Go Tell it on the Mountain...

Go tell it on the mountain...

over the hills and everywhere...

Go tell it on the mountain...

that Jesus Christ is born.

Ever since we’ve moved to Scotland, I have felt like the gorgeous surroundings have enhanced my spiritual life. It seems easier to have a conversation with God when you are constantly surrounded by evidence of his power and creativity. Perhaps that’s why this Christmas song has particularly resonated with me this year.  

I love this line as well: “Down in a lonely manger our humble Christ was born”. What an awesome reminder for us to humble ourselves, to not concern ourselves with our social position but to understand that every life has value. That God made all of us equally dear to His heart. The rich, the poor; The male, the female; The King, the servant; the Republican, the Democrat; The American, the Brit; The Gentile and the Jew. 

I think the circumstances of Jesus’ birth so clearly symbolizes His message. God had the power to send his son to Earth as an anointed emperor, and yet he chose to bestow his most precious creation onto a humble family. Jesus could have spread his message through awesome miracles and phenomenon. Instead, he embodied his holy Father by being a perfect model of love and humility. By serving the poor, by washing the feet of his followers. How awesome is that?

We are called as his disciples to simply love and serve, and with our affection and servitude, we can spread the word of His salvation. So let’s go tell it on the mountain: Jesus Christ is Born! Happy birthday, Jesus!
 

As a Christmas treat, here is my favorite version of the gospel song, by NEEDTOBREATHE, of course...

 

Hump Day and Winter Floods

While the rest of the world was counting down the days until Christmas, we Arctic-Circlers were counting down the days until December 21. The winter solstice marks our hump day. It’s the shortest day of the year and from here on out, the days only get longer. Thank goodness too because 6 hours of daylight is simply not enough. You can already tell a difference. For instance, this is a picture taken at 4 pm on Dec 21:

...and this is one taken at the same time on Dec 23.

It’s subtle, but it’s there- literally the light at the end of the wintery tunnel. Of course, a few more minutes of ‘daylight’ isn’t a promise of more sunshine, and this week we were blasted with rain and wind. I attempted to take Bailey for a run on Thursday and was rewarded with a flooded running trail that held about 3 inches of standing water over 90% of the path.

Not to mention that it was pelting down rain on us the whole time. We were absolutely drenched.

After 4 days straight of nonstop rain, we had started to forget what the sun even looked like. When Jonathan rolled out of bed at 8:30 yesterday morning and told me that the sun was out, I thought it was just a ruse to get my lazy S.A.D-affected butt out of bed. I called his bluff and sure enough there were blue skies outside my window.

We threw on our walking clothes, hunter boots, and 3 layers of clothing before setting out with the dogs. When we got outside we not only found that the sky was clear but that the temperature was warm. We stripped down to one layer and basked in the glorious summer like weather (aka 50 degrees). It was such a welcome break from the disastrous weather we’ve been having over the past few weeks and we crossed our fingers that the worst of winter was over.

It was such a nice day that we decided to walk the dogs all the way to Hazlehead park and let them off leash on the flooded soccer fields.

Though the skies were blue, the evidence of the past few rainy days was still evident.

Thank goodness for Hunter boots or else some of the trail would have seriously been impassable. Of course, as soon as we got to the park, ominous clouds rolled in and within seconds we were soaking wet from a pour down rain storm. Good thing we were only 2 miles away from home. At least the dogs enjoyed themselves....right up until bath time that is.

Just another (winter) day in Scotland….

Bucket List: Venice

After tackling Florence, it was off to the crown jewel of our trip: Venice. We barely made our train that morning, but ended up hopping on with mere seconds to spare. When we arrived in Venice we were greeted with fog, steady rain, and near freezing temperatures.

It definitely wasn’t ideal, but we made the most of it. Our hotel was conveniently located across from the train station but inconveniently located about 30 minutes away from everything else. We stopped for meal, gelato, and coffee breaks as we meandered our way to the Rialto and Saint Mark’s Square areas. 

Jonathan was mega impressed with the mosaics inside of Saint Mark’s cathedral so we took a well-deserved break from the elements to gawk at the meticulous artwork.

There was no improvement in weather for our final day in Venice so again we spent most of our time huddled inside a café, sipping on 13 dollar hot chocolates.

Yes, we noticed a price jump between Tuscany and Venice almost immediately. Gone were the 9 Euro pitchers of wine and bargaining on prices in the market. Also the simple and affordable Tuscan food was replaced by mostly more expensive seafood options. Venice let’s its tourist flag fly, and that’s reflected in a steep cost of living/visiting.

Still, we forked over the cash because sitting in a cozy coffee bar sipping a hot drink was much more pleasant than facing the wind and rain outside. And plus, we needed to patron the cafés in order to use their restrooms. We hunted down a public restroom near St. Mark’s square and were mortified to see a 1.50 euro price tag on the door.

Um, we’d rather spend 20 euros at the coffee shop, thankyouverymuch.

But then we just ended up in this cycle of bladder relief.
1)Fork over 20 bucks at the coffee shop.
2)Use the restroom.
3)Drink your coffee.
4) Leave
5) Need to use the restroom 30 minutes after leaving due to the coffee you just ingested.
6) Hunt down another coffee shop and repeat steps 1-6.

So maybe it was more economical to use the public restroom in the first place, but it simply goes against everything that I stand for. Back to Venice…

As our final day was winding down, we still hadn’t gone on a gondola ride. Gondola rides are pretty expensive and Jonathan wasn’t sure if sitting out in a boat over rough water with the terrible weather outside was worth the price. After some soul searching and a bit of peer pressure, I finally convinced him to splurge. After all, who knows if we’d ever return to Venice again?

Due to the low December crowds and the awful weather, we negotiated a deal for a short gondola ride through the famous canals. It was cold, but beautiful, and truly romantic.

And we probably ended up in every tourist’s photos because they were lined up on the bridges taking pictures of us. They most likely thought I was Jennifer Aniston. It happens a lot.

The boat ride gave us a unique vantage point from which to tour the city and even the foggy atmosphere leant a bit of mystique and romance to the whole thing.

Here’s some video I snapped to give you an idea of what we were seeing (notice the people snapping pictures on the bridge).

After the gondola, we shopped a bit before stopping for one last seafood dinner. In honor of our last meal there, Jonathan went for the Venice specialty of pasta and squid ink.  

 

We finished off the night with Tiramisu and then headed back to our hotel for an early train ride back to Florence. During our final dinner, we did our usual inventory of the trip. Jonathan and I both agreed that our time in Siena was our favorite, the food in Florence was the best, and the weather in Venice was the worst... ever…in the world. 

But you know that a city is outrageously charming when it charges 1.50 euros for a public restroom, 11 Euros for hot chocolate, an obscene amount for a sea-sickness inducing gondola ride, has weather on par with what we were trying to escape in Aberdeen, and yet…we loved it. We absolutely loved it.

First off, it’s more photogenic than even Miss Aniston. It’s probably one of the most unique cities in the world. I wouldn’t visit it expecting the mecca of Italian culture, fashion, art, food, or wine, but yet, you simply have to go. It can’t be missed. It’s something out of a dream.

 

And if you happen to luck out and see it during a low tourist season when the sun is shining, it’s nothing short of pure magic. For us, it was a bit different than we pictured in our heads, but actually ended up being a relaxing respite for the end of our trip.

We took the Train out Sunday morning, had one last meal at *cough* McDonald’s *cough* before cabbing it to the Florence airport.

Arrivederci, Italy! I hope to see you again very very soon.

Second Chances in Florence

When I came to Italy with my mom and sister on my high school Spring break 12 years ago, we visited Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan. If I were to rank the cities back then, Florence would have come out dead last.


My sis and I in Florence, 2001. PS. I still have that leather jacket which I bought at the markets there.

It’s not all Florence’s fault. It was partly due to the fact that the trains went on strike the day we were supposed to travel from Rome to Florence, forcing us to rent a car. Most of my overboard anxious moments come when driving in a foreign city, and I get this little trait from my family. Put three of us in a car together driving around lost on the tiny one way streets of Florence and it was panic attack city. Not a great intro to the Tuscan capital.

 

As soon as we got settled into our hotel we had to rush off to see the Statue of David, which was pretty remarkable and redeemed Florence a bit in our eyes. But it was too little too late and the small town ended up being outshone by the other 3 Italian hubs we had on the itinerary.

 

Ever since that trip, I have swapped stories with many other friends who’d traveled through Italy and they all said the same thing: Florence was their favorite! Because of my prior lackluster experience there, I considered leaving it out of our trip completely, but I was intrigued by everyone else’s praise.

 

Did I originally miss some of the charm this city had to offer? Would it appeal more to my 29 year old self than it did to me at 17? Is it fair to skip over it when Jonathan has never been? For all of these reasons, I decided to spend 2 of our 8 days giving Florence a second chance.

Our hotel was ideally situated just 2 blocks from the Duomo and around the corner from the famous leather markets so we really couldn’t have asked for a better location. We got to Florence around noon and decided to spend our first afternoon shopping and exploring and save most of the touristy stuff for the next day.

 

For the first few hours of wandering around, I had a nagging feeling. It still wasn’t that great. I still didn’t get what the fuss was about. What was I missing?

Our friends Nary and Gerald who had visited the area a few months before had given us specific advice on Florence, so we decided to follow in their footsteps and try to see the charm through their eyes.

First we climbed up to Piazza Michelangelo for a panoramic view of the city. For one thing, it was great exercise. It actually reminded me of climbing Scolty Hill, just in the middle of an Italian town. The climb was absolutely worth it because the vantage point was seriously remarkable.

 

So remarkable that we returned for one last look on our final morning run in Tuscany.

Jon's Rocky stance after running the hill

 

For food, we focused on the San Spirito area, a square tucked away from the main tourist drag offering up cozy bars and restaurants. We had our best meal of the trip at Borgo Antico, and had fun window shopping for antiques and custom made shoes.

Nary also gave us tips on the best gelato which we happily enjoyed despite the dreadfully cold outside temperatures.

On our second day in Florence it was time to check off all the tourist boxes and make some leather purchases. First up was seeing the Statue of David. Even though it was December, we pre-booked tickets for the Galleria di Accademia. If you’re going anytime near a tourist season, I would recommend doing the same. Our hotel made our reservation for us, and we just picked up our tickets at will call.

 

Since we had booked the first appointment of the day, we had the statue all to ourselves for a good 5 minutes. It was a great experience, but unfortunately one that I couldn’t take pictures of. This was my second time to see Michaelangelo’s masterpiece and I was still just as impressed as I was 12 years ago. The details on the figure are remarkable, down to his toenails , kneecaps, and veins on his arms. And the scale is also stunning, as he is such a large and imposing figure in the display room.

source of photo

 After seeing David, next up was the famous Duomo. We decided to climb the Cupola tower for another stunning view of Florence. In order to do this we had to climb 463 steps. On the way, you get to tour a balcony inside the Duomo for up-close views of the frescoes and bird’s eye views of the cathedral floors.

Of course, my fear of heights was crippling me at this time, so I just hurried around the balcony and continued my ascent up to the top. When we got up to the tower, it was snowing!

And we had this view:

It was a magical moment, but unfortunately I was only brave enough to enjoy it for about 60 seconds. But that was long enough to snap a photo of my husband and vice versa before speeding back down to the next level. 

Jonathan stayed up top for another 5 minutes taking pictures and enjoying the view.

With the most appealing tourist attractions out of the way, we were free to go shopping. Florence is known for it’s leather goods so Jonathan was looking for some shoes while I wanted a small cross body bag. We were overstimulated with options, but eventually found just what we were looking for. And I secretly bought Jon a few more goodies that he won’t receive until Christmas morning.

 

We also hit the leather markets so that I could hunt down a white elephant gift for our girls Christmas party in Aberdeen. Again,  I was overstimulated with options but decided on a trifecta of scarves, which you can never have too much of in Scotland.

We headed back to San Spirito Square for dinner before packing up in preparation for our train ride to Venice the next morning.

Looking back, we really enjoyed our time in Florence, and are grateful that Nary and Gerald shared some helpful hints for scratching below the surface of this charming town. Come back tomorrow for my thoughts on another worthwhile Italian city, quite possibly the most charming place on earth.

Stay tuned...