The last 4 months have been something of an adventure for me. In wandering from place to place, I have stumbled upon hidden treasures, places and people. As the semester was drawing closer to it's end, people were distraught at the idea of actually leaving the haven that is Europe. Leaving meant going back home putting an end to the maniacal traveling and saying goodbye to some wonderful people including the administrators, professors and friends alike.
For my last hurrah so as to speak, I was going to make a trip with my beloved to Edinburgh and Belfast. After saying my goodbyes and then sadly packing up my room in Metz, with all three suitcases in hand I left the residence early Thursday morning to take a train to Paris from where I was headed to London on the Eurostar. Another trip across the border, and like any of the other 12 or 13 in the last 2 years, I looked forward to it with the same eagerness. As I mentioned a few times in my previous blog postings, going to England or rather Nottingham is like going home. Familiar faces, places and things. Getting there that thursday afternoon, the clock had already started ticking on my last days there as this was in most probably going to be my last trip to the Kingdom for a while as the 'love' is making a move to the US of A. The first few days were relaxed and were spent doing things that I would miss about England. Eating Kebabs and chips with a lot of Mint yogurt and garlic Mayonnaise. Walking around the Nottingham University and watching a movie at the miniature theater that is the Savoy cinema.
Tuesday morning and it was time for our trip. Me and my 'love' on our first ever trip as such. With a backpack full of goodies we boarded the national express to Leeds to Newcastle and then onwards to Edinburgh. The journey was to be long and we interspersed playing cards and looking at the beautiful British countryside with occasional naps and snacking breaks. At Newcastle we had a 2 hour break before our newt bus so we ended up wandering into China town and finding ourselves a GBP 5.50 per person buffet. The heavy and fried meal though delicious made us full to the point of feeling sick. Back on the bus for another 3 and a half hours we finally arrived in Edinburgh at 8 in the evening. Now when it's mid May, and you've lived almost all your life in a country where 38 degrees C is considered cool in the summers, you are not prepared for 3 degrees Celsius. Edinburgh was exactly that, cold! Despite are curses, the city was too beautiful for us to complain for too long. My very first impression was as to how European this place looked. The architecture, the buildings, the roads, looked more European than belonging to Britain. We saw imposing Gothic structures and magnificent castles filling the horizon, in this hilly city. Edinburgh is a lot like Luxembourg in the way it is situated on rolling hills and the fact that you can get from the very top to the very bottom very quickly. After settling into our hostel and walking around a little, looking into pubs like 'Deacon Brodies' and the 'Old Judge', we called it an early night after eating a scrumptious dinner of Fish and chips.
The next morning we were up and ready by 10 and the sun was out in all it's brilliance. We were taking a free walking tour by a company called New Europe. Having done one in Munch, I knew that these tours were worth going on. We started on the Royal Mile which goes from the Edinburgh castle on one end and the Scottish Parliament on the other. A lot of pub's, parliamentary buildings and major structures are located on this one mile stretch that ends with the trendy Scottish parliament building. (The Scottish Parliament was not set up until 1996, prior to which Scotland was under the Queen of England) It was apparent right at the beginning that Scotland and Edinburgh in particular had a very bloody history. All the way from upto thousands of years back, there are traces of war between the Scots(who were from Ireland) the Brits and the local tribes whose names I forget.
Scotland through the ages has had a very stringent law in place under which many offenses leading a person to the gallows. Public hangings were common and people from far and wide came to witness them. The more heinous the crime, the more the public emotion and interest. Another very weird yet interesting thing was the coining of the phrase 'shit faced'. Now Edinburgh as I said is located on a varying altitude and everywhere there are narrow alleys leading up and down the mountains lined with houses and such. Since Edinburgh was located on a slope, the city came up with a very unusual yet effective way to dispose wastes. (Yes all sorts of wastes) At about 10 pm every night, people would shout out some funny little phrase to warn the people under their houses on the dark and narrow streets, and then a few seconds later dump all their wastes onto the street, which would then flow down the slopes of the royal mile into the river. Now as it so happened, pubs in Edinburgh closed at 10pm which meant people would start walking home once it was time. People who weren't drunk were smart enough to wait a little while and go home after the whole of the city dumped it's wastes onto the street. But those unfortunate ones who had had a pint too many would end up walking into the narrow and dark streets. They would hear the warning call from the residents above, and in their dazed state look up into the darkness and as shit came falling down, they became, 'shit faced', hence the term shit faced.
It was hard to believe that those very streets and squares where the cities wastes had once flown were as beautiful as they were. After walking around the city, hearing some interesting tales about the interesting people including the origin of Dr Jackal and Mr Hyde which was actually inspired by a true story of a respected locksmith who at night would use those key's he made himself to rob people, Greyfriars bobby the loyal dog who stayed by his masters grave for 14 years and who is buried in the Greyfriars kirkyard which also known to be the place with the most paranormal activity in continental Europe if not in the world, George Heriot's school that is supposed to have inspired JK Rowling to come up with Hogwarts and also the immigrants William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses of their 17 victims to provide material for dissection to the Edinburgh Medical College. Indeed there was a lot to see and learn in our tour of the city.
As we walked around we wouldn't get some gorgeous views of the Edinburgh castle. As we walked down to the valley into the prince's garden, which was absolutely fantastic as the sunshine was pouring down in heaps. The tour ended on the perfectly manicured gardens full of gorgeous daffodils and daisies and we ended up laying there soaking in the heat for a bit. We took the next few hours walking into souvenir shops listening to bagpipes and I resisting the urge to buy a kilt for myself! I stumbled upon this band called the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. They totally rock the Kilt and bagpipes. Knowing that Scotland is the mecca of Whiskey, we went into some Whiskey stores and I really wanted to buy a good single malt but the fact that I was going to take a flight meant I couldn't bring any liquids aboard. After a little more window shopping for kilts, hats, souvenirs and the likes, tasting free and absolutely fabulous fudge we walked all the way down to the trendiest parliament building I have seen at the bottom of the Royal mile. Since the parliament in Scotland was only instated in 1996, the building is very modern and trendy from the outside and I heard no end to that, having a budding architect on my side. On turning the corner at the end of the royal mile, we saw the most magnificent scene. In front of us was a huge rock face taking up all the space the eyes could cover. The rock which was perched on a luscious green hill, basking in the evening sun, made the whole thing surreal. On climbing the hill, we got a breathtaking view of Edinburgh. We could see as far as the castle and beyond on one end, and the river and boats on one end. Edinburgh had been absolutely gorgeous and unfortunately we hadn't more time there. We were supposed to go out on a whiskey experience at night but my 'love' wasn't feeling too well. After eating a home cooked dinner of rice and chilli con carne we slept away the night and woke up bright and early the next morning to leave for Belfast via Glasgow.
The train to Glasgow from Edinburgh was full of Businessman and got us to Glasgow central station in just about an hour. After sharing a bagel with bacon, guacamole and cream cheese we were on our way to Glasgow's Prestwick airport. I have to admit, I am kind of a sucker for accents. From Trinidadian and Jamaican to the British and Scottish kinds, I love them all and unfortunately to the horror of those around, try to give it a shot myself. Now the prospect of going to Ireland made my mouth water at the thought of not just the Golden Amber they call beer but at the thought of hearing the 'Irrrish'. If this was a talking blog you would hear my horrible attempt at the Scottish and the Irish accents that I am constantly trying to reproduce even while I speak. The Irish they had told me are a very friendly lot and we found out exactly that when at 10am all but 2 passengers (being us) on the flight were down a pint or two and were a few decibels short of shouting. The atmosphere was jovial and there was joking all around as The Irish, an Indian and Pakistani boarded a 25min flight to Belfast. (In all honesty there were probably a few Britishers and a few Scotts as well) Within 10 minutes of landing it was obvious that these were a friendly people. Taxi drivers, people on the streets, random passerby's all went that extra mile when we asked them a direction or something. Though the weather was horrible as it was raining heavily all the day, we were in good spirits and were both indulging in our very own newly acquired Irish accents. The city of Belfast itself isn't the most impressive capital city. There isn't much that will catch your attention apart form the city hall building and a theater or two here and there. The city is very serious about their music though, and the Odyssey Arena had just played host to Kirk Hammett and the Metallica crew a day before. Northern Ireland has birthed many a musician and you can see the cities love for music in the form of clubs, pubs and bars promoting local musicians, bands and deejay's. One such place was a pub named 'Filthy Mc Nastys' which had a very retro modern feel about it. The deejay on the night was playing some techno punk, again a very interesting blend. Another very famous pub, Lavery's was a completely different place at night from the lazy typical pub it was in the day. At night, it's 5 rooms were chockablock with people of all ages. After a fun day of just wandering about the city, soaking in the accent and going to a few bars and pubs we called it a night.
The next and final morning of the trip was another beautiful sunny day. We decided to walk around and made our way to the St. George's Market. It's the biggest open market in the UK. Everything from fish and meat to chairs and used clothes were being sold there. Though interesting I must say after seeing some other markets in continental Europe this did not impress that much. We walked on the water front at a casual pace. After hugging the Odyssey arena (We were sad we missed Metallica by a day) we slowly made our way back towards city center to catch our bus back. Soon we were on a flight back to East Midlands and back in familiar setting. That brought an end to my first trip with my lady 'love'.....
As I took the overnight Eurolines bus back from London to Paris Charles De Gaulle, there was an emptiness within as I was leaving England indefinitely. Some of my most cherished memories belong here in the land of our erstwhile conquerors. 2 years on, about 14 visits later, I left England once again. The memories will remain...
What could be a fitting end to all this travel. I think more travel, more exploration, more experimentation. I would like to at this point quote my favorite quote. "Life is like a book and those that don't travel read only the first few pages." There are many ways one can look at this quote and I think the most apt and fitting way would be that we must allow our brain and our mind to travel to different places, to different realms of thinking and explore the various possibilities, ideas, opinions and feelings. We must never close our minds and think that we've seen enough or learnt enough, because at the end of the day we are constantly and continuously developing. I am a true believer in the fact that we can learn each day and from each person around us. As the chapter on my European sojourn came to an end as my flight finally took off from Paris, I couldn't help but smile at the prospect of an even more exciting future!
To those who came in my life during these last 4 months, there were tales and stories that I will not forget and will always help me remember this period of my life fondly.
Cheers
France etait tres bien!
A bientot!
