Photos and First Few Days in Scotland in Brief

Most pictures from Scotland are up on flickr, fyi, in several sets accessible on the right side, split up by days. And almost all of my photos on there are now mapped, using a "geotagging" feature which I think is just dandy for people like me who... like both maps and photography a lot. So, if anybody cares, you can actually see where things took place by looking at my map on flickr, too!

And now, my first few days in Scotland in brief (by my normal standards, at least), as a break from studying.

Day 0: Spending all day traveling, with a successful arrival. Only hiccups were when the customs man in London yelled at me for being American and for messing up the entry form a little bit, and when I thought the airplane being late in Italy made me miss my connecting flight to Edinburgh because I forgot about the time difference and freaked out for a little while as I ran through the airport. However, all went well in the end. Eleanor was nice and picked me up at the airport, and for dinner I had a wonderfully home-tasting meal of a BLT and a milkshake with Eleanor and her Irish flatmate Gareth, before chilling out with the amusing movie "American Splendor."

Day 1: Food shopping! Oh man, I am so jealous of the amount of diversity in Scottish markets - lots of variety of food types, for considerably less money that it is here, even with the pound-euro-dollar differences. One of many things that would occur over the week to make me feel more at home. Then came the German Christmas Market near the Prince's Street Gardens, where they have lots of Christmas-season goings-on. Apparently in Europe, the Germans are the only ones who really know how to do a Christmas Market, or so they say, so a whole bunch of Germans come to Edinburgh with their stalls and food and jewelry and neat little things and set up for a month and a half! Got some decent german food and some traditional mulled wine, talked for a long time, and spent a while looking at the pretty jewelry. Yay.

Then came going to a Buddhism class with Eleanor and seeing the really-old-manuscripts section of the New College (religion/philosophy/etc.) library; wandering around the city; visiting a small vintage store called the Rusty Zip, playing dress-up back at the flat with Eleanor's lots of fun/cute clothes (aka being girly), meeting Eleanor's flatmates and her friends Zoe and Mark; getting a chance to webcam for a little with my brother Alex; making dinner and hanging out talking for a long time. We intended to go dancing at Caberet Voltaire... and had too much fun talking until late. Fortunately or unfortunately, this became a trend for the week, and I was regularly too tired to go out past midnight. Not an easy schedule for me, probably to my brother's disappointment (he wanted me to see Cab Volt while there). O well. At least hanging out with new, lively, friendly and interesting people was a relief from my quiet life here in Italy.

Day 2: Heading up to St. Andrews to see Zoe, a friend and suitemate of mine from Arabic School, who is a Vermonter but goes to undergrad at St. Andrews all year round. It's a cute, little, medieval fishing/pilgrimage town, with lots of fantastic ruins just above the shore of the North Sea. There are only three main streets (whose shops oddly enough reminded me of Denville, near home in NJ, or of Middlebury), plus the university, the fishing neighborhoods and the ruins of the medieval cathedral, chapel, castle and some other things, which have whole walls missing and then a single wall or tower just rising up from the earth. They were as though ghost buildings, beautiful skeletons. A storm was brewing up and it rained on and off all afternoon, which unfortunately precluded some intended destinations, but the rain, wind and clouds just made the whole place more surreal and the ruins on the crashing sea the more wild and intriguing. So awesome, in several senses of the word. It was also great to see Zoe and get to catch up for the whole afternoon, talking over tea and Indian food and as we wandered through the very-much-ruins of the epic cathedral. I'm really glad I got to see her while in Scotland, even if it was just for one day. Feeling welcomed by friends was a constant and very key highlight to the trip, and was very comforting.

Day 3: A very full day. Started out with a trip to the Farmer's Market, which was down below the Grassmarket and near the foot of the cliff on which the Castle sits. Much of the food was quite tempting-looking, but we went for some porridge for breakfast. Wow was it good. Raspberries and oats and cream and I don't remember what all, but a good way to start the day. Next was Armstrongs, this enoooormous vintage store in the Grassmarket. Old clothes and accessories from the 1800s through to the 70s, although mainly, from what it appeared, from the early 20th century. More fragile or really unusual and not for sale items were hanging from the ceiling, so the store feels a whirlwind den of weird, colorful old things. SO MUCH COOL STUFF. We had fun playing dress up and digging up cool things from the racks for quite some time. This place would be a LARPers dream-store, I expect. I need to get the pictures of this morning from Eleanor at some point, since my camera was out of batteries, but that's the only point that I don't have, I think.

Afterwards, Eleanor had to study for an exam she had on the coming Monday, so I went off on my own to climb Arthur's Seat, the massive volcanic rock and heath-covered mound rising up in the middle of the city, on the side near the Firth of Forth (the bay-ish stretch of the North Sea reaching into the island near Edinburgh). There are several paths of various difficulties that wind back and forth up the rocky hill, and which lead to the grassy hillocks of the plateau at the top. The sun was starting to go down as I went up (not long after 3 pm...), which meant that I got some fantastic views of Edinburgh and this gorgeous sunset from the rocky volcanic highest point, where I hung out for a while with some other hikers and ravens braving the wind for the sake of the sunset.

The downside of seeing the sunset from the top, that I didn't think of until too late, was having to make my way down (the much smoother backside through a valley and past a ruined chapel!) in the near-dark, but luckily there were other people around and no problems. But I'm really glad I got to make it back up there (my dad, brother Alex and I climbed it last spring, too). I've discovered this fall something of a love for climbing iconic tall points in cities - it's exhilirating and brings great views! I think I want to hike more often once back in the States again, although nothing too intense for little me. I do go to school in Vermont, after all; why not take better advantage of the landscape?

But the busy day wasn't over yet! Eleanor, her friend Natasha (who I'd met for a while sometime earlier in the trip) and I went ice skating in the Prince's Street Gardens Christmas ice rink. They hadn't cleaned up the skater-shavings for several hours, so there was an odd layer of "snow" over the whole rink, and it was kind of crowded, but besides that it was quite fun! Last winter, I tried ice skating for the first time, and am glad that I did so, because I'm kind of awkward still but can do it without falling at all and definitely enjoy myself. We met up with Leah and Mary Katherine briefly afterwards, but they had had a long day of walking (with seeing an exciting penguin march at the zoo!) and were ready for an early night, and so I ended up back at Eleanor's flat to watch the strange but very funny movie "Wet, Hot American Summer" with her and Natasha, at the recommendation of the movie-store guy. (We hadn't intended to watch two "typical American (fill-in-the-blank) experience" movies, but ended up doing so somehow, I just realized). A relaxing way to end the day.

Days 4, 5 and 6: Coming Soon.

Immediate plans:

Well, I should get back to trying to be productive soon. This is going to be a very very busy week (after the last month of being quite busy but feeling unproductive and a lack of posting, sorry about that!), but I will do my best at writing about the other few days in Scotland and how life has been in general. My family (parents and Alex) are coming next Monday to Italy for over a week for Christmas, and I am sooooo looking forward to it.

I had been thinking of going to Rome next weekend for a short visit, since I haven't made it there at all yet, but cousin Gina has proposed, if things work out for her, staying with her and going for a short ski trip - over the border into Austria! Which would also be exciting. So, either way, once I make it through this busy week (and hopefully get some important things worked on), I will get to have a much-looked-forward-to vacation for a bit of time before the crazy exam month of January. That last bit I'm not eager about, as I don't feel at all prepared. I've learned a ton this term about emotionally taking care of and living by myself in a new environment, and some more Italian, of course, but very little academically, less than I need to know for exams (which is partly my fault, partly my language skills, partly the confusing set up here and how difficult it is to get books). I know that learning to take care of myself and learning about myself is the more important thing by far and what I care about more, but I'd like to do ok on exams, as the grades do actually count for Middlebury... I'll just have to keep plugging along with this frustrating university. Almost there! Almost there! Just keep swimming...

This has been a good experience over all, this fall, but I will be quite glad to get home. And in the meantime, I will be sooo happy to see my family next week. Ok. Back to work.

We're back in Ferrara. The trip over this last week was great; the way back here last night was super long and kind of sketchy, but it all worked out in the end. There will be more later when I have the time and energy. Just wanted to make it known that all is ok.

Arthur's Seat at sunset= awesome. So do friends. And tea. And backrubs. And Christmas trees. And stone buildings. And quirky massive vintage stores. And good (non-Italian!) food. And friends. And dancing. And ice skating. And English (especially with awesome English/Scottish/Irish accents). And conversations. And friends. And Scotland, in general.

In truth, I don't want to leave tomorrow.

Second Day Back in Scotland

I am tired and don't have the energy for a real post right now, so instead I will let you all know that I made it safely to Scotland, having been staying with Eleanor, and been having a good time. I will leave you with three good things from today:

1) Eleanor is a fantastic human being, and I can feel both chill and have much fun when hanging out with her and her friends.
2) Gorgeous Scottish landscapes and architecture. Man, this place feels so comforting to me, even if I can't quite say why. I'm glad to be here.
3) Going up to St. Andrews to see Zoe; ruuuuuuuiiiins on the shore of the North Sea, and the hints of a wicked wild storm brewing up from the ocean as we walked through said medieval ruins, with the waves crashing beautifully in the growing dark and wind - as I, most importantly, got to catch up with a friend.

My photos in a news article?

So, I was just asked by an internet news website (admittedly, one I've never heard of before) for permission to use some of my photos of the Ferrara Christmas Market. It's not the New York Times or anything big, and I wouldn't say they are the best photos I've taken here, but I have to say it makes me feel cool that someone asked to use my photos in their article! It's on green holiday eating and using local produce, which is probably why the Ferrara market is relevant.

Update on Siena

Last Saturday, we went to Siena for the day, we being most of us Middkids in Ferrara, a handful of those in Florence, and the graduate students in Midd’s School in Italy. The trip was organized and sponsered by Middlebury, which on one hand is nice because it means being reimbursed and going somewhere I might not have otherwise. (It was a neat city, which I’ll get to in a minute. I need to gripe a little first…)

Warning: Complaining ahead.
On the other hand, the trip was actually a field trip for the grad students’ art history class, onto which we were just tagged without any consideration for the difficulty of getting there from Ferrara on their schedule (leaving very early and getting back very late), or for our level of interest in the professor who was giving the tour. I’m an art history major, as most of you already know, but I was very bored with the tour guide, regardless of it being “related” to my major. The trip had been advertised to us as a tour around the whole city, focusing on the history and a wide variety of places around said city. That would have probably been really cool, since Siena seemed like a pretty place with quite a lot of history.

False advertising it was – we spent the day in the Duomo (cathedral) and the Pinacoteca (national museum), being told either waaay too much detail to be interesting to most of us or being told what was quality and what wasn’t, instead of “letting” us have our own thoughts. Almost no history or context, mainly just judgements and repeated phrases, barely an intelligent observation – he kept telling us, this is notable, this is realistic and is therefore beautiful, this is abstract and therefore not worth looking at, this has good “light play”, this is good quality, this is medieval and therefore bad quality – NOT A WAY TO LEAD A TOUR. I’m not an expert in tour giving by any means and have only given a few museum tours (although I volunteered with a program at the college museum last year whose purpose is education and tours in museums, so I’ve thought about the process quite a bit). But I do think I have enough of a brain and teaching/tour-giving experience to appreciate when a guide engages the listeners (there are a number of ways to do so, of course) and be disappointed when they don’t. I was generally annoyed at the guide’s teaching methods and kept wandering away to look at things I prefered before being ushered into the next room to spend another 10 minutes with him babbling at us about a single image and saying nothing. I think he noticed my disdain, but whatever- he didn’t deserve my time and attention. Grrr.

In other words, it kept feeling like the Midd School in Italy (which is run by Italians, of course) was being cheap and lazy instead of giving us our own trip fitted to our level, interests and locations, and I don’t think they’re doing any other trips for us, unlike the several, more organized-sounding trips I’ve heard about from Middkids in other countries abroad. *cue minor jealousy* O well, that’s just the way it is!

More positive snapshots of Siena and Thoughts on Landscape
We got a little bit of time over lunch to do our own thing, luckily, and Leah and I went wandering around the city. (I’ve decided that wandering and exploring is one of my favorite hobbies, especially with so much new to see while here!) The city sits on a handful of tightly packed hills amidst the rolling Tuscan landscape. This gives it the feeling of being stacked, layered, pieced together like a 3d puzzle, or at least it does when you chance upon a view down a valley-side street or over the roofs. I love the visual and physical character of towns like that (I remember Edinburgh had a few cool views like that, since it is also on a series of hills, but because it’s more built up, I don’t think they were quite as clear.) This was definitely my favorite part of the city.

The open flats of the Pianura Padana floodplain I’m in here in Ferrara have mainly stopped feeling disconcerting; I’ve always loved wide horizons and the chance to see the sky, although because when I’m out on the pianura I’m generally in a train or I’m in a city with the horizon blocked by buildings, I haven’t had a chance to take much advantage of that for cloud watching, and have seen maybe 10 stars total since coming to Italy, none of which I saw from Ferrara (sadness!) However, traveling to regions of hills, forests, mountains, any variety in the landscape is inexpressibly comforting to me, whether it be in Tuscany or Friuli-Venezia-Giulia or the Veneto. I most miss the hills and forests (and mountains!) of Vermont and North Jersey, I miss our lake in my hometown, I miss the shores and ocean and salty smells of South Jersey, and I never would have thought I’d say this as it’s weird and surprising, but I kind of miss highways, or at least being in a car on long roads that you know are well maintained and can take you where you want to go. That last one I realized when I went to visit Will in Mainz and had to spend time on buses between cities. The lack of hills and forests has been weirding me out for the last 2 and a half months, frankly, even if I’m much more used to it by now. In short, I might have trouble living comfortably in most states of the US. It’s amazing how much landscape can get imbedded in your sense of a comforting world, of what so deeply feels right or unsettling.

Back to Siena: It seems that the architecture of every town I’ve been to has its own details differentiating it from the others (pictures are better for that than words, so I leave you to my flickr), along with different personalities that I pick up on (whether accurately or not I will never know) from the stores, the amount and friendliness of people interacting in the streets or just hanging out or completely ignoring everyone and everything, the level of bustle of the town. It’s very fun to observe these differences everywhere I go, although I haven’t spent enough time in any city but Ferrara to get much conclusion out of it. There were a lot of people just hanging out in the larger piazzas in Siena, even during the “pausa” – the Italian version of the well-known Spanish siesta, where shops shut down and everyone goes to eat and sleep for a few hours in the middle of the afternoon. It was certainly quieter than Florence and busier than Ferrara, though that’s not very hard to do on either account. A lot of ceramic tchotchke shops and stores selling wines, breads, meats, and of course gelato, etc. Winding streets and palm trees. Striped (zebrato – yes, like a zebra!) buildings. Many statues of baby Romulus and Remus with their mother wolf, apparently a mascot of not just Rome but Siena and several other nearby cities. Medieval icons, a Renaissance master named Duccio and Baroque extravagant interiors. Hills. Chianti Classico wine. Siena. Cool town, not the best day trip, but cool town. I think I’m glad I went.

And because I like lists and this blog has a lot to do with traveling anyway:
Places I’ve been up till now: Ferrara, Comacchio, Venezia, Firenze, Sacile, Aviano, the Dolomite foothills, Gargazo (the last 4 are in my cousin Gina’s area), Siena and Padova in Italy, and Mainz in Germany.

Places to visit in mainland Italy: Ravenna, Bologna, Rome, maybe Codigoro and Trieste/Duino (where Remy is at the UWC), skiing - hopefully in the Alps - with my family.

Ideas for places to visit in Sicily: Palermo, Siracusa, Leonforte, Mt. Etna.

Elsewhere in Europe: Scotland (in less than two weeks!), and maybe a few other places if I have time and money, but going to Sicily is a higher priority at the moment, so any other trips are on the backburner of merely brainstorming and might end up staying there. I’ve been recommended Vienna, Prague, Switzerland, among a few other places. But we’ll see. I’m just glad that traveling from Ferrara is pretty easy and economical in general! Also, I don’t know how we’ll be doing this, but Hannah R. and I will find some way to meet up during January, whether in Ireland or in Italy or elsewhere, I don’t know, but as I don’t want to go a full year without my dear friend Hannah, I’ll be eager to see her again.

I’ve begun planning my trip to Sicily, which has made me super excited. I’m thinking of going during the first week of January, visit the chapel on which I’m thinking of basing my senior thesis, visit our relatives in Leonforte, see the ruins in Siracusa and ancient amphitheater and climb Mt. Etna (volcano!) at the very least. I don’t know if I’ll have time/money to make it anywhere else while down there, but I could be satisfied with this beginning. I need to find safe but economical places to stay, and have found some useful-looking leads on convents that rent out rooms, which would be both a distinctly interesting Italian experience and a safe way to avoid dangerous hotels or way-too-expensive resorts.

I really like traveling and being someplace new. I like learning about this culture with which I’ve grown up but not really, as my Italian great-grandparents didn’t speak Italian to my grandmother and wanted to be as American as possible, but left behind for our family a pride in being Italian-American that my experiences here have challenged and highlighted in unexpectable ways. I’m sure I’m missing out on a lot of aspects of what it could be like to live in Italy, even what it could be like living with students here in Ferrara – but there’s only so much I can do in 5 months, and I do feel like I’m getting a lot out of my time here and learning a lot about myself. And even if there are problems with Italy and many frustrations along the way, all in all life is good.
Now, time to go to my last class period of Emilia Romagna art history! Comments about Padova and general life will be written up sometime later. Have a good afternoon all!

Yesterday I went to Padova with Rachel, which was a fun trip. I'm currently writing up about Siena and Padova, but here are some pictures in the meantime. Also, pictures from Padova are up on flickr.

Basilica di San Antonio - Nov. 20

And now, some more daily photos from around Ferrara:

Worn out lion doorknocker. Nov. 19

Old men hanging out in the piazza for their evening chat. Nov. 18

Large floor and stalls being set up in the piazza for the "Festa del regalo" or Festival of Gifts. I assume this means Christmasy things filling the piazza in short order, given the merchandise I've already seen working it's way into these stalls. Nov. 17