Taco – Page 48

Scotland – Day 2

July 2, 2012 by Taco

So today was a big day in my Positive Psychology course, as we had to do the first part of the assignment which accounts for 50% of our grade. The assignment basically turned us into novice counselors, or “coaches” for about 30 minutes each. We took turns being a coach, a client, and an observer. It was pretty lengthy once you factored all that in, plus the 2 hours of regular class we had. I volunteered to be the coach first in our group, and the coach is undoubtedly the hardest position. You have to coach your client based on certain guidelines and plan a positive intervention for them. As a client you just talk, no real issue there, I spoke about my frustrations with my leg injuries, and how to be more positive about it, the client also gives brief feedback to the coach. The observer.. well.. observes, then gives detailed notes/feedback to both the coach and the client. I now have to take all this experience and notes and go write an evidence based research paper that gives a custom tailored plan for my specific client. It has to be APA style and contain a lot of experimentally based assertions. Since I have never used APA before, and have no working knowledge of psychology, this is going to be a rough paper. I also have to simultaneously work on a group project, which is 25% of the grade. If any characters look weird in the above section, its because I am on a stupid Danish keyboard, as I am waiting on my group members in the library. Anyways.. on to Scotland!
_______________________________________________________________________________

My first full day in Scotland started quite nicely. I woke up nice and early and was quite excited to use areal shower for the first time in over a month. Additionally, the breakfast at the hotel was exceptionally good (for a hotel). As I mentioned before, Chancellor’s Court is a residence hall most of the time, and as such has its own cafeteria. Now while I cannot vouch for the price of the food, as it was already factored in to our lump DIS price, the quality and quantity were quite nice. It was setup like a traditional continental breakfast, however there was much more food, including none other than haggis. Now I had been jiving to try haggis from the instant I landed in Scotland. I do believe you can safely say that I was the only person with such a mindset. Naturally I tried it at my first opportunity, and I’ll describe it in more detail in the tidbit of the day below. Additionally, I found these veggie sausage things that would become the staple of my breakfast diet for the entirety of the week. I normally don’t go crazy over vegetable-meat-clones, but these were amazing.

After breakfast we headed out for our first academic venture of the trip, which basically amounted to going to a lecture. We set out on foot towards our destination as apparently it was close enough to not need to use the buses, I think this would be true if you weren’t trying to navigate with 31 people. As we left the hotel behind I caught this nice view.

As we proceeded into the city, several people were almost hit, and even more were honked at in rage. I found this quite humorous to be honest, apparently some people didn’t grasp the whole “opposite side of the road” thing too well. Once we got to campus, which is so spread out and scattered that I never did truly understand where campus actually was we walked by the end of a graduation ceremony. I thought it was pretty cool, especially since they don’t drive around screaming with wailing sirens. Or perhaps they do, but I never saw or heard it.

After this we found the place we needed to be, well no, the professor we were going to listen to found us. You see, in typical DIS fashion, they had no idea where they were actually going other than the name of building. Yes, a name of building does you so much good when you have no idea where that building is within an 8 block radius. We asked people, and no one had any idea what we were talking about, as it turns out they even had the name of the building wrong. Luckily, whilst we were aimlessly wandering around, the professor, Dr. Thin, saw us and came and rescued us. His lecture was a little dry, he wasn’t bad himself, but lets be honest, I didn’t come to Scotland to sit in class for 2 hours. Ok, so technically that is part of the reason I am here, but I’ve made it pretty obvious I only chose this class because it came to Scotland, not because I have any interest in the subject matter. So we had a lecture, I’ll skip the details, nobody cares. After lecture we headed to lunch, which was way too soon, as it had only been about 2.5 hours since everyone had engorged themselves on the breakfast. In addition to everyone not being that hungry, it would turn out to be the worst meal of the entire trip. We ate at a place called “The Pink Olive” seen on the corner below.

I’m generally pretty favorable towards food places, being the unpicky eater of all things that I am. However there was a trifecta of things that really fouled up the experience. The least annoying thing was the food itself, it was just pretty bland. Nothing was Scottish, the only thing even UK centric was the first course of tomato soup, which they seem to love here. The main dinner was cheap pasta, and the dessert was cheap ice cream with nothing on it. The second factor was that it was too small to hold 31 people, so we were mashed in like sardines, which meant it was hot. The biggest factor, was our absolute beotch of a waitress. She was Romanian, she barely spoke English, and she was rude as hell. At one point she literally tossed the bottles of water onto the table knocking over glasses and baskets of bread, then walked away. She complained about everything, and eventually I got so tired of her crap that I followed her into the kitchen and got us silverware myself, since she couldn’t be bothered to do it. So yeah, after my Human Trafficking course talking about Romanians being some of the biggest thieves and human traffickers in Europe, plus this encounter with the worst waitress I have ever met (Congratulations old lady at the Denny’s in Bloomington, you have been usurped as worst server of my life), I don’t have much good to say about Romania, so I’ll say nothing at all 😉

That rant aside, the rest of the day was really good. We hopped on a bus, which was the wrong bus (Thank you DIS), until I, yes me, figured out the right bus to get on to get us to the Mahabodhi Buddhist Centre. This was another academic portion of the trip, and it was the thing I was looking forward too most. Unfortunately since we were late due to DIS error, we lost almost an hour of our time. The time we did have was awesome though, we learned a lot about Buddhism, and their specific tradition, New Kadampa. Then we learned different meditation techniques, none of which I was good at. I just kept starting to fall asleep. Apparently my mind doesn’t has difficulty with stillness (And the sky is also blue, fyi), but I really enjoyed the experience nonetheless. The downside was that the group was larger than what they normally deal with, so some of us had to sit in chairs rather than on the little floor cushions. Naturally I was one of those in the chairs, which made it really hard to do some of things we were being guided to do. During the third session I actually think I was meditating for about 10 seconds at one point, which is probably the longest I’ve ever done in in my life.

As mentioned we were late, but also we had to leave early, which further cut down our time. This is because the DIS people had vastly overestimated their navigational abilities and thought that we could return to the Mary King’s Close tour by 5pm. Wrong. Truth be told we weren’t that late, but we were late, luckily the group that took our spot was small, so we were still able to split up into two groups.

The good news about being split into two groups, is that it gave the second group about 25 minutes of free time. I immediately volunteered to wait and literally sprinted over to St. Giles cathedral as I was quickly becoming obsessed with the place. Fortunately it was entirely free, you could pay for a guide, or an audio guide, or a book, but I decided to just be ignorant and admire the church itself. Most of my pictures were really dark, as you had to pay to be able to use flash, I didn’t really understand, you could take pictures for free, but flash cost money. I suppose its because flash can do damage to stuff, regardless, I went the free and darker route. While this meant some of the pictures are blurry, I actually think it captured the church better, as this Gothic cathedral was very dark on the inside, which was quite awesome actually.

There were quite a few people interred in the cathedral, but as I didn’t have a guide book or anything I had no clue who most of them were. Nor did I really know what anything was, that didn’t stop me from appreciating the church though. The stained glass was undoubtedly the best I have ever seen with my own eyes, and there was so much of it. The tombs were also masterfully carved, though I wish I knew more about Scottish history, since as mentioned, I had no idea who they were.

What’s really cool about St. Giles cathedral is that it is the site of the beginning of the Scottish Reformation, lead by John Knox. This reformation, like others, was basically the Scottish people giving a big “feck you” to the Church and Crown, which came after the King decided they had to pray to him in addition to God. Well, people don’t like to be told how to practice their faith, it just never works out well. In Scotland violence actually ensued, but in the end the people won, which actually changed the format of Presbyterian Churches worldwide (St. Giles is the mother church of Presbyterianism). Interestingly enough, John Knox, the famous clergyman of it all, didn’t want a shrine built in his honor when he died. He didn’t want to become an idol, he wanted people to remember God, not him. So he was buried in simple marker in the cemetery next to the cathedral, which looks like this today.

Yes, the leader of the Scottish Reformation, and one of the most important figures in Presbyterian history is now buried under a parking lot. As the governmental buildings grew up around the church, so did the need for parking spaces. All of the bodies were moved from the cemetery, except one, John Knox. His only request upon death was that he be buried next to St. Giles, so they honored it by leaving him there. A small gold plaque now marks the spot, its in the middle of parking space 23, if you were curious.

They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.

After that, I noticed I only head about 3 minutes left, so I sprinted back over to the tour. So, what exactly is Mary King’s Close? Its not an area where they used to wall, or close up people with the plague, that’s a common urban legend (the Scots are not that mean). So, for starters, here is a picture of the sign, since you weren’t allowed to take pictures inside because A. They wanted to sale you one, and B. Because its private property and the owner has said no pictures.

Ok, so a Close is basically the name for a “street” in medieval & Renaissance Edinburgh. It was called a close because it was very tight and cramped and well.. close. The buildings were up to 14 stories tall, and cram packed full of tiny rooms with low ceilings, and those rooms were even further packed with about 10 people per room. And when I say packed, I mean packed, these rooms were maybe about the size of my apartment’s living room, and the ceiling was way lower. These buildings were essentially right on top of each other, and they even descended underground. Needless to say, the bubonic plague had a gay ole’ time in Edinburgh. But anyways, the result of this, is that most of the original underground portions of the closes are still there. The above ground portions have almost entirely been removed. There are a few that have been renovated, including the one where Robert Burns lived (The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley,). Now, not all closes were scum-pits, in fact some of the houses in the closes could have been quite nice. Normally the richest person in a close was what it was named after. In this case, Mary King, a wealthy woman had this particular close named after her. All that remains in the underground portion, which unfortunately did not contain Mary’s house, as the rich liked to have daylight and more space, which the underground areas did not have. What makes Mary King’s close so important is because they literally built town hall right over it. In fact, someone even lived there up until 1987, until he finally moved out, but only after being paid some exorbitant fee. Because its right under town hall, its very well preserved, so naturally they turned it into a tourist site. The tour was actually pretty cool, though I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is spooked easily. They’ve turned it into a pseudo-ghost tour, but its mainly about the history. Other tours take you to even older, darker closes, and they are all about ghosts, but I prefer real stories myself. All in all it was actually a pretty cool tour, our guide was exceptionally good, as he was role playing a merchant from the 1600s. He really liked to give people a hard time (in good fun), but seemed quite impressed when I corrected him on something he said about the plague doctors.

After the tour I decided to break free from DIS for the today and headed out into the city once more. It was at about this time that the skies, which had turned grey around 3pm, decided to break open with my first real British Isles rain. Now, of course this would happen when I left my umbrella at the hotel room. I also didn’t have a rain coat, or a poncho because I forgot it at home. So, I got soaked to the core, I mean I was literally more soaked than I think I have ever been before. I might as well have jumped into a pond, it would have yielded the same results. Once it started raining, the temperature dropped, eventually getting to the point where I could see my breath. However, I was thrilled by the city I kept on trucking, I was already soaked, so why bother stopping now? I was getting hungry by this point, but I wanted to see something in the distance before I got some food. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was big, and it looked nifty. So I headed towards it, this is what it was.

It was actually a huge monument to Sir Walter Scott, the famous Scottish novelist, poet, playwright, etc. It was absolutely awesome, as are most Gothic structures. I couldn’t find much on the monument itself, other than it was in remembrance of Scott, and had been built in 1846. I later learned from a local that its frequently under restorative work and hidden by scaffolding due to its intricate nature, so I was glad I actually managed to avoid some construction for a change. After departing from the monument I saw something on a hill in the distance that I could swear was the Olympic Rings, turns out that is exactly what it was.

Apparently they were just placed here earlier in June, as part of the 2012 London games and celebrating the torches path through Scotland down into England. Also apparent, the locals seem to hate them. Even as I was taking this picture someone told me that they were “a bunch of rubbish.” I guess they don’t like them being near the castle, as they like it the way it is and they also don’t like the Olympic rings being in Scotland for an English Olympics. Now, he could have just been grumpy, but I’ve found a few news reports online that seem to confirm his sentiments. I however, liked the rings, if only because they made a good picture, though they did stand out quite a bit in the otherwise dark and Gothic city. After seeing the rings, I headed to a cheap resteraunt where I had some sort of cheap chicken wrap thing, combined with an IRN BRU, the official soda of Scotland. After sitting there for awhile, and literally leaving a puddle of water on the floor beneath me, I headed back to the hotel where I got a good laugh out of the Scottish TV ads for local businesses. They are just as bad in the States, but they are so much more comical when the announcer is shouting in a gruff Scottish accent about the awesome deals at some used car dealer.

Scottish Tidbit of the Day: Haggis and IRN BRU

So, naturally, one of things you have to do while in Scotland is to try haggis. Most of us have at least a general idea of what haggis is. But I will give you the details you so desire here. I think the best way to describe came from the mouth of a Scottish woman herself:

“You take a nice tasty sheep, then you butcher it, then you take all the lovely chops and cuts and delicious bits of meat and sit them aside, you won’t be using them. You then take all of the entrails, including the heart, liver, and lungs and mince them up into a paste. You then add a mixture of herbs, spices, salt, and all sorts of other bits to your liking, then shove them in the stomach of the sheep. You then cook this for a few hours, slice the stomach open, and enjoy your piping hot stomach paste.”

Thus were the words of our tour guide, to which she followed with “But its actually really good as long as you don’t know whats in it!” ..as I mentioned yesterday, interesting sense of humor. So, even after this lovely description I still wanted haggis. Well, I had it the next morning as mentioned above, and it was actually pretty good. It tastes almost exactly like liver pate, maybe organs all taste similar. Its not something I would eat tons of, but then again I like gizzards and I wouldn’t eat tons of them either. What I did not like was the black pudding, also known as blood sausage, also known as congealed blood mixed with floor sweepings. I can eat most anything, but black pudding hit my upper limits, so I couldn’t finish the slice I had, though I did give it the ole’ college try.

And what goes with haggis? Well, yes, beer of course. But what else? IRN BRU, the official soda of Scotland and largely unknown in the US drink of pure awesomeness. It was really good. It sort of tasted like.. Sunkist mixed with Mt. Dew mixed with Red Bull. Now that might not sound appealing if you aren’t Taco, but for me it sounds very good. I unfortunately never was able to pair IRN BRU directly with haggis, but I consumed enough of each to make up for this short-coming. The downside to IRN BRU is that it contains ingredients not approved by the FDA and therefore cannot be easily obtained in the US. I was told a modified version is in very limited markets in the US but its not as good (New Coke anyone?). The good news is that I drank a lot, and also brought 2 back to Denmark with me. The first one didn’t survive the first night, but I’ve packed the second one away to share with SB in Denmark. Sorry everyone else, but you’ll just have to imagine its orangey Scottish awesomeness. It is seen here in a can, I normally had it in the bottle as they seemed to be easier to find for some reason.

-Taco

Scotland – Day 1

July 1, 2012 by Taco

As I write this, it is currently 72 degrees outside, quite possibly the warmest day since I came to Denmark. Its also very sunny, I should probably be outside, but there’s some stuff I need to do before I have to meet my group at six, writing this post being one of those things. So, without further adieu, lets recall my Scotland trip!
_______________________________________________________________________________

My trip for Scotland began at 7:15am on June 25th. The Scotland trip was actually the last study trip to leave (and also the first to come home, which was a blessing in disguise). Most of the groups had left on the 24th, and the few that were left on the 25th had flown out even earlier than us. Our flight wasn’t until 12:15, but they wanted us to meet at the airport at 9:30, which really isn’t that out of line for a group of 31 people I suppose. I had managed to fit a week’s worth of stuff into the small backpack that DIS gave us on day one, this came much to the chagrin of my fellow students who were lugging around suitcases that could have lasted me 6 months. Only having this small backpack would come to benefit me more times than I could count during the trip. For starters, it let me use the automatic check in machines (and thus secure a window seat) at the airport and completely skip the counters. So while I was able to sail straight through to security, which is so much smoother in Denmark than in the States, all my other travelers got to go to this:

This resulted in me getting through to the airside of airport about 25 minutes faster than everyone else, which meant I had 25 minutes more to sit and relax. We were flying out via Norwegian Airlines, a “budget” airline. To be honest I was a little concerned about this, having heard quadrillions of horror stories online about the likes of other budget airlines such as RyanAir, or EasyJet. However, I must say Norwegian Airlines were exceptionally pleasant for what they were. We actually had to get on a bus to ride to the plane, where we entered via two sets of stairs from the front and rear of the plane, which was way faster. The jet was a recently refurbished 787-800, and it was very clean. There are no “classes” on-board, its all economy class, its part of their business model. After DIS representatives had everyone freaked out about the size of European Carry-On compartments, they turned out to be at most 1-2″ smaller than the US equivalents. DIS being wrong once again, no surprise there. There is nothing free on Norwegian, no free checked bag, no free drinks, food, etc. Now DIS did purchase 1 checked bag for each of us, but I didn’t use mine, and didn’t fret much over the loss of the money I assuredly paid for. The flight was pretty simple, as it was a nice day. It was only about 1 hour and 50 minutes, which was far better than O’Hare to Copenhagen. As we approached Scotland the infamous sheet of clouds came forth, they literally formed a blanket over the landscape.

I was pretty stoked about this, I think I was the only person in the entire group excited about going to the “land of the misty cloud” and I wasn’t too much concerned about sunshine. Once we got under the cloud cover things were actually surprisingly sunny, and it wasn’t too long after that that we were touching down in Edinburgh Airport. The landing was smooth in my opinion, though later some of the people were complaining about it being rough. I suppose my flight from Andros to Nassau on a tiny plane in thunderstorm changed my definition of “rough.” Right before landing I was greeted with this view:

After we exited the plane, which didn’t involve any buses this time around, we headed inside the airport where everyone else had to wait for there bags while I got to go about my merry business. Of course this didn’t involve much because I was pretty much tethered to them by no real choice of my own. We boarded the chartered bus and headed for our “hotel.” Now, I say that with quotations because where we were staying is actually not a real hotel. It is called Chancellor’s Court, and it is a residence hall for the University of Edinburgh. During the summer session they convert it into a hotel, which basically involves adding a second bed to all the rooms, as doubles (or more) are not very common in Europe apparently. It was actually pretty decent, the room was about the size of your average budget hotel room in the states, and the amenities were probably just barely above what you would except for a budget hotel. What really made the place shine was its location, which was just below a part of Arthur’s Seat, a series of hills overlooking Edinburgh.

We didn’t have much time to doddle around, we got our rooms (and roommates) and then headed straight into downtown Edinburgh. Our meeting place was the Royal Mile, which is a straight located in the heart of the city. This street is headed by Edinburgh Castle at the highest end (Edinburgh is basically a huge hill), and the lowest end is Holyrood Palace, which is the residence of the royal family in Scotland. It is funny though, the Scots, unwilling to ever be compared to the British, actually made the street 1 mile and 7 yards, so that it would trump any British mile. This measurement is called a “Scottish Mile” and it is a real, officially recognized measurement, and it only exists in that one spot in the entire world. We were heading there for a guided walking tour, which I wasn’t overly thrilled about as normally I like to proceed at my own pace the first day or so. However, It was a really cool trip that took us to a lot of different places. We started just outside of St. Giles Cathedral, which is my new favorite church I have ever seen.

From there we headed to city hall, then to the base of Edinburgh Castle, then to the Grass Market, then to Greyfriar’s Graveyard. Now, it might seem like an interesting choice of location, a graveyard. Well, it was actually probably one of the most historically interesting areas of the tour (aside from the Castle, but that is for another post). We learned a lot about the different people buried there, including a famous dog “Bobby” who still gets presents left at his grave to this day. We also learned about the Edinburgh Witch Hunts, and how they would use the ashes from the witches to make mortar, which actually was used to construct the wall around the perimeter of the graveyard, morbid stuff, but really cool. While in the graveyard we saw the graves of several people who J.K. Rowling used their names in the Harry Potter series, including Thomas Riddle, Moody, McGonagall, Granger, etc. Interestingly enough, right next to the graveyard is a private school which served as the inspiration for Hogwarts. Most of this stuff I would have probably walked right by without the tour guide, as to be honest I had forgot that Rowling lives in Edinburgh. The graveyard is also on the official list of most haunted places on Earth. Now, I’m not a big ghost person, at least not in the traditional sense of ghosts, but the stories behind the ghosts were really interesting. Most primarily the ghost of Sir George MacKenzie, a bitter old corrupt lawyer who now attacks as a malignant haunt in the graveyard and beyond after his tomb was disturbed in the 1990s. I will admit, peering through the windows on the door made my hair stand up a little bit.

After the tour was over, we were back at the Grassmarket, which was actually the spot of one of the biggest sets of gallows in Edinburgh. There is even a inscription on the ground stating the last person to be publicly hanged there. The market is surrounded by pubs, tons of pubs, many of them from the 1800s or earlier. They include such names as “The Last Drop” which was given this morbid title in 1817 as a play on words, since people were hung right outside. Each pub had its own story, be it a haven of the two infamous Scottish serial killers William Burke and William Hare, or being formerly owned by a woman who was hung and survived. We ate at the Beehive Inn, which would actually turn out to be the best meal the entire time we were in Scotland (and this wasn’t just my opinion, everyone seemed to agree).

The Beehive Inn doesn’t (at least to my knowledge) have any crazy murderous history, but it is over 400 years old, though it hasn’t had that name for that duration, it has been an inn the entire time. The food was traditional British Isles fair, and therefore was extremely good. After we finished dinner, which was probably the best food I’ve had the entire time I’ve been gone, rivaled only by the meals I shared with my visiting family, we headed off to another tour, called “Mary King’s Close,” which I wont discuss too much in the post. The reason for that being that DIS once again proved their inability to properly plan things, and they hadn’t reserved a tour. Now, it clearly states on both their website and over the entrance that booking for groups is required. 31 people is what I would call a group, but nope, no prior booking, so needless to say they couldn’t fit us in. We signed up for the next day, but had to go in two groups since we were so big. Clearly DIS doesn’t do their homework, but I already knew this.

After DIS’ blunder, I took to the streets with my hotel roommate to explore the city. The sun was still out and the clouds had departed, so it was a perfect day to walk around and I wanted to take advantage of it because I figured it was only a matter of time before the rain came (which turned out to be exactly what happened for the next 4 days). We didn’t really know where to go, and the map we had been given was really terrible, so we sort of just took off into the city. I saw a bridge, so we headed towards that, which I am really glad, since it lead to Calton Hill, a totally awesome spot. The walk there was pretty smooth, as all the signs being in English helped so much when using our sub-par map. I’m still not sure what the bridge was called, but it had a nice side view of the center-most part of Edinburgh.

As we progressed onwards, I saw a building that was part of the University of Edinburgh, they were closed by now but a small sign on the front of the building listed it as a clan resource center, I made a mental note of that and planned to come back another day. Keeping the tower at the top of the hill in site, we made our way there and were greeted by some absolutely awesome views as we started walking up the side of the hill. Thankfully it is a public park and there are trails, though they were sometimes not much more than old wood chips and mud. Regardless, the climb was pretty easy since it was so gradual, and even once I was just halfway up I was very glad I had went so far off the beaten path of the city center.

Once we got to the top there were several buildings up there, ranging from an old observatory, to an incomplete national monument, that will probably never be completed as its kind of being disregarded. I wasn’t really sure what the monument was as we ascending the hill, at first I could only see the top and thought it was some kind of old aqueduct, well it wasn’t an aqueduct but it was definitely old. Not ancient, but still old, as it was abandoned in 1829. It was a monument for the soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars, but today most people don’t seem to know much about its history, other than it is cool looking and its a popular hangout spot for local teenagers.

The top of the hill was fairly flat, with a few mounds here and there, each mound having its own building except for the far mound which had some sort of marker related to Greenwich Meridian Time, I couldn’t really figure it out and there was no information nearby or on the map. It was started to get late by this point, so we decided to start heading back to the city center, because we still had to catch a bus from there and tomorrow was going to be an early day. Walking down the other side of the hill, which faced the eastern part of city, gave some really cool views, of which I probably took far more photos than necessary.

After we got back into the city center, which was really only about 30-40 minutes of walking, I decided to head up through the Royal Mile a bit by myself. This turned out to be a really good decision as I encountered some drunk Scottish people who after finding out my last name gave me a free beer. I was needless to say quite happy about this, though I could barely understand anything they were saying as they were from Glasgow and they were drunk. While walking around enjoying my beer I game across a Scotch Distillery, which interestingly enough turned out to be place that our group would do Scotch tasting later in the week.

After that I got the bus, a double-decker which I of course sat on the top section of. The ride back to the hotel wasn’t very long, and luckily I knew which stop to get off at as DIS had given us no instructions in regards to the buses. Thankfully they did give us a day pass each day, but that was pretty much it. My roommate snored and talked in his sleep all night, reminding me of how incompatible I am with having roommates, but I still slept pretty well considering how long the day had been.

Scotland Tidbit of the Day: Dark Humor

Anyone familiar with the UK probably knows about how different their humor tends to be. Well, I’ve never been one who is too obsessed with British Humor, as I think a lot of it sucks to be honest, but the Scots generally impressed me with their humor styles. It tends to be extraordinarily dark and self-depreciating. Murders are explained in humorous lights, social issues approached with a tinge of dark morbidity, and they never miss an opportunity to tell you the most gruesome story they know. Some people in the group wondered why they were so down on themselves, but I didn’t see it that way at all. They seemed to have firmly embraced their cultural darkness and gray landscape, rather than try to play it off as something it is not. They also approach issues in a far more direct way than we do in the States and certainly more so than do the Scandinavian peoples. They are loud, they are rough, and they can be very, very mean but they are ok with that. They seem to inject a dark humorous slice into almost all commentary, and often you have to be very quick to catch it. I enjoyed the personalities of the Scottish people I met largely based on their affinity for morbid humor, in the end they come across as quite humble, you just have to know how to listen. Besides, the world isn’t always a happy place, why pretend it is?

-Taco

A Decorative Depot of Dead Kings.. and then Flowers.

June 30, 2012 by Taco

Since I actually did something today, the Scotland posts won’t begin until tomorrow.

Today I woke up in much the same way I went to bed, with the screams and honks (and now sirens) of the recently graduated students. This was a really cool thing.. five weeks ago when I first heard about it. Then seeing them in Sweden was funny and all, but now that they are swarming of the streets of Copenhagen, its gotten ridiculously annoying. Granted, this is their city, and their country, but still, it gets really, really old after you’ve heard a car honk over 50 times in a row, a siren go off, and then someone scream Danish into a loud-speaker for the next 15 minutes.. all at 2am. And no, none of that is the cops, the cops don’t car, its the students who have obtained sirens and loudspeakers. Even as I type this, they are still busily causing chaos just outside my window in one of their seemingly thousands of trucks.

So, as I said, I was woke up by that, but the weather was gorgeous so I forced myself out of bed. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do today, but I knew that it was probably my last full day in Denmark with no real time or school obligation (group project work starts tomorrow, Sunday). I had read about the Cathedral in Roskilde, a town that is also on Zealand. Apparently this Cathedral is the biggest and baddest in all of Denmark, and it also happens to be the burial location of pretty much every Danish monarch since about 1100. There are even a few tombs from before then, dating back to ~890, but they were moved there afterwards. So, I decided to head to that, which meant another 22$ train ticket, but with a week left I am over 440$ under budget, and I have plenty of cash to last the week with no more withdraws, so I went for it. One of the people on my floor also wanted to go, so we headed out around noon, and the weather was awesome, it was actually somewhat hot (i.e. 70 degrees, pure scorcher here). We headed to the main train station where something seemed.. wrong. Wrong in the sense that there were TONS of people everywhere with camping gear. Now yes, a central train station is always busy, but this was crazily busy. So we waited in line for a long time, then dealt with the extraordinarily rude ticket sellers, then headed to find the train. After descending to the platforms, I noticed, well, about 80 trillion people. And sure enough, they were all waiting on the train I needed to get on.

So what was up? The Roskilde Music Festival is whats up. It runs from June 30th to July 8th and is one of the such largest festivals in the ENTIRETY of Europe. This year one of the big headliners is Bruce Springsteen (who I actually ended up hearing way, way far in the distance). The attendance last year was around 110,000 and this year its suspected to bring even more people. Of those 110,000+ people, about 100,000 of them were on my train. We managed to get on the train, but didn’t have seats, and it was so morbidly hot that it wasn’t even funny. To make matters worse we got stuck in a bunch of 1980’s time travelers (80s American fashion is HUGE in Denmark, sans hair) who couldn’t have bathed in at least 15 years. Heat + Massive B.O. + 45 Minute Standing Train ride, you get the picture.

But that’s where the woe is me part of the story ends, as once I cleared the mobs and was able to breathe without inhaling the scent of gym socks from 1985 things perked up. We found the cathedral pretty easily, because it was huge, and huge buildings in small towns tend to be pretty easy to find. Things were pretty chill, because the 110,000+ people had flocked southwards to the southern edge of town were the festival was, whereas we headed north. When we first got there, I was taken back by how huge the Cathedral was. This isn’t a Catholic country (I had always thought “cathedral” was synonymous with Catholic, that is apparently a common misconception), so they don’t tend to have huge massive over the top churches. The Roskilde Domkirke isn’t super over the top, but it is big. Here’s a challenge.. which of the flowing buildings is the cathedral? If you look closely, you will see it. But its pretty hard to pick out, so don’t be frustrated if you can’t find it.

Once we got close, a wave of disappointment was had as it was closed. Turns out they were having a wedding that day. The Church is still used for regular services, etc. and you can’t tour it during those times. Luckily, in the slew of Danish on a sign posted on the door I was able to make out that the Church would reopen again at three and stay open until five, whereas it normally closes at four. In the meantime, we could see the harbor, as the cathedral sets up on a big hill. So, we decided to head down to the harbor and take in some scenery as it was still about 1.5 hours until three. This was the view we had at the edge of the cathedral which told us that yes, there is in fact an ocean down there.

As we started to descend towards the harbor, we were treated to a lot of really cool scenery. It sort of reminded me of Humlebaek, where my visiting family lives, but on a larger scale. The path we took brought us down through a park, and past a lot of old houses. We got to the beach, found a bench by the harbor and ate our packed lunches. While sitting I noticed that some of the ships in the harbor did not look quite right, well that’s because they were modern viking ships. Now, when I say modern, I don’t mean modernized I mean they were of modern construction. Apparently the Viking Museum in Roskilde not only has a couple of real ships (though not as intact as the ones I saw in Norway) but they also have 3 working ships that you can take out to the harbor and row around. Well, it ended up costing like 60$ for the Museum and the sailing, so we passed. We did get to watch a bunch of people trying to be coordinated enough to sail, since most of them had to be over 60, it was rather comical. After watching the ships and walking through the living history village in the port, we headed back. Since I showed a view from the top, here is one from the bottom.

Once we made our way back up to the top, which included some really beautiful spots in the park along the way, the wedding had just ended. As a group of the attendees had flooded out into the square and were saying their goodbyes. This meant the church didn’t open quite at three, but I wasn’t really in any major hurry.

After they left, the church opened and we went inside, I managed to score a student discount, which wasn’t posted (they never seem to be, and often you must badger people for them) which brought the price down from 60 DKK to 40 DKK. That’s really not that much, plus they give you a guide book, I’ve certainly regretted spending less money at other attractions here, it was really worth it. The interior of the cathedral was, like the outside, very big (imagine that). The nave was undoubtedly the largest I have ever seen in Denmark, and I’m still trying to decide if I think it was larger than St. Giles in Edinburgh, I’m fairly sure it was.

Now, more so than the central part of the cathedral, the various chapels are really what the church is famous for. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but primarily its because they are full of kings, queens, princes, and princesses. I was finally able to see the sarcophagus of Christian IV, the dude who built what seems to be at least half of all the famous buildings in Copenhagen (and subsequently made the country broke). I also saw Christian I, whose tomb was very interesting. Being the first Christian, he is obviously sort of a big deal in Danish history. However, his tomb is just a tiny little spot in the floor, the same as the 100s of other tombs in the church. He had an entire chapel commissioned, and when he and his wife (Dorothea) died they were placed there. It was too also be there chapel were his immediate descendents were placed. Its actually kind of cool in a way, surrounded by all the gold, silver, bronze, ivory, and marble of the other monarchs, lies the simple tomb of the guy who started it all.

There was a ton of really interesting stuff inside of each chapel, and it was actually pretty easy to forget that you were surrounded by tons of dead Kings, and were walking on top of countless other people entombed in the floor (there are 100s according to the guide). We explored the cathedral for almost two hours, before we decided to head out. Naturally about the time that we went outside it clouded up and started to sprinkle (its a true fact that in Denmark it only rains when Taco is outside). Luckily it didn’t last long and we made it back to the train station mostly dry. Along the way we noticed that the town was almost eerily abandoned. Since it was after 4pm most of the shops were closed, and anyone left had migrated towards the festival. We did find this really odd fountain that was full of nasty looking orange water. Apparently there is some history to that, as the entire street is named the “Orange Path.”

The train ride back was far more pleasant, it was cooler and had about 1% of the people from before (so only about 1,000 this time). The weather decided to remain sunny, so when we got back we tried to brainstorm something else to do since we had, after all, paid for the very expensive 24 pass (which is cheaper than buying two one way tickets). Unfortunately it was after 5pm at that point, which means that the country is closed, even on Saturdays. So we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens, which I had mentioned in an earlier post. Round two was much sunnier, however the guide pamphlet I had lied and overstated the greenhouse’s opening hours by two hours. Luckily the grounds themselves were open until 6pm, so we got to walk around. It was really pretty, and the weather most certainly helped.

I had wanted to go inside the greenhouse because there is apparently a plant in there that only blooms once every billion years (OK that’s obviously a lie, but its like 5 years between blooms) and once it blooms it smells strongly of rotting flesh. Now why would I want to smell that? Because I’m weird, that’s why. As mentioned they were closed though, but I did get to see the plant inside, and it was ugly. I tried to take a picture of it, but the second door inside of the greenhouse pretty much reflected everything right back into my face. If I get a chance to return I likely will, but I’m a little doubtful at this point. After seeing the flesh plant and the gardens we headed home as I was about to consume my backpack out of hunger. The rest of the day was pleasant, except for the screaming students.. who are still outside as I finish this.

Tidbit of the Day: Copenhagen Public Transportation

I had been considering writing a little bit about the public transportation system in Copenhagen (and the island of Zealand) for awhile now, and my train trip today inspired me to do it. So, getting to it, for someone like me who has never really experience mass public transportation it has been an interesting experience these past five or so weeks. To get around, you need to know how many “zones” you are going to go through. They start with Zone 1 in the center of Copenhagen, then sequentially go outwards in a pattern until you reach the edges of the island (Remember Copenhagen is actually on an Island, Zealand). You buy tickets or passes based on the distance traveled in zones. You don’t need the tickets to board, its an honor system. However, plain clothes inspectors or uniformed officers will often be on board to check your ticket. If you don’t have one, you can expect to pay about a 200$ fine, no warning, no second chances (Its happened to so many students here, but not me, I am Mr. OCD and perfectly calculate out all travel). In Copenhagen, you essentially have 6 “companies” that manage the public transportation. These companies work through the following modes of transportation:

Bus, Night-Bus, S-Tog, Metro, Regional Train

There are of course taxis, but I neither use, nor want to use them due to the expense, though the silver spooners here love using them to travel anyplace over 1 block away.

So what’s what with the public transportation?

Bus: Pretty straightforward, these guys are never on time, and the drivers rarely speak any English. In fact, they seem to often not speak much Danish, as they tend to be immigrants. They are pretty nice buses, especially the “A” routes, which are the busiest routes and have the most frequent buses. I normally use route 14, which takes me to within 3 blocks of where I live, so an easy walk. Much like what I am used to at home, they cannot keep a schedule to save their lives. In truth, no where I’ve been in Europe has buses that run any better than in Indiana. We’ll see if Germany can live up to its legendary clockwork like reputation, but I seriously have my doubts. With the tickets, inspectors are sometimes present, but not overly common. The driver can be a little lax at checking your ticket, so often times people sneak in the back door (there are three doors) and ride free.

Night Buses: Why separate these from the day buses? Well, they are same physical buses, but everything else is different. The drivers are even more mean, and the prices are even higher. They are also ran by an entirely different company. I have only had to use them once. God have mercy on your soul if you are on a tight schedule past 1am and can only take the bus, they will be late without exception, and you’ll likely wait 45 minutes just for it to be late. The ticket checkers aren’t on these buses much if at all, as the driver is much more strict on checking your ticket.

S-Tog: Think of these as above ground subways that also go underground sometimes. These are the bright red trains that hop around the city like a rabbit on LSD. Unlike the buses they tend to be fairly accurate time wise. They are pretty roomy, which is good considering that they are full of bicyclists most of the time. There are also tiny portions of certain cars where you have to be quiet, you can be fined if you aren’t, I quite enjoy those spots. They center around Copenhagen, but also go a bit outside of the city. The ticket checkers are fairly common on the S-Togs.

Metro: These automated trains are the newest addition to Copenhagen’s public transportation system. They go to the major parts of town, and a huge expansion project is underway and scheduled to be completed in 2018 that will take the metro to new areas of the city. The metro is crazy on time, down to within seconds. It comes and goes like a streak of lighting and it WILL close the doors on yo’ ass (I speak from experience, the thing mashed me in the doors like a mofo). Since its ran by a computer (Blue is for girls, pink is for me, I’m the mono, don’t you dare to mess with me) it is undoubtedly the most clockwork of everything here. The ticket checkers are supposedly pretty common on the metro, but I have yet to see one.

Regional Trains: These are the “real” trains, that travel far and wide, including the furthest reaches of Jutland (mainland Denmark). They are.. well trains. They are normally pretty clean, and pretty comfortable, except when packed with 100,000 people. They are the 2nd most accurate schedule wise, bested only by Blaine, I mean the metro. The conductors are ruthlessly mean though, and issue fines and tickets like candy. This normally isn’t a big deal as they will pass you by with a “Tak” and a smile as long as you have your ticket ready the instant you see them. The ticket inspectors swarm these trains like locusts and if you don’t see one then you can count yourself as one of the minority. Sometimes they check tickets multiple times on one trip.

I will try to work on the 1st Scotland post tomorrow. In the meantime:

DANISH MARSHMALLOWS!

-Taco

Scotland – 1, Umbrella – 0

June 29, 2012 by Taco

I have returned from Scotland. This isn’t going to be much of a post, it mainly serves two purposes. First, it reveals that I am indeed alive and well and back in Copenhagen. Second, it gives me a chance to explain how I plan to do my posting regarding my Scotland trip. I was in Scotland from Monday until today, and each day was full of all sorts of adventures, large and small. It was seriously one of the most awesome weeks of my entire life, I don’t think I’ve ever instantly loved a city as much as I did Edinburgh (Not to mention the countryside itself may well be the first thing to surpass Alaska in my life). So, I’ll be retroactively posting about each day, possibly in a short time span, or possibly once per day. This last week in Copenhagen is going to be full of me doing (literally) 75% of my coursework for my second class, while simultaneously trying to do as much of things left on my “want to do” list as possible. So, there’s a chance that nothing worth blogging about will happen for a few days, if that’s the case then the Scotland blog will fall into its place. If something does happen that’s worth noting, then there will probably just be two posts that day. Since this is all really for me, I’m typing this up so it makes sense chronologically if I look back at this blog 15 years for now, it will avoid time gaps and such.

Having said that, it has been a long day, and I have 3 beers waiting for me. So I am going to enjoy the rest of my evening listing to the screams and honks of recent Danish graduates and chilling as much as possible. I’ll start with my Scotland posts tomorrow (hopefully).

Tidbit of the Day: Don’t Take a Cheap Umbrella to Scotland

That’s it, just don’t do it.

-Taco

Sankt Hans aften (Danish Midsummer Celebration)

June 24, 2012 by Taco

I woke up this morning in the most lovely of ways, no, it wasn’t the trio of trucks, as they had apparently decided to not menace me today. No, instead of the trucks I woke up with not one, but two exceptionally bad cramps in my left calf. The first one I woke up just in time for it to be too late to stop it, the second time I woke up after the pain had already started. After that I gave up trying to sleep.

Its cold, grey, and raining here, but that doesn’t really matter too much as I really don’t have too much to do today (other than a group meeting at 10:30pm, yes pure genius, I was outvoted). The past couple of days have been pretty good though, mainly because I feel like I’m actually starting to get better. On Friday I decided to watch Schindler’s List with someone from the Holocaust and Genocide class because I had never seen it. It was as good as I had always heard it to be. While watching the movie I got some tea and a small bag of cookies, only to open the bag of cookies to find they had been crushed into unrecognizable dust and spewed all over me when I opened the package. The silver lining of the situation was that I took the remaining dust home and put it in a cup, then poured milk over it, which was a nice change from cornflakes. My cheap umbrella, which I have now woefully mentioned multiple times broke yet again, this time the top piece snapped off, allowing water to leak in. But still, Friday was a pretty good day because I was feeling better, I had cookie dust, and I got to watch a good movie. The day even ended with a few hours of sunshine.

Yesterday, Saturday, was completely awesome. It started off raining, which seems to be the order of business here, but not even that could really kill my demeanor. First off, I was feeling probably about 70%, so the best I had all week. Second, I was going back to Humlebæk to see my Danish family as part of the Midsummer celebration. I went up a couple of hours early so that Lene could take me to the apparently world famous Louisiana modern art museum. For the record, its not named after anything to do with the US state, apparently the guy who originally built it (Alexander Brun) had three wives, all of which were named Louise, so thats pretty self explanatory. I’m not a big modern art person, but because of my family’s membership, I was able to get in for free, saving 95 DKK (15$). Some of the exhibits were, as I have become used to, not all that special to me, but others were really cool. The landscape of the museum was also very nice, often times exceeding the exhibits in my personal opinion. It was located right above the coast, so Sweden was visible in the distance.

Of the interior exhibits, I had three that were probably my favorites. The best by far was a room of hanging lights, titled something along the lines of “Glimmering Souls.” It was simply concept, paint the floor of a room black, fill with about 4″ of water, build walls and ceiling out of mirrors, hang tons of lights. The effect was absolutely awesome though, I have some pictures and videos, though looking at them you really don’t get the atmosphere. Here is one of the photos I took within the room, it gives you a general idea of what was going on.

Its actually a very small room, so the effect is somewhat obvious, even in a 2D picture. My second favorite exhibit was a car that had been.. “squashed” I guess you could say. It had been building from the ground up to look like it had been smashed over into a comical bend. It was pretty neat, and to be honest it messed with my brain a little bit, because that pr imitative monkey area of my mind kept wanting the car to be straight, but it just wouldn’t straighten out no matter how much I wanted it to. The third exhibit, was pretty simple, but I liked it, the picture is self explanatory.

After leaving the museum, the sun started to peak out from behind the clouds and the rain ebbed away. This was pretty much perfect timing because we were heading back to my visiting family’s community barbeque as part of the Midsummer Celebration. My Danish family lives in a type of cooperative housing, similar to the kind that existed in the US in the 70s. Everyone has their own home, but the small neighborhood has a common house, and common areas. Families take turns cooking for the community, cleaning, etc. It sounds weird, and its not something I would personally care much for, but its definitely a system with its benefits. For instance, Arne and Lene may only have to cook 1 time per month, but the other 29/30 days they are made home-cooked meals. The kids can all play together in the community children’s room, there’s also a room in the basement for the musicians to practice together. You kind of get the picture, you have your own house, but its very communal (i.e. historical) type living. Anyways, this community has a celebration every year for Midsummer, just like everyplace else in Denmark. Some of the staples are a lot of food, a lot of beer, and a bonfire.

Arne was one of the main barbeque people, as each family brought their own meat but the salads and greens were shared with all. While we were waiting on dinner to be ready, we went back to the house, where I had some fresh garden cherries. They were seriously the best cherries I have ever had in my entire life, so good in fact that I believe they deserve their own picture.

Once dinner was ready, we carried our stuff (including some also amazing homemade apple cider) down to the community house. When we got there the meat was just getting ready to be moved inside, and some people must have been pretty hungry because they were picking pieces of the grill. I guess some things transcend cultural boundaries.I snapped a quick picture of my plate before the meat came, after the meat came in I was too focused on eating to care much about pictures anymore.

After dinner was over, we had dessert, which consisted of freshly grown Strawberries (which apparently grow very well in Denmark, they sure tasted good), and homemade ice cream, the Danes love their ice cream.

After finishing dessert, and what had to have been my fifth pint of Tuborg, everyone started migrating out towards the bonfire. I would rank their fireside celebration as one of the coolest things that I’ve ever had a chance to experience. Everyone gathered around the fire, which included its own “witch” and sang traditional Danish songs. Thankfully books were distributed which had the lyrics, but they were in Danish so obviously I couldn’t understand, but I could still attempt to follow along and sing things that sounded vaguely like words. The kegs followed the group out to the fire, so even more beer was consumed, it was crazy how much the group went through. I stopped pretty quickly once I realized I was having a hard time balancing, it is very true that the beer is stronger here, very true indeed. The fire lasted for a good while, in fact it was still going when we headed back to the house so that I could catch the 11:16pm train for Copenhagen. The picture below was the fire shortly after it started, people were still heading out to the field infact.

After getting back to the house we said our goodbyes and it was off to the train station. The night train was surprisingly packed, people were sitting on the floor even. My guess is that a lot of people from the countryside were going into Copenhagen for a wild night of partying due to the Midsummer Celebration. I am not positive if I will see my Danish family again, but we are going to try to work something out where they come down to Copenhagen for a few beers before we leave. I definitely hope that it works out!

As I sat on the train, then the bus, then finally made it home, It started to hit me that I’ll never be the same person again after experiences like these. I’ve been able to be a part of things that some people don’t even know exist. It was a really cool feeling, or maybe it was just all that beer 😛

Tidbit of the Day: Sankt Hans aften

Ok, so I’ve referenced the Midsummer Celebration multiple times now, including this mysterious burning of a witch on a huge fire. So what’s the deal? Well, I’ll explain. In many areas of the world, the summer solstice is still a big deal, its kind of like the massive summer celebration. In America the 4th of July has kind of nomed up all the fanfare for this time of year, but in Denmark the 4th of July obviously doesn’t matter too much. The historical reasoning behind Sankt Hans aften, or Saint John’s Eve, involves the medieval period, as this (June 23rd) was the day that medicine men and women would gather herbs, spices, and general medical supplies for the coming year. The day was actual an official state holiday until the 1700s, but as its been celebrated since the Viking times, no one cares whether its official or not. The bonfire portion deals with light, warding away evil spirits, and all those other summery things. The timbers are slowly gathered all year, the more gnarled the better, as you are supposed to be replicating the great herbal hunt of yesteryear. The drinking, well its Denmark, you need no reason to drink. Now the witch on the fire is a little more interesting, this stems from the medieval witch trials. Basically, as we now know, the Church burned you alive willy-nilly for basically anything. The act of burning a “witch” on the fire has a twofold use. One, its a reminder to the atrocities of the past, a sort of ironic memorial to all the witches burnt. Second, it also acts to remove any bad luck, bad vibes, whatever you want to call it from the community. As the witch burns, she is sent to Bloksbjerg, a mountainous region in Germany where the souls of witches are thought to gather to this day. Why they send the witches to Germany, I am not sure. These are old traditions, they don’t always make sense. Songs are also sung around the fire, a lot of songs, but the primarily song is a midsommervise (Midsummer Hymn) called “Vi elsker vort land…” (We Love Our Country), which is kind of like any other song talking about how awesome your country is. So there you go, a brief overview of the Midsummer Celebration in Denmark (its also big in Sweden, you can often see the fires across the channel).

AND.. with that, I’ll be gone for awhile. Tomorrow I have to be at the airport at 9:30am, as our flight leaves for Edinburgh, Scotland at 12:05pm. I’ll be gone until Friday night, so I’m not sure when I’ll have a post up, but there will be one.

-Taco

Scotland – Day 2

Scotland – Day 1

A Decorative Depot of Dead Kings.. and then Flowers.

Scotland – 1, Umbrella – 0

Sankt Hans aften (Danish Midsummer Celebration)

Search all of Dinosaur Bear

Disclaimer:

Subscribe