Saturday, 3-30-96
7:00 PM Edinburgh, Scotland
1:00 PM E-Town
Before telling about what an awesome time this road trip weekend in Scotland has been, I will mention a few more things about the end of of last week…
When Lori & I took the tube home Wed. night we ended up having to get off at Paddington Station & walking home cuz we missed the last Circle & District line trains. We saw some Cleaveland Square people there too (who we had actually run into earlier at the “Duck & Dive”): including Tom, Sarah, Anna, Eric, & Jason.
Jason said he’d point us in the right direction if we walked w/ him to get a kebab/pita. We did & Lori got one too & I got chips! We had a nice little chat w/ Jason & then stopped at his flat @ Cleveland Square to use the loo! Then Lori & I walked home to Pembridge. We snacked some more in the kitchen, read some of Cam’s articles from the KSU paper Lori had printed out at the computer lab from Netscape, & chatted. I had gotten 3 e-mails: 1 from Lloyd, 1 from Jacquie, & 1 from Kelly! Yea! ☺︎
Thursday morning I bought Jill a balloon (the silver helium kind), a “I’m 21” pin, & a nice card for her 21st b-day! She really liked them! I had e-mail messages from Lloyd (again! That’s about everyday this wk. ☺︎), Dad or Mom (I forget which), & Gwen! ☺︎
After class Paul & I were riding the tube & got all deep in conversation & did not realize till we were 3 stops into Zone 2 & above ground that we weren’t on the Circle line & had missed our stop! It was so funny… ☺︎
Thurs. afternoon I did lot of organizational stuff for our roadtrip. I got directions from Garth & Daniel in the office, who were so helpful, & highlighted my maps w/ a route for us! ☺︎
I also wrote Gramma Dee & Grampa Jack about possibly visiting them when I get home in May. I also sent in my contract for Camp.
When Nick & Lori’s friend Alex got in we took the tube out to Finchley Road to pick up our rental car. We walked right by the rental place a few times cuz it looked like a car dealership joint & too nice for rentals! But sure enough… it was Acton Car Rentals!
After we filled out all our forms we went outside & got to see our car: our black — Volkswagen — 4 door — hatchback — Golf! Alex drove first. He did pretty well. We filled up w/ petrol & headed home for Pembridge. We found a space to park it on the st. until it was time for us to hit the open road!
I was so excited & relieved when we were back @ Pembridge w/ our 1st mission accomplished! We then went to Europa to stock up on travel snacks.
Next we all had huge dinners & packed. We left town about 10 PM w/ Alex driving & Nick riding shotgun & navigating (I feel I have written this already…).
He drove for the first 1 1/2 or 2 hrs. until we took a rest stop @ one of those “Granada” places! Afterwhich Lori took the driver’s seat! She did just fine & drove until around 1:30 AM. Then we stopped again & I was in the hot seat w/ Ruth navigating/shotgun keeping me awake until 5:30 AM! My whole 5 hr. shift was pretty easy going… I was so syked I could actually drive well here! All of us had some cool chats the whole way! We played some great music & sang along! Your typical road trip w/ friends… only we were in Britain, driving like the natives en route to Scotland!
While I was at the wheel we drove through the Lake District & we could make out that we were passing through mountains! When we entered Scotland Ruth & I got all excited & screamed woo-woo!
Everyone else had fallen asleep & awoke to hear us reacting to the “Welcome to Scotland” sign on the side of the road! ☺︎
Next Alex drove again & finished our route w/ Nick navigating to St. Andrew’s, Scotland. It was only 8 AM when we arrived, but as the sun rose on our last leg of the trip there, we were all overcome w/ the beauty of our mountainous surroundings!
When we got into St. Andrew’s we stopped at the “Old Course Hotel” to find out where the course was & other attractions. We found out it was right by the hotel, so we parked & headed out… First we went to the famous beach right next to the “Old Course” where “Chariots of Fire” had scenes filmed! Alex took pics of Lori, Nick, Ruth, & I running on the beach. Then Nick stripped down to his boxers & ran in slow motion while we all got it on film! He cracks me up! ☺︎
After hanging on the beach for awhile, we agreed to meet back at the hotel parking lot @ 1 PM. Then they looked at the “Old Course” for awhile & headed into town to see the Castle et. al…
I was content, more so even, to spend my 5 hrs. in St. Andrew’s just taking in the “Old Course!”
Despite what I’d heard… rumors of cold & snow there earlier this semester… It was a beautiful sunny day & there was no snow on the course what-so-ever! In fact it was open & there were many golfers enjoying the awesome experience of playing on the oldest & most famous golf course in the world! ☺︎
First I spoke w/ the caddie master & bought 5 score cards of the course for Dad, Grampa Jack, Uncle Bill, one of my cousins & myself! Next I approached starters, who were very friendly (but so was everyone who was working or playing at the fabulous course! ☺︎), and asked if I could get on the first tee w/ a club & pretend I was teeing off while someone took pics…
Well, I have to get ready to out w/ my road-trip buddies to a pub & maybe a club tonight here in fantastic Edinburgh! So, I will pick up the story of my incredible time at “The Old Course at St. Andrew’s” later…
CHEERS! ☺︎
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Note from Present Day Kathy: It’s been awhile since I revisited one of my London Semester Journal entries and since it is almost a year into life in the time of a global pandemic, I especially appreciated being transported (via my words, pictures and memories) to some of the travels and adventures that I had in the UK 25 years ago.
I’ve also been working on a file transferring project, moving them from our very old desktop PC to our newer iMac. It felt like it took me forever to complete (which I finally did yesterday) and I multitasked a lot while managing the process. One of the many things I did while “making copies,” was treat myself to working on this London Semester Journal post.
At the beginning of this entry, it was fun to read about how my roommate and I ended up at the Paddington tube station, as well as that we walked home (to the house we lived in on Pembridge Gardens) from there that night. I especially enjoyed it, as when I was back in the UK for the first time in almost 24 years (in November 2019), I took the Heathrow Express into Paddington, where I met up with my old friend (not her real name) Ginny and then we walked to our hotel, which was located on Pembridge Gardens, across the street from where I lived during my semester abroad in 1996. So I can picture what that walk is like, having done it again relatively recently.
I also enjoyed the memories of celebrating my friend (not her real name) Jill’s 21st birthday and when (not his real name) Paul and I missed our tube stop, while we were being chatty. I don’t have many vivid memories from my semester abroad, though I wish I did, and is all the more reason why I appreciate having so many photos and my journal entries. That said, I am fairly sure I can actually picture being on the tube that day with Paul when we realized that we had missed our stop.
Jill and Paul were two great friends that I made back then and it is bittersweet (as with so many special people who touch our lives and hearts) to have lost touch with them all these years later. I seem to remember in those early years of Facebook that we may’ve reconnected and then they may’ve each determined they didn’t want to keep in touch. I get that, even with social media, not everyone wants to stay connected and that’s okay. Though it used to bother me more, if and when I realize someone has chosen to “unfriend” me, these days I do my best to “bless and release,” while still being grateful for the memories I have with them.
Speaking of vivid memories, I do have a number of them from our epic Road Trip to Scotland, and one is the experience of my overnight shift driving there in our rental car! I can picture being behind the wheel with (not her real name) Ruth riding shotgun and seeing the mountains of the Lake District, though it was dark out, so they mostly look liked dark shadow formations.
I love that we rented a VW Golf, as I’d always really liked VW cars and about a year ago bought my first one (a used 2017 Beetle in my favorite color orange)!
Also, I’ve told so many people over the years the story of being on the West Sands “Chariots of Fire” Beach, near the Old Course at St. Andrews, and how (not his real name) Nick stripped down to his boxers to run across it!
I love that I stayed at the Old Course, while my friends headed into the town to explore, and I truly soaked every moment I spent there in. It felt like a pilgrimage of sorts, representing my family of golf lovers, including my paternal Grandpa Robert (who had died a year earlier), maternal Grandpa Jack and his best friend/who was also my Great Uncle Bill (they were both rangers at golf courses on Hilton Head Island in their retirement), one of my cousins on that side of our family (who became a professional golfer and I’ve always looked up to), my dad (who has always loved watching and playing), and me (who grew to love the game as a young teen and played on my high school’s women’s varsity golf team for three years).
One of my only regrets is that I didn’t actually get to play the course, however in some ways walking around and observing, as well as spending time at the adjacent British Golf Museum (which I believe I wrote more about in another entry), gave me more flexibility that day. As much as I love to play golf, sometimes when I am not having a great round it can impact my mood/mindset and that could’ve taken away from my experience there.
Another random thing, loosely related to our Scotland road trip, is that I recently received another update to my DNA results from Ancestry and it appears the percentage of my DNA that is now considered Scottish has increased significantly. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me, as I don’t have any known ancestors from Scotland, though I am aware of some from England and Ireland. Ancestry did share an explanation about the change and I found another article, which was also helpful. The latter piece breaks down why results from DNA test companies may not mean what a lot people think they do.
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Reminder: Unless I’ve been given permission to use people’s actual names, in most cases I’ve removed or replaced the names of the real people who were part of my journey/experience there, in effort to protect and respect their identities/privacy in my London Semester Journal entries. I will also not share details that I think and feel are too personal for anyone I interacted with, my loved ones, and me.
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Here’s the back story of My London Semester Journals from 1996, including what prompted me to revisit and decide to share them here in 2018. And here’s a list a list of the entries, which I will update as I share them.
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