Royal Ruins and Contemporary Culture

On Friday after my morning class, I decided to take advantage of my new Historic Scotland pass and I went over to the castle for the first time. I ended up feeling a little overwhelmed by the work I was procrastinating by going there, so I didn't stay long before I went back to my flat to get some work done; however, while I was there, I enjoyed the view and was interested to read about the history and see the crown jewels! I will be going back soon to see the two museums inside and take the audio tour to get all of the history.

On my way back from the castle, I went to run an errand on Prince's Street and was amazed yet again by Edinburgh's beauty. I am loving the autumn colors in the trees!

That night I took Steph, Nikki's high school friend studying in Florence for the year, who came up for her fall break, up to Calton Hill. Unfortunately, we came a little too late to see the sunset, but the view was still lovely. 

On Saturday, Chloe and I went over to Linlithgow, which is about 20 minutes west of Edinburgh by train. It was also part of Historic Scotland, so I didn't have to pay the entry fee!

The weather was so gorgeous on Saturday! I think the sun was so bright that some of my pictures didn't  come out that well, but I can't complain, because it was the most beautiful day to wander around in a palace.

This fountain is in the middle of the courtyard, and I really like it because it has unicorns and mermaids on it. 

Here's Chloe looking cool.

The nice thing about Linlithgow is that you can go almost everywhere in the palace. There are only a few hallways blocked off, which means you can get turned around pretty easily, but it's really fun to go through the little passageways and spiral staircases!

This is the room where Mary, Queen of Scots, was born. That's what this palace is famous for. What an appropriate place for a monarch to be born - I mean look at the view!

You can see how tall this palace is (about 7 stories). It was the largest building in Scotland when it was built and in use as a private residence for the royal family. Most of the floors on the upper levels have fallen out, so I can't imagine how many rooms there were when it was intact.

One of the best parts was getting to stand on top and look over the loch and the neighboring town. It was so gorgeous!

Here's a wonky picture of the great hall. I was most impressed by the fireplaces on the far wall. You can't tell from this picture how massive those fireplaces are. In its prime, this must have been the most spectacular place live.

After exploring inside the palace, we walked around the loch on the 2.3-mile trail that goes around it. The weather was pretty good, until out of nowhere it started to pour for about 2 minutes and then it was sunny again. Very strange...

After we got back to Edinburgh, we had lunch and chatted for a bit. Once Chloe left I took a shower and ended up taking a nap, which I did not mean to take! To get out of the weird groggy feeling I hiked up Calton Hill again and watched the sunset and read my book a little. Taking a moment to remember where I am and how beautiful it is here always makes me feel better!

One thing I've been thinking a lot about this week is not making my experience casual, which is something Nikki wrote in her blog, which is here, if you fancy reading about her cool adventures! I try to go somewhere around town every day or every other day to remind myself that I am in one of the coolest cities ever and that this is not normal - that not everyone can walk to a castle in under 15 minutes. I do sometimes forget that I'm not just in North Carolina, especially after spending too long in the library or at my desk studying. I think it's so important to keep exploring Edinburgh and Scotland and Europe so that I don't forget this place is FREAKING AWESOME.

On that note, this afternoon I went with David, my friend from LangSoc, to go see From Scotland with Love, which is a documentary about the people of Scotland. It was made by compiling footage from Scotland from the past century - mainly the 1940s to the 1980s - with an amazing soundtrack that sets the mood for each of the themes "discussed." I put that in quotation marks because there is no talking the film. The only words are the lyrics to the songs. You learn everything by watching the clips, which have been brilliantly edited, not chronologically, but by themes, often alternating between the strife of hardworking people and the happy moments in life. I feel like I learned so much about Scotland through this film, because it showed the daily lives of ordinary people from all over the country from all different decades. I saw the daily lives of factory workers, fisherman, farmers, and coal miners. I saw people dancing, going to the fair, playing in the street, ice skating, going to the beach. There were funny moments, there were sweet moments, there were heart-breaking moments, and there were goose-bump-inducing moments; it covered every facet of life of the people in Scotland. I feel like I got to know the people, even though they never talked and I only got to see them for a few fleeting seconds.

Another thing I found to be very interesting was the part about protests and riots in Glasgow when Scottish people, Glaswegians in particular, went to fight in the Spanish Civil War, against the wishes of Great Britain. If you remember, just last week I was in Glasgow and there was a protest in the very square people have been protesting in for decades. The blurb about the film I read mentioned how its release is so appropriately timed, since the Commonwealth Games were just held in Glasgow and, of course, the referendum was also just held. I could not agree more that the timing of this film contributed to the social significance, especially in relation to Glasgow. There is a real difference between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Glasgow is much more of a people's city - it is a city for the masses and the working class, and I definitely got that vibe when I was there. It explains why Glaswegians often feel that Edinburgh has a pretentious and snooty air to it. This film focused on Glasgow more than any other place in Scotland, I think, because it is the people's city. As someone told me, Edinburgh is a city for the people who visit it, but Glasgow is a city for the people who live there. That definitely came across in this film.

Oh, I could go on, but I won't. I've never seen anything like this film, so see it if you can. If you can't, at least listen to this song (or the whole soundtrack) because it is fantastic.