The 'Burgh and Big Band

Hi!

So my Latin assignment was a piece of cake and I somehow finished the bulk of my readings quite early.  I also needed a break from spending all my free time trying to learn 'Go'.  In short, by the time it got to the weekend last week, I had to somehow stretch 100pages of reading across the entire weekend and was bored out of my tree.

So I did what any sensible person would do, and went to Edinburgh!

First stop: 

The Walter Scot Monument (which was closed when I went with Dad)

I stole this picture from the internet because I somehow took about 50 pictures inside, but not a single one of the outside.  Pretty much, it's a huge, 61.1m (neo-/imitation-)gothic spire completed in 1844 which you can go inside and climb the 287 steps to the top.  The 3 flights of spiral staircases get increasingly narrower and the opening to the top was too short and narrow for me to fit through without crouching and twisting sideways.  If any of you have seen the movie 'In Bruges', it makes that scene with the American tourists seem like a common occurrence.
Here are a few pictures of the view from the top.

Second stop:

The National Gallery.  It's the fancy-looking building in the bottom-right of this photo:

This was a really cool place with lots of paintings, sculptures, historic carvings, etc..  I went to every room and spent probably too much time here, since it meant getting to the castle after it closed.  I'll only put 2 pictures here.  This first one is a really blurry photo but I shared it anyway because it's a painting of the national gallery itself from a few years after it first opened.  The wall and floor colours, wooden frames on the archways, etc. are all the same.  I even managed to find one of the busts from in the painting!

This second photo is of a painting by Samuel Bough, a Scottish painter.  It features a herring boat in front of St. Andrews.  You can recognise some of the towers in the background quite easily as some of the ruins still standing in St Andrews today.  And on the edge of the cliff on the far right, is the castle.

There was also a painting that had a guy with 6 toes which I thought was pretty funny, but I didn't manage to get a good pic of it.  Most of the paintings have glass frames and are well-lit which causes all kinds of reflections even without a flash on.

After the National gallery, I took a stroll up to the castle (closed by this point), then to the cathedral which was cool but no photos were allowed because you had to buy a photo permit from their office, but their office was closed.  I then grabbed a bite to eat before going down to Arthur's Seat.  By the time I had finished eating, it was raining pretty good, and it had grown dark, but I was determined to go anyway.  I didn't bother taking out my camera on the hill because it would have gotten soaked, but you get an incredible view of the city from on the hill, and the walk itself is really nice as well.
The train ride back to Dundee seemed a typical Scottish experience.  The train was full of returning rugby fans from the Six Nations match between Scotland and Italy who sang the entire ride back to Dundee.  Neato burrito!

Yesterday we had our Great Gatsby themed big band gig at Dundee University which went awesomely.  There were a tonne of people there and they demanded an encore, which we happily obliged.  But we left when they wanted a 2nd encore because our conductor was tired haha

Tonight I'm going to Crail for a dinner with all the Old Norse folks at the prof's house which should be pretty fun, and this coming week is the last one before our Easter break.

Also, our 3-day canoe trip starts on the 15th and we're raising money for bowel cancer research in memory of a past canoer who recently lost her life to this disease.  Any money we raise over the target goal will go to her 2nd-favourite charity which grants children in hospitals access to pets to play with.  If anyone could spare a few pounds/dollars, it would be greatly appreciated.  Here's a direct link to my page.  Thanks very much!
https://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Ruiter/