Living it up in London

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since I arrived in London. Time has completely flown by, but I'll do the best I can to recount all the highlights.

On Dec. 4 I woke up early to catch a train from Stirling to London. As I've complained before, there was a wee bit of snow in Stirling, causing everything to close. Well, not everything, but many buses stopped and most trains were cancelled. Instead of a five hour train ride direct from Stirling to London, I had to hop on a train from Stirling to Croy, transfer onto an Edinburgh-bound train, and finally catch a train to London. This added nearly two hours of waiting for my transfers with my massive luggage. Not fun.

On the train, I sat and watched the landscape fly by. There's something so relaxing about sitting on a train and zooming through towns, passing loads of sheep on the way.

I'm not sure where this was. Maybe York?

Interestingly, the first person I chatted with in England was the woman sitting beside me on the train. In Scotland, the English are the enemy, especially in my Scottish history studies. When I mentioned I was coming from Scotland, this woman explained that Scottish people are a bit strange and very different.

I kept thinking to myself that it felt like I could have been on a train from Toronto to Ottawa. Not only did a lot of the trip involved passing through indistinctive areas and snow-filled fields, so it could have been anywhere, but also, the conductor announced we were stopping in Scarborough, Peterborough, etc. I guess we just stole all of their cities' names.

I believe this was Newcastle, but again, that could be completely wrong... That's what I get for waiting a week and a half to write about it.

It wasn't for many more hours that I would arrive in London. My five hour journey became almost nine hours. I had stayed up late the night before thinking it would help me sleep on the train, but I ended up seated near a group of girls heading to London for a party weekend. Again, not fun.

However, I finally arrived at the Victoria League student house just in time for their Christmas party. It was a nice welcome, since it drew everybody together, and I got to meet all the residents at once.

I met two other women named Cara! I have never met anybody in my life who shared my name, and here were two more. I've discovered the difficulty that comes with getting used to calling someone else by your own name. And if it isn't obvious from the photo, I wasn't aware it was a semi-formal party...

The house is full of decorations!

I introduced myself to everybody, joined them in singing Christmas carols, and then I settled into my room, trying to remember everybody's names.

The next day, I joined a group of residents who were visiting Cambridge.

From left to right, Simon from New Zealand, Michael from Australia, me, and the other Cara from Canada.

Cambridge was filled with many beautiful buildings, and it was amazing to think that so much of it actually belonged to the university.

In addition to the buildings, there were a ton of shops. Lots of big malls and arcades with big chains, so nothing too exciting. However, there were Christmas lights and bands playing for donations.

We arrived in Cambridge around 3:00, so it didn't take long for the sun to set.

The city became completely deserted once the sun disappeared. I thought there would be students roaming around the streets, but there were very few, perhaps because it was a Sunday night and possibly during the exam period.

From left, Douglas from Malaysia, Simon, Michael, me, Christine from Canada, Sabah from Canada, and Cara.

We went for a bite to eat in a nice little restaurant, so we'd have the energy to wander the city for a few hours.

I apologize for the bad photographs. The lack of light made it quite difficult to get good shots.

There were lots of cute little cafes around the city, and the Christmas decorations made them even nicer.

We walked through some of the university grounds, looking at the beautiful residences and lecture halls.

Along the lawn in front of one of the buildings was a line of pillers made up of books.

That's all for now. I have a lot to tell about my internship, but that will come in the next post!

Almost the end... part 3: From Stirling to London

This is going to be my final post from Stirling for this year, so I'm going to finish up with my Chanukah party, then begin my London adventure.

As usual since I started university, I wasn't able to be with family for Chanukah. Therefore, I decided I'd introduce my flatmates to this fun and deliciously oil-filled holiday.

To make latkes, my flatmates and I made an assembly line, which had some people on peeling potato duty, then others on grating, another on mixing, and finally actually frying.

We had a lot of potatoes. A lot. And it made for a lot of latkes. It was my first attempt at making them completely from scratch, and I must say, they turned out pretty delicious! Sure, some of them were falling apart upon picking them up, but they tasted like latkes, and that's what matters.

I also decided it was time to satisfy my craving for Challah. I haven't been able to find it anywhere in Scotland, so I baked it myself, with some help from my flatmates. As with the latkes, it was my first attempt, but it definitely looked like Challah, and it tasted mostly how it should taste. It definitely reminded me of home, and helped make my Chanukah party a bit more authentic.

I wasn't able to locate a chanukiah or dreidals anywhere around Stirling, so I made my own version for the candles. I couldn't quite figure out how to make my own dreidals though. I'll have to wait for next year. I did, however, find gelt at Marks and Spencers, so I gave some out to my friends.

Before leaving Stirling, I met up with some friends from the local knitting group. We meet weekly at the Tolbooth, knitting and sipping tea. It's been a great way to meet friends and learn tips from really experienced knitters! Some of them even spin their own wool. I'm hoping I can find a group as good as this one when I get back to Toronto. So far, I haven't been so lucky in London, but I suppose it's just another reason to look forward to getting back to Stirling.

I stroll through the Stirling Arcade on my way to the local knitting shop, and I noticed that they decorated it for Christmas. The whole city is filled with lights, trees, and decorations, which makes it quite cheery.

I'm just going to show off my knitted jumper. It's my first attempt at a garment, and took two and a half weeks of intense marathon knitting to finish it. Unfortunately, from washing it improperly, I've managed to stretch it a bit and cause a hole, but hopefully with a bit of sewing I'll be able to wear it again. I'm quite happy with how it turned out! I'll have to try another one as soon as I find a pattern I like.

I spent the last few days in Stirling spending as much time with my flatmates as possible. For the final time this year, we went out all together to play bowling. As usual, I was trailing far behind everybody else in my score, especially since I didn't know there were sensors disqualifying my points every time I toed past the line. I'm pretty sure I've never had this problem in Canada! Regardless, it was nice to have everybody together, especially since Matti (centre) won't be in Stirling next semester. It will be very strange to have somebody new living in our flat!

On Dec. 4, I woke up early, said goodbye to Stirling, and made my way to London.

Goodbye Stirling! See you again in February!

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!