Stirling, Scotland

On the 25th of April, I went to Stirling, which is about half way between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It's a very small town, but it's very cute. It's most famous for the castle there, where a few royals lived, such as Mary, Queen of Scots. It was a really pretty town, all in all, but we got a really icky day to explore. Rain and such... but what else is new? This was a strange broken down wall we came up to while walking to the castle. No idea what it used to be. Perhaps a jail?

This was the gate in the middle of it. Very pretty. 

Then we got to the castle. There was a very old part, and the new Great Hall area, which was much newer. Which was pretty obvious. 

This is the view of the town from the top of the battlements at the castle. Wayyyy off in the distance on the top of the hill is the Wallace Monument, which we did NOT go to. I saw it from up here, and that was good enough for me. Apparently it looks just like Mel Gibson from Braveheart. Hahahaha!

I always wanted to take a picture of me sitting on a cannon. Finally got my wish. It was freezing, thus the scarf pulled up as a hat and the sleeves pulled down as mittens. You would think after 4 and a half months here I would be used to the nasty weather...

And then one decent picture of me sitting on the outer wall of the  castle. Made my mom very very nervous. 

Inside the great hall was the living quarters of the queen and king. This was inside the kings sitting room, which is where people would have been brought if they were privileged enough to gain a private audience with the king. 

This was the queen's chamber, which apparently wasn't even used by her for anything but sitting around and maybe writing letters or chatting with her ladies in waiting. I don't recall ever seeing the room where she actually slept... maybe she didn't sleep. Maybe she was a vampire. 

These were completely gorgeous. It's a HUGE woven tapestry. It's part of a series of 7 tapestries that depict the story of the unicorn being caught and held captive. It's actually a really sad story, and very interesting. A lot of people have analyzed the tapestry and they draw parallels between it and the story of Jesus. Either way, they are beautiful and really well constructed. And well preserved. They are hundreds of years old!

After exploring the castle, we went back into town and got lunch at a little Irish pub called Molly Malone's. I got a beef and Guinness pie, and it was awesome. Along with a hot toddy, I finally warmed up enough to move. It was seriously bitter that day. Brrr. 

Stirling was a very cute and interesting town, but the bad weather kind of limited what we could do. There was apparently a very old jail (that maybe we found?) and an old hospital, but we didn't try very hard to find them because we were walking people-popsicles by the end of it. I might go back at some point. There was a cute lingerie shop. :)

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy finishing up my junior year and all that. Woop! Finished my very last final on Friday, which was for photography. It was essentially a very VERY casual showing of my pictures. There were only two other people there besides me, so it was very relaxed. Just explained my photos, my reasons for taking them, how I took them, how I composed them, blah blah blah. It was actually kind of fun, because it was more of a conversation than presentation. They asked questions, commented on the photos, I asked questions. And now I'm totally done! I have the next month to do whatever I please, which is a bit overwhelming. I haven't had this much free time since I graduated high school...

I'll be updating soon on my Ireland trip! Love from Glasgow.