Skye

It's taken me a while to write about Skye because I'm not really sure what to say about it.  It was really one of those weekends where you just had to be there.  That's for two reasons.  The first is because it was so beautiful I really don't know how to describe it; except maybe green.  The other reason is because of our insane tour guide.  I can't really tell a lot of the stories he did because my parents and grandparents are reading this blog but here is one I think that I can tell that illustrates my point.  (Before I tell this story, I should just point out that the tour consisted of 16 women mostly in their early 20's and our insane tour guide Danny.)

We went to visit Hamish and we were feeding him carrots and things.  Let me just say that Hamish is a bit slobbery.  When we all got back on the bus, Danny said to us, "I hope you all washed your hands.  I only say this because I have this friend who got really sick.  He went to the doctor and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him.  The doctor kept asking him if he works with cattle and said no.  In fact, the only cow he'd been around was Hamish.  When he gone to visit Hamish, he though it would be funny to feed him from his mouth.  He stuck the food in his mouth and let Hamish take it.  The doctor said, 'Oh, that makes sense.  You have cow herpes.'"  Yeah, the whole weekend had stories like that.

So, on Friday, we went up to Skye.  It took all day to get there because we kept stopping to look at things which was cool.  We saw the loch that is in the shape of Scotland and the castle where they filmed Maid of Honor.

On Saturday, we spent to whole day on Skye touring around and looking at things.  We went to this really pretty pond with a waterfall and on a long walk through the hills.  We went a boat ride that night, which was really cool, (we caught and ate fresh scallops) but we ended up getting back late so when we finally got back, it was like 9:30 at night.  There was a woman from India on the trip and she made us curry.  It was fantastic even though we didn't actually get to eat it untill 11 at night.

Sunday was the drive back with lots more stops.  One of the prettiest places was the last place we stopped.  There was a waterfall in a pine forest that was absolutely beautiful.  It had this house thing next to it.  There is a story there but I might right it down later.  I'm kinda tired right now, so I'm going to slap so pictures on here and call it good.

The English make good coffee

Everybody went to London last weekend and I was getting jealous because I really wanted to go back but I knew I couldn't afford it.  I started thinking about places in the north of England that I could go instead and I remembered that the Bronte sisters lived in northern England so I decided to go see their house and museum.

They lived in a village called Haworth (prononced How-worth) which is about half an hour train ride from Leeds.  It's a teeny tiny village that is built on two hills. The nearest train station is in Keighley (pronounced Keith-lee) and I had to take a bus from there to Haworth.  I got off the bus at the top of one of the hills and had to walk down into the valley, past an old fashion train station and up the other hill to get to the parsonage.  I had read some of Charlotte Bronte's letters and from her descriptions of the town, I was able to recognized the street leading to the church and their house which I thought was very cool.

The street leading up to the house reminded me of a narrower and steeper version of state street.  It was full of vintage cloth stores, tea shops and second hand book stores.  At the top of this narrow little street is the church. Unfortunatly, most of the church was pulled down about 20 years after Charlotte Bronte died so the only part that remains from when they lived there is the tower.  The church is surrounded by a very crowded graveyard.  I hadn't realized this but at the time that the Brontes lived there, Haworth was a very bad place to live.  Most of the population were fairly poor and there was horrible sanitation.  Cholera was a very common problem.  I think I read that 41% of children who were born at that time died before they reached the age of 6 becuase of the diseases that filled the town.  This is worse than the slums of London at that time.  That's why the graveyard was almost overflowing with bodies.  And the graveyard added to the problem.  The bodies couldn't decompose properly so they caused more toxins to be leaked into the water supply.  Knowing all this, it makes sense why none of the Bronte sisters lived very long.

The parsonage itself was very nice.  It was much bigger than I expected it to be and it seemed very comfortable.  They had all the rooms set up as they would have been when the Brontes lived there.  They had a lot of the their funiture and their personal belongings.  I think it's because they were well known for their writing when they were alive and after they died, people started collecting their things and taking good care of them.  

My favorite room was the dining room.  This is where most of the books including Jane Eyre were written.  They didn't allow pictures in the museum unfortunatly.  I almost bought a postcard with a picture of the dining room on it but honestly, it was a really bad picture.  I was just checking the website to see if they have any pictures but they don't.  It is a good website though with lots of good information, so if you're interested, check it out.  http://www.bronte.info/ 

Anyways, the dining room.  It was very small even though it had been enlarged so I can't  image how small it would have been originally.  In the middle of the room there was a square table which is where they used to sit in the evenings writing and discussing what they were writing.  Next to the fireplace, they had the rocking chair that Emily used to sit in and along one of the walls they had the sofa where it is believed that Emily died.

Upstairs, in Charlotte's room they had a really good collection of her clothes and jewelry.  I was impressed by what good condition everything was in.  There was one of her dresses and it was very pretty and much fancier than I expected it to be.  They also had her wedding bonnet.  I had read descriptions of it before but i had had a difficult time picturing what it would have looked like so it was very cool to actually be able to see it.  They also had her writing desk which was, ya know, awesome.

I also went into the church although there was not much to see.  The Bronte family were buried in the crypt of the church because that's were family members of parsons were buried.  You can't go down there but there is a little plaque about it.  The rest of the church was nothing fancy.  It is still the church for the area and actually, early that afternoon there had been a wedding there.  I'm always suprised when I realize that these old historic churches are still being used.

After that, I went to check into my hostel.  It was very nice, the staff was nice and it was pretty empty so even though I had booked a room in a 10 bed dorm, I had the room to myself.  And did I mention, the hostel was a Victorian mansion?

Just to complete the whole Bronte expereince, I went out for a walk on the moors after dinner.

The next day, I wanted to get back to York as early as possible because I had a lot I wanted to do there.  I was upset to learn that the bus from Haworth to Keighley didn't start running until 10:45 in the morning.  I remembered seeing that the antique train had a stop in Keighley so I decided to go down to the station to check it out.  There was a train that left at 10 so I decided to take it.  It was very cute and it went through a lot of good scenery and it was definitely more fun than taking the bus.  I still ended up waiting at the Keighley station though so I didn't get back to York any earlier.  Oh well.

York is a beautiful town.  The building that sticks out the most is York Minster which is the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe.  I decided that since I hadn't been able to go into Westminster in London that I should go to York Minster.  But first I wandered around the streets for a while, checking out the shops and looking for lunch.  York has tons on tiny little streets with cool clothing boutiques and gift stores and gourmet food stores and vintage places so you can spend a lot of time just walking around.  There were also having a market and there were all kinds of interesting stalls.

Eventually I had wandered in a big circle back to York Minster.  I hardly had to wait at all to get in and it cost about half of what it is to get into Westminster but it was still super impressive.  My neck was starting to hurt by the time I got done looking.  I spent about an hour looking around and then I noticed signs for a evening church service I decided to leave and come back for church.  I 'm really glad I did because the choir was fantastic.  They had us sitting in the middle section that has the wooden curtain around it.  I was sitting next to this old British guy who, every time we would need to find a song in the hymnal or something, he would take my book out of my hands, flip it to the right page and then hand it back to me.  I feel like the people who normally go there for church are probably used to helping out the tourists.

After dinner, I went on a ghost walk and heard some good stories about York.  One of the stories was about the only native saint of York.  Her name is St. Margaret.  She married a butcher and lived on this street called the Shambles.  It looked a bit like Diagon Alley.  When she married this butcher she converted from protestant to Catholic.  This was in the time of the reformation so that was a very dangerous move on her part.  After she converted, she used to help other Catholics by having Mass in her house and hiding members of the clergy and things.  She was jailed several times and eventually, she was sentenced to death by pressing.   She was actually killed on the street that my hostel was on but fortunatly her ghost haunts her old house so I ddin't have to worry about her when I was walking back that night.    

The tour ended around 9:30 and I was looking for somewhere to get some hot chocolate or something because I was pretty cold but I wasn't quite ready to go back to the hostel yet.  I was wandering around and I heard some violin music coming from a pub.  I stuck my head in the door and was watching the the guitarist and violinist and trying to decide whether or not when to go in when the violinist started waving at me to come in so I did.  They were actually very good musicians and very entertaining to watch.  The violinist was playing an electric violin and every once and a while, he would play it like a bass instead which was very cool.  

I got a cider and was looking for a place to sit.  It was absolutely packed but there was a counter with a couple sitting at it and one empty stool so I asked if I could sit down there.  The woman I ended up sititng next to was very nice and she basically started telling me her whole life story.  She was in town with her husband for their 25th anniversary.  They were a very funny couple.  We ended up talking for about an hour and a half.  It was a very fun way to end the trip.

Would you like a Jelly Baby?

London: Day 3

The other girls went to the Doctor Who experience this morning.  I really wanted to go and get my picture in the TARDIS but it was £20.  Instead, I said I would hold us spaces in line for the Globe.  We were going to see Doctor Fautus featuring Arthur Darvil (who plays Rory in Doctor Who.)  It really was mostly a coincidence that this weekend turned out to be so truly nerdy. 

I took the tube to the Globe so I’d know where it was and then walked down the Themes to the Tower of London.  It was a bit of a hike and my feet were already sore from yesterday but it was so beautiful.  The South Bank is maybe my favorite part of London.  That’s how I think London should look-narrow streets and old buildings.  The Tower Bridge was as impressive as I thought it would be and the Tower was so castle-y.  I didn’t have time to go in but I walked around the outside and it was old and Medieval looking and I enjoyed it.   Then I went back to the Globe to wait in line.

I would recommend a show at the Globe to anyone who goes to London.  The way it works is you can either get a seat ticket or a groundling ticket but I don’t know why anyone would get a seat ticket.  They have the groundlings line up before the show starts and the closer to the front of the line you are, the closer you can stand to the stage.  I was about 15 people from the front of the line and I got to lean on the stage. 

I didn’t realize this but Doctor Faustus is actually a really good play.  Sure, it’s all about morality which can be tiresome but the characters are so good.  Methastopholis is such an interesting character in my  opinion and Doctor Faustus even more so.  They both seem to know they are bad people but they refuse to change.  Faustus is given so many chances and he seems to really want to and he never does. 

The staging was amazing.  They had a large cast of extras that would dance around the stage or be parts of furniture.  The music was also great.  And Arthur Darvil sang!  I can’t really put into words how cool this experience was.  It was like experiencing a piece of history that is beautiful and super entertaining. 

After the show we went to the gift shop and as we left the gift shop we saw Arthur Darvil standing there getting his picture with some fans.  He looked super annoyed and tired and while we waited we decided that we wouldn’t ask for autographs or anything, we just wanted to tell him he was awesome.  To bad, after he got done getting his picture taken, he turned and walked off the other way.  I don’t think he even saw us.  We started following (well, not really following since we were all heading for the door) but then we decided that we didn’t want to bother him if he was tired and wanted a break before the evening show. 

Anyway, this seems to be a habit with us that we get so close to telling the actors that we love that we think they’re awesome and then they leave before we get the chance to.  We are the truly good fans because we know when to leave them alone.  Well, on the off chance any of the following three people ever read this, here is what one of your fans wanted to tell you.  David Tennant-your Hamlet was a revelation (and your Benedick was good too.)  Catherine Tate-it is wonderful what you are doing for female comedians.  Arthur Darvil-You are lovely.  Also, since today you looked a little tired and annoyed- would you like a jelly baby? 

There's Big Ben, There's the Parliament Building

London: Day 2

We did a lot of the tourist stuff today.  We got of the Tube at the Westminster station and Julia kept saying “We have to go up those stairs.”  So we did and the first thing I saw was the parliament building.  And I fell off a step because I was to busy staring up like a tourist.  We also saw the London Eye, Westminster and Buckingham Palace.  We didn’t go in anywhere, just looked and took pictures.  It was very cool and very pretty.

In the evening, Julia and I went to the National Gallery.  We only had an hour there first we went to the imprestionist.  I walked into the one of the rooms and freaked out because, there, on the opposite wall was Monet’s Lillypads.  It was just impressive!  We also saw Van Gough’s Sunflowers.  Then we wandered through the really old section of paintings which was less interesting in my opinion.

They were starting to shut off the lights because the museum was about to close so we started heading for the door. I saw this guy out of the corner of my eye who looked pretty familiar.  Then I heard him talk.  It was Mike Meyers.  In the National Gallery.  I was shocked.  So, I spazzed a little.  It was very cool.

Then Julia and I went on an adventure to find Kensington Garden and the Peter Pan statue.  By this time, I had been walking for about nine hours and I was starting to get tired so I didn’t think the park was as cool as I normally would have thought.  The statue was very pretty though and I got a picture in front of it.  (I have so many good pictures for my profile now, I don’t know which one to use.)

By this point it was almost nine and Emily and I decided to head back to the West End to try and find a bit to eat and wait for the others to get out of the shows so we could all go back together.  We also had another slightly more nefarious reason for wanting to go back to the West End. 

The night before, Maddie and I had found the stage door.  It was in a little alley behind the theatre that had a bunch of little pubs and reastrantes.  My plan was to go to one of these places and get dinner and just sit back there to see if we might see Catherine Tate and David Tennant.  Maddie and I had realized that Catherine Tate and David Tennant come out almost immediantly after the show so we told Jen and Julia that if they wanted to try and see them, they should leave before the curtain called ends. 

Emily and I were sitting at a table outside with a good view of the stage door.  We had decided that we were going to be cool and just sit there and watch them walk by because we figured they had to go past us to get to the street.  All of a sudden, the alley started filling up because the show had let out.  We were starting to have to stretch to still be able to see the door.  Then, the people around the door started screaming and Emily and I both leapt up. 

I really was going to be cool and not rush over and snap pictures.  I didn’t have anything they could sign because there was a rule that they only sign things related to the show.  I hadn’t realized this, else I would have brought my program with me.  Finally, it was just to tempting and I went over and snaped a few pictures over the heads of the crowd. 

After that we joined up with Jen and Julia and the lucky ducks had gotten programs signed!  Jen was awesome.  She kept going up to different actors and gushing about how great they were.  I think she got 3 or 4 autographs. 

We were still hanging out waiting for Maddie when Catherine Tate came out a side door.  We watched her take a picture with a couple of fans and then we started migrating towards her with Jen in the lead but we were to slow.  Catherine Tate said, “I do need to go,” and left with a friend.  She did look very tired but we just wanted to tell her that she was awesome.

It was another fun and only slightly creepy night.  

The world must be peopled

Tonight was the most fun night of my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Much Ado was amazing!!!  There were so many perfect moments.  *SPOLIERS* The stage was a big rotating thing with four big pillars.  It started out with Cathrine Tate lounging on a sun chair and drinking a beer.  David Tennant entered on a golf cart covered in flags with a horn that went ‘da da da, da da da, da da da da daaa!’  and then everyone on stage threw their hats up into the air.  It was perfect because everybody wanted to clap and we could because the people on stage were cheering.  The scene where they are trying to convince Benedick that Beatrice is in love him was amazing.  At first, he just hid behind pillars.  The dais turned slowly throughout the whole scene so the staging moved constantly.  There were painters working on the doors and pillars and they had a cart full of paint stuff.  At one point David Tennant put his hand down in the cart and stuck it in a ton of white paint.  Then there was a whole stick with him trying to find somewhere to whip his hand. Then, when Claudio says, quoting Beatrice, “Oh, sweet Benidick!” he puts his hand on his chin.  Somehow, through out the rest of the scene, he ended up with paint all over his shirt.  Finally, he went behind a pillar and when he came out he had white paint all down his front and his hair was sticking straight up with it  and he had the biggest goofiest smile on his face.  And the way he said, “The world must be peopled.”  It was just so simple, like it’s just a fact.  Then, Catherine Tate came on to bid him come in to dinner.  He said, “Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains,” and they both just started laughing.  Catherine turned around with her back to the audience and turned back and looked at him and started laughing again and had to turn away.  David Tennant was just sitting there and laughing, not even trying to hide it. 

Beatrice’s scene was awesome as well.  She hid under a drop cloth and just kind of shrunk onto the floor.  Then she got strung up on a fly and did acrobatics in the air.  It was just was a little gimmicky but freaking hilarious. 

Then, in the scene after the wedding it was amazing.  David chased her through the chairs and she kept moving them in front of her.  After she said she loved him she started waving her arms around and looked so surprised (much how I looked going into the show tonight). 

The scene where Benedick is writing a poem for Beatrice was awesome.  It started with him playing the first four notes of Oh When the Saints and singing ‘O God of love.’  He sat and played with the keyboard for a while and then just played those four notes over and over and when it really started driving me crazy, he finished the line.  Then Beatrice came in and he tossed the keyboard over his shoulder. 

The show ended how you’d expect, with a big dance number.  Then they took like four curtain calls.  I was standing and screaming and clapping so hard that my hands where bright red.  When we got out of the theater, I was looking around for a place to get ice cream when this taxi goes by right in front of me and Catharine Tate was in it!  Then we found Magnum Ice Cream!!  Then we found the stage door!!!  We hung out by it for a while to see if David Tennant would come out but he didn’t.  I decided that that was probably a good thing because if I ever see him I want to say, “Your Hamlet is a revelation.”  But I was so tired and excited; it would have come out like a babble. 

So epic night!  So much fun!  I’m still excited!! 

In Search of a Battered Mars Bar

It was a cold and rainy night as I traversed the streets of Stirling.  My goal was the elusive, the magical BATTERED MARS BAR.  (Translation: Fried Milky-way.)  As I walked, the rain drumming on my umbrella, the water seeping through the holes in my shoes, I considered how I had arrived in this situation.

Each week, the staff at the ISS give us a suggestion of something Scottish to try. This weeks was the battered Mars Bar.  They also gave us a suggestion of a place to buy it from.  We had decided that it sounded delicous so on Wednesday we went out in search of it.  First we stopped at the suggested establishment.  It was closed.  We walked for a bit, had lunch and went grocery shopping, all the while stopping and asking different people where we could find a battered Mars Bar but with no success.  We had finally given up and were heading back to the bus stop when we noticed that the original chip shop was now open.     We went in, elated.  We could smell our prize wafting in the oily air.  We eagerly stood in line and when it was our turn, we asked for our Mars Bars.

"We don't do those anymore," said the man behind the counter.  Dejectedly, we headed back to the bus stop but we were determined to finish our quest at a later date.

And so we struck out once again into Stirling.  We first stopped in what appeared to be a Middle eastern pizza place.  We asked if they had battered Mars Bars and the guy said they didn't but they could fry them up for us if we bought them and brought them back.  We were elated.  We decided to see if we could find a convenience store that sold candy in the mall.  Little did we know, the mall closes at 5:30 on Friday nights.  Once again we hung our heads and went out into the rain.

As we headed up the street, we passed another fish and chips shop and went in.

"Do you do battered mars bars?" we asked.

"Yeah, we do, replied the Scottish guy behind the counter.

"Yes!"

"But we're out of Mars Bars," he continued.  "If you go get them and bring them back, we'll do them for you."

"Where can we get them?" we asked in desperation.

"Just up the street," he replied.  So we raced up the street to a little shop and bought our Mars Bars and then rushed back down the the chip shop.

As  Scottish guy #2 prepared our deep-fried delecacies, Scottish guy #1 asked us different question and figured out that we'd only been in Scotland a few days.  He asked if we'd tried haggis and we said we hadn't so he pulled out a deep fried haggis for us to try as well.

We took a few goofy pictures and then headed back out into the rain again because the chip shop didn't have anywhere to sit.  Eventually, we found ourselves sitting in the William Wallace pub.  Just picture in your heads what a Scottish pub should look like.  That is the Wallace pub.  We sat in the pub eating our haggis and Mars bars, drinking cider and listening to golf on the TV.  It was a very Scottish night.

Just head downhill

We went to St. Andrew's today.  Unfortunatly, I don't have any pictures because we got there and I went to take a picture of this beautiful street and realized that my camera had died.  Just google it.  There was a huge ruin of a cathedral and tons of old buildings but it really wasn't the coolest thing I did today.

After we got back, my roommate and I went out for a walk.  I had heard there was this old graveyard close to the school and I wanted to take some pictures of it for my photography class.  (I'll have to go back tomorrow because my camera wasn't done charging when we left.  It's ok though because it's about a 10 minute walk from here.)  We got to the graveyard and looked through the gate and realized that there was a bunch of people gathered there singing hymns.  We jumped back from the gate because it looked like a funeral was being held.  We were going to leave but I wanted to check out the other part of the wall and see if I could see in without anyone in side seeing me.  I went around to the other side where I saw a sign that said "Re-dedication ceremony Thursday 16th June 8:00pm."  It turns out that this graveyard and the ruins of the church inside had been closed for four years and we just happened to show up when they were reopening it.

We went in and wandered around for a bit until the ceremony was over.  Afterwards, a few very friendly Scottish people told us about the graves and gave us a brochure.  One of the gravestones was for a cobbler's wife.  One of the men there told us about all of the symbols of the grave stone and what they meant as well as the cobblers name.  This grave stone was probably from the middle-ages.

The graveyard was very cool but it wasn't the creepiest thing I saw tonight.  After walking to the graveyard, we walked up the hill.  One the hillside there is this giant kiln.  It's got three big chambers in it the size of small rooms.  The creepy thing about it that I can't figure out why you would put a kiln like that so high up a hill and so far away from everything else.  If anyone can explain this to me, please do.

After that we continued our walk up the hillside and to the sheep pastures at the top where you have a great view of the landscape.  We didn't get back until around 11 when it finally got dark.  I definitely plan on exploring the woods some more