Scotland

Amy, Sarah, and I went to Scotland for two days. We took a night bus there and back, meaning the bus left London at 11:00 PM (ish), drove the 9 hours to Scotland, and arrived at about 8 AM. This meant we could sleep on the bus the whole way and then wake up and magically be in Scotland. This would be great if I could have gotten good sleep on the bus. I drifted in and out and it was really annoying. Put me on a bus tour of something interesting during the day and I can't stay awake. Put me on a dark bus at night -- can't sleep. Fantastic. It wasn't too bad, I definitely slept, just wasn't feeling super perky the next day. I had to sit next to someone I didn't know (we all did, the bus was full), but she was really nice, a young woman living in Edinburgh, moving to London (she had just been there to look for a flat and now was heading back). She had studied in Edinburgh for four years and is originally from Sweden. She was very nice and interesting to talk to.

DAY ONE

EDINBURGH

J.K Rowling lives there. I did not see her. We started by finding our hostel right away which was quite a bit farther away than we thought. We were only staying there one night, so it didn't really matter. The hostel used to be a church which was kind of cool because that meant all the windows were stained glass. After dropping off our bags we went into the heart of the city. There are two parts to Edinburgh, new town and old town. We were pretty much only in old town because it is cooler. We went to Calton Hill, a park that overlooks the city. Edinburgh is a nice city that doesn't really feel like a city to me. It feels small and more personable. There are random people wearing kilts. We saw street performers that played these sweet huge drums and bagpipes. We stopped in a cemetary and saw where David Hume was buried. We went into some cathedral on the Royal Mile that was pretty and had a no photography policy which nobody followed. We ate a lunch/snack at a little cafe that really wasn't anything amazing on the Royal Mile. Then, we visited Edinburgh Castle. It was really cool, but not how you would picture an actual castle, more like a bunch of old buildings on top of a hill enclosed by a wall. We went on a guided tour and saw the Scottish crown jewels - not as impressive as the crown jewels in the Tower of London.

We wandered to the National Museum of Scotland. We only had an hour or so before it closed so we just hoofed it to Dolly the sheep (ha ha, I am SO funny). She is stuffed and rotates in a square glass case. Pretty sweet. In her room there are many interactive exhibits that are probably meant for children, and this is where we spent the hour we had. It was really fun, playing cloning games and such. After that, we went to the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter! (Probably just the first book, because after that everyone would just stalk her and I don't see how she'd get work done. In fact, she probably doesn't even go there anymore now that they've slapped 'The Birthplace of Harry Potter' all over themselves ... hope she didn't like it that much.) The food was pretty good, and I got a hot chocolate called 'Fleur's Fantasy', surprisingly, I believe it was the only Harry Potter named thing on the menu.
Afterwards, we went to Mary King's Close. I don't really know how to explain it well, so I will steal the description from their very own website: "The Real Mary King’s Close consists of a number of closes which were originally narrow streets with houses on either side, stretching up to seven storeys high. In 1753, the Burgh Council decided to develop a new building on this site, the Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers). The houses at the top of the closes were knocked down and part of the lower sections were kept and used as the foundations for the Royal Exchange. The remnants of the closes were left beneath the building, dark and ancient dwellings steeped in mystery." A close is just a narrow street/alleyway. It was really cool, we got to go down and see what the city used to be like. They are said to be haunted, and they keep a spooky mysterious mood, as they don't use very much lighting. We got to go in several old houses and it was definitely worth doing. The guides all dress up as a person that lived during that time and stay in character throughout the tour. (http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/).

Then we went and got a delicious deep fried Mars bar. It looked disgusting, but tasted good. It was getting late so we slowly wandered our way back to our hostel and went to sleep.

DAY 2

HIGHLANDS AND LOCH NESS

Our Highlands tour left from Edinburgh at 8:00 AM, so we had to wake up really early in order to be there on time. It was raining during our long walk. ew. We got on our bus, which was more like a 'mini coach', so like a coach bus, but is half the size and fits half the people. Amy and I both like to sit by the window, and Sarah likes the aisle, so we went to the back of the bus where there are 5 seats in a row, Amy and I both got a window that way. Another girl sat next to me, she was from Spain, but studying in Dublin. She said she really didn't like Dublin that much.

This tour was 12 hours long. (http://www.heartofscotlandtours.co.uk/lochness.php?prod=Tour-1) But it didn't feel like it at all. We stopped a lot, and it's really the only way to see the highlands unless you drive yourself. Our guide told us Scottish legends along the way and when she was talking she played us traditional Scottish music, it was really cool to be listening to music that is inspired by the countryside you are currently seeing. We stopped for a coffee break on the way, and got to see Hamish, a highland cow! He was sooooooo cute. Highland cows have hair in front of their eyes, like bangs (or fringe if you're British) to keep out the elements and also making them extremely adorable. The mid point of our trip was Loch Ness. We took a boat tour, and did, in fact, see Nessie (see photo). Loch Ness is huge. It is 23 miles long and extremely deep. The water is super dark because of the peat found all over Scotland, it has a dark oil to it, and seeps into the water, making it murky. If you took all of the water out of Loch Ness, you could not refill it with all of the water in all of the UK. It is that big. I can see how Nessie is hard to find. There's not much else to say about the highlands except that they are absolutely gorgeous. I can't really describe it, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We got back from the tour at about 8 PM and wandered around until our bus at 10 PM ish. We arrived in London at 7:30 AM, it was a fantastic trip! Here is a link to the facebook album of my pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108888&l=9c4c0&id=73405745