Another Dundee Nugget: Worst Poet

It seems that Dundee likes to highlight another product of their city: William Topaz McGonagall. McGonagall is often referred to as the worst poet in the history of the English language. I've copied his most famous poem below so you can judge for yourself. If you can't make it through the whole poem, skip to the last stanza which is my favorite. Enjoy!

The Tay Bridge Disaster

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

'Twas about seven o'clock at night,
And the wind it blew with all its might,
And the rain came pouring down,
And the dark clouds seem'd to frown,
And the Demon of the air seem'd to say-
"I'll blow down the Bridge of Tay."

When the train left Edinburgh
The passengers' hearts were light and felt no sorrow,
But Boreas blew a terrific gale,
Which made their hearts for to quail,
And many of the passengers with fear did say-
"I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay."

But when the train came near to Wormit Bay,
Boreas he did loud and angry bray,
And shook the central girders of the Bridge of Tay
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

So the train sped on with all its might,
And Bonnie Dundee soon hove in sight,
And the passengers' hearts felt light,
Thinking they would enjoy themselves on the New Year,
With their friends at home they lov'd most dear,
And wish them all a happy New Year.

So the train mov'd slowly along the Bridge of Tay,
Until it was about midway,
Then the central girders with a crash gave way,
And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!
The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,
Because ninety lives had been taken away,
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

As soon as the catastrophe came to be known
The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown,
And the cry rang out all o'er the town,
Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down,
And a passenger train from Edinburgh,
Which fill'd all the peoples hearts with sorrow,
And made them for to turn pale,
Because none of the passengers were sav'd to tell the tale
How the disaster happen'd on the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

It must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.

- William Topaz McGonagall

The RRS Discovery

This most recent weekend, we stuck around Dundee to relax. (although, I'm always relaxing!) On Sunday we went to see the RRS Discovery which was the ship that brought Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his crew to Antarctica to conduct research during the years 1901-1904. Dundee is extremely proud of the fact that one of their shipyards built the ship so they have made this museum the center attraction of the city. In fact, they have called Dundee "the city of Discovery". As one Dundonian put it, "everything is blooming Discovery". (blooming is used as kind of a swear word, like "blooming idiot")

Nick pointing like a true Captain:

I made Nick take this picture because I thought the knots were cool. We didn't have to learn these knots for rock climbing. Thank goodness because they look difficult!

Last Weekend's Adventure

It's taken us an entire week to post last weekend's outing, so it better be good, right? It was a fun weekend for us but it took some work to get the photographs looking good because it was pretty cloudy most of the time. You can be the judge.

Last Saturday, we rented a car and went to Edinburgh for the day and evening. We started just south of Edinburgh to visit an Iron Age fort that is basically a grassy hill now with a ditch going around it and an underground cellar. Even though there wasn't much to see of the fort, the views from the hill were still beautiful. While we were there, a bunch of mountain bikers were coming through on some sort of scavenger hunt race. So mountain bikers do exist here!

After the fort, we drove into the city to pay for really expensive parking in order to see the castle. If you've never seen it, the castle truly is impressive and makes for wonderful photography. However, it is extremely touristy. We were glad we have the Historic Scotland pass (it's like the National Parks Pass but for castles) because we thought buying a single ticket is way overpriced for what you get. We both preferred Stirling Castle (so far).

From the castle, we made a pit-stop at the Elephant House which is where J.K. Rowling wrote some of her early novels (so they say). We didn't stop there just for the nostalgia but it was a nice place to get a cup of tea (and talk about Harry).

The next stop was the National Museum of Scotland where we ran into Dolly, the cloned sheep!

We then spent the evening eating dinner at Nick's colleague's place in Edinburgh. Their flat was built in the last 10 years which is quite the contrast to our 100+ year old place!

On Sunday, we drove up to Glen Clova and did this gorgeous 8K hike up and around Loch Brandy. Even though the temperature was nice, it got extremely windy as evidenced by my hair looking like I'd just been electrocuted. (Nick discreetly captions the picture 'It was windy') As usual, Nick took some gorgeous pictures.

We go to Inverness next weekend so stay tuned for more pictures! Here are the ones from last weekend.

Sublime and Stupid: Scottish beverages

Scottish beverages: whisky is the first thing that probably comes to mind. Arguably the best combination of water and barley on the planet. The finesse that Scotland has achieved with whisky is completely absent from the rest of its cuisine, which makes it maybe even more remarkable. Dalwhinnie, the distillery we visited our first week here, is pretty mild. Some of the west-coast malts taste like licking a campfire. This one, Blair Athol, is nicely in the middle. It's full of flavor and has a pretty mellow finish, but enough burn at first to keep you on your toes. It's distilled in Pitlochry, fairly close to Dundee. As an added bonus, there's an otter on the label.



Irn Bru is at the other end of the spectrum entirely. What it lacks in subtlety it makes up for in controversial colorings (colourings), sugar, and ammonium feric citrate. 'Brewed' in Cumbernauld, it's apparently really popular, only recently slipping behind Coca Cola in sales. It smells a little like bubblegum, almost glows orange, and feels like it's melting your teeth. The taste is about what you'd expect. It's banned in the US due to one of its coloring agents, but if you see it give it a try. Sean Connery likes it, and he's done ok for himself.

The National Pastime

I was walking around Dundee the other day and found this beautiful park that stretches for about half a mile. There is this old bandstand which was a central point for parades back in the olden days (we even saw pictures of it at the jute museum).

I was strolling along and thinking how I'm sure a lot of people come and play soccer here (there was a pick-up game going on while I was there) and probably run around with their dogs. Then I came upon this sign:

I'm not a golfer so it struck me as funny that they needed to post a sign to deter all those people who can't resist an open park to practice their swing. Then again, this is Scotland and golf is the national pastime. If I ever get into golf, maybe then I will understand.

While Nick works, Sam plays...

You may be wondering what I am doing while Nick works hard all week. The answer is...not much. I have actually been enjoying my free time by knitting, cross-stitching, and occasionally attempting to make desserts that haven't turned out so well. I had originally thought I would be doing a lot of cooking, since I used to leave that to Nick all of the time, but I haven't been able to get over that old habit yet. Luckily, Nick still enjoys to cook.

When we first got here, I looked around at retail shops and bookstores to inquire about a job. However, I soon realized that I would have to work weekends. Since that is our only time to go explore the country, we decided I didn't need to get a job (Yea!). Instead, I've signed up for two classes that meet once a week at the University of Dundee. The first is Art History in the Middle Ages and the second is Spanish. I know it seems kind of funny that I would take a Spanish class in Scotland but I wanted to take a language and when would I ever use Gaelic? Besides, now we have an excuse to take multiple trips to Spain to visit my friend Sabrina. Maybe I'll learn to speak Spanish with a Scottish accent? Quiero un wee dram.

By the way, our pictures from last weekend are now posted here.

Jute, Abbeys, and Coasts

It was misting with rain on Saturday so we decided to take a tour of the local Verdant Works museum in Dundee. Dundee is famous for three j's: journalism, jam, and jute. The Verdant Works museum covers the jute part.

Have you ever wondered what jute is? How it's made? What things are made from it? Well, Nick and I are pretty much jute experts now so ask away. It actually was an interesting museum because it went into the history of Dundee so even though I'm being sarcastic about all the knowledge we have on jute now, it was an enjoyable afternoon. Again, there were more wax figures and some of them told us stories! However, a couple of the recordings were impossible to understand because they told them in a thick Scottish accent (which means it's authentic, I suppose).

When we woke up Sunday morning, the sun was shining so we took the 20 minute train ride from Dundee to Arbroath and spent the day walking around the old abbey and along the coastal cliffs. When we were buying our tickets to go out there, I had my first encounter of not being understood. The ticket salesman asked me where we wanted to go and I said "Arr-bro-ath" and he gave me a puzzled look. I then proceeded to try to say it in several different ways (and when I think back, I probably was repeating it over and over, only slower) and I was about to spell it out when he figured out I wanted to go to "Arr-broth" (rhymes with 'oath'). I have a feeling this will be the first of many mispronunciations of Scottish cities.

Nick is going to put up more pictures on the Picasa page soon but here is one of the pictures from our coastal cliff walk. It's a little difficult to see, but in the center there are rock climbers (if you click on the picture, you'll be able to see them). I think Nick was longing to be friends with them.

Rubbing Elbows With The Royal Family

This last weekend, we rented a car and went about an hour and a half north to Braemar to see the Braemar Gathering, which is one of the more well-known Highland games. One of the reasons it is more well-known is because the Queen usually attends and this year was no different.

If you can't tell, the Queen is in the pinkish red outfit and fashionable hat. Prince Philip is on her right and Prince Charles is on her left. Keep those knees together fellas!

There was quite a lot going on at these games. There was tug-of-war (my favorite!), caber toss, hammer throw, shot put, running high leap (or high jump), running long leap, various distance races including a hill run where contestants left the arena and ran up the closest hill, and highland dancing. It was very exciting! There was even a man from California who was competing in the caber toss. He looked authentic enough in the kilt but he was also wearing a muscle shirt...I don't think that is traditional.

One other thing I want to point out is that the entire time we were at the games, there was a constant background noise of bagpipes. Anyone jealous?

On Sunday we drove to Stirling which is in Central Scotland and took a tour of the castle. It is really an impressive setting for a castle but unfortunately, we don't have a good picture of it. Just imagine a big hill in the middle of town with a big castle on it and you've got Stirling Castle.

We've posted more pictures here so enjoy!

Our Dundee Flat

A lot of people have asked to see pictures of the flat so here it is! In case anyone was wondering, the flat came furnished so we only had to bring what we could fit in four suitcases (each within the airline's weight and size restrictions).

The living/dining room:

I know this picture isn't the greatest due to the bright window but I had to include it as proof that the sun DOES shine here. In fact, I've read that Dundee is the sunniest city in Scotland. That's great for us! There is also a couch just to the left in this picture and a gas fireplace to the right.

The kitchen:

You can even see my reflection on the oven from the sunny kitchen window.

The loo (aka bathroom):

The bathroom window faces the busy street but luckily it's frosted glass so we don't have to keep the curtains closed all of the time.

The bedroom:

The bedroom window also faces the busy street so usually I keep the curtains closed. It's also fun for us trying to get to sleep on Friday and Saturday nights because there is a pub directly across the street and everybody has to stand outside to smoke. We've even heard some wonderful singing coming from the patrons of the bar. It hasn't been too bad but we'll see if I'm still saying that once the university students return to town.

So that is the flat! But my absolute favorite part of this place is the view from the living room window. It's nearly impossible to see in these pictures but we can just see the Firth of Tay and Tay Bridge. When the leaves fall, we'll have a clearer view. Also there is an adorable garden in the back that we share with the other residents but we only go back there to take out the garbage. One of the residents is a talented gardener so we get to enjoy her work!

Another side note: the Scottish beer bottle is holding heather that Rose (Nick's mom) picked in the highlands. That's right, we're nothing but class in this household.

Our First Week in Scotland

This is the beginning of my blogging career. I'm not sure how often I will post but I will do my best to let all of our friends and family know what our life is like in Scotland (and hopefully other areas of the UK). This will also give me a chance to work on my story-telling abilities.

So we've completed Week 1 in Scotland and it was a great first week. Nick's parents, Rick and Rose, were "visiting" us since we arrived in Edinburgh a whole one hour before they did. If you ever want to hear Nick and me describe our mood during the three weeks waiting for our work permit in Minnesota, we'll be more than happen to expound on it.

Since I don't have many stories yet, I'll just point you to our picture album of the things we've done with Rick and Rose. But in case you're wondering where I'm writing from, here is the front door of our flat.

Tinkerty Tonk!

PS - "Tinkerty Tonk" is a way to say "So long!" made famous by P.G. Wodehouse's character Bertie Wooster. It's not very Scottish but we don't care.