"Rustic" (a.k.a. a little bit messed up) macarons

(Warning: a not-so-exchangestudent-relevant, but more a "let's bake pink desserts together!"-blogpost coming up)

I've always heard that macarons were SO hard to make, but when I got sent this little strawberry flavoured thing from Denmark (wooo Danish stuff!) it seemed so easy, so off I was so start baking (I'm really enjoying the April Holidays and having loads of time, haha!) a very temperature-sensitive dessert in a oven I don't really understand - in hindsight that might not have been the best idea - and decided to take a few pictures for you to see. What's not to love about pictures of pink desserts?!

It started off pretty well, but I apparently didn't mix the batter enough (even though I did it for as long as it said on the package!), so the macaroons ended up flowing everywhere and getting both too thin, too big and mixing up with each other - not too succesfull!

It still looked good when it got out of the oven though, and after a mixing the icing and putting it in between, it actually ended up being really good, just a bit more rustic than normal macarons, haha! I luckily have anohter package of it, though, so I'll be able to try again some other time and hopefully do it a bit better!

But still, they DID look pretty amazing, and even though they are veeery sweet, they're actually really good. Imagine if I actually bake them right next time!

This was more of a "I did this and this wrong" kind of dessert-post - I could have done a step-by-step guide to make these, but they were honestly so easy (just add water and butter!), so it felt a bit uneccessary. You'll survive!

I also made Danish dinner the other day and will hopefully put up pictures from that very soon - it was absolutely delicious. Stay tuned!

9500 tiny little stars in the darkness

Since the beginning of February and until the 27th of April, an artist called Bruce Munro will be showing his artwork consisting og 9500 lights spread all across St Andrews Square, creating the "Field of Lights" and an almost overnatural feeling when you walk through the little paths and among the rainbow-coloured lights.
We finally had enough time to stay in Edinburgh until it got dark, so we could see the square in all of it's glory, and it was actually kind of amazing (and free! wooo!)

We were just sitting taking selfies and trying to capture the lights in the background, when a guy came over and he asked if he should take a pictures of us - of course we said yes! But the guy had obviously never held an "advanced" camera like my Canon EOS 600D, so he spend probably 10-15 minutes trying to figure about how to take one picture, even though I was really trying to help him. But the one pictures he did actually take was really good!

A few perfect days in York

We walked around quite a bit and saw
among others a church-ruin and this crazy
 long Roman wall

After finally finishing my last ever Monday in the Scottish high school (I'm not sure how to feel about the whole last-days-of-school-thing, but I am sure happy I wont have to survive another Monday - even though some of the periods today were actually kind of fun and had Scottish dancing and stuff) and getting results in my History NAB and English essay that I'm actually proud of, I thought I would give myself some time to relax and finally get the pictures from York sorted and edited and put up here! Couldn't spend too long, however, as I have an English prelim for tomorrow and a History extended essay later this week - phew!
I still feel like I have so much to do before the Easter Holidays, yet it's only 4 days away.

But let's look at my amazing weekend in York with my amazing friend Sofie!

After taking a few busses (which are all strangely purple and mint-coloured in York) to get my stuff home to her, we found ourselves in York with so much to see and so much to do!

We decided to have some incredible gourmet burgers for lunch.. they were so good!

I also got introduced to "Angel Cakes" - I have no idea how many I ate through those few days

 Sightseeeeing

I also tried Running Sushi for the first time, it was so cool! For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, the sushi practically "run" around you and you just pick what you want - every colour of plate is a different price, and afterwards you just count how many you have of each colour plate and add it up!

They had fucking purple sushi. I was in heaven.

As the girly girls we tend to be sometimes, we did kind of go crazy in Poundland to have a mini pampering evening

Facemaaasks 

The following day, after a another lunch at the gourmet burger place (we're so original) we bought some amazingly beautiful cupcakes before I had to get my train back to Scotland.

Last selfie before we had to leave...
"See you back in Denmark!"

I worked so hard to actually get to see Sofie, so it almost felt unreal when I was finally in York waiting for her bus to come in. The two days flew past and we had to much fun (we did more than the pictures actually shows, I just chose to show the best moments according to me!) - and I know that you're "not supposed to talk in your own language during your exchange" but what the hell!

Prisons, cannons and lots of stairs

Me and Hanna finally pulled ourselves and tried getting into Edinburgh Castle again (see when we tried the first time here) - this time we made sure not to get distracted before we were actually inside, 16 pounds poorer, and could enjoy the fact that we were at one of the most famous attractions in this amazing city (and also the most haunted place on earth).

We didn't buy any guides or audio tapes to help us get through it, but decided to just run around (literally) and shoot some pictures and get a feeling og this huge castle, that seemed more like a town by itself than an actual castle. That decision resulted in that I still don't really know that much about the castle and its history, but we did have a great time and got some nice pictures!

I think I came home with about 50 pictures of the view - but I mean, how can you not be completely thrown back when this is what you see when you look beyond any wall or any window in the entire castle?

"Watch this, I'm gonna fistbump the lion"

There were a lot of stairs...

... but we made the best of it!

"Jump Hanna!" - trying to cheer up the too-serious atmosphere

We also decided to climp on top of one of the cannons all over the castle and inspired a group of Asian tourists to do the same, haha!

He is so done with my failed attempt to give him bunny-ears

The coolest part of the castle was probably the underground prisons - they were actually so scary!

After the very scary (and very dark) prisons, we moved to another prison, that was a lot brighter and better quality.

In some of the cells there were dolls to represent the people, who used to live there, and of course Hanna had to play a prisoner!

Last part of the tour around the now almost-closing castle was the red phonebox (they are literally everywhere) just before the exit at the castle, where we afterwards met up with Chanti and had some food at McDonalds, went out for a bit of shopping and then went to see the Lights at Andrew's Square - pictures from that will be up in a seperate post soon (along with the pictures from York!)

Overall, it was such a wonderful day! The entrance for the castle was quite expensive and did hit my wallet (which was already quite empty) pretty hard, but I felt like it was a must-see when I've been in Edinburgh for so long, and I definitely do not regret the trip there! I love Scotland so much.

Beeslack photoshoot

Sorry I've been a bit of a bad blogger lately! I've been really busy with studying for timed essays, prelims and nabs at the moment, and I spent my entire weekend being ill and visiting my friend Sofie in York - bad excuses, but here you have a glimpse of what was going on in (Hanna's last) rota today. The sun was actually shining for once!

Strike a pose!

 I will also soon be posting pictures from my amazing weekend in York, as soon as I'm done with all these essays and other tests, that all of us students are being put through ever since the teachers realised that next week is our last week before the Easter Holidays. Stay tuned!

I'm on top of the world

Yesterday, to stick with our newly made tradition of going to Edinburgh on Mondays (and to save money by not going to Edinburgh Castle), me and Hanna found our way to Arthur's Seat, an old volcano just outside Edinburgh. 

I knew that it was an actual mountain-like thing (at least according to Danish standards) that we were going to be climbing, but for some reason it hadn't connected in my head that it was going to be tough. So even though I had brought my best running/walking-shoes, I had also bought my bag filled with heavy stuff like my Canon 550D, which turned out wasn't the best idea when it suddenly got reallyreally steep.

It surely did show me how I need to go a bit faster when I'm working out and get in better shape 'cause phew, it was tough. But the view when we finally dragged ourselves up there was more than enough reward.

But instead of trying to explain how incredibly beautiful yesterday was, let me show you! - warning: I had a really hard time choosing in between my many, many pictures, so you're just getting a buttload of them, okay!

Because we had just been lost (yes, I still get lost all the time...), we were very excited and full of energy when we finally found the right way leading to Arthur's Seat.

Some of the different roads we had to walk/climb - the third one was without doubt the toughest one, so damn steep!

But before the road had even started being steep, we had an amazing view that motivated us further

I feel like the pictures don't really do it justice, but this was the incredible view when we finally made the top!

"1.. 2.. 3.. NOW!"
This was such a scary picture to take, by the way. There was so much wind up there, so it was more like a leap of faith when I balanced on the highest rocks and jumped as high as I could, because I was a wee bit scared that the wind might take me, at least so far that it would be harder for me to land again. But I survived - you don't have to worry, mum!

We later found out that the farthest mountain was the actual Arthur's Seat, and that we had by mistake gone up the wrong one. Oh well, the real one was much more crowded, so I think I would prefer "our" mountain anyways!

Seeeeeeelfiiiieeeeee!
We both felt like taking at least a couple of hundred pictures before the climbing to the top would be worth it. So we did.

Pretty good description of how you can use the crazy wind to your advantage and... not so much to your advantage.

I mean, look at this!

After we decided to start going downwards (the wind was a bit too crazy to stay in for long, and in my foolishness of trying not to wear my jacket in every picture I'm in, I took it off an I'm pretty sure I'm getting a cold now), we discovered that there was barely any wind on the shadow-side of the mountain. So we both just decided to throw ourselves in the grass, tired as we were, and talk and take a few more pictures.

We still had AMAZING view, by the way.

But as fun as it was, we had to go home for dinner, so we once again had to get up and try to manouvre around the mountain. 

"Come on Saraaa"
"No wait, wait, wait! I have to take a picture of this bird"

I can definitely recommend Arthur's Seat (even if you are confused and don't even go to the real Arthur's Seat) to everyone who's going to Edinburgh or Scotland, it is so amazing! I think it's especially amazing when it's a bit hotter outside as well. Me, Hanna and the rest of our friend groups decided to have a picnic on the side of the mountain when the temperature rises a bit, at least!