Hannah and Harry Potter Dreams Fulfilled

On Sunday and Monday I took a trip over to the West Coast of Scotland for a little dream-realization time between the wonderful world of Harry Potter and I.

You see, the train line that they used when filming the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films is a real train line that runs from Fort William to Mallaig (all the way on the Western coast).  So if you look to the Northwestern area of Scotland on the map below (almost level with Aberdeen but on the other side) you'll see Fort William and Mallaig.



But to get to Fort William we had to take a couple of buses. The first one from Aberdeen to Glasgow, and then one from Glasgow to Fort William. So it was a rather indirect route, like a giant 'V' that took around six and a half hours each way. Lots o' bus. But the trip was definitely worth it.

We left Aberdeen on Sunday, spend Sunday night in Fort William and got on the Hogwarts Express Jacobite on Monday morning.

The train cars

The train ride itself, beyond the Harry Potter draw, was beautiful. That part of Scotland has a lot more mountains than the area where I am. It was also quite fun riding on a steam train for the first time.

The sun also made an appearance which was nice.

There was also quite a bit of water (lochs, inlets, and at one point the Atlantic ocean) along the route.

But the definite highlight on the Harry Potter front (besides the fact that the Jacobite is the train they used for the Hogwarts Express) was crossing the Glenfinnan viaduct. This viaduct is where, in 'The Chamber of Secrets" Harry almost falls out of the flying car while they are trying to catch up with the Hogwarts Express:

The Hogwarts Express on the Glenfinnan viaduct

 

Us on the Viaduct

 Below, to the left is the view from the viaduct, and to the right is a photo looking back on the viaduct.

This last picture was taken by my friend on the return trip. Thanks to her for sticking her head out of the train window.

Pretty neat eh? She also got a picture of me in the train while she was leaning out of the window. The leaning out of the window thing was surprising to me, but it was normal. Since it is a steam train it doesn't go too fast so many of the windows are open and people lean out of them to snap photos and see better. That's how I captured the very first picture of this post.

The train stopped in Mallaig for around two hours. It's a very small coastal town, so there wasn't too much to do. But we wandered around and had lunch (and avoided being accosted by seagulls - who are quite aggressive around here. They remind me of some of the squirrels I've had encounters with in the Midwest U.S.)

In Mallaig

Then we got back on the train and headed back to Fort William. 

We arrived back in Fort William and then had several hours to kill before heading back to Aberdeen on the bus via Glasgow.

Fort William's High St.

And that was that trip. This week has been fairly uneventful since then. I am attempting to write my first real paper for one of my classes. It is proving a bit challenging as I'm having to think about things that I don't when writing a paper in the U.S. Grammatical things that differ between the U.S. and the U.K. the trickiest (so far) of those being that quotation marks are switched. Where in the U.S. we use the double quote marks " " for a direct quote and "' '" the double quotes with a single quote inside for a quote within a quote, that is reversed here. ' ' This is used for direct quotes. And '" "' This for quotes within quotes. You wouldn't think that it would be such a big deal, but having written so many papers in my life, changing one of the fundamental grammatical habits that I have formed definitely adds an extra challenge to an already challenging paper (I'm writing about a Kafka novel, which in itself is challenging). Some spellings vary as well and there are other random grammatical differences that I'm having to research and be aware of while writing.

But, this weekend and the next couple of weekends after that I'm doing quite a bit of traveling. My aunt from the U.S. is coming over to visit and do some traveling of her own. So each weekend I'm going to be meeting her in a different city - this weekend: Paris! I feel extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to do more traveling than I would be able to do on my own. And I'm very excited!

So that's what's coming up in the next post! In the meantime hope you all are well!

Hannah feels a bit poetic

Scotland has me waxing a bit poetic today. I wrote this after walking home from campus. Not much, but I was feeling a bit inspired. 

Footsteps (working title)

It’s when my footsteps slow

That the trees begin to creak

I wonder what’s set them rustling

Creaking out

Old voices passing overhead

breaking in and out.

And if those voices could be heard

-- in more than just my head --

what would they say to you or me

with the wind’s helping huff?

Help we can only speak

when the wind speaks to us?

 

If this forest were enchanted,

what would the enchantment be?

To only speak in whispered tongues.

To never leave home.

To be always seen and simultaneously

forgotten.

The rain doesn’t come in rushing waves

As expectation would have had it

They dance around my head instead:

Droplets dropping

Droplets whirling

Droplets playing with the wind

Or wind playing with the droplets.

I walk past the mystery whistler’s flat

-- I once whistled outside

And someone whistled back –

Today when I reach the concrete corner of the place

The wind whistles through the tiny cracks and past my face.

When I get home

I open

my window

because

otherwise

I don’t know

how I would

breathe

Without the wind to comfort me.  

Hannah and the Never-ending Sky of Edinburgh

First off I'll just say that I absolutely LOVED Edinburgh! It's a fantastic city and I'm so excited to go back there for Christmas. Just to give you an idea of where Edinburgh is, here's a map of Scotland:


As you can see, it's along the east coast of Scotland bordering the North Sea just like Aberdeen, but it is quite a bit further South.



We* headed off to Edinburgh early Friday evening on the Megabus - yes they have Megabus in Scotland! It took a little over 3 hours to get from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, after changing buses in Dundee.

*The "We" in this entry consists of myself and the four other girls that I was traveling with. 

When we got off the bus in St. Andrew's Square we were greeting by the nighttime array of lights that make up the city.

The pink building (pink lighted anyway) near the Scott Monument just off Princes Street

View of Old Edinburgh from across the bridge the separates Old Edinburgh from New Edinburgh

View of Edinburgh castle from just above Princes Street

Not sure what cathedral this is, but it sure was pretty. This was on our way to our hostel.

We set off for our hostel taking many pictures along the way (see above). We found the hostel without much trouble, it was a bit out of the main part area but in a close enough location that we could walk to Princes street within 20ish minutes. A good location.

Have you ever stayed in a converted church?  That was this hostel's tagline. The Belford Hostel, located in a converted church. I can now say that I have indeed stayed in a converted church, because it is certainly a common question one asks of others. :D

Outside of the Belford Hostel

Front of the Belford Hostel

Inside the Belford Hostel

It was interesting. I've never stayed at a hostel before, and this wasn't a bad first experience. The room we were staying in was a 6-person dorm and since there were five of us we weren't sure whether we would get one random person or not. The first night it was just us, but the second night we had a nice Malaysian guy staying there as well. It was a little surprising to open the door and find a shirtless man sleeping in the sixth bunk, but I think it was worse for him than it was for us. Poor guy. The room itself was just three bunk beds, and there was a skylight that opened up into the church which was rather interesting.

But anyway, on to the more interesting stuff! Friday night, after dropping our things off at the hostel we headed out to explore a little and find someplace to hang out. We ended up at a pub called the Amber Rose, which was exactly what I pictured when I pictured going to a pub in Scotland. It was a crowded - but the good kind of crowded. There was live music by a decent cover band. One of the biggest highlights of the night: singing along to "Hey Jude" very loudly along with the rest of the "happy people" in the pub. On our way back to the hostel we ended up at a McDonald's. No comment.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed off to the Edinburgh Dungeon, which we had purchased tickets to in advance of our trip. I think when we bought the tickets we were under the impression that it was more historical than it turned out to be. It was more of a tourist trap than anything. First off - not real dungeons. It was a bit like a haunted house, except more so. There were live actors and two "rides" of sorts. The first part was being judged, which was quite funny actually. There were about 25 of us in this group, and the judge pointed to random people and told them their crimes etc. I didn't get accused of anything except guilt by proximity. My personal favorite was "crimes against fashion." Mostly I just liked the actor who played the judge, he was quite funny.

After being judged we were sent to the torture chamber. Where some of the torture instruments from back in the day were shown off and explained (and pretend demonstrated on one of the guys in the group). Then we were put on a "boat" which was the first of the "rides." At this point we were into the legend of Sawney Bean. A man who in Scottish legend was a robber, along with his cannibalistic, incestuous family. Nice people. We were supposed to act as bait so as to lead the army to Sawney Beans hideout. Here I have to say that I'm a huge wimp. I was so scared. Especially since I was sitting on a bench of this boat by myself. I was essentially sitting in the center of the boat body rocking. It was pitch black and we were slowly moving, and there was an audio track of Sawney Bean and his family discovering us and deciding to capture us etc. Then at the very end there was a giant, very loud puff of air that scared all of us. They were a fan of that - the puff of air as a scaring mechanism.

Anyway, we went through that story, then a story about two gravediggers who had been selling corpses to a doctor for him to perform scientific research on. But they got fed up with waiting for people to die, so instead they just started murdering people and selling those bodies. Because obviously that would be the next logical step in anyone's mind.

There were a couple of other stories. But the "tour" culminated in a final ride, which was one of those sudden drop rides. We were being hanged. So it rose up and there was the judge and we were found guilty of our crimes and then the thing plummeted.

After that we wandered into a hall of mirrors, which I have to say was the most convincing hall of mirrors I've ever been in. It was extremely hard to tell where the mirrors were, I had to stare at myself in the mirror before I was sure that it really was a mirror.

And that's the end of that. Next we spent some time just wandering around the city a bit. We stopped at the National Museum of Scotland and poked around there for a bit.

The top of the Scotts Monument

There were building like this just hanging out all over the place:

These were instructions on how to use a public toilet that was just sitting in the middle of the sidewalk near St. Andrew's Square. Don't take more than 20 minutes...

The front of St. Giles Cathedral. If I were a bird that's definitely where I would perch.

Some neat window art

Part of the University of Edinburgh

The main intersection not far from our hostel

Edinburgh Castle

Looking down Princes Street. They were working on the Tram Tracks so the whole middle of the street was torn up.

Another view of Edinburgh castle

In the later afternoon we stopped at the elephant house, which is a cafe and also the "birthplace of Harry Potter" as a sign on the front boasts. This is the cafe where J.K. Rowling first came up with the idea for the Harry Potter series and so the story goes, wrote the outline out on a napkin (Gettysburg Address style). Personally, as a writer, I'm hoping that whatever hit Rowling when she was there is catching. No strokes have genius have occurred to me yet, but it's just a matter of time I'm sure...

Inspiring coffee?

  Saturday evening we headed out for a nice dinner and ended up at a really delicious Spanish Tapas place. Prepare for mouth-watering (fair warning)...

So yummy...

Sunday we left the hostel with all our stuff and headed off in the direction of Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags. Arthur's Seat is a large hill/cliff that is actually a volcano which has been extinct for some 350 million years. It is in Holyrood Park and famous for having a magnificent view of Edinburgh, which is really does.

Along the way we saw:

The New Scottish Parliament building, which is one weird looking building.

The side of the New Scottish Parliament.

The front(?) of the New Scottish Parliament building.












We also saw the Palace of Hollyroodhouse, which is the Queen's official Scottish residence.

And then it was time to climb up part of Arthur's Seat.

I'm so ready for this. I also have my lovely Scotland book - courtesy of Dr. David.

Warning: There are about to be a bunch of pictures taken from Arthur's Seat. Personally I can't get enough of them, but feel free to skip ahead if/when you get tired of looking at them. I'll try to control myself, but I can't make any promises.

Edinburgh from above. See the Edinburgh castle all the way in the back? Only time in our trip where we were higher up than the Edinburgh castle.

Off to the mountains

Across to the Sea

So.

Much.

Pretty.

Meeee! It was so windy up there. Pardon the hair. (Hey that rhymed. I'm a poet and I didn't even know it).

Another part of Arthur's Seat or possibly Salisbury Crags, I'm not clear on the separation between the two.

The Palace of Hollyroodhouse from above. Wave to the Queen.

Itty bitty me.

Don't worry mom, I won't go any closer to the edge.

Allie and I attempting not to fall on our faces. But looking cool doing it.

Itty bitty us.

Me attempting to not slip and fall (which I ended up doing several times on the way down. Not near the edge though so just painful not really dangerous. I had sucky shoes).

Just chilling on a rock. Like you do. But seriously, look at that VIEW and the pictures do not do it justice either.

Alright, enough pictures. After a long morning of walking we went and found lunch at a Wannaburger which is a chain, I would equate it with Steak 'n Shake in the U.S. Except I swear on the menu under the milkshakes it had a note that said: Spike your milkshake! Add a shot of bourbon! I wish I'd gotten a picture of that. So just a little different from Steak 'n Shake.

Then we headed to the bus station and made our way back to Aberdeen. We had a very funny Scottish bus driver for the first leg of the trip (Edinburgh to Dundee) who when we got on the bus and he realized we were American (well four of us are American and one is German but he didn't notice because we didn't all speak). At any rate when he realized we were American he was having a good time with us, the conversation went something like this:

Bus driver: How many are there?
M: Five
Bus driver: Oh she's American...1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. See us Scots can count. In fact we invented counting. Go ahead and have a seat. Us Scots invented chairs as well. We invented all the good stuff. As Americans you should keep that in mind.

Cracked me up. Plus he had a really cool Scottish accent, so it was ten times better.

Well, I believe that's all for now. This is a blog entry on steroids I think, so you might be thinking - about time. :D So long until next time.