Ah, Scotland, my ancestral home (or one of them—the most major one, at least). Where men wear kilts, plaid is hip, haggis is readily available, bagpipes are always playing in the distance, and the name Doig doesn’t get you quite so many strange looks.
I haven’t seen much of Scotland, but from what I have seen, Edinburgh is easily my favourite city. It’s wonderfully medieval, full of cobblestone, and buildings older than Canada. Its wonderful Royal Mile starts and ends with beautiful palaces, and there are tourists everywhere. I guess you can’t have everything.
Famous body snatchers William Burke & William Hare used to live here.
Edinburgh is where I met up with Kara. We went on a wonderful walking tour with New Europe (and then we went on another tour and a pub crawl with them because it was so good) and learned all sorts of wonderful and interesting things. Our guide, Andy, was great, and very tolerant of my attempts to stump him/ask the stupidest questions of all time.
We enjoyed a lovely walk up the Salisbury Crag, and getting partially lost in and around the Royal Mile. We found great used book shops, occasionally saw the sun, and met some lovely people.
We also tried Irn Bru, the most popular soft drink in Scotland (Andy informed us it outsells Coke). Don’t let my facial expression fool you, the stuff is pretty awful. Like bubblegum combined with… grass? I’m not sure. It’s hard to describe. Neither Kara or I were particularly taken with it, but you should totally try in if you’re ever in Scotland. Have it with a side of haggis for the full experience.
Not to sound like a full-blown alcoholic, but Kara and I had an amazing time on our New Europe pub crawl. It was a great way to meet people as the group kept shuffling about and re-forming each time we switched venues. We met some Australians (you always meet Australians), an American who kept trying to fool people into thinking she was Irish (her Irish accent was terrible), and a Canadian from Pickle Lake. At our final stop a young Scotsman struck up a conversation with me, one of his opening lines being “I’m really dumb.” I thought that a rather odd thing to bring up out of the blue, so I sought clarification, and it turns out he actually said “My name is Duncan.” I suppose loud music and a thick Scottish accent do not always work in one’s favour.
We spent our final night in Edinburgh on a ghost tour (another New Europe one, with Andy again). It wasn’t the sort of thing where hired actors cavorted about in old sheets, but a nighttime exploration of some of the darker bits of Edinburgh history. Witch burnings, executions, graveyards, cursed bridges, and jails (gaols) for the criminally insane, oh my!
The next morning we set off for Alnwick, England by train.
LOL at the “I’m really dumb.” Wonder if it would work as a pick-up line. Can’t say it isn’t original.
The Irn Blu doesn’t sound particularly tasty, but I shall add it to the buck-list of things to do in Scotland. I’ll pass on the haggis.
Beautiful photos!
Haha, I be creepin’ your blog on a Saturday night. Coolest person ever right here. I’m evidently really bored, and I guess you’re interesting? Anyway, this post made me laugh because here in Nova Scotia (=New Scotland), it’s actually not at all uncommon to hear bagpipes in the distance or see people in kilts. And most weddings have at least one wedding party member in a kilt, if not all. Ahem, the men, that is. People also still speak Gaelic in some parts! Kinda cool to think that a culture is so preserved across the pond from the original land. I’ve yet to visit Scotland, but at least I live in a pretty good replica of it, minus all the cool graveyards and castles and whatnot. Oh, and no haggis, but somehow I don’t think I’m missing out on that cultural endeavor? Thanks for the virtual tour!
Calgary is also a bit of a mini-Scotland, though without the coastal elements. It’s even named after another Calgary in Scotland! We’ve got a pretty large Scottish/descended from Scottish population here, with lots of Highland dancing and our very own Highland games. Woo! No Gaelic here, though, at least none that I know of.
I had no idea Calgary had a Scottish connection! Though it makes sense that they settled all over British North America, I kind of thought N.S. was the only place where it was still culturally ingrained since this was the first stop off the boat, and many stayed once they saw how similar it was to “home”. I love the Highland Games here! I can’t picture or more stark contrast of Calgary–The Stampeded vs. the Highland Games–haha. There are lots of people from here that work in Calgary–I wonder if that’s part of the reason (aside from the availability of jobs)? Interesting!
Us Scots absolutely covered Canada in our plaid & haggis legacy! I know my family started in Nova Scotia, moved into Manitoba, and then spread west from there. I’m not surprised so many Scots stayed out in the Maritimes, though—from the photos I’ve see it’s beautiful. I just wish it was cheaper to get out there so I could see it for myself 🙂 I’ve never been to our Highland Games, but I’ve been to one in Scotland and it was sure cool! Games, caber tossing, dancing, piping, and a solid dose of drizzle (of course).
You might be surprised to hear that several of the founders of the Stampede were of Scottish descent 😉 Scotland has lots of cows, and so do we… so it’s kind of like home?
It is beautiful here, which is fortunate since there isn’t a whole lot to do other than enjoy the beauty and nature… haha. I’ve only been to Calgary once, when I was 12, so my memory is pretty foggy at best. I only remember stampede-related things, though I’m sure there’s a lot more going for it than that. Like the Highland Games!
Yup, if you’re here during Stampede time, that is all you are going to hear about! We even have special bylaws that are just for Stampede, regulating the display of hay bales and other such cowboy type things. I think they should also regulate who is allowed to wear denim micro-mini skirts, as the privilege is greatly abused!
I would support that micro-mini skirt limiting bylaw. I see enough of that on teenagers as a teacher, let alone people who don’t have the excuse of youth to justify their choices. Yikes!
With our talent for writing, perhaps we should draft up a bill for it? But where to file it first? Alberta is likely more conservative, but you’re dealing with a smaller population…
Oh I think this bill should be adopted nationwide. Don’t want to risk the offenders just taking their micro-minis elsewhere to assault the eyes of another innocent province 😛
Oh, of course worldwide adoption would be the end goal, but we’d need to start small so we could point to one lucky province and cite useful statistics, like drop in number of bleeding eyeball cases, to gain support 😉