From London With Love

27th July 2009

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“All of London sing, ‘Cause England swings and they sure love the tales I bring…”

Well, I’ve made it back to London…finally! We got in last night and all the main tube lines were down, which means all the busses were super packed, meaning the busses don’t stop for you when they’re at capacity. After waiting for over 30 minutes for a bus we hailed a cab to get us back to campus. After dinner and a shower, I did some homework and crashed. I think I got almost 12 hours of sleep last night! I was soooo exhausted from the trip. I have a bit of time before dinner (It’s currently 16:44 here) so I’ll try to give a whirlwind recount of my weekend.

As I said earlier, Lexie and I took the train to Scotland because it’s free with our Britrail passes. After getting kicked out of first class and spending about 4 hours sitting in the floor of economy class, we arrived in Scotland between 2 and 3pm. We began walking to our hostel and the bottom absolutely fell out of the sky. Not a great way to start the trip. We of course got soaked (even our umbrellas weren’t doing us much good…and no, mom, I still would not have put on a poncho if I had had it). We hailed a cab and finally arrived at our hostel. We stayed at the Caledonian Backpackers Hostel. It was really, really cool. It was about 4 or 5 stories, huge murals on the walls painted in bright colors. We could even see the Edinburgh castle from our room on the first night. We were exhausted so we took some much needed power naps and then set out for dinner. We ate at an Italian place that was pretty much filled with Americans. The couple at the table beside us was from Austin, TX. The husband had actually went to university in Edinburgh, so he was really helpful in telling us places to check out and whatnot.

We pretty much wandered around the city for the rest of the night. We found the Royal Mile and tried to find some live music. We ended up at a place called Whistle Binkies, which is supposedly the best place in town to hear live acts at night. A classic rock cover band was playing, so we stuck around and watched both of their sets. I wasn’t overly impressed, but it was amusing because we had such a hard time understanding the singer’s banter during songs, but once he was singing (everything from Hendrix and Deep Purple to ACDC) we could understand every word. The Scottish accent was very difficult for me to understand. Whenever I was conversing, I had to concentrate very hard to understand what was being said.

Saturday we really got a chance to explore the city. We walked up to the castle but there was an insane line (or should I say “a massive que”?) to buy tickets for entry so we didn’t go in. We ate Mexican food at a place called Poncho Villas (it was no Las Palmas or Camino, that’s for sure). We basically just spent the morning walking up and down the Royal Mile, popping into shops and whatnot.

At the end of the Royal Mile was a park called Hollyrod (we thought the locals were saying “Hollywood” which kept us that much more confused) where they were having The Gathering. There were over 250 family clans at this huge festival. Lots of music and games. But before we went to The Gathering, we decided to climb Arthur’s Seat, a large group of hills that overlook the entire city. Please keep in mind that I am no more outdoorsy in Europe than I am in the States, so I was not outfitted for climbing rocks. That day I had on a dress and my good leather boots - mistake! Ha. I think I wore the souls off my shoes after all the climbing was said and done. We climbed for over an hour and a half and the view was absolutely breath taking. Arthur’s Seat was easily my favorite part of my trip to Scotland! I have a ton of pictures, so next time I get to some wi-fi I will post some of them. I must add that I did slip and fall on our way back down the hill. Don’t you all wish you were as graceful as me? I thought so.

Lex and I went to The Gathering for the rest of the evening. I wasn’t totally interested in all that was going on, but I guess it was still kind of neat to see it all.  We watched some of the games (tug of war and the one where they throw the big hammers),heard lots and lots of bagpipes (I think that has to be the most annoying instrument ever invented!) and saw TONS of men in kilts. Like I told mom, I will never find men in skirts to be very attractive. We also saw a group called the Red Hot Chili Pipers, which was funny.

We walked back up the Royal Mile to catch a spot to watch the clans parade up to the castle. We waited for about an hour and a half and once it finally started it wasn’t really a parade at all. The clans were just holding their signs bearing their family name and occasionaly there would be a bagpipe player or two. Very boring. We decided to head back before it was even half way over.

Luckily, we got seats on the train ride back yesterday, so no floor sitting for us!

I guess that brings me up to today. We had class this afternoon. We mostly talked about the music from the late 1970’s and 1980’s. I really liked The Smiths. Joy Divison was alright too. Dr. Fisher reminded us that we only have 2 weeks left here. 2 weeks! It makes me sad to think about (Don’t get me wrong, I am excited to see you all, but I just can’t bear the thought of leaving this wonderful place). I still have so much to do. Tomorrow is my free day. I think I am going to try to go to some museums and do some sightseeing that I haven’t gotten around to doing yet. Wednesday is class again and Thursday we’re going to Manchester. I’m not entirely sure as to what we’ll be doing there, but I do know we’ll be meeting the author of the book we’re supposed to be reading for class. I would be more excited about that if I actually found his book to be enjoyable.

After this week I’ll still have 3 or 4 days left on my BritRail pass and I need to put them to use. I’m trying to think of a good day trip or two to do.  Lexie and I had talked about going to Brighton for a day. Any suggestions?

Time for dinner and then hopefully we’re going to do something tonight. I’d like to go to Camden, but we’ll see.

xoxoxoxo,
mch