Sand and Golf

After that crazy snoring guy the night before, I was a little scattered brained and didn't really know where I wanted to go that day and neither did Vanessa. I went down to the front desk to ask some questions about possibly taking a ferry and how much a bus to Roslyn Chapel or a train to St. Andrew's was but the guy had no idea. He gave me a free 30 minutes of internet and said, "look it up, dude". Um, ok. Naturally, before I actually did what he gave me the free internet for, I checked my e-mail. My cousin Sonya had sent me an e-mail telling me to go to St. Andrew's. That pretty much made up my mind. She had previously told me to go to Canary Wharf and I really liked it there so I knew I could trust her advice. Boy, was she ever right. She knew about St. Andrews because both she and her husband, James went to university there.

Vanessa and I grabbed a train to Leuchars train station where we took a bus to St. Andrew's. It was about an hour and 10 minutes total travel time. While we were on the train, we continued our game of Rummy. One hand, I went first and laid down the cards I could. Vanessa proceeded to go out on her first turn. I was astounded. I have never seen that happen before. As most people who read this know, I did not feel like playing any more. Anyway, we got to St. Andrew's which is a kind of small town located directly on the North Sea. The town is most famous for being the venue for the British Open Golf Tournament for like 100 years or more. On the western end of town is the West Sands and golf courses. On the eastern end is the East Sands and the ruins of the castle and church. We went to the west first. The West Sands (picture 2) are a two mile long beach which is really wide and is extremely windy. The famous scene in the movie, "Chariots of Fire", was filmed on this beach. Next to the beach are three golf courses that all run parallel to the beach and to each other. The middle course is called The Old Course and is the one where the British Open is played (picture 1). Very cool. Anyway, we walked along the beach and fought the winds. The dry sand was blowing over the wet sand and it looked just absolutely amazing. It was like watching a painting but the brush strokes move around (picture 2). We noticed that all the dark clouds seemed to only be going over St. A's and not to the far west or east. Annoying. Any time the sun peeked out we rejoiced a little bit. We walked along the beach for a long time and then decided to turn around and walk back. This was more difficult because it was directly into the wind. There were nice views of the town though (picture 4). We kept going though. We were going to do golf on some putting green like things for £1 but they were closed until April :-( so we walked back to the town.

On our way into town, Vanessa and I passed by the Seafood Restaurant (£22 for a two course lunch, um no thanks). I had PBJ and Vanessa had leftover rice... now that's gourmet. We ate lunch back at the bus stop in town because Vanessa was cold (as was I but I didn't admit it). We walked east next. While we were eating lunch, all of the dark clouds were clearing out so the sun was shining with some big white clouds and it was awesome. Our first stop was the Cathedral ruins (picture 5 and 6). They were awesome. Against the blue sky and dark blue sea and green grass, they were spectacular. All that was left was the front wall, a tower, and part of the back wall. We proceeded on to the East Sands. This was the favorite part of the day for me and for Vanessa. We walked really slowly along the beach and heard the waves crashing and the sun was shining and I don't know, it was amazing. I know I'm only 20 years old and this will sound weird but it was definitely one of those life affirming moments. Like when you think to yourself, "Yes, life rocks". Vanessa and I (two of us on East Sands picture 8) talked about how the word "lucky" wasn't enough to describe the fact that we were able to be there at that moment (maybe blessed does, I don't know). We both took a bunch of beach pictures (picture 9). With the ruins behind us, the sea to our left, rolling hills to our right and cliffs in front of us, and the low sun making all of them glow, it was impossible not to.

We walked out on a concrete water break thing which was cool. Again, just beautiful. Sonya was very lucky to go to University in a place like this. After prying ourselves away from the beach, we walked by the Castle ruins and decided to go in. The ruins were really cool but the most interesting (and mildly terrifying) part was going in some siege tunnels that were constructed in 1546. They had really low ceilings and it was a good thing neither of us was claustrophobic. They were also kind of dirty. It was fun walking down them though and marveling at the fact that they were dug by hand 450 years ago. We took a different route back to the bus station by going through the shopping district in town. Very cute little shops. There were quite a few fudge shops. I don't know if that is significant or not. The bus ride was uneventful. The train back to Edinburgh was packed and I had to stand the whole time. I was not happy about that. Vanessa and I had walked or stood all day and standing for an hour was not good. Oh well. I made it back without injury. We made dinner (pasta and sauce for me and lentils and vegetables for Vanessa). Lentils are Vanessa's new favorite food because they are really cheap and she thinks they taste good. I think they taste like glue but whatever, if she's happy, I'm happy.

While we were eating, I relayed the craziness of the lentils to the girls at the table and we struck up a conversation. One girl was from California. She hikes Half Dome every year for a fund raiser for her disabled brother (can you believe that Mom?). Another girl was from Brainard. Strange connections all over the place. After dinner, it was tea time and I started reading Gods and Generals. There were a large amount of Chinese people (10 to 11 member family) in our room. The lights went out when they shut them out. I was so tired I didn't hear any of them snore but Vanessa did in the middle of the night. Mental Note, ;-) Amy, get some ear plugs.