Right now, I'm sitting in bed in a windowless room hardly bigger than a broom closet. But don't worry--I don't usually spend my days in Scotland this way. The past eight days have been filled with plenty of culture and excursions.
Some highlights:
a) Going on a tour of the city. Among the many sites the guide showed us was a graveyard where JK Rowling would stroll around to get inspiration...there was a grave for Tom Riddell himself there! I also got to see a big stone block that back in the day was a punishment site for beggars (those considered too able-bodied to be on the streets begging would get their ears nailed to it).
b) Seeing an exhibit of fashion in paintings at the City Art Centre. Seeing portraits of well-dressed humans is always pleasant.
c) Climbing up the Walter Scott Monument (although the staircases are extremely narrow so passing people going the opposite direction involved plenty of awkward maneuvering).
d) Going to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. But I have to say, I enjoyed the area outside the museum more than the museum itself. Surrounding the museum are a bunch of grass-covered hills that spiral around pools of water. The mounds were slippery from raindrops, so Antonio (my friend who I'm staying with here in Edinburgh) and I slid down them on paper bags. It was like sledding but better because there was no snow involved!
e) Seeing some bloke get himself out of a bunch of metal chains and a straight jacket in just a few minutes.
f) Touring the Edinburgh Castle. I especially liked seeing the war prisons. Prisoners would use bones from their meat rations and straw from their bedding to construct beautifully intricate jewelry boxes, which they would sell to townspeople...crazy what people can do when they have enough time on their hands. I also enjoyed the fact that while all other prisoners received 1.5 lbs of bread per day, Americans were officially regarded as pirates, so their daily ration of bread was a mere 1 lb.
g) The coffee. Europeans make it so much better. I especially liked having coffee at the Elephant Cafe, which is where JK Rowling would sit while writing the first Harry Potter books.
h) The accent. Everyone always seems incredibly pleasant, but I doubt they're actually pleasanter than anyone else--it's just that the accent itself gives them a very cheery affect. Despite how appealing it is, the accent can at times prove a bit difficult to decipher (like when a bus driver recommended I get off at West End and I thought he said "Way Stain" and experienced a good five minutes of confusion).
i) Arthur's Seat. (Hills formed by volcanoes 350 million years ago). They're in the middle of Holyrood Park, an astoundingly pretty place. Walking up Arthur's Seat was breathtaking literally and figuratively (it's super steep so by the time I got to the top, I had to lay there for quite a while to regain energy).
Lowlight (luckily it's quite outnumbered by all the highlights):
This morning I decided to be nice and keep Antonio company on his trek to work. I assumed I'd easily make it back because it seemed like we only made a few turns. But on the way back, it appears that I missed one of those turns because I kept ending up at various dead ends. I wouldn't have minded all the detours so much if it weren't for the fact that it was raining, I'd just bought a heavy bag of groceries, and I needed to use the bathroom. There were plenty of buses I could have hopped on, but I was determined to walk for some reason. However, I just kept getting myself more and more lost (which I've found is easy to do in the neighborhoods here since all the streets look exactly the same and have the same names... in this case, they were all Grange Pound, Grange Crest, Grange Terrace, etc.). Eventually I gave in and took a bus, but I didn't have the right amount of change, so I had to go around asking fellow bus-riders for change while trying not to fall over/drop my umbrella and shopping bag as the bus went around bends. So that's kind of the reason why I'm now sitting in Antonio's prison cell of a room, where I'm safe and dry, rather than roaming around like I usually do. But the city center itself is very navigable. I just don't plan on meandering around neighborhoods again. Anyways, I guess I'll go cook some of the food I bought today since I spent so much time lugging it around, after all.
Cheers, peers!
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| Walter Scott Monument |
Some highlights:
a) Going on a tour of the city. Among the many sites the guide showed us was a graveyard where JK Rowling would stroll around to get inspiration...there was a grave for Tom Riddell himself there! I also got to see a big stone block that back in the day was a punishment site for beggars (those considered too able-bodied to be on the streets begging would get their ears nailed to it).
b) Seeing an exhibit of fashion in paintings at the City Art Centre. Seeing portraits of well-dressed humans is always pleasant.
c) Climbing up the Walter Scott Monument (although the staircases are extremely narrow so passing people going the opposite direction involved plenty of awkward maneuvering).
d) Going to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. But I have to say, I enjoyed the area outside the museum more than the museum itself. Surrounding the museum are a bunch of grass-covered hills that spiral around pools of water. The mounds were slippery from raindrops, so Antonio (my friend who I'm staying with here in Edinburgh) and I slid down them on paper bags. It was like sledding but better because there was no snow involved!
e) Seeing some bloke get himself out of a bunch of metal chains and a straight jacket in just a few minutes.
f) Touring the Edinburgh Castle. I especially liked seeing the war prisons. Prisoners would use bones from their meat rations and straw from their bedding to construct beautifully intricate jewelry boxes, which they would sell to townspeople...crazy what people can do when they have enough time on their hands. I also enjoyed the fact that while all other prisoners received 1.5 lbs of bread per day, Americans were officially regarded as pirates, so their daily ration of bread was a mere 1 lb.
g) The coffee. Europeans make it so much better. I especially liked having coffee at the Elephant Cafe, which is where JK Rowling would sit while writing the first Harry Potter books.
h) The accent. Everyone always seems incredibly pleasant, but I doubt they're actually pleasanter than anyone else--it's just that the accent itself gives them a very cheery affect. Despite how appealing it is, the accent can at times prove a bit difficult to decipher (like when a bus driver recommended I get off at West End and I thought he said "Way Stain" and experienced a good five minutes of confusion).
i) Arthur's Seat. (Hills formed by volcanoes 350 million years ago). They're in the middle of Holyrood Park, an astoundingly pretty place. Walking up Arthur's Seat was breathtaking literally and figuratively (it's super steep so by the time I got to the top, I had to lay there for quite a while to regain energy).
 |
| View from Arthur's Sear |
Lowlight (luckily it's quite outnumbered by all the highlights):
This morning I decided to be nice and keep Antonio company on his trek to work. I assumed I'd easily make it back because it seemed like we only made a few turns. But on the way back, it appears that I missed one of those turns because I kept ending up at various dead ends. I wouldn't have minded all the detours so much if it weren't for the fact that it was raining, I'd just bought a heavy bag of groceries, and I needed to use the bathroom. There were plenty of buses I could have hopped on, but I was determined to walk for some reason. However, I just kept getting myself more and more lost (which I've found is easy to do in the neighborhoods here since all the streets look exactly the same and have the same names... in this case, they were all Grange Pound, Grange Crest, Grange Terrace, etc.). Eventually I gave in and took a bus, but I didn't have the right amount of change, so I had to go around asking fellow bus-riders for change while trying not to fall over/drop my umbrella and shopping bag as the bus went around bends. So that's kind of the reason why I'm now sitting in Antonio's prison cell of a room, where I'm safe and dry, rather than roaming around like I usually do. But the city center itself is very navigable. I just don't plan on meandering around neighborhoods again. Anyways, I guess I'll go cook some of the food I bought today since I spent so much time lugging it around, after all.
Cheers, peers!
