Tripping to Scotland

Scotland. Scotland. Home of Kailyard Literature, Sir Walter Scott, Nessy, and Willie from the Simpsons who has red hair and wears a kilt sometimes. Or was he from Ireland? No clue. Anyway, after much wandering around Edinburgh, including a hike to Arthur’s seat, I have concluded that Edinburgh is beautiful without the bone-freezing rain. The museums, art galleries, old closes, and castles are all admirable and I love them. The weather is the one thing to complain about.

Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday I have wandered all over this city. I have walked through hail, sleet, rain, cold gale-force winds, and pleasant sunny weather. The last was truly the best I could have done without all the others. Walking through hail ended with my legs turning into popsicles, and the rest just made me feel like crying whenever I saw men in kilts.

The National Art Gallery had some beautiful works including a Monet called "Seascape, Shipping by Moonlight," which I loved. I did my inevitable crying at some Monets, a Cezanne, and a Van Gogh. The Cezanne and the Van Gogh were unusual and a very early style for Cezanne and an unfinished style for Van Gogh. They were all moving. The Edinburgh Art Centre also had some beautiful works in their exhibit on gardens.

The National Museum of Scotland housed the cloned sheep Dolly, but also had some other interesting exhibits on geology, natural history, mummies, and Scottish history from the beginning of time. Staring at Pict engravings really reminded me of how little we know. The Picts lived so long ago and one of the few things we have left are these engravings which we can’t understand. We don’t know their culture or anything about them. We know so much about the dynasties of Egypt, and ancient Greek and Roman cultures, but these people left behind only a few things that lasted many thousands of years. So many people live, die, and disappear, leaving nothing permanent. Man is not a permanent thing and will be washed away by stronger and more everlasting forces. This feeling was confirmed as I walked up and down buildings that are hundreds of years old and falling into ruin. Even the memorials on Calton Hill will only commemorate for a little while, then they will deteriorate like everything else until there is nothing left. Edinburgh Castle also is built on stone left from an extinct volcano, as is Arthur’s Seat. The Castle is interesting, but the stones have been weathered just like the smooth stones all around Arthur’s Seat, worn from all the hikers. The elegance and beauty of the Castle will eventually be lost, along with memory of what it was like.

On Wednesday, we went out and sailed on the Firth of Forth. Cold wind made it an uncomfortable journey, but nothing as bad as Tuesday’s hail. We saw Edinburgh from the other side and also some seals, sunning themselves on a buoy. I have never been very close to wild animals ever. Most of my experience with animals is in zoos. But there are seals and puffins that live in the Firth. A fox was outside my bedroom window when we first arrived. A fox like from Disney’s Robin Hood! I have never lived in the country, so wildlife has always seemed more exotic than it probably is. Even sheep seem exciting. Or at least lambs. Lambing just concluded, so there are fields here covered in ewes with lambs. Many of the ewes look like they got hit too many times with the ugly stick, but the lambs are adorable. Delicate and prancing around their mothers. Even laying down exhausted in the field, they look so cuddly and sweet. The bus to the First of Forth and the bus to the Highlands took us past more lambs than I can imagine.

The Highlands have not even been mentioned. We took a day trip from the Royal Mile to Loch Ness and back again through Inverness and the Grampian Mountains. It was beautiful and much of the scenery reminded me of Glacier National Park and the desolate landscapes of New Zealand in Lord of the Rings. But it was starkly awesome. Despite the cold and the occasional showers, I loved it. We drove past the castle that was used as Castle Anthrax in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the place where they shoot parts of Monarch of the Glen. Of course there were also places where they filmed Braveheart as well, but that was assumed. I was sitting next to a French woman (I seem to be running into many French people here including those French guys at the pub who didn’t speak English). We had some basic communication back and forth about our trips, but the most enticing thing was right out the window. We arrived in Loch Ness and explored the ruins of Castle Urquart on the Loch and then took a boat (called The Jacobite Queen) around the dark waters of Loch Ness. While I didn’t see any sign of Nessy, I did try to call out to her. This attempt was unsuccessful. But then we got back on the bus and drove back through Inverness and the Grampians until we returned to the Lowlands and Edinburgh.

Speaking of the Grampians, there is the literary aspect of Edinburgh I have not mentioned. I read some novels set in the Grampians a semester ago, but Edinburgh itself has many different memorials to their writers. They have Makars Square with quotes from many of Scotland’s famous writers, a museum dedicated to Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Burns, a monument towering over the New City for Scott, a monument to Bobbie Burns, The Elephant House (where JK Rowling supposedly came up with the idea for Harry Potter), the schools where JK Rowling, Tony Blair, and many others went (including Ian Fleming and Sean Connery for a James Bond connection). I love all the literary connections, but it is interesting that most of my knowledge of Scottish history is from literature classes. I don’t really know much besides how Culloden, the Act of Union, and Jacobites relate to the authors of the time period and how they were influenced. It was interesting to learn more and be reminded of what I already knew.

I am about to leave the city of David Hume, Adam Smith, and many others very soon to return to London. It is a much smaller, homier city than London. Despite all the bad and good weather, I really loved everything I saw. I wish I could wander through Edinburgh more and instead of discovering a horrible side of myself (like Dr. Jekyll) I think I would find a place that speaks to me the same way it has spoken to other authors – loudly.