Spending Some Sterling in Stirling

Well, it's official! Yes, winter has officially taken up residence in Glasgow. I take that back Dark Cold has officialy taken up residence in Glasgow. You see two people I know, they will remain nameless at this point in time..but let me say that one is from the continent of Africa, the other from a small island called Britain... constantly mock my usage of "fall" rather than autumn. They laugh at how literal Americanisms are, mocking the fact that we Americans call the season in which leaves fall from the trees "Fall." Because of this I have been told that I should rename all the seaons to fall in line with the literalness of "Fall." Therefore, I will no longer be calling winter "winter" it will be "Dark Cold," seeing as that literally is how winter is here in Glasgow. In fact it is getting dark so early here that I had to call someone to ask them the time, more on the confusion of daylight savings time later! Only a few days into "Dark Cold" and many Glaswegians are looking forward to "Sprout" and I can't say I blame them.

Reading Week flew by and my days were partially spent with Jack Kerouac and partially spent distracting people who weren't as fortunate to have a week away from lectures. As the week slipped quickly by the talk of the town came to focus on the upcoming holiday: Halloween. Now, I will readily admit to not being the greatest fan of the holiday. I am much more stereotypical in my likings of holidays and prefer Christmas and my birthday (of course it's a holiday!). More recently, I've come to like Thanksgiving but Halloween I can really do without. But, as the holiday weekend drew nearer I was eager for some way to celebrate. Thankfully, Flat 3.1 was deemed worthy enough for an inviation to a party for Human Rights and International Relations students. It was on the morning of the party that I realized it might be necessary to acquire some type of costume for the evening's events.

I did what anyone would do in this situation, a mad dash to the nearest Asda! Which is really not that near. The flatmate and I took a subway ride, walked around a football stadium, crossed a motorway, journeyed around two insanely busy roundabouts and traversed a McDonald's parking lot and finally arrived at Asda. After menadering through the Halloween section without any luck ("Stick Man" just wasn't a very good costume.. I don't think we were the only ones who thought so either seeing how many were left on the shelves) it was decided that the party section may be more promising. I quickly decided to go as a flapper seeing the amount of cheap accessories they had for this costume. The flatmate, however, had a more difficult decision but ultimately went with a mobster costume due to the fact it was acessorized with a fake gun, of course. After making the long haul back to the West End the future mobster had to rush off to class and I was left toting the fake gun. I felt the shame of the American Stereotype weighing heavily as I ran errands around the city all the while carrying and not too well concealing a very large, very plastic gun.

 Apparently, this wig makes me unrecognizable... If I ever need to go incognito I know exactly what to put on!

While Friday evening was certainly entertaining and there was a wide range of interesting and hilarious costumes (While there weren't any at the party I attended, it appears that the most popular costume in Glasgow was Mario and Luigi. They were all over the place this weekend!) there was no Halloween party in store for Saturday. Instead, it was time to redeem a pair of Opera tickets. On that note, I will say that it appears all of my cultural events attendance is paying off. I learned this week that I will now be working as the Theatre editor of "The Glasgow Journal." The Journal is the newspaper for the entire student population of Glasgow, encompassing the cities two Universities as well as the college. I will admit to being slightly nervous regarding the position but am mostly thinking about the possibility of free theatre tickets!

The amount of school work and the pressures of other commitments has certainly been picking up and was very obvious over the weekend. However, there was still plenty of time for a weekend getaway! And, it was my turn to do the planning. The Super Secret Sunday trip was built up throughout the week with the gifting of clues. The clues were intended to help the receiver figure out where exactly in Scotland we would be going on Sunday. Clues such as the following were given: "Once upon a time I was in great danger. Thankfully, an animal of the forest saved me and my people. This savior is now featured on my coat of arms." I know, I know I was also shocked and amazed that the receiver failed to guess where exactly we were going with such obvious hints as those!

There was a slight snag in the wee hours of our trip. I had set my alarm the night before for 8.00 AM. My trusty phone alarm went off as normal and I went about preparing for the day's activites. Walking down the hall to get breakfast I noticed that my travel companion's lights were still off and there was no sound of movement coming from the room. So I, of course, did what anyone would do and barged in to wake the said travel companion. The awakening led to massive confusion. My travel companion had also set their alarm for 8.00 but the clock said that it wasn't yet 8.00. After checking my phone again it was decided my phone must be right . I went back to making breakfast when the kitchen door flew open and the fateful words.. "We forgot daylight savings time!" were murmered. The one day I look forward to every year, the day I eagerly await for, that gifts that glorious hour of extra sleep, had been completely missed and caused moments of utter confusion.

If you haven't figured it out quite yet Stirling was the secret destination! Stirling is only a short train ride from Glasgow, less than an hour. If you are planning on visiting Glasgow you may consider going to Stirling as well. The town is full of things to do and makes a very nice day trip that could certainly be stretched into a weekend trip. If you are going to a town with a castle prepare yourself to climb a few hills and in the final stretch a pretty large hill to make it to the castle's summit. While you certainly need to be prepared for some climbing many of the towns boasting a castle have a done a nice job of winding the streets in a pleasant way in which you can slowly work your way to the top while enjoying small shops and cafes.

 The climb to the castle takes you by the Stirling graveyard. The graveyard was visited later in the evening and will be discussed more later on!

 Views from the climb to the Castle.

 The Wallace Monument can be seen from the Castle.

 And, of course there was tons of activities intended for children that I made us take part in... such as dress up!

 After dressing up we were able to paint Jesters!

 Mine was gorgeous!

 Views of Stirling from the Castle view points. Even though the clouds look ominous the rain held off during the day and the weather was very pleasant!

 The Palace section of the Castle was recently reopened after a great deal of renovation was completed in the rooms. The paintings are replicas of actual tapestries and murals that covered the walls during the Castle's operating days.

 The Unicorn tapestries of Stirling are famous (I studied them in my art history class!). The actual tapestries aren't in Scotland, they are in New York.

 Queen for the Day!

After taking plenty of time to wander through all the various nooks and crannies Stirling Castle had to offer it was lunch time. While I would love to say that I am an extremely graceful, refined, poised person this is completely false. I have always hated the fact that I am notoriously clumsy and exceptionally ungraceful. But, it has come to a point in my life where I have come to accept my clumsy ways and actually find it fairly funny. I am sure my fellow clumsy counterparts can attest to the following: one clumsy act leads to a succession of clumsy acts which in turn results in a ridiculous series of events creating a very clumsy day, sometimes week and if it's really bad month. But, usually only day, then you are giving a slight break and the clumsiness doesn't strike again for a short bit. The Stirling day became one of my clumsy days. First, the lunch special was a selection of dishes and then a choice of sides. My combination of beef and chips was apparently unheard of and I confused the waitress horribly. While this may not seem too drastic (it certainly wasn't!) it sets the scene for the following events. After our meal I decided to enjoy a cup of tea. The cup of tea was absolutely massive and I don't exactly have massive hands. While paying too much attention to people watching and not enough attention to moving the tea cup to my mouth I dropped the tea cup which collided with the floor (not breaking!) and completely awashed the entire floor with my freshly brewed tea. When my travel companion returned from a quick run to the bathroom he was greeted by me sitting on the island that was my chair surrounding by a sea of tea. Once the mess was cleaned up and I assured the staff over and over that I truly was "okay" and not close to death by tea, I stepped to the counter to pay. The total came to 20.15.. or at least that's what I heard. I paid 20.20 and after receiving a strange look and restatement of the total bill figured out it was 20.50. Well to pay 20.50 I was going to have to break another note, which I was happy to do although the cashier was not so happy. He took the 20.20 and I believe was more than happy to see us, particularly me, leave his cafe.

After this disastrous lunch we were off to the Wallace Monument. The monument is slightly out of town so a taxi cab was necessary. One thing I have quickly learned while living in the UK is this: the people have very strong opinions regarding their hometown and the other towns and cities in the country. For example, while visiting Windermere a few weeks ago I mentioned to a man that we had just been in Kendal and received the following response: KENDAL?! Well there's absolutely nothing to do in Kendal, not like here in Windermere where there's lots to do!"

 The Scots all believe that their own hometown is far superior to any other Scottish town and many and I really do mean many Scots hate Glasgow(Many hate Edinburgh, Many hate Dundee, etc) . The following story features a true depiction of a Scottish Cab Driver's use of the English language. If you are easily offended by foul language you may want to skip the following story.. and probably not come to Scotland. After lunch we quickly found a cab with the World's most talkative/most unfiltered cab driver ever. The following is just a small sample of the conversation we had on the way to the monument.

Very Stereotypical Cab Driver (VSCD)- Where are you two from?

Richard: South Africa and Kansas but we are actually students at the University of Glasgow.

VSCD: Glasgow Eh?

The Back Seat Passengers: Mhmmmm

VSCD: Glasgow is a complete and total shithole!

The Back Seat: Stunned Silence.....

VSCD: I mean it's just awful, terrible! Total Shithole!

Richard: It's not so bad

VSCD: IT IS!! Absolutely terrible! It smells, it's ugly, it's miserable. The Glaswegians are okay.. actually the Glaswegians are great but seriously who wants to go visit them when they live in THAT city. Such a pathetic excuse for a city...(much more foul language)

Richard: You know you are currently riding with Glasgow's greatest defender.

****VSCD makes annoyed eyes at me in rearview mirror

Kate: I do love Glasgow. If you don't like Glasgow what cities in Scotland do you like? Where should we go?

VSCD (never answers the question) but instead begins talking about Detriot.

VSCD: Continues talking about Detriot and Obama and then quickly moves to South Africa.

VSCD: Continues talking about South Africa telling us a story about a man he knew who moved to South Africa. This man is no longer alive because he killed his wife's lover and then was killed himself.

The Back Seat: More stunned silence

VSCD: Is it true that you can't even stop at red lights in South Africa because people will attack you?

I feel that by now you understand the nature of this conversation and why we talked about this cabbie and missed him the rest of the day. After the experience of VSCD it was time for some more historical wanderings. The Wallace monument is perched on a hill and it is quite a little hike up to the hill. There was a shuttle bus but why would we take a shuttle bus when we could hike up the beautiful hills of Scotland, besides I've been in training all year with hills outside my flat!

 The Wallace Monument is a monument to the real "Braveheart" William Wallace. The Monument had even more information about the Battle of Bannockburn (featured in last week's blog!). While climbing this hill I was lovingly told "Hey, you know if you fall down this hill on the way back you will have completed the trifecta of embarrassing things you can do while visiting Stirling!".... I can now say I did not fall down the hill and while in the monument some girl came up the stairs and smashed into a sign making a very loud noise and making the entire room shake, I understand that girl.

 William Wallace's Sword!

 Finally at the top, looking over the beautiful views of Stirling and beyond!

 The 246 steps is certainly worth the amazing views

 After I took a picture of a woman's family she became obsessed with taking our picture. First she took this.

 Then she wanted us in a different light so she took this. She wanted to take even more but we assured her we were just fine with the couple she had taken.

Oh yes, a cheesy certificate saying I climbed 246 steps in the Wallace Monument... totally worth 50 pence!

After climbing a small mountain and over 200 steps a quick dinner was in order before making our final stop of the day... a Haunted Stirling Tour! The group was meeting in front of the Stirling Jailhouse at 7:45 PM. Of course, because it's Dark Cold it was pitch black by this time. We were greeted by a man donned in a cape with hanging handcuffs and a white chalked face. The tour began and Richard and I quickly became parts of the ghostly stories and were mocked openly throughout the tour.... don't worry many others were as well! The tour led us through the graveyard pictured above and we were treated to many scary Stirling stories. There were certainly some very chilling moments on the tour although I wasn't quite as scared as the 15 year old girls who screamed loudly throughout. I can now officially say I've wandered through a Scottish graveyard at night on Halloween weekend no less!

Scotslish Lesson- "See you Later!"---This obviously isn't a "Scottish Word" but this phrase is used all the time! And, normally by people you will honestly never ever see again. Such as VSCD.