Scottish Adventures

After a VERY long week of exams,
a stressful working of the
Italian transportation system,
and an hour and a half
delay that no Italian attendant
felt was important to tell us passengers,
I finally boarded my plane to
Edinburgh.

Now, what is in Edinburgh?
To be honest, I had no clue as I
walked onto that plane, chose
an aisle seat next to two lively
Scotsmen.
All I knew was that at the end
of this 2 hour 40 minute flight,
Christofer would be waiting for me
at the airport.
And that was motivation enough for
me to get on that plane.

Before I write of our lovely reunion,
I have a question for you.
Have you ever flown at night?
When you look through that tiny window
that obviously needs a good cleaning
with Windex, you'll see what looks like
a million stars lying on the ground.
Its breathtaking.
Even the weathered traveler has
to take a peek at the sight,
because how often do you get
to see a view from 30,000 ft?

Now. Wherever you have traveled
that has allowed you to experience this,
I GUARANTEE
that the view was not as
beautiful, spectacular,
and not as breathtaking as the
one you get as you fly over Scotland.
 Let me explain to you why.

So, if you will remember,
it had been a long day of traveling
and 2 exams and I was about ready
for a little cat nap.
But, somehow I stayed awake,
probably because I hate planes so much.
too high in the air.
anyway, so I decided to look over my
two row-mates to the window.
And this is the best description of what I saw.

A golden river of light.

It weaved through the landscape of
hills and mountains.
There was practically no light
away from the main stream,
so it can't even be compared to the
'stars' I had seen on other flights.
 And while flying over america i saw
bright whites, near blue hues.
Over Scotland the lights were only gold.
And they flowed between the
large dark spaces of hills was amazing.
I really can't explain it here.
So I guess you'll just have to
take a night flight over Scotland
if you want to know first hand
what I'm talking about.

Overall, I guess that was a pretty
good entrance into Scotland.
Besides the fact that the landing
was the most terrifying experience
I've ever hand on a plane.
Let's just say we hit turbulence
as we were approaching the landing strip
and as we were landing.

It didn't really matter what the landing
was like, as long as I got there.
So I raced down the stairs from the plane,
got packed into a shuttle,
escaped into the luggage pick up,
raced through passport check and customs,
and walked out of the gate to be
promptly attacked by Christofer.
With hugs, of course.

Next we left the airport in, what else,
but a double decker bus into the
City Center.
And as I arrived in the "New Town" of Edinburgh,
I realized this trip was much more than
just a vacation to visit the boyfriend.

First off: New Town is older than the
United States.
Secondly: they also have Old Town,
whose most prominent feature is a giant
medieval castle.

When you think of a castle,
what you see is pretty much the
castle in Edinburgh.
Big looming stone building,
teetering on the edge of a
mountain that has a sheer cliff on one
side,
and a thing the Scots call the Royal Mile
on the other.
This is just a road that leads from the
Queen's castle at the bottom of a hill
to the castle that sits at the top of it.
Our enthusiastic Australian Tour Guide
informed us that the Scots made
their mile that exact length,
.8 more than the English mile,
just to annoy the English who travel there.

So, we romped around Scotland.
Two of Chris's friends from Dundee
came and joined us.
Jeff and Wendy.
They are both from China.
It was fun talking to them
and getting their views of America.

Soon enough we left the freezing
and raining city of Edinburgh
for the drizzling and freezing
city of Dundee.

For you Carolinians out there,
Dundee looks remarkably like Columbia.
Gray buildings, gray streets,
everything coated over with
a nice layer of depression.
The outskirts of the city,
like the giant hill known as the Law,
are quite nice.
As is the landscape around Dundee,
with the rolling green hills and
plentiful amounts of Scottish sheep.

A note on these sheep:
they are adorable.
compared to our American giants,
they are cute, little, fluffy versions
that i wanted to jump off the bus
and steal, but I figured my parents
wouldn't like the addition to the family...

So, about Dundee.
They have bars, and a casino,
and more bars, and a club or two,
have i mentioned bars?
they come in several nationalities
and are scattered throughout the city.
I'll speak of one in particular: The Globe.

It was my first and favorite Scottish
pub we went too.
It was a very educational experience.
I realized I like Guinness
and that it tastes like coffee.
I also watched a Manchester
United game and other people
around me also cared about it.
it was amazing.

A last tidbit about this weekend
is about the location of Dundee.
Its on the "tay".
which either means river, or
bay, or inlet, or something
to do with the fact that it is located
near the mixing of a river and the ocean.
Thus is beautiful, but its location
also causes a fun effect when a
storm is coming in.
the mixing water gets rougher.
so, when you boyfriend talks
you into going for a walk
near the water on a night
when a storm is beginning to roll in:
reconsider.
else you will end up covered in sea water,
wet, cold, and a little bit cranky.
Lucky for me,
I decided to date a boy
who loves that weather.

Overall,
Scotland was fun.
Definitely worth going back too,
especially since I only saw two cities.
And I still have to go hunt down Nessie.