all things scotland

i have been ridiculously obsessed with all things scottish lately. i have been missing it so badly! my first terrible decision was to watch a video my mom had found for me at some sale -- 'touring scotland' -- yeah, i was crying within minutes of starting it. oof. just made me miss it more than normal, which is already a lot! and now i've been wearing a necklace and earrings that i got in scotland and were given to me from scotland (respectively), and that just makes me think of it. and then i watched braveheart -- except the crappy vhs version which is two tapes so you have to get up and switch it in the middle, ahahha -- which was awesome. i forgot how good that movie is! how much it stirs my scottish blood, hah. ALSO, how mel gibson was NOT always a crazy looking old anti-semitic drunk man. he looks good in braveheart. and he played the part brilliantly. i am totally in love with him in this movie.. it's one of two that i ever really liked him in, the other being maverick. also a good movie. but anyway. braveheart reminded me of -- obscure book reference here, although i know most of you have read them, haha -- the outlander novels, because his william wallace reminded me a lot of jamie -- who, for those who don't know, is a character in said novels. quick synopsis: the books are set in the 1950s/60s until suddenly claire ends up transported back to 1750s/60s scotland, where she ends up meeting (and marrying) jamie. so then they're set around the battle of culloden, of which she obviously has forewarning since she knows what happened, being from the 'future' and all. and then eventually they move to america and are currently, in the last book, trying to survive the american revolutionary war. but they are still scottish and surrounded by scots. so. since the movie reminded me of the books, i am now rereading the last book (a breath of snow and ashes), although if it's actually the last book i don't know -- she may have put out another book by now. but i can't afford it if she has, so i am just going to wait until probably my birthday (sept. 20) to figure that out, because hopefully i can then go buy it with birthday money, woot!

so yeah. obsessed with all things scotland. missing it terribly. watching 'william wallace' run around the highlands made me cry, because they're so beautiful and haunting and lovely and .. i want to be there. i want to run around the highlands.

although there was one problem -- some of the movie was set in edinburgh, and they talked about the castle. now, i know that in the 12/1300s, the castle certainly didn't look like it does now, but they didn't even pretend, i don't think. unless the castle has been knocked down and completely rebuilt, which, i suppose, is possible, they didn't even try. cause what they showed looked nothing like any part of the castle that's there nowadays. not knowing my edinburgh castle history, i suppose it could have been completely redone, but that seems unlikely. although in random trivia, did you know the castle is built on an old volcano? and that people settled there as early as 800 ad? i thought that was pretty cool to know.

either way, i miss it so bad. jon came back from a red sox game in boston awhile ago and was talking about how he forgot how much he loved boston, just how everything felt right again when he was there. and that's how i feel about edinburgh/scotland. everything just felt right. i was happier than i'd been in a long time, and while i do love jon, i don't love my life (aka, my job, cause that's all i have since the hours i work make it impossible to see anyone and/or do anything), so i'd say i haven't been that happy since either. i know scotland wouldn't fix all my problems, but.. i just felt right there. if it wasn't so far away, i'd move there in a heartbeat. but i know i'd miss my family and friends. i've played the move away game, and it was fun because it wasn't permanent, you know? if i could just lasso scotland and bring it closer -- or maybe lasso the united states and move it closer, scotland is fine where it is -- i would totally move there. in a second. in less than a second. in a nanosecond.

for those of you who don't know, this is edinburgh castle:

and this is the skyscape:

so the castle is in there in the back right, and the short steeple on the left (not the super tall spiny one, the more left one) is about 10 seconds from where i lived. no exaggeration.

for good measure, this is buddy mulligans, one of our favorite pubs:

note biddy's there in the bottom corner (right-ish, with the green shade) and the castle up above it. it's quite a trip to stumble out of a bar drunk, look up, and see a castle. but one of my favorite trips. woot!

and this is a picture of the highlands, a la kate:

sigh. can i go home yet?