Intro
For all international students like us, studying abroad is a long journey. Even when we arrived at the university, we are still on the road and always traveling. Over the past two weeks in Stirling, we have gone through several marvelous journeys. On the road, we observe, we think, and we feel.
A widespread quote goes, “The truth is that airports have seen more sincere kisses than the wedding halls.” Our whole journey started from the departure gate of Beijing Capital International Airport, where we waved goodbye to our parents and unfolded the 3-month anticipated, but also unpredictable journey.
Entering the customs marked the real beginning of our independent travel. And we instantly became fully responsible for ourselves, which is not actually a problem, as well as our HUGE luggage. In real life, it is impossible to pack your whole life in a single portable suitcase as George Clooney did in Up in the Air, let alone the fact that we girls have enormous wardrobes! As a result, almost everyone was so worried that our luggage might be over the weigh limit.
Some of us, after further consideration, paid for an extra piece of luggage. “It may also spare more room when I go back home,” Wanqi Yue explained. Others, however, decided to keep struggling with one suitcase, and Jixuan Ye was one of them. Standing in the queue in front of the counter, Ye couldn’t help but keep staring at the luggage scale. The quota of luggage for the economy class is 23kg, which is a rather small for necessities of 3 months. A lady in black had a suitcase weighing 21kg, a boy behind her got his at 22… The counter became closer and closer, whilst Ye’s heart pounding nervously.
Ye weighed her suitcase back home: it was exactly 22.7kg. But when she arrived in the airport, she got so hot and decided to put her sweater in the suitcase as well. What if it is more than 0.3kg? And the time came when it was Ye’s turn. She managed to put her luggage on the scale and, there it was, the number stopped at 23.5kg.
Ye thought her eyes must have looked desperate at that time. Because when she looked at the staff behind the counter, he hesitated and said, “It’s OK, I’ll let you pass.” “Is it a good sign?”, she thought to herself while going through the security check, “Maybe I could stay lucky for the whole trip.”
On the flight
12 flight hours from Beijing International Airport to Dublin is plenty of time for us to do a lot of things. Sleeping, eating airline meals and watching movies are all good choices. For example, Xia Yihan, who was not sleepy, even watched three movies in the whole flight journey. After transferring in Ireland, one hour of flight took us to this beautiful but… cold Scotland!
Compared with Nanjing, the temperature here plummeted by ten more degrees, changing the season from summer to autumn at a split second, but luckily, it was still sunny. It’s said that it had rained for several days before we came here, but “you brought here sunshine”, Grace Wang said so. 😉
Taking the bus from airport to Stirling, listening to Grace Wang’s introduction of Scotland and Stirling, we started our new life here from now on.
Stirling Castle
Being called as ‘a brooch from Scotland’, Stirling Castle has been standing lordly on the Castle Hill for more than 900 years. With its tough stone walls, it has protected the royal families from a series of wars and has witnessed all the famous stories in this city.
In the first week, attracted by its spectacular scenery and abundant history, we went to Stirling Castle.
Walking through twisted lanes, old-style houses distributed on both sides of the roads. Looking through the window, dreamcatchers hanging by beds, furniture were standing quietly in the house, implying the peaceful life in the city. Outside, flowers were blooming gently, bringing warmness to us in such a cold day. Some carvings on the walls were mottled, through which we seemed to go back to the 1500s, the golden age of the Stirling Castle.
Dating back to the 12th century, Stirling Castle grew into a great royal residence and a powerful stronghold. Several famous Scottish Kings and Queens lived and died here, including King James V, and the famous Queen Mary of Scots.
James V was crowned at the Chapel Royal in 1513, when he was only 17 months old. Almost all the present buildings were constructed in the reign of James IV, James V and James VI. James V created the Royal Palace, the luxury center of the castle. Then, he passed the building program to his daughter, Mary, who was his only heir, when he died in 1542.
Constructed by the grey heavy stones, the Stirling Castle is not the same as it was like in 1500s. But when confronted with it, we can still feel the stateliness as a royal castle. Two giant statues of warriors were standing outside, with sword in hand, guarding the castle and the royal family years by years.
Image of life in 1500s can still be seen in Stirling Castle.
The Royal Palace was home to Queen Mary of Scots in her childhood. Internally, it compromises two apartments, one each for the king and queen. The bed in the king’s bedchamber is surprisingly small, leading us back to the time when Mary was crowned 6 days after her birth in 1543.
On the ceiling are brightly-painted replicas of the Stirling Head, implying the long history of the royal family and the wide intermarriage with other country. Breathtaking Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries are hanging on the walls around, which took years to weave and cost thousands of pounds, according to its official website. Heraldry with unicorn and eagle imprinted everywhere, refering to the alliance and intermarriage of Scotland and France.
We assumed it was effected by the ancient castle , all of staffs were enthusiastic, gentle and courteous. When we were looking around in the Royal Palace, we encountered a local guide, who were adept in telling the Stuart family’s history. However, he had a really heavy Scottish accent. When it came to the name of Queen Mary of Scots, he pronounced ‘Mary’ like ‘Maly’, which made us suffer a lot in understanding.
The sun is setting and inadvertently, the castle was going to close. But we still had a pity that we had not taken a photo for all of us yet. The same local guide, who said he was ready to have a drink after his work, appeared magically and asked us whether we need he help to us for our photo. ‘That would be great!’ Like princesses in fairy tales, we had our happy ending in Stirling Castle.
Glasgow
Out of Queen’s Station, riding the metro for ten minutes, we were almost on our way to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
It was noon, and we were all hungry. When we walked to the door of the museum we were attracted to a cafe – it was built around the outer walls of the museum. Sitting inside the cafe, customers would not be subjected to the wind and rain and can bask in the sun, feeling the breath of history and culture which was given off by the baroque architecture and the red walls made of Glasgow’s traditional Locharbriggs red sandstone.
Eating in this cafe was destined to exist only in dreams. All of a sudden, a majestic sound of music penetrated the wall and hit us. We temporarily forgot hunger, stepped onto the stairs in a hurry and walked into the hall. In the lobby, we couldn’t help but walk backwards because the gorgeous organ was just behind us. A musician in a formal white shirt was immersed in a passionate performance. It was hard to imagine how his small body can drive such a massive instrument and play such awesome music. This rich and brilliant sound is unparalleled. The piece was called 12 Orgelstycken Over Koralmotiv, and was composed by a Swedish classical music composer, Otto Olsson.
“This is my first time to see the organ, and I think I will never forget it .” Shuqi Liu said.
Stepping out of the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum and taking an 8-minute subway ride, we arrived at Buchanan Street. According to Wikipedia, Buchanan Street was named after a wealthy Tabacco Lord and former Lord Provost of Glasgow, Andrew Buchanan.
This is a street full of music and shops. Of course, there were also plenty of people – many more than that in the Stirling campus, bur still less than that on Chinese streets.
The singers could be seen everywhere on the street. They carried microphones and speakers. Some held their guitars. Whether you donate or not, they were so nice that whenever your camera was aiming at them, they would smile at you kindly. Some of the songs they sang were not so popular, and the first familiar song we heard was Ed Sheeran’s Supermarket Flowers.
The most memorable of Buchanan Street is the wide variety of shops. Considered to be the second busiest shopping thoroughfare, second only to Oxford Street in London, Buchanan Street has the biggest H&M store we have ever seen so far. (We shopped in it for nearly one hour!)
In China, generally, no male wears a skirt when they go out (and I guess neither do male in other countries). So when we passed a Scottish souvenir shop, a male model wearing a Scottish plaid skirt caught our eyes.
When we were looking at this green skirt, an old gentleman came over to us.
“Do you want to take a photo with ‘him’?”
A little surprised, for few passers-by in China ask to do so initiatively. We did not reject his enthusiasm, however.
“Sure”. We answered.
“3,2,1!”
And you can see us grin delightedly in this photo below.
The Loch Ness
We went to the Highland on the first weekend after coming here. On the way we passed by the famous loch, Loch Ness. Before Grace Wang informed us, we did not know the wide water we were passing by was the mysterious loch, which just appeared in the movies and our imagination. The loch was too broad to identify the end, which disappeared into the rime mist.
Loch Ness looked unfathomable. It is very deep which contains more water than all the lakes in England and Wales added. Unknownness causes awe. Admiring this mysterious loch through the window, we could not say anything except for the WOW! The surface of the lake was brinkled by the breeze. I imagined if there were any monsters lurking at the bottom of the loch.
Keeping moving forward, we crossed a rainbow bridge, which is really a “bridge.” The rainbow spanned two peaks, drawing an elegant curve in the sky. It looked so close to us that we even felt it was within our reach. At the sight of the rainbow, everyone was immediately refreshed and did not want to miss this opportunity to be intimate with the rainbow. Though the rainbow couldn’t be really touched, it fulfilled the fairy tale dream of us. There is a classic line in the movie Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” This encounter with rainbow was definitely an expected “chocolate” of this trip.
The Glencoe Canyon
Along with myths and legends, there are also traces of magic that have been circulated on this land. The Glencoe Canyon on the highlands is the location for the Quidditch Stadium and Hagrid’s Cabins in the famous Harry Potter films. Because there were a large number of loyal Harry Potter fans in the class, everyone was particularly excited about seeing these scenes, which were once only visible on the screen.
And when we really witnessed the scenery of the canyon, it was not difficult to understand why JK Rowling could build such an amazing magical world. On both sides of the road were majestic mountains and open fields. The thick clouds were pressed from the horizon to the top of the mountain. The water seemed to flow from the fog and squatted down the mountain. The wind blew across the bleak land, engulfing the most fascinating legends that all humans can imagine.
The car stopped at the side of the Three Sisters Mountain. Then we took pictures on the roadside and asked the driver to take a group photo. It was admirable that in such a cold windy weather, when we were wearing heavy coats but still shivering, the driver walked outside with only short sleeves! However, not long after we found out that the photos he took for us with the camera were all seriously defocused. I thought that although he seemed calm, it was still too cold to hold the camera stably.
The gold at the end of the rainbow, the water monster at the bottom of the Loch Ness, Hogwarts in the magical world, the legend and imagination are all intertwined in this mysterious land. Whether or not these mythological things exist is still unknown, but what is known are the mountains and lakes in front of us; is the amazing landscape created by both the forces of nature and the trajectory of history; are our 17 girls who walked through this land. The land and we will sincerely remember each other in our own ways.
Ending
In the movie About Time, there is a line saying, “We’re all traveling through time together, every day of our lives. All we can do is do our best to relish this remarkable ride.” Life is a long journey. We travel, we learn, and we grow up.