Scotland

I spent the last two days in Scotland - one in Edinburgh and one in the Highlands. The BAP crew (minus James) and I left on a Wednesday night bus to Edinburgh and returned on a Friday night bus so that we were back by Saturday morning. Surprisingly, it's over an 8-hour bus ride from London to Edinburgh (would've thought the two cities were closer). Anyway, it was a ton of fun, mainly the guided Highlands tour. We didn't cover all the tourist sites in Edinburgh like I did in Paris, but we had much less time and still managed to meet some interesting people.

The Royal Mile from the top of Camera Obscura.

Princes St and the River Forth from the top of Camera Obscura. The heart of Edinburgh didn't seem large, but it extended for quite a bit when we took the Highlands tour.

The Edinburgh Castle at the end of the Royal Mile. The history between Scotland and England is fascinating and the present relationship surprising at times. In my EU class, we're learning about how technocratic the government is and how separate it is from the people's national identity. This phenomenon probably applies even more so to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They're sovereign countries, part of the UK, and part of the EU, all of which have a significant, sometimes conflicting, role in their governance and policies. Maybe it seems more confusing than it is from the untrained American eye (after all, we have federal and state governments with their own interesting relationships). Anyway, I wish I'd gotten a chance to talk to a Scotsman about politics and national identity (quite the conversation starter, no?)

So much cooler than the musicians in New York. People were taking pictures with him, but I felt bad since I only had 30 p in change. I've never seen anyone take a picture with a street musician in New York, but it happened here and in Bath.

A Chinese restaurant with a sign saying "Can a billion people be wrong?" Offensive but amusing.

A Highland cattle named Hammis. She (?) didn't respond much to outstretched hands or camera flashes but seemed to be enjoying the moderate sun behind her.

Glen Coe near where the massacre occurred in 1692. I was surprised by the number of cars parked on the sides of the highway. Apparently, "hillwalking" is a common activity, roughly similar to our "hiking". The scenery was gorgeous and would've been fun to explore.

The Highlands. There were tons of amazing views (people kept shifting from one side of the bus to the other) so these two pictures are just a sample. I highly recommend the tour (even though it's a tad expensive) for both the history and the views.

Spean Bridge War Memorial to WWII veterans. If you look closely, the engraving reads "United We Conquer", which struck me firstly because I thought it had been an American phrase and secondly because of the word "conquer" in reference to UK during WWII. WWII seems much closer to the hearts of the British than Americans (obviously they bore the brunt of it more and we came out as the world's superpower afterwards), but it's interesting to note the way it's presented and collectively remembered. I may devote a post to this subject since this one's already quite long.

The waters of Loch Ness. Its surface area is 21.8 square miles, while Manhattan is 23 square miles. Obviously, it' s huge! Nothing unusual though. The boat ride we took was mediocre without the expected spooky Nessie stories. It does offer some great views of the hilly banks and the sunset. Maybe you can tell from this picture, but the water seemed strangely sheet-like, as if it was computer-generated, according to Kevin.

Urquhart Castle from the boat on Loch Ness. We didn't check it out since it cost extra, but it may be worth it. Not quite sure of its significance, but apparently a lot of Nessie spottings occur near it. Also interesting, in the gift shop, I found a CD by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

Eating a deep-fried Twix before we left. Some of my friends actually liked it. I thought it was over the top, but you've got to do it once.

We walked past Elephant House, the cafe that inspired J.K. Rowling, but we didn't go in. In terms of cafes, Chocolate Soup was incredible with its brownies and hot chocolate. However, near Elephant House, there's a cemetery where a friend said you can see the gravestones of Tom Riddle and McGonagall (apparently Rowling took these names for her characters), but it was too dark by the time we got there to read names. It was spooky too.

I'll end on two jokes our bus driver told us about how "mean" (roughly meaning frugal or tight about money) the Scottish are. 1) Copper wire was invented by two Scotsmen. They were fighting over a penny. 2) The Grand Canyon was dug by a Scotsman. He dropped 50 p and just kept digging for it. At the time, we found these jokes hilarious since our bus driver was on a roll. The bus ride was long so he kept making fun of his wife and referring to her as the Loch Ness monster.