Oxford and Edinburgh!

---

Hello!

I'm not actually writing from Scotland, because I did not want to carry my computer around, but since I just got back this morning, I figured it was okay to put it as my location.

So, I had an amazing weekend - I got out of England for the first time! yay! But, I'll start with Saturday at Oxford.

---

On Saturday morning I got up super early (okay, only 6:30, but still early) and left for Oxford around 8:30. (We got a little lost going to meet the group, and got on a tube going the wrong direction - but we still left on time, so that was good) I met Maggi's program leader and some of the girls in her group. It was wonderful to be able to come along with them, and I had a great time - the girls were all really nice and friendly.

We got there around 10 and met our tour guide. Everyone was really cold, so we went to the store first, so everyone could get sweatshirts. Being a Minnesotan through and through, I didn't think it was too bad, so I just browsed until we started the tour. The tour guide took us around the campus a little and told us about the history of Oxford. There are 38 colleges within Oxford, which is huge, and it is the oldest university in the UK, but not in Europe. (the Sorbonne is older, and there might be one in Italy that is older - he wasn't sure). Originally all English students went to the Sorbonne, but when the English and French Kings got into a fight over something, all the students were forced to leave France, and so Oxford was founded. It was all very interesting, and something else I would like to read about.

Most of the colleges were closed because they had their matriculation, which is when a student officially becomes a member of the university, and they have a little ceremony. It was pretty wild because there were tons of students walking around with the robes on. I really wanted to take a picture, but I didn't want to be too creepy, so I refrained. We did go into Jesus College to look at the "quad" set up, and our tour guide told us that a lot of people actually assume that Jesus College was founded by Jesus... There are several colleges with Jesus or Christ in the name (all founded by monarchs, I believe) and apparently some people actually think that Jesus went up to England and founded them... that's pretty dumb...

When we were left on our own, we went to the University Church of St. Mary and climbed up the tower so we could walk around and take pictures of the whole of Oxford. The stairwell was a little creepy - especially since people were coming up and down, so you had to try to stop so people could get around you. Some other tourists almost pulled me down while I they were going down past me - that was a little scary. But, the view totally made up for it, it was amazing. And you could walk around all four sides of the tower, so it was really a 360 degree view, very exciting. Maggi claims to be afraid of heights, but she seemed okay, so I might make her go on the London Eye with me soon!

Then Maggi and I walked over to the covered market, which wasn't really like the other markets here, it was basically just a collection of boutique shops and butchers and fish stores... It was interesting to walk around in. We met back up with some of the girls there, and all ate lunch together at a Pie place. I think it was my first real English meal, I had a pork and apple pie, on mash, with gravy, and mashed peas on top. I ended up scraping most of the peas off (they were pretty good, but just didn't mix with the other stuff. The pie and the mash though, was amazing. It was really crusty though, so it was a little hard to eat, but otherwise it was really good. I was glad that we decided to eat there, we had started walking away, but I could tell that Maggi wanted to go back, so we decided to try it, and the rest of the girls came with.

We walked to the Oxford Natural History Museum, which was really neat. They had a Dodo skeleton, which was interesting. Apparently it's a pretty popular attraction. The museum was beautiful though, it had huge glassed in ceilings, and there were pillars all the way around the gallery made of different stones, think they are all native to Britain. And between the pillars were sculptures of famous scientists, which was pretty neat. I took a lot of pictures. It also had dinosaurs! I guess I had never thought about it, but there were dinosaurs in England, and apparently the skeletons were the first to be termed dinosaurs, and then people started realized that they were everywhere. Pretty interesting stuff. It was also interesting to see how the artist interpretation of how the dinosaurs would look has changed since then.

After the Natural History Museum, we walked down to Christ Church College, which is famous for Lewis Carroll and Harry Potter. It was really interesting, and I was trying to imagine what it would be like to go to school there - incredible. I wasn't sure exactly what Lewis Carroll's connection was to the college, I'm not sure if he went there, taught there, or was just inspired by it... I think the Dean was the father of Alice, the girl he based his stories on - that might be it. The first two Harry Potter films had some filming done there. We got to go in the Dining Hall where they filmed, which was interesting, but it didn't really jump out at me. I guess it's been a while since I've seen the movies. It was very beautiful though. Then we walked through the Quad and when to Christ Church College Cathedral, which was amazing (as most churches here are). It was huge, and so old. I felt really weird taking pictures in a church, but there wasn't anyone praying, as far as I could tell, so that made me feel a little bit better. There were some amazing stained glass windows and the architecture was so cool.

After that it was time to head home, which was a little sad, because we hadn't gotten to walk around everywhere, but we did see a lot, so it was a good day, all in all.

---

When we got back, I took a shower and packed up my bag. I had a minor crisis when the internet quit working and we still hadn't gotten any information from the company we booked a tour with... But, we just gave up on that, and left for the bus. It took a little while to find the bus station because it's not actually connected to the underground or the train stations, so we had to walk the streets to find it. but it wasn't too bad.

We got there and waited a little bit for the bus - we were surprised at how many people were traveling that late to Scotland, but I guess people love the Mega Bus (it was super packed on the way home too, which was weird). We slept through most of the ride there, the bus was obscenely cold, and we just happened to be sitting right by the fan, which was frustrating. Our drivers made good time though, and we actually got there at about 7:45am instead of 8:30, which was pretty wild. Since it was a Sunday, there was basically nothing to do that early in the morning, so we roamed a bit, but ended up eating breakfast at a McDonald's, because nothing else was open. It was the nicest McDonald's I've ever been in. The ones in London are quite nice, but this one was wild, it had two floors of dining, and everything was very modern. I had 2 hashbrowns, a donut (they have donuts at McDonald's here, and they are amazing!), and orange juice. Not a particularly healthy breakfast, I know, but quite good. We sat around for a while and looked at the map of Edinburgh and tried to decide how to start our day. We decided that we would walk or bus down to the shore and walk around a bit, since that didn't have an opening time, and then by the time we got back up to the city things would be open.

So we set off to find the bus stop, but the map was wrong and there was a lot of construction, so all of the bus stops were moved around. So we decided to try and walk it, but judging from the map it was going to be a two mile walk - so when we finally discovered a bus stop that went the way we wanted we just waited for it. So, we got to ride a Scottish bus, which is basically the same as the London buses, but not double decker. It was so nice not walking there. But, when we got there, we discovered that "Ocean Terminal" isn't actually much of a beach. There were ships docked there and some office buildings and housing, and a giant mall! We walked on a little path for a bit that went by the water. It was called Ocean Terminal, but when I got back I looked on a map and the coast is actually on the Firth of Forth which is off the North Sea, so I don't know what ocean they are talking about... We decided to check out the mall and it was HUGE! It was really weird seeing a mall here because they are not very popular in England (or elsewhere in Europe I have been told) and this one was very big and modern looking. I liked it. There was a tour of a former royal ship that was on the water outside, we didn't want to pay to tour it, but we did buy some Scottish souvenirs at the store, so that was nice.

We then left the mall and took the bus back into the "New Town." We tried to figure out how to walk from "New Town" into "Old Town" but just ended up wandering around until we found a really neat cemetery. You know how I love cemeteries, so I really enjoyed it. It was super old and had some really amazing stones and monuments in it. There was also a large memorial to Scottish American soldiers with Abraham Lincoln on it! I love Abraham Lincoln, and who knew that I would find him out here? So weird. I think it was for the Civil War, which I thought was a little odd, but still neat. Some of the mausoleums were quite creepy; I loved it.

When we walked out of the cemetery we found a path leading up Calton Hill, which is a big hill that has a great view of Edinburgh and a few monuments on it. It was impressive. There was a partial replica of the Parthenon, which I didn't understand at all - but I came home and looked it up. Apparently Scotland used to be called the "Athens of the North" and so someone decided to make a copy of the Parthenon as a National Monument (it was for Scottish soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars). People think that it was actually supposed to be a complete and fancy copy of it, but they ran out of money, so it's basically just three walls of columns... I liked it, but what a weird story! There were a few other monuments on it, and amazing views of Edinburgh, both Old Town and New Town. We took a seat in the grass for a while to have a snack and just enjoy it. It was beautiful outside; it had been cloudy, but the clouds were breaking up while we sat on the hill, it was amazing. Across the way we could see Arthur's Seat, which is the main hill in the Holyrood Park which looked beautiful and huge. It's supposed to be quite rugged and wild for being basically in the center of the city. We wanted to climb it, but we didn't know if we had time, and we still had a lot of walking to do, so that probably would've killed us faster. (And, it started raining about an hour later, so we would've been really wet!)

After enjoying the view for a bit, we walked down to Old Town to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is kind of like the Buckingham Palace of Edinburgh. We did decide to tour that (which was nice for Maggi, I think, since she didn't get a change to tour Buckingham), it was so beautiful. It was a bit smaller than Buckingham, but it had the private chambers of Mary, Queen of Scots, so that was really interesting. A lot of the stuff was authentic to when it was built, so that was really interesting. Apparently the Queen lives there in the summer months - it must be so beautiful there in the summer. Connected to the Palace is the remains of an abby that was originally on that spot before the palace was built. It was so cool, it was really falling apart and turning green, but it was interesting to imagine what it was like, and the audio guide pointed out the different architectural styles, that show how it was kind of pieced together over the centuries. Very interesting. Then we got to walk around the Palace Grounds, which run next to the Holyrood Park. It was lovely - the audio guide said that every summer the Queen throws a garden party there with 800-some Scottish guests, with members of the Order of the Thistle (the oldest order of chivalry in Scotland), on the grounds, that must be pretty wild. Someday I guess I need to be famous so I can go to some of these amazing parties and ceremonies, that would be pretty impressive.

After the Palace it started to rain pretty hard, so we walked up the Royal Mile towards Edinburgh Castle and ducked in and out of gift shops until we found a place to eat lunch. It was called Jenny Ha's and was a really old pub. There was a football (soccer) game playing and a ton of guys were sitting around the bar watching it and getting really excited - that was entertaining, although I have no idea who was playing. I had been hearing a lot about Haggis, which is some sort of traditional Scottish meal, so I wanted to try it. The only thing on the menu was mash with chicken stuffed with haggis, so I ordered that. It was a really good meal. I had no idea what Haggis was, and I didn't want to be a stupid tourist and ask, so I just looked it up now... And I think I'm glad that I didn't know what it is... According to Wikipedia: "there are many recipes, most of which have in common the following ingredients: sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours... Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savory flavor." I agree with the description of the taste though, it was quite good and it was slightly nutty. And now I understand why other people seem to be afraid of it. Well, anyway, if you ever go to Scotland, I would recommend it, but I probably wouldn't eat it plain - it was good with the chicken.

When we finished eating we continued walking up the Royal Mile ducking into stores as we saw them and just having a good time. It kind of rained on and off, which I didn't mind too much, but Maggi looked cold. We were both pretty beat. We made it to the Elephant House, which is the cafe where J.K. Rowling first started writing Harry Potter on napkins, that was interesting. We didn't go in, but I did take pictures. We were trying to find the Scottish Museum of Flight, which wasn't on our map, because Maggi thought she could get some souvenirs for her boyfriend's family there, but it is actually on an airfield outside of Edinburgh, so we didn't make it there.

We finally got up to Edinburgh Castle at the other end of the Royal Mile, but we missed the last tour time, and we were both extremely sore (we had backpacks on - so heavy) so we decided to start walking back. We had a good leisurely walk out of Old Town and back into New Town, stopping to take pictures here and there. I felt a little lame going back to the bus station because it was only about 4:30, and our bus wasn't leaving until 10:30, but we had seen a lot, and most things were closing. We had also had a late lunch, so we didn't need to go find any place for dinner, and my back was killing me... So, I guess it was good. We did get really bored at the station though... We both bought some puzzle books at the bookstore there and got snacks at the coffee shop before it closed. I had an amazing "caramel shortbread" bar, which tasted like it had a graham cracker base, with a caramel-y middle section and a thin chocolate top - very good. I had seen them in other coffee shops, but never got one. Now I need to find a recipe for them - it was really good.

We were the first people at the station for our bus, and were going to go stand in line for it at about 10:15, but people started lining up at 10, so we had to get up and quick jump in line. There were a ton of people there, and luckily two buses showed up, one for direct to London and one for the other stops in between. Thanks to Maggi's clever maneuvering, we somehow managed to pass up a ton of people in the line as we waited to board and got a row together in the front seat. It was a pretty decent ride home our first driver was really friendly, and we wanted to tell him that we were cold, but we didn't want to bug him because we thought we were probably just getting his personal fan. But when we stopped to change drivers he left the door open and we were freezing, and he saw us and realized how cold we were and we chatted for a bit, and he told the new driver to keep it warmer for us. Which was really nice. The next driver was very business like, but he did keep it warmer, which was nice. The last driver was horrible... He was a younger guy, and he drove with his headphones on, very loudly, which I'm pretty sure is illegal here too. And he had the window open most of the time, which was freezing. The worst part though, is that when we were driving on the motorway back into London it was kind of stop and go (morning traffic) when I woke up, and I closed my eyes for a few minutes and realized that we weren't moving at all, but I could hear the cars moving around us. When I opened my eyes I saw that we were in the middle lane with our hazard lights on, the driver had his window open, headphones on, and his head was down in his hands, with his eyes closed, as cars were zooming around us. I was freaked out, I had no idea what to do, was he sick or dying, or was he too tired to drive... He had the hazards on, and that really confused me, since we were in the middle lane. I had no idea if I should've tapped him or anything - I was looking around to see if anyone else was awake and noticed what was going on, but no one was, so I just sat there wondering what to do. After a few minutes someone honked at us, and the driver immediately got up and started driving again. That was so weird!

But, finally we made it back (about an hour late at 8:30) and walked back to the tube station, and then back to our flat. I was very happy to find that the internet was back on, and spent a little time checking emails and such. Then I took a shower, slept until 2, and spent the rest of the day cleaning and doing stuff for class. It was a very relaxing day. I started this blog at night, and am now finishing it today (Tuesday morning). Now I'm going to get ready for class and head out.

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

-Manon


The Pictures:
Oxford
Edinburgh

---