Mom and I spent the past week in Scotland, mostly so that I could see real castles and it is very close to Iceland. Well, I now know what it feels like to run around and feel how kings, queens and knights lived in the Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle and Urquart Castle were the main ones. I learned to paint models for strategy games, watched the soldiers that'd served in Afghanistan had just arrived back in 'Scotland. They marched down the Royal Mile (High St) from Edinburgh Castle - some held swords. We toured the old vaults underground Edinburgh which are believed to be haunted with an old history of hundreds of years, well the whole place is full of stories 1000's of years ago! Jamese IV that had athe bible brought here by translation from Hebrew to English was born in Edinburgh Castle. A couple days later we headed north to Stirling Castle, the oldest in Scotland - it is strategically set on a high hill overlooking the land. Mary Queen of Scots lived here among other King James', Charles and we saw where they lived, cooked, fought battles. Heading north to Inverness, we took a boat up to Uruquat Castle which is in ruins but on the Loch Ness where we could see the remains of towers, rooms and the main gate knights brought all up from the loch. It was attacked so many times by the English and someone by the name of McDonald, I think. I wondered if there really is a Loch Ness monster in the river, which is very deep (750m) from old glaciers that scraped it. I saw a submarine that someone used to find the Loch Ness monster. Loch is gaelic & means lake in english. The best part is mom bought me two swords at Stirling castle that I played with at the castle, on the train and carried with me everywhere.
In March, I started at a private school, Landakotsskóli, that specializes in language so that I could be with more English-speaking children. A big stone church is beside my school, even tho it is not part of the school it's next door - a very old with a long, long history when Christians first came to Iceland and converted people from a pagan life. It was getting kind of hard to be in the Icelandic-speaking school even tho my teacher and friends were so great, it feels so good to have friends that speak English. I'm still learning Icelandic and every week there is a wood-working class, among other interesting things. There are only 7 of us in grade 3 class. I use my scooter to go to school now, mom usually bikes beside me. One family is from Nelson, BC - they lived there for 10 yrs and now live in Reykjavik cause the mom is Icelandic and dad, a Canadian doctor. They are coming to Kelowna in August so maybe I'll see their two boys, one is the same age. My best friend is Sturla, he's very cool, and comes over almost every day after school. Sometimes, mom gets us something at the bakery on the way home, or go swimming and for ice cream, or just jump and play on all of the big lava rocks behind where we live. When we were all walking(Sturla)/biking (mom)/scootering (me) along, on Wed, Sturla said, "Niall, when you grow up, you should be a dare devil." Mom laughed so hard she almost fell off of her bike. He knows me pretty good even tho we've known each other such a short time!!! |
AuthorHi I'm Niall. Mom and Lexie are going to help me to write the things that happen in my adventurous life. Archives
May 2013
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