2008/12/27--2009/1/4 Soctland Traveling

Visit My Taiwanese Friend –Scotland traveling 11 Jan 2009 Nina Wang

My family and I went to Scotland from 27th Dec 2008 to 4th Jan 2009. We visited our friend, Allen Yen. He and his family are Taiwanese, they moved to Scotland ten years ago. They had lived in Glasgow and they have a beautiful house. Allen is a manager in Glasgow’s biggest shopping centre. His wife’s name is May, she is a staff in the same shopping centre. And their two sons are Edinburgh University students, one is Master another is PHD students. They are warm-hearted and friendly to us. We stayed 9 days in Scotland. My family and I are four people. We lived in his house for 8 days. Allen is a warm-hearted man, he took five days off and drove his car to take us to Highland, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. He introduced Scotland culture and the UK flag makes up three flags. He told us a lot about Scotland and England, which are interesting for us.

27th Dec 2008 Glasgow
We first had long trip by trains. We booked train tickets one month ago. I can’t believe this trip we got 24 tickets and we needed to change 8 trains. This day was our first day to Glasgow by train. We were so excited about this long trip. We woke up early first day, because we didn’t a miss our trains. When we saw British train, we was excited. We took many photos about trains and train stations. British trains are great, because have many tables inside the train. We never saw the table in the train before. And we saw many passengers using computers and eating food on the table. That’s interesting. We took 7 hours and we changed 3 trains, then we arrived in Glasgow.
Allen’s family and my family had first dinner together. We ate a chafing dish. Chafing dish is a famous Chinese dish. We usually put many slices of beef, many slices of pork, different kinds of vegetable, and meat balls on the soup. If we want to eat, usually we use Chinese style barbecue sauce. That’s delicious food for us. Then we talked about Allen’s family in Scotland stories and we planned to visit places tomorrow. We decided to visit Highland, because Highland is far. And usually daytime is short in the winter. So we must wake up early tomorrow.

28th Dec 2008 Highland Loch Lomond Lake
Second day, we went to Highland from Glasgow. Allen drove his car to take us. He took us to highland. We saw many sheep on the field, Loch Lomond, and many highland mountains. We looked around the Lake. That’s the beautiful view. I saw many hotels and B&B in the Lake along. Allen said many tourists to enjoy this Lake view in the summer time. We saw many ducks, geese, sea gulls, and small ships on the Lake. We looked around small shops along the Lake. Loch Lomond is beautiful and the weather was great. We are so lucky. Then we went to see Highland mountains after Loch Lomond Lake. We went home after the sunset .

29th Dec 2008 Stirling Monument
Third day, we went to the Stirling Monument. It is the very tall castle. I never saw the very tall castle before in the UK. I can’t believe ex-britain how to make this building, because this castle is very tall. That’s so smart and perfect. Now we had a chance to go into the castle. When we went into the ground floor, we saw the stairs are very small. And I never saw small circle stairs in any castles. In English, they call them “ spiral staircases”. It’s cool and different. We visited each floor along spiral staircases. My daughter said “did a princess live here?”. I talked to her, maybe we went to top floor, and you can see a princess. Ha-ha. She concentrated to go top, but we never saw any princess. But we saw beautiful view, and we took many photos on the top floor. That’s the great day.

30th Dec 2008 Glasgow University and Royal botanical garden
Forth day, we visited Glasgow University and Royal botanical garden. The Glasgow University is the old University, and there are many old buildings here. Allen said a Taiwanese man had studied in Glasgow University a long time ago. Then the Man came back to Taiwan and became a business boss. The man took many much money to make a University in Taiwan. He made the University gate the same as Glasgow University, because the boss missed his study life in Glasgow. When he came back and became rich, he donated many money in the education. I think he is a generous and caring man.
The campus is very big, we looked around two hours. And we took many photos and played with birds in the campus. Then we went to Royal botanical garden.
The Royal botanical garden is the big garden in Glasgow. The garden has many different plants from different countries in the world. I saw a plant from Taiwan, but I never saw this plant in Taiwan before. That’s interesting.

31st Dec 2008 Countdown at the midnight and visit the Edinburgh BRITANNIA
Fifth day, Allen drove his car to take us to his son’s flat in Edinburgh. This day we lived in Edinburgh with Allen’s two sons. We want to Edinburgh city centre to countdown at midnight. We saw many people walking on the Prince Street in Edinburgh. They prepared to countdown at the midnight. We got early, and we visited the Royal Yacht Britannia on 11a.m. The Royal Yacht Britannia is the big and gorgeous yacht, because this ship is own for Queen Elizabeth. We saw many Royal family’s pictures and listened about the yacht stories in the Royal Yacht. The Queen used to travel by the Royal Yacht with her family to visit different countries in the world.
The yacht has a master's cabin, a captain suite, a large living rooms for many distinguished guests, many beautiful suites for Queen and her family, many small rooms for ship's corporals, a large kitchen room, a butler's pantry, a large and gorgeous restaurant, a clinic, an operation room, a big wash room, two bars, many toilets, many life boats on the boat both sides, a big boat-deck, and an antique car. That’s sumptuous. I thought the nobles in Britain usually different commoner’s life. The nobles usually have much money and extravagant life. I saw any Queen’s family room is larger than a master's cabin. The captain’s suite is bigger than a corporal’s room. Unbelievable, corporal’s bed is really small. If a corporal went to bed, I think he would need to roll his body. The yacht kept on some corporal’s family picture in the corporal’s room. I believe they really missed their family when they was working on the Royal Yacht. I feel I’m so lucky, because I live with my family.
At midnight, we saw many young people walking on the Edinburgh city centre. I’m so astonished, because each young people took more wine bottles to see the fireworks and countdown at the midnight. We saw many policemen and many drinkers on all the Prince Street. That’s scarey for us. I thought it’s dangerous, because we took two children in this place. After, we walked to back to our place. We saw our window and sat down in our living room countdown at the midnight. We saw firework just ten minutes. This is my first countdown went around out in the city. But I felt very dangerous and noisy. Everywhere we can see broken wine bottles, garbage, drinkers, policemen, and police cars.
Now young people are different than before. They are crazy, noisy, loud, make garbage, and unrespectable. I saw the news in France when I read a newspaper. The young people broke cars at parking area, because they were happy when they were countdown at the midnight in France. That’s unbelievable. I am really worried about young people. And I am worried about me, when I’m old what kind of the world on the earth. Now, I’m a teacher, but how can I teach my students and my children. Everything became quickly in the world.

1st Jan 2009 Edinburgh Castle
Sixth day, we visited the Edinburgh Castle and looked around the fair on West Princes Street Gardens. Edinburgh Castle is a famous place in Scotland. That is five stars a castle. This castle is large and is an old Castle on the hill. The Castle looks like the small town. I saw a castle in many movies before, and now I can’t believe I walked a real castle. That’s interesting. There are many castles in the UK. I have been to three castles in the UK, such us Nottingham Castle, Stirling Monument, and Edinburgh Castle. These are different for us. Allen said many castles are public ownership in the UK. Allen have a friend who really likes to visit castles, so he bought a season ticket for one year. And he can use this ticket to visit all castles when he has free time.
The Edinburgh castles stories talked about Scotland and England state before and Mary Queen of Scotland stories. We saw the great hall, military stronghold, The Scottish National War Memorial, The National War Museum, Royal Palace, Kings and Queens lived places, Scotland’s Crown Jewels, the Stone of Destiny, the Prisons of War, and dismal dungeons. We saw a big stone but we don’t know why showed it. Then we listened to the guide, we know The Stone of Destiny, this ancient coronation seat of kings was used for 400 years before. So this stone is a important stone, if someone wanted to be a king. He needed this stone. That’s interesting.

2nd Jan 2009 Edinburgh City Sightseeing
Seventh day, we stayed in Edinburgh last day. So we bought City Sightseeing tickets to look around all Edinburgh City. We took two times by different City Sightseeing. First City Sightseeing, the tour guide used English language tell passengers about Edinburgh’s scenic spots. Second City Sightseeing, we used earphones to listen an exposition. I know Edinburgh city is Scotland’s capital. And Scotland and England had many Warfare before. We saw the Scottish use Scotland’s flag. The Scottish really like a checkered design, such us kilts, scarves, blankets, sweaters, and clothing.
Allen’s son Willie said “The Scottish usually wear kilts to celebrate important days”, such us, wedding, graduation ceremony, and important meetings. And different Scottish families use different checkered design kilts. My son said he can’t believe the man wear skirts in here. He said he would never wear skirt. I told him the handsome man can wear the kilt in here. The kilt is formal clothing in Scotland. That’s interesting.
We decided to visit the Museum of Childhood when we looked at travel book after. We saw a small paper to stamp on the door when we arrived here. The paper was written “we close today, open tomorrow”. My son and daughter were sad and unhappy, because we did not come back again. That’s too bad. We looked around the front of the museum. I saw a different shop. There are many ceremonial dresses and use different checkered design in the window. I thought maybe this dress for the wedding, because it’s gorgeous and beautiful. I really like it. But I didn’t buy it, because I wouldn’t wear it in Taiwan. So I took one photo with the dress for my memory. Then we went shopping to buy some gifts for our Taiwan’s family.

3rd Jan 2009 Glasgow big shopping centre
Eighth day, Allen took us to Scotland’s biggest shopping centre. This shopping centre is Allen’s working area. He is a manger in this shopping centre. We saw a big a skating rink when we walked into the first building. That’s cool. There are many restaurants in the skating rink side, and the first floor have a big council library and shops. There are to link different big building, such us big supermarkets, a large cinema, a big skating rink, many shopping malls, two big parking areas, a big council library, and many different restaurants. People can go here all day, playing, shopping, eating, see a movie, skating, and window shopping. That’s fantastic. At this time, everything had discount. We bought some gifts for our family and our Taiwan’s friends.
This night was our last night in Scotland. We still enjoyed our time. We and Allen’s son talked about Britain’s system of education, because they grow up in here. My husband and I are high school teachers. My husband is our high school manager in Taiwan. So we want to know Britain’s system of education. That can help us to change our high school system. And we can think about our student’s and children’s education. We really appreciated our Taiwanese friends, Allen and his family. They are so friendly and warm-hearted to us. They said they often come back to Taiwan two years once. If they come back to Taiwan, we shall take care of them. We look forward to meet them next time.

4th Jan 2009 come back to Nottingham
We are so happy and lucky in my holiday, because the weather was great in Scotland every day. So we never see snow day in Scotland. We took 8 hours to come back to Nottingham, and changed 6 trains. Everyone must work tomorrow, so all the trains very crowded. We still enjoy our traveling and excited everything. And we took over 3000 photos in this traveling. I don’t know when we can come back to Scotland. But I know we have great memories, we never forget. Now I write this long essay, I still enjoy it. Thanks. Everything will be great for us.