Thursday, October 30, 2008

Tartans & Tea



Braveheart and me

Hard to believe my time in Edinburgh is almost up. I've learned a lot while I've been here. For one thing, different patterns of plaid (or "tartan") are used to represent the different clans in Scotland. (Perhaps those who have seen Braveheart already picked up on this.) There's a different tartan for every clan, as well as the city of Edinburgh itself, and even for the University of Edinburgh! And, as long as I'm going to mention Braveheart, I also learned from Leanne's fiance - a native of Edinburgh - that the Scottish accents in that movie are apparently nowhere close to accurate. Ah well... Hollywood can only go so far.

I've also learned to always carry an umbrella. Or, at least wear a raincoat. Apparently, the saying goes that if you can see Fife - the land on the other side of the estuary from Edinburgh - clearly, then it's going to rain. If you can't see it, then it's already raining.

But, the clouds do create beautiful lighting. Today I stood in the Abbey at Holyrood Palace (Holyrood Palace is the residence of Her Majesty the Queen when she's in Edinburgh) and felt like I was on a movie set. The lighting or setting couldn't have been better if someone had planned it. But it was quite the opposite of planned. The abbey was built in 1128, and after being attacked and partially destroyed by a mob in the 1600s due to Catholic vs. protestant
turmoil, the roof caved in in the 1700s, leaving it in ruin as it is today. Much happened to shape this place, but none of the ruin that has come to it was intended to give me the view of it I had today. This structure, open to the sky, with soft green moss creeping across the old, worn stones and sunlight pouring in and streaming across the crumbling columns... this place captivated me. It's one of the few places I know I will try to hold in my mind's eye, to go back and visit years from now.


Holyrood Abbey

I suppose I'll wrap it up here. The "tea" in the title has no specific story attached, except that we continue to drink tea at every opportunity. Also worthy of note, Leanne's mom flew in today, and all three of us went to see Mary Poppins tonight onstage, which was great
fun. I have one more day here tomorrow, during which we plan to attempt to have tea AND SCONES at the teahouse I mentioned in my last post, and then I fly out on Saturday for Delhi!

I hope to write again after a few days in India!


Monday, October 27, 2008

Edinburgh - The Cold Life

Edinburgh, being further north than London, is also a "wee bit" colder. But, that does offer lots of opportunities for delicious ways to warm up...

Leanne and I arrived late last night to Edinburgh. After her fiance picked us up the airport, we went to her apartment for a nice cup of hot tea. And first thing this morning at breakfast? Hot tea. And, after we climbed the famous Arthur's Seat "hill" (more like a rocky, 60ยบ incline; Karen - think Cortona-grade "hill" here...), hot chocolate at a place called Chocolate Soup. And then, while relaxing after we got home? Tea. And tonight, after we made cranberry-simmered eggplant stuffed falaffel balls for dinner? Hot spiced pear cider. Mmmm. There are definitely upsides to living somewhere cold.

The hot chocolate after the hike would have been yet another count for tea today, but the tea house we stopped in was out of scones to go with it. Out of scones?? It's like a bakery saying they ran out of icing for cakes. Or a deli running out of bread for the sandwiches. As
it would be quite defeating the purpose to have afternoon tea without a scone to accompany it, we opted for the hot chocolate. And it was a delicious choice. It really was like eating a chocolate soup it was so rich. But, still not quite as thick as Italian hot chocolate...

Edinburgh is beautiful. It's another place where time periods clash: there are old stone buildings, and a castle perched atop a hill just on the outskirts of part of the city. But, the new parliament building is quite the modern piece of work... angles at every opportunity,
rocks protruding from cement, and plenty of other oddities. There are several other buildings in the town which have very modern architecture, in addition to the modern businesses, such as restaurants, drug stores and retail locations, that reside in the old stone buildings left from ages past. But it's this strange conglomeration of times and styles that I find I enjoy. It's a way of seeing history as a living thing, that you can interact with in your everyday life. It's something I just haven't seen in America, mostly because we just don't have anything that old.

Anyhow, that's about it for now. I'll look forward to writing more later!


Saturday, October 25, 2008

Cheers, London!

Hello, everyone!
Leanne and I just finished day #2 in London, and we've had a great
time so far. We saw The Sound of Music on stage last night (and
managed to stay awake through the whole thing, too!) Today we took a
nice walk through London, all the way from Buckingham Palace to
Borough Market! (For anyone unfamiliar with the city, walking between
those two points gave us a chance to walk by St. James' Park, through
Trafalgar Square, down The Strand and Fleet Street, past St. Paul's
Cathedral, across the Millenium Bridge, past the Globe Theater, and
into the back alleys of the Market.) That was a nice 'little' walk.

The Borough Market may be one of my favorite London things! Walking
through consists more of wading through the hordes of people, jostling
and pushing from every side. Every inch of space that's not filled
with the shoppers is filled with a mish-mash of stalls, selling
everything from Pecorino or Gruyere to Turkish delights and cakes.
There are some fruit and vegetable stands as well, along with sandiwch
stands and opportunities to taste other such delicacies as white
truffle honey, if you can push your way through the crowds. Every time
we turned another corner, there was another room full of more
delicious offerings to sample and look at. What fun!

And, after refueling with haloumi vegetarian burgers at the Market
(and getting a few Turkish Delights to go, too - they had a kind that
tasted like vegetarian marshmallows!), we walked back to the Tate
Modern.

Finally, though, the day caught up with us, and we barely made it back
to the hostel in time to crawl into our beds for a nap. We woke up in
time for dinner in the Covent Garden area, but are now back, and
bedtime is nearing once again...

What's left to see after all that? Plenty. But tomorrow's plan of
action is to go to Hyde Park, then to Harrod's and maybe Regent Park
before catching our flight to Edinburgh. We'll see what happens...