Tuesday, 2 August 2011

Cambridge pt. 2 - Scotland

Part 2 of this comes a little late in the day seeing as the Scotland trip was a long while ago, but it was certainly noteworthy so here’re the details.

My oldest sister actually did this same program back when she was in undergrad and she told me that back then when the program had just been going for a few years (I found out from the program director that PKP: Pembroke-King’s Program, has only been going on for about 10 years) there weren’t really any organized trips besides a day trip to London which they still do. Somewhere down the line the people in charge had a good idea to ship everyone off to Scotland for a long weekend. At first it didn’t make much sense to me why they chose our very first weekend for a big organized trip but in all reality, it was a good move. The trip was basically the only thing that everyone in the program will do together besides the first and last formal, so it was a good opportunity to meet people, get to know them a little better, and travel together in a foreign land 
(sounds grand doesn’t it?)

For our first week we only had classes Monday-Wednesday so come Thursday morning they brought a fleet of busses (I think there were 6. Our seating assignment was based on where we lived with the first bus leaving at 8? and the last one leaving at 9. The annoying part was that the busses were of varying quality: some were the nice kind with toilets and spacious seats. I unfortunately got stuck in the cruddy, older one that wasn’t really designed for guys (or anyone for that matter) taller than, say, 5’4) and off we were on our 8 hour trip. Yeah…the bus ride was a bit much, but on the plus side the English/Scottish countryside was quite pretty to look at

The 8 hour trip was split into 2 bits. We’d drive for 4 hours, then stop at a town/attraction for 2 hours, then drive for another 4 hours. They split the attractions by bus so on the way to Scotland, 4 busses went to the town of Richmond while the other 2 busses went to Fountains Abbey, and one the way back they switched. The town of Richmond is one of those quaint little towns in the middle of nowhere and surrounding the town is fields for sheepherding and agricultural stuff (which most of the countryside is). Most notably in the town is an old castle that stands somewhat in the middle of the town. The castle (like much of the old stuff that still stands all over England) isn’t very big and is composed of a large(ish) keep and surrounding walls that have deteriorated over the centuries but still make for some nice photos. Other than the castle however there really isn’t much to do in town. The other stop was Fountains Abbey, again a very old stone abbey that stands in ruin in the middle of this really big park. The park itself contains the abbey as well as an old castle, gardens, pretty lakes, and serene landscapes that make for a nice view when hiking around.

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland located along the coast. It’s not a very large city (basically everything was within a 40 minute walk from where we were living) but it’s nice. You can see some of the ocean from the higher up parts and the whole city is on a series of hills so there’s a park/mountain to the east, another mountain to the west on which the castle stands, and a valley sort of runs through the center of the city and that’s where the train station is. Consequently it’s a little strange walking through the city because there’re some really odd streets that run up the hill, then you have streets that wind around them hills, and then you’ll cross some bridges that are pretty high up, but below you is a train station. Dunno seemed weird to me. It is beautiful though and the country itself is beautiful.

They had us all staying at one of the campuses of the University of Edinburgh which has I think three or four campuses spread throughout the city. Our particular campus was composed of mostly dorms and was located on the outskirts of the city right by the base of this big hill/mountain that we later climbed. Their dorms really, really nice, but because there are quite a few buildings were built in different decades the quality and condition of some of the buildings vary. Interesting to note: during the summer since all the local students are away, the campus operates as a hotel so guests to Edinburgh can live in the dorms and have their complimentary breakfast in the school cafeteria. Smart plan I think other schools should adopt a similar strategy. The campus had one central cafeteria and also operated a bar. Breakfast was complimentary, and everything else we had to pay for ourselves.

So some people in England like to eat fish for breakfast (called kippers) and personally I think it’s quite good but I might be an anomaly. Also characteristic of all the breakfast meals was black pudding (solidified blood basically) and vegetarian haggis (no idea how they made it vegetarian) but needless to say I stayed away from them. Probably due to the fact that I don’t really know anything about what to order when in Scotland, but the local cuisine didn’t seem to be anything special. Oh and Edinburgh is home to this place called The Elephant Café where J.K. Rowling apparently first wrote the Harry Potter saga and the café itself makes for a nice photo op but it was too crowded for me to actually want to sit down and order something.

Activity wise, the program organized several things for us to do and we could pick and choose. Option 1 was a trip to the Scottish countryside/Highlands (Trossachs) where you would go for a hike and be immersed in nature. Nice idea, but given that it rains a lot there the trail itself was extremely muddy and if you didn’t have the right shoes they recommended that you not go, so I didn’t. If I ever go back I’ll definitely try to do this. I did hear though that it was beautiful. Option 2 was a serious of attractions in the city of Edinburgh and the surrounding area.  One was a hike up Arthur’s Seat (the hilltop that I mentioned earlier that’s located right next to the dorms) The hilltop itself stands in the middle of this really big park so there’re a bunch of trails that go all the way around and up. It took us us about 1.5 hours to walk up and given that most of us hadn’t gone hiking in recent years and given that some of us were wearing attire such as rain boots the trip was a little more exhausting than expected, but the view from the top was amazing.  Other trips included a ride to the national gallery (nothing special just your typical art museums), excursion out of the city to Rosslyn Chapel (I think it’s mentioned in “The Da Vinci Code” but I haven’t read the book in a while so not sure), and a guided tour of the Scottish Parliament building (it’s alright)

Throughout the city itself there are odd museums that are all surprisingly small, street performers (which include old guys in kilts playing bagpipes. Gotta have these), some nice architecture, and a bunch of statues of famous people like Adam Smith. The other campuses of the University are spread throughout the city and while the one I believe is the main academic campus was under construction, the facilities are ok overall but Cambridge is better. There are a lot of pubs/bars all throughout the city (no surprise there), and the Castle of Edinburgh stands on the highest hill. It looks pretty nice from afar, but up close it’s less impressive and with a 14 pound entrance fee I figured it’s not worth going in.

Weather in Scotland is somewhat strange, but when it rains it pours and it sucks. It was mainly sunny in the morning on both days, but pretty much throughout the afternoon and sometimes in the evening there would be freak storms where the rain pours down ridiculously hard, rivers suddenly form all over the street and people suddenly start congregating under shelter. I was unfortunate to be caught outside during two of these downpours and it was most uncomfortable, but hey, welcome to Scotland.

One interesting experience was this…dance party that the staff organized. It’s not what you’re thinking exactly. The Scots call it a Ceilidh Party and it involves traditional music (drums, violin/fiddle, guitar) being played while traditional dances are danced. Traditional might be a stretch though seeing as they were using a modern day drum set but minor technicality. It was quite something to say the least. On our second night there they invited these 3 musicians to come to the dorms (we used one of their conference rooms located above the cafeteria) and we all (most of us anyhow) gathered together and went about learning a handful of Scottish dances for the next hour and a half or so. Not quite sure how long it was, but given how much activity was going on it felt like we were going on forever because for some songs they just kept playing and playing and playing and you just got too tired/sick of it after a while. There were maybe 200 of us all mixed together in the room and pretty much for every new song the 3 dudes would introduce a new dance and spend some time going through the proper motions/steps/whatever, then play for maybe 5-10 minutes. Putting myself out there, I must admit that it was quite a bit of fun, maybe because no one knew what they were doing but got into the spirit of things (more or less) and went along so it was enjoyable. It went on perhaps a bit too long though I don’t know how the musicians did it but they ended up playing for at least 2.5 hours by the end of the night but the grand majority of people left after the first half (myself included)

Overall I did enjoy Scotland a lot, but honestly I didn’t get to see too much seeing as I was limited to a single city over a long weekend. Is it worth a trip? Hm perhaps I think if you’re already in England you should definitely make a trip up. The city is very nice to walk around, but a long weekend is more than enough time to see everything. If not, I think there’s a lot more of Scotland to see so you could definitely make something from an extended stay, but at least for me I’m quite content. 

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