It is my last day here in Stirling. And I feel like it should feel special, but it really doesn't. Sure, I spent the morning trying to make everything fit in my bags - which it does so yay - but I don't feel like tonight is my last night in this tiny little room. But it is, and I am both happy and sad. Happy because this bed sucks, and sad because that means I have to leave Scotland.
To wrap everything up, the International School put on a farewell Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee for some odd reason) for us. It was a lot of fun too. We all got moderately dressed up in our newly acquired tartan gear and went out to eat Scottish food and learn some Scottish dances. I'd comment more on the food, but I honestly have no idea what I actually ate last night. Though I'm pretty sure haggis was a part of it...but anyway. The dancing was a lot of fun. They had a live string group playing the music, and they taught us - or at least tried to teach us - how to do some traditional dances. To be honest, it kind of reminded me of a hoe down. We even dosey doed in part of one of the dances. We were all pretty bad and the dance floor was mass chaos, but we all had a great time trying.
There were also a couple competitions during the night. I actually won stuff! I won some shortbread for being the best dressed - using tartan that I bought. I also got runner up or second runner up or something in the small photo contest that the school put on. So yeah, I'm pretty awesome.
And that basically ended the trip. There's nothing too exciting happening here today, probably because everyone is frantically trying to fit all their stuff in a suitcase, much like I did earlier today. Now I officially have nothing left that I need to do. And that feels both awesome and scary. Awesome, because I can do whatever I want to celebrate my last day here. Scary, because I don't know what to do now that I have nothing to do. So I've just been sitting here, wondering what to do. I'll probably go say goodbye to Stirling at some point, because I have to visit the town at least once more. I could get some afternoon tea! One thing I found strange about Scotland was the lack of tea. Unlike England, Scots drink much more coffee than tea. I just find that interesting because everyone assumes all of the UK are enormous tea drinkers. But not Scotland! They just have to be different...
So yeah. There it is. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day of traveling, but I'm ready for it. Besides the whole waking up at 4 in the morning thing...but I'll get over it. Because I'll be heading home, heading towards a land of good pizza...and that's very exciting. Until next time...
Friday, August 8, 2014
Sunday, August 3, 2014
A Slight Detour...
This weekend was the last weekend I was in Scotland. Consequently, I did not spend it in Scotland. Instead, I was in Belfast, which is the capitol of Northern Ireland. Just to be clear, Northern Ireland is separate from the Republic of Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is its own thing, while Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom. I went because we had an excursion there on Friday with my International Relations class, and a few of us decided to stay the weekend.
What's important about Northern Ireland? Well in recent years, it has seen a lot of conflict. The city is basically divided into Republicans and Loyalists. The republicans want to become part of the Republic of Ireland, while the loyalists want to stay part of the UK. Over the past few decades, this has basically caused a civil war in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles. To help calm the violence, the community asked for these "peace" walls to be put in place, which divides the city into sections of republicans and loyalists. I put peace in quotations, because the walls are very unsettling. It's a strongly divided community, and it is scary to realize how real conflict still is in this part of the world. Most people would think of the UK as being very conflict-free - not Northern Ireland. In addition to the walls, each side paints murals in their individual communities that reflect events that have happened - both in Belfast and around the world - and what they believe in. It is so strange, heading through the gates - yes, military checkpoint style gates that are locked from 6pm to 6am - is like heading into a different world. Belfast is really still a divided city.
But the city center is wonderful, around where City Hall is located. Which is a beautiful building. So Friday was my class excursion, and we had a three and a half hour walking tour where a guide took us around and described the Troubles. And it is amazing how real the conflict still is. I've said this before, but the place was really unsettling. We also toured the jailhouse that day, which was pretty cool. I also got to have a drink at the oldest pub in the UK. At least, I believe it is...which sits right across the street from the most bombed hotel in the UK, the Europa Hotel. I think it has been bombed 23 times? And yes, mostly during the Troubles.
Saturday, myself and a few others were on our own. We booked a bus tour to the Giant's Causeway, which is something most people should see. It's really amazing. On the way we stopped at a few castles and castle ruins, which didn't really stand out a lot. We stopped at Carrick-a-Rede, where this rope bridge spans 30 feet, 100 feet above the sea to go to a tiny island. It's just a fun thing to do and see the view of the Northern Ireland coastline, which is just beautiful. We ate at a local distillery, called Bushmills distillery, where of course we samples some Irish whiskey. Which was pretty good, but to me tasted like every other whiskey I've had here so far. After lunch, the big moment happened...we saw Giant's Causeway. For those who don't know, Giant's Causeway is right on the coast, almost the farthest north you can get in Ireland. They are hexagonal columns of hardened lava, known as basalt rock. And it is amazing. But I could only stay for a few minutes - and I'm talking like 2 minutes max - because it was raining really, really hard. How hard? At the beginning of the tour, our bus driver told us that there is no bad weather in Ireland, even when it rains. When we got to Giant's Causeway, even he admitted the weather was absolutely awful. So not great, but I'm still glad I got to go for a bit.
And now today. I got to wander off by myself for a bit, which was a really nice break. I went to see the Titanic museum, because the Titanic was built in Belfast. So how could I not go see it? And it was completely worth the 30 minute walk I had to complete to get there. First of all, the building itself was spectacular. All metallic and silver and ship-like. And the museum itself was wonderful. There were lots of movies, interactive exhibits, and even a short ride. It might be one of the best museums I've ever been to. I even got to go out on the slipway where they constructed the Titanic. And man, was this slipway huge. It kind of put into context how massive this ship really was.
So all in all I think I enjoyed Belfast. It was a long journey though, especially since our flight back to Scotland was delayed an hour and a half. But we eventually made it. To sum it up, these are the three most important thing I learned on this short trip. One: conflict is still a major part of this world, even if we can't see it or it isn't obvious, and we should be thankful to live in a place where there isn't major conflict. Two: the story about the musicians on the Titanic is probably the saddest story ever. Not ever, but still. They even recovered the head musicians violin and violin case, and it is considered one of the most important artifacts from the Titanic wreck. And three: I must look very Irish, because as I was walking around today people stopped me on three separate occasions to ask for directions.
And that was my trip to Northern Ireland. Pretty short, but I feel like there was a lot jam packed in there. I got to experience the "backpackers mentality," as I stayed in a hostel for a while with nothing but the stuff in my backpack. It was awesome, and now I feel like my journey here, away from the states, is coming to an end. And that's alright. I've done a lot of cool stuff. It's about time I got back to the boring stuff, right? Until next time...
What's important about Northern Ireland? Well in recent years, it has seen a lot of conflict. The city is basically divided into Republicans and Loyalists. The republicans want to become part of the Republic of Ireland, while the loyalists want to stay part of the UK. Over the past few decades, this has basically caused a civil war in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles. To help calm the violence, the community asked for these "peace" walls to be put in place, which divides the city into sections of republicans and loyalists. I put peace in quotations, because the walls are very unsettling. It's a strongly divided community, and it is scary to realize how real conflict still is in this part of the world. Most people would think of the UK as being very conflict-free - not Northern Ireland. In addition to the walls, each side paints murals in their individual communities that reflect events that have happened - both in Belfast and around the world - and what they believe in. It is so strange, heading through the gates - yes, military checkpoint style gates that are locked from 6pm to 6am - is like heading into a different world. Belfast is really still a divided city.
But the city center is wonderful, around where City Hall is located. Which is a beautiful building. So Friday was my class excursion, and we had a three and a half hour walking tour where a guide took us around and described the Troubles. And it is amazing how real the conflict still is. I've said this before, but the place was really unsettling. We also toured the jailhouse that day, which was pretty cool. I also got to have a drink at the oldest pub in the UK. At least, I believe it is...which sits right across the street from the most bombed hotel in the UK, the Europa Hotel. I think it has been bombed 23 times? And yes, mostly during the Troubles.
Saturday, myself and a few others were on our own. We booked a bus tour to the Giant's Causeway, which is something most people should see. It's really amazing. On the way we stopped at a few castles and castle ruins, which didn't really stand out a lot. We stopped at Carrick-a-Rede, where this rope bridge spans 30 feet, 100 feet above the sea to go to a tiny island. It's just a fun thing to do and see the view of the Northern Ireland coastline, which is just beautiful. We ate at a local distillery, called Bushmills distillery, where of course we samples some Irish whiskey. Which was pretty good, but to me tasted like every other whiskey I've had here so far. After lunch, the big moment happened...we saw Giant's Causeway. For those who don't know, Giant's Causeway is right on the coast, almost the farthest north you can get in Ireland. They are hexagonal columns of hardened lava, known as basalt rock. And it is amazing. But I could only stay for a few minutes - and I'm talking like 2 minutes max - because it was raining really, really hard. How hard? At the beginning of the tour, our bus driver told us that there is no bad weather in Ireland, even when it rains. When we got to Giant's Causeway, even he admitted the weather was absolutely awful. So not great, but I'm still glad I got to go for a bit.
And now today. I got to wander off by myself for a bit, which was a really nice break. I went to see the Titanic museum, because the Titanic was built in Belfast. So how could I not go see it? And it was completely worth the 30 minute walk I had to complete to get there. First of all, the building itself was spectacular. All metallic and silver and ship-like. And the museum itself was wonderful. There were lots of movies, interactive exhibits, and even a short ride. It might be one of the best museums I've ever been to. I even got to go out on the slipway where they constructed the Titanic. And man, was this slipway huge. It kind of put into context how massive this ship really was.
So all in all I think I enjoyed Belfast. It was a long journey though, especially since our flight back to Scotland was delayed an hour and a half. But we eventually made it. To sum it up, these are the three most important thing I learned on this short trip. One: conflict is still a major part of this world, even if we can't see it or it isn't obvious, and we should be thankful to live in a place where there isn't major conflict. Two: the story about the musicians on the Titanic is probably the saddest story ever. Not ever, but still. They even recovered the head musicians violin and violin case, and it is considered one of the most important artifacts from the Titanic wreck. And three: I must look very Irish, because as I was walking around today people stopped me on three separate occasions to ask for directions.
And that was my trip to Northern Ireland. Pretty short, but I feel like there was a lot jam packed in there. I got to experience the "backpackers mentality," as I stayed in a hostel for a while with nothing but the stuff in my backpack. It was awesome, and now I feel like my journey here, away from the states, is coming to an end. And that's alright. I've done a lot of cool stuff. It's about time I got back to the boring stuff, right? Until next time...
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Edinburgh, Part II
Today was the all-ISS excursion to Edinburgh! So I got the chance to explore this town a little bit more, which is awesome. What did I choose to do first? See the castle of course.
It was really cool seeing this castle because it is a bit bigger than the one in Stirling. In addition to being bigger, people actually still work at this castle. I'm not entirely sure who, but I'm guessing people who work for the government get to work there. Wouldn't that be sweet? Getting to work in a castle...anyway, it was basically a small village. There were many different parts to this castle, including a Great Hall (not the one from Harry Potter, sadly), a war memorial, a prison, and the crown jewels of Scotland. There were also a few museums in this one, which were kind of fun to walk through. They were mostly war museums, so I got to see all the old weapons and uniforms and the like. Which was fairly interesting. The crown jewels, however, were slightly more interesting. They call them the "honours" of Scotland, because they were used when crowning new kings and queens I believe. It basically includes a large crown, a very, very large sword, and a stone called the Honors Stone, which is where the new kings would be crowned. The cool thing about these honours is that they were actually hidden for about a hundred years, in order to protect them from the English I think? Someone was coming for Scotland, and they wanted to keep these safe. The whereabouts of these honours was unknown for a period of time, and I'm not exactly sure how they found the chest, but they did, about 111 years later. And everything was still there, intact. I think that's a really neat thing about Scottish history.
That was basically the castle. Nothing too exciting, other than it being a sweet castle. After that we walked around for a while. We went down the entire length of the Royal Mile, which was actually kind of chaotic today. They are just kicking off the Fringe Festival, which is basically a very large art festival. So there were people everywhere, and it was very crowded. There were also many people who would come up to you and shove fliers in your face until you took them. I think I got about 15 different fliers in 5 minutes. All of which were useless to me, but try telling it to persistent artists.
After getting through the enormous crowd of people, we stopped to look at the Palace (I'm not sure who owns or lives in this palace, but it had really fancy gates) which is located on the opposite end of the Royal Mile from the castle. It was pretty from the outside, but we didn't pay to go in. We also saw the Scottish Parliament building, which is an extremely modern building. I was very surprised by how modern it was, actually. Those were basically the big ticket items of the day. Other than that we found a nice park that overlooked the city, which was beautiful from higher up. We also saw the Google street-view guy walking up and down the park, which I thought was really cool. I waved to him in case I was on the camera. You never know.
That was the day today. I am pretty tired now, but tomorrow will be much worse. I get to go on an excursion to Belfast, Northern Ireland this weekend, and we leave at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow. Which is awesome. But I'll hopefully have some awesome stories to tell after this weekend. Until next time...
It was really cool seeing this castle because it is a bit bigger than the one in Stirling. In addition to being bigger, people actually still work at this castle. I'm not entirely sure who, but I'm guessing people who work for the government get to work there. Wouldn't that be sweet? Getting to work in a castle...anyway, it was basically a small village. There were many different parts to this castle, including a Great Hall (not the one from Harry Potter, sadly), a war memorial, a prison, and the crown jewels of Scotland. There were also a few museums in this one, which were kind of fun to walk through. They were mostly war museums, so I got to see all the old weapons and uniforms and the like. Which was fairly interesting. The crown jewels, however, were slightly more interesting. They call them the "honours" of Scotland, because they were used when crowning new kings and queens I believe. It basically includes a large crown, a very, very large sword, and a stone called the Honors Stone, which is where the new kings would be crowned. The cool thing about these honours is that they were actually hidden for about a hundred years, in order to protect them from the English I think? Someone was coming for Scotland, and they wanted to keep these safe. The whereabouts of these honours was unknown for a period of time, and I'm not exactly sure how they found the chest, but they did, about 111 years later. And everything was still there, intact. I think that's a really neat thing about Scottish history.
That was basically the castle. Nothing too exciting, other than it being a sweet castle. After that we walked around for a while. We went down the entire length of the Royal Mile, which was actually kind of chaotic today. They are just kicking off the Fringe Festival, which is basically a very large art festival. So there were people everywhere, and it was very crowded. There were also many people who would come up to you and shove fliers in your face until you took them. I think I got about 15 different fliers in 5 minutes. All of which were useless to me, but try telling it to persistent artists.
After getting through the enormous crowd of people, we stopped to look at the Palace (I'm not sure who owns or lives in this palace, but it had really fancy gates) which is located on the opposite end of the Royal Mile from the castle. It was pretty from the outside, but we didn't pay to go in. We also saw the Scottish Parliament building, which is an extremely modern building. I was very surprised by how modern it was, actually. Those were basically the big ticket items of the day. Other than that we found a nice park that overlooked the city, which was beautiful from higher up. We also saw the Google street-view guy walking up and down the park, which I thought was really cool. I waved to him in case I was on the camera. You never know.
That was the day today. I am pretty tired now, but tomorrow will be much worse. I get to go on an excursion to Belfast, Northern Ireland this weekend, and we leave at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow. Which is awesome. But I'll hopefully have some awesome stories to tell after this weekend. Until next time...
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
A True Scottish Adventure
Today proved to be a very interesting, improvised day. A friend and I decided to go see the castle at Doune, which is a small village near Stirling. The reason this castle was so special? It was used as one of the best scenes (I might be a little biased now, after seeing the castle) in one of the most famous comedies - Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This very small, unassuming castle was used to film the scene with Monty Python and the French military men. How exciting.
We started the day of with this goal in mind - get to Doune. We weren't exactly sure how to do it, so we traversed down to the bus station and hopped on the next bus to Doune. Things were going pretty smoothly. We rode for a while, and the ride was supposed to be about half an hour. So after a bit, we come up on a sleepy little down, which we assume is Doune. We get off the bus, and slightly regret our decision. Since the town of Doune is supposed to be small, we should see the castle, right? Well, there was no castle. To remedy this, we venture into the only place open, which was a small post office. We asked them to politely point out the way to the castle. They looked confused for a second, then kind of chuckled. They said "Doune castle?"
We said, "Yes."
Their reply? "This isn't Doune. This is Deanston."
Well. How nice for Deanston. Fortunately, they also mentioned that Doune and Doune castle was only about a mile walk from there. Which was nice. We set about walking, and came up on Deanston distillery. Funny thing was, we had talked about going to that same distillery someday to take a tour. And we happened upon it today. So of course, we stopped to take a tour.
It was very interesting, and the whiskey tasting at the end was fun. I don't think I'm a huge fan still, but I liked it more than whatever I had in the highlands. After our brief detour, we set about looking for the castle. Part way down the main road, we saw a sign that said "Public access path, Doune Castle." Of course we took it. What could go wrong? One thing I noticed though was that Doune as a whole, smelled awful. Like a ginormous farm that never cleaned its animals. But anyway, we go down this path. We go through a gate. We pass a small farm house. We keep going, now definitely thinking we were lost again. We pause, and face the river, assuming we'd have to turn back. So we turn back around, and there is the castle. It was quite comical really.
So we found the castle. And it was a spontaneous adventure and a great time. But now I can officially say I have been lost in Scotland for a brief amount of time. Which I figured was going to happen anyway, but it took longer than I thought. Doune castle itself was not that spectacular, but now I can say I've visited it, which is always fun when you're watching movies and you've been to wherever it takes place. And that was that. Until next time...
We started the day of with this goal in mind - get to Doune. We weren't exactly sure how to do it, so we traversed down to the bus station and hopped on the next bus to Doune. Things were going pretty smoothly. We rode for a while, and the ride was supposed to be about half an hour. So after a bit, we come up on a sleepy little down, which we assume is Doune. We get off the bus, and slightly regret our decision. Since the town of Doune is supposed to be small, we should see the castle, right? Well, there was no castle. To remedy this, we venture into the only place open, which was a small post office. We asked them to politely point out the way to the castle. They looked confused for a second, then kind of chuckled. They said "Doune castle?"
We said, "Yes."
Their reply? "This isn't Doune. This is Deanston."
Well. How nice for Deanston. Fortunately, they also mentioned that Doune and Doune castle was only about a mile walk from there. Which was nice. We set about walking, and came up on Deanston distillery. Funny thing was, we had talked about going to that same distillery someday to take a tour. And we happened upon it today. So of course, we stopped to take a tour.
It was very interesting, and the whiskey tasting at the end was fun. I don't think I'm a huge fan still, but I liked it more than whatever I had in the highlands. After our brief detour, we set about looking for the castle. Part way down the main road, we saw a sign that said "Public access path, Doune Castle." Of course we took it. What could go wrong? One thing I noticed though was that Doune as a whole, smelled awful. Like a ginormous farm that never cleaned its animals. But anyway, we go down this path. We go through a gate. We pass a small farm house. We keep going, now definitely thinking we were lost again. We pause, and face the river, assuming we'd have to turn back. So we turn back around, and there is the castle. It was quite comical really.
So we found the castle. And it was a spontaneous adventure and a great time. But now I can officially say I have been lost in Scotland for a brief amount of time. Which I figured was going to happen anyway, but it took longer than I thought. Doune castle itself was not that spectacular, but now I can say I've visited it, which is always fun when you're watching movies and you've been to wherever it takes place. And that was that. Until next time...
Monday, July 28, 2014
Edinburgh, Part I
Finally getting around to making this post. Yay! A few friends and I decided to take a day trip into Edinburgh on Saturday. For those of you who don't know, that is the capitol of Scotland. And there are a lot of people there. And they walk everywhere. By everywhere, I mean everywhere that's in your way.
But besides that, Edinburgh is pretty awesome. We walked around acting lost for a while, just because it is slightly overwhelming. We found a place to sit down and eat some food, mostly to gather ourselves again. We walked down the Royal Mile, which is much like the Magnificent Mile for those of you in the Chicago area. Lots of different shops and places to eat and what not. The only difference is there is no ginormous castle at the end of the Magnificent Mile.
Sadly, we did not go into the castle. But it looks pretty sweet. The international summer school people are taking us to Edinburgh on Thursday though, so hopefully I'll get to go in. Which is going to be pretty awesome, because who doesn't like to tour castles? Beyond looking at the castle, we found this really sweet tour to go on. It is a place called Mary King's Close, which is basically an old part of the city that is now underground and used to support the new city chambers building. What happened was that after the plague, this area of town was shut down and cut off. It wasn't really deemed livable, but instead of removing all the existing structures - which would have been crazy expensive - they cut off the tops of the buildings and used the rest as the support for the city chambers. But you can still go down and see the old houses and buildings and streets that were a part of Mary King's Close. A close is essentially a very, very narrow street that turns off the main street (the Royal Mile in this case) and then angles down sharply. Very sharply. And Mary King's Close is the one you tour, mainly because it's the nicest one to still exist. At least that's what I believe.
So that was cool. But it was kinda creepy, thinking of all the people that lived in such cramped quarters, throwing all their sewage waste into the street to run down into the small loch at the bottom that also doubled as their drinking water...but at least we don't have to live in times like that any more! After that, we decided to go complete my mission of the day - finding the famous Elephant House Cafe. Again, for those who don't know, this cafe is now considered the "birthplace" of Harry Potter, because J.K. Rowling would often frequent this cafe when writing her famous series. I, of course, had to go, because of a certain person in my life who is a huuuge fan of Harry Potter. It's a lovely little place though, with good drinks and decent food that are way overpriced because they can do that to capitalize on the fact that it is kind of famous now. But of course I still ate there. Mission accomplished.
And that was my trip to Edinburgh. Nothing really exciting, but it was fun to just walk around the city for a while. There were so many street performers out as well. I saw my first bagpipe player that was a woman. I saw a man lying on a bed of nails. Lots of street musicians, adding a nice pleasant atmosphere to the walk. I also met two men, dressed as Darth Vader and a stormtrooper. The stormtrooper man actually lived in Michigan for a while, so he was extremely excited when I told him I was from Michigan. But yeah. An exciting journey! I can't wait to go back and explore some more. Until next time...
But besides that, Edinburgh is pretty awesome. We walked around acting lost for a while, just because it is slightly overwhelming. We found a place to sit down and eat some food, mostly to gather ourselves again. We walked down the Royal Mile, which is much like the Magnificent Mile for those of you in the Chicago area. Lots of different shops and places to eat and what not. The only difference is there is no ginormous castle at the end of the Magnificent Mile.
Sadly, we did not go into the castle. But it looks pretty sweet. The international summer school people are taking us to Edinburgh on Thursday though, so hopefully I'll get to go in. Which is going to be pretty awesome, because who doesn't like to tour castles? Beyond looking at the castle, we found this really sweet tour to go on. It is a place called Mary King's Close, which is basically an old part of the city that is now underground and used to support the new city chambers building. What happened was that after the plague, this area of town was shut down and cut off. It wasn't really deemed livable, but instead of removing all the existing structures - which would have been crazy expensive - they cut off the tops of the buildings and used the rest as the support for the city chambers. But you can still go down and see the old houses and buildings and streets that were a part of Mary King's Close. A close is essentially a very, very narrow street that turns off the main street (the Royal Mile in this case) and then angles down sharply. Very sharply. And Mary King's Close is the one you tour, mainly because it's the nicest one to still exist. At least that's what I believe.
So that was cool. But it was kinda creepy, thinking of all the people that lived in such cramped quarters, throwing all their sewage waste into the street to run down into the small loch at the bottom that also doubled as their drinking water...but at least we don't have to live in times like that any more! After that, we decided to go complete my mission of the day - finding the famous Elephant House Cafe. Again, for those who don't know, this cafe is now considered the "birthplace" of Harry Potter, because J.K. Rowling would often frequent this cafe when writing her famous series. I, of course, had to go, because of a certain person in my life who is a huuuge fan of Harry Potter. It's a lovely little place though, with good drinks and decent food that are way overpriced because they can do that to capitalize on the fact that it is kind of famous now. But of course I still ate there. Mission accomplished.
And that was my trip to Edinburgh. Nothing really exciting, but it was fun to just walk around the city for a while. There were so many street performers out as well. I saw my first bagpipe player that was a woman. I saw a man lying on a bed of nails. Lots of street musicians, adding a nice pleasant atmosphere to the walk. I also met two men, dressed as Darth Vader and a stormtrooper. The stormtrooper man actually lived in Michigan for a while, so he was extremely excited when I told him I was from Michigan. But yeah. An exciting journey! I can't wait to go back and explore some more. Until next time...
Friday, July 25, 2014
Fairies and Witches
Every class I am taking here - and by every class, I mean the two classes I am taking - gets to go on an excursion to someplace awesome, and today was my excursion for the class on witchcraft. We went to two local, small villages to see some sights relating to fairies and witches.
We started by heading to Aberfoyle, which is just a great name for a town associated with fairies. Or at least I think it fits well. I'm not sure why, but it's just a weird name for a weird place. The town itself was very cute though. Our first stop was visiting the grave of Robert Kirk, who was a protestant priest in the area many years ago, sometime during the 1700s. Kirk is important when talking about fairies, as he wrote and published a famous book detailing the lives of fairies. And I mean detailing. He wrote about what they looked like, where they lived, how they live, what they ate, what they did, etc. And everyone took this to be fact. They took it as a legitimate book. Robert Kirk went out to visit the fairies often, on top of a hill just outside Aberfoyle. He met them at what is now considered the "clootie" tree, or holy well (not really sure why they refer to it as a well, but whatever). He even brought people along with him who verified that he talked with the fairies.
Now this may seem weird to us, but fairies were just thought to be real. People avoided them, as they could be quite scary. It may also seem weird that a man of the church would write this book all about fairies, as it would be considered heresy. But in those days, if a person confirmed the existence of fairies, you confirmed the existence of God. How this connection was made, I don't know. But it is very strange.
The tree that Robert Kirk visited is thought to be the entrance to a Fairy Queen's palace. I guess they had more than one queen? But the sight itself was slightly unsettling. Many trees in the area are just draped with ribbons, covered in small trinkets as offering, and surrounded by pieces of paper with wishes written on them. Originally people would write wishes or even secrets and sorrows they wanted to forget on pieces of linen. The idea was that the linen would disintegrate over time, causing the wish to come true or the troubles to go away. Of course people left these here because they thought the fairies would help take care of them. Now people just seem to write wishes down - a surprising number of people want cats - or they bring trinkets of remembrance for those who have died, perhaps to ask the fairies to watch out for them. So yeah, it is kind of a creepy spot. Robert Kirk even died at this spot. His body was found near it, only dressed in a night gown. It is commonly believed that the fairies came for him, since he revealed all their secrets...
And that was Aberfoyle. Kind of interesting. Our next stop was very short, and took us to the small village of Dunning. Here we visited a memorial of sorts to a woman named Maggie Walls. This memorial is literally right off the road, but it is in the middle of fields of sheep. So a strange location. Another strange thing about this is how it is built. There is a bottom, cairn-type part that looks pretty old. The next part is a long slab of rock that looks more recently placed than the cairn. Finally, it is topped with a cement cross. The cross is fairly new, as cement has not been around long. No one knows who put the cross up there, or when, but it is strange.
More strange things about this place. There is writing on the rocks, detailing that a Maggie Walls was killed there in 1657. It is painted on, and my professor said that every few years the paint is touched up, and again, no one knows who does it. The second weird thing is the cross. Why would a cross be put on a memorial to someone who was supposedly killed because of involvement in witchcraft? I think it is a way for people to sort of apologize for what happened to those people back then, as most, if not all, of the people killed during the witchcraft craze of the 16th and 17th centuries were innocent. It is a way of trying to be forgiven, by putting the cross on there and declaring their innocence. The third and final strange thing - there are absolutely no historical records anywhere of a Maggie Walls. So who was she? Was she real? Was she just a symbol for anyone accused of being a witch and executed at this spot?
This was a very strange excursion, but it was kind of cool. It was like learning about the local history in a very strange way. But Scotland was a very hot spot during the witch craze, and many, many lives were taken during it. Mostly I think the places we visited today were creepy, but interesting...so yeah. That was that. The other weird thing about today was the weather. It reached 80 degrees today and was super sunny, which never happens here. And of course, no one believes in air conditioning here, so everywhere was super hot. There really was no relief. But I survived. I just hope it doesn't get that warm too often. This was not the weather I expected coming here at all! But whatever. Until next time...
We started by heading to Aberfoyle, which is just a great name for a town associated with fairies. Or at least I think it fits well. I'm not sure why, but it's just a weird name for a weird place. The town itself was very cute though. Our first stop was visiting the grave of Robert Kirk, who was a protestant priest in the area many years ago, sometime during the 1700s. Kirk is important when talking about fairies, as he wrote and published a famous book detailing the lives of fairies. And I mean detailing. He wrote about what they looked like, where they lived, how they live, what they ate, what they did, etc. And everyone took this to be fact. They took it as a legitimate book. Robert Kirk went out to visit the fairies often, on top of a hill just outside Aberfoyle. He met them at what is now considered the "clootie" tree, or holy well (not really sure why they refer to it as a well, but whatever). He even brought people along with him who verified that he talked with the fairies.
Now this may seem weird to us, but fairies were just thought to be real. People avoided them, as they could be quite scary. It may also seem weird that a man of the church would write this book all about fairies, as it would be considered heresy. But in those days, if a person confirmed the existence of fairies, you confirmed the existence of God. How this connection was made, I don't know. But it is very strange.
The tree that Robert Kirk visited is thought to be the entrance to a Fairy Queen's palace. I guess they had more than one queen? But the sight itself was slightly unsettling. Many trees in the area are just draped with ribbons, covered in small trinkets as offering, and surrounded by pieces of paper with wishes written on them. Originally people would write wishes or even secrets and sorrows they wanted to forget on pieces of linen. The idea was that the linen would disintegrate over time, causing the wish to come true or the troubles to go away. Of course people left these here because they thought the fairies would help take care of them. Now people just seem to write wishes down - a surprising number of people want cats - or they bring trinkets of remembrance for those who have died, perhaps to ask the fairies to watch out for them. So yeah, it is kind of a creepy spot. Robert Kirk even died at this spot. His body was found near it, only dressed in a night gown. It is commonly believed that the fairies came for him, since he revealed all their secrets...
And that was Aberfoyle. Kind of interesting. Our next stop was very short, and took us to the small village of Dunning. Here we visited a memorial of sorts to a woman named Maggie Walls. This memorial is literally right off the road, but it is in the middle of fields of sheep. So a strange location. Another strange thing about this is how it is built. There is a bottom, cairn-type part that looks pretty old. The next part is a long slab of rock that looks more recently placed than the cairn. Finally, it is topped with a cement cross. The cross is fairly new, as cement has not been around long. No one knows who put the cross up there, or when, but it is strange.
More strange things about this place. There is writing on the rocks, detailing that a Maggie Walls was killed there in 1657. It is painted on, and my professor said that every few years the paint is touched up, and again, no one knows who does it. The second weird thing is the cross. Why would a cross be put on a memorial to someone who was supposedly killed because of involvement in witchcraft? I think it is a way for people to sort of apologize for what happened to those people back then, as most, if not all, of the people killed during the witchcraft craze of the 16th and 17th centuries were innocent. It is a way of trying to be forgiven, by putting the cross on there and declaring their innocence. The third and final strange thing - there are absolutely no historical records anywhere of a Maggie Walls. So who was she? Was she real? Was she just a symbol for anyone accused of being a witch and executed at this spot?
This was a very strange excursion, but it was kind of cool. It was like learning about the local history in a very strange way. But Scotland was a very hot spot during the witch craze, and many, many lives were taken during it. Mostly I think the places we visited today were creepy, but interesting...so yeah. That was that. The other weird thing about today was the weather. It reached 80 degrees today and was super sunny, which never happens here. And of course, no one believes in air conditioning here, so everywhere was super hot. There really was no relief. But I survived. I just hope it doesn't get that warm too often. This was not the weather I expected coming here at all! But whatever. Until next time...
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Shopping in the Shopping Capitol of Scotland
Today I got to visit the lovely city of Glasgow, which is Scotland's largest city. It is also considered the shopping capitol of Scotland, so of course it is a great place to go spend a lot of money! But really.
So this city is slightly strange, in the fact that there is very old-style architecture throughout the city, but also very modern architecture. It's quite fascinating really. I decided Glasgow reminds me of a larger Chicago, minus all the very tall, modern skyscrapers. Everything was also more spread out than Chicago. You never really felt closed in. That, combined with all the outdoor bars in the middle of the streets, sets Glasgow apart from Chicago.
Glasgow seems like a really fun, interesting, and lively city. It would probably be beneficial to spend more than just a few hours there - it would take more than a few hours to find all the Starbucks in Glasgow - but it is really busy at the moment. The Commonwealth Games kicked off last night, and this year they are being held in Glasgow. For those who don't know, the Commonwealth Games are like the Olympics, but only for the commonwealth states to compete in. For those who don't know what states are the commonwealth, they are basically whoever recognizes or follows the Queen of England. So places like Scotland, England, Canada, etc. Apparently these games are a really big deal for everyone here, so Glasgow was filled with people. I was sitting in a nice little square, listening to the seemingly ever-present bagpipes in the background, and I thought that there was about the same number of people in that one square as the population of Mount Pleasant, minus the college students. And Glasgow is huge. Not as huge as London though, with it's approximately 8 million people. But it is still a pretty big place.
Today was a very lovely day. It was extremely warm, by Scotland's standards, so it was around 77 degrees I believe. And sunny. Very, very sunny. It was a great day to just walk around a city. I might go back to Glasgow, but the only things to do there are shop and go to art museums. I already did the shopping, and I don't have a great desire to go to art museums. I would much rather go to Edinburgh, the capitol of Scotland, where there is always lots to see and lots to do. But we will see about Edinburgh this weekend. Until next time...
So this city is slightly strange, in the fact that there is very old-style architecture throughout the city, but also very modern architecture. It's quite fascinating really. I decided Glasgow reminds me of a larger Chicago, minus all the very tall, modern skyscrapers. Everything was also more spread out than Chicago. You never really felt closed in. That, combined with all the outdoor bars in the middle of the streets, sets Glasgow apart from Chicago.
Glasgow seems like a really fun, interesting, and lively city. It would probably be beneficial to spend more than just a few hours there - it would take more than a few hours to find all the Starbucks in Glasgow - but it is really busy at the moment. The Commonwealth Games kicked off last night, and this year they are being held in Glasgow. For those who don't know, the Commonwealth Games are like the Olympics, but only for the commonwealth states to compete in. For those who don't know what states are the commonwealth, they are basically whoever recognizes or follows the Queen of England. So places like Scotland, England, Canada, etc. Apparently these games are a really big deal for everyone here, so Glasgow was filled with people. I was sitting in a nice little square, listening to the seemingly ever-present bagpipes in the background, and I thought that there was about the same number of people in that one square as the population of Mount Pleasant, minus the college students. And Glasgow is huge. Not as huge as London though, with it's approximately 8 million people. But it is still a pretty big place.
Today was a very lovely day. It was extremely warm, by Scotland's standards, so it was around 77 degrees I believe. And sunny. Very, very sunny. It was a great day to just walk around a city. I might go back to Glasgow, but the only things to do there are shop and go to art museums. I already did the shopping, and I don't have a great desire to go to art museums. I would much rather go to Edinburgh, the capitol of Scotland, where there is always lots to see and lots to do. But we will see about Edinburgh this weekend. Until next time...
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