Stirling

I stayed with some friends from church for a few nights out in Stirling for some more adventures. It was nice to get out of the Edinburgh groove, as nice as the city is, and it was a great opportunity to see more of Scotland and learn some history! Upon arriving on Wednesday night, we had a great meal, and I found myself with a tower bedroom, which had a great view of the city and the castle.

The next morning I woke up early and studied for my upcoming exams for a while. I eventually arose around half past 8, and went down to find the TV on, showing some pre-Royal Wedding material. We had some breakfast - I forgot how much I love oatmeal - and then went for a great morning walk.

The area of Stirling in which they live, Bridge of Allan, is quite beautiful. Apparently it used to be a resort town, with a silver and copper mine, and Robert Louis Stevenson visited a few times with his family. A lot of the buildings around used to be hotels, so they are all rather large, but some of them have been converted into flats. There was a lawn bowling club and a tennis club right across the street (tempting, yes), and a golf club nearby, so it seems to still have that spa feel, but I guess the presence of Stirling University down the street has given it new life as well.

Right behind our street are some woods, where we went walking in the morning. On the other side of the woods (a lot of beech trees, very nice) was a farm, and we walked down the road past fields and sheep, and right back into their town. Really a nice mix of urban, country and woodland.

We got back and ended up just watching the Royal Wedding. I found myself captivated by the pageantry of it all, so even though I hadn't really been interested before, I was drawn in when it came down to it. I really don't know much about the royal family and their doings, but it was interesting to hear the announcers and see the outfits. We then had a nice large lunch, and then off to Stirling Castle.

It is a very cool castle. There are a lot of nooks and crannies open for exploration, and I love that sort of thing, so that was a plus. It had a more medieval feel than Edinburgh Castle, so I enjoyed that a lot. It also had some really nice gardens within the castle, which added some color to all the stone. One was at the back, and you come into in through a narrow walkway, so it's like it's hidden away, this secret garden. The sign there announced that it was called the Douglas Garden, because the 8th Earl of Douglas was murdered there by King James II and his body was thrown into the garden afterwards. How exciting!

Afterwards we went to the approximate site of the Battle of Bannockburn, which was pretty neat. I don't actually know much about that era of Scottish history, but I knew enough to understand its implication. There was a nice statue there of Robert the Bruce, looking very medieval.

So a day filled with the Middle Ages and a Royal Wedding. Quite satisfactory, I think!

Dundee

Last week I went to visit some friends of friends outside of Dundee overnight, which was a lot of fun. I took the train up to Dundee, and they met me at the train station. They had their grandchildren visiting, so it was really nice of them to let me visit; the kids were cute, and it was nice to be around children again after so long in the university setting.

On the drive back from Dundee to their house, they found out I was majoring in Medieval Studies, and took a short detour to see some Pictish standing stones. As it turns out, two of these stones were ones I had studied in class this semester, so it was really great to be able to see these carvings for myself; I've never really seen that kind of thing before, of course, so I loved it. It was rather amazing to stand next to these stones and imagine the care and precision that had gone into carving them so long ago.

We spent the night in, which was great for me. Nice and relaxing. The kids and I jumped on the trampoline for a while, and then we all sat down for macaroni and cheese and broccoli, probably one of my favorite meals - simple yet tasty. I finished my Ian Rankin mystery (started on Skye) in front of a cozy wood stove, and had a good night's sleep.

The next morning we took off at 9:30 and headed to Arbroath Abbey, which is in ruins - medieval of course. The ruins were spectacular; there was so much architecture still left that it was really quite dramatic. We could even go up into two towers, up and around the winding stair into high hallways far above the old church floor. It was a great place for kids. The sacristy was complete, so we had fun in there with the echoes. And there was also an abbots house, one of only a handful in Britain to still be intact today, and the only one from the Middle Ages, according to the guide in the gift shop. Arbroath was also the site of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath, which was the inspiration for the Declaration of Independence, so there was a small exhibit on that as well. There was plenty of good history around, and I was able to learn a good deal about the area both from the abbey and particularly from my hosts, for which I was grateful.

After that, we had a good lunch on the seaside, and took a very pleasant walk through a park on the shore. And then it was time to go - they dropped me off at the train station in Arbroath, where I took the train to Dundee. Once in Dundee, I found that I had a one hour layover for the train to Edinburgh, so I went across the street to see the RSS Discovery, the ship built for Sir Robert Scott for his first trip to Antarctica. There was a great exhibit on the Golden Age of Antarctic Exploration, and then of course the ship itself. I wish the age of explorers was still going on today; I would have joined immediately. As it is, I am stuck with fascination and admiration whenever I encounter these figures.

So it was another good trip!

The Road to Elgol

The following day we stayed local, spending some relaxing time at our B&B. We took a drive down the road to the ruins of a 12th century church, and met a group of elderly ladies from Glasgow who had just walked the few miles from Broadford trying to get the bus. The day was very nice, and we continued on to a little cafe, in the middle of a microscopic town, and had some lunch. The owners had just planted flowers outside the door, but the local sheep thought they were a tasty snack, so every ten minutes they would run outside and scare away the sheep, who inevitably returned as soon as the human threat was gone.

Later that day we decided to drive to Elgol, a small town a few miles down the one-lane road that ran past our B&B. The road forked once, so we took the left, as we had been told earlier that day. We stopped at a beautiful seaside view, and took some pictures of the rugged landscape across the bay before moving on. Except - the road wasn't exactly kind. It was extremely rough and had some large rocks in the middle. So we sat and thought about it for a minute, but eventually concluded that, since this was the road to Elgol, clearly people used it regularly, because they lived there. And if these bumps didn't deter the locals, then they couldn't deter us!

After a few more meters we gave up for fear of damaging the car. Instead we decided to walk up the road a little ways and see what was at the top of the hill and around the bend. The higher we got, the worse the road got, until there were literally boulders sticking out of the tracks. We couldn't fathom how the Elgol locals traversed this treacherous path. Upon reaching the top we took some mother-daughter pictures, and met a man and his son, on their way fishing, who were watching a sea eagle wheel in the distance. Because they seemed to be locals, we decided to ask them if this was in fact the road to Elgol - and they laughed, because of course it wasn't; we had somehow taken a wrong turn on a road with only one wrong turn available.

After having a laugh about our "Road to Elgol", we turned back and found the real road, which was very lovely. It was a nice evening, and we saw plenty of sheep, both in fields and on the road. We even spotted a herd of extremely hairy Scottish cattle - spotted quite clearly, because they too were in the middle of the road. We reached Elgol eventually; it was a small town with just a handful of houses, much like the "towns"on our creative loop road from the day before. The drive back was just as pleasant, and we ended the day with a little picnic lunch in the living room of our B&B. Our last day on Skye was very pleasant; it was the first day in which we had no rain, and we were able to see the island for what it really was. It's really an incredible place, and it was a blessing to be able to spend these few days here.

Skye

Our original destination had been to Dunvegan Castle, but we decided to go around the western peninsula first to see the sights, so that we could get gas in Portree. The day was a bit rainy and misty, but the drive was nice. It was quite like a moonscape, with few trees, but at least it was green. Portree was a great little town, with nice small houses of varying colors, and a lot of trees for a change. We didn't stop,but instead found ourselves once more on our favorite - the one lane road.

The rain just got worse as we went up the peninsula - we couldn't see a well-known rock formation, Old Man of Storr, because of the mist. We stopped at another rock formation, Kilt Rock, a cliff of basalt columns. Skye is known for its impressive geographical formation, left over from a rather violent volcanic origin, as well as its trove of dinosaur fossils, so, having missed the first formation, it was nice to be able to see the second, even if it was a bit difficult to see. The wind was so bad we had to repark in order to open the doors, and the rain was horizontal at this point, but it was a nice view as far as the weather allowed.

We stopped a little further on at the Staffin Museum to see dinosaur fossils, but it was closed, so we went instead to the local market for some tea and hot chocolate. Even the locals were commenting on the weather as they came in, so we went out, warmed up for a moment, and pressed on further, rather damp at this point. The sheep we passed didn't look to pleased either.

The weather was more and more intense as we came around the peninsula, but there were plenty of sheep, and very nice surroundings - high, dramatic mountains and lush green fields. Clearly it was mostly farming communities up here. There was a castle on the map, so we stopped there at the edge of the peninsula—getting out was an adventure again, and we didn't stay too long because of the wind and horizontal rain; we couldn't get all the way out to the castle anyways, as it was unstable, but it was neatly perched on the edge of a cliff, and looked dramatic against the sea behind amid all the rain.

We didn't stop again on the peninsula. At the very tip we passed a rather mournful palm tree, and further on a group of thatched huts, but who knows what they were - at that point I was just ready to be dry. We finally made it to the other side of the peninsula to the town of Uig, from which the ferry to the Western Isles leaves. The main road (two lanes at last) picked up again, and we made it back down to the central part of the island. Turning right, we headed for Dunvegan Castle, owned by the MacLeod clan.

Due to our adventures at the ruined castle, we were pretty much soaked, so it was nice to stop and have a bite to eat and some tea before entering the castle grounds itself. The castle, still in use, does not appear very medieval on the outside, except its general shape; it has been restored to suit modern standards, and there was work going on while we were there as well. The inside, however, was quite a nice little museum tracing the clan's history. Some of the guides seemed fairly new and unfamiliar, and we learned later that there had recently been a large downscaling of the staff, resulting in the loss of a number of older and more experienced employees, which is too bad. There were, however, informative sheets on each of the rooms; despite a number of grammatical errors throughout, they were quite interesting. Eventually we made our way to some rooms with glass cases filled with various artifacts from the clan's history, which was probably my favorite room. They had a ceremonial drinking horn, a large ornate cup from Ireland, a delicately decorated box from India brought back by a clan member and even a piece of carved masonry from the ruined castle we had just seen on the peninsula. Maybe the most interesting part of the exhibit, though, was a case laid out with photographs, articles and a signed guestbook documenting the queen's visit to the castle for the coming of age ceremony of the current clan chief.

After some more touring of the castle, we debated going back to Portree to visit some shops before they closed at 5, but despite the bad weather, we decided to quickly see the castle grounds first. The gardens were very beautiful, even in the rain and wind; there were many trees impressively covered with lichen, and the walled garden was quite nice as well. I imagine the grounds would be fantastic in good weather.

We made it back to Portree after this, and had some tea and a scone before heading back to our B&B, slightly drier after some time with the car radiator. A change of clothes and some time to dry out fully, and we were back out in the weather, which was clearing up by now, to find some dinner. We ate at a local hotel in Broadford, and shared fish and chips, which was very tasty - a true British meal.

Skye at last

The next morning we headed out from our B&B in Fort William. We had had some confusion with the road layout the night before, but in the morning we figured it out enough to make a quick stop nearby before beginning our final step to Skye. So far, the main issues with driving on the wrong side of the road, for both of us, have been the roundabouts and driving too close to the left side of the road. As I can't drive a rental car in the UK due to my age, all the driving is up to my mom, and she is handling it well. Even though I can't help with the driving, navigation has proved to be a challenge, because there are not always signs at the roundabouts to tell us where to go, and I feel the need to keep an eye on the left side of the road quite often in these early days. But by now my mom has gotten a feel for driving on the left side of the road, after driving so much yesterday, and I think we are both more at ease in the car.

As I said, we took one stop before leaving Fort William, to take a look at Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland. Unfortunately it was a bit of a misty morning, so we couldn't see the top, but the sight of the mountain disappearing into the clouds was still a testament to its renown. Mountains always fascinate me; it's probably because I don't live around them, but their height and size amaze me every time, so it was exciting to see at least the base of Ben Nevis. We took a little morning walk down the road in Glen Nevis, and found a mushroom carved out of a tree stump. Very creative!

Then...we drove. And drove. And drove some more. We didn't really stop anywhere, but the landscapes were very nice, so here are a few pictures to fill the gap, from the whole ride up:



















And eventually we rounded a bend and saw a castle. We decided to push on to Skye instead of stopping, however, so the castle will be discussed in a later post.

We arrived on the Isle of Skye via a large bridge, apparently a rather recent one, and made our way to our B&B, Swordale House, which was a couple of miles outside of Broadford, one of the major towns on Skye, according to the map, but it actually is quite small. The B&B was very nice, and across the road from some sheep, which was also a nice touch.

Since it was only midday, we went out to explore the island a bit. After a quick lunch in Broadford, we went down to the Sleat Peninsula to go on a loop road which would take us across the peninsula through a few small towns and back to the main road, according to the map. The owner of the B&B also recommended it, saying it was a nice road, with no drops.

As it turns out, there were no real drops, but it was the narrowest road we had been on yet. Better yet, it was single lane, with passing places every so often in the event of meeting someone coming the other way. It was actually quite a harrowing experience, but we managed to get through it by working together to make sure we stayed on the road. The map also lied about the "small towns"...according to the symbols, they were the same size as our previously visited Comrie, but in fact they were actually a few houses scattered in the middle of nowhere. Also, for the last few days my mom had been talking about how much she wanted to have to stop the car for sheep crossing the road - naturally, the first time we actually had to stop for sheep was on this road, when we were definitely not in the mood to appreciate it!

We managed to get back to the main road eventually, and found a Gaelic station on the radio which was quite nice and gave a sense of Scottishness to our whole adventure.

The Road to Skye

We set out bright and early Monday morning to pick up the car we would be renting. As it turned out, however, the rental place didn't actually have our car available...so in the end we were driven to Stirling in order to pick up a suitable replacement. The only catch was that this was the day I was meant to register for my fall classes online. So there I was, sitting in the office of the Stirling rental car place, trying to access the registration page. Unfortunately everyone else in my year was as well, so I never was able to connect. I decided I would just try at a later point, and find some internet along the way.

There had been some debate on which route we would take up to Skye, whether it be the main road, large but fast-paced, or the back roads, narrow but empty. As it was my mom's first time driving on the other side of the road, we ended up opting for a bigger road, and so we headed off at first in the direction of Perth. As as can be expected to happen with eager travelers, however, we soon turned off onto another road, which, as the map indicated, proved to be a shortcut. We ended up going through some beautiful wild country, and into a little town called Muthill, which by the way had no internet.

Never mind that - we drove straight past the ruins of a 12th century church in the middle of an old graveyard. If I can't register for classes, I might as well visit a medieval ruin, yes? We pulled over and took a little walk down to the church, which was small and quite lovely. The gravestones were all quite old as well, and one of them was identifiable as a mason's grave, with a square, compass and chisel adorning its top. I only recognized this through my studies back home, so it was nice once again to actually see something in front of me which I could only picture before.

After taking a quick look around Muthill, we set off once more. The landscape was very nice, with a lot of trees, some fields and a lot of lush greenery. We went through a series of towns, and ended up eventually in a village called Comrie. I pulled out my laptop, and, while my mom sat in a little locally run coffee shop, I set up shop in the car and managed, at last, to register for my classes. Sitting in the car in the middle of a small town in Scotland...that's one for the record's, I'm sure!

After some lunch and some conversation with the owners of the shop - from whom we learned that Comrie apparently has the highest percentage of pensioners in Scotland - it was time to move on. We soon left the little villages behind, entering into a treeless landscape of grass and scrub. Some impressive mountains loomed around us for a while, but soon the road brought us to higher ground, and we were surrounded by a moonscape.

This was Rannoch Moor, about which we had been told by one of the owners of our B&B in Edinburgh. It really was dramatic, an expanse of red and brown bordered by looming snow-capped mountains. It was a completely different world from the hospitable landscape we had just left. The road eventually curved around a mountain, leaving the moor behind, but there was more waiting beyond.

It was an excess of riches. Fresh from the moor, we were now at the top of Glen Coe, a long valley flanked with immense mountains. The sun had chosen that moment to come out, and the large clouds were illuminated beautifully, adding to the grandeur of the scene. We pulled over to admire the sight, and to take some pictures of course.

Nothing could have competed with Glen Coe at that point, so it was a relief when we saw that our destination for the night, Fort William, was only a few miles away. Fort William, upon entering, appeared to be entirely composed of B&Bs, but we soon found one to suit our fancy and headed out for dinner at a place called The Crannog, where we had some tasty fish for dinner.

Travels around Edinburgh

Bright and early Wednesday morning, my mom arrived at Edinburgh Airport for a week and a half visit. Fortunately it was a relatively nice day. After dropping our bags at our B&B on the Royal Terrace. We took it slow, being the first day of our adventures, and took a walk exploring the area around Princes Street.

The following day we went to the National Gallery in the morning. I had been there once before, but only for a short while. Since it was free, it had been a nice place to stop on a rainy day. The Gallery has a great variety of paintings, one or two from many different artists as opposed to a lot from a few. Some of the rooms were rather packed, with paintings from floor to ceiling. The first two rooms had some paintings from the National Portrait Gallery, which is closed due to renovation; it was neat to see a variety of faces from Scottish history, from kings and generals to mathematicians and musicians. There were some nice architecture paintings - I always like ones of cathedrals - and some dramatic ones towards the end.

We stopped at my dorm room and then at St Giles Cathedral afterwards, which is always a pleasurable stop. We also went to Greyfriar's Kirk and the surrounding cemetery, where we payed a visit to Voldemort's grave. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant that night, at which we had a slight mishap involving a candle and a glove, but all ended well...

On Friday, we went to the Botanic Gardens. It was another nice day, and the gardens themselves were lovely. There was a great variety of plants, and a sufficient amount were in bloom at the time. We went through the greenhouses as well, which looked quite old, and were very extensive. There was even a small aquarium, for aquatic plants, although it was somewhat smaller than we were expecting. There was also a prehistoric log in one of the courtyards. We stopped for tea and scones at the cafe in the center of the gardens, which is up on a hill and gave a very nice view of the city.

After a break back at the B&B, we headed for the castle. Unfortunately our nice sunny weather had, typically, turned a bit cloudy, but it was still clear enough to see across the city. It was nice to see the castle again, and we inevitably stopped for tea afterwards in the cafe. We had some Italian as an early dinner, and later on headed out again to try out a local comedy club. The acts we saw had some good moments, so it was a nice end to the day.

On Saturday, we went to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen's residence in Edinburgh. Once again, it was a beautiful day. The palace was quite nice, as to be expected. There was an audio tour which came with admission, which was informative and less intrusive than signs, so that was nice. The palace had some interesting history and details, and it looked like a palace still in use, which of course it is, rather than a scene set up for museum purposes. The history regarding Mary Queen of Scots in one of the towers was an interesting facet of the royal past and the palace's history, and the attached ruined abbey added a medieval flair to the picture.

Sunday after church, we went to the Museum of Modern Art for a short while; it is a very nice setting, and they had some great paintings of all sorts. There was a large earthwork landscaping thing outside with some swans, which was nice as well - it was another sunny day too.

Later that day, I headed off on my own for Glasgow to see two of my favorite bands performing together. I hadn't seen either of them before, so I was pretty excited, as both bands are from Scandinavia and don't tour America all that much. The concert was absolutely fantastic, and I had a great time!

And the following day, we headed off to the Isle of Skye...

Field Trip

As part of my Archaeology of Scotland class, we had a field trip to two sites. One, for the first half of the course, was an Iron Age hillfort, and the other, for the second half of the course, was a Roman fort.

We headed off at 10 AM for Castle Law, a hillfort outside of Edinburgh. I think everyone expected it to rain, but it was actually a beautiful morning. We took a coach bus, and gradually left the city behind, passing fields and sheep until we ended up in the driveway of a farm. The bus looked quite out of place, but as it turns out, the farm was our destination.

We made our way up a hill, past some more sheep, until we reached Castle Law. The fort was rather smaller than I had expected, but the earthen ramparts were still clearly visible, and it was a dramatic site in the sun and shadows. We had been given a sheet of questions to help us explore the site, so I set about approximating the length of the fort, the height of the walls and so forth. There was also a souterrain, which is an underground passage and chamber used for storing food, which was open to the public, and was very cool. We were also able to hike up the hill next to the fort in order to see it from above. The hilltop also provided a very nice view of the surrounding countryside, which is the first time I had really seen it from such a vantage point.


After about an hour at Castle Law, we moved on to Falkirk for lunch at the Falkirk Wheel. The Falkirk Wheel is an impressive structure built to link two canals in town. It was nice to see a more modern piece of history in between our ancient visits. There was also a swan in the lower canal, with whom I spent much of my lunch hour with.


After lunch, we took a short walk up behind the Wheel to the Antonine Wall. The Roman fort of Roughcastle is along the wall in Falkirk, and we once again spread out to explore the site. The wall was quite impressive; although it was built of turf and earth, it was still very visible in the landscape. The fort itself was also quite nice. It had originally been left open after the excavation there, but they covered it up eventually. The foundations of the buildings were still visible though. There was also a civilian settlement outside Roughcastle, the remains of which were also visible, and I took a short walk into the woods beyond where the field system had been. The weather held, and all in all it was a very nice day.



In other news, a couple of weeks later, I went to see Sonata Arctica in Glasgow. It's hard to believe it's the fifth time I've seen them live, but they were still as good as they always have been, so that was a lot of fun!

Ruins and Fish (Again)

This is a long time coming, but at last I have completed the blog for my second day trip out of Edinburgh.

After my successful adventure in St Andrews, I decided to set up another trip outside of the city. I looked online and in my guidebook for some nice local ruins which would coincide with the train line. I found some quite nearby, in Dunfermline just over the Firth of Forth - a connected abbey and palace, in a town full of history. The descriptions and pictures in my sources made the site very appealing, and there was a train station right in town. It was definitely a place worth going to, in my mind.

But upon turning the page of my book, something else caught my eye - a much more modern site, but quite suited to my tastes in a very different way, and also in close proximity to my present location. That's right - the national aquarium, Deep Sea World.

So then, what to do on Wednesday?

I'd like to say I was unanimously in favor of Dunfermline, to voraciously pursue the object of my undergraduate studies. But to be honest, I was completely torn, because the aquarium website advertised some really cool features, namely an underwater tunnel, so you can "walk" on the tank floor with the fish. I've always wanted to see something like that; I only knew they existed because I know there is one in Japan - it features in more than one date scene in those spectacularly fun and sappy Asian dramas of my high school days.

What to do, what to do...well, you can imagine my pleasure when I realized that in order to get to both locations, I would be using the same train line. So my eager self pounced on this and thought, why not do both in the same day?

So I did.

Upon arriving in Dunfermline, I had to find my way to the abbey. I knew it was west about two or three blocks, and it wasn't quite 9:30, when the site opened, so I took it slow and observed my surroundings. I had landed in a residential area, and it was nice and peaceful. Modern, though. Rounding the first bend, however, I got a first taste for the town's history - the Andrew Carnegie Museum. He was born and raised in Dunfermline before making his fortune in America. It was nice to have a taste of home, however distant in the past, and I circled the museum to see if there was any information lurking about outside.

Instead, I found a path leading into a bit of a park. I later figured out that this was the Andrew Carnegie Park, which he had gifted to the town after his success. It was a beautiful clear morning - I have really lucked out with weather on these excursions - and the trees and plants still had a touch of dew on them. There was a river as well, which made the scene very idyllic. I passed by a sign at one point, informing me that William Wallace was thought to have stopped here at one point. Looking up, I saw the palace for the first time, looming over the glen on a high bank.

I kept walking, figuring I would eventually make my way up and run into the entrance. Going through what appeared to be the abbey garden, I found some stone stairs leading to the top of the ridge. Following some signs, I discovered the ruins of a tower, inhabited by a king in the Middle Ages. Only the base was left, but, being the third indication of a long history I had come across by accident in under an hour, I was quite impressed.

I moved on up to the current church, which still looked rather old, and was very impressive. After stopping to chat with a local about his cute puppy, I went inside, and was, as usual, humbled by the beauty of the interior. Grand old churches always make an impression on me. I walked around the outside a bit, to see it from every angle, and saw that the tower, on the top, reads "King Robert the Bruce." How cool. A sign said he was buried in the church, but when I inquired as to its whereabouts in the abbey gift shop, I was told that the section of the church where his tomb was happened to be closed until April. Oh well, at least I saw the outside.

I then went into the ruined abbey and palace, which was amazing, not only because of the history (apparently even Mary Queen of Scots spent some time here!) but also because of the amount of structure still intact. I could go on to describe the buildings, but I think pictures would do better justice in this case. Click on the photos to see them at full size.





After exploring for some time, I found my way into town, and strolled the streets for a while. It's a very lovely little town, and the first one I had been to without a university, so there wasn't a studenty feel about it. The buildings were mostly old, and I walked down a couple of side streets to look at the houses as well. I found a little place called Cafe Alba, where I ate lunch - a cheese and bacon panini, very tasty. By then, however, it was 1 PM, and time to move on to my second destination of the day - North Queensferry.

North Queensferry was only about a 12 minute train ride, so I was there before I knew it. I had seen loosely where Deep Sea World was located on a map, but again I was left to my own devices to find it. Fortunately there were signs for it straight away, so there was no trouble there. On my way, I crossed under the Firth of Forth train bridge, which is an impressive piece of structure, and I spent some time admiring it from my front row perspective.

I was practically the only one in the aquarium, so it was nice to have it almost all to myself. The exhibits were fabulous; I stopped to see the seals first, because they're so cute. They seemed to have a nice enclosure, and the signs said that Deep Sea World provides shelter for injured seals during recovery, which I thought was quite nice. There were a wide number of fish, sorted by location in the world, so I spent a long time wandering through that, and managed to catch part of a fish feeding that was going on at the tidal pool tank. The fish in the Amazon exhibit were absolutely huge, I had no idea they could get that big.

I lost myself in the aquarium for some time, so that I completely forgot about the underwater tunnel, until I saw that the exhibit ended with a ramp leading down. According to the website, Deep Sea World is actually an old abandoned quarry, which was sealed up and made into an aquarium some years ago. As a result, their main tank is quite large, and that's where the tunnel runs. And let me tell you - that tunnel was amazing. Half of the walkway was regular floor, but the other half was a slow moving walkway, so that you didn't have to focus on walking while looking at fish in every direction. I went through four times, and spent the better part of an hour down there. The tunnel allowed you to be a part of the environment, and the fish were literally inches away from you on the other side of the glass. The sharks were too, which made me a little nervous at first, sharks being a rather significant fear, but soon I was captivated by their grace as they wound their way through the water.

This is a stone fish; it's very good at camouflage.

After viewing the fish for as long as I could (I left as they were closing), I hopped on the train once more to return for Edinburgh. Another day well spent!

There and Back Again, part I

This is quite a long post, as I accomplished a lot today, so be warned.

So...lately I have been thinking a bit about what it means to be in Scotland. I mean, I'm here in a country across the sea from my own, studying very cool things that I can't study at home, with access to very cool places I don't normally have access to, and hearing very nice accents every day. But I've been in the doldrums for the past couple of weeks, to be honest. I mean, Edinburgh is a great city, and I am loving it. It took me an unusually long time to adjust to life here, but I have had no complaints, and have been at least trying to take advantage of the culture. But I realized the other day that while Edinburgh is a new setting for me, it is also a city - a.k.a. it's a bit more global than the rest of Scotland probably is. By which I mean, day to day, I am not being slapped in the face by Scotland. Sure, there are cars driving on the other side of the road, the kilted bagpiper on the corner and packaged pancakes in the grocery store, but when I'm going about my daily life, I still sometimes forget that there are amazing sites nearby that I can go visit, probably because I am so used to assuming they are inaccessible from my American perspective. In the past couple of weeks, this has gotten me a bit down, and I have been feeling like I'm not taking advantage of my time in Scotland very well.

On Monday I realized I was wrong to think this, and decided that I should remedy this feeling of stagnation by taking a trip out of the city for the first time - my trip to Glasgow was not exactly a cultural event, more of an in-and-out to experience what I experience in Massachusetts every year. So on Monday, I decided that on Wednesday, today, the day I don't have classes, I would take a day trip to...St Andrews!

So I did.

At 5 AM this morning my alarm went off to start my day. I packed last night, so it was more a matter of getting to the 7:00 train. I left early because I wasn't sure if the buses were running or not, in case I had to walk; they were running, as it turned out, but the stairs to the station had apparently been closed for renovation since I last taken the train, so I had to run around and find another way in. Good thing I left early. After a bit of flailing and a trip down a sketchy set of stairs, I finally reached my destination, and was settled on the train with plenty of time to spare.

The train journey was fairly uneventful, which was good. I had brought work to do, but after about 15 minutes I realized that I had never actually seen Scotland outside of Edinburgh, because I had been asleep on the plane and had gone to Glasgow at night. After only that short amount of time the train was already in the country, and I had my first look at Scottish farmland, and even the occasional ruin. The landscape was quite lovely in the light of the dawn, and there was barely a cloud in the sky. Every day here I wake up expecting rain, but we have had a streak of sunny, almost warm weather since Saturday which held through today, for which I was grateful.

St Andrews does not have a train station, but there is one in the nearby town of Leuchars. Upon reaching the end of my line, I emerged from the train to find I was the only one on the platform. Suddenly a jovial man stuck his head out of a window in the station and bid me a very good morning in that thick Scottish brogue. I figured it was a good start to a good day. He gave me directions to the bus station, and half an hour later I was standing in St Andrews across from a very nice church.

Sadly my banana and granola bar at 6 AM had not filled me as much as I had hoped, so I vowed that I would stop at the first coffee shop I saw and get a hot drink and a breakfast pastry. Unfortunately for the local businesses, the first shop I saw was Starbucks. But strangely enough, although I never go to Starbucks in the States, it has become kind of my rock in this distant land - no matter where I am, or how foreign the territory, that familiar green circle is always right around the corner. Always. Right around the corner. It has become like a little piece of home, something familiar that I can connect with. So I stopped there and, like a hobbit, had a proper second breakfast, in the form of a hot chocolate and a croissant.

There is a part of me that is very into details. This is probably one reason why I am so drawn to archaeology, among other things. Thus it should come as no surprise that, when I travel alone, I am a rather immaculate planner. I have to know absolutely everything about a trip I am taking, whether it be to another town or the store down the street, in Northampton or in Edinburgh. I need to know where my destination is, how I'm going to get there, what time the transport leaves and arrives, how to get from point A to point B and back again, how long that will take...everything must be in order before I leave. And planning a trip is something I really enjoy, because I delight in finding out these kinds of details. With this trip to St Andrews, however, I decided to try out something completely new. I decided to test my mettle by dropping myself into this small medieval town completely cold. Of course I completely planned out my train and bus schedules and bought the tickets beforehand, but I decided against even looking at a map of the town itself. I brought the address of the tourist info place as a lifeline just in case, but essentially I was on my own to discover this town.

The plan worked marvelously. I had no agenda, because I didn't know where anything was, so I spent the first part of my day just wandering the streets, keeping track of where I was, but basically if I saw something cool and old, I just went and looked at it. I knew the castle and the cathedral didn't open until 9:30, and, again, I didn't know where they were - there were signs though - so I had time to just get a feel for St Andrews. It has a great feel. There was a nice aura about the place; it just felt friendly. The town also, with all of its buildings, had a sense of long history about it, but at the same time, with the university right in its midst, there was an air of youth with so many students about. It was an interesting combination, and it somehow worked.

I found the castle after seeing some very neat buildings, and was impressed by the ruins, as I always am. I would have gone there first, but the sign said I could get a double pass for the castle and the cathedral at the visitor center of the latter, so I wound my way there. The cathedral ruins were spectacular. I could barely tear my eyes away to get my ticket and entry to the museum and bell tower. I started in the museum, which was very nicely laid out; one part was in an underground vault area, and in another part the St Andrews Sarcophagus was on display, which I had learned about in a few lectures this semester, so it was nice to see it in person.

Sadly I learned that the castle was actually closed for renovation, but I could still gain access by going on a guided tour at 11. This gave me about an hour to wander the ruins after leaving the museum. The ruins consist of the cathedral, once the largest building and most important church in Scotland, and the attached cloister. I was so drawn in by the architecture and remains that I just had to examine every detail; as a result, I had only covered the cloister and part of the cathedral by the time the tour was scheduled to start.

The tour was quite good; there were only four of us, so the guide was able to get more personal with us and answer specific questions, as well as let us wander the castle for a little while afterward. He also used to work for the National Trust, so we had that in common. I could totally relate to the couple of stories he told about his career as a site guide - the person in your tour who knows more on the subject than you do, the first solo tour you ever give which happens to be a massive group of people...although here I was thinking that 40 was bad, and it turns out he had 250.

Anyways, the St Andrews castle was great, and although it was a bit of a wreck, that made it all the more fascinating to me. It had quite a history too, becoming the home of the bishop and later the site of a number of unpleasant deaths (including the bishop's) and even a siege at the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. There was also a rather brutal prison cell carved into solid rock below the castle with no way out. But at one point in the tour, our guide told us that in later times, it became customary to coat and paint your castle, because 1. the layer helped protect the rock, which in this case was sandstone, which is soft and prone to weathering; and 2. because pigments were extremely expensive, and using them on your house was a great way to show off your wealth. He gave an example of one castle whose great hall was recently renovated - the workers pulled some pigment remains from the original walls, analyzed it and found it to have been bright, electric yellow, in which they then proceeded to paint the restored hall. All day the image of a bright, electric yellow castle has been coming back to haunt me, and I believe that information alone has disturbed me more than the stories of gruesome deaths the castle has served witness to.

I mean seriously. Who would want a yellow castle.

After the tour, I returned to my analysis of the cathedral, and finally got through the whole thing. It really must have been a beautiful building, it is hard to believe it was purposely destroyed during the Reformation. Afterward, I went up the bell tower next to the remains, which is all that remains from the church that was there before the cathedral. Very cool. It was rather high, though, and the stairs were literally the never-ending stairs of doom. The lower section of the tower's steps are out of commission for some reason, so it starts off on this spiral metal staircase a little ways up, where you can clearly see the gap below you. But then you get onto a ledge where the normal stair picks up, so you're on the actual medieval staircase (unless it was rebuilt, I'm not sure) going straight up and around the sides of the building. But only a little way up, it bunches into a corner and goes back to a spiral staircase. Around and around and around...forever and ever and ever...it feels like you will never get to the top, because you can't see up or down, because it's a spiral and it's stone. It is also extremely narrow, so if anyone were to come the other way, there's no room to pass. Fortunately there's a handrail installed; I can't imagine climbing that in the Middle Ages with nothing to hold on to.

But the climb, though harrowing, was worth it - the view was spectacular, especially on such a clear and beautiful day; I have included a picture above. I stayed up there for a while looking at the sites and the town. On my way down, I did end up running into another visitor on her way up, and ended up going all the way to the top again because I couldn't pass her, but there were no worries. Of course her first question was "am I almost there?" At least she had someone to tell her "yes!" The stairs were an adventure going down again too, but again, thank goodness for the handrail.

I stopped to look at the stone foundations of the very first church build at St Andrews, and then it was time for lunch. I found a fish and chip shop, and treated myself to a Coke; I enjoyed my meal on a bench looking out over the ocean. It was quite scenic. I then decided to wander the town again to look at some of the shops, and this was when I found the gem of my trip, and, quite possibly, of the semester? It was that fabulous.

To be continued below...