I would like to share with you the best travel I have ever made. I decided to go in a summer program in 2019 to Edinburgh where I stayed at a student residence and went to a language school for three weeks.
When I arrived there, I noticed some changes in contrast to Spanish culture: Scottish people have lunch earlier, they drive on the left, the weather changes regularly in a day, the stores close at 6 p.m., there aren’t window blinds… Despite the fact that I had been to the United Kingdom for the last years (Brighton in 2017 and Cork in 2018 with the same program), something that really shocked me was the accent and expressions frequently used there. Eventually, I learnt some of them thanks to my teacher, such as: Fit like? Foo ur ye aye daein? (which means: How are you?) or Nice tae meit ye! (which means: Nice to meet you!).
Truth to be told, I wasn’t expecting to find people wearing kilts. In fact, the person you can see on the left scared me to hell… It is a hilarious story, I promise. One morning, I was walking through the street to take the bus so as to go to the school and I was quite sleepy (Scottish people get up very early), so when I heard a deep voice just behind me talking in a very weird language I couldn’t identify, I turned around really scared… And I discovered this man in a hurry wearing this outfit while he was having a conversation on the phone in Scottish loudly. I just tried to act natural and the man kept walking. Then I took a photo of him to remember this anecdote in the future. On the other hand, on the right there is a musician playing the bagpipe.
There is music everywhere. I was lucky enough to attend two festivals: Festival Village and Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival. The first one took place in an outdoor bar where everyone could listen to some musicians singing on the tiny stage. The second festival required me to buy an entry, but it was worth it! I went with some friends and we enjoyed the time we spent together!
In every street there is a statue of a guy wearing different costumes, so I asked my teacher what that meant and I discovered that he is a character very popular from a Scottish comic. His name is Oor Wullie and I even had the opportunity to read some comic strips. Another curious fact related to food is the haggis, a very well-known dish.
I have a big announcement to those classmates who are Potterhead. If you are a truly fan of Harry Potter, I highly recommend you to go to this city! There are a lot of references about it. For example, the building you can see in the picture of Festival Village is the hotel (known as Balmoral Hotel) where J. K. Rowling finished her last book of the saga. Moreover, in a Harry Potter’s tour I visited the graveyard where the author inspired herself to name the main villain, You-Know-Who. The tomb shown in the picture is Tom Riddle's and as you can see I am wearing the Ravenclaw scarf. In Victoria St, the second image, there is a store called The Boy Wizard where you can buy T-shirts, scarfs, wands… everything related to Harry Potter.
By and large, this experience was incredibly awesome. I have made great friends from several countries (Scottish, Italian, Russian, Polish) and I also met a lot of Spanish people there. Furthermore, I have learnt a lot about this culture and I have improved my English language skills.
Edinburgh has overwhelming views. I wouldn’t mind repeating the same destination! I wish we could travel soon to discover more curious spots in the United Kingdom!
Niiiiice, Inés, your post was a very good one! Too many things, several very interesting and, even, surprising. For this reason, I want to say one thing of every paragraph.
ReplyDeleteIn the first one, the buildings are fascinating. I always feel shocked by these kind of structures, built even centuries ago and they can stand against the time and the weather. Impressive.
In the second I laughed a bit because I remembered the experience with other people who has a extreme accent, these voices always sound so weird, even in spanish there are examples of people I couldn´t understand properly.
The "Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival" must be amazing. I wish have an a personal experience of a jam session of jazz (any kind of jazz).
Respect Oor Wullie, I´ve never heard anything about this character, what a surprise, and I love the idea of any country has his cultural character from comic. Examples of that are "Mortadelo y Filemón" in Spain, "Asterix and Obelix" in France, "Astro Boy" in Japan... and now Oor Wullie in Scotland =)
And, finally, that paragraph about Harry Potter. I am not a huge fan of this story (because I´ve only read the first book and I´ve seen the first and the fifth movies), but sure that somebody of our class can enjoy that information.
Yes, I agree, Inés, Edinburgh is an awesome place, isn’t it? I have personal ties there and have visited quite a lot over the past twenty years but even so I’ve learnt a couple of new things thanks to your post!
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