Almost the end... part 2

As I wrote before, when the snow comes, Scotland closes down. Therefore, the castles were mostly closed throughout the rest of the days leading up to St. Andrews Day, so I wasn't able to make it to Stirling Castle, but I decided I should visit it regardless since I was leaving so soon.

My flatmate Matti had to leave the university due to a family emergency so he has been gone back to Finland for a few months. This week, he came back to move his belongings out, so we spent our last few days as a full flat.

Matti hadn't been to Stirling Castle, so we waited for him to come back and we went together (although Tyla and Anton weren't able to make it to the castle due to end of the year assignments).

The view from the castle was just as incredible as the first time I visited in September, but this time there was snow everywhere. We strolled up the long hill, past the Tolbooth where I go every Tuesday for a knitting group, continuing along past the Old Town Jail, up and up until we reached the top of the hill at the centre of the town.

There, we got a view overlooking the entire Stirling city. We could see the all-important Wallace Monument (which was closed due to snow, so I'll have to visit next semester) and Stirling Bridge, where William Wallace defeated the English. The town is filled with old buildings and narrow streets, with double-decker buses in which I race to the top for the ultimate view as we drive by fields of sheep and small houses and buildings.

It's definitely getting much colder, so there were very few tourists in the castle whilst we were there. I'd imagine it would be quite a different experience when filled with people, as was the case with Edinburgh Castle.

The castle has a bit of construction whilst they try to restore it to its original form. It won't be done for many years, and it takes away from the early-modern style, but it has become part of its charm.

Much of the castle is dedicated to James IV, James V, and James VI, who contributed to the construction of the castle. Additionally, a lot of it is devoted to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was crowned at Stirling Castle when she was less than one year old.

The castle is built on a hill around which the rest of the town has been built. It's high up and is surrounded by cliffs, making it easy to defend against attackers.

Inside the castle were rooms filled with props and statues to give visitors an idea of what it was like at the time shortly after it was built. It helped to visualize a scene in history, although some of it was a bit silly with the cheesy sound effects.

We took advantage of the lack of tourists, running around the castle and taking silly pictures.

Creepy statues adorned the exterior of the castle, getting very cold with the snow.

 
The sun sets so early in Stirling, and generally by 4:00 at the latest, it's completely dark. However, it means that I catch the sunset while I'm out a lot more often than usual! Stirling looks at its best this time of day. I just can't wait to see it again.

Only one more part to go in this series, and then I'll get to my London adventures!

Almost the end... part 1

As the end of the semester grew nearer and nearer, I decided to visit a couple of Scottish castles. Nov. 30 is St. Andrews Day in Scotland, and in celebration, many castles open their doors for free from the weekend prior. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, and the Scottish flag bears the St. Andrew's Cross.

I've been wanting to visit Edinburgh Castle, but it's about £14 to get in, so I haven't wanted to cough up the money to go inside. Therefore, I finally visited it while it was free.

The International Society planned on having everybody meet at the train station by about 11, and they were going to take the 11:36 train. Since I've gotten to know Edinburgh fairly well, my friends and I took the 11:06 train instead. I'm so glad we did. The first snowfall was the night before, and when Scotland gets a bit of snow, everything shuts down. We had to transfer in Linlithgow as we usually do on Saturdays. It sets us back a bit of time, but it's not terrible, and Linlithgow is a really pretty little town. However, if we hadn't have taken the earlier train, we would have had to stand with our international society friends for hours.  Trains were cancelled and they were stuck there. The town's charm certainly would have worn off by then!

Luckily, we made it to Edinburgh fairly quickly and made it to the castle, where we saw some incredible views of the city.

Now matter how many times I see it, the view always seems spectacular, and I love to just stand there and view the town.

My friend Tim is also on exchange to Stirling from Carleton University, and we went together to the castle, along with a Swiss friend Alessandra, and a Scottish friend Jimmy.

We spent some time wandering around the castle, seeing the different halls and rooms. There were some exhibitions, for example, one that showed the castle's old prisons.

They had old artifacts, such as this prison door that showed graffiti from the people who stayed inside.

Alessandra and I visited a few different exhibits, for example, to see the old Scottish crown jewels. However, they banned photography from most of them so I don't have any pictures to upload.

After the castle, we headed to take a tour of the underground vaults. These are a series of rooms located underneath the South Bridge, where many poor people were forced to live. They are extremely dark, even with the addition of electronic lights. The rooms were small, and the living conditions would have been terrible. The tour guide described how they would smell of a combination of fish oil and chamberpots, making it almost an unbearable place to live. Therefore, they were closed around 30 years later, but have been maintained as a tourist attraction.

Many of the tours to the vaults are ghost tours, since they are said to be quite haunted. This rubble was allegedly placed there to keep tourists off this haunted spot, where it is said a woman tries to get rid of people who stand there, causing them to feel burns or bruises without actually being touched.

Due to my terror of anything remotely scary, I decided to take a historical vaults tour rather than a ghost tour, but it would have been nice to hear some of the dark stories–just not in a scary manner. If I can work up the courage, I'll attempt a ghost tour next semester.

We did get to hear some stories in a historical context, for example, the story of Burke and Hare. There was competition among medical universities to get bodies to dissect. They were only allowed to accept bodies of people who were executed criminals, and as execution rates decreased, there was a shortage of bodies to dissect.

Burke and Hare first sold the body of a tenant who had died of natural causes, but they soon began luring people and smothering them in a manner in which they died with no obvious signs of murder. They were caught when people began to recognize some of the faces of the bodies in the classroom,  but by then, they had 17 victims. It is said that many of the bodies were stored in these vaults.

This wee room is supposed to be the most haunted part of the vaults. It's said a man haunts the back wall, violently pushing away people who get too close to the back wall, although the tour guide said people don't know what's hidden in the back wall. I find it interesting that it isn't scary until someone mentions that it's haunted. I'm certain if I came back on a ghost tour and heard the story, I would not enter the room!

For us kids, they had crayons and markers at the end of the vaults that we could use to colour in pictures of some of the ghosts and the people who lived inside. Sure, I'm technically an adult, and yes, people were staring, but that doesn't matter when there are crayons around!

Finally, we headed to the German Christmas market that is set up by Princes Street.

There, we ate some delicious German foods and had some gluhwein, a nice warm spiced wine drink that's quite popular in Germany. I'd never had it before but it was delicious!

That's all for the Edinburgh trip. Part 2 of my last few days in Scotland will go up as soon as I sort through the photos. Hopefully it'll be up by tomorrow night at the latest, so I can get started on my London life!