Week 4: Time Travel

On my fourth weekend in England, Megan and I visited Edinburgh, and it quickly took its place as my favorite UK city. Initially, we went to see our friend on the other study abroad, because his group was there for the latter half of their time abroad, but we ended up doing most things on our own. We had the option to take either a plane or a train, and I cast my vote firmly for the train. I had had quite enough of planes for the time being; I didn't want to deal with another one until I absolutely had to. Of course, deciding to take a train instead had some consequences. For one, it would take a lot longer by train than plane, but I had come prepared with a lengthy novel for situations exactly like these, so I didn't mind at all. My chosen reading material happened to be Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which I had been looking forward to reading all summer ( of course, I could have also read books for my actual study abroad, but . . . where's the fun in that?  ). Ironically, the main female character in Atlas Shrugged is an Operating Vice President of a railroad. I enjoyed that little relevance to my real life transportation.
Once we reached Edinburgh, leaving the train station rendered me speechless. This felt more like the England I had expected. London, for almost the whole month, had been hot, dry, and unapologetically sunny. Edinburgh was perfect. The sky was a brilliant blue, interspersed with fluffy clouds, and every now and then a rain cloud would sprinkle down on us, but never annoyingly. I loved it. Most of my music is rainy day music, if that gives some indication of my character. If London were closer to the coastline, maybe that would make the difference. But from the North bridge in Edinburgh, you can see spectacular cliffs and frothy sea, and I was in awe of the place. This is somewhere that I could definitely spend the rest of my days.

Edinburgh is all hills though. I died.

Most of our time on that first day was spent roaming Edinburgh, and marveling at its incredible architecture. It put London to shame. That might have been because we were situated in "Old Town," but I enjoyed it regardless. Also, not even five minutes after we left the train station, we heard someone playing the bagpipes. How quintessential. 

The next day featured the first downpour that I experienced in the UK. Our room in the hostel was on the fifth floor, which meant that we were right under the slanting roof, and it was extremely relaxing to just lounge in our room, drinking hot mugs of coffee and just reading. After a stressful week of class and excursions, this was exactly the vacation I needed. 

Rain, coffee, and a good book. Perfection.

One of the best things about Edinburgh was that it was a city, without feeling like a city. In London, everyone walks everywhere with headphones in, and they won't talk to you at all. But in Edinburgh, I finally made contact with an actual British person ( this is because I don't go out to clubs and bars. That's not my scene )! I had been walking along a street close to our hostel, on an errand to get us more tea, when a random guy on the street said hello to me. We exchanged a few words, though I mostly gave him one word answers. He asked me if I was a student at university, which frankly astounded me. Everyone usually assumes that I'm twelve. Anyway, after I said yes, he asked if that was why I was in Edinburgh, and I said my first non-one word answer. Finally, he caught my accent, and exclaimed, "Oh! You're American!" Of course, the "which state" question followed, and when I told him Michigan, he got really excited to tell me about the people he knew in the states. He told me that he had a friend in Albuquerque, which isn't close at all, and I told him that. At this, one of his friends came up to him ( there were two others just hanging back ), and stage-whispered in his ear, "Detroit Red Wings!" I was ecstatic. Even though I'm from metro Detroit, I still have a lot of Michigan pride, and it meant a lot to me that these random Scottish guys thought of our ( awesome ) hockey team first, instead of the bankruptcy that had just graced the headlines maybe a day or two earlier. 

The other interaction I had in Edinburgh just proves what a small world this actually is. I was sitting in the Starbucks on the Royal Mile when the girl next to me asked what the time was. After I told her, she asked where I was from, because we both had midwestern accents. It turns out that she was a graduate student from Wisconsin doing research on dolphins in Croatia, and had taken a week off to backpack Europe! That's happened a lot on this trip, actually. I'm constantly amazed by how many non native Londoners I encounter, and how nice they are once they realize you're from the States, as well. Even though we're such a large country, we definitely exude a strong sense of kinship. 

After such an awesome weekend in gorgeous Edinburgh, I was really sad to board our train back to London. I would never have believed it, but the six weeks really was flying by. This time, I didn't crack open my book, instead preferring to watch the scenery outside. It looked so pristine and untouched by human corruption, and it took my breath away. I remember thinking to myself how gorgeous England was, and realizing that I wasn't exactly sure where Scotland ended and England began. And I realized that it really doesn't matter. Countries are just lines drawn in the sand with a stick.