I felt like yesterday I got such a splendid dose of Scottish history and culture. Now, I have a whole new appreciation and fascination with it than I ever had before. I will never forget getting off our bus to roam a wee bit, taking in the fresh, clear, and crisp air faintly scented with pine and hemlock. Or taking a sail on the lake of legends past, Loch Ness. Or eating clotted cream fudge whilst browsing the town graveyard. Or enjoying REAL Scottish butterscotch while waiting on our train. Ah.
As you may have suspected by now, I think I may have left some of my heart there. Well, at least I wasn't so dumb as to leave Loch Ness a piece of my soul like Galen did. Legend says, if you touch the waters of the loch it supposedly takes a piece of your soul. If you don't return in 7 years to claim it again, you will lose it forever!
Here's some more bits and pieces of Scottish stuff for your enjoyment.
Water of Life
I the early days of Scottish history, Edinburgh's waste system consisted of a bucket and a window. Waste was dumped out the window and it ran in streams down the street into a pond nearby. Unfortunately, said pond also happened to be the cities' main water source. Ooops. Thus, people would become very sick and die if they drank the water most commonly available to them. So, a solution was found, and Scots, ever the resourceful people, decided the solution was: just drink whiskey! Brilliant. It was sanitary and clean. Thus, whiskey came to be known as the "water of life" and regular water the "water of death." Like beer in medieval Europe, whiskey was feed to infants from birth. There are over 900 varieties of single malt whiskey and even more blended whiskeys. They love their whiskey, let me tell you. but they also love this drink I'm mentioning next.
Irn Bru
Did you know that Scotland is one of the only countries in the world in which Coke is not the best selling drink? Jaime gave us a whole dissertation on Irn Bru, (pronounced with rolled r's "earn bruu." It is the most popular soda like drink here.
"It's basically not very good, like orange juice with heavy metallic flavored infused throughout." Jaime said. "But it'll cure what ails ya. Hangover, no energy, no matter. Works for everything! Everyone drinks it!"
Intrigued, we picked up a glass when we were through with our tour. It's an orange colored drink that has a delightful smell reminiscent of cough syrup. I eventually came round to trying it, and it wasn't good but wasn't bad either. Hard to describe for sure! I looked to see what was so special, if anything, about the ingredients. There is no corn syrup, of course, as virtually all sodas in Europe are sweetened with sugar. The only things beside the usual ingredients of a soda were iron, quinine, extra caffeine and vitamin c. Galen claimed its effectiveness and said it made him really chipper, so maybe it's the Scot's secret to their endurance and toughness.
Scotland's National Symbol
Ever wondered how Scotland came to have the thistle as its national symbol? Well, early on in Scotland's history the Pictish people ruled the land. The Danes decided to take up their new found hobby of invasion to a new high by invading nearby Scotland. Unable to make much progress with a direct assault, they opted for a sneak attack at night on the unsuspecting Pictish camp. They were so sneaky, the story goes, that they removed their shoes for extra sneakiness and as they ascended the hill, stomped squarely upon, you guessed it, thistles. This understandably led to great shrieks of pain throughout the enemies' ranks, alerting the noble Picts that the dastardly Danes were at it again, and thus they were able to fend them off.
The Story of the Flag
The Pictish people were about to go into battle to defend their land once again. The night before the battle, they asked their patron saint, Saint Andrew, for a sign that they should proceed. The next day, the sky was blue and clear (a rarity for Scotland) and across it, two clouds ran diagonal in the shape of a cross. This cross happened to be that patron saint's sign, so they took it that the battle would go well for them. It did, and their country was safe once again from the enemy.
Everything You Wanted to Know (and some things you didn't) About Kilts and Bagpipes
Bagpipes are classified as a weapon and were used as such. Often the enemy would flee when marching on misty moor to suddenly hear a droning noise ahead of them.
The kilt was much bigger back in its heyday than the little skirts thing that it is now. It was around 9 yards long and would be laid out on the floor in a pleated pattern. The wearer would then lay on it and roll it around himself, draping the excess round his shoulders. This way, a Scot could wear his warm garb all day whilst herding sheep, and at night, when he had to sleep on the moor, he could then wrap the excess around him like a sleeping bag to sleep warm all night long.
Also, if you are in any kind of military service, it is against the law and nearly a criminal offense to wear anything under your kilt. Not kidding at all. There is even a dude with a mirror that will come by and check the under the kilts' of each officer at attention to make sure that "protocol has not been breached" if you catch my drift.
This lead to Jamie telling us about the infamous Battle of the Shirts that took place approx 1200 next to Loch Locchey . He showed us they very spot it was fought, a green stretch of land right before the Loch. Previously to this famous battle, the Scots, realizing that kilts were cumbersome to wear while fighting, had solved this problem by simply removing all their clothes before battles.
"Hence, a lot of battles were fought by a bunch of naked men." -Jaime
This battle was the first exception to this rule, for Scotland had started to receive imports of linen from England so they started to wear these things they called "shirts." At the Battle of Shirts, they stripped to their shirts to go into battle, and then slaughtered each other. When battle pipers got tired of piping, they simply called a truce and then the survivors went for a wee dip in the cool waters of the loch.
Robert the Bruce
He took over the rebellion from William Wallace when he died. He got excommunicated by the Pope for killing a catholic traitor in a catholic church. All the population was supportive of Bruce, and so by proxy they too were excommunicated. He and his men were so fierce, that once they came up against a force of 1500 knights from England with their army of 600 and killed all of them. Another year, they won a glorious Victory over a force 5 times their size in the battle of Bannockburn. He saw a horse faraway begin to charge him, but as the rider brought the horse nearer and nearer, from canter to gallop, Bruce stood his ground, At the last minute, Robert sidestepped the rider and whipped out a new weapon that would soon become popular and famous: the Battleaxe. When Robert the Bruce died abroad, he asked his men to cut his heart out and take it back to Caledonia (Scotland) and we rode past the place it was buried.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment