Nick Devine vs. The Moral Debate

So it has been a little while since my last post on ye old blog here and for that I apologize. It has been a pretty hectic week here with classes getting going, presentations being formed, and the ever illusive quest for knowledge through reading texts that I pretend to understand. Last Saturday Tabatha, Sarah, and I went to the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh just for the day.

We started our trip at way too early o' clock and tried to get a bus to get to the rail station in Stirling. Once we figured out that there were no buses at way too early o'clock so we had to walk the 3 miles to the station in the cold, wet Scottish morning. So we finally arrived at the train station and got our tickets and went into the city. We went down to what is considered the Royal Mile in down town section of Edinburgh which runs from the castle of Edinburgh to the Palace where the Queen stays when she comes to Scotland. We went to get some tea and hot chocolate at a store called Chocolate Soup and the tea I had was very tasty and cost effective.

Our first stop, we figured, in our trip should be to Arthur's Seat. Arthur's seat is a very large hill overlooking the historic downtown section of the city. We started what looked to be a very easy climb in comparison to the one we did the previous week in Stirling. We started the accent to the summit and after climbing for 30 minutes we realized that we were actually heading the wrong direction on a completely different hill then the one we intended on going. So alas we climbed back down the hill in order to find a different path that would hopefully take us to the place we wanted to go. That path was a whole lot harder then the one we looked at before and it was a good while before we were able to reach the top. Once we did though the view was spectacular again. We were higher then before and also a whole lot windier as well. We made our way back down the hill/mountain and took to the Royal Mile to see the sights there. We stumbled through some small shops and restaurants, eventually eating at a Turkish Deli that was fantastic. It was small and the people were very nice even when Sarah couldn't say her order correctly to save her life.

It was at this point that my moral debate started raging inside of my head. Now it is no secret that I would like to get a kilt while I am in the land of Kilts and would like it to be fairly authentic. So at all of these little touristy shops they sell all sorts of kilts for very cheep prices. The actual kilt shops also sell custom kilts but they are considerably more. I noticed this but dismissed it as just a sign of better fabric.

As we continued up the Royal Mile, we eventually made it to Edinburgh Castle where we took the time to tour the inside and get a look at another fantastic piece of history. The castle had never been sieged by any opposing army and much of it was still in relatively 'original' condition. While we were in the castle we did see a tradition Scottish wedding taking place and yes the Groom and th Groomsmen wore kilts, and it was awesome.

So anyway, after walking around there for a while we left and went on a tour of the Scotch Whiskey Distillery that was conveniently located right next to the castle. It was really cool to see how the scotch was made and we did get to sample some in our very own glasses that we got to keep. They are sweet and they are specially designed for Scotch... I guess. after that we did some more shopping and I got to thinking more on the ethical idea of buying a cheep kilt in Scotland from China and how that seemed a bit wrong to me. We ended up leaving so i have not decided what I am going to do on the kilt issue yet and I am hoping for some feedback from you. Let me know what you think in the comments on what I should do.

Well I must be going now, I have a presentation tomorrow that I need to prepare for. Until next time this is Nick, signing off.