Edinburgh, Scotland

Sunday, November 16th

We woke up and left the hostel around 9am again, this time going into the center of the city with a few free hours to spend. I did some shopping before heading over to the Queen’s House, also known as the Holyroodhouse, which was very interesting. We saw the room where Mary, Queen of Scots, lived, and her second husband killed a man. We also got to see the ruins of the abbey, which Felix Mendellsohn saw in the 19th century and this sparked him to write his Scottish Symphony. After this, we had a few free hours (more shopping) before catching the train back to London.
On the trip back, there were a few middle-aged Scottish women who were raising hell and cackling extremely loudly. A few of our students went back to politely ask them to keep it down as people were trying to do work and sleep, but they were both turned away with extremely rude comments. It was amazing to see how they reacted, like a bunch of 15-year old girls, even though they were about 50. I thought American’s were supposed to act like that, but we were proved wrong.


Saturday, November 15th

We woke up and got out of the hostel by 9am, got to the center of town and made our way up to the castle for a tour. It was awesome being up in the castle and looking down on the town. We got to see the Scottish Crown Jewels and other really old objects around the castle. Omar and I made our way down the Royal Mile to the Scottish Parliament Building, where our next tour took place. It’s a very modern building (built around 2004) and it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the old city surrounding it. The inside is beautiful and uses many energy-saving and eco-friendly concepts.
After that, we all climbed up the giant hill to King Arthur’s Seat, 850ft up. When we got to the top, the wind was knocking everyone over, but it was one of the most astonishing sights I have seen yet. The sun was just about to set and there were storm clouds rolling in, and it looked almost ethereal. We stayed at the top for about 20 minutes before making our way down.
Omar, Zach, Andy and myself tried making it to the top of the Royal Mile for the tour of the Scottish Whiskey Experience, but sadly the tour was closed by the time we got there. We stopped at the pub on the corner, Deacon Brodies, and I had a bowl of tomato soup to hold me over (that restaurant was really expensive). We left on a hunt for a decent pub for some haggis, but every pub was jam-packed with rugby fans watching the Ireland game. We eventually made a giant circle and came back into Deacon Brodies for their expensive haggis. This wasn’t quite as good as the previous night, probably because they didn’t give me whiskey sauce, but it was still a decent meal.
Following dinner, we made our way to a pub on Rose Street called the Thirty Seven Pub, then over to the Auld Hundred. We then decided to meet up with Bill to go to a Ceilidh (Scottish folk dancing). Bill bought everyone (some 20+ students) a round, and then we made our way into the dance hall (basically a gym). I had no idea what I was doing, but it reminded me of when we went Contra dancing in Ithaca a few years ago: some type of square/line dancing with a band made up of stringed instruments, sometimes a keyboard and a bagpipe. I basically followed Bill’s lead the entire night, as he’s been on many of these and knows everything. I was worn out after an hour straight of dancing, and we hailed a cab to make our way back to the hostel. We hung out at the hostel’s pub for a little bit, trying to play ‘snooker’ (British version of billiards). We eventually gave up and passed out.


Friday, November 14th

We arrived on-time to King’s Cross this morning and hopped on the train up to Edinburgh. The train had free Wi-Fi, and I brought my laptop in an attempt to work on my BAA paper on the 4 1/2 hour train ride. Instead, I chatted with some friends and listened to music for the whole way up. When we got to Edinburgh, we immediately hopped on a bus and went out to the hostel (Globtrotters Inn), which was a ways outside of the center of the city. Then we came back into town for a walk with Bill where he showed us Rose Street, Grass Market, the castle, the Royal Mile and the old coffee shop (now Chinese restaurant) where J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series.
Following the walk we were free for the night, so we split off into groups for dinner. We went to a pub called The Mitre, and that’s where I ate haggis for the first time. It was actually really good: it looked kinda gross, sort of like a meat loaf, but it had the consistency of sloppy joe. They served it with whiskey sauce (extremely tasty) and sides of mashed potatoes and mashed turnips (or ‘neeps and tatties’). After dinner we went on a ghost tour in the Greyfriar’s graveyard. It was really creepy, but Laura was so frightened she wouldn’t let go of my arm. We eventually hailed a cab back to the hostel and passed out.


Thursday, November 13th

Today started out with Brit Pop followed by a quick lunch and meeting with Rebecca to go over our Othello presentation for Shakespeare class on Monday. Afterwards, I ran to the National Art Library to do more research with Laura for the BAA paper. We got some really good sources, and stayed until it closed at 5:30pm. Then we went back to ICLC and I had to decide what to do: to go to the play that night for Shakespeare (Love’s Labour’s Lost) or skip the play and practice, as this was my last chance to practice before the lesson with Steven Mead on Monday. I chose the later, and I didn’t feel bad at all. It was a really great practice session, and I definitely needed it.
When the building closed at 8:30pm I went back to the flat before going out to Wetherspoon’s Pub on Baker Street with Omar. It was our last chance to try the 50 beers they had on tap for their beer fest, and we made the most of it. We got home around midnight and quickly passed out as we had to be at King’s Cross station at 8:30am.