April 2, 2010
We finally got some much needed sleep and enjoyed breakfast at the pub in our hotel. We left early (9:00) to meet our tour guide at St. Andrew's Square (he's the patron sain to Scotland). We enjoyed a three-hour walking tour of this small but extremely beautiful city (200,00 less people than Seattle), ending with a tour of the Edinburgh Castle. Leading the tour was a wonderful Scottish Nationalist Morag (which, she informed us, means "princess").
We walked through Holy Rood park, wandered through one of Edinbugh's many cemetaries, and saw monuments for Sir Walter Scott, Adam Smith, and Robert Burns (the national poet of Scotland). Old Edinburgh is beautiful, if not a bit tourist-y, though we were a tad bit upset by their skipping of the one-o'clock gun (because it was Good Friday). We got the see the Royal Crown Jewels (2nd oldest in Europe) and the prison (with a Revoluntionary War Era drawing of the American Flag etched into one of the doors).
After the tour, we split into somewhat smaller gtroups, though ours still had seven, and wandered down the Royal Mile in search of lunch. We eventually found the George IV Bridge which lead us to The Elephant House, our goal. It is rumored that this is the place where JK Rowling wrote on the famed papker napkin to being the Harry Potter series! This trip is turning into a bit of a Potter pilgrimage, which wasn't our original goal, I promise.
After lunch, a couple of us peeked into the drawers at the table we were sitting at and they were stuffed full of notes on napkins, receipts, maps, scraps of paper. Some were random, some drawings, some poems, some letters to JK, Ali even found a "letter" meant to have been written by Harry himself while on holiday in Edinburgh with Ginny and the kids. We all contributed a note and I stole one I particularly liked. I also took a napkin and pasted it into my journal with the hopes that it brings me the same literary luck it brought good old Jo.
We wandered some more, read Richard III aloud, and decided to attend a Good Friday service at a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian!) just down the street. The service was lovely and we stayed for hot-crossed-buns, tea, and conversation after. Everyone was quite friendly. One girl about our age invited us out to a pub for dinner with some of her friends and her. It was lovely to get to know some people our same age. We stayed up late and were proud to beat jet-lag once more.
Hopefully Saturday brings more sunshine!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Travel, Travel, Travel, Travel.
April 1, 2010
So much flying! I left SPU on the morning of March 31st at NINE o'clock after a lovely night with my beautiful roommate, Kathleen, and our wonderful houseguest, Sadie. After gathering at the Sea-Tac airport, we boarded the plane and set off for the wide blue yonder. Over nine hours later, we landed in Amsterdam at EIGHT AM on April 1st! Crazy amounts of time change. It felt great to finally be on our way after the months and months of planning.
After a short lay-over in the Amsterdam Airport (5th largest in Europe) and the learning of the German for "elbow," (it's elbowgen, if you were wondering) and we got back on a plane headed for Scotland!
We are now in (snowy?!?) Edinburgh and are extremely tired. A bus ride to the hotel to drop off our bags and we recieved our first adventurous assignment from Dr. Reinsma: Find Blackwells (a large bookstore) and our HUGE, FREE copies of the complete Chaucer. We wandered for a while but eventually found it, with the help of some friendly locals.
On the way back to the hotel, Chaucer tomes in hand, we stopped in for a spot of tea at the Black Medicine Coffee Co. where (drum roll please) JK Rowling wrote the beginnings of the Harry Potter series! We are sure that we are now destined to all write epic masterpieces as a result of our encounter with this obviously magical location. We have plans to return tomorrow to begin work.
Back to the hotel, checked in to our beautiful quad room with windows overlooking a huge park, we are all trying very hard NOT to nap and it's very difficult. The goal is to stay up until at least Eight PM so as to beat the jeg-lag phenomenon. Showers and food restore some health and off again through the blustery day!
So much flying! I left SPU on the morning of March 31st at NINE o'clock after a lovely night with my beautiful roommate, Kathleen, and our wonderful houseguest, Sadie. After gathering at the Sea-Tac airport, we boarded the plane and set off for the wide blue yonder. Over nine hours later, we landed in Amsterdam at EIGHT AM on April 1st! Crazy amounts of time change. It felt great to finally be on our way after the months and months of planning.
After a short lay-over in the Amsterdam Airport (5th largest in Europe) and the learning of the German for "elbow," (it's elbowgen, if you were wondering) and we got back on a plane headed for Scotland!
We are now in (snowy?!?) Edinburgh and are extremely tired. A bus ride to the hotel to drop off our bags and we recieved our first adventurous assignment from Dr. Reinsma: Find Blackwells (a large bookstore) and our HUGE, FREE copies of the complete Chaucer. We wandered for a while but eventually found it, with the help of some friendly locals.
On the way back to the hotel, Chaucer tomes in hand, we stopped in for a spot of tea at the Black Medicine Coffee Co. where (drum roll please) JK Rowling wrote the beginnings of the Harry Potter series! We are sure that we are now destined to all write epic masterpieces as a result of our encounter with this obviously magical location. We have plans to return tomorrow to begin work.
Back to the hotel, checked in to our beautiful quad room with windows overlooking a huge park, we are all trying very hard NOT to nap and it's very difficult. The goal is to stay up until at least Eight PM so as to beat the jeg-lag phenomenon. Showers and food restore some health and off again through the blustery day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)