What Happens in Scotland...

Last Wednesday I woke up at 5:15 a.m. to take the tube to Kings Cross where I was meeting the 18 other students in my program and two teachers. From there we  caught the 8 a.m. train to Edinburgh, Scotland. I've always been really terrible at forcing myself to go to bed early, particularly on nights when I know I have to get up unreasonably early. I was just too excited! It was raining on the way to the tube station, which seemed like a bad sign for the rest of the trip. We had been told that it was likely to snow in Scotland, and I was prepared to be freezing the whole trip.

I slept the first two hours on the train, sprawled across two seats. It was a lovely nap, but I was glad I didn't sleep the whole four and a half hour train ride. The rest of the trip I attempted to read, but spent most of my time staring out the window and trying to snap photos as the beautiful sites zoomed past. The english countryside is as beautiful as the photos, and there really are sheep grazing in the fields. The North Sea was especially beautiful and made me miss the ocean. As soon as we touched down in Edinburgh we were kept busy non-stop.

Our first stop was Edinburgh Castle. The castle is perched on top of a hill in the middle of the city, and it looks as though it was simply carved into the mountain rather than built on top of it. Did I mention that it was warm? Well, maybe not warm, but it definitely wasn't snowing. Luckily, I was smart enough to abandon my down coat at the hostel where we ditched our bags or I would have been way too hot. So for Scotland standards it was warm... maybe a balmy 48º F. We spent a couple hours wandering the castle, and I made a little trip up a tower to see the Scottish Crown Jewels. From there we went to the Scottish National Gallery before dinner and an early bedtime.

Thursday we got up quite early again to make a little trek across town to Scottish Parliament. I find the government system very complicated in the UK. Scotland has it's own parliament even though it is part of the United Kingdom. There are also Scots in the UK Parliament in London. The way I understand it, Scotland is allowed to make a few decisions about how to spend their budget and levy taxes. All the rest of the decisions are made by UK Parliament (foreign policy, economic policies, etc.). We went to parliament to watch a live debate. It was a little bit like watching CSPAN, except they had interesting accents and made some amazing comments. One person compared a fellow member of parliament to Voldemort and another person got up and announced that he wished his opposing party a record-breaking year... for second place. It was quite harsh in my mind. But the best part about the visit to parliament was the building. It was just built in 2004 and was so beautiful. There were tons of windows and natural wood. It was also a really interesting contrast to all the extremely old buildings throughout the rest of the city.

Scottish Parliament Building

University of Edinburgh

Next, a former member of Scottish Parliament came to talk to us about the prospect of Scotland becoming an independent nation in the future. I have to write a paper directed at Prime Minister David Cameron about what I think should happen with Scotland (free them or keep them?). And after that we went over to the University of Edinburgh. We met a man there who talked about Scottish Enlightenment. In truth I know absolutely nothing about the enlightenment. By the time he was there talking to us we were all exhausted and a number of people completely fell asleep (I was not one of them). But I did enjoy talking to him while we walked to a little museum. He told me how he went to university in Pennsylvania and then decided to teach at University of Oregon for a couple of years. He also told me about how he met his wife in the U.S. and convinced her to move to Scotland with him. He was great to chat with and told good stories.

Along with the architecture theme, a few of us decided to attend a free lecture on Thursday evening by Rick Mather, a pretty famous architect (and University of Oregon alum). The lecture was great, I was very impressed. He has been the architect for some amazing buildings, including The Southbank Centre (which I went to yesterday), The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and so many others. I recommend visiting his website and just looking at the pictures. His buildings are beautiful. He also has quite an obsession with natural light and roof gardens, and I'm not complaining! The only thing I wished from the lecture was that he talked more about his history and how he came to be an amazing architect living in the UK.

We had missed dinner at our hostel, so the four of us who attended the lecture went out to a cute little italian restaurant we had walked past a few times. The food was delicious, and there was a 20% student discount! My friend and I both couldn't decide between the cannelloni and a vegetarian pizza with goat cheese. So, naturally we decided to get both and share. It was a great decision. I don't remember the last time I ate so much! I also had to go back the next day to get a scoop of chocolate mint gelato. I couldn't resist.

The view of Edinburgh with the North Sea beyond

That was our last night in Edinburgh so we all stayed out late and decided we could sleep on the train. In the morning our professor took us on a walk around the city. We made the steep climb up Calton Hill where we could see a beautiful 360º view of the city. That was definitely one of the highlights. And it was still great weather, the whole time. A bit windy, but it didn't knock me down. We walked through a few old cemeteries and had free time to shop and eat lunch.

Scottish National Monument (not the Parthenon)

That was the end of our Edinburgh adventure. We got back on the train on Friday afternoon and said goodbye to the old city. I planned to sleep on the train, but I once again could not tear my eyes away from the window. Eight of the girls decided we couldn't go straight home, so we had planned to spend a night in York. Although our Scotland adventure was over, we hopped off the train a couple hours later and started a new adventure. I will save that for next time.

English countryside from a speeding train