Jacob's Crazy UK (and Dublin!) Adventure, Phase one: Edinburgh!
Got my passport stamped! WHEE!
I arrived in Scotland, having recently learned that it is in fact part of the UK. I had always wondered why England thought that it was a united kingdom - wasn't that redundant? Not so! Got my pounds from the friendly Scottish ATM, hopped on the bus, and went to meet J., my lovely friend from Brandeis who had been gracious enough to let me crash at her flat. She is studying in Edinburgh, and living with four other lovely ladies who were extremely gracious and inclusive. One at least I hope to see again, as she studies relatively close to Brandeis. Hooray!
So J. got me, we went to her flat to drop of luggage, and she introduced me to tea. I've had tea before, but when I was growing up it was always something you had when you were sick. I've never associated it with leisure or fun or really, anything except for runny noses and sore throats. We had some tea, and decided to go climb Arthur's Seat, this beautiful gorgeous cliff/hill thing that's perhaps a ten minute walk from her flat. It was SO windy! On the way up we were blown sideways, at the top we were literally almost blown over, and at points you could jump and the force of the wind would move me at least six inches. Danger is now my middle name.
After we reached safety at the bottom, we decided to walk to the grocery store and pick up provisions, but got sidetracked by The Museum of Childhood! It's basically a toy store with context, but it had some really neat antique toys and examples of fun stuff. There was a piggy bank that was actually a human head. In blackface. And it ate your money. There were also some great larger, hands on displays:
And we went grocery shopping where J. bought something that would be the highlight of my experience in the UK: Scottish shortbread. Basically a brick of butter and cake that you dip in tea and eat. I need to learn how to make it.
By this time is was approaching the dinner hour, so we trekked back, J. pointing out landmarks and trying her best to give me a sense of how the city was laid out. I have all the directional savvy of a frying pan, so for the most part, it was in one ear and out the other, although I really appreciated both her attempt and the nuggets about the city she was feeding me. Edinburgh is a really cool place. And pretty.
We cooked some delicious meat for dinner, and given that it was Sunday, hung out. OH and saw a movie - Sweet Bird of Youth, from 1967 and starring Paul Newman, was playing at the local cinema, and it was wonderful! I am SO glad to have seen it, and it just drives home both how much we've changed since then, but also how much we like to think we've changed. Gorgeous.
I conked out on her couch in a sleeping back donated to the cause by the lovely F., and slept entirely too long. Although I did get to shock some flatmates whom I had barely met (or not at all) and who had the experience of coming into the common room for breakfast and finding a strange man on the couch.
Day two, J. got out of class in the morning, and we hit up the Surgeon's College Museum (or something like that). I had no idea that Edinburgh was such a center for medical innovation and research, and it was really neat. What I thought was coolest, though, was the corner dedicated to Burke and Hare. There was also a room full of pathological samples - gun wounds, diseased tissue, tumors, etc. Really fascinating to look at and freak out about - there was a skull from a baby suffering from hydrocephalus that looked literally like those giant freaky alien heads at Hot Topic or Spencer's. I cannot imagine the experience of passing it out of a vagina, even dilated. Wow. We also visited the Parliament, which is a modern building that people either love or hate, and was much more expensive than initially projected. Kind of like the Shapiro Campus Center. It's pretty nifty. There was a great exhibit inside - students who went to art high schools and had taken, essentially, their Regent's exams in art and placed extremely well had their work on display inside Parliament. Lots of paintings and drawing, but also concept and process pieces as well as sculpture and fashion design.
Given that is cost 10 pounds, or roughly 17 dollars, to get a tour of Edinburgh Castle, we peeked through the bars. It's impressive, but I didn't feel bad about not going in.
We ate a lot of hummus over the course of my visit, which was wonderful because for all of its effort, Copenhagen does not have really good hummus. It has chickpea paste, and it's labeled as hummus, but it's not quite the same.
We, along with some of J.'s flatmates and friends, went to get a delicious and cheap Indian dinner where I had wonderful curry and was warmed and got to walk around Edinburgh at night. We hung out for a while and got hygge.
Guesstimate on tea consumed: 2 litres.
Last day, J. was in class until lunch, and so I rose and took myself to the City Art Center, which is lovely because it contains four diverse and small exhibits. It is also free. Space exhibits, drawing exhibits, and a neat exhibit on treasured places in Scotland, done by Scottish artists or artists who spent a lot of their lives in Scotland. Met J. and we walked around the Royal Mile looking at touristy shops, and had delicious fish and chips. Then we split, and I went to the airport to go to London!
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