This past week we traced through Scotland, had a total blast and some fun experiences so here it goes...
Wednesday:
We left at 7am and rode the tube with suitcases in hand to the train station. We were all so excited to ride a train instead of a bus. We loaded the train almost filling the entire car with just our group. It was a 5 hour ride to our final destination of Edinburgh, Scotland! Naturally... I slept almost the entire time. When I woke up the sun had come up and the views were gorgeous. Oh let me just tell you... We were told it was going to be absolutely freezing so we packed our warmest clothes and layered up. Luckily we experienced good weather. During the say it was sunny and at night though it was cool, it didn't rain! We saw the beach outside the window and it was gorgeous I could hardly stand it... The beach?...Scotland? What a fabulous combination. We got off the train and took our things down to the hostile we were going to be staying in... OK for those of you who read my previous post know that my track record with "shelter"...not so good! We were skeptical about staying in a hostile. The only hope we had was that BYU would not put us in an unsafe area. Let's jut say that our hostile was 100 times better than the Hotel De Hollande in Paris! It was big and clean and in a great part of town. It really changed my opinion of hostiles!
After we checked in we went straight to he Edinburgh castle and got to see the beauty of the city. Edinburgh is quite small with a fun main street called the Royal Mile! At the top is the castle on cliffs overlooking the valley! It was a little cloudy on Wednesday making the view gorgeous from the top. It made us all so excited to be there.
After taking lots of pictures and going through the different exhibits, we made our way back down the royal mile going through the different shops. We found a mill that showed you how they make kilts and blankets out of wool... One thing you have to understand is that Scotland places a huge emphasis on clans and family heritage. Each clan has a plaid an a family modo and you can get blankets, kilts, cups, key chains everything you could ever think of in your families plaid. I have heritage from Scotland and it was fun to get some Lindsay plaid from Scotland for my future home.
We ended in this tiny shop that was family owned and they couldn't have been nicer! The woman who helped us was named Stephanie and it was fun to chat with her. The Scottish are much warmer and like to talk and help much more than the English. It was nice to chat with someone who was genuinely interested in us and we got to hear all about their family business. It made me feel more at home. In London the only people we talk to are each other because no one is super friendly.
After shopping we went to catch some dinner at a pub that Stephanie recommended to us called Mitre. It was more of a restaurant atmosphere and the food was fabulous. We were able to sit and chat making more memories and boy were there lots of laughs!
We walked up and down the royal mile after that exploring the city! We "found" Waldo... two actually. There were 2 college aged boys dressed in white and red stripes. The funny thing was they had no clue who Waldo is...I guess it's an American thing.
We stopped at a local grocery store and got snacks so that we could go back to the hotel to eat and talk.
The end to the night: chatting in jammies, talking, reading magazines, and finding out my credit card number was taken back in England somewhere. Yes, I was officially broke with no access to money and 3 day to go until we arrived back in London. With the help of my mom (I will always need my mom) and the girls, the situation was resolved and I was covered by my sweet girlfriends the entire weekend.
Thursday:
Just when you think things couldn't get any better, they do! And no I am not being sarcastic. Thursday was such a fun oh man, so many memories!!
The day started off with breakfast at the hotel. It was a true Scottish breakfast with hagas (meat all ground together served in lamb stomach) but luckily they also had cereal and toast :)
It was a beautiful morning (sweatshirt weather) and super sunny! We went to hike to King Arthur's seat! The group split and I stayed with the one thy just wanted to explore the valley! It was nice to sit in the sun and enjoy people watching as locals walked by with their dogs. Side note: It is interesting to see that there are different breeds of dogs here in Europe. Some are cute like the dog below and some are just creeper and scare all of us. But unlike the US none of the dogs are ever on leashes.
After our stroll down the valley, we decided to take a look at the graveyard and see the old headstones then grab some lunch!
Lunch took much longer than expected because we ate at the Elephant House. Not ringing a bell? Me either it's okay don't worry. The Elephant House is a cafe downtown and we learned it was "the birthplace of Harry Potter". JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books there in a certain corner and visits quite often. Yes she spent time in England and the English claim her as being from their country, but she is actually Scottish. She wrote a majority of her books a she ate in the cafe. On the wall there was a list of Dumbledores army...I was number 126 :) we spent a ton of time taking pictures and looking around. It's exciting to be able to say I've been there.
We all met back up to take a historical tour of the city but with the cost and time we decided against it, but we had fun taking pictures in the gift shop...
We headed down the street to visit Stephanie and get more souvenirs from their shop. It was good to give her the business and we ended up hearing more of her stories.
Annie was playing at the local theatre and the majority of the group decided that they were going to go see it. Liz, Kinsey, Ramzi and I decided to explore more of the city instead...little did we know it would be one of the most fun nights thus far.
Here in the UK we crave several things: popcorn, goldfish, an Mexican food. So when we heard that there was Mexican food down the street we made a b-line! It tasted so good to eat some Mexican food. After it was over we couldn't figure out whether it was the Mexican or just the spice in the food. Everything is just so bland in England! We had a fun chatting about our best and worst date stories... Hilarious! We were dying laughing!
After dinner we were told to go check put a dessert place called chocolate soup! Interesting huh? We go some dessert (had to it was just such a fun experience I would never have again) and it came with a "shot" of chocolate. Well naturally we weren't going to eat it so we had to find some other way to use it. So we put our 2nd grade thinking caps on and this is what we came up with...
After we cleaned up and took some pictures we headed back to our hostile and bundled up because it was getting late and cold outside. We decided to take the Edinburgh ghost tour in the city. It was an hour and a half long and we spent 45 minutes outside in the city and 45 under ground in the caverns.
During the black plague, Edinburgh was hit hard and to contain the disease, they built the city you see today on top of the old city and left the rats (who were spreading the disease) and the sick to die underground. Later they old rooms were cleaned out and used for the homeless, smuggling and drinking. The caverns caused so many problems that the government filled them in and they were not again discovered until the 1980's. They began giving historical tours until people started having experiences with spirits. The tour involved only those experiences that had happened in recent years.
The first 45 minutes were interesting and not too bad. We learned about city torture and how it was run. It was the time in the caverns that freaked the heck out of us. Thank heavens we had a boy with us! We were led by our tourguide and all he had was a candle. At one point he blew it out and we couldn't see our hand in front of our face! It was super dark and 45 minutes seemed like hours.
We didn't let our scary fun night ruin the end of the evening. We saw a place with a stone heart and took some fun shots of us.
Some Scottish boys insisted on getting in a picture with us! It was so fun talking with boys. There are only a handful here and we were laughing so hard at the boys we met. They were super nice!
We tried to go over to the graveyard behind the Elephant house where Tom Riddle (Voldamort) is "buried". We were not successful seeing that it was 12am and it was closed up, but I thought about Lindsey all day seeing so many Harry Potter sites because she just loves it so much.
We walked home so happy about the fun night we had and were so excited to see the girls that had gone to Annie, but when we got home everyone was asleep so we had a much needed early to bed night!
Friday:
We had to get up early, shower, and eat because our plan was to get on a bus to Stirling for the rest of the trip! It was an hour ride to the small city of Stirling, Scotland, but we made a detour stop at New Lanark.
This is a mill city where cotton was picked and uses to create string and eventually fabric. We had a 4 hour tour of the New Lanark mill, shop and took a funny little ride that was much like Peter Pan (in Disneyland). We learned a lot and enjoyed a stroll up toward the waterfalls in the area after the tour.
We drove into Stirling and checked in our hostile Goethe night... Let's just say this one was not like the one in Edinburgh. It was tiny and not the cleanest, but hey it was an adventure and still better than hotel de hollande so it's all good! We went to see the castle in Stirling which was a little disappointing. :( not so much to see, but hey we can day we have been there.
Stirling is a tiny town and the options for the night were very limited. We decided to get food at this place called Frankie & Bennys. It was a cross between red robin and tgi Fridays... Reminded me if home. We the moved on to our next activity which again reminded me of home.. The movies! We caught a 7:30pm showing of "Gnomeo and Juiet". It was supposed to be for kids, but we had fun feeling like we were in te US again because going to the movies is so normal. It was a fun show to see. We wondered if it plays in America because there were so many English things about it. It would be interesting to see the difference between it here and back home. --movie in the UK, check.
We were exhausted by the time we walked back home in the rain, we were ready for early bed and we quickly went to bed because our sleeping conditions were not the greatest (to put it nicely).
Saturday (today):
This morning we got up and had some toast for breakfast and quickly left for the Wallace Monument. This is in remembrance of William Wallace that was an important leader protecting Scotland. He united the Scottish tribes under him to fight the English to keep their freedom. He won tons of huge battles but was eventually captured and killed leaving Scotland under English reign.
After hiking 264 stairs and up a hill to see the view and learn about William Wallace, we headed for the train station. We had a little wait to get some food and then take our 7 hour ride home...we were stopped and delayed for a full 2 hours. Lets just say we were plenty ready to get off that train by the time we pulled into the station...
It is always so good to go away, but it's also nice to come home. Scotland was one of my favorite places I've ever been. I loved it so much! It will be fin traveling to Ireland and Wales in just 2 weeks. Wow time is flying and we are so busy...
This coming week: Swan Lake Ballet, the London temple, Hampton Court, Darwin's house, and Wimbledon!
We are doing so many things... This really is my history in the making...
You are beautiful. I miss you! I love the Scotland hat picture.
ReplyDelete