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Published: February 12th 2007
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After a short but potent night of drinking, I decided, last minute, to go with my two new roommates and a visiting fifth Canadian roommate to Stirling. Before I go on with the story, people should understand the significance of this trip to our visiting Canadian friend, Jeff. He has spent the past month backpacking through most of Western Europe; Glasgow was his last stop, before his return to Ontario. He’s only been here sleeping on our remarkably uncomfortable couch since Wednesday and just left this afternoon. In this short time he’s become a welcome fifth roommate. He came to Scotland to live his dream of re-enacting Braveheart in Stirling. Oh, and he came to visit his childhood friend Sarah (our roommate).
I wasn’t planning on going on this trip and had just cancelled a pre planned trip to the Glasgow Science Centre. Jeff’s enthusiasm was contagious, though. A trip that was originally planned for him and Sarah became an international tour group led by our Scottish guide Jeanette. Sarah, Jeff, me, Brazilian roommate Luciana, her friend Thais, and Jeanette all trekked out a little before noon for the train station. Coincidentally, Scotland was playing Wales in the 6 Nations
Superloo
Not just a regular toilet. Rugby Tournament and masses of people were on their way to Edinburgh for the game. As a side note, we had a heart breaking loss to England last weekend but beat Wales yesterday 21 - 9.
Stirling is only a short 40 minute train ride away and very picturesque like most cities around here. It’s a small city flanked by gorgeous snow dusted hills. Jeanette lived there for four years so was the perfect person to show us around. Our plan was to go to the Wallace Monument, Bannockburn fields and maybe the castle. By the time we got our act together and arrived in Stirling it was already almost 1pm. To save money we walked from the train station to the Wallace Monument. Not a short walk and not extremely pleasant with a light drizzling of freezing rain.
Fortunately (unfortunately?), I’ve walked long distances in much worse weather through Glasgow. This is the mentality that I’ve developed here:
cloudy skies? - Wear waterproof boots and jacket
sunny skies? - Wear waterproof boots and jacket
windy weather? - Wear waterproof boots and jacket
We walked over Stirling Bridge, now a pleasant pedestrian bridge. After about 30 minutes
we reached the base of the Wallace Monument. Since Braveheart the movie, a statue resembling Gibson’s portrayal of Wallace has been erected in the parking lot. This has been a topic of controversy resulting in acts of vandalism on the statue. In the pictures you can see his nose has been broken off. A few of us picked up some souvenirs in the gift shop, most notably the plastic sword for the Braveheart re-enactment. After a short climb up to the monument we stopped for more pictures and were approached by a man in full fancy dress gear. He was playing a soldier in Wallace’s army. He took us to the side of the monument and told us the story about Wallace’s fight for freedom from the English. I was wondering if he was some busker who would collect money after the demonstration but turned out to be a council worker working for the city to promote the monument. He was really good and we saw him do the same demonstration for other unsuspecting tourists when we were leaving. I didn’t want to spend the 4 pounds to go up the 200 steps but spent the 15 minutes with Jeanette
Night Out
Before the big Stirling adventure in the gift shop and bought a cool pencil sharpener that is a mini catapult.
We didn’t have enough time to go anywhere else after the Wallace Monument adventure. The decision was made to do the re-enactment on the grassy area around the Stirling Bridge. Jeanette got the only other speaking role of the weasel face Scottish guy who tells Wallace he doesn’t really want to fight. Jeff was well prepared with the movie clip recorded onto his camera and blue face paint. We didn’t need the clip in the end with Jeff remembering all the lines from the movie. Thais filmed it. I played the arm flailing idiot who would beat the English by slapping them like their grandmother. It was another great day in Scotland.
Don’t forget to check out our re-enactments of Braveheart videos.
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