The Alternative Atlas

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5 Best Edinburgh Coffee Shops

These are our top picks for your morning (or afternoon) caffeine fix in the beautiful medieval city of Edinburgh, Scotland.

1) Cafe Marlayne

We visited this Leith Walk coffee shop multiple times; it is a great hangout spot with free wifi and a perfect place to get some work done. The coffee is delicious and they specialize in french vegetarian bistro dishes. Make sure to check out the unique assortment of hot teas, like the dandelion/thistle blend that Jaime is holding here! 76 Thistle St, Newtown, Edinburgh EH2 1EN.

2) Garden Y Cafe

A charming little place which sits south of the Meadows and Old Town, the setting is picturesque. I know what you’re thinking and yes, the spoon is a little heart! 1hy, 27A Marchmont Rd, Edinburgh EH9 1HY

3) Filament Coffee

Lets talk about this green juice for a minute. Filament has great coffee and the interior looks like it could be gallery in Chelsea, but seriously check out this green juice! Drink this when you need to balance out the five cups of coffee that you’ve already drank today… wait… am I the only one who has this problem? If you find yourself exploring east of the University make sure to stop by this uber-hip specialty coffee shop and feel way cooler than you actually are. 38 Clerk St, Edinburgh EH8 9HX

4) Northern Edge Coffee

We stumbled upon this little tent at the Sunday Farmers Market on the Castle’s South Lawn and ordered a latte. Definitely say yes if the barista offers you the special milk. Wow that last sentence could be made into a seriously dirty joke…

5) La Cerise

Now that we’re done talking about special milk, lets talk about La Cerise! This patisserie is located close to the Ocean Terminal and also has tasty treats and small plates. The interior (and exterior) is magical and looks like a place that Madeline would drink coffee. Did I mention they make their own ice cream?! 199-201 Great Jct St, Edinburgh, Midlothian EH6 5LQ

10 Free Things to do in Washington D.C.

Published by thealternativeatlas

Washington D.C. is a well-known tourist destination and can be a pricey place to visit.. use these tips to save some money and see some of D.C.s best spots!

1) Book a free tour of the NPR National Headquarters

Tour the beautiful building and see some of the NPR staff in action… woah is that Korva Coleman standing over there?! Tours start everyday at 11 a.m. and are absolutely free. Advance registration is required though, so be sure to register here.

2) Visit the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

The Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is located next to the National Mall… you know, like, near all those monuments and stuff. They have constantly revolving exhibitions of internationally acclaimed modern and contemporary artists.

3) Take a Stroll Around Georgetown

Georgetown is a charming historic neighborhood off the Potomac River where you can take a walk through civil-war era streets. The houses are antiquated and beautiful, and Georgetown University is also located here. Fun Fact: the neighborhoods can be creepy at night and are thought to be haunted; there are plenty of free walking ghost tours that go through here…see the house and famous steps where The Exorcist was filmed!

4) Spend an Afternoon at the National Gallery of Art

Always free and always hosting an awesome collection of nationally celebrated works, The National Gallery of Art is a must-see. Located off the National Mall. I sense a trend here….

5) See the Natural History Museum

Is that a woolly mammoth?! Korva Coleman needs to be covering this!

6) Visit the National Portrait Gallery

This insane oil painting by Robert McCurdy is pretty much all you need to see to know that you need to visit this museum, and of course admission is free.

7) Chinatown!

The Friendship Arch welcomes you to Chinatown; a vibrant historic community east of downtown. Resist the urge to buy all the samurai swords in sight because the TSA will totally take those away from you on your flight home.

8) The Lincoln Monument

Of course you have to see this, but go during the evening when there are less tourists. Within easy walking distance is the Martin Luther King monument; a beautiful and stunning tribute that should not be missed.

9) Go to an Opening for Wine and Hors d’oeuvres!

Exhibitions openings rule! Find a contemporary art space, go there during a show opening (usually on Friday and Saturday evenings) and drink wine and eat fancy hors d’oeuvres for free. And check out the show as well, but lets be honest its all about the wine and cheese. We saw a killer hard-edge abstraction show by Bernardo Siles at Gallery Plan B right off Logan Circle. There are a number of other spaces along the U Street corridor that have similar exhibition schedules so it is totally reasonable to think that you can visit three or four galleries and drink that many glasses of wine in the span of about two hours. This type behavior is actually encouraged! Take advantage!

10) Take Cheesy Photographs of the Monuments!

Do you see how I did that thing with my fingers to make the Washington Monument look so small? DO YOU SEE THAT!!!????

An Afternoon in Nottingham

Published by thealternativeatlas

Located in the east midlands of England, Nottingham is a charming city full of history and makes for a perfect day-trip. Do you like art? If so, then make a stop by Nottingham Contemporary. It is a stunning contemporary art museum in the heart of this medieval city and it is absolutely free.

If museums aren’t your thing, take a stroll through the cobble stone streets and check out the storefronts… there is some seriously creepy signage! There is also a really cool comic and graphic novel shop on Market Street close to the city center named Page 45.

If you are feeling thirsty after walking through the medieval streets and soaking up the view of Nottingham Castle (which also houses a contemporary art space), take a break and visit any of the medieval watering holes which contend for the title of “England’s Oldest Pub”. Among these are Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (supposedly built in 1149), The Bell Inn (est. 1437), and Ye Olde Salutation Inn (est. 1240). We ordered a few pints at The Bell Inn in the central market square and sat in on an Irish folk music jam session.

Check out the dude shredding on the Bodhran! At the bar they have a glass portal which looks down into a well that was used in medieval times to draw the beer up from the caverns below… I wonder how many Americans have stood there and drunkenly shouted “bottoms up”!

Also, did I mention that Robin Hood is from here? There is a strangely childish-looking statue of him near the Nottingham Castle. The lighting wasn’t very good for the photo so the image turned out a little weird but hopefully you get the idea….

A Million Little Things

Published by thealternativeatlas

On July 5^th 2015, we left Phoenix with one-way tickets for London. The goal is simple; go as far as we can and see as much as we can with our modest budget. In 2012 we backpacked through Europe over the course of 2 months; we had no experience, no equipment, and no idea how to travel effectively and stretch a small travel fund. At the end of that trip, we saw 8 countries, met countless lifelong friends, and learned more about the different European cultures than any Anthony Bourdain episode on Netflix could ever teach us.

After returning we made a pact that we would venture to the EU again, travel slower, and be more mindful of our time in each country. Improvisation and the idea of not planning every detail is paramount in our travel experience… often it is best to allow a place to unfold in front of you and navigate as the situation dictates. We’ve dreamed of this trip for ages and jumped at the opportunity to travel long term when Chris was booked to play a music festival in the United Kingdom for July 2015.

While deciding to follow our hearts and travel felt easy at first, it slowly became more difficult as Jaime left her job she loved, we began to say goodbye to friends and family, and left our cat with family. It’s surprising how you can feel pulled in two directions: a desire to stay in the comfort of a life you worked hard to build pitted against the desire to explore and see the world. We slowly sold the majority of our belongings over Craigslist and gave away the rest in the weeks leading up to our departure, but we left the whole process of “leaving” until the last minute. Our lease ended on July 3^rd, and we worked at the apartment until 4am that morning loading our (seemingly) few possessions and getting rid of the rest. It seems that there are a million little things that need to be wrapped up before you can leave the country for an open-ended trip: ending leases, utilities, gym memberships, insurance policies, canceling cell phone services, yoga memberships, medical policies, and internet services was just the tip of the iceberg… every time one item was crossed off the list it seemed like another would take its place.

After an exhaustive week of wrapping up loose ends it was finally time to move out of our apartment, and without the help of our friend Rob we would have never gotten it done in time. Lesson learned! It takes more than one day to move out of an apartment (even if it’s tiny) and there are a lot of tough decisions to face. After working all day and night, exhausted and sleep deprived, we finally handed over the keys to our apartment and prepared for our trip abroad.

UK TechFest 2015

Published by thealternativeatlas

Opalescent. I overheard this word being used by a concert-goer to describe their experience at UK TechFest 2015, and this is one word that I cannot get out of my head. At first I was confused by this description, but as more time passes I am becoming more comfortable with it. About 700 attendees assembled between July 8th-12th this year on the beautiful grass plains of Newark-on-Trent, England to watch their favorite metal bands perform inside huge aircraft carriers which housed two stages.

The first large main stage hosted international touring acts like Monuments, Decapitated, Slice the Cake, and Nexilva, and a smaller second stage where I played with my band Kardashev alongside Portuguese tech-death forerunners The Voynich Code and our label mates The Room Colored Charlatan.

I got a kick out of that word. Opalescent. At first I would have never used that word to describe the experience. In fact, nothing about the festival was glamorous; it was truly a rowdy and drunken ruckus from beginning to end. The Newark Showground was transformed overnight from a gorgeous grassy plain to a sprawling mess of smelly drunk metal dudes getting sunburned and sitting around talking (or screaming) about their favorite bands, whether or not djent is a legitimate musical genre, and if putting triggers on the your drums is cheating (it’s definitely not!).

The festival grounds did have bathrooms with running water and showers, but nobody in their right mind would ever step naked into the sea of garbage and hubris from overflowing toilets that subsumed the shower facilities. So Jaime and I did the only logical thing and camped for four days, wore the same clothes every day, ate store-bought bread and peanut butter, and drank a ton of cheap English beer (Carling, which is usually described as tasting like “hot fuzz”).

It seemed like we were roughing it and that opalescent word seemed completely inappropriate… but after waking up on Sunday morning to the gentle patter of rain on our tent in the English countryside, spending the afternoon with our newly-made friends from all corners of the globe, and watching Monuments play a mind-blowing instrumental set, maybe I need to rethink it…