ↠ Travel Blogger (@fortheloveofwanderlust) on Jul 2, 2018 at 2:36pm PDT

WHAT’S COMING UP IN AUGUST?

Well, we’re starting off the month with a road trip to Texas and Kansas. Then, it’s going to be a full week of settling in and getting a lot of work done. We  have so many amazing posts to write and photos to edit from the 14 countries we visited in Europe (+ Morocco). Then we have some other family road trips, things to explore right here in the Ozarks and more coming up throughout the month! I can’t wait to see where all we end up this month!