Scotland the Beautiful

Now for the second installment of my Reading Week travels.

After leaving Liverpool on 9 November, I met my friend Shana in Edinburgh, Scotland. As we both arrived quite late in the day - meaning 5:00pm - most of the city had closed for the day. We checked into our hostel (Castle Rock - I highly recommend), grabbed a bite to eat and some Scottish whiskey at the Castle Arms pub, and then took a stroll through the area. The center of the old city is the Royal Mile, which runs from Holyroodhouse Palace (the Queen's residence in Scotland) up the hill to Edinburgh Castle. There are a number of museums and other attractions along the Mile as well as stores stocked enough cashmere scarves to pave the Royal Mile hundreds of times in cashmere.

Edinburgh Castle, at night.

The funny thing about Edinburgh, which we learned quite early on in our stay there, is that you always seem to be going uphill. While this little fact is not much of a bother in normal walking circumstances, it is quite annoying when dragging a suitcase with you. Anyways, after our non-suitcase-laden walk, we turned in for the night. Castle Rock Hostel is HUGE, so it was a bit noisy at first but we were tired enough from traveling during the day to fall asleep easily.

The next morning, I left Shana in Edinburgh and took a train to Leuchars, and then a bus on to St. Andrews. I met Phillip Mallet, an English professor and Thomas Hardy expert at St. Andrews University, for coffee and conversation in his office at the University. I had a wonderful visit to St. Andrews and found that I loved the character of the city. Phillip took me on a walk by the ruins of the castle at St. Andrews, through the remains of St. Andrews Cathedral, down the pier stretching out over the North Sea, and to a number of buildings at the university. The company was excellent, and the grey, overcast, slightly chilly Scottish day gave the place a serious aspect perfect for discussions of history and literature and life. I was treated to lunch at a cafe where Prince William and Kate Middleton used to get coffee (how sweet is that?!) before catching the train back to Edinburgh in the afternoon. St. Andrews is another one of those places where I could definitely see myself - perhaps I'll do some postgraduate work there at the university. I also really enjoyed visiting Phillip and picking his brain a bit about topics of mutual interest, and I look forward to keeping in contact with him.

The ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral.

Back in Edinburgh, I caught up with Shana and we began our site-seeing there in the few remaining hours of daylight. We visited St. Giles church, the Writers' Museum (which had exhibits on Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson), and the National Museum of Scotland. We then made the super tourist-y move of visiting the sites in Edinburgh connected with J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter novels. We passed by the school whose 4 towers inspired the houses of Hogwarts and crept around the Greyfriars Cemetery finding the tombstones bearing names that Rowling used in the books - Moody, McGonagall, and Tom Riddle included. We then had dinner and hot chocolate at the Elephant House, the cafe where Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It was a very cool experience and the cafe is definitely a great place to sit and write.

The Elephant House

The Writers' Museum

The next morning, we left Edinburgh on a train bound for Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. I can honestly say that I have never been anyplace so beautiful. The city of Inverness, the River Ness, Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness - all of it was gorgeous. I had heard one never sees the sun in Scotland, yet it was sunny the whole time we were in the Highlands and we had two perfect fall days to explore and be captivated by our surroundings. After checking into the quaint student hotel in Inverness, we took a walk along the River Ness, crossing the Ness Islands and passing by Inverness Castle and a beautiful church on the banks of the river.

Along the River Ness.

We ate a late lunch at The Kitchen, a restaurant overlooking the river and the city. I then dragged Shana along to Leakey's Bookshop, the largest used bookstore in Scotland. I walked through the doors of this place and thought that I had died and gone to heaven. Seriously. 100,000 plus books, a wood-burning stove, a metal spiral staircase leading up to the loft... my dream home. Shana took a bit of a nap on the couch upstairs for an hour and a half while I meandered through the shelves and piles and stacks of books. The musty smell of pages, the heat from the fire, and creaky wooden floor made a perfect atmosphere and I could have stayed forever.

As Shana would say, 'Lindsey in her natural habitat.' So true.

After satisfying myself with a few purchases, including a copy of The African Queen (now out of print), I finally let myself be led out of my heaven-on-earth. I shall be back there, I promise you that.

Our walk then took us through the old Victorian Market in Inverness on the way back to the hostel. We then decided to attend a screening of the film 'Parked' featuring one of my favorite BBC actors Colin Morgan at the Inverness Film Festival. 'Parked' was shown on the 'screen machine' - which translates to a projector in the trailer of a semi-truck, haha. It actually felt and looked like a normal cinema inside thought, much to our relief. I quite enjoyed the film, which was a story about an older man and a young drug addict who are 'neighbors' as they both live out of their cars in a parking lot in Dublin. It was pretty comedic for the first half or so, but then turned quite dark as the kid addicted to drugs gets in over his head. If you do have a chance to see it at some point, I recommend it as an interesting film.

To cheer us up after the somewhat traumatic conclusion of the film, we went in search of some good Scottish music and beer. We found both at Hootananny's Pub.

The next morning, we took a bus from Inverness to Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness. The ruins of the castle, the sunshine on the water, the soft breeze, and the quiet in this area was so beautiful. We spent the day at the Castle, just enjoying the picturesque scenery around us.

Loch Ness

Urquhart Castle

Epic shot of me and Loch Ness

Our last hour or so at Urquhart Castle consisted of me reading some Burns poetry on a bench overlooking the Loch. The whole day was just absolutely perfect and easily my favorite moments of my year abroad thus far.

Saturday night we returned to Edinburgh. After sleeping in just a bit on Sunday, we headed out to walk the Royal Mile and explore Edinburgh Castle. Breakfast was Scottish scones and coffee. On our walk, we caught some of the Remembrance Day ceremony outside of the town hall in Edinburgh. A lone piper payed respects to the Scots who fought and died in two world wars.

After taking a peak at Holyroodhouse Palace, we walked back to Edinburgh Castle (uphill again, as is always the case it seems like in that city). We took a short tour within the Castle and then just explored on our own for a couple of hours. We finished off our visit to Scotland with some fish and chips at Deacon Brodie's tavern. (Note: Deacon Brodie was the inspiration for R.L. Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.)

Shana and I at the castle

Overlooking the city

The great hall

William Wallace in the chapel at Edinburgh Castle

Trying to load Mon Meg, the largest cannon at the castle. I don't think the Scottish artillery will want me any time soon...

Our train back to London left Edinburgh Sunday night at 5:30pm. That's when things got interesting... There was signal failure on the train line about halfway back to London and our train got delayed THREE hours. Needless to say, we were not pleased to have to sit there in the hot, noisy, cramped train car for an additional three hours besides the five and a half already required to return to London.

We updated our tickets in response to the delay.

We got back to London at 1:30am, were forced to take a cab back to campus, and then collapsed. Longest day ever. Luckily, because of the delay, the full price of our tickets will be reimbursed to us. So at least that's a perk.

So that was Scotland. I loved every moment of it (except for the train ride back, obviously). While Edinburgh was interesting, I genuinely was moved by St. Andrews and especially Inverness. The beauty and history of what I saw really touched my soul and I will remember it always. I find that I understand exactly what Burns was writing about in his poems about Scotland, that beautiful land in the north.