William Wallace
Trip Start
May 08, 2006
1
85
108
Trip End
Mar 07, 2007
Stirling,
United Kingdom
Saturday, December 9, 2006
Ahh Stirling, yee remember sterling from theee movie braveheart. Its the battle where they all show their asses and have the long spears.
Stirling was all about Braveheart. I didnt realise how close Stirling was to Edinburgh. I could have done a day trip and not changed hostels. But I i got the 50 min train to Stirling, found the Willy Wallace hostel which like all the other hostels in the UK is full of long termers.In fact I was the only short termer there. Had a big dorm to myself. I think someone must have died in this dorm because the girl that worked there was shocked i had been put in the room because of what had happened in there. She wouldnt tell me what had happened just that there was now a odd smell to the room.
Anyway, i walked around town, found a hill with some cannons and a lovely beheading stone
a. View of stirling
. Took some jump shots. Fell over. Nearly broke my wrist and I got mud all over my pants. Scottish turf is so slippery. I decided to head back after i stained my pants and washed them in the sink. Would you believe its the first time i ever washed anything myself by hand. I struggled indeed. It was raining and it was 3pm (night time in scotland) so i went into the tv room. The tv room in this place was a cosy tiny little room that nobody seemed to go into but me. Theres was a video player and a whole heap of videos. It was a recipe for disaster. Apart from a trip to Tesco (there version of our woolworths) - (whats the deal with woolworths in the uk, it doesnt have groceries!! its like big w over here) anyway in my 2 nights here I watched a lot of movies. From Shallow hal to snatch to about a boy to trainspotting to true romance to the yards to spiderman 2. Each night staying up till 2am watching movies. Watching trainspotting was great, they dont seem to have accents as thick here as in that movie. Although some do. It was bizzare though, I was watching them run down the street in that movie and thought, wait a second I walked down those streets.
After a big sleep in on the second and final day I headed to the William Wallace monument. You can see it perched on a hill overlooking the town
b. More cannons
. It doesnt seem that far away until you start to walk to it. Then its about an hour walk and then a big massive hill to walk up. It was a great monument. With awesome views of scotland. Too bad the hills arent green and lush at the moment. Apparently Wallace gave his order to attack from where the monument was built. The entire time I was here I had Braveheart music in my head and his speech that he gives out. I learnt a lot at the William Wallace monument. For instance William wallace was 7 foot tall. He had a massive 6 foot sword. It was a joke in the movie because Mel Gibson wasnt the same height. They didnt wear face paint or even kilts back then. And the big battle of sterling was fought on a bridge but Mel didnt want to film it on a bridge. There yah go ayee.
Of course I couldnt leave without purchasing a couple of William Wallace things. I got a key ring with a cartoon drawing of Wallace and the speech from Braveheart on the back about fight and yee shall live and all that. I also got this little figurine. They could have dont a lot better with the souveneir department there. There was lots of stuff. But it was a lot of monument stuff and scotland stuff. I wanted more Mel Gibson Braveheart stuff. They did have a bit though, but i felt something was missing
c. Nice beheading stone
. You could buy the kilts that were made by the same kilt maker for the movie. It had the same design that was used for the movie. But it was like 80 pounds. Ive been thinking hard about buying a kilt in Scotland. It seems like the thing to do. But they are so expensive! A little william wallace figurne will have to do. I woke up in the morning and headed to the train station. I was half planning to go and see Ed down in Manchester but the cost of a train was 55 pounds. A flight to london is cheaper 30 - 40 pounds. The cost of a train to london was 120 pounds. I looked at the machine and the preset cost of a trip to Glasgow was 5 pounds. Stuff it thought, I will spend the weekend in Glasgow....
