Scotland

After arriving back in London so late the night before, I slept in until around 11:00 (which is very late for me). I spent the day unpacking, answering emails, and doing other loose odds and ends that I needed to do after a week of being gone. In the evening I went to the Christian Union meeting, and afterwards, a bunch of us went out to Witherspoons (a local pub) to have dinner. While there, we witnessed a bar fight between two drunk old black guys, who, despite looking around 60ish, were really going at it. Kicking, biting, spitting, hitting another with a chair, it really was a real brawl. Since it was a Thursday, the bar did not have a bouncer, and the young bartenders on duty that night had a difficult time breaking up the fight (three times they stopped it only to have it start anew minutes later). After dinner, we went over to Glen and Nic’s place and hung out. Around midnight, some people started getting hungry again, so we strolled over to the local McDonald’s, which they treated as some sort of novelty or special place (as opposed to the rather poor fast food joint that most people I know view it as). The McFlurry I had was quite good, though. We then went back and played Mario Party, with Nic and I beating up everyone else, before eventually calling it a night.

The next morning, I got up early and got everything ready for the trip to Scotland. I went down at 10:00 to meet some of the other USC students who were heading up. When I got down there, only one other person was down there (not surprisingly). It took about 20 minutes for everyone to arrive, and then the great race to the station began (certain people wanted to catch the 11:00 train). At the tube station, our group was split up after the two other guys hopped on the tube before everyone else got down the stairs. It pulled away from the station just as we reached it, so we caught a different line and tried to catch up to them. At this point, Caitlin (one of the girls in our group) was quite angry at them having left without us. When our tube pulled into the station, and our car happened to enter the station exactly opposite their car (quite a coincidence) we raced across into their car and witness a fairly humorous scene as she laid into Raph for leaving without us (in their defense, they hadn’t expected the tube to leave before we could get on). We made it to the station just as the train left, so we waited around and caught the 12:00 train (with most of the group taking pictures of the Harry Potter platform).

The train ride itself was fairly pleasant, and we enjoyed quite a few nice scenes of the English and later Scottish countrysides during our 4 ½ hour train ride. We arrived to a very cold Edinburgh and began our march to the hotel (it was much longer than we expected, and since the streets are not marked, quite confusing). Raph was good about asking directions from people, so we were able to head in the right direction, and eventually ran into David (another USC student), who had caught the 11:00 train (he planned to ride up with us I think). He was able to lead us to the hotel, where we relaxed until dinner. We all went down and ate at the hotel’s pub/restaurant, which was a tortuous affair. I do not think they were prepared to handle a group of 20 or so people ordering dinner all at once – it took about two hours for most people’s foods to arrive, a few dishes were brought that no one had ordered (or, as I think, people just grabbed the first food that arrived after having waited so long, in effect eating someone else’s food). Two people didn’t even get the food that they had ordered, since the kitchen closed at 10:00 and stopped making food before theirs ever got made (so ridiculous).

After dinner, we stepped into the pub section, where they were having kareoke night. Although the singing was generally quite bad, it was rather humorous to watch drunken Scottish people, USC students, and even the USC coordinator try to sing. During all this, a group of us got talking with two friendly Scottish guys, and had some fairly interesting conversations with them. As the night progressed, we witness some humorous things done by incredibly drunk Scottish people, including one woman who was making weird animal sounds. When the pub closed, a group of five USC students (me included) accompanied the two friendly Scottish guys to a club close by and hung out for a little longer before finally calling it a night.

The next morning, we got up and enjoyed a hearty Scottish breakfast (I tried a little Haggis – it kind of tasted like a spicey meatloaf). Afterwards, we all walked over to the castle, which is perched on a crag overlooking the city. The location is amazing, and the castle completely dominates the city (the crag is literally in the middle). The defenses make it seem virtually impregnable (though it was taken by force at least once in its history – though that was by surprise). After spending a few hours seeing the castle, we walked down the Royal Mile and met up with the whole group at the Merkat Cross. There, we began a ghost tour, which took us around that area and down into the catacombs beneath the city. It was rather entertaining, primarily because the guide was totally into his character and really sold the persona.

After that, it was starting to get dark (the sun sets early this far north during the winter), so we walked back to the hotel. After a short break, we all headed to a French restaurant down the street and ate dinner (I had really good swordfish and mussels). Immediately following that, we went and saw the play “Equus,” which I had originally not want to go see, as I knew it was going to be bizarre. However, there were two extra tickets (someone from the group had changed their mind and not shown) and since almost everyone else was going to see it, I went along too. As expected, it was a very bizarre play. The funniest part was at intermission, when Sharkey, who had been sitting next to me, disappeared. At first, I thought he had just gone out for a smoke. However, when it started getting close to the second act, a friend and I realized that he probably wasn’t coming back. We discovered that he had found the play too bizarre and boring (I had thought about leaving at intermission too), and had gone back up to the hotel pub to watch England’s rugby match. It does not seem very humorous right now, but at the time, his disappearance seemed pretty funny. After the play, I went back to the hotel pub with a group of USC students and we hung out, played some pool, and had a few drinks. When the bar closed, eight of us went upstairs to someone’s room and hung out some more before finally going to sleep.

The next morning, I got up, ate breakfast, and caught the morning train back with seven other USC students. It is too bad that we were not in the city longer, as I feel like there was much more to see. A group of USC students did stay longer and ended up climbing up Arthur’s Seat (a nearby mountain that overlooks the town), which was apparently very cool. I wish I had stayed and joined them, but I did not know of their plans when I left. Overall, it was a very entertaining weekend and I am excited about the upcoming Highlands trip. I also got to know many of the USC students over here (I knew a few from previous events, but now I feel like I know a significant number of us).