Never have I been a believer in love at first site. It's such a
cliché and I've never had a good experience with anyone or anything that I felt
a deep affection for upon first glance. Well, after laying my eyes on
Edinburgh for the first time, I'll have to reconsider that aspect of my belief
system.
I left London at 10:30 Thursday night via bus, causing me to get to
Edinburgh just before 7:00 in the morning. After nine hours on an
uncomfortable bus, you can imagine I was not in the best of spirits. My entire body ached and I was
absolutely exhausted from the journey, but that struggle of journey became
worthwhile when I arrived in Edinburgh.
Any city is just breathtaking right after sunrise, before life really
begins, but Edinburgh was just well.... enchanting. I walked about a mile
down Prince's St from the bus station to my hostel and somewhere in my brain
and in my heart it just clicked. I love this city.
As much I wanted to explore, the reality of the situation was that I
barely slept on the bus and my body was ready to go into a coma of
exhaustion. Luckily, no one was in my bed at the hostel, so I was able to
check into my room and put my stuff up in the locker near my bed. I
should have prefaced all this by explaining a bit my travel complications.
Technically, I was coming to Scotland with two of my flatmates, Nicole and
Elyse. Due to credit card complications, I held off my booking until
later, which resulted in me having to get a different bus and hostel. With
Easter weekend it should come to no surprise that the only thing I could book
for three consecutives nights was a 38-bed mixed room.
It was the first time that I really felt like I was staying in a
hostel, rather than a budget hotel surrounded by people my same age. As terrifying as it sounds, I never
felt unsafe or threatened the entire time I was there. You don’t even spend a lot of the time
in the room anyways, so as long as you’ve got a locker to keep important things
locked up, it’s all fine and dandy.
And like I said, the only time I was ever in the room was to sleep, as
it should be.
So that was the hostel. I would have
more to talk about, but due to the exhaustion at the end of the days, I
never stayed awake to try to meet people. There was just no energy left
for that.
Now, back to the magic of Scotland! My friends arrived a little later than
I did and decided to head to a museum.
I was more interested in finding some good shopping, so we decided to
just meet at Edinburgh Castle at 2pm.
I eventually need to make a list of all the places I would recommend if
you are in any of these places I visit because I stumbled across some FANTASTIC
things. For those who do not know
me, I love vintage shopping. Most
of my wardrobe comes from the magically world of thrift stores. I actually still wear a sweater than I
bought for an ugly Christmas sweater party four months ago. As I was walking down Grassmarket Rd in
the Edinburgh Old Town, I hit the mother load of consignment shopping. The store is called Armstrong’s and
when you first walk in, you think it is a clever little shop filled with second
hand traditional Scottish wear as well as other pricier vintage finds (cocktail
dresses, bridal gowns, etc.) As you walk farther, you see a doorway leading to
a fitting room, and two HUGE rooms of vintage clothing. One is men’s and the other is
women’s. Now, when I say vintage I
feel everyone imagines Goodwill: just a store for people to dump old
clothes. Although this store does
accept donations in that sense, they separate the gems from the crap. In the women’s room they I had a WALL
of cashmere and wool sweaters. You
still have to be careful and read labels.
Just because it’s 100% wool and in a Scottish vintage shop, does not
mean it is made in Scotland. After
browsing this section I settled on a grey cashmere crew neck sweater that is
100% made in Scotland. Seriously
this sweater is the softest textile I have ever placed on my body. I could have spent hours in this shop
but alas I needed to meet my friends at the castle so my time had to be cut
short.
The castle was very cool, but afterward we
were all so tired from our bus journeys that we decided it would be wise to
just go to bed early. We had to
wake up early anyways to take our day trip to the highlands.
I could talk hours on end about the
highlands, so I will try to condense this as much as possible before I start
rambling. The highlands of
Scotland are incredible. I keep looking back at the photos and I swear we are standing in front of a green screen the whole time. Its
nature at it’s finest. I am just
dreaming and planning the day that I can come back to Scotland and just camp
and hike this area for weeks on end.
Our tour guide was really cool and on the way to Loch Ness, we stopped
at some very scenic and historic locations for photo opportunities. We drove by the William Wallace
Monument and the castle that was used in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and
for most of the series 1 filming of “Game of Thrones”. We also stopped to take photos at the
site of the Glencoe Massacre and where a scene from “Skyfall” was filmed. From all the information that our tour
guide was throwing at us, I came from one major conclusion about Scotland: You
people are nuts. Of all the
nations in Great Britain, Scotland gets the prize for being the most rugged and
rough. I mean the fact that people
look to William Wallace as a hero after learning all the things he did, baffles
me. Fun note: most of “Braveheart”
is actually filmed in Ireland because the Scottish government wouldn’t let Mel
Gibson do everything he wanted for free.
Also, only about 95% of the movie is historically accurate, starting
with the fact that William Wallace was not from the highlands, therefore, he
would never have worn a kilt. Way to go, screwing history, Mel.
We eventually got to Loch Ness where
Nicole, Elyse and I took an hour-long cruise on the lake. It was very relaxing to just be outside
looking at some of Scotland’s most beautiful landscapes. We eventually made our way to the bar
inside on the lower level just in time to listen to one of the crew members
give a spiel on the Loch Ness Monster.
Now, be as skeptical as you want, but I have full belief that there is something large and mysterious in the
waters of Loch Ness. Now whether
it is actually a monster has yet to be seen, but there is definitely something down there. The crewmember said that they have seen a number of
unnaturally sized readings on their radars throughout the years, and there have
been 23 sightings of things that no crewmember can explain. They always put into consideration
things like floating sticks and wakes that hit hidden rocks under the water,
but still there are things they can’t explain. And that is all I need know that
some kind of Nessy exists in those waters. So there’s my opinion on that.
Now, this past Sunday was Easter Sunday, so
as the good Catholic I am, I got myself to church. Just like most Easter masses, the cathedral was packed so my
friends and I weren’t even able to sit together. As for the mass, it was long, dull and boring, BUT the St
Mary’s Cathedral was a STUNNING church.
It is built in the old style with paintings and colourful statues, so it
was definitely worth going.
Afterwards we grabbed so nice pub food for lunch and opened the Kinder
Eggs I bought for us to celebrate Easter.
Our plan was to walk up Holyrood Park and see Arthur’s Seat, but due to
time constraints and the fact that were in no way prepared to actually hike. We cut our walk short after finding a decent view for some
photo opportunities.
This trip had many highlights, so I’m glad
to announce we ended on one as well.
Nicole and Elyse had a bus to catch around 9pm so we wanted to get an
early dinner together. We ended up
spending about 3 hours at the Elephant House, which is notoriously the same
place JK Rowling began writing the Harry Potter series. The drinks were warm and lovely and the
food was amazing, but never underestimate how pleasant it can be to just sit
and chat with friends at a café while traveling. The café had a wonderful view of Edinburgh Castle, so the
entire atmosphere was like the city itself: enchanting.
The more I think about it, the more I fall
in love with Edinburgh, but I’m not sure if it’s a city I would like to live
in. After walking back to my
hostel at night, the moon would hang over the castle and the entire city felt
very eerie. It almost had the
constant feeling of Halloween.
Here it was, Easter Sunday, and I was just waiting for ghosts to start
singing like it’s a Tim Burton film.
It is a very safe feeling city.
I never felt threatened or like I would be attacked, but I cannot even
describe how spooky it was to look up at the castle from Prince’s Street and
feel a shudder run down your spine.
Maybe the entire city is haunted…. Wouldn’t surprise me being in
Scotland.
I know that should be the end of my
Scottish adventures but we really ended
the Easter weekend with one more Scottish reference. Last night, my flatmates, Elyse, Melissa and I went to see Macbeth at Trafalgar Studio in
London. What makes this even
better? James McAvoy was in it! What
better way to end our Scottish weekend than to see the brilliant Scottish
McAvoy play the devilish Scotsman, Macbeth? I can think of no better way. McAvoy was incredible as was the entire cast. I’d love to give a review of this show,
but I feel like I am not enough of a Shakespeare expert to give it justice or
proper critique. I will say that
it was terrifying and gritty and unlike any other Shakespeare production I have
ever seen. It just proves my point
again that those Scotsmen are nuts.
So that was Easter weekend, I hope everyone
else also had a pleasant time whether you got the bank holiday or not.
Cheers,
Janelle
Last Saturday, my flatmates and I decided to have a dinner together to celebrate only having a week left in the program. At that moment, I don't think it was really hitting that I will be leaving London incredibly soon. To be honest, I don't think it will hit me until I am back home. Than the water works will fall into a pathetic melt down of forever depression. Anyways, we wanted Mexican and ended up getting burritos from the Wahaca Street Van. This little London chain was probably the best burrito I have ever experienced in my entire life. To make it even better, we ate on a little bench right on the South Bank and just chatted about our wonderful time in London. As a final gift for my flatmates, I made a little card with a caricature of each of the girls. I don't like to brag but as far as my somewhat Illustrator skills go, I think I nailed all of us. Tower Bridge doesn't look to shabby either. After we ate, we ended up grabbing dessert at a little Italian place and whole night just ended up being a pleasant experience. We ended up getting back to our flat fairly early because the all four of us were set to be volunteers at the London Marathon.
Right on cue, when I have a laundry of lists of exciting events to participate in, I began to feel myself getting sick. Still, I trudged on because I am a brave soul. I went to work and then prepared myself for the Phoenix concert. I was feeling so terrible that I thought I would go to the concert, stay for only two songs to get my money's worth and then bolt home to writhe in pain in my bed. Luckily, I was seeing Phoenix and as soon as they started I was instantly glued to my spot in the crowd. Thomas Mars is just an amazing performer and their shows are always spectacular. I was glad that the last song of the encore, he moved to the back of the standing pit and CLIMBED up into the balcony to sing for a bit. He then proceeded to climb back down and crowd surf himself back to the stage. When I saw them in 2010, I was able to get a hold of his shoe for a bit, but unfortunately this time around, I didn't get a chance to touch him at all. Oh well, it was good enough concert to make me forget momentarily that I was sick, so I would say it was a £30 well spent. This concert may have not been as emotionally draining as Of Monsters and Men but still, GOD can Phoenix put on a good concert. 
