I Lost My Heart in Scotland

"It will come to you, this love of the land. There's no gettin' away from it if you're Irish."

Gerald O'Hara in Gone with the Wind was right when he said this.  I'm Irish, and I've fallen in love with land.  The only problem is, I fell in love with what some might think is the wrong land in light of my Irish heritage, for I've fallen in love with Scotland. However, since I've never been to Ireland, I can't really be judged for this flaw, so perhaps Scotland is just Ireland's substitute for the time being. The point is though, I just spent five days in Scotland and had an absolutely incredible time. 

The trip to Scotland started out roughly.  We were to take a 7 pm train from King's Cross on Tuesday the 6th but the Hammersmith and City line on the tube decided that it didn't want to work efficiently and caused us to arrive at the train station at 7:10, just missing our train.  Trains don't give refunds or transfers, so we just burned forty pounds and had to buy whole new tickets. Due to availability, the four of us had to split up what trains we would take, and Carolyn and I purchased tickets for an 11:50 pm train that night leaving from Euston.  Thus, we picked up our bags and headed to another train station to camp out for four hours.  We found a waiting room and took up residence, only to soon be accompanied by two mice, who we not-lovingly named Winston and Wally.  We were both squealing and staring down these mice as they scampered about the room.  No one else was reacting though! Reader, the British have developed an amazing (and rather sad, honestly) stoicism.  They are completely unaware of their surroundings.  The mouse was right under a man's foot and he didn't notice or flinch, while we're across the room staring right at him and it!! It was absurd.  Finally one family noticed as well as an Asian girl around our age, and we all deserted the room for other accomodations, which turned out to be the Burger King sitting area.  11:40 finally rolled around and we boarded our train, only to be thwarted yet again by a problem in the overhead wiring, preventing our train from leaving the station until 1 am. Ironically, both the family and the Asian girl were in our train car as well! At long last, Carolyn and I settled in for our nine hour ride on a sleeper train to Edinburgh.  I slept decently (better than the St. Ives train!) and we arrived in the city around 8 am.  

We were in a slight state of delusion and after a few directional errors finally found our way to our hostel, Castle Rock, on Johnston Terrace, right off the Royal Mile.  Even in my tired state I felt a connection to the city of Edinburgh immediately.  Its stone buildings and hilly roads were charming and just the sort of thing I like.  Once at the hostel, I showered as soon as we got there and then we passed out for a good 2 1/2 hours.  Brigette and Lydia were getting into the city around 2:30 so we had nothing to rush off to. 

Carolyn and I got some shopping in while we waited for them and once they arrived we headed off to tour Edinburgh Castle.  The elevation of the castle provides a lovely view spanning to the water's edge.  

There were some neat displays in the castle of old soldiers' uniforms, the Scottish crown jewels, and lots of information on Mary Queen of Scots, whom I did a report on in fifth grade and have had a slight obsession with ever since. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise I liked Scotland so much...One thing in the castle grounds that I found particular interest in which I think you'll all appreciate is a graveyard for soldiers' dogs. 
 It was quite small and touching, and my first graveyard in Scotland! Win!

By the time we finished seeing the castle it was dark, rainy, cold, and we were starving, so we ducked into a nearby pub in hopes of food, warmth, and drink.  These hopes were dashed though, as the woman would not accept our driver's licenses as legitimate ID and then claimed we could not even be on the premises! We awkardly had to put our coats back on and head back out into the rain, now concerned we wouldn't be able to drink at all in this country, the land of scotch whisky.  
We went to another restaurant though, and had absolutely no problem, and I got my first real scotch!! ...And I didn't like it! It was a very smoky flavor and while I managed to stomach it, it just wasn't my favorite. 

 However, I did have haggis, neeps (turnips), and tatties (potatoes) for dinner, which was delicious!!! Being adventurous pays off for sure. :)   After dinner we headed off to The Jazz Bar, as recommended by my friend Katie who had studied in Edinburgh last spring.  The bartender accepted our IDs no problem.  Apparently that woman just hates Americans. 

 I got "Kind of Blue" which was some combination of Blue Curacao, vodka, orange, and pineapple juice I think...I don't quite remember, but it was really good!  A jazz band played with original music by various band members and they were quite good! It was a really fun and chill night.

Thursday morning we woke up early and headed off to meet our bus for a day trip to the Scottish Highlands, Glencoe, and Loch Ness! Our tour guide, Emily, was perfection: thick red braids sticking out of a winter snow hat with a fabulous Scottish accent.  Our bus was the most diverse group of people of which I've ever been a part: a couple from Germany, a man from Luxembourg, a woman from India, a boy from South Korea, three women from Australia, one woman from Tazmania, and three women from Russia.  We were all in for a long day, which Emily promised to be both exhausting and exhilirating.  What I wasn't expecting from the tour was the amount of history, cultural information, and lore and legends we would be told.  Emily knew her stuff.  To try and regurgitate it all would be impossible so I'll just name a few highlights:

• The city of Edinburgh is divided into two parts (side note: this reminds me of my Latin translations of Caesar - "All Gaul is divided into three parts"): old town and new town. Old town is the original area with the Royal Mile, the Castle, and the Palace, but as society changed the rich wanted to not be intermingled so closely with the poor and so the city expanded across the river and the rich developed what it known as "new town."  New Town is clearly for the upper class as the buildings are Georgian and the streets are wide.  Old Town has very narrow streets and old stone buildings.  
• This dichotomy was one inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Jekyll and Hyde."  Another inspiration is thought to be a man Deacon Brodie who was pious on the outside while simultaneously robbing people's homes.  Another inspiration is thought to be Stevenson himself, who had many conflicting personality characteristics apparently. And drugs, obviously. I didn't know Stevenson was from Edinburgh, or even Scottish, so I found this really interesting.

• The tour company is called "Rabbie's" which is named after the great Scot poet Robert "Rabbie" Burns, who is responsible for making haggis Scotland's national food because he wrote a poem about it. 

As we continued on the ride out of the city we soon passed Stirling castle of which it is said if you hold Stirling, you hold Scotland.  This is where William Wallace fought, I do believe.  Speaking of Braveheart, the namesake for that movie actually comes from a story about a Scottish King who had his friend remove his heart and take it to battle and the man threw the heart at the oncoming enemy. The heart was retrieved and is buried now somewhere in Scotland. Kind of gross, but rather inspiring.  
We stopped at the little town of Callender at the foothills of the Highlands for a quick toilet break.  I purchased a butterfly cake at a local pastry shop, which was a cupcake with two cake chunks on top as wings. It was quite delicious, and the man who served me was quite handsome. I have to say, the Scottish accent is unbelievably adorable and I saw more handsome men in five days in Scotland than the entirety of my time thus far in England.  Anyway, we soon were back on the bus and headed into the Highlands, and let me tell you, they took my breath away.  Even though "purple mountain majesty" is an American lyric, the idea applies very much.  The mountains are so rugged and majestic.  

Being an Appalachian girl and then going to flat ole' England, I've missed mountains terribly and it was wonderful to see them.  We made a few stops during the ride to get off the bus and take pictures of the landscape.  We also took an impromptu stop to take pictures of Highland cows on the side of the road, with which I now have an obsession.  Their long shaggy fur is far too cute. We learned so much on the ride about the Highlands.  Here are a few highlights:

• The Highlands were occupied by the Clans of Scotland, which were based off territory not family lines.  These clans are responsible for kilts (the outfits of their cowboy equivalent), tartan, bagpipes, and essentially everything we identify as "Scottish."  However, with shifts in royalty and industry, the population of the Highlands has dwindled and now only 1/3 of the population lives above the Highland line.
• The population of Scotland is a little over 5 million.  That's less than the population of LONDON!!! 
• 1% of Scots speak Scot, the Gallic language similar to Ireland's Gaelic.
• Scotland and Ireland used to interact and shared more culture.  The divide occurred when the Norse  came to Scotland and influenced the culture.  The mixing of Norse and Scottish genes is actually responsible for the mutation that created red hair which we associate as an Irish/Scottish characteristic.
• The highlands now are used for timber farms.  The fir trees on the mountains are not native and are only for industrial purposes.  I WANT TO WORK HERE. 
• There are no threatening wild animals in Scotland, only deer and fox and the like.  Therefore, as a hiker, one's biggest threat is the weather, which can change at any moment.  
• There's no such thing as trespassing on private property in the Highlands, so walkers and hikers can walk across land without having to worry about that. I AM PLANNING A HIKING TRIP HERE ASAP.
• Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, sits at 4, 409 feet above sea level and the summit can only be seen about 30 days in the year because of the fog.  We didn't see the mountain at all because the fog was so dense.  While Scotland's mountains are certainly not the highest, you see them directly at sea level and therefore the entire mountain, which is pretty impressive. 

 We finally made it to Loch Ness after passing through the Great Glen and the three lochs (lakes) that precede Ness.  There are 31 THOUSAND lochs in Scotland!! We went to the little town of Fort Augustus and took a boat ride on Loch Ness.  Loch Ness's water is pitch black because of the peat content.  On the boat they had sonar detectors to monitor for monster sitings. Unfortunately, the only monster we saw was a wild goat on the hillside beside the loch.  But hey, I'd never seen a wild goat before so that was pretty cool!

After the cruise we were back on the bus and headed down the Eastern side back toward Edinburgh.  It starts to get dark around 4:30 so we didn't have many more stops due to lack of sunlight but it was lovely to see nighttime in the Highlands.  Emily played us bagpipe music which included Highland Cathedral, a favorite of mine, as well as Scottish poems put to song.  I discovered that Robert Burns wrote "Red, Red, Rose" which I had sung in choir!! Scotland was getting more and more perfect. 
We made it back to the city around eight and had dinner at The Villager, where I ordered my first Martini, the Zhivago - very yummy!!  

Friday was dedicated to Edinburgh.  We had breakfast at The Elephant House Cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter.  It was delicious and a really cute interior with lots of elephants, my favorite animal! In the bathroom, people signed the walls with all sorts of messages about Harry Potter, which was quite amusing.  

After eating, we wandered the city and did some shopping.  Then we did a tour of Mary King's Close.  A "close" is the narrow street that is between the tall, medieval buildings.  At one time there were 800 or some absurd number in the city; now there are 31 because they've been built over.  This tour was an underground exploration of one.  I tell you, I'm glad I don't live back then.  The Bubonic Plague, Black Death (which apparently are different things, though I've always thought them interchangeable terms), streets filled with excrement and blood for Black Pudding...life back then does not sound pleasant. I'll take modern hygiene, please.  It was a very neat tour. 

 After that we went to St. Giles Cathedral which has some of the most stunning stained glass I've ever seen.  Then we went down the Royal Mile to see Holyrood Palace, residence of the Queen when she's there.  It's a cute palace; much quainter than Windsor or Buckingham.  The Windsor family has a private home further north in Scotland that they frequent more, though. 

 Later we did the Scotch Whisky Experience, a tour of how whisky is made with a tasting at the end! We had four choices: Speyside (tropical fruit), Lowland (citrus), Highland (vanilla), or Islay (smokey). I tried a Highland whisky, Ancnoc, which I liked much better than my failed earlier attempt.  We also saw the largest collection of unopened whisky, which was crazy, one of which included a chess set in which each piece was full of whisky! What a game that would be!  The best part was we got to keep our tasting glass, so I now have an official Whisky glass for all my future drinks. :)

Later in the evening we went on a Literary Pub Tour, which hit up four pubs and gave us some interesting literary background of the city.  I rather enjoyed it, as an English major, and we met some people from the States as well as London, which was neat.  We grabbed a Chinese dinner afterward and then turned in for the evening.  

Saturday we met up with my friend Kim who is studying in Edinburgh and we all headed to Glasgow.  Glasgow is much more post-industrial than Edinburgh.  It is more sprawled out and had lots of (expensive) shopping. 

 We went to the cathedral, which was beautiful, and saw an AMAZING graveyard on a big hill behind it. I took way too many photos. We also saw the oldest house in Glasgow.  


Otherwise we really just wandered the city and got some food, until Kim, Brigitte, and I headed off to see BON IVER in concert!!! He was AMAZING and his opener, the Staves, was fabulous too!!! It was a great time.  

We caught the last train back to Edinburgh and then Brig and I walked Kim back to her residence, which is the furthest point in Edinburgh possible it seemed.  However, the extremely long walk proved rewarding when we arrived at her apartment and looked up to the sky to see STARS!!!!! I hadn't seen stars in eight weeks and it was simply the most magical moment. Thank you, Edinburgh, for giving me that gift. 

Sunday we woke up to a beautiful clear blue sky, which is just what we needed as we were to hike Arthur's Seat that day, a large hill/mountain/thing in the city!  The climb was amazing, the view stunning, and exactly what I needed.  I have missed hiking, and looking at the Highlands without climbing them was slightly upsetting, so it was very rewarding to finally fulfill this craving.  

"What are men to rocks and mountains?" says Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, and I ask the same question every time I climb.  They are nothing. haha.  After the hike, I ran off to find St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral for mass.  After getting a little lost, I finally found it, and settled in for a Polish mass, which being Polish, I was very excited for.  I really wanted to get to Poland during my time abroad, but that won't be happening, so this was a pleasant and unexpected substitute.  I did not understand I single thing in this mass besides "Amen" and "Hallelujah" but luckily, a Catholic mass is always the same, so I knew what was going on, although all I heard around me was "dzhdzhdzhdzhdzh."  I have no idea what the readings were but it was still a fabulous experience, and a beautiful church!  I was shocked by the amount of people there.  Apparently Edinburgh has a large Polish population, which seems random, but I'll take it! After mass I found my way back to the girls, we grabbed one last meal, and we were off to the train station and headed home to London.

Scotland exceeded any expectation I ever had of it.  I was excited to go, but I had never really thought about Scotland in any way and did not expect to have the reaction to it I had.  I honest-to-goodness teared up at times just at the pure beauty of the country.  I've never felt such a connection to a place in my life, and it was a really exciting experience.  I'm so glad we had a full five days to really absorb some true Scottish culture and flavor and take in such beauty.

And thus, I leave you with these last three pictures to contemplate :)

Loch Ness Monster!!

"Sing out the silence, fill for ever and ever the emptiness."

 Thanks for reading; til next time!