Pictures from Linlithgow 2-16-08

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The Attractive Edinburgh Treasure Hunt 2-2-08

The Attractive Edinburgh Treasure Hunt
February 2, 2008 12-5PM

I met up with my team (Mima, Nat, and Maria) in front of the International Student Café at roughly 11:30AM. We needed to continue to coordinate our costumes. Maria had taken home our flags and Hogwarts International titles that I had printed out to create our team logo. When I told them that the shirt I had wanted to wear just wasn’t going to work, Maria acted as if my other option wasn’t good enough and I was a little hurt, because it’s not like they could see our shirts anyway and mine still had the colors of the House scarf on it, even if it wasn’t solid. The costumes had been one of constant irritation for me. We didn’t even have similar scarves like I thought we would. They had short silk scarves and I had the long, woolen official house scarf. None of that really mattered to me at the time and is merely a post-reflection on the day.
After pinning my Hogwarts International Flag to the back of my jacket, we went to see if we could stand inside the ISC instead of standing outside in the cold. I had been surprised at how warm it had been, which was a pleasant change to the biting cold that had been consuming my week. Luckily the door was open and we just waited in the hallway. As we stood there, we started talking about the Carbisdale Castle and, contrary to what Maria had told me earlier, she was no longer going to go on the trip. She sited the reasons that she had done research and the castle was not really a haunted castle (the stories were made up by the people who lived there) and that it wasn’t a real castle, because it was only built roughly 100 years ago. I was a bit miffed, because I had been really excited to go to the castle for the weekend and she just kind of. . . took it away from me in a heartbeat for petty reasons. She just doesn’t appreciate the modernity of life. Only old castles are the best and only old palaces mean anything. Only old churches are impressive. That’s such a load.

Finally, though, we wanted to go into the lounge itself and wait for instructions. We were one of the first groups to get our booklets and off we went. It looked like our only costume competition was a group of people who wore clown wigs and red noses. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought they would win because they were so out there instead of a creative thing that the four of us had done. We looked great!

Our first task was to:

1. (Take a Picture) Find the bartender in the campus library.
Answer: The Library Bar in Teviot Row.

Maria fought with me on this one and insisted we stop at the Main Library to see if they had a bartender. I knew they didn’t, but she kept insisting we should look just to be safe. It was little things like this that littered the day and made it very difficult to complete most of our tasks, because Maria was too obsessed with winning instead of just having a good time. Then it was off to Greyfriars.

2. (Take a Picture) Go to the graveyard haunted by the notorious McKenzie poltergeist and take a picture of the oldest grave you can find there. *bonus point for find the grave of Tom Riddle (Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter).
Answer: Greyfriars Kirkyard

Apparently they didn’t read the question correctly and missed that it said “oldest grave you can find.” They wasted so much time looking for the oldest grave in the whole churchyard! It was from here on that I took the book to read the questions carefully.

3. (Take a Picture) Find the statue of this Edinburgh celebrity and hug it. (distorted picture of statue)
Answer: Greyfriars Bobby

4. (Take a Picture) Look for the birthplace of the world’s most popular wizard. This place is for those who adore thick skinned mammals and it’s located near Edinburgh’s favourite pooch.
Answer: The Elephant House Café, birthplace of Harry Potter near Greyfriars Bobby.

5. (Take a Picture) Go and sit on the lap of the famous “guillotine” philosopher who also owns a building on George Square.
Answer: David Hume (David Hume Tower on Campus) Maria, being the climber that she is, actually climbed into his lap. I wish I had the climbing skills, but I just am not as adventurous I suppose. Before I leave Edinburgh, though, I will try to take a picture of myself in the lap of David Hume!

6. (Take a Picture) Find out which play got the highest ranking score (from Guardian) during the latest Edinburgh festival. Pose with the colourful ruminant standing outside.
Answer: The Fringe store. . . don’t know the play because the store was closed. We went to the Fringe Shop, but they were closed on Saturday ALL DAY! We were like “how are we supposed to find the answer?” If they wanted us to make phone calls and stuff cell phones should have been on the list of things we need. That and money, as will be shown later on during one of the tasks we did not complete because, well. . .we didn’t have money to complete them.

We actually skipped around after this to try to do all the tasks that were closest to each other, so some of the tasks will be out of order. But we ran up to the Edinburgh Castle to get what was written.

7. Find out what is written at the entrance of the fortress standing on top of the Rock (bonus points for the translation into English).
Answer: Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (If you hit me, I will hit you)
Here again, even after asking the guard what it meant, Maria stalled, trying to figure out what it said, even though the rest of us were like “whatever! The guard knows what it means, we need to go.” Even as she sat there saying “if you conjugate this. . .” we were starting to walk away. She finally came to the conclusion that the guard was probably right. Then there was the huge debate over whether to go to the Museum of the Mound or not. We passed right by it and I said it’d be best if we go this way now, instead of wasting our time at the end. Maria protested over and over again. So we passed by it, agreeing to come back to it later. She made it sound like it was at the bottom of the hill near the art museum.

So we headed back down the mile to get the rest of our clues.

9. (Take a Picture) Take a picture of the team lying around the Heart of Midlothian (to be found where all the tourists gather).
We laid around it, because it’s really gross. People spit on the heart! One guy spit right before we laid down, actually. EWIE!!!

10. Find out the name of the structure where this fictional creature can be found. (Picture of a unicorn holding a Scottish flag).
Answer: Mercat Cross on the Royal Mile

For those of you who don’t know, this is where my mom and I waited for our Ghost Vigil together, and Ray and I when we went later. It’s a prime tour meeting spot on the Mile and is very neat to look at. Hard to see during the Festival, though.

11. (Take a Picture) Find the chapel/altar dedicated to Scotland’s national flower.
Answer: The Thistle Chapel in St. Giles
It was enthralling being inside St. Giles again and it made me wish Ray would go with me soon. It’s such a beautiful place. For those of you who saw my pictures from back in August, this is the church with all the beautiful stained glass windows. Too bad our picture of the Thistle Chapel was so blurry. Ah well.

12. Collect a Leaflet from the most haunted close of Edinburgh that shares a name with a former ruler of Scotland.
Answer: Mary King’s Close

I never got back to Jim’s dad, Bob, about this, but Mary King’s Close is right off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh and I intend to get down there sooner or later. They don’t have the vigils down there, I don’t think, but they have tours where people have experienced some creepy stuff. Most Haunted went there the Halloween right before I was accepted to Edinburgh University.

14. Find this place and write down what’s on the menu (sign saying World’s End Close).
Answer: World’s End Pub
Named this because this is where the town ended way long ago. Beyond that used to be land controlled by the Holyrood Abbey. Kinda neat.

31. (Take a Picture) Go to Canongate and find out when the author of the ‘wealth of nations’ lived and then hug the Fergusson ;-)
Answer: 1750-1774
As we walked down the mile, I said “WAIT! I think we need a picture with this guy!” And sure enough, we did. Good memory from me, eh?

15. (Take a Picture) Find the controversial building that is the office of 129 wise men/women.
Answer: The Scottish Parliament at HolyroodWalking still farther past the statue, we reached Parliament. Apparently the new Parliament was build to symbolize Scottish Independence, but it was so controversial because they had to borrow money from England to build it. Good way to show independence. Haha!

16. (Take a Picture) Go to this place (an arrow on the map) and find the sign that warns about unusual crossings.
Answer: Slow - Swans on Road
After the Parliament we walked into the Holyrood Park. We walked and walked, until Maria insisted on running and running. She ran down to the sign and took a picture. Then she ran back to us. Since we were at the rock bottom of Edinburgh, we now needed to make our way up to Calton Hill.

19. (Take a Picture) Go to Calton Hill and find a bench dedicated to Valentina Puddy. Write down her story and bring back a picture of the team posing on the bench. (The bench is located close to the National Monument).
My mom will remember this adventure very well from when we had to go to the US Embassy. I took the girls up some side streets from where the Palace was and then up a steep zig zag incline. I handled it better this time, but I was having horrible flashbacks of the first time. The girls went on ahead of me so that I could take my time. I was already having horrible side cramps and my stress fractures in my feet were acting up. But I made it and, sadly, Maria didn’t listen and started taking the girls in the wrong direction.

We walked down the street (to the left of where we came out of the zig zag path of DEATH) and Maria was getting anxious about where the entrance was. I said keep going you’ll see it. Sure enough, she did. They went up ahead of me, because, once again, inclines of death. I wish I had my camera so I could have taken pictures. I have a nice collection of stairs and hills we’ve climbed. So scary! Once I got to the top, though, I couldn’t find them. AND once again, Maria didn’t listen to my instructions. The bench we were looking for was near the National Monument, not these other buildings. So after searching and yelling for them, I finally stumbled upon them searching in all the wrong places. Then we went to the bench and posed (horribly I might add) on the wet bench. Then they followed me down the path to the Foot of Leith.

20. (Take a Picture) Pose with the foot of Leith (close to the cinema freak giraffes) and then find a pub that shares a name with a writer. Get a task from the pub with a password that is the name of the “most famous character” of this author.
Answer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, password is Sherlock Holmes, Pub is Conan Doyle Pub
Task: Write a poem using these words (I don't remember them)
I argued briefly that there was a pub named the Shakespeare pub and that it could potentially be the Shakespeare pub, but Maria said “he doesn’t have a ‘most famous character’.” I, of course, disagree, because there are many claims as to who the most famous Shakespeare character is. But I didn’t disagree that it was Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. She seemed to think that I was totally against here, though and was very difficult about it. I am starting to wonder if she realizes how she comes off to people. . . her abrasiveness is a real turn-off and so is her closed-mindedness. But we got our pictures done at the Foot of Leith near the Giraffes and then went across the street to the Sherlock Holmes statue where I took a horrible picture. I don’t like that they took such a poor picture of me. Then we walked up to the Conan Doyle Pub and got our clue. We were to write a poem using a bunch of stupid words. We had no clue how other people were getting all this done other than to cheat, but we pushed on.

18. (Take a Picture) Find a Church where they hold services in foreign languages.
Answer: St. Mary’s at the Foot of Leith in Polish
Almost right next door to the pub was St. Mary’s church and Mima and Nat went up to see if they had foreign language services. Turns out they had one in Polish, but once again they took forever. Turns out Nat decided to make a stop and purchase a muffin. So there’s so more wasted time on frivolous things.

34. (Take a Picture) Find the bus that has the highest service number.
Answer: 49 (Lothian) 81 (other bus line)
Then, as we walked past the St. James Center Maria took two pictures of high number buses. Hopefully one of them would work out. And as we rounded out on Princes Street, we crossed to enter the Balmoral Hotel, because I was insistent that it was the place we needed to go. The others were a bit hesitant, but I said “just ask the guard, he’ll tell you.” I saw the documentary on Rowling over the holidays and it listed this hotel.

24. Go to use the toilet in one of the fanciest hotels in Edinburgh where J.K. Rowling finished her latest book. Bring us a napkin and write the hotel’s name on it!
Answer: The Balmoral Hotel
We all took our turns going through the revolving doors and then we asked where the bathroom was. We followed down the stairs and into the “basement” of the hotel. Maria stopping to take tons of pictures because of her love of Harry Potter. We went into the bathroom and grabbed a napkin and wrote the hotel name on it. Maria and Mima went to the bathroom while I went into the lounge and there was a large, comfy leather couch. Oh it felt so good to sit down. It was already almost 3PM and things were getting tense. Three hours of non-stop speed walking, hiking, and brief jogging. If this day doesn’t yield results, then I am a lost cause.

27. (Take a Picture) Go to the place that shares a name with a famous Sir Walter Scott poem and take a picture of the whole team in a photo booth.
Answer: Waverly Station, but it’s not a poem, it’s a novel. . .idiots.
After dawdling in the basement for a bit, we went upstairs and tried to find out what “poem” could possibly be Edinburgh related, but we came to the conclusion the ISC were just being ignorant when they left the clue. We were positive it was Waverly and we trudged down the stairs to find a photobooth. Once down there, we cramed in and had a girl take a picture of us.

Maria then wanted to talk to information to get answers to some of the trivia questions, but I was starving, having not eaten all day and Maria not wanting to stop for the French fries till way near the end of the hunt. Mima and I went into Burger King and started to stand in line, then decided against it because we were supposed to stop anyways. So I ran into the little store and grabbed a fruit smoothie to keep me going and a small bag of salt and vinegar shoe string crisps. Then we hustled back up the escalators and then up the huge flight of stairs and back onto Princes Street.

25. (Take a Picture) Go to the oldest department store in Edinburgh and take a picture of the most expensive item you can find and write down the price.
Answer: Jenner’s. 7900-
We were heading towards Jenner’s to get the pictures we needed, but right as realized 1) the bagpiper wasn’t where we normally saw him and 2) we were near a tourist information spot, Maria decided she needed to go to information to get some answers. Apparently not understanding me, I said “you guys are coming back to this spot anyway, it’s pointless for all of us to constantly keep running back and forth.” So I stayed on the corner across from Jenner’s waiting for them.

When they came back. Maria said the moved information and started heading in the other direction. I took the task from the Conan Doyle pub from her and told her I’d work on it while I waited for them to collect clues. They took a while and came back with nothing. More wasted time. So we crossed the street and I told the three of them to go into Jenner’s and I’d be out here calling Ray to try to get some of these answers.

So they went inside and I called Ray, first venting a little, because my body was just giving out on me completely and then I started asking him questions.

33. Look for Dolly the sheep and find out when and where she was born.
Answer: July 5, 1996 at the Roslin Institute

30. Find the museum of our city and list the items that belonged to Edinburgh’s most famous canine creature.
Answer: Collar and dinner dish

He got the info for me, but not without the three of them coming back out after FOREVER and then walking and trying to talk this guy into taking a picture with them for the musician task. I was still on the phone with Ray, wasting away the last minutes of my pre-paid phone. I got those two answers, but we were completely unable to find out about Bannerman’s and who was playing on February 3. I also forgot about The Guardian rating and my phone ran out of time and I lost him. I told my group that I was out of minutes and could find out the answers, but none of them wanted to offer their phone, which I thought was really lame.

Then we needed to find out about the Marks and Spencer map so that we could draw the boundaries. We asked a guard at the door and he directed us into the store, where we WAITED IN LINE to find out that there was a map near the art museum. We quickly left as Maria kept ranting about something. Maria insisted that she go count the benches and we head up towards the Museum on the Mound. So off she went to count them and we started walking towards the huge set up stairs that would lead us BACK UP TO THE MOUND!!! I was very upset about this.

21. Find this place and count the benches surrounding it. (picture of a fountain in front of a castle.)
Answer: 6 benches, The Ross Fountain in Princes Street Gardens
We later found out that there was a debate over the number of benches, because several people who arrived after 4:05PM counted 6 benches, accusing previous teams of having moved the 7th bench out of place. There was, supposedly, a gap in the benches around the fountain. Myself and my other teammates will never know, because Maria went to do this task by herself.

23. Draw the boundaries of the Marks & Spencer’s funded map (located next to the home of fine arts) onto your own map in the booklet.

As we walked towards the stairs, we passed a huge map of Edinburgh and I said “hey, look at this!” and it turned out to be the Marks & Spencer’s funded map. We had even accidentally tricked another team into thinking it was the little sign map on near Princes Street. So we found the map and scribbled onto our maps the boundaries that were represented on the funded map.

22. Go to the museum on top of the Mound and try to break the combination (and bring us the chocolate as an evidence!)
Answer: 20-60-40

After the map, we trudged our way up the stairs to The Mound. We then went into the museum. The guard was very helpful, gave us a map and told us where the safe was. When we got to the safe, it was already open and there was no chocolate inside. We sat down anyways to try to find out the combination and a helper walked up and said “here, I’ll put the chocolate in it for you.” I said “oh no, here, you can just hand it to us and we’ll be on our way.” We both laughed as he locked the safe and I sat down to start figuring out the combination.

Right as we were starting to enter in the combination, Maria showed up and said there were 6 benches and I had her turn the safe knob. I am really bad at combinations. I always hated my High School locker. But we cracked open the safe and crabbed the golden bar of chocolate that was inside and ran out. Once we were back out on the Royal Mile Maria and I argued over splitting up. I said “if you’re going to Cowgate, you can do the two tasks and we’ll meet up at the playground right behind the ISC.” She finally agreed and we all went our separate ways: Maria and Nat and Me and Mima.

8. Pick up a task from the oldest pub in Edinburgh (in Grassmarket). You will receive thy task with a password: COULD I HAVE A PORCUPINE, PLEASE. SHAKEN NOT STIRRED.
Answer: The White Hart Inn Est. 1516
Task: Make a human pyramid upon the site commemorating the Catholics that were burned at the stake in Grassmarket.

Once we made it down to Grassmarket, we looked for something with “White” in the title, because Maria wasn’t dead sure about the name of the place. Sure enough, we found the “White Hart Inn” and went inside with our password. After leaving, we opened up the clue and read it. Apparently we needed to build a human pyramid on the place where many Catholics were burned alive. Because of whole group wasn’t together, we couldn’t complete the task. So Mima and myself walked to the playground behind the ISC.

Mima was very nice and very understanding. I apologized for seeming so argumentative with Maria and that I really like Maria as a friend, but sometimes I can get very frustrated with her oft illogical way of doing things. But I told her that I value Maria’s friendship and it’s wonderful how we can butt-heads but we always come out still being friends. I told her I like how Maria makes it possible for me to do things like this and I feel like I push myself more when she’s around. Sometimes too hard and she doesn’t know when to take it down a notch.

When we got to the playground, we waited. We didn’t have the booklet, so we didn’t know we should have looked for a clue. It wouldn’t have been there anyway, because we were very much under the impression other teams were cheating just for the fun of cheating. After waiting a really long time, we finally started to walk up to the ISC, but not without taking a picture of each of us on the equipment. As we waited outside the ISC for the very last minute, I saw Maria running down the sidewalk. We waited for her and she demanded to know where we were. We told her we were at the equipment right behind the ISC. She said they were at the other equipment. We knew we weren’t completely wrong, because we saw other groups at our playground.

28. (NB! Only after 3:30PM) Go to the most haunted pub in Edinburgh (located just off the Cowgate) and get a task with a password: Excuse me but we’re a bit lost. Which is the closest way to the Eiffel Tower?
Answer: Try three Whiskey’s and tell them which ones is the real single malt Whiskey.

When we went inside, Maria shared with us the events that unfolded for them. They went to the most haunted pub in Edinburgh and got to sample Whiskey and try to pick which one. They got it wrong, but that was okay. I’m not that bad at Whiskey tasting, so I wish I could have been there. I might have gotten it right.

13. (Take a Picture) Find a “shabby” pub and make toilet graffiti (we want a picture of it as evidence!).
They then went into the bathroom and wrote on a piece of toilet paper, because Maria’s pen wouldn’t work on the wall and they took a picture of that.

29. Go to our favorite international karaoke hang out and find out who’s playing on Sunday the 3rd.
Answer: Molly Wagger, The French Quarter

And finally they stopped at Bannerman’s and found out who was playing. The website took down the clue, so we couldn’t look it up online.

32. (Take a Picture) Hug a musician (Bonus points for kilts and bagpipes:-) )
As they ran to the meadows, they found a bagpipe playing musician and hugged him, which went along with the scared man cringing away from Maria on Princes Street.

35. (Take a Picture) Take a picture of the team using one of the apparatuses at meadows playground and then find a clue that is hidden under a trashcan.
Answer: We never found the clue. . . We got separated.

We didn’t finish the two tasks below.

26. (Take a Picture) Go to a fancy restaurant of your choice and order one portion of French fries (or other side dish) for the whole team. Take a picture of the team dining and bring us the receipt (no refunds, sorry!).

The Attractive Edinburgh Treasure Hunt description did not say we needed to bring money or that we would be using our own money. Somewhat unfair to be quite honest.

17. (Take a Picture) Find out what’s the difference between a sauna in Edinburgh and a Finnish sauna.
Answer: An Edinburgh sauna is a whore house. (we did not find a whore house)

When we got back for judging, things were just terribly frustrating. The ISC was hardly organized, but at least we weren’t the only ones who didn’t get every single thing right. As we sat and waited, we watched other people come in. Two teams were disqualified because they didn’t get back on time. A couple teams didn’t even come back at all.

After someone came over and reviewed our pictures and information that we had, the four of us shared some snacks that were provided and talked about how exciting the day was. At one point Mima, Nat and myself wanted to share the chocolate bar we got from the Bank Museum but found out the volunteer staff for the ISC ate everyone’s chocolate bars. So the chocolate we earned was eaten by the ISC volunteers? How is that in any capacity fair.

As the hours dragged on for compiling the data, one of the volunteers came over to talk to us. He asked us how we did and all that and we told him. We commented on how we didn’t get the Fringe question because the store wasn’t open. He then said that other teams were able to get the answer when the store opened and that’s when Mima, Nat and myself said to him almost all at once “The store sign says it is closed all day on Saturday.” He was pretty quiet after this and then got up and left. Just a little weird, dontcha think?

At around 7PM they had their list of awards to be given out. The top 3 teams and then who had the best poem and who had the most creative costume and who had the most creative team name. To make a long story short. . . the top 3 teams all had members of the volunteer team of the ISC on it. The #1 team was the team with the clown wigs and nose. They were also the creative costumes and had the most creative team name. The guy leading the announcements also said that they were the only ones to dress up. I started to protest, but decided it was pointless and the four of us looked dejected and quite upset. I did realize later that one of the girls on this team passed myself and Mima on our way to Grassmarket and she didn’t have her costume on. They just put their costume on for the pictures, whereas we whore our costumes the WHOLE time. They also didn’t get the garbage can clue, so I hardly see how they completed EVERY task. We were in the park when they did the last task and they didn’t get a clue. They also won best poem, by the way. And the Edinburgh Sauna question was only answered by one team and the person who knew the answer was an ISC staff member and a guy. Go figure. I couldn’t believe they wanted us to find a whore house and take a picture.

Suffice to say, we didn’t win anything and as the four of us left, the winners (or ISC volunteers) drank the bottle of Whiskey that was the prize. We agreed it was the experience that mattered and a great day for us, but I felt short-changed. Ray had already had a low perception of the ISC and mine was quickly dropping when I saw how they shafted teams that did not have ISC members on it. I still look back on the day as a triumph for myself, but it is tainted with so much negativity. So I will fondly remember the day that I ran around Edinburgh for five hours with only a brief respite on a comfy leather couch. Mmmmmm….. comfy leather couch.

Pitlochry and the Blair Athol Distillery ISC Trip 2-9-08

Hey Everyone!

Just a letter about our trip to Pitlochry and the Blair Athol Distillery.

Ray and I got up really early in the hopes that we could be happily motivated to go on the trip. It worked! We were up, showered, packed and ready to head out on our Saturday adventure to Pitlochry and the Blair Athol Whiskey Distillery. We were looking forward to a day for just the two of us away from the stresses of school, paper writing, and job hunting. The day was slightly overcast, but relatively warm. It is obvious Spring is upon us already. We waited for the 35 bus, hopped on and off we went to the University.

Our first stop was at Gregg’s for a quick morning bite to build our energy for the day. Sadly, they didn’t have what we wanted, but we settled on a cheese and onion pastie. They are so delicious! As we walked down the Quarter-Mile into the Meadows park, we ate our pasties, which flaked EVERYWHERE, and talked about our expectations for the day. We were the second people to arrive at the International Student Café to wait for the bus. We thought it was just going to be us, but as we waited, we realized Maria was walking towards us. Now, remember, Ray isn’t a real fan of Maria and would prefer not to be around her. She grates on my nerves as well, but I am more willing to put up with it because sometimes she can be quite fun. I think the main reason she rubs Ray the wrong way is because she is so rude to him. She completely ignores him and only looks at and talks to me. She wasn’t with anyone either, which meant she intended to tag along with us. My heart fell alittle.

Then it was time to get on the bus and Ray and I grabbed the front seats. Maria sat behind us. Everyone was commenting on how different the bus was (three seats on the one side and two on the other). This became a problem later on, because even three skinny people were having trouble getting comfortable in their seats. Poor Ray road for two hours with a seatbelt enema. The buckle just wouldn’t push down. What really bugged us, though, was that we were the first people on the bus so that we could pick the seats we wanted most. Once the bus had everyone on it, one of the ISC volunteers said “would you mind moving so the volunteers can sit here?” And I looked her straight in the eye and said “No, but the girls across from us might let you sit with them.” It was the three-seater and there was one seat open. I already knew the other volunteer was going to sit in his own seat down in front of us where the microphone was. She looked very peeved, but if she wanted the front seats, she should have saved them. I also found out that they canceled a second bus because not enough people signed up for the trip, which meant they had to call a bunch of people and tell them their tickets were revoked! And yet we had at least 8 single seats available on the bus. Go figure.

As I said, the drive was 2 hours long, which is much longer than intended because of road construction. But we did eventually make it to Pitlochry and the Blair Athol Distillery. The bus dropped us off at the Distllery and we went into the waiting area and were ten lead off in two groups of 26ish for a tour. Our tour guide was named Jeff and, in a picture taken at the end of the tour, looked a bit like Uncle Greg! Haha! Ray got to shine with all of his knowledge about liquor and how it is made. We got to see how they make it and the processes, which was really neat! Then we got to sample the single malt whiskey, which you really can feel run from your mouth down to your tummy. It wasn’t bad. Ray talked a little more with the tour guide about what other distilleries are owned by the same company and then sampled two more whiskeys that were out on the table. Then we went downstairs to the shop and Ray one bottle of the Blair Athol single malt whiskey, which was on sale plus our 3lb off voucher and then I got a jar of whiskey whole-grain mustard. Whole grain mustard, by the way (btw) is really delicious and worth buying. Then I got a couple postcards and a larger picture of the whiskey making process to remember everything. Maria was still tagging along and kept rambling about silly stuff. Saying this really cheap Whiskey is so much better because it is cheaper. Ray was very irritated by this, because it’s a naive thing to say and she was only saying it because she doesn’t really appreciate how these things are made. She tries to act like she knows, which is probably why she feels so intimidated about Ray because he actually knows about the things she talks about and would easily put an end to any ruse she was pulling.

But Ray extracted himself from the store for a quick pipe smoke in the designated area and Maria stood in line with me telling me over and over again about how much she liked Whiskey-Mustard and how whiskey is really expensive here (if its not from this distillery). It was a bit like a broken record, but I’ve learned to tune a lot of it out. And once we finally paid, we headed off into the town of Pitlochry.

Our first stop was the Holy Trinity Churchyard. The church itself was not open. So we took some pictures of the neat entryway and some of the gravestones. There were also these neat metal statues all over the city. They are supposed to be planters, but I’ll get to that later on. So after taking our pictures and talking about neat looking gravestones, the three of us headed on towards Atholl Palace and Hotel. While we stood taking a few pictures of the house leading up to the palace gardens, we girl approached us and asked us about Blair Castle. Apparently Blair Castle is 8 miles away and too hard to get to, which was disappointing, but we might as well see the Atholl Palace and Museum. The girl introduced herself as Isha from Miami. She reminded me of a girl named Molly who I went to WLC with. Isha had only arrived in Edinburgh on January 2 and would be leaving in May. I immediately felt bad for her, because the trips this semester that the ISC are offering are really disappointing. Instead they put their focus on events more than exploring Scotland! They didn’t even have a Stirling trip.

As Ray and I talked to Isha about different opportunities around Edinburgh and other travel offers, Maria kept interrupting and talking about how stupid tour companies were and how much she enjoyed just going off on her own. That’s nice, but when you find a tour company (Wild-in-Scotland) that essentially does that for you AND shares the history of places with you. . . you can’t really beat that. But Isha seemed interested in what Ray and I had to say and that was great.

According to Maria, the Palace and Museum were not open. She was the first to venture up the large stairway leading to the Palace. When I got up there it looked perfectly open to me, but since no one else had gone to the top with me, I didn’t even bother looking into it. Maria was just not impressed because it was a real castle or Palace (like Falkland Palace). It was too modern for her and she doesn’t like that. I just don’t like how she rejects anything about Scotland that isn’t more than 200 years old! There is more to Scotland than just old castles and Highland massacres.

I snapped off some pictures and we walked back down the hill and that is when Maria started to say we should hike up to Black Castle. Ray and I tentatively agreed, because we wanted to explore the town and some of the other things Pitlochry had to offer. As we walked into town, Maria felt it would be a good idea to stop at the Information Center to ask how to get to Black Castle. It is here that we learned the best path was to go back the way we came and then go up. When I learned we had to backtrack, I was not pleased. On top of that, Maria was estimating it would only take 20 minutes to get there. Whenever Maria estimates walking time, she is estimating it for herself and herself alone. I knew she wouldn’t factor in the time it would take to hike up steep inclines, etc. I told her I didn’t feel comfortable going, because I have a high anxiety over being late for the bus. I apologized and said if we had more time than just a couple hours I’d go, but not this time. Isha went with Maria and Ray and I walked into town.

Town was very populated with vacationers. We walked around alittle and I kept spying this tower with a clock on it and I was determined to find out what it was. So Ray and I hiked up a hill and made it to what is known as the Pitlochry Church of Scotland and Tryst. We settled down on the front stoop of the church, looking out over Pitlochry and the surroundings mountains and ate our lunch. The sky had some dark clouds looming and I was concerned it would rain, but it stayed quite dry.

After walking around the church and seeing some beautifully kept lawns, as well as lovely Victorian Architecture, we made our way back down to the main road through Pitlochry and window-shopped. I made a few stops in an attempt to find a Pitlochry Pin, but to no avail. We even though we had found another nice tea shop, but we were wrong. It was a place where you could get your afternoon tea, but it was accompanied by finger sandwiches, cakes, etc. We didn’t want all that. Plus everything was so extremely expensive. Like we had been told, it is a very expensive town because of all the tourism.

We didn’t want the church to be the only thing we saw, so we took a walk through the scenic woods behind our bus parking lot. I really had to go to the bathroom, so we stopped in the only public toilets available where I had to pay 30pence (60 cents American) to use a toilet!!! I made sure I took my time and really made sure my bathroom experience was worth 30p!!! HAHA! As I walked out, the guard had let a mom and two kids in for free because she claimed to have let her wallet on the bus! How unfair!

I related this story to Ray and he was flabbergasted. As we laughed about the most expensive bathroom experience I’d ever had, we walked through the woods and found ourselves among some garden sculptures. We sad down at a metal picnic table and ruminated on how poorly planned this trip was. Pitlochry boasts its plantlife and gardens, but here we are, visiting in the winter when nothing is alive. If we had come only a few months later, we would have been surrounded by the beauty of blossoms and wonderful aromatic smells. You would tell the place was built for flowers, because there were pavilions everywhere and public planters that were empty. Later on, we saw a metal man at the train station that said “Welcome to Pitlochry in Bloom!”

Having finished smoking his pipe and complaining about the poor timing of the ISC, we decided to walk down to the Tummel hydro-electric Dam. On one side was Loch Faskally and on the over side was the River Tummel. The Loch was absolutely placid and quite, but once you look to the left, the waters are rough like Niagara Falls and loud! It was the strangest thing and quite beautiful. We also got to see the Salmon ladder, but it wasn’t really the time of year.

Once done with that, we figured we’d walk back up to the bus, because it was just about that time again. We had to cross over the railroad tracks and walk quite a ways around just to get to our bus. Once there, we took one of the three-seaters so that we could spread out and be comfortable. When the volunteer who asked us to move last time got on and asked us for our ticket numbers, I said “we saved you a seat on the other side for the ride home.” She completely ignored us. We don’t really like the people from the ISC and when you read about the Edinburgh Treasure Hunt I did, you’ll understand a little more why.

Maria and Isha were almost late and we found out later was Isha that the Black Castle were just ruins and Maria was a real slave-driver up the steep incline. Isha, like myself, struggles with steep inclines because of our feet. I have a feeling I have some stress fractures that have never really healed properly because of all the walking I do. But I was glad I didn’t go to just the ruins after I saw the pictures. Plus that was all they really had time to do.

No one contested our seats on the way home, so Ray and I had an enjoyable time riding with room for two hours. I listened to an audiobook and Ray drooled on his shirt! When we got home, Ray and I stood outside the ISC with Isha just talking. She’s here till May and so we said we’d try to get together with her if we head out anywhere before then. Maybe if we go to anywhere in Edinburgh or whatever. But she was really nice. We traded our addresses and everything. We met her the same way I met several other people on trips before Ray got here. I’d just walk up to people and ask to join their group. It’s the best way to go.

And that was our day in Pitlochry. It was a nice little day out and we hope to go back when it’s more in bloom so that we can enjoy the beauty of the place instead of just the sites. On the flier that is supposed to inform us about they area, they didn’t even include half of the neat stuff we could have seen. Here’s a link to the site that lists some of the neat historical places to go in the town: http://www.explore-highland-perthshire.com/pitlochry/pitlochry-historic-trail.htm

We aren’t going to Carbisdale Castle next weekend, because it was just too pricey for one night in a castle. So our next trip will probably be to somewhere that is a mystery, because it is a Mystery Trip. Haha! It better be somewhere good, because the trips this semester are pretty much everything they did last semester. Pitlochry was canceled last semester because those who got tickets for the Highland Trip were going there. Now that they’re imposing new lame rules at the ISC, next weekend will be the first time I am sneaking him on the trip under a false student ID number, lent to me by a friend through Film Studies. Carlos Antona. That’s Ray’s dad’s name (Carlos Bonilla). Just thought it was funny.

So that’s it from Scotland. I’m still trying to get all those other letters out, but I felt compelled to write this immediately!!! So here it is. Enjoy and I hope everyone is doing well.

http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a74/reelmonkey/Scotland/2008/February/Pitlochry/?albumview=slideshow

Much love and kisses,
Sarah & Ray

Pitlochry and the Blair Athol Distillery ISC Trip 2-9-08

Photobucket Album

The Attractive Edinburgh Treasure Hunt Pictures

Photobucket Album

Where Have I Been?

A lot of people have been surprised at my absence from various venues (e-mail, blogs, social sites, etc). I’ve been busy. I’ve been really, really busy. First, I’ve been bombarded with school related stuff. My lecture readings are starting to interfere with my research. I have an essay due for my Film and Religion class on Monday and by no later than Tuesday I have an essay due to my advisor. Both of these essays are about films. The Film and Religion essay is about Dead Man Walking and my essay for my advisor is about all the nun/Joan of Arc films I could watch in two weeks and read articles/reviews on. So I have been spending most of my days in the media lab (9AM-4PM) and then coming home and watching more nun related films or vegging out so bad by playing Mario Galaxy on the Wii.

To add to that stressful bit of life, I also have several projects going on outside of my research. I have a paper submission to peer review for the Forum Journal publication that I joined. The peer review is due by February 14. I also have to get together with Jack and Keith to learn how to do the coding behind the site for publication, because Keith is leaving this year. Then there is also the Forum Conference that we’ve been working on. Submissions for that come rolling in on February 14. The conference is at the end of the semester, but once the submissions come in, we’ll be reviewing and forming things. I also created two big other projects for myself: the Post-Graduate Film Group and the Student Film Event. The PG-FG was a side project that I’ve been working on off and on and the Master’s students were all excited about it. My problem is, the Master’s students are literally being lazy about it. They all want this group and screenings and blah blah blah, but most of them seem aloof from putting in the effort. I don’t need a PG-FG. I have Ray to watch movies with. So I’m really doing it for them to keep them involved and exposing some of them to things they may not do on their own. But I am stuck leading the whole thing, which is a pain in my butt, because I have other things I need to be dedicating myself to. And to add to this barrage of tasks flowing from my own personal Pandora’s Box is the Student Film Event.

Last Sunday I went to the Hitchfest Fundraiser at the Brass Monkey:
“A series of film shorts will be shown by filmmaker Teale Failla, recently returned from showing her work in Amsterdam.

• A number of artists will be displaying their work in various mediums. All prints will be for sale.

• A variety of musical performances by local artists.

• A raffle for a print of each artist's work and free dinner for 2 at Suzie's Diner and free lunch for 2 at The Nile Café!

• Pints and people and good times lounging on the cushions at the Brass Monkey Pub where we have rented out the back room.

WHY: This coming March we (Helena and Mike) are hitchhiking from Edinburgh to Morocco to raise money for education in rural Africa with Link Community Development (a registered charity) (http://www.lcd.org.uk/). All door and raffle proceeds from this event will go to the charity and half or more of the proceeds from art sales will also be donated!

*To donate directly to the charity go to www.justgiving.com/mikeandhelena”

Teale and I were talking about supporting people’s work, because she is a filmmaker and I am all about helping undiscovered people share their work with the world. I mean, goodness, I helped an old staff member for Smart-Popcorn get into the Top 25 of a screenwriting contest, because I referred him the link, remembering he was into screenwriting. My friend Rachel got a job because of her reviews on Picture Show Pundits and how spiffy her boss thought the site was. Another staff member, Brian Johnson, got a local critic gig, I’d like to think because of some of the help Ray and I have offered over the years. And Nate’s Edwin J. Hill show we share all over the place with people, because we hope they get a break. We’re just wondering when our break is going to finally come.

So back to the topic. I was telling her how I love supporting people and their work and she said we should try to do something for the people who have made movies in our department. I said that’d be great and I e-mailed my advisor about it. My advisor was thrilled with the idea and now I have another project on my plate. . . arranging a mini-film-festival for local student filmmakers.

I have also been preparing for the Attractive Edinburgh Treasure Hunt hosted through the International Student Center. I teamed up with Maria, Nat and her friend to create the Hogwarts International team. It’s essentially a picture scavenger hunt through certain areas of Edinburgh. We had to come up with outfits and everything. We ordered Hogwarts House badges off of E-Bay CHEAP and I had to get a Gryffindor scarf. Then we had to create our team signs. And that particular event is today and it’s going to take up the bulk of my day. Who knows, maybe I’ll have pictures later.

Also, I’ve been trying to plan for the Carbisdale Castle trip. It is an overnight trip on February 16-17 and it costs 45pounds, but is being led by Wild-in-Scotland. I hope Maria was serious about going and I hope I have enough money to spend on that particular event. Then next Saturday is Pitlochry and the distillery. So I have to get tickets for that.

Ray has been applying for jobs, but here in Scotland you don’t get jobs like you do in the States. They post job openings months in advance of even needing someone. So when you apply, they won’t even get back to you for 3-4 weeks!!! And they “compile” lists of people to interview and all that extravagant crap. So while he waits he’s been working on his movie grades and catching up with all the movies we missed this past year. It’s been a lot of movies. I think he is already feeling motivated about PSP again, but won’t feel complete until he has completely caught up on films.

But now it is time for me to get ready to go. I am so excited about the Treasure Hunt. I’ve seen other treasure hunts before and they look like so much fun. I just wonder if it’ll take the whole 5 hours or if that includes the after party. I hope it includes the after party, because I have so much stuff to do. I’ll write something up about the treasure hunt as soon as I can WITH PICTURES!