Blog #3

8th Day In Scotland

     The first week here in Scotland has finally come to a close. Although I decided to stay in Edinburgh this weekend, as opposed to traveling, Edinburgh had plenty of things to see. This week was a 4 day week, so we ended classes on Thursday. First thing in the morning we had Global Politics, and then after that we had a field trip! We went to The National Museum of Scotland, and it was fantastic. Even though there was not as much historical items linked to Scotland as I had hoped for, there were many other cool things. My top 3 favorite things I saw at the museum were:

1. A giant clock that is made out of wood. It reached the ceiling of the building, and was made with impeccable craftsmanship. The clock was designed to represent the suffering of the workers of the 20th century. It was slightly morbid, what with all of the miniature figures of people starving, being worked to death, and most of all a pregnant woman giving birth to some sort of demon child, but in the end it got the message across. Probably the coolest part of the clock was the fact that it went off on the hour. It played some sort of orchestral/circus piece as the gears turned and you could see all of the figures moving. It was a spectacle to say the least.

2. The rooftop terrace from which you can see the whole city of Edinburgh. This was the first time that we were able to see the city from up above and it was amazing. It was one of the most gorgeous views I've seen. You could see everything from King Arthur's Seat to the famous black Gothic tower. It was absolutely breathtaking. 

3. And last but not least, DOLLY THE SHEEP! I was fairly excited about this given the fact that I didn't know Dolly would be there. Dolly was taxidermied (which isn't a word, but you get the gist) and placed in a glass casing which spun around so you could view her from all sides. It was pretty cool. 

At the end of the day Thursday I went to Calton Hill. Calton Hill is, as you can imagine, a large hill. At the top it has various old monuments that you can look at and take pictures of. These monuments were inclusive of a monument representational of The Parthenon, however, it was never finished, giving it the name Scotland's Disgrace.

     Friday was mostly adventuring around the city, which most of was accidental given the fact that we ended up taking the wrong bus on our way to Arthur's Seat. So we didn't make it to Arthur's Seat, but we got to see a good bit of the residential areas on the outskirts of the city.

     Saturday we visited a new area of the city over by the castle. We went to the Farmer's Mercat (that's just how they spell it here), and later went to Pride, the LGBT celebration downtown. I had never been to anything like it before, and it contained quite the menagerie of people, but it was cool to see Scotland united together in a great cause. Coolest of all though was a little girl around the age of 12 singing for everyone. She had a fantastic voice, and it was fun seeing some of the talent of one of the locals here.

Well that's all I have for this week! Tomorrow begins the start of week 2!

Until next time!

-Bryn