Corinne CrawfordThe particulars of this workaway were simple and flexible. You put in 20 hours of work a week and the rest of the time was yours. And you could do your hours whenever you pleased. You could do 4 hours each day, you could do two 10 hour days. I tried to get my work done in 4 days while still trying to do my actual job. I did get some time on Sunday to go into the city center, about a 35 minute bus ride, and take myself on the Rick Steves walking tour from his Audio Guide app.
I also visited the first floor of the History Museum but because I was still a little under the weather, my energy petered out and I decided that because the admission is free, I can always return to visit the other floors at another time. The weather here has been amazing with sunny skies, warm temps and just a slight breeze. I decided to wait to pay the admission to visit Edinburgh Castle on a weekday because it looked horribly crowded on the Sunday. On Monday, I decided to take myself out and go on a guided tour called Literary Pub Tour. It was described as a walk with stops at three pubs while two actors provided running commentary and history on some of the great authors and poets that have come from Edinburgh such as Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Burns. I wasn’t that impressed actually but it wasn’t the worst. I still had some free days to go back into the city and visit the castle, the National Portrait Gallery and take a hike up to a viewpoint that looks over the city.
During the two weeks I was at the Bunker, I did my 20 hours of work to earn my keep, tried to stay on top of my actual job, which included some middle of the night meetings as they were on California time, absorb the sights and activities of Edinburgh and socialize a bit with my fellow workawayers. I normally spend months at a time with just a few conversations here and there with strangers when I travel, but this was a big departure from my norm with constant interaction with a dozen different people. But I really enjoyed it and it made me realize that all the time I spend alone may have stunted my already sub-par social skills. Some of the socializing just included working together, conversations while in the common rooms together, going out to pubs together for either quiz night or live music. Myself and two other volunteers were considered the “elder statesmen”, being the oldest by quite a bit. I was the youngest of the “elder statesmen” and the next youngest person at any given time was younger by at least 15 years. There were so many different personalities and I really enjoyed some of the both light and heavy conversations with many of them. I shared a caravan with a young man from Australia for a brief time. Zach was fun (as most Australians are known to be) and just a really funny and polite guy. I enjoyed getting to know him. Then there was Alex from Germany. He was also young and was only with us for a brief time as he got word that he got accepted for a teaching/research job in his field of study “educational psychology” and had to get back to Germany. He was such a smart, thoughtful and deep young man and we enjoyed a bottle of wine together up on the bluff overlooking the water in the distance at sunset over a bonfire discussing the world and people. Overall it was such a good experience and now that I am moving on and back to being by myself, it makes me wonder if I will experience any loneliness. I typically do not feel lonely on a regular basis even thought I spend 90% of my time alone but I haven’t had that much social interaction with new people in a long time and it was much more enjoyable than I had anticipated. Although I sometimes feel like my social skills are somewhat similar to the scene from Dumb and Dumber where he just walks up to strangers and says something like “hey fellas, big gulps, huh?”
Some of the other things I did while I was in Edinburgh included visiting the National Portrait Gallery, a couple of cemeteries, Holyrood Palace, more of the National Museum of Scotland and Greyfriars.
The National Portrait Gallery was an art museum of mostly just portraits of notable Scottish people and they did a really good job of giving a backstory and history on the placard next to the paintings so it felt like a little history lesson in portraits. After seeing so much information about Mary, Queen of Scots, everywhere, I really felt the draw to visit Holyrood palace. Mary, Queen of Scots, arguably the most famous of the Scottish nobles, lived in Holyrood palace right in the city center of Edinburgh for a period of time and it was also the location where her secretary (and possibly lover) was murdered in front of her by her husband and his supporters. She also lived at Edinburgh castle which I visited earlier and she gave birth to her son and future King of both Scotland and England, James VI and I, at the castle. Also on display at the castle were the Crown Jewels of Scotland, which were used in the coronation of Mary, Queen of Scots, along with every other Scottish monarch after that. After seeing so much information about the Stewarts (later Stuarts), Tudors, Jacobites, the Protestant reformation, the different monarchies of England and Scotland, my overriding thought was that I need to read a frickin’ book. I felt so inadequate trying to make sense in my mind of the timeline and details. So I am going to look for a good book that I can download on my kindle about Scottish history and origins. At the National Museum of Scotland, I again spent time in the Scottish history exhibits which covered pre-historic Scotland all the way through the current monarchy of King Charles. The National Museum of Scotland was a humongous complex covering so many topics. If that was your thing you could easily spend 2 full days going through the entire thing. I probably spent a total of 4 or 5 hours there. I also visited the old church at Greyfriars and the extensive cemetery located on the church grounds. This location has a long and important history in Edinburgh and one story that seems to have captured the culture and tourists is of Greyfriar Bobby. The story goes that during the time when grave robbing was not uncommon and the cemetery at Greyfriars employed a night watchmen to keep people from stealing the bodies and selling them to the nearby universities in Edinburgh. John Gray was the night watchman for a while and he always had his little dog, Bobby, with him on his watch. John Gray succumbed to tuberculosis not long after and was actually buried in the cemetery and his dog Bobby stayed on watch at the cemetery for the next 14 years, watching out for grave robbers and his owner. The chapel was also the site of the signing of the National Covenant, a document of protest against some of the strict protocols the King implemented in religious practices.
Edinburgh is a fascinating city steeped in history and architecture. It was well worth the visit and I would be happy to visit again. But for now, I needed some alone time and had booked a little cottage home along a harbor in the Highlands of Scotland. I planned to stay for 10 days in this small village getting caught up on my work and my plan was to work, take hikes and drink Whisky. My journey to Ullapool by train then bus would begin tomorrow.
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