Scottish Soldiery and more
June 11, 2004
Today, I'm sitting in the Belford Road Hostel in the chilly (40-50 degrees F) Edinburgh, Scotland. How it is cold here in JUNE is beyond my comprehension. We left Oxford, England this morning by train after climbing the tower attached to the Cathedral of St. Mary Virgin, part of Oxford University. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to tour the campus, since each college is behind large medieval walls and only accept tours at inscrutable times of day. We did, however, visit J.R.R. Tolkien's grave site and eat dinner at the Eagle and Child pub, an old haunt of Tolkien's and C.S. Lewis.
Apparently, students at Oxford are required to wear their traditional academic dress to formal dinners and exams. This dress includes a weird jacket with streamers from the shoulders and a mortar board.
We took lots of pictures, filling up about half of our memory card. Still can't upload yet, since this machine doesn't have a usb port. There is a cafe near the Edinburgh train station that will transfer your pics from digicam to cd for a reasonable price.
The 7 hour train ride from Oxford was entertaining. First, we watched the English countryside roll by. Then, we struck up a conversation with an elderly English couple from York who informed us the country was definitely "about finished." The next conversation we had was with a pair of recent graduates, one from Leeds on her way home to Newcastle, and another from Durham. They scoffed at the elderly couple's comment.
In Newcastle, we picked up a group of Scottish armymen. They wanted to know why we would ever visit this "fuggin' shite-hole" when we could be in somplace nice, like Spain or France. This, while the North Sea lay just outside our train, past an ancient medieval wall and 100 meter cliffs. We spent the rest of the trip to Edinburgh explaining how there is not exactly a "dole" in the US, but Coca-cola is a lot cheaper in Illinois, especially once you take into account the exchange rate.
We were hoping to do more tongiht upon arrival in Scotland, but we're both tired after the train ride and we weren't expecting it to be so cold.
Pictures soon, I hope.