Disappointments and Surprises

Monday morning we left Scotland to drive to York in England… crossing the border was uneventful considering it’s still the UK. I have only this to show for it: a quick photo on the side of the road… wind and rain whipping our faces.

The group leaders had also planned to stop at Hadrian’s wall…. A large wall built hundreds of years ago stretching across the UK. Few pieces of it remain, but we were going to stop at an area that had more remaining portions. Vandermey had talked it up quite a bit and that’s why, when we finally stopped and climbed out of the coach, I had only this in response:

Yeah, not going to lie…. It was one of the more pointless stops of our trip. Luckily we only stopped for 20 minutes.

From there, we drove on to York, home to the beautiful York Minster and an ancient city wall surrounding the city. This is perhaps my favorite small city of the trip so far. A river runs through it, and the city has a wonderful historic downtown area with small boutiques. In between the shopping district/minster and the river is a sprawling park with winding trails, rolling hills, and ruins of an early hospital and church. We only spent a night in the area, but I still had a few hours to roam the town and will hopefully get another chance to go back someday. The York Minster is the oldest and largest of it's type in the UK. After we walked around inside, we climbed the 270-ish steps to the top and were rewarded with a view of the entire city.

Creme Brulee: Always a good decision

Today (Sat, not monday) was a busy day. It included 3 hours of class, walking to lunch, walking to a 3 hr long show, walking to dinner, walking to the second show, and walking home. And while all of that included some fascinating stories and experiences...
Most notable was the creme brulee. After seeing a Festival theater performance with the entire group, we were told to go forage for food before our evening performance of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. Have you ever tried to decide on a place to eat with a group of more than 4-6 people? Yeah, it's an absolute mess. Our group of probably 10 or more wandered for awhile, and then 4 of us broke off. It was really a matter of survival. I mean, there's only so much time for food between the two performances, and that time was being wasted.
Oh and yeah, I'm still in Edinburgh at this point.
We found an adorable French cafe, with small, white wrought iron tables on the sidewalk, and red and yellow striped awnings and cushions. Our friendly waitor, being rather intuitive or perhaps psychic, only brought 3 regular menus to our table, handed them out, and then handed the 4th menu to me--that 4th menu being the dessert menu. My eyes immediately jumped to the one item that every eye should ever jump to at a French cafe, and I decided in that split second that dinner really wasn't all that important. And that is why I ordered creme brulee for dinner. (Those of you cringing at the thought that I missed out on all those lovely nutrients that typical dinner food entails, fear not. I shared a dish with Sarah along with my dessert) It was by far my favorite meal since arriving in Europe... I highly recommend that everyone try it--order dessert instead of dinner. Your taste buds will thank you for it.

"Funk it Up About Nothing"

Friday--Still in Edinburgh, Scotland

So, I woke up incredibly late on Friday. We had been given an entire free day with the idea that we would explore the Fringe Festival, catch up on journals, and get some homework done. Apparently my body thought the time would be better spent doing nothing. I woke up at 12:30, realized half the day was gone, yet still managed to get a full day's worth of events out of the remainder of my time. Ryan invited me to join him, Tara and Sarah to go see a performance Dr. Vandermey had suggested. An adaptation of Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing," the play was being advertised as a hip-hop masterpiece of sorts. Ryan and I walked down to what we hoped was the venue (another one of those 20-30 min walks..) and began searching for the correct show on the listings. (They had their tickets but I still needed to buy one) A few mins earlier, a young man had tried to hand us a flier... but as this had become a regular occurence, we kindly refused him as we had the hundreds of others of the last few days.

Well, Ryan and I were STILL standing in front of the sign board, lost in the large number of shows and venues, and the same guy came by again to offer us a flier, but stopped mid-sentence when he realized he had already asked us. Apologizing, he started to move away, and i interrupted him, offering to accept a flier because he had tried so hard. Of course, what a blessing, he (and the odds of this are slim, given the number of shows and people) handed us the flier for the exact show we were looking for and was able to tell us where to get the ticket, how to get to the show, and a little bit about the group.

The show was crazy amazing. A group of 6-8 young adults from Chicago, they rapped out the entire play, completely rewriting Shakespeare's lines but keeping the rhythm and story the same. Oh and the best part, aside from the play itself, was the surprise before the play began. We walked in the theater and saw, of all people, the ENTIRE Westmont England Semester group. We knew they were in town, but hadn't really been able to contact them. After the play a large group of us went to a local pub and caught up on life and just hung out for awhile. And that's how the trip has been going; at the outset of the day, I had no plans. By the end of the day, I had seen an amazing play and met up with 25 friends I wasn't expecting to see. Just think, if I hadn't slept in, it wouldn't have happened. Not bad. Not bad at all.

All in a Day's Walk: Part 3

Note to Readers: Please realize that this third post takes place the same day as the first 2.... and that's a condensed version. Every day is this busy. Also, because of limited internet, these are being posted sometimes more than a week after they happen.

Well, to quickly summarize, after the street performance we continued our walk to the castle, stopping in to see the inside of St. Giles Cathedral, covered with stained glass artwork spanning hundreds of years. By the time we made it to the base of the castle, 2 hours had passed, and Tara and Melissa didn't think they'd have enough time to tour the castle and meet up with another group. We split ways, and Kev and I bought tickets for the self-guided castle tour. My knee, which has started acting up with all the cold and hills, was absolutely killing me so I knew our tour might get cut short a little. Regardless, we saw most the exhibits, including this 4-ton cannon (large enough i could have climbed inside if there wasn't a sign telling me i couldn't).

At this point, we made a slightly stupid decision. Thinking it would work out, we decided to get dinner near the castle then hop on a bus back to our lodgings. Well, 45 mins later, we were all the way back and had not found a place to eat. (I'm really not sure how that happened--we may have just been too picky and cheap). And this leads me to the pub story. (Sorry, it won't be nearly as exciting or scandalous as you might think)

Three hours later. Seriously, it's getting late and i've walked miles and miles today with no food. MILES. Dead tired and not planning on going out, I get sucked into other people's plans regardless. (Yeah, I fold to peer pressure occasionally.) Our professor had recommended a play called "The Factory," which a group of students was going to see. So, assured by the group that we would have time to stop for dinner after buying the tickets at the venue but before seeing the show, I dragged my tired body back out into Edinburgh. We bought the tickets, found a pub where our group of 6 would all fit, and ordered food. Of course, we had failed to pay attention to the time. 10 minutes before the show and we didn't have our food. 5 minutes before and we still had no food. At this point, we were frantically calculating which was more important... the food or the show. (In Europe, once a show begins, it's very unlikely that you will be allowed in.) Well, 2 minutes before the show, they give us our food. And, wrapping it up in napkins (most European restaurants have no take out boxes), we sprinted one by one out of the pub--looking rather ridiculous I might add--and sprinted down the street, dodging people, phone booths, light poles, and the occasional car. Arriving at the theater, we had no time to eat, and I was forced to bury my food in my purse. All this to say, I ended up eating my dinner 6 hours after I first felt the pangs of hunger. Begrudgingly, I will say this however: the show experience was well worth the extra food trauma, miles of walking, and lack of sleep.

All in a day's walk: Part 2

Some background info: Every year at this time, Edinburgh's population of roughly half a million doubles. The cause? Something called the Festival, the Fringe Festival, and about 6-10 other smaller festivals who take advantage of the visitors who have traveled here for the first two festivals I mentioned. The first is an international theater festival with well-known actors and troupes, high priced tickets, and guarenteed first class shows. The second, the Fringe Festival, built up around the first. Consisting of over 100 venues, and literally hundreds of shows every day, the festival gives all sorts of actors, musicians, and street performers a chance to show off their talents (or lack thereof). The day before we had seen one of these less fortunate performers, who, having little actual talent, made a show out of the lead up to his trick... in the end wasting everyone's time who had stuck around hoping to see something entertaining and spectacular.

A shot of one of the multiple stages set up around the area for performances. Some of these stages are fewer than 60 feet away from another... sometimes the noise from one can overwhelm another performance.




Today however, (today being the actual day of this walk... not the day this is written--i'm horribly behind on journaling.) our little group of four got lucky. Drawn in by the small crowd on some church steps, we started watching a street musician who dressed and looked Irish, but turned out to be from Detroit. His specialty were sleight-of-hand tricks, and we had shown up in time to see his last few tricks. They all involved some variation of 3 copper cups on the table and miniature tennis balls appearing and disappearing from underneath the cups. Not only was he skilled at the trick, he drew the crowd in in a way that no one in the audience ever felt singled out in an awkward or embarassing way. My gorgeous friend Tara was standing in front taking photos, and he quickly singled her out, asked her name, and encouraged her to take photos, promising to pay her for any good ones she took and emailed him. A few minutes later, noticing our friend Kevin standing near her, he asked Kevin point blank if he was Tara's girlfriend. Kev quickly denied it, to which the performer quickly replied, "well he's either your boyfriend or a horny stranger with how close he's standing." More impressive than his quick wit was his ability to suavely ask for tips without making anyone feel they were being forced. Unlike some performers, he didn't specify how many pence or pounds he felt would be appropriate, but simply asked for whatever we felt he deserved, and asked that even if we had nothing, but felt he did a good job, that we shake his hand and thank him. (Some performers are rather demanding in asking for payment, usually asking more than anyone feels they deserve, and probably hurting their chances of actually making anything at all)
The four of us talked to him afterwards for a few mins. I was reminded how incredibly small this world is at times. He told us that in September he'll be traveling to Santa Barbara, CA, where we all go to school, for a wedding. Not only that, but he told us the dates he would be performing on State St, right in front of the business I worked at all summer.

All in a day's walk

Hello from Edinburgh, Scotland. This is my fourth full day here, but with the amount of things we've already done, it could easily have been a week.
To best share my trip with you, i'll post stories of things that happen along the way, instead of trying to tell everything that happens.
Like last Thursday, for example.
While here, we are staying at the University of E., located close enough to everything that one can walk everywhere, but far enough that the walk may take up to 40 minutes. Thursday, Kevin, Melissa, Tara and I decided to walk downtown for a tour of the castle perched high on the hill overlooking the city. Having walked quite a bit already in the few days we'd been here, we debated taking the bus instead. Being indecisive, (note: the bus stop was half a block in the opposite direction of the walk to the castle)... anyway.. being indecisive, we switched directions 2 or 3 times, never fully making up our minds. On our second to last direction switch, we needed to cross the 4 lane street to the bus stop.
It's worth remembering that in Scotland, cars drive on the opposite side of the road.
Yeah.
You see where this is going.
Being the educated and intelligent college students we are, we decided to jay walk in the midst of this new and unfamiliar country.
We all looked both ways, decided that we could indeed make it across, and went for it. We had forgotten to factor in the light turning green, and the horde of cars rushing toward us from the opposite side we expected them to. Well, Kevin and I sprinted, making it across with time to spare. Hitting the sidewalk, we turn around to check on Tara and Melissa and found them...
In the center divider.
Now, by center divider, I mean a dotted line. Nothing more. And as Kevin and I watched them, cars rushing by on either side, the girls joined hands and led each other down along the dotted middle line, slowly heading towards the nearest crosswalk.
I'm sure the Scottish drivers got a kick out of watching the scared American girls leading each other single file down the center of the road.

PS- Wondering what exactly Edinburgh looks like? Well, on a rare sunny day, from atop the castle overlooking the city (yes we did eventually make it to the castle. Ironically, after the drama of getting to the bus stop, we walked the whole way), this is one view of the city.