40 Pubs - But Where Can We Go To Dance?

A new week is about to begin and, as usual, I cannot explain how quickly the last few days went by. Thursday was the History Society pub crawl and I definitely had a grand old time. I did find an outfit for the "Summer of '69" which consisted of a long brown, kind of floral print-ish dress with a vest and butterfly belt, very round sunglasses and a lei to go around my head. Most of my other friends went as the spandex-fabulous 80s, though I think the 60s and the 20s came in at a close 2nd. I guess the 80s were probably the easiest because a lot of the styles from the eighties are coming back (that's slightly frightening). We made some new friends as we crawled from pub to pub - I think we went to 6 or 7 in all - and also bonded with some people while we queued (aka stood in a big, long line) for the main event in the student union. The following pictures are not my own because I didn't take any for some reason.

My cute friend Stacey and me in costume (which is called "fancy dress" here) pre-pub crawling.

Kara, Stacey and me at the Potterrow (part of the student union) with a guy who actually painted himself green so he could seem more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-like. I think several of the societies and clubs were having pub crawls that night with various themes and everyone assembled at Potterrow for the final bit. That meant EVERYONE was dressed up and looking very fabulous.

On Friday a group of us went to St. Andrews to visit a friend of Kara's who attends there as a regular full-time student (not a just a semester/year abroad). The city is named St. Andrews because St. Rule allegedly brought with him the relics of Saint Andrew himself to the small fishing community when he was washed up onto the shore after his ship wrecked. The relics were placed in St. Andrews Cathedral after its construction but the whereabouts of those relics are not known now. We had a great time that night but St. Andrews just doesn't have the same night scene as Edinburgh. There are a lot of pubs (40 in that one small town) but no clubs... not "real" clubs at least. We mingled and met lots of people but I'm very glad I chose to come to Edinburgh. On Saturday Kara's friend gave us a tour of the city (which you can easily do in a few hours). We saw the ruins of St. Andrew's Cathedral, St. Rule's Tower, the beautiful beaches and North Sea, the first golf course EVER (called the Old Course) and much more. Kara's friend also showed us where Prince William and Emma Watson (Hermione from the Harry Potter films who currently goes to school at St. Andrews) lived during the school year. The University of St. Andrews has a lot of old traditions and history, meaning I loved it! Don't get me wrong, Edinburgh has a massive amount of history too, but the old time traditions are something that I haven't really come across yet, at least not at the University. I guess St. Andrews is the third oldest university in the Britain and the oldest university in Scotland so it is only natural that - being the first - they would have a ton of old, established traditions. After several hours of shameless tourist behavior, we left on the train for Edinburgh.

Ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral. It is enormous and it was a gorgeous day so everything looked spectacular!

St. Rule's Tower (on the left) and the ruins of the Cathedral. The ruins are now used as a graveyard. Most of the tombstones are from the 1800s onwards. They were sad but beautiful.

View of the ruins of St. Andrews Castle from the pier.

The Old Course - the first golf course ever! The wait to play this course can be up to two years! The golf club is very exclusive and only for the extremely wealthy (I believe you have to bring a bank statement confirming your funds in order to even be considered). Golf began when farmers got bored during their commutes from town to their farms. They would hit acorns across the wide fields and predict how many hits it would take them to get that acorn to a certain point in the field (par). From there the sport evolved and gained popularity. I believe there are 5 (maybe 6) golf courses in St. Andrews.

This beach is where that famous "Chariots of Fire" opening scene was filmed (the Old Course is also featured in that opening sequence). This beach is the absolutely enormous, especially at low tide. It is also the view from the Old Course.

This is the exact spot where Patrick Hamilton was burned at the stake as a heretic for his Protestant beliefs. It was raining when they burned him so it took him 7 hours to die. They say that if a student steps on these letters they will fail all their exams and never graduate. This myth is taken very seriously and the letters are intentionally avoided by all students.

I don't know if you can see it but there is a face in the middle stone (the 5th stone up if you're counting from the bottom of the picture). I think if you click the picture you can see a larger image. It is allegedly the face of Patrick Hamilton because the face first appeared after the smoke from Hamilton's burning cleared. It is looming and quite scary.

Last night a group of us went to The Tron to see our new favorite band, "White Heath." After their show we approached them and found out which of them found and commented on my little blog. We introduced ourselves, chatted for a bit and bought their CD (they only charged a pound... I think they should up that to at least 2!). We assured them that we would be back and decided (without the consent of any band members) that we would become their new best friends.

I know I've been here for a little more than a month but I feel like things are just getting started. We've finally met people who actually go to school at the university (and, therefore, are not American) and those people are not freshers! Yay for people who are our age! Time is passing so quickly and I still feel like I have so much I want to do. I'm sure things can only get better (cross your fingers)!