Day 17: My Touristy Endeavors

Palace of Holyroodhouse

On Friday afternoon, a friend and I went to the Palace of Holyroodhouse; the name alone sounds important and exclusive. It’s basically where the queen stays when she visits Scotland, which I found out is only for one week each year… seriously?!  “Royal matters” are held at the palace, according to the free audio guide that came with our ticket purchase. Normally, I try to avoid looking like a tourist (ie wearing a cell phone like device around my neck and searching frantically for the next audio symbol), but it was free, and if you know me by now, you know I had to say yes. So there we were, along with the rest of the tourists, quietly oohing and ahhing as we rounded each new corner; first it was in a room that is still currently used for the Queen’s dinners, next at one of the old royalty’s bed chambers, and even more dramatic- the marked spot on the floor where a murder took place. A warden, dressed in full Scottish garb- kilt and high socks occupied most rooms but not every single one, and in the rooms without one, I so badly wanted to just jump over the red velvet guard ropes onto the bed, or casually pose in one of the off-limits chairs, and see if anyone would even notice. What’s the punishment for an offense like that? I’m sure it would be the most action the wardens would get in a long while. Anyway, as much as I make fun of the stiffness of it all, it really was neat to see such an important building in Scottish history. Part of our ticket included a gallery of photos of the current Queen, and after dutifully viewing each one along with the audio bits, I concluded that the Queen really is one badass woman. My favorite photo of her was from her younger years, leaning up against the side of a jeep while her husband perched on top of it, I think they were watching a horse race. Even though she’s the Queen, she’s not afraid to get a little dirty and have fun (or at least that’s the message I intend the photo is supposed to give off) and I really respect that.

Funny story- we ended up getting kicked out of the palace, no not because I jumped on one of the beds, because it was closing time- and started the long walk back home. Turns out while we had been inside it had started snowing, but not a light peaceful kind but the kind that falls horizontally into your face and no matter which way you turn somehow it’s always coming straight at you. Along the way back, we stopped at Black Medicine, a quirky coffee shop with signs like, No Internet-Camping Out . I ordered a much needed hot chocolate and this yummy looking chocolate and caramel pastry. It was quite honestly the best thing I’ve put in my mouth since I got here. I am quickly learning that the Scottish are not known for their food, but this little coffee shop was trying to put an end to that, and I fully intend on Internet-Camping Out here in the future, as long as they keep making those pastries.

Later that night, I cooked a dinner, so bland that I can’t even remember what I made two days later, and against my best intentions trudged to Papa John’s at midnight to feed my cravings. It turns out that Scottish Papa John’s is no different than American Papa John’s, but I needed to make sure by eating the better part of a family sized pizza.

A river in the Highlands

On Saturday morning, I forced my body out of bed at the crack of dawn (seven am seems like it to me) and my flatmate and I headed over to the International Student Center to catch a bus for a tour of a whisky distillery. Seemingly minutes after just sitting down, I was waking up surrounded by snow covered mountains surrounding us. We were in the Highlands of Scotland, the northern and most rural part of the country. The actual distillery tour wasn’t too exciting, but the complimentary whisky samples that we had- at eleven in the morning- certainly woke me up. Even the “mildest” brew left me doing some sort of funny body roll and a lingering burning sensation in my throat. 

In the distillery

After the tour, we walked a half mile or so to the nearby town and got a quick lunch in a café, then did some exploring of the town. A very helpful, very Scottish local directed us to a short walk along a winding river right in the town, so after I deciphered his general directions we headed over to the river. Laura was fascinated by all the snow and insisted we took multiple pictures of her in it (hat on, hat off, are you sure you got all the snow in the background?). Her joy made me realize how much fun snow really can be, and we had a snowball fight as we made our way back to the bus. The bus ride back was silent, as people pretty much immediately fell asleep, but as we got into the city back home, the bus driver decided to crank up the music, waking us all up as quickly as we had fallen asleep. He also decided it was a good idea to make a farting noise into the speaker system. I shouldn’t be surprised, seeing as he had joked about trying the whisky when he dropped us off at the distillery. Whisky tasting or not, we all made it back in one piece. I rushed home to put a load of laundry in since I had reached the ultimate laundry low- no underwear! Later that night, I met Miren at her flat, we bought a pizza for dinner- we tested out Pizza Hut tonight, and got ready to go to a party Laura was having in her flat. The party was great, not too much to say here about this!

This was right down the road from the distillery...

Today I summited Arthur’s Seat but as usual I need to wake up in a few hours for class so I will write more about this in the next blog post.