Brussels and Halloween in Glenelg.

Last weekend I went to Belgium with three other girls, just a quick trip but our first time heading out of the UK since we arrived in September. We stayed in Brussels at a great hostel right near the Grand Platz and the second we arrived in the city we made our way to a waffle stand and had delicious Belgium waffles with strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate--YUM! Our first full day there we took the train to Bruges which turned out to be a very cold, rainy and windy city. Because it was so dreary we had to skip a canal tour and headed to the last brewery in the city for a tour. Bruges is very strict in maintaining it's classic medieval feel, so there are only 4-5 buildings that actually reach beyond 3 floors. Luckily, the brewery is one of the taller ones so we got a great view of the city (and the beer at the end was pretty good too!)

View of Bruges from the Brewery

Grand Platz as a flower market Sunday morning

And, of course we all bought some chocolate and had frites before leaving Bruges (right as the thunder and lightning started!).

Cafe outside our hostel

In Bruges

Cathedral in Brussels

A little bit of beer tasting (though I do not share the Belgian's enthusiasm for cherry beer!)

This weekend six of us headed back up to the highlands to go to a Halloween party and see all our friends in Glenelg. We were hosted by the very kind Eddie Stiven (our guide from the first highlands trip) and his wife, and were lucky enough to get lots of time with their adorable dogs Aoife and Bess. We ate wonderful food and rediscovered just how crazy the residents of Glenelg are. The party was great, everyone at the pub really went all out and the costumes were crazy. We were a herd of highlands coos (cows for all those non highland savy) and we had our very own shepherdess. The horns were a bit annoying (I can't imagine how many people we poked), so we made a competition to see who could keep them on the longest. I won (though I think that is mostly because people kept re shaping them and my horn-span got smaller and smaller), which means the other ladies owe me a drink! All in all it was great fun and great to see everyone, we even inspired a group to come down and visit us in a few weeks. Hopefully we will make it up there one more time before we leave Scotland! 

Oh, and did I mention that when we were waiting for the bus back to Glasgow we hung out with Bill Bryson, travel author? He had just finished baggin' all the munros (climbing all the mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet) and was getting ready for a trip to New Zealand in a few weeks. Leave it to Glenelg to give you an extra dose of excitement at the end of your trip!

Heading to London next weekend, the borderlands the following weekend, and will hopefully have visitors from Glenelg the weekend after that . . . busy busy busy!

Glasgow: You Still Rock.

Glasgow continues to amaze me with it's endless cozy cafes and funky bookstores/recordshops/pubs/thrift shops. Most of what amazes me this week, though, is the incredible quality of Scottish Theatre. As I have learned in my Scottish Theatre class it really is quite unique from any other theatre in the world and the productions that I have seen have held up that high standard. Three of the plays I have been to have been incredible, among the best productions I have ever seen. 

First: Beautiful Burnout (http://tinyurl.com/beautifulburnout) which is about amateur boxing--it was performed at a very high intensity which combined boxing with dance with choreographed calisthenics routines, it was very impressive to watch. 

Next: The Interiors (http://tinyurl.com/3aj3tub) which is definitely the best performance I have ever seen. The narrator is the only voice throughout the entire play, the characters are separated from the audience inside a house and are entirely silent the whole time. The plot was that there were friends getting together for a dinner party, but that was really less important because the play focused on these little moments between people that you could pick out and empathize with. It was incredible to think that you never heard the characters speak but it felt like you knew them so well. 

Finally: Black Watch (http://tinyurl.com/33bhpv) which was actually quite disturbing and overwhelming, but as a piece of theatre it was very powerful and beautiful. It is about the legendary Black Watch of Scotland, a regiment that has existed for centuries, which was sent to Iraq to replace American troops. The playwright wrote it after interviewing actual members of the regiment who were in Iraq. It was challenging watching it from the American perspective and also interesting seeing the Scottish perspective. All in all a very draining and emotional experience though I strongly believe such intensely charged plays should and need to be produced. 

I also attended what is called "a play a pie and a pint" at a pub called Oran Mor, somewhere that is turning out to be the most versatile places I have ever been (I have been there for a concert, for dinner, for a drink at the pub, to the dance club, and for a play!). Basically the premise is you pay 8-12 pounds for a pint, a meat pie (DELICIOUS) and a play. Last week they put on special 2 minute plays all abut Glasgow in celebration of their 200th play. This goes on every week with a new play from leading playwrights. It was amazing fun and I ended up seeing 23 two minute plays ranging from plays about Glasgow slave owners to a very large man dressed up as Judi Dench singing a saucy little number. All in all it was amazing and hysterical--the Scots have a very twisted sense of humor! 

My meat pie and pint, an excellent lunch!

In other news I have impressed myself by actually making myself complete and tasty meals, like this one:

Pasta with carmelized onions, blue cheese and parmesean; sauteed courgettes/carrots/potatoes

And I spend a lot of time at my favorite cafe--Montgomery's. It has delicious mochas and today I tried their 'nutellalatte' (needless to say it was amazing!). The owner is very nice and I have become a regular with my friend Claire, though it is a bit dangerous that it is right on our way to campus!

This is a vanilla lemongrass mocha from my 2nd favorite cafe, Artisan Coffee. 

Claire and our amazing and delicious and reasonably priced mochas at Montgomery's.

Oh yeah, and I am going to Brussels next weekend. Do comment if you know any exciting things to do there!

Dear Boris Pasternak: I love you.

"He was writing what he should have written long ago and had always wished to write, but never could. Now it came to him quite easily, he wrote eagerly and said exactly what he wanted to say. Only now and then a boy got in his way, a boy with narrow Kirghiz eyes, in an unbuttoned reindeer coat worn fur-side out, as in the Urals or Siberia.
He knew for certain that this boy was the spirit of his death or, to put it quite plainly, that he was his death. Yet how could he be his death if he was helping him to write a poem? How could death be useful, how was it possible for death to be a help?
The subject of his poem was neither the entombment nor the resurrection but the days between; the title was 'Turmoil'.
He had always wanted to describe how for three days the black raging, worm-filled earth had assailed the deathless incarnation of love, storming it with rocks and rubble--as waves fly and leap at a sea coast, cover and submerge it--how for three days the black hurricane of earth raged, advancing and retreating.
Two lines kept coming into his head:

'We are glad to be near you.'

and

'Time to wake up.'

Near to him, touching him, were hell, corruption, dissolution, death; yet equally near him were the spring and Mary Magdalene and life.--And it was time to awake. Time to awake and to get up. Time to arise, time for resurrection."

-Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago

I am hopelessly in love with this novel, each line just seeps poetry and utter beauty. Pasternak deserves a great deal more attention than he currently receives, he did earn a Nobel Prize for this book!

To Edinburgh!

I have recently returned from a quick trip to Edinburgh for the weekend and it was beautiful! Headed out of Glasgow with 4 other Lewis&Clark girls on Friday night for what was a very quick trip over to the east coast of Scotland. I really had not realized just how close the cities are, but the bus ride was long enough for a cat nap and some gazing out the window and not much more. We traversed our way to the Royal Mile to our hostel, Hight Street Hostel, which was great.

(thanks, google)

Saturday morning I was first awoken by my neighboring bunker smacking me in the head while yanking her suitcase out from the inconvenient location where she had stored it right next to my bed. At least she got nipped by karma when seconds later she leaned up and whacked her own head on the edge of my bunk. Ah, the wonders and glories of hostel living. We finally all made it upright and rambled our way up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. After standing in line for a few minutes and realizing that tickets were a wopping 13 pounds we quickly walked right back out again. Next time it is a must, but we were not quite prepared for a 13 pound loss from our wallets right away. 

The lovely Castle.

Instead we walked down to Camera Obscura--World of Illusions--on the suggestion of a friend where we saw a 360 view of the city to the soundtrack of a very whiny child who made us all disgruntled with children. At least we got some great views of the city from the top of a 6ish floor climb up the stairs:

HI MOM!

After the views we wandered down through the levels of Camera Obscura, each featuring different optics exhibitions and ending with this vortex tunnel: 

Children described it by saying: 'Mommy, it feels like I am rolling down a hill!!'
We/their Mommys described it by saying: 'Oh God, it feels like we have the spins!'

Even if my stomach was not very happy with the vortex and I left not a big fan of children Camera Obscura was definitely worth it.

Next we visited St. Giles, which felt quite modern to me. Mayhap I am just spoiled by the Glasgow Cathedral.

It is still very beautiful even if not my favorite.

My fellow English major in the group (Lauren) and I then dragged everyone to the Writers' Museum, which was woefully inadequate. The best part were their 'Makar Stones'--large stones outside with different quotes from writers (Makar = maker, weaver, crafter of words).

My favorite Makar Stone.

Sadly disappointed by the display, but at least
we got to adventure down a small and mysterious close!

Other things we saw:

Scottish Parliament: WAY cooler than any American Govt. building!

Gardens

Holyrood Abbey: Augustinian abbey ruined when the roof collapsed in 1768,
though many Scottish Kings and Royalty are buried here.

Holyrood Palace: Residence of the Royal Family when in Edinburgh.

And I can't forget the chips! Chips and Cheese,
the classic Fish n' Chips, and Chips n' Gravy--NOM!

It was a great weekend trip, if not a sadly brief introduction to Edinburgh. There is HUGE competition between the two cities here, so it was interesting to meet our competitor. My personal opinion after the weekend is that while Edinburgh is really quite beautiful and quite obviously filled with history it is also filled with tourists. Glasgow, on the other hand, is the real working class city that has been slowly built up and has a more subtle character. So I am still an official Glasgow fan and prefer to live here, though Edinburgh is wonderful for visits!

More exciting posts to come later this week--I promise!