I know you've missed the Scotland entries

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Last week, I hiked Arthur’s Seat as well as various other hill/rock formation things in Holyrood Park which begins at the foot of the palace. The rock formation on Arthur’s Seat is from the same volcano as the one the castle sits on. From the top of the hill and from the other hills I climbed, you can see a panoramic view of the city and a bit of the ocean. I say hill, but they are each pretty steep and large. Arthur’s Seat takes around 45 minutes to climb. The park was nice because you are surrounded by hilly greenery and flowers. It is sort of like the Highlands of Edinburgh (a very small version of the Highlands).

Last weekend, there was a Celidh street festival. It was under a tent with Celtic and Scotland related crafts and other products for sale, as well as related food and music. I saw the band King Arthur’s Old Men which consisted of, for lack of a better word, an African drum, a guitar, a fiddle, and a man who switched between an untraditional type of flute and pipes. Their music is what you think of when you hear the term “Scottish,” “Irish,” or “Celtic” (which kind of means both). They played dance jigs as well as slower songs. I saw them two of the days and really enjoyed them, and I saw a pipe band one of the days. I also discovered that caramel shortbread ice cream (which tastes as it sounds) is absolutely delicious! And that it would be really convenient if more beer breweries (of course a Scottish-specifically Edinburgh-one was there) decided to sell half-pints for half the price of a whole for those who just want a little taste.

On Tuesday, I want to an organ concert that was playing wedding tunes in anticipation for the Royal Wedding. I did this mainly to shut up any American friends who might ask why I didn’t do anything for the royal wedding (a couple had already started). Here’s the thing, I don’t really care that much about the royal family. Yes, it is interesting to see all the beautiful palaces and castles and see how they live (when in Rome etc…) but I didn’t understand the whole hoopla over the wedding. I don’t even give any thought to what my own wedding is going to be like, which apparently is something a lot of girls do. And then there are my feelings about how ridiculous the whole royal institution is and so on. And I definitely wasn’t going to spend more money to go to London (which was suggested) after visiting everything I wanted to just two weeks ago and then stand in a crowd and see basically nothing. Also, I wouldn’t define being enthusiastic about the royal wedding as a “Scottish” or even “UK” experience either, as there were plenty of UK citizens who didn’t give a crap either, more so in Scotland of course. That said, the organ concert was super cheap and I’ve been pretty much dying of boredom and looking for things to do so I thought “Why not? It would be nice spending an hour listening to some music.” And it was. The theatre was really beautiful too.

I had only recently read in a pamphlet that J.K. Rowling’s handprints in honor of her Edinburgh Award were cemented in the courtyard outside the City Chambers and the Balmoral hotel where she signed “J.K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room on 11th Jan 2007” on a marble bust of Hermes was on North Bridge. These were both places I pass by all the time but had not known their significance so after the concert, I went back and took pictures. I put my hand on top of her hand print in the hopes it would give me good luck in writing a best seller. Our hands are like the same size, is that a good sign? Then I bought some fudge at the fudge shop

The next day, I went to the Royal Botanic Gardens. I’m sure you all know what botanic gardens look like so I don’t think there is a need for much description. I guess the only thing that would make these gardens unique is the memorial garden for the Queen Mother. They set it up as a labrynth in the shape of an E and branching off into different sections with plants representing the different continents she travelled too. There was a timeline of her life on the ground and plaques of the societies she contributed to all around. There was also a little house covered with shells on the inside and the letter E and a memorial plaque.

Friday, I headed down to Festival Square to see what all the fuss was about. The wedding was playing on the big screen and British flags decorated the square. There were a lot of people there but they were pretty chill, only some mild cheering at the most important parts. I didn’t stick around the whole time. I saw the procession and the “I dos” and stayed for about 15 minutes after that and then left. I will admit it was nice, but I’m more excited for people to stop talking about it. On the way back on the Royal Mile, I saw some protests by the Scottish Socialist party, by a group with anarchy signs and signs that called the royal family thieves, and British loyalists who had a sign saying “BRITAIN. Like it or F.O. Support Future King William.” And there was some chanting going on. It was debatably more interesting than the wedding.

Yesterday was Edinburgh's Beltane Fire Festival. Beltane is a Gaelic festival and an old pagan ritual celebrating the first month of May. Edinburgh's festival is so popular that around 13,000 people attend every year. The festival was on Calton Hill. They started with a drum line on top of the national monument with fire swirls in the background. The drummers were cloaked and covered in black face masks. There were also people covered in white paint with flowers and vegetation in their hair, people covered in blue paint, and the people in red paint whose upper bodies were covered with nothing else. They walked in a procession around the hill with some of the performers carrying torches and you had to struggle to see anything. The key was to figure out where they were heading and then beat the rest of the crowd over there, or to stand at a high vantage point. I managed to see a good amount. The reds were the uninhibited spirits and so acted as such. Towards the end, through the form of dance, it seemed as if they were at battle with the whites and the reds lost (good vs. evil?). There were all kinds of dance rituals. The procession moved throughout the hill and stopped at various spots where they would perform a new ritual. At a small bonfire, the reds danced with flamed sticks, some sticks in the form of a circle that was used almost like a hula hoop and some in the form of swords that they fought each other with. There also seemed to be a reenacted sacrifice at this part with one of the blues standing in the middle of the fire holders and gradually falling down. Then the queen of the whites who you could identify by her elaborate flower headpiece did a sensual dance with a green man, who I’m going to assume represented nature, and they joined together with a kiss (I’m guessing this means there will be good harvest). Afterwards, a bigger bonfire was light after one of the blacks declared to the stars and to the earth, “Happy Birthday” and more dancing resumed. It was a very energetic, colorful, and interesting festival.

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