"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are." 

                                                                           -Ernest Hemingway

 

 

 

 
       My friend Lea discovered this quote, and I think it is the perfect way to describe my experience running in Scotland.  I have re-discovered my love for running.  It went on hiatus for a couple years.

I used to be on the cross country team in high school, and I had no problem going on hour or two-hour runs, or three-hour runs (when I was running with my best friend Claire, we would get lost in conversation and could be gone the whole afternoon)-- not knowing where I would find myself halfway through.  

Those were my best memories of high school, leaving the school with the team, and breaking away so it was just Claire and I, on long autumn runs along wood-chip paths lined with tall trees dripping with golden-orange and red leaves.  

There was usually a lake visible through the trees.  Even though we were the "slow" ones on the team (it's all relative), we could run for an hour or two just talking or not talking.  Once you got in the rhythm of your (or in my case, lack of) stride.  It was nothing short of intoxicating to spend hours outside every day experiencing the season.

  To be outside every day and know our city.  To watch the autumnal cycle and notice without a doubt that the leaves on the tree on the corner of Bailiff Court had mellowed from butter to a deep orange over the weekend.  Though the weatherman might wait to declare the "first day of winter" on December 21, us runners knew different.  
We knew the week when autumn exhaled and all the leaves fluttered to the ground, and could anticipate the oncoming winter like you can anticipate sunset.  In the weeks following when there developed an almost abrupt chill, the streets seemed starker and grayer and winter had undoubtedly begun. It was never on December 21.


I feel so blessed to have experienced Minnesota in this way, and I miss the freeing hours upon hours I spent running with Claire away from the rest of the pack, feeling like sisters.  I think that's probably why we became best friends.  There is no way you can do 4 sports together (cross country running, cross country skiing, track, roller-skiing) 7 days a week, sweating and sore and sometimes wanting to die, and not become best friends with the person who keeps you laughing through it all.  That's love!  Claire will hate me for writing this, she thinks I'm too emotional.  She will also hate me for this, but I can't deny you a visual:

 

Anyway, back to Scotland.  I have been running 3 or 4 or 5 times a week, and it has been my very favorite part of Scotland so far.  I am so lucky that less than two blocks away from our dorms is the HUGE, gorgeous Holyrood Park.  It is full of colossal hills paths winding in and out of the tall grasses.  Depending on the time of day, I typically pass 10ish people.  Most have dogs, and it is absolutely lovely because the dogs are never on leashes, and they can just careen on and off the paths, charging up and down the huge hills.  It is the way dogs really should be walked.  Most owners have a leash hanging half-heartedly out of their jacket pocket, there more as a formality than anything else.  The dogs here just live the life.  At one end of the park is a small lake/large pond (?) full of swans and ducks.  There are almost exclusively two kinds of people sitting on the shores:  Darling little children encouraged by their parents to feed the ducks and swans with bread ("Oh look!  The swan likes you, look--he is coming straight for you!") OR there are lovers, which is almost as good, maybe even better.  The men wear caps and their cheeks are always flushed because there is always a chilly breeze.  The way they walk around giggling holding onto each other it's like something out of an L.L. Bean catalog.

Enough rambling, here are some pictures so you can see JUST how beautiful Holyrood Park is.  

 

 

view of the channel/city of Edinburgh

 

                                        the remains of a very old abbey, overlooking the pond/lake

 

I fell out of love with running for a while, probably because after I stopped my HS sports I couldn't fathom going to run for an extended period of time when I wasn't scheduled to.  
I missed knowing a place that well.  But after coming and running here, I firmly believe I am getting a real experience of the Scottish landscape and seasons as they actually are.  It is a totally different experience than walking along the busy, crowded streets, or ordering fish and chips at 2:00 AM, but it's just as real.





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In other news-------  I have bought tickets to see my current favorite performer, Laura Marling.  I started listening to her when she was played on the Current in Minneapolis a year or so ago, but she was only played occasionally and it didn't seem to take off in the U.S., at least not as big as she is here.  But part of that is probably because she is from the UK.  Here are my two favorite songs of hers, "Oh Mama How Far I've Come" and "New Romantic." REALLY worth a listen:

I am so excited to see her!  She will be performing in Edinburgh! I hope her boyfriend, Marcus Mumford of the band Mumford and Sons, comes to cheer her on!!!


Also, I am going to Dublin this weekend with my friend Tessa, who goes to school at the University of Cork in Ireland.  Should be some fun pictures to come!

LOVE KATE