Cinque Terre (1)

Just recently, we went to Cinque Terre. It is a scenic place on the west coast of Italy. The name translates to five land/villages. These villages stretch along the coast with walking path for travellers.

We took a night train from Trento, arriving early in La Spezia. Then continue to the first southernmost village, Riomaggiore by train. We planned to keep walking to the northernmost town as we had full day

The walking path from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called path of love. It is the easiest compared to the others since it is short and flat. Also it is the most beautiful with rocky cliffs and blue sea.

Lago di Erdemolo

Last weekend, I joined the university tour around Trentino. It was my first time to go with university tour. Last time the timing was always not so convenient to go.

Among the places we visit was Lago di Erdemolo. It is a lake on top of a mountain (circa 2000 m). We took bus and hike up for around an hour or so to reach there.

The lake was beautiful.We could see a blur reflection of the surrounding mountain. Also, the summer weather was warm. It was good enough to hike without a jacket. However, it's interesting that there are some snow around the lake. Summer snow that is.

Series of Problems

It seems like things keep going wrong these days. Not that it is damaging or something.
1. The ATM card was not working after some time in Edinburgh, sent it for replacement.
2. The student card has expired when I come here, had it reactivated, but still not working for the student restaurant. So they gave me a new one.
3. Rented a bike here. The bike ring fallen out from the gear after few days. Had it repaired.
4. The electronic door key card did not work after a few days. They gave me master key temporarily. The master key also stopped working after some time. Now I have manual key.

San Bartolameo

Last week I went back to Italy. Since the flight only reach Milan in the early evening, I only arrived in Trento at around 11 pm. Thankfully, the welcome office managed to ask the uni accommodation to hold the key in the residence 24 hours reception. So now, here I am in San Bartolameo.

The first thing I realised about the place is that its sloping up, quite similar to the one I had in Borino last time. It's like 5 mins walk from the main road, but pretty steep. I thought that downtown accommodation would be more flat, but well maybe it's part of the design to give students chance to do some exercise.

The room was good, well equipped, attached bathroom. However, being in ground floor, I get a door instead of a window. The problem with door is that you can't open them for long. Hopefully summer won't be too warm then.

Also, there is only a kitchen for every 20 students or so. Luckily, not everyone cooks for breakfast, lunch and dinner as I do. Worse still, we have to buy our own cooking equipments. Nothing is common. So now i'm on a minimalist equipment and try to apply constraint cooking.

Arthur's Seat Running Track(2)

The other slope of Arthur Seat is steeper, and more suitable for walking instead of running. There are more large stones in this part of the hill and the path is shorter as well.

Arthur's Seat Running Track (1)

Sometimes, when the weather is good (blue sky, warm sun), it feels good to go out. I would usually go for running around Arthur's Seat, a stretch of hills, east of Edinburgh.

There are several tracks around these hills. OThe first one is quite proper and not so steep with pedestrian walks and good scenery.

Trip To Highlands (4): Inverness

Throughout our trip, we did not stop for long in any place. It was also the case with Inverness. It probably the only major city in Highland area.

The city is beautiful, with a river just in between and castle on top. Usually, pigeons are common in European city squares. In this case, however, there are more seagulls, probably because of the river.

Trip To Highlands(3): Loch Ness

One of the most prominent characteristics of the highlands is the abundance of lochs. During the bus trip, we came across dozens of small lochs on the way.

The biggest and the most famous among the loch is Loch Ness. There were sightings on unknown creature there which spawned stories on Loch Ness Monster.

The loch itself is really big, stretching long across Scottish highland. We managed to stop by Urquhart Castle, a small ruin just by the loch to get a good view of the area.

Trip to Highlands (2):Skye

It was a beautiful day when we went to Skye. Skye has always been known as the 'misty island' due to the lack of good weather, but what we saw was a clear blue sky there.

From Portree, a small main town of skye, we took a taxi for 15 minutes to a hiking trail, 'The Old Man of Storr'. 'The Old Man' is actually a vertical stone on top of one of the hills formed by glaciers many years ago.

The climb up wasn't too bad especially since it is a proper path trail. It got a lot steeper near the stone though. However, it was a rewarding journey. The view from the top was simply breathtaking.

Trip to Highland (1): Highlander Castle

As exams are finished and the weather being friendly and warm, we decided to go for a trip north, to the Scottish highland.

One of our interesting stops was Eilean Donan Castle, a castle in a small island just in the middle of a loch (lake, Gaelic). The castle is still well preserved, although not so big. I feel that it just fits nicely with the surrounding.

The sky weather was extremely pleasant and thus we could get a good view of the castle. From the back of the castle, we could see the loch and the surrounding land.