For All You Braveheart Fans...

Yes, I went to Stirling yesterday - Stirling, as in: The Battle of Stirling, Stirling Bridge, Stirling Castle and lots and lots of William Wallace (aka the entire movie of Braveheart).

I will just say for the record that the movie Braveheart is total BS. Robert the Bruce is not nearly as much of a pansy as he seems in the movie, William Wallace never hooks up with the wife of the Prince of England (she was like 4 at the time of Wallace's death), and no one, and I mean NO ONE, in Scotland has hair that is as pretty as Mel Gibson's hair in the movie. Glad I cleared that up.

That being said, Stirling is a pretty cool town. The castle is more awesome (and cheaper) than the Edinburgh Castle, and the town centre is surrounded by massive mountains. The Wallace Monument is also nice, but a pain to get to (it involved a bus, a very steep hike and 200 stairs). Still, the views were pretty incredible (see pictures).

The Old Town is also really nice. There is a really old jail there (see picture), and a really cute church called Church of Holy Rude :) I went in, forgetting that it was Sunday at noon (aka service time), and got really freaked out when I saw everyone and almost ran out, but then this adorable old woman asked me if I wanted any tea or coffee. Relieved that she didn't say "get out Jew" or something like that, I said no thanks and was on my way.

Anyway, all is well. Labour Party conference was this past weekend, so hopefully things will calm down a bit now that it's recess. Miss everyone!
xoxo Pam

Family Time!

Yay visitors!

Dad, Nancy and Sloane came to Edinburgh this past weekend. It was great to see them, even though they had the misfortune of visiting on Easter weekend when everything is totally packed. We had to wait over an hour in the freezing cold to get into the Castle...not so fun.

Still, it was a wonderful visit. They got to see the Parliament building, and were very impressed with it. I took them down to the floor of the debating chamber, which I didn't even know I could do! And we had some great meals, so they can attest to the fact that Scottish food is actually quite good! I couldn't convince them to try haggis, though.

Anyway, this post is a short one. Miss everyone!
xoxo Pam

Oh, St. Patty...

Good ol' St. Patrick... who knew a Catholic saint could create such debauchery?

Just thought I'd drop a quick line about St. Patrick's Day in Edinburgh... it's actually not nearly as big a deal as you would think it would be over here. But fear not, I celebrated it just as well as you would have expected me to (let's not forget that I spent my youth marching with Bridget in the County Cork delegation of the 5th avenue parade) Obviously the pubs are packed all day in Edinburgh, but there's no parade, no people dancing in the streets, and not that much of a celebration.

In fact, St. Patrick's Day can be really problematic. In Easterhouse (a neighborhood that's part of my MSP's Glasgow constituency) the police were ridiculous and decided to allow an Orange Walk on the same weekend as St. Patrick's Day! (Orange Walks are Protestant marches that celebrate William of Orange's victory in England, and they're usually pretty sectarian - they've virtually banned them in Northern Ireland, but they still go on in Glasgow). So, there was a lot of violence that tainted an otherwise celebratory weekend.

On another note - WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN NEW YORK!? I leave for 5 months and it's like the whole state collapses. Prostitutes, affairs, drama...what is this, Days of Our Lives? Oh, no - it's the State Government of New York! But, of course, who cares about silly little things like a recession or a budget when you've got sex, drugs and rock and roll.

You know it wouldn't be a good post without a political rant.
xoxo Pam

How Many Swedes Does This Cost?

Sorry guys, I know it's been a long time since I posted.

First things first - the lovely, wonderful Ms. Alex Schwartz visited me last week! I got Monday off work so we could walk around, and of course that was the day it rained all day. But, always the trooper, Alex walked up Calton Hill anyway. Tuesday and Wednesday I had to work, so Alex walked around by herself and then we hung out at night. Good times...and she scores MAJOR friend points for coming to visit me from New York while SOME PEOPLE WHO SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS are in Europe but still aren't visiting...lame.

Then, after Alex left, I began to mentally prepare myself for the journey to Stockholm. I knew we had to do a TON of traveling (train to Glasgow, train to Prestwick, flight to Skavsta, Sweden, bus to Stockholm Centralstation, subway to hostel), so I was kind of worried about that. Conclusion: SO TOTALLY WORTH IT. The traveling was not that bad - everything was on time, both ways, and we all kind of went with it (I went with 5 other people from my program).



We had a great time. The city is gorgeous - I was dying to see some place in Scandinavia, and I'm so glad I did. The city is surrounded by water, and has this real charm to it. The architecture is also unique; from what I've seen from pictures, it looks kind of like Prague, but much more geometric and colorful. And some of the buildings were breathtaking (see pictures).

The city also has the best cathedrals ever. They're technically Protestant, I think, but they are so different from any other cathedral I've seen - there are all these statues representing mythical figures (e.g. a guy fighting with a dragon) right smack in the middle of the hall next to the altar...very cool. We also went on a boat tour, so we got to see parts of the city we wouldn't have been able to see (keep in mind Stockholm is built on 14 islands). One of the things we saw was this set of cranes...painted like giraffes...for no reason at all. Whatever.

And the museums we went to were awesome - one of them, the Vasa Museum, holds this GIANT ship that was sitting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea for 300 years until some guy figured out where it was and got people to pull it out. Very cool. We also went to the Nobel Prize Museum, which had lots of funky designs.

I highly recommend going to Stockholm. I have no idea why it isn't on the radar of major European travelers...oh wait, maybe I do - it is the most expensive city I've ever been to. The museums and stuff were reasonably priced, and so was the public transportation, and food wasn't too bad, but OH MY GOD the cost of going out was insane.

Also, the currency they use there is SEK - it took us the entire weekend to figure out what to call it (yes, now I know it's kroner), so we just asked each other "how many Swedes does this cost" (hence the title of the post)...and they say Americans are ignorant...

Anyway that's all for now. Check Facebook and Webshots for more photos.
Lots of love,
Pam

Where the Highlands Meet the Lowlands

Wow - I just had the most intense weekend. Butler (the university I applied to to do the program) arranged for us to do a trip to Loch Lomond (aka "where the highlands meet the lowlands") this weekend - I was so outdoorsy!

Friday night we got there, and watched Braveheart. I'd seen it before, but I forgot how femme Mel Gibson looked! Those long brown locks...his hair looked way better than mine.

Saturday I went mountain biking. I was so crazy - we started biking around the loch (aka lake in America) and then next thing I know we're attempting to go vertically up a mountain...it was as hard as you might think, but also really fun. After mountain biking we walked around this little town and watched the 6 Nations rugby game. Later that night we had a ceilidh dance (interesting dancing to traditional Scottish music), which I was quite bad at.

Sunday we played "traditional Highland games" - um...yeah...it basically involved me throwing a giant stick up into the air and doing my best at archery. Good times.

All in all, a very enjoyable weekend. I have to make this post kind of short because I have to wake up in 5 hours to greet Alex Schwartz at the airport - SO EXCITED!
xoxo Pam

Fife is Pretty!

Hello hello. So I went to St. Andrews this weekend, and people really aren't lying when they tell you it's beautiful. The university doesn't really have a campus - it's totally integrated into the town, which is a really old, typical Scottish town (i.e. lots of old buildings, small town charm, etc.) The town is also right on the east coast of Fife (a gorgeous area in central/east Scotland...see pictures). The one thing you notice when you go into the Scottish countryside is the Scots are REALLY bad at preserving their castles and cathedrals. You would think someone would say, "hey, this castle is not only beautiful, but it is also historically relevant...maybe we shouldn't just let it erode and disappear!" but apparently no one did that. I also got to see the Old Course, which is a big deal if you like golf, which I don't. But the bridge was very cute.


Also at St. Andrews this weekend was something called "Oktobeerfest" which was supposed to resemble "Octoberfest" (a festival that is actually in October). Well, it wasn't in October, and it wasn't in Germany, but there was beer, so I guess 1 out of 3 isn't too bad. They also had a Buvarian band, and me wearing suspenders. It was a fun time.

The internship is still going really well, and I am officially done with exams/papers, so I can fully concentrate on it now. One thing I am learning is Glaswegians are VERY amusing people but have an odd sense of humor - basically, they like to make fun of whomever they're talking to, so if you're an innocent bystander it's really amusing, but if you're getting made fun of it's not. And I FINALLY understand the accent...you should all be very proud - it's like trying to understand someone who speaks another language. I also planned a trip to Prague during the recess which I am super excited for. So yay, good times.

Lots of love, and keep in touch! I'm not hearing from you all enough (Dad, you are the exception to that statement :)
xoxo Pam