Isle of May

So, Friday (i.e. yesterday) I got up at some horrible hour in the morning, and walked to Waverley train station to meet up with Thomas at 6:45am. We were on a tight schedule:

7:06-8:09	Scotrail train, Edinburgh -> Leuchars
8:34-8:45	Stagecoach bus #99, Leuchars -> St. Andrews
8:55-9:16	Stagecoach bus #X26, St. Andrews -> Anstruther
10:00	Isle of May Ferry to The May, weather permitting

Of course, I got so absorbed in my knitting (and Thomas was asleep) that I missed our train stop at Leuchars and we ended up in Dundee. Somehow, we made it back to Leuchars in enough time to catch the #99, miss the X26 (and take #95 instead) and board the ferry, which amazingly took off, and even landed at the Isle of May. They cancel some trips due to inclement weather.

More or less, despite my complete airheaded-ness, Thomas and I really lucked out.

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The Isle of May has been a National Nature Reserve since 1956, and during the month of July is home to about a quarter million sea birds...even though it's only 1.5 kilometres long. I really just wanted to go for the puffins, but it ended up being a gorgeous day on the beautiful island which had lots of paths and all sorts of birds. We ended up seeing: arctic terns, shags, puffins, different sorts of gulls, kittiwakes, gannets, gray seals, and one razorbill.

Gray seals hanging around the South Horn. The May is also a breeding ground for seals.

Made curious by the ferry landing, a seal pokes his head above the water and watches us.

The white specks are all terns. I have never seen so many birds in my entire life.

Puffins!!








I think they're awesome.

This cave was full of baby gulls...and parent gulls flying to and from the feeding grounds.

Nestled amongst the cliffside of the cave of baby gulls were these three shags. I think they're shags, anyways.

After the sun showed up, the Isle of May was quite beautiful




Modern castle-style lighthouse

Note the baby gulls in the lower-right corner. They didn't like us standing so close.

That's me standing on a path that goes over/near an undercut cliff. The fabulous silly purple hat I'm wearing is what I was making on the train...it made an appearance in the previous SnB post.

Attacking Terns

By far the best moment of the whole trip was being attacked by nesting Arctic Terns (which is actually why I made/wore a hat). They attack the highest point on your body, so we avoided this by holding rolled up posters in the air, and allowing the terns to attack that. The following photo is Thomas being attacked by two Arctic Terns. They actually pulled some of his hair!!

This scene still makes me laugh hysterically.

After three hours on the isle, we went back to Anstruther. A ranger released a baby puffin onto the water once we were far enough from other birds (that would likely try to eat it). Baby puffins live in burrows in the ground, and when they've had enough, they leave in the middle of the night and go out to sea for three years. Sometimes they get a bit lost and the rangers help them out.


The Isle of May from the Ferry

Anstruther

Anstruther, just another cute fishing village in Fife...with Scottish Tablet ice cream (mmmm...). The weather was nice, so naturally the town was full of old people just off a tour bus.

We returned to St. Andrews and walked along the Old Course for a bit, and then back along the shore. The International Students trip went to St. Andrews last weekend, so I'm not going to put up too many photos of there. Next weekend, the Women's British Open is in St. Andrews Old Course. This weekend the Carnoustie Open was up in...Carnoustie.


St. Andrews Old Course

My hostel was like, half a mile away from town which is somewhat annoying, but I only had to walk there and back twice, so I'm not too upset. £25 did get me my own room though, which is nice.

St. Andrews

After breakfast Thomas and I couldn't resist a chance to play on St. Andrews Women's Course (don't worry, I'm fluent in pompous-ass-ish; "women's course" translates to "miniature golf").




Action shot!


Once I got accustomed to the natural greens, I stopped sucking so much and ended up beating Thomas. It was an easy course.

I find it kinda amusing, the way all golfers' wives dress identically.

We eventually did make it back to Edinburgh, and now I am exhausted. Good night.

SnB

So I went to CityKnitty's SnB again tonight. 'Had myself a "ginger beer" (which I'm quite sure is just ginger ale...but somehow tastier). I spent an hour and a half frogging some oatmeal color shrug I had finished, but didn't fit right. Time to begin again! I've become very Tibetan-monk about my knitting. Finish it, then throw it all away!

An older woman noticed a more exciting yarn in my bag, before I left. A more exciting yarn that has become this goofy hat:

I really like it, despite its ridiculousness.

Weekend Trip

So. I booked it. The most complicated 24 hour trip ever. Why so complicated? Because getting to the Isle of May is apparently a big deal. 7am Friday morning I take a train to Leuchars, then a bus to St. Andrews, and then another bus to Anstruther. If I get to Anstruther before 10am, then I try to get a ticket on the Isle of May Ferry. Otherwise, I head back to St. Andrews and check into my SYHA hostel and try for the 10:45am departure on Saturday.

Yes, I was just at St. Andrews this past weekend, but it's the closest hostel to Anstruther that'll take singles! Now I'll get a chance to see the golf museum and take the Witches tour, lol.

Besides, I like St. Andrews. It has a beach town sort of feel to it.

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My plans were moved up by a day, since I have a former Camden coworker visiting on Sunday. 'Need to be back to Edinburgh by Sunday evening.

Sketchy

Today (or rather, Friday) I received my bank account info. That's right. I'm officially a sketchy person with a bank account in two countries.

Although, as Vito points out, it's not nearly as sketchy as the Cayman Islands. 'Always something to strive for.

6 Bus Trips, One Day

Today I got my money out of my Ridacard bus pass...

Craigmillar Castle

I hopped on a bus going east and went to Craigmillar Castle, a few miles outside of the city. This castle was where Mary Queen of Scots sheltered after the murder of her friend Rizzio, and also where plans were made to murder Mary's husband, Darnley.






Edinburgh Castle can be seen on the hill to the left. There is one smaller hill next to a larger hill on the right. I believe the smaller one is Arthur's Seat.

Just before it began raining (of course) I got on the bus and headed back to the city.

Botanical Gardens

The gardens were nice and green. The only excitement was that I missed my stop the first time, and ended up in a residential part of town by the sea. I figured it out though, and eventually ended up where I meant to be.


There was a very nice/large rock garden, emulating plant terrain in the Himilayas.

I had lunch at the cafe, and then headed back into town (once again).

Harry Potter

Met up with some of the international students to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was good. There was a scene or two they rushed through too much. Death shouldn't be a 5 second thing. Afterwards we attempted to find a pub without a cover, which is tricky on a Saturday night...but we found one. It was full of hen parties, lol. Kinda strange, but whatever.

Falkland Palace, St. Andrews, and Pittenweem

Another International Students trip, another day of quaint villages and crumbling castles.

Falkland (Palace)

First, the quaint village...

Falkland Palace is technically owned by the queen, but it has been under the care of keepers for hundreds of years.

...In 1402 the eldest son of King Robert III of Scotland was imprisoned at Falkland Palace, and died there due to starvation. The Scots have this great culture where it seems that someone important has been murdered at every castle.

It is also the home of the oldest tennis courts in the world. The precursor to lawn tennis, royal tennis (very exciting, I know):

St. Andrews

Next it was onto St. Andrews, the home of golf and the centre of much activity during the Reformation.

Since St. Andrews was the seat of the Bishop (and the seat of Catholicism in Scotland), much violence during the Reformation focused here. Many of the cathedrals have crosses marked on the ground where prominent Reformers had been burned at the stake by the Bishop to prove a point.

The Bishop lived in St. Andrews Castle. At some point in time, the Castle had been overtaken by Reformers and the Bishop's body was thrown into the bottle dungeon. There is an underground siege tunnel that goes from someone's basement to the castle, where the Catholics tried to gain back the castle. The occupiers dug three different tunnels to try and intercept the others. the third was successful.

And then St. Andrews Cathedral...which has been blown down by storms twice, burnt down once, and pillaged in the 16th century. It was once one of the largest and most magnificent cathedrals in Britain.




St. Rules tower, all that remains of the original church.


The view from St. Rules Tower


Only at the seat of the governing body of golf would there be a golf headstone.


???

After being all castle-ed and church-ed out, we went for a walk on the beach (after the castle, we all were essentially let loose on the city, which was very nice). I found some of the most delicious ice cream ever. Vanilla with chunks of butter "tablet" (i.e. butter fudge) in it.


Must pass the Old Course to get to the beach...


St. Andrews from the beach


See, proof that I was there.

Pittenweem

And as a final bonus trip, we stopped at the fishing village of Pittenweem on our way back. Of course, it began to rain. But we had nothing but nice weather earlier in the day, which was very un-Scotland-like.

Arthur's Seat

So. Edinburgh has seven rather large hill-ish mountain-ish things surrounding it. After a fabulous meal at David Bann I headed out to Arthur's Seat, one of the aforementioned seven hill-ish mountain-ish things.

It didn't look too bad from the bottom.

...but that was before I got halfway up and the wine kicked in a second time.

A pretty view during one of my breaks.

There were lots of slugs and snails along my way.

It only took about a half an hour to reach the top, and then I took some pretty photos:

What you see there is the National Monument on Calton Hill. It was supposed to be a model of the Parthenon, but they ran out of money after 12 columns. It has been known to be nicknamed the "shame of Edinburgh".

I determined that perhaps having the smaller glass of wine with my dinner would've been a better idea. Somehow, exercising immediately after it has left me rather impaired all evening.