Chewy & Anne

(Let me start this post by saying that there are a lot of fun links throughout the text. Unlike other posts, I'm putting links to specific pictures that need to be seen in relation to the story, but maybe don't physically fit within the text. So click away, friends!)

St. Andrews

It can be so easy to get caught up in the picturesque town of St. Andrews or to bury myself in my schoolwork, letting weeks pass like days. But every once in a while I'm reminded of how much I miss home. Being five hours ahead can make communication with family and friends difficult - I have to wait until about 1:00pm until anyone I know is even awake, and then when I'm ready for bed, everyone is home from work and ready to start chatting. I'm lucky I have someone to keep me company day after day, but I know we both miss our Moms, Dads, siblings, and best friends.

Anne and Chewy visiting in St. Andrews, enjoying the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral.

So it was a real treat for Patrick and I to have our good friends Chewy and Anne come up to St. Andrews for a visit. They visited the UK for their honeymoon (d'aww) and had been in London for five days before traveling up by train to Scotland for an additional four days, finally returning to London to finish up their trip. While this was not their first trip to London or Scotland, this was their first time visiting St. Andrews. Patrick and I pulled out all the stops for them. We started at the North Point Diner, where "Will and Kate met for their first cup of coffee". Decent food, nothing special, good for a quick bite. Afterwards, we visited the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral, as Chewy has a deep love for ruins. If you're interested in reading more about St. Andrews Cathedral, you can find it here when Patrick and I first arrived in St. Andrews.

The ruins of St. Andrews Castle, overlooking the ocean.

After visiting the pier and seeing the ocean for the first time that day, we headed over to St. Andrews Castle. This was the first time any of us had been into it, because you have to pay to go in. We passed through a cheesy history of the castle - or at least that's what I think it was, I couldn't get past the hilarious plastic mannequins dressed up like castle-dwellers past - and entered the grounds of the castle. The castle was built c.1200 by Roger de Beaumont and stayed in use until 1689, after which parts of the castle were used to repair the pier and the castle fell to ruin. Regardless of its diminished state, the castle is still impressive. My favorite part, and hopefully the favorite of my three taller companions, was climbing down into the mine. the shaft leading downward was only a few feet tall, so we all had to crouch down. It was wet, there were no stairs although there was a hand rail, and I wasn't even sure if it was somewhere we should go. Regardless, we all braved the tunnel and made it to the end, a number of stairs leading up to a closed off wall. It may not sound impressive, but the sheer madness of deciding to go down there - "at your own risk" as the sign told us later - and doing the most physical trekking of the day made it worth while.

The Mines - this is climbing back up to ground level.

We refueled at Pizza Express, entertained by a handful of uniquely funny children sitting near us, and then visited the Old Course and the West Sands (which, again, if you're interested in reading about them, you can find it here in a previous post) before showing Chewy and Anne our "base" and then sending them back on their bus to Edinburgh.

Scott Monument in Edinburgh

The following day, Patrick and I made our way to Edinburgh to visit them. I'm never disappointed by Edinburgh. Granted, this is only the second time I've been, but it's such a special city, so full life and yet so rich with history. There are such wonderful contradictions everywhere you go. For example, we first walked into the old town and had lunch at The Hub Cafe & Restaurant, which is in a building that looks just like an old cathedral. The building was constructed between 1842 and 1845 as the Victoria Hall to house the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, however was never consecrated as a church. Great food, I had a vegetable pie in a truffle creme sauce, the boys had pies (sorry, I can't recall what kind! They looked almost like chicken pot pies), and Anne had a delicious looking burger.

Edinburgh Castle

We spent the majority of our day at Edinburgh Castle, a place I had been dying to see since arriving in Scotland. It sits at the beginning of the Royal Mile, or High Street, atop the remnants of a now extinct volcano. I thought we were going to enter one building, just one big castle with old rooms of stone, however the castle was more like a little village. Most of our time spent there was out of doors in courtyards, running up to the ledges to see the vast view of Edinburgh. It is simply breathtaking how magnificent the view is.

Looking out over the spectacular view of Edinburgh.

We climbed the hills leading up to the top of the castle, stopping along the way to check out exhibits and buildings we were allowed to go into (the castle has always been in use, and there are parts that are off limits to the public, such as soldier's quarters). At 1:00pm every day, except Sundays, the castle fires off the "One O'Clock Gun", an enormous gun that was used to keep time for ships but is also used for special occasions. It is also used to mark friendships because guns fired in friendship cannot be quickly fired in anger. This is not the only one in the world; there are many still in use (there's one in Vancouver).

Edinburgh Castle

The oldest building in the castle is St. Margaret's Chapel, which was built by King David I (1124-53). Margaret died here in 1093 and was later sainted in 1251. The opening lines of a small book we purchased for £1 sum up the chapel perfectly: "It's a very small chapel - it doesn't hold more than about twenty people, and it's very old, and it's very lovely". Margaret became Queen of Scotland through her marriage to King Malcolm III (successor to Macbeth, King of Scots). She was a very loved queen, and she loved her subjects equally.

One of the many views out from Edinburgh Castle. The tall spire is The Hub.

We also got to see the Honors of the Kingdom: the royal scepter, crown, sword, jewels, and the Stone of Destiny, also known as the Coronation stone, as it is used during the coronation of the monarch (it sits under the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey)

Walking over N. Bridge from the Old Town to the New.

After visiting the castle, Patrick and Chewy went off to a whisky tour and Anne and I visited the Elephant House for some tea, hot chocolate, and a shared shortbread cookie. We collected the guys after the whisky tour and headed to dinner at Abbotsford Restaurant, where we were serenaded by classic 90s and early 2000 R&B (think "Thong Song", "I'll Make Love To You", and "The Boy Is Mine"), and the boys got his first taste of Haggis. They said it tasted a bit like meatloaf, and it wasn't cooked or served in a stomach. After a stroll around the New Town, we had to say our farewells (which were very funny as we sat on the bus waving wildly at Chewy and Anne, who waved back with even more enthusiasm).

Haggis, Tatties, and Neeps!

It was definitely a memorable weekend and Patrick and I are so thankful to have such great friends. We look forward to our next trip to Edinburgh and hope that Chewy and Anne enjoyed the remainder of their honeymoon (which we noticed from facebook pictures was filled with tasty food!).

Cheers!

(For many many more pictures from our weekend, check out my flickr page!)

Edinburgh & Kellie Castle

Edinburgh

Aren't you all lucky - you get a cultural two'fer today! This weekend was chock-a-bock full of culture and adventure for me and my art history friends. I saw old stained glass and Yoda flying, I ate at the birthplace of Harry Potter, I met the TARDIS and roamed through a castle. All in just two days. Not bad, I'd say. So that means two things for you all, dear readers: first that there are a LOT of pictures to sift through on my flickr page, but I'll post the best ones here; Second, that you have a lot of reading ahead. Stick with it for some culture straight to your brains.

National Museum of Scotland entrance, ground level

On Saturday I visited Edinburgh with one of my professors' undergraduate classes. Three of us post-grads went with the bus: Kate, Jane, and myself. June and Christie, two other postgrads, met us there. The trip there is about an hour and a half by car or bus. It took us a little bit longer to get there because the motorway was unavailable for drivers so it funneled them all into the road we were on.

Inside the National Museum of Scotland

Eventually we got to the Scottish National Museum and went into an exhibit about Catherine the Great. I'm ashamed to say that I don't know much about her, but I'm not very interested in her to start with. After the exhibit, I still didn't know much about her because I didn't pay much attention - again, not very interested.
After that we walked around (Kate, Jane, June, and Christie) looking at Exhibits. We were supposed to see things that related to our class about William Morris, so we spent some time looking at Arts and Crafts such as pottery, tapestries, glass, but I didn't feel like there was much relevant to William Morris. The building was very interesting: the galleries all extended off of this wide open space, sort of in the shape of a race track, oval, and one would walk around the edges and could look down the middle to the ground floor.

The Elephant House - The birthplace of Harry Potter! (Death place of my lunchtime hunger pangs)

We were all getting a bit hungry by this time, so we went to lunch at a cafe called The Elephant House, which we were happy to find out is the Birthplace of Harry Potter. The cafe was also filled with elephants. Not real ones, because that would be absurd, but there were chairs shaped like elephants and figurines and books and paintings everywhere. I got a tasty panini - mozzarella, pesto, and olive.

Above: Kate and June. Below: Jane and Me

After that we walked to St. Giles Cathedral, which dates from the 14th century and was extensively restored in the 19th century. It's a beautiful cathedral that has been undergoing renovations. There is an enormous organ - believe me, I checked out the pipes on that organ - also amazing and varied stained glass, chapels for prayer, and a number of lovely statues. Outside the cathedral, the beautiful crown steeple is one of the prominent features of the city skyline.

St. Giles Cathedral, west facade

I am doing a seminar paper on Morris & Co. stained glass, and inside the castle was one stained glass window by the artist Edward Burne-Jones, who worked for the company and was very close friends with Morris.  The Cathedral is along High Street, which is very touristy. I think if you take the road west, it leads to Edinburgh Castle, which I really wanted to see but there was no time. Along the road, we also saw a lot of street performers and shops selling jewelry and bags. One performer was dressed up as Yoda and was hovering off the ground! There has to be a trick behind it, but I can't for the life of me figure it out! We also saw a blue police call box, aka the TARDIS, and had a stranger take our picture in front of it. They said to us "You want me to take your picture in front of the police box?" Obviously they haven't seen Doctor Who.

Looking into St. Giles Cathedral

With only about an hour left in our trip, we went to Dovecot studios, which is a weaving studio in a building that used to house a swimming pool. The weavings were beautiful but in the same vein as the Catherine the Great exhibit, I wasn't really interested. William Morris did a lot of weaving, so it was relevant to the class, but it was just too removed to be very relevant. After walking quickly through the exhibit, Kate and I went to the coffee shop attached. I got the cutest latte, and I know, coffee does not usually end up being "cute", but they did a little leaf design on top and it was wrapped in a cozy little knitted sleeve. Now that's adorable. After this we headed back to St. Andrews and we saw a really amazing rainbow on the way home. Probably the best one I've ever seen, which was a nice end to a lovely day.

Kellie Castle

Today I went to Kellie Castle where photography is not allowed, so of course, I hope you enjoy the photos I took! Granted, its only prohibited inside the castle, and I only knew that after I had snapped a few shots. So I didn't do anything wrong, right? The Castle is located just outside Arncroach. It wasn't as grand as I expected - it was more of a large stone house. But the grounds were lovely - gardens in the back of the castle and vast fields out front. It was all very nice and serene.

Dining Room of Kellie Castle. You can see the Chinese soapstone across the room above the fireplace. The other fireplace with the Delft tiles is to the right of this photo.

The castle dates back to the 14th century (wikipedia says 1150 but I'm not sure if they're correct). It was built in three different sections - two towers were added later on at two separate times. The castle was owned by a few different people over time, the names of which escape me. We were brought through the castle by a guide who started us out in the drawing room where we were able to see lovely Delft tiles on one fireplace, soapstone chinese figurines on the other fireplace mantle. The room had original ceilings from the 16th-17th century.

Old Staircases in the castle

We visited the Dining Room, which had sixty-four paintings on wooden panels painted by Flemish painters in the seventeenth century. They were darkened by time and they didn't really tell a story as you went around the room, mostly just for visual aesthetics. There was also a really lovely chandelier in the room, all metals and made by a local blacksmith. It used to have candles in it but they took the chandelier, flipped it upside down, and fitted it with light bulbs where the candles used to go. In between each "candle" was a cutout of a star. One entire wall in the room had a Flemish tapestry from 1580 depicting Europa and the Bull.

A view of the castle looking out one of the windows on the top floor of the Castle.

In the Library, the original ceilings were still there, made in 1617 for the King. They were beautiful too, intricately sculpted plaster in shapes of cherub faces and floral designs. There was also a small display with lace bobbins and a piece of tapestry from the Renaissance that were found under the floorboards above the room.

Entrance to the gardens behind the castle

However my favorite room was a room of paintings by John Henry Lorimer, who had tenancy in the castle from 1916 when his mother died to 1936. He had studied in France during the time of the Impressionists, but didn't quite like their works. He enjoyed trying to copy the styles of many different painters. The guide told us that his works were often shown at the Salon and that the Louvre owns four of his paintings.
After visiting the inside of the castle, we walked the outter grounds. Behind the castle were some very nice gardens with paths intersecting throughout. We spent about a half hour back there, just walking around, taking photos of the plant life and enjoying autumn in Scotland.

A view of the castle from the gardens

I hope you all enjoyed this and it wasn't too long - you lucked out though, it's mostly pictures! I've been finding Scotland to be such an enchanting place just saturated with culture and I hope you've all been enjoying reading about it!

Moth in the gardens

Cheers!

(For more pictures from my trip to Edinburgh or Kellie Castle, including puppies, the TARDIS, and Yoda, visit my flickr page!)

Curiosity

Curiosity: the best place in St. Andrews to sell your old useless stuff and buy new useless stuff.

St. Andrews can be a very "touristy" place, especially on weekends. People come with their families and dogs from local towns and walk South Street and Market Street, two of the three busiest roads (the third being North Street, however this is mostly university buildings). The three roads all meet at the end, at the St. Andrews Cathedral ruins. Along the way, there are a number of stores to visit. There are a lot of sandwich shops and coffee shops, places to pop in for a quick meal to "take away" and eat as you shop. There are a number of clothing stores and bookstores as well. However my favorite so far is a shop called "Curiosity". Curious? Yeah, me too.

This store is seriously like an enormous eye-spy book

Curiosity begs for you to come in and look. Even from the sidewalk, it's just so... Curious. Everything about it. The sign claims "Unusual items purchased for cash" in bright yellows and reds. There are tables set up outside with vintage comics for sale and old guitars, but there is still the typical spinner rack with St. Andrews postcards - a staple of the town's shops. The front window is a cornucopia of random items - an old scuba diver's helmet, taxidermied animals, old black and white photographs. However depending on what day you show up, you might see something completely different than the last time you went. Every time I go into Curiosity, it's curiously different... The shop is constantly buying and selling new things, rearranging the landscape of the shop.

I wonder if she bought one of those tacky ties?

Curiosity is like a feast for your eyes. There is a wall lined with clocks, filing cabinets covered with an assortment of magnets and filled with the same vintage comic books. This shop is knick-knack heaven: Buddhas, elephants, toy cars, pipes, incense holders, ceramic cats, fake plastic vegetables, teacups, thimbles, and teddy bears (to list a small taste of what lies in the little wooden cubicles).

This guy was the original owner. Waste not...

Curiosity is a cramped little store: too small to begin with and then filled to the brim with what can only be described as outstandingly useless crap. Crap that I'd buy in a heartbeat. It's kind of like a huge yard sale where everyone of St. Andrews tries and sells their old things. Or like a physical eBay. And the genius behind this shop is that, because it is always changing, it is never dull and the customers will always come back. (Additionally: I can't believe I made it through this entire post without saying something about cats...)

Did you know that when a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds?

Cheers!