"OPEN LOCHS WHOEVER KNOCHS!"
If you're curious, when Macbeth goes to visit the witches, one of them utters the famous line, "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes," which most people have heard. The second half of that line is, "Open locks, whoever knocks." Alas, Scotland also has bodies of water called lochs. And now you get the joke.
I flew out of Nice, France on Thursday afternoon after legitimately making a break from the College right after class, just got my backpack and practically ran down the beachfront to the Hotel de Ville, where the express bus leaves from. It was so beautiful and sunny and warm, and of course I was heading to the cold and wet and overcast.
You have no idea how excited I was to go to Scotland though. Not just to see Mel, although of course that was a big part of it, but I
have ALWAYS wanted to go to Scotland. Being a "European mutt" several generations in America, I have decidedly little in the way of cultural knowledge from the non-Jewish part of my family. While I feel like my European Jewish heritage makes up the prominent parts of my upbringing, spirituality, personality, and general cultural identity, the "outside" of me, as it were: how I look, my name, my traced genealogy is all from Scotland. It amuses me when people say that "Stewart" isn't a very Scottish last name, when it is, in fact, the Scottish last
name. The Stewarts are one of the most famous Highland clans in Scotland because they were the ruling clan for some time (see: Mary Queen of Scots, King James, etc.) ALSO, I just learned that they mark their descent from none other than Banquo himself, WHO, if you are familiar with Macbeth, is not only an awesome fictional character/ghost, but a real person. I have a deep and passionate love for Scottish history (and history in general) and growing up my favorite books were the Stuart Quartet (which I just learned it was called) by Jane Yolen and Robert Harris, which includes Queen's Own Fool, The Rogues, Prince Across the Water, and Girl in a Cage, which are all fantastic books if you're into that genre. Queen's Own Fool is my favorite. I should reread it.
Anyway, the point of this was that my family was very relevant in Scottish history.
By the early 1900's however most of the Stewarts were tenant farmers though, and Jack O'the Hill Stewart came over to America in the big immigration rush, worked on a farm in New York, married the farmer's daughter who was named Mariah Kelsey (who I'm middle-named after) and they moved to Canada where many of my dad's relatives live to this day. Many of them also currently live in Michigan where they run a successful variety of stores called Nelson's Plumbing/Shoes/whatever, which of course makes no sense because anyone who's ever owned them has been named Stewart.
The moral of this story was that I was really excited to go to Scotland and return to the land of my ancestors and books and plays that I adore so much.
After spending summer days laying on the cool linoleum floors of church sunday school rooms with my eyes closed, leading 7-12 year olds on imaginary journeys of what Scotland was like, I thought it was about time I go see it properly for myself.
And it was beautiful.
I got to Glasgow eventually very late in the evening, after taking the plane from Nice to London and then finally to Glasgow and being a hot mess of myself. I was quickly brought to the understanding that the Glaswegian accent is notoriously incoherent, even for Scotland, and I realized at times in my journey from the airport to Mel's residence that I thought French would have been significantly easier to understand. It was wonderful to see Mel, and we spent the evening eating pizza (blessed, blessed American-style pizza) and talking about our study abroad lives, and of course recording the lip-synched videos of High School Musical songs that I posted earlier.
Friday morning, more or less on a whim, we went to a hair salon, because Mel wanted a pink streak and I was more than tempted by the prospect of stylists that spoke English. Scotland, apparently, is really really down with punk hair styling and sort of punk-fashion in general, which is FANTASTIC. The first salon we stopped into not only knew how to do bleach streaks and unnatural dye jobs fantastically, but did it for a STEAL, with very nice facilities. My top bleach streak is now significantly wider and whiter. It looks fantastic, and Mel's pink streak looks sick too. She took me to her school, which was actually jaw-droppingly gorgeous. You could really just stand and stare at it all day long, which was a welcome change from the rancho-style square that is the College International, and god was it beautiful. I understand it was the first choice to be Hogwarts but they turned it down. That's how impressive it is.
The University of Glasgow
The second half of the way we spent walking around City Centre and Buchanan Street and St. George's square. Their subway is blissfully simple, just two circles, and it's called the subway. Fancy that. I also got my watch fixed, after I spastically flung it (by accident) across the terminal in Heathrow. For dinner, Mel's mom was kind enough to treat us (via credit card) to a steak dinner at this exquisite restaurant called Bo'Vine (clever clever). I ate exceptionally well the entire time I was in Scotland. I had delicious steak and wine and creme brulee for dessert and it was beyond fantastic.
On Saturday we took the train to Edinburgh, which is was unbelievably cool. We took a hop-on hop-off bus tour, because things are actually cheap in Scotland and it was incredibly cold/windy. I am a firm believer in bus tours, despite the touristyness of them, if you don't have someone to show you around with a car. You get to see everything in an efficient manner and someone tells you what it is, and you can get off and look and appreciate it. We saw the castle and all manner of beautiful buildings and cathedrals. I would so so love to go back to Scotland.
Edinburgh
On the train back we decided to go to the cinema, because it was raining and there was time to kill, and we saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which was very charming and really cute. Not the best screenplay ever but fantastic actors with a really unique story, very involving, and very pretty. Worth seeing. Mel made us dinner (holy shit we're learning independence skills, what is this madness) and we made more obnoxious videos (which you can check out on Facebook) until far too late in the evening, which is a particular skill of ours. Like I said, it was really wonderful. :)
Castles on castles on castles...
On Sunday I left around noon and made it back to Cannes later that night with very little difficulty. I have no cash in either euros or pounds, lots of fantastic pictures, and had an amazing weekend.
In other news, the Oscars were yesterday, and I didn't get to see them because our internet is not capable of such feats, and also it was on in the wee hours of the morning here. I know the winners though, and for the most part I was fairly correct in my predictions. I'm particularly really really happy Midnight in Paris won for Screenplay. Deserved in every possible way.
I would love to return to Scotland someday, hopefully soon, especially to the Highlands and the sacred places, or back to Edinburgh for the Fringe festival. Someone was performing a play of Fahrenheit 451. How. Legit.
The Shark Tank/Presidential Suite/The Mel and Michaela Club in Scotland.
This was a very detailed post!! and you know you are welcome in Scotland anytime :) and if you want to come between the 23-30 of March you can come to the Highlands and other beautiful places with me!
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