weekend

Today I went to the National Gallery with Emily and Jackie from Brown - free admission, and the story I've heard is that anything that has National in the title has to be, on account of it belonging to the British people. We spent most of our time in the Scottish section, the focus of which is this painting:


This man (Reverend Walker, as painted by Raeburn) is on EVERYTHING in the gallery, from sillhouettes (sp?) on the walls to merchandise in the giftshop. Sadly, I did not purchase either the china plates or the keychains. I appreciate that the painting is quite famous, but my favorite was this landscape by Peter Graham:


Also, yesterday I thought I climbed Arthur's Seat (the volcano in the middle of the city of Edinburgh.) After some discussion with flatmates, it turns out I climbed the hill next to it. So I'll have to make another stab at that next week. But meanwhile, a view from whatever it was I climbed, looking out over old town and with the famously incomplete National Monument in the background:




...In other news, Sir Walter Scott was born a block away from my flat, more news at 11 or whenever I get a chance to take a picture of the relevant inscription...