Adventures in Edinburgh!

Hello!

My post is a little bit late because I was in Edinburgh, Scotland for the weekend! & wow, it was freakin' amazing. In the short span of 4 days, it became one of my favorite cities. Prepare for a long blog! :)

After a 3 hour coach trip I made it to the Dublin Airport and successfully checked in. I flew with RyanAir (a budget airline in Europe) and it definitely was an interesting experience.. The whole hour we were in the air they tried to sell you e-cigarettes, lottery tickets, perfume, and other oddball items. Guess people actually buy that stuff on planes here or they wouldn't still be selling it!

Anyways, I landed in Edinburgh where my friend Cammi so graciously picked me up from the bus station so that I wouldn't have to walk Edinburgh alone. After meeting some of her roommates and friends, we went out to a club called Silk for the night. It was really fun! At the club, someone told me I sounded American with a bit of an Irish twang. Naturally, I exclaimed WTF (why the face, hehe) I wish! The next day I saw Edinburgh and THE SUN. It was 49 degrees out.. which felt like summer to me. I so appreciate the Santa Barbara weather after living on this side of the world. We ate some paninis and checked out The Meadows, which is where all of the Uni students hang out.

The Meadows, Edinburgh

Edinburgh is one of the prettiest cities. It has a huge castle on a hill that pretty much overlooks the whole city. City Centre is divided up into two parts: Old Town and New Town. Old Town has amazing architecture and New Town ain't too shabby either. Beautiful cathedrals are sprinkled throughout the town and even the high schools are in buildings from the 1800s. Insane.

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh

After heading into the heart of the city, I met up with Crystal (if I haven't mentioned her, shes another student from my program who happens to also go to UCSB). We stayed at the Caledonian Backpacker's Hostel and it was phenomenal. The whole place was colorful and fun (and clean). There were a lot of owls painted everywhere so that won me over. I was tired and cranky and Crystal arrived around 11pm so we just went to McDonalds because we didn't want to walk a long ways. I can proudly say that was the first time I had McD's since being on this side of the world.

Yay! Trip Advisor didn't lie!

Hostel Artwork

My life story.

The next day we met up with Eris for breakfast at our hostel. They actually had Nutella (& like 10 other spreads) and Crystal was obsessed with the granola for some reason. So another positive for this place. We explored Edinburgh a bit before we met up with our program for lunch and a trip to the castle. Lunch was at a place called Ghillie Dhu and it was so yummy. I had a steak and ale pie and then a fruit/meringue/whipped cream concoction for dessert. Some how I finished all this food even though I have a tiny stomach.

Nom nom nom nom nom.

It was then time to explore Edinburgh Castle. This place was so cool. It's said that JK Rowling got her inspiration for Hogwarts from this castle. Looking at this thing... I wouldn't doubt it. We checked out the castle and it's incredible views. There was lots of posing on cannons and making fun of people taking selfies with a camera attached to a long stick. There was a lot of educational things to read about, but for the most part I just looked at the funny sewn tapestries and re-enactments. I did teach everyone what the hall was for (thanks to my castles class, yeahhhh!).We also saw the Scottish Crown jewels and the security guard befriended up after someone in our group tried to take a picture. He made it known that he hates Macbeth and Shakespeare and that romance makes him sick--guess that's what happens when you stare at precious jewels for eight hours a day. But it was a grand time!

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh

That night Crystal, Eris, and I met up with a few people from our hostel and one other guy from our program and we went on a ghost tour. At first I honestly thought it was going to be so-so, but it was great! Our guide took us around the city where he told us different ghost stories and things that had happened in Edinburgh. There was a story about witch burning and how if you were red haired or had a third nipple, they would tie you to a chair and throw you in the ocean. Of course, our tour guide finds me (because I'm always picked in these kind of stories) and basically says that if I sank then I wasn't a witch and if I floated then I was a witch. If indeed I did float, I would have been burned at the stake. Souless and a witch.. #gingerproblems
We also learned about a dude who killed his friend and drank his blood to try to become a vampire. Oh, & that was in 2004.

Eris left for Glasgow that night so Crystal and I went to some party that our hostel was throwing. It was tribal themed so we painted our faces, naturally.

Tribal Night, Edinburgh. We so tired :( .. but check out my lightening bolt

The next day we took on our next task: hiking Arthur's Seat. I put on three pairs of socks and my boots (darn shin splints) and we walked down The Royal Mile until we hit our destination. Arthur's Seat is an dormant volcano and if you make it to the top, you can check out some killer views. We went the wrong way at first but ended up taking hilarious pictures.

Superman 'dat rock

Half way up!

After about an hour and fifteen minutes--we made it to the top!

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh .... gotta sit on the seat?

After making it down, we hit up the National Museum of Scotland for a bit. There were cool things there, for example, Narwhal fights.

Pretty intense I know.

It was then time to go to The Elephant House!! I was really, really stoked to go to this cafe. Why? Because this is where JK Rowling penned Harry Potter. It was the cutest little cafe that overlooked a graveyard. Out the window and in the distance you could see Edinburgh Castle. My hot chocolate was absolutely incredible as well. Crystal and I also shared a piece of lemon cake, but we devoured it before pictures were able to be taken.

Elephants everywhere!

Yay!!! <3 <3 <3

After we finished our drinks, we checked out the graveyard and found the grave of "Tom Riddell". So cool.

Coincidence?

We finished off the night at a tex-mex restaurant called Illegal Jacks. It was good--but it still has NOTHING on Californian Mexican food of course.

At this point, we were extremely tired. That night we stayed in and just had a drink at the hostel bar. I ended up getting a ginger beer called Craggies that is brewed in Scotland. It was quite tasty.

Check out Crystal's awesome braidwork oh yeah

We spent Monday shopping and travelling. All-in-all, it was an amazing weekend and I was sad to leave wahh.

Well I think that is enough for today! Hope everyone at home is doing grand! x