Journey 3: Freedom - Life in Scotland

This Wednesday (or Thursday, depending on how you mark it), I will have been abroad for 4 weeks, basically a whole month. In that time, I've learned my way around Oxford, I've traveled to Bath and Stonehenge, I've been to London and mastered the underground, and now I've been out of England (slightly) and experienced Scotland. Yes, technically it's all the same country (though next year that could all change!), but the cultures are so drastically different. Scotland is like the Texas (or the South) of the UK, even though ironically it is the northern segment. Everyone was just incredibly friendly and hospitable. But more on that later. First, we had to get there.

There were originally 8 of us going, but we had bought plane tickets separately, and unfortunately could not all fit on one flight. So we had split into two groups: 3 flying out of Stansted and 5 flying out of Luton. Both flights were scheduled to leave around the same time, so we would all arrive in Edinburgh together. However, Stansted is about twice the distance from Oxford as Luton, so the girls going to Stansted had to catch the 1 a.m. bus to get to the airport on time, while those of us going to Luton could take the 4:30 a.m. bus. Sadly, Kimberly, one of our group members, got sick the night before we were supposed to leave and ended up not coming with us. Other than that, though, everything went without a hitch. We got to the Luton airport and on the flight with no problem. We landed in Edinburgh right on time...and then found out the flight out of Stansted had been delayed and was just then leaving. Not a huge deal. We all met up when the plane landed and headed to our hostel, not a problem. We just felt bad that in terms of travel time, it had taken the three of them 12 hours to get to Edinburgh, the first to leave and the last to arrive. But things happen.

Our first impression of Scotland greatly lived up to its stereotype. As soon as we stepped into town, the first thing we heard was bagpipes playing. We walked through a whole mob of men wearing kilts and saw many more throughout the day. It turns out there was a big rugby match going on that weekend, so all the men were showing off their pride...but we still like to think it's a regular occurrence.

By the time we left the airport, everyone was pretty hungry, so we went in search of a nice place to have lunch. We settled on a place called The Filling Station, which serves traditional American food. How's that for a first meal in Scotland? I know you're shaking your head, but really, it was an experience in and of itself to see how they view us. So hold off on judgment! The food was really good, but it was pretty obviously NOT American because we still didn't get free refills.

Then we went in search of our hostel, but it was not hard to find at all. You just look for the big castle, then look to the side and there's the hostel. It was awesome. The hostel itself was very nice. We had a room to ourselves, it was in a nice area, and the staff was so nice. Incredibly enough, on our way over, Ethan had talked about going to see the William Wallace field (located in Falkirk), but as someone who had never seen Braveheart, that didn't really mean much to me. And wouldn't you know it, they had a movie night Thursday at the hostel, and the movie they were showing was...Braveheart! So after having some quality conversation as a group over tea and coffee, we spent our first night at the hostel watching Braveheart. It's still a little unreal to me to be able to say that I saw Braveheart for the first time while I was actually IN Scotland. Who am I kidding? Just the fact that I can say I've BEEN to Scotland is unreal to me...

Our first full day in Edinburgh, we toured the castle. It was huge! We stayed there for two or three hours, and I still don't think I saw everything. We had lunch at an Italian place before doing some shopping around town and more walking. At the restaurant, they had a dessert called Dolce Elisa, which was some sort of waffle with banana and chocolate and nuts. It sounded delicious, but I was so full. I did, however, try Irn Bru, a Scottish fizzy drink that I think is similar to our cream soda. I liked it.

We did a lot of sight-seeing that day, including walking to Calton Hill, a park-monument type place. Again, the views of the city were incredible. It was awesome to see snow-covered mountains peek up over the buildings of the city. That night we went to The Captain's Bar to hear some live, traditional Scottish music. Most of our group agrees that that was one of the best parts of the trip. The band was really good, and it turns out one of the members is from California. He chatted with us a bit before we left since he heard our accents. We, Americans, are just everywhere.

Saturday, we took a 12 hour bus tour up to the Highlands and then back down. We toured the castle ruins of Urquhart and had a 30-minute boat ride on Loch Ness. We didn't see Nessie, and I tried to tell them that that's because she was actually the "motor" for the boat...but nobody believed me. The coolest part of the trip for me was while we were at Urquhart, there was a bagpiper playing Scottish music and one of the songs she played was the tune of my high school's song! It was a surreal moment to be standing on the grounds of a castle, dating back to potentially the 500s, singing, "Hail to the Highlanders, The Woodlands' Highlanders!"

We made several stops along the way, some for picture-taking and some for food. Here's where you can stop judging us by our choice of cuisine. We all tried haggis at least once. Some had it for lunch, and we all split a plate that night for dinner. It wasn't disgusting like I was expecting it to be. It didn't really look very appetizing, but it was just very peppery. It tasted like ground meat that had been coated in pepper. I also had bangers and mash, which in my opinion was better than the haggis. But there you go, we all at least tried some traditional Scottish food.

The next morning we had to catch our flight back to London. Luckily, going back we were all on the same flight, so that made it easy. We had a minor hiccup before we left the hostel. Without going into detail, let's just say that the previous night, we were all pretty exhausted and our communication skills were not at their best. We are all adults and we're not here to police each other, but we had some things happen that, if they ever happen again, need to be better communicated and more precautions need to be taken. But everything was fine, and getting back was not nearly as eventful.

I feel very accomplished at how well this trip went. Our group got along so well, especially because our personalities all click so well and we have a lot of similar interests. We still need to sit down and plan it, but I'm feeling really good about going to Italy with most, if not all, of these same people in another 4 weeks or so.

Sometimes I forget that this is a study abroad trip. It's easy to see it as an extended holiday, but that's all part of the challenge. We have so much freedom to do as we see fit throughout the week and on breaks. We are so much less restricted here than we would be had we still been on campus. As cliché as it is (and I'm embarrassed as an English major to be using this phrase instead of coming up with something witty on my own), with great power comes great responsibility. I have all these freedom, but I have to make sure I'm taking care of my responsibilities as a student as well. It's all about balance!

Again, thanks for taking this journey with me! If you want to see pictures from Scotland, check out Facebook. I just didn't get around to posting any here...

Journey 2: London and the Boroughs

Well it wasn't a foggy day in London town, but I must admit that the weather wasn't the greatest. Our first experience walking around was wet. Just, really wet. Our task while in London was to explore an assigned borough in groups of 5 or 6 people and be anthropologists for a day. My group went to Brixton, an area with a high Jamaican population. Brixton is probably most known for its market, which is where we spent a majority of our time while there. But another interesting thing that will pop up if you Google “Brixton” is that they have created their own currency, aptly named the Brixton Pound. We never actually got to see one in person, though. 

A sign for the market, as well as a pretty good representation of the type of area we were in.

After we were done, our group split up. A few of us went to the British Library, which I didn't know (and my ignorance may be showing here) was really more of a museum. We walked around for a while and saw some pretty neat things. I took a few illegal pictures before the "No Photography" sign was pointed out to me. There's also something magical about listening to the Beatles in the British Library, in London, while on Study Abroad. Maybe that's just me...

Morgan and I were meeting up with some other girls later that day to ride the Eye, but to kill a bit of time, we went to the Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street. We spent close to 45 minutes or an hour in the gift shop without actually going upstairs to the museum. But we each saved £6 and still had a good time looking at all the cool souvenirs. The London Eye was neat, especially at night. Being able to see the city from that view was pretty amazing. Afterwards we were all tired and hungry, so we warmed up over dinner, ate a good (if a bit pricey) meal, then hopped on the train and went back to Oxford.

The policeman outside the museum!

Our view of Big Ben and Westminster from the Eye

Overall, it was a great first trip to London. There were lots of things we didn't get to see, but we have at least two more trips there before the end of the semester, so we have some time.