Alrighty, like I promised, I went up to Edinburgh (that's in Scotland) this past weekend. And, as I roomed and roamed with my roommates, Alana and Lyndsey, it was eventful to say the least. To start things off, Alana and I thought the bus pulled out at 9 on Friday, not 8, so we were rushing around after our showers to finish packing and grab some random food for breakfast. So we rush downstairs like 10 minutes before the bus is supposed to leave and everyone going on the trip is still chilling in the lounge next to the reception area. So we go find Lyndsey and she has no idea what's going on so we just sit on the ground and wait and eat some pop tarts (thanks parents!). Heather, who's the staff member that was going on the trip with us finally comes in and tells us that the bus had mechanical problems and the driver had to go back and get a new one, so it might be awhile, but don't go anywhere because we want to be ready to go whenever he gets here. So what do we do but take turns going to the bathroom and room for stuff we forgot (somehow I never remembered that I had forgotten my brush, and they never realized they forgot converters. but between the three of us everything was covered). The bus finally pulls up in the Front Circle around 9, just when we had originally thought we were going to be leaving. So we could've actually finished getting ready instead of rushing around! Once we got on the bus the driver explained to us what had happened and why it took so long, apparently they have to do a 20 minute systems check on a bus before they take it out, so he had to do that twice. But we were soon on the road. We stopped twice on the way to Edinburgh, once at a truck stop to eat our packed lunches from the Refectory, and once at the Scottish border for pictures, which was cool, but I just wanted to get there. We finally got to the hotel around 4.
Once we checked in and dropped our stuff off in our room the three of us went out onto Princes St., where our hotel is, to look in the shops and such. As soon as we got into H&M and started looking around, we hear an alarm going off! At first we thought it was the security at the door, because the workers were still checking people out, but it turned out that it was the fire alarm and we had to go down some back stairs! Seriously, we started laughing because it would just be our luck with all the fire alarms Alana and I have had back at UE and all the ones that we have here at Harlaxton. So H&M shopping didn't happen, but much of the other street did. We stopped and got dinner at this nice Italian place right off of Princes St., which had some good carbonara. I had forgotten that I loved that sauce before coming here! Then it was back to our hotel to get ready for the rest of the night.
That night we went on a Literary Pub Tour. It was really neat! We started at this pub called the Beehive Inn, where we got a drink and took it up to a private room. They started it off there, with one guy standing up and talking and telling us about the dirty side of the Edinburgh authors (Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis-Stevenson, among others) when another person started arguing with him about how he should be telling us more facts and such! He was another actor/guide and so he would tell us that part while the other would tell us the other part. So it was a really cool back and forth between the two of them, each telling us a different side to the story and both quoting different authors at various times. That wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I'm glad they did it that way! It made it a lot more interesting and fun! We went to three pubs and one square during the course of 2 hours. The pub that we ended at was really pretty on the inside! We stayed there after the tour ended and got another drink, which we had to drink standing up near the fireplace because it was so crowded! The tour started out on Grassmarket, but it ended right behind Princes St., so it was really easy to get back to our hotel. On the way back we were discussing our craving for ice cream and then we walked past a McDonalds! So we went in and got a mcflurry and fries and Lyndsey got asked if she was Canadian. She's from Wisconsin, so it's close, but not right. Then we walked back to our hotel (which was right around the corner) and happily ate those before going to bed.
We got up bright and early on Saturday and were ready by the time breakfast started at 8. After stuffing ourselves with free food, we got our coats and such on and went down to the Royal Mile, where lots of smaller shops and pubs are, with Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace at either end of it. Alana and I wanted to go on the Scotch Whisky Experience tour, but it wasn't open to buy tickets yet, so we decided to go up to the castle first. It's on top of this extinct volcano, so you get a really awesome view of the town and the estuary (mouth) of the river that flows by it. We actually saw a lot of Harlaxton people there, so we went in with a few of them. While we were waiting for it to open, we saw a lot of people in t-shirts, a bear, and a bagpipe player marching down from the castle. It seemed to be a promo of some kind. They did multiple takes. We just wanted them to be done so we could go into the castle! The castle was expensive to get in, but I think it was worth it. Because this castle is huge! We took a tour of it, so we got some facts that weren't on signs and such around. Like the fact that the castle had 6 gates (7 if you count the one at the very top to the royal apartments) and it was never taken by force! He did mention about how they could be starved out, but there was lots of farmland inside the walls, so it would take at least 2 years to do that. And at one point in time the English had gotten the castle, so the Scots climbed the walls at night during the winter and (supposedly) 300 Scots killed 3,000 English soldiers! Once the Scots got the castle back they burned all the buildings (which were made of wood at that time) so that the English wouldn't be tempted to try to come and take it back. The oldest building in Edinburgh is located here, which is St. Margaret's Chapel, built in the 11th century by her son. She had been a queen and once he became king after she and her husband died he built it in her honor. She became a saint in the 12th century, which is why it's known today as St. Margaret's Chapel. It's tiny! They said that the limit is 20 people in there but I doubt that many people could actually fit in there! At the top of the castle are old royal apartments and great hall, some of which were more elaborate than others. There was also the Scot Crown Jewels, which were very pretty, and the Stone of Destiny, which is this rock that the first Scot king was crowned on and all since were crowned on until the English king Edward I took it as a prize of war and had a coronation throne made with a slot for it to go into. Since then all English/United Kingdom monarchs have been crowned on this stone. Queen Elizabeth II finally gave it back to Scotland in the 1990s, but it has to come back to Westminster for every coronation, though it will go back to Scotland within 5 days of the coronation. There's also the Scottish National Memorial up there, which was started after the Great War (1914-18) and has a book in it with every name of Scots who died in active duty in it. This has continued, so every Scot that had died in active duty since 1914 has been written down in a special book just for that purpose. It was really cool to see because the official book is kept in a special silver box at the very highest point of the volcano, you can actually see it poking through the floor, and they then break it up into the different parts of the military, with books there as well that you can look through. The last thing that starts up there is the Prisons of War exhibit. Basically it's the castle's prisons, which has housed prisoners from all wars they've been involved in, including Americans because of the U.S. Revolution! So that was interesting to look around at. The castle is also headquarters for some Scot military and there's a museum there for the calvary as well. There's also a War Museum for all the wars Scotland has been involved in. Lastly, there's two fire arms worth noting. One is this ginormous cannon that could shoot this really heavy rock 2 miles! the cannon ball is way bigger than our heads. The other one is a huge gun that is shot every day at 1.
So after we spent hours in the castle, we went back down to the Scotch Whisky Experience and Alana and I were able to go on the tour that was just now starting! It started with a ride in a whisky barrel that explained how whisky was made. Then we all went into a room while someone (an American, which really unnerved me for some reason) told us about the 4 different whisky regions of Scotland. Then we got to taste one. I tried a Highlands region and Alana tried a blend. Even with water added to it it was WAY too strong for me! We got to keep the glasses though, which is really cool. Especially since they're made so that if the drink falls over, none of the whisky falls out! (and yes, I did try this when we got back to the room later with water, it's true) We did the actual tasting in this collection room. There are well over 3,000 bottles of whisky there, making it the largest collection in the world, and none have been opened! There's some really funny bottles too, like golf balls and an entire chess set (the whisky's in the pieces).
We met up with Lyndsey after the tour, who had been wandering around the Royal Mile, and it was off to find lunch. We settled for Pizza Hut because we were all really hungry and craving pizza and it was cheap. It satisfied our hunger and we went off to look around in shops and make our way to the other end of the Royal Mile. I picked up a present for Mindy in one of the shops (and I had picked up a key chain for me back at the castle). When we got to Holyrood Palace at the other end of the Royal Mile, we didn't end up going in because not everyone wanted to spend the money to do so. So we just took pictures from outside the gate. I would've liked to go in because it's the Queen's official residence when she's in Scotland, but I understand about not wanting to spend money.
On the way back up Lyndsey told us that her stomach was hurting her, she thought from the pizza (later we decided it was probably a bug), so we headed back to the hotel for a bit. But not before we walked past the Balmoral where J.K. Rowling finished writing the last Harry Potter book ever, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I got a picture in front of it! (it's right across the street from our hotel!) Because of her stomach, we didn't get to go to the National Museum, go see Greyfriars Bobby, or go search for The Elephant Room, which is the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote a lot of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (book 1) but that's ok. We still had fun. After resting awhile she was feeling better, so we went out and did a little more shopping, actually getting to look around in H&M, where I bought 2 shirts. Then she started to feel bad again, so Alana and I just got some hot chocolate and a blueberry muffin at Costa (a chain cafe) since we weren't that hungry at the time and we went back to our room. Around about 9, we all got hungry, so we went out to a grocery store and got some cheese biscuits (crackers everybody), bread, peanut butter, and drinks (well for 2 of us) and took it back to the room and had a lot of fun eating and talking and watching Juno.
The next morning we were up nice and early again because breakfast started at 8 and the bus left at 9. We almost left without 2 people because they weren't back from climbing Arthur's Seat yet, even though they had left to do that at 6 in the morning! But right as we were getting ready to pull out, they came running up the street, so we waited for them to grab their bags and check out before leaving. Apparently they basically ran all the way from the top of the mound across town to the hotel. Once we left it was a while before another stop at the English-Scottish border where Heather had us take a group photo and then back on the bus to Hadrian's Wall and one of the fortresses. They're ruins now, but it was still cool to see all of the stuff out in the middle of nowhere and get to climb on stuff from way back to at least the 800s. After Hadrian's Wall it was back on the bus to Durham, where we stopped for an hour for lunch. We just got some chicken nuggets and chips (fries) at a shop on the square. Unfortunately since we were crunched for time we didn't get to go see Durham Cathedral (where some Harry Potter scenes were filmed; part of the castle) so someone will have to take me back there. Then it was a 3 hour bus ride back to Harlaxton, where we made it back just in time for the end of dinner.
Ok, I think that's it. This upcoming weekend I'm not planning on going anywhere, so unless something interesting happens the next thing you'll be reading about is my trip to Ireland!
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