Finally, Scotland! (Day 1)

Alright, so I'm going to try to do this as quick as possible, so excuse any and all errors and non sequiturs that sneak in.

Starting from where I left off with my last post. We got up in the morning on Friday and threw all our stuff in our bags, then headed out for the train station only a short distance away. An inexperienced hostel-stayer-inner and a poor packer in general, I had not thought about things such as a towel, soap, shampoo or flip flops. So I had skipped the shower thing, hoping we were staying someplace later that might have any or all of those things. It was alright because everyone else skipped showers too because it was incredibly early in the morning (for college students).

We were met at King's Cross by the two Arcadia guides going on the trip. They checked our names off their list, and that was essentially the last we heard from them for the rest of the trip. They literally did absolutely nothing, and probably got payed to do it. The train ride in was relatively uneventful. I sat with Briana and her friend Nicole who goes to school in Swansea (they're friends because they both actually attend Arcadia University in the US). The group had a group ticket and essentially had a whole car of the train to itself. The ride took 4 hours? Approximately. We were met on the platform in Edinburgh as we got off the train by Michael, a Scotsman in kilt and raincoat. He had two features everyone noticed first... his long relatively wild (but not so wild it that it looked unkempt) hair, and his calves the size of my torso. He started leading everyone up the big hill in Edinburgh towards our hostel which was actually right next to the cliff on which Edinburgh Castle sits (the last picture was actually taken from the door of the hostel). On the way there I got my first taste of what my fellow Arcadia tourees were like when one of them stopped all 50 people to ask if he could run back to the train to get the book he left behind. The answer dear friend, is: if you can find the hostel on your own!

Upon arriving at the hostel they first let everyone into their rooms, and then let us go find lunch. At the room divide was the first time I realized how few men there were. There were exactly 8 guys, which worked well in our hostels since they had 8 person rooms. It did not work out in the sense that only one of the other guys was of the right personality for me to bear spending time with, two were alright but just interested in different activities, and the other 4 were a combination of the stupidest and least friendly people I've ever stumbled upon. This was balanced by about 40 girls. A little lopsided one might say.

After grabbing a quick and non-memorable lunch we took off on a walking tour of the old city of Edinburgh. It actually covered very little area, but took a pretty long time. Michael, was really interesting, and told us the stories surrounding all of the various pub names, which was pretty cool. For instance, Greyfriars Bobby's was a pub named after a dog in the 1800s. He apparently belonged to a policeman who died, making him homeless. Always loyal he would sleep at night on his master's grave in the Greyfriars graveyard, and during the day he made himself into a favorite with kids and lived by receiving meals from a local restaurant owner. He was ordered to be killed by the city however, because law dictated that stray animals were to be killed. Everyone protested to the city, which eventually agreed to do something to save Bobby. They decided that since the Greyfriars graveyard belonged to the city, and Bobby slept there, they could have the city formally adopt Bobby, thereby technically giving him a home. A cute little story, and almost all the pubs have some sort of story like that attached.

It rained through the entire walking tour, making it a somewhat miserable experience physically, but interesting nonetheless. Everything was nearly ruined at the end by one of the other students, who had the gall and empty-headedness to approach Michael, a Scotsman in a kilt, and ask him if he knew where the nearest McDonald's was (she was asking seriously). He looked her in the eye and responded "no, and if I did I wouldn't tell you." She then went on to explain that she has this tradition of going and eating at a McDonald's in every city she goes to. Michael again looked her in the eye and responded, "that's pretty sad." I was dumbfounded by the question. On the tour we had heard that Edinburgh has over 850 pubs (possibly an exaggeration after getting to Michael and his excessive proclamations of Scottish price), and here is our American representative actively seeking out a McDonald's! Grrrrrr.

After the tour we were free for the night. I wound up hooking up with a large gaggle of girls, and the only guy I could stand, Raphael, and we toured around a little, checking out St. Giles Cathedral, as well as the Edinburgh court building, which was interesting. It had a big Great Hall through which there were lawyers actually pacing and debating legal stuff with one another. Kinda nifty. From there it was resolved that everyone wanted to go find this elephant cafe thing, which is apparently where JK Rowling dreamed up and first wrote about Harry Potter. I was game to go along, but we wound up stopping for the girls in a bunch of shops (though I did pick up some souvenirs for people while there), and generally taking forever. By this point Raphael had bailed, and I took off on my own as well. I took the opportunity, as it grew dark to catch a couple more scenic shots of Edinburgh Castle, and to check out the Greyfriars cemetery. It was too dark by that point to see much though, so I headed back to the hostel.

As luck would have it, I stumbled upon two girls, Charlotte and Kelly, as I walked into the hostel. They both attend King's in the city of London, and I had met Charlotte during my homestay in Swansea. They're both incredibly nice, and I made plans to meet them with Raphael to go to dinner at a pub about an hour later. I filled that hour by renting a towel for 20 pence from the hostel, and taking a soapless, shampooless, flipflopless shower. It was something less than cleansing, but it helped a little.

At the pub that night we had a pretty good time. There were all sorts of really interesting people out, even at 7:00. For instance, we saw an oompa-loompa. It was really a little person that had painted himself orange, put on a green wig and white suspenders, and then handcuffed himself to some other dude. We have no idea why, but it was interesting to watch. There was also a very interesting grandmother, probably in her early 70s, who had clearly started drinking early, and who seemed to be attempting to pick up 20-something guys, who were less than interested in her dancing. Weird.

From there we took off to another pub down the street, the White Hart, that Charlotte and Kelly said was supposed to have live music at 9. We got there about a quarter till and asked, because it was a tiny place that was absolutely packed and there appeared to be no room for any musicians. They said there would be music, but not until 9:30. So we departed again and went to yet another pub, also on the same street as the other two. We sat down there, ordered some desert and relaxed, before returning to the White Hart for the music. The White Hart was now even more crowded, and there was still no sign of the musicians. Finally, some guy with a guitar comes out, probably at around 10:15, and starts playing covers of things like the Beatles and the Killers. It was fun, and he was good, but it was really crowded and after awhile we'd just had enough. We had kinda been hoping for more authentically Scottish music. We left Raphael behind, however, because he had found another girl from our trip that he had started chatting with ;-)

So now Kelly, Charlotte and I began the search for more authentic music (or should I say Kelly did, because she did all the work). She began just asking random bouncers where we could go to find a pub with good Scottish music. During our travels we had a good serenade from a group of drunk Scottish teens across the street who were stumbling down the street singing "It's time to go home! It's time to go home! F&@# off (gibberish), it's time to go home!" repeatedly. Finally we wound up at this place called the Sandy Bells. It was a cute little pub with far fewer tourist types. At the back sat a collection of musicians with various instruments like violins, weird guitar-like things, an oboe, etc. They weren't really a group, and they didn't really have anything arranged, but they would just play together randomly. It was really nice; one of my favorite experiences. After enjoying that for awhile it was getting late, so we took off back for the hostel and went to bed.

End day one. The next two were far busier!


On a side note, just in an attempt to keep this current, I went to Portobello Rd. today. I was inspired to do so when I read it in my friend Jenn's travel book a few weeks ago, and realized that it was a place that existed in reality as well as in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. It made for a really long day in a lot of big crowds, but we had a lot of fun. It was really like walking through an endless museum at which you could touch and look at all of the items on display at will. The highlight of the day was the exceptional salesman we stumbled across at one stall. My friend Leah was picking up various items and looking at them (as most Portobello Rd. stalls simply throw their merchandise in heaps and let the customer sort it out). The guy behind the counter brusquely asks with a thick accent "you gotta touch everything?" She responds cautiously, "no... I guess not," and turns to leave. Determined to ensure we never give him any business he adds as we walk away "good, well piss of 'den. F#@$ing students." His comments pretty much summarize the impression I get from the English as a society. The Welsh and the Scots are infinitely nicer, and I can now understand why they hate the English.

Scotland... Almost.

As you know from the taste I gave you when I got back, I spent last weekend in Scotland. It was a tour that I purchased through Arcadia before arriving, and as such it was with 50 American students studying at various UK universities, all from random US universities, studying abroad through Arcadia like me. Three of the other people studying at Royal Holloway through Arcadia with me also went on the trip: Audrey, Jenn and Briana.

The Arcadia plan was to leave for Edinburgh by train via King's Cross at 8 am on Friday. Of course I had two classes on Friday, even though I had no other classes the rest of the week (the history department had a 'reading week' and canceled all classes). Also, it would have been a real hassle to leave from Egham trying to make it to King's Cross in London by 8 am. Instead, the four of us from Royal Holloway headed into the city on Thursday afternoon, then stayed the night at a hostel near the train station (Arcadia had actually given us vouchers for the place back in January, so it was free!).

So Thursday night began the journey. Jenn and Audrey split off from Briana and I early on, so it was just us two to figure out what to do in London on a Thursday night when we knew we had to get up around 6:30 the next morning. We decided to tackle dinner first, and set off looking for a pub. The first one we walked into was absolutely packed. Not a seat in the house. Figuring there had to be other places we continued our search. In that search we stumbled across another place. Packed. As we walked we came to a location where you could stand in the doorway of one McDonald's and look at the other McDonald's no more than 60 yards away. I realize they were separated by a bizarre intersection comprising many lanes of traffic, but I couldn't help but think Lewis Black would have something to say about a McDonald's across the street from a McDonald's. Kept walking. Found another pub... too expensive.

By now we're starting to get discouraged. As we walk down the street, headed back to the original pub to see if a seat has opened up we pass a group of people on a street corner waiting to cross. As we turn our backs to them we hear the scream of a wild banshee and turn to see a crazed rotund woman in a skirt barreling towards us, eyes wild, arms flying. Needless to say we are mildly confused. As she nears us she valiantly attempts a flying ninja kick. The kick fell short. I don't know if the near-miss was the intentional product of the fact that she did not really want to kick us, or if it was the unexpected result of the force of gravity on her large frame. Either way, I'm glad the kick was short. For some reason neither Briana nor I flinched; it was over in a matter of seconds and we were back to walking, dazed by the impact of the lunacy that had just targeted us. This is why I can't live in a city.

Upon arrival at the original pub we were relieved to find... just kidding, it was full still. Now we're really hungry and head to this pub that looked from the outside like it was absolutely packed. Nevertheless, upon entry it had seats available, and reasonable prices so we sat. Grateful to be sitting we took our time choosing off the menu, and then Briana went to order, leaving me to jealously guard our table. She returned moments later with the news that somehow the pub had run out of the food necessary to make 2/3 of the items on their menu. Essentially we could have the most expensive food they offered, or we could leave.

Outside we were now really discouraged, and were about to settle for buying some snacks at a "Food and Wine" store and moving on to our next destination. As we wandered we spotted a faint glow down a side street we passed maybe 4 or 5 times during our search that night. So we went to see. The glow was emanating from a little pub called the Boot. We looked at the food prices. Incredibly reasonable (for Britain, especially London). We knew that as soon as we opened the door we would be met by a massive crowd of people, filling the tables and crowding the bar, just like all the other pubs. We braced ourselves and opened the door. A couple groups of people were scattered around half the tables laughing and enjoying a meal or a pint, and the bartender was calmly cleaning the bar, at which nobody was waiting. There was a man, presumably the owner, in the back corner of the pub with papers scattered about him, working. A dog lay silently and obediently at his feet, untethered and undisturbed by the incoming strangers. We ordered our food and sat down at a table. Briana and I were taken aback. If we walked a city block in any direction from the Boot we would have found 2 or 3 pubs all crowded and loud, and possibly without food apparently. Yet here was this idyllic little pub in the middle of it all, almost tauntingly perfect. It was straight out of a moving... the dog in the corner just completed it!

And that is the story of my favorite pub in London.

From there we hopped on the tube and took off for the Westminster stop to see the Houses of Parliament/Big Ben and the Eye at night. I've seen them multiple times now, and at night once (during my first few days here, even), but I never had my camera. So it was time to play tourist. See pictures above!

That took a lot longer than I expected... you can see why I say writing this is going to be an epic. So that was Thursday night; the rest was occupied with sleeping. The next three days were Scotland. Which will come later, because I have to go make dinner.

A Taste of the Scottish Highlands

Best part of my trip. Another epic post to come when I have the time to write it.

St. George's Chapel = Favorite building
Loch Lomond = Favorite natural scene

Enormous Update Part 1 - Cardiff

It has been awhile... I've had (and have) lots to do!

We'll start a long time ago, since that is when I last posted! The weekend of Valentine's Day: I was pretty bummed that I couldn't see Katie, but I made sure to get to talk to her. By coincidence my parents decided, all by themselves, to go see Katie play a game at Colgate that day so I asked them to bring her a rose. But that isn't what you want to hear. You want to hear about how I went to Cardiff (Wales) that weekend! My friend Jenn Bradley from Colgate is on a Colgate study abroad program there, so I went to see her. I took off after class on Friday, by train. All in all I think it was like a 3 hour trip (I don't really remember). Unfortunately Cardiff was hosting the England-Wales rugby on Valentine's Day, so the train was absolutely packed. Standing room only. I stood for about 3/4 of the trip there, until a seat was finally vacated and I collapsed into it. I then caught a cab from the train station to Jenn's dorm, and met up with her and another friend, Lea, to bake some cookies (I hadn't arrived until pretty late, so anything more elaborate was kinda out of the question). As we made cookies I met all of Jen's flat mates, Peter, Anthony, Ed, Mickey and another guy I only met really briefly, most of whom were actually British, and more importantly very friendly. I am incredibly jealous. Totally schools my anti-social Asian flat. We stayed up chatting and then went to bed.

The next day we took off to Caerphilly, near Cardiff, and the site of a ruined castle (cheaper to visit than Cardiff Castle!). It was really cool, and so much less expensive than everything and everything in London. You have to pay 15 pounds to see anything like that in London; in Wales it was 3.20 with a student discount! So we explored and such, though I forgot my camera, as usual, and had a generally good time. After leaving the castle we found a place to grab a mid-afternoon lunch and watched the Scotland-France rugby on TV as we ate. The Wales-England match was later, but there were plenty of people packed in to see this early one! I convinced Jenn to try the sticky toffee pudding, and she agrees now that it is the single-best dessert in the universe (though I have since learned that this is only the case when it is done right).

It was now time to try to get back to Cardiff, which was much harder than we thought it would be. We had taken a bus out, and any other bus system I'd ever been on you simply went to the other side of the street and caught the same bus line to get back. So we tried that and it really wasn't working... none of the buses were what we wanted. We started asking bus drivers how to get to Cardiff and the consensus was that we should go to the other side of the street. They gave other directions as well, but with their thick accents we had no idea what those other directions were. So we tried the other side of the street, again with no success. Bus drivers just kept telling us that our bus would be there soon. We waited literally and hour to an hour and a half. We didn't really know what to do! Eventually a guy on the street saw us asking, and came to offer help.

He was certainly interesting in appearance. Completely shaved head, with a tattoo all the way around the back of his head. Nose ring. Big black boots. He told us we had to go to the Caerphilly bus station, which by chance he was walking to at the moment to go visit his friend somewhere. He said we could walk with him. So a little hesitantly we followed. Chatting with him as we walked behind Jenn and I were eye-talking to decide whether we should really be following him. We eventually decided that we would follow so long as there were other people were around. Turns out that we had nothing to worry about because the guy was every bit as nice as his offer to help hinted at; he got us to the bus station, helped us find the right bus, and then took off for his own. See? You can't judge a book by its cover.

After getting back to Cardiff we made a brief run to the grocery store with Jenn's flatmates to pick up stuff like "egg noodles" for dinner, and ice cream for after. We were going to go to the house of one of Jenn's friends from Germany for dinner, and her roommate, from someplace I don't remember (Asia somewhere...? I really don't know), was making the food. She had requested the egg noodles, but we couldn't find them in the store. Jenn and I figured "egg spaghetti" was close enough and got that instead. Still seems to me like it should be the same thing. Apparently not though... who knew? I don't know why it didn't work, because she made the food and we ate it, but apparently we ruined dinner. Oops.

After that we returned to Jenn's flat and got ready to go out in downtown Cardiff. They had some free entry passes into one of the clubs, but only if you went a little early, so we took off. Clubs aren't really my scene, but I had a good enough time. It was good just to spend time with old friends and new. When we left the club it was pretty late, but we stopped at a chips place that was absolutely PACKED. And it was 0n a street of about 10 places exactly like it. They just churned out french fries at breakneck speed, and you could get them with cheese, gravy or any number of things. It was like the Cardiff version of slices, but with french fries. I don't know if it was the crowds from the rugby, or just the fact that it was a Saturday night in the club district of Cardiff, but there were massive numbers of people, and there was trash from these chips places everywhere. I wouldn't have wanted to be on morning cleanup.

The next day I just grabbed the train for home, midday, after a fairly lazy morning. Jenn walked me to the train station via the scenic route through the park and past Cardiff Castle. It was a really nice place, and for once, the sun was actually shining! Cardiff was a lovely place. Jenn was a really good hostess, having extra blankets and towels all ready for me. I really appreciate everything she did for me!

Once again on the train, I didn't get a seat. This time I was standing in the food car, and eventually managed to get a seat on this little counter ledge thing. The problem was that it was at about chest height, so when I sat on it I had to crunch to keep from hitting my head on the ceiling. Not ideal conditions, but better than standing!

When I got back to Royal Holloway it was late afternoon. I spent some time getting things back together, and making dinner. Then at 8:00 I went to meet back up with my pub quiz team! After the terrible experience we'd had the week before at the on-campus quiz night we decided to try the quiz night at a local off-campus pub, The Crown. The atmosphere was infinitely nicer, there were questions we could answer, and we just generally had a much better time. We placed 3rd of 5 I think, and agreed it was definitely something we would do again. So hopefully that is a weekly thing now! The only issue came up on a question that should have been a gimme for us. The question was "what sport did the great Wayne Gretsky play." Given that we are Americans this was really easy, and presumably hard for the Brits for whom hockey is irrelevant. So we answered hockey and were done with it. When it came time to check answers, teams swapped sheets, and the answer to this particular question was "ice hockey." The other team immediately jumped up and said "does just hockey count if you don't say ice?" The pub's quiz person immediately said no, you must specify ice hockey. We were pretty upset of course and started a great debate about the meaning of hockey. We contended that if you asked Wayne Gretsky what sport he played he would say "hockey" not "ice hockey." Furthermore, he played in the NHL, not the NIHL. They would have none of it. It was yet another illustration of how logic and fact don't apply in England, all that matters is the bureaucracy!

In the end though we were content with the results and had a good time. The prize for the second place team, which was only 2 people, was a pitcher of Fosters and they offered it to our group, which was very nice, and we accepted, though I did not partake.

Phew! All in all a very successful weekend, though I don't have any pics to share! Eventually I will get some from Jenn, though even she only has a few. Another post to come soon about this past weekend, my trip to Scotland!