My Journey to Dundee, Scotland
October 18, 2016
We took a bus from Edinburgh Bus Station to Dundee. Haziqah planned my trip well - bus ride from Edinburgh to Dundee and I will take a train ride for the return trip at the end of my journey in Scotland. She wanted me to experience both rides :)
So sweet of you, Ka.
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| Edinburgh to Dundee |
Dundee is located about 88km from Edinburgh, can be accessed by train and bus. There is an airport as well, but I am not sure which flights depart or land there. The city is at the side of Tay River connected to North Sea. It was really cold to walk along the river.
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| The bus schedule. |
The trip was with Megabus bound to Aberdeen, it will drop and take people in Dundee. Megabus is famous for its £1 ticket even to London! But, that time, mine was £12, of course not that cheap. If you buy earlier you can get a cheaper price. Megabus provides free WiFi as well.
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| Megabus |
I took few photographs before I landed to dreamland. Phewww, finally I managed to get some sleep. I was awake since the day before.
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| Edinburgh |
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| Edinburgh. |
That's all. Huuuu. Sorry Ka, I knew you wanted to show the countryside of Scotland to me. T___T
I was just too exhausted.
When I woke up, the bus already crossed Tay River. Haha.
From Dundee Bus Station, we walked for less than 2km to Haziqah's hostel. I must say I love her hostel - en-suite bedroom that share the common kitchen with the other rooms. The idea of private bathroom in her room is the best one. :D
Maybe because, in Hradec Kralove, the hostel provided is a flat with 2 rooms - each room with 2-3 students (you can be roommates with anyone you don't even know). That's the main reason why most international students don't stay at the hostel and prefer to find their own flat with similar prices. :p
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| Seabraes |
Most European universities provide free WiFi to the students - obviously. The WiFi network is called eduroam. Do you know that anyone with eduroam accounts can get access to Internet via eduroam anywhere? :D I was connected once on the road somewhere in Sofia, Bulgaria before. That's when I discovered this fact.
This is a thing I am going to miss when I return to Malaysia. Haha :)
Snippets of Dundee here.
I will continue in the next posts yep.
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| The tower is St. Pauls Episcopal Cathedral. |
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| The bus here but we have no reasons to take the bus. |
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| Somewhere near the city council. |
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| Not sure what exactly this building is about. |
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| This is actually tempat judi. Huhu. |
Okayyy, till we meet again insyAllah :)
HK, Czech
161012
Few Hours in Edinburgh, Scotland
October 17, 2016
Honestly, I don't remember how long does it take to get to the city center from the airport. :p
By tram, we stopped at Haymarket station and then we proceed walking to those attractions that I will share here. Buildings in Edinburgh look familiar if you have been to London, well they are together as Great Britain and United Kingdom, right?
It was a gloomy day and slightly raining. My friend told me that they cannot rely on weather forecast here. It can be raining everyday. :p The roads are similar to Malaysia, they also drive on the left side of the road with right-hand-side of cars. Most former British colonies are like this - Malaysia, India, Pakistan. This includes Australia and Japan as well.
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| Brown gold buildings everywhere. |
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| British style. |
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| Errr, I am not sure what is this. |
We walked in the direction of Edinburgh Castle and these were places we passed through. The first one was Princes Street Gardens. I've been told that Princes Street is the area where you can go shopping like the Oxford Street in London. I don't fancy shopping much so I skipped this one.
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| Look at the lovely green garden! |
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| That's the castle I think. |
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| This was just beside the bus stop. |
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| Cuci mata naaa :D |
On the way, we found The Ross Fountain, with the castle as the background. From the signboard there, the fountain was actually made in France over 150 years ago! And the sculptor responsible for this fountain was the one who made the Louvre in Paris.
How it finally brought to Edinburgh? There was a guy, named Daniel Ross who bought the fountain and gave it to Edinburgh in 1872.
Wowww, senangnya bagi hadiah kat bandar. :)
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| Constructed from 122 individual sections. |
The castle is located on top of the hill. So, expect some walking-hiking yea.
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| The castle, from bottom. |
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| The final stairs before you can stand in front of the gate of Edinburgh Castle. |
Yeah, finally!
Edinburgh Castle. There was a big square (Esplanade) in front of the castle with some constructions that we need to walk through. They were building lots of seats (just like the seats in the stadium) here.
So many people there and yeah, Asians everywhere. Haha
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| Why so excited? Errrr. |
We didn't buy any tickets so we just enjoyed the areas that were free to access. Similar to Prague Castle I guess where there is free area but you need to pay to see more areas in the castle.
There are many facts that make this place more stunning. Like, the castle was built on top of Castle Rock which is a hundred million years extinct volcano. It was also lived by many noble people like other castles that I've been to. Oh yea, I told you they were building many seats in front of the castle, now I understand why. There are a lot of performances being done there, so the seats are for the audiences.
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| Walking inside. |
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| I tried this, nice one! |
After buying few postcards, we continued to Calton Hill. The views along the way, as expected to be spectacular. We passed through a road called Ramsay Garden and the houses there were so beautiful! Look at this!
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| Ramsay Garden. |
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| We could see Scottish National Gallery on our way. |
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| Walk, walk, walk. |
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| General Assembly Hall - this is a part church, I think. I was just amazed with the age of the building. 1846 kot. Old enough but standing strong! |
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| Somewhere on our way. |
Finally, after about 30 minutes walk, we arrived at Calton Hill. There is another interesting viewpoint on the other hill - Arthur's Seat but we did not have that much time to go there as well. Basically from what I've read, Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat were formed by volcanic activity similar to Castle Rock. And Calton Hill is one of the first public parks in Britain!
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| Yeay. |
There are a lot of monuments in this hill. You can enter each of them if you want or simply watch from outside. The one below is Nelson Monument, built in early 1800 to commemorate a hero of some war, I just don't know...
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| Nelson Monument. |
Meanwhile, this one below is National Monument of Scotland - a memorial to Scottish sailors and soldiers who died in Napoleonic Wars. I am not sure if I learned anything about these wars before but I'm pretty sure Ottoman Empire kinda related to them as well. Napoleonic Wars were about French revolution that lead to the ending of Holy Roman Empire.
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| National Monument of Scotland. |
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| A view from National Monument of Scotland. |
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| Dugald Stewart Monument. |
Done with Calton Hill.
We walked down the hill and continued to Edinburgh Bus Station for Dundee. :)
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| National Archives of Scotland. |
I learned few interesting facts about pound sterling. Shops in England often refuse to accept Scottish banknotes even though pound sterling is used in both England and Scotland. Do you know that pound is the world's oldest currency that is still in use?
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| Royal Bank of Scotland. |
Kingdom of England (English) merged with Kingdom of Scotland (Scottish) in 1700+. So, you can expect English pound was originally NOT THE SAME as Scottish pound. They shared similar values before but Scottish pound dropped so it was pegged to English pound sterling. Dalam Melayu, kita panggil tambat nilai duit rasanya. What I understand here, both are similar but not the same. :p Haha.
Pound banknotes issued by Bank of England is 'more powerful' than the one issued by Bank of Scotland.
Interesting much!
:D
Okayyy, till next posts!
Salam.
HK, Czech
161012
10 Things I Can't Live Without
October 15, 2016
I've been tagged again by Fatin. Haha, haven't done the first tag actually, maybe I should just write something while I have the chance to.
Family is a must and I will try my best to survive with them - they are absolutely people I love the most. Now, let's talk about real things.
Basically my list is like this;
1. Quran
- I started to appreciate this Holy book more when I stepped my feet on Czech lands. It was a struggle to survive in a foreign country at the age of 19-20 years old with everything looks alien to me. The lifestyle, the people, the language etc. Quran helps me to keep calm and reassure I have Allah to lean on.
2. Passport / identity card
- This is like a part of life. Haha, don't imagine what happen if you lost any one these identifications. It will be easy if we are in Malaysia but, obviously not when we are outside of the country. To live here while waiting for visa is already challenging enough.
3. A place to stay
I don't mind how small it is. As long as I have somewhere to stay.
4. Handphone and charger
You are lost somewhere and you are not able to reach any of your family members / friends to return home. :p Imagine that. Haha. With Internet, this will be fantastic for me to just stay under the duvet.
5. Laptop and charger
I prefer typing on laptop than on the phone. Even for Whatsapp. :)
6. Food & water
Human cannot live long without food and water - they are as important as the air we inhale and exhale. Water is a must for me.
7. Clean clothes
Being a backpacker, this is something I need to think about. Either to bring more clothes or simply wear the same clothes. And I end up bringin more clothes hoho. My type of travelling involve lots of walking and hiking, so just don't expect it would not be dirty and smelly.
8. Good words
I don't like harsh words or any mencarut words. F, S whatever it is. Just, I am so exposed to these things when I became friends with so many people with different backgrounds. I can tolerate my friends saying that but I will try my best not to say myself.
9. Books
Anything to read, even though it will just be a pamphlet. :p.
10. Money
Well, the cliche one.
Money is NOT everything but everything needs money.
I found a video on FB about 10 Signs You're Doing Well in Life.
This made my day. :) The points mentioned there are likely similar to my points here. Wow.
Maybe I can still live without these things that I have listed. But, I am sure my life will be empty without them. When I lost my abanglong, there was a time I felt like it was dark on the other side of the road. Just imagine you lost someone special in your life and you need to live without him/her.
Still grieving, I know.
But, I need to keep going with my life as mine is not ending yet. I have a lot of things to take care of, so much good deeds I must do to get a better afterlife. :)
p/s - have a nice weekend everyone ^_^
HK, Czech
161015
Arriving Edinburgh, Scotland!
October 13, 2016
Yeay, finally I'm starting to continue writing about my trip to Scotland. There will be at least 7 posts in draft right now, hopefully I am able to write good posts about the trip insyAllah.
You can read the previous posts on this Scotland journey HERE and HERE.
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| In front of Edinburgh Airport |
I don't know why I looked so happy in most pictures in Scotland. It was good to scroll on pictures of this trip while I'm having unstable emotion right now. So, I think it's better to write my experiences as an attempt to occupy myself.
Okayy, back to the journey. From Frankfurt, Germany, I took another Lufthansa flight to Edinburgh, Scotland. In the ticket, it stated departure at 11am and arrival in Edinburgh at 11.55am. However, the flight took about 2 hours actually as Scotland is one hour late than Czech & Germany.
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| Map of Frankfurt - Edinburgh |
I've never imagined myself travelling to Scotland actually. But, since my friend was studying there, why not I took that chance to explore Scotland.
The route involved crossing the North Sea. It was a blast as I haven't seen seas for a while. T_T
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| Somewhere |
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| Lufthansa gave me this - vegetarian sandwich? cheese basically. |
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| Arriving Edinburgh |
The pilot managed to land the plane smoothly, but it took a while for me to get out of the plane as I was sitting at the back. Heee. I didn't have any luggage to claim so I walked straight to the passport control. Ahaa, in the flight, the stewardess gave a piece of paper about my trip here - like where will I stay, for how many days bla bla. I think you know which paper I'm talking about.
The funny thing was, I had no idea about the address of my friend! So, I left the space empty.
Fortunately, the airport provided free WiFi :) While waiting in line for passport control, I texted my friend with high hope she will read my message. Well, most people nowadays have data connection on the smartphones, right? And yea, she responded in few seconds :D No need to worry about meeting the female officer - she looked unfriendly though.
But, it was just my assumption. Huhu. The way she welcomed me to Edinburgh, I felt like.... awwww I felt belong to this country. Hihi.
Don't simply judge a person by his/her face. :)
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| International arrivals |
We didn't decide where to meet but I knew she would pick me up :) So, I wandered around the airport in the small arrival area while waiting for her text.
In few minutes, I heard my name being called.
"Naaaaaa."
She's one of the friend who calls me Na, simply Na. I used to introduce myself as Hanis to public, but people around me usually call me Nina instead. But, I don't mind though, both are still my names :D
Don't let me start describing how we first met. Hahaha. It might sound weird to all of you. We met in Friendster a longggg time ago. :D In the real world, maybe 2 times in Malaysia and this was the third time. I think so.
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| I introduce to you, Haziqah, I call her Ka :) And yea, she's very tall. |
For the first few days, I relied on her on expenses as I didn't have Pound Sterling at all when I arrived Scotland. Told ya, it was a last minute plan. She took care of the transportation (no worries, I paid her before leaving Scotland haha). So basically I had less experiences on how to buy tickets etc. :p
What's next?
Let's get to the city center!
We had few hours to spend in Edinburgh before we left for Dundee - her town. To get to the city center, from what I observed, you can take either bus or tram. Bus is cheaper (I don't remember how much) but it takes longer time than tram. The best point for both of them, they provide free WiFi on board!
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| 2 choices |
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| This is the tram. |
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| And this is the bus. |
In the next post, I will share more about Edinburgh city :) We went to few attractions - beautiful enough to be grateful with. See ya. ^_^
HK, Czech
161012
My Last Autumn in Czech, Maybe?
October 12, 2016
It's getting cold, like I am freezing almost everytime I am outside. Feels like winter already but the leaves are still green! Oh, with some color transitions.
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| Gonna miss this. |
The last autumn maybe, if I proceed with my decision to go back for good after graduation. It is a long way to go actually even though few more months left. More exams to be done yet less time to do revision. Procrastinate much? I hope not T_T
I wrote a lot of posts to ponder about autumn before. If you would like to read, I've compiled few of them here :) I would love to read your comments of thoughts. Hihi
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| Found theseee cute plants in Tesco. |
Do you not see that Allah sends down rain from the sky and makes it flow as springs [and rivers] in the earth; then He produces thereby crops of varying colors; then they dry and you see them turned yellow; then He makes them [scattered] debris. Indeed in that is a reminder for those of understanding. Quran 39:21
Things to ponder about autumn - let's recap these as I think I wrote them in few posts before.
1. The seasons change accordingly to Allah's plan.
Accordingly here means correctly.
There will never be other than this rotation - summer > autumn > winter > spring. Same goes to our life. We have a life journey than has been planned for us, like in the picture below. We know about it, the different is, this journey will not repeat like the seasons. Once we died, we can never return to the world. This is the thing we (especially me) always forget about and take this fact for granted.
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| credit - Google image |
There's a quote from a book I'm currently reading.
Sepertimana sebelum kita dilahirkan di dunia dulu, kita berada di dalam perut ibu. Begitulah juga setelah kita mati nanti, kita akan berada di dalam perut bumi.
2. He knows everything in this world - even when a single leaf falls.
Yeah, I know this is cliche. But, I hope this is a reminder to myself when I am typing this.
Just few days ago someone told me, it is okay to fulfill your desire (like watching your favorite drama, listening to lagha songs) as long as you keep it to yourself and just don't let it encourage other people to do so. Somehow I agree in disagree.
I agree to the point almost everybody hide their own 'aib' kan? But disagree when it actually confirms that I cannot even control myself. It's like ouch... nampak sangat nafsu nak buat benda tak berfaedah tu menebal sangat. It's like running away from reality, seeking for things that make me happy instead of asking comfort, pleasure and peace in mind from Allah.
Hmmm....
HK, Czech
161011
Birthday Gifts From Lovely Maryam
October 11, 2016
I mentioned Maryam a lot in my blog, if you realized. :D She is one of the artistic friend I've ever met especially in photography and videography. She owns a YouTube channel and please do subscribe as all her videos will not disappoint you. Hihi.
Honestly I am not a person who care much about birthday, even my own. My birthday used to be during school days when I was younger and since few years back I had the chance to spend the day with my family. I am an August baby anyway. From what I remember, I have not organised or being thrown any birthday party.
Budak nerd kan. Lol
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| Me, Maryam, Lucie - somewhere in the forest in HK for autumn ride. |
But, I received gifts, a lot. And Maryam is one of them who never fail to give something every year. While writing this up, I have been self-reflecting.... awwww, I should have appreciate our friendship more :)
Inside the cover of this gift is a book, the awesome one so far till the pages that I've read now, I am telling you! I will share more about the book soon, insyAllah, as I am still on my way reading the whole pages. :)
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| 'Good will' bookmark :) |
Dearest Yams,
You are a unique, interesting, lovely friend to me. Thanks for being there for me since A-Level. Eventhough we might be not that close at that time, but I'm sure our friendship is growing stronger now, right? Alhamdulillah. Thank you for girls' talk that we shared during the sleep over sometimes. Thank you for being the best deejay for our road trips, every time. You and the free offline Spotify that you registered with different email accounts. Haha
Thank you for keep taking good pictures and videos of me and the rest while compiling them into YouTube videos, which always be the best place to reminisce all those memories we've spent together. Thank you for always excites me with new places, cycling and hiking trails even though there was one time that I left you back there with Czech students in Snezka. I am still regretting that and I hope I have improved myself since then. T___T
Thank you for being a good study and discussion partner for our crash course of revisions, days before our tests and exams. Thank you for taking care of Atan for us. Thank you for all yummy desserts that you made. Not to forget, haha thank you for tolerating with me and my Malay retro and Korean songs even though those are kinda aliens to you. Thank you for keep staying there when I was too loud or did something weird in public and people kept staring at us. HAHA
I hope you will stay the way you are - the gentle, soft-spoken girl. I must say that I am so lucky to have the chance to spend most of the holidays together, either in or out of Czech. It's been more than 5 years now and counting, insyAllah.
Thank you for everything, my beloved Maryam Nabihah <3
HK, Czech
161009
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