The Highlands and such

Hullo and a happy late May Day to you all! Since it's been a while, I thought I'd write a post about the tour my friend Lydia and I took of the Scottish Highlands. A couple weeks ago we boarded a bus at 8:30 am and commenced 12 hours of pre-packaged sightseeing. The scenery was lovely as always and we experienced all manner of weather on our jaunt. The first stop was a quick breakfast/bathroom break only made notable by the fact that is was home to Hamish the Highland Coo, who somewhat famous.




The first part of the trip was rather cold, damp, and drizzly, in true Scottish fashion. The good thing about lots of rain on and off during the day was the abundance of rainbows. If memory serves, we saw ten in all. On our way to the next stop we passed a couple of movie locations including the castle from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the hillside where Hagrid's cottage was located in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Our tour guide was really good about including sillier facts like these along with all of the history. Though he was an excellent guide, he did get a bit tiresome to listen to after a while. Worse than that was the unspeakably awful music he played when he wasn't talking. At first it was some pretty unobtrusive Scottish folk music, and while it made the whole experience feel more than a little kitschy, it was not unpleasant. Then things took a turn for the worse with the celtic covers of songs like the theme from Titanic. The only time it was really unbearable was when it was played so loudly late in the afternoon when everyone was trying to take a nap. ach well...

The next stop was Glencoe. It was a lovely spot, but I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to stop at many of the other, even prettier locations along the way. Around this area is an entry point for lots of hiking and walking trails, which looked like a lot of fun.



After another stop for lunch, we finally made it to our main destination of Loch Ness. I must say, it was even prettier than I had imagined.


Unfortunately, I didn't spy any monsters in the water but Nessie's presence was certainly felt. I did, however, have an encounter on the shore before our boat ride.


The boat ride was wonderful and offered some spectacular views. The water in the loch is peat-stained after being filtered through the ground and as a result is incredibly dark. For whatever reason, the water also looked really thick. In fact, it looked kind of like the loch was full of Guinness. After riding on the top deck, we ducked into the enclosed portion to get out of the wind and have a cup of coffee. I'm so glad we did because otherwise we might have missed this utterly fantastic sign:


When we finally arrived back in Edinburgh hungry and exhausted from an eventful day, we couldn't wait to get home to eat, so we popped into one of our favorite pubs that has cheap meals. I turned out to be a perfect end to the day. Bowls of piping hot beef stew with mashed potatoes were delicious and just what we needed. It was made even better by the group of musicians that play there every week. So we decided to linger over another pint and listen to them play for a while longer.

Some cultural events

Included in this weeks activities were two concerts (one of which I will write about in the Highland tour post) and a play. On Tuesday Lydia and I went to see Robin Williamson and John Renbourn at the Cabaret Bar. It may have been one of the best concerts I've ever seen. The venue was small and pretty intimate. The opening act was a great two-piece fiddle and guitar combo that was pretty lively. Lydia and I were two of only a handful of people under 50 in the audience. We bonded with the old Scottish men complaining about how awful one of the bartenders was. (I know very little about pouring Guinness, but I know enough to know that the way he was doing it was completely wrong. Criminal even.) Robin Williamson and John Renbourn played two pretty lengthy sets and performed a wide variety of material. A fair amount of it was their own work, but they also played some covers including songs by Blind Willie Johnson and Bob Dylan. Robin Williamson's version of Absolutely Sweet Marie was especially nice. Often they would seamlessly transition from one song into a well known Irish or Scottish folk song, with the audience joining in toward the end. Something I appreciated about the performance was that they maintained a really good balance between playing and talking to the audience. They told the perfect number of amusing anecdotes and always introduced their songs well. I suppose you get the feel for that sort of thing after performing for so many years. All in all it was an evening close to perfection and I'm really glad I got a chance to see them perform.


The next night we went and saw a production of The History Boys and The Kings Theater. I had only ever seen the film, so it was interesting to finally see the stage production. It was especially easy to compare the two since the dialogue was the same almost line for line. The remarkably tiny seats in the theater, which was clearly built in a time when people were much shorter, were a bit distracting though. Hard to enjoy a performance when your knees are crammed up against the chair in front of you. Enjoy it we did though. Aside from a few weird transitions, I though it was very well done indeed.

An overdue account of a short trip to Ireland

At the end of March we made a short jaunt to Belfast to see the sights and visit some friends from Macalester who are there for the semester. Thought it was a wonderful city to visit, I'm glad I made the choice to come to Edinburgh. I think it's a much better fit for me. While in Ireland I found myself missing things about Edinburgh and Scotland. As one my friends pointed out, isn't it nice to feel homesick for somewhere that isn't your home?

The journey there was an exhausting one. Between finishing essays and staying out late celebrating a friend's birthday, I was running on very few hours of sleep when we woke up at 6am to catch our plane. Upon arrival in Belfast we met up with Lily and Eddie (two fellow Mac students), got some breakfast, and began what would be a day full of walking. Our first stop was St. George's Farmers Market, which was lovely and full of fish.

After that we walked around the City Centre neighborhood and then headed over the Falls, one of the Catholic neighborhoods. I'm going to tell you this upfront, I was told many, many details and facts about the history of Belfast and Northern Ireland. However, I remember most of them only vaguely if at all (like I said, I was running on very little sleep) so I'm afraid you'll have to get your historical account from another source. One noteworthy thing about The Falls is all of the murals. I don't really think this counts as a mural, but it was one of my favorite pieces of graffiti.


Pictured below is the wall of international murals. It is also of the rainbow (I know it's hard to see) we saw over said murals. Yes. We found the end of a rainbow in Ireland, though no gold was found that I am aware of.



The next day was spent wandering around town some more, looking at monument and exploring neighborhoods. One of the highlights was stopping at The Cookie Box. They have lots of freshly baked cookies in addition to 101 FLAVORS OF MILKSHAKES! I had a berry milkshake. Other flavors sampled by our group include: chocolate chip cookie, double chocolate chunk cookie (the clear winner), and Cadbury Creme Egg. That milkshake may have been one of the best I ever had. Later in the afternoon we walked along the river a bit and frolicked in some daffodils.


After we finished frolicking, we very innocently picked up some of the flowers that had fallen on the ground. I repeat, they were already on the ground, their stems had already been broken when we arrived on the scene. While we were standing by the bridge, two police officers walked by and informed us that there was a police camera across the way watching us "pinch them flowers". We're pretty sure they were just teasing us, but we left all the same.

Well those are some of the highlights of the trip. I'll add the rest of my pictures to the Snippets album.

Deep-fried pizza and other, more educational adventures with Lily

Goodness, I'm even more behind than I thought I was. Here are just a few highlights from my friend Lily's visit a few weeks ago.

Our activities consisted almost solely of eating and walking. I was able to introduce her to the wonder that is battered pizza. The concept of a small frozen pizza that has been battered and deep fried is equally revolting and fascinating. Frankly, I'm surprised the Minnesota State Fair hasn't picked up on this little gem yet. Not surprisingly, it is absolutely delicious, even if it makes you feel as if you're second away from a heart attack. ***Attention all concerned grown-ups who are reading this: Do not worry. Deep-fried pizza is not representative of my typical diet. I assure you that I do, in fact, eat vegetables***

On Saturday we stopped at one of my favorite coffee shops for a yummy breakfast and continued on to the Edinburgh Farmer's Market. Since it's not really the season for produce, most of the vendors are selling meat and cheese. After that we walked around the castle for a bit and then proceeded to walk down the entire Royal Mile. Along the way we saw some interesting sights and people, including a man dressed as William Wallace asking for donations for what I'm sure was a very worthy cause. Two gems we stumbled across were the antique map and print dealer and the antique children's book store.


Arriving at the end of Royal Mile, we gawked at the bizarre Scottish Parliament building and poked our heads through the gates of Holyrood, the Queen's official residence in Scotland.

On our way back up we popped into the Edinburgh Museum. We were expecting much, but were pleasantly surprised with the exhibits. We were especially pleased when we found the "activity room" which housed baskets of craft supplies and coloring sheets as well as historical dress-up costumes. We both agreed that it would be to our academic and cultural benefit if we stayed for a while and colored paper models of historic townhouses. This is one of the murals/wall hangings from said activity room:




We also ventured up to Calton Hill which boasts an odd assemblage of monuments and memorials in addition to some stunning view of the city and the sea. Here a couple pictures, the rest can be found in the Photographic Snippets album.

Springtime continued

Due to the not so subtle hints in my mother's emails that I haven't been posting enough, I'm going to try and get caught up with this whole blog business. First of all, let's begin with some small talk about the weather (wouldn't want to dive right into the heavy-hitting subjects, after all). Last week while it was bright, sunny, and in the upper 70's in Missouri and Minnesota, it snowed here. I was already planning on lying low Monday and Tuesday to recuperate from our trip to Belfast and bask in the glory of spring break. This was only furthered when I woke up and saw big, fluffy flakes falling from the sky and covering the ground. Naturally I did what any sensible person on spring break would do when I saw this - I burrowed under the covers and went back to sleep.

Luckily the snow melted quickly and it seems that nasty weather has left us for a bit. Lately it's been lovely and sunny with only occasional rain and gloom. The crocuses have subsided only to be replaced with countless daffodils. Since I wouldn't want to be scolded by the police again for pinching flowers (more on that in the post about the Belfast trip) I bought a bunch at the grocery store. They opened up beautifully and are doing their very best to brighten up my room.



Doing a rather good job, aren't they? And now to continue the trend where I include relevant gobbits (one of my favorite British terms) from things I've been reading. This poem by A.E. Housman has been rattling around in my head for the past week or two and seems especially fitting since it's Easter (Happy Easter by the way! I hope you all enjoyed a chocolate egg or two...or seven, but who's counting, right?) Anyway, here's the poem:

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs is little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

Gloaming

There is apparently distinct type of twilight found in Scotland, especially in the summer. They call it gloaming. It is specifically not sunset, but is the time that is neither day nor night. It also happens to be my very favorite time of day. A few weeks ago I took some pictures from the top floor of one of classroom buildings during this time. I posted some of them below. Gloaming was also discussed in a short story we read for my Scottish Lit class called "The Library Window" by Margaret Oliphant. Here is one of the excerpts I especially liked:

"Sometimes, as I have said, he would turn round in his chair and turn his face towards it, and sit there for a long time musing when the light had begun to fail, and the world was full of that strange day which was night, that light without colour, in which everything was so clearly visible, and there were no shadows. 'It was between the night and day. when the fairy folk have power.' This was the after-light of the wonderful, long, long summer evening, the light without shadows. It had a spell in it, and sometimes it made me afraid: and all manner of strange thoughts seemed to come in, and I always felt that if only we had a little more vision in our eyes we might see beautiful folk walking about it in, who were not of our world."

Crocuses Galore

First of all, I'm sorry for the lack of posts recently. We're finishing up classes and my attentions have been elsewhere. Classes end here on March 26th, which is so soon I can't even believe it. After that we have a 3ish week spring break followed by an insanely long exam period that last from the middle of April to the end of May. I'm hoping to do lots of traveling around Scotland and some further exploring of Edinburgh during this time. That's in between all the very serious studying I'll be doing for my exams of course. I wish I was kidding about the last bit. oof. The exams here sound a little bit terrifying, but it will be fine, right? Right. Moving on...

It seems that spring has arrived in Edinburgh. This weekend saw the blooming of copious crocuses. They're so beautiful and colorful that I kind of just want to roll around in the fields of them.

These pictures are from The Meadows, the enormous park not far from my flat. You can sort of make out all the daffodil shoots in the background that are about to bloom as well. I can't wait!

In addition to the floral harbingers, the weather has also turned a bit spring-like. We've been lucky and have had quite a few bright, shiny, relatively mild days here. The only downside is the wind. This weekend I noticed that even the wind had started to change and smelled like spring and storms. Now I don't have time to notice what the wind smells like because I'm too busy trying to not fall over. It was so strong today that it literally almost knocked me down. It was like walking into a wall. It's not quite this blustery yet though...yet. My Scottish flatmate said that they only very occasionally get big, proper thunderstorms here. This wind and the dark clouds that it brought with it today make me think we get a taste of one soon.

My friend Lily visited this past weekend and gave me a good excuse to check out some of the touristy spots I hadn't been to yet. I've uploaded pictures from St Giles, Holyrood, Calton Hill, and other places around the city to my Picasa Album, otherwise known as the 'Photographic Snippets' section to the right of the page. I'm planning on writing more posts about the places we visited very soon, and I mean it this time.

Foodstuffs: More Crisps, Haggis, et. al

Hello! Sorry for the lack of postings lately. To be perfectly honest, I've been pretty boring these last few weeks. An increase in homework combined with a spell of being sick haven't left much time for adventures. I have a whole three-week spring break coming up in a month or so; I'll have adventures then.

For now, I'll try to catch you up on some of my culinary tourism. There has certainly been plenty of it. First of all, the continuing crisps investigation. Two new flavors have been cross off the list. 1.) Flame Grilled Steak:

I liked these a lot better than the bacon flavored ones. They were also much thicker and crunchier, which I think helped. To be perfectly honest, the flavoring on them tasted like the seasoning used in beef-flavored Ramen noodles. My friend Karin called them, "flamboyant". So we're not talking about fine cuisine here, but they sure do make a tasty snack, especially after a pint or two.

and 2.) Worcester Sauce:


This is currently one of my favorite flavors. They're very similar tasting to salt and vinegar crisps, only with a little extra flavor. Though they're not quite as strong and salt and vinegar, they've still got a bit of that same sharpness to them. yum yum yum

And now the moment you've all been waiting for: Haggis.

I'll be honest. I hated it. I had it as part of a Scottish Breakfast spread which included many other things as well. The first bite was okay, the second bite tasted really strongly of blood/iron, and the third bite...well, I didn't make it to the third bite. I'm still willing to give it another try, I think I might like it a bit better when it's not the first thing I've eaten in the morning. I also tried vegetarian haggis, which is made with oats and lentils. That was much, much tastier. I suspect veggie haggis, neeps, and tatties would be a delicious combination.

While we're on the subject of meats and sausages, I had a scrumptious steak and ale pie the other night for dinner. It was the first thing I had eaten after being sick for two days and not having an appetite. I think it, along with the healthy portion of mashed potatoes it was served with, played a large role in my recovery.


Lastly, I've been spending a lot of time at Elephant House (JK Rowling's old haunt). They do in fact have excellent filter coffe, which is a large part of why I keep going back, but they also have really good food and desserts. As an added bonus, they always have a cheap lunch special and give students a 10% discount. What's not to love? When I went a couple of weeks ago, the lunch special (pictured below) was a particularly tasty meatball baguette that came with a salad.


Well that about does it for the food highlights...We went to church at St. Giles Cathedral (the home of Presbyterianism) this morning. That account will have to wait until tomorrow, though. Now it is late and I must head to bed. Until tomorrow....

Happy (late) Valentine's Day from Scotland!!

Here's a little postcard-turned-valentine I made. We all know those big hairy highland cows are all probably just big softies at heart. Here's hoping you all had a wonderful Valentine's whatever you did and whomever you were with. I had a pretty lazy day myself. This weekend was fairly light work-wise, so I took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep and laze about. Finally, I did get a little stir-crazy and went for an outing in the afternoon. I left my building and turned to head for a coffee shop when I heard bagpipes. And yes, I know. I'm in Scotland. They play the bagpipes a lot here. However, our neighborhood is not one where one usually hears Scotland the Brave being piped on the sidewalk. I started walking, looking a bit befuddled, and located the source of the music when I walked by the Himalayan store/cafe a few doors down from me. There was a fact a piper, in full dress, piping away in this tiny, tiny Himalayan store. There were also two people dancing and laughing enthusiastically while another woman took pictures. I almost popped in and asked what was going on, but instead just smiled, shook my head, and walked on. When I passed by later that evening, the store was playing host to a meditation circle with someone playing the sitar. That scenario made a bit more sense.

The first part of the outing was spent reading at a coffee shop. Now, ss fun as it was sitting by myself amidst couples sharing cakes and listening to sappy Elvis songs being played on the stereo, I decided to continue on pretty soon after I finished my coffee and cookie. For the most part, I just walked around in the misty twilight, popping into stores every now and then. I did treat myself, however, to a few poetry books (A.E. Housman and The Mentor Book of Major British Poets) at a used bookstore as a Valentine's Day present to myself. I also bought myself to this amazing sweater from the "Hawkhead Bowling Club" at a thrift store. It features this crest:



So there you go. I spent my Valentine's Day with used clothing, depressed British poets, and incongruous bagpipers. What more could a girl ask for?

Arthur's Seat

Some of our Macalester friends were visiting this weekend, which motivated us to finally do some of the tourist things we've been meaning to do ever since we came here. One of those things was climbing Arthur's Seat, the "mountain" that looks over my part of the city. The climb was not too difficult, but a bit steeper than I had anticipated. Of course, some of my huffing and puffing could have been due to that enormous piece of pie that we split right before heading up, maybe. Whatever the reason, pausing once in a while on our ascent gave on the chance to appreciate the stunning views. Especially since once we got to the top and above the fog, there wasn't much of anything to see. Here are a few pictures from before the fog:

Some ruins of a chapel

I've added the rest of the pictures to the Picasa Album.

The pictures don't nearly do it justice. There was a special sort of stillness to the valleys. A few members of the group even swore they heard faint strains of bagpipes floating through the air. I didn't hear them myself, but it did inspire me to share with them the story of Wee Gillis. I'm sure Munro Leaf would be pleased to know that his story had been told on a Scottish hillside.

We want to make this climb a regular one, so hopefully I'll be able to share some sunny pictures soon.

Speaking of Robert Burns...

I know Amelia Furrow was upset that I made no mention of Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse" in my previous posts. So here it is, in it's entirety, just for you, Amelia...

To A Mouse

Wee sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an chase thee,
Wi murdering pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion.
An fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve:
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma request;
I'll get a blessin wi the lave,
An never miss't!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
Its silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An naething, now, to big a new ane,
O foggage green!
An bleak December's win's ensuin.
Baith snell an keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an waste,
An weary winter comin fast.
An cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro thy cell.

That wee bit heap o leaves an stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble.
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o mice an men
Gang aft agley,
An lea'e us nought but grief an pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An forward, tho I canna see,
I guess an fear!

The Ceilidh (Finally)

Goodness I'm behind on posting! So many things to tell you about...First up is the Burns Night Ceilidh we went to last Sunday that was put on by the Water of Life Society. It was my first ever ceilidh, and hopefully won't be my last. I can't even begin to describe how fun it was. Everyone was very friendly and the dances weren't nearly as hard as they looked. They had a wonderful live band with a caller, who taught us all the steps before each dance. You soon stop worrying about looking like a fool and just go for it. I have a couple videos from it, but they're are just a little bit too big to post. I'll try to condense them or put them up somewhere else.

It was an absolutely amazing evening and we danced for hours and hours, however that meant when I got out of bed two days later (I felt deceptively fine the day after) my calves were so sore that I looked like an old lady when I tried to walk down the stairs.

Now about what John referred to as the "gerbil haggis"...As per Burns Night tradition, there was the Address to a Haggis, where they recite the Robert Burns poem of the same name, as well as a slaying of the haggis. During the very spirited Address, said haggis was brutally stabbed and slain. The explanation given for the gerbily thing was that it was supposed to represent the haggis that was slain last year.

I keep forgetting...

I meant to mention this in the last few posts, but forgot every time.

I've added a link to my Edinburgh Picasa album on the right of the page. It's titled 'Photographic Snippets'. See it? If you click on the picture, it will take you the album. I haven't captioned any of them yet, it's kind of a daunting task. Hopefully it will happen soon.

Foodstuffs cont'd: Breakfast

After our Sunday morning church excursion, we went out for our first full British Breakfast. It included the following:

• A fried egg
• Bacon (more like fried ham)
• Pork and leek sausage
• Baked beans (verdict: beans on toast is delicious)
• Tomato
• Mushrooms (the bacon/mushroom combo was especially good)
• Chips
• Toast

All in all, it was pretty tasty and very filling. We thought that the menu said it would also come with haggis, but apparently not. That will just have to wait for another day. Perhaps my next Scottish food adventure will be the traditional Haggis, Neeps and Tatties (Haggis with mashed turnips and potatoes. The potatoes and turnips are served separately I believe).

While I'm on the subject of breakfast foods, I. miss. coffee. Apparently, good ol' plain brewed coffee does not exist here. There is no shortage of espresso, however. If you ask for a cup of coffee in a restaurant, they bring you and Americano. I think by the end of this semester, I'm never going to want another Americano. Also, almost all of the coffee sold in the grocery store is instant, freeze-dried coffee. I bought some and gave it a try today, but it's just not the same. So attention all of you reading this who have been to Edinburgh/know someone who has been here: is there anywhere I can get drip coffee?

Church of Scotland

This past Sunday I had my first experience with the Church of Scotland. We went to a morning service at Greyfriars Kirk, and I thought it was very nice. It was a pretty standard protestant service, so nothing too new or different there. The sermon was a bit strange, however. I think part of it may have been that the minister who gave it (I think she was an assistant minister or minister in training or something) did not have English as her first language. Some parts of it were kind of hard to follow just because of the difficulty in writing in a language that's not your own. I think the other reason it felt a little strange was just due to the fact that the style was different than what I'm used to. Another difference was the way they took communion. They brought out four goblets and a couple loaves of bread, so I assumed they were going to take it by intinction. nope. They had one side of the church come up and gather in a circle, then the minister served one person and the elements (first bread and then wine) were passed around the circle, with each person serving to the person on his or her left. The bread was all fine and dandy - standard serving style. The wine, however, was passed around and each person drank from the same goblet, wiping the rim with a handkerchief afterward. Nothing wrong with that really, except I was sort of taken out of the experience by hoping that the man next to me didn't have a cold.
Anyway...the church itself was lovely, and the people very nice as well. The head minister's wife came up and introduced herself afterward and chatted with us for a bit. I think I'll definitely come back a time or two. Maybe if I work up enough courage, I'll stay for the Gaelic service at 12:30

The pictures are various views from the kirkyard.

Oh! And of course, I took a picture of the statue of Greyfriars Bobby on the street out front. If you don't know the story of Greyfriars Bobby, check out the link.

So.Many.Things #1: Aberfeldy

Hello all,

Well! It has been quite the week: a whisky distillery, encounters with the Church of Scotland, my first British breakfast, and a ceilidh. I'll try to divide them up into a few posts instead of rambling on in one ridiculously long entry. I suppose we'll just do this chronologically. Now that I've gotten into sort of a routine and the daily grind of classes and homework (well let's be honest, I don't always get to the homework) the days all sort of blend together and before you know it I've been here almost a month! Seriously, it's February, when did that happen? It seems this semester is just going to fly by; I had better get cracking on all the things I want to do and that long list of places I want to visit.

Speaking of visiting, last Saturday we went on of the International Student Center's day trips to go visit the distillery at Aberfeldy. It was perfect weather for the two hour drive. Clear, bright blue, sunny skies - not a rain cloud in sight. The scenery alone on the drive up to Aberfeldy was worth the 12 pounds for the ticket. Lots of rolling hills and mountains off in the distance and more sheep than I could possibly begin to count. We saw at least a thousand sheep. seriously. Probably more, actually. A large group of them were grazing in an enormous turnip patch, which of course made me think of my father. (Anybody who knows him will know of his great fondness for all root vegetables, especially turnips and rutabagas) I tried to take a few pictures out the window of the van, but was not too successful. Here's one from the drive home:

The tour itself was fairly interesting. It's nice to now know about how whisky's made and the difference between single malt and blended whiskies and all that, but I don't think I'll be headed to any more distillerys anytime soon. There really wasn't much to see as far as the distilling process goes, just lots of various containers of fermenting grains and liquid. mmmm...let me tell you, this place smelled lovely, if you like the smell of fermenting grains anyway.

After the tour, we got to investigate the kind of silly museum they had set up. One exhibit had you try to guess different smells (leather, heather, smoke, woody, and digestive biscuit, e.g. Yes that's right, digestive biscuit) that might be in the nose of a whisky. A really neat part of the museum was a display of what the blending room of Dewar's first master blender might have looked like.

We did get to sample some of the whisky at the end. My friend and I each tried a different one. Mine was quite smooth and very nice. Hers on the other hand, though it had a very interesting flavor (kind of like heather) it was a bit hard to drink.

Burn's Night

Edina! Scotia's darling seat!
All hail thy palaces and tow'rs,
Where once, beneath a Monarch's feet,
Sat Legislation's sov'reign pow'rs:
From marking wildly scatt'red flow'rs,
As on the banks of Ayr I stray'd,
And singing, lone, the lingering hours,
I shelter in they honour'd shade.

-Robert Burns

As some of you know, Monday was Robert Burns' Night, celebrated with poetry, haggis, and whisky the world over. The bit of poetry above is from Burns' Address to Edinburgh
First of all, how funny is it that he refers to Edinburgh as Edina? Let's all take a moment and compare Edina, MN and Edinburgh, UK. Different. But I digress. There were several ceilidhs (pronounced kay-lees) around campus, but we decided to not attend. None of us were feeling like going to a big event and the Whisky Society is hosting a Burns ceilidh this upcoming Sunday, so nothing lost. A friend and I did, however, go to Sandy Bell's to have a dram in the dear poet's honor and to hear some live folk music (be sure to check out the link). This pub has quite the reputation for being an excellent place to hear live sessions, and it certainly lived up to that reputation. The pub itself was pretty small and the session very informal. It seemed like a group of friends who just gathered there several nights a week and played whatever they felt like. Unfortunately my friend and I were seated kind of around the corner from the group, so we didn't really get to watch them, but the sounded great. At one point a man began to sing a ballad type song (reminiscent of Archie Fisher) with little to no accompaniment. As he sang, the whole pub became quiet save a woman seated at the bar who was softly singing harmony. It was like something straight out of a movie, and it was absolutely beautiful.

St Andrews

I was lucky enough (after standing in line for an hour) to get a ticket for the day trip to St. Andrews this past Saturday. We left on a cold, rainy morning for what would turn out to be an even colder, rainier day. Though we wouldn't have minded some sun, my fellow travelers and I agreed it almost seemed more fitting to tour the Scottish countryside in the mist and rain. Regardless of the weather, St. Andrews was beautiful - lots of gorgeous, mossy ruins to explore (though many required payment to explore the inside, which we opted out of), stony beaches, and of course the...ahem...Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews:

We spent the first part of the day wandering the ruins of the cathedral and the kirkyard. True to my upbringing, I took many pictures of interesting gravestones, which you can see in the full album.




After that we headed to take a quick look at the golf course, saw some rich men playing golf, as well as the beaches across the road where the opening sequence of Chariots of Fire was filmed. (It was wrongly credited in the film, but now you know - that beach is in St Andrews) We then moved on to the very quaint city museum, housed in an old estate, and then onto lunch, one of my favorite parts of any trip. After resting our feet and satisfying our grumbling bellies, we continued on to poke around the castle and some more beaches. For the rest of the afternoon we simply walked around the city (which is tiny), ducking into little shops and laughing at all the silly golf clothes for sale.All in all it was really nice to get out the city and see other parts of Scotland. Hopefully I'll get to do much more of that soon, although I think I'm going to have to wait for spring to head up north. You can see the rest of my pictures from the trip here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=145423&id=500102627&l=ee3b42518f