Rag and Bone Man

This morning I got to see something interesting and new to me that exists here: the Rag-and-Bone Man.

I was sitting in the living room when my roommate ran in saying it was the Rag-and-Bone Man was here, and told me to come outside to see. I was totally confused and had no idea what she was talking about so stepped outside with her. I couldn't see anything at first but could hear a rattling noise from down the street.

My room-mate explained to me what was happening: historically these men would collect rags and bones to sell as scrap. As they rode through town they would call out and people would know it was time to out out their junk. You can read all about it on Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag-and-bone_man

Today's Rag-and-Bone Man collects scrap metal, not rags or bones. When he appeared I could see he was riding a bike and hauling a cart behind him. On the cart I could see a bicycle, a couple metal buckets, and various other scrap. As he rounded the corner he called out his notice of being around. It was really neat to see! 

Scotland Round 2 - Highlights

Hello my loves! I am sitting on my couch visiting with Quirk having returned yesterday from a weeklong adventure in Scotland. I took about 200 pictures and did so many things I can't remember all of them, so instead of trying to hit everything I thought I would give a brief highlights summary of our days there.

Last Sunday we took the bus up to Edinburgh. After a frustrating adventure with Google confusing us as to the location of our hostel we got settled in and went out for a nice dinner at Nando's, which they don't have back in Canada but I was introduced to last time I was here. We didn't do much else, having an early night from travel exhaustion.



Monday morning we grabbed breakfast and explored went off for castles. We did a tour of Edinburgh Castle followed by some exploring on our own. From there we walked down the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace at the other end.

 After some more exploring and lunch we made our way up to one of the theatre areas in the city to enjoy a play about the life of Albert Einstein. It was really enjoyable! Scientifically speaking it was sound, it was quite funny, and all around I had a blast. I even got to meet the star before going in!

 

In the evening we went to a pub where Katherine met some very nice fellows from Glasgow. We met up with them again later at a live music place called "Cowshed" which was basically a hoedown. It was a blast!

 

 

 

Tuesday morning we got up for another day of adventures in Edinburgh. We attended another play, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, after seeing the troupe singing while walking down the Royal Mile. From there we went on to do a little shopping before our tour of the historic vaults of Edinburgh. I find the vaults very interesting - they were formed when South Bridge was built (completed 1788). They were originally meant to be used by merchants but were also used for other purposes such as illegal stills and squatters. The tour gave a really interesting view of the history of Edinburgh and what life in the city would have been like. Because of the geological boundaries (and man-made ones) Edinburgh historically was actually a very small area. To make up for it they built both down and up a lot - buildings are up to 12 or 14 floors. The bridge was built to give better access to an area being developed at the time, called "New Town" as the city expanded.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday we began our tour of the Highlands. I was thrilled to discover that we had the same tour guide that I had for the one-day tour we took on my first trip to Scotland. This is where my memory becomes all out of order and I can't even try to tell you what happened in what order.

 

One big highlight was taking the chair lift at the Glencoe Ski Centre to see the views. I have a moderate fear of heights, so this was one of those "do it specifically because I'm scared to" things. I ended up riding with a girl named Cheryl who is originally from Scotland but living in England - chatting with her was a good distraction from my fear. The views were absolutely amazing and completely worth the fear.

 

We also got to walk right into the valley of Glencoe to hear the story of the Glencoe Massacre. It was a really interesting experience and much better allowed me to picture the story.

 

That evening was a lot of fun as well. I had a delicious dinner of haggis stuffed chicken with whiskey sauce. That's right, haggis. It was actually delicious - and as someone pointed out it's really no grosser than what goes into hot dogs and sausages. I enjoyed it a lot. I took off for a while and had some alone time in nature sitting along the side of the canal in Fort Augustus, and then walking up the canal to the edge of the village. After that I returned and had fun with the party-crazy Aussies in the bar. They were very silly (and some of them were very drunk) but I had a blast.




Thursday was day 2 of the tour and up to areas I had not been before. The main focus of the day was going up towards the Isle of Skye. Sadly the clouds were very low so we could not see as much as hoped, but we still got to see plenty of beautiful sights.

One of my favourite parts of the day was the river we stopped at. We walked down to the water's edge where we were told a story which involved a legend - that if you stuck your face in the water for 8 seconds it would "restore all natural beauty". Our tour guide asked for people who were willing to do this and I was one of those who volunteered. However I am me, so when I went to lean into the water my left hand slid out from under me and I fell face-first into the river. Other than being a lot more soaked than intended and having a couple bruises I was fine and had a lot of fun with it.

I also quite enjoyed a show we got to attend in the evening where we got to learn about life in the Highlands, see how tartans were actually put on, and see real, battle-scarred weapons. It was amazing and very informative!



Day 3 of the tour, Friday, took us back down towards Edinburgh. We passed through Inverness and then went to Culloden Battlefield, which was a very interesting experience. I have read many things that involve the history and aftermath of the battle there so have long been curious to see it. I actually didn't take many pictures (just one of the sign) because I felt I needed to respect the place in my own weird way. I walked from the flags marking the British side to the flags marking the Jacobite side and did some meditating and praying. It was an intensely emotional experience for me and took quite a while to process when it was done. However I am very glad to have seen it and been able to experience the place for myself.

A more fun and uplifting experience was a tour of the Blair Athol distillery and a whiskey tasting there. It was really neat to see the process of how whiskey is made, and after having tried a few whiskeys earlier in the trip I really enjoyed theirs. It is a sweeter whiskey which is aged in sherry casks. Very nice.

Our return to Edinburgh was a bit rocky - it turned out we were in our hostel's secondary location which involved quite a schlep across the city. With Fringe being going on it was a little overwhelming and I was pretty grumpy by the end (unfortunately). However by the next morning I forgave the city and loved it again!


Saturday we took a train out to Glasgow where we were able to explore a bit of that city. We spent some time at the Glasgow Science Centre, as well as exploring the Necropolis - a very interesting and beautiful Victorian cemetery. After getting all dolled up we went out for an evening on the town and got to experience a bit of local Glasgow life. It was a lot of fun.



Overall the trip was amazing. My connection with the Highlands only grew, and I miss it there already. I realized how much my country girl heart misses being out in nature and all it's beauty - something I will have to be more careful about. Attending the Edinburgh Fringe was a great experience and something I highly recommend to people. Glasgow surprised me by being much more enjoyable than I expected (having had various people warn me to not go there). However it is the Highlands I love and will keep with me.

Edinburgh Revisited Chapter 1: What a day

Hello! This will be a pictureless post for now as I am stocking up pictures to blow your minds with in future posts. We are safely in Edinburgh and enjoying a quiet night in our hostel after a comedy of errors style day. 

The morning started off alright with a relatively pleasant train trip from Cleethorpes to Doncaster. There we got some lunch and sat down to wait for our train. And wait. And wait. And wait... The train ended up being 51 minutes late. As we had no connections to make I mostly just laughed and we amused each other with YouTube videos and music. When the train eventually did arrive it was absolutely packed to the gills with people and suitcases. After some shifting around we were able to store our bags safely on a rack that was too small for most of the other luggage. We found seats after York, and after Newcastle we found new seats that were actually together. 

I spent most of the train journey listening to music and knitting. However as we reached Scotland I put the knitting away to stare out the windows and enjoy the beautiful scenery. It is indescribable. I thought that maybe I had hyped this place up to myself too much and it wouldn't live up, but I was wrong. The magic of Scotland lives! 

When we arrived in Edinburgh the station was full to the brim of people trying to get on the train for the return journey to London. We were barely able to get off the train and fight our way through the crowds to leave the station. Letting Google lead the way we began the trek to our hostel. It took us a very pretty route circumnavigating Edinburgh Castle, but not a very direct route. I can forgive Google for that. However we might have a falling out over the actual location of the hostel. It took twenty minutes of walking back and forth, complete confusion about the way buildings are numbered, and Katherine eventually asking the nice scary looking man with no front teeth directions for us to find the place. 

Then it was time to try to get in. In our defense, it turned out the door was locked and we spent five minutes trying to open it in vain. Turns out the lady had just stepped out to go to one of the flats (it is a hostel apartment building - quite interesting actually).

Once we got settled we decided to go for dinner. Last time I was here I had a lovely dinner with my beloved Vanessa at Nando's so I suggested we go there. Dinner was very lovely. So was the sangria. What followed from there was pure silliness, at least part of which is to be blamed on one of our other Canadian girls and a task she set us involving accents. That is all I will say about that for now. 

When we got back to the hostel apartment place it was time to shower and settle in for the night. My poor travel companion didn't get to shower however as it is a bit of a strange set up - turns out you have to turn on power to the shower using the big scary looking red power switch outside the bathroom. A little bit of teamwork and investigation later this process was discovered and I was able to enjoy a nice weak shower (oh how I miss good water pressure!)

Tomorrow will be a day of castles and walking along with much more silliness. I look forward to it!

Oxford

This week I travelled to Oxford with my housemate Laura. We took the train Thursday morning, which was about four hours. Not a bad trip at all! A fair amount of pretty scenery. I love going past grain fields because they remind me of home.

We decided to walk from the train station to the flat we are staying in (courtesy of Air B&B). It was a good decision! The walk was largely along the Oxford Canal which was incredibly beautiful!

My favourite thing about the canal was the ducks. They were very tame and not afraid at all. The also had ducklings! So darling!

When we got to the flat there was a bit of confusion about the location of the key and how to open the door (have I mentioned my hatred of British locks? They are awful!) but after some sandwich related blood sugar relief we dropped our stuff off and headed back out. I walked down to Oxford Castle, past some really neat sights.

 

The Castle is a bit strange. There's not a lot of castle left. The most prominent thing is a large grassy mound where the original castle, built over a thousand years ago from wood, would have stood. I will return to this interesting mound.

There is also the county hall, which is a beautiful building on part of the original castle grounds. 

Finally there are a few pieces of the castle itself (built of stone slightly later than the very first one was)

There is a tour of the castle that, from it's advertising, somewhat resembles the format of the York Dungeon that I recently visited. I decided not to do this but did pay £1 for access to walk to the top of the grassy mound. Talking with the girl in the store she explained to me that under the mound was originally a well though it has long since dried up. When they did an archaeological dig in 2003 they discovered 64 skeletons in there from the 16th century. This didn't stop me from exploring the mound however, or going partway into the well vault (which was admittedly super creepy!)

I would have enjoyed my time on top of the mount more if it weren't for the group of obnoxious European teenagers being incredibly annoying. However it was still quite neat to sit and look out at the city.

After coming down from the mound I wandered around for a bit. I made my way eventually to the Ashmolean Museum as that is where Laura was and it was the only museum open past 5. It was absolutely amazing! The first exhibit I entered was of ancient statues collected by one Duke with the story of how he built his collection and how it ended up at Oxford. From there I found my way to exhibits about Greece, Cyprus, Crete, the Near East, and Rome. My favourite part however was a room with casts of famous statues that I remember studying in my Greek/Roman Art & Architecture Class. It was so neat to see them! 

Laura came and found me in that room and we went off to find dinner. We went to Jamie's Italian, one of the Jamie Oliver restaurants. It was very delicious. 

Friday my priority was the Museum of the History of Science. Since it didn't open until noon I had time in the morning to fill. I had a few ideas but began the day with a bit of wandering in the general direction of the tourist stuff. 

I found my way to Christchurch Cathedral. It is interesting because it is both a cathedral and the college parish. It was a beautiful building, but instead of paying to go in (I had a goal of being cheap, it fell through drastically later in the day alas) I opted to walk through Christchurch Meadow. The entrance is a beautifully manicured set of gardens called the War Memorial Gardens, then it leads to actual meadows. They were a wonderful piece of country inside the city. 

I had a slight moment of juvenile grumpiness after that last picture when my camera's batteries died. I blame lack of sleep for the fact I got quite grumpy and pouty for about three minutes before I kicked myself in the butt and just went and got new batteries. From there I walked over to the Oxford Botanic Garden. It is quite a pretty botanical garden. I was getting hungry enough that I was very tempted to steal from the citrus trees. I wandered through for a while before finding a bench by a lovely fountain to sit and enjoy the picnic lunch I had purchased in the morning. It was quite peaceful and enjoyable, at least until an aggressive wasp decided that it wanted my apple far more than I did. 

After leaving the botanic gardens I walked over to the part of town that the museum was in. As it wasn't noon yet I took some pictures of nearby buildings and then hung out on a bench for a while. 

The museum was amazing. I love old scientific instruments for their intricacy and ornamentation. I was certainly not disappointed in here. There were tons of beautiful compasses, astrolabes, microscopes, sectants, chemistry equipment, and photography items. It was amazing. 

That being said the most exciting part of the museum to a physics nerd such as myself is the Einstein chalkboard. Basically it is what it says: a chalkboard preserved after being used by Einstein when he visited as a guest lecturer. I had to stop and pay homage here. 

After the museum I was finding myself very dehydrated so I stopped and got cream tea (tea + scones with clotted cream and jam) at a cute little cafe along with about four glasses of water. On the way to the cafe Google led me through an amazing little alley that I would never have noticed on my own:

I decided to continue being nerdy and walked over to the Natural History Museum. It was closed, but you could still access the Pitt Rivers Museum through it. This was a good decision I made as Pitt Rivers is amazing! 

It is called a museum of anthropology and world archaeology. It is different from other museums however as items are not sorted by origin but by use. The idea is to showcase how cultures all over the world came up with similar or different items for the same purposes. It is beautifully set up with all the items having hand-written labels. I wandered around like a kid in a candy store admiring the beautifully set up displays. It is like a giant emporium of history and has an amazing feel to it. I feel like I could spend days wandering contentedly through here admiring items. However I was pretty burnt out from touristing by this point so met Laura and headed back to the train station. So ended our lovely pair of days in Oxford!