We left England today and made
our way to Scotland. It was a four-hour drive, but it wasn’t bad at all, thanks
to a good book.
Our first stop in Scotland was
Stirling Castle. That was pretty neat. First of all, our guide was awesome. All
the guides had to wear tartan pants—sorry, trousers—and a matching tie. It was
sweet. Here’s a picture of him:
He told us about William Wallace
and some of the history of the castle. It was a really important castle
because, as people used to say, if you have Stirling, you have Scotland. So it
was attacked a lot back in the day.
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| This is the view from the Ladies' Lookout in Sterling Castle |
After the tour, Kylee and I went around trying to find out more information about her ancestor, George Buchanan. He was a tutor to James VI and supposedly the best teacher in Scotland. Not bad, huh?
I looked in the shops by the
castle to look for some souvenirs having to do with the Pollock clan (my mom’s
family), but they didn’t have ANYTHING! I wasn’t very happy about that, but I
think that there will be more in real clan stores, especially in Glasgow.
That’s where my family is actually from.
After we left the castle, we
checked into the dorms at the University of Stirling. And this time, we all get
our own rooms! Not that I don’t love the girls in my group (because trust me, I
do!), but it’s actually kind of nice to have some alone time. I haven’t really
had any of that for the last six weeks.
For the next little while, I
tried looking up more information about the Pollock’s and about their castle
that used to be in Glasgow. There should still be some ruins there, and I’m
hoping that I can go find them while I’m there on Sunday. I did find the email
address of the man who owns the house that now sits on that land. So I emailed
him to see whether or not I could visit the grounds and such. Hopefully, he
says yes!
Later, we went to see the Falkirk
Wheel. It’s a giant wheel that moves boats from the canal. It wasn’t originally
on our schedule, but our bus driver suggested it. It was all right, but it
mostly just something to do.
When we got back from that, some
of us ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and watched the Olympics. So we got to
see Michael Phelps and the other U.S. swimmers win the relay!
After that, I just went back to
my room and Skyped my family. And that was fun. I can’t wait to see them when I
get home next week!
As for the accent here in
Scotland, it really hasn’t been hard at all to understand—no more than the
other dialects I’ve encountered. But then again, I’ve really only talked to the
guides at Stirling Castle who are used to speaking to foreigners. It could be
different among people who aren’t in the tourism business. I’ve had a ton of
people, both American and English, tell me that Scottish English is
ridiculously hard to understand. So we’ll see if it’s true when I get out and
talk to more people.
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