Stirling, Rugby, Water Polo

It has been way too long since I last wrote. I have a lot to catch up on, and I'll do my best to remember what I've been up to over the last three weeks.

On a Friday a few weeks back, my friends Emily, Jon, and Steven (I think that's his name) took the train to Stirling for the day. We went to Stirling Castle and the Wallace National Monument (as in William "Gromit" Wallace) and they were both very cool. The castle was my favorite to date, though it has since been overtaken by Beaumaris Castle in Anglesey. More on that later. The Wallace National Monument was also cool, though the single super narrow spiral staircase that was used for both ascending and descending was a little bit scary. The highlight of the Monument visit was surely seeing the bust of Anaheim Ducks enforcer George Parros prominently displayed alongside those of William Wallace, Robert the "Isaac" Bruce, and others (see the photo. It's actually a bust of Robert the Bruce, but apparently they used Parros as the model for it).
Here are some more photos from Stirling:

Left: Castle. Right: Wallace Monument



On the next day, called Saturday, Emily and I took the bus to Murrayfield Stadium for the Six Nations Rugby matchup between Italy and Scotland. This was essentially the battle for last place in the tournament, so there was a lot at stake. Scotland won, though the game was sloppy (even I could tell). It was really fun to be a part of the mass exodus from the city center to the stadium and the atmosphere was great. There were loads of bagpipers along the road playing away and kilts were worn by many.

I had to leave the game about ten minutes early so that I could make it to a bus that would take me to Waverly train station. I had to catch a train down to Birmingham for a water polo tournament in Walsall (just north of Birmingham). I was, as I often am, super anxious about the whole procedure, but it worked out fine. My train was stuck in Newcastle for about an hour due to a fatality incident on the track between Newcastle and Durham (I believe). So, I got to Birmingham too late to catch the commuter train to Walsall and was forced to take a taxi. I got to our accomodations at about 1:30 AM.

The tournament was the semi-final round of the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) water polo championships. We played Sheffield, Cambridge, and Cardiff, and won the first two of three. This was enough for us to advance to the final round (which was last weekend). Walsall was depressing.

That's all I've got for now. I'll have to cover Wales and more water polo next time.