Blogs from Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 384

Amazing new experiences marking brief respites from intense lifelessness is how I would describe the last few months. The situation I've found myself in has to be one of the worst of my life. But at the same time it's put money in the bank and provided opportunities I could never have imagined. Long commute, miserable weather, unfulfilling job - best forget about it. I've been looking for somewhere new to work, but until recently have had difficulty getting my head and heart to agree on some promising sounding opportunities. I have, however, had some entirely agreeable breaks in between job hunting and work: I climbed the first two Munros of my life on a beautiful, sunny, windless highland day. A Munro is a "mountain" over 3000ft and are without a doubt the most sought after ... read more

"Anything off the trolley, dears?" So we took a trip of Jackobite Steam Engine, in other words "The Hogwarts Express". We were in first class which means we had "complimentary tea and biscuits and more leg room" (said in a British accent). After settling down, we explored the train and found the actual compartments that were used for the Harry Potter movies, and surprisingly enough they looked EXACTLY the same in real life as they do on the big screen! It was pretty incredible. The scenery during the trip was a bunch of mountains, which is where they filmed the Quidditch matches and Hagrid's hut (if you have no idea what I'm talking about then you obviously haven't lived) and so it was cool to see that, even if we don't know exactly where it ... read more

UK Roadtrip #1 June 28th - June 30th Anna and I set out on the evening of the 27th and took an 8-hour megabus up to Glasgow. Had a brief rest/freshen up the morning of the 28th at sufi family house of patrick and rosaleen (and her son liam who i hadn't seen in seven years!), and then on to helensburgh and in search of this tent state out in the boondocks. We were quite unsure of where we were going until we suddenly happened upon it. The first thing I noticed is that is was very quiet. I wondered if we were in the right place. The second thing I noticed was that it looked really small. All I could see was about 3 tents and a camper van, which perplexed me since when I ... read more

7/4/2007 Independence Day really takes on a new meaning for me when I’m living in a country ruled by the Queen, and where the people talk about the Act of Union in 1707 as if it happened yesterday, and they take it personally when the truth is every “Scot” (correctly “Brit”) living today was born into the UK and unified and governed under one queen. This is also the country who had elections two months ago, and for the first time in history, the minority party is in power. The Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, has told the Queen to her face that his goal while in power is to make Scotland an independent nation. Every Scot I’ve spoken witih talks about how the Act of Union in 1707 was the ... read more

7/3/2007 Tuesday Today Marie and I took a day trip - I had such a good time with my Heart of Scotland tour last week, I decided to go on another. Last week, I saw the highlands of Scotland, today I saw the lowlands and the Borders, and went into Northern England. Our first stop was Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin Glen. Rosslyn Chapel is an amazing example of gothic architecture. It was founded in 1446 by Sir William St. Clair. I loved this quote that pretty much summed up how I felt about the chapel: “The building, I believe, may be pronounced unique, and I am confident it will be found curious, elaborate, and singularly interesting, impossible to designate by any given on familiar term (Britton 1812).” Rosslyn Chapel’s real name is The Collegiate Church of ... read more