Ceilidh in the Castle

This post is long overdue and should have been written a couple of weeks ago, but with the deadlines I've had for the end of the semester and my infamous tendency to procrastinate, I am writing it now.  Anyway, a couple of weekends ago, the Celtic Society here in St Andrews held a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee).  It is a social gathering involving traditional Scottish music and dancing.  It was held in the St Andrews Castle which made the event even more special.

We were taught the dances as we went along, so it was perfectly fine that we didn't know what we were doing.  No one cared if you weren't very good or didn't catch on right away.  When participating in a ceilidh, don't expect to have the same partner throughout the whole dance, because you basically end up dancing with everyone else as well.  It was so much fun, and the dances were fairly easy to learn.

I highly recommend attending a ceilidh at least once while in Scotland to get a better understanding of Scottish culture and tradition and to just have fun.  It is perfectly okay to look like a fool while participating, and you get to meet so many different people.  It is a blast, and doing it in the castle was so unique.  We also go to witness a beautiful St Andrews sunset as we were dancing which concluded the night wonderfully.

I have now concluded classes and have just one more deadline next week and a final a few weeks from now before I am completely finished with the semester.  It is amazing how fast this semester has gone by.  I am so thankful to have had this opportunity and would encourage anyone to have their own study abroad adventure, because there really is nothing like it.

Keep an eye out for upcoming posts about my travels to Stratford-upon-Avon and Wales in the next couple of weeks!

A Writer, an Abbey, and The Da Vinci Code

Some advice to travelers new to Scotland: do not spend all of your time in Edinburgh and Glasgow.  While these are exciting and beautiful places, I think that some of the most beautiful and magical places exist outside of the cities in the country.  There is really nothing else like the Scottish countryside, and it would certainly be sad to miss the opportunity to see it.  It is so quiet and peaceful while holding some true gems of this country.

Today, I traveled down to the Scottish Borders with the Arcadia group and got to tour Abbotsford House, the former home of Sir Walter Scott.  Having a great love for literature, I really looked forward to this tour, and it was everything I hoped it would be.  I learned so much about who Walter Scott was and fell in love with the house that he built.  Even though it resembles a small castle, it is so cozy and comfortable inside, making you feel right at home immediately.  Scott collected many (and often random) historical artifacts that decorate the house, but they somehow all fit together perfectly.  What really got me to fall in love with his house, however, was the library of course.  Reserved for the biggest room in the house, Scott had a library that held his own personal collection of books (over 7,000) and none have been removed and none of have been added since his death.  It was such a beautiful room filled with so many stories that I felt like I could sit in there and read for days.  Scott was a fascinating character, and it was very interesting to learn more about him and his influence on literature and Scottish culture.

The library that I fell in love with

The desk and chair that Scott sat at to write the majority of his works

After I got over my obsession with Scott's house, we popped over to Melrose Abbey which is a ruined monastery.  It was founded in the twelfth century, and even though it is now in ruins, it is still a very impressive structure.  It is amazing to think that humans were capable of making such beautiful buildings so long ago without any of the tools and resources that we have today.  There is so much detail that was all created by hand which is just stunning.  It is also said that Robert the Bruce's heart is buried somewhere on the grounds.

Our next stop was at Scott's View.  Sir Walter Scott used to come out to this spot often (hence why it is named after him) to think about his writing or just to take in the peaceful landscape of the Scottish Borders.  It was one of his favorite spots, and it is not difficult to see why.

The final stop for the day was at Rosslyn Chapel.  If you have read Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code or seen the film, this may seem familiar.  The Holy Grail may just be hidden away somewhere in the chapel...  The detail on the chapel itself is amazing; there is so much detail everywhere you look, and each carving tells a story.  Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take any pictures inside the chapel, but I managed to sneak one in (shhh!).  Like Melrose Abbey, I was amazed by the amount of skill that the architects and builders had over 500 years ago.  Contemporary buildings just cannot compare to these intricate structures.

The sneaky picture of inside the chapel.  (I wish it were easier to see all of the details.)

The Scottish Borders is such a beautiful region, and even though it is the country, it is so different from the Highlands.  There is a different kind of peacefulness that exists in this region that I can't really explain, but I highly recommend experiencing it for yourself.  This was one of my favorite trips that I have gone on here in Scotland, and overall, I definitely enjoy visiting the countrysides over the cities.  There is almost a fairytale-like quality to these places that the cities just don't quite capture.  

I am so thankful to be here and to be able to explore such magical places.  If there is ever a point that I cannot be found in St Andrews, I may have just moved down to Sir Walter Scott's house and am holed up in the library getting started on that reading list of 7,000 books...