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?