Monday, August 9, 2010

Bagpipes Everywhere!


It's been a while since I last wrote, so a lot has happened! This is going to be quite a long post, so prepare yourselves for a little reading or be able to skim well...

We spent two nights in Dundee, a small city near Edinburgh. The people who owned our cottage were nice enough to give us a ride to Dundee, and gave us some tips as to what to see while we were there. The first day, we enjoyed all the splendors of Dundee. We walked around the entire city, which is right on the river, so there were some wonderful views. They also had this huge ship called the RRS Discovery, which was launched in 1901 and was the first British ship to sail to Antarctica. It was pretty awesome, here's a pic:

We also went to the Contemporary Art Gallery, which had some weird stuff (to say the least), but afterward we got coffee and these exhibits did strike some interesting conversation between us.


We also visited the M & S store (it's like a grocery store with other random stuff) here and got Belgian chocolate milk!! So good!! After this entire day of fun and excitement, we were hoping to come back and get on the computer at our hostel, and be able to figure out our next move. Because we've been trying to do the couchsurfing thing, it's difficult to make decisions until the last minute. So there we were, trying to figure out where we were going to go, what we were going to do. It was choatic, the internet wouldn't work, so much going on! But God definitely provided a way for us with Leo, the guy we are staying with now. We had really wanted to come to the west coast of Scotland, but didn't think we would have any way of getting over there and finding a place to stay until we heard from Leo. So it will be awesome to see that side of the world!

As I type this, we're sitting in the Edinburgh bus station waiting to head back to Dundee to our hostel for the night. The best way for me to explain the intensity of today is to say first that there are all kinds of festival happening in Edinburgh throughout the month of August, so it was JAM PACKED with people from all other the world who came for these festivals.




Upon arrival, the city was already buzzing – crowded sidewalks, street vendors, and street performers pretty much everywhere you looked. When we got there, we were starving for lunch, and in our search to find food we stumbled upon the largest amount of bagpipe players that has ever existed anywhere at one time. There is a “military tattoo” happening tonight outside of Edinburgh castle, which I think basically means a ton of bagpipe players and highland dancers jam out with fireworks and such and people watch. Anyway, I think we stumbled upon practice for the bagpipe players. There were SO MANY, I mean they were everywhere. And it was just a bunch of different bands of bagpipes and drums, so they were all playing different stuff at the same time. I took a video of it, which I have tried to include right here...here's hoping it worked:



So that's just a little clip of what we experienced – it went all the way up and down that road. After that, we finally found a place to eat and sat in this huge court yard to enjoy lunch. Then we stumbled upon some festival that was going on and listened to some live performance that was going on – it was a jazz kind of band, and they were actually quite good. From there we wondered into some park, which was very beautiful. After that, we walked all around Edinburgh castle. Here's a few pictures of the castle:



Then we decided to go to the National Gallery, which has lots and LOTS of art from all different time periods. It was pretty interesting, but it got kinda overwhelming after a while. Only so many times you can see baby Jesus and baby John the Baptist playing together, portrayed by a 16th century Italian painter with oil on canvas. But they did have some really nice stuff, and it was a little less insane in there than outside, so we both enjoyed the break.

From the Gallery, we walked down High Street, also called the “Royal Mile”, which is the main drag of town. Absolutely crazy – they'd closed off the street from cars because there were so many people! I took a few pictures of the crowded-ness:



After that, we headed up Calton Hill, which has a lot of really old, really cool monuments and such. I don't know what else to say about it except that it has excellent views of the city and was beautiful. That was when the sun came out and it actually got a little warm – we were even sweating a little! I know you folks back in Georgia think I'm crazy to be excited about that, but hey, it's nice to see more than ten minutes of sunshine at a time here. Here's a few pics from the top of Calton Hill:



From there, we decided to make a second trip back to a place we went to with all our Oxford friends when we were both studying abroad – Doctor's Pub! They have great food there, and it's a very local atmosphere, which was a nice break after the crazy tourists of the Royal Mile. So we relaxed a little, had some great steak pies and chips, and then we were ready for the final destination...Arthur's Seat! We also had been there before when we came to Edinburgh the first time with Oxford people, and it was my favorite part of the trip. Here's Arthur Seat:




Basically, you climb it. Ha! But it is 100% worth the ascension because of the stunning views. From the top, you can see the entire city, and we went up right as the sun was coming down, so we saw a beautiful sunset. The weather was just right, and it was nice to just view the city from the peacefulness of the top of Arthur's Seat. But yeah, after that, it was time to head back to the bus station for our ride home. So here we are, waiting for the bus. Tomorrow we are heading to Oban for our second couchsurfing experience. Oban is on the west coast of Scotland – a place we haven't been to yet, so we're excited! We're staying with a guy there who was nice enough to take us kind of at the last minute. We're excited about meeting him, and just learning about each other's cultures, which is what is so great about the couchsurfing deal.

Okay, now we are off the bus, but I would just like to say that while we were on there we had another interesting experience. This group of 40 something people all rode up front, and they'd clearly had a grand time in Edinburgh that day. So one of them pulls out a harmonica and starts playing it, and then they were all singing and clapping. It was kind if bizarre, since usually the bus is dead quiet. Anyway, they made us laugh, telling silly jokes and just having a good time. Thought I'd share that moment with you all.
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. UnknownAugust 9, 2010 at 10:39 PM

    Sounds like tons of fun!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 12, 2010 at 10:21 PM

    OK - you must read a current UK bestseller called "One Day" - references Arthur's Seat and other places you will have visited so far. A great novel/love story. Glad you are enjoying yourselves. Hope we get to meet/visit you soon!
    Sunday

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)