What a Difference a Day Made

Howdy all. Well yesterday was pretty ordinary, today, not so much (I think I should use, some more, commas). Haha, sorry. My writing is not perfect most of the time but I try. Moving on. Here's the big news: I am going to Edinburgh this weekend (Vanessa too). I thought about it yesterday and I looked up bus fares and they were reasonable (about £35 return). I didn't want to pull the trigger yesterday but I did today. I got a hostel reserved too. Here's the plan:

1. Get on the bus at 11 pm Wednesday.
   
2. Arrive in Edinburgh at around 8 am.
3. Spend all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Edinburgh. I will be staying at Castle Rock Hostel Thursday and Friday night.
   
4. Get on the bus at 10 pm Saturday.
5. Arrive back in London at around 7 am.
6. Head off to my cousin Sonya's at around 9 am.
   

You must be thinking, " He's crazy!?!?!" and you're right, I am. I wouldn't want it any other way. I am really excited about Scotland (I have heard good things) and I really want to see my cousin and her family so doing both things in one weekend is awesome. The even more crazy thing is that after Sunday, I have class Monday and Tuesday and then head to the airport Wednesday night to leave for Italy... Oh geez. One day at a time, one day at a time. Haha. On to the rest of my day.

Islam vs. the West was pretty interesting today. We talked about the Crusades. Its funny how the arm of history has swung from calling the Muslims as barbarians and the aggressors to calling the crusaders barbarians and aggressors. That's the contemporary thought, I'm sure it will swing back someday. The violence and destruction of crusades (there were 8 in total) is just appalling to me. Disgusting almost. At the same time, thinking about all the violence happening everywhere nowadays, one can legitimately ask, has much changed? We watched a video from one of the people from Monty Python about the first crusade. It had a little bit of humor in it and was very informative. I liked it.

*All pictures are from the Wallace Collection website*

So for Art History class we met up at the Wallace Collection. It's an art gallery across Hyde Park from where we live. It's in the house that the Wallace's used to live in. All the art in it was bought or created especially for Mr. Wallace (I don't know his first name, they lived in the Victorian Age though) and his son. His son died and his wife bequeathed it to the nation on one condition: that no art work be lent out to other museums. This was awesome because then all the art work was always there but that also means that other art galleries don't want to lend their work there. Sort of you scratch my back and I will scratch yours sort of thing. This means that the Wallace Collection never has big blockbuster exhibits but that's fine. The place has so much stuff in it, I don't where they would put the exhibit. There are a ton of paintings on each wall, loads of fine china, sculptures everywhere, even the furniture is original and you can't sit on it! The extravagance of the place is just nuts. Chandeliers that glitter with gold and glass, walls that look like velvet, windows with actual velvet drapes, all the opulence is almost overwhelming. Then people wonder why the Russian Revolution and French Revolution lashed out against the rich. Crazy.

Anyway, on to the art itself. We looked "Dance to the Music of Time" by Nicolas Poussin (picture 2). This painting has Father Time playing music while the 4 seasons dance in the middle. Reminding us that life is just a dance and we aren't here long so why wait by the sidelines? That's what I got out of it anyway. We also looked at "Perseus and Andromeda" by Titian. This was most likely a commissioned painting because it has a nude young woman prominently featured. The fact the Persues and the monster are in it seem to just be there to make the nude valid. We spent some time looking at Dutch painting from 1600-1700. Puritanism reigned free. Calvinism said no religious paintings so Dutch painters painted their lives: their homes, their churches, their landscapes. One example is "Interior of Antwerp Cathedral" by Peter Neeffs the Elder (picture 4). There are two whole rooms with landscape type paintings of Venice (picture 5). Canaletto did a lot of them. Back in the old days, there were not cameras so rich people had artists paint the tourist viewpoints and then brought the paintings back to show their friends. Makes sense to me. Lastly, we looked at Rococo work. That being very frilly, ornate and decorative stuff. This includes paintings, sculpture, architecture, even the frames. Most of paintings were of love scenes and had pink in them somehow. Like "The Swing" by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (picture 6).

From there Vanessa and I walked (we also walked to the Wallace, save us some moneys) to Victoria Coach Station to buy our tickets to Edinburgh. The website doesn't accept US credit or debit cards (so I heard from one of the workers) so we had to go there to buy our tickets. £35 return. Not bad. It should be interesting trying to sleep. I am a little anxious about that but I think it will be ok. Then I came back and read and watched tv. I had the other frozen pizza I bought because the one yesterday was so good. This one was chicken with roasted peppers and caramelized onion. Yum.

After that, I checked my e-mail and I had received an e-mail from HOSTUK. That's the people who set up the weekend-long stays in the English countryside. My hosts live in Oxfordshire. I am excited to talk to them and meet them. It says that they are a married couple in their 50s who are Singapore citizens which should be interesting. I will be doing that the weekend of March 7-9 so no Northern Spain but that's fine with me. I was just glad to hear back.

So, it was a big day of decisions and travel plans for me (Edinburgh and HOSTUK). Its crazy how boring yesterday was and how exciting today was. That's the way life goes though. Apples one day, cider the next (or something, I don't know how it goes). I hope everyone had a good Tuesday. I will write another post tomorrow before I go, have no fear.

Beannachd Leat! (Scottish for goodbye)