A New Adventure

Everything is going well in Spain. It has been fun to spend some time in Oviedo again. Even so, Oviedo is a small place, and we´re getting antsy to do something new, so today we´re off to San Sebastian.

San Sebastian was on my list of cities to see when I was in Spain before, but it was the only one I never got around to visiting. I´m looking forward to going. Its on the north coast very close to France. Apparently, the thing to do in San Sebastian is drink wine and eat fancy tapas. I´m pretty sure we´ll do just fine.

Other than the wine and tapas, though, I know very little about San Sebastian. I know its a very old city and has many many things to see, but I don´t know what they are yet. I bought a tour book yesterday and I plan to read about the city and its sights while we´re on the bus.

Before we leave we´ll have lunch with my Host Mom. Lentils and Chorizo. My personal favorite.

Martes del Campo

Russell and I are surfing the Internet at the local video arcade to kill time before round 4 of the food fest. I thought I would use the time to describe the festival yesterday.

I timed this visit to Spain to coincide with Martes del Campo. I´m not completely sure what this holiday is about, but my impression is that it is similar to Labor Day but only for the Municipality of Oviedo. There are other festivities leading up to the last day, but on Tuesday (Martes) everyone gets off work (providing they work in Oviedo - sorry, Host Dad) and heads to the park/countryside to have a picnic.

The traditional food to take with you on this picnic is the Bollo. The Bollo consists of a Chorizo sausage wrapped in bread and baked. They are delicious but quite rich. Now-a-days, it is common to bring along a variety of foods, but the bollo is always included. You see lines of people outside the bakeries on Tuesday morning waiting to buy their bollos.

Since it had rained all week, my host mom and sister were worried about eating in the grass. They thought it over and decided to take us to a park in a neighboring city where there were lots of tables (and farther from the center of Oviedo). We left early (1:00) but to no avail. All of the tables were taken. We did manage to get one of the last benches in the park, though, and we set up our picnic there.

Now came the food.

My host mom explained that we should try a bit of everything she had brought and then circle back through and pick at what was left. Here´s the basic cycle:

Bollo:
We started with the bollo (of course). We had two, so for the first round we just cut one into four small pieces. It was delicious.

Sidra:
Next my host mom poured us some Sidra. This is somewhat like a hard apple cider, but lighter and must be poured from above to get air bubbles in the liquid. You then slug it back quickly before it goes flat. So we had our gulp of sidra and then moved on to the tortilla.

Tortilla:
Spanish tortilla is nothing like South American tortilla. It is essentially a potato cake with onions and held together with egg. Its absolutely delicious, but cooked in olive oil, so its really a meal by itself. We got nice fat slabs of Tortilla made into a sandwich with baguette bread. Delicious and filling.

More Sidra

Chicken Fillet Sandwich:
My host mom had fried up some chicken breast fillets and veal fillets. We got to pick whichever we wanted and that was also served in a big chunk of bread.

Last of the Sidra; switch to water.

Manchego cheese:
Its possible to get Manchego cheese in the US, but its nowhere as good as it is here. Its a hard-ish cheese with a creamy light flavor. Its made of sheep and cow´s milk and its just divine. Espeicially with quince paste (membrillo). We nibbled a slice of this.

Repeat!!!

Yeah right, Host Mom. We struggled through tiny portions of tortilla sandwich and declared we could eat no more. About every hour after that we were invited to have more, but couldn´t eat anything for the rest of the day. Literally. Not even dinner. Not even at midnight. We settled on Camomile tea and antacids.

So Much Food...

I´m almost out of time at the Internet Cafe, so this will be a short post.

My host mom is trying to kill us with food! I think she´s trying to make up for lost time... five years of lost time.

So much...
Never ending...
But so very very tasty...

We´ve just invested in a nice big box of antacids.

Desde España

We made it safe and sound to Spain. Our travels went fairly smoothly. We got up early in order to navigate London and get to our final destination - Luton Airport. Luton is about 40 minutes north east of London. Once we flew into the Asturias airport, we were unlucky enough to discover that the bus had left ten minutes before our arrival and there wouldn´t be another one for two hours. Alas.

By the time we got to Oviedo it was probably about 6pm. Other than a new bus station, it was very much as I remembered it. All of my old haunts are still here. Yay! It was interesting to me how I could find my way around even though I don´t have a clear memory of what streets to take to get from place to place. I could just trust my feet and go.

We had an eventful Asturian evening. Well... I should qualify that. We did many very Asturian things, but a real Asturian probably wouldn´t have done them all at once and at night. First we went for a walk. Russell was game to come along, though I think he was about ready to pass out (we only had 4.5 hours sleep the night before). The main goal of the jaunt was to find a pay phone so I could let my host family know I had arrived safely. The first one we found worked but no one was home, so we continued wandering (reminiscing for me) and eventually found another phone to call from. That time I did get a hold of them. While we were walking we saw the University, the Cathedral, the Indoor Market, and one of my favorite coffee shops among other things. Once the phone call was taken care of, we set off to find dinner.

I wanted Russell to have an authentic meal, so we went to the Sidreria Asturias on Calle Gascona (Carolyn will know what I´m talking about) and we had an excellent Asturian meal. I had Fabada, a bean stew with chorizo and various other Spanish meats in it (so tasty!), and Russell had grilled shrimp and a nice slab of Cabrales blue cheese (a local specialty). Of course, we accompanied this with two bottles of Sidra. The waiter watched the Soccer game while he poured the sidra. Very authentic.

After dinner we walked around a bit to take in the night life. Saturday nights were always the big party nights when I lived here. I wasn´t much in the mood for a real night out, but I did think it would be fun to try and find some of the bars I used to frequent with my host sister and her friends. We used this as the aim of our next stroll, and I was able to find most of them even though I was never sure of their location when I lived here before. The streets were pretty empty, though. I think the university must either be on vacation, or people are away for the holiday this weekend. Normally around midnight you have to push to get through the crows on certain streets. Last nights there were groups of people at regular intervals, but nothing so crowded. After our walk, we topped our gluttonous evening off with churros and chocolate. We slept quite well.

Today we were invited to lunch at my host family´s house. My host mom made paella (one of her special occasion specialties). We arrived a bit early and chatted while she was cooking. The house looks exactly as it did when I was here before (5 years ago! Ack!) Juanamari (my host sister) was still out. She had gone to visit her boyfriend, who just got a job in Galicia. The two of them arrived shortly after us, though, ontime for lunch.

We started the meal with paella, bread, and wine. Now, this is a big meal, but if you´ve had a Spanish lunch (the big meal of the day) you will know it is foolish to believe there will be only one course. Or rather, you should know. I picked up on the courses to come, but too late to warn Russell. My host mother forced another half plate of paella on him before I could warn him that the meal was far from over. Next was a pan-fried steak and salad. Very good, but starting to be much more than we had planned to eat. Finally, we topped the meal off with a selection of pastries and coffee.

Following this meal, Russell and I took to the couch. We didn´t move much for the next hour. At that point, my host parents had to go out and vote in the local elections, so we took our cue and rolled home.

Gotta love that Spanish home cookin´!

We´re invited back tomorrow afternoon.

Off to Spain

Its about 11:25 at night and Russell and I are scurrying around the apartment trying to get things together for our trip to Spain tomorrow. We were both under the impression that we could make a leisurely start to the day tomorrow, but on closer inspection of time and location of our flight realized we would need to leave home tomorrow at 6:30 am. Could be worse, but certainly not what we had imagined.

I am, as we speak (I write?) being hailed from the kitchen to help dry dishes.

I will try to post while we are in Spain, but I may not get a chance until we get home June 4th.

A Blow to the Cheese

Some sad news: Russell has decided it is unfair to rate cheeses against each other as the lower rated cheese will invariably have its feelings hurt. He has therefore withdrawn from the experiment. Alas.

I haven't decided if I'll continue posting ratings or not, but there's just still some really interesting cheese out there... In the meantime, here are the cheeses we've sampled over the last few weeks:

Mull Cheese (from the Isle of Mull)
This seemed most closely related to a swiss, but it was mild and just a little sweet with a consistency just a tad softer than parmesan.

Jaci:❍❍❍❍
I generally avoid Swiss-tasting cheeses like the plague, but I really enjoyed this one. Now to see if I can get it in Reading...

Davistow Mature Cheddar:
Nice and sharp, with a sweet aftertaste.

Jaci:❍❍❍
Perfectly reasonable cheddar, but I found it a bit too sweet.

Norwegian Jarlsburg:
Very mild, lightly sweet and nutty.

Jaci:❍❍❍
Tasty, and yet, hard to taste. This one had such a delicate flavor it had to be eaten unadorned to really be enjoyed. It was quite good, but the slightly rubbery texture dropped it to three cheese wheels. If you tend to shy away from stronger tasting cheese, I would highly recommend this, though. (❍❍❍❍❍ for the name).

Kicking Back

I don't have much interesting to post. We spent the weekend at home relaxing. Russell was recovering from a pub crawl Friday night with the guys from work, so he wasn't too interesting in venturing out. We did go out for a picnic on Sunday and a stroll around the downtown. The weather has been very nice over here. We've had a few light showers, but mostly sunshine and light breezes. Can't beat it.

Some Random Notes

I don't have any big things to tell, but I hate to go too long without posting, so I'll just post about a few little things.

A while back (around the time Nicole visited) I noticed a pair of swans sitting on a nest along the Kennet bank. The other day I was walking home and as I was going over the Kennet I saw a swarm of fluffy baby swans fighting the tide to keep up with their parent. They were very cute. I took Russell out to see them a few days ago, but I forgot my camera, so no pictures.

Tonight we are going to dine adventurously. I walked past a menu board outside a restaurant announcing a Thursday special: A seven course Ethiopian meal for £7.50. I haven't had Ethiopian food in ages. I'm really looking forward to it.

And to continue with the culinary bragging... the other night we had a rather fancy meal as well. A nest of sauteed green beans with a bed of brown basmati rice in the center, a narrow salmon fillet on top of that with Bati curried butternut squash over the whole thing. Soooo good.

I just got home from the University. I did some more observing and lead a conversation group in the afternoon. We mostly commiserated about how hard it is to learn English and the different ways everyone studies. It was interesting, but I think they were a bit disappointed that I couldn't give them any magical advice.

Keeping Busy

Last Thursday I was given a schedule of classes I could attend in the Language Resource Center at Reading University. I was also asked if I would be willing to help tutor one student on the side in pronunciation and help during open study hours (maybe start a conversation group). I'm now several days into this schedule, so I thought I would share.

I was mostly set up in Reading and Writing classes (I had mentioned that this was of interest to me) and I may be helping out in Jonathan's Listening/Speaking class on Speaking days. I just found out today that I will be teaching Level 6 (Advanced Reading and Writing) this summer, so I'm especially interested in picking up any ideas I could apply in my own classes. The teachers here have been working together for many years and have developed their own curriculum - no outside textbooks.

I tried to help during open study hours today, but there was an IELTs (similar to TOEFL) presentation going on at the same time, so most of the students who are usually studying were absent. With only two students to look after, the teacher in charge sent me home.

The girl I'm tutoring is from Taiwan and she is really struggling with pronunciation - especially long words. She wants to work in International consultant, too, so being able to speak clearly is rather important. As it turns out, she studied American pronunciation in Taiwan, so she is rather relieved to be paired with me. I have a feeling that I understand her a bit better than her English professors.

The Bird and Baby

Our last destination took a bit of effort to find. We had read on a posting in the first museum that there was excellent fare to be had at the pub that CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien used to frequent: The Rabbit Room. We noted the address, looked to see where it was on the map, and then filed it away in our memories as a dinner location. When dinner came, however, we walked up and down the street listed and saw only two pubs: The Eagle and Child, and the Lamb and Flag. No Rabbit Room. I asked around, and was told that the two pubs we had seen were the only two on that street.

Sad that we couldn't find what we were looking for, we decided to stop and have dinner (some of the best Thai food we've had). We borrowed the restaurant's phone book when we had finished and read through all of the pubs in Oxford. Nothing with Rabbit in the name. Next we looked for any pubs on the street we had investigated. Russell felt sure the address of the Eagle and Child was close to the address we had seen on the posting. On the off chance that the name may have changed, we set off for the Eagle and Child.

Inside, the pub was well kept and comfortable. We ordered a couple pints and sat down in a cozy corner by the fireplace. While we were sitting there, I noticed a photo on the wall labeled "JRR Tolkien" and a plaque next to it explaining that JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis (among other writers) had formed a group they called "The Inklings" that met at this very pub. The back of the menu had the rest of the story. Apparently they always used to meet in a back room called the Rabbit Room (aha!). They had dubbed the pub itself "The Bird and Baby." Among some of the memorabilia in the pub, there was a letter from the Inklings to the owner saying they had enjoyed themselves thoroughly that day and had remembered to drink to his health. The letter was signed by everyone in the group.

While we were sitting in the pub, Russell noticed a shelf above my seat. There was a collection of bottles of various spirits lined up along the shelf and each had a label. Russell began reading them to me:

MacAllen: "Check for the Chocolate"
Oban: "Explore the Trifle"
Talisker: "Find the Seaweed"
Glenfiddich: "Hunt for the Honey"
Lagavulin: "Sample the Nougat"
The Balvenie: "Investigate the Marzipan"
Del Whinnie: "Discover the Biscuit"

We have no idea what this was about, but we found it quite amusing all the same.

Incidentally, I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures. We were experimenting with unobtrusive photography (no flash, fast shutter, over the shoulder, behind the back, etc.) and the results leave something to be desired. Oh well.

Sunday in Oxford

After devoting all of Saturday to learning how to play Civilization (an old computer game where you have to build your civilization from hunter-gatherers to interstellar settlers) we decided we needed to get out of the house.

Oxford was the easiest destination - lots to do, plenty neither of us had seen, and not too far from Reading. Russell hadn't ever been to the city, so we tried to walk around a bit, but the weather was not cooperating. After buying an umbrella we fared better, but we were both still anxious to get out of the rain, so we went to the Ashmodean museum.

A funny thing we've noticed about England is that it seems to have a great many of the world's treasures. This is the direct result of colonization, of course, and the most famous of these treasures are in London. There are plenty of amazing artifacts to go around, though, and the English don't seem too keen on returning the items to their rightful owners. At the Ashmodean, for example, there was a fine collection of Roman statues and pottery (more elaborate than what you typically see in history textbooks). They also had everything found in some particular Egyptian tomb, including statues, carved stone paneling, all manner of meaningful gifts and trinkets, canopic jars and the mummy himself with all four layers of his sarcophagus on display. This was all just on the ground floor. The rest of the museum artifacts were by and large of English origin - though parts of the museum were being changed or updated and could not be accessed.

We took a break from museums to go tour Christ Church College, which I had failed to get into when I visited before. It was quite impressive. Its hard to imagine how so much attention to architecture could be lavished on any building, and not a cathedral, but a university. It really is on par with many cathedrals and abbeys I've seen. In the picture you can see the ceiling above the staircase to the Dining Hall. I can't even imagine the time and money that must have gone into it.

The Dining Hall was impressive as well. I'm glad I waited to go when it was open. The hall contains three long rows of tables, all set with lamps, silverware, glasses and side plates. They run the full length of the hall to the head table on the far end. The walls are lined with paintings of accomplished graduates of the college; prime ministers, bishops and the like. This building, like the Bodleian Library, was used in the filming of the Harry Potter movies.

Next we went to the Museum of the History of Science. For some reason I had decided this was the museum of Natural History (which had been recommended to us) but I was confused. As it turned out, however, this was an excellent choice both for content and time. It was a smallish museum (three modest floors) but it was absolutely packed with devices used for early mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine - science in general. They had hundreds of astrolabes from all over the world, including the only known spherical astrolabe known to have survived to present times, abicuses, slide rules, microscopes, the old inner workings of a number of local church clocks, telescopes, vacuum bulbs. All manner of things. Some of the highlights included a chalkboard that Einstein had written on when doing a lecture in Oxford (it had been taken down and preserved afterwards) and the containers that were originally used to develop penicillin. The penicillin containers were interesting because of their variety. England was at war, so the university didn't have access to the metal containers they would usually have. Instead they used sheep dip cans, bedpans, biscuit pans, whatever they could get a hold of. They still have the originals, rigged up for scientific experiments.

Our last stop was by far our favorite, so I will devote a special post to it.

Language Resource Center

Last Tuesday, I finally got the chance to go talk with John at the University of Reading Language Resource Center. He seemed a bit skeptical of me helping at all in any of the classes, but thought I might be able to observe a few. Since Wednesdays are lecture days (all the students in the English program attend a lecture, take notes, and then complete a project related to the lecture) he invited me to come back Wednesday to observe and meet a few teachers.

Wednesday was great. I was sent to observe Jonathan's class. There was an hour prep class to introduce vocabulary and get the students thinking on the topic (family structure in the West), then everyone was herded to a lecture hall for a two hour lecture. The fellow who gave the lecture is a university professor in London, and it was definitely not toned down for language learners (though the topic itself was accessible).

During the break following the lecture, I went to get a coffee with two other teachers. It was really nice to actually sit and talk with people. I learned more about the program, too. Apparently the majority of students who enter the program are planning on starting a post-baccalaureate program (Masters or PhD). The current session is a pre-session designed to get students who are accepted at the university up to speed with academic language. At least, I think that's what the story is. I'm still not completely clear - I just know this program is not their regular language program.

After coffee, I met up with Jonathan again and sat with one of the groups as they compared notes and tried to recall details and answer questions that had been prepared after the lecture. It was nice working with the students, and I got to see a SmartBoard in action. A SmartBoard is like a white board in appearance but it is connected to the computer. You can project the computer screen on the board and use your finger on it like a mouse, or write on it and save the image so the writing scrolls up and down. Its hard to describe, but we just got one at OSU and we were just getting lessons on how to use it when I left for England. Seeing them in action is giving me all kinds of ideas for when I get back, though.

There has been some talk of setting me up as a pronunciation tutor outside of classes, but I don't know if that will happen or not. I joked with Jonathan that I was surprised he would let an American teach pronunciation, to which he responded, "well, its not like you have a Texas accent." I'm going in again this afternoon to observe/help in Jonathan's Listening/Speaking class and afterwards, John said he would have talked with the other teachers and put together a list of classes I could attend. I should have my schedule figured out by this evening. Hooray!

Holyrood Palace

Holyrood palace was an unexpected treat. I had read that very little of the palace was open for viewing because it is still used as living quarters by the Queen during the summer, and they aren't going to let tourists traipse all through it. As it turned out, this was misinformation, and we traipsed to our hearts' content. Of course, there are large parts of the palace where we weren't allowed, but we went through the bulk of the second story including the rooms that had belonged to Mary Queen of Scots (the old part of the palace.)

We learned all about how Mary was crowned queen as an infant but then sent to France our of fear for her wellbeing. At 16 or so, she married the French King, who died a year later, at which point she returned to Scotland. There she married again, but shortly thereafter she was rumored to be having an affair with her advisor. One night, while she was having dinner (and she was extremely pregnant at the time) her husband tore into the room, upended the table, dragged Mary to the adjoining room, where the advisor had been brought, and proceded to stab him to death in front of her.

Within a year of this, Mary's husband was killed (strangled?) and the building he was in was blown up. It was rumored that the culprit was Mary's new lover, and there was speculation that she had been involved in plotting her husband's demise, but there was never any evidence to that effect. Mary married the lover, which raised a great deal of ire and she was eventually forced to abdicate the thrown to her son. My knowledge of what happened next is foggy, but somehow Mary's infant son is taken away from her on grounds that she will corrupt him (he later united Scotland and England) and Mary escaped to England where she hoped to gain the support of her cousin, Elizabeth I. This proved none-too-wise, and Mary was immediately imprisoned. It seems she had more of a claim to the English throne in some eyes than Elizabeth did. Mary wrote many letters begging her cousin to free her, but it was all in vain. Eventually Elizabeth accused her of conspiring against the throne and had her beheaded.

Real life can be so much more dramatic than fiction...

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is really a fascinating city. I mentioned before that it was built on a hill and surrounded by a stone wall. Since everyone was worried about invasion, they all stayed inside the walls - which quickly lead to rather cramped living conditions and architectural innovation. Apparently, the tail of land that slopes up the cliff the castle rests on is made of sandstone. Because sandstone was so easy to dig into, it was actually easier to dig into the side of the rock face if you wanted a basement rather than down under your building. Pretty soon, there was a rabbits warren of basement tunnels being dug into the rock below the city. As the city filled, these basements were rented as (horribly awful) living quarters. At the same time, the city was getting taller and taller and the the buildings were becoming closer and closer together. By the 1750s or so, most of the buildings had reached 14 stories, which was unheard of in those days, and not at all safe. Between buildings, there was often only a three or four foot wide alley, or "close." A number of these still exist. You can see one in the picture. They usually had a gate on either side, which would be closed at nighttime for security.

Eventually, the political climate calmed down enough that people were willing once again to build outside of the walls. By this time, Edinburgh was leading the world in engineering, and they decided to build four (five?) bridges spanning out from the city. Of course, it was the wealthy that went to live in the new parts of the city, so the center of town (still as crowded as ever due to a new wave of immigration) became a slum. Inevitably, I suppose, a fire broke out and most of the central city burned down. The current city is still rather densely packed, but not anywhere near as much as it once was. Many of the basements were filled in, but not all of them, and there are still pockets of underground city that are discovered from time to time.

We never found time to visit it, but one pocket of underground city is Mary King's Close. The story goes that when the Black Plague hit Edinburgh it was so quickly widespread, that the city decided on a lock-down. They locked up all the closes and wouldn't let anyone out for 14 days. At the end of fourteen days, they hoped anyone who was going to die would do so and everyone else would be safe. Mary King's close was especially hard hit. No one survived at all, and the scene was especially grisly when they were found. No one wanted to move into the close after that. Rumors of hauntings and visions of ghosts by those who did try to re-inhabit the building kept everyone else away. When the city finally failed at giving away living quarters there for free, they decided to build a government building over the top of the close. It was forgotten for quite a while, but was rediscovered at some point and there are tours of it today.


Russell and I had one full day to wander around the city and see the sights. We started with the castle. The main attractions at the castle are the crown jewels of Scotland and the Stone of Scone. The crown jewels are considerably older than those of England and were lost for a time. They were re-discovered not too long ago in a chest hidden in one of the towers. The Stone of Scone is the stone slab all Kings of Scotland have been crowned on. I've all of the sudden gone blank on the date, but the stone was stolen by England at some point and built into a throne that was used in their coronation ceremonies. The throne is still in Westminster Abbey, and is still used for the coronation of the British Monarchs. At some point in the recent past, however, Scotland asked for the stone back. England agreed, so long as Scotland would lend it back to them for coronations and that's how it is today. I believe this whole agreement took place after Elizabeth II was crowned... so it hasn't had to be sent back yet, but presumably it will be. Incidentally, the Scotsman who gave us the tour of the castle was very careful to point out that in Scotland, the current monarch is Elizabeth I, not Elizabeth II, and all their coat of arms are labeled in that fashion.

Russell and I never got a chance to hear it, but apparently, every day (accept Sunday) one of the large canons at the castle is fired at 1:00. Our guide mentioned that people often ask why they don't mark the hour at 12:00, like most everyone else does. The guide answered that this is Scotland, and if they marked the time at 12:00, it would cost 12 shells. Very prudent.

Among other places, we also stopped for a coffee at the Elephant Cafe - famous for being the cafe where most of the first Harry Potter was written. It was a comfortable place, and had a beautiful scenic view of the castle.

Not Just a Bed, but a Breakfast

Keeping with the food theme, our breakfasts deserve a post to themselves.

Our hosts explained when we arrived, that there was always cereal, tea or coffee, and rolls at breakfast, but we could also have eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes (and some number of other things I've forgotten) if we let them know the night before. The first night we decided to just stick to the basic breakfast and not trouble them for anything fancy the next morning. This greatly distressed our hostess who offered to at least make us a fruit salad. I said this would be wonderful, and it was.

The next morning, we were presented with a bowl full of kiwi, grapes, apples, and melon all chopped up into delicate bits and left to sit overnight in juice. It was quite a treat. In the middle of the table there were Scottish pancakes (much like US pancakes, but sweeter, denser, and served cold). There was also a back table with a selection of cereal, yogurt and grapefruit slices. Shortly after sitting down, we were presented with tea and a basket of warmed buns, and we had two selections of jam - Elderberry and something that looked like apricot, which Russell warned me against.

It was the very definition of tasty.

Breakfast was in the dining room. The table was set with a full china service and we were sharing the table with two other couples, a pair of ladies from Canada and a couple from Denmark. Our hosts ate breakfast in the kitchen nook, so we were left to socialize with each other as we could - which ended up meaning not at all, unfortunately. At one point, however, we heard our hostess yell to her husband from ustairs:

"Is Buddy with you?" (referring to their elderly golden retriever)
"No, dear" and
"The door to the room is open, I'm afraid he's gone Walkies!"

The Danish fellow nearly choked on his toast. The expression had us all laughing. The escape artist was soon found wandering around across the street and was quickly ushered back inside.

Back from the Highlands

We're back!

Russell and I took to train to Edinburgh, Scotland for the bank holiday here and it was a fabulous trip. I'm planning to spread this post out over the next day or two, though, since there's so much to tell and my camera is in Hungerford with Russell at the moment.

First of all, while the excitement of an adventure will get you pretty far, it abandons you somewhere around the fourth hour of a train ride. The scenery was beautiful - especially when we caught a glimpse of the sea late in the journey, but both Russell and I were very happy to escape the train after the 6 hour ride to Edinburgh.

In the interest of frugality, we chose a Bed and Breakfast a ways from the heart of the city. I had looked into backpacking hostels, but Russell and I would have to sleep in separate dorm rooms and in the end, it was actually cheaper to go to the bed and breakfast. We were worried about finding the place, but our hostess' directions were very clear and precise, so we found the place with no problem. It was about 20 minutes from the city center by bus, but there was lots to see on the way.

We were staying in the downstairs apartment the couple had originally set up for their mother. Now, they usually rent the downstairs apartment out during the week and only the two upstairs guest rooms on the weekend, but since it was a long weekend and no one else was using the downstairs apartment, they made an exception for us. The apartment was laid out in a straight line: Kitchen, Bathroom (off a narrow hallway), sitting room, bedroom. It was very clean and bright and the couple were quite friendly hosts. The husband seemed absolutely frightened of anything having to do with the business side of the B&B (something I learned early on when making the reservation - he passed the phone to his wife while she was in the shower rather than book the room himself). His wife, on the other hand, was so full of energy that she could barely finish telling us about one thing before rushing on to the next. As I'm writing this, it sounds like I'm criticizing them, but I really don't mean to. They were both very welcoming and put a lot of effort into making sure we were very comfortable.

We arrived at the Bed and Breakfast around 4:00, so most of the sights in the city were closed, but we ventured back in to find dinner and explore a bit anyway. Even though many of the stores were closed, the pubs and restaurants were brimming with people and the streets were still full. We were getting very hungry by the time we arrived in the center of the city, and after walking uphill to the top of the Royal Mile (just outside the castle entrance) we were both very ready to find food. Somehow, however, we couldn't seem to get excited about any of the food available. There were plenty of places to eat, but they were stuffed with people and a bit intimidating. Some seemed a bit seedy, others too expensive, and all of them standing room only. We meandered down the mile (its all downhill from the castle) pulled towards one pub or restaurant and then deciding against it. If any of you have had the "pleasure" of watching Russell and I try to make a decision under our own power, you will have a sense of what this endeavor looked like. We got about 3/4 down the mile, probably passing 30-40 pubs, and then just both seemed drawn to one in particular. Who knows why. I had spotted it and thought it looked interesting just as Russell started walking towards it. There was nothing special to set it apart from the other pubs, but when we went in, there was a fairly empty restaurant nook separated from the lively bar and we were seated right away.

Off our feet and pleased at the prospect of having finally decided something before wasting away in the streets, we took in our surroundings. The pub was called "Worlds End" and the back of the menu explained why:

The castle was originally built on the top of the cliffs because it was easy to defend. Drawn to the strength of the castle, people quickly started building a city next to it on the land that sloped up to in on one side. At some point a wall was built around the city and connected with the castle walls to add protection. In 1513, however, James IV (the king of Scotland at the time) decided to help the French (who were attacking England from the South) and attacked from the north. He was quickly defeated and Edinburgh (which was at the southern border of Scotland) realized two things: 1. Everyone who might otherwise protect them had just be slaughtered, and 2. the English had the firepower to annihilate the old wall around the city. Not to mention, a number of wealthy people had ventured beyond the wall to settle further into the valley, and there wasn't even a thin wall between them and any invading army England may now choose to send. A new, bigger, larger wall was now built (and quite quickly). Out of fear of invasion. No one dared build outside the new wall and for 250 years it staid that way (you can imagine how cramped Edinburgh got - I'll try to post more on this topic soon, as I've been reading up on the subject). In any case, everything beyond the new gate became known as the World's End, and very few people of Edinburgh ever ventured beyond it. The pub we were eating at was located just inside where the wall used to stand, next to the site of one of the gates. The wall is largely gone today (though remnants remain here and there).

Getting back to the pub, it was a lucky find. The food was the best I've had in the UK. I ordered fish and chips in spite of the fact that I had every intelligence to the effect that this would be regretted. I was fully expecting the greasy fare I had been warned of, but these fish and chips couldn't have been better. They weren't greasy at all. We also tried a sampler of Haggis. I had some vague memory of being repulsed by the contents of Haggis, but I couldn't remember exactly what they were, so I held firmly to my ignorance and dove in. It was absolutely delicious. It reminded me very strongly of the Polish breakfast sausages my grandfather used to make. I remember being told I didn't want to know what was in those sausages either. The Haggis was accompanied by "Tatties" and "Neeps." This was harder to unravel. Tatties were clearly mashed potatos, but what were Neeps? A day or two later, we read that they were pureed Turnips. We were both pleased with our culinary adventure.

More to come!

Oxford

Inspired by Nicole, I decided to make a trip to Oxford. I don't know why, but I wasn't really expecting much. I knew that Oxford University was comprised of a multitude of independent colleges spread out around central Oxford and I didn't really know of much else to see there. I tried looking online, but didn't find much else. With the vague notion that it would at least be worth it to check out their ESL books, I headed out.

On arriving, I stopped in at the tourist office and picked up a few brochures. Three brochures, actually, and that seemed to be the extent of them. Once I had opened the brochures, however, I found a great deal listed. The brochure for the University included University sponsored museums (musical instruments, Science, etc), libraries, bookstores, and a botanic garden. In addition, they had a lovely walking map and gave visiting hours and costs for each college of the University.

Perhaps because Nicole and I had spent so much time trying to find gardens, I decided on the botanic Garden first. To get to the garden, I had to walk through central Oxford. This was quite an impressive walk, full of interesting architecture. This all boded very well. The garden itself was interesting, but would probably be better either earlier in the spring or later in the summer. Most of the spring flowers were wilting, and the majority of the gardens were just starting to sprout. The gardens are designed in cooperation with other botanic gardens around the world to preserve rare plant species. The gardens are connected to the University, and contain university projects. One such project was the collection of all known species of lupis. They also had a Yew tree that dated back to the 1600s.

Next I tried to get into Magdlen College, but it was closed until 2:00. This turned out to be a theme. I ended up walking out accross a large field towards Christ Church College. I believe this is the oldest of the colleges in Oxford University - though I'm not positive about that. It is the college that Lewis Carroll (of Alice and Wonderland) went to, as well as some notable number of Prime Ministers. If you look at the photo, Christ Church looks like a long narrow building, but its deceiving. Apparently (though I never got in) there is a "Quadrangle" behind it (or large square courtyard) surrounded on all four sides by buildings such as this one. I believe there have been some other buildings added onto it as well. From the pictures outside, it appears to have some amazing interior structures, but when I went to take a tour, they told me only part of the building was open because the students were eating in the great hall until 2:00. The great hall being a point of interest, I decided to come back later and never made it back.

The collection of musical instruments was also closed until 2:00, so I went and got lunch, sat on the lawn and read until 1:00 when I was more than ready to do more exploring. I went for a walk around town and decided that one corner in particular looked promising. It contained the Bodleian Library, Museum of the History of Science and Sheldonian Theatre. All of them were closed until 2:00 as well, though it was getting closer to 2:00, so I just kept circling through little alleyways (which was quite fun in itself) until the appointed time. I decided on the Library first. I had no idea what I was going to, but libraries seem like interesting places, so why not? I'm so glad I went! We started out in the sacristy (that's the picture I have posted) and it was even more impressive in person. Our guide was an older gentleman who had received a PhD from the university. He had a tendency to go into great detail about some specific story and then forget what his larger point was and have to pause for a while until he remembered. At one point, he was in the middle of telling us how the Midieval books were bound, and then suddenly remembered that Harry Potter had been filmed in the library and then couldn't remember what his first story had been (though he got back to it eventually). I really enjoyed listening to him.

Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures in the upstairs (Midieval) library. If you've seen the library in Harry Potter, though, you've got a good idea. Anyone can look at the books, but they have to prove they have a good reason for wanting to (tourists, in general, aren't allowed). One of my favorite stories from the library had to do with a row of paintings depicting the library founders. Apparently the idea for the paintings came up long after the founders were all dead, so the artist rounded up a bunch of local people of import and had them sit as the founders. So the paintings are of real people, but not the people they are labeled for.

Our guide also explained that the Bodleian Library was the first copyright library in England. That means a copy of every book published in England is sent to the library. They get a truck load of some several thousand books every Wednesday. In the 1700's the library was already too full, so they dug up one of their courtyards and installed a storage area going several feet underground (and then restored the courtyard). By 1910, however, that, too was overflowing, so they bought some property across the way and built an 11 story building there (three stories go underground). Out of the more than 7 million books they have stored away, only about 700,000 are in the original library, the rest are in the extension. Its a rather big place. We could see the extension building from the Bodleian library, and our tour guide confided that he was quite disappointed that the extension had just gotten protected status, so they couldn't do anything to make it more attractive (that's the photo I've posted - it is a bit plain).

I made a quick trip to Christopher Wren's Sheldonian Theatre. It absolutely floors me how many buildings that man had his hands on... In London you can't hardly throw a stone without hitting a Wren building. This is certainly no slight to the architect, they are striking buildings- but talk about prolific. Finally, I ended the day with a perusal of ESL books in the Oxford University Press. I've got all sorts of fodder for my wish list.

In other words, my early skepticism towards Oxford was most poorly placed. There was, in fact, so much to do that I wasn't able to even scrape the surface. Hopefully, Russell and I will get a chance to go back and see more in the future - after 2:00, of course...

Oh, and apparently Monday is a Bank Holiday here, so Russell and I booked a B&B in Edinburgh. Hooray! I probably won't post again until next Tuesday, after we get back.