Kilts and Haggis

Heading off to Edinburgh, Scotland was a big step for me.  It signified my first big step of branching out beyond the Netherlands.  I made it to Europe and toured around my country of residence, but this was the first time that I’ve traveled around beyond the borders.  The choice of Edinburgh as our first destination just kind of happened because a friend mentioned that she found low-priced tickets out of Bremen, Germany on a cheap little airline called Ryanair that went into Edinburgh.  We said, “Hmm, Scotland, right?  Sure, that’ll do!” and off we went.  Granted, we did have to get on a bus at 2:00am into Germany to fly out of Bremen at 7:00 am, but it was completely worth it when we showed up in Edinburgh at 10:30 in the morning.  The first thing I notice was all of the hill.  Now, the Netherlands is a notoriously very flat country where the majority of it is not only flat but under sea level.  I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed varying landscape until I was reintroduced to the hills.  Here’s a picture of a giant hill called Arthur’s Seat that overlooks the whole city…  

If you look in the very center, you can see the castle that sits in the center of the city.

Here's a view of the castle in the middle of the city.  It was huge and we got to tour around inside of it. 

We also toured around a bunch of these underground cellar type things that were built into a bridge's underground structure.  People used to live and work down there and they're considered the most haunted places in town now.  After the legal uses of the cellars were done, people started hiding dead bodies in them to sell to the medical school in town.  They're not used for anything currently, except for ghosts' bedrooms.

 Come to find out, there are people in Scotland who really do wear kilts.  Some people where them when they're playing their bagpipes, but there were also people just walking around or going out who wear them.  A Scottish guy we talked to said that they guys who don't wear kilts to prom in high school are the weird ones.  

 I also had to try haggis while we were in Scotland.  It's some sort of sausage made of unidentified parts of animals and traditionally cooked in the stomach of an animal.  I'm not sure why that sounded like a good idea but I figured I was obligated to try the spicy treat.  Now I don't ever have to do it again.

Another really awesome thing about the trip is that we went to the Elephant House Cafe which is supposedly the "birthplace of Harry Potter!"  J.K. Rowling used to write in the cafe as she looked out over the castle and a primary school that served as her inspiration for Hogwarts.  I'm not ashamed to say that I took some pictures in the bathroom there to document the occasion...

Talk about a small world!  When hanging out with some people we met in the city, I ran into a girl who also goes to Central.  I guess there was another girl who lived in the same building who goes to CMU as well and they're both studying abroad in Edinburgh for the weekend. It's was random to be so far away from home and running into somebody that I have connections to.

 One thing that I noticed about Scotland, as compared to the Netherlands, is that there are a lot more familiar name brands of products there.  I've gotten used to going into the store and not recognizing most of the brands of food that I was buying and then I went to Scotland and saw Aunt Jemima syrup and Heinz Ketchup.  They do drive on the opposite side of the road there, but it was a new acclimation process where I had to get used to most of the conversations I was overhearing being in a language I actually understood.  I surprised myself when I kept wanting to use Dutch phrases when interacting with people, instead of the English ones.  That's really saying something, considering how I don't really speak Dutch and all.

Overall, Edinburgh was an absolutely fantastic trip.  It set the bar really high for the rest of my travel.  I had a weird moment last week when I was worried that we started out too strong and that the other places we visited would pale in comparison.  Then I had to hit myself on the head and remind myself that I was going to Berlin, which is one of the most famous and popular cities in the world.  Of course I was going to love it there too!