My trip up to Scotland in the coach from London was awful. My phone had no battery and because it was dark I couldn’t read or look at the landscape, and I couldn’t move my seat so it was really uncomfortable. And the driver wasn’t friendly at all.
When I arrived in Edinburgh it was raining. Welcome to Scotland… I was already missing London! I have to say though that Edinburgh’s architecture was most impressive.
I took the train from Waverley Station. In my carriage there were kids making lots of noise. People started to move to another carriage. I couldn’t rest, so I decided to start a conversation with a girl near me. “Where are you going?” I asked. “Sorry, I’m French” she answered. It’s funny because, in London, when I didn’t understand something, I said the same thing all the time, as if it was shameful to be French. This girl came from Tours. She was staying with a Scottish family for two weeks. Her host family was very kind, but she didn’t like Scotland. Too cold, she said, and she understood nothing when Scottish people spoke. She didn’t reassure me at all…
When I arrived, Ronnie was waiting for me. His house isn’t far from the station. Kinghorn is a small granite village. He was most welcoming and talkative. His house is really nice and comfortable with a wonderful view on the Firth of Forth and of Edinburgh on the other side of the estuary. I just had enough time to throw my luggage down, and we were off to the Ecology Center.
The Ecology Centre is situated in stunning grounds by Kinghorn, and offers direct experience of the natural environment to improve peoples’ quality of life and encourage responsible citizenship. I found this place wonderful: there is a large lake, a big garden which produces vegetables, lots of birds, butterflies, bats, and other animals. There are also cherry trees! Everybody is welcome at the Ecology Center and it works with many organizations, like the St Clair Centre in Kirkcaldy which helps people with learning disabilities. I talked with some of the volunteers; they were really nice and helpful. They gave me some vegetables from the garden to cook. There were teenagers there too; volunteering gives them a sense of responsibility. They were really involved in their work and they undoubtedly gain much self-esteem from their activities.
My job was to help Claire. She’s a 19 year old volunteer studying Geography at St Andrews University. We prepared children’s Nature activities, like kite-flying. The idea was to show them the powers of Nature, like wind power. We kept the kids for a whole day. According to Ronnie, everything we explained had to be “brilliant and simple at the same time”.
I loved to work in this center, and thanks to Ronnie I rapidly forgot my initial impressions, and learnt that every cloud has a silver lining. The dreadful weather is a small price to pay for the wonderful landscapes, fauna and flora. Scotsmen, despite their reputation, are in fact very generous. The Ecology Center is proof of this! There, I learnt to open my eyes but also my heart…
http://www.theecologycentre.org/
I visited lots of museums and places like St Andrews (its University is 600 years old this year!), Edinburgh (with the biggest Arts festival in the world), and Kirkcaldy. Kirkcaldy is not that attractive, but it is interesting, with really nice gardens. When the coal mines closed, most of the population became impoverished and many fell into drugs and alcohol…
I went on a fishing trip out to sea with Ronnie on his boat, the Celtic. I loved it, because we approached Inchkeith, an island with a lighthouse (built by Stevenson), and because I saw seals and birds and fish.
One day, in Edinburgh, I was watching a man doing a magic trick in the street (it was Festival time). He wasn’t really very funny. I was at the back of the crowd, but the magician went through the crowd and came up to me and asked me my name. Everyone looked at me, so I was a bit anxious. Finally, I was very proud because I understood everything he told me, and I had a really good time.
Another day, I almost died… I was in Aberdour, a small village with an old half-ruined castle with lovely gardens all around. It was raining so there was a strange atmosphere, but not unpleasant. Then, the sun having returned, I decided to go for a walk. I wanted to get near the sea so I decided to cross the golf course. This was a bad idea: I don’t remember how many golf balls shot passed my head!
This is an extract of Lidwine S.'s travel diary (on sale at all good book stores!)
1 comment:
We had lots of fun having you visit us! I hope you can come back again.
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