dagens inspiration

A bunch of random images from my inspiration folder. when i think of summer this is what comes to mind...light, breezy, colorful & FREE

eeek the only source i remember for these is The Selby, amazing website for anyone who hasn't been already!

LOVE,

-a

Edinburgh

Andrea and I took about 285239 day trips while she was visiting from DC, but the best one had to be Edinburgh. No matter how many times I take the train in from Glasgow, it feels like a completely different city on every visit. This time it was probably because the sun was out. I spent the day wondering (like I did every day in the end of term) why I had to pack up and leave the UK just when the weather started to cooperate. I even got a sunburn. IN SCOTLAND.

First we walked the Royal Mile and then up to Calton Hill, to sit and smell the flowers for awhile before a vegetarian lunch at Henderson's.

Then we had to take a break from the sun and have a coffee outside at Hulu, one of my favorite cafés in Edinburgh. Highlight: speaking in Spanish to avoid being American tourists like the girls sitting next to us...

After walking around Old Town for awhile (and visiting the National Museum of Scotland where we saw Dolly the cloned stuffed sheep rotating in a glass box-hmm), we found this park where everyone and their mother was sitting around a barbeque playing guitar for the afternoon. Literally everyone- from the hippies swinging butt-length dreadlocks in time with their hula hoops to some Ralph Lauren-clad law students I could swear went to my boarding school. All just sitting in the grass together enjoying the sun. I wanted to move to Edinburgh right that second.

This band playing at the park's entrance was AMAZING - I wish I knew their name! They reminded me of Mumford & Sons. You can't really tell in this photo but the drunk guy behind them kept stealing their bags and running off, which kind of broke up the show, but still. They're great.

Then we headed back to Grassmarket and had a Pimm's outside at The Last Drop - necessary of course at 4pm on a hot day.

And after happy hour we wandered over to Jeffrey Street for dinner at Larioja - a tapas bar near North Bridge. We sat outside with a beautiful view as our table filled up with white sangria, queso manchego con membrillo, gambas, mejillones, pan con tomate and pisto. Andrea and I first became friends on an exchange program in Spain for a year when we were 16, so this was a reunion dinner that made us both homesick for Zaragoza! Although I have to say their tortilla might be even better than our host families'...and we actually had to order extra desserts because this chocolate mousse was that good. This is definitely the best restaurant I've been to in the UK. If you're ever in Edinburgh - GO!

THANK YOU ISA!

After a long dinner we walked back up Calton Hill, laid down in the grass and watched the sun set over the Firth of Forth. (can't get over that name...) There were some more people scattered around playing guitar and it was the perfect end to a long day trip. Neither of us wanted to get back on the train...

Happy weekend!

LOVE

-a

Kember & Jones

Hallo meine Lieben!

Two weeks after arriving in LA, one of the things I'm missing most about Glasgow (besides the people!) is its cafés. We don't have much of a café culture here in the suburbs (we're all about the Taco Bell) and I'm already nostalgic for all the quirky little places in Glasgow. The concept was so novel to me after a lifetime of Starbucks that I must have taken thousands of photos in the past nine months, so I thought I would share a few of my favorite cafés right here on this little BLOG.

These photos are from Kember & Jones on Byres Road - one of my favorite parts about Glasgow is that even broke university kids can spend Sunday afternoons at places labeled "Fine Food Emporium." You just can't live like that in Manhattan! It's close to the main campus and the cakes are A.MA.ZING. If only I weren't 6000 miles away I'd be running down Great George St for my Americano and chocolate espresso cake right this second. Enjoy!  

Ida, Alex, Melanie, Sabrina, sehr schön!

BESOS

-a