Edinburgh/Random London

so, it's been a while! i'd been meaning to update sooner but i've been working on a paper for my class tonight...see! i do work!

Last weekend was my last trip of the semester (i think) to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a really nice weekend because I still had all day Friday and all day Sunday in London. Friday we were going to go to the market and picnic in one of the parks but because it gets dark so early, by the time we would have gotten to the park it would have been dark, so we opted instead to go out for Indian food in covent garden. It was actually very good, I hadn't had real indian food since being here, and since it's so popular here I figured I should try it!

After dinner we were going to head back to the tube, but it was so nice out that we decided to walk back. The city is decked out for Christmas already, so the walk down Oxford street past the window displays was beautiful, and it wasn't even that cold out!

After our walk I quickly finished packing, showered, and was off to the bus station for what I thought was an 11:45 pm bus, but what was REALLY an 11:15 bus, no worries, we made it, but...oops! After like 25 planes, trains and buses, i mess up on the last one!

Anyway, my traveling luck continued when I sat next to the LOUDEST girl on the bus...because we were late for the bus we kind of just had to grab seats, luckily I found a window seat, because the girl next to me was sitting on the aisle to talk to her friends, VERY LOUDLY, across the aisle. But I just plugged in my noise-cancellation headphones and fell asleep. honestly, i dont know how people of normal height survive on these buses for more than 4 hours, I could barely feel my knees and ankles afterwards!

We got to Edinburgh around 8 a.m., and then began our 14-hour stay in Scotland...in a coffee shop. BUT, after my blueberry muffin, we started our walk around Edinburgh. We had heard about this free walking tour, so we decided we'd try to catch the 11 a.m. one. We headed up to the Edinburgh castle and decided to tour it. It was actually really cool, it was filled with a bunch of museums and canons, etc. Many people told us to not bother paying to go in, but here wasn't much else to "tour" so we figured we'd splurge and just go in...when in Edinburgh!

It turns out that the 11 a.m. FREE TOUR was FULL?? Don't ask...so we decided we would walk around, have lunch and come back for the 1:00, which is what we did! While walking around we found about 1,000 shops selling kilts, rugby shirts (got one!) and tartan, which is the different types of plaid for each family name...and then i found this...!

Who knew? Unfortunately no where had the "King" tartan, but it was still funny to find the book. The area itself that we were walking around, the "royal mile" was really cool, cobblestone streets, old buildings, the whole 9 yards. However, the area where the bus station was and where we ended up getting dinner was more of a city. I guess I had expected more countryside, but when people asked me how it was I compared it to Dublin.

The tour ended up being really interesting, and a good way to kill 3 hours on the longest day of my life. We walked around the entire city and saw things that I wouldn't have noticed, and learned some history (woo woo)...the tour ended in the Prince Charles gardens which was probably one of my favorite parts:

After the tour it was getting dark, and cold, so we walked around a bit, killed some time in a cafe, then walked around some more, got even colder, and found a great thai place for dinner. By the time we finished eating it was later on so all of the stores were closed, so we just set up shop in the bus station, i changed into my sweatpants and there we sat until our bus at 10:20! The bus back was pretty smooth, minus some annoying american students who didn't shut up...but now i know why everyone hates us!

All in all it was a good trip...i'll leave you with this:

(aunt maur-i got his digits for you!)