Moving

I know I have a few subscribers on this blog, so I thought I should let you all know that I’ve moved. I’ve decided that this blog will be more of a document of my travels, however far and in between they may be, and the new one will simply be a place for me to write about what I want to write about when I want to write about it. So please, take a look at my new site and subscribe, and thank you for following my journey.

http://musingsfromanonymous.wordpress.com/

The Final Chapter

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

– Nelson Mandela

Friday

Friday morning we all packed up and moved out of our rooms. The hostel had to do some shuffling to fit in some new groups and we were being moved into some new rooms. Our rooms weren’t going to be ready until later in the afternoon, though. That wasn’t all that much of a problem since Friday was our free day to do with as we pleased.

I had already explored a great deal of Edinburgh and everything that was left to do cost money, so I had originally planned to take a break for most of the day. First, though, I went for a walk by the train station to take a closer look at some of the monuments along the road. On the strip there I found a book store that was having a massive sale. You could buy 3 books for 5 pounds and some books were for 99 pence. Since I had been forcible restraining myself the entire trip not to buy a book at any of the book stores we passed, I decided that this store was the best place to lost me strength of will. I went in and, after some searching, found a book to buy. Most of the books there weren’t the first in the series so it took me a while to find one that I could read.

After buying the book, I headed back to the hostel with the intention of reading it. I sat on the couch in the lobby and read until it was time to move into our rooms. There was some comings and goings of various members of the group so I heard a lot about other people’s activities, but it wasn’t long before I was joined by several other people while I waited for the rooms.

After I had moved into my room, I tore myself away from my book to go to the grocery store for dinner and some snacks to help me last for the next couple days. I then headed to the kitchen and, after eating, played some euchre.

Saturday

We got up first thing and walked to the train station. The train was crowded but, after some bustling, we managed to all get on and we started our journey to York. When we passed by Berwick Upon Tweed, it really hit home to me that the trip was ending. I found it so hard to believe and yet I couldn’t help but to yearn for home.

When we reached York, we walked across town to the Hilton Hotel where we were staying. We dropped off our bags and everyone headed in off for their own pursuits. In front of our hotel was a man with a bunch of owls. You could get a picture holding an owl for 4 pounds. The final attraction to the deal for me was that one of them looked like Hedwig. I mean, I had a chance to hold an owl that looked like Hedwig in England. I simply couldn’t resist.

I then walked around the area the hotel was located at, but everything that I saw cost money so I ended up heading back to the hotel and watching tv.

Sunday

I got up, ate breakfast, and went out to walk the walls of the city. York is a walled city and you can walk along them for free. There were places along the wall where there were supposed to be Roman ruins but they were hidden under the soil.

After exploring, we walked back to the train station. We ended up splitting into two groups and I joined the group that was walking along the walls. It was an easier walk back as a result, since the walls followed more of a straight line than the streets and were mostly level.

When we reached the train station we found out that we had a while so we dumped our backpacks in a massive pile and sat together while we waited. Everyone was excitedly talking about their plans for London and how much they missed home.

We then got on our train and headed back to Kings Cross Station. Ahh, the memories of Platform 9 3/4… but I digress. We then took the tube to the area of London that we were staying at (In London, trains are overground and the tube is underground. It’s basically like the subway in New York). After some work and wandering we eventually found our hotels (our group had to split up into a couple different ones due to last minute travel changes).

For dinner, a group of us started wandering around and eventually decided on a fish and chips place. I got a chicken burger because I was really tired of fish, but it was very good.

Monday

Monday was our free day in London to do with as we pleased. I teamed up with some of my classmates and we headed out on a quest to see Abbey Road and Westminster Abbey. We caught the tube into Westminster and, upon coming out of the station, found ourselves right next to Big Ben and the Parliament building.  Right across the street from us was Westminster Abbey.

It has always been a goal of mine to go into Westminster Abbey and see Poet’s Corner… but not for 15 pounds and a 3 hour line wait. It simply was not worth it to me. So instead we took some pictures outside of it and continued on our quest for Abbey Road.

We followed our map along some streets and came upon… Abbey Orchard Street. The person who was in charge of the map hadn’t completely read the street name. He had just seen Abbey and lead us in that direction.

We then got some food at a nearby sandwich stop and used some free wifi to google abbey road. Turns out that it was across London and we were no where near it. We decided to keep exploring Westminster anyway and started walking along until we ran into Buckingham Palace. By some happenstance, we were lucky enough to get there just as the guards were changing. Unluckily, the only way you could see it was to climb onto something really high because there was such a big crowd.

After a while we headed out to walk back towards the underground since there was a war memorial right near it. We walked along a stretch  witIh memorials in the middle of the street and everything, took some pictures, and headed back to take the tube back to the hotel. We had to ascertain the true whereabouts of Abbey Road and we had to move back into our rooms, which had been switched that morning.

Not too long after moving back in we got back on the tube and continued our quest for Abbey Road. Immediately after we exited the station there was a little shop selling Beatles items, so we went in and, after being assured we were close, headed for our goal. After a short walk, we were there. Abbey Road. The destination that every Beatles fan wants to go to. We decided to take off our shoes so that we could soak up the resonance of the Beatles when we walked across. We all walked across it at least 4 times total, sometimes in formation and other times alone.

Tuesday

It was time to leave Europe. We gathered all of our stuff together for the last time and took a train to Heathrow Airport. We ended up being delayed for a couple of hours thanks to the ash cloud that was starting to spread from Iceland. Luckily, our flight still took off and we got back home safely. That’s where I am now. Safely home writing this last blog for you to read. Thanks for sticking with me.

 

The Class Has Now Drawn To A Close

A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.

– Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s 1^st prime minister

So, I realized that I forgot to mention something that happened to me while I was on the Isle of Skye, and I apologize for this. It isn’t all that important, just funny and rather unfortunate. I believe that it happened on the Sunday that we stayed there. I was in the bathroom and I looked at the wall, which is covered in tiles, and saw that three towards the bottom had fallen off. I went over and touched one that was still on the wall to see what was going on and half of the wall came crashing down. I went and woke up my professor (Once again, I’m sorry Professor Cartrite), since it was almost 11 at night. We called the warden and when he came over during his rounds he reassured me by saying that it seemed to have been repaired once before, so I shouldn’t worry about it.

So, anyway, as I’m sure you are aware it has been a while since I last updated this. I haven’t had the greatest internet for a while and as it is I’m paying for the internet right now to put this up.  As a result, I have a lot of ground to cover. I have from Sunday up to today to update you all on and these have not been idle days. So get comfortable, pull up a cup of coffee, tea, hot chocolate… whatever rocks your boat. Maybe even pull up a nice blanket while you’re at it. Now that you’re comfortable, let’s get going with this. Hold onto your knickers, ladies and gents, cause it’s going to be quite a ride! (insert British accent here)

Sunday

On Sunday we traveled by bus and ferry to Lerwick. Lerwick is a good sized place located on the southern coast of Shetland and I wish I could have had more time to explore it. We only spent one night there so I only got to view a small piece of everything that was there.

We dropped our stuff off at the Glen Orchy Guest House and walked into town, since the hotel we were staying at was, once again, on the outskirts of town. If, at any point, you feel like following in the footsteps of my journey, just be warned of this right now. Most places that we have stayed at during this trip were on the outskirts. It hasn’t been that bad, since everything is in walking distance, but just be warned that the hills can be brutal if you aren’t used to them and you aren’t in the middle of everything (which is okay, since you then get a quieter night’s sleep).

Anyway, we headed into town for lunch. Guess what I had? That’s right, fish and chips once again. Like I said before, it is the stand-by when you don’t know what else to get, but as a result I think that after this trip is over I will take a break from eating fish for a while. I’ve had a lot since being here and, as delicious as it has been, I’m starting to get tired of it. In fact, the big thing that I’ve been craving is Mexican food. They have Indian restaurants here like we have Mexican restaurants in the US. They never serve Mexican anywhere.

When we went to get lunch, the group split into two factions. One went to an Italian place up the way while the other half of us were ordering our food at the fish and chips place. After eating, I headed out to find them, since I knew the general direction they were in and the name of the restaurant (Osla’s, for those of you who are curious. The food there actually looked really delicious. I wish I could have eaten there). They told me to go right out of the place, up some stairs, and then turn right on the road and it would be right there. What I wasn’t told was that the stairs I was to take were located in a shady alley similar to the kinds that my mother told me never to go down for fear of mugging and death. Scotland is covered with alleyways similar to this and people regularly traverse them in their daily travels, but it doesn’t make them any less creepy.

After lunch, we walked up to the Shetland Museum. This museum is funded by the oil company, since there is a lot of natural fuel located in and around Shetland. It was a nice museum with lots of different artifacts but there a precise way that they made you go through it and they left out lots of different information (I know this thanks to the course I’ve been taking) while following a certain bias. I won’t bore you with the specifics of it. Still, it is a good place to check out if you ever go to Shetland and would like to know a little more about the place.

After spending a leisurely time going through the museum, I followed some of my fellow students back to the hotel (I had absolutely no idea how to get back). I then proceeded to get on the internet until dinner in the hopes of putting up a blog post and some pictures. Unfortunately, the internet would drop every 10 minutes and you either got to resign in after a minute or spend 5 searching for the signal that you had before. It was really irritating and, since it was too slow and too untrustworthy, I didn’t manage to get anything done that I wanted too.

I then headed downstairs to have a Thai dinner that was offered at the hotel. Since I don’t like spicy food and Thai was new to me, I ordered something that looked vaguely familiar: sweet and sour chicken. This wouldn’t have been a big deal, but everyone else in my group decided to eat there as well and, from the glance I got into the kitchen, they only had basic kitchen facilities. So the food took forever to come, since they had to cook one dish at a time. In addition, the people who served the food barely spoke any English, making communication about your food difficult. Despite all of this, the food was good. There wasn’t much to it, though, and after eating it I wished I had ordered rice as well so I would have more food.

Monday

In the morning, we caught a bus to the plane station. It was so foggy out that we weren’t sure if the planes would be able to fly and Cartrite was taking malicious joy in suggesting that we might have to take the 12 hour ferry ride back to the mainland. Our plane wasn’t canceled, though, and we went into the air despite the rain and fog. It was a nice 2 hour ride to our destination of Edinburgh and I took the time to have a nice nap with my Ipod playing in my ears. I mention this because this plane had it’s propellers outside where you could see them unlike every other plane I have ever ridden in. As a result, it was very loud in the cabin and you could barely hear the person next to you speak.

We landed in Edinburgh and took a double decker bus into the city. Now, some information on Edinburgh. Edinburgh is placed in the central belt of Scotland, which is where most of Scotland’s citizens reside. Of all the cities in the belt, Edinburgh could be placed as the central hub. It is here that Scotland’s parliament meets and the Queen has a residence here. As a result, Edinburgh is basically Scotland’s capital. Edinburgh is huge and even with a week you would have more to explore. It is a city of beautiful architecture and tourist traps. There is a ghost tour, Edinburgh dungeon, Edinburgh castle, Mary King’s close, the museum, the zoo, and much more. There are buses and taxis aplenty to take you wherever your heart may desire and stores surround you wherever you go. I find myself comparing it to what I’ve heard of Chicago. Edinburgh may not be similar at all in terms of culture and other such things, but I feel that it is on par to Chicago as a city with lots of history and a clear place in the future.

Anyway. On the ride from the airport, I saw a Swatch shop. For those of you who are Jeff Dunham fans you know to what I refer. If you don’t, a simple internet search will reveal the inner workings of my mind on this matter to you. I laughed to myself and tried to share the joke with others in my group, but no one had any idea to what I was referring. Actually, to make the joke better, one of my group members went and bought a watch there later on.

The bus dropped us off at the Waverly Train Station and we started hiking towards our hostel, which was once again placed away from the main thoroughfare. It was once again a member of the Scottish Youth Hostel Association, but this one is much better. The internet is cheaper, and we have our own bathrooms and showers.

Tuesday

We got up in the morning and walked over to the Scotland National Museum. This place look unassuming on the outside but inside it was huge. There were 6 floors and they were all absolutely covered with information. What I didn’t like about it, though, was that it seemed to jump around a lot on dates and events. Some people in my group liked the museum and others didn’t. I suspect that a large part of my dislike for the museum is that three of the floors covered history from the Industrial Revolution on, which is the part of history that I absolutely detest.

After the museum, I headed to the Elephant House. The Elephant House is the café where J.K. Rowling first started writing Harry Potter. I ordered a Hot Chocolate, grabbed some napkins, and fought the urge to start writing an award winning story that was sure to steal the minds and hearts of the public. Oddly enough, they didn’t really broadcast much about Harry Potter. They had a few newspaper clippings on the wall and a sign on the front that said “Birthplace of Harry Potter,” but that was it. The rest of the café was covered with Elephants. I didn’t mind that much, though, since they were rather cheap and if they had become a tourist trap I wouldn’t have been able to have a nice Hot Chocolate there. I did read an interesting news story there that said that in the hotel room where J.K. Rowling finished Harry Potter, there was a bust of some guy’s head and on it she wrote “This is the place where Harry Potter ended” or something like that.

After I had gotten my Harry Potter fix for the day, I took a walk down the Royal Mile, which is a long street full of tourist shops that sell the same thing in every single store. The main thing of interest that I found there was a music shop called Unknown Pleasures that sold old records and CD’s. I went in, listened to the old music, and browsed through a music selection that made me extremely jealous. They had Foreigner, the Beatles, The Who, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Presley (more Elvis than anything else, actually), Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, and so many more! I was in music heaven! If I could have bought every CD that I wanted, I would have to empty out my backpack full of clothes and all I would be able to take back would be the CD’s.

I also visited St. Giles Cathedral. I found it completely by accident. I was walking along and I saw a crowd of tourists outside of it, so I went inside and found myself inside of a beautiful cathedral with large arches and beautiful windows. There were a more people that I would have liked, since I wanted to just see it in all it’s grandeur, but without the tourists I wouldn’t have found it, so I can’t complain.

Wednesday

We headed out early for the train station first thing in the morning. We took a short train (50 minutes, which is short in comparison to all of the other traveling we have been doing) to Stirling.

For those of you who are fans of Braveheart (however inaccurate it may be) and William Wallace, this is the place to go. It is here that the William Wallace Memorial is placed. They found a huge hill and then built a colossal tower on top of it that, if you climbed the spiral staircase, had 246 steps to the top. I climbed the hill and was immediately blasted by the immense wind that blasted across the top of this hill. I didn’t think anything of it other than the fact it was cold and headed up the spiral staircase (I used to think spiral staircases were cool, but that interest has faded. When you go up you have to stay to the outside of the steps, since the inside is too small to step on, and if you meet someone going down it is really awkward trying to get by in such an enclosed space. Going down is worse, because you feel like you are going to fall down at any moment and if someone passes you going up you have to let go of the railing, which is inconveniently placed on the inside of the staircase.).

I got to the first floor and read some of the stuff they had on display, then continued up the staircase. This is where I lost my nerve. They had little slits as windows on this second leg and the wind blasted into these and, to make matters worse, you could see how high you were if you looked through them. I got to the second floor, looked at my shaking hands, turned around, and headed back down. Halfway to the first floor, a large group of French kids came by going up so I had to plaster myself against the wall while they passed and mentally pray that none of them bumped me and caused my to fall down the stairs to my untimely death (yes, dramatic, but I’m just trying to get you into the spirit of how afraid I was. Oddly enough, despite all the climbing and hiking we have done all trip, this was the thing that scared me the most). I eventually managed to get past this group only to be met by another one after I had passed the first floor. This is where some lady who was pushing past them despite the confined space saw me sitting in a little cubby thing in the wall trying not to get in the way as people passed by and took pity on me. She stopped right by me and would not go on until I got up and went down. So I had to climb down without holding onto the railing. I know she only meant to be nice and all, but I would have preferred to wait for everyone to pass me by.

From what I heard from those who went to the top, there was only a little railing and you had to brace yourself so the wind didn’t push you over. I’m pretty sure that if I had gone to the top I would have crawled around and been hysterical enough that I wouldn’t want to climb down the stairs, so I’m glad I stopped when I did.

After everyone had come back down, we saw a tour guide dressed up like a soldier. We listened to him tell an engaging tale of what the battle of Stirling Bridge was like in his Scottish accent. It was very informative and he did a good job of acting.

We then headed to a center on the Battle of Bannochburn. This is a really epic battle where the Scottish were badly outnumbered but completely routed the English troops. Robert the Bruce, who was king at the time, had the spearmen trap the cavalry against the river so they had no room to charge and at the end of the battle the English retreated. No one knows the exact place that the battle actually took place, since most records left behind on it tell of different locations.

Thursday (today)

Today, we went and visited the Scottish parliament building. I was expecting a large stone building with stone columns and other such architecture, but the building is actually a modern architectural marvel that was rather recently built. We got to take a guided tour through the building (we got special guest passes. I felt like I was a member of the press or something. It was awesome.), but we couldn’t take any pictures.

After our hour long tour, we met up with a member of Parliament. This was a really lucky chance for us and only happened because one of our group members was a family friend of him. We had a large discussion with him. I found it interesting to actually witness how a politician talks. I asked him when he thought the turning point of the loss of Scottish independence was and he never actually answered me. Instead, he ended up talking about how it helped trade back then and built up the economy but Scotland is ready to separate from England now because of oil and identity and other such things. He used my question to talk about the things he was interested in and I wasn’t the only one he did this to. Several other people’s questions were turned against them, so we got to hear his take on several different issues. Other people in the group thought it was a great opportunity but I didn’t like how he avoided directly answering any of our questions. He did do it very subtly, though, so maybe people didn’t notice it like I did, or maybe they just didn’t care that much.

I took a walk along the royal mile again after parliament to take the time to act like a tourist. I revisited the music shop and walked through some of the classic tourist places.

Today we had our last group dinner, since today was our last day of class. It’s rather sad to think we only have 5 days left here. I’m happy to go home but not ready to leave yet, either. I feel like I could take another month here and still have more to see. Scotland is such an interesting place that I will have to come back one day and visit everything I had to forgo this time.

I apologize for any mistakes I may have made in this post. I usually type my post out in a word document and then retype and edit it simultaneously before putting it into my blog, but it’s late and that would take too long. So this time I’m just copying and pasting.

May The Force Be With You; Live Long and Prosper

The Isle of Skye and Shetland

There are mysteries beyond the minds of mortal man, and to deny their existence is to spend a life in half consciousness.

– Juliet Marillier

So, we’ve spent the last couple of days on the Isle of Skye and I have been a negligent blogger ever since we got there. On my last post, I didn’t talk very much about our travel, so I’m going to go over Tuesday a little bit more. Don’t worry; I don’t have much to say. I just want to describe our travel to the island and then the island itself in an attempt to give you a feel of the landscape, since there is no single norm for Scotland’s landscape. This post shouldn’t be that long even though it covers a couple days because they have been the most laid back days we have had yet.

The train ride to the islands was mundane but outside of the cabin the mundane world fell away and mystique and wonder grasped the earth. Looking out the window revealed lochs, forests, and mountains covered in mist so that you almost begin to believe you have fallen into a mystical world where you are just as likely to see fairies flitting from tree to tree or a dragon winging its way across the sky towards some unknown destination as an seagull or a herd of sheep. I was trapped inside a modern convenience while I passed by a world from my dreams, one that I imagined whenever I picked up a book or daydreamed. I found myself wishing we could stop the train, get out, and join it, however imaginary it may have been. This land is truly the place where mystical imaginings can seem to come true before your eyes.

A little note about trains that I’ve been forgetting to mention. I know what the clickety-clackety of the train wheels is supposed to sound like, but the trains that we have been riding sound nothing like that. Instead, when the windows are open what you hear sounds more like the slow gallop of a horse. I listen and imagine a horse galloping in slow motion towards me.

Once we got to the train station, the fog that had followed us for most of the train ride had dissipated, revealing the real world yet again. We were on the ocean once more. We took a taxi over the bridge and along a windy road that seemed to have been designed to incite carsickness for 20-30 minutes until we reached the college. We ate dinner in the dining hall, which had a wall of windows that overlooked the ocean and the mountains just beyond. These mountains were the tallest I had seen yet, so that the clouds, rather than just brushing their tops, were forced to go around the peaks. The Isle of Skye has very temperamental weather, so that one minute it is sunny and the next it is cloudy and raining. As a result, the mountains across the expanse of water were sometimes obscured from view by the rain, making them look like the mythical island of Avalon, where King Arthur is said to reside.

Wednesday, we had a tour of the college. All over Scotland, they have been putting up signs in Gaelic along with English in an attempt to reintroduce the language across the country, but while at the college I learned that Gaelic speakers only make up 1% of the population. The Isle of Skye is the only place in Scotland where Gaelic is the main language spoken and English is more of a secondary language. I had someone come up to me and speak to me in Gaelic before they realized I was one of the American students visiting.

The college was very isolated and a little spread out. They have around 800 students, but only between 100 and 200 of those students are actually on campus. They also only have a few majors that you can take and it seemed to me that the ones they stressed the most were Gaelic, music, and new media studies (the offices on campus work as PR for spreading Gaelic).

That night, we went to listen to some live music by some of the students. There was a wide assortment of instruments and some singing as well. Everything they said was in Gaelic, so I didn’t understand anything, but that just seemed to enhance the performance.

Thursday was a free day. We got to do whatever we wanted. I went on a picture hunting expedition and took a walk up the road for a little bit. Skye is absolutely beautiful. All there is, once you get away from everything (which isn’t hard, since where we stayed it was rather bare of civilization) is grazing land and mountains. Everywhere I looked, I saw the perfect picture and the sky was helpful as well. It was full of puffy clouds that moved so quickly I could take a picture of the same thing but have a different sky. I literally watched the shadows and the light from the sun play across the landscape.

Now, for Friday the 13th. The day when the horrors of the world come out to play! MWAHAHAHA! What a PERFECT day to travel all across Scotland! This is how it went. We caught a 12:00 train, then we got on a bus, then we got on a plane, then we got on another bus, and after a few ferry crossings it was 10:30 at night and we had reached our destination: Saxa Vord resort on the island of Unst in Shetland. (By the way, Shetland if famous for its Shetland ponies, and they are everywhere here, along with the sheep, which are often not kept in a pasture but are allowed to roam as they please).

Saxa Vord Resort is basically a hostel. It is in a building that used to be a Royal Airforce Base. It’s a nice place, with public kitchens, bathrooms, and showers. Once again, you have to pay for a towel, but they gave us 180 minutes of free wifi. It’s rather slow, but it works well enough.

Today, we went on a hike to the Hermaness National Nature Reserve. We had 4 hours to wander as we liked, but we had to stay on the paths since there were some endangered birds that nested there. The thing about Shetland is that there are no trees anywhere, so the birds have to nest on the ground. What they don’t tell you is that there are a lot of parts where you can’t find any discernable path and you just have to wander for a while along sheep paths until you find a marker. Yeah, they kept sheep in the Nature Reserve. I found that rather interesting.

On the reserve, there are some bird called Skoors. They dive bombed our teacher last time he visited, so I wanted to see them for myself. Skoors are good sized birds that are a brown that camouflages easily with the landscape. I watched one land on the ground, throw up its wings, and attack some sheep, which then ran away. While I was walking some of them circled me and they came rather close, but they didn’t attack. I don’t think they had any eggs or chicks yet, since the seasons this far north are a little different. Apparently, there were also some puffins near the ocean, but I didn’t see them. I did see birds that were similar to seagulls but had yellow heads. They were really prominent along the coast and there were some rocks that jutted out of the water that had turned white from the birds that were on it and the poop they left behind.

In the evening, we had a group dinner. I ordered chicken and it came wrapped in bacon with some type of stuffing and covered in gravy. It was delicious and the stuffing added an interesting flavor to it. After I was finished I found out that the stuffing was haggis. It really wasn’t too bad, but then again I wasn’t eating it stuffed in a sheep stomach.

There is a party that is being hosted for us here with live music and a bunch of people from the community, but I left early. I think I’m coming down with something, so I’m going to rest. And by rest, I mean read the article I have to lead group discussion on tomorrow and then sleep.

Now, a few side notes. There are some things that I’ve been meaning to mention for several blog posts but I always forget. One of these is that Scotland doesn’t have flies or mosquitoes. In fact, they don’t have any pesky bugs except for a horsefly type but that I have yet to see. Since there isn’t a bug problem, they don’t have to put screens on their windows. Everywhere we have gone so far it has been like this.

Another thing. As we all know (or you at least should know), the wolves in the US were hunted close to extinction and are only now making a comeback. Here in Scotland, they weren’t nearly as merciful. There are no longer any wolves here so Scotland’s main predator has been eliminated. I had no idea that wolves had been completely eradicated here.

Lastly, everything here is either a bright green or a dull brown, depending on where you are. It is brown in the open plains, where scrub grasses (at least, that’s what I’m assuming they are) and other hardy plants grow and a bright green near rivers and in the forested areas. There is what I’m assuming is a type of moss that grows alongside the grass that, when it’s stepped on, feels rather spongy.

Since the landscape is so varied and so beautiful, I’ve been feeling a growing urge to go horseback riding across it. Maybe one day I’ll come back and set out across the countryside on a horse, but that is an experience I cannot have this time.

Culloden, Highland River, and Loch Ness: 5 Days In One Post

History provides us with numerous examples of people who were convinced that they were doing the right thing and committed terrible crimes because of it. Keep in mind that no one thinks of himself as a villain, and few make decisions they think are wrong. A person may dislike his choice, but he will stand by it because, even in the worst circumstances, he believes that it was the best option available to him at the time. On its own, being a decent person is no guarantee that you will act well, which brings us back to the one protection we have against demagogues, tricksters, and the madness of crowds, and our surest guide through the uncertain shoals of life: clear and reasoned thinking. Logic will never fail you, unless you’re unaware of – or deliberately ignore – the consequences of your deeds.

– Christopher Paolini

Unfortunately, I haven’t had any Internet at the hotel or hostel we have been staying at while in Inverness, so this blog post will be a combination of all the days we stayed there. I wrote them each day so that I could combine them now. So, just a little warning, this post is going to be really long and will cover Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in Inverness as well as Tuesday (today) in the Isle of Skye. So be prepared (for the coup of a lifetime, be prepared for sensational news! A shiny new era is tiptoeing nearer. And where do we feature? Just listen to teacher – Sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Friday

On Friday, we headed to Inverness. Inverness is located in the highlands of Scotland and the train ride here was, in a word, beautiful. I finally got to see some mountains and they made my heart soar. There were some that were forested, some that were plain, and some that were so tall that as the clouds floated by they gently brushed the tops. Watching them as we moved along on the train, I was reminded yet again of how much I love mountain scenery. The majesty of mountains never ceases to amaze me.

We pulled into Inverness and got our lunch. I went and ate USA style (hahahaha) chicken sandwich with chips (a.k.a., fries) at a little cafe inside of a grocery store. It was pretty good. After lunch, we took a public transit bus to the Thistle hotel, dropped our stuff off in our rooms, and headed back out to the Culloden Memorial.

Ok, I’m going to put in a break in my explanation of my daily activities to insert some comments about public transportation and the Thistle hotel. Public transportation here is much better than it is in the US. You can take a train to every part of the country, and if you are in a bigger city there are public buses. You could easily get by without ever driving a car. My Scottish professor hasn’t driven a car for 15 years. It is really convenient.

The Thistle hotel was great. It was the most Americanized hotel that we have stayed at yet. We had key cards for our rooms and the breakfast was buffet style, though it still had all the usual breakfast items as the other places. What was annoying, though, was that there wasn’t a clock. At all. That, and the TV was really hard to turn on.

All right then, background information on the Battle of Culloden. The Battle of Culloden was the last battle on British soil and marked the end of Scottish resistance to the English’s dominance. It was the last battle of the war of Prince Charlie of Scotland against the English. The Scottish were completely decimated in this battle and fled from the battlefield only to be hunted and/or persecuted afterwards. Prince Charlie escaped the battlefield and spent two months in Scotland being smuggled from place to place (there was one story of him dressing as a maid in order to barely escape the English) before going to France. Any Scottish who were thought to be loyal to Prince Charlie were mercilessly killed or tortured in order to reveal his whereabouts.

It was after this battle that new restrictions were placed on the Scots. They were no longer allowed to wear kilts, play the bagpipes, or speak Gaelic. They only regained this right in the 19th century. Around that time, the Scots were also cleared off of their land in order to make room for grazing pastures for sheep. Some of the more horrific stories relate that they were given 30 minutes notice to gather all of their things before their house was burned, but there are also some stories of lords who built new villages on the coast for the Scots to move to. Other displaced Scots immigrated to Canada, America, and Australia in search of new homes and jobs.

So, we visited the memorial that was placed on the battlefield, traveling by bus once again. It is obvious that a great deal of money was spent here in comparison with the memorial of Flodden (see previous blog post). When we walked around, we had little devices with a headset that, when set off by a GPS, would tell us a story about the place were were at on the battlefield.

We walked around and looked at some grave markers and heard about how the battle went. Afterwards, we went inside to an interactive museum-like thing (not really a museum, because it didn’t have that many artifacts. It was more of a place full of background information on the battle and some interactive things to check out). There was a really cool room with four screens where you could watch a reenactment of the battle and it felt like you were in the middle of it.

From all of this information, I got the feeling that the Scots were very disorganized and the English stood fast and were victorious for their calm (that, and their advanced weaponry was pretty effective. The museum gave me the impression that the Scots didn’t have any guns). Basically, this is how the battle went down. The English stood fast in their lines with their guns trained on the enemy. The Scots got together and were in just a big crowd that, when the English trained their cannons upon them, was bowled over. After a few cannon shots, the Scots rushed forward in a large mass at the English, who then put musket shots in the cannons and started firing. Despite the continued losses, the Scots met up with the English line and began to fight. At one part of the line, they managed to break through, where they were fired upon by the English reinforcements. Realizing the futility of continuing to fight, the Scots retreated en masse. All of the wounded were then killed and the civilians who came to watch the battle were slaughtered, since the English claimed they couldn’t tell the difference between the Highland army and the peasants.

We stayed at the memorial until it closed and then walked up the road to a bus stop. This bus stop was placed in front of a large rock. I mean, they had a little ladder on the side to help people climb up it. There was some writing on the top, but I couldn’t read it. After hanging out for a while, the bus came and we headed back to Inverness.

Everyone else went to an Indian place but I decided to try and save some money, so I went back to the grocery store. While there, I got four scotch pies (there were kind of like ground up beef pies with a little spices mixed in. They were all right, but they might have been better if they were warm), sour cream and onion Pringles, and chocolate milk. I went back to my hotel room, and ate my dinner while watching Predator. Bad effects, but I got to marvel at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s accent, absurd muscles, and ability to stay alive despite all of the odds stacked against him.

After Predator, I changed the channel to watch The Ricky Gervais Show. This show was the oddest thing I have ever watched. Apparently some guy from the British version of The Office created it, but it was a bunch of cartoon characters sitting around a table talking about a bunch of random things. For instance, one of the characters decided that if he was going to create an animal it would have an armadillo’s body, an owl’s head, peacock feathers, and a slug’s slime thing for legs. It would eat lettuce and climb walls because no one else lives on walls and it would be easier to find lettuce that way.

Next on was something that was also really bizarre about Fight For Your Right To Party. You know, the song? Well, they put up the original movie video, and then they showed what happened afterwards. Elijiah Wood (Frodo Baggins, for those of you who don’t know otherwise) was one of the main characters, and there were other celebrities scattered throughout the video (Steve Martin was a limousine driver). I decided that was enough craziness for the night and went to sleep half an hour through, so I have absolutely no idea what it was actually about.

Wow, Friday was REALLY long. I’m sorry about that. I just had a lot to say. Just think, we have several more days to go.

Saturday

So, in the morning we all woke up early, ate breakfast at the hotel, and then we headed over to Morrison’s (the grocery store that I mentioned earlier) to gather up a packed lunch. I got a pre-made southwest style chicken wrap, rice cakes, apples, and a coke. On a side note, Coke is the main pop here. You can get in anywhere you go but other types of pop are only found every once in a while, like the Fanta I got before. You can usually get a large variety within the Coke spectrum, but that is all. Oh! Also, very oddly, they call Sprite lemonade.

So then, we once again caught the train – public transportation yet again. Seeing the pattern yet? We had to make a request stop for the day’s plans activities. I’ll admit, it made me feel important when over the intercom the ladies’ voice said, “We are now stopping at Kildonan. This is a request stop.” Yup. We stopped this train when it didn’t normally need to and you all have to wait while the 20 of us get off. We ARE this important.

When the train stopped and we all piled out, I couldn’t help but wonder if where we were stopping even merited the name of a train station. It was a sign that said train, a little glass thing to hide in if it rains, and a phone for emergencies. No building, just a little road (big enough for one car) and wilderness all around. We were truly in the middle of nowhere.

We crossed a little bridge and then headed down to a little river. It was perfectly picturesque. We were right in front of a little rapids as we ate our lunch. That’s right. We ate our lunch on the bank of a river in the Highlands with birds trilling, the breeze rushing by, and the river running merrily along giving us delightful background music.

We then had three hours until the next train came, so we took that time to explore the surrounding countryside. I walked up and down the riverside, which was beautiful. There were parts that were rocky and others that were just gentle slopes down to the river. Some places were calm and other were rushing loud rapids as the river ran over rocks and around sharp bends. I crossed a couple people who were fly fishing for salmon and I heard a while after I had passed they caught a 15 inch salmon.

After I had explored up one side of the river for a while, I found a bridge that crossed the breadth of the river. It looked safe and I felt confident about it until I saw a sign saying that you crossed at your own risk. I decided to do it anyway and my fear of heights was tested because this bridge that I crossed was a suspension bridge that swayed and groaned and scared me to my wit’s end. I found myself thinking about what I would do if it suddenly collapsed, however improbable that may have been.

After safely crossing, I headed back up the river and found a little pool of tadpoles. It was absolutely full of them. I could put my hand in the water and they would swim all around it. Some attached themselves to my hand so that, if I wasn’t careful when I pulled it out, I would accidentally pull out a tadpole with it. My professor’s daughter joined me and I showed them to her and we spent a good amount of time just playing around that little pool.

After that I spent some more time exploring and then it was time to go and wait at the train station. While waiting, we played ninja. Ninja is a really fun game that I’m not really sure how to describe without being able to show you. If you want, I can show you at a later time, but for now suffice it to say that it was fun. Then the train came and we had to flag it down. Since Kildonan isn’t a regular stop, the train will pass by unless you let it know that you want it to stop.

On the train ride back, there were some very interesting people who joined us. They came on the train when it was only one or two stops away from Inverness. They were a bunch of women, all of whom were dressed up, who had horns on their heads and were obviously drunk. Apparently, it was a bachelorette party, but I’m really confused about the horns. They were loud and rambunctious for the entire train ride and left behind bottles of liquor that were still half full when we reached Inverness. They were a very… memorable group.

I then had another dinner from the grocery store but this time I watched Iron Man while eating. I won’t lie; it kind of made my day to watch Iron Man. I mean, being here in the UK is wonderful but having little pieces of home surprise me every once and a while is a real treat, even if it is as simple as an American movie that I have watched several times.

Sunday

In the morning we gathered up our stuff, ate breakfast, and then trekked over to the hostel that we were going to stay at in town. It wasn’t too far of a walk but by changing locations we were able to save some money.

Hostels are nothing like any hotel I have been in. I stayed in a room with five other girls and managed to snag a bottom bunk, since all of the beds were bunk beds. The showers and bathrooms were community and you had to pay for meals, towels, laundry, laundry detergent (if you have none of your own), and Internet. Even so, the hostel that we stayed at was very nice, which can apparently be attributed to the fact that it was a member of the Scottish Youth Hostel Association. I’ve heard some stories of some of the shadier hostels that people have stayed at, so I’m going to stress this to those of you who are contemplating traveling abroad: make sure that the hostel you are staying at is a good one. Having it registered with some sort of association, like ours was, is well worth the trouble it may take to find.

We then gathered up our daypacks and headed out to the Pedestrian Mall/Walkway/Thingamabob (I don’t remember exactly what it was called). This was basically an outdoor mall that stretched for several blocks. There were all manner of shops and restaurants, and there were parts where it branched off onto another street. It was quite large and you could see how old some of the buildings were.. We were given an hour to eat and shop as we wanted and then we were going to meet at the McDonald’s towards the end of the mall.

As many of you probably know, I really don’t like shopping unless it is for books. So I went out and found two book stores and spent my time browsing through their collection. They were both rather small, so they didn’t have much of a selection, but I still enjoyed going through what they had. In the end, I bought a book of Suduko puzzles (201 puzzles for 90 pence), a pencil to do them with, and a t-shirt. I then ate lunch at McDonald’s, since when I was done with the book stores I was low on time, and met up with the group.

The adventure for this day is rather amazing. I mean, it’s not every day that people get to take a boat across Loch Ness, is it? After we met up at McDonald’s we got on a tour bus that was going to take us to Loch Ness. The man who drove seemed really friendly and while listening to him chatter on I realized that people who become tour guides must really be fond of the sound of their own voice. He didn’t just talk about the sights we passed but he also mention his wife several times and a friend who sold flood lights.

We then reached Loch Ness and it was exactly the kind of weather I would expect for Loch Ness. It was windy, rather chilly, and raining. This didn’t lessen my excitement at all, though. If anything, it heightened it. We got on our boat and I headed up to the top deck with a couple other members of the group for the best view that the boat offered. The deck was basically empty on account of the weather so we got to look at the lake without getting in people’s way. Unfortunately, I didn’t see Nessie but it was still a great experience.

The boat docked at Urquhart Castle, which was the biggest tourist trap that I think we’ve been to yet. So much so that when making it publicly accessible they put in modern things, like a glass wall and a metal spiral staircase. They didn’t even try to blend in the changes they had made so that they would look like a part of the castle. As a result, the castle was really disappointing despite the remains that were there, since they had all been tampered with.

We went up a little hill to the visitor’s center and watched a little 8 minute video on the history of the castle. There was a lot of history that was imparted in that and I’m not really sure that I could relate it all correctly, so I won’t even try. I will, however, tell you how the castle became a set of ruins. When the Scottish started to campaign against the English, the Lord of the castle decided that he wouldn’t be able to hold the castle. So he took all of his gunpowder and piled it in the entrance. He blew it up and then left the castle in flames. A rather epic retreat, really. Imagine it. You ride away from your home in full armor atop your horse. Behind you the roar of the fire that devours your home beats against your eardrums and the heat gives you the illusion of warmth on your back as you set forth into the cold Scottish countryside. To a bystander, it would almost look like one of those classic movie scenes where the main character casually walks away and then behind him there is a large explosion and he continues on like nothing happened while smoke billows up towards the sky behind him.

Anyway, we then met back up with the tour bus to take the road around the lake and back to Inverness. He once again gave us an overview of the countryside and random facts. I’ll admit, I fell asleep on the way back. I’ve been finding it increasingly difficult to stay awake on moving vehicles during this trip. As soon as I get on one my body decides it’s time for a nap. Anyway, just before I went to sleep the driver used a particular phrase that I’ve only ever read; I didn’t think people still said it. He used the phrase “as the eagle flies.” I found it highly amusing and I think I’m going to make an effort to use that phrase more often.

Once we were back in Inverness, I went to dinner at a little Italian restaurant on the Pedestrian Thingamabob called Bella Italia. I ordered a pasta dish that had salmon in it and was sitting in a type of cream sauce that was simply sublime. Then, get this, the waitress asked me if I would like parmesan cheese, and then grated it right in front of me! If you ever go to Inverness, I strongly urge you to seek out this restaurant. It will definitely be worth your while.

I then bought some Internet for 40 minutes (it was 1 pound for 20 minutes, so I gave myself 40 since it was Mother’s Day and I had to skype with mom). Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough time to put up my blog since skyping slows down my Internet, but it was nice to talk to my mom for a little bit.

Monday

So, I in the morning we headed back onto a bus for a long ride over the mountains and along the curves of the coastline. You know how the river reminded me of how much I love mountain scenery? This ride reminded me why I will never live in the mountains, despite their beauty. I was so carsick that I started to hate the bus and the countryside around me for inflicting such pain. I’ve been more carsick on this trip than I have ever been before on a day to day basis.

After two hours of driving, we stopped to take a look at a monument to the clearances. There was a man, a woman, and their children depicted. The father looked forward and the mother glanced fearfully back at the way they had come. I feel like this statue really showed the fear and sorrow that the people felt as they left all that they had ever known for an uncertain future.

We went into a town called Helmsdale that was just past the statue. We stopped there for lunch, since our final destination didn’t have anywhere to eat. I got fish and chips again. Honestly, it seems to me that fish and ships is the Scottish equivalent to a cheeseburger in America. It’s a good thing to fall back on when nothing else sounds good, especially since every place I have gone to so far (except for the Italian restaurant) has offered it. Now, as I’ve mentioned before, chips here is fries (on a side note, I finally found out that crisps is what they call chips. Just an interesting tidbit from yours truly). Like most people, I like ketchup with my fries. In America, if I asked for some ketchup I’d get a handful of ketchup packets that I could never hope to use all of. Here, you have to search for free ketchup. At the place where I got my fish and chips, they charged 10 pence per packet. I haven’t bought ketchup yet since I fell that is ridiculous to have to pay for ketchup, but it is rather common here for people to have to buy ketchup with their meals.

We then got back on the bus for a 20 minute ride to our final destination: Dunbeath. Dunbeath is located right on the coast and was once a good sized fishing village. That, along with the crofting (which is what they call farming here in Scotland), has long since died out. The younger generation all leave since there are no jobs to be had and the older generation moves back after earning a living in places like Edinburgh and Glasgow.

We came to Dunbeath for the express purpose of visiting the Dunbeath Heritage Center. The center used to be a schoolhouse, but the school was moved and the building converted. This is where the author of Highland River by Neil M. Gunn went to school, which is the book we were reading. The center was partly dedicated to him and partly to the history of the area. On the floor of the main room was a map of the river that the book was based on along with quotes from the book. It was nice to see a representation of the river after reading about it.

After spending some time looking about, we were joined by a man named George. George was very knowledgeable of Highland River as well as Dunbeath. After talking for some time, we went outside to meet his wife, Nan. She was going to be our guide as we walked up the river to her property. She was very enthusiastic about the book and had a lot to say during the walk. At one point, we had to climb over a fence to enter a pasture and, after doing it herself, she turned to us and said, “I’m 70 and if I can do it, so can you.” I can only hope to be that spry when I reach her age.

We eventually climbed up a little hill to an archaeological site that she and her husband had been working on. It was obvious that this was her pride and joy and she spent a good amount of time talking about it and pointing out different things they had found. She also took the time to lament the fact that the government had made them stop and cover up the site since they consider it part of the heritage of Scotland and they hadn’t managed to get permission to continue digging yet.

We walked back to the bus and headed back to Inverness. I managed to fall asleep, which staved off the carsickness. On the way back it started to rain and we saw the line of water ahead of us as we inevitably hurtled into the midst of it. Let me tell you right now, I LOVE rain. Some might have looked at the dark skies and thought of how angry they looked. I looked at the skies with joy and excitement. So far most of the rain we’ve gone through has been a light sprinkle, so I was really looking forward to a good downpour. Unfortunately, it finished up just before we got into Inverness, so I didn’t get to experience it.

A little note about rain. My Scottish professor thinks the words we use to describe rain is fascinating. He finds the words ‘sprinkle’ or ‘drizzle’ to be laughable and when it rains, will often turn to one of us and ask how we would describe it. I’ve never really put any consideration into how we describe rain before. I had honestly just assumed it was worldwide; how very American of me.

I had another dinner at the grocery store and finally got a chance to do some laundry. This was a big relief, especially since I was basically out of clothing. It was rather expensive, though. It was 2 pounds for a washer load and then the drier was close to the same price (it was harder to tell because it only too 20 and 10 pence coins and I didn’t pay a lot of attention to how much I put in). Oh well, at least I finally have clean clothes.

Tuesday

Today we packed up and said goodbye to Inverness. We took a 2 hour train ride and then a 20 minute bus ride to a Gaelic speaking university on the Isle of Skye. The ride over was stunning, full of mountains and lochs, with a lightly misting rain and patches of fog that made the countryside look almost as if something from history, full of mystique and beauty.

The Isle of Skye is a part of the western isles, where people speak predominantly Gaelic. It is a beautiful, mountainous country. During the summer months of June and July tourists flood the island to the point that, as my Scottish professor described it, “it is in danger of sinking.” Luckily, there aren’t many people here right now.

Not much happened today besides travel and dinner. I have my first single room and I’m worried about getting up in the morning since there isn’t an alarm clock. That has become something of a theme at the last couple of places we have stayed and I really don’t like it.

Dinner wasn’t all that exciting, though it was provided by the college so it was free. What was absolutely fantastic was the dessert I had that is called Banoffee. Banoffe is a banana toffee thing that is to die for. Yet another recipe that I must find and make when I get back home.

Internet here is rather sketchy. You only get wifi in certain places and the closest one that I have been able to find is the courtyard right outside of the building we are staying at. As soon as you enter a building it stops working, though, so I have to be outside to have any Internet.

May The Force Be With You; Live Long and Prosper

Relaxation and Birnam Wood

We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking. We move along the surface of things [but] there are times when we stop. We sit still. We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.

– James Carroll

Yet again, I find myself taking two days and combining them into one. These days are so long and so busy that sometimes it’s hard to build up the effort to write a blog. I apologize for this if you came here looking for more tales of Scotland. I will try not to do this anymore unless the internet doesn’t work or we don’t have any.

So, yesterday was, in a single word, wonderful. This time, it wasn’t for the sites that we got to see. Instead, it was the fact that we got the morning off, so I got to sleep in. I did get up for the breakfast that was provided as part of our stay, but then immediately went back to bed. It was nice to catch up on some sleep for once on this trip.

After I woke up much later, I went over to a bakery in town and got a cheap donut and a Fanta. Now, if you know much about me at all, then you will know that I absolutely LOVE orange pop. I was so excited when I saw orange pop on the shelf and was really eager to open it and drink that sugary goodness. To my surprise, however, Fanta here is nothing like it is in the US. It’s more like lightly carbonated orange juice. No added sugar at all. I mean, I know it’s healthier, but I was still immensely disappointed. I was just looking for a small taste of home. That’s not to say it wasn’t good, it was all right, just not the taste I was looking for.

After a relaxing morning off, we headed to the Grassic Gibbon Center. For class, we have been reading Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. He helped to revive the feeling of Scotland as a nation, though he insulted a lot of people in the process. In seven years, he came out with seventeen years and then died at the age of 35, which is phenomenal. Apparently, he wrote Sunset Song in one month!

We had a group lunch there where I had Sticky Toffee Pudding (STP) as desert. Now, this particular one wasn’t that good, but I tried someone else’s at the first hotel we stayed in and let me tell you, this stuff is absolutely amazing! In the UK, pudding isn’t like what we have in the US. Here, pudding is more of a cake, and I feel safe saying that STP is one of the best cake-like deserts I have ever had. I feel like it’s now my mission to find the recipe and make it when I get home.

Anyway, we walked around the museum at the center, talked a bit, and headed back to the inn. While there, we took a short break until dinner (this day was WONDERFULLY lazy after the crazy week we’ve been having), which we were having at another hotel that was a good walk across town.

At dinner, we met the photography Andy Hall. He has been asking people what their favorite part of Scotland is, took the picture of that place, and had them write a story about that place. He then published a book full all of these stories. He showed us a slideshow of his works and they were beautiful pictures of the Scottish landscape.

We got back from the presentation and a group of us went out to make a driftwood campfire out on the beach. It was a group of five of us just hanging out on our last night in town. We were joined by Alex, a british bartender that some of the guys had really gotten to know during our stay in town. His accent was amusing, as all the accents here have been, and he told us some fun stories. Then it was off to bed for me in preparation for an early morning.

Today, we got up early for a train at 8:30 to Aberdeen. Aberdeen is the home of the University of Aberdeen, which has a foreign exchange program with Alma College. While there, we took a tour of the college and sat in on a political science class, which nearly everyone in the class had trouble staying awake during. At a point in the middle of the lecture where I had a brief period of lucidity, I looked around and watched everyone do the head bob (you know, where you fall asleep with your head up and wake up as your head falls). Since I was a member of the head bob, it was comforting to know I wasn’t the only one having trouble staying awake.

We then took another train to where we are staying right now: Dunkeld. On the train, I decided it was finally time to do some research for the class and talk to someone from Scotland about the secessionist movement. So, when a lady sat next to me, I worked up my courage and asked her if she was Scottish. Her answer? “No, I’m from the Czech Republic.” What are the chanced of that? Anyway, we then proceeded to have a long conversation about the wonders of Scotland and she gave me a list of places to go. I then had to get off the train and say goodbye to my newfound acquaintance.

Anyway, about Dunkeld. Dunkeld is small in comparison to everywhere else that we have traveled so far and we are only staying here for one night. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things to see here that I won’t have a chance to do, since we are leaving first thing tomorrow morning. For instance, for those of you who are Shakespeare fans (though, really, who isn’t?), Dunkeld is located right outside of Birnam wood, which those of you who have read/watched Macbeth will know all about. Also, there is an old Roman Cathedral in town that would be lovely to visit if I had the time.

So, we had a wonderful dinner here at the hotel we are staying in. I had a cheeseburger because I wanted something familiar, but it was possibly the best burger of my life. I don’t know what they did to it, but it was phenomenal. Then, for dessert, I had Chocolate Puddle Pudding, which was a delicious, rich chocolate cake covered with chocolate sauce with vanilla ice cream. Absolutely delectable.

We then gathered together to receive our last book: The Ice by Kenneth Steven. This was written by the Scottish professor who joined us, and from the bits that he read out of it I feel certain that I will enjoy reading his book. It is a collection of short stories based in several parts of Scotland and some even in the US. I had him sign it as well, which will be my first signed book.

Now that you’re all caught up, I’m going to talk about the food a bit. Scottish people serve the heaviest food that I have ever eaten. It is good, but it doesn’t take a lot to get you full. In addition, what isn’t a heavier food is either fish or something fried. They fry everything here. They fry fish, Mars Bars (Stonehaven is the home of the fried Mars Bar, though I never got a chance to have one), and I even heard a story about fried pizza. In America, we like to pretend that people here in the UK eat so much healthier than we do, but they don’t. It’s the same thing as I mentioned in my last blog: all of those ridiculous hills. I am now in the Highlands, though, and I’m starting to miss the hills from the previous stops simply because they were so much smaller, though the view here is stupendous.

Also, these blogs are really hard to come up with names for. I  made the stupid decision not just to name them day 1, 2, etc. I really wish I had now.

May The Force Be With You; Live Long and Prosper

An Impregnable Fortress Of Awesome

Stubbornly persist, and you will find that the limits of your stubbornness go well beyond the stubbornness of your limits.

– Robert Brault

Today has been relatively tame compared to everything so far, but it wasn’t any less stupendous. Today we had a later start, since we didn’t have to bus over to our stop. At noon, we all gathered ourselves together and then headed out for a hike. We hiked a mile and a half up the hilly, Scotland countryside to the ruins of a castle. The entire hike was along a dirt path on the edge of a cliff (not really a cliff, it was more of a sloping, grassy decline, but I’m not really sure what that is called) that dropped down into the ocean. There were seagulls flapping about and calling out to each other, songbirds serenading us as we walked, and even a few cows to bring on some nostalgia for home.

When the castle finally came into view, it was breathtaking. The castle was set up high on a cliff, and the only way up was a steep stairway. The castle, before becoming a set of ruins, was impregnable. After we visited the ruins I learned about the history of the castle. The castle is called Dunotter castle. It held back an army for 8 months while protecting the Scottish royal jewels (crown, scepter) before the castle walls were breached. Towards the end of the 8 months, a pastor’s wife decided to collect the jewels to get them away safely. So she and another women dressed up as seaweed gatherers and walked along the coastline right by the invading army. They came up the the cliffs and the jewels were lowered down from the castle. The two women covered them up with seaweed and walked away with the invading army none the wiser. The jewels were then hidden under the church’s steps so that when the army invaded the castle, it was like the jewels had vanished.

I know I said I wouldn’t mention my class, but I just want to say one thing before moving on: having class on the grass in the courtyard of a castle by far trumps every other class I have ever had.

This was yet another spectacular set of ruins. There was more intact than there has been at any of the other ruins so far. There were several staircases fully intact (people REALLY loved spiral staircases back then. I did too, before I had to maneuver down too small steps in a circle and I experienced a new fear of falling down a staircase in a circular motion). Also, I got to walk on the castle walls! Yet another life goal achieved.

I then hiked back and just chilled for a couple of hours while waiting for dinner. We had dinner with a professional photographer who takes beautiful pictures of Scotland, Andy Hall. He showed us some of his work and it is spectacular. He has been reinforcing Scottish identity by asking people what their favorite place in Scotland is, taking a picture of it, and then having them write a little blurb about it.

I have been eating a lot of fish and chips lately, and since I am currently right on the sea shore it is delicious. It’s been mainly Haddock, but I don’t mind, and, interestingly, chips are actually fries. Since I’ve never really had fish and chips before, so that was a tad unexpected.

For any Darren Criss fans, I’m going to pull out my evil side and inspire some jealousy in you right now. While I am typing this out, my roommate is playing music from the Warbler’s new cd, so I am jamming to Darren while doing this. Yup. Be jealous. Also, if you are a fan of Darren Criss then I am going to assume that you are a fan of Starkid Potter. I just watched Starship and let me tell you, it was fantastic. It took me two days to watch in between everything that we have been doing, but I managed.

Finally, I just want to say how awkward these blogs are to end. If this was a paper, I would just end by restating my final point, but I don’t really have a point, so I don’t know what to say. I keep finding myself telling you exactly what I am doing while writing this. It is rather frustrating. I’m going to have to think of a way to remedy this situation.

May The Force Be With You; Live Long and Prosper

Ruins, Castles, and Food, Oh My!

Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.

– Miriam Beard

Well, I finally have some spare time since I’m riding a train, so I’m going to update this blog with two day’s worth of information. Of course, you aren’t going to get it until tonight, but oh well. Please bear with me, there is a lot of information and more than likely I will forget a good deal of it.

Yesterday started out bright and early. The hotel served an early breakfast from 7:30 to 9:30. English breakfasts are rather… different. Usually, if I were to get a complementary breakfast at a hotel in the United States, it would be a little buffet line and I would grab what I wanted and go. It is very different here. We went into the dining area, poured ourselves some orange juice and got some cereal if we wanted it, and sat down. Then a waitress would come and ask if you wanted tea or coffee, and you order your meal.

Now, this meal that you order is not ordinary by our standards. You got to choose between two things: The Full English Breakfast or the Vegetarian English Breakfast. This breakfast is perhaps the heartiest one I have ever been served, and apparently that is a standard breakfast in England and Scotland. I was served two eggs, toast, hash browns (delicious!), bacon (the thickest bacon I have ever eaten), fried mushrooms, a fried tomato, and baked beans. All of this filled your plate and after eating you couldn’t believe how much food you had just ingested.

We then got on a bus and headed out to Holy Isle, which is only accessible during low tide. As a result, we were on a time limit in order to leave the island before the tide came back in. There were signs all over the place warning of the dangers of the rising tide.

Holy Isle is the point that the Vikings first started raiding England and they visited this Island several times because of the priory that was stationed there. Even after being sacked so many times, the church’s valuables continued to be stored there, giving the Vikings more incentives to come back. The main point of interest on Holy Isle is the Lindisfarne Priory, which is in ruins now. People used to make a pilgrimage to this priory and the posts that would guide their way are used today while people continue to walk out to the island. This pilgrimage was, and is, being made because the remains of one of the saints (I think St. Andrew) that was once buried on the island.

The remains of this cathedral were amazing to look at. There were some remarkable arches that still remained and some of the filigree was wonderful to look at. The perseverance of the monks that worked there is really inspiring. I mean, imagine trying to do God’s work while some savage Vikings regularly sack your abbey for all of your valuables and food. That must put some strain on the nerves, but they only abandoned the abbey when King Henry VIII ordered the dismantlement of all Catholic churches and abbeys after establishing his own church, pensioning off the priests, nuns, and monks throughout the country.

We left the island as the tide was just starting to come in and headed towards Hadrian’s Wall. I hope you will forgive me here, but the history buff that I usually hide inside is going to come out to play, because Hadrian’s Wall is really amazing. Back when the Roman Empire was at its height, the empire stretched up through England and its advance was halted at the Scottish border. At this border, the Romans built a wall that stretched across from sea to sea. This wall averaged around 10 feet in height and, in addition to holding back the barbarians to the north, controlled commerce through 12 gates in that span. There were large towers with guard posts placed every mile, and smaller towers placed in between. At each guard post, a village was established where the soldier’s families, and enterprising entrepreneurs with various goods to sell, lived. If you watched the movie King Arthur, then you know what I’m describing rather well. Over the years since the decline of the Roman Empire, this wall has been slowly dismantled by the people living nearby to use for building houses or walls in other places.

Since the wall doesn’t really exist in large length anywhere, we went to visit an archeological site of a fort that was just south of the wall. The soldiers station there would be able to see the Scots coming down the hills if they managed to breach the wall, and prepare themselves accordingly. They are still excavating this site, but what they have unearthed was fascinating. In addition, they had built a replica of what they think Hadrian’s Wall would have looked like.

While in the gift shop, I bought a wonderful poster. Notice the part at the bottom – “No Scots Allowed.” Guess what is being hung up in my room next year at a college whose mascots are the Scots?

After I had visited everything at this sight and while waiting for the group to gather up again, I came upon a revelation. Americans are always wondering how Europeans are so thin and healthy and I have come upon an answer. Their streets and cars are tiny (the streets are small enough to be a one way at home, and the cars are baby cars. I haven’t seen any trucks or vans in the cities at all), so it’s a pain to drive anywhere. Since everything they could need in town is within easy walking distance, everyone either walks or bikes to their destinations. You are probably thinking, “I already knew this. Stop talking and move on.” But there is more to my reasoning. The countryside is so hilly and steep that you cannot walk down a street without finding some form of a steep hill, so even if you are walking down it you are eventually going to have to walk up it. I thought that the hills that are around my house in the thumb were good size. I was wrong. The hills here put the measly lumps of land at home to shame.

Anyway, after Hadrian’s Wall we then headed back to the hotel. Throughout this bus ride we went over rolling hills and swerving curves, so I was really carsick. This is a complication that I didn’t anticipate. Luckily, I bought plenty of mints for the plane ride, so those have been holding me over, but once I run out I am out of options.

After reaching the hotel, the group separated for dinner. The group that I was with went to this little pizza/Italian restaurant that looked rather promising. Three people ordered pizza and the rest of us ordered pasta. I chose the pesto because pesto is amazing and it has been a while since I have had it. Bad. Life. Choice. They completely ruined my pasta. They put some kind of cream sauce in it and didn’t put in nearly enough garlic so I was forcing myself to stomach some of it down before some people offered me pizza, which was fantastic.

Then we had class. I don’t think I will bore you with the details; you aren’t taking the class so you probably don’t want to know about the nuances of Scottish politics. Basically, we read an article and then talked about it. This will be how most of my classes will go, so just assume that every night I have a class. I won’t waste your time by telling you on every blog post that I had class. I will, however, interject an important piece of information that pertains to my trip here. During the class, we finally met our last professor, who I only know at this time as Ken. Ken is an English professor (win!) and he will be covering the novels that we are reading for this course. Also, he is native to Scotland so I am now getting to listen to the Scottish brogue on a daily basis.

Well, that was yesterday. If you are still reading this, thank you for reading so much all ready, but there is still one more day for you to read about. Feel free to take a bathroom break, get a bite to eat, and then continue. I promise, I won’t be insulted. In fact, I probably won’t even know, but I figured I should throw in some courtesy before moving on with this. If nothing else, it works well as a break between sections.

So, today began much the same as yesterday. Wake up, eat breakfast, pack, get on the bus and move on to sightseeing (Yay, touristy stuff!).

Our first stop for today was to visit the battlefield of Flodden. Brace yourself; here comes some more historic information. Flodden was a battle between the Scots and the English. The Scots had an alliance with France, who were fighting the English. The Scots moved towards the northern border to help the French and were brutally slaughtered. Now, this wasn’t a massive battle, I believe that only 14,000 Scots died, but what made this battle so devastating was that most of the Scottish nobility were decimated.

The people who live along the border between Scotland and England consider the battle of Flodden to be, as the hotel owner put it, “one of the bloodiest battles.” They use this battle as an excuse for why they should be part of Scotland, but, according to my professor, if you were to mention this battle to the Scottish who live farther north they would confuse it with another, bigger one.

All that commemorates this battle is a monument in the middle of a farmer’s field. It’s obvious that very few people ever come there and that the British government didn’t spend a lot of money on it. There are no visitor’s centers, only a few signs that give minimal information on the event, and a small parking lot that our bus couldn’t even get into.

After that, we moved on to Melrose Cathedral where Robert the Bruce’s heart is buried. This was another fantastic set of ruins. We got to climb onto the roof through a narrow, stone spiral staircase (kinda scary, because they were so steep and the only thing to keep you from falling was a rope). The view, however, was astounding.

We then moved on towards the house of Sir Walter Scott (famous author who wrote Ivanhoe among other things). This was really amazing. The people we talked to said that it wasn’t a castle, but it had turrets, and outer wall, and some huge grounds, so I disagree. I mean, when there are signs towards the chapel, river walk, and the woodlands, I count that as a castle. Also, his library was the best thing ever. It filled two rooms, with a little stairway to lead you to a second level, and a sign on the wall said it contained 7,000 books. I am really, REALLY, jealous. Then, right next to these rooms, was what I’m going to call an armory. It had swords, muskets, knifes, and other assortments of weapons, along with suits of armor. Walking through this house has reaffirmed my belief that I should one day live in a castle.

We then got on another train which took us to where we are now: Stonehaven. Stonehaven is right on the ocean and, even better, so is our hotel. I had some wonderful fish and chips and then I went with some members of my group to a nearby grocery store. I didn’t get anything really important. I did get a liter water bottle for 75 pence (which is like a dollar fifty in America) so that I have something to drink for our hour long hike tomorrow (cringe).

Through all of this traveling that I have done, I have repeatedly seen yellow fields. I assumed at first that they were mustard plants but I have since found out that it is some kind of plant that the English get their oil from (I’m assuming cooking oil, but I could be wrong).

Also, there are sheep EVERYWHERE! I have seen more sheep in the last couple of days than ever before. Oddly, though, none of the local cuisine offers any food with lamb in it. It seems that the sheep are just used for wool.

The accents here are amazing, and they are starting to get to me. I find myself thinking in a Scottish accent more and more as time wears on, so hopefully it won’t be too long until it bleeds into my actual speech.

I am now going to bed because it is 2:00 in the morning here. I started this blog on the train and just finished it, so I hope you enjoyed reading.

May The Force Be With You; Live Long and Prosper

Day-Tripper

It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.

– Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Well, I’m in England lying on my bed in my hotel room. It’s a five hour time change from home and I’m feeling the effects, especially since I’ve gotten a grand total of three and a half hours of sleep in the last twenty-four hours.

So, let’s start from the beginning of my trip. I got on my plane on Friday after a slight delay and we took off for London, I watched some movies and slept a little bit and we landed eight hours later in London. We went through customs where we had some minor problems. We didn’t know what to put for our contact address since we were traveling all around Scotland. I went up to one of the custom officers to ask if I could just put Scotland and he got belligerent. “If I went to America, I would have to put my address down, so why should it be any different here?” This is my first experience of being treated differently because I’m American. I mean, I know that Americans are usually viewed as arrogant and self-assuming, but all I did was ask a simple question. I didn’t ask to be excused or anything, I just didn’t understand. No need to get so irritated.

After customs, we hopped from train to train until we got to King’s Cross Station. Yes, that’s right. I’m talking about the Harry Potter, Platform 9 3/4 King’s Cross Station. So you can imagine what I did. I ran around the station like the idiot tourist that I was until I found Platform 9 3/4, with the cart in the wall and the sign and everything, and took a bunch of pictures. Be Jealous.

I was really surprised to find that there were a bunch of pigeons flying about inside of King’s Cross Station. People walked by without giving them a second glance and the pigeons strutted around the ground look for bread crumbs and other miscellaneous bits of food that had been dropped. One of my group members threw a crumb at one and we then watched as it tried to get to the crumb while dodging people and suitcases. It was rather amusing.

Then we took a three hour train ride to my current destination, Berwick Upon Tweed (Notice that I’m not giving details about this train ride. That would be because the most momentous thing that happened was that everyone in my group, including me, slept. The entire way. My professor thought this was moderately hilarious and proceeded to take pictures of everyone sleeping). Berwick Upon Tweed, besides having a very odd name, is what I would expect of a European city. The buildings are basically on top of one another and are very old. The architecture is amazing to look at, though, and the people are very friendly. They don’t seem to mind me while I blunder around their town asking inane questions, which is pretty nice since my accent makes it obvious that I’m a foreigner.

We are currently checked into The King’s Arms, a hotel with a lot of history to it. The owner took the group on a little tour of the hotel and told us a bunch of different tidbits about the history of the building and the area. In the garden, for instance, is one of the few Saxon Wells that are still in use, and the hotel was originally used as a stopping point for stagecoaches. There are two pieces of information that I found particularly interesting, though. One is that Charles Dickens first did a public reading of A Christmas Carol right in the hotel, and then spent the night in the room that is underneath mine. The other is that the Beatles stayed here the night before kicking off one of their world tours. I mean, you can’t get better than that. Charles Dickens and the Beatles in one hotel, and I’m staying in it???? WIN!!!

I’m loving all of the accents that I’ve been hearing. So far, it’s mainly British with just a hint of a Scottish brogue, but I fully expect that to change as we move farther north. I’m really excited, because the hint of a Scottish accent that I hear in everyone’s voices brings me continual amusement. I just really hope that I end this trip with an accent of my own.

Here is my itinerary if you want to follow me, or look ahead (http://www.alma.edu/academics/departments/social_sciences/political_science/courses/alma_in_scotland/Itinerary) thanks for reading!

May The Force Be With You: Live Long and Prosper

Scotland or Bust!

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well, I’m leaving for Scotland this Friday. Needless to say, I’m very excited, though excited seems like an understatement. It’s more like exhilarated, ecstatic, enthusiastic! (alliteration! not on purpose, but hey, still awesome). Since time is beginning to run short, I figured now would be a good time to explain a bit more about my trip.

I leave this Friday, as I previously stated, and I get back May 23. I am going for a political science class where we are studying the recession movement in Scotland. Scotland is a part of England but there are some people who want Scotland to become their own country. We are going to backpack around the country and talk to people about how they feel about separating from England. In the process, I am going to get to see all of Scotland, not just the parts designed purely for tourists. I’ll admit, this is the part that I am mainly interested in. Who wouldn’t be? I mean, besides Canada (which doesn’t really count as a foreign experience, since they are so similar to the US), I have never left the country. It’s always been a goal of mine, and now I am bringing it to fruition.

Since I leave so soon, I have begun my preparations. I have ordered my backpack, which I will be living out of for the next couple weeks. We aren’t allowed to check any luggage, so I have to fit everything that I am bringing into a carry-on size backpack. Luckily, international travel allows for bigger carry-on sizes, so this isn’t that big of a problem. (I’d like to thank my Uncle for buying my backpack for me and my Aunt for giving me some money to spend while I am there).

My friend, whose name is Cassandra but calls herself Cassy, took it upon herself to make me a list of everything that I might need to take. She decided to make it funny, which has led me to decide to share it with you.

• Deodorant – so you’re not known as the smelly kid
• Cassy – cause she wants to go
• Shirts – cause you’re a girl and can’t go without
• Pants – only optional if you have on really cute undies
• Shoes – a cute pair and a sensible pair
• Cassy – who’s Thelma without Louise?
• Toothbrush/paste – no dragon breathe!
• Umbrella – so you can invite some boy to stand under your um –brella –ella –ella – ay –ay
• Socks/Undies/Bras – trust me they are essential
• Swimwear – unless you plan on skinny dipping
• Cassy – cause she loves to travel
• One dressy outfit – because you never know
• Ipod – what is a trip without good tune-age?
• Phone – for you to call me on! (or your family, I guess)
• Chargers – so nothing dies
• Cassy – so she can make sure you don’t die
• Hair ties/bands – to tame that bed head
• Hair brush – to assist the ties/bands
• Make up & remover – to impress the Scottish boys who don’t wear skirts
• Cassy – to help you put on the make-up
• Jewelry – Ooooo….. Shiny!
• Razor – you’re not European or French or whatever.
• Notebook and writing utensil – to write me letters with
• Mints, chapstick, sunglasses, a rubber band, and safety pins – it’s the small things that make a difference
• CONTACTS – I know you haven’t wore them in a while but I want you to be able to see everything!!!
• Cassandra – in case you don’t want to take Cassy
• Money – it makes the world go around
• I.D. and passport – you won’t get far without them
• My mace – if you want it. Just to be safe
• Cassy – cause you need a drinking buddy
• Pepto-Bismol and Tylenol – meds, they keep us happy
• Camera & cards – capture every moment! (and every cute guy)
• Snacks & drinks – I’ve seen you eat J
• Ear plugs – in case you get stuck with that really annoying person
• Cassy – so you don’t get stuck with that annoying person
• Band-aids – cause I know I’m not the only klutz
• Jacket/coat – if a guy won’t give you his
• Playing Cards – in case you get bored
• Cassy – you might want a wing (wo)man
• PJ’s – the most comfortable clothes ever
• Belt  – so you don’t look like a fool with yo pants to the ground
• Maps – I’m the map, I’m the map, and I’m the map…
• Cassy – someone to get lost with if you forget or lose the map
• Kleenex/ baby wipes – always handy
• Sunscreen & any other weather related items – you’re from Michigan, you should know that you can’t predict the weather
• Backpack, bag, etc. – obviously you are gonna need something to carry all these things in
• A picture of Cassy – in case you miss her as much as she is going to miss you

Well, next time I blog I will be in Scotland! Thanks for reading.

May The Force Be With You; Live Long and Prosper