Day 95: Worth Meeting

Feor-cyþðe beoð selran gesohte þæm þe him selfa deah.

-- Beowulf (1838-39)

Seamus Heaney translates these lines as:

“Foreign places yield more to one who is himself worth meeting.”

View above the clouds on the flight back from Dublin

While that’s not a particularly accurate translation, I love what he’s trying to say. Travel may be about new experiences and new cultures and growing as a person… but you’ll be able to gain a richer experience if you’re complete in yourself, first.

I travel because I want to gain something from the cities and countries I visit. I want to learn from the people there, and mature from the sheer rush of newness that comes with stepping off a plane and seeing everything for the first time. I want different and exotic experiences to help shape me into a more understanding person.

But I also want to be a person worth meeting. I don’t want to travel because I have nothing myself, because I’m running from something, or because I’m trying to “find myself.” I’m not looking for travel to fill some sort of emptiness inside of me.

I know who I am. I’m a Christian. I’m a student. I’m a writer. I’m an actress. A dancer. A friend. A daughter. A Canadian. A traveller.

I want to help other people grow. Yeah, it sounds a little egotistical to say “I want people to become better by meeting me” but that’s exactly what I want... in a completely non egotistical way. It has absolutely nothing to do with being intelligent, or a good speaker, or friendly, or rich, or a good conversationalist. Some of the best conversations I’ve had were with people you normally wouldn’t look at twice: little old ladies with a walker, mechanics in Glasgow, construction workers in Kirkaldy, job hunters in Dublin.

These people weren’t anything “special” (who defines “special” anyways?). They weren’t motivational speakers, or the next world leader, or the brilliant scientist who will one day cure cancer. They won’t have thousands of people mourning them when they die. People might not even remember them in a few generations.

But they were interesting. They impacted the way I see the world. They made my travel experience richer. And I want to be like them. I want to be a person worth meeting.

Day 53: O, The People You'll Meet!

There’s something about travel that makes people open up to each other. I don’t know if it’s the boredom, or the close proximity, or simply the feeling of newness that comes from changing location, but it suddenly becomes okay to strike up a conversation with complete strangers.

This past weekend, when I went to visit Hannah, I met a man on the bus from Glasgow to Dumfries. He was Glasgow born and bred, middle aged and married, owned his own mechanic shop, and was about as different from me as you could imagine. But, for the hour and a half down to Moffat, we chatted about basically everything, from books to busses to Scottish separatism to religion.

It was fascinating to meet someone from such a different background from me, who had so many different ideas—especially about Scottish Nationalism! So often I tend to get caught up in my little bubble of university friends that I forget there’s a whole world out there of people who don’t spend their life in the library.

On the way back from my visit, on the short-ish bus to Dumfries, I rather inadvertently met an older lady. There was a small child on the bus, using his finger to draw in the steam on the windows. The older lady was sitting nearby, and she started drawing with the boy. It was so cute: they gave each other suggestions for what to draw, or guessed what the other person had just drawn.

Eventually, however, they ran out of room on the window. I was sitting right behind them, and when the little boy turned around and suggested they start on my window, I didn’t say anything, I just started drawing. They both enjoyed this immensely, and before long we were all covering our windows in little pictures.

When the bus finally reached Dumfries, I got off with the older lady and chatted to her for a bit as we walked down the street, since my next bus didn’t leave for another hour. Once again, it was a fascinating conversation because this woman broke so many stereotypes. I expected her to be a sort of small-town grandma, but instead she was a feminist, with distinctly sharp words for anyone who looked down on her for being old! She was also the great-niece of the first woman to be granted a degree from Edinburgh University, which I thought was pretty neat.

In one journey, I met two people so very different from myself. It seems like every time I travel, I meet more people who continue to break stereotypes and expand my horizons. While I may not be a huge fan of busses, the people I meet definitely make it worthwhile.

Tardis in Glasgow! Not the best pic, but I just asked a random passer-by.
I should go back at some point. :)

Interesting art at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art

A pedestrian street in Glasgow

Part of the Modern Art Gallery.
(I caught the attendant singing, and she was rather embarrassed. I thought it was lovely that she was singing)

Atrium ceiling

Main hall. It was full of interesting forms of art all inspired (or in reaction to) war.

It's not just a stereotype...

For all my fandom friends, I present: the Town of Moffat.

The bus just dropped me off by the side of the road...

Inside of Kircudbright parish church, celebrating its 175th anniversary.
(Kircudbright is pronounced Ker-coo-bree)

Hannah at the piano

Outside of the church 

Random street in Kircudbright

Another church: they're EVERYWHERE here

Bridge

I enjoy this sign far more than I really should

Boatses

And more boatses! (well, the same boats. But in landscape, not portrait)

Every small town has to have their own castle.

So many empty windows...

Brightly coloured houses.

I don't know The Wind in the Willows that well, but isn't Toadhall the name of Toad's house?

Apparently plants grow out of stone walls in other towns...

I love church spires.

One of the info sheets for Hannah's fancy-dress party

Hermione has been murdered!

Tree with a really random growth at the top...

This is where we caught the bus to head in to Dumfries.

Drawings on the windows :)

Miniature rapids on the river through Dumfries

Bridge

Seagull

Hills... AND CLOUDS!

Day 25: Escape from the Bubble

This post may be titled Day 25, but I’m actually going to talk about days 18 through 21, when I escaped from the Bubble of St. Andrew's and traveled across Scotland to visit my wonderfully crazy friend Hannah, who’s from Canada but has been working in the south of Scotland since February.

I shouldn’t really complain about the trip, since it only took five hours to cross from the north(ish) east side of Scotland to the south west side, but still… five hours is a long time to be sitting on busses. I also had to transfer twice, in Glasgow and Dumfries, meaning that the whole trip actually took closer to seven hours (from 7am to 2pm). I did manage to buy a lovely pair of slippers in Glasgow, though, so I didn’t mind that stopover.

One lovely thing about bus travel is that I got the opportunity to see more of the country. It’s not like a plane, where I just see the tops of clouds, or driving, where I spend most of my time staring at the road. On a bus I can sit back and do whatever I jolly well please, which usually involves taking pictures of the countryside. Thankfully, my camera takes pictures really quickly, so I actually got some decent shots while barrelling down the motorway.

Another thing I like about travelling solo is how it gives me the opportunity to meet new people. When I first arrived in Scotland, somewhat overwhelmed and with nearly a hundred pounds of luggage to carry, I had so many people willing to lend a helping hand. This past weekend luggage wasn’t an issue, but since Hannah lives in the middle of nowhere I was literally dropped by the side of the road in the middle of a field. A wonderful older lady I met on the bus made sure I got off at the right stop and a girl around my age actually walked with me all the way up to the camp where Hannah works. Without those people I would have been so lost, and I’m so thankful they took time out of their days to help me out.

Anyways, my weekend with Hannah was lovely. While I haven’t been homesick yet, it still was really nice to see an old friend, someone I have a bit of history with. It was weird to realize that since I arrived in St. Andrew’s I’ve been hanging out almost exclusively with people I’ve met in the past three weeks. So, I really enjoyed seeing Hannah again, going for walks, watching films, and meeting her co-workers. I definitely plan to go visit her again, and have more crazy shenanigans.

It was also a lot of fun to visit somewhere that’s really the middle of nowhere. St. Andrew’s might be small, but it’s still quite a bustling town. Down where Hannah lives, the nearest town has maybe fifty houses. It’s much more stereotypically Scotland, with the rugged hills and winding roads and sheep in pasture. Also, this was the first time I had ever properly visited the Scottish countryside, since when I’m here I tend to stay in the actual town of St. Andrew’s. Hannah and I went for a couple semi-successful rambles, once in the mist/rain and once right after sunset, and I really enjoyed being out in the open air again.

To sign off, here are a number of photos from my trip. 

CAUTION: May contain excessive amounts of Scottish grass. Also sheep.

Sunrise over the fields (as viewed from the bus)

Slightly farther along on the trip-- not quite sure what town that is, but it's close to St. Andrew's

Glasgow is known for its architecture. This art display is right inside the Enoch mall

Typical Glasgow

This is what a Glasgow street looks like

Gallery of Modern Art. Apparently it's free, so I'm definitely planning a trip here at some point.

I feel like this photo accurately captures the spirit of Glasgow

Imposing facade of the art museum

Random art on a building near the bus station

Rolling hills between Glasgow and Dumfries

SHEEP. EVERYWHERE. SHEEP.

A river. Cattle. Hills. Trees. SCOTLAND.

There're actually quite a few windmills around the countryside. And clouds. There are quite a few of those.

They say a man's home is his castle... Or, in this case, his B&B.
(BTW, for all you nerds, this 'castle' was in a lovely little town known as Moffat...)

This is what a Scottish bus stop looks like...

I admit this pic is more heavily edited than usual, but THE CLOUDS.

Bridge in Dumfries

The whole bridge. There are several bridges, and the river is quite peaceful.

Had to walk along this narrow road to get to the camp where Hannah works

And over the adorable little bridge...

Along the narrow laneway...

Until we find Hannah! <3

The view from Hannah's work at sunset

Evil Scottish cows

Going for a ramble

More sunset....

A stream (that runs under the little bridge previously shown)

Sheep at sunset. (which are way cooler than sheep at any other time of day, because they're now pink)

Cows on the road. NBD. 

So, we were trying to reach that monument thing, but Hannah forgot where the path was....

Hills at dusk