Curiouser and Curiouser: My Life in Ruins.... because ruins are freaking awesome.

My birthday week was pretty darn great.
It all started Saturday 2 July with possibly one of the most perfect days ever.
It involved jousting. The weather was wonderful, being very sunny and hot. I might have gotten heat stroke, but it was worth it.
The location: Linlithgow Palace. Linlithgow is a small village a few miles outside of Edinburgh. The train is literally a 14 minute ride. It takes me that long to walk to church!
I fell in love with this place.

It's a ruin, being destroyed by fire in the 1700s.

My friend and I wandered all around the palace, which is fabulous.

The fountain is beautiful.

More pictures are on facebook. Lots and lots of pictures.
There was a whole medieval village of tents on the green beside the palace, with a blacksmith, furniture maker, cook, and armour. Oh, it was fabulous. I was so distracted that I almost joined the arms demonstration, as I wandered into their ranks. A few of them stopped to talk to me and my friend. I even got to hold a javelin!


How could I have missed them?

The big draw for the day was the joust. The Knights of Royal England presented the show. They had all the children in the crowd come up and parade around the field holding the weapons.
I wanted to pretend I was with a kid so I could march! Alas, I didn't. Darn singleness.

Then, the riders burst onto the field! The joust was amazing!

They were on real horses!

They split the crowd into blue and red fans, so one half would cheer for the Blue Team and the other for Red. We even had flags! It wasn't only jousting, but sword play, feats of skill and they dragged one person around behind a horse. That was very cool. I liked to cheer for Sir Ashley of Hampshire.

And who wouldn't?

The Blue Team won the first competition. Then we had a break for lunch, which we spent under the trees enjoying at the fabulous view. Linlithgow Palace is on a loch and it is gorgeous! Surely I could live there and commute to Edinburgh every day. Surely Historic Scotland would allow this!
We stayed for the second joust, which the Red team won. My voice was hoarse from the yelling and screaming as I cheered on my team, which was Red this time. I might have gotten a little bloodthirsty, but Medieval times were a little bloodthirsty. Violence! Huzzah!
We were so close, I could feel the horse hooves beating the ground as they went by.
It was awesome. They ended by playing "We Will Rock You" by Queen,

Complete with wigs.

which reminded me of A Knight's Tale. I totally should have dressed up!

As we boarded the train back to Edinburgh, I thought that I just experienced a Perfect Day. Wonderful!

Then the day of my birthday arrived! I had friends from the US and Canada staying and we spent the morning at Craigmillar Castle. Craigmillar was built by the Preston family and Mary, Queen of Scots, used to stay there. Beautiful ruins!


Although the pigeons scared me.

After spending a couple hours there (even saw a deer!), I decided to head off to Edinburgh proper for lunch. I love that Linlithgow and Craigmillar are surrounded by public parks, can you imagine going for a run by a CASTLE? I so need to move.
Since it was my birthday, I decided to have tea at the Balmoral Hotel. Very, very posh. I wish I could have dressed formally. I spent rather a lot of money, on sandwiches, tea and this amazing passion fruit pastry. It was delicious!
While my friends explored the Edinburgh castle, I went and bought an Edinburgh shirt and a cook book. It was very fun shopping with my friends.
I came back to call my mum and bro and open my gifts from them! They were in Jackson for the day. They sent me four boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese! A box of Phineas and Ferb plasters (bandaids). Then C gave me a beautiful necklace with pink pearls forming a flower. I wore it with my dress that night for my birthday. A great night out at a local Italian restaurant with a bunch of my friends. I even received a kiss on the cheek from one of the waiters. Everyone laughed at the look on my face. It was a tad unexpected.
Walking home in the quiet neighborhood, I felt very happy.
The fun was to continue the next day with a trip to Roslin Chapel. Medieval! It's famous for a certain book and film, which I do not care for, but it's increased tourism, which is helping them raise the funds to save it.

The inside is all gray. It's sad what has been done in the name of "preservation."
We also found the remains of Roslin Castle, which looks so great!

Touring Ireland and Scotland, you really start to hate Oliver Cromwell. Augh. He destroyed so much!
At least he missed Roslin Chapel.
After Roslin we went on a North and South tour. North and South is based on a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. If you haven't read Elizabeth Gaskell, READ her! She is fabulous. Mary Barton and North and South are my favorites.
Anyway, when the made the film, they shot it in Edinburgh! So we went on a tour of the some of the locations. Like the Hale home.


I stood where Richard Armitage did! Eee.

The next day I planned on working on my dissertation, but we finished up the North and South tour and I was persuaded to go with them to Stirling Castle. It was very, very tough for them. It took them all of four seconds to convince me to go.
I haven't been to Stirling Castle in five years! It's amazing to see what they've done to it!


Our lovely guide

The Queen of England had been there the day before, but I was less excited about that than the whole Richard Armitage thing. Hee hee.
It was wonderful to be back. Historic Scotland has made Stirling Castle wonderful!
How wonderful? Check out this picture I took five years ago: