Sunshine, Stirling, and Stairs

Saturday was sunny! Nearly all day even! Which was lucky for us since we spent a lot of it outside.

We met John outside our flats Saturday morning for a walk through a new part of Glasgow. We walked down High Street getting bits of Glaswegian history along the way and eventually came to the Glasgow Green. The Glasgow Green is one of my favorite places in Glasgow so far. It's a large park made up of huge fields of grass, elegant lines of trees, and several historical monuments. However these monuments weren't all for war heroes and politicians - they were for more localized citizens and popular movements specific to Glasgow. There was even one for those who opposed the first World War, which I thought was especially fascinating. My favorite monument was to the women of the Temperance Movement given the irony of temperance in a country with such an emphasis on drinking in its culture.

The monument to the Temperance Movement in Glasgow Green

The Glasgow Green also shares a space with something called the People's Palace, another testament to the importance of the people themselves to Glasgow's identity. The People's Palace is a rather small museum devoted to the history of the people of Glasgow themselves. The exhibit details marriages throughout Glaswegian history, what school was like, the Temperance Movement, what jail was like, a favorite dance, homosexual history - it was all a lovely testament to the identity of Glasgow. The people of Glasgow are so embraced by their own city that the city's slogan itself is "People Make Glasgow" - which as Neil (our student ambassador) pointed out to us, is quite brilliant since you can add any word to the end of that phrase as well such as "People make Glasgow...musical" or "smart" or "beautiful" etc.

The People's Palace - quite literally named, clearly

The Commonwealth Games (an every four year sports affair at which all British Commenwealths, including former ones, compete against one another) were held in Glasgow last year, and this was their mascot, Clyde. He serves as another example of Glaswegian identity and pride. 

Outside the People's Palace is a lovely Terracotta Fountain (the largest in the world actually!) called the Doulton Fountain. On top sits Queen Victoria looking out on her empire. This domineering statue of Queen Victoria is all over the city and apparently was erected during Britain's imperialistic moment in history as a symbol of the empire. Part of me wonders what would happen to these imperialistic images if Scottish Independence were to occur - but another part acknowledges that Scotland deeply values its history, and would probably keep them in place as a testament to their past and the massive legacy of English rule they had to overcome to be independence.

All of us outside the Doulton Fountain

After the People's Palace we got some lunch at a lovely pub nearby that supposedly sold the best beer in Glasgow - ironically it's German beer - but the food was certainly lovely.

After lunch, Neil brought us to the Merchant City Festival. We are so lucky to be in Glasgow for this festival. It is such an excellent representation of Glaswegian culture. Everyone is out and about on the streets looking in on the booths that are all completely decked out with either delicious deserts, crazy food, or little Scottish trinkets. I have never seen a more extensive street festival in all my life. We all had a lovely time exploring and talking with the vendors, trying amazing deserts and enjoying the musicians on the street. By the way, every single time we've been on the streets of Glasgow, there's always a street musician playing. From all ages and all types of music, there hasn't been one time without music - a lovely testament to the artisticness and creativity that is bursting from this city through every outlet whether it be music, film or theatre.

The Merchant City Festival in Glasgow

I was super excited to see the spread at the dessert booths - who knew Turkish Delight was actually delightful?

Although the music and the festivals are pretty grand, there is one thing I love even more about Glasgow - the police boxes. People, the Doctor could land the TARDIS in this city and no one would find it even remotely out of place. There are police boxes of every color throughout the entire city, although I like the blue ones best.

Me with a green TARDIS

Me with THE REAL TARDIS - shame on all the nonbelievers

After spending hours exploring the Merchant City Festival, we headed home to get some rest.

On Sunday, we all kind of split up and did our own things. History nerds as we are, Liam and I decided heading to Stirling was our top priority. As you might recall, Stirling is the location of the ever important Battle of Stirling BRIDGE - that's right Mel Gibson, the Battle of Stirling BRIDGE was on a bridge. Of course, it fell during the battle, so it's no longer there, but we were super duper close to where it was! By the way, all the Braveheart debunks are on a previous blog post - do take a peak if you haven't already. It's important.

Right, so Liam and I took a quick train to Stirling and were quickly smitten with the small town. It's quite historical. It even has little blue and gold signs throughout the whole place explaining the historical significance of old churches, buildings and bridges. Naturally, we loved that. We were a tad hungry when we arrived, and happened upon LORD DARNLEY'S HOUSE. If you don't recall, Lord Darnley was Mary Queen of Scots's second husband -- you know, the one that flew into murderous rages on occasion and killed David Rizzio in front of his very pregnant wife that one time. Good stuff. Anyway, it's casually been turned into a coffee house aptly titled "Darnley Coffee House." Naturally, Liam and I chose this place to stop for a bite. It was quite small with a couple decently sized rooms and the characteristic short doorways. It was a perfect start to our history-filled day.

The Darnley Coffee House - Lord Darnley's actual house

After our lunch, we headed up a hill and happened upon an awesome-looking church. Classic Scotland. We peaked inside and discovered it is the Church of the Holy Rude which Mary Queen of Scots worshipped in and John Knox preached in! We were tweaking with excitement.

Church of the Holy Rude

Inside the Church of the Holy Rude

After poking around the Church, we walked up the road to Stirling Castle itself. Wow, there was a lot of history in this building. It's been sieged 16 times - half of which are by the English and the other half by the Scottish trying to take it back from the English. It's switched hands between the two many times and it's all rather confusing. Mary Queen of Scots along with several other important royals had been baptized in that very church and many of the James's (James V, James VI/I etc.) lived there as well! The decor was fantastic and we really loved our tour guide. He liked his sound effects - especially shouting "BOOM....BOOM BOOM!" when discussing castle sieges. My favorite part was a huge room they call the "great hall" used to host parties by the likes of Mary Queen of Scots herself. Our tour guide told us that she once hosted a three day party that required her to take out the equivalent of 12 million pounds in that very room.

Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle

Chilling on the throne in the room where Mary Queen of Scots threw down

The most interesting part of the castle was that it was essentially completely restored to how it might have been in the 17th century and earlier. In fact, the castle had been used by the military up until 1964 which is when Historic Scotland began to restore it. So the inside of the castle was very cartoonish in its bright colors and restored decor. It was kind of an odd effect since it looked so new but was trying to replicate something so old.

An example of one of the restored rooms - check out that cartoon-like ceiling!

The biggest benefit of Stirling Castle, I think, are the views. It sits on a hill, so the views of Stirling were absolutely breathtaking.

After finishing up at the castle, Liam and I were left with about 3 hours until our train left. He was feeling very ambitious and somehow convinced me that we could go all the way to the Wallace Monument and back in time for the train - I was skeptical, but I'm very glad he convinced me. It was well worth the mile or so it took to hike there...and uphill, I might add.

The view of Wallace Monument from Stirling Castle

 So we hiked across the river - yup, the very river that the English had to cross on the BRIDGE to meet William Wallace and the Scots at the Battle of Stirling BRIDGE. Did I mention it happened on a bridge? Silly Braveheart. Anywho, Liam and I crossed a bridge (not the bridge...remember, that one fell during the battle) near where the bridge once was and soaked in the historical moment. We found some monuments to the battle and made our way to the castle-like monument that commemorated it all.

Me on a bridge, not the bridge, near where the Battle of Stirling took place

By the way, the whole town of Stirling, unsurprisingly probably, is devoted to William Wallace and that battle. Something on nearly every block is titled "Wallace This" and "Wallace That" - which is quite charming actually. Again, a lovely representation of the differing identities of each Scottish city, but how each one fully embraces their identity.

Right, so we made our way to the Wallace Monument and ended up climbing to the very top. Guess how many steps there are? I'll save you the time, it's 273. Let me show you what the 273 steps look like:

Imagine climbing 273 of these tiny steps on a spiral staircase - if I didn't know what dizzy felt like before, I know now

The crazy staircase was totally worth the top though. Even though there was crazy amounts of wind and quite a bit of rain, the views from the top of the Wallace Monument were absolutely stunning, and the struggle it took to get there certainly made us consider the struggle Scotland has been through for greater independence and arguably still goes through today.

The Wallace Monument up close

As I said, the top of the monument is quite windy and a tad damp

The view from the top of the Wallace Monument

After our rather exhausting climb up and down the 273 stairs, Liam and I were ready to head home on the train and get back to our lovely warm beds in Glasgow.

That's all for now! Cheers till the next one :)