Edinburgh, Scotland - Pt. 3 Family History and Street Art (Bet you never thought you'd hear those two things together.)

When I woke up the next morning I had intended to go back to London. However when I got to the train station the line was still down. The only option I had would've been to take a train over to the west coast, and then down to London. This would've taken several hours longer, but from the news I was really thinking that I had no other option. 

So I headed for the train and right as I was about to board the train I had this feeling that I shouldn't go. I kept walking and when I was about to hand over my ticket, I remembered that the entire purpose of my visit to Edinburgh had been to see if I could find anything on my great great great grandfather, William Henderson. I almost burst into to tears, because I hadn't even made it to the University of Edinburgh where my family believes he taught as a math teacher. 

I took a step away from the platform, nearly hyperventilating and decided that I had to at least try before I could go home. This was a scary moment for me, because if I didn't make it back to London by that night, I was going to miss my flight to Dublin the next day. In this moment though I made the decision that it was more important to me to try then to go to Dublin and I felt instantly better.

 

 I asked around and eventually was lead to this building. This is the Student Union building of Edinburgh University. I told the girl at the desk what I was doing and she couldn't believe it, but was excited to help me.

 She sent me here. This was building on the other side of campus. I went in here and was told that I had been sent to the wrong building. Interestingly enough though, the lady in here had a picture with her and Donny Osmond together. I mentioned that I was from the same state he was from to which she said excitedly, "Utah!" and then promptly got busy finding where I needed to go from there. She made probably two or three calls for me.

 I was sent to the library on the clear opposite end of the University. Ha! This is where the archives are kept. I was feeling pretty good, until I got inside and was told that the only way I was going to get access to the library is if I join it. So I asked to join, and was told that all I'll need is three forms of ID, and proof of address for a place in Edinburgh... That was disheartening. I told the guard what I was doing and he gave me a funny look, but buzzed me through and over to the help desk. 

I told the lady at the help desk what I was doing and she was also surprised, but told me that she would call archives and see if I could come up. She told me not to get my hopes up because if they were busy they wouldn't let me up. She finally got someone on the line and I again told the lady on the line what I was doing and she told them to get me a day pass and send me up. 

 This was the archives. Three people helped me here. They all seemed really excited. One, a gentleman that I can't remember his name, even looked through the calendars with me. We didn't find any record that great great great grandpa William Henderson had been a professor there, but I was told that he could've still been a guest lecturer or a just a teacher and not a professor. 

He then took me to the old address books and we looked through until we miraculously found one man named William Henderson, who was a teacher, listed. So we now know that he was in Edinburgh and that he was a teacher and that's a start. It's more proof than we had in the past. 

They made me a copy of the record they found and gave me the direct e-mail to the man that was helping, and information for another University in the city that I can e-mail to see if they don't have record that he taught there instead. Yay!

After this I headed back to the station, and was about to get on a train to the west coast, when I was told that the line had been fixed and that the first train of the day down the east coast to London would be arriving in thirty minutes! Divine intervention... sure felt like it. 

 I am really into street art and try to take pictures of things that I find particularly good. I think this owl falls into that category.

 Obviously a stencil, but I liked it.

 Brooke... ahem... Shark tank! There's just no escaping... everywhere I go....

 I don't know how well you can see this, but it's in mostly silver paint.

Go Scotland!

Train ride home! Finally. Looking a little worse for wear in my Scotland shirt I bought to feel less grimy. It sort of worked. It was just a really long couple of days. 

The ride home still took longer than the normally scheduled time, because there were certain points where the rail had broken, where trains had to share a line and so we ended up waiting for trains to pass several times. Interestingly enough, I met a member of my church, (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,) on the way home. She was sitting across the aisle. You can see where she was sitting in the picture... she just wasn't there yet. I bet there wasn't another member on the entire train, so that was really fun. 

She'd been talking on the phone originally and I heard her say temple, but dismissed it. Then later she was talking to someone else and she said, baptisms for the dead, and young women and temple trip... yeah. No mistaking it there. We ended up chatting a bit. She was heading to London for a missionary reunion.

When I finally got home to my flat, my roommates were all really excited to see me. That made me feel awesome. They had been super worried about me. I had sent them a quick e-mail to let them know what had happened, they told me that they kept checking to see if I'd written them again. I hadn't... whoops. 

Brooke was home, because she hadn't been feeling well, and she gave me a big hug. It was cute. Then they were all worried that I had missed my flight to Dublin. (They thought I was leaving Friday night, not Saturday morning.) Anyway, I thought it was super sweet, how much they'd thought about me. I have awesome flatmates! Love them.

Edinburgh, Scotland - Pt. 2

The Edinburgh Castle.

 It just screams, "I dare you to penetrate my defenses!" Can you imagine trying to lay siege on this?

 The cemetery below the castle.

 

 The building in the back is the cemetery church.

 A lot of the tombs were open, like this, and you could climb in. I didn't. Seemed kind of disrespectful, but it had been done. There was trash inside. :(

It was a foggy day, as you can see.

 The castle from the cemetery.

 You might be surprised from all the lovely pictures I took depicting nice weather, that there were landslides and floods over the rail. I ended up having to stay the night in Edinburgh.

I got this hotel for only 30 pounds a night, which is about 48 USD. It was a 15 minute walk from the train station. 

 It was really nice and clean. The staff was friendly and helpful.

 My room was in the basement. The door on the left.

 The room was tiny, but comfortable.

As you can see, no bathroom. The bathroom was a floor up. Even though I had to climb a flight whenever I need to use the bathroom, it kind of felt like it was a private bathroom. I never had to wait for it and I never saw anyone near it.  

The Dene house also offered a full Scottish breakfast. I got eggs and bacon. If you decide to stay here and get breakfast in the morning, remember to tell them how you want your food prepared. They don't ask. I got eggs sunny-side up and undercooked bacon. (Marcotte, they made it just how you like it. So naturally, I hated it. Blah! Bacon should be crisp!!!)

Edinburgh, Scotland Pt. 1

 I took a day trip by train to Edinburgh through a tour group called Golden Tours. Edinburgh was fantastic. One of my favorite places I have visited so far.

 As you can see it was cloudy and rainy all day. Well most of the day. Every once in awhile it would decide to be really sunny for a few minutes, then it would cloud over and rain again.

This is the pub that I ate at. 

It's called the Last drop, because back when, it used to be right next to the hangman's gallows. Men would get there last drink here before they were hung. A bit morbid if you ask me. I still chose to eat here though. What does that say about me?

 This is Mince and Tatties. It consists of mashed potatoes, ground beef in a gravy and steamed vegetables. I didn't know what it was when I ordered it and I was a little nervous about eating it, but it was so good! My mouth is watering now, just thinking about it! Yummy! I will have you know that I cleaned the plate, even the steamed Kale, yuck!

 This dessert was excellent, it a brownie. Mostly, I took a picture of it because of the snail. Ha!

 This was inside the pub. I thought it was cool.

 I wrote the message in the bottom right hand corner. These little chalk boards were on the bathroom doors. I couldn't resist.

 Thought this was an awesome street. There's a restaurant above the shops that are dead ahead.

 Still cloudy, but somehow it only made it seem more charming...

Cool Celtic Cross.

The London Temple Is Not In London!

So, call me crazy, but back home in Utah when I was planning my trip to London, I had this crazy notion that the London Temple would actually be in London.... Isn't that insane! Well I was wrong. It's actually about 25 miles outside of London in New Chapel, Surrey. 

I have to admit that it was a bit of nightmare finding it. I did some research online and was able to figure it out, but just barely. 

 

 

 I went to Victoria Station (not pictured above,) which is one of the main train stations in London and bought a ticket to the Lingfield Station. It's about a half hour train ride there. (This is the station above.) When you get there you'll need to call a taxi. I learned this the hard way. When I arrived I had no change and so therefore couldn't call a taxi. I believe it's a minimum of 20 pence to make a call. If you have a cell phone all the better, if you don't bring change. The workers in the station will give you a card with a number for the local cab company if you need it. 

Cabs will not be waiting at the station, you will have to call for one to come pick you up.

Anyway, I didn't have change, so I thought I'd try and walk. I walked away from the station and when I reached the main road off the station I turned right. I made two major mistakes here. First, I was under the misguided impression that it was close enough that I could walk it, and second I turned right instead of left, which is the actual direction of the Temple-initially. Ha! 

After walking around for about half an hour I returned to the station where I received a miracle. A taxi pulled up to drop someone off. I ran over and asked him to take me, and about five-ten minutes later, and a 6 pound taxi ride, I was at the Temple. Yay! I must admit, it was relief. A big relief. Okay--I started crying... whatever.

After the session I walked around the grounds for awhile. This duck was hanging out by the pond. I thought he was cute. Hence the picture. 

 I love the copper on the steeple. I'd never seen copper used on a Temple like this before. It was really beautiful.

 Another angle, and yes you have to deal with it. I earned every one of these pictures just by finding it!

Again--proof that I was really there.I was really pleased that I was able to finally take a picture where the steeple wasn't poking out the top of my head. Whew, it took some effort, I'm telling you.

 

 I post this sign, because one of the difficulties I found when trying to figure out where the Temple was, was figuring out what city the train went into. There was a blog that I found where the lady said she took the train into Lindberg station. If I hadn't pulled up the location on Google maps, I'd probably still be standing in Victoria station, trying to figure out where to go. I post this picture as proof that this is indeed the station that you buy your ticket to. Lingfield, not Lindberg.

In all it was a wonderful experience and I was really pleased that I was not only able to find it, but was also able to attend a session.