Castles and Lochs and Links, oh my!

I drove this weekend. That’s right, me behind the wheel of a car. This may not seem like a big deal to any of you, however, I’ve only been in a car once in the past 2ish months. Not to mention that it was in Scotland, so everything was backwards…steering wheels on the right side, cars on the left, craziness in the form driving on the wrong side of the road. However, everything was in miles per hour and miles instead of Kilometers, which I wasn’t prepared for, but was a nice comfort.
If you ever can drive in this sort of manner, I suggest you take a stab at it, but would also suggest not immediately starting with hard core city driving…like I did. Some back country roads might work a little better than congested streets ten times more complicated than any driving in Ann Arbor ever was or will be. Edinburgh (pronounced Edinbro/Edinburo) has so many one-way streets it’s like being a mouse trapped in a giant labyrinth constructed by God to punish those who dared sit behind the wheel. Though one-way streets do make city driving pretty interesting, we found that the three way intersections with a sign saying you can’t turn left and another on the other side saying you can’t turn right to be quite amusing. I’m fairly confident that this is some money making scheme created by the police there because any option you choose is illegal. You can’t turn left, you can’t turn right, there’s a building ending the road, so going straight is out of the question, and stopping in the middle of the street and giving up will most likely get some drunken Scotsman ready to kill you, along with some sort of a ticket I’m sure. A conundrum of pictures I’ll post as soon as I can steal some pictures from the people we were with.
Driving aside, Scotland was amazing, the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to, that’s for sure. The closest thing I could compare it to is up north Michigan, specifically Arcadia Bluffs. All rolling hills with lots of fields and sheep in amounts that have to outnumber people at least five to one. Amazing golf courses everywhere with lots of heather and few people taking advantage of the picturesque surroundings. Castle’s are about as prevalent there as pizza and gelato stores are here, every where you turn you see some sort of giant, elaborate castle towering over everything on some hilltop, or overlooking the water. Simply amazing.
We were fortunate enough to be able to take the care we rented and drive it along the east coast near Edinburgh on Friday afternoone and got to see some of the back country and non-tourist places. We tried to take a tour of the oldest brewery in Scotland, The Bellhaven brewery established in 16xx, but unfortunately they were done with tours for the day, so we went to the local pub and just had a pint or two of some of the delicious brews they concoct. It was pretty fun, hangin with the locals and havin some brewskies…good times. Edinburgh also seemed like a much nicer town thaa Glasgow, the other city we stayed in. Seemed a little more ‘ritzy’ and clean.
Saturday, my roommate Chalan and I went to St. Andrews. Yup, that’s right, the birthplace of golf (don’t be TOO jealous Frank). A quaint little town on the coast about 20 miles north of Edinburgh with an amazing church, a nice friendly atmosphere and a few old goat trails known as The Links of St. Andrews. I was pretty stoaked to get my picture taken on the bridge at the links, too. Pretty nuts. I’m definitely going back with my clubs one day and playing there, somehow, some-way…though I’ve heard they have some absurd waiting list for non-members along the lines of two years, however I’m not sure how true that is.
Unfortunately we were unable to take any official castle tours or go see Nessey at the good ol’ Loch Ness. Maybe next time. It’s a great place and makes me really want to go visit Dublin, which, according to the irish dancing gurls we met at the bar, is much cooler and way better than Glasgow or Edinburgh…and they were pretty attractive, so I trust them.
It also happened to be my friend Carla’s birthday on Saturday and we had the delight of being able to meet up with her, her roommates, and the nice gal she knows over in Glasgow with whom she was staying. It was pretty neat ‘cause their host was able to show us the fun local places for the evening and get us a little out of the touristy places in Glasgow. The one place I especially liked was Jinty McGinty’s, a little hole in the wall, though well furnished with cherry wood everywhere, lots of cool local Scots who spoke English (it was so nice to be in an English speaking country…being able to walk into a book store and actually have products you can read is super). We also went to an old church turned club, though if all Scotish DJ’s are that bad, I’m boycotting all discos in that region forever.
All in all, a great weekend, minus the fact that I now have a wicked cold and a finance exam Wednesday for which I’ve been studying all day. I think my head is about to explode and implode all at the same time.
Other than this past weekend, I actually did things during the week. We had a field trip to Tivoli and got to see the Villa D’Estra (go check out the website). It’s an amazing place with tons of fountains and lovely shrubbery. Also we saw Hadrian’s Villa in the same town, a 300 acre ‘luxury resort’ constructed by Hadrian (you know, the buy who built the Pantheon) for him, his family, and his closest friends to get away from it all. A pretty cool place which would have been much cooler if any of the buildings were actually still standing.
Also, a few of the gurls we know made us and some other friends a feast to end all American feasts…at least those cooked by students in Rome. They made us roasted chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, steamed vegetables, home made cookies, ice cream, and cherry pie. It was simply amazing…the first real amarican food I’d had (besides hard rock) since I left for Europe. Super duper good, props to the gurls.
I suppose that’s about it, I shant bore you any longer with my adventures, it’s time for all of you to go back to work and make that money. I’ll write sonly, no plans yet for this weekend, but I’m workin on it…might just go to Paris, by myself ‘cause I can’t seem to find anyone who wants to go. Whatev, they’re loss.
Ciao,
Jon Boy