Scotland Part 3: Stirling, The Final Chapter

So we've come to the final part of my Scotland trip. Stirling... you know, um Stirling. It's where the William Wallace memorial is, there was a  big battle there... Anyway here it is. 

I took the bus from  Glasgow and got to Stirling about 10 at night so not much happened that night. I meandered to the hostel (called Willy Wallace, but when I asked for directions a local said, "OH that Willy Wanka place") and slept a bit. The first full day I spent there I spent the bulk of my time heading to the Wallace memorial. It was about an hour or so walk away from the hostel I stayed at. Although it was a really nice day so I got to check out Stirling a bit. Just so you know, Stirling is kind of boring. 

First view of the Wallace Memorial. 

While walking I came across this small statue. It was put up in honour of the Barnwell Brothers (the Scottish equivalents of the Wright Brothers). They started a bit later then the Wright brothers and actually met with them a couple of times. So yeah, fun fact.

While walking up the the Wallace monument I was treated to some beautiful views of Stirling (warning there are a lot of landscape pictures coming in not to long).

I finally got to the Memorial and started climbing the stairs, during which time I felt as though I was in constant danger of dying. The stairs were steep, narrow, windy, and had nothing to hold onto. Also it was the same stairs for up and down so that made things more fun.

This is the safer wider portion of the stairs

There were several points while walking up the tower where you could stop and it had little museum rooms. One of which was the show room of the Wallace sword, oooooOOooooo. The best part about this room is in one corner they had a mannequin with a face projected onto it from a digital projector. This was William Wallace and if you pressed a button then a short movie would start up next to him and the mannequin would talk to the movie. It was a pretty weird set up.

I made it to the top (about 10 minutes of just climbing stairs). It was pretty high up but once again, the views were amazing.

Looking down from the top

The monument

After the Wallace Monument I decided to walk to the other side of the town (another hour walk) and check out Stirling Castle. Supposedly the birthplace of King James, so thats something. Even ran into a Blacksmith on my way.

"one armor please"

once again, views. 

The tapestry below is a recreation of one found in the area (only parts were found, some of the full tapestry is missing) and is made at Stirling castle in their tapestry hut (not the real name of it, but what ever) . I checked the hut out and the tapestry maker (tapistrar?) was hard at work, although the guard warned me to make no noise while and glared at me when I walked across the hard wood floor in my hard soled shoes (oops).

Hey what's that in the distance? 

After that I decided to head back tot he hostel and rest for a bit before heading to dinner. On my walk to the hostel I was given one more note worthy site. That being a middle aged business man violently vomiting on the side walk... Classy. 

For dinner I went to a small restaurant called Nicky Tams. I did not ask why it was called this (where do you think I am Edinburgh?). After my haggis dinner I bust over to the bar and decided to make friends will the locals. One being a guy named Will from California who was about to start at the local University. The rest were scottish hooligans with scottish names. And as you do when a bunch of men meet and drink at a bar, we broke out into a wild game of Jenga, with increasingly short rounds. That night also included everyone taking turns hitting on the irish waitress and then the Jenga tower knocking beer on my last clean shirt (awesome). I returned to the hostel with the lingering smell of stale beer. 

The next day I got up pretty early, wanting to check out a couple of more sites after a nice big breakfast. Only one problem. No where in Stirling opened before noon, not any restaurant or coffee shop. What the hell right. So I hungrily wondered the streets taking pictures.  Oh check it out it's the church of the Holy Rude

One kind of interesting place was the Tolbooth. This was the former old Jail and court (until it was shut down in the 1800's due to the terrible conditions that prisoners were subjected to). Now it is an music venue, hosts small art exhibits and conference rooms. On the inside it was a very interesting mix of old and modern building. Although the exhibit that was on sucked. I went in and it was  two screens showing two different views of a group of people standing in a circle taking turns (one at a time) making out with each other. I have now idea what was going on, but I was expecting a bit more... good art. I asked a few locals and they say it works great as a music venue though.

Tolbooth entrance

The Tolbooth

I continued on with my meandering counting the seconds until a restaurant would open and ended up in a very picturesque cemetery.

One of my favourite pictures from the trip

Really wish that do not enter sign wasn't there

After more wondering I came to the New Jail. It is a museum now and they do ghost tours, but it was closed for the season when I was there. You could still wonder the grounds though.

In behind of the new jail was a rather steep cliff and a path leading into the new town area. The walking path was very pleasant, but it led me to the worst museum ever (worse then Glasgow). It looked more like an assortment of knick-knacks and paintings you would find in your grandmothers house. Fortunately it was free.

I caught a bus back to Edinburgh and flew home the next morning early. The whole trip was fantastic and the scenery was amazing. I hope to go to the Highlands someday if I get the chance. Or at least return during the Summer.

Scotland Part 2: Glasgow

Ok so that last post was full of long stories not about me so lets take a break and smell (or look) at some flowers.

Aaaaah, much better. Now lets talk about Glasgow. Incidentally, all of the above photos are from the Botanical gardens in Glasgow. Funny how that worked out. 

So getting to Glasgow was fairly easy, it is just a 2 hour bus ride away from Edinburgh (pretty cheap too!). I was greeted in Glasgow by fellow Canadian (and just a super cool guy) Jan. 

But before I met Jan, I had to take the Glasgow underground train. Now I will qualify this by say that I haven't been on too many subways in my day, but the Glasgow subway can only be described as adorable. Why, well I wish I had a photo to make a case for myself but at the time I was being lazy and couldn't be bothered taking it out of my bag. I will however paint you a word picture. First off there is only one line that goes in a circle around the city (two if you count that they have one train going each way on the line).  The platform is probably about 30 meters long and the the train maybe a little longer then yours average tram. But the height of the tram was maybe 5'8" (yeah I mix metric and imperial systems, what of it). So if like me you are taller then 5'8" then you need to find a seat, or do a half-squat to fit in. And at every the train driver pops out of a window in the front to make sure everyone is on. This last part isn't that weird, but most drivers will have a door and not need to "Dukes of Hazard" themselves to see out.  Anyway. 

We went to Jan's place and unknown to me I was walking into a pot luck which was super awesome. I got to eat a lot of food and meet some of Jan's super cool friends (I feel as though the words "super cool" may become overused very quickly). After a bit of food and cider everyone went home and had some needed sleep. 

Streets of Glasgow

The next morning bright and early (or like at 1pm, whatever, stop judging me).  Jan and I (soon to be meet up with one of Jan's friends Alex). We walked down to the Kelvingrove museum, also soon to be know to me as one of the worst museums ever. Don't get me wrong, it has some interesting things, but it has no focus. Every room you walk into seems to choose a theme at random, which may or may not have anything to do with the surrounding rooms. Plus most of the stuff was, ok at best, nothing super special. The three things I found note worthy are below.

So this is a sweet set up for hanging paintings. It's like the art worlds equivalent of the half pipe.

Next we have a plane. Does it have any significance? I don't really know, probably. I mean it's a spitfire but other then that I just like planes. What's the purpose of the seagulls? I am going to guess none.  They like random crap at this place. There was even a stuffed specimen of the wild haggis, rainbow hair and all.

The last installation here was actually interesting. Just a giant group of hanging faces with various expressions. it was pretty cool so it earned a spot on my SD card. 

But to be honest I was much more excited about something I saw on the way back to Jan's place. So those of you that don't know, I am a huge fan of Doctor Who. If you do not know what this is I suggest that you find out, because it is an awesome show. If you do know the show then hopefully you will appreciate this picture. 

oooooo weeeee oooooo

After getting back to Jan's we made some dinner and got ready to go out on the town. One of Jan's friends told us about this dance party thing that happens every few months at the Arches, it's called death disco and it was really fun. We got there pretty early and it was dead though. We were all a little disappointed but stayed for a bit to see if things picked up. And they did.  I have no idea how many strobe lights there were on the stage, but if I had ever previously doubted that a DJ could ever operate too many strobe lights, then that doubt was destroyed. Hours of dancing while wearing a fur coat (it just felt right) mixed with the occasional rest and then finally heading out. If you are ever in Glasgow see if a Death Disco is going on. It is a sweet time and you eventually get used to the lights, well maybe not but you tolerate them.  After leaving we did the obligatory post-club McDonlads run. I have a theory that there food  has an ingredient in it that makes it delicious, but only between the hours of 2am and 6am. Then cab home.

The next was pretty relaxed. I went out with some people to have a picnic in Bellahousten Park. This place is pretty sweet. I wish I had taken some pictures of the playground because it was ridiculous. Filled with giant jelly babies, tire zip lines and random concrete blocks. Before having out picnic we headed over to the "House For and Art Lover".  The original designs for the house were made by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife in 1901 for and architecture contest. It wasn't built until 1989 in the park and now it is used for meetings, weddings and other events.

The way it was designed was apparently keeping with Victorian tradition where on opposite sides of the house there was a Men's and Women's room (not bathrooms). It would seem these rooms were where the two genders would respectively get together after a meal and talk about whatever they felt like without worrying about the possibility of contracting cooties.  The men's room was just a square room, but the women's room was an oval and had cool hidden chairs.

Back of the house.

In behind the house was quite nice with a lot of sculptures and a french garden. Although just beyond the yard line there was an artificial snow hill where kids could slide down in tubes (no pictures, my bad). It was huge and ugly and the snow was a beautiful brown colour. Nice.

foot

garden

So we had our picnic and then I had to get to the bus station to catch a bus to Stirling. On the bus ride to the bus station There was this giant Rottweiler (I am guessing around 250 lbs). Though imposing it was really friendly. The best thing about it were peoples reactions when getting on the  bus. The owner would joke with them sometimes and say "go get 'em" the dog would slowly lumber over to them. It made for good entertainment. 

Well that's the gist of Glasgow. Hopefully Stirling will be up soon.