Yeah, but can you make a squid, a giraffe, or a really big funny hat?

Picture of the Day, July 29th 2008

Edinburgh Castle, Does This Fog Ever Go Away? Version

A Day in the Life of Damien

Wake at 8 am.
Make breakfast and sandwiches for lunch.
Bathe (some traditions die hard, even when I'm in Europe).
Walk into city center with Carly.
Experience springtime in Edinburgh.
Work at Elephant House, where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter.
Go to Edinburgh Public Library in hopes of finding an electrical outlet and a seat.
Be annoyed at small-minded administrative type who makes me register for things.
Eat lunch with Carly at the National Archive of Scotland.
Go to cafe and work.
Exit cafe and experience summertime in Edinburgh.
Walk to a pub called World's End.
Drink beer.
Work.
Drink beer.
Meet Carly to walk home.
Experience fall in Edinburgh.
Shop for dinner.
Make dinner.
Drink wine.
Post about day.
Think about drinking scotch.
Work.
/drinks scotch
/passes out.

Repeat until August is over. This I could get used to!

Picture of the Day

Today was incredibly foggy...I mean, stereotypically London/Edinburgh wafting clouds of fog drifting through the city obscuring views of Mr. Hyde coming at you. Some video tomorrow, but for now, a new feature: the picture of the day.

Fog on the Meadows at Midnight

Isle of Mull Super Mega-Post

Well, we're settled in to our Edinburgh palace now, and have regular wifi access. For those of you we've been neglecting on email, be assured we'll take care of you soon!

But first: here's a recap of our trip to the Isle of Mull.

We drove from Glasgow to Oban in a rental car, then took the ferry across to the town of Craignure. Mull is in red on this map.

From there, we drove up to Tobermory. Super scenic, but on a 'one track' road that had passing places every so often. It wasn't too bad driving, but some of the locals tried their best to run us off the road. We got to Tobermory, and settled into our bed and breakfast, the Ivybank. The pictures below show the view of the Ivybank's garden, which overlooks the harbor of Tobermory. Needless to say, it was more breathtaking in person. After settling in, we went to Glengorm Castle, which has been converted to a b&b. Along the way, we saw these incredibly hairy Highland Cows, some of which were practicing for next year's mating season. Here's pics of this leg:



The next day were the Mull Highland Games, the annual competition that we just happened to be in town for. It was a pleasant surprise, and probably the most traditionally Scottish thing we'll be doing (outside of drinking whisky?) The games began with the Clan McLean elders marching through the streets of Tobermory, with a full band behind them. It was awesome, and as you can see, all the townspeople follow the procession up to the field where the games were to be played:



The games themselves had dancing, races, and a series of events starring the 'heavies'--the big guys shot putting, throwing the hammer, and tossing cabers. Here's dancing:



This is the world record holder Bruce Aitken tossing the light hammer. This guy was one of the most impressive people I've ever seen. He tossed the hammer probably 15 feet longer then anyone else. It was awesome.



Caber tossing: a traditional Scottish event wherein big people throw a telephone pole.



After the Highland Games, we took a long drive around the southern part of the island. While most of the days we've been here have been fairly gloomy (as you might have been able to tell from the pics), this day was incredible. Some people we met later at the pub said it was probably the only time in recent memory that it had been this nice for the games. The following pictures are some of the best we've gotten. Again, though, it doesn't really do justice to just how scenic this place is. Driving through the southern part of Mull was like driving through a calender.


That was Duart castle, home of the McLeans.

There are a lot of sheep in Scotland.



Sorry for the sideways video here:

End of Radio Silence; Tantalizing Tidbits from Mull

We've landed in Edinburgh, and plan on having a more extensive post soon about our trip to Mull. But for now, after waking at 7 am and driving through exquisite countryside, the following pictures will have to suffice to tantalize you:


(look closely--these are highland cows 'hugging' in front of our car)

Glasgow, Day 3

Here's the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, the Glasgow Cathedral, and the Glasgow Necropolis.

Organ Recital at the Kelvingrove

The Kelvingrove art museum was amazing; something like a 100 million pound renovation and six years has turned it into a great place with a lot of interesting stuff from around the world. Every day at 1 pm, they have an organ recital:



And something for the kids:

Glasgow, Day 2

Veggie Haggis

This is (was) veggie haggis, and it was delicious (complements of Bar Budda). You may commence making fun of us in the comments...

Glasgow, Day 1

We're in Glasgow now, and settling in. Here's some pics from the train ride and from around town (including seagulls pooping on Robert Burns' head).

The Whale Joke, UK Style

I had a dream...a dream that involved telling my semi-famous whale joke to the Buckingham Palace guards. Alas, they're behind the gates now, and apparently you can't get close enough to them to interact at all (protecting the Queen from terror, or from V?)

So, I did the next best thing...I told it in their general direction:

For Michael V

Things I Learned From the Tate Modern

The moustache embodied the bourgeois stupidity that precipitated World War I.

The Surrealists often used forests as a metaphor for imagination. Contrast that with the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith's celebration of commercialism as having "turned the rude forests of nature into agreeable and fertile plains."

The British Vorticists took the vortex as the dominant metaphor for the energy of modern life.

Fred Williams’ landscapes are really impressive when they take up a whole wall.

London, Part 1

I’m writing this on a train to Glasgow, using the National Express train line’s free wifi and experiencing the amazing English countryside. It’s the 21st century, eh?

London was amazing. Highlights:

Indian Food Tour

One of our goals (and by our, I mostly mean my; but C is all to willing to support my habit) was to eat as much Indian food as possible while in England. Our method for finding Indian food was delightfully unscientific–we just went where our noses took us.

*Sagar. SImple and elegant inside, with good saag paneer and aloo zeela (potatos and cumin seeds). Good, but didn’t knock my socks off. 7/10 samosas.

*Rasa. Housed in a ridiculously pink building, and known for seafood, it had an interesting mango/banana yogurt curry we tried and an extraordinary eggplant dish. We got tricksied into paying about 15 dollars for papadam and assorted pickles, which were delicious but suboptimal considering the relationship between the dollar and the pound. 8/10 samosas.

*Vegetarian Paradise. With a name like this, it was difficult for us to pass it up. Stumbled upon this one while we were looking for our train station before we left. A dosa masala, saag paneer, dal, chana masala, and garlic naan later we left incredibly satisfied. 9/10 samosas.

Pub Stumble

We didn’t just eat. We frequented a pub or two…like the Rising Sun in central London:

Sightseeing

Hyde Park (where we saw a fire and brimstone preacher at Speaker’s Corner), the British Museum, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, Millenium Bridge, Tate Modern, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and a few other bits and pieces of London.

Airplane Travails

Our plane was re-routed through Philadelphia–we had to switch planes instead of just going directly from Charlotte to London, which meant a 2+ hour delay getting here. When we were at the gate, we were told that a mechanical problem necessitated swapping planes, so we were going to fly to Philly before making the transatlantic jump. Um, *gulp*? The pilot came on as we boarded and said that our de-icing whatevers were broken and it would be a bigger deal over the ocean.

A few years ago, I was on a plane and it dropped precipitously for about 3 seconds during our ascent before righting itself…about 15 minutes later, the pilot came on and said “sorry about the little bump back there, the autopilot wouldn’t give us back control and we had to turn it off, which caused us to fall. Everything’s ok now, though.”

Airplane travails are at least somewhat ameliorated by images like this one:

What Five Weeks of Luggage Looks Like...

…when you realize it’ll be on your back a good bit. Yes, that black duffel bag is full of food: quick heat indian pouches, snacks, and approximately a gazillion and a half powerbars.

I don't think we'll be seeing many of these signs in Europe: