The weekend before that, my group went to Scotland; we spent Friday and Saturday nights in Glasgow, and on Sunday we travelled to Edinburgh. There are two faculty members at the institution where we take classes who are from Glasgow, and they met with us before we left to tell us some things about the city. One of them said that, despite its rough reputation, the people there are incredibly friendly - "obnoxiously friendly," in fact, was I believe her choice of words; she told us chances were good that we'd sit down at a bus stop, and the old woman next to us would turn to us unprovoked and tell us her life story. Which, funnily, was EXACTLY what happened to my travel buddy and I when we reached Glasgow! We had a good talk with said old lady while on the bus, then arrived at our hostel, where we rendez-vous'd with our college tripmates and bunkered down for the night.
The next day, we went on a walking tour of the city, which was made only slightly less enjoyable by the weather gods' decision to bombard us with (blessedly brief) intervals of snow and hail. My favorite part was seeing the Glasgow School of Art, both inside and out: the building was designed by Glaswegian architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and though it dates from the turn of the nineteenth century, it is so innovative and unique that one would guess it was built some time in the last twenty years. I wish pictures had been allowed on the inside, but it was incredible; every room, every stairwell was different, with some that felt like an M. C. Escher painting come to life and others that were reminiscent of a thatched wood Japanese home. The library was the best part, having been designed by Mackintosh to look like a clearing in the woods, an image richly evoked by the dark wood paneling, the light filtering through tall windows, and the densely-spaced pillars which stood around the room. We later had a delicious high tea at the Willow Tea Rooms, another commission of Mackintosh's; the chairs he originally had installed there, also designed by him, had such tall backs that the ladies who sat in them would often topple over backwards! Who can say whether this was a mistake, or a practical joke by a man who, unlike many of these high class tea-taking ladies, had secured his own fortune through hard work...
Front facade of the Glasgow School of Art
After tea, we went to see a play called The Infamous Brothers Davenport at the Citizen's Theatre, which I quite enjoyed; it was based on accounts from the occult-obsessed Victorian Era of a pair of American brothers who made their fortunes touring the world and staging public seances. There were plenty of cool stage effects and magic tricks, and the story was very interesting, too! Then, after the show, all of us headed out to a pub where they were playing live music - a mix of Scottish traditional fare and newer popular tunes - and proceeded to get fairly drunk with bunches of rowdy Scotsmen, resulting in a crazy dance party. It was definitely a night to remember.
The next day we travelled to Edinburgh, which was also wonderful, though it felt a bit more touristy than Glasgow. It was, however, unbelievably gorgeous; the highlight of the day for me was when we climbed to the rooftop terrace of The National Museum of Scotland, which gave us fantastic views of the city in all directions (plus the weather gods had decided to mellow out, so it was sunny as can be). Another neat part of the visit was seeing The Elephant Cafe, where J.K. Rowling first began writing Harry Potter! Sadly, I wasn't feeling terribly well, so I returned to London pretty shortly after arriving there. Abby will in Edinburgh for her upcoming spring break, though, so don't fret, all you anxious readers will hear more about the city soon. :)
The National Museum of Scotland's rooftop terrace
Views of the city - the tall spire on the left is an awesome monument to Sir Walter Scott
Edinburgh Castle!
WHAT WHAT?!
Then, a couple weeks later, my group saw both the Tower of London and took a tour of the Houses of Parliament in one spectacular day. The first thing one does at the Tower of London is, of course, to go see the Crown Jewels, which I did - they were breathtaking, I've never seen anything sparkle so intensely! There were lots of other royal treasures, too; sadly, photography wasn't allowed... but there was plenty more to see. I took a tour from one of the Beefeaters, the official guardsmen of the tower; he was a lot of fun, and very knowledgable. There was also ample signage on the history of the many buildings and such, and the different uses they've been put to through time. Here's just some of what I learned:
The outer wall in the foreground, the Wakefield Tower (I think?) on the left, and the White Tower on the right
A memorial to several of the innocent lives that have been brought to an end at the Tower
Traitor's Gate, through which such famous prisoners as Ann Boelyn were brought into the tower
The courtyard and the inner wall
One of the tower's seven resident ravens. They've been under official protection by the tower for centuries; there's a legend that if anything should ever happen to them, bad fortune will befall London!
My favorite part of my visit - inside Beauchamp Tower, where prisoners were kept. The walls were covered with the final marks they were to leave upon the world; some were beautiful engravings, some were bitter epithets, and some were words of wisdom.
Then, we were off to Parliament!
Interesting side note - they have you walk through a security scanner when you enter, and when I went through with my bag, they stopped me and confiscated my rape whistle... still not quite sure why; maybe they wanted to guarantee I wouldn't blow it just to make a scene? Anyway, we got the tour from a really delightful old Scottish man named Eddie (he got a phonecall from his wife halfway through). We got to see several of the more famous rooms, including the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and learned lots of neat things about the history of the building and the symbolism of some of the art. We also learned that two everyday phrases originated with Parliamentary customs:
1.) "It's in the bag" - there's an actual big, velvet bag in the House of Commons where public petitions are placed, and so when the question is raised of whether there are any matters of public interest to be considered, the reply is "It's in the bag."
2.) "Toe the line" - running parallel to each of the front rows of benches in the House of Commons is a red line, which those seated at the front are not allowed to cross. You can see it here (picture courtesy of the internet; there were no pictures allowed inside, sadly):
There's exactly a sword and a half length's distance between the lines; they were originally painted there to prevent angry MPs on the front benches from running one other through during debate! Thus, to "toe the line" is to respect the "no crossing" rule.
Once the tour was finished and I'd reclaimed my whistle, we were officially on SPRING BREAK!! I had plans to travel to the Scottish highlands for the week with three of the boys in my group, but we weren't departing till the next morning. I have lots of good stories about our trip, but this post is already so crowded, I think it's best to save it for another night, but I promise I won't let so much time go by without writing an update again... (Though I'm sure you're all surviving somehow.)
Until next time, then!
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