Donde Esta La Biblioteca? Otra Vez

Edinburgh day four. Lauren and I hit up St. Giles Cathedral and scrutinized the usual stained glass and priceless craftsmanship as well as a modern museum type installation about the troubling problem of human trafficking and slavery in the U.K. People (mostly women) from poor countries in the east are tricked into traveling west with the promise of employment or education. Once they are a world away from their homes they are forced to work as slaves (mostly prostitutes) and have no way of escaping. The exhibit displayed pictures and short autobiographies by some of the many people affected by this enterprise that goes largely overlooked by the British authorities and media. Check out slavebritian.org.uk and sign the abolition petition.

With this glimpse of the dismal state of humanity bearing down on our souls, we headed to Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop to taste their spirits. We got yet another crash course on the history of peat as we tasted different malts straight from their casks. We stocked up on some Islay Malt, the peaty-est of them all, and left for some lunch at our favorite coffee shop in Edinburgh – Black Medicine Coffee Co.

Having experienced enough civilized European culture, Lauren and I ended the night with The Bourne Ultimatum and all comforts of home – guns, explosions, and car chases.

On August 20th, Lauren and I started the day back on the Royal Mile. Near the Castle is an old tourist attraction called Camera Obscura. You pay for a ticket, climb up through five floors of crazy optical illusions, and then pile into an archaic dark room (camera obscura is Latin for ‘dark room’) with about ten other people. Everyone stands around a big round white table while a guide manipulates the giant lens atop the tower above. The lens projects an image onto the white table and it is like being inside a camera (mostly because you actually are inside the predecessor to the modern camera.) The guide moves the lens around and tells you a little about the city as he works his way around the 360° view. The whole device was built back in the 1820’s but it is still as entertaining as ever.

We ate our giant vegan potato lunch in a park near the Royal Scottish Gallery and then went inside and studied the Andy Warhol exhibit.

Later, we dined at yet another vegetarian find near the King’s Playhouse where we saw a performance by the Scottish Ballet. The ballet was arranged into three parts. The first was designed around music by Radiohead, which was probably about as hardcore as ballet can get. The second was some sort of really modern minimalist ballet that had the whole audience rustling around with at least a mild case of boredom (the very novice ballet patrons like me came down with the boredom Ebola virus, while true dance aficionados like Lauren suffered only a common boredom cold.) The third part was a much more lively, traditional ballet that regained everyone’s full attention. Afterwards, we fouette-d our way home.

From the Lowlands of Edinburgh we took a tour of the Scottish Highlands. We left early in the morning and got back twelve hours later. Andy, our unabashed tour guide, entertained us with tales of Scottish history as ... [Continue reading this entry]