Today was the day of reckoning. Knowing what awaited me, I took my time in the morning, which did at least give me the opportunity to line up several more of my B&Bs along my journey. (I've decided on a route that goes counter-clockwise through Scotland, starting in Edinburgh and ending in Glasglow).
At last the time came, and I took a bus to meet my destiny. Shortly thereafter with decidedly little fanfare, or instruction for that matter, I was handed over the keys to a black Ford Focus hatchback. Poor car. I'd asked for a small car when I originally booked it with an American saleswoman. By American standards, is reasonably small, but my British standards, it is not that small. I wanted small to navigate all of the narrow roads. In any case, I meticulously scoured the outside for dents and other damage, as I was sure I would leave plenty on my own and didn't want to get blamed for others' mishaps as well.
As my last question before being taken to the chopping block, I asked the attendant what the easiest way to Stirling was, pointing out that I had never driven on the other side of the road before. He said that it was simple. I only needed to go around an extremely busy roundabout and then make a right turn onto a heavily trafficked road. Those were the two things I wanted most to avoid as I was first learning the ropes: roundabouts (which way do I go around it?) and right turns (equivalent to our left turns - which way do I look?). And then he left me with a "good luck". Alas, I said screw that, I tried to make my own way that would involve mostly left turns - the easy ones. Making up my own route quickly turned into getting quite lost in Edinburgh, as I didn't have a good map and had turned down an optional GPS, as they wanted around $150 for one for 8 days. (I had pointed out that it was ludicrous to charge me that much to rent one when I could purchase one for the same price, but they did not relent. Business opportunity? I'll rent them for $100 a week, thus significantly undercutting the competition, and still have an incredibly lucrative business.) Moreover, my stomach was in my throat as I nervously chanted to myself: stay left, stay left.
Before long, I discovered that I was headed directly towards the castle and the Royal Mile, the busiest and most confusing part of the city. Change course, change course! Before long, I began navigating by the sun, which, with a little help from a cartoon map, finally put me on course towards my destination, Stirling Castle. And an hour later, I had successfully arrived at my destination, the favored castle of the Stewart dynasty.
Along the way, I had learned some interesting things about driving a car with the steering wheel on the opposite side (the right side). For one, it's not a mirror image of American cars. Some things are on the same side, but others are not. It leads to a lot of confusion, because even if you can compel yourself to do the opposite of what your instincts tell you, sometimes you find that doesn't work either. For instance, the pedals are arranged the same as in our cars. This in particular is a godsend, because I'm driving a stick, and if the pedals were different, I'd probably already be dead. It would have been too many things to adapt to at once. However, the stick itself is not on the left, so I've got to learn to shift with the other hand while driving with the right. The blinker is still on the left of the steering wheel, which is a little odd to me, and causes a lot of confusion because my instinct is to use the hand on the wheel. In my Subie (or any American manual), since I'm driving with my left hand, I can flick the blinker with my hand on the wheel while shifting with my right. But now, since the blinker is on the same side of the steering wheel as the stick, I have to remember to blinker before shifting, or vice versa. The result is that I'm not using my blinker a whole lot. Other smaller things include reaching to the left to grab my seat belt, only to discover its on my right. For some reason I can't get past it - I think it's because putting on a seat belt is so subconscious for me, it never even comes to the conscious level until I reach to the left and my hand grasps at air. On a more embarrassing note, by the end of the day, I'd walked up to my car on multiple occasions to get in and drive away to discover I was opening the passenger seat door. It starts to all become very confusing - stay left, but sit right, shift with the left, but continue to hit the blinker with the left, drive with the same feet, but only after putting on the seat belt from the other side. Oh, and I keep looking in my right side view mirror to see what's behind me because my instinct is to look right when I want to look in the rear view mirror. And in case you are wondering, the ignition is still on the right. Now I'm not saying any of the design aspects I'm struggling with don't make sense - only that it's very challenging to upend your instinct when it's only some stuff, but not everything. It's hard enough to reverse the thing, but less with discretion.
Stirling Castle itself was pretty cool and competes with Edinburgh for its share of important history. It got so crazy, Scots would lose it to the English, then regain it, at which time they would raze the bloody thing to prevent the English from taking it again. I think this happened at least twice. It's rather silly when you think about it. The castle was actually used to garrison Scottish troops until the 60s, so it's revitalization as a historic landmark is a fairly modern occurrence. In fact, the royal palace was just refurbished for a whopping ~$20 million and just 2 months ago inducted by the queen. One of the buildings they painted with a gold-colored plaster, which looks odd at first, until you learn that in its heyday under the Stewarts, the whole castle was actually this color to show off their power and riches (and poor taste in my opinion). I'm sure the gold castle on its hilltop did look pretty impressive.
Around the castle, you find lots of unicorns. They were a pretty popular creature at Stirling C, at least in part because they represent Christ. I don't totally get it, but I think it has something to do with purity and uniqueness. During the tour of the royal palace, I also learned that the fancy bedrooms the royalty kept, with their big beds surround by draperies, were actually not used to sleep in. They existed to display the power and wealth of the person, while they actually often slept in a small nearby room. Must be nice to have a "show off" bedroom you don't have to worry about having to neaten after using. At the castle I also had my first misunderstanding due to the Scottish dialect. When I asked where the tour begins, the woman said up past the archway and to the right by the whale. Huh? What? A whale in the courtyard of a castle, that's weird. After a second, I asked her, "by the whale?" "Yes, by the whale." "Hmmm, okay". "Oh, no, by the will, oh, I said that wrong, by the well." "Oh, the well, I see." Huh, wells in castles make far more sense than whales.
While exploring the outside of the castle, a rainbow began to form in the valley. And then I noticed, almost directly in the middle of the rainbow, was William Wallace's monument. It was pretty amazing, actually. It kind of sent chills down my spine. Here I was, looking at a rainbow immediately overhead of this beautiful Gothic tower memorializing Braveheart. Wow.
During my visit at the castle, I also began to develop a new pet peeve. Everywhere it seemed were people popping out dSLRs, some of them nice, taking pictures in well lit rooms with their flash! They were just putting the thing on auto and it was popping up the flash. Some of them were taking pictures of things 30-50 feet away. The flash was useless at best. I suppose I understand - they want a nice picture with as little effort as possible. And I've certainly been humbled by the manual settings on my camera the past few days, but it all seems rather silly. If you are going to invest hundreds to thousands of dollars in a camera, you should learn to use the thing. At the very least, crank up the ISO a bit and put the camera in automatic aperture mode.
After the castle, I made my way to my B&B in St. Andrews on the eastern coast of Scotland. It's a very charming little town, perhaps most famous for its golf course (its supposedly where golf was invented), and more recently as being the alma mater of Prince William. Upon arriving, I called the host and learned that the key was behind a fold out door. I retrieved it and then opened the front door and went upstairs to purvey my digs for the night and take a leak. Then I went back outside to unload my car. Oh no, I'd left my the key on the dresser in my room. I was locked out again! But then I remembered that there was a second key behind the door, to room 2. I grabbed it to unlock the front door, and viola, I was back inside. So I went back to my room to grab the key and noticed that I had left it (and used the restroom in) room 2, NOT my room. I quickly retrieved my things from room 2 and sought out my proper room. Two crises averted!
I then went to a local restaurant called the Doll House for dinner, where I had a wonderful salmon filet. Seafood really is excellent in Scotland. Upon returning to my B&B, I noticed that they had coupons on the counter for one free drink at the Doll House. Ah well, maybe next time.
My closing thought for today is that the British really do LOVE traffic circles. They pop up all over the place. And I'm beginning to love them, too. They are far more convenient than stop lights. There's lots of evidence that they reduce seriously car accidents among other advantages. If I started a political party, it would be the party for building more roundabouts.
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