Happy Robert Burns Day!!

Greetings Friends!

Sorry this is so late in the day (in fact, you may even be reading this after the day has ended), but I wanted to wish you all a happy Robert Burns day. For those of you who don't know who Robert Burns is, you can check him out here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns

Robert Burns is not just the foremost poet of Scotland, he is one of my favourite poets. He was also one of my grandmother's favourite poets (and I think she actually understood most of the words in his poems). He wrote the words to a poem which became a song that I'm sure you all know: Auld Lang Syne. While I do not like haggis at all, and thus do not participate in the traditional Burns' Suppers, I do always remember the day and read some of his poems. Following is one of my faves... can you guess why?

Bonnie Lesley, a poem by Robert Burns

O saw ye bonnie Lesley
As she gaed o'er the border?
She's gane, like Alexander,
To spread her conquests farther.

To see her is to love her,
And love but her for ever;
For Nature made her what she is,
And never made anither!

Thou art a queen, fair Lesley
Thy subjects we, before thee:
Thou art divine, fair Lesley,
The hearts o' men adore thee.

The Deil he could na scaith thee,
Or aught that wad belang thee;
He'd look into thy bonnie face,
And say, 'I canna wrang thee.'

The Powers aboon will tent thee;
Misfortune sha'na steer thee;
Thou'rt like themselves sae lovely,
That ill they'll ne'er let near thee.

Return again, fair Lesley,
Return to Caledonie!
That we may brag we hae a lass
There's nane again sae bonnie.

See ya an' be good peeps!

Scotland Part II

Hello again! I am slightly more well rested (though only very slightly) and thus have returned to let you all in on the second leg of my journey to the old country...

I forgot to mention that my cousin (second-cousin actually) Gordon and I had tea at Holyrood Palace while we were in Edinburgh and it was very good tea. One of my favourite things about the UK in general is that they have decent tea almost everywhere... they always have milk and sugar available and people don't look at me funny (or make it seem like I'm making their lives difficult) when I ask for tea.

So, on to the next part of my trip. Glasgow. Not the capital; not the festival city that Edinburgh is, so perhaps slightly less cosmopolitan, but still a lovely city in and of itself. My mother's cousin Anne (whom I believe is my first cousin once removed) took me on a bus tour through Glasgow the first day I was there because although I've been there before, I've never actually taken the tour.

Before the tour, however, we drove around a bit. We went to Celtic Park and the Celtic superstore. I did not buy anything because it was a little pricey for me, but if you were so inclined, you could buy any sort of thing there from ashtrays to wall clocks to bath towels, to watches and pens and playing cards...etc. We also drove by the place that my mother had been born and her mother had been born. The building had been torn down and there seemed to be some sort of construction going on. Then we drove by another part of the city that they had lived in that was not far away, and we drove by the church that Grandma was married in and mom was baptized in.

So, back to the tour. Glasgow was founded by St. Mungo in (I think) 1471. 'Tis a very old city apparently. The tour was very good especially since it wasn't raining and we got to see most of the city in a couple of hours. We saw Glasgow University during frosh week (I think many of them were already drunk and some of them seemed to want us to join them), the cathedral, the science centre, the 'Armadillo' (which is the auditorium at the Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre http://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/jpgs/secc_angledext.jpg), the city chambers... etc. It was pretty cool. We got to see Glasgow Green which was designated as a place for the people to use for grazing and (I think they said something about laundry too) and has always been protected as such. We also got to see the People's Palace which is right at the edge of the Green. http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/AboutGlasgow/History/glasgowgreenhistory.htm

After our tour, we went for a late lunch at a very trendy place (I think it was called Regano's, but don't quote me on that) all done up in Art Deco, where I had fish 'n chips 'n mushy peas (the last of these I am not a big fan of, but I avoided them as much as possible), and Anne had haggis. 'Twas very fancy even though it doesn't sound it. I also ordered tea and they served it with a few pieces of tablet. For those of you who've tasted tablet and have a sweet tooth, you know how yummy it is. For those of you who don't have a clue what it is, tablet is kind of like a hard fudge (not really hard, but firm). It is made from condensed milk and sugar (mostly).

All of my evenings were spent mostly in the company of family, which I enjoyed very much. As I said in my previous entry, I like my relatives in Scotland, so I had a good time with them.

The next day I took a train into the city (all by myself... Anne dropped me off at the station) and it took about 10 minutes to get downtown. I spent the afternoon wandering about shopping. I didn't really buy much, but I had lunch and got to people watch. It struck me that kids all over the rest of the world wear uniforms to school. The kids in Asia wear uniforms, the kids in Europe wear uniforms... OK maybe not the entire rest of the world, but many of the places I've been, the kids wear uniforms to school. All the kids. Not just the rich kids. And they don't hike their kilts up to the point where you can tell what kind of underwear they're wearing either. I'm sure the fact that they're wearing uniforms doesn't make them better students, but it identifies them as students. Perhaps in some way it helps them feel as though they have a defined place in society. I don't want to bore too many of you with my philosophical wanderings, but I thought it was something worth thinking about.

When the time came for me to get back on the train to the suburb, the people at the station were very helpful and again, it only took about 10 minutes. I did have to stand on this train though because it was rush hour. My whole trip was only about 2 pounds 80, and I didn't get lost or confused. Very efficient.

That evening we went out for dinner to a trendy Indian place called Mother India. It was very good. The appetizers were a little spicy (I don't eat much spicy food) for me, but very good.

So that was Glasgow. Did I mention that you can still smoke in Scotland? Not everywhere obviously, but in restaurants they still have smoking sections. Very nice for me.

Ta Ta for now peoples,

The Artful Traveller

Scotland Part I

Greetings All,

I've been back for almost a week now and I still haven't found the time to put pen to paper (figuratively speaking of course) about my trip to the 'old country'. I apologize profusely. I've been awfully tired and plagued by migraines this week.

Scotland was surprisingly sunny and warm (well, warm for there... I think the warmest day was 18 degrees Celsius). Not all of the time that I was there, but certainly for a fair amount of the time. As always, my relatives were wonderfully hospitable and a pleasure to spend time with. It's nice to have nice relatives. T'would be horrid to have horrid relatives.

So, what can I say about Scotland??? The people are polite, the architecture is old, the grass is green and everything is expensive. I went to visit the new parliament buildings in Edinburgh: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/images/latest/index.htm and took a tour that was quite enlightening and only cost about 3.50 pounds. That was quite reasonable we thought.

I was once again amazed at the how the people don't seem amazed by the buildings all around them. I know that they're used to them, but it always surprises me in Europe when I see such old, beautiful buildings and people just live and work in them like it's nothing. We wandered around Edinburgh for the day and went to see the resting place of 'Greyfriars Bobby'. This is a dog about whom Disney made a movie some time ago. Apparently the dog belonged to the groundskeeper of the Greyfriars Churchyard (cemetery) and would run about the city all day but would always come back to the churchyard at night when the keeper would lock the gates. When the keeper died, the dog would sleep on the keeper's grave. Mine is not a good telling of the story... for a better rendition, please click on the link: http://www.greyfriarsbobby.co.uk/story/story.html

The next day, we went to visit the Falkirk Wheel: http://www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk/index.asp This is apparently the only one of its ilk in the world and it joins two canals that are at rather different heights. It's pretty cool.

So I was reminded of how much more efficient the rest of the western world seems to be at mass public transit than we are. I took several trains while I was in the UK. It really is the better way there. It's cheap, quick, easy; it gets you right to the centre of the city and you don't have to worry about parking (which really is at a premium in a small place). They are almost always on time, and the people working there were even polite.

So that was the first leg of my journey in Scotland. I'll write more when I'm not so tired. Until then, I remain,

The Artful Traveller