But here are the dates:
June 19: last exam
visit Denise, pack and ship all my stuff
June 28: Meredith moves into my room
travel the South Island, spend a couple of days saying goodbye to Wellington
July 25: Wellington – Melbourne
travel Melbourne – Adelaide – Alice Springs – Uluru – Perth
Sept 2: Perth – Singapore
break up the long flight by visiting Amy
Sept 5: Singapore – London – Zurich

I’ll arrive in Zurich on Sept 6 at noon. It’s a Saturday, so hopefully my whole family can come and pick me up.

The city center has great charm, despite the obvious signs of neglect with many houses. It's just really, really pretty, and walking up and down the hills was totally worth the effort of taking it in at a leisurely pace. Even at the beginning of March the weather was great – we spent Saturday basking in the sun on the nearby beach in Estoril (much prettier than the one in Cascais, right next to it). Another daytrip was to Sintra – trains are very cheap, and the traditional little cakes alone worth the journey, not to speak of the cute town and impressive castles. It's not for nothing a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Also, the people are very friendly, a lot of them speak at least a bit of English or French – if we looked lost for even a second, someone always came to us and helped us find our way.

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You can find more photos in my Flickr album.

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Click for full size and see the rest in my Flickr album!

My parents went earlier and visited Dresden together with my aunt Leona, before all three met up with my brother and I in Germany's capital. I liked it better than I expected, truth be told, although the weather was quite dreadful and I was cold most of the time.

Highlights, roughly in chronological order: visiting the Pergamon museum; meeting and going to see X3 with her; yummy Chinese food in the historic Nikolai quarter; a boat trip along the Spree and the Landwehrkanal, past many of Berlin's sights including parts of the famous Wall; DVDs at good value; spending an afternoon with some distant but very nice relatives.

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More? Check out my Flickr album!

So here are the pictures from my Scotland trip with . Took me only over half a year to finally share them – hope you enjoy!

Quick run-down of what we did:

Friday
Travel to Glasgow. Exploration of the lively West End/university quarter (where our hostel was), including a very nice meal at a cute Italian restaurant and drinks at a renovated church.

Saturday
Glasgow all the way – seeing the sights (cathedral, university, The Lighthouse museum, Mackintosh House), enjoying the city. Tea with . At night out with Regina's friend Alex and some of his mates.

Sunday
Trip by train and ferry to Alex' home Inellan, near Dunoon at the Firth of Clyde. Absolutely fantastic weather, perfect for savouring in the sea. Spending the night enjoying the hospitality of Alex' parents.

Monday
Trip to Edinburgh by bus. Climbing Arthur's Seat for a fantastic view (and freezing wind). In the evening exploring the New Town, having Fish n'Chips and seeing In Good Company in the cinema.

Tuesday
First snow, then pouring rain as we continue to enjoy Edinburgh. Regina goes to explore the castle (which I've already been to last summer), while I go check out a bookstore. Then we walk down the Royal Mile, since the sun was out again, and have a look at the fantastic modern Scottish Parliament. In the evening we play Snooker, a strange version of Pool, at the hostel. I even win once.

Wednesday
Quick trip to Leith, which would have been nice if it hadn't been cold and raining. Then catching a bus back to Glasgow, where we unsuccesfully try to find a tearoom still open for scones. But I do find the 'Forbidden Planet' fantasy and science-fiction bookstore.

Thursday
A loong day, as I spend much time waiting around for planes to catch back home, while Regina takes the train to Brighton to see a friend.

Once again I discover I really love Scotland. And I finally come to the decision that, as a place to live, Glasgow is absolutely fantastic, much better than Edinburgh, beautiful as it is.

Regina and I had an absolutely fantastic time, in Glasgow, Edinburgh and a small village on the Firth of Clyde called Inellan. More about all of this some time later, as it's been a looong day, considering that we left the hostel this morning around 9am. Although luckily, the hours spent waiting at airports by myself (since Regina took a train down to a friend in Brighton) were made much more bearable by the good books I bought… We all knew that I wouldn't be able to resist, didn't we? *g*

But all of this are stories for another day… When I've caught up with everything. G'night!

Crossposted to the blog and travel log.