Leaving the bubble

Now that I’ve been here for a month and I’ve gotten to know my way around Glasgow, it’s time to leave and do some exploring. Flatmate Katie and I decide to spend our Saturday at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf. Her brother, a second year, attends school at the University of St. Andrews full time. We hop on the ScotRail system bright and early, and three trains and a taxi later, we make it!

St. Andrews is a small town, filled with college students and retired golfers. Katie and I walk through the main street, just exploring and popping into shops when we see something that we like. We eat at a restaurant called Tailend that someone I know who attends University here recommended. I’ve seen on TikTok people call St. Andrews “the American University in Scotland” — since Prince Harry and Princess Kate went there, there is a large international population there, specifically from the US.

We spend a lot of the afternoon wandering along the coast. We’re along the North Sea, and it’s a little chilly, but beautiful. The golf course is close to the ocean, and it honestly doesn’t look like it would be that fun to play on due to a busy sidewalk that goes through the middle of it, but I guess it would be cool to say that you golfed at the birthplace of golf. From up above, we watch a couple get married along the docks, and if I wanted a destination wedding, this solidifies that I would go to Scotland. With friendly people everywhere we look, I love this small town.

This was also the day of OU/Texas, so practically every two seconds I’m checking my phone to look at the score. It’s my first time to miss the game since being in college, and I think this is the best place to have to miss it (YouTube TV doesn’t work in Scotland, so I couldn’t have even stayed in my flat and watched the game!). After an afternoon of exploring, we go to dinner with Katie’s brother before we hop on a bus to travel the three hours back home.

The next day, I’m off to another adventure! This ended up being the first of many weekends “leaving the bubble.” There’s a tour group that I was introduced to at the Glasgow Student Fair during Freshers’ Week, and it’s geared specifically toward international students. My first tour? The Lakes District, a national park in England, and Keswick, a small town of about 5,000 people in the park.

I had to be at the bus stop bright and early, and I met up with two other girls to take an Uber to the bus stop. One of them was from California, and we ended up having a lot in common. We talked the whole two and a half hours. Once we got to Keswick, we got off the bus and began the three mile walk to the base of Cat Bells, the fell that we were going to be hiking. It was 1,480ft in elevation and about a mile long hike. Honestly, I had thought the UK didn’t have “real” mountains like I have hiked in the US, but it ended up being more difficult than I was expecting. The hike was beautiful though; I took many breaks to stop and take pictures of the view over Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite Lake.

After we hung out at the top of Cat Bells for a little bit, we walked back down to the town of Keswick for lunch. We didn’t have much time for exploring, but it was a charming town nestled between lakes and fells. A group of us did end up having time to feed some of the seagulls by the piers. On the way back to the bus, we actually ended up seeing a rugby game — practically the whole town was there cheering on the players. I had never seen a rugby game before, and I think I would have to describe it as like football, but without the gear (don’t tell the British I said that though, I think they would just be insulted). It was fun to watch, and I would love to go to a rugby game in the future.

I absolutely loved my time in the Lakes District. I had only chosen it because of Taylor Swift’s song, The Lakes, and it was so worth it. I went back to my flat and just researched everything I could about the district, and it is rich with history and poets, like William Wordsworth. I can see why anyone would want to settle down here. (If you want some fun facts about the district, check out my study abroad Instagram: @ellacat_gla!)

After that weekend, I was ready to just sleep, but I still had a week full of (mostly online) classes and another busy weekend. The next Saturday, I got to the bus stop bright and early for another day full of adventures — this time, going to Durham Cathedral and Alnwick Castle in England.

We had to wait outside Durham Cathedral for it to open, but it was well worth the wait. It had been built in the late 11th/early 12th and was absolutely beautiful. Usually I’m not a “plaque-reader” — that is, I don’t read all of the placards in museum exhibits — but I’ve turned into one this summer. One of the permanent “exhibits” in this museum is a statue called “The Pieta,” which featured a dead Christ with his grieving mother, Mary, over him. As a Christian, it was so cool to see this and stand in this cathedral, with a shrine to St. Cuthbert.

One of the not-so-permanent exhibits was hanging from the ceiling: a model of the moon. It’s seven metres in diameter on a ratio of 1:500,000, and it travels around the UK. We were lucky enough to be able to see it while it was temporarily at Durham Cathedral. Everywhere it goes, it gains new perspectives and is displayed in a different way. The history and meaning of The Museum of the Moon is so cool, and if you want to read more about it, you can click here.

Today’s international student tour, however, had a theme of “Harry Potter.” Inside the cathedral was where they had filmed the courtyard scenes of the first two Harry Potters, and while we technically couldn’t stand on the courtyard itself, it felt like we were at Hogwarts, and after seeing that, it was time for our flying lesson.

From Durham Cathedral, we traveled to Alnwick Castle in Northumbria, England. This castle was where the flying scenes from Harry Potter were filmed (you know, where Draco stole Neville’s rememberall and Harry chased him down to get it back, subsequently earning a spot on Gryffindor’s quidditch team as Seeker). We were able to take flying lessons, running back and forth with a broom while our coach and Hagrid looked on. We also had the opportunity to walk throughout the castle, the second-largest castle in England. If we had gone much later in the year, we may not have been able to; the Duke of Northumbria and his family live there during the holidays, and the castle will close down. This was good news to me though — maybe I can marry into the family and eventually secure my bedroom at the castle.

Overall, this day was a success. We saw two beautiful places, both that were connected to Harry Potter, and I couldn’t be happier (or sleepier!). Two weekends of leaving the Glasgow bubble, and I was ready for a day full of sleeping on Sunday.