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The Palace of Holyroodhouse is one of the oldest but also the most rarely used royal residences. The Queen spends there a week each summer and then moves on to Balmoral for her holiday. The palace is built next to the ancient Abbey, now in ruins, and it stands right at the end of the Royal Mile as you walk downhill from Edinburgh castle. Across the street from the palace there is the Scottish Parilament, a modern building, and right in fromnt of the palace there is the Queen's gallery. If you want to go inside the palace, you buy tickets in the Royal Collection shop (as well as doing some shopping on the way, judging by the majority of visitors there) and walk on to the palace gate. With your tickets checked, you move on into the palace yard. The peace and quiet there is amazing, you immediately forget that you are in the middle of a tourist area of a large city. On your right there is a mountain, and on your left there stands a monument to Edward VII. In front there're tourists having their pictures taking, so it's not easy to take in a good view of the palace. Photography is allowed only outside the palace, so no pictures could be taken inside, but this seems to be almost the only restriction there is. As you come into the palace, you expect to see lots of security cameras and lots of guards everywhere, but in fact you don't notice any cameras and there are several guides inside, but not in every room. Almost all tourists rent audioguides where you can choose your preferred language, so you just move from room to room, dial the number you see on a small stand inside the room and the audioguide tells you about the room. Invariably, every recorded story ends with the words "If you'd like to learn more about this room, the guide will be happy to help you". The guide walks into the room a couple of minutes after you've appeared there and stands patiently and very quietly in the corner. In many rooms there are chairs you can sit on while you're listening to your audioguide, and only some chairs are roped off because they are too old for the general public to sit on them. The tour is designed in such a way that you proceed from the "everyday use" rooms like the dining room with the table fully set, a couple of drawing rooms with Victorian furniture and drapings, through the Throne room to the older rooms. The guides are really eager to help you. On the two thrones in the Throne room there are the monarchs' initials: GR, which obviously stands for Gerogius Rex (King George in Latin), and MR (the Queen's name and the first letter of the word Regina, "Queen" in Latin). I couldn't remember which of the Georges had a wife whose name started with an M, so I asked the guide when the thrones were made. He told me that they were made around 1922 for George V and his wife Queen Mary (do I hear you say "duh"?) and asked me whether I'd like to know what firm made them. Of course I said yes, so the guide took the rope off, walked to the thrones, brought back the Queen's footstool, turned it over and showed it to me. There was the label and the hallmark of some London firm which made the throne. I touched the hallmark and the footstool, thanked the guide and walked on through the long portrait gallery to the historical chambers. The portrait gallery is interesting in itself. It is very long and the walls are hung with portraits of all Scottish kings. Now, the portraits look strikingly alike, and the audioguide tells you that they were all painted by one and the same artist and his task was not to convey the true looks of old kings, but to show that the reigning monarch (Charles II) was a true successor of the old Scottish kings, so every portrait looks a lot like Charles II. From there you move on to the Royal Apartments. You go past the Queen's drawing room and then take a steep stair up through the room where Queen mary of Scot's private secretary was murdered. From there you get into Queen mary of Scots' bedchamber. The Royal Apartments are maintained in the same style as they used to be from the beginning, so the bedchamber reflects the yesra that mary spent at the French court in her youth. In the bedchamber you see some of Queen Mary's needlework and her scissors, as well as her purse. Then you get into a small museum, although every room is already a museum in its own right. The only thing that reminds you that this is a working royal residence and that the Queen actually lives there for a small part of the year is that the pictures there have no plaques under them, like you wouldn't really put up plaques underneath pictures in your own home. Now, this museum room is full of rather gruesome exhibits, such as a medallion with a lock of Queen mary's hair, a button in which you can see a tiny part of a handkerchief with the blood of the executed King Charles I etc. The room is darkish, but still you can spend hours there. Telling about the other rooms would take up too much time. I am working on an article about Scotland now, so there you will find more information, stories and photos. What I'll say for now is when you leave the palace, you get to go past the Abbey. The Abbey was built in the 12th century and many Scottish kings are buried there, but since it was a catholic abbey, a riotous crowd destroeyd most of it in 1688, and the roof fell in in the 18th century, so now the Abbey is a picturesue ruin. From the Abbey you go through the palace garden (a small but still nice one), past the large white tents where the Queen had given garden parties just a few days before our arrival, and there you are, right next to the exit. You can do some shopping in the royal collection shop if you want, but to tell the truth, your head is still so full with the things you've just seen in the palace that you feel that a lunch in some quiet place would do it more good than any other activity.

As you walk along the Royal Mile towards Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh there is a green-and-brown tavern/pub on your left. The tavern is called "Deacon Brody's" and the house is about 300 years old. On the wall there is a large board that tells the story of this tavern and Deacon Brody. Since this story is important for British literature, I think you may be interested to know it. William Brodie (sometimes spelt as "Brody" was a cabinet maker and a deacon of a trade guild, so often he is referred to as "Deacon Brodie". In the 18th century Edinburgh he was a prosperous and respected man, so respected, in fact, that he was made a member of the burgh council and served on the jury as well. To better serve justice, he even designed and funded a gallows to be put up in the city. But who was a respectable man in the daytime turned into a burglar and gambler at night. Since he was a very popular craftsman and locksmith, he was often invited to the homes of the richest people of Edinburgh to fix locks for them, which gave him excellent opportunities to see where the money was. At night he would disguise himself underneath a mask,, burgle the houses he had recently been called to, used copies of the keys he had made for the locks and take the money. His night-time "earnings" enabled him to gamble a lot, keep two mistresses and five children. When he was found out, he was condemned and hanged on the same gallows that he had so enthusiastically built. A legend has it that he tried to bribe the hangman and put a steel collar to escape the death by hanging, but the plan di dnot work. Robert Louis Stevenson was so impressed by this man's adventures that he wrote his famous "The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". So this was deacon Brody's involuntary input in British literature. And somehow the dark stones of the old houses in the Royal Mile make it easy to believe the story.

Almost every British city has a High street. Every High street is the main shopping and often tourist area. Some High streets are longer, some are shorter, but only one such street is in fact a whole succession of several streets and is exactly one mile long, albeit a Scottish mile. This street is called "The Royal mile", you can find it in edinburgh, and it goest from the Castle Rock, on which Edinburgh Castle stands, all the way down to the palace of Holyrood House and the remains of Holyrood Abbey. The Royal Mile is exactly one Scottish mile long. A Scottish mile is 1.8 km long, and such miles were used in Scotland until 1824. The buildings in the Royal Mile are old. Some of them are only slightly younger than the castle itself, so you can drop in a 300 years old shop or dine in a pub which dates back to 1500-s. You can tell the age of the buildings not only by their architectural styles, but also by the dark, sometimes black stones, some of them only roughly hewn, and by the narrow, winding passages that lead to the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is not all shops and pubs (by the way, do remind me to tell you about Deacon Brody's tavern, the gallows and the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). To the right of the Royal Mile, if you're standing with your back to the castle, in a broad street, there is "The Elephant", the pub in which JK Rowling wrote large portions of her harry Potter books. Right on the Royal Mile, looking majestic, is St. Giles High Kirk (cathedral), where the knights of the Order of the Thistle gather, presided by the Queen, in the oak-panelled Thistle Chapel. Facing the palace of Holyrood House is the Scottish Parliament, and although it is only a 300-metres walk from the palace, this year the Queen was driven there in a State limousine to make a speech on the occasion of the parliament''s 10th anniversary. I do not know whether the drive was due to the Queen's desire to show respect to the Scottish parliament, or because she was having a heavy cold in early July. As I said earlier, the Royal Mile is comprised of several streets, which are Castle Esplanade, Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Canongate and Abbey Strand. Castle Hill, Castle Esplanade, lawnmarket together with the lower-lying Grassmarket are all parts of the Old Town of Edinburgh. As the name suggests, there is also a New Town, with beautiful Georgian houses. The New Town was built in the 18th century, so perhaps it is not quite so brand-new after all. Visitors are admitted daily to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, when the Queen is not there. I will tell about this palace tomorrow, as, although it is part of the Royal Mile, it is a sight in its own right.

have you ever bought anything in a store and found, on return home, that it is not quite the thing you wanted? What do you do, try to use this thing anyway, since it's been paid for, or do you return it to the shop? While in Russia very often I think that returning something to the shop just isn't worth the effort, it can be done much easier in the UK and in the USA. The laws protect customers quite well, and there is customer satisfaction guarantee, which means that if you are not satisfied with what you've bought because you don't like the quality, or the colour, or the size doesn't quite fit, you can return it to the shop where you've bought it. when it comes to chain stores, you can usually return the goods to other branches as well. When I was studying/teaching in the USA, I used to know a girl who would go shopping, bring loads of stuff from the store (mainly clothes), take a very close look at her purchases at leisure and then return most of them to the store. Very often, when she was travelling, she returned these things to other branches of the chain store where she bought them. The usual requirement is to have the packaging intact (that is, undamaged so that the item you're returning could be repacked and resold) and of course the good should be in the same condition as it was when you bought it. Different shops have different return policy. For example, if you're buying something at a sale, these items are usually non-refundable, so you can not return them. This policy was probably introduced because many people buy far too many goods during teh sales period and in the end decide that they do not want them. Some goods are non-returnable from the very beginning. Indeed, how could you return an opened bottle of medicine, or perfume or something of the kind? Reason and hygiene would not allow it. Very often you can read the information on the receipt to see during which period you can return the item to the shop. For example, Waterstones (a large UK chain of book and music shops) allows you to return books and videos 21 days after the sales date. With other shops this period can be shorter or longer. Walmart, a famous American chain store, is famous not only for being probably the cheapest shop you can find, but also for accepting returns during very long times. So if you've bought something in the UK or in the USA and feel that you do not really want this item, take it back to the store (or the local branch if it's a chain store) and you will get your money back, or, if you paid by card, the money will be transferred to your account.

One of the worst things about aiports is having to stand in long queues waiting to be checked in. Often, if you arrive at the aiport a little later than you should have, all the best seats are already taken and you may have to squeeze into the middle seat and remain crammed for the duration of the flight. Modern technologies provide a good way to deal with the queues and seating problems. You can always use a self-check-in terminal, if there company you're flying with provides such a service. With this terminal you can check in within minutes and also you can see for yourself which seats are still available and choose the one that you prefer. Not bad, eh? I've seen such terminals in Domodedovo, but they are not quite as efficient as the ones in many British airports. In Domodedovo you can currently check in through a terminal if you've got only carry-on (cabin) luggage. If not, you will still have to queue up to be checked in by the company's officer and have your luggage taken to the luggage compartment of the plane. In Britain the terminals work for you no matter how much luggage you've got on you. All you have to do is either type in your ticket confirmation code (for e-tickets, bought online), or swipe your passport through the scanner, or just type in the flight number and your name to get a boarding pass. Then you go on to the company's counter and drop your luggage there. Simple as that. When I was flying from Glasgow to London, all I had to do was type in my booking confirmation number, choose my seat and the borading pass was printed out by the machine. At the counter I showed the boarding pass and my luggage was taken and I was free to go through the security control and board the plane. Not once did I have to show my passport to anyone at all. So if you are flying somewhere and there are self-check-in terminals at the airport, my advice for you would be to use them as they'd save you a lot of time.

Years ago I used to hear from my English friends that food in Scotland is indigestible and not tasty at all. Every time I heard it I thought of English food and I couldn't possibly imagine how bad Scottish food must be if it was no good even as compared with English meals.This summer was my first chance to try a Scottish breakfast in Edinburgh and to see for myself whether my English friends were right. A full Scottish breakfast differs from a full English breakfast only in a few details. It normally consists of eggs (fried, scrambled or boiled, the choice is yours), bacon (and bacon in Scotland is cut thicker than in England), a few mushrooms, fried whole, a spoonful or two of baked beans, a slice of black pudding (looks and tastes like a spicy blood sausage) and a bit of haggis. Since it was mainly haggis that I heard of as the worst bit of a Scottish meal, I was interested in trying it. Haggis is made from minced sheep's "pluck' (that is, liver, heart and lungs), onions, spices and the mixture is boiled in the sheep's stomach. The taste resembles a spicy liver sausage, only it has a harder texture. To tell you the truth, I found haggis quite tasty and often had it afterwards. On its own, haggis can be served as a main course. In this case it is served with "neeps and tatties" (mashed turnips and potatoes, which come in layers" the bottom grey layer is haggis, the middle honey yellow layer is turnip, and the upper layer is mashed potatoes). But another Scottish meal which impressed me was the traditional porrige with a "wee dram". The most famous Scottish drink is whisky. You will find lots of local distilleries in Scotland, some are famous locally, others are well-known nationwide and internationally. And a 'wee dram" is a small shot of whisky ("wee" meaning "small" in gaelic). So porrige with a wee dram is in fact a bowl of porridge, served with cream and a small portion of whisky which you are supposed to put in your porridge. I had it only once, and decided that it really wasn't my cup of tea. But all in all food in Scotland is lovely, if different from what we are used to in our country.

Scottish highlands are famous not onlyy for their mountains and wildlife, but also for their lakes. Practically anywhere you go in the south-west Scotland, you'll be near one loch (a lake) or another. But Scottish lochs do not look the same as Eastern European lakes. When we say the word "lake", as often as not we imagine a round or oval body of water, lying peacefully in a shadowy forest or in a very flat valley. In Scotland, for one thing, you'll hardly find a flat valley. What you do find is mountines, ravines, steep valleys, and the lochs are usually long and meandering. So you can drive along a loch for hours. For example, the famous Loch Ness is about 37 kilometres long and Loch Lomond is 39 kilometres long. So there is an abundance of fresh water in Scotland. Apart from fresh-water lochs, there are plenty of seawater ones in Scotland. So unlike a lake, a loch may mean a body of eitherfresh or sea water. The shores of Scotland are famous for their cliffs and bays, sometimes going quite far inland, and the tide is particularly high there. Therefore when you see a loch in Scotland, you never know whether the water in it is going to be fresh or salty and if it connects to the sea, but whatever it is, all the lochs I've seen are immensely beautiful.

I am now travelling around Scotland. From the textbooks at the University and the books by Walter Scott I got an image of Scotland as some very dark, gloomy and not very happy country, with the history of the jacobute uprisings and the wars for independence lurking at the back of the mind together with the romantic history of the poor mary Queen of Scots. As it usually happens, the real life is different from the stereotypes. Edinburgh is a bustling city with lots of tourist shops, filled with fridge magnets, tartan and cashmere, the royal yaght Britannia and the palace of Holirood House are easily accessed without having to queue up, and the people ared incredibly friendly inspite of the articles about yobs and the overall moral degradation of teenagers that some newspapers love to publish. The lake Loch Ness is beautiful but otherwise not very impressive. Long and narrow and surrounded by tiny villages, mentions of the monster and walking trails. And the most beautiful part of Scotland is the Highlands. I've taken about 500 pictures so far and am surely going to take a couple hundred more before my flight to London. When I get back I will tell about the beauty of Scotland in my blog.