If you haven't guessed from the title of this blog post, I just came back from a weekend in Scotland, namely Edinburgh. 7 other friends and I decided to head up to Edinburgh for what better than Halloween weekend! So after a few hours train ride from Norwich (and listening to very annoying and loud Americans the entire way up) we made it! We arrived in the early afternoon, so we didn't have too much planned for the day. First things first, we had to find our hostel.
Edinburgh is set up on about 7 hills/mountains, so if you haven't gotten my drift already, the city is VERY hilly. The really nice thing is you can basically get around both the old and new city by walking, so it is very convenient and often treacherous! Our hostel was down a hill and across the street from the Three Sister's Pub, which closes at around 2-3 in the morning. Excellent. After checking in, we head to our rooms, one room that fit 6 people and another room that fit the other 2 (who had to share with 4 other strangers). The hostel was so nice as to give us a sheet sack (a sheet that is sewn together at the bottom to form a sack) and on our sunken-in bunk beds, we have a nice, crusty comforter and pillow that who knows when the last time it was washed. The bathrooms were tolerable, a bit hairy and wet, but could be worse. And thank goodness almost all of us decided to bring towels, because they give you none. All in all, I was just thankful for a place to rest my eyes for the night, because I was in Scotland!
We didn't have much planned the first night, except that we had seen a literary pub tour offered at one of the pubs. Of course, all of us being some form of a nerd, we decided that was an excellent idea (and it was!). Our tour guides were witty and recited poetry both in Scottish and English, as well as told us a few stories about Edinburgh and authors. It also helped us to get acquainted with the city and enjoy an ale or two along the way. We were all a bit worn out from traveling and walking, so we went back to the hostel so we could enjoy a full day tomorrow. As soon as I laid down in bed though, my nose completely blocked up from the lovely mold/dust/disgustingness and I only got a few hours of sleep. Oh well...
The next day we had quite a full day. We got up early (early enough to get 4 girls and 3 boys into the shower in a timely manner) and headed off to Edinburgh Castle. It was very uncanny to be back in Edinburgh, after being there about 4-5 years ago as a high school student and seeing some of the same sites...but now I could do what I really wanted to do...just explore! The castle was great, with lots of interesting exhibits and got to see some crown jewels along the way. There was even an exhibit on American POW during the 1780s (I guess that made up for the misnamed cafe in the castle...the REDCOAT CAFE...awful name haha). From the castle, one of my friend's had spotted two rather large hill/mountain on which one we could see people climbing and another that looked like it had a Roman parthenon. What did we decide to do then? Find these places!
After a wee bit o' a walk, we found the hill with the Roman-y ruins. Along the way we stopped to check out a cool little cemetery (at my bidding, because I have a certain fondness for cemeteries...). Once we climbed to the top of the hill, you could see all over Edinburgh and even out to the sea. It was such a beautiful day and I was so happy, that I just laid down in the grass. At first, everyone was apprehensive to what I was doing, but low and behold about 2 minutes later, everyone was joining me. That was probably one of my favorite moments that weekend.
From the Roman parthenon, we spotted another castle and decided to try and find it. And find it we did! Unfortunately, to get into the palace it would have cost us about 12 pounds and none of us was willing to spend that. So we then continued on our random journey, which included us stumbling upon the Scottish Parliament building right next door. We got to get a quick look inside and see the room where they hold meetings. If you haven't already got the idea from this blog post, all of my friends are either History, English or American Studies majors, so we love this kind of stuff.
And from the Scottish Parliament, my one friend Brandon tried to convince us all to climb this mountain that he had had his eye on climbing from day one. After a bit of twisting our arms (not really) we all decided to do it! The mountain from a spectator's view looked like it would be quite a climb, but actually it wasn't too bad. It was worth the view and the fact that we could say we climbed that mountain. It was the perfect almost ending to our day. We got to watch a bit of the sunset and a storm roll in (that caught up to us later).
It was only about supper time once we got back, so we went out in search of food after climbing at least 3 mountains that day. Since it was Halloween and we were a group of 8, it was awful trying to find a place to eat because every since place was turning us away. The one place that had room was a thai restaurant by our hostel that ended up being perfect. We all got to sit around a big round table, enjoy some wine and eat yummy thai food. Our night concluded with going to a few pubs and people watching on Halloween. And boy was that fun! Some of the prize costumes of the night were people dress up like Pac-Man, a group of men dressed up like secret service and one man was Obama (of course) and I believe there was a Jesus-like person at some point. It was a great end to one of the most perfect days.
On Sunday we decided to head back early, because we bought train and bus tickets that could be used at any time. Sunday is probably the worst day for England travel because that is the day that the transportation business does servicing on the lines. This means that you are constantly getting on and off different trains and buses...there is no direct line. Our day was supposed to be taking a bus, a train, a bus, and another bus, but because we got up early, we managed to catch a train first. Once again, we are magnets for loud talking people, so we all had to endure a loud gaggle of giddy girls on the way from Edinburgh to Newcastle. From Newcastle we had to get off and get on another train. This train was especially crowded because it was going to London King's Cross Station (even though we were getting off before it). Many of the seats were reserved, so myself and 3 other friends ended up sitting/standing in the toilet/luggage/standing part of the train. It ended up being alright because it was quieter there, but you got bumped into alot and had to sit on the floor for a few hours. At one point, a woman asked me to watch or in her words "put my arms around" her 2 year old daughter while the woman helped another daughter pee. Quite an awkward moment for me. After we arrived in Peterborough, we now had to catch a bus to Norwich. After a two hour bus ride, we arrived in Norwich and had to catch another bus back to the University...another 30 minutes or so. I had quite lost my appetite the entire day because I was constantly on vehicles that were in motion. All in all, I had arrived home safely and earlier than we had originally planned, so I was happy. And I had a really awesome weekend with great company, food and adventure!
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