Landscapes and Costumes

So I woke myself up early this morning to go out in to a new day in Edinburgh! I had a hard time getting out of bed, but I was still able to make it out by 9:45. First stop: fooooood. I stopped by a coffee shop recomended to me by Elaine. I ordered a Cafe Latte, 2 meat rolls (in my defense- they were cheap and I knew I needed a big breakfast since I wasn't planning on getting lunch), and took out my Woolf novel. A group of Englishmen came in and sat down next to me and were kinda loud, so I wasn't really able to get much reading done. But I got my nutrition, and was off for the day!

First stop: Arthur's Seat. Something I've kinda learned about myself from the past year. I actually enjoy hiking. This may be strange remembering the 'Milkshake Incident' when I was younger, but I do enjoy it. Not a huge fan of walking through parks, but hiking, I do kinda like. So I was really excited when I first got there. It was probably about a 2 mile walk already down there, and on top of it I accidentally left my water bottle back at the flat, so I decided not too push myself too hard. Plus, it's such a massive Park that I would have to spend an entire day just trying to hike it! Which of course I would love to do sometime. Next trip to Scotland... Once I got to the top it was absolutely gorgeous! You could see the entire city. I decided to sit down on the cliffs and sit down and read some more Woolf. I sat there for about half an hour just enjoying the view and the weather. Surprisingly enough, the weather has been amazing here this past weekend, so it was quite nice to sit there for a bit.

I then walked the Royal Mile back up to where all the action from the Fringe was taking place. There were a lot of street performances going on to promote all of the different shows going on these weeks. They were only about 20 minutes long, but they were for free, so it was a really nice deal! And there was a lot of costumes too. People were there passing out flyers in their clothes from their performances or just wild and crazy costumes to get people's attention. There were many interesting ways of passing out flyers too, including laying down on the ground and others.

But the best things were the street performances, which I saw a lot of too. Once again, free! A lot of them were your typical street performances- comedy, fire, painful things. What I wasn't expecting though, was being part of it myself. It just so happened that I was right at the edge for one of the performances, and the guy asked me to inspect the glass bottle he was going to break and to join the rest of the glass that he was going to lay on. Well, he then pulled me out of the crowd and told me that I was going to be helping him for the rest of the show along with another man from Liverpool. And of course I got teased, many times. Such as with this...
(He had asked me my name once and forgotten it, so I reminded him again)
SP (Street Performer): Or do you want Kissindra to do the trick?
Me: Kendra, it's Kendra!
SP: Oh of course, but what difference does it really make! Or do you want Kendra from- now, where are you from?
Me: Texas
SP: Oh an American, that explains a lot!

And then of course I was pointed out for being a tourist and much more. The crowd ended up wanting to watch the other guy stand on his chest while he laid on the glass, but I still ended up helping by keeping the guy steady. I really wish that I could've had photos of it. But since I was alone, I had nobody to take photos for me. But, I can offically say that I've traveled to another country and had a lot of strangers who I'll never see again take photos of me to show everybody they know! I spent about 3.5 hours walking around the Royal Mile area, and never got bored. There was always something to watch. I also did some shopping for treats, got something for myself and mom and dad- so start looking forward to me coming home!

On my way back home, I stopped by this art exhibit I saw a sign for. It was art done by Scottish prison inmates. It was actually really powerful to see some of the stuff there. I was able to sneak some photos of it, so I'll be able to show y'all. The art also included poetry, which was really cool to read. I'm glad that I stumbled across the sign and decided to walk in.

After 7 hours out for the day (and lots accomplished) I headed back to the apartment. I went down to the little corner restaurant and got dinner, nothing really special, and I'm on my way back to Oxford tomorrow. I'll probably go ahead and leave fairly early in the day tomorrow so I can make dinner at school.

So I'm not sure if I'll really do anything in Edinburgh tomorrow, since it'll be a Sunday and most likely nothing will be open. But if not, I had an amazing time. Out of all the countries that I've visited this trip (which is 4: Scotland, England, Ireland, and France), Scotland is probably the country I would want to come back and visit the most. I would love to come back and actually see the Tattoo or some performances from the Fringe. But, mostly, just to visit more places. I would love to do more of Edinburgh, and then also visit the Highlands and Loch Ness. Although I would love to go back to England- but just do something other than the London thing; maybe Liverpool or Manchester or Nottingham.

Oh well, I really can just say that I am extremely lucky to have this opportunity. I wish all of y'all could've been here with me to enjoy it. 1 week and I'll be home, so sad.

I'll try to post one later with a bunch of photos, once I'm on my own computer.

Will blog later!

Haggis, and Kilts, and Bagpipes, Oh My!

So I'm blogging from Scotland! Cheers!

It was an interesting, and a little nerve-wracking, getting in. I was a little scared something was going to go wrong, and well, I was right. I was going Oxford to Wolverhampton to Lancaster to Edinburgh. I had contacted Elaine (my contact in Edinburgh who was there to pick me up from the station) that I would be coming in at 7:30 according to my specific plan. I was mostly nervous that I was going to accidentally miss one of my connections because they were only about 10 minutes. Well, I got off at Wolverhampton to see that my next train was running 20 minutes late. I had only 7 minutes in between that train and my one after it. Yeah... I missed it of course. So I had a longer wait in Lancaster (and got some nice photos of the train station) and had to wait for the next train, which runs hourly. Not only was I running an hour late to Edinburgh, but I don't have an international phone plane on my cell phone, so I had no way of contacting anybody that I was late. So I had a nerve-wracking travel from Lancaster to Edinburgh. Thank goodness that I was right that not very many people would be walking around the train station in burnt orange 'Texas' hoodies, so it was very easy for Elaine to know who I was. And yes, she was thankfully still waiting there for me! So it was an experience... but I'm here and that is the most important thing!

Last night after I got in, Elaine and I got dinner and basically just hung out around her flat talking and such. I learned some more stuff about Scotland. We discussed accents, traveling, and such. Fun fact for the day: In Scotland, it is traditional for 21st (sometimes 18th) birthday of a young man, his parents will buy him a kilt and the rest of his family will buy other parts of the outfit to make it complete. I find it funny that the 21st birthday is almost more important over here than it is in the US. In England, when somebody turns 21, their parents throw them a HUGE party, traditionally spending about 3 grand. It's suppose to be a sign of them finally becoming independent from their parents. Cool, huh? Another funny thing I learned. I had mentioned that in Ireland, people could tell without us speaking that we were Americans and I was wondering how they could do it. Elaine told me that even though she wouldn't be able to say precisely American, she knew I wasn't Scottish because of how tan I was! I wouldn't have thought about that...

Ok- back to Scotland. This morning we woke up and got brunch. We went down to this nice little organic/green Cafe, which was pretty nice! The night before I had been talking Haggis with Elaine, and so she decided to order a side of it, and her friend got the veggie version, and sure enough I tried it! Be proud, ok! I never thought that I would ever eat it... I myself ordered French Toast with maple syrup and bacon. Much to my surprise, it was American bacon and it was suppose to be eaten on top of the toast! It was absolutely delicious, I loved it. We then wandered around town, and I was shown Princes Street and the Royal Mile, which are the 2 biggest places in Edinburgh. There are tourists everywhere here for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo Festival (starting this weekend) and the Fringe Festival (which started last weekend)- so for once I don't feel too odd being a tourist.

At the end of the Royal Mile is the Edinburgh Castle, so Elaine and I parted there. She left for Wales today for a frisbee tournament, so I'm alone for the rest of the weekend. I love castles, and have been to a few by now, and I had a blast at the Edinburgh one. It seemed very... Scottish. It was really rustic off of a rocky cliff with a lot of grass. Exactly how I think of Scotland. The view up from there was absolutely gorgeous, and one of my favorite photos that I got was of the back of a cannon where you can see the view peaking through where the cannon sticks out. At the castle I went to the Scottish War Memorial, the Scottish War Museum, the room where Queen Mary gave birth to King James, saw the Scottish crown jewels, saw where the crown jewels were buried during WWII, and where King James was almost murdered- but then killed his suspected murderers instead. I actually loved looking at all the outfits at the Scottish War Museum, and the bagpipes too. Unfortunately I couldn't check out the chapel, because there was a wedding going on! What a great place to have one. Plus great place to take photos!

I walked out of the castle back to the Royal Mile, where all of the action for the Fringe Festival is. There are a lot of people passing out flyers for shows going on with the festival for comedy, music, and theater. There were even people passing out 'Free Hugs'... along with flyers. They would also dress up really crazy like; such as Snow White, polar bears, underlings, etc. There were also a lot of side shows on the street to. I stopped to see the most pierced woman in the world (creeeeeeeeepy), a dance done by a Korean dance group (which was actually more comical than anything- it was very oddly coreographed, but they didn't commit to it), and my favorite which was these 2 Frenchmen who did a comedy/tricks act. I also saw a man in a kilt playing bagpipes, so my trip to Scotland has offically been complete. A lot of people who live on that street would just watch everything out of the windows. There are a few flyers which looked like interesting shows, such as this one with Australian women dressing up as Disney princesses for a satirical performance on gender roles, but I doubt I'll check them out. I'm a little bit nervous walking around a strange city in a strange country at night alone. Elaine's apartment isn't in the middle of the city either, it's in it's own neighborhood too. So next time I come to the Fringe Festival...

Oh yeah! I also stopped by the Whisky Shop, located right outside of the castle, to just see what was there. The actual tour was 11 pounds, so I decided not to do it, but I did go in and see all of the Whisky they had. Over 300 kinds. The castle also had a whisky taste testing set up, but I decided against it. Still does not seem appealing.

Tomorrow I'm planning on waking up early and going to Arthur's Seat. It's a hill in Edinburgh where there's a great view of the entire town. After that I think I'm just going to hang out on the Royal Mile for the rest of the day. Watch some street performances, collect flyers, buy some touristy things, and who knows what else. I'll find something to do, I'm sure. I'm still debating on going out to watch the fireworks after the Tattoo tomorrow night. I would love to see it, but once again, walking home alone. Not quite sure if I'm in to that.

Well, I've taken over 100 photos so far. And I'm in none of them. So hopefully even more will be taken tomorrow!

Love y'all! Keep Followin'!

A Quick One Before I'm Off!

Ok- so I'm leaving for Scotland in a couple of hours, but I still have breakfast and class before then. But I thought I'd try to write a quick little blog to tell you what I've done these past 3 days!

Monday was a big school day. I didn't do quite as much schoolwork in Ireland as I was hoping I would, so I had to catch up a bit. Mostly reading  Mrs. Dalloway by Woolf and Winter's Tale by Shakespeare. But, the best part of the day was, having the 'Brasenose Boys' perform for us the play within a play of A Midsummer Night's Dream. We had been watching them rehearse for about a week now, and it was absolutely hilarious. I was actually really impressed with their line memorization, although they were pretty terrible actors. And I highly doubt their interpretation was the one Shakespeare had intended on...

Tuesday was a field-trip day. The Jane Austen class went down to Lyme Regis where Persuasion took place, and knowing me, I'm never one to turn down an excursion, although many non-Austen people did. And looking back, I probably should have too... We were told it was suppose to be a 2.5 hour drive down; but our driver apparently really like scenic roots, so ours actually ended up being 4.5 hours. When we got to the popular seaside resort, it was pouring. I'm not kidding you. Pouring. Cats and dogs. I put the hood of my rain jacket up and tried to bear it, and I did for about 30 minutes, and then I stopped at a coffee shop with one of the girls and hung out there while everybody else went out to walk on the Cobb. My jeans were SOAKED! They were getting heavy and started sticking to my legs (it didn't help that they were skinny jeans already) and so Christina and I decided to see if I could pick up a souvenir sweat pants or something. I actually was able to stop by the 'Rainbow Supermarket' which was looked basically like a surf shop, and found some leggings on sale for 4 pounds. Let me just say- best purchase since I've gotten here! I got back to the bus, changed, and everybody was jealous! I actually started a mini-trend. About 4 other girls quickly ran down to the shop to pick up some leggings for themselves too, so we were all able to be dry when we got home!

Yesterday we had class, but we went to Warwick Castle afterwards. I had been 7 years ago, but I definitely did not remember it being as cheesy and young as it was now... It really did look like some sort of Medieval version of Disney World. But I still had fun! I even got to watch a little video about battle pointing out the 2 houses of Lancaster and York. Woot woot! Lets go Red Roses! After we got done with the cheesiness we were off to Stratford once more to see them perform Winter's Tale. I have to admit, this was my favorite play that the Royal Shakespeare Company has performed, even rivaling it to the Globe Theater. It was very well done. I loved how they used the props and the scenery and how they used the motifs of books and pages throughout the performance. I know, it's hard to explain, but it was pretty awesome. Plus, I absolutely love how they did the most famous stage direction in Shakespeare history: 'Exit Pursued by Bear.' I'm really excited about going to class and discussing the play!

So I'm all packed up and about ready to leave for Scotland. It'll be about a 5.5 hour travel with 2 quick train switches (including one in Lancaster!) and then I'll finally be there. I'm going to be spending most of my time there alone, so it'll be interesting. But I do feel as if I'm a fairly independent person, so I'm pretty sure I'll do well. My main concern is just getting on all my trains. But I have everything written down, so I should do fine. Plus, I have somebody meeting up with me right as soon as I get off, so I'm very lucky about that. I have no real plans for Edinburgh, just experiencing the city as a whole. I'm sure I'll just end up wandering and finding myself in some sort of (safe) adventure.

And yes, I am determined to get a picture of me next to at least 1 person wearing a kilt.

Catch y'all on the flip side!