Thursday, March 31, 2011

Compensating for the Recent Lack of Photos

As of last Thursday, I am done with classes. I still have exams, but my first one isn't until 5/3, so I have over a month off! Spring break! Woo!

The weather has been unusually warm and sunny for the last week or so. I'm hoping this trend will continue, because it's much more conducive to going out and exploring.

Last Thursday it was warm enough go out in just a tank top, so after my last class I decided to take a walk through the Meadow.
Looks like a lot of people had the same idea.


Soccer and rugby were happening all over the place!

Cool stripy scaffolding!

That yellow blur is TONS of daffodils.
I wandered around for a while, and went into a random pub, where I had a pint while brainstorming for my Div III.

Today I decided to take a walk in the other direction, and explore the area behind my building.
 I've always been really fascinated with this building here...

 I looked it up, and it turns out it's an office of Scottish Widows, a "life insurance, pensions & investments" company. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland gives an interesting summary of the building's history, if you're into this sort of thing:
In 1970 the Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society bought a six-acre site, adjoining Holyrood Park, on Dalkeith Road for their new headquarters. By November 1972 Sir Basil Spence, Glover & Ferguson had been commissioned as architects. This was the second time the practice had been commissioned by the company to build a head office in Edinburgh; in 1962 they had completed their St Andrews Square office.
The Dalkeith Road office is made up of interlocking hexagonal prisms varying in height from one to four storeys. An underground car park for 300 cars is to the northeast. The interior space is made up of open plan offices arranged around two service cores. 
The exterior treatment is a continuous curtain wall of brown solar glass with York stone used for the lower and boundary walls. A bridge from Dalkeith Road accesses the main entrance across the moat that surrounds the building to the southwest. Stainless steel and York stone are used throughout the interior. The landscape architect, Sylvia Crowe, was commissioned to design the grounds and roof gardens. 
The office was officially opened in March 1976. It won a number awards including the 1977 RIBA Award for Scotland and the American Landscape Award in 1978.
The building looks even more unusual from above, as I discovered when looking in Google Maps:
After indulging my fascination with the Scottish Widows office, I decided to take a walk through nearby Holyrood Park.












It was CRAZY windy up there.


Duddingston Loch



I emerged from the park in Duddingston Village.






I kept walking down the road and ended up here.

I got to see a very different side of Edinburgh.










This was a hard choice. See Craigmillar Castle, or check out Bingham and Musselburgh, or head back to the City Centre...

Ultimately, I decided to head back, along the "Innocent Railway", the first railway in Edinburgh. According to an information plaque, it was called the "Innocent Railway" because "it was originally horse-drawn in an age which thought steam engines dangerous" (around the 1830s). It's no longer in operation, so now there's just a pedestrian/bike path.





Eventually I got to this tunnel, which was very exciting, because I'm used to only going through tunnels by car.

A bicyclist zooming by.


Tried to take a picture of myself inside. Didn't come out quite is cool as I had hoped.

What I love about this picture and the one below is that just turning the flash on (above) or off (below) gives two very different interpretations of "the light at the end of the tunnel". 

Not quite as scenic on the other side.


And I ended up more or less back where I started, just a few minutes from my flat.
 And now that you're probably completely sick of looking at photos, I've got more photos from Dublin, which Katie took!
Me, Katie, and Michaela's friend Beth, at O'Neils on the first night.
Me and Katie, at the Magic Carpet on the second night.
Me and Michaela at the Magic Carpet, deliberately making stupid faces (don't worry, we're not as drunk as we look)
Me at the Magic Carpet, trying to make the same face as the guy on the coaster.
Me, on the walk back from the Magic Carpet. I think I'm standing in front of an old school.
Clara and Michaela looking nice and me looking creepy, in their kitchen.
Katie and Clara doing...I don't know what. I went left the kitchen to get something, and when I came back, this was happening.
To reiterate, it was good times.

 There's lots more to talk about, but I think this post has gone on quite long enough, so I'll save that for next time. I know I'm always saying that I'll update sooner, but this time I really mean it!