Scotland

Sorry for the late update! This past weekend I went to Edinburgh, Scotland, which took about 3 hours, maybe a bit longer to get to. We took the coach again of course, and like all the other trips, I slept, but I also read a lot of my book, which is really good. It's called Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. Anyway, when we arrived and saw our accomodation, I was personally excited. We stayed in a bed and breakfast, and the ladies who ran them were incredibly nice. They were what you might imagine bed and breakfast hosts would be. They were wrinkled, with graying hair, and grandmotherly. We told them what we would like for breakfast each morning and they gave us more than enough on our plates, including all you can eat toast, coffee, orange juice and milk.

After settling in to our accomodation, a large group of us decided to go on a Ghost Tour. Now, I don't normally do these types of things, since it's very scary to me...and I don't know why I thought this would be any different. The main part of the tour, the guide took us underground to old torture chambers and rooms that poor people had to settle in next to awful criminals and thieves years and years ago. She told us stories about things that happened down there and things that people have experienced on previous tours. It was so so so scary, I don't even think I can go into any more detail.

The Ghost Tour ended pretty late, just before midnight. We headed back to the room, showered and got ready for the next day. In the morning I chose to have the cereal, juice and toast breakfast, which was tasty. We met the rest of the group, and then we were off to tour the Edinburgh Castle. The walk was not far, and the weather wasn't bad. It was slightly windy, but the sun was shining and with every step we took the clouds seemed to dissipate. The castle is located high above the town, and because of this, when you are in the castle you have an amazing view of Edinburgh.

I took advantage of the beautiful views and took a bunch of photos, and we kinda followed along with the tour group but we wandered off and lost it, which seemed to be better. It may have been better because we were able to see the views and go at our own pace. We saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, which were on display and looked as they were meant to - majestic. After a visit to the gift shop, we were on our own until 3pm.

After leaving the castle we were on the road called The Royal Mile, which had many shops and places to eat along it, as well as attractions. The first thing we did was go on a Scotch Whiskey Tour. It was really interesting and fun. We had a ride in a barrel as it took us along and taught us about how whiskey was made and the different types. Then after that some guy talked to us about the main whiskeys made in Scotland, and then we were able to choose one and taste it for ourselves. I tried some of mine, and then some of Kelly's, and then I gave the rest of mine to another person from Loyola. We got to keep the glasses though! We were also able to see a HUGE collection of scotch whiskey, some as old as 115 years. So cool.

After the Scotch Whiskey Experience, we had lunch, then continued down along the Royal Mile to meet the group for our Palace tour. The Palace where Mary Queen of Scots lived. It was nice, and we were able to walk out back in the small gardens also.

After the Palace tour, we CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN. Yup. Not a big deal. First off, according to the Scottish and others who live there as well as in England, it was considered a hill. It took about 2 hours to get up to the top and back down again. It was hard, intense and as we got closer to the top it was extremely windy, like my purse almost got blown off my shoulder.