It's over. Went up to Edinburgh AGAIN on Tuesday, although this time it was to meet my friend, A, whom I haven't seen in 7 years. We've definitely drifted apart - 12 years of living 3000 km away can do that to you, but it wasn't as awkward as I expected. Yay! We didn't do too much, which was fine - we ended up mostly wandering around on the Tuesday, watching the street performers, which was fine by me!
We went to see Macbeth Re-arisen, which was super! If anyone ever manages to get the chance to go see a production of it, I'd highly recommend it! It wasn't as much of a stretch as I thought it might be ("Macbeth?! Zombies?!"), and I laughed quite a lot before heading back to the U of Edinburgh for the night to sleep. Well, sort of sleep. I never sleep well when I'm away from home.
Wednesday we went to the National Portrait Gallery - saw the zillions of portraits of people, but the best bit was probably the Harry Benson exhibition. Benson is a photojournalist who started taking photos in the 50s and has continued since, and he's managed to be in some incredible places at some amazing times. The photos were awesome. We did the city bus tour, wandered through the Book Festival (meh... probably would have been better if we'd had time to go to the workshops/speakers, but other than that it was just a giant book sale... and I don't have that much money to spend on books at the mo) and the Film Festival (again, nothing on that looked particularly good) and the craft fair outside St. John's church.
Photo is of St. Cuthbert's church, with the Castle in the background.
Thursday we went to Mary King's Close, where the guide was incredibly sexy..., wandered down through Victoria Terrace and Victoria Street to the Grassmarket, up past Heriot school, and back 'round to the Museum of Scotland, where we took the "highlights tour". We spent most of the rest of the day shopping. I forget that some of the High Street stores here aren't available in Canada (seriously, I don't know what I'm going to do without Monsoon - not that I've been able to afford much from there with the Canadian dollar being all crap and such, but I've amused myself browsing on many an occasion... and Next... and Oasis...). I caught the train back to York at 9 p.m., and had an entertaining trip, as an NUFC game must have let out just before we got to Newcastle, and a whole swarm of black and white shirts poured onto the train (most got off at Durham and Darlington, which was nice - glad I didn't have to deal with them!).
Friday, A and her family were meant to be coming to York. She was going to call me when she got here, which shouldn't have been later than 1-ish. I finally called her dad at 4, who said that A and her brother had headed out to the Uni and had apparently misplaced my phone number. Fortunately she had the presence of mind to ask for me at the Porters' lodge, and at about 5 p.m. my landline rang, saying she was here. I showed her around campus (she's considering coming here for an MA in a few years) and the village and we walked back into town for dinner afterwards.
Saturday we started at York Minster. A and her brother were fairly interested in the whole thing, but they're not history geeks like I am. And I'm afraid that if you're not a history geek, York is sort of boring. So I rather imagine that A and H had a bit of a dull time here, to be quite honest, but I did my best. We went to Jorvik afterwards. I warned them it was cheesy, but they seemed to find the cheese funny, so it was all good. T
hen Amy and I went shopping, and did the walk around the walls of the city - some fantastic photo ops I never would have known about otherwise, like the one on the left - York Minster from the walls of the city. The evening was spent having dinner with her family again and then it was on to the Three Tuns for a couple of pints with A and H.
On Sunday we started out with a sightseeing bus tour of the city, which was more informative than I thought it would be, to be quite honest. Yah learn something new every day, I suppose, and I learned even more new stuff yesterday than I probably normally would have. We then went on to the York Castle Museum... Then did more shopping. Since everything in York closes at 5 on Sundays, we then did a boat tour, on which I learned a few more things and saw some stuff I hadn't seen before, then it was dinner again, and good-bye.
Today's a holiday in the UK, so I'm kicking back, resting my sore tour-guide feet, and then tomorrow it's back to my usual routine.
Hope everyone is well.
We went to see Macbeth Re-arisen, which was super! If anyone ever manages to get the chance to go see a production of it, I'd highly recommend it! It wasn't as much of a stretch as I thought it might be ("Macbeth?! Zombies?!"), and I laughed quite a lot before heading back to the U of Edinburgh for the night to sleep. Well, sort of sleep. I never sleep well when I'm away from home.
Wednesday we went to the National Portrait Gallery - saw the zillions of portraits of people, but the best bit was probably the Harry Benson exhibition. Benson is a photojournalist who started taking photos in the 50s and has continued since, and he's managed to be in some incredible places at some amazing times. The photos were awesome. We did the city bus tour, wandered through the Book Festival (meh... probably would have been better if we'd had time to go to the workshops/speakers, but other than that it was just a giant book sale... and I don't have that much money to spend on books at the mo) and the Film Festival (again, nothing on that looked particularly good) and the craft fair outside St. John's church.
Photo is of St. Cuthbert's church, with the Castle in the background.
Thursday we went to Mary King's Close, where the guide was incredibly sexy..., wandered down through Victoria Terrace and Victoria Street to the Grassmarket, up past Heriot school, and back 'round to the Museum of Scotland, where we took the "highlights tour". We spent most of the rest of the day shopping. I forget that some of the High Street stores here aren't available in Canada (seriously, I don't know what I'm going to do without Monsoon - not that I've been able to afford much from there with the Canadian dollar being all crap and such, but I've amused myself browsing on many an occasion... and Next... and Oasis...). I caught the train back to York at 9 p.m., and had an entertaining trip, as an NUFC game must have let out just before we got to Newcastle, and a whole swarm of black and white shirts poured onto the train (most got off at Durham and Darlington, which was nice - glad I didn't have to deal with them!).
Friday, A and her family were meant to be coming to York. She was going to call me when she got here, which shouldn't have been later than 1-ish. I finally called her dad at 4, who said that A and her brother had headed out to the Uni and had apparently misplaced my phone number. Fortunately she had the presence of mind to ask for me at the Porters' lodge, and at about 5 p.m. my landline rang, saying she was here. I showed her around campus (she's considering coming here for an MA in a few years) and the village and we walked back into town for dinner afterwards.
Saturday we started at York Minster. A and her brother were fairly interested in the whole thing, but they're not history geeks like I am. And I'm afraid that if you're not a history geek, York is sort of boring. So I rather imagine that A and H had a bit of a dull time here, to be quite honest, but I did my best. We went to Jorvik afterwards. I warned them it was cheesy, but they seemed to find the cheese funny, so it was all good. T
hen Amy and I went shopping, and did the walk around the walls of the city - some fantastic photo ops I never would have known about otherwise, like the one on the left - York Minster from the walls of the city. The evening was spent having dinner with her family again and then it was on to the Three Tuns for a couple of pints with A and H.On Sunday we started out with a sightseeing bus tour of the city, which was more informative than I thought it would be, to be quite honest. Yah learn something new every day, I suppose, and I learned even more new stuff yesterday than I probably normally would have. We then went on to the York Castle Museum... Then did more shopping. Since everything in York closes at 5 on Sundays, we then did a boat tour, on which I learned a few more things and saw some stuff I hadn't seen before, then it was dinner again, and good-bye.
Today's a holiday in the UK, so I'm kicking back, resting my sore tour-guide feet, and then tomorrow it's back to my usual routine.
Hope everyone is well.
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It sounds like it was a wonderful trip. I'm most intrigued by the zombies... because that's just my default. The whole trip just sounds wonderful!
Enjoy your holiday. I'm glad it was a safe trip!
You know I am so jealous of how much travel you are fortunate enough to do. I am teaching humanities now and I am having a hell of a time convincing students how important understanding simple art styles, history, and architecture can change your world experiences, and they often don't believe me. I think it's awesome-all you have seen and done...As always, thanks for posting the pics for those us not likely to be visiting any time soon...Oh, and for some reason I feel the need to tell you that I started reading "Wicked." Why I feel like updating you on my reading, I have no idea, but so far, the book is really dark...I still like it though...