Where in the World is Cara?: Big Ben and Willy Wallace

It all began with London.

I left on Friday with a school group to tour the changing of the guards and Buckingham Palace and see Big Ben. Pictures as usual, will not do these places justice. Something about the architecture of this city just takes my breath away every time I visit it.

This is Buckingham Palace, where the Queen herself is said to live. There is a flag that is raised over the palace if she is in. But whether or not shes in the country or in the palace itself isn't very clear. I think this is for security reasons. However, Queen or not the changing of the guards still takes place. I had the wonderful opportunity take part in the tradition of watching the changing of the guards.

...which I was unable to get a photo of. Believe it or not there are a ton of tourists that like to see this everyday (sarcasm). There were so many people it was almost impossible to get a good photo of the guards actually in their march and trading places with one another. But I did manage to get a photo of a guard... just guarding.

They aren't allowed to express any emotions at all, originally I thought they weren't allowed to move or react at all. But they are allowed to look around and hold the horse, but they will not speak or move their face to acknowledge you in any way. The ones that have the black plumed hats are the ones that march on foot out in front of the palace and the ones that ride horses have slightly different uniforms.

So I may have overdone it on the photos of Big Ben, but I have waited a really long time to see it! England truly loves clocks in their architecture and you see it in Scotland as well, so I kept wondering what could be so special abut Big Ben, its just another clock right? Wrong. This clock tower is HUGE and if you look closely you can see that it is coated with a bit of gold around the clock face. It stands tall above the houses of Parliament and overlooks the River of Thames. It is incredible seeing in person, and I couldn't even bring the camera to my face at first because I simply couldn't take my eyes away from it. It is called Big Ben because of the bell inside the tower. The true origin of the name Ben isn't entirely known but people believe that it was named after the tower commissioner Sir Benjamin Hall.

Speaking of the River of Thames, looking away from Big Ben you see this lovely view:

After spending the day in London I left my tour group as they headed back to campus and wandered around the city until I found the bus stop that would take me to Scotland. I think that my favorite moments in my travels are the little explorations and asking people for directions with all of your clothes and necessities in your backpack and completely self sufficient. It is an amazingly adventurous feeling and something I will miss when I go back home.

The ride to Scotland started late at about 9pm and we didn't arrive until about 8 in the morning. I had the luxury of sitting in the first row of the top of the double decker coach, so there was nothing obstructing my view when I first opened my eyes and saw the beautiful emerald hills of Scotland. I will never in my life forget the first time I saw Scotland. It is by far the most beautiful place that I have ever been, and to anyone reading this I completely recommend taking a trip if you ever get the chance.

The first place we visited when we arrived to Scotland was the city of Edinburgh where we climbed to the top of a hill to get a better view of the city:

We climbed down to the city of Edinburgh where I met a bagpiper! He was really friendly, and wearing his family tartan. Everyone with a Scottish clan background in Edinburgh wore their tartans proudly and there were numerous clan heritage shops everywhere you looked. (A tartan is the woolen cloth plaid pattern you see in the below photo)

I even found myself! Actually I found myself a lot. The name Baird is surprisingly popular in the area and I was so excited to find so many things with my surname on them! I found out that there are two famous Bairds that came from Scotland. The first was John Logie Baird who invented the television and the first color television. The second was Sir David Baird who was a general in the British army who died August 18, 1829 (my birthday is August 18, 1993) just thought that was interesting...

I also happened to randomly find a Baird family tombstone while on a ghost tour of the lanes late one night in Edinburgh

Seeing my name everywhere was pretty cool considering I don't have a name like Smith so it isn't normally everywhere I look. I got so excited to see my family crest everywhere, and in the Edinburgh castle I met two specialists that told me all about my origins in the country too.

I made some amazing friendships while I was touring Scotland. I made friends with people from Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Mexico (to name a few). They were so much fun and hanging out with them for four days straight really showed me that it doesn't matter where in the world you come from or the differences in your background you really are all the same. It was such an incredible experience meeting them and learning from them. My friend Yenar on the left spoke four languages (maybe more) he could turn to the girls next to me and speak Turkish, then to the people behind us and speak Russian, and then turn to speak to me. It was really fun meeting a person like that. I have noticed that on this side of the world it is very rare to meet a person that only speaks one language, many schools require students to learn English in addition to another language. I think this is because so many countries are close together without a large separation of water (like we do from them) that they are basically required to learn more languages to communicate.

I started learning a few words from my Turkey friends (and my Khazak friend) while we had free time on the bus or just walking around.

This is my cheat sheet :)

And bagpipers, so many bagpipers while I was here. Flaming Bagpipers, Canadian bagpipers, and Flaming Canadian Bagpipers (this is for you Marc and Jonny)

Okay just kidding about the Flaming Canadian Bagpipers. But I got the opportunity to meet an amazing group of students (I think they're all students) that were staying at the same school I was during my weekend stay in Edinburgh. I met them in front of the Baird House (told you its on everything) and they invited me to hang out for an evening. This group of Bagpipers from Canada were staying in Edinburgh to perform in the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo which is televised in at least 30 countries. They have performed in Paris and other countries as well, I didn't get to hear them play but I got to party with them and they were so much fun to get to know!

And here comes the guts of this post. I tried the dish Haggis for the first time and probably not last. Haggis was a delicious mash up of potatoes, meat, and oats that was very tender. That tenderness is probably due to the fact that the meat in this dish is sheep liver, lungs, and heart served with a whisky sauce from a local distillery. I genuinely wasn't sure if I was going to like this but I was not about to come all this way and NOT try it. And I am happy I did, I would definitely get it again.

Finally at the end of our beautiful exploration of the emerald country (its actually part of England and voting for Independence in September) we arrived at the William Wallace Monument. Placed to commemorate Willy Wallace that defended Scotland from England back in 1297 and the appointed Guardian Of Scotland and the movie Braveheart is about him (although its apparently incredibly inaccurate).