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Published: August 2nd 2009
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I am of course lying when I say that this is being written from Edinburgh. I left there a few months ago, and have returned to the States. I felt bad just leaving my blog at Prauge, when so much happened in Scotland since then. I'll avoid the stories of exams, and saying goodbye to dear friends and instead focus on the good things that happened during that last month of my great adventure. The blogs about Orkney and my family's visit have been quietly published so as not to flood your inboxes with too many old tales, but if you'd like to read them they are there. Slainté! I hope to go back soon, and that you'll be able to go with me. Thanks for reading! Edinburgh, Winter to Spring
This city is incredible in that it undergoes an unbelievable transformation from darkness to light. I started this semester walking to my classes in a weird half-light, even at high noon. The sun would rise at 9 and set at 4. Our rooms were drafty, and we stayed warm with gallons of hot tea and conversations in our kitchen/common room. On weekends that we weren't
traveling or tearing our hair out over schoolwork, Jordan and I explored the pubs, and Leah and Charley explored the clubs, and we'd compare notes the next day, each pair very satisfied with our own experiences, and content to simply hear about the others'.
As the days got warmer and classes came to an end we began traveling much more and there were fewer times when we were all together. When we were, we marveled at how green everything was, and how the sun didn't set until 11, and would rise to our annoyance at 4:45. The time in between was marked not with darkness but a pale glow even in the early hours of the morning. The flowers bloomed, outdoor markets flourished, and the meadows that were so dead in winter came alive with impromptu barbecues and games. The sudden transformation made us wish that we could stay forever, if only the city could just stay like that!
Beltane
One of the biggest events in Edinburgh for the past 20 years has been the pagan Beltane Festival. We all got a group together to go up Calton Hill with the thousands of other revelers
to watch people light things on fire. Seriously, it's a fire festival. In the (somewhat wild) spirit of things we painted our faces with flowers and other designs and settled back to watch the madness that was a lot of paint, a lot of fire and very little clothing.
The latter, we did not participate in-even on the first of May it was far too cold. So cold, in fact that I bought a torch from one of the vendors and we huddled around it to keep warm. The costumes and dancing were fantastic, and we all had a blast watching other people go seriously crazy. And I do mean Crazy!
Zoo!!
For one of our last adventures in Scotland Leah and I visited the Edinburgh Zoo. Our primary goal: Penguins!! Every day the Zoo hosts a penguin parade where as many penguins as want to, can leave their enclosure and walk around in an area where people gather to watch them. Leah and I were right at the front row as they went by, and they were so close we could touch one! The smaller penguins were far quicker and zipped around the path,
while we were very tempted to smuggle one out with us, the zookeepers would probably not have been all that amused.
The zoo itself is old, but host to a large variety of creatures, especially monkeys and chimps! There’s an observatory for biologists to study smaller monkeys and they’ve just opened a massive chimp complex. The building spree isn’t just limited to habitats for our primate cousins. The sole polar bear in the zoo is getting ready to move into a hundred+ acre area far to the north of Edinburgh, where it will be able to roam about in peace. It was such a pity that we only discovered this little gem at the end of our stay, it’s certainly not what tourists normally go see, but it was really lovely.
The Globe
My last adventure in the UK happened just two days before I left. I flew down to London for the night to see a dream come true. I got to see one of the Bard’s plays at the Globe. That night it was As You Like It, and I was thrilled! I’ve loved Shakespeare’s works for so long that to be in
London, in the new Globe Theatre was truly amazing.
Afterwards lots of people asked me if it lived up to my much expanded expectations- the answer is a resounding YES! I’d splurged and bought a ticket in the lower balcony, and once I got there I splurged even more- paying
a whole pound to rent a cushion for the performance. I could have been far cheaper and simply paid five pounds (the same price that it was in Shakespeare's time, with appropriate inflation) for a standing space by the stage, but I felt like going all out. The actors were brilliant, the audience a full and responsive house, and the weather cooperated! It really didn’t matter that I’d arrived in London an hour before the 7PM curtain, and it didn’t matter that I left the next morning at 5 AM to catch the flight back to Scotland.
Goodbye
The day before I left Scotland I hiked up Arthur’s Seat one last time, a chance to say goodbye to the whole city. The weather cooperated, for once being sunny and beautiful as I whiled away the hours hiking around the summit. I sat for a long time at the top, looking out over the Meadows and the Royal Mile, just looking. The sadness that I expected didn’t hit then, that came later, and at that moment I was so happy with the time that I’d spent there, and so sure that the next morning and the next, I’d still be waking up in Edinburgh, that all that came to me was peace.
It’s certainly not true that I woke up there for all the mornings that have passed between then and now; but I’m convinced that a part of me still does.
I still wake up to the chill breeze blowing through the place where my window doesn’t shut all the way, still fix my tea with milk and my toast with real butter, still make the long walk through the city or the suburbs in my wellies, and come back home again to quiet evenings in warm kitchens or long conversations with strangers in the pubs.
Someday I’ll do all those things again, but for now there’s brand new adventures to be had, and many miles to go before I return to those sweet memories.
Edina! Scotia's darling seat!
All hail thy palaces and tow'rs;
Where once, beneath a Monarch's feet,
Sat Legislation's sovereign pow'rs:
From marking wildly-scatt'red flow'rs,
As on the banks of Ayr I stray'd,
And singing, lone, the ling'ring hours,
I shelter in thy honour'd shade.
~Robert Burns
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Ian
non-member comment
Happened upon your blog...
...and read the whole thing. Just wanted to applaud you for it. Extremely well written and interesting. (From an EU alumnus Scot who spent some years in the US).