My personal journey to the United Kingdom

People watch the guard-changing ceremony at Buckingham Palace. / Courtesy of Choi Yearn-hong

By Do Je-hae

• Published May 29, 2014 3:54 PM KST
• Updated May 29, 2014 3:54 PM KST

By Choi Yearn-hong

May is the best month in England. This is a well known fact. So I made a trip to UK in May. I still expected gloomy and melancholic weather, London fog, and ever-changing weather. The Heathrow airport was gray in early May morning mist or fog. A couple of days, I stayed in London. Not that bad. Too short to know London in two days.

My daughter was a tour guide to London. Famous parks were my first outing: Hyde Park, Green Park, and Kensington Park. Then, I visited the Churchill’s Wartime Museum, in which I learned Winston Churchill’s leadership and diplomacy with US President Franklin Roosevelt. From there, I walked to the Buckingham Palace. In the following morning, I observed the Buckingham Palace’s guard-changing ceremony. Then, I visited St. Paul’s Cathedral which was always behind the BBC News. From there, I proceeded to the London Tower, the Shakespeare Theater, the Westminster Abbey, and the Parliament.

Two days were not enough. I made northbound journey: Oxford University in Oxford, and Shakespeare’s house in Stratford-von-Avon before the night fall in Coventry that was known as Godiva, a naked woman who reduced the tax burden with her naked horseback riding. Then, I travelled to New Castle via York where I read more about Viking’s invasion and settlement in the area.

What can I say more about Oxford and Shakespeare House? How about Viking? I saw Viking’s long boat in the Viking Museum in Norway years ago. Twenty five sailors in one boat, all 25 boats as a unit, swiftly invaded and colonized the area in England and Ireland wth advanced navigation skill and technologies with the winds in the stormy seas.

I arrived at Edinburgh, Scottish capital, known as Adam Smith’s town. City as a whole was an UNESCO-registered art work, planned city. Old Edinburgh Castle was so attractive historical site. No wonder the fierce Scottish people had long fights with England until 18th century. The Scottish referendum for Independence is scheduled on September 15, this year. I was curious of its possible independence as a political scientist. It seemed to me that only politicians were interested in independence. A great majority of Scottish people were not interested in its independence. I met more foreigners in Edinburgh from Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey and Ireland in the street and hotel. I met handsome men in kilt and bagpipes in the Castle and in the traditional Scottish night. I visited the Palace of Holyrood House, Queen Elizabeth’s summer palace. A beautiful historic site. Two nights were not enough there, but I stopped by Wool en Mills, famous wool store representing Edinburgh. I purchased a couple of sweaters for my son and daughter.

The Rosslyn Chapel located outside Edinburgh attracted so many tourists, including me, because the Chapel was appeared as an important place in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. It had many mysterious symbols in the old church buildings and still challenges imaginations of modern men and women to guess the 15th century people who designed and built the Chapel.

In a downtown bus stop in Dublin, I met a kind woman who guided to another bus stop to board #44 bus heading to my hotel located outside of the city. Without her help, I could not be able to return to my hotel that evening. I was awaiting the bus in a wrong bus stop. She led me to the right bus stop in sacrifice of her time. She was onboard with me in the bus #44. In a short time inside the bus, we introduced each other. She was a young dentist from Ireland. I asked her a question about the Scottish referendum. She whispered to me, “that will not happen in September.” I will find her prediction as accurate on September 16.

Southbound trip to Wales. I stopped by Gretna Green for lunch where I accidentally found the grave site of Scottish poet, William Wordsworth, the 19th century poet who worshipped the nature and romanticism. He was the Poet Laureate of Great Britain before his death. I loved his poems and I still do love his poems. His hometown was not far away from Gretna Green, so that the town has sponsored annual William Wordsworth festival to attract the poets and writers with musicians to that scenic town.

One short poem still comes to my heart.

My Heart Leaps Up

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

The area is known as the Lake District. I came to believe in his hometown landscape inspired him to be a great poet of the 16th century. I passed by a beautiful mountains and valleys in rain toward the South. On the way, I came to think Adam Smith, the first modern economist and political economist who authored the Wealth of the Nation, from Scotland. He spent his career in Edinburgh, even though he was educated at Oxford.

Two famous poet and economist registered Scotland, their homeland, in the admirable intellectual map of the world literature and social sciences.

The border between Scotland and Wales was not clear. After I crossed the Snowdonia National Park, I arrived at a Wales city for one night stay to go to Ireland. I was scheduled to stay one more night in Wales, Cardiff, capital of Wales, on the way to London after my five-night travel to Ireland. Following morning, I went to the ferry in order to cross the Irish Sea to reach Dublin, Ireland.On the ferry, I thoughts about the East Sea-Sea of Japan controversy. Why the Irish Sea, why not British Sea? If we apply the name of Irish Sea to the sea between Korea and Japan, the name of the sea should be East Sea.

Dr. Choi Yearn-hong is a poet and writer, and political scientist retired. He has been a contributor to the KT since 1966.