597 - St. Giles’ Cathedral
Today I explored a church and ended up drinking pig’s blood.
Let’s start from the top, shall we? Because that first line sounds insane- especially if you’ve never been to Scotland before.
Our goal for this UK trip was to inevitably make it up to the Isle of Skye, but we’d flown in directly to Edinburgh, so Alara and I had a day to explore the city before heading up north.
And explore it we did. Most of our activities involved the so-called Royal Mile- a stretch of tourist attractions ranging from the Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
However I’m not going to get into details, because most of the history surrounding these buildings is more mundane than a donkey in a 4ft pen.
Where Edinburgh really shines is its architecture. I’m talking about structures that simply don’t exist in America. There’s castles built on volcanoes, monuments bursting into the sky in obscure directions, and neighborhoods that feel like you’re in a penitentiary from hell itself.
Needless to say, I was amused from every angle.
But one of my favorite places was St. Giles’ Cathedral, which is the source of today’s adventure. I’ll introduce it by you showing you it’s organ player:
“Organ of the Gods”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 3200 ~ 12mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/100s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Yeah. I wasn’t kidding when I said whoever was running this town had a serious engrossment with geometry. The thing looks straight out of Intro to Trig.
And better yet, whoever decided to paint the ceiling of the cathedral blue… is my unsung hero:
“Blue Sky”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 3200 ~ 12mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/3200s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
The writing is on the wall folks- we need color in churches. Why not throw up a green one somewhere?
I took another look around. What else looked juicy enough to shoot?
It was difficult because the church was literally swarming with tourists. We were on one of the most famous streets in Scotland, in arguably the most famous church in the UK. It doesn’t get much busier than this.
So the next shot is what the central view of the altar looks like, with about 20 people edited out:
“Full Frontal”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 12-24mm f/4 G
[ISO 3200 ~ 12mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/250s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
You’re welcome.
And suddenly, just like the church bells tolling above, our stomachs began to ring for some traditional UK fare. We took one last look around the church, and decided it was in our best interest to leave this bee hive of a heaven.
Within about 10 seconds of leaving, I spotted a diner. My eyes are highly trained for this sort of maneuver.
Bingo. But I knew this wasn’t going to be like any ole’ American diner.
Scotland wasn’t exactly known for its food- many of its choice menu items sounded like something you’d eat in a game of truth or dare. Hence, the sheep intestines and pigs’ blood.
The way they get you is that they mask it with other things. You’re not just eating those items straight out of the box. For instance, the sheep intestines are mixed into a savoury mixture called Haggis, which also contains oats, onions, and various spices.
The pigs’ blood is referred to as Black Pudding, which is essentially pork fat/sausage combined with an oat, then dyed black with blood.
The dishes are famous because they used to be popular with the Scotland lower class, who couldn’t afford the more expensive cuts of meat. To me, they represented a form of comfort food in a country perpetually plagued by cold, rainy conditions.
But this was ironic, because there’s nothing comfortable about eating bloody intestines.
The taste was alright, but perhaps this was because I couldn’t get the idea out of my head about what I was consuming. I often wonder what they’d taste like if I didn’t know the lore behind them. After all, it was basically just modified stuffing and sausage.
Oh well, at least I could cross that off my Scottish bingo card.
And that, my friend, is the story of how I explored a church and drank pigs’ blood in one day- all without having to join a cult.
Next stop… the Scottish highlands.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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