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By keeganblogsfromabroad

Since my last post was about Light Night it only seems fitting that I should follow it up with a post about the Christmas market which it kicked off. Edinburgh's Christmas market is amazing. Set up in a green space next to Princes Street and Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station it offers food, rides, and many many vendors. The atmosphere, especially after dark (the sun sets before 4 pm these days) is festive and amazing. Music echos around as people bustle about, stopping at stands to look at nutcrackers or hats for sale. It is regrettable that quite a few of the stands sell the same goods obviously from the same supplier but there is still a vast diversity of wares offered. There is also a variety in food offered, bratwurst is the most ubiquitous dish and sold almost everywhere. Other German dishes accompany it but are not sold by quite as many stands.

There are also quite a few crepe stands despite the crepe being French and not German. After 8pm they start IDing all the entrants because alcohol is served within the premises of the market. My younger brother, who with my parents was visiting me for thanksgiving, and I were stopped on our way back in after buying bratwurst just outside the market but being over 18 I had no problems and once I explained we weren't planning on drinking the guard merely told me that my brother would have to stick with me (I'm not sure how that changes anything but I'm sure glad he could reenter.) Its still feels strange to be old enough to get into age limited bars and pubs even though I'm only 20. As someone who doesn't drink I don't need to enter one often but when I do I just hope that whomever is guarding the door will accept my Wisconsin drivers license for what it is.

I think that the atmosphere of the Christmas Market is far superior to the content of the market itself. Despite the cold temperatures (its hovering about freezing these days but the wind never stops) hundreds of people flock to the market to eat, shop, and have fun. The lights are beautiful in the dark November night. The heavenly smells waft around and bait you into buying the overpriced food (I'm not insulting the quality, it was one very good bratwurst, just saying it could definitely be cheaper.) Some of the goods are high quality, others not so much, almost everything is expensive. My mom found an "Edinburgh" glass candle holder that she liked until I realized that they all featured a typo and the word Edinburgh was missing its H.

...continue reading "Christmas Market"

By keeganblogsfromabroad

It's halloweekend, the spookiest time of the year for college students. The spookiness has nothing to do with ghouls, goblins, spooky skeletons or overplayed memes but rather the fact that halloweekend always coincidences with midterm season. That is why, instead of venturing out and enjoying the cool October breeze this weekend found me seated on my swivel chair feet propped up on the bed, laptop on lap. Midterm tests do not seem to be a thing at the University of Edinburgh but midterm essays certainly are. Whereas last week it was a book review this week it was a 3000 word essay on the impact of porcelain on global connections. It was with no small degree of irony that I sat sipping tea out of a mug made in china while hammering out paragraphs linking the spread of colonial beverages (coffee, tea, hot chocolate) to the spread of porcelain imported from China.

The city feels a bit different this week, maybe it's just me projecting because of the lead up to Halloween but their seems to be an air of anticipation. It would be wrong to say there is nothing out of the ordinary. This afternoon I opened my window to get some fresh air and was greeted by the sound of drums, echoing across the park from some unknown location not too distant. I would have set out to locate it but unfortunately my essay was not yet complete. The drums lasted for a while but eventually faded away. I'll attribute them to a parade my flat mate said she encountered by chance while out walking.

None of us knew it was coming, nor did we know there would be a firework show tonight but sometime after 8 there was. The fireworks were going off above the castle from the perspective of my flat and eventually I decided to photograph it but as soon as I started to move into position it was too late. Part of me wishes I had known this was coming but I'm sure I would still have been too swamped by this essay to try to attend.

...continue reading "Irony, Daylight Savings Time, and the Sound of Drums"