Monday, June 27, 2011

A Semi-royal Adventure

This past week we visited the beautiful Dunrobin Castle about an hour away from Fortrose.  It's the estate of the Sutherland family, which is cool because we also happen to be from the Sutherland clan.  We wear the same tartan as them, which practically makes us eligible to live in that castle.  It was a very attractive castle and very modern. 

They didn't let us take any pictures inside of it, but they had a lot of interesting interior design.  They had portraits of various family members on all the walls in the castle.  And where there was room they had many deer heads and even a few complete stuffed deers that they had shot.  It was kind of weird, but it certainly added to the slightly eclectic design.  We spent a few hours wandering around the inside of the castle before heading out to the gardens, which are usually one of my favorite parts of castles.  They didn't have any mazes, unfortunately but they did have a gorgeous yard and if you walked all the way back you ended up on the beach.  It was the perfect setting.  A castle on a hill by the beach.  You don't get more perfect than that. 





While we were in the gardens they did a falconry show.  This man had owls, eagles, falcons, and hawks and did a hunting demonstration with all of them.  He even got them to land gently on different people's heads.  IT was quite interesting.
     After the falconry demonstration we visited the museum they had on the edge of the grounds.  I don't know what I was expecting, but my first glance around as I walked through the doors definitely freaked me out.  The walls were absolutely covered by animal heads.  There were gazelles, a crocodile, an elephant head, and all other kinds of African wildlife.  And right in the middle of the room was a giraffe neck sticking out of the ground.  And to the side of that was an elephant leg made into a trashcan.  It was so weird.  And the museum was full of the Sutherland's other hunting victories. 
      We left the castle shortly after that and on our way back stopped for the ever popular fish and chips, just to complete a great day.  Visiting castles is one of my favorite things to do when we are in Scotland.  I have always had this dream of someday being rich enough to purchase a castle and renovate it.  It probably won't ever happen as it is a bit expensive to buy a castle, and I don't really know how to go about marrying into a royal family.  But, you never know, if I get my way, you may one day see me living there.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Tennis, Travels beyond Tarbet, Theatre, and Travails

     Well the past week or so has been quite busy.  We have been in Scotland for almost four weeks now and we have settled into routine now.  Our days begin around 9:30 or 10 when Katie and I wake up (if we aren't working in the morning).  We eat breakfast, hang out around the house, and then have a late lunch at 1 or 1:30. Then we go out for a walk in the afternoon and enjoy the weather as much as possible before coming back for tea time.  After tea, we generally read or watch TV while Granny and Katie work on their tapestries and I do a puzzle.  Then it's time for dinner, which is always delicious.  And then dessert while we watch a movie or TV show before heading to bed and starting the whole cycle again the next morning.
     However, this week quite a few notable things happened.  First off, tennis tournaments began.  First we watched the French Open, our eyes flicking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth across the screen.  We sat in front of the TV rooting for Englishman Andy Murray, who unfortunately lost, and watching Granny yell at the players on the screen.  We just laughed until it appeared that her words actually affected the players.  When she got really angry they would do whatever she told them to do.  But of course, once she was satisfied and no longer annoyed with them they went back to their old ways.  However, the tennis has been really enjoyable.  We have also watched a lot of the Queens tournament, which had two Englishmen in it, two in the semi finals and Andy Murray who is in the finals today.  Of course, the commentators were more excited about the fact that Pippa Middleton was sitting in the crowd than the tennis that was being played, but that's only to be expected.  I mean that's why I watch tennis, to hear about the celebrities in Britain.
     But other than tennis, we have been doing more exciting things this week.  On Monday morning the weather was nice so Katie, Granny, and I headed out on an adventure.  We drove about two and a half hours over to the west to Tarbet where we caught a ferry to Handa Isle.  I say the word ferry here, but what I mean is a pathetic little boat with two benches stretching down the middle.  The benches had five or six backrests that made up the seats.  So we basically straddled the benches and leaned against the backrests, it was kind of like horseback riding, which was an odd feeling as we sped across the water.  Luckily, it was only a ten minute ride to Handa Isle, a nature reserve with thousands of birds and other wildlife.  We had a quick meeting in the small visitor's center (and by center I mean "hut") before heading out on the trail.
     It was beautiful.  The scenery on the isle was amazing.  It looked so untouched except for the small trail that we were on.  There were birds nesting all over the grounds.  The nests were mainly those of the Great Skuas, which we were warned to stay away from because apparently they are quite vicious (more than one innocent tourist has been dive bombed when they wandered to close to a nest).  I felt like I was in one of the places a Jane Austen novel takes place, when the heroine stares out over the wild landscape and the high, rocky cliffs to the deep blue ocean.  I only needed to be wearing a long dress and have a British accent, to be just like Elizabeth or Emma.
      We got to the cliffs after about an hour of walking and were immediately overcome by the stench of bird.  It's a disgusting smell, to say the least, when one bird is around.  But multiply that by 9,000 and it just gets ridiculous.  But anyways, we got out our binoculars and sat down along the edge of the cliffs just watching the birds and looking for the puffins.  Katie and I have been in love with puffins since we saw them in Iceland as little kids.  And then of course we watched the Swan Princess which has a heroic puffin as a character.  So, in my imagination I was seeing this.
So, it was nice to refresh my mind on what puffins actually look like (although it's not too far off from the Swan Princess)


     It took a while and a couple of movements along the cliff, but eventually we found where the puffins were.  The were all nesting on top of the "Great Stack" which was an enormous rock formation sticking out at least 100 feet above the ocean.  And then, Katie saw that there were a few nesting just 10 feet from where we were sitting.  It was so cool.  We just sat and watched them for about an hour as we had a little picnic.
     But, eventually we had to move on so we could catch the boat back in time.  We walked for another two hours to get back to the visitor's hut.  In that time it started to rain a little bit, so of course I had to slip and fall over a rock.  Just my luck, right?  So I spent the rest of the time walking around as a cold and muddy person.  But, it was worth it.  The scenery was so beautiful and we got to see a lot of different birds and rabbits and other wild life.  By the time we got back to shore and our car it was dinner time.  So we drove about an hour to Ullapool and ate at the local "Chippy", which was delicious.  The scenery on the drive back was as stunning as it was on Handa Isle.  There are mountains everywhere and lots of cute small villages with very old fashioned houses.  It was an amazing day.
   And the rest of the week was just as fun.  Thursday night I saw my first opera, Rigoletto. It's a tragic opera by Verdi about Rigoletto, the court jester, and his daughter, Gilda.  Rigoletto is jester for a duke who is a bit of a womanizer, who goes too far when he makes fun of the devilish Monterone who puts a curse on Rigoletto.  Gilda, his daughter, has been kept secluded all her life because Rigoletto wants to protect her, but she meets the duke at church and he follows her home and uses here naivety to make her believe he loves her.  His friends then kidnap her for him and he seduces her.  When Rigoletto finds out he hires Scarafucile, an assassin, to kill the duke.  However, before Scarafucile kills the duke, his sister falls in love with him and begs him not to.  Because Scarafucile doesn't want to cheat Rigoletto, he decides to kill the first man that comes to his house and give Rigoletto that body instead.  Gilda hears him say this and disguises herself as a man and goes to their house to sacrifice her life for the duke's.  She goes to Scarafucile's house and he stabs her, and gives her body in a bag to Rigoletto.  As Rigoletto walks away with the body he hears the duke singing in the distance.  Horrified, he opens the bag to discover his daughter there dying.  They sing one final song together and she dies.  The End.  Obviously, it's quite tragic, but the music was beautiful and the singers were really talented.  I enjoyed the opera but I had a few problems with it.  First off, it was quite long, over two hours and it's hard to pay attention to constant singing for that long.  But the other problem was that they were singing in Italian which I don't know, other than saying "ciao" and "grazie".  So they had surtitles which were above the stage.  So I was constantly looking up and back down to the actors, then up again every time a new line came up on the screen.  It was just like watching tennis, looking up and down and up and down again.  So sometimes it was hard to keep track of exactly what they were singing about and who was saying what.  But overall, it was a fun experience.
       The only other thing of note I did this week was work.  I spent one night waitressing, which was pretty fun.  I have gotten to know quite a few of my coworkers fairly well by now.  So it was fun to joke around and catch up on all the kitchen gossip.  And I did get £17 in tips!  Which is approximately $28.  So, it was an enjoyable night.  Plus, we get free meals when we are working, and they are delicious.  The other four days I worked this week were spent doing housekeeping, which is not quite as exciting.  It means making beds, cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming, and sweeping for 4-5 hours in the morning.  Luckily, I am done by 1:30PM at the latest.  And I enjoy working with Kim, she's fun to talk to and she works as quickly as I do.  So overall work is not a painful experience, and I don't mind going, which I can't say about any other job I have tried doing (babysitting and Water Country, and sometimes piano lessons).
      So, this past week or so has been a lot of fun.  I love being here in Scotland with Granny.  Playing banana grams and scrabble, or rummikub and other card games, or going on long walks by the seaside.  Scotland is a beautiful country and I am enjoying every minute I am here.
 The path across Handa Isle

                                                    The view from the visitor's hut
 
Handa Isle's Visitor's Center
 
Granny and Katie walking up toward the Puffin Viewing Area on Handa
 Granny and me puffin watching
 
The cliff face where seabirds are nesting on Handa
 
Thousands of birds- skuas, gulls, kittiwakes, etc- on the Great Stack
                                                          The Fairy Glen in Rosemarkie
                                                  The view of Fortrose from the hill
 

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Just Another Rainy Wednesday

Well, as suggested in the title of this post, the weather still hasn't improved.  I have been here two weeks now and every day has been rainy and windy with patches of sunshine where one quickly gets up the courage to venture outdoors before the next downpour.  But despite the misery that is Scottish weather, I have been really enjoying myself.  It has been a really relaxing week.  I worked Friday night as a waitress and won't work again until tomorrow when I am back on maid service.  But I enjoy waitressing, I am good at memorizing orders and am fast learning how to use the cash register's weird system.  Plus, talking with the customers is usually enjoyable.  And the people in the public bar are REALLY friendly.  I have been complimented by several men and one man went so far as to say that I was the sexiest woman he had ever seen.  To which I promptly asked him what his wife sitting next to him thought of that, but he was lucky and she just laughed.  So, it's not too bad.  However, maid service is just so boring.  We clean bathroom after bathroom and bedroom after bedroom before vacuuming and dusting the entire building.  So it's like Saturday chores for five hours.  But luckily I am done by 1 or 2 in the afternoon, so there is still a lot of time left in the day to do whatever I want. 
     But this past week when I wasn't working was quite nice.  I have now done four puzzles, which may not sound interesting or relaxing to many people, but I really enjoyed doing it.  Two had 1000 pieces and the other two had 500.  Granny finds all of this immensely impressing, but she didn't see what I did before I came out here.  Eleven 1000 piece puzzles in 10 days is much more impressive to me.  So while Katie and Granny have been working on their tapestries I have been puzzling away.  We have also had plenty of time to watch television and movies.  And nothing is better than British television.  We have gotten hooked on the British version of The Apprentice every Wednesday night.  Katie and I also watch Dr Who every Saturday.  And we have been watching the classics, too.  We watched Sense and Sensibility and are half way through Charles Dickens' "Little Dorritt" which I really like.  We have also watched a four part series called Lost in Austen which was pretty funny.  It's about a modern girl who gets stuck in the world of Pride and Prejudice and all the trouble she gets up to there.  It basically makes fun of a lot of classic Jane Austen characters and has totally ruined the book for me, but we all enjoyed it.
     Also, we have now attended the first party of the summer, to which I can honestly say Katie and I were the life of the party.  Everyone there was at least 30 or 40 years older than us, so it made for an interesting night.  The party was at Priscilla's (a family friend) new house.  Her house got burnt down last year and has just been rebuilt.  It's a  really nice cottage with a lovely garden.  So she invited all of the family and friends over to break in her new house.  It started off pretty awkwardly since Katie and I are not really their age and often don't have a lot in common.  But we made the rounds.  By the end of the night I had my introduction memorized.  "Hi, my name is Rebecca Cutler.  I'm Florence's granddaughter.  I'm 19 years old and just finished my first year at university.  I go to BYU and plan on studying international development or something related to that."  But we soon settled in the younger room with the people that were only 30 years older than us instead of 50 or 60.  The room was mostly full of different cousins and other family friends and I actually quite enjoyed myself there.
  So other than the parties we have gone shopping a few times and plan on going into Inverness to do some serious shopping within the next week or so.  Tonight we had dinner with Michael and Maureen, some sort of first cousin once removed or second cousins, I am honestly not sure, but they live next door to us and we see them quite a bit.  They were really nice and we had a lovely dinner and conversation before coming back just in time to catch the Apprentice.  So it's been nice.  And the weather is supposed to get better this weekend and for next week.  So Granny, Katie, and I are planning to go to Handar Isle to see the puffins and other sea birds at a National reserve, which will be fun.  We are also going to the opera on the 9th to see Rigoletto which should be quite good.  So it's shaping up to be a good week.
   But while here so far, I have found out my five favorite things about Scotland.
What I love about Scotland
1.   Tea time
Tea time is one of the meals in a traditional Scottish day.   It comes after lunch but before supper at approximately 4 or 4:30.  Whenever I talk about it I feel a bit like a hobbit talking about the multitude of meals we eat a day, although I never have had second breakfast or elevenses.  But tea time is my favorite.  We basically sit in the living room with a hot drink, coffee or tea for Granny and hot chocolate for Katie and me, and have cake.  What could be better?  Just when you need a pick me up in the afternoon we bring out the cake.  And it's always delicious cake, whether it's carrot cake or chocolate, or best of all, chocolate orange!  I don't know how I have survived without it in the past and I have now decided that when I get home I will institute it in our house. 
2.   The history
I love America, but one of the things I wish it had more of is history.  America is such a young country and doesn't have the extensive past of the UK or that feeling of connection with our ancestors.  I love wandering around the castles and ruins that are in Scotland and feeling connected to the history of the country.  I love the stories of hauntings and the wars and the kings and queens of old.  I can imagine the life with the royals in old palaces and in the big estates with tons of servants.  I can see the worlds of Jane Austen and the other famous writers of her day and imagine how they lived.  To me, there's an elegance and romance to their world that will never die.
3.   The romance 
Just the idea of Scotland where my Granny lives is very romantic.  It's a little coastal village that feels very disconnected to the big towns and cities.  A lot of the houses are designed in a very old-fashioned manner and the main street has ten or so shops and that's it.  Plus they have an old graveyard that's been around for centuries and an old church to go with it.  Then there's the sea.  It's such a deep blue and looks so wild a lot of the time.  And if we walk about a mile down the road we arrive at the point where the lighthouse is and where many people go to see dolphins and seals.  I just feel like a character in a novel just living here.
4.   The accents
Although often hard to understand, I love Scottish accents.  And there are so many different kinds.  There's the really thick one where the words are really hard to understand and only half the consonants are heard.  But there's also the more posh ones where everything is said very properly and sounds very elegant.  And you get the highland accent, and the more English ones, and everyone sounds so different, but so cool.  I have decided I need to learn how to at least fake it to impress all my friends at home.
5.   The landscape
The landscape of Fortrose is perfect.  First off it's right on the sea.  We can just look out the window and sea the beach.  It's a rocky beach with an ocean of deep blue water.  You can walk along the beach for miles in either direction to the harbour and lighthouse.  And just a short distance from the beach is the farmland.  Walk up the road and you can see sheep or cows or horses in their pastures.  And you can hike up the hills across the fields or pastures.  And of course there are a lot of woodsy areas you can hike through looking at the flowers and trees.  And one of my favorite places, is of course, the Fairy Glen.  It just seems like a magical place.  You go into the woods and walk along the trail right next to a river.  You can climb over fallen logs across the water and skip rocks in the pond.  But my favorite things in there are the waterfalls.  They aren't huge, but they look gorgeous with the surrounding backdrop and sound really magical in the backdrop.  I think that is one of my favorite things when we come over here, the hike through the Fairy Glen.  It brings back memories of the fairy hunting we would do and that excitement we felt whenever we saw something move out of the corner of our eye and the hope that someday we would actually see the most magical part of the glen.