St Andrews

Ellie was out of town this weekend so on Saturday, Sarah, Lina and I took the train to St Andrews. Lina has a friend from growing up in Norway, Eirik, who is in his third year at the Univ. of St Andrews. He was kind enough to give up a good portion of his day to hang out with us and show us around. You really can see everything in St Andrews in one day because there are only three main streets! It was really great having someone who knew St Andrews well show us around because I don't think we would have seen or done as much without Eirik there.

Old Course, considered to be the "home of golf." 

The first thing we did after meeting up with Eirik was head to St Andrews Links, one of the oldest golf courses in the world. Eirik suggested that we head to the driving range so we picked up a bucket of balls and two clubs. I can officially say that I've "played golf" in Scotland! I'm pretty horrible though. At least now I can make my dad and other golf lovers jealous.

Eirik asked what else we wanted to do and I said that I honestly wanted, if possible, to go to the beach and reenact the running scene from Chariots of Fire. Turns out the beach where they filmed the famous scene is adjacent to Old Course so we walked on over. Here is a clip of the classic scene.

I apologize for not wearing the white uniform.

Before walking back into town, we walked back onto the Old Course to take a photo at Swilcan Bridge. It's a tiny bridge but apparently an icon in the golf world. 

Swilcan Bridge

Before doing more sightseeing we grabbed lunch. Three cheers for eating a hamburger! I live with two vegetarians and I'm better at heating up frozen chicken nuggets than cooking raw meat, so I've been trying to eat red meat whenever we eat out. After lunch we headed over to St Andrews Castle and St Andrews Cathedral, which are both more ruins now but still picturesque. On the way we saw the cafe "where Kate met Wills for coffee." Sigh. 

St Andrews Castle

Part of St Andrews Cathedral.

Both of them are right by the water so we walked down a pier and then ended our visit with ice cream. All in all a great day.

Don't you think Eirik could be Prince Harry's Norwegian cousin?

I had my Caravaggio art class today, my Scottish art class tomorrow and then Thursday my Sexual Politics class is canceled…because of a lecture series on Friday. I'm skipping that because I'll be in Dublin! Plus I don't know if I could take 6+ hours of gender politics and feminist theory in relation to art. 

Tomorrow night I fly out to Dublin and return to Edinburgh Monday morning. Excited but nervous for my first real adventure (partially solo) out of Scotland!

When I return to Edinburgh next week, I won't have any classes because the art department is having a reading week. I'll be hunkering down to work on my essays because I'll be in Dublin this weekend, the Highlands the next, and London the weekend after that. 

Gotta go pack for Dublin and read more about late 15th-century Italian painting academies and techniques! Guess which one I'm more excited about.