My trip to Scotland

This past weekend, I took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland with a couple of friends I've made in London. It was absolutely amazing and I totally did not want to leave at the end of the weekend. The journey to Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-bra) took a little over four hours but we had absolutely beautiful views. We went past the ocean on the way there which was entirely unexpected but so cool. There were huge rocky cliffs next to the ocean and even an old, ancient looking home of some sort. Super cool to see!

On Friday, we arrived a little after noon so set off to check in at our hostel. Since I had never really been to a hostel before, I was a little bit nervous about what I might find. However, it was extremely cosy and comfortable - almost moreso than my flat in London! It was set up like a home, with a kitchen and living room with comfy couches downstairs. We grabbed a late lunch at The Elephant Cafe - which was were J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher here in the UK) Stone! She sat at this window in the cafe all day with a cup of tea to write. After eating there, it was simple to see where she got her inspiration for the book. From the window she sat at, you could see the castle up on a rocky cliff, a fancy school (thought to be the inspiration for Hogwarts), and a cemetary (from which she got many of her characters' names, including Tom Riddle!). I had a yummy jerk chicken stromboli and huge cup of coffee. It was heaven. : ) We wandered around the town a bit just getting our bearings and exploring what it had to offer. We spent over an hour in a quaint bookshop then went to a pub for a bit. The night in the hostel was pretty uneventful and warm. This may not sound like a huge thing but since they turn the heat off in our London flat at nice, it was wonderful.

The next day, we had to meet at 7:50 for our Loch Ness tour. We admittedly didn't do a lot of research so we didn't realize until we got there that this was literally a 12-hour tour! It was awesome though. We travelled through the Highlands of Scotland, which are these huge, majestic mountains. I never have thought of myself to be an avid nature fan but after this trip, I'm seriously reconsidering this. It was so pretty! We stopped many places along the four-hour journey to Loch Ness, including Glencoe, which may be the prettiest place I have ever been. I got motion sick pretty bad going through the mountain roads but finally made it to Loch Ness. We were given a picnic lunch and sent off through the town. I had a ham and tomato sandwich, an apple, a bottle of water, and pickled onion crisps (chips). They were the most horrible flavor of chip I have ever had and left a lingering taste for quite awhile. I'm still trying to figure out if people seriously buy that flavor for enjoyment or just to mess with tourists. After lunch, we took a cruise of Loch Ness. The boat we rode in was fitted with all sorts of sonar machines so we could detect the Loch Ness monster, Nessie, herself! While we didn't see anything too crazy, our tour guide absolutely believes that Nessie exists. He had a picture of something that looked very dinosaur (and very Photoshopped) that he claimed he took two years ago. He was mildly crazy but quite entertaining at the same time. After the cruise, we started back towards Edinburgh and then stopped along the way for supper in a small village. I had the best, freshest fish and chips of my life and then enjoyed the trip back.

Saturday evening, we had planned to take a pub crawl with a tour company we always take free tours with. We showed up and they wouldn't accept our student cards as proper ID! Considering that the drinking age here is only 18, I thought this was a little bit ridiculous. So we continued onward and found ourselves our own happening pub to spend the evening at. I should note that right now the 6 nations rugby tournament is happening and Sunday happened to be Scotland v. France - in Edinburgh. The French were out in full force and we met some very interesting characters in the pub. It was hilarious and one of the best nights out I've ever had.

On Sunday we were thoroughly depressed it was our last day so we went for a late breakfast at The Elephant Cafe again. Breakfast was just as good as lunch had been so we left pretty happy. At 1 p.m., we took a free tour of the city which was very informative and interesting. We left a little bit early so we would have time to grab supper then make our 5:30 train back to London.

Arriving back in London was kind of bittersweet and I'm still left feeling a little sad about being back. I love London but the hustle and bustle is so much more noticeable now after spending a weekend away in peaceful Scotland. It was nice though to have my own food, shower, and bed though. Plus I am going away again this weekend to beautiful Paris so I won't even be here very long, which is kind of strange. I've been here in London for almost a month now and am still just so excited and in awe that I get to experience this all! I'm definitely enjoying ever second of it.

(Also, I don't know if I will be able to put up very many pictures within the blog itself because I have pretty stringent bandwidth restrictions at my flat but I will put up a lot on Facebook later today!)