Falkland Palace and St. Andrews

Part one of the Scotland adventures!

This friday I went on a bus tour hosted by the university. It was a part of the Oriantaion Programme and I had to sign up in advance. There were six different tours and you could sign up for one of them. It was first come, first serve, so by the time I signed on two of the tours were full. I googled the places and settled on Falkland Palace and St Andrews of the tours that were left.

Falkland is a small village, formerly a royal burgh, located in the county of Fife. It has a population of between 1000-2000 inhabitants.

The main attraction of the City is the Falkland Palace. Falkland Castle was built some time in the 12th century and used primarily for hunting. In the 14th century the castle came into the hands of the Scottish Crown. In the early 16th century James IV and James the V made the castle into a beautiful palace in the french renaissance style. It is one of two palaces in Scotland furbished in this style.

The palace was a popular hunting resort with the Scottish Crown in the 16th and early 17th century. After a fire in the mid 17th century the Palace and the village along with it were neglected and fell into disrepair.

In 1887 the keeper of the Palace, the by then millionaire John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, started restoring the Palace in all it renaissance beauty. His sons continued his work until the 5th Marquess of Bute appointed the National Trust for Scotland as Deputy Keepers in 1952. Today it is the National Trust who takes care of the Palace and its extensive gardens.

There is also a tennis court here, or a Real Tennis Court, because apparently there is a difference. Built in 1539 it is the world's oldest tennis court still in use, and home to the Falkland Palace Royal Tennis Club.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but a quick search on google yielded some images.

This is the chapel, picture found here.

This is the Queen's Bedroom. It is not in its original place, but refurbished this way by the keepers of the Palace.
Picture found here.

This was originally a guard chamber or a chamber used by the priests as it is directly above the chapel.
The keepers of the palace made it their own room and filled it with their own stuff. Picture found here.

Over to St. Andrews! St. Andrews is a town on the east coast of the county Fife. It is home to the University of St. Andrews, the third oldest university in the English speaking world, the oldest university in Scotland and one of the most prestigious in Britain. During term time students make up one third of the population.

St. Andrews is also known as the "home of golf," partly because the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is the one who have legislative authority over the game worldwide (except the US and Mexico). Golf doesn't really interest me though, I went to see the old Cathedral.

St Andrews Cathedral is now a ruin. It is a Roman Catholic cathedral built in 1158. It fell into disuse and ruin when Catholic mass was banned in the 16th century. The ruins indicate that the Cathedral was over 100 meters long, and it is the largest church ever built in Scotland.

I wandered around the grave yard and the ruins of the cathedral.

Some of the grave markers were embedded into the wall. I think it made them seem really old.  

Suddenly, Aslan being killed on a stone table made a lot more sense.

This is St Rule's tower, and I think it predates the church.
You could go inside but I didn't have the time or know where to buy a ticket.

The picture above and below is the entrance to the cathedral, before and now. 

There were also some castle ruins nearby, but I didn't have the time to look at them. Maybe some other time.

Scotland!

I'm finally here! In Glasgow, Scotland, and I have been here about a week.

I arrived last Sunday after leaving halfway through my own convention, Torucon. That was all I could think of, the week leading up to Torucon, that I would have to leave and my fellow leaders would have to tidy up after the con without me. But they did a fabulous job wrapping up and I hope everybody had a good time.

So, last Sunday, I left from Værnes airport at 6 pm and flew directly to London. Here my dad and I collected our luggage and crossed half of Gatwick to get to the terminal our British Airways flight was leaving from. I'm glad we had about two hours at Gatwick to find our way and eat, because half the time I had no idea where we were going. Next time I'm going home I will try to look for an alternative that doesn't involve changing flight companies halfway through the journey.

British Airways felt more like Shabby Airways on our 1h 20min flight to Glasgow. The seats were run down and uncomfortable, and everything with the exterior and interior felt 20 years old. But it got us up in the air and down again at Glasgow.

Arriving in Glasgow at about 11:30 pm we planned on taking a taxi, because we had no idea when and if an airport bus was leaving and if it would stop by our hotel. What we wasn't expecting was the taxi queue. There was no airport bus in sight and our whole flight seemed to have the same idea as us. We were a little late exiting the terminal, as we wanted to look at some brochures first. As a result we ended up at the back of the line. There was a bus arriving about ten minutes into our waiting in line, and about 5 people got on. The rest of us waited for taxis. And even though the taxies were coming and going in a steady stream we waited about 25 minutes for our turn.

We stayed at Devoncove hotel for the night and early monday morning we got up, ate our breakfast and went to the reception at Cairncross House. It was just down the street for the hotel. I got my key and checked out were I was supposed to live for the next year.

I live in a flat in Kelvinhaugh Street, just opposite of Cairncross house. The flat is on the top floor, the fourth floor I would say but I guess the correct way to say it here in the UK is third floor. I share the flat with four others. Two American girls had moved in a few days before me and two more girls moved in yesterday. I believe one is from the US and one is from Hungary. We have our own room and share a kitchen, small living room, a bathroom and a shower room.

My room, upon arrival. (Now, it's already really messy).

My wardrobe. There was a disappointing lack of shelves to put my clothes on, but a trip to IKEA fixed that.
There was a disappointing lack of Narnia too, and a trip to IKEA did certainly not fix that.

My living room and dining room table. 

My kitchen.

Over the last week I have been to information sessions about university life and everything I have to do. Enrolling in classes is not easy, as I can't just go online and sign up for the classes I want, like I'm used to. First I have to find a member of the staff of the subject area I'm taking, be it a tutor, lecturer, professor or class secretary, and get them to sign a form. This is to ensure that my subject area knows that I'm a visiting student and will need to finish my assignment by the end of my study period in Glasgow, or so I'm told. I find it all a cumbersome affair and I am still working on getting it right.

I have also been on a walking tour at the university and a bus tour in the city. I also went on a walking trip into town one morning. From my flat there is a 10-15 min walk to the university and a 25-30 min walk into town. Glasgow is beautiful, and so is the university. Have some pictures:

The University of Glasgow

Kelvingrove art gallery and museum

The art gallery and university is quite close

A church in town.

Another church

Lots of pretty stone buildings.

One of two Tardises I've seen so far.
Glasgow is quite enthusiastic about Doctor Who these days because of the 50th anniversary and the fact that the next Doctor is played by Peter Capaldi, who is from Glasgow.

The central station

Pretty building.

I walked past a shop and stopped dead when I saw this in the window.
Needless to say, I walked in. And bought some Dalek muffin forms. Guess I'll have to do some baking soon.

Over the last two days I have also visited Falkland, St. Andrews and Pitlochry. I will write about those visits quite soon.

Oppgradering av uteområdet: uke 3

For en ukes tid siden ble uteområdet vårt ferdig, og det ser nå riktig flott ut. Her er resten av prosessen

Mandag

Tirsdag, nesten ferdig.

Onsdag, ferdig!

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